Jimmy and Jason Segel play Word Sneak.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Tonight Show - Tom Cruise Lip Sync Battle
This one was borderline for me but I thought I'd post it because RIP Goose. Jimmy and Tom Cruise have a lip sync battle.
I thought Tom should have done "Jump".
I thought Tom should have done "Jump".
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Tonight Show - David Wain and Michael Showalter
"Kenny Loggins' transition from yacht rock boy wonder to rockin' soundtrack king didn't happen overnight, it happened in one afternoon."
You may know these two from "Wet Hot American Summer" or "Childrens Hospital" or "They Came Together" or "Stella". No one saw "Stella" but they should have.
You may know these two from "Wet Hot American Summer" or "Childrens Hospital" or "They Came Together" or "Stella". No one saw "Stella" but they should have.
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Movie Review: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Every year at New Year's when the clock passes midnight, groups of people will traditionally sing "Auld Lang Syne". But why? The original poem that the song is based on is about whether the past is worth remembering - whether the recollection of good memories is worth the cost of remembering the bad ones. The phrase "auld lang syne" can be translated "old times" or "days gone by". The original song goes:
"Eternal Sunshine" asks the same kinds of questions though it revolves around a completely different holiday. The movie begins with one of the great first lines in all of film: "Random thoughts for Valentine's day, 2004: Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap." The line is delivered in voice-over by the main character Joel, played by Jim Carrey. Joel is in a long-term relationship with Clementine (Kate Winslet) but is informed that she has chosen to end the relationship by having him erased from her memory. A small company named Lacuna, Inc. has discovered a medical procedure which allows people to safely have memories erased such that, to the subject, it's as if they never happened. Joel is so devastated by this news that he decides to have her erased from his memory also. The problem is the procedure is unstoppable and irreversible and part-way through he changes his mind.
The question that the characters face is the question of whether, in the final analysis, their relationship was really worth it. If all of their experiences with the other person - the euphoria, the fighting, the regret, the hurt, the togetherness - if it could all be summed up like an accounting ledger, does the end result turn out to be negative? If it is, then is a person better off wiping the ledger clean? "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is, in some ways, an exploration of the Tennyson phrase "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" stretched over 100 minutes.
But while Joel is grappling with the question of whether his experience with Clementine was worth it, I wonder if the movie is posing an even larger question to the audience. I think the movie asks whether romantic relationships and romantic love IN GENERAL are really worth it. At least I think it hints that way.
Consider that the movie presents us with quite a few different relationships comprised of many different personalities with different parameters and different histories. Consider that with all its variety, there's one thing that holds true in every presented case: the relationship is not making anyone happier and the relationship is not making anyone better.
There is a man in the movie who falls in love with a woman only to find her with another man. There is another man pursuing romance through predatorial means. There is a married man who has an affair and by the end, his wife has found out the devastating truth and will probably divorce him. Another character is falling in love with a woman but finds that his love is unrequited. And then, there is one particular couple who Joel spends much time with (played brilliantly by Jane Adams and David Cross). This is one of those couples who seem to spend every waking hour of their lives fighting. In lesser movies, "fighting" denotes melodramatic screaming and slammed doors. But this movie is too smart for that. Here, the depiction is of a couple whose conversation is non-stop bickering - their entire lives seem devoted to cutting down the other with passive-aggressive digs. Each insult is met with under-the-breath muttering, each comment is met with a retort, no mistake goes unnoticed, no negative thought goes unspoken. It's a couple that we've all known or seen somewhere in our lives. It's exactly those relationships that you look at and think, "why are they even together?" After all, it can't possibly be worth it. Can it?
As Lacuna's machine goes through Joel's memories, erasing them one by one, it suddenly comes across the good ones and Joel is forced to re-live those as well. Joel realizes, of course, that he doesn't want to let go of those memories. One such memory provides my favorite visual in the movie: Joel and Clementine lying together on a frozen lake in the middle of winter and gazing up at the stars. Joel has one of the moments so rare in life: "I could die right now, Clem. I'm just... happy. I've never felt that before. I'm just exactly where I want to be." And Carrey gives it the perfect tone. But the moment is fleeting and soon that memory is gone.
A while later, Joel's remembering the day that he and Clementine first met. They're at a beach party and they sit together and stare out at the ocean. But this memory will soon be erased too. It's here that Kaufman uses the fleeting nature of Joel's memory to speak to the fleeting nature of life itself:
Clementine: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon.
Joel: I know.
Clementine: What do we do?
Joel: Enjoy it.
