Hmm, maybe the programming execs at FOX have souls after all: they’ve mercifully taken The Return of Jezebel James, a disastrous waste of Parker Posey masquerading as a sitcom, off their schedule after just three episodes. At BigScreenLittleScreen, Ted Zee describes how a scene from the second episode (he’s obviously more dedicated to the Save Parker cause than me, because I couldn’t get past the pilot) pretty much sums up the whole situation: “you’re relieved that it’s over, because it’s not funny, and you feel embarrassed for everyone involved.” Unfortunately, video evidence of the crime inexplicably lives on at Hulu, thus ensuring that this blight on Posey’s resume won’t fade as quickly as it should.
When we first saw clips of Parker Posey’s stab at sitcom stardom, the long-delayed FOX offering The Return of Jezebel James, we were skeptical that the sometime high school hazer and incestuous Jackie O impersonator would be able to make the transition to laugh track anchor without diluting her own charms, or worse, becoming really, really annoying. Based on the first two episodes, which are already available for watching and embedding via Hulu (see the pilot above), both of our fears were valid––Posey’s total inability to grasp sitcom comic timing is a big problem, and her flailing attempts to do so strip her of all likeability. It’s such a sad thing to see such a strong actress in a debacle like this, especially just one year after making a really good film which, in a fair and just world, would have sat at the top of her resume until she could get cast in something even better.
But there are sadder things about Jezebel James to discuss…
Here are some quick reviews of two SDFF films that I watched via screeners before touching down in Denver, and the one film I managed to see in town before succumbing to jet lag/altitude exhaustion. Oddly and entirely accidentally, all three films have something to do with aging males and their identity crises.
A self-mocking psuedo-documentary from the mind of Dan Butler (a journeyman supporting actor best known for a recurring role on Frasier), Karl Rove, I Love You has far less to do with the titualar “ultimate supporting actor” than with the personal fallout of engagement in our super-polarized political culture. What begins as a documentary on Butler as the archetypical “invisible” character actor (he’s consistently compared to Philip Seymour Hoffman, only “less famous”) morphs into a document of Butler’s mid-life crisis passion project, a one man show designed to expose the world to the “Real” Karl Rove. Butler begins the project wanting to hit the Bush administration where it hurts, but slowly comes to empathise with Rove, turns his show into a mildly-satiric love-letter, and alienates his single-minded friends and collaborators in the process.
Not always laugh-out loud funny, but well-paced and consistently engaging, Karl Rove, I Love You uses the natural conflict between (pervasively and unquestioningly liberal, and largely openly gay) Hollywood and (socially conservative but morally ambiguous) Red State actors to explore how angry obsession can offer the same kind of madness, identity salvation and pure pleasure as romantic passion. But more interestingly, it’s also about breaking down a black-and-white cipher and finding a whole person. It always feels more like a sitcom than a credible documentary (and the last twenty minutes really push the limits of disbelief), but it’s just creepy enough to work.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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