THE MENU (September 2022)

 

THE MENU

(September 2022)

“Twelve customers, total.”

“A night? How do they turn a profit?”

“Twelve-fifty a head. That’s how.”

“You’re f*cking kidding, right? What are we eating, a Rolex?”

Searchlight Pictures invites us to experience The Menu (or so the opening title cards tell us).

Mark Mylod, largely known for directing some major HBO titles (like Entourage, Game of Thrones, and Succession), takes a script written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy*, and presents us with this darkly humorous, class conscious piece that sees Ralph Fiennes as noted celebrity chef Julian Slowik.

“Here, we are family.

“Each day starts at 6, with 5 hours of prep work.

“We harvest. We ferment. We slaughter. We marinate. We liquefy. We spherify. We gel.”

Slowik, who we are told has “… always been keenly aware of food as a history of class” has risen in the ranks of celebrated chefs and now runs an exclusive restaurant on Hawthorne Island (apparently named after the restaurant, the island is “twelve acres of forest and pasture” surrounded by “the bounty of the sea”, as explained during the guided tour).

A restaurant that charges largely self-involved, entitled richies $1,250 a head for the privilege.

A restaurant described by Slowik as his “entire life”.

A restaurant run obsessively by Slowik in a practically cult-like manner, on an island without a boat or phone service.

So many red flags…

“Trust me, he’s telling a story. That’s what makes his food so exciting. He’s not just a chef. He’s a storyteller. And he doesn’t give a f*ck about the rules.”

To say any more would risk ruining the “wonderful surprises” indicated on the one sheet featuring Fiennes, so perhaps we should leave it at that, for those of you curious enough to seek this title out.

Not exactly a comedy, but not really a full-on horror movie either**, The Menu is smart, biting commentary with a killer cast (yes, that is indeed Anya Taylor-Joy on the second one sheet) that just begs to be savored and relished, as Slowik would have it…

So go on and do just that, yeah?

“You will eat less than you desire and more than you deserve.”

* The script appeared on the 2019 Black List, alongside the screenplays for:

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Kevin Etten and Tom Gormican);

Don’t Worry Darling (Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke; the screenplay as filmed is credited to Katie Silberman, with the Van Dykes and Silberman getting “Story By” credits);

and the upcoming Knock at the Cabin.

What appeared on the 2019 List was the initial draft, still titled The Cabin at the End of the World, adapted by Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman from the Paul Tremblay novel.

What we’re going to get with Knock at the Cabin is the script, as rewritten and directed by M. Night Shyamalan (on the one sheets, the credits read: Screenplay by M. Night Shyamalan and Steve Desmond & Michael Sherman).

** Even the awards-giving bodies seem torn; most of the film’s nominations fall under the Comedy category, but Colin Stetson was nominated for his score at 2022’s Hollywood Music in Media awards under the Horror/Thriller Film category…

To be fair though, the HMMA apparently has no Comedy categories…

And, for the record, Michael Abels took home that particular award for his Nope score…

(The Menu OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2020

Candidate #6

COLOR OUT OF SPACE

(September 2019)

“... and then there was this ‘Boom!’ like, like, like a sonic boom, and a big flash, like a pink light…
“Or actually, I don’t even know what color it was, it wasn’t like any color I’d ever seen before, and then everything just blew up, or fell from the sky…”

The Gardners are working through a trying family situation when things get really effed up after a meteorite crash lands on their isolated alpaca farm in Richard Stanley’s outstanding Color Out of Space.

Being a huge fan of Stanley’s lo-fi SF classic Hardware, I was understandably both anxious and hopeful when news broke of his intent to adapt H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space,” so I’m frankly relieved that the film came out spectacularly, and that I loved it as much as I do.

Stanley and co-writer Scarlett Amaris refract familial dynamics through the kaleidoscope of Lovecraft’s cosmic horror, shining that unearthly-colored light into the cracks and crevices of the fault lines that run through any family (no matter how apparently well-adjusted), to uncover the wriggling mutations that breed in the darkness of neglect, misunderstanding, and generational trauma.

Produced by SpectreVision (Go, Frodo!), this is a hallucinatory, unsettling, and mind-blowing first taste of what Stanley hopes will, heh, evolve into a trilogy of Lovecraft adaptations.

So, yes, hopefully more where this came from!