As the mind machine traverses the synaptic connections of Joel's brain, we see the various events in Joel and Clem's relationship in a "stream of consciousness" order. The usual slow and predictable ebb and flow of human relationships is replaced by a collage of context-less episodes. We see a horrible fight mashed right up against blissful euphoria and we struggle to assimilate the two into a cohesive idea. It's reminiscent of "Slaughterhouse-Five", the classic story of a man who becomes "unstuck in time". One moment he's married, the next he's a child, the next he's fighting in WW2 - we have to consider his life as a mosaic rather than a portrait. It's a task we're not accustomed to and it doesn't come easy.
There's a musical example of this too. If you can get past the fact that William Shatner is involved, there's something interesting to be found in the oddball non-hit "In Love" by Fear of Pop. The song tells the story of a relationship from two perspectives. The background singers (Ben Folds) are singing lyrics from the the relationship at its peak ("Hold me in the morning / and tell me I'm / The only one alive"). Meanwhile, the lead "singer" (Shatner) is speaking from some time after the proverbial plane has crashed into the proverbial mountain ("I can't tell you anything / And I can't commit / You're right / I can't commit ... To you!"). The back-and-forth flow of the song between the vocalists forces shuffles and intertwines the two perspectives. It leaves us to try to reconcile diametrically opposite feelings from the same person but from across two different points in time. In theory, it's all up to interpretation. Personally, I have to give the Shatner side more credence, though. Have you heard that guy? That guy is angry.
At the end of the movie, it's up to Joel and Clementine to reconcile the extremes of their love/hate - to come up with their own "sum of experiences". The last scene of the movie is yet another one of those scenes that feels utterly unique to "Eternal Sunshine". Joel and Clementine (who think they've just met) listen to audio tapes of themselves listing all the things they hate about the other person and all the memories they don't remember.
Joel [on tape] And the whole thing with the hair - it's all bullshit.
Joel: I really like your hair.
Clementine: Thank you.
They hear the pain and devastation they're capable of causing each other but they decide to give a relationship a(nother) try anyway. It's an ambiguous ending, technically. One could view it cynically and say that it's literally a case of "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Who are the brain-erased versions of Joel and Clementine, we might wonder, to think they know better than the versions of themselves that lived and learned and experienced? They're being willfully ignorant - they're still following the siren song of physical attraction even after they've seen the consequences.
But I don't see the ending as cynical and I don't project that the movie is trying to be either. I think, I hope, that the ending of the movie drops a hint that they've learned the one thing that will "break the cycle" they're in...
Joel: I can't see anything that I don't like about you.
Clementine: But you will! But you will. You know, you will think of things. And I'll get bored with you and feel trapped because that's what happens with me.
Joel: Okay.
Clementine: ....Okay... Okay.
By accepting the other's flaws, by acknowledging their own flaws, they've moved beyond their own selfish, self-centered thinking. For the first time they have the possibility for a relationship that's both self-less and forgiving. Thinking back, for all the poisonous relationships we've seen throughout the movie, that's the one thing no one had figured out. With people, as with memories, acceptance is absolutely invaluable - often, good and bad are hopelessly entangled.
9/10.
Every year at New Year's when the clock passes midnight, groups of people will traditionally sing "Auld Lang Syne". But why? The original poem that the song is based on is about whether the past is worth remembering - whether the recollection of good memories is worth the cost of remembering the bad ones. The phrase "auld lang syne" can be translated "old times" or "days gone by". The original song goes:
Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon;
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,
that loving Breast of thine;
That thou canst never once reflect
On Old long syne.
"Eternal Sunshine" asks the same kinds of questions though it revolves around a completely different holiday. The movie begins with one of the great first lines in all of film: "Random thoughts for Valentine's day, 2004: Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap." The line is delivered in voice-over by the main character Joel, played by Jim Carrey. Joel is in a long-term relationship with Clementine (Kate Winslet) but is informed that she has chosen to end the relationship by having him erased from her memory. A small company named Lacuna, Inc. has discovered a medical procedure which allows people to safely have memories erased such that, to the subject, it's as if they never happened. Joel is so devastated by this news that he decides to have her erased from his memory also. The problem is the procedure is unstoppable and irreversible and part-way through he changes his mind.
The question that the characters face is the question of whether, in the final analysis, their relationship was really worth it. If all of their experiences with the other person - the euphoria, the fighting, the regret, the hurt, the togetherness - if it could all be summed up like an accounting ledger, does the end result turn out to be negative? If it is, then is a person better off wiping the ledger clean? "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is, in some ways, an exploration of the Tennyson phrase "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" stretched over 100 minutes.
But while Joel is grappling with the question of whether his experience with Clementine was worth it, I wonder if the movie is posing an even larger question to the audience. I think the movie asks whether romantic relationships and romantic love IN GENERAL are really worth it. At least I think it hints that way.
Consider that the movie presents us with quite a few different relationships comprised of many different personalities with different parameters and different histories. Consider that with all its variety, there's one thing that holds true in every presented case: the relationship is not making anyone happier and the relationship is not making anyone better.
