Film Review
Horrible Bosses
Fear of unemployment stokes conventionally crude comedy
In Horrible Bosses, three put-upon workers conspire to bump off one another’s evil employers. Yes, it’s a variation on Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 classic Strangers on a Train, but it’s such a venerable framework upon which to hang a story that the familiarity of the tale only adds to the fun. Besides, we haven’t seen a blackly comic reiteration of this magnitude since 1987’s Throw Momma from the Train.
Idiot Box
Trial Separation
Life in a post-Casey Anthony world
In Florida, 25-year-old Casey Anthony was found not guilty for the murder of her daughter, little Caylee Anthony, whose body was found dumped in the woods in 2008. Days after the jury’s decision, the mainstream media was still devoting round-the-clock coverage to the case. Some networks didn’t even cut away to the launch of the final space shuttle, in the same state as the courtroom—so engrossed were correspondents in analyzing quotes from an anonymous alternate juror.
Reel World
The Albuquerque Film Festival is looking for a commercial, and it wants you to pitch in and make the thing. It’s called “The Hip, Cool, Funny, Strange, Social Change Challenge”—which is really unwieldy, but definitely shows how “hip” and “cool” the festival is. Also this week are calls for the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival and the news that Third Star films has completed production on “Plush,” a horror short starring several local actors.
