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‘FRIENDSHIP’ is 100 Minutes of Pure Tim Robinson Cringe

Tim Robinson has one speed. Ever since he wrote and co-starred in Detroiters before becoming a sainted meme, ascending to viral sketch-comedy royalty with the gut-bustingly hysterical I Think You Should Leave, Robinson has specialized in playing a singular, ever-mutating archetype: the emotionally volatile social misfit. It’s a character he’s twisted into a hundred different shapes, but the core is always the same: an unhinged cocktail of cringe, indignation, and deeply funny despair. Whether he’s feeding eggs to his office monitor, melting down speed-ordering fast food (“55 burgers! 55 fries!”), or demanding a party host eat a receipt to prove he liked a gift, Robinson excels at crafting men living on the verge of complete and total social collapse. Read More

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DC Ditches Doom, Gloom, Goes Overboard With Silliness with ‘SHAZAM!’ 

Leaving behind the days of darkened cowls, killer Batmen, and gritty monochromatic realism, Shazam! continues DC’s newfound grove as the weirdo cousin of the superhero movie multiverse. Leaning full brunt into the bonkers aspect of a world where certain citizens are bulletproof, immortal, and/or can chat with sharks, this latest origin story from the DCEU steps out of the shadows of the Zack Snyder-era of Batman v. Superman, fully embracing the goofy prospect of heroes living among us and building it up one ridiculous costume at a time. This time out, it’s a kid donning said costume and this latest chapter in the ever-evolving DC world absolutely revels in the goof.  Read More

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Out in Theaters: ‘IT’

Growing up in Maine, I’ve lived in the land of Steven King’s inspiration. I’ve suffered the bone-chattering winters. Lurked the dense, immutable forests, always so convincingly haunted whenever they needed to be. I’ve challenged forbidden historic landmarks in the twilight hours, suspecting authority, or something more sinister, at every dark fated turn. As a boy, I chomped through King’s preternatural catalogue of horror novels, perhaps because of my budding adoration of the genre, perhaps because he was quite simply the most famous guy from Maine I knew of. I’d taken down “The Shining”, “Carrie”, “Misery”, “The Green Mile”, “The Dead Zone”, “Cujo”, “The Mist”, “Needful Things”, “Pet Sematary”, “Christine”, “Firestarter”, “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon”, “Gerald’s Game”, and “Thinner” by the time I was 12. But nothing in King’s oeuvre haunted me more than his 1986 classic “It”. That shit had me shivering in my rain boats.  Read More