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Review: ‘The Shrink Next Door’ is a showcase for Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell

The Shrink Next Door

How does one end up in a cult? It’s a question we’ve all asked ourselves at some point. How does someone end up entirely under the sway of another person’s will? The Shrink Next Door can’t answer that question for everyone, but it can answer it for Marty Markowitz, a successful but anxiety-ridden new york businessman who ended up in the thrall of his psychiatrist for nearly thirty years.

As with many shows that are based on real-life, the story is almost too much to be believed. Markowitz (played by Will Ferrell), struggling with his business and an ex-girlfriend, seeks therapy from Dr Isaac “Ike” Herschkopf (Paul Rudd). Herschkopf’s methods immediately stand out as skirting the line of professional ethics –he literally tells off the ex-girlfriend, in person, while Marty stands there nearly helpless– but Marty is enamoured. “People take advantage of you,” Herschkopf says, “but not anymore. I am going to take care of you.”

It wouldn’t be a series of things didn’t get weird. These eight episodes of television chronicle just how deeply Herschkopf ingratiated himself into Marty’s life, and serve to showcase excellent performances from stars Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell.

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Review: ‘Ant-Man & The Wasp’ delivers big with small stakes

The first Ant-Man is a good film. Immediately following Avengers: Age of Ultron is was light, funny, full of great performances, and had refreshingly small, personal stakes. Ant-Man & The Wasp continues these traditions: it’s a light, funny movie with some great performances, smaller, more personal stakes, and it immediately followed Avengers: Infinity War which had literal end-of-the-entire-universe stakes. Is this new entry in the Marvel experiment good though? Yes, yes it is! Is it better than the last one? Well… maybe?

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Review: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Anchorman 2

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was released in 2004 and, very generally, people I know tend to either love it or hate it. I fell pretty squarely in the “love it camp but in reflection I could have easily gone the other way. You see Anchorman was originally going to have a lot more going on. In fact there were so many different takes and removed sub plots that they were eventually assembled into a whole other film titled “Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie“.

Most of Wake Up isn’t good and it’s easy to see why none of it was included in Anchorman.

I am telling you all of this because I really feel like Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues could really have done with a bunch of stuff cut out.

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