How do you feel about Kristen Wiig

whoops, meant for ILE

and now it's on ILE

I like her most of the time, but there's a couple characters I just can't stand

same

which may be a surprisingly positive stance for the creator of worst recurring Kristen Wiig character on SNL but i criticize because i care

(xpost)

I have never seen her in a movie, so I'm gonna go w/ "I hate her, always have"

I like her most of the time, but there's a couple characters I just can't stand

really happy her movie is a hit too

I don't get how you can only like some of her characters if they're all the same character

she has a lot of "everyone stop and watch kristen make a grotesque face and shriek" reoccuring sketches, but there are some exceptions, especially when she's part of a duo bit

I hate her on SNL now but I like her in movies

It's not so much that I hate her on SNL as that I just hate SNL and the unfunny shit they put her in.

I had no idea how good she was until I saw Bridesmaids this weekend. The only other movie I've seen with her in it is Knocked UP and I don't remember her in it at all. I loved this movie and her so much that I'm a convert. I actually did both laugh and cry and I now want to be friends with her.

"everyone stop and watch kristen make a grotesque face and shriek"

I hate shit like that which is exactly why I'd dismissed her until two days ago.

I think she's extremely talented and very funny, but it's all about how those qualities are handled. Clearly, when she has some control over her material (Bridesmaids), she's a powerhouse. I've actively disliked the way she's occasionally been utilized on SNL. I can't stand when sketches are basically a showcase for one of her wacky characters (which, note to SNL: most of your recurring characters/sketches these days are not built for recurrence), often to such an extreme that they're essentially monologues wherein the presence of other performers is completely perfunctory. Plus, I totally disagree with the idea, so prevalent on SNL, that Wiig's strengths are in playing those wacky, fish out of water types. She has a pretty great range, and I always like her more when she's able to bring some pathos into the mix.

oh yeah she was in knocked up I guess I have seen her in a movie xp

her Knocked Up bit was great!

Jill: We don't want you to lose weight, we just want you to be healthy. Y'know, by eating less.
Alison Scott: OK.
Jill: We would just like it if you go home and step on the scale, and write down how much you weigh, and subtract it by like, 20

Who was she in Knocked Up?! The only women I can remember in that are Heigel, Judd Apatow's wife and the Asian stoner girl.

Oh! One of the TV executives?

yeah, the one who was horrified by pregnancy and sat next to her during the "tighten" bits.

Yeah, it was an Alan Tudyk/Kristen Wiig comedy tag team. Would watch a movie with just those two in it.

loved her in knocked up and macgruber. looking forward to seeing bridesmaids. the snl stuff i've seen has been mostly annoying. but tbf my snl viewing is pretty much confined to once or twice a season, and a couple of clips here and there that get internet famous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvP7cnmxlLM

Yeah, Knocked Up was actually the first thing I ever saw her in, and she was such a delightful surprise.

"I peed my jeans. I peed 'em."

I absolutely adored her in KU and will sometimes just watch her two or three scenes.

"I couldn't believe it either."

just like toned and smaller

lol

ok yes I remember now and you're all right - she was great

amazed that there is this much love for the woman who brought the world gilly

I don't think I realized she was the lady who made dumb faces on SNL when I saw it at the time though.

"Don't make EVERYTHING smaller, I wouldn't generalize from that." Alan Tudyk is amazing.

He looks like another actor but I can't figure out exactly who.

amazed that there is this much love for the woman who brought the world gilly

See, this is the thing: most of her SNL characters (yes, including Gilly) would be effing hilarious if you saw her doing them off the cuff for the first time in an improv performance. But then what SNL does is suck all of the life and spontaneity and humor out of those characters by trotting them out over and over and over. Because, let's face it: SNL isn't really made for people who are legitimately invested in comedy.

('What Up With That' is the only recurring sketch I'll give a pass to these days, and that is entirely thanks to Sudeikis.)

(Oh, and I guess I'll let Stefon slide, too.)

And (not to go too far off topic) this is what's really kind of a shame about SNL's stale approach these days. At least half of the cast are some of the funniest and most talented people to have ever been on the show. Not to mention the fact that they have some really amazing writers right now. It's just that most of these people's talents, to the extent that I'm aware of them, have been presented more fully outside the confines of the show. I think it might be time for Michaels to hand the actual show-runner reigns over to some fresh blood.

we need a "best bobby moynihan characters" thread. i loved his "kid excited about being on a film set but indifferent to meeting robert deniro."

and his snooki. to die for.

what is more ritualized and beaten into the ground, i ask you, your average SNL skit or your average SNL thread

boom

I can't seem to pin down the reservations I have with her, something about an persistent ironic detachment or an unwillingness to totally abandon or debase herself in her comedy. But I still like her a lot. She has definite presence.

lol goole

I can't seem to pin down the reservations I have with her, something about an persistent ironic detachment or an unwillingness to totally abandon or debase herself in her comedy. But I still like her a lot. She has definite presence.

I mean, maybe in comparison to Rachel Dratch

He looks like another actor but I can't figure out exactly who.