There is a man in the movie who falls in love with a woman only to find her with another man. There is another man pursuing romance through predatorial means. There is a married man who has an affair and by the end, his wife has found out the devastating truth and will probably divorce him. Another character is falling in love with a woman but finds that his love is unrequited. And then, there is one particular couple who Joel spends much time with (played brilliantly by Jane Adams and David Cross). This is one of those couples who seem to spend every waking hour of their lives fighting. In lesser movies, "fighting" denotes melodramatic screaming and slammed doors. But this movie is too smart for that. Here, the depiction is of a couple whose conversation is non-stop bickering - their entire lives seem devoted to cutting down the other with passive-aggressive digs. Each insult is met with under-the-breath muttering, each comment is met with a retort, no mistake goes unnoticed, no negative thought goes unspoken. It's a couple that we've all known or seen somewhere in our lives. It's exactly those relationships that you look at and think, "why are they even together?" After all, it can't possibly be worth it. Can it?
As Lacuna's machine goes through Joel's memories, erasing them one by one, it suddenly comes across the good ones and Joel is forced to re-live those as well. Joel realizes, of course, that he doesn't want to let go of those memories. One such memory provides my favorite visual in the movie: Joel and Clementine lying together on a frozen lake in the middle of winter and gazing up at the stars. Joel has one of the moments so rare in life: "I could die right now, Clem. I'm just... happy. I've never felt that before. I'm just exactly where I want to be." And Carrey gives it the perfect tone. But the moment is fleeting and soon that memory is gone.
A while later, Joel's remembering the day that he and Clementine first met. They're at a beach party and they sit together and stare out at the ocean. But this memory will soon be erased too. It's here that Kaufman uses the fleeting nature of Joel's memory to speak to the fleeting nature of life itself:
Clementine: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon.
Joel: I know.
Clementine: What do we do?
Joel: Enjoy it.
As the mind machine traverses the synaptic connections of Joel's brain, we see the various events in Joel and Clem's relationship in a "stream of consciousness" order. The usual slow and predictable ebb and flow of human relationships is replaced by a collage of context-less episodes. We see a horrible fight mashed right up against blissful euphoria and we struggle to assimilate the two into a cohesive idea. It's reminiscent of "Slaughterhouse-Five", the classic story of a man who becomes "unstuck in time". One moment he's married, the next he's a child, the next he's fighting in WW2 - we have to consider his life as a mosaic rather than a portrait. It's a task we're not accustomed to and it doesn't come easy.
There's a musical example of this too. If you can get past the fact that William Shatner is involved, there's something interesting to be found in the oddball non-hit "In Love" by Fear of Pop. The song tells the story of a relationship from two perspectives. The background singers (Ben Folds) are singing lyrics from the the relationship at its peak ("Hold me in the morning / and tell me I'm / The only one alive"). Meanwhile, the lead "singer" (Shatner) is speaking from some time after the proverbial plane has crashed into the proverbial mountain ("I can't tell you anything / And I can't commit / You're right / I can't commit ... To you!"). The back-and-forth flow of the song between the vocalists forces shuffles and intertwines the two perspectives. It leaves us to try to reconcile diametrically opposite feelings from the same person but from across two different points in time. In theory, it's all up to interpretation. Personally, I have to give the Shatner side more credence, though. Have you heard that guy? That guy is angry.
At the end of the movie, it's up to Joel and Clementine to reconcile the extremes of their love/hate - to come up with their own "sum of experiences". The last scene of the movie is yet another one of those scenes that feels utterly unique to "Eternal Sunshine". Joel and Clementine (who think they've just met) listen to audio tapes of themselves listing all the things they hate about the other person and all the memories they don't remember.
Joel [on tape] And the whole thing with the hair - it's all bullshit.
Joel: I really like your hair.
Clementine: Thank you.
They hear the pain and devastation they're capable of causing each other but they decide to give a relationship a(nother) try anyway. It's an ambiguous ending, technically. One could view it cynically and say that it's literally a case of "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Who are the brain-erased versions of Joel and Clementine, we might wonder, to think they know better than the versions of themselves that lived and learned and experienced? They're being willfully ignorant - they're still following the siren song of physical attraction even after they've seen the consequences.
But I don't see the ending as cynical and I don't project that the movie is trying to be either. I think, I hope, that the ending of the movie drops a hint that they've learned the one thing that will "break the cycle" they're in...
Joel: I can't see anything that I don't like about you.
Clementine: But you will! But you will. You know, you will think of things. And I'll get bored with you and feel trapped because that's what happens with me.
Joel: Okay.
Clementine: ....Okay... Okay.
By accepting the other's flaws, by acknowledging their own flaws, they've moved beyond their own selfish, self-centered thinking. For the first time they have the possibility for a relationship that's both self-less and forgiving. Thinking back, for all the poisonous relationships we've seen throughout the movie, that's the one thing no one had figured out. With people, as with memories, acceptance is absolutely invaluable - often, good and bad are hopelessly entangled.
