Connect with us

Reviews

‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Season 11 Episode 7 Review: Antagonistic Larry David Makes For the Season’s Best Episode

Published

on

‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Season 11 Episode 7 Review: Antagonistic Larry David Makes For the Season’s Best Episode

Larry David – the character – is always best on Curb Your Enthusiasm when he has an adversary. In Season 11, we’ve mostly had a revolving door of temporary enemies, whether it’s the manager at a sushi restaurant, his optometrist, or Dylan O’Brien. But David’s latest enemy, Irma Kostroski (Tracey Ullman) is so powerful, David calls her the most unappealing person he’s ever met, a character so foul, she gets her name right in the title of the episode.

“Irma Kostroski” goes back to the season’s first episode, ‘The Five-Foot Fence,” as through Kostroski, Larry believes he has found a solution to his Maria Sofia (Keyla Monterroso) problem. If Kostroski can repeal the city ordinance to need a fence around his pool, he can get out of being extorted by Maria Sofia’s father. It’s an extremely roundabout way of getting out of this situation, which pops up again during the first Young Larry table read, but with the Maria Sofia problem getting worse, Larry clearly has to take drastic measures.

Advertisement

Right away, Larry and Irma are at odds with each other, as Irma refuses to tap a person for Larry during a speech given by mayoral candidate Jimmy Mayhew (Terrell Clayton). But once Larry realizes the power Irma has, he decides to get closer to the enemy. Larry decides to go canvassing with Irma to get on her good side, and continues to suck up to her, even though we can see it’s killing him to do so.

RELATED: ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Season 11 Episode 6 Review: Fantastic Cameos and Cringe Moments Set Up Second Half of Season

Ullman plays Irma so that we completely understand why everyone dislikes her. Larry says that she’s like if Dr. Frankenstein took the worst qualities of multiple people and put them into one person, and he’s not wrong. But also, Irma is just as loud as Larry, just as set in her ways as Larry, and the antithesis of everything Larry stands for. Even though Larry jokes about how he’s looking for love with Irma, we have seen stranger relationships for Larry on the show. Irma could very well be a nightmare that he has to deal with in order to get his way, an actual potential love interest, or more likely, both.

But “Irma Kostroski” isn’t just one of the best episodes of Season 11 because of the title character, it’s also because Larry seems to be at odds with just about everyone in this episode, and reveling in it. Larry has issues with Asa (Jon Rudnitsky), the extremely particular actor who is playing the younger version of him on Young Larry. Asa is full of the worst tendencies, whether it’s being so deep in his performance, he can’t pick the right coffee mug, asks to be called “Larry” on set, and calls people who aren’t actors “non-pros.” He’s the kind of character you want to see Larry destroy.

Advertisement

Larry even gets into a fight with Ruth Berman (Laura Julian), the ex-wife of the man who recently died of a heart attack at Larry’s country club. Larry states she doesn’t get “widow privileges” because she didn’t technically lose her husband. But in reality, Larry is just mad that Ruth took his golf training time and the lobster he wanted for lunch. Larry’s conflict with the not-quite-widow Berman has the entire country club turning against him, and you know an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm is good if there are multiple scenes where an entire room of people is jeering Larry David’s strange, but kind of accurate take on the world.

Even in smaller scenes, Larry’s antagonistic attitude is gold. Take for example when he learns that Susie (Susie Essman) and Cheryl (Cheryl Hines) are part of a book club that is reading “The Sound and the Fury.” There’s no real reason for the scene, but it’s just a great excuse to have Larry laugh at this book club for reading Faulkner.

But even more important is the return of Richard Lewis, who originally wasn’t supposed to appear this season due to medical issues. It might be a small appearance, but it’s great to have Lewis back. Especially in the opening scene at Jimmy Mayhew’s speech, the back-and-forth between Larry and Richard is wonderful, and you can tell this is just two friends picking on each other when Larry asks “when are you gonna die?” This scene is Larry’s way of undercutting the pure joy of having Richard back on the show, a brutal joke that seems almost surprising to Richard, and truly seems like Larry’s way of saying that he loves to have his friend back on the show, even if just for a few scenes.

Advertisement

The best episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm also build to some impressive conclusions, and “Irma Kostroski” certainly doesn’t fail there. Larry decides not to vote when he and another person waiting in line decide that they cancel each other out, so they should just go home. It turns out that this decision actually alters the future of Santa Monica politics, leading, once again, to Larry being booed out of a room, a perfect ending for an episode that is all about Larry butting heads with basically everyone he comes in contact with.

