A lot of hype has been building for DC Comics’ latest TV attempt to try to level the playing field between them and Marvel. Although professional critics and professional couch potatoes alike have been debating Fox’s Gotham, it debuted to almost 8 million viewers. The show begins pre-Batman in “Gotham City,” which hasn’t always been “a haven for cape-wearing do-gooders. But it's always had a supersize need for them,” says PluggedIn’s Paul Asay. In fact, Asay admits, “This isn't the ‘smash!’ ‘pow!’ ‘bop!’ Gotham of the 1960s television show.” Ben McKenzie (most famously known for his role on The O.C.) stars as Detective James Gordon, an “idealistic detective” just trying to “keep his head above water.” Despite the show’s gratuitous depiction of the rough streets of Gotham, McKenzie’s character is a “glimmer of hope in all this darkness.” Variety’s Brian Lowry agrees that the show is a “is a handsome, gritty crime drama,” but only when its taken “strictly on its own terms.” Lowry believes that if viewers are able to “forget” about DC’s latest Batman franchise starring Christian Bale, and “get lost in Gotham’s murky alleyways” they might actually enjoy it.
If your Saturday nights just haven’t been as enjoyable now that Saturday Night Live lost both Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, then maybe their latest film, The Skeleton Twins, is for you. Although Wiig and Hader are most well known for their comedic roles, director Craig Johnson brings the duo together for a sibling drama “with a heavy dose of dysfunction.” Hader and Wiig’s characters reunite after he attempts suicide, and she isn’t in much better situation. Even though the film doesn’t claim to be a comedy, Crosswalk’s Christian Hamaker calls out the film on its attempts at humor which are “morbid” and “come across as forced and desperate—just like the re-established connection between the siblings.” Hamaker also notes the heavy amount of sexual content, saying the film “goes to some dark places and doesn’t allow viewers to laugh them all off.” The New York Times’ Stephen Holden believes the film “is subtler than most” brother-sister movies “in evoking a mutual sympathy” between the twins, played well by Wiig and Hader who have worked together so long they probably share that “intuitive connection.” Holden found the movie enjoyable despite its inability to “make any kind of grand statement about The Way We Live Now.” Overall, Holden sees the film as “a well-written and acted movie about contemporary life that doesn’t strain for melodrama and is largely devoid of weepy soap opera theatrics.”
Larisa Kline is an intern with Christianity Today Movies and a student at The King’s College in New York City.
