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I've been insanely busy in these two weeks since I've written—too busy to open the mail, too busy to remember to take my meds consistently, too busy to write a column with a theme.
Thus, I thought I'd make up an annotated list of some of the comedies that have been keeping me busy. There are a few live performances, but I've spared you the books, the articles, the blogs, the emails, the magazines, the television shows, the dramas, and the student papers.
1. EDDIE IZZARD—STRIPPED. This show will most likely be made into a performance film, although it won't necessarily be the same show I saw. I managed to catch this in San Francisco on a Friday. The reviewer who saw it the night before listed different topics and tangents of conversation. The set decoration was wonderful, with Eddie as a prisoner of various times and belief systems. His show promises to take you through the whole history of the world and he pretty much does—from early man to those intrepid reporters who took down the stories of the day via tapestry to America's current evolutionary debate. My favorite pieces were on how computers have now made us question our sense of time (when we download, we see that we will have to wait 4 minutes, 2 minutes, then 8 minutes) and about how surely I Tunes knows that we agree with their terms by now.
One member of the audience didn't quite understand the title of the show. While Eddie was wearing more eye makeup than most men do on a stage and the best jacket in the world, he is doing this show stripped of the more telling markers of his transvestism. When this audience member asked where the heels were, Eddie said he would not be oppressed, especially since what he has fought for is the right to wear whatever he chooses, even boy clothes. Eddie ended his taunting of the man by asking, "What, you can't enjoy the show now? You're thinking, isn't that [dressing up] all he does . . . I expected him to be just a little bit higher."
2. BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS. I taught this film last week (I'm teaching a course on witches). I ordered the film on DVD, expecting to see and teach the version I watched in my childhood. What came was the new "director's cut." It was much, much longer (which threw off my teaching timing) and I can't say that any of the added material was helpful. Some of the songs are longer and there is an added one. There is also some added dialogue. Some of Mr. Brown's character's lines did not sound at all like him because they were unable to get David Tomlinson back in the studio so many years later. I do like that Roddy McDowall's part was extended. In the first version, he's merely annoying. In the extended version, you really don't like him.
I've always loved this film, from its tapestry opening (like the ancient French tapestry that tells the story of the Norman Conquest) to its fun with animated animals to the final battle. Angela Lansbury is superb. (Julie Andrews was considered, but Lansbury will always be 
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my Ms. Price.) One thing that bothers me about this film is the ending. ***Spoiler alert*** After her successful battle with the Germans, the witch, Ms. Price, decides to give up on magic. The film tries to justify this by having her workshop destroyed and saying she doesn't like some of the (fake) ingredients on the destroyed shelves. She has gone from independent woman working for the war effort to a wife and mother, sending her husband off to fight for her. No matter how good a middle aged Mr. Brown is in battle, he never would have contributed more than she could have. The film seems in this way to be a validation of the idea that in work and war, women should be at home, no matter how capable and talented they are in the other spheres. There is a little bit of magic left at the end, but it is in the hands of a boy—Ms. Price no longer has control over the object.
3. COMEDY AT LAUGHS UNLIMITED. As a comedian, watching live comedy is tricky. The people who I really love, I really love. Then there are other people. Often, when I see comedy with my friends in Sacramento, we put a list on the table and check off how many times we hear small Asian penis jokes, homophobic jokes, etc. It would be different, if the jokes were truly inventive or surprising on these subjects, but they mostly aren't. Last week, three different comedians made jokes about how they weren't gay (but it was okay to be, though they definitely weren't). Guys, you're protesting too much.
4. ENCHANTED. I watched this film because someone I trusted said it was good. I can keep trusting that person. It was funny, the cast was endearing, and the songs were good. I am a bit disturbed by the take-away message, though. Apparently, it is perfectly acceptable to marry someone you've known for a day. Widowers and those who have been jilted can still find true love, but those of us who are divorced . . . well, we apparently shouldn't have gotten divorced in the first place. (The fact that marrying someone you hardly know is a recipe for divorce--well, let's just sing over that.) I'm also wondering why James Marsden is always the second fiddle.
5. MEATBALLS. My boyfriend finally got me to watch this film by promising Bill Murray and the directorial talents of Ivan Reitman. Bill Murray is the only actor to come out of this, his first film, famous. There isn't much of a narrative arc—I'm not sure we care which camp counselor hooks up with the other as long as they hook up. Murray's character's relationship with a young man named Rudy is the most developed and moving. Maybe I would like this more if I'd actually been to camp. All my camp knowledge comes from THE PARENT TRAP and Margaret Atwood stories, like the ones from WILDERNESS TIPS. (Speaking of which, the shooting location for MEATBALLS was a Canadian camp outside Toronto.) It's a fine film, I guess, but if I weren't doing this column, it wouldn't be anything to write home about.
