66 posts tagged with satire.
Displaying 1 through 50 of 66. Subscribe:
Movie: Saved!
Mary is a good Christian girl who goes to a good Christian high school where she has good Christian friends and a perfect Christian boyfriend. Her life seems perfect, until the day that she finds out that her boyfriend may be gay – and that she's pregnant. [more inside]
Movie: Dream Scenario
A hapless family man finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. [more inside]
Movie: Jennifer's Body
[TRAILER] When a demon takes possession of her, high-school hottie Jennifer (Megan Fox) turns a hungry eye on guys who never stood a chance with her before. While evil Jennifer satisfies her appetite for human flesh with the school's male population, her nerdy friend, Needy (Amanda Seyfried), learns what's happening and vows to put an end to the carnage. [more inside]
Movie: American Fiction
Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Jeffrey Wright)'s writing career has stalled because his work isn't deemed "Black enough." Monk, a writer and English professor, writes a satirical novel under a pseudonym, aiming to expose the publishing world's hypocrisies. The book's immediate success forces him to get deeper enmeshed in his assumed identity and challenges his closely-held worldviews. (Based on Percival Everett's Erasure.) [more inside]
Movie: El Conde
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is actually a vampire who, after faking his own death, decides that he is ready to die.
Unfortunately for him, those around him aren't ready until they get what they want from him. [more inside]
A Very Secret Service: Au service de la France Season 0, Ep 0
In 1960 the French intelligence service hires 23-year-old André Merlaux, a handsome and intelligent, but impressionable man with much to learn. Au Service de la France is like a cocktail of James Bond, The Office and Mad Men if all three were transported to a French context and imbued with contemporary New Wave influences. First season appeared in 2014 and the second 2016. [more inside]
Movie: Corner Office
As Orson, The Authority's newest employee, finds himself trapped in the absurdities of corporate life, his alienation deepens when he discovers a room he's told doesn't exist. [more inside]
Movie: Jawbreaker
[TRAILER} When an exclusive clique of teenage socialites accidentally murders their best friend, Liz (Charlotte Ayanna), on the morning of her birthday, the three girls responsible -- Courtney (Rose McGowan), Julie (Rebecca Gayheart) and Marcie (Julie Benz) -- conspire to hide the truth. As the trio make over nerdy reject Fern Mayo (Judy Greer) and groom her to take Liz's place, crack police Detective Vera Cruz (Pam Grier) launches an investigation that will turn Reagan High School upside down. [more inside]
Roar: Roar Books Included Season 1, Ep 0
Roar is an 8-episode anthology series from Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, the creators of GLOW. The series is based on the 2018 book of the same name by Cecelia Ahern, consisting of 30 very short stories. [more inside]
Movie: The Blackening
[TRAILER] A group of black friends reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. A satirical horror comedy skewering horror tropes and racial stereotypes. [more inside]
Book: The Other Black Girl
Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.
Then the notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.
It’s hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realizes that there’s a lot more at stake than just her career. [more inside]
Succession: Rehearsal Season 4, Ep 2
Episode description inside… [more inside]
Movie: Vengeance
A journalist and podcaster from New York City travels to West Texas in order to report on the death of a girl he was hooking up with.
Written, directed by, and starring B.J. Novak
Movie: The Loved One
Newly arrived in Hollywood from England, Dennis Barlow (Robert Morse) finds he has to arrange his uncle's interment at the highly-organised and very profitable Whispering Glades funeral parlour. His fancy is caught by one of their cosmeticians, Aimee Thanatogenos (Anjanette Comer). But he has three problems - the strict rules of owner Blessed Reverand Glenworthy (Jonathan Winters), the rivalry of embalmer Mr Joyboy (Rod Steiger), and the shame of now working himself at The Happy Hunting Ground pets' memorial home. [more inside]
Movie: Tropic Thunder
[TRAILER] Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), pampered action superstar, sets out for Southeast Asia to take part in the biggest, most-expensive war movie produced, but soon after filming begins, he and his co-stars, Oscar-winner Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), comic Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) and the rest of the crew, must become real soldiers when fighting breaks out in that part of the jungle. [more inside]
Movie: Triangle of Sadness
Social hierarchy is turned upside down, revealing the tawdry relationship between power and beauty. Celebrity model couple, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged boat captain (Woody Harrelson). What first appeared instagrammable turns into a series of catastrophes. [more inside]
Book: Boy Wonder
Thanks to an answer from Wobbuffet 2 years ago I was finally able to track down a digital copy of this book I vaguely remembered from the late 1980s, and just read it. It is wild and hilarious, an over-the-top satire of Hollywood, full of in-jokes and raunch and gore and drugs. Lots of fun!
