Funny or Die's annual Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival has brought some big-name comedians to Dallas the past few years, and 2015 will even bigger with Amy Schumer and Aziz Ansari headlining the festival when it makes a stop at Gexa Energy Pavilion on October 18.
The Dallas date is the last on the festival's tour, which will hit 18 cities between August 28 and October 18, including Houston on October 16 and Austin on October 17.
Schumer and Ansari will be at every stop on the tour, which will also feature a rotating cast of 20 other comedians, including Anthony Jeselnik, Ashley Barnhill, Bridget Everett, Dave Attell, Jay Pharoah, Jeff Ross, Jim Norton, John Mulaney, Michael Che, Nick Kroll, Nick Thune, Nikki Glaser, Rachel Feinstein, Rory Scovel, Sebastian Maniscalco, Tim Minchin, T.J. Miller and Todd Barry.
Schumer and Ansari are natural picks for headliners, as they are two of the hottest comedians working today. Schumer is earning much praise for her Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer and for her upcoming film Trainwreck, while Ansari followed up the end of Parks and Recreation with the bestselling book Modern Romance.
The festival also features a second stage hosted by Big Jay Oakerson that will highlight local and emerging comedic talent in each city.
The Citi® cardmember pre-sale begins Thursday, July 9 through Citi's Private Pass® Program. Tickets for the general public, which range between $29.75 and $99.75, go on sale beginning Friday, July 10 at www.livenation.com.
Aziz Ansari will be the co-headliner at the festival that will also feature a rotating cast of 20 other comedians.
MoviePins.com
Aziz Ansari will be the co-headliner at the festival that will also feature a rotating cast of 20 other comedians.
Of all the formulaic movie genres, Christmas/holiday movies are among the most predictable. No matter what the problem is that arises between family members, friends, or potential romantic partners, the stories in holiday movies are designed to give viewers a feel-good ending even if the majority of the movie makes you feel pretty bad.
That’s certainly the case in Oh. What. Fun., in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire, an underappreciated mom living in Houston with her inattentive husband, Nick (Denis Leary). As the film begins, her three children are arriving back home for Christmas: The high-strung Channing (Felicity Jones) is married to the milquetoast Doug (Jason Schwartzman); the aloof Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) brings home yet another new girlfriend; and the perpetual child Sammy (Dominic Sessa) has just broken up with his girlfriend.
Each of the family members seems to be oblivious to everything Claire does for them, especially when it comes to what she really wants: For them to nominate her to win a trip to see a talk show in L.A. hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). When she accidentally gets left behind on a planned outing to see a show, Claire reaches her breaking point and — in a kind of Home Alone in reverse — she decides to drive across the country to get to the show herself.
Written and directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), and co-written by Chandler Baker (who wrote the short story on which the film is based), the movie never establishes any kind of enjoyable rhythm. Each of the characters, including competitive neighbor Jeanne (Joan Chen), is assigned a character trait that becomes their entire personality, with none of them allowed to evolve into something deeper.
The filmmakers lean hard into the idea that Claire is a person who always puts her family first and receives very little in return, but the evidence presented in the story is sketchy at best. Every situation shown in the film is so superficial that tension barely exists, and the (over)reactions by Claire give her family members few opportunities to make up for their failings.
The most interesting part of the movie comes when Claire actually makes it to the Zazzy Sims show. Even though what happens there is just as unbelievable as anything else presented in the story, Showalter and Baker concoct a scene that allows Claire and others to fully express the central theme of the film, and for a few minutes the movie actually lives up to its title.
Pfeiffer, given her first leading role since 2020’s French Exit, is a somewhat manic presence, and her thick Texas accent and unnecessary voiceover don’t do her any favors. It seems weird to have such a strong supporting cast with almost nothing of substance to do, but almost all of them are wasted, including Danielle Brooks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The lone exception is Longoria, who is a blast in the few scenes she gets.
Oh. What. Fun. is far from the first movie to try and fail at becoming a new holiday classic, but the pedigree of Showalter and the cast make this dismal viewing experience extra disappointing. Ironically, overworked and underappreciated moms deserve a much better story than the one this movie delivers.
