Judd Apatow’s follow-up to ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ follows an unlikely pair brought together by an unexpected pregnancy, with his trademark mix of playfully crude humor and prickly moments of self-realization and guilt.
Tag: Judd Apatow
James Franco and Seth Rogen ride the ‘Pineapple Express’ on Netflix
David Gordon Green leaped from from indie dramas of small town tragedy to make this hilarious stoner buddy comedy. Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, produced by Judd Apatow, and Danny McBride and Gary Cole.
Steve Carrell is ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ on HBO Max
Steve Carrell is a sweet, shy middle-aged geek and the last American virgin in The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), the feature debut of director Judd Apatow (who wrote the film with Carrell), an oddly sweet mix of romantic comedy and adolescent shenanigans, albeit with a slightly older cast. When he’s pulled out of the stock room […]
‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ – the humor of heartbreak on Amazon Prime
Peter Segel joined the ranks of Freaks and Geeks alumni who went on to successful writing and/or directing careers (the list includes James Franco, Seth Rogan, and John Francis Daley) with Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), which he wrote and starred in for producer Judd Apatow. It’s a plot you can recount in a sentence—a guy […]
‘Freaks and Geeks’ – complete and restored on Hulu
Somewhere between Dawson’s Creek and Booksmart is the sharp, funny, and surprisingly poignant high school dram-edy (for lack of a better word) Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000). Linda Cardellini grounds the series as Junior Lindsay, the former class brain who rejects her place in the school hierarchy and, in startling identity crisis, gravitates toward the school […]
‘Superbad’ – teenage kicks on Netflix
The raucous and raunchy comedy Superbad (2007) is the love child of American Pie and Dazed and Confused. Behind its floridly foul streams of profanity and adolescent preoccupation with sex and alcohol is a savvy evocation of teenage insecurity and the confused ideas and feelings about the opposite sex. It’s produced by Judd Apatow and […]
Amy Schumer is a ‘Trainwreck’ on VOD
I don’t think I laughed as hard at any movie comedy in 2015 as I did with Trainwreck, Amy Schumer’s big screen debut feature as writer / star. Abetted by the direction of Judd Apatow, who has been moving from male-centric comedies to more inclusive stories, she brings her raunchy style of social commentary and self-effacing […]
‘The Larry Sanders Show’ on HBO Now
Hey now! The Larry Sanders Show was the original buzz show on HBO. A scathingly funny sitcom created by and starring Garry Shandling, it ran on the channel’s late-night schedule between 1992 and 1998, receiving fair ratings, great reviews and a rabid following in Hollywood as it became the industry’s cult show. Shandling had previously […]
Watch This! Judd Apatow’s ‘Love’ debuts on Netflix in February
After developing and producing the critically acclaimed but quickly cancelled shows Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, Judd Apatow turned to the movies, where he directed a few and produced even more hit R-rated comedies. Now he’s created his first original series in over a decade: Love, a romantic comedy starring Gillian Jacobs and Paul Rust […]
‘Misery Loves Comedy’ on Amazon Prime
“Do you have to be miserable to be funny?” That’s the question that comedian and actor Kevin Pollak poses to his fellow performers in the documentary Misery Loves Comedy, his directorial debut. It’s a fair question and a serious one—the film is, after all, dedicated to Robin Williams, who took his own life while Pollak […]