Tag / nicholas stoller

by Jaime Rebanal

‘Bros’ TIFF Review: Baby Steps First, but a Nice Leap for Mainstream Queer Representation

✯✯✯½

Bros is a romantic comedy like most others you’ve seen in the past few decades, but what sets itself apart comes from how this is the first film released by a major studio to feature an almost entirely LGBTQ+ cast for a wide theatrical release. This is the one aspect about Bros that gets touted most, especially by its director Nicholas Stoller and co-writer/star Billy Eichner, but to a certain point you can clearly tell that this is something getting to Eichner’s own head. Yet there’s still much to love about how Eichner and company care about how they want this film to provide a voice for gay viewers within mainstream film, and on that end, Bros is very cute all around.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Storks – Review

✯✯✯½

Following The Lego Movie, Warner Bros. Animation comes out with Storks – and of all the people whom I would have expected to be behind it, it was none other than Nicholas Stoller, the man responsible for Neighbors, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and The Five-Year Engagement among many more (although knowing his background having written The Muppets, it does make some sense). What else I also would never have expected from Storks was that it would also be nearly half as cute and insane as it made itself out to be, and if Warner Bros. Animation continues off with this streak, then I can only see promise coming for them in the future. Continue reading →

by Jaime Rebanal

The Five-Year Engagement – Review

✯

I’m pretty sure the apt title can describe the experience of watching The Five-Year Engagement because every excruciating minute just left me waiting for the end. I guess me generally not being a fan of Judd Apatow-produced romantic dramedies can be one thing but even some of his weaker ones have some heart to them which I can appreciate yet in here, perhaps the lack of engagement (that joke was set to be made at least once) with how everything is flowing was sure to take me out for every bit of it grew to be nothing short of aggravating. I can admit the cast had me rather interested and it looked harmless enough from a few trailers, but seeing the final product was unbearable. Continue reading →