This Can't Be Broccoli

When HBO Max announced that the entire Warner Bros. slate for 2021 would be released day-and-date both in theaters and on the app, audiences rejoiced, and Christopher Nolan did what he does best-- Wrote a whiney thinkpiece assuming the mantle of cinema savior. Before I begin, let me preface this by saying Memento  is one of my favorite movies, I think Inception  is even better, and I will give Nolan his flowers when it comes to looking at superhero movies in a way that is both ground-breaking and gave us the Snyder version of grit that has effectively sucked the joy out of every DC property, but oh well. All that aside-- Interstellar was meh at best, Dunkirk was wildly overrated, and his latest film, Tenet , is--and I'm putting his mildly--totally unwatchable. This is coming from someone who actually slapped on a mask and braved the real-life movie theater to see it so that I could experience it the way Nolan intended. Guess what? Even as intended, it still sucked. I have mayb...

We are four interviews away from the grand finale. Or I'll take a break for two years and then come back, because nothing is ever really gone in the reboot era, but like me in college, you do need to leave some parties only to return a few hours later when people are a little bit drunker and ready to act messy. Leadership is a word I've heard a lot on Theater Twitter over the past few. People have been lamenting the theater world, especially in New York, not having a front-and-center advocate championing it. So what would it look like for theater to have a spokesperson speaking on its behalf and bringing attention to it? One possible solution is for some of the arts advocacy groups in New York and all over the country to take up that task, and I recently spoke with a representative from one such group about whether or not that's possible. Here's the interview: ME:  I was checking out your organization's website earlier. You all have done a pivot. THEM:  We're tr...

I know you don't need another television show to watch, and here's the good news-- I'm not going to give you one. I, however, have gotten sucked into A Teacher . The new show from FX and Hannah Fidell, based on a movie she already made seven years ago, because...why not? The show has that quality of seeming addicting, when really it's just...short. Before you can get bored, the episode is over and you get that little dopamine rush from having completed a chunk of television, and you think-- Hey, maybe I like this show? You do not. And that's fine. You're not going to like every television show and every television show is not going to be worthwhile. The reason I want to talk about this  particular show is because it is, while not good, special . That's because it is absolutely full of shit. Allow me to explain. A Teacher  is about an illicit relationship between, you guessed it, a teacher  played by Kata Mara, and her student, played by Nick Robinson. Both ...

Welcome back to the most controversial issue on social media-- Standing Ovations If you haven't read Parts One, Two, and Three, go to http://thiscantbebroccoli.blogspot.com/2020/11/theater-and-standing-ovation.html http://thiscantbebroccoli.blogspot.com/2020/11/theater-and-standing-ovation-pt-2.html https://thiscantbebroccoli.blogspot.com/2020/11/theater-and-standing-ovation-pt-3.html Today, I'm talking with someone else in the community where this took place, but this person has a different perspective on the matter. Here's the interview: ME:  I didn't think I was going to need more than three perspectives on this, and then you reached out to me, and I thought--Okay, I have to talk to [Them]. THEM:  I'm only talking about this--to you--because of the anonymity. ME:  You wouldn't confess to this otherwise? THEM:  No. ME:  So what's your position on standing ovations? THEM:  I give them when I go to local shows. ME:  Not when you see theater elsewhere? ...

  It turns out that absence really is the best way to develop gratitude. This year, the night before we give thanks for what we have, I'm thinking of all the things we don't have this year. The things we lost. The things we hope to get back. On previous Thanksgiving Eves, I would skip the bar hopping and take a trip into New York City for the day to see theater. I tell people that the day before Thanksgiving is the best day to visit the city. There aren't as many people, the weather is usually great, and you get that wonderful train ride home alongside everyone else heading home for the holiday. But no theater this year, and not that many people returning home who didn't already return months ago. I remarked to someone in April when friends from all over started coming back to stay with family in the hopes of riding out the pandemic that it felt like the holidays, but was also frustrating, because we associate the holidays with reunions and coffee dates with old friends...

Welcome back to the most controversial issue on social media-- Standing Ovations If you haven't read Parts One and Two, go to http://thiscantbebroccoli.blogspot.com/2020/11/theater-and-standing-ovation.html http://thiscantbebroccoli.blogspot.com/2020/11/theater-and-standing-ovation-pt-2.html Today, I'm talking with someone else in the community where this took place, but this person has a different perspective on the matter. Here's the interview: ME:  First of all, happy Thanksgiving. THEM:  A very happy Thanksgiving to you. ME:  You wrote to me after reading the last interview, because you had a different take on the whole thing. THEM:  I do. ME:  What is your take? THEM:  That idiot needs to be thrown off a building. ME:  Okay then. THEM:  Who stands all the time and then doesn't understand that if you do that, you have made the gesture meaningless? ME:  How often do you stand? THEM:  Never. ME:  Never? THEM:  I never stand. ...

Before you get mad, I should say-- This is not me disagreeing that we should cancel Thanksgiving. I have never done a large Thanksgiving in my life, so a 15 person Thanksgiving is as foreign to me as the idea of enjoying golf. My issue is not with people arguing that we should cancel it, it's that, once again, we are fighting a small fight and letting much bigger fights just walk right by us. You can understand why. It's easy for local governments to say that what needs to be an issue right now is cancelling Thanksgiving while they allow--pretty much everything else to remain open. You know I was yelling about casinos until they closed back in March (long after theaters and other businesses were forced to close), and now they're open again, and instead of us demanding that changes, they want us to go on social media and fight with each other about Thanksgiving. We're told that people gathering in their homes is where the danger lies, but we're also all aware that th...