“Drink? I’m having one.”

Parting Shot 1:

Not only do we have a cast that includes Joely Richardson, Tommy Chong, Nicolas Cage, and a menagerie of animal actors with awesome names like Rowan, Lucifer, Xibanga, Bruno, and Ulisses, we also get a significant appearance of the so-called “Simon Necronomicon,” which my brothers and I actually had a copy of (the Avon paperback, if memory serves me correctly) way back when…

Parting Shot 2:

There’s also more Lovecraft to be had this year, with HBO’s adaptation of Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country, scheduled for an August release.

Co-produced by J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele, Lovecraft Country more directly engages with the writer’s more problematic views on race.

Parting Shot 3:

Stanley’s adaptation makes a fine double feature with Alex Garland’s Annihilation…

Just saying…

(Color Out of Space OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I've Seen in the Past Year

[12 of 13]

GET OUT

(January 2017)

"Fairer skin has been in favor for the past, what, couple of hundreds of years? But now the pendulum has swung back.
"Black is in fashion.”

Anyone who’s passingly familiar with my writing or has been to the Iguana more than once would, in all likelihood, have noticed my preference for genre pieces that have something to say.

That’s the kind of genre material I’m deeply interested in, the ones that use the tropes and the conventions and the form as a platform to delve into important, vital matters. The kind of material that says something to its audience about the world they live in.

And if you’ve seen the trailer for Jordan Peele’s feature directorial debut, Get Out (which Peele also wrote the screenplay for), it should be fairly obvious that the film is about race, and its ugly, bigoted offspring, racism.

“Chris, you gotta get the f*ck up outta there, man! You in some Eyes Wide Shut situation. Leave, motherfu--”

The Fades’ and Black Mirror’s Daniel Kaluuya plays Chris Washington, who is being introduced to--and spending the weekend with--his girlfriend’s parents (played by the always marvelous Catherine Keener and a vaguely unrecognizable Bradley Whitford).

And when that happens in a Blumhouse film, you just know things are gonna get ug-leeee…

To say anything more is not really my style here at the Iguana; it would also be a frank disservice to the extraordinary piece Peele and company have brought to the screen.

Suffice it to say that if you, like me, have a taste for horror with a brain, then Get Out.

Now!

“I mean, I told you not to go in that house…”

Parting Shot:

For those who know Jordan Peele as half of the comedy sketch duo Key & Peele, note that at the age of 13, he knew he wanted to be a horror film director.

Apparently, the whole comedy thing was a huge detour, but he’s managed to find his way back to the dream.

A few more things to look forward to from Peele:

The 4 other “social thrillers” (his term) that he plans to work on, of which he has this to say: “The best and scariest monsters in the world are human beings and what we are capable of especially when we get together. I’ve been working on these premises about these different social demons, these innately human monsters that are woven into the fabric of how we think and how we interact, and each one of my movies is going to be about a different one of these social demons.”

He’s also teamed up with J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot to adapt Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country for HBO (it’s been given a straight-to-series order).

Amazon.com has this to say about Lovecraft Country: [Ruff] makes visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects in this brilliant and wondrous work of the imagination that melds historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian horror and fantasy.

Yes, please. Some more of that…

(Get Out OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2017

Candidate #15

GET OUT

(January 2017)

"Fairer skin has been in favor for the past, what, couple of hundreds of years? But now the pendulum has swung back.
"Black is in fashion.”

Anyone who’s passingly familiar with my writing or has been to the Iguana more than once would, in all likelihood, have noticed my preference for genre pieces that have something to say.

That’s the kind of genre material I’m deeply interested in, the ones that use the tropes and the conventions and the form as a platform to delve into important, vital matters. The kind of material that says something to its audience about the world they live in.

And if you’ve seen the trailer for Jordan Peele’s feature directorial debut, Get Out (which Peele also wrote the screenplay for), it should be fairly obvious that the film is about race, and its ugly, bigoted offspring, racism.

“Chris, you gotta get the f*ck up outta there, man! You in some Eyes Wide Shut situation. Leave, motherfu--”

The Fades’ and Black Mirror’s Daniel Kaluuya plays Chris Washington, who is being introduced to--and spending the weekend with--his girlfriend’s parents (played by the always marvelous Catherine Keener and a vaguely unrecognizable Bradley Whitford).

