Analog This: Community, and How Social Media Saved it

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Warning! Some minor spoilers for tonight’s episode. And if you are a community college student then no, you cannot be a pirate as well.

I am not one of the righteous few who has deactivated their Facebook account and returned to reality. Having said that, here are a few reasons why I hate social media: it is addicting, it is causing people to be too concerned about the affairs of others, and it all together makes us more vain and self-concerned.

And here is why I love social media: without it, “Community” might not have been back on the air tonight. I am not in any way taking credit away from the show’s brilliant mastermind Dan Harmon, nor the NBC executives, who are not getting enough credit for continuing to keep this strange little show on the air, despite its low ratings.


However, “Community” was pervasive on Twitter this week. One of the top trending topics the other day was #anniesboobs. The fact that this joke, which only an avid “Community” fan would understand, was that popular, shows its fan base goes beyond what Nielsen can calculate. If they came out today, perhaps the likes of “Freaks and Geeks,” “Undeclared,” and “Firefly” would never have been cancelled.

I have been talking about “Community” a lot the past week, enough so that many people might just want me to stop, as this is supposed to be a site about the movies. To that I counter and say that “Community” is inspired as much by film as it is by television. It puts every pop culture reference that runs through my brain on a daily basis on screen. At times, I have been tempted to compare “Community” to “Arrested Development,” but “Community” truly defies comparison. Every week, it tries to do something that no show on television has done before. It can be hit or miss, but either way, it is the most joyfully ambitious show you will see on television today.

But between intense blanket forts and paintball fights, “Community” is all about its characters. Fittingly, tonight’s episode, entitled “Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts,” was about a grounded return to normalcy. Jeff started the episode complaining, and ended it with a speech. Britta tried to be fiercely independent, Annie was hopelessly romantic, and Pierce was trying to sell something racist. A day in the life at Greendale Community College.

But as always, things were far from normal. Shirley was getting re-married to her husband Andre, and Britta found herself to be a fantastic wedding decorator, despite her hatred of marriage. Meanwhile, Troy and Abed decided to act “normal” for once, only to discover that their weirdness is the only type of normal they could ever be.

In most sitcoms, each character seems to have some assigned role they must fulfill in each episode. “Community” follows that, yet acknowledges it, at the same time. This was proven in “Remedial Chaos Theory” (if you haven’t seen this episode, which has seven separate story lines, watch it immediately). But in tonight’s episode, and I believe it will be a theme for the rest of the season, everyone realized they are not who they thought they were. Pierce is not a businessman, Shirley is not just a mother, and Britta will soon have to say goodbye to her days as “Anarchist Cat Owner.” As Harmon said himself in an article in the New York Times, “Community” is headed into some very dark territory.

Yet, there was still something very right about tonight’s episode. The first half of the season was a mixed bag, with the highlights being the aforementioned “Remedial Chaos Theory” and “Documentary Filmmaking: Redux.” Those are two of the best episodes of “Community” so far. However, the rest of the first half of the season was missing the zany inventiveness and brains of the previous season. It all came back tonight and hopefully, will be here to stay for a while.

I still have no idea how this show will end, but tonight, I got a better idea of where it is headed. I imagine the final shot looking something like that of the series finale of “The Sopranos,” minus “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Hopefully, that finale won’t come for quite a while. I have bright hopes that the six seasons and a movie that Abed once championed will become reality.

This Week, We are a Community: Day 4

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This is the most accurate way to describe how the collective “Community” fan base feels about the return of the show tonight:

And, I have included a bonus clip after the jump. “Community” is a show that likes to push the limits of television, and try to top itself every week. I challenge it to come up with a line as good as “my whole brain is crying!”: 

Movie Review: Chronicle

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Apparently, when you put together two genres together that didn’t need another entry (superhero; found footage), something good can happen. 

“Chronicle” is like taking a philosophy course, albeit an introductory one where you only go to half of the lectures. That doesn’t mean it isn’t intriguing, it just means that there could have been a little more substance to stick around for. 


Like many found footage movies, “Chronicle” begins with a camera reflected in the mirror, looking directly back at the audience. Misfit Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan) uses his camera to block out the outside world, just as the lock on his door blocks out his drunk and abusive father from continuing to make his life miserable. His only real friend is his cousin Matt (Alex Russell), who drives him to school every morning and rambles on about reading Schopenhauer. In between philosophical lectures, he tells Andrew to put his camera away, and to actually start interacting with people.

At a party one night, Andrew meets his female counterpart, a blogger (Ashley Hinshaw), who also films the events around her, but with a purpose. Every male blogger in the world just found their new MPDG. Matt and Steve (Michael B. Jordan, no relation to the other Michael Jordan) find a strange hole out in the woods with a glowing light coming out of it, and they bring Andrew along to film it. They get a bit too close to the light and next thing they know, Andrew has to buy a new camera.