6. AN IDEAL HUSBAND. It's hard to 
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go wrong with Wilde. I happened to see this theatrical production at the amphitheatre of the California Shakespeare Company. The setting was beautiful (foothills, perfect weather). There were, unfortunately, some yellow jackets. This would have been acceptable had I been wearing my Izzard "I'm covered in bees" t-shirt. The play was well-done overall. The lead was very different from his film counterpart, Rupert Everett. The married relationship, wherein a woman has to find her husband less than ideal but still love him, was particularly good. The burgeoning romance seemed tacked on—it didn't really build. My eyes, though, were always on the villain, who unfortunately disappears for the whole end. I wanted to see her get her comeuppance. I also wanted to see what costume she might wear next. Lesson: forgive your husband and dress respectably OR be the bad girl and dress fabulously.
7. MAMMA MIA. I love musicals and I love ABBA, but I resisted seeing this as a stage show. I was worried that a cobbled together script would spoil my love for the genre and the group. I couldn't resist the movie, however. Why? Colin Firth. I should have gone to see it for Meryl Streep, who is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, and yet again wonderful in it, especially since they don't give Colin much to do (or Stellan, for that matter). I hate to report that Pierce Brosnan can't sing, although he's not AS bad in his last song ("When All Is Said and Done," which isn't featured in the original musical). I'm sappy to report that I did get all happy when I was supposed to at the end, which was quite a few times, since it ends a few times. I'm also pleased to report that you can see both ABBA guys in the film (Bjorn is on the piano and Benny is a Greek god).
8. HANCOCK. I can't quite picture Dave Chappelle in the lead role, although apparently he was considered for it. I like Will Smith here, although I have mixed feelings about the film. I think this is because the tone of the film seems too mixed. The first half is strictly comedy and then we switch to heavy (for a superhero flick) drama. The villain's back-story was overly brief (if it doesn't really matter, just leave it out all together). The superhero mythology was also under-developed. As for the surprise—well, I got it early. And I didn't really care, as all it does is give Mary's character an excuse to wear too much eye makeup and much cooler clothes than you really believe are in her closet. Finally, by the end of the film two characters, Hancock and Ray are inspired and are making a difference. Mary, who also has the talent to do so, is apparently just supposed to support Ray in his endeavors to change the world.
9. DAN IN REAL LIFE. I have loved Steve Carell since the early days of THE DAILY SHOW. That said, not all of his efforts have been fantastic. I wanted to like DAN more than I did. The trailers and the beginning of the film made it seem like his job as an advice columnist was 
love in a bookstore? I do, I do, I do! |
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important to the plot. It was supposed to make his life problems ironic somehow. If we'd seen more of his work, this might have happened, but there wasn't even enough of a setup for a good follow through. The film is a great representation of what you want those family retreats in a house in the country to be. Some people claim that families are that way—doing little plays, exercising together, but all my family does (and we live at a house in the woods full time [well, I don't . . . now]) is eat and watch t.v. I want to fall in love with this family, despite Dane Cook, and I certainly expect to fall in love with Juliet Binoche every time I see her, but I didn't fall in love with this film.
10. ENSEMBLE, C'EST TOUT. For some reason, the English title of this film is HUNTING AND GATHERING. While the French title is sappy, the English one is nonsensical. The film is about a small ensemble—a neurotic, stuttering man descended from greatness, a frustrated cook taking care of his aging grandmother, a too-thin cleaning woman. (The latter is marked by the other characters as being too thin. She's played by Audre Tautou and she does make a pretzel look fat here.) Basically, the film is about getting along and living with other people and vaguely about falling in love. It's predictable in the way that romantic comedies are. It's funny in the way French romantic comedies are. When asked what her difficult mother does, Tautou's character replies simply, "She takes medication." The actors are endearing. It's fun. It's French. See it.
11. JULIE, JULIE. This short film played at the Sacramento French Film Festival, but I actually got to see it when it premiered in Davis. I will confess that I know and love the director, Liam Creighton, and the co-producer, Courtney Hopf. I also contributed five whole dollars. I did not, however, offer to review the film in this column until I saw it. If I hadn't loved it, I just wouldn't have said anything. JULIE, JULIE is about a woman who gets into an accident and suffers retrograde amnesia and a disorder that stops her from effectively communicating with her husband. The film is mostly in English, but the one scene that is all in French is . . . so French. Ultimately, this film is about love and communication and the problem of loving someone who changes. It reminds me about what great works of art can do—they encapsulate those moments we spend our lives living and perhaps not seeing. The main character's head trauma is simply a catalyst for something that might have happened through the years of her marriage—a growing apart. The film is also very funny. If I had had time and if the filmmakers weren't moving to France today, I would have done a proper interview and talked about the film for the whole column. I do not doubt I will be writing about their work in the future.
au revoir et salut
Je suis couvert dans les abeilles!
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| Comedies with Dr. Karma |
Every other Wednesday
Dr. Karma discusses all things comic, from the classics to what may become classics. Laugh with, but not at, her, please.
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| Karma Waltonen |
Dr. Karma is a silly, nerdy know-it-all, but in a good way. She brings all her overeducation to discuss that which truly matters: comedy. As some famous guy once said: “And if I laugh at any mortal thing, ‘tis that I may not weep.” Or something like that.
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