Great minds think alike

I'm very glad to see that both Roger Ebert and Stephen Holden more or less agree with my take on Management, a slight but likable dramedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn that signals a promising directorial debut for playwright-screenwriter Stephen Belber (Tape). As I noted last fall in my Variety review from the Toronto Film Festival, Management is a low-key romantic comedy that "pivots on a serendipitous encounter between Sue (Aniston), a stressed-for-success sales rep for a company specializing in 'corporate art,' and Mike (Zahn), an aimless guy in his early 30s employed by his taciturn father (Fred Ward) and ailing mother (Margo Martindale) at an Arizona roadside motel where Sue providentially checks in." The movie offers an appealing mix of whimsical quirkiness, straight-faced absurdity and affecting melancholy. Better still, as Holden notes, it "has a generosity of spirit that makes you believe that good people summoning a lot of pluck can make good things happen."

TIFF: Management

Neatly mixing whimsical quirkiness, straight-faced absurdity and affecting melancholy, Management -- starring Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn -- is a slight but likable dramedy that signals a promising directorial debut for playwright-screenwriter Stephen Belber (Tape). You can read my Variety review here.

Bleak Wilderness

For those of you who have always wanted to see what Harry Hamlin might look like after being sliced in half by pygmies -- and you know who you are, so don't try to be coy -- I've got just the movie for you. And if you've always wanted to see Steve Zahn get fellated by a turkey -- that's right, get his pecker pecked -- well, it's a two-fer.