The switch in quality of Andrew’s camera is also the movie’s shift in story. After no explanation of what happened immediately after finding the light (perhaps for the better), the three friends find that they have obtained telepathic powers. Like the other recent found footage movie, “Project X,” the most realistic part of the movie occurs in its early stages. Like anyone with newfound super powers, they test out their abilities. And while Andrew could try and save his dying mother, he instead blows girls skirts up and messes with bullies. Because what else would a high schooler want to do?

The so-called “testing” portion takes up a seemingly long, but actually very short, time in the movie. These scenes showcase some of the most impressive special effects I have seen in a movie in a quite a while. Watching the Seattle Space Needle be built of Legos, and then get torn down, is a stunning visual, and it offers some terrifying foreshadowing. Another scene in which Andrew tears a spider to bits, makes you wonder both how it was made, and what it means. It definitely portends to his psychotic side. Not looking too deep into it, it is a mind-altering sight.

Unlike most superhero movies, the heroes aren’t fighting for some cause, or against some villain. Rather, they are fighting against themselves. When one obtains powers, both a hero and a villain are created within them. If I am understanding Schopenhauer right, then it is our personal will which one we will actually become. Perhaps the battle over control of their powers is just representative of the problems of teen angst. We’ve all gone through it, but not in this way.

“Chronicle” goes deep, but perhaps not deep enough. At times, director Josh Trank gets a little too caught up in the movie’s unique special effects, and forgets to push the story forward. However, we are given a disarming yet frightening performance by DeHaan, who with just his eyes can control our emotions the same way Malcolm McDowell did with his glare in “A Clockwork Orange.”

At one point, Andrew describes himself as the apex predator: he is the top of the food chain, and therefore can do whatever needs to be done to survive. With great power comes great responsibility. This famous line from “Spider-Man” now makes absolute sense to me: when one obtains great power, they are responsible not just for what they do, but for whom they become. It is not just his slide into insanity that makes Andrew so disturbing, but rather the fact that he believes he is justified in his actions.

This is a very intense and absorbing moral dilemma. However, it leads to one of the film’s bigger problems: the complete disregard of all of the other moral dilemmas that could have come about. Andrew’s sick mother seems only to be in the plot as a means to anger his father more. But what would be the implications of Andrew both trying to kill his father, and save his mother? The world will never know. All we know is that he is a good son, and he tried. You’d think someone with telepathy would try a little bit harder.

The final battle is one to be remembered. The battle between cousins Andrew and Matt is very powerful, but would have been more so had the story delved into Matt further. Certainly, he is more complex than to serve simply as the good guy of “Chronicle.” In moral dilemmas, good guys shouldn’t be so easy to define.

Without giving too much away (because, I do hope readers go see this movie), “Chronicle” ends in an underwhelming way that is something of an injustice to the rest of the movie. While Matt seems to be doing a good thing in where he has gone to, a more ambiguous ending would have made a lot more sense here. Watching him fly off into the sunset, like a cowboy who can levitate, would have hammered the whole point across. The new powers the three friends obtain were supposed to make them more popular. In the end, great power is more alienating than no power at all.

Josh Trank’s First Feature:

Why Do People Like This: Speed

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Why Do People Like This is a new segment where I discuss a thoroughly overrated movie.


Pop Quiz Hot Shot!

It is said that “Speed” was pitched as “Die Hard” on a bus. This is one of the most brilliant pitches ever made. Too bad “Speed” isn’t nearly as good as “Die Hard.”

When it comes to movies, I’m like Alvy Singer, in that I won’t see a movie in theaters if I am late. Even two minutes late. I like the credits, too. But it appears that I have broken some of my own rules for “Speed.” I like to justify it by putting into consideration the fact that I caught it on AMC on a Saturday night. AMC is known for playing both classic, and classically cheesy, movies.

In the pop culture lexicon, “Speed” doesn’t usually fall into the second category. In fact, if the ratings on the information option on cable are to be trusted, it gets three and a half out of four stars. So about the same rating as “No Country for Old Men” and “The Social Network.” “Speed” is an entertaining thriller. But a great one? Not even close.

For the longest time, “Speed” was on that list of movies that I am guilty of never watching. That list still includes “Top Gun,” “Trading Places,” and “A Beautiful Mind.” I can now take “Speed” off of that list, and relief washes over me in a wave of meh.

The premise of “Speed” is simple, yet effective: a terrorist plants a bomb inside a bus, and said bus cannot go under 50 miles per hour at anytime, or else it will explode. From the start, I had no clue how that bomb would be diffused. That is what drew me to the movie. Unfortunately, “Speed” goes for the most obvious conclusion possible.

