Movie Review: The Last American Virgin

What the heck is this movie? The Last American Virgin is about teenagers in high school, but it’s not a straightforward comedy. It does begin as a comedy, though. The 1982 movie follows three horny buddies – Gary, Rick, and David – on a constant quest for girls and booze. It’s all fairly lighthearted until pizza delivery boy Gary catches a glimpse of Karen and instantly falls in love. Gary manufactures a meet-cute and gives Karen a ride to school while “Keep On Loving You” by REO Speedwagon plays (a great bit of foreshadowing). A different movie would wallow in Gary and Karen’s teenage romance. Instead, Gary’s suave buddy Rick swoops in and sweeps Karen off her feet. Then Rick impregnates her.

Heavy, eh? I won’t ruin the ending, but The Last American Virgin is the sort of movie you need to talk about after the credits roll. It’s more true-to-life than most movies, specifically teen movies. Nudity, debauchery, prostitution, abortion, infatuation, manipulation – this is teenage life. The Last American Virgin isn’t as twisted as Kids, but it lacks the rosy glow of most teen flicks. And I appreciate that. I also appreciate the excellent soundtrack. I wouldn’t place The Last American Virgin on the list of all-time best teen movies, but it might be a must-see experience. That ending hits like a sledgehammer. I wish I’d watched this movie back in high school. It would have crushed me.

TV Review: Cobra Kai (Seasons 1 – 3)

Cobra Kai is not prestige TV. It’s not a show you must watch. Its heavy handed in its use of flashbacks, it gets sillier over time, and in reality most of the characters would be arrested for assault or attempted murder. Still, I watched three seasons of Cobra Kai in a little over a week. I don’t normally binge watch TV, but the ongoing struggles of Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and his new karate kids sucked me right in.

Most attempts at resurrecting old franchises are all about the cash grab, but the creators of Cobra Kai are fans first. Respect is shown for the Karate Kid movies (with plenty of callbacks), while old characters feel new due to the changes in their lives and attitudes. Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) are great frenemies, and watching them sing along to REO Speedwagon is something I never knew I wanted. The young cast is a fun group, and it’s a good sign that I want both Miguel and Robbie – combatants fighting over the same girl – to do well in their fighting tournament.

I’m glad William Zabka has been given a chance to redeem his karate character. Johnny Lawrence is a man stuck in the 80s, and it’s funny to see him trying to figure out Facebook messenger and modern dating. It’s even better to see his realization that preaching “no mercy” to hormonal teenagers is not too wise. He adapts his thinking, teaching his kids to kick ass while remaining honorable. Yeah, I can get behind that message.

TV Review: The Good Place

Saying goodbye to The Good Place feels a bit like saying goodbye to NBC’s must-see TV. I know Seinfeld, Friends, and even The Office have been gone for years, but The Good Place held the flickering torch of NBC prestige comedy. Maybe it’s fitting that Michael Schur’s comedy series is all about death and the afterlife.

I know I just compared The Good Place to classic comedies, but I wouldn’t rank it amongst the funniest shows ever made. That’s not a bad thing, at least not for me. It’s a “comedy” because it’s a half-hour long and contains humor, and it’s not drab enough to be a drama. More than anything, The Good Place examines the biggest questions – what happens after we die, why is being “good” important – in a fun and poignant way.

Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) and her mismatched friends are all dead, but they find the afterlife is as complex and unorganized as regular life. The cast is strong, and it includes the gem Ted Danson, who apparently can’t stay away from seminal comedies. One of my only complaints is I would have liked to see more of Adam Scott, who plays a demon that’s basically the worst dude you ever met at a party. The demons really are one of the best parts of the show. Their childlike enthusiasm for penis flattening is almost heartwarming.

The Good Place isn’t overflowing with standout episodes (with one big exception I’ll talk about in a bit). Again, that might sound like a knock against it, but it’s not, because the series is greater than the sum of its parts. With some comedies it’s easy to pop back to favorite episodes, but this show isn’t built that way. This story is best experienced as a whole, more akin to a novel than a TV series with long season breaks. There’s a reason individual episodes are labeled as “chapters.”

I haven’t said much about the plot of The Good Place, and I won’t. It’s a special, winding journey that culminates in one of the best TV finales I can remember. Really, for as good as the show is, I didn’t expect it to end so perfectly. It offers closure while retaining a great mystery, the greatest of all. Future TV writers should take note.

I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling a certain kind of dread regarding death and eternity. The Good Place acknowledges this when Eleanor says, “Every human is a little bit sad all the time because you know you’re gonna die. But that knowledge is what gives life meaning.” Flipping a negative into a positive is what this show is all about. It’s lovely that way.

