The motivation behind the film-savvy doc Kim’s Video reminded me of that customer who wouldn’t rewind their videocassette after returning it to the store they rented it from – they want to pass down the fun but, somehow, they’ve still made the experience all about themselves. David Redmon, one-half of this documentary’s directorial duo, is that customer.
It makes sense for David Wain to direct a biopic about Doug Kenney. The absurdist director of Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models, and Wanderlust works with a special brand of off-beat comedy as Kenney’s National Lampoon brainchild did. Even though the biopic genre is new ground for Wain, A Futile and Stupid Gesture is still a comedy cut from familiar cloth.
By: Addison Wylie Before Paul Rudd was Ant-Man, before Elizabeth Banks was one of comedy’s leading ladies, and before Bradley Cooper became an Oscar nominated actor/producer, all three actors starred in an indescribable indie comedy called Wet Hot American Summer. The movie also served as a launching pad for Parks and Rec’s Amy Poehler, Stella’s Michael Ian Black, Bad Milo’s Ken Marino, and Brooklyn Nine Nine’s Joe Lo Truglio – all of whom had never…
By: Addison Wylie I bet if we scoured filmmaker David Wain’s DVD collection, we would find romantic comedies. A lot of them. It takes a certain kind of guilty affection to lampoon a genre this immaculately. That’s what the absurdist has done with fellow writing cohort Michael Showalter. The two collaborated on the cult hit Wet Hot American Summer – which took the piss out of camp movies – and now they go for the…