9/10.
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Conan - Paul Rudd: The Tradition Continues?
Whenever Paul Rudd is on Conan, he sets up what we think will be a real clip from his latest movie but in actuality, it's always a clip from the 80s movie "Mac and Me". But now he's in a big summertime blockbuster and the pressure is on. Will the streak be broken?
Tonight Show - Do Not Play (Record List)
Jimmy tells us what records to avoid in the segment "Do Not Play".
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Tonight Show - Jon Glaser
Legendary Late Night with Conan O'Brien writer Jon Glaser appears on the Tonight Show and he's still pumped for the women's World Cup win. HE'S PUMPED.
Monday, July 13, 2015
Space Cop Trailer Released
The folks at RedLetterMedia have just released the first trailer for their upcoming movie "Space Cop". If you like space and you like cops, this is probably the space coppiest movie you'll find anywhere!
The description puts the release time as "To be released soon. When it's done."
The description puts the release time as "To be released soon. When it's done."
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Hello, Noram...
I fell into a Norm MacDonald youtube hole today and thought I'd post this clip. This is one of the "Conan highlights" that you see over and over, ad infinitum. But, as is the nature of highlights, you don't get the context of the broader picture. Thankfully, someone's posted more of the interview Conan conducted with "Melrose Place" star Courtney Thorne-Smith.
The thing that made it great was that it wasn't just a single joke but a series of interruptions. When Conan finally challenges, "Do something with that, you freak" and Norm does, it's just the icing on the cake.
The thing that made it great was that it wasn't just a single joke but a series of interruptions. When Conan finally challenges, "Do something with that, you freak" and Norm does, it's just the icing on the cake.
Friday, July 3, 2015
Conan - Girl's Night Out
Conan takes his female staffers to see the new horror movie "Magic Mike XXL".
Brocktoon Update II
The episode begins with a comic relief subplot not related to the AIDS. Kevin is attempting to sew and having trouble with it (he keeps sticking his fingers with the needle). Between the sewing and the muffins he's baking in the oven his father starts to worry about his son's sexuality. Don't worry, he's just taking Home Ec. for an easy A. Now, am I just reading too much into this but does it strike anyone has strange that an episode about AIDS brings up both homosexuality and needles in the first few minutes? Is that irony? Is that some weird dark humor from the writers? Should I be offended? I'm so uncomfortable right now.
So anyways, it turns out Wesley's best friend has been pulled out of school because he has AIDS. [Note to writers: there are many ways to ham-fist a lesson into a TV show comedy, you don't necessarily need a cute little kid to get a death sentence.] Wesley doesn't know what AIDS is and reacts inappropriately. The parents of the show sit him down to drop some knowledge...
"Wes, AIDS is a disease and your friend is pretty sick."
[...]
"You're saying he might be sick for a whole week?"
[Here the parents, incompetently look to their butler to help]
Brocktoon: "Maybe two."
"Boy, no school! Lucky duck!"
At this point in the conversation Wesley runs away and the parents let him continue to live with misconceptions. What was the entire point of having the talk?! Why not clear up the misunderstanding, what else is more important for them to do at this point?
Oh well. Without proper guidance from his parents, Wesley goes to school and here's what the kids have to say. AIDS makes your arms fall off, AIDS is easy to catch, you can get it from touching, "A sixth-grader told me you can get it just by talking on the phone". I never even considered that one.
So, I'm going to fast forward to the end because this is getting too long and I still need to google whether AIDS can be transmitted via the phone. Wesley faces various challenges and eventually decides to do the right thing but now the President's Day Pageant at school is coming up and it's time to do something stupid.
While on stage as Abraham Lincoln, Wesley interrupts his own speech to bring his AIDS friend up on stage. Panic fills the room. Wesley tries to educate us but several kids come from backstage to yell at him. One of the parents stands up from the audience and tells their child to stay away from the kid with AIDS. And this is the scene that makes the episode worthy of the National Film Registry. This is the kind of uncomfortable that can't be replicated anywhere else in the world. The awkwardness goes to 11. And in case that scene isn't enough for you, it's followed up by a scene where Wesley and his friend discuss possibly putting together a bucket list of things to do. His friend tells him that he doesn't have enough time left to do the things he wants to do. That actually happens.
The episode ends, as every episode ends, with Mr. Belvedere writing in his diary. He says, "I suppose at this point I should write something profound about life and death. But you know something, I'm really not in the mood". Fade to black. That's it? OK? Uh, what? I think I just watched the writers give up. Oh, and then the credits go with the goofy regular theme song instead of the downtrodden version that the Alzheimer's episode got. I don't know what to read into that.
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