First off, everything about “Speed” is absolutely ludicrous. Now, no movie can ever be truly, fully realistic. Even the ones that claim to be so are usually the most highly implausible (*cough* “Crash” *cough*). But really, are we supposed to believe that a bus can make it over a jump that large? I have never taken a physics class, but even I know that stunt does not look right. Usually in a Hollywood blockbuster, the coolness factor justifies the suspension of reality. This shot might have looked cool in 1994, but it has not aged well.

“Speed” was written by Graham Yost. Yost would go on years later to create “Justified,” which I am told is one of the best dramas on television. But there is something “Speed” lacks in its script. The potential of both comedic and dramatic bonding between the passengers on the bus is passed up so that each of them instead can be used to forward the plot. The only passengers to get some form of personality are Cam from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (Alan Ruck, who should be acting more) and the teacher with the annoying voice from “Donnie Darko.”

And lest we not forget the dull chemistry between the two leads: Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Bullock is charismatic when she chooses to be; Keanu doesn’t seem to have a choice. When he isn’t busy sitting on a park bench by himself, he is being the lamest actor to ever be called a leading man. Why are we made to root for this hero? What is he overcoming, and what makes him so special? He really should have stuck to movies more like “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” Seriously, that movie does not get enough credit.

The end of this movie devolves into a big kiss between the two leads. However, Jack (Reeves) never seemed to be trying to save Annie (Bullock) out of love, but rather obligation. Bullock is able to get the second best line in the movie, when she says she lost her license because of speeding, just seconds after she is asked to take the wheel. The other best line is when Jack says that Howard Payne (Hopper) has “lost his head.” That sentence has multiple meanings.

Hopper is the scene stealer here as the psychotic and mysterious villain. He is strangely less over-the-top here than he usually is, and considering the fact that he once played Frank Booth. The small amount of screen time he gets certainly increases the intrigue in his villain, but I would have rather seen a movie completely about him than about anyone else here.

“Speed” is not completely horrible. There are a lot of thrilling moments and I will admit that I was afraid that the bus would actually blow up a few times earlier on. Then, I remembered if that happened, there wouldn’t be a movie. But that constant fear helps to keep the movie alive. However, this thrill is broken up by a lot of poor character development as well as an incessant need for a happy ending. “Speed” is a lot of great parts searching for a greater whole.

You can catch “Speed” on AMC about the same amount of times that you can catch “Wedding Crashers” and any Tyler Perry movie on TBS. Translation: A lot. 

The Reel Deal is now on Twitter

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Because social media isn’t a big enough burden on your life already, you can now find The Reel Deal on Twitter. Of course, you’ll find links to all of the latest reviews and articles. However, you will also get other trinkets of my sage movie wisdom, and perhaps some special previews of future posts. Keep Reel Dealin’ on.* 


https://twitter.com/#!/Reel_Deal_Ian


Follow me and spread the word!


*Okay, I need to work on that catchphrase

This Week, We are a Community: Day 1

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This Thursday, “Community” comes back from nearly-cancelled purgatory to finish off its third season. To celebrate the return of my favorite show, and to thank NBC for avoiding its third biggest mistake ever (following the cancellation of “Freaks and Geeks” and the Conan fiasco), I’ve decided to post a clip from “Community” every day until its return. Hopefully, the clip is hilarious and context free. I apologize if every clip I choose somehow involves Donald Glover yelling like a child. Enjoy.

Movie Review: Project X

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There is a code of objectivity that all journalists are supposed to abide by. As a self-proclaimed film journalist who tries to live by these rules, there are times when my objectiveness goes right out the door. With something like “Project X,” there is no other way to approach it.

“Project X” contains pretty much everything I usually hate in a movie: its sexist, stupid, overlong, and incredibly unrealistic. I did not hate it, and I did not love it either. However, I enjoyed just about every single minute of it.

“Project X” falls into the subgenre of the mockumentary genre, under the kingdom of comedy and or drama, known as the found footage footage movie. I just wrote that last sentence because it made me sound like a scientist. Anyway, it is less hilarious than “This is Spinal Tap” but more developed than “The Blair Witch Project.” Three best friends in high school, all incredibly unpopular, decide to throw the party of the century in order to get noticed. They hire someone (Dax Flame) to film the whole experience for them. He turns out to be a pretty bad fly on the wall, and the party becomes both a success and a disaster.


Thomas (Thomas Mann) is all but unheard of by most of the student body. Thomas is at the crux of turning 17, a birthday that is pretty insignificant because it provides no drivers license, legal drinking age, or any others rights of passage into adulthood. However, it would allow him to finally see “Project X” in theaters.

