Man Seeking Woman

    Everyone should try Man Seeking Woman, a new comedy series on FXX. It's the weirdest and most unique show on television right now and is an interesting blend of romantic comedy and surreal story telling. 

    The show is created by Simon Rich, an SNL writing alum and Pixar staff writer before his 30th birthday, and based off his book The Last Girlfriend on Earth. The show stars Jay Baruchel, of This is the End and How To Train Your Dragon, who plays helpless lovetorn loser Josh Greenberg. Supporting cast include Eric Andre, of the already hyper weird Eric Andre Show, and Britt Lower, who plays Josh's overachieving and over-supportive sister. 

The pilot begins with Josh being dumbed by his girlfriend of six years. It only gets weirder after that.

     The first episode Josh goes on a blind date. As thoughts and concerns creep into his head that maybe this girl his sister set him up with will be ugly. Turns out his blind date is a troll. Not an ugly girl, an actual troll.

         

      The show isn't surreal like the Twilight Zone, it's unique. Instead of all the characters thinking it scary or strange that there's a troll present, everyone thinks it's completely normal. It's the opposite in fact, everyone thinks it's very rude that Josh is so opposed to a date with a troll. Later in the episode everyone gives Josh a hard time that he is uncomfortable with being at a party with Hitler. Like real Hitler; he's 126 years old. 

    It's the surreality that makes the show incredibly unique. It does watch a little like a book reads, the scene changes dramatically and all the characters are completely on board with that. This creates for a lot of heightened drama for a romantic comedy. In one episode Josh's mother tortured him ala 24, in another Cupid is going into rehab.

     The show is well produced and has attracted big name comedy guests for such a little known show, such as Bill Hader, Vanessa Bayer, and Tim Heidecker. The directors are important tv comedy directors, Jonathon Krisel and Ben Berman. Simon Rich clearly has the respect for his peers and it's no wonder; the show is new and creative and different than anything else.

     The performances are great and the show seeks the general in the strange particulars. The characters are relatable and emphatic even in such strange situations. I think the show is something audience should keep an eye on, as network tv starts to fall shows will become more personalized. Maybe this show is just for me but it's something everyone should test out. It's a hodgepodge of shows and styles and executes them all incredibly. It's theme, man seeking woman, is relatable to the core.

   

Love Actually

Every year one of my family's Thanksgiving traditions, besides watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is to watch Christmas movies. We love to watch Home Alone, Home Alone 2, Jingle All the Way, Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, several versions of A Christmas Carol, etc. However, one of my favorite holiday movies that I love to watch, but only when I am amongst friends, would be Love Actually.

Love Actually (2003) is a British romantic comedy that follows several characters' friends and family as they find love during the holiday season. Granted I am not one to like rom-coms, but this one I can sit through and watch multiple times in a row most likely because it has such a fantastic star-studded cast. Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Keira Knightly, Alan Rickman, Rowan Atkinson, and Martin Freeman are only a few of the actors involved in this well-executed and delightful British love story. Some of the characters have office romances, one couple breaks through a language barrier, and another couple even met for the first time on the set of a movie as sex stunt doubles. Although the movie mostly focuses on couples, some characters just find the love of their family and friends that help them carry on. This movie goes to show that "love, actually, is all around us."
Besides the story and the cast, the music is another significant aspect of the film that I enjoy and cherish. The movie begins with a British has-been pop star that still has one hit left within him. Although using the same melody from one of his past hit songs, he only has to replace the word 'Love' with the word 'Christmas' and he's got a new hit. This song, although quite a bit of a joke, is used throughout the film and can be heard on the other character's radios or on their 'tele.' Another song that is particularly memorable in this movie is 'Bye Bye Baby' sung by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The song begins to play when Liam Neeson's character says goodbye to his late wife, the love of his life, at her funeral, and then the song carries over into the next scene where Keira Knightly's character has just been happily married and the couple is sharing their first dance. The duality of this song is beautiful. There are other moments in the film that are accentuated through the use of music as well, but I don't wish to give anymore away.
I highly recommend this British comedy for the holiday season.

