Good week for all, especially documentaries.

Bottoms

One of my favorite discoveries during the pandemic, other than sometimes you can be so sad you simply cannot cry, was Emma Seligman’s debut feature, Shiva Baby. A tight, 77-minute comedic psychological thriller/horror movie about social anxiety I stumbled upon on HBOMax (before it was Max) one evening. It starred a then unknown Rachel Sennott as a Jewish college student who runs into her sugar daddy at her aunt’s shiva, who just so happens to be her father’s protégé. It’s a near perfectly executed, edge-of-your-seat cringe fest fueled by an excellent performance by Sennott as well as Theater Camp and The Bear’s Molly Gordon and the quintessential bald baritone bear Jew, Fred Melamed. When I saw trailers for Seligman’s follow-up, Bottoms, I was a bit disappointed. The trailers didn’t make the movie seem like anything other than a by-the-numbers mainstream teen comedy. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

While Bottoms never reaches the heights of Shiva Baby, it’s a very funny comedy with some genuinely memorable moments. Sennott once again delivers a fantastic comedic performance as does most of the cast. Miles Fowler is a particular stand-out as Tim, the main football player’s sidekick whose delivery and timing is spot-on. The most glaring thing that seems to be missing here is the chemistry between Sennott and her co-star Ayo Edebiri, “Sydney” from The Bear. Sennott is clearly the stronger player here, but I don’t think Edebiri is terrible as much as you never buy that these two are best friends. Thinking I might just be going insane, I asked my buddy who I also saw the movie with what he thought. He confirmed there was limited to zero chemistry between them and even went as far to say as Edebiri delivered a poor performance. I think they were maybe just on different wavelengths when shooting, which is a shame because a strong bond between these two characters that radiated off the screen could have catapulted this from a good comedy to a great one. Still, there are enough laughs and creativity packed throughout Bottoms to make it well worth your while. Grade: B (In Theaters)

How to With John Wilson (Season 3)

For three seasons, documentarian and comedian John Wilson has reflected an ugly-ass mirror on society with his always fascinating and frequently brilliant docuseries – How to With John Wilson. Every episode, what began as a straightforward instructional video diary on completing a certain type of activity, would soon spiral into complete madness. Whether John was interviewing a bizarre energy drink mogul or a self-proclaimed anti-circumcision warrior, the show offered precise insights into society that were sometimes even poignant. This final season might not have been the show’s funniest. Still, it’s some of the most shocking television I’ve seen, especially in its final two episodes surrounding Titanic disaster deniers and Arizona-based cryonics enthusiasts who believe future people can defrost and re-animate their frozen dead heads. Fearless and rarely accepted with open arms, John travels into the icy depths of these offbeat subcultures to gain a deeper understanding of why humans are the way we are. It shouldn’t have to be stated that this is not a show for everyone – John can be an irritating or off-putting personality to some, even though he’s merely a big-ass nerd to me. Also, much like other Nathan Fielder shows (who serves as this show’s producer), it pushes the concept of cringe comedy to the absolute limit. In an era where mainstream entertainment pulls punches every chance it gets, How to With John Wilson was fucking manna from the heavens. R.I.P. Grade: A (Max)

Telemarketers

The best standalone docuseries to roll through HBO in a while, make that the best standalone docuseries to roll through anywhere in a while. Telemarketers, executive produced by the Safdie brothers as well as Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, and Jody Hill, comes straight from the horse’s mouth so speak. Unlike most documentary series, this one was completely shot by the subjects – two former telemarketers (Sam Lipman-Stern and Pat Pespas) for Civic Development Group on the war path to discredit and expose their former employers that scam little old ladies out of all their money. The footage dates back all the way to the early 2000s when Sam and Pat worked at one of CDG’s call centers – a hellish landscape of binge drinking, heroin snorting, bathroom prostitution, and actual fighting that the organization turned a blind eye to just as long as the sales numbers were hit. One of their top callers happens to be Pat, destined to become a pop culture icon, who is captured on camera at one point nearly overdosing on heroin while fighting the clock to close a sales call. Other telemarketers laugh and cheer him on, knowing full well how fucked Pat is on the ol’ horse. Miraculously, he pulls it off and makes a huge sale before nodding into oblivion. The series aims its sights higher than just showing low level telemarketers with criminal records being insane at their workplace, it exposes highly illegal activity from police officers’ unions across the country, who essentially were the brains behind the scam, as well as two business guy brothers who used their ill-gotten gotten gains to fund a shitty Christian Rock band. Over the course of three one-hour episodes, Pat and Sam uncover a lot of infuriating but not all too shocking facts about why these telemarketing scams are still allowed to operate, but the real treat is how they’re both basically learning how to become investigative journalists along the way. Telemarketers is just as interested in its investigators as it is the investigation at hand, and that’s what really sets it apart from a lot of these cookie cutter, soulless, most likely on Netflix docuseries that paint by the numbers. While telemarketing scams have been around forever, there’s nothing familiar about the way this material is presented and that’s what gives the show its edge. You really get attached to these guys, especially Pat who is one of the most endearing and funny subjects I’ve ever seen in a documentary. Grade: A- (Max)

Cobweb

Great horror movies are so rare that I’m usually happy whenever I stumble upon a good one. Cobweb isn’t a great horror film, but it’s one of those merely good ones. It’s very predictable in every plot pivot, but at least it commits super hard to what it’s trying to do. Additionally, it has credible performances from the entire cast, including Lizzy Caplan as a mom lady and C’mon C’mon‘s Woody Norman as a clever little boy. The monster in the movie, and this is a monster movie, is well enough designed and creepy at a distance. When they show you a peek at the monster’s face, it becomes a little stupid, but hey, for most of its running time, Cobweb manages to succeed where most creature features have failed. The characters are all well-developed and make choices you and I would make, meaning they’re not dumb idiot people. The narrative makes sense and provides a slight twist on a familiar setup. While there’s not as much gore as I usually like in these things, the kills are well-executed and sometimes even humorous. If you’re looking for the best horror these past two years have offered, check out Barbarian or Talk to Me. If you’re looking for a good horror movie under 90 minutes, I think Cobweb might satisfy you. Grade: B- (VOD)