When a movie goes off the rails I try to do what Roger Ebert says, and imagine the elevator pitch that got it approved. The pitch for The Stand In might have been “Trading Places meets Death To Smoochy,” or maybe “All About Eve meets Dave.” Come to think of it, either of those look like amazing ideas compared to this strange film about two look-alikes who change places. Continue reading “Review: ‘The Stand In’ is Nothing But a Shallow Hollywood Satire”
Hats off to Ryan Murphy: The man is consistently contradictory. Just a few weeks after his new show Ratched hit Netflix, his adaptation of the 2018 Broadway musical The Prom arrives to the platform gussied up in a technicolor version of the same worshipful high school nostalgia as Glee, and riddled with the same condescension toward “average” people that defined Nip/Tuck and The Politician. Continue reading “Review: ‘The Prom’ is a Superficial But Fun Way to End 2020”