Salon.com > Rex Doane

A conversation with Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes

Fri, 27 Jul 2001 19:00:00 +0000

"Ghost World," now in limited release, is not a summer blockbuster. It is not a remake or a sequel; there are no kung fu sequences or shower scenes. No Sandra Bullock. No Freddie Prinze Jr. No laser guns. There are no pop hits on the soundtrack. And as yet, there are no "Ghost World" action figures, board games or beach towels.

The film's protagonists, Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson), have just graduated from high school and don't know exactly what they want to do with their lives, but they do know what they don't like -- most other people. Two chronic misfits, they traipse through the blighted cultural landscape of America in search of meaning or at least a good garage sale. They hang out in sleazy diners and seek out oddballs like Seymour (Steve Buscemi), the obsessive record collector whom Enid eventually befriends. "Ghost World" is a collaboration of noted "Crumb" director Terry Zwigoff and screenwriter and acclaimed cartoonist Daniel Clowes. In the words of Clowes, it's a film by and for "weirdos in the midst of this oversaturated corporate world."

Robert Smigel

Mon, 09 Apr 2001 19:00:00 +0000

For years, Robert Smigel has been keenly aware of the robust comedic results that occur when live animals and puppets commingle in the Bob Guccione sense of the word. With a double decade's worth of experience writing for "Saturday Night Live" and "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," Smigel now has his own show and gives mounting proof that he is indeed America's most perverse puppeteer. Largely inspired by the popularity of his Triumph, the insult comic dog character from "Late Night," Smigel (along with Dino Stamatopoulos) developed "TV Funhouse" for Comedy Central.

In its first year, the show has proved to be less like a kiddie-show spoof and more like a version of "Caligula" staged by the 4-H Club. The cast members include a band of foulmouthed, surly and abusive animals known as Anipals, along with the well-meaning human named Doug, whom the Anipals generally ignore. So far this season, the Anipals have taken debauched road trips to places like Tijuana, Mexico, and Atlantic City, N.J., and have managed to engage in garden-variety degrading and deranged behavior. Can TV this good possibly last?

Amy Sedaris digs wigs and baking

Fri, 05 May 2000 16:00:00 +0000

The TV roundup of your local paper might
list href="/ent/col/mill/1999/04/05/strangers/index.html">"Strangers With Candy"
as a sitcom, but to assume that this
implies the show bears any relation to
something like "Home Improvement