The stars in comedy heaven lined up and brought together the two of the funniest people in the sitcom galaxy, Steve Carell and Tina Fey, for an on-screen outing in “Date Night.” It feels strangely like watching an episode of “Saturday Night Live” nowadays: incredibly potent actors trudging through material that doesn’t deserve their comedic talents.
But once you can put that issue to rest, what you are left with is a reminder of the power of the actor. It takes extraordinary expertise to entertain an audience with poor writing, and Carell and Fey emerge from the ashes looking like heroes. Honestly, these two could read off the entire health care bill and have one of the highest grossing movies at the box office.
It’s amazing to watch these two comedians play off of each other. Together, they put their own unique spin on some dry lines and injecting some much-need humor into them while managing to turn lackluster repeated gags into hilarity. “Date Night” is all about them; the movie’s best moments are when it turns off the roaring plot engine and lets them take the wheel.
For those of you who nitpick at actors playing the same role over and over again, you could potentially scoff at the stars. There are plenty of moments where we catch glimpses of Michael Scott and Liz Lemon. But as a fan of both “The Office” and “30 Rock,” I see absolutely no problem with that. There’s a reason why these are two of the highest profile characters on television, and it’s not a bad thing to see these two actors incorporating a little bit of what they do best. “Date Night” is no day at Dunder-Mifflin or TGS; it’s two average people like Michael and Liz thrown into outrageous circumstances beyond their control. As much as we might not want to admit it, there’s a little bit of each of those characters in all of us, and Carell and Fey have to channel a little bit of their small screen personas to make us care what happens to the Fosters on the big screen.
The “F.I.L.M. of the Week” exposé of some unconventional animated movies wraps up this week with a look at “Persepolis,” the film adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel of the same name. It’s a very different kind of coming-of-age story, mainly because the struggles of growing up are only magnified by the struggle of a country to find stability.
For the first time in its illustrious 33 week history, the “F.I.L.M. of the Week” column will have a two-part thematic series! In other words, this week is the first of two “F.I.L.M. of the Week” articles that ties into a common theme.
Those of you who read this blog in December and January know that I’m kind of obsessed with the work of director Jason Reitman. While doing some research on him, I came across some of his cinematic influences. One of the filmmakers he lists is Alexander Payne. I had seen one of Payne’s movies, “Election,” but I decided that I needed to further explore. “Sideways” was good, but it’s not something people my age are supposed to get. The movie that really struck me was “About Schmidt,” so much in fact that I even decided to call it my “F.I.L.M. of the Week.” (And just for the sake of the occasional refresher, the acronym stands for First-Class, Independent Little-Known Movie.)
I remember waking up the morning after the Oscars in 2003 and looking at the winners in the paper (because at that point, my parents wouldn’t let me stay up to watch the whole show) and wondering what on earth “Talk to Her” was. Pedro Almodóvar’s Spanish-language film had taken the Best Original Screenplay category away from a movie that I loved very dearly at the time, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” Seven years later, I finally found out what it was that I had been missing – and now it is my “F.I.L.M. of the Week.”
Marshall and the Movies 
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