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Issue 89: Farce

November 2020

Back to Basic: Emily in Paris

Veronica Fitzpatrick·
Issue 89: Farce
Given the show’s explicit judgment of judgment, it’s perplexing that many critiques, warranted as they are, overwhelmingly rely on and perpetuate a neurotic suspicion of pleasure.
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Robin Williams and Edward Norton in Death to Smoochy

Queer Nihilist Opera for The Last Days of Capitalism

Tori Hawks-Ladds·
Issue 89: Farce
Death to Smoochy failed spectacularly when it was released, finding no purchase with viewers looking for an easy escape from the antebellum early aughts. But a film whose excesses lacked an audience in 2002 might just have found its spiritual home 18 years later.
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Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein (1974) | art by Tony Stella

Peak Male Performance

Aegor Ray·
Issue 89: Farce
As each male performer in Young Frankenstein revels in his own strangeness, I find new ways to tap dance in my own haunted house.
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Anna Faris in Smiley Face

Whatever It Is You’re Looking For

Rosie Long Decter·
Issue 89: Farce
Like all good farces, Smiley Face feels heightened to the point that causality becomes nonsensical. This, too, is stoner logic: enjoy the journey, forget the destination.
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Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat (2006)

Important Stuff: On The Bush-Era Satire of Sacha Baron Cohen

Harris Mayersohn·
Issue 89: Farce
Sacha Baron Cohen has always had a complicated, meta-textual relationship with irony; his trailblazing satirical work observes the ugliness of the United States while refusing to offer any solutions.
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Alien: Resurrection (1997) | 20th Century Fox

I Thought You Were Dead: Resurrecting the Alien Franchise as a Farce 

Sarah Welch-Larson·
Issue 89: Farce
Alien: Resurrection swings the pendulum away from the dour grimness of its predecessor towards a sense of humor and ironic self-awareness; the result is an Alien eager to thumb its nose at its precursors. It doesn’t care if anyone who loves those earlier films gets caught in the crossfire, either.
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A Night at the Opera (1935) | art by Tony Stella

Crying at the Opera 

Zoe Kurland·
Issue 89: Farce
The Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera is first and foremost about feeling over understanding, about distorting language, teasing it apart to get to the meat of it all.
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The Muppets: Sex and Violence

Merritt Mecham·
Issue 89: Farce
The Muppets are an invitation to look at our weird, messed up world, and laugh instead of cry. Their acceptance of chaos means an acceptance of everyone, from seven-foot-tall carrots to psychopathic coffee spokesman to neurotic frogs.
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Daisies (1966) | art by Tony Stella

Stuffed: Dining with Daisies

Julia Selinger·
Issue 89: Farce
If the world is going to rot, Daisies suggests, all that’s left to do is dig in.
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John Malkovich as Osborne Cov in Burn After Reading (2008)

I Know Who You Are, Fucker: Burn After Reading’s Absurd Mirror

Elizabeth Cantwell·
Issue 89: Farce
In 2020, Burn After Reading feels both more ridiculous and more painful than when it was first released—more capable of breaking down your defenses against laughter, and more likely to keep you up at night.
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Letter from The Editor

Chad Perman·
Issue 89: Farce
Well, I haven’t done one of these in a while. For 39 months, to be precise. But November 2020 is...
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