TV Review: Nathan for You

Nathan for You is ostensibly about a business school graduate (Nathan Fielder) who helps struggling businesses with inventive, “out-of-the-box” ideas. What it’s really about is Nathan creating weird and awkward scenarios with real people, often at the cost of Nathan’s dignity. Nathan for You is part scripted TV show, part documentary, and Nathan plays a more socially stunted version of himself. When it works (and it usually does), it is absolutely hilarious.

I’ll use one of my favorite episodes – “The Movement” – as an example of the show’s template. A moving company spends most of its budget on paying its employees, so Nathan’s plan is to create a fitness craze around moving household objects. The show’s producers find a fitness gem named Jack. Nathan stages a photoshoot to sell the idea that Jack’s physical transformation from overweight to extremely fit came about by simply moving objects around, and Nathan also hires a writer to create a fake memoir about Jack. Along the way Jack is invited on TV morning shows and he bullshits like a champion when questioned about his volunteer work with jungle children. It’s brilliant.

TV host: “Jungle child is what?”
Jack: “Jungle child are children that live in the jungle… A while ago I was working with a jungle child, his name was Dende, he was a great inspiration for me, and unfortunately, tragically he died when baboons kidnapped and ate him.”
TV host: *stares at camera with mouth agape*

The episode culminates with Nathan finding people who volunteer to move boxes for the moving company with the goal of getting fit. It’s a short-term solution to a larger problem, but Nathan pats himself on the back just the same.

One of my favorite parts of the show is its expanded cast of Craigslist characters, bounty hunters, security guards, celebrity impersonators, and other random, odd, and very real people who help provide much of the show’s humor. They blur the barrier between scripted TV and documentary, and Nathan actually bonds with some of them in surprising ways. The series finale is over an hour long, and it’s all about a Bill Gates impersonator searching for his long-lost love. That’s not what you’d expect from a Comedy Central show, but Nathan for You is not regular TV. It’s a circus, and laughing at the show’s participants is like laughing at ourselves in a fun house mirror. We all have a weird side to us; Nathan Fielder just hasn’t exposed it yet.

Movie Review: Everybody Wants Some!!

I’m convinced that not nearly enough people have watched Everybody Wants Some!! Maybe it didn’t get much attention because it’s not a direct sequel to Dazed and Confused – it’s a spiritual successor – but it stands right alongside Linklater’s high school haze cloud of nostalgia.

Whereas Dazed and Confused threw together every social group to see them mix and mingle, Everybody Wants Some!! is focused on college baseball players in Texas as they galivant around town the weekend before classes officially begin. Freshman pitcher Jake leads us into athlete dorm life, but he’s a main character similar to Randall “Pink” Floyd. He’s a decent guy, but his buddies are all more interesting. There’s Jay, the antagonistic pitcher who believes he’s bound for the big show. McReynolds is captivating as the natural athlete who’s overly competitive, a natural leader, and a complete asshole when he chooses to be. And we can’t forget Finnegan who fills in the Mathew McConaughey role of resident ladies’ man who combines laid back confidence with intellectual repartee.

Most of the movie is spent watching the guys bond, argue, debate, compete, and chase women. I hesitate to call this a sports movie, but the one practice we get to watch is a definite highlight. Anyone who played baseball in high school or college will recognize the power struggles and silly fun of practicing without supervision. Everybody Wants Some!! is a good, rewatchable movie, but watching it makes me wish it were expanded to a TV series. It could make a perfect transition from big screen to small.

One minor complaint is the romance subplot between Jake and Beverly is a bit of a drag at the tail end of the movie. Not to say it’s bad, but the movie is at its best when it’s an expanded cast party. Everybody Wants Some!! works as a college movie, sports flick, nostalgia trip, early 80’s mixtape, and bong rip. C’mon, it’s Linklater. Of course weed is involved. Now go watch it.

Best Eps: The League – “The Kluneberg”

In this feature I take a look at one episode that marks a high point in a television series. It’s not necessarily the absolute best a series has to offer (that’s always debatable), but it’s an episode that remains lodged in memory long after I first watched it.

An improvised comedy about a fantasy football league might not sound too enticing on paper, but the first couple seasons of The League are very entertaining. And when used sparingly, Rafi (Jason Mantzoukas) is absurdly hilarious and the show’s funniest character. Combine a coked up Rafi with Andre’s terrible taste in overpriced art and you have a recipe for disaster in “The Kluneberg.”

