The Reel Deal » Joel McHale

Analog This: Community Season 5 Premiere, and the Meaning of Greendale

ian0592 — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 03:07:00 +0000

“Community” has had such a troubled run. At the same time, it is also more privileged than most shows. Besides multiple hiatuses and threats of cancellation, the show has seen one showrunner get fired and then re-hired. But the loud voices of the Internet spoke, and Dan Harmon’s vision got to beat on.

And to that I say, “amen.”

I would have been okay if “Community” had gotten canned after its third season. However, if it had ended with the bitter taste of season four, that would not have felt right. So, there is a fifth season of “Community.” And once again, I say “amen.”

The “Community” fans of the world waited many uncertain months for the show’s return and man, was it worth the wait. Finally, it seems like NBC is with us and not against us. They ran two episodes in one night, which was preceded by a good amount of advertising. Plus, that little #Community at the corner of the screen shows that the network finally realized that the Internet exists.

I didn’t really want to talk about the dark battle to get “Community” back on the air, but it is impossible not to, given how meta and self-referential the show can get. In tonight’s first episode, titled “Repilot,” Troy rants against Zach Braff for leaving “Scrubs” early. Donald Glover is only starring in the season’s first five episodes. With two down so far, that means there is only three more chances for another “Troy & Abed in the Morning.” Fingers crossed.

Only two episodes into the new season, and it’s as if no time has passed at all since Harmon was fired from the show. “Community” has already settled back into its dark, multi-layered self. There was a cloud of sadness shrouded over these first episode. The study group has gone their separate ways after graduation, but none of them ended up in the place they wanted to be. Jeff’s law firm went under. Annie is pushing prescription pills. Troy doesn’t know what to be sad about. Finally, everyone starts to realize that Greendale is a mess. Worst of all, Jeff has slipped right back into his sleazy lawyer persona. But once he remembers how important the study group is to him, he goes from wanting to bring Greendale down to wanting to save it. I guess we all needed a reminder of how important Greendale is, and how different this season is going to be.

The second episode, “Introduction To Teaching,” was lighter and a real return to form. It also marked the first episode with the amazing Jonathan Banks as the bitter forensics teacher who just wants to make it as a cartoonist. The best thing about his performance is that he basically delivers all of his lines with the same intensity that he did on “Breaking Bad,” but this time he gets to talk about duck bills instead of secret meth empires.

More importantly, there was a plotline involving a pop culture reference that the sum total of pop culture references on “Community” was most likely leading to: Nicolas Cage. The gang takes a class called “Nicholas Cage: Good or Bad.” Of course, Abed takes it way too seriously. His madness over determining the answer to this question leads to the best Nicholas Cage impression I have ever seen. While Donald Glover is the master of the freak out, Danny Pudi will do just fine covering for him once he leaves the show.

Abed, the show’s unofficial narrator and audience surrogate, takes a turn for the cynical tonight when he realizes that people are “random and pointless.” “Community” realizes this. I mean, Troy has a Clive Owen Tumblr and The Dean’s thoughts are in French. Who could predict that? By bringing the show to such a dark place, “Community” rediscovered its meaning tonight: this is a show about troubled people who get the chance to redeem themselves. Give the members of Greendale, and “Community,” a second chance, because they have proven their worth once again.

The Best Lines/Moments

· “It’s like me blaming owls for how much I suck at analogies.” Britta knows she’s the worst, but she totally owns it. And that’s why we all love her.

· “I’m on sabbatical.” “You’re Jewish?”

· For anyone who thought Jeff’s ad was ridiculous, I go to school in Upstate New York, and every lawyer and car dealer has a commercial that’s about that ridiculous as well.

· Someone give Rob Corddry a medal. He is a master at playing d-bags.

· “Well, Jesus wasn’t in 70 movies.”

· “When I asked you to explain the Sixth Amendment you pled the Fifth.”

· Funny small moment: When Alan (Cordrry) starts a slow clap, Abed awkwardly claps along with him in the background.

This Week, We are a Community: Day 2

ian0592 — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:23:00 +0000

In “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” Steve Carell describes his wife as “the perfect combination of sexy and cute.” This clip is the perfect combination of sexy and creepy.