And when that happens in a Blumhouse film, you just know things are gonna get ug-leeee…

To say anything more is not really my style here at the Iguana; it would also be a frank disservice to the extraordinary piece Peele and company have brought to the screen.

Suffice it to say that if you, like me, have a taste for horror with a brain, then Get Out.

Now!

“I mean, I told you not to go in that house…”

Parting Shot:

For those who know Jordan Peele as half of the comedy sketch duo Key & Peele, note that at the age of 13, he knew he wanted to be a horror film director.

Apparently, the whole comedy thing was a huge detour, but he’s managed to find his way back to the dream.

A few more things to look forward to from Peele:

The 4 other “social thrillers” (his term) that he plans to work on, of which he has this to say: “The best and scariest monsters in the world are human beings and what we are capable of especially when we get together. I’ve been working on these premises about these different social demons, these innately human monsters that are woven into the fabric of how we think and how we interact, and each one of my movies is going to be about a different one of these social demons.”

He’s also teamed up with J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot to adapt Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country for HBO (it’s been given a straight-to-series order).

Amazon.com has this to say about Lovecraft Country: [Ruff] makes visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects in this brilliant and wondrous work of the imagination that melds historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian horror and fantasy.

Yes, please. Some more of that…

(Get Out OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)

TRUE BLOOD
Season 1 Episode 4
“Escape From Dragon House”
Written by Brian Buckner
Directed by Michael Lehmann
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

This is gonna sound really bad, but with Dawn winding up dead, one of the things that popped into my head was: hey, we get to see more William Sanderson and Chris Bauer! And The Nine’s John Billingsley too, who debuted a couple of episodes back as the local coroner, Mike Spencer.
Her death also turns into a lookie-loo circus which then serves to showcase the community and its morbid reaction to the most recent death.


Once again, Jason comes under suspicion, and, finding himself in a cop car with a vial of V juice in his possession, he panics, and downs the whole thing (when Lafayette warned him to take a drop or two at the most).
That action then develops into another amusing subplot involving horndog Jason, as he develops a bad case of priapism, which Tara helps him out with.


Meanwhile, Gran asks Sookie to “listen in” on people in an attempt to clear Jason’s name, a request which leads Sookie to the vampire bar in Shreveport, Fangtasia, which Dawn used to frequent.
Sookie asks Bill to escort her there (“this is not a date”), and it’s a nice little sequence which introduces Eric Northman (Generation Kill’s Alexander Skarsgård), apparently one of the oldest vampires in the area.


But the most disturbing scene of the episode has to go to Sam, writhing on Dawn’s bed, smelling the sheets.
Eurrr…
So first, Jason’s the murder suspect, and now, we’re given another character to look at a little more closely.
Whether or not Sam did kill Dawn though, he’s clearly more effed-up than we were first led to believe…

(Images courtesy of fanpop.com.)

TRUE BLOOD
Season 1 Episode 3
“Mine”
Written by Alan Ball
Directed by John Dahl
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

“Honey, if we can’t kill people, what’s the point of bein’ a vampire?”
-- Malcolm to Bill

Well, now.
Far as I’m concerned, True Blood has just kicked into high gear.


Right up front, we get a great helping of the show’s vampire mythology, particularly the social structures and hierarchy involved, as well as the differing opinions regarding the race’s having come out of the coffin.
It’s an added plus that the performers playing the vampire nest—Andrew Rothenberg, Aunjanue Ellis (from Justice and E-Ring), and General Hospital’s Graham Shiels—are splendid additions to the show’s cast.
Rothenberg’s Malcolm, older than Bill and a petulant bastard, runs the nest, which includes Ellis’ Diane (who apparently had sex with Bill back in the ‘30’s), and Shiels’ Liam, who’s the bald bloodsucking mofo we saw on the video with Maudette.
These are the down and dirty vampires who could give a rat’s a$ about co-existing with humans, and of course, will undoubtedly spell trouble for Bill and Sookie and the rest of the breathers on the show.