Rafi is convinced he’s best friends with the guys of the league, despite the fact he is clearly despised by them. The guys think the best way to get rid of Rafi is to break up the league itself by way of a fake fight between Pete and Andre. The fake fight turns too real for Andre (and Rafi tries to turn the fight more real by tossing a butter knife into the mix), and the only way for Pete to bring Andre back into the fold is by saying he loves Andre’s shitty Kluneberg painting. It’s always fun to see a delusional Andre think he’s bonding with one of his buddies.

“The Kluneberg” features surprising character moments that are as funny as they are unexpected. Ruxin reveals he’s not allowed to defecate at home due to strict house rules. Andre pushes his homemade hummus on his guests during an intervention and almost gets into another fight because of it. Jenny is unable to seduce sex addict Russell, who would rather fantasize about artichoke alien breasts. Andre struggles to blow out a candle while attempting to appear sinister. Well, that last one isn’t unexpected given Andre’s innumerable failures.

But this episode is all about the twist ending with all storylines converging in an unholy union. Drunk Rafi scratch and sniffs coke off of Taco’s toilet seat (yeah), which leads to him destroying the $25,000 Kluneberg in an excitable rage. The guys follow Rafi downstairs only to find Russell the sex addict’s car shaking. Thinking his wife is getting serviced by Russell, Kevin throws open the door, and the guys are witness to Rafi getting rammed from behind by the sex addict. It’s not a pleasant sight for the guys, but it’s funny as hell for the viewer. Rafi isn’t lying when he says, “Some things you can’t unsee, bro.”

Other Best Eps candidates: “Ghost Monkey,” “Kegel the Elf,” “Thanksgiving”

Key Character: Leslie Knope

We all have favorite fictional characters. They can be inspirational, sagacious, heroic… or they can be relentless villains who are just so damn charismatic. In this feature I celebrate fictional characters who make their worlds much fuller.

Leslie Knope may have begun her onscreen life as a poor man’s Michael Scott, but she became so much more. She became the noble, tireless civil servant that the citizens of Pawnee, Indiana never deserved.

Leslie loves her friends, her town, and her waffles. Not necessarily in that order. One of the reasons Parks and Recreation is such a re-watchable show is it’s easy to root for Leslie to succeed. She is the rare example of a person who cares more about other people than she cares about herself. Although she makes plenty of mistakes on her path from low level government employee to federal powerhouse, she always bounces back to being her optimistic, altruistic self.

Her relationship with Ben Wyatt is one of the best you can find on TV. Leslie and Ben flip the traditional gender roles, with Leslie being more of the domineering, type-A partner, while Ben often acts as the emotional support (and eye candy) for Leslie. They’re perfect together, and the show’s writers never felt the need to create cheap drama between them.

There are plenty of examples that illustrate the kind of person Leslie is, and one of my favorites comes from the season three episode “Ron & Tammy: Part Two.” Ben and Leslie are both worried that without police officer support at the Harvest Festival, the important event will fall apart. Ben visits with Police Chief Trumple privately to ask for police officer volunteers, and Trumple immediately agrees to help. He says, “Leslie Knope gets as many favors as she needs.” When Ben asks why, Trumple pauses to think before responding, “Because she’s the kind of a person who uses favors to help other people.” That’s the kind of civil servant we’d all be lucky to have.

Book Review: Aziz Ansari – Modern Romance

Swiping?  Ghosting?  Sexting?  There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to dating in the age of Tinder and the dozens of other online dating hubs.  Thankfully, Aziz Ansari is as interested in dating as he is in fine dining.

In Modern Romance Aziz, along with sociologist Eric Klinenberg, seeks to understand the evolving world of dating.  Not so long ago people coupled up simply by poking their heads out their windows to see who lived next door.  Now it’s almost expected that we find “the one,” someone who completes us (see: Jerry Maguire) and figures into an overlong love story for future generations (see: How I Met Your Mother).

Aziz is as intrigued and captivated by relationships and dating apps as anyone else who’s swam in the dick pic infested waters of digital courtship, and therein lies the book’s greatest strength.  Aziz is an active participant, eagerly researching and learning right along with us.  He helps to illuminate truths that seem obvious after the fact.  The humor sometimes falls flat, but it’s more difficult to be funny on the page than it is on the stage.

The next time you get ghosted – that’s when a romantic interest disappears like an aloof Casper – turn to Modern Romance.  Because even when you’re confused, hurt, and alone (eating comfort tacos, natch), you’ll be assured of one thing: at least Aziz understands.