The holidays are coming, and that either means spending time with your dysfunctional family or escaping them for the movies … where you’re likely to be met by other, fictional dysfunctional families. Already this season, Rachel Getting Marriedintroduced us to the f’ed up faux masala of the Buchman clan, and later this month we get to follow Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon as they’re pulled into their separate quadrants of kin in Four Christmases. Also, for those who think dysfunction is an American tradition, this weekend sees the release of the French film A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël), which unites the two major premises of dysfunctional family movies by being set during the holidays and involving an ill family member.
With two more weeks left until Thanksgiving, after which we might not want to think about another family, real or cinematic, for the rest of our lives, it’s a perfect time to celebrate those dysfunctional tribes we love the best. Literally thousands of movies feature such families, though, so we’re sure to have left out some of your favorites. Definitely chime in below, and/or join the discussion currently going on over in our Top 5 group.
Andrew Sarris may be one of the most influential American film critics, but here’s a claim, located within his recent review of In Search of a Midnight Kiss, that may not hold up to some of his better-remembered theories: “Even when we confront 40-year-old virgins of either gender, movies refuse to show them compensating for the lack of a sexual partner. There is lasting shame involved in this spectacle.”
Not to ever, ever profess superiority over Sarris, but I’ve nonetheless compiled today’s list as a way of proving the man wrong. There are actually tons and tons of masturbation scenes found in non-porn movies, from the low brow to the high brow, from as indirect as the boy wizard playing with his wand under the covers in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabanto as direct as the non-simulated masturbation in Michael Winterbottom’s 9 Songs and John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus(which would probably feature my #1 pick, from the sound of it, if I ever bothered to see it).
The following 10 films are some of the most memorable masturbation scenes, excluding any movies that might be considered examples of, in Sarris’ words, “the fringe exploitation genres” (I’ve even gone so far as to leave out mainstream horror like The Exorcist, considering it’s crucifix masturbation is far from the self-pleasuring moments Sarris is clearly interested in). Oh, and I’ve attempted to chart these films artistically from lowbrow to high.
How esteemed is Judd Apatow right now? Apparently enough that he can manage to get blow job jokes — visual and verbal ones — on national television. The new trailer for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which Apatow produced, premiered this week on Access Hollywood, and has the most obvious fellatio gestures I’ve ever seen permitted on anytime NBC, let alone pre-primetime NBC. Did nobody at NBC/Universal (which is also distributing the movie) notice? Or did they think the old ladies who watch Access Hollywood wouldn’t notice? Well, the execs didn’t really have to worry, because if you actually look at the version of the trailer shown on the air, it ends before the blow job jokes. Regardless, people who watch the show may have decided to go to the Access Hollywood website and watch the trailer again. This time wondering what’s so funny about a newly acquired necklace.
So, did nobody at the MPAA notice or get the jokes? This trailer may not be put on television in its entirety, but it’s certainly going to be playing to theater audiences comprised of all ages. I guess in relation to the general content of Apatow’s movies, as well as his R-rated viral videos and red-band trailers, this ad is considered pretty tame.
Jeremy Davies is one of those actors whose talent is so abundant, but he isn’t a household name because his characters are so unmarketable. Co-starring in the new film, Rescue Dawn, he talks briefly about working with Werner Herzog and the real reason he’s been showing up recently in films by great directors.
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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