― \(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Monday, June 6, 2011 1:32 PM Bookmark

I get a shorter Stephen Merchant vibe from him, without the glasses.

Not an actor, but he makes me think of Curt Schilling.

Him too.

I think she's extremely talented and very funny, but it's all about how those qualities are handled. Clearly, when she has some control over her material (Bridesmaids), she's a powerhouse. I've actively disliked the way she's occasionally been utilized on SNL. I can't stand when sketches are basically a showcase for one of her wacky characters (which, note to SNL: most of your recurring characters/sketches these days are not built for recurrence), often to such an extreme that they're essentially monologues wherein the presence of other performers is completely perfunctory. Plus, I totally disagree with the idea, so prevalent on SNL, that Wiig's strengths are in playing those wacky, fish out of water types. She has a pretty great range, and I always like her more when she's able to bring some pathos into the mix.

― SNEEZED GOING DOWN STEPS, PAIN WHEN PUTTING SOCKS ON (Deric W. Haircare), Monday, June 6, 2011 2:23 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

i don't know if the variable here is really creative control, she's pretty infamously "Lorne's favorite" and has made public pronouncements about which characters she's decided she won't do anymore, so i don't think she's being forced into performing stuff she dislikes or wouldn't write anything like on SNL

There were some horrible one-note appearances on Weekend Update she did recently (like one as an aerobics instructor) that I can't imagine existing if they weren't in large part her idea.

They had practically nothing to do with the news and basically seemed like shitty Wiig bits they couldn't bother to build a set for.

Sneezed OTM (and not for the first time, I might add). I think the control she has over her characters at SNL is limited to, "What if there was a character who talked like this?" Either the skit is half-written, or the character is half-realized, but apparently films allow her the time to really dig in and develop a character beyond "She sounds like this!"

xxp

Gilly is genius fwiw

Gilly is the character that really made me loathe Wiig on SNL. She's fine in movies though.

they feed the aye-aye human flesh. it develops a taste for it, and they use the crazed human-eating aye-aye to avenge their father, who committed suicide because he never successfully defended his podcast patent.

(the aye-aye eats marc maron in the movie)

post credit shot of the aye-aye knocking on adam corolla's studio door dressed as a pizza delivery man

mid-film side plot -- after the real Dalai Lama suddenly dies, a group of exiled tibetan buddhist monks find them through a facebook page listed in the aye-aye's name, mistakenly thinking they may have found the next incarnation. After laughs over their misunderstanding, they agree to do guest throat-singing vocals on a track for the covers record.

T-shirts with the aye-aye and a movie catchphrase would work well, maybe "Are you sure you didn't order anchovies?"

man, I've been waiting to be able to say this, but Dr. Morbius otm with his assessment of Skeleton Twins.

That said, I did like Hader's performance. Didn't really like Wiig, but I have an unusually low tolerance for he anyway.

I found her convincing somehow as the person trying but failing to hold it together as a norm.

a shitty '80s tune

I think you mean one of the greatest songs ever tbh.

lol

I do like that one part where she first reluctantly starts lip-syncing, very cuet

feel like that 'heart-to-heart' dance move has been done by Wiig in a movie before...

It totally has. That said, it is a pretty good move.

also i find the boucing around from suicidal depression to lipsyncing to playing fartgames on nitrous oxide just a little too 'resilient' even for characters in an indie dramedy.

that blond actor who played her Aussie scuba teacher was well worth a fuck tho (apparently he's Elisabeth Olsen's bf).

yeah there is a certain bathos to the way amerindie films deal with these subjects, always putting this slightly unbelievable *positive outlook* spin on things, same with Silver Linings Playbook and mental illness.

Oh shit, forgot about him. Eggers sort of is the embodiment of a whimsical indie movie cliche.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, January 7, 2015 8:38 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark

lest we forget

http://www.seat42f.com/images/stories/Movies/Posters/Away-We-Go-Movie-Poster.jpg

oh lord, did anyone here actually see that turd?

lol, the character names

John Krasinski as Burt Farlander
Maya Rudolph as Verona De Tessant
Carmen Ejogo as Grace De Tessant
Jeff Daniels as Jerry Farlander
Catherine O'Hara as Gloria Farlander
Allison Janney as Lily
Jim Gaffigan as Lowell
Maggie Gyllenhaal as LN
Josh Hamilton as Roderick
Melanie Lynskey as Munch Garnett
Chris Messina as Tom Garnett
Paul Schneider as Courtney Farlander

That reminds me, a film version of You Too Shall Know Our Velocity (or whatever it's called) starring Harry Potter is due for Festival Season '15-'16.

Munch Garnett

poor Paul Schneider, he really deserves another good movie, someday

Office dude has some big feet

points to anyone who can find me a modern american person named "de tessant" -- every link I can find gives me the movie or a french person from another century

Munch Garnett

― $80 is absurd and very ridiculous! (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, January 7, 2015 4:40 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

She and Hader are good, considering, but that Skeleton Twins script is a desiccated collection of Sundance cliches. Oh no, Joanna Gleason as an Evil New Age Mother! Suicide attempts all around! Lipsyncing a shitty '80s tune cuz gay!

― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, January 6, 2015 11:31 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

I basically agree with Morbs' assessment except I would flip the things on either side of the "but," i.e. the performances outweighed the cliches for me. Also thought Ty Burrell was very good as the teacher.

― man alive, Wednesday, January 7, 2015 12:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I also didn't know sundance movies were full of suicide attempts, guess I just don't see enough of them.

― man alive, Wednesday, January 7, 2015 12:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

also i find the boucing around from suicidal depression to lipsyncing to playing fartgames on nitrous oxide just a little too 'resilient' even for characters in an indie dramedy.

that blond actor who played her Aussie scuba teacher was well worth a fuck tho (apparently he's Elisabeth Olsen's bf).

― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, January 7, 2015 4:12 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah there is a certain bathos to the way amerindie films deal with these subjects, always putting this slightly unbelievable *positive outlook* spin on things, same with Silver Linings Playbook and mental illness.

― man alive, Wednesday, January 7, 2015 4:19 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Silver Linings Playbook drove me insane with its marrow deep phoniness and manic pandering insistence that u love it and message that we're all part of the same crazy human tapestry so don't sweat it if you're a psycho who puts dudes in the hospital. Awful film

The Skeleton Twins was a lot better. It has contrivances, it has melodrama, and it certainly has an element of Wiig & Hader being so great (Wiig gives a top 3 performance in 2014, as she did in 2011) that they bring uninspired-on-paper scenes up to their level. But the miserablist throughline being so genuine and right really took it a long way, and I give the director/writers credit for having just the right sensibility a lot of the time, underplaying the right things, the disinterest in schtick, the comedy is naturally extracted so when it comes it's a dizzying relief instead of trying to oppress u with its antic irreverence. There's nothing revelatory but it mostly feels 'right'... especially compared to fellow 'Sundance Style Comedies' like The Kings of Summer or w/e, boy does it really excel in that company

Hader could've been a too easy desexed tragic homo but his passive resilience is apt... the film isn't putting a fake 'positive outlook spin' on suicide, it's just being real... sometimes u try to kill yourself and sometimes u get up and dust yourself off but you're still a miserable piece of shit. The movie gets why depression is funny, how it's almost like a great feeling to know you're about to kill yourself out of loneliness and dissatisfaction, so it doesn't have to overcorrect at the end and ladle on "they're gonna be ok"-isms. They're still lonely pieces of SHIT at the end. For some reason I'm now thinking about how Ida was a more 'unflinching' film that studiously avoided melodrama, and it ended up saying something a lot more phony about its characters...

Also its a miraculous Luke Wilson comeback vehicle! Has he been this good in anything since Bottle Rocket? That Laura Dern tv show maybe, but that's it

good post, and thx for backing up my memory that Skeleton Twins was at least significantly better than Silver Linings Playbook.

And I enjoyed Luke Wilson a lot in it too.

I groaned when I heard the distant off-screen right-channel *splash* during the climax. I was expecting it, but still.

Office dude has some big feet

Office dude had big shoes to fill. First guy was a Hobbit apparently.

xxpost H4A otm. I really loved this and reading all the hate here made me feel like I'd watched a totally different movie. I was going to say something but I get really intimidated talking about movies once the doc shows up on a thread. Yes, I realize that's more my thing than anything having to do with him but it's true. FTR SLP was one of the most disappointingly awful movies I've seen in years. O'Russel is one of my favorite directors and that was just awful in pretty much every way.

Fuck, I just now remembered crits etc. trying to make Kings of Summer a thing.

O'Russel - i can't stop laughing at my typo. oops.

haha. I'm not sure I knew that it wasn't O'Russel until now.

Post-Huckabees it's been ohhhhhhhhh Russell

Yeah, he's unfortunately traveling down the same road as Alexander Pain.

oh just shut up

sorry - that was mean

I thought SLP had a lot more going on than ST. Hokey 3rd act aside.

good post H4A. not that i've seen the wiig movie in question but man did SLP rub me the wrong way. just awful.

i think Luke Wilson hasn't been in anything good because he's not that good an actor

I will always love him if only for Rushmore and the "O, R they?" line. It kills me. Still. I feel like he's the better looking but generally less charismatic Wilson bro. I did like him in this though.

but he does not deliver said line

lol you're right
i mean the scene

Jesus christ I'm tired.

my favorite luke wilson line

I've never seen BR. I am guessing I should watch it?

I think it's worth watching, yeah

it is on amazon prime, i think

I have that! Ty. :)

Yeah, Skeleton Twins was all right. It is a heaping mound of indie cliches (feel-good! dark and edgy suicide themes! people in their 30s coming home! blunt symbolism! etc. etc.) but ultimately likeable. Wiig and particularly Hader did great jobs. I forgot that Luke Wilson was in this and loved this throwback/likeable doofus role.

everybody otm about skeleton twins. had a lot of flaws but wiig and especially hader were great. hungry4ass right on about the fact that they are still miserable pieces of shit despite some happy moments and a generally happy ending

"Josh Hamilton as Roderick"

Albert Pujols as Fred