CliqueClack

Philadelphia Film Festival proves I’m a child at heart

I’m still a child at heart when it comes to film. I watch movies on the large screen because I want to experience something larger than life, something that’s bigger than me but also relevant to me. I want to be changed … I want to be dazzled … and I want to be informed. I want to be sucked away to another world and leave the room one-two hours later utterly shaken, entertained or transformed. In graduate school, my critical film theory professors complained about my tendency to treat films as standard texts — focusing more on the content, character construction and narrative — while overlooking the myriad visual, aural and scenic elements. It’s true; sometimes I get sucked in by the story and forget to concentrate on the multiple external elements that construct a film. When one of my classmates started writing film reviews, his friends complained that he lost the romance of enjoying the film and stopped even watching films with the lights dimmed. But, I haven’t gotten to that place yet. Despite several years of graduate school and despite covering films every now and again for CliqueClack, I still treat film as something fresh and new.

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The Mindy Project and New Girl are the same show

FOX’s The Mindy Project and New Girl are two of FOX’s stronger comedies. So, it makes sense to place them back to back. But this week I noticed eerie similarities between the two. Admittedly, beneath the surface they aren’t the same show; but on the surface they look pretty similar. Tuesday night I got total déjà vu watching them back to back. 15 minutes into the Mindy Project, I kept wondering why everything seemed so similar until I realized I watched it earlier on New Girl …

My top five reasons why Mindy Project and New Girl are the same show:

1. They Share the Same Plot

Both shows are about strong female characters re-defining their lives after their former boyfriends kick them to the curb. But, that’s pretty surface stuff. That didn’t bother me. But, this Tuesday both shows had similar premises. New Girl focused on Jess and Nick’s friends-without-benefits relationship while the Mindy Project surrounded the antagonistic Mr. Darcy/Elizabeth Bennet relationship between Mindy and Danny.

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Publisher flustering: A book author turns to Kickstarter

It was my husband who persisted, “Finish your book. You can self-publish.” And with that, a project that I started years ago (back when I blogged for Keith at TV Squad) was revisited and completed … finally. Writing a novel couldn’t be more different than blogging. The latter is a fast-paced process: draft-edit-tag-upload. And you get immediate feedback from readers via comments. Novel writing is much longer: draft-revise-draft-revise-stress out-revise. You get the idea.

But I finished North Shore South Shore this summer. I crafted a great query letter that resulted in positive feedback from agencies (both big ones and boutique agencies) and got me several requests for manuscripts. I thought for sure that I’d be agented and on my way to a book deal by Labor Day. I’m even toying with the idea of writing a pilot and registering my book with the WGA.

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How Supernatural season 8 could be great

I have this weird thing about season premieres. After waiting for months for a favorite show to finally begin airing new episodes again, I am inevitably disappointed with the premiere episode. I don’t know if this is because nothing could possibly live up to my expectations, but I always seem to have a ‘now that that’s out  the way, we can get into the season’ sort of feel, rather than simply enjoying the episode for what it is.

That said, several of my favorite shows, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural, tend to approach their first episodes of the season like that, so maybe it’s exactly the way I’m supposed to feel. So this season, I’m heading into Supernatural expecting just that — an episode that sets the tone for the season, but doesn’t necessarily knock my socks off.

What will the tone be for Supernatural‘s season 8? If Jeremy Carver can work some magic as the new showrunner, I’m hoping for several of my favorite things about Supernatural to be ever-present this season:

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Cell phone addiction: ruminating about our love affairs with our phones

Anyone who reads my posts has most certainly stumbled over one of my most beloved topics: The Decline of Western Civilization. I’ve discussed this particular idea on several fronts and, most recently, with regard to Cadillac’s new XTS with ass-jolting technology.

I’ve even hinted at the fact I may be losing it. But that was only a momentary stumble in the grand scheme of things. After all, if I can transcribe more quickly than some of my other esteemed CliqueClack colleagues, I figure I’ve still got it where it counts.

