When a lonely new mom and a lonely, newly-handicapped high schooler bond over similar taste in music and a shared distaste for their current lifestyles, the result is going to be an interesting friendship. In Jen McGowan’s Kelly & Cal, that friendship extends beyond the bounds that are considered appropriate for a married woman and a teenage boy and the result is a fascinating look at an unconventional relationship.
There are many things that I expected we would see in season 9 of How I Met Your Mother, but a return of Taran Killam as Gary Blauman was certainly not one of them. Sure, this season does revolve around his real-life wife's character's wedding, but his previous four episodes didn't really leave any reason for him to return. Ignoring that fact completely, the writers found a way for him to fit into this season with an episode called Gary Blauman, and the result is absolutely incredible.
"There are no rules. It's the wild west out there baby."
That's a line that Kate Lyn Sheil's Virginia says near the beginning of The Heart Machine to describe online dating. In reality, the experiences in Zachary Wigon's film are less like a saloon shootout and more like a psychological thriller, where paranoia and lies consume the mind until everything else falls by the wayside.
You've likely seen a lot of David Walton lately, considering he's the star of the new NBC series About A Boy, but the actor also has a new film which screened at South By Southwest this year called Break Point. In that film he plays Darren, a thirty-something substitute teacher who reunites with his brother Jimmy (Jeremy Sisto) for one last attempt at qualifying for the Open.
Best known as the narcissistic Dennis Reynolds on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Glenn Howerton made his first venture into producing feature films with The Wilderness Of James. The film, which was written and directed by Michael Johnson, premiered this year at South By Southwest and didn't disappoint. Between an interesting story and an excellent performance from lead Kodi Smit-McPhee, it was one of my favorites that I was able to see at the festival.
Among living actors, there are few more talented and more iconic than Robert Duvall. With a resume of memorable performances far too long to list, whenever the Oscar-winner stars in a film, it's definitely worth your attention. For his latest project, Duvall has teamed up with Spanish director Emilio Aragon to take on A Night In Old Mexico.
The suburbs are an interesting place to find friends. It's a land of play-dates, moms clubs and block parties. If you don't make friends through work or school, you're usually going to be out of luck, especially if you're too punk rock to do something so conventional. This can lead to some interesting meetings, such as having a run-in with the neighborhood peeping Tom and building a friendship from there. Or, at least that's the case in Jen McGowan's Kelly & Cal, where a lonely new mom and a lonely, newly-handicapped high schooler bond over similar taste in music and a shared distaste for their lifestyles.
An early draft of A Night In Old Mexico was written by Lonesome Dove scribe Bill Wittliff about 35 years ago and for the last 25 years, he had been waiting for the chance for this film to get made. Under the direction of Emilio Aragon, the long wait is over as the script was finally able to be produced for its release this year. I'm not sure how many changes were made to that original script, but it's safe to say that the timeless story feels just as fresh today as it would've if it had been made in the '80s, the '90s, or any other decade for that matter.
Sports films are notorious for being cliche. It's all too common for a story set in the world of sports to hit the same predictable plot points and do the bare minimum between, which is why many aren't fans of the genre. On paper, Jay Karas' Break Point, the story of an over-the-hill tennis player teaming up with his brother to make one last run at the Open, may sounds like more of the same, but in execution it's head and shoulders above its peers.
The greatest difference between season 9 of How I Met Your Mother and the previous seasons has been the strained relationship between Lily and Marshall. Granted, for half of the season they were apart, but since they've been physically together, things have been far from the all-American couple audiences have come to know and love. With only a few episodes remaining in the series, it's time for the stories to start wrapping up and it made sense that the first arc to finish would be that of the Eriksens. What was unsure was whether it would be a satisfying conclusion to their tale, which is what we find out on tonight's episode "Daisy."