Movie: The Columnist
[TRAILER] Femke Boot (Katya Herbers of the US television series Evil) is a columnist who is obsessed with reading the endless abusive messages and death threats posted about her on social media. This obsession consumes her life and prevents her from concentrating on the novel she has promised to her publisher. One day, all her pent-up anger and frustration explode in a moment of shocking and unexpected violence. When this brutal and bloody act inspires Femke to write again, she surrenders to her rage and begins to lead a double life as a daytime writer and nighttime murderer. [more inside]
Atlanta: The Goof Who Sat by the Door Season 4, Ep 8
An in-depth look at the making of the American classic A Goofy Movie. [more inside]
Movie: Society
A Beverly Hills teen (Billy warlock) discovers his parents are part of a gruesome orgy cult for the social elite. A throbbing, goopy, heady, body horror. [more inside]
Movie: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Satirical biopic in which singer Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) overcomes adversity to become a musical legend.
Movie: Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
Emi, a school teacher, finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked on the Internet. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, Emi refuses to surrender to their pressure. A satirical comedy-drama from acclaimed Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude. [more inside]
Movie: Helsinki Mansplaining Massacre
One woman desperately struggles to survive a horde of men with frail egos, who just want to explain everything to her. [more inside]
Book: Black Buck
Black Buck is a how-to manual for succeeding in sales, wrapped up in a brutal satire of start up tech culture, with a heavy dose of racial commentary disguised as satire. I say disguised because a lot of what our young sales star Darren experiences in the book seems completely absurd to me. But I’m a white dude. I expect most black people would just be nodding their heads thinking, yep, been there done that.
I can't imagine this not being in my top 5 book list at the end of the year.
Book: The Constant Rabbit
"Fforde (Early Riser) invokes John le Carré, George Orwell, and Beatrix Potter in this tongue-in-cheek political satire of systemic injustice, bureaucratic corruption, and human foibles. Peter Knox, one of the rare humans who can differentiate between individual humanoid rabbits created in the Spontaneous Anthropomorphising Event of 1965, works as a spotter in the English village of Much Hemlock. In this role, Peter secretly identifies rabbits for the United Kingdom Anti-Rabbit Party’s Rabbit Compliance Taskforce. But when Peter’s university crush, Connie, a rabbit herself, moves in next door right when the Taskforce is cooking up a plan to rehome the rabbits in a work camp, Peter falls into a tangled web of seduction, espionage, and betrayal as he’s torn between his career and a chance to do the right thing. Amid a rapid-fire barrage of literary allusions, Fforde displays his signature quick wit on a furious tour through modern British right-wing politics. Playful, biting, and timely, this is a must-read."--Publishers Weekly
Movie: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
14 years after making a film about his journey across the USA, Borat risks life and limb when he returns to America with his young daughter, and reveals more about the American culture, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the political elections. [more inside]
Movie: Zombie for Sale
A pharmaceutical company's illegal experiments inadvertently create a zombie. It becomes adopted by the Park family who attempt to profit off of it. [more inside]
Brockmire: Season 4 (Full Season) Season 4, Ep 0
Fourth and final season, largely set from 2030 to 2033. Earth has been ravaged by the climate crisis; Brockmire is tasked with saving baseball.
Teenage Bounty Hunters: Season 1 Season 1, Ep 0
After joining forces with a veteran bounty hunter, sixteen-year-old fraternal twin sisters Sterling and Blair dive into the world of bail skipping baddies while still navigating the high stakes of teenage life. (Netflix) [more inside]
Movie: But I'm a Cheerleader
But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 American satirical romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, a high school cheerleader whose parents send her to a residential inpatient conversion therapy camp to cure her lesbianism. There Megan soon comes to embrace her sexual orientation, despite the therapy, and falls in love. The supporting cast includes Melanie Lynskey, Dante Basco, Eddie Cibrian, Clea DuVall, Cathy Moriarty, Katrina Phillips, RuPaul, Richard Moll, Mink Stole, Kip Pardue, Michelle Williams, and Bud Cort.
Book: Horrorstör
Five workers in an IKEA knockoff are about to discover what happens when you put a big-box store on the former site of a 19th Century torture-prison. Spoiler: Bad things.
Medical Police: Medical Police - Full Season 1 Season 1, Ep 1
Two American physicians in São Paulo, Brazil, discover a civilization-threatening virus and are recruited as government agents in a race against time and around the world to find a cure and uncover a dark conspiracy. [more inside]
Movie: The Happytime Murders
When the puppet cast of a '90s children's TV show begin to get murdered one by one, a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye puppet takes on the case. [more inside]
Book: The White Man's Guide to White Male Writers of the Western Canon
How do you use ‘taraddidle’ in a sentence? Is it possible to make a Gin Ricky that’s also a metaphor for the American Dream? How can you tell your Faulkner from your Franzen if you haven’t actually read either? Allow me, the @GuyInYourMFA, to expound on the most important (aka white male) writers of western literature. You’ve probably seen me around, observing the masses, or defying the wind by hand-rolling a cigarette outside a local, fair-trade coffeeshop. I’ve actually read Infinite Jest 9 1/2 times. Care to discuss?