Then there’s what could be the second victim of whoever offed Maudette, poor Dawn.
Again, as with Maudette, the victim’s someone who’s, a) been bitten by a vampire, and b) just been in a sexual relationship with horndog Jason, who, by the way, is exhibiting more and more signs of his vampire fixation.
Concerned about his, erm, performance, Jason tries to score some Viagra off Lafayette, who instead sells him some V-juice, for, uhhh, an interesting dance. (Strange and hilarious scene, one of the best of the show yet…)


There’re also some great discussions in here, from Bill and Sookie’s dialogue regarding magic and vampires, to Tara and Sam’s heart-to-heart, which leads to them mutually ending their months-long sexual droughts.
Speaking of Tara, her tumultuous relationship with her alky mom (American Dreams’ Adina Porter) also gets a spotlight.
All that, plus the possibility of a divine reason for Starbucks, and the punchline to Gran’s story about Uncle Frank.
Priceless.

Parting shot: O.C. fans may appreciate the brief appearance of Nicholas Gonzalez (Marissa’s Season 2 poolboy paramour, D.J.), as Malcolm’s boytoy, Jerry.

“You know what I really wish would come to Marthaville? Huh? Buffy. Or Blade. Or any one of those bad-a$$ vampire killers to take care of Mr. Bill Compton. That’s what I wish.”
-- Sam to the Mystery Dog

Parting shot: Given the particularly delayed, post-Golden Globe nature of this review’s posting, I would be remiss if I did not congratulate Ms. Anna Paquin, for her Globe win.
Of course, given my still not-completely-won over status regarding Ms. Paquin, let me just say that if she won, then, for future reference, certain other cast members need to be Globe-acknowledged in the Supporting categories as well. (Please stand up, Rutina Wesley.)
Hear that, aitch-ef-pee-ey?

(Images courtesy of fanpop.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 5 Episode 3
“The All Out Fall Out”
Written by Rob Weiss
Directed by Mark Mylod


Ahhh, there’s Mrs. Ari! And Shauna!
Woot!!!

The Vince-facing-bankruptcy subplot evolves into a Vince-making-a-paid appearance-at-a-sweet 16 subplot, with Fran Drescher as the sweet 16’s mother (Kevin Pollak plays the da), and pretty much the only bright spot here is Debi Mazar. (Drama getting drunk in his post-Jacqueline break-up depression and hurling all over the cake is definitely not a bright spot.)
Then there’s the Ari and Mrs. Ari anniversary subplot, where Adam Davies gets caught in the crossfire, and while the b!tchslap was priceless, the biggest bright spot here has to be Perrey Reeves.


Oh, and Carla Gugino’s also in the house, to relay the message that Nine Brave Souls has caught the attention of Ed Norton, who wants to rechristen it Smokejumpers and turn it into a studio picture…
Hrrrm… can we see where this is going?


(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

TRUE BLOOD
Season 1 Episode 2
“The First Taste”
Written by Alan Ball
Directed by Scott Winant
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

What is up with that dog?! And that painting in Sam’s office?


Anyway, saving Sookie from a savage beating, Bill is forced to allow her to drink some of his blood, which completely heals her, heightens her senses, and makes her horny. (As if one horndog Stackhouse weren’t enough…)
It’s also established here that partaking of a vampire’s blood isn’t enough to turn one into a non-breather.


Subsequently, Bill puts his best undead foot forward and calls on Sookie, quite charming Gran, but leaving Jason and Tara unimpressed and hostile.
As it turns out, Bill’s a Compton, was around during the Civil War, and knew a Stackhouse way back when.
We also learn that vampires really do need to be invited into a home before they can set foot in it; the invitation can actually be revoked, too.


Other stuff goes on in this one, but that’s pretty much the meat of the hour.
And while Paquin is still leaving me unmoved, Moyer is slowly winning me over. I’m not gushing his praises the way Gran is just yet, granted, but at least I’m no longer that dubious about him.


True Blood being on HBO actually reminds me of the time that Vertigo comics published Vamps, which was patently not as literate and upscale as their usual material.
Ultimately, I wasn’t too thrilled with Vamps. True Blood though, as I mentioned in my review of its Pilot, has a charm all its own, and has the elements and the pedigree to become a compulsively good watch.
Here’s hoping the show finds its groove…

(Images courtesy of fanpop.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 5 Episode 2
“Unlike A Virgin”
Written by Doug Ellin
Directed by Mark Mylod


Now this is more like it.
After a passable opener, we get an episode that establishes this season’s narrative thrust: Vince’s comeback.
There’s a great scene in here towards the half-hour’s end, where Vince visits Ari’s office, and realizes that even Ari doesn’t think he’s a good actor (yet), but acknowledges that he can be a big movie star, if he only plays the Hollywood game.
And Vince is ready to play, if only to get another chance to rise above the Medellin fiasco.
And this sudden flip in his mindset puts his decision to so publicly leave a paparazzi-laden event with Justine Chapin on his arm in a very interesting light.