And then over the celebrated Carmaggedon II weekend here in sunny Southern California, more proof of “the decline” reared its head. No, no, no … I’m not talking about Honey Boo Boo’s raise. Nor the latest monkey business from Chick-Fil-A. Or the political circus currently taking place as we plod ever closer to the presidential election. Or even the fact you can’t find a good chicken broaster around town anymore, dammit. It came in the form (once again) of a CBS Sunday Morning news report, this time about our never-ending love affair with our portable telephones and whether or not we can pull the plug on our obsession with them.

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Is Dark Shadows worth a second look on Blu-ray?

I was in the minority when I gave Tim Burton’s take on the classic TV soap opera Dark Shadows a good review. Was it perfect? No. Was it a complete bastardization of the beloved TV show? Not really, although the real die hard fans felt Burton and company did the source material a complete disservice. Was I happy with the comic tone of the movie? No, but it also wasn’t as bad as the awful trailer made it out to be. However, I did expect more reverence from the show’s super fans, Burton and Johnny Depp.

The film was not the success Warner Brothers had hoped it would be, mainly because the fans were so aghast at what they assumed Burton had done to the show. Even with several original cast members making a group cameo appearance in the film, including original Barnabas Jonathan Frid (who passed away just a month before the film’s release), the fans refused to see the film just because of that infernal trailer. With the movie now available on DVD and Blu-ray, is it worth a first or second look? If you’ve got a Blu-ray player, I would say most definitely.

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Oprah partners with Tyler Perry to create content for OWN … um, WTH?

Growing up with aspirations of being a journalist, I was often told to look at Oprah Winfrey as the quintessential role model. How could I not? That woman runs the world. Needless to say, she’s definitely one of my idols, and my adoration of her only intensified when she launched her very own network at the start of 2011. Now, anyone who’s been keeping up with entertainment news knows that, well, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) hasn’t exactly been an overnight success. Despite it premiering in 80 million homes, it’s still struggling a bit. However, it seems that Winfrey is trying to fix that. According to the New York Times, the multi-hyphenate is teaming up with another multi-hyphenate to bring success to her shaky network — Tyler Perry.

With that being said, I have only one thing to say: Are you kidding me?!

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Bob’s Burgers’ 3rd season premiere proves this show isn’t for everyone

Have we ever seen Louise this desperate before?

No. We haven’t. It was unsettling. Rarely do we see Louise get so frazzled that she makes rookie mistakes. With her beloved ears snagged by high school bully Logan, we saw her grasp at straws while trying to recover them. In so doing, her attempts were half-hearted, non-threatening and haphazard. She wasn’t the Louise we all know and love … the scheming Louise, the Louise who flirts with “the dark side,” the “I have a plan” Louise. It wasn’t until she enlisted the services of the biker gang One-Eyed Snakes (Really, writers?!?) that the Louise of old returned to form.

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Royal Pains stays fresh after four years on the USA Network

Being something of a television junkie, I like to keep up with what’s going on in the entertainment industry. However, what’s surprising is that I don’t follow a lot of TV shows. I only keep up with a select few. Fortunately for me, one of those programs is the always entertaining Royal Pains on the USA Network. Since January, I’ve served as CliqueClack’s resident Royal Pains reviewer and it’s been a real pleasure.

However, I’ve seen a shift in opinions regarding the quality of the fourth season that recently ended. Generally, the individuals that read my reviews usually see eye to eye with me. Lately, however, we’ve had different opinions. That’s fine. After all, variety is the spice of life. Nevertheless, I feel as though some fans of Royal Pains may have been a little hard on the recently passed fourth season. In fact, I think it’s probably one of the best ones of the series so far. Now, I know I’m going to get some flak for that and that’s cool, but just go with me on this, okay?

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Dexter’s rushed penultimate season has its good and bad

First of all, I’m definitely all in favor of Dexter’s sister Deb finally learning of his little secret; there’s no question it was time for that kind of a shake-up to happen in the Dexter-verse. I was very happy to see that Dexter was not only unable to provide a suitable excuse for what Deb witnessed, but he simply came right out and admitted what he is. It’s showing more of how he’s defying what “values” Harry bestowed upon him in his youth, in opening up to his sister when Harry made it perfectly clear it was a bad idea. It makes for a rather unpredictable remainder to the rest of the series.

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