Movie: Spring Breakers
Four college girls hold up a restaurant in order to fund their spring break vacation. While partying, drinking, and taking drugs, they are arrested, only to be bailed out by a drug and arms dealer. [more inside]
Movie: Josie and the Pussycats
A girl group find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy to deliver subliminal messages through popular music. Starring Rachel Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson, Tara Reid and Kay Hanley's (of Letters to Cleo) voice. Featuring Allan Cumming and Parker Posey. [more inside]
Movie: Modern Problems
Jealous, harried air traffic controller Max Fielder, recently dumped by his girlfriend, comes into contact with nuclear waste and acquires telekinetic abilities. He uses his new powers not only win her back, but to get a little revenge. [more inside]
Book: Want Not
A compulsively readable, deeply human novel that examines our most basic and unquenchable emotion: want. With his critically acclaimed first novel, Jonathan Miles was widely praised as a comic genius “after something bigger” (David Ulin, Los Angeles Times) whose fiction was “not just philosophically but emotionally rewarding” (Richard Russo, New York Times Book Review, front cover). [more inside]
Movie: Primary Colors
Based on the initially anonymous blockbuster 1996 account of Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign in 1992, the film version continues the novel's weak à clef distance, casting a thinly disguised John Travolta as Bill and Emma Thompson as Hillary as they navigate the ethically trying road to the White House. [more inside]
Movie: Mom and Dad
In a suburban community, moms and dads, one after the other, mysteriously feel the irresistible impulse to attack and kill their own offspring. Stars Nicholas Cage and Selma Blair. From writer/director Brian Taylor (Crank).
Movie: King Ralph
As the only relative to take over the Royal throne, a down on his luck American slob must learn the ways of the English. [more inside]
Movie: Putney Swope
Dark satire in which the token black man on the executive board of an advertising firm is accidentally put in charge. Renaming the business "Truth and Soul, Inc.", he replaces the tight regime of monied white ad men with his militant brothers. Soon afterwards, however, the power that comes with its position takes its toll on Putney... [more inside]
Movie: Sorry to Bother You
In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success, propelling him into a macabre universe. [more inside]
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Stupid Watergate II: Fox News' Cries Of "Witch Hunt" Season 5, Ep 14
This week:
- Trump prepares for the (then) upcoming North Korea summit, of course, by not preparing.
- Philippine President and strongman Rodrigo Duterte very uncomfortably kisses a young woman before a crowd.
- And Now: Julie Chen Has A Few Questions For The Audience of "The Talk."
- Main Story: More on Stupid Watergate, this time about Fox News' efforts to normalize the idea that the Mueller investigation is a "witch hunt" by calling that through every channel available to them, in an desperate (yet somewhat effective) effort to get ordinary Americans thinking it must be one, despite the fact that they've already charged 20 people and three companies, and gotten five guilty pleas. Watch it on YouTube (18m).
- And Now: The Entire Seventeen-Minute Piece You Just Saw, Boiled Down To Eight Seconds.
- Finally, a bit about the UK. Last week's episode had a segment about the putdowns of House of Commons speaker John Bercow that could not air in the UK, because of a stupid law saying footage of the chamber could not be used in "light entertainment" or "political satire." Because they used such footage this week and thus UK viewers again cannot be shown the whole program, LWT offers five minutes of replacement content: Gilbert Gottfried reading Yelp reviews.
Book: Lamb
Movie: American Psycho
A wealthy New York investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies. [more inside]
American Vandal: A Parody of Deep Dive Documentaries: AV Club Investigates Vandalism Season 1, Ep 0
When the class troublemaker is blamed for the spraypainting of dicks on every car in the faculty parking lot, two intrepid reporters from the school's morning announcement program tear apart the case against him in this eight part mockumentary. Produced for Netflix and very reminiscent of it's Making a Murderer, this spot on parody of long form investigative docmunetaries distinguishes itself by allowing its characters to grow beyond the stereotypes of nerds, jocks, and burnouts. At some point after the first few episodes you realize it stopped being just a comedy and has become as complex and asorbing a mystery as the documentaries its meant to mock. [more inside]
Comrade Detective: The Whole World Is Watching First Watch Season 1, Ep 5
Comrade Detective purports to be a rediscovered buddy cop show from mid-eighties Romania, made as Eastern Bloc propaganda/entertainment. It isn't; it was filmed in Romania in the modern day, with Romanian actors, and then dubbed into English by actors like Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nick Offerman, and occasionally guest stars like Debra Winger and Daniel Craig.
In this episode: Baciu's family notices something unsettling; we hear Dragos's suspicions and learn something new about Stan; the American embassy is hospitable. [more inside]
Movie: Look Who's Back
Adolf Hitler wakes up in the 21st century. He quickly gains media attention, but while Germany finds him hilarious and charming, Hitler makes some serious observations about society. [more inside]
Movie: Being There
A simple-minded gardener named Chance (Peter Sellers) has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television. After a run in with a limousine, he ends up a guest of a Ben (Melvyn Douglas), an influential but sickly businessman, and his wife, Eve (Shirley MacLaine). Now called Chauncey Gardner, Chance becomes friend and confidante to Ben and an unlikely political insider.
Page:
1 2