Yes, Leighton Meester—having been saddled with the suffix “of Gossip Girl fame” in the time since she was last on Entourage—is back, in an episode filled to the brim with guest shots, so much so that Meester and legend Tony Bennett actually get lost in the mix.
The other names that make this installment a solid winner include Mark Wahlberg (been awhile since the Pilot), who plays a cool scene on the golf course with Ari, the always sizzling Carla Gugino, and Lukas Haas and Giovanni Ribisi as screenwriter brothers L.B. and Nick, who E is thinking of representing, after having read their script, Nine Brave Souls.


While the rekindled fire under Vinnie’s a$$ is fantastic (he’s actually reading scripts now!), Drama continues to grate, his subplots always resorting to the overplayed “Drama sabotages himself” riff.
Now, his laptop relationship with Jacqueline (cute in the season opener) implodes after he lies to her about his whereabouts, then goes off the deep end when he imagines all sorts of scenarios when she doesn’t answer her phone.
I’m really hoping the show finds something more fresh to do with Drama, because I’d much rather see him just hanging about (as Turtle seems to be doing lately), than running through variations of the same subplot over and over again…
Oh, and where is Mrs. Ari?


(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 5 Episode 1
“Fantasy Island”
Written by Doug Ellin
Directed by Mark Mylod
(WARNING: SPOILERS)


Well, that was okay. Not particularly the opening bang I was hoping for, but not terrible either.
I suppose what annoyed the frak out of me was the apparent irresponsibility of Vince, and in particular, Turtle, as they whiled away their time in Mexico, as Vince licked his wounds from the Medellin disaster, its Cannes screening likened to the Hindenberg by episode guests Roeper and Phillips, even as E and Ari busted their a$$es back in L.A.
Though I guess I should give our boy some slack, given the bomb his vanity project turned out to be…
And though it was nice to see Drama continuing his Jacqueline thing over the laptop, his whole “my right side is my bad side” thing grated.


Meanwhile, yay, Rex Lee is in the main opening credits now! Of course, the same thing happened to Debi Mazar and she subsequently seemed to just fall off the show that season.
Let’s hope Lloyd’s fate is a whole lot sunnier!


Not much else seemed to go on in this one: some sly Hollywood tactics involving a genre project called Danger Beach (“It’s a working title!”) which gets Vince back to L.A. under false pretenses; a slight awkwardness to Vince and E’s friendship in the wake of Medellin.
Far more interesting is the portrait of Vince as La-La Land pariah, untouchable following his fall from grace.
Where to from here, boys?


(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (94)
GOT BLOOD?

So, in the wake of the Great Revelation (and if you need to be reminded of the insanity following it, check out the newsbits here), it was only a matter of time before someone targeted the fresh new demographic in our midst.
Well… actually, tremendously old demographic, but one that only now can be wooed with a product.
In this case, Tru Blood, from Japan’s Yakonomo Corporation.

Here’s the U.S. advert:



And the one running on French televisions:



Personally, I prefer the American one, but then again, that’s just me.

And this is priceless…

(Videos courtesy of youtube.com and bloodcopy.com; image courtesy of bloodcopy.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 12
“The Cannes Kids”
Written by Doug Ellin
Directed by Mark Mylod

Whereas Season 2 brought the boys to Sundance, this season’s finale sees them in the heady celluloid market place that is Cannes.
Everyone (particularly E) is staying positive about selling Medellin for some big bucks, while the person most anxious about getting a deal, “sober for one year now despite having all these topless enablers around me” Nicky Rubenstein, is stuck back in the States under house arrest.
When they get to the hotel though, who do they see but Prince Yair, who came this close to producing Medellin back in Season 3’s “The Prince’s Bride.” Yair is no longer married, and wants to get into the film releasing business big time, and he’s willing to make a deal for Medellin, sight-unseen.
Ari doesn’t really like the idea, as this’ll be Yair’s first crack at distributing a film, but Nicky calls Ari and tells him to take the meeting.

