Lindsay McCarney

The Comedians of Comedy: Live at the TroubadourDirected by: Michael BliedenImageFor the last few years, comedians Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford and Zach Galifianakis (AKA The Comedians of Comedy) have been crafting ridiculously hilarious pieces of comedy gold, then performing them in an anti-comedy-club tour of rock venues. Tragically, their show will never come […]

The Good GermanDirected by: Steven Soderbergh(Warner Bros.)The Good German is populated by character-types anyone who’s seen a 1940s Hollywood movie will recognize: the noble, weary hero (George Clooney); the woman-with-a-secret (Cate Blanchett); the corrupt official (Beau Bridges). To further this nostalgic feel, director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven) filmed the movie in black-and- white and tried […]

The Office: Season ThreeUniversal StudiosLike the season two set before it, this boxed set is packed with deleted scenes aplenty—almost all of them worth checking out. Pick up this collection and relive the season when Pam found courage, doormat HR-rep Toby got his robe stolen and the creative team behind TV’s best sitcom stopped yanking […]

Hot FuzzDirected by: Edgar Wright(Universal Studios)The final half-hour of action-comedy Hot Fuzz is, essentially, one big action sequence. If someone started watching Hot Fuzz here, they’d initially be unable to differentiate the film from any other machismo-dripping action flick. Then, a goose wanders into the middle of the road. The movie’s a neat blend of […]

SherryBabyDirected by: Laurie Collyer (IFC Films)Partway through SherryBaby, Sherry Swanson stands up at a family dinner and starts belting out “Eternal Flame,” by the Bangles. Her singing’s only moderately good, everyone’s eating and nobody asked her to sing. The moment is awkward, inappropriate and a little pathetic— but also endearing. So is Sherry. The character’s […]

Crazy LoveDirected by: Dan Klores and Fisher StevensMongrelWatching Burt Pugach and Linda Riss’s implausible “love” story unfold for the first time in this fascinating documentary, one assumes that the love part of the story ends at the movie’s midpoint, when Burt hires a thug to throw acid at Linda’s face. But it doesn’t. And clever […]

How William Shatner Changed the WorldDirected by: Julian Jones(Discovery Channel Canada)Fans of William Shatner may be disappointed to learn that this documentary’s true subject is not reflected in its name. While the former Captain Kirk does narrate the film (originally made for TV’s Discovery Channel), the movie’s less about Shatner’s global impact, more about the […]

RatatouilleDirected by: Brad Bird and Jan PinkavaPixarAny movie directed by Iron Giant/The Incredibles helmer Brad Bird, made by Pixar, and featuring comedian Patton Oswalt as a culinarily gifted rat earns its way into my good books by virtue of pedigree alone. But it’s Ratatouille’s weird ending that makes the film great: a surreal sequence that […]

DisturbiaDirected by: DJ Caruso(Dreamworks/Universal)The high-school suspense thriller Disturbia (a modernization of Hitchcock classic Rear Window) opens with a touching fishing trip between protagonist Kale (Shia LaBeouf) and his father. In movie shorthand, this means that the father’s subsequent death in a car accident is pretty much inevitable. A year later, Kale punches his Spanish teacher […]

Jesus CampDirected by: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady(Magnolia Pictures)Early in Jesus Camp, Pentecostal children’s minister Becky Fischer says she wants to see kids “radically laying down their lives for the gospel.” The documentary is about the Kids on Fire Summer Camp Fischer runs each year in North Dakota, a series of intense and apparently kid-friendly […]