What’s the point of consistently stepping outside our comfort zones? It’s healthy to stretch yourself. Most of us have been encouraged/yelled at by our parents to try new experiences, eat new delicacies, go to new places. By doing that, we get smarter, more empathetic, more sophisticated. When filmmakers stretch themselves? That’s the good stuff. That’s […]

As moviegoers, we’re conditioned to sigh in resignation whenever we hear about a remake. “Oh, God, there are no original ideas in Hollywood anymore,” we say, as we roll our eyes so far back we can see our brains.  But remakes have been a part of American film since the beginning. Cecil B. DeMille made The […]

In 2008, Tom Farley Jr. and Tanner Colby’s excellent book The Chris Farley Show was released. Among other things, the biography of comedian Chris Farley explored Farley’s belief that, as a big guy, audiences only ever wanted to see “fatty fall down.” He felt that audiences would never accept him as anything but a lumbering, clumsy oaf. […]