Comedy Death-Ray @ Cinefamily Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Comedians from Upright Citizens Brigade's Comedy Death-Ray (the popular alt-comedy fiesta headlined by the likes of Mr. Show's Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, Best Week Ever's Doug Benson and Paul F. Tompkins, and Comedians of Comedy's Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Zach Galifianakis and Maria Bamford) screen the films that influenced them the most all this month at the Silent Movie Theater, thanks to those innocent kids at Cinefamily who surely had no idea what they were getting themselves into. What does Sarah Silverman's selection of Carl Reiner's 1970 cult classic Where's Poppa? (June 5) reveal about her? Nothing more than what we already knew: she's a sick chick. The plot pits George Segal against his eccentric mom (Ruth Gordon) by virtue of a commitment made to his dead dad not to put her in a "home," despite her penchant for driving him crazy. Bob Odenkirk's choice, Albert Brooks' Real Life (June 12), a prescient 1979 reality-TV parody about a narcissistic filmmaker who can't help interfering with the family he's documenting, surely speaks to Odenkirk's own fear of narcissism, or perhaps his fear of Ben Stiller. Why Patton Oswalt picked schlock thriller God Told Me To (1976, Larry Cohen) I'll never know (at least until the screening June 19), but it probably has something to do with Andy Kaufman's role as a police officer (!) who mows down a crowd. Tim and Eric (of Adult Swim's Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) wrap things up June 26 with True Stories, David Byrne's 1986 pseudo documentary/vanity project about an offbeat Texas town. Why Tim and Eric chose this one is obvious: the good movies had already been taken. Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A.; Fridays, 8 p.m., June 5-26; $14. (323) 655-2510. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, June 5, 2009.)
posted by Derek Thomas @ 4:00 AM,
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