P.S. Keep Reaching For Your Dreams

Image from http://www.eynjuls.com/harsha/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/ps-i-love-you.jpg

"Dear Gerry, you said you wanted me to fall in love again, and maybe one day I will. But there are all kinds of love out there. This is my one and only life. And it's a great and terrible and short and endless thing, and none of us come out of it alive..." ~ From the movie P.S. I Love You

There's nothing like meeting up with friends and sitting down for a movie night... even on a school night. So, with our bowl of yogurt covered raisins and glasses of water in hand, my friends and I squished eagerly on the couch and watched P.S. I Love You last night. As you can imagine, for those who have seen this movie, there were tears and many exclamations of "awe" throughout the film. As the credits started, one of the girls who had just viewed the movie for the first time said, "Well that stinks. She never fell in love with someone new! What a horrible ending!" Now, I have seen this movie probably ten times, yet this was the first time that it occurred to me that Holly (the main character) never did find a replacement man. Not very romantic, I suppose. Yet, why was I still so satisfied with the ending?

This really started shifting the gears in my rusty summer-dulled brain. In the romance genre, we are so used to what I would dare call the "cheesy princess love syndrome." Girl faces some problem or obstacle, Prince Charming shows up, and suddenly everything is okay and they ride off into the sunset. Or vice versa. In any case, there is always a "happily ever after." Yet, the typical description of the modern "happily ever after" includes some kind of true love between two people that is expressed in a way that is so unbelievable as to be believable because we all wish it to be reality. Hey, I love my Disney movies just as much as the next person, but at some point one has to acknowledge that those endings either don't exist in our world, they are very, very rare, or they do exist but in some other happier dimension. P.S. I Love You gives the audience an ending that everyone can relate to (whether they like it or not) because there is a reality to it. It is an ending that is rarely ever seen in romantic movies. She doesn't fall in love with another person, but as I started thinking about it, she does fall in love with something else entirely.

This is what I love about storytelling. I love finding themes or messages in books, movies, poems... you name it. I hope that someday I will have accomplished such a feat in my own work. Anyway, at one point during the movie, Holly states that, "... there are all kinds of love out there." It is so true. In the end, she fell in love with designing shoes. She had a passion and a direction in life that she discovered on her own (or you may believe with the help of her dead husband). Holly made it through all the obstacles of losing her husband, her job, even her friends and she didn't need a Prince Charming to do it. Okay, so maybe she thought Gerry (her deceased husband) helped her, but really it took her strength and determination to direct her life towards a goal.

This is such an encouraging idea. We are all pushing forward through life trying to reach our passions, our loves, our goals. Some yearn to direct, or produce, or edit, or even act (yay!). Others yearn to do biology research, or find a cure for cancer, or run a theatre company. Whatever it may be, we are all on a path that requires sweat, blood, tears and most of all passion. The end of P.S. I Love You showed me that no matter how bleak the future may seem or how big the obstacles appear, if we just keep pushing onward, someday we will find love. Not in the form of another person per say, but maybe in the form of success in our dreams, or contentment in how we have achieved some of our goals.

So good luck to students everywhere starting a new year in school! I hope you can persevere like Holly as you journey to reach your own version of a true "happily ever after," whatever that may be. Push down mountains and swim across oceans because when the road seems impossible is when we find the strength to find the possibility in it! I know I will never stop dreaming and pushing forward.
~ Amber Capogrossi

I want to see this movie!!!

I've been waiting a long time for the next movie like The Notebook... you know.. something to really pull at my heart strings!

I'm such a cheeseball but I loved everything about it... unrequited love, rich vs poor, love then conquering all... perfect! I'm not sure this new movie that came out on Friday... Like Crazy... has such a happy ending but holy crap do I want to see it!

Maybe it's just the trailer... I mean I've been fooled before. But that song they use it just gets me everytime. I'm just waiting for this to come to Ithaca already!

It's about a student from England falling in love with an American boy while studying in America. They fall fast and hard, and before they know it it's time for her to go back when her student visa expires. They try to make the long distance thing work, and then try moving back together... but of course nothing works out as it should.

Now.... you guys would already know about this if you tuned into Entertainment16 on ICTV.... (shamelss plug) We preview/review two or three movies a week and at least one TV show! Plenty of inspiration for fiction field production students!