Food Party Friday, May 29, 2009

Thu Tran is in love with food, and herself, and probably drugs. That's what makes Food Party such a tasty treat: it's a campy-beyond-camp mix of absurd recipes, psychedelic art direction, and cute chick Thu. Oh, did I mention the puppets? Think Sesame Street on acid. This six-part series, airing on IFC as part of their late-night "Automat" block, typically finds cooking-show host Thu in need of an ingredient, like apple seeds she must score from her dealer or caviar she needs for an undersea nude picnic. Still with me? The concept would prove senseless if not for the colorfully detailed costumes and sets, and Thu's self-consciously silly delivery. "Your oven should be pre-heated at about 350 to 450 to 550 or so ... About 69 to 420 minutes later, your cookies should be ready." Originally created as a Cleveland art-scene parody of public-access TV, Thu's videos went viral, she moved to New York, and now she's a bona fide TV star. The only downer is that each episode is just 10 minutes, but here's hoping Thu has a feature-film version of Food Party in the works, at least in her mind. IFC, June 9, 11:15 p.m. (Originally published on TVDelete.com, May 29, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 11:38 PM, ,

Back to the Future Trilogy Thursday, May 21, 2009

After the phenomenal success of 1985 sci-fi comedy Back to the Future, director Robert Zemeckis took the concept of a time-travel sequel to its logical conclusion: send the characters back in time to the original film. Part two takes up right where the first film ended, and finishes there too (as does part three). While time-traveling teen Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) solved the mom's-got-a-crush-on-me paradox of the first film by shredding a guitar onstage at a high school hop, the sequel challenged him with an alternate sad-sack future, not quite as easily remedied. Zemeckis shot parts two and three consecutively, released a year apart in 1989 and 1990, which may explain why the last part of the trilogy is less satisfying than its predecessors. Given another five years to ruminate on the possibilities, the creative minds behind the first two films could surely have made a movie that bent time, and our minds, even more. As it is, the journey ends with a fish-out-of-water story set in 1885, something akin to an unofficial remake of The Shakiest Gun in the West (and Fox is no Don Knotts, despite the Parkinson's). Still, the finale provides closure and good feelings all around, with a final shot of Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) chugging off on a futuristic locomotive to continue to set things right in a world too often gone wrong. For a true head-spinning time-travel affair, check out 2004's The Butterfly Effect's vision of the extreme danger involved in trying to change the past. New Beverly Cinema, 7165 Beverly Blvd., L.A.; Fri.-Sat., May 29-30, 7:30 p.m. Aero Theater, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica; Sat., May 30, 5 p.m. (Originally published on LAWeekly.com, May 29, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 1:51 AM, ,