Screening Log
This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.
April 2008 activity
Total Log Entries: 17
- Adam (2)
- Chet (1)
- Chiranjit (2)
- Cullen (0)
- David (0)
- Eva (0)
- Evan (2)
- Ian (2)
- Jenny (0)
- Katherine (0)
- Leo (1)
- Megan (0)
- Rumsey (3)
- Teddy (0)
- Thomas (4)
- Victoria (0)
Total Comments: 3
- Hannah and Her Sisters (0)
- 21 (0)
- Baby Mama (0)
- Momma’s Man (0)
- Sopyonje (0)
- The Case (0)
- Godzilla 2000 (1)
- Yella (0)
- Swept Away (0)
- Miracle Mile (0)
- Funny Ha Ha (0)
- The Fifth Cord (0)
- The Drácula Saga (0)
- Berlin Alexanderplatz (0)
- High Anxiety (0)
- Help! (2)
- 1990: The Bronx Warriors (0)
Full Archive
Baby Mama / USA / 2008
It may just be residual goodwill towards Tina Fey on account of 30 Rock, or the fact that I saw it on my birthday, but I really enjoyed this film. Director Michael McCullers takes the burgeoning pregnancy-angst-comedy genre and makes it into something rather more subtle and adult than Knocked Up or Juno. Fey and Poehler’s trademark personae are both reined in to a certain extent — Fey is less cutting and Poehler less broad than usual — but in this case that’s a good thing, and both show unexpected range and appeal. (After seeing this, I think Fey could probably be Sandra Bullock if she wanted to; hopefully she doesn’t.) Especially welcome is the way the movie gestures towards political issues — class conflict, gentrification, environmentalism, etc. — without either travestying them or using them as a lever to secure audience sympathy: they’re just part of the background of 21st century life, often ignored, sometimes unignorable.
Plus: it has the funniest performance by Steve Martin in roughly a decade. Which isn’t really saying a lot, but still.
by Evan Kindley | Source: 35mm print
29 Apr 2008 12:32 PM | Submit Comment