At Yair’s yacht, Johnny does the Macarena, and Yair lays out the deal. $35 million, before anyone else sees a single frame of film. $35 million, is of course, the total budget of Medellin, and that would recoup everyone’s money.
E is willing to entertain the notion of taking the deal, but everyone else is leery of Yair, so Ari (aka “Master of the Universe”) stirs up a little wheel-and-deal action.
He drops a word or two in Dana Gordon’s lap. Then, who do the boys run into but Harvey Weingard, who got screwed by them a second time, over Medellin, in this season’s “Malibooty/Sorry, Harvey.”
Harvey’s still pissed off, but when Ari sees Dana watching from a distance, he throws his arms around Harvey, making Dana think Harvey’s the power player angling for Medellin. So Dana bites and sets up a morning meeting, hours before the Medellin premiere.


At the meeting, Dana plunks down $15 million, but that’s way below what Ari’s aiming for. He says $50 million, Dana balks in very colourful language, and is walking away from the table when Vince says, “The offer’s $35 million.” Dana says she isn’t authorized to make that big an offer.
Some wrangling takes place, and Turtle gets a call from Johnny. When Johnny asks how things are going, Turtle says, “Great. It looks like they’re gonna get $50 mil for Medellin.”
As it turns out, Johnny’s back on Yair’s yacht (more on that later), and automatically passes this little nugget onto Yair.
Back at the meeting, Dana can go no higher than $28 mil, so Vince and E agree to put off getting their money back till the film makes a profit, and though Dana still has to make up some of the difference on her end, the deal is struck. As everyone is going off for a drink, Ari gets a call from Nicky. Yair just called him and Nicky sold Medellin for a whopping $75 million. (Nicky’s also about to fall off the wagon in a very big way.)
Now Ari just has to break the news to Dana…

This season winds down at the Medellin premiere, where the audience pretty much gives their thumbs down—and some boos—to the film (just as E feared they would). Dana thanks Ari for not having bought the film, Billy gets vocal, and Yair backs out of the deal, since no papers were signed.
Harvey sidles up to the boys, and agrees to buy the film, since he actually agrees with E that there’s something in Medellin.
Of course, he agrees to buy Medellin for $1. (As Ari points out after they take the deal, Harvey did wonders for Shakespeare In Love when he took his scissors to it…)


Meanwhile, it’s actually the episode’s Johnny Drama subplot that leads up to the episode’s final scene.
It turns out that Drama’s a big thing in France because of Viking Quest, and he meets Jacqueline (Julia Levy-Boeken) on Yair’s yacht. Jacqueline (along with the rest of her family) is a huge Viking Quest fan, and she’s so ready to get into bed with Drama.
When they get back to the hotel though, the room Drama’s given (after a mix up with his reservation) is far too small for his taste and doesn’t align with the ideal image in his head of his bedroom encounter with Jacqueline. So he goes off to complain, leaving her in the room to wait for his return.
And in true Johnny Drama fashion, gets kicked out of the hotel.
He subsequently tries to hook up with Jacqueline again, but can’t seem to find her. He eventually returns to Yair’s yacht, but she’s not there either. Drama ends up spending the night at the yacht, which is why he’s there when Turtle makes that ill-advised comment about Medellin’s going price.
It’s at the red carpet of the Medellin premiere that Jacqueline shouts at Drama from the crowd, and he takes her up in his arms and whisks her off to the beach. Drama misses the premiere, but ends up having long, hot sex with Jacqueline on the beach, which is where the paparazzi and passersby are rushing off when Vince and the boys exit the premiere with the $1 Medellin booty.
They flock to the beach as well, where they cheer Johnny on, and we close on another season of Entourage.

Parting shot: Season 5 is tentatively scheduled to air in mid-2008, provided the WGA strike ends soon. Let's keep our fingers crossed...

(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 11
“No Cannes Do”
Written by Doug Ellin and Rob Weiss
Directed by Dan Attias

Vince and the boys are set to leave for the Medellin premiere at Cannes, when a red level terror alert delays their flight by three hours. With time to kill, Billy asks for a meeting with Anna, whom he wants in Silo. E reluctantly sets it up and the meet goes down.
At the meeting, Anna is clearly seeking help from E as to whether she should take the project, but E doesn’t give her any indication either way.
Meanwhile, LAX gets shut down completely and the boys have no way to get to Cannes. So Ari gets Lloyd to scramble, and they find that the last private flight getting out has been chartered by Sydney Pollack.
Ari gets in touch with Pollack (who turns out to have been Ari’s client once, before Pollack fired him) and manages to wrangle 5 seats to Cannes.