I guess that’s the whole point of the song. But I hope this is the last time I will ever have to use Alison Brie and creepy in the same sentence.

Movie Review: The Informant!

ian0592 — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:49:00 +0000

The poster for “The Informant!,” at first glance, reminded me of the poster for “The 40 Year Old Virgin.” Not only did both include two overly jolly men, but there was just something about them that made me happy every time I looked at them. Like the poster for “Virgin,” there was something so incredibly funny, and so incredibly strange about the poster for “The Informant!” that I just had to see it. It turns out, the movie is both of these things, in ways different than you might imagine.

“The Informant!” is based on the true story of one of the biggest (and weirdest) financial frauds in American history. However, it tends to take its history quite lightly. After a title card informs us that the film is based on a true story, we are treated to the sentence “So there.” Off the bat we are being told to expect nothing short of a comedic version of true events.

The corporate fraud focused on in the film is that of the major price fixing [Editor's Note: Please, don't make me try to explain what that is] that took place in the early 1990s at the Illinois food processing company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). The seemingly innocent biochemist turned businessman Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) becomes an informant for the FBI, who looks to bust the company. However, agents Bob Herndon (Joel McHale) and Brian Shepard (Scott Bakula) soon realize that Whitacre’s ineptitude might get them into more trouble than they could have ever imagined.

Commercials for “The Informant!” have made it out to be purely comical. While the film is hilarious at times, it’s not as much as a comedy as you might expect. While director Steven Soderbergh could’ve taken this exact same story and turned it into a dramatic, suspensful thriller on the level of “The Departed” or his own “Traffic.” Instead, he twisted it around and turned it into a light-hearted, comedic thriller with serious undertones. I’m happy he decided to take this path. Had the film been more serious, it probably would’ve seemed much less original.

Parts of “The Informant!” feel like a tribute to the great film noir of the past. Everything from the opening credit font, to the tangled web lies, feels right out of the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s. Meanwhile, the somewhat jazzy musical score could be traced all the way back to “The Maltese Falcon.”

Maybe the greatest reward the film gives is the pleasure of seeing Damon play Marc Whitacre with complete scrutiny. Damon pulled a De Niro for this performance and gained over 30 pounds to fully embody the everyday schlub that Whitacre truly was. In his performance, Damon is funny at all the right moments, tricky at all the right moments, and serious and self reflective at all the right moments. But most importantly, he always looks like he’s just having a good time in the role. When it doesn’t look like an actor is having a good time in a comedy, you know you’re in trouble. Damon looks like he’s having a blast.

Making up the rest of the ensemble are many comedians who now seem to be slipping into more dramatic roles. McHale, who started this week off good with his first real acting job ever in “Community” scores once again, getting one of the film’s biggest laughs with just a small facial expression.

While some perceive the humor to be a little smug and condescending, I remain a firm believer that in a smart film, structure relates to function. And here, the function is to almost give us the feeling of how overly smug some of the men must’ve been, thinking that even as they drew themselves closer and closer to being caught, that they remained invincible. Also fascinating is Whitacre’s narration. It doesn’t really do much to enhance the story or give us background details, it is basically just a stream of consciousness. It gives us a feeling of what goes through Whitacre’s head everyday. However, some of these details may actually be important. Or they may not. Maybe they’re just leading us into a big trap. The truth never is what it seems.

As the great line in “Some Like it Hot” goes: “Well, nobody’s perfect.” “The Informant!” certainly isn’t. It doesn’t really get interesting until the FBI gets involved, and often times its not as funny as it thinks it is. But it was one thing: really entertaining. It is so rare that you see a movie like “The Informant!” that provides the audience entertainment in a sophisticated and adult way. It is hip, yet it is also versed in the classics. It provides a history lesson without putting its audience to sleep.

But after all is said and done, you know what the funniest part of the film is? The fact that the real joke of the film is on you.

Recommended for Fans of: Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Catch Me If You Can, Wall Street, Traffic, The French Connection, The Maltese Falcon, Chinatown