matt-gelfer

Sarah Cooper is very, very good at conveying a great deal of tumult with her facial expressions. What always sold her Trump lip-sync videos was her range of emotions which managed to comment on the insanity of her given material without changing a word or a beat. Indeed, the lip-synching segments of the special are the strongest bits- not because she is repeating herself but because Cooper is allowing herself to be as hilarious as she really is. The weakest bits are where Cooper is playing straight man to her funny guests.

The special is both helped and hurt by the parade of celebrity cameos. Helped because the celebrities (especially Maya Rudolph and Aubrey Plaza) are such a delight. Rudolph is particularly scene stealing. But on the whole they serve to detract from Cooper's comedic voice- never by outshining it, exactly, more by distracting from it. The tonal shifts should work better than they do- the almost stream of consciousness flow is Pythonesque in a way, but that just means this might have worked better as a 1/2 hour pilot for a new ensemble sketch show rather than an hour showcase for ostensibly one person.

All in all it is worth a watch, but I think we can expect better special from Sarah Cooper in the future and I do hope we get one!

To make a movie that is "so bad it's good" is like walking a knife's edge. It can't be intentional, and it has to be so mind-bendingly weird that it becomes almost sublime. I have to say, Cats accomplishes this. It is rare that each element of a movie works harmoniously to make something so confounding. I am giving this movie a low rating because, objectively, it is really very bad. But I am also encouraging you to go out and see this movie, because it is unquestionably entertaining.

The CGI has somehow produced feline-oids that simultaneously appear too realistic and hilariously cartoonish, and the net result can only be described as the mind full on rejecting everything that is being perceived. Andrew Lloyd Weber's score has received some updates, though in none of the ways it perhaps should, and the result is (somehow) simultaneously dated but with a cloying modern sheen. The acting swings from laughably austere to hammy. The feline-oids change size and scale dizzyingly and at random. Ian McKellan's participation in this picture might qualify as elder abuse. And Dame Judi Dench (!) must be seen to be believed.

This is all only the tip of the iceberg- the rest defies description. You really must see this movie, it is unlikely there shall ever be anything quite like it again.

Full disclosure- if you don't enjoy Broadway shows, subtract one star from the rating, and if you don't live in New York, subtract another. The humor is unapologetically slanted to a New York theater audience, but it is, after all, a limited run Broadway show.

Mulaney and Kroll inhabit their characters so comfortably and completely that one tends to forget the men behind them. A two-hour show of self- absorbed, borderline delusional caricatures is so reminiscent of Steve Martin's early comedy that his cameo in the middle of the show feels like a foregone conclusion.

The jokes are fast paced but the premise never seems rushed. The performance is loose, but scripted and theatrical enough to feel substantial. I've watched it twice. Highly, highly recommended to comedy fans.