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Review: Serbis

Does not do justice to the premise

By GERALD PEARY | February 25, 2009

2.5 Stars

VIDEO: The trailer for Serbis

There couldn't be a more promising set-up for a movie than the one in Brillante Mendoza's film: a family-run gay-porno-movie theater. That might explain why this low-budget Philippine melodrama made it (improbably) into the Official Competition at Cannes 2008.

But despite some rowdy hardcore moments, Serbis is rarely wild enough, and certainly never funny enough, to do justice to the Almodovarian premise.

Mama Flor (Gina Pareno) presides over a crumbling cinema palace where her family eat their meals, her daughter is the ticket taker, her nephews are the projectionists, and her grandson rides his tricycle into the theater, peeking at male hookers. What nobody in the crowd notices: the X-rated films being shown are in gorgeous 35mm, wasted on cruisers on their knees.

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Uninformed brilliance
July 29, 9:40 am ET. Acclaimed standup comedian Bill Burr is running late for our scheduled half-hour phone interview, where we plan on talking up his upcoming appearance in Newport, along with any other topic lobbed at the red-headed, "shockingly Caucasian" pride of nearby Canton, Massachusetts.
Monty Python takes the stage at MSMT
"Adult Situations," a sign in the theater lobby promises, though as my companion eagerly commented pre-curtain, the disclaimer should perhaps also include a warning of "Childish Situations."
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In this wildly uneven comedy from Andy Flickman, sleek PR exec Marni (Kristen Bell) has finally buried her geeky high-school history.
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As playwriting goes, there's prolific and then there's prolific. There's, say, Shakespeare with his piddling 38 plays. And then there's someone like Alan Ayckbourn: 73 full-length babies, and counting.
Review: 2nd Story's darkly funny Kimberly Akimbo
Ironic, isn't it, how in the theater less can be so much more? Digital derring-do may have turned Brad Pitt into an aging Benjamin Button on film, but that's lazy trickery next to what's accomplished in David Lindsay-Adaire's Kimberly Akimbo , now onstage at 2nd Story Theatre (through October 24).
Trinity's rollicking Absurd Person Singular
Very strange. It's as though British playwright Alan Ayckbourn had come to Trinity Rep, studied its veteran acting company, laughed heartily at the amusing talent on display, then went home and wrote Absurd Person Singular for six of the actors.
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Phillips, Downey, Galifianakis just barely deliver
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Topics: Reviews , Entertainment, Movies, Erotic Films, More

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