Artivels
Undescribable Perfection
Ceticultsot
Beautiful, moving film.
Dana
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Pumpkin_Man
This is an awesome movie that serves as a prequel to the hilarious TV series! A 47-year old ex-con, ex-prostitute, and ex-drug addict named Jerri Blank returns home and finds her dad in a coma. She returns to school as a freshman. Jerri makes some friends like Megawatti Sucarnaputri and Tammi Littlenut. A science fair comes up and Principal Blackman wants to win, so he hires a genius. Chuck Noblet puts together his own team to win. Jerri gets high with the other team, and gives them their plans. Jerri is kicked off the team and tries to think of a way to make it all better. If you love comedy, and the TV show, you'll love STRANGERS WITH CANDY!!!
winner55
Comedy Central's attempt to redefine comedy for the new century nearly makes it. The effort to push "obnoxious" over some edge is understandable and acceptable. It is also amusing that they chose to parody the very comedy that we are expecting: sentimental, nostalgic feel-good high-school comedy that Rodney Dangerfield perfected with "Back to School".But as I've always said, in comedy, timing is everything - and unfortunately, the film depends on the comic timing of Amy Sedaris, which never quite gets to where it needs to be. Indeed, her pacing is the rhythmic equivalent of a monotone - every bit is delivered with equal momentum, so it's hard to tell where the exposition ends and the comic bit begins; by the time we've figured out we're supposed to laugh, the joke's over.An undeniably amusing film (in a sick sort of way) but not the New Wave of 21st Century comedy we were expecting.
Ed Uyeshima
What remains remarkable in the translation from Comedy Central TV show to mainstream feature film is Amy Sedaris' complete lack of vanity in replaying her comic alter-ego, the aptly named Jerri Blank, a 47-year old ex-con who decides to return home after a lengthy prison term and finish high school. The original concept for the three-season cult series was a fun idea full of possibilities, satirizing the high-minded seriousness of the ABC Afternoon Specials in the 1970's by having the hapless Jerri learn some significant life lesson after going through some humiliating situation. Probably a disappointment to dedicated fans of the show, the 2006 movie is really no different except the paper-thin plot feels dragged out to its eighty-minute length (wisely cut from its 97-minute length in theaters). It has the additional burden of feeling repetitive of the series without providing much more in the way of texture or complexity.Director Paul Dinello (who plays effete art teacher Geoffrey Jellineck), along with co-writers Sedaris and Stephen Colbert (who plays closeted science teacher Chuck Noblet), uses the opportunity to fill in a bit of Jerri's back story in coming back to the family home and dealing with her father's comatose state. According to kindly Dr. Putney, the only cure lies with Jerri's efforts to do her father proud by winning the school science fair. Of course, the easily misdirected Jerri wants to be part of the in-crowd, in particular, getting horizontal with Brason, the school's hunky squat-and-thrust champion. This consequently means turning her back on her science project team, the Fig Neutrons, which includes Tammi, Jerri's best friend and object of Sapphic desire, and Megawatti, the Indonesian geek who has an unexplainable crush on Jerri. Lots of hijinks ensue until the inevitable conclusion, including the insertion of several star cameos - Allison Janney and Philip Seymour Hoffman as bickering school board members, Sarah Jessica Parker as self-absorbed grief counselor Peggy Callas, Ian Holm as Dr. Putney, Dan Hedaya as Jerri's comatose father; and Kristen Johnston as a wheelchair-bound coach. Matthew Broderick actually has a bigger role as Noblet's adversary, the preening Roger Beekman.Much of the TV series cast is here as well with Colbert the standout as the blustery, uptight Chuck who secretly yearns for Geoffrey, who spurns him to be Roger's idea man. For most of the time, it is fitfully funny if only because the scabrous screenplay takes no prisoners in its approach. Consider this the comic flipside to "Sherrybaby" with plenty of familiar elements from "Carrie" and "Napoleon Dynamite" thrown in for good measure. But most of all, it is a tribute to Sedaris' Borat-like transformative skills as a comic actress. The 2006 DVD has a commentary track by Sedaris, Colbert and Dinello, and although they are obviously having a good time together, much of that rapport surprisingly does not translate well for the viewer. There are eighteen minutes worth of deleted scenes, most understandably excised though interestingly, it looks like Parker's counselor was the chief victim of the cuts. Also included are the theatrical trailer (another case of a promising trailer that's a lot funnier than the movie itself) and a music video for Delano Grove's "Atomic Car".
Z Train
This movie failed for me on a major level. I love the TV show, and was looking forward to seeing this flick. But it was no good. If you are going to have a crazy character like Gerri, the REST of the characters in the school need to be very normal! The reason why Gerri is funny on the TV show is because she's acting like a lunatic while the rest of society are being mostly normal. The writers and directors made the unfortunate choice of having every single actor ham it up, and instead of having believable scenes, I felt stuck in a burdensome, long SNL skit that refused to end. Comedy is mixing the real with the strange. None of the things that took place in that high school looked remotely like anything anybody has experienced in a school. I'll repeat - for something like that to be funny, the rest has to be played straight. The plot is completely absurd and unfunny - yet the movie spends a maddeningly long amount of time nursing and building it. Everyone associated with this movie should be ashamed of this product.
