FanFare

Four Asian-American friends (Stephanie Hsu, Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Sabrina Wu) travel through Asia in search of one of their birth mothers. Along the way, their experience becomes one of bonding, friendship, belonging and no-holds-barred debauchery. [more inside]
posted by praemunire on Jul 1, 2023 - 12 comments

[TRAILER] An oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists, and teens converge in a Georgia forest where a 500-pound black bear goes on a murderous rampage after unintentionally ingesting cocaine. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Feb 25, 2023 - 30 comments

Heroin addict Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends -- Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Begbie (Robert Carlyle), Spud (Ewen Bremner) and Tommy (Kevin McKidd). He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane (Kelly Macdonald), along for the ride. After cleaning up and moving from Edinburgh to London, Mark finds he can't escape the life he left behind when Begbie shows up at his front door on the lam, and a scheming Sick Boy follows. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Oct 10, 2022 - 11 comments

Week of 10/23:

• The final debate of the election, and some highlights of awful Trump statements made during it, particularly his promise to keep us "in suspense" as to whether he'd accept a loss or not. Clinton and Trump were also both present at the Al Smith dinner in New York, where Trump spoke, and bombed. Henry Kissinger's reaction to Trump's speech: "Dis is not good." At the end, in order to allow Trump to save face should he lose the election, Oliver makes a bet with Trump on-air: he will bet Trump that he wins the elction, with the stakes being Oliver's Emmy award statuette.
• And Now: You'll Never Guess What Christ Matthews' Favorite Movie Is
• Main story: The rise of addictive opioid prescription pain killers (Oxycontin, Vicodin, Percocet), resulting in over 30,000 overdose deaths a year, and actively promoted, predictably, by the pharmaceutical industry. YouTube (19m)
• People Who Somehow Got Elected: US Representative from Wisconsin's 6th District Glenn Grothman.

Bonus! If you were as enchanted by that guy with the shocked expression in the Al Smith dinner segment as I was, here he is in animated GIF form! [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Nov 6, 2016 - 2 comments

A sausage strives to discover the truth about his existence. [more inside]
posted by Small Dollar on Aug 13, 2016 - 25 comments

Josh, Tom and Arnold have a night to remember as they experiment with drugs, head to a nightclub, meet the intriguing Ella and end up spending a long and surprising night in hospital.
posted by misfish on Nov 14, 2015 - 1 comment

This week.... The Obama administration reaches a historic deal with Iran, but has difficulty selling it to Congress. FIFA president Sepp Blatter is in Russia to kick off preparations for the 2018 World Cup. Ashley Madison, a website that encourages and helps set up affairs between married people, was hacked and the responsible parties threaten to release records on their userbase. LWT produced a short message exhorting married citizens of Ottawa not to have affairs. Main story: The absurdity of mandatory minimum sentencing laws in the US. YouTube (15m) And Now: Unnecessary Full Disclosure. Ukraine threatens to blacklist Gérard Depardieu as a threat to their national security (Guardian) for a statement made last year at a film festival. Over the closing credits, LWT provides a brief slideshow of photos of Depardieu set to "cartoonishly French music." [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Jul 27, 2015 - 6 comments

Life changes for Malcolm, a geek who's surviving life in a tough neighborhood, after a chance invitation to an underground party leads him and his friends into a Los Angeles adventure.
posted by chrchr on Jul 7, 2015 - 7 comments

ISIS gains an ally in Boko Haram. Ireland accidentally legalizes a number of psychoactive drugs for a day. Brazil prepares to investigate politicians taking bribes from oil companies. And Now: Newscasters Who Don't Know About You. Main story: NCAA is a billion dollar industry, but with many problems with how it treats its players (YouTube 21m). Last Week Tonight introduces the hashtag #soybeanwind and ends with an ad for their more realistic NCAA simulator video game.
posted by JHarris on Mar 16, 2015 - 6 comments