Following the meeting with Anna, Billy is now even more convinced he wants her in Silo, and is willing to re-write a part to fit her in. And because Billy wants her in, Vince wants her in too. But E doesn’t really believe in the script, so he’s caught in the middle: he’s supposed to convince one client to say “Yes” to a project he’s not 100% behind because his other client (and best friend) wants him to.
E then gets a call from Anna, and since they aren’t leaving for Cannes just yet, goes on over to see her.
After having read the script, Anna doesn’t get it, and wants E’s honest opinion as to whether she should do Silo or not. At first, E convinces her that she should do it. But during their toast to celebrate Anna’s new film project, honesty comes into play, and E admits to his crush on Anna, and Anna admits she thought he was cute too.
With all that honesty out there, E ‘fesses up and admits he doesn’t like Silo.
Cut away in what turns out to be a sadly truncated subplot. (E tells the boys later on that Anna fired him.)

Getting to the Van Nuys airport, it turns out that Ari miscounted the number of heads. It looks like Turtle is about to forego Cannes, when Vince says it’s everybody or nobody, and they’ll just have to find another way to get to Cannes.
Fortuitously, Kanye West shows up, and Turtle knows him. Seems Kanye is headed out on his own 727, and when Vince and the boys ask him if they can make a stop at Cannes, Kanye says “Yes.”


During all the “will they get to Cannes or won’t they” drama, Ari is caught between Mrs. Ari (who’s annoyed at Ari because he just can’t come out and say that he doesn’t really want her to come along on this boys’ field trip) and Lloyd (who’s annoyed at Ari because he promised that if Mrs. Ari wouldn’t go to Cannes, that he’d take Lloyd; when the Pollack head count goes into effect though, Lloyd is the first to get deep sixed).
So Mrs. Ari goes on some vendetta shopping and Lloyd takes Tom on a cruise, and both wife and assistant still love Ari before he wings his way off to Cannes.

So this one’s a great episode, despite having Anna Faris say “Bye-bye” in a very “blink of an eye” way. She was a lot of fun and I’m sort’a bummed to see her go after just 3 episodes. But hey, at least she was here.

(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 10
“Snow Job”
Written by: Doug Ellin and Ally Musika
Directed by: Ken Whittingham

We return to developments on the Lost in the Clouds adaptation Billy is supposed to be working on.
Dana Gordon freaks when Walsh sends in a script called Silo, which is a futuristic space epic that has absolutely zero to do with Lost in the Clouds. Since E is MIA (more on that later), Ari has Vince read the script himself to see what the problem is. (Besides, Vince is producing.)
Thus begins a crisis as Walsh refuses to write the script the studio paid for (the money already having been spent so he can’t even return it). Ari zooms into Kill Mode and offers up Richard Kelly (who kicked my a$$ into orbit with Donnie Darko) as the new writer/director to replace Walsh. But after reading the script, Vince finds he loves it and wants to do this movie instead of Lost in the Clouds.
Vince even winds up talking to Walsh on the phone, Billy having locked himself into the bathroom with a bottle of whiskey and a gun, since he believed he’d frakked Vince up good with Silo. Of course, Vince loved the script, and the gun wasn’t loaded anyway.
Vince then tells Ari to read the script, and to make it happen.
Ari keeps on going on Kill Mode, bysteps Dana Gordon, and goes directly to her boss, Richard Wimmer (John Heard). What follows is a great scene where Ari Gold, SuperAgent, works his magic, and convinces Wimmer that Silo is the summer tentpole the studio needs to get it out of the red. When Dana is asked for her opinion on the script, she describes it as “Blade Runner meets Field of Dreams,” and Wimmer is sold.
At the end of it all though, Dana’s still pissed and wishes Ari would just die. (I love Dana.)


