What makes David Brent the ultimate creation of Ricky Gervais is that we can all relate to him. We have all at one time in our lives been David Brent. All of us want to be liked, and accepted, and appreciated. We all want friends, and family, and some place to call home. We all have something we want to offer the world, and some kind of unfulfilled desire that we wish we could bring out for everyone to see. Ricky Gervais’ “Life on the Road” is a great sequel to the original BBC “The Office” but thankfully it’s not a movie you have to have seen the show to understand. While there are a ton of mentions of the original series, “Life on the Road” is about Gervais’ anti-hero, the man known as David Brent who has spent most of his life chasing the idea of being liked and accepted, but has no idea how to achieve it.
Tag Archives: Performance
Leslie (2016)
It’s really striking how well director Alejandro Montoya Marin understands the experience of being an artist, most of all a starving artist. You feel something of a fire in your belly to express yourself and show the world how much you can give to them in the way of art, and sometimes it’s so difficult to get by. Alejandro Montoya Marin’s is a pretty remarkable short drama that focuses on the life of a singer and songwriter named Holly, who is struggling to get a solid gig at local clubs to perform for audiences. She’s barely scraping by and is now experiencing the end of a very intense relationship with the love of her life.
Fetish Factory (2017)
In a private burlesque parlor in Hollywood, performers and VIP clients face off with a zombie attack. Directed by Staci Layne Wilson from her own screenplay based on a story by Lony Ruhmann, Fetish Factory mixes burlesque dances and performers with end of the world and zombie tropes for a fun result. Staci Layne Wilson takes the zombies sub-genre that is all over the place lately and focuses it by bringing her personal touch to it and adding a varied group of beauties to fight them off. Granted, this in and of itself is nothing new (we’ve seen hotties and strippers fight zombies before) but her usage of actual burlesque performers and actresses adds to this in a way that changes from the usual boobs and blood route these films take.
Prince Movie Collection: Purple Rain/Graffiti Bridge/Under the Cherry Moon [3 Disc Blu-Ray]
If you’re still reeling from the sudden death of music icon Prince at the age of 57, Warner has made three of his banner vanity films available for collectors. While the discs are compiled together in a very slim and deluxe boxed set, Warner also makes a lot of bells and whistles available to Prince fans, including a treasury of his music videos from “Purple Rain” and his other films. Even if you’re a Prince fan you have to admit that collecting his trio of films is purely approached from a fan standpoint. Critics and fans alike consider “Purple Rain” is absolute master work that fueled his popularity even more, while “Graffiti Bridge” and “Under the Cherry Moon” were critically derided flops that didn’t make an impact at all. Regardless you have to appreciate the inherent ambition behind Prince’s cinematic efforts.
Fetish Factory (2017)
In the “Fetish Factory” every male client comes attached with his own fetish and arrives to the special mansion to watch some of the best and sexiest burlesque performers realize some of their weirdest fantasies. Director and writer Staci Layne Wilson delivers a horror comedy that’s admittedly rough around the edges but has enough charm and laughs to entertain audiences that enjoy a bit of kink with their zombie carnage. Carrie Keagan plays burlesque performer Bettie, a dancer at the Fetish Factory who takes on the persona of Bettie Page for her clientele and dances almost every night. After a mysterious wild storm takes hold of Hollywood, the walking dead begin swarming the Fetish Factory mansion, prompting the surviving dancers to fight off the hordes of flesh eating zombies.
RiffTrax Live: MST3K Reunion (2016)
In June 2016, the folks from Rifftrax finally granted longtime fans the privilege of watching an MST3K reunion. It was pulled off successfully and brought literally everyone who has ever been on the series to riff on some classic and awful educational short films. Not just that, but the crew also had the foresight to bring on Jonah Ray the new human host for the upcoming “MST3K” reboot to throw in some of his own riffs, and warm the audience up to his impending tenure on the Satellite of Love. I’m a big fan of Ray’s, and he has the same affable personality, and humble charm that Joel Hodgson and Mike Nelson had that won fans over. I’m excited to see how he handles the antics on the new show. For fans that missed the live show, the performance is now available for purchase at Rifftrax, and I gladly paid to watch the two and a half hour performance by the entire cast, in person in front of a welcome audience.
Beauties of the Night (2016) [Toronto International Film Festival 2016]
This film documents the rise to stardom, fall, and aging of some of Mexico’s most famous showgirls. These women did it all, they sang, danced, acted, modeled, etc. They were revered by armies of fans and had it all. Lyn May, Olga Breeskin, Princesa Yamal, Rossy Mendoza, and Wanda Seux discuss their rise to fame, their lives, and their dreams.