On the eve of Thomas’s birthday, his parents go away for the weekend. I know it’s their anniversary that weekend but come on, what parents would leave their son at home alone on his birthday? His dad lays out a series of ground rules, and most importantly forbids Thomas from touching his Mercedes while he is gone. From there, it is obvious that the Mercedes will not be in good condition by the end of the night.

Of Thomas’s co-dependent best friends, Costa (Oliver Cooper) is the most instrumental in orchestrating the party. Costa is a little too confident in himself, and he is definitely not the marketer nor the ladies man that he thinks he is. However, the kid does pull out a pretty good defense, albeit an obvious one, when keeping the cops away. Think of him as a cross between Neil Schweiber and the creepy son from “World’s Greatest Dad.” Costa’s self-confidence is unearned, yet it works and is foul and degrading way of talking leads to many guilty laughs. Once he gets a better script, Cooper will become a big star.

Costa creates as much trouble as he gets into. He is like any Jewish kid I have ever known who thinks they are a lawyer just by default. He always manages to ruin Thomas’s life as he tries to make it better, because he is overall a bit too selfish. One of the movie’s primary problems is that this conflict is blatant, yet goes mostly unacknowledged throughout, and it tries to resolve itself through archetypal declaration of bro-love kind of scene. “Project X” has a lot of fun with the story at hand, but it never does anything new with it. Everything set up at the beginning of the movie will obviously come back to haunt the characters.

The two other best friends, JB (Jonathan Daniel Brown) and Kirby (Kirby Bliss Blanton), may also achieve big stardom. The awkward, overweight JB is the movie’s McLovin, and that’s why he is so easy to root for. But the biggest downfall of “Project X” is how it attempts to turn Thomas and Kirby’s friendship into a love story. It is as implausible as it is predictable.

Despite its unoriginality and predictability, the movie’s self-awareness and charm won me over at parts. “Project X” taps into gold in its first 30 minutes. It is at this time where the movie actually feels realistic. Yes, the kids are offensively vulgar, but they talk the way most teenagers and college kids talk nowadays. I don’t know what that says about our sick society, but “Project X” never attempts to be any kind of statement. All it ever wants to be is wish fulfillment.

When looking back at “Project X” I realize the very best of it lies in individual scenes, rather than the movie as a whole. Take for example how hilariously uncomfortable and creepy the sit down with the drug dealer is, as James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” plays in the diegesis.

A lot of the movie’s utter insanity starts off as fun, before it actually becomes utterly insane. The party’s 12-year-old security guards are scene stealers, and while it is morally offensive to cheer them on as they tase an innocent father, you don’t have to feel too bad because the party has to go on somehow. “Project X” asks you to think like a teenage boy. So yes, there will also have to be topless girls at this party.

The documentary style of “Project X” lends itself well to the story, but it does break away for the format quite a few times. The movie as a whole is a great time until it goes down hill at the end, and succumbs to Multiple Ending Syndrome. No movie that is under 90 minutes long should ever feel like it drags on. But what can I say, this review is only going to be half negative. I ate up almost every minute of “Project X,” and I found myself in fits of laughter at times, laughing at things that had no right to be that funny. Even when the dog gets high, I laughed. The spirit of anarchy throughout works.

“Project X” is polarizing in its demographic reach, but for once, can’t us guys get something more or less just for us? Something that’s vulgar, unintelligent, and even kind of real? Sorry, “Twilight” still doesn’t work for us.

Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom to Open the Cannes Film Festival

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The great news yesterday from public relations land was that Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” will be opening the Cannes Film Festival on May 16. This is the second year in a row that an American film has opened the festival, after “Midnight in Paris” did so last year. So while the French might have taken over American awards ceremonies (thanks for that, “The Artist”), Hollywood swiftly took revenge. Or, at least that’s how I picture it happening. Your move, Sarkozy.  

But enough with me imagining wars between America and France. As someone who saw my first Wes Anderson movie at the tender age of nine (a little too young, I admit), I speak from the heart when I say how excited this news makes me. Anderson deserves to fill a spot once taken up by Woody Allen.

“Moonrise Kingdom” looks like a movie that is laced with childhood whimsy. I am someone who is always believing my many crazy childhood dreams could actually come true, and this summer, I will be attending the Cannes Film Festival. I will be going as an intern, but also as something of an undercover reporter. Tickets for the premieres of the biggest movies are often hard to come by. But if anyone knows any loopholes in film law that could help me acquire tickets to the premiere of “Moonrise Kingdom,” it would be greatly appreciated.

In addition, the official poster for “Moonrise Kingdom” was released today. There is something indescribably awesome about yellow font. I can already hear The Creation blaring on the soundtrack.