And while all this drama is going on, E is on his first day on the job as Anna Faris’ manager, at a photo shoot way up in the hills where cellular reception is nonexistent.
At the shoot, E meets Anna’s boyfriend, Dave (CSI: NY’s A.J. Buckley), who’s been hanging around Anna of late, since the CW passed on his pilot.
Dave is opinionated, ultra-critical, and jealous that E may have a thing for Anna (which of course, he does). Dave winds up making a complete a$$ of himself, and Anna dumps him.
E arrives as the boys, Ari, and Billy are toasting to Silo. Demanding to know what went down, E is tossed the script, and when he flips it open, asks, “Where’s the snow?”


As with the previous episode, this one’s a great half-hour, as we slide back into Hollywood mode and see Vince’s new project coming together. We also see E getting in deeper with Anna Faris, and not being available for Vince and Ari when the whole Silo thing exploded. It should be interesting to see if (or when) Vince will call E out about his responsibilities.

(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE

Season 4 Episode 9
“The Young and the Stoned”
Written by: Dusty Kay
Directed by: Mark Mylod

It’s one of those episodes that has nothing to do with the wheeling and dealing for Vinnie’s latest project, but it’s nonetheless a solid half-hour with two out of three subplots that get my vote.


Subplot 1: While trying to find his way to the gang’s new digs (courtesy of the Lost in the Clouds check), E’s Aston-Martin is rear-ended by Anna Faris, who happens to be in nothing but a towel (she’s just come from Pilates is just the start of a semi-long, involved story). Since Anna doesn’t have any of her insurance papers on her, she gives E her cell number.
E feels they had some kind of Moment, but he gives her a call only to find out she gave him the wrong number. Tracking her house down via Star Maps, E drives on over, and Anna claims she gave him the wrong number ‘cause her phone is new and she’s totally number dyslexic.
Since she ended up trashing her tires in the accident, Anna’s waiting for a cab that’s already late to take her to a meeting. E volunteers to drive her, and finds out that it’s a meeting for her new project, a romantic comedy trying to be something more called Brown-Eyed Girl, a script E remembers since Vince passed on it a while back.
When Anna pressures E into telling her what he really thought of the script, he says he didn’t like it and thought the third act just didn’t work.
Later on, Anna calls E and asks him out for dinner. It turns out that a) she wants to pick his brain for his thoughts on her career; and b) she’s got a boyfriend, who calls her during dinner.
Anna ends up asking E to be her manager.


Subplot 2: Mrs. Ari is asked to reprise her role as town slut Kendall Scott for the anniversary of The Young and the Restless. Ari, possessive and mindful of the fact that it’s a daytime soap, isn’t thrilled about the offer. When he finds out that part of what Mrs. Ari is supposed to do is to seduce Latin soap hunk Javier Gracho (whom Lloyd, solid fan of Y&R that he is—he hasn’t missed an episode in a dozen years—has as wallpaper), he freaks.
Ari visits the set and when he’s told by the missus in no uncertain terms to get lost, he pays Javier a visit. Prepared to lift Javier up from the wasteland of daytime TV, Ari dangles the promise of primetime and Ugly Betty, just so long as Javier doesn’t kiss Mrs. Ari.
Javier spoils a shot when he doesn’t liplock with Mrs. Ari, and points to Ari when he’s asked what’s wrong. Exasperated that Ari won’t let her be kissed, Mrs. Ari grabs Javier and kisses him herself, after which, they do the scene.
Later on, an argument in the Gold master bedroom. Ari’s just really jealous that some other man is kissing his wife, and Mrs. Ari is pissed that Ari suggested she’s aged and that she’d suffer from being shot in High Def. It turns out that Mrs. Ari was asked to return as a regular, but she’s happy and content with her life (she did walk away from acting for this), and she just wanted one day to have this little crazy on-camera “fling” to assure herself that she’s still quite the desirable hottie.
The Golds then have hot monkey love. (Ari’s such a lucky dog.)


The third subplot involves Turtle, three girls, a cop, and some weed.
Despite that less than stellar subplot, “The Young and the Stoned” is a great half-hour, with the introduction of Anna Faris (who’s always struck me as a really funny actress far too big for the Scary Movie franchise) playing herself. There’s always such promise whenever someone plays themselves on Entourage (or, more accurately, a version of themselves), and when it’s over a number of episodes (as Mandy Moore did in Season 2), the results can be truly excellent. I’m looking forward to more of Faris.
That, coupled with the Y&R subplot, take this episode through the roof.


(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)