It’s not just Larry David finding his adversary with Irma Kostroski, or his ability to anger almost everyone he encounters that makes this maybe the best episode of the season. It’s also the episode’s ability to just let Larry be as Larry as he wants to be. There are some great smaller moments throughout the episode that give us some ingenious Larry-isms that absolutely resonate. For example, Larry’s refusal to wear pins because wearing a pin doesn’t change anyone’s mind anyway, or Larry’s statement that “I hate people individually, but I love mankind,” which almost feels like it could be the thesis statement for the entire series.

“Irma Kostroski” might be the most contentious we’ve seen Larry David this entire season, which might be why it’s arguably the season’s best episode so far. If Larry is inexplicably drawn by what repels him in “Irma Kostroski,” we’re inexplicably drawn by what repels Larry David.

Advertisement

Rating: A-


Advertisement

Reviews

Bullet Train Review: A Wickedly Funny, High-Octane Thrill Ride

Published

on

By

Bullet Train Review: A Wickedly Funny, High-Octane Thrill Ride

Brad Pitt leads a wickedly funny ensemble in a high-octane actioner loaded with twists. Adapted from the 2010 Japanese novel by Kōtarō Isaka, Bullet Train has a bevy of disparate assassins manipulated by a mysterious criminal mastermind. Stuntman turned action director, David Leitch (John Wick, Atomic Blonde), stays true to form with unrelenting bloody and flamboyant violence. The codenamed characters get downright verbose before beating, stabbing, and shooting each other to bits. The loquacious banter tends to run long, but the narrative always bounces back with sharp reveals. Strap in for a helluva ride.

Ladybug (Pitt) boards the overnight bullet train to Tokyo with a newfound sense of self. He’s chock-full of philosophy after recovering from a near fatal ambush. Ladybug ignores his unseen handler’s advice to take a gun. Surely any issues can be resolved peacefully. The job seems straightforward enough. Steal a briefcase with a sticker and exit at the next stop.

Advertisement

Also on board are Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), ruthless “twins” known for their brutal methods. Lemon is obsessed with the British children’s show “Thomas & Friends”. He reads people by comparing them to the anthropomorphized trains. The twins are escorting the previously kidnapped son (Logan Lerman) of a powerful gangster, the White Death (Michael Shannon).

None of the hired guns are aware of the Father, aka Yuichi Kimura’s (Andrew Koji), mission. He’s out for vengeance but foolishly runs into a deceptive figure. The Prince (Joey King) has a score to settle with the White Death. Meanwhile, the Wolf (Bad Bunny) joins the fray after his truly horrific Mexican wedding. He’s also ready for serious comeuppance. Ladybug quickly realizes they’re all unwitting pawns in a dangerous game. Someone has packed the train with killers for an unknown purpose. He desperately wants to get off but can’t seem to escape the carnage.


Related: I Love My Dad Review: Patton Oswalt’s Delightfully Cringeworthy Catfishing Comedy

Cast of Bullet Train

Bullet Train introduces the cast with splashy entrances that flashes back to their dark pasts. The murderous montages are informative but don’t fill in every gap. The script doles out more critical information as the bodies pile up. Alliances bounce back and forth as everyone wonders who’s actually pulling the strings. The whodunit element works well as the audience becomes embroiled in a series of betrayals. You don’t have a sense of the plot’s true trajectory until the third act. The film builds to a showdown that delivers a huge action payoff.

Advertisement

Bullet Train has complex characters that each contribute slices of devilish humor. Brad Pitt preaching self-help and understanding is an effective gag throughout. Brian Tyree Henry’s constant comparisons to Thomas & Friends aren’t as comical but play an important role in the story. There are a lot of moving parts. Leitch, who worked as Pitt’s stunt double for years, is clearly fond of his players. He gives everyone a chance to babble incessantly. I would have trimmed the dialogue to be more incisive.


The action scenes are worth the price of admission. Leitch has a great eye for mixing stylized set pieces with intimate fights. He knows when to go big and small. You never feel let down by his pacing. There’s always the right amount of adrenaline to keep your pulse pumping. Bullet Train is another feather in a skilled filmmaker’s cap. Watch out for A-list cameos and a mid-credits scene.

