The TV Set

"Truthfully, 'original' scares me a little... you don't want to be too original."

A wonderful little film, The TV Set is the new movie from Jake Kasdan (Zero Effect, Orange County). In this story, we follow a writer and his ongoing struggle to bring his TV pilot from script to screen, all the while trying to keep his original vision for the material intact. Along the way, he deals with the incredibly stupid head of the network (Sigourney Weaver), an inept TV director, and an unbelievably over-the-top actor who he's forced to hire for the show.

The TV Set clip 1

Truth be told, the film is really a thinly-veiled account of the trials and tribulations that Kasdan and company went through bringing Freaks and Geeks to NBC in 1999, albeit with the situations reversed - the network gave very little input into the creation of the show, but after it was completed, they were horrified (frequently, notes given to them by the network were blatantly ignored).

The TV Set clip 2

Kasdan even lampoons the "testing" process, which he has probably endured dozens of times through all of his TV work.

The TV Set clip 3

Kasdan knows his subject well, and in my opinion, this goes down with Living in Oblivion as one of the best films about filmmaking ever made. Too often, a film which incorporates filmmaking into its plot loses sight of the characters and tone among everything else going on. Not in this film - the characters are intriguing and the sharp black humor shines right through.

Superbad

Superbad. Wonderfully awkward and painfully funny, this film just proves that everything Judd Apatow touches turns to gold. Having been a follower of Apatow and co. all the way back when Freaks and Geeks was still on the air, it's really nice - and really refreshing - to see good, talented people finally getting success in this business.
Apatow didn't direct this one - taking the helm is independent filmmaker Greg Mottola, who hasn't directed a feature since 1996's The Daytrippers. Mottola gives the film a little edge, shooting in harsh light and throwing in some handheld camerawork, in direct contrast to Apatow's comparatively slick and polished productions. This gives the film a sense of immediacy, and helps to hide the film's somewhat low budget (reported to be $18 million - and this movie has lots of exterior night photography).
The screenplay (co-written by co-star and frequent Apatow collaborator Seth Rogen) doesn't quite have the sophistication of Apatow's writing, but it's still pretty damn good. While Apatow is nearing closer and closer to dramatic work (which, in my opinion, is a great move and it's what I eventually see him progressing to), this film is strictly in the realm of comedy, although it's also touching in its own way. While Knocked Up was the better film overall, this one will probably score higher with people looking for an out-and-out comedy. It's safe to say that you probably won't have a better time at the movies this year.
(Oh, and P.S. - guess who had a little cameo? Krumholtz!)

And yet, even more Loveline...

Even more Loveline

The Best Films of the Year, so far (in order)

1. Zodiac
2. Waitress
3. Once
4. Rescue Dawn
5. Sicko
6. Knocked Up
7. Grindhouse
8. The Lookout
9. 28 Weeks Later...
10. Hot Fuzz

Yes, we're all the way into August and there's only ten films on this list. Unfortunately, that's the way it goes. We're still about two months away from the "serious" movie season.

After my whole rambling about the future of video in filmmaking (i.e. "Film is Dead"), I was reminded of Francis Ford Coppola's famous quote about video. I was just simply going to post it here in text form, but then I remembered that at the end of Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, there's a brief clip in which he actually says this quote. So, here we go:

Michelangelo Antonioni
1912-2007