Rolling Stone Australia - May 2016

102 May, 2016

‘30 Rock’ and ‘TheOice’

alumni bring the laughs

By Michael Adams

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Ellie Kemper, Tituss Burgess

CreatedbyTinaFeyandRobertCarlock

★★★½

Following30 Rockmust

have been daunting for

TinaFey.Butwithco-cre-

ator Robert Carlock she’s

done well withUnbreak-

able Kimmy Schmidt’s

charming debut season.

Produced for Netflix, this has Ellie Kem-

per (The Oice)asKimmy,who’snearly30

whenshe’srescuedfromacultbunkerin

Indiana, where she’s been held prisoner for

halfherlife.Nowthis“molewoman”istry-

ingtomakeherwayinNewYorkCity,shar-

ingabasementwithunemployedgayblack

actor Titus (Burgess) in a house owned

by senior hippie Lillian (Carol Kane) and

workingasadogsbodyforbillionairetro-

phywifeJacqueline(JaneKrakowski).

So far, so sitcom, and indeedUKS’s first

fewepisodesaregentlyentertainingrather

than riotously funny. But as the characters

clickandthecastloosensupwithscripts

ever-speedier with comic complexities, it

begins to feel like we’re being embraced by

30 Rock’s weird and wonderful little sister

–andthat’snobadthing.Kemperisgoof-

ily appealing in her sunnily feminist role,

Krakowski successfully re-channels 30

Rock’s sympathetic psycho Jenna, Kane

crackswisetogoodefectandBurgessen-

ergetically refreshes what is a knowing-

ly clichéd character. There are great guest

turns, too, including Fey as an idiot pros-

ecutor, Jon Hamm as the cult leader and

Tim Blake Nelson as Kimmy’s gormless

adoptive father.

UKSoccasionally strains for zaniness

and it’s not yet at 30 Rock’s heights. But

with two more seasons greenlit, it has plen-

ty of room to grow.

Fargo S2

Kirsten Dunst

Dir. by Randall Einhorn et al

★★★★★

Setin1979,andonlytangen-

tially related to the overrated

S1,thishashicksKirstenDunst

andJessePlemonsembroiledin

an organised crime war while

cops Patrick Wilson and Ted

Dansontrytokeepthepeace

andBokeemWoodbine’sbril-

liantpsychofunk-soulassas-

sinplaysbothendsagainstthe

middle. Oozing style (the split

screens are amazing), deadpan

humour (truly Coenesque rath-

er than try-hard) and viscer-

al suspense and violence (the

bloody body count has emo-

tional impact),Fargo S2was

thebestthingonTVin2015

andisperfectforabingeweek-

end.

Creed

Sylvester Stallone

Directed by Ryan Coogler

★★★½

Thiscannycontinuationofthe

Rocky legend has Sly’s bruiser

Balboa training Adonis Creed

(Michael B. Jordan), long-lost

son of his buddy Apollo, who

waskilledintheringbyDrago

back inRocky IV.Slycharms

as the old mumbler feeling his

mortality and Jordan is thump-

ingly believable as the young-

ster driven to emulate his dead

dad. Director Ryan Coogler

doesn’t reinvent the genre –

this is a mostly predictable

fight picture but solidly rous-

ing stuf nevertheless. Worth

the price of rental alone: the

mid-picture fight done in one

long, brilliantly choreographed

and filmed take.

Phoenix

Nina Hoss

Directed by Christian Petzold

★★★

IntheruinsofBerlinafter

WWII, terribly disfigured Aus-

chwitz camp survivor Nelly

(Nina Hoss, so great inHome-

land) gets a facial reconstruc-

tion and then goes in search

of her husband Johnny. What

shefindsisamanwhothinks

his wife is dead and that he’s

stumbled upon a lookalike who

canhelphimcollectherinher-

itance.Phoenixpromises noir

psychologicalthrills,butthisis

more arthouse drama than sus-

penseful double game. While

it unfurls with emotional im-

pact it doesn’t have enough up

its sleeve, and there’s a puzzling

plotquestionraisedbyNelly’s

singing ability.

99 Homes

Michael Shannon

Directed by Ramin Bahrani

★★★★

The Big Short gives a glib top-

down view of the GFC while

99 Homes is a ground-lev-

el portrait of how Wall Street

fucked Main Street. Andrew

Garfi eld is Nash, a Florida con-

tractor who’s out of work and,

with his mum and son, soon

out of the family home, escort-

ed by Michael Shannon’s real

estate shark Rick Carver. Vic-

tim becomes abuser as Nash

joins Carver’s business that, not

content with fl ipping foreclosed

houses for fi nancial windfalls,

defrauds the government of

bail-out bucks. 99 Homes may

be too neat, but it’s a seething

depiction of class cannibalism

borne of desperation.

A New York State Of Mind

IR ILLL

KimKiKim h

(e(eempemmemm r) aakkess

friririennssis NYY.YYY

★★★★★ Classic | ★★★★ Excellent | ★★★ Good | ★★ Fair | ★ Poor