Bullet Train is a production of Columbia Pictures, Fuqua Films, and 87North Productions. It will be released theatrically on August 5th from Sony Pictures.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Reviews

Bullet Train Review: Brad Pitt Has A Blast In The Silly And Badass Action Comedy

Published

on

By

Bullet Train Review: Brad Pitt Has A Blast In The Silly And Badass Action Comedy

If orchestrated properly, with adjusted stakes, tone, and atmosphere, there can be a beautiful, symbiotic relationship between intense action and comedy. A hero pulling off a rapid and vicious series of blows against an opponent can be savage and dramatic in one context, but it can also be so deliriously awesome that an audience’s first reaction is to laugh. Fast paced martial arts can be used for wonderful physical humor (see: the legendary career of Jackie Chan), and the best examples provide dual layers of entertainment: you marvel at the skill in all the ass-kicking, and cackle at the creativity in the choreography.

This is a sweet spot that filmmaker David Leitch knows well. After peppering funny moments in John Wick and Atomic Blonde at the start of his directorial career, he brilliantly utilized the action/comedy weapon that is Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 2, and crafted some excellent physicality with the unique styles of Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. His latest, Bullet Train, is another effort that takes aim at that particular tonal target, this time with his most expansive ensemble yet, and it’s another success. With a sensibility that could be described as early Guy Ritchie with more specific action focus, it’s a movie that is both silly and skilled and inspires its primary star in particular to do energetic and engaging work.

Based on the novel Maria Beetle by Kōtarō Isaka, the film weaves multiple narrative threads through the cars of the titular bullet train as it speeds through the country of Japan – all of the protagonists being killers with their own particular reason and motivation for being aboard. Ladybug (Brad Pitt), for example, is a hired gun who has been tasked by his handler (Sandra Bullock) to perform what sounds like a simple job: find a briefcase marked with a train sticker and steal it. What he doesn’t know, though, is that said briefcase belongs to a pair of British hit men named Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and that the contents include the recovered ransom for the kidnapped son (Logan Lerman) of a powerful crime lord known as The White Death.

Meanwhile, Kimura a.k.a. The Father (Andrew Koji) is on the bullet train because he is on a mission of vengeance – hunting down the person responsible for nearly killing his son by pushing the boy off of a building. What he doesn’t expect is that the individual he is looking for is a young woman identified as The Prince (Joey King), and that she has purposefully gotten him on the high speed rail with the intention of forcing him to execute an assassination attempt.

And while five killers sharing the space would be enough for most movies, Bullet Train actually has even more that pop in and surprise throughout the film’s runtime – and their roles are worth keeping as a secret pre-release.

Advertisement

Bullet Train has a chaotic storyline, but the pieces properly connect as a fun puzzle.

Narratively speaking, Bullet Train is a messy movie to put together, as focus briskly ping-pongs between the different players, but everything stays in harmony as the film persistently finds ways to build on each protagonist’s arc. This is particularly cool later in the movie as different characters are drawn together from individual angles and instant conflict is generated from their simple interaction.

The film is at its best when it keeps things simple, but it does let things go off the rails at times (if you’ll pardon the pun). This is especially true as it gets into the third act and it tries to pull off stunts like one of the leads leaping from a platform on to the back of the train as it leaves a station; it’s both a problem for the “rules” of the universe and in its strained use of visual effects. The movie also frequently tries to get a bit too cute and Tarantino-esque with what are admittedly familiar-but-not-quite-stock characters – the most prominent example being an ongoing and quickly tiresome gag with Lemon explaining that he understands people through the lens of Thomas The Tank Engine.

Primarily, though, it’s a movie that is able to generate its entertainment with engaging and quippy dynamics between the members of the ensemble, both when they are talking out their issues and trying to kill one another.

David Leitch puts a lot of exciting and weird fights in a confined space, and is at its best when working with a “less is more” philosophy.

Coming from a stunt background, both as a performer and a coordinator, David Leitch’s bread and butter remains deftly and specifically choreographed action sequences, and Bullet Train proves to be a terrific challenge and opportunity for his skills. Regardless of where you are in the titular transport, space is not a luxury, and the best fights in the movie are those that are being fought only between the characters, but against the limitations provided by the location.

There are guns, knives and explosives in the mix, but Bullet Train also has some terrific “found item” moments that add spice and humor to the various showdowns, whether it’s a pocketed cell phone saving a character’s life from a blade, a laptop making for a solid cudgel, a water bottle making for a useful projectile, or a venomous snake showing up at a perfect moment.

Once again we see David Leitch work a special magic turning dramatic and comedic actors into badasses with slick and stylish moves, and while everyone shows off some terrific skills, it’s very much the Brad Pitt show at the end of the day.

