By now, the bro-com genre has been around for a while. R-rated. Dudes. Dick jokes. We get it. There have been some good ones (“Wedding Crashers,” “Old School,” “The Hangover”). “Bridesmaids” proved you could do a female bro-com. “Bad Moms” (2016) took it one step further, timewise, by moving toward a more grown-up edge. Instead of weddings or a college frat, we get moms and a middle school PTA. But it’s still funny. And there’s still dick jokes (seriously). And Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Bell absolutely kill in supporting roles. And the metaphorical birth of a new genre: the mom-com.
Archives for posts with tag: Clark Duke
An organized crime story isn’t truly epic unless it’s told in Italian with a New Jersey accent. At least it feels that way sometimes. That’s an observation, not a value judgement. And yet there are so many other geographic and/or ethnic storytelling styles. You’d think someone could deconstruct the mob genre, substitute Martin Scorsese’s sensibilities for, say, James Dickey’s, and produce something totally different but qualitatively familiar. So John Brandon writes a novel, writer/director/actor Clark Duke interprets it, and “Arkansas” (2020) proves me right. It’s the “what,” not the “who,” that matters most. That’s an observation. And a value judgement.
You know how you want to laugh when you hear somebody fart in public, but you know you shouldn’t, so you just smile and grit your teeth until you hear somebody else laugh, and then you let out a torrent of giggles? Well, “Hot Tub Time Machine 2” (2015) is 93 minutes of that. (There’s even a scene where somebody farts. Go figure.) It’s not for the straitlaced. Anyway, the title is the plot, they say “dick” and “fuck” about 375 times, sequel hijinks ensue, and if you harbor any sense of subversion whatsoever, you will occasionally laugh out loud.
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