Drink at Work's Weekend Picks™

Time once again, for Drink at Work's Weekend Picks™. It's effin' cold out there this weekend, so between bundling your bundle and cuddling your, uh... Cuddle, you don't have the time to decide what movie to watch while toasting your toast.

I'll stop now.

Drink at Work's Weekend Picks™: Wrapping your entertainment choices in a warm, toasty taco of funny.

Really, I'm done. Here are this week's picks...

The Stepfather (1987) and Mike Birch's One-Man Hamlet
Picked by Carol

I'm giving you two picks this week because I do what I want, Felix.

First up, one of the great thriller slasher films from the '80s, The Stepfather. I know there's a big, splashy remake opening this weekend, but I only have one question for you: does it star Terry O'Quinn in the titular role? No? Then rent the original instead. I've probably had more nightmares featuring Terry O'Quinn than anyone else, thanks to this movie. Added bonus, the movie also stars the underrated and oft-forgotten Jill Schoelen, who was doing the whole black hair with bangs thing decades before Zooey Deschanel, thank you very much.



My second pick is for those local to NYC who like things that are good. Our pal Mike Birch, one of the most talented guys in the New York comedy community and former Giant Tuesday Night of Amazing Inventions cast member, is in the midst of a Sunday residency at Theater Under St. Mark's where he is performing his One-Man Hamlet. Inhabiting some 18 different characters over the course of 90 minutes, Birch brings to life the delightful concept piece once imagined by Kevin Kline in the film Soap Dish: "See, my, my theory is that all the characters are Hamlet, it's all happening in Hamlet's head. So you only need one actor." I plan to check this out this weekend as I'm told Birch's tour de force performance, directed by the equally talented Bricken Sparacino, is a theater experience not to be missed.

Sundays at 7 pm
October 18, 25 & Nov 1

Under St. Mark’s Theater
94 St. Mark’s Place (1st and A)

Tickets $10 at the box office 1/2 hour before the show
Doors open at 6:40 so you can come early for live pre-show music
provided by Eric Chercover!


Where the Wild Things Are
Picked by Ned
From talking to other folks who have seen this already, people either absolutely adore it or demand the fake-crowned head of Spike Jonze on a platter. Well you know what? I loved it. Probably because I was a spazz as a kid, and I have yet to see a movie that better exemplifies childhood spazziness. And this is coming from someone who can't stand Dave Eggers. So yeah.

But I understand if you're hesitant, given the obvious twee factor. So, instead of blowing eight to fourteen bucks on seeing the movie, you could create your own immersive Spike Jonze presents Maurice Sendak's Apex of Your Childhood experience thusly: Get two iPods, one playing a mix of Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the other playing an audiobook of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, put on some footie PJs, grab a teddy bear and pretend it said something neglectful to you, then cry. Voilà.

Or, just go see Zombieland again. That shit is fantastic.




Paranormal Activity
Picked by Sean

While "Father Issues" Hartsell wants you to waste your $12 on a remake, my advice is to enjoy a movie that evokes the spirit of the Halloween season. I'm of course speaking of "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs." It's the nightmare tale of a world in which the laws of condensation and precipitation are freed from the mooring of traditional physics. In the world of CWACOM, meatballs and just about any other food can now rain down upon humanity at the whim of a mad climatologist and crush anybody at any time. "There is no running from the sky you asshole fuck faces!" exclaims the scientist, as an endless deluge of Hot Pockets pours down, killing thousands of unsuspecting members of Weight Watchers who had shown up because they'd been promised it would rain healthier Lean Cuisine dinners.

This film, for it is A FILM, is about to join the ranks of our nation's most prestigious horror cinema classics made for children, the most famous of which is as you know the painfully candid "The Case of the Murder of Your Parents Who Hated You Anyway On Hot Teen Sex Street."

Wait a minute. I made a lie. Ok, so I also have two picks. I'm either going to see "Paranormal Activity" or "Capitalism: A Love Story."

They both have an important lesson to teach: 1. That ghosts are assholes and 2. That people who are still in favor of a totally unregulated economy even though we've just gone through a horrible recession due to such beliefs which were put into practice by ideological conservatives... are assholes.

At least ghosts can't vote.

(Yet)

Law Abiding Citizen
Picked by Corey

Since Ned stole my pick and I couldn't find anything new with Jen Connelly (That's right, we're on a shortened first name basis now), I pick Law Abiding Citizen. Gerard Butler stars as a nice guy who watches his family murdered during a home invasion and then watches as the guy who did it gets off easy. This all causes our nice guy to murder the murderers and then murder everyone who put him in prison for the murdering of the aforementioned murderers.

As a struggling, broke and broken cartoonist/comedy writer who continues to grasp onto the dying newspaper comic industry while watching helplessly as "Social Media Gurus" make millions because they can quip in less than 140 characters, this movie speaks to me.

From a Sociological stand point, I mean.

What?





Don't know what to do with your "movie bucks" each week? Check in with Drink at Work every (almost) Friday and we'll tell ya where to spend your hard-earned entertainment dollar. And we'll mean it.