Advertisement

Brad Pitt’s joy in the role of Ladybug is palpable.

At the nexus of everything good in Bullet Train is Brad Pitt, who very clearly had a blast reuniting with David Leitch (who performed the actor’s stunts in films including Fight Club, The Mexican, Mr. And Mrs. Smith and Troy). He’s a joy to watch in action not just because of the talented craft he demonstrates in his physicality, but how he channels the psychology of the character. As we meet him, Ladybug is reluctantly getting back into his business following a number of important breakthroughs with his therapist, and Pitt does a fantastic job conveying that he doesn’t ever want to choose violence as a first answer – both via verbal pleas and defense-heavy moves. Action/comedy is a genre he should revisit a lot more often.

Bullet Train doesn’t aim to revolutionize hitman movies, but instead plays with a tongue-in-cheek vibe that lets you recognize the tropes and appreciate how the film plays with them. It’s a slick/goofy action movie that is both contained and wild, and a satisfying late summer release.

Continue Reading

Reviews

Luck Review: A Spectacular Debut Film from Skydance Animation

Published

on

By

Luck Review: A Spectacular Debut Film from Skydance Animation

The world’s unluckiest woman enters a magical land to change the fortunes of a fellow orphan. Luck will make you smile and possibly shed a few tears. The big-budget, CGI animated fantasy shines a spotlight on needy children while telling a truly original story. An assortment of lucky critters and creatures dazzle in a spectacular setting. The highly imaginative narrative gives age-old superstitions a dynamic new spin. Luck is a brilliant first film from Skydance Animation.

Sam Greenfield (Eva Noblezada) reaches her eighteenth birthday with trepidation. She’s finally aged out of the foster care system. Sam never found her “forever family”. She spent her entire life living in orphanages. It doesn’t help that Sam has the worst luck. Everything she does or touches ends in abject disaster. Her only thoughts are for young Hazel (Adelynn Spoon), Sam’s roommate at the girls home. Sam has been set up with a job and tiny apartment. She has to stay in school and employed to remain housed.

Advertisement

Sam’s first day at Marv’s (Lil Rel Howery) floral shop goes exactly as expected. She sadly eats dinner sitting on a sidewalk. Sam learns that Hazel’s weekend trip with a foster family was canceled. She gives half of her sandwich to a curious black cat. It scampers away but leaves a strange penny behind.

The following day is a revelation. Sam’s lucky penny changes everything. Her ecstatic mood sours when she loses the penny in spectacular fashion. Stewing on the sidewalk, Sam’s surprised when the black cat returns. She’s astonished when Bob (Simon Pegg) asks for his penny. The “travel penny” is the only way a creature from the Land of the Luck stays safe in the human world. She follows an unnerved Bob back through the portal to the Land of Luck. Sam has to find another lucky penny to help Hazel. Bob reluctantly agrees, but they have to be careful. Misdeeds end up in banishment to Bad Luck.

Related: Bullet Train Review: A Wickedly Funny, High-Octaine Thrill Ride

Advertisement

The Land of Luck

The Land of Luck is an absolute joy to behold. Leprechauns, cats, pigs, and rabbits, lucky creatures, are the bureaucrats tasked with spreading good fortune. Bringing Sam in such a place is a recipe for absolute chaos. Bob, and his leprechaun assistant Gerry’s (Colin O’Donoghue), efforts to contain Sam’s bad luck will have audiences in stitches. I’m still chuckling at Sam’s “Latvian leprechaun” disguise; their harebrained excuse for why she’s so much bigger than everyone else.

Luck’s serious themes are artfully addressed. Sam’s lonely childhood, and her desperate efforts to change Hazel’s, brings a melancholic touch to the narrative. The film reminds us to not take love and family for granted. Every kid deserves care, nurturing, and a safe place to grow. It shouldn’t take luck or chance for a child to find a “forever home”.

Insert sigh here. Recent headlines concerning John Lasseter (Toy Story, Cars) will undoubtedly cloud this film’s release. The genius storyteller and animator behind Pixar’s success left to head Skydance Animation after awful “Me Too” allegations. He’s brought his incredible talent to Luck, and it shows. This wonderful film deserves to be judged on its own merits. Sometimes we must divorce ourselves from art and the personality of the artist.

Advertisement

Luck is a production of Skydance Animation and Apple Original Films. It will have an exclusive Apple TV+ premiere on August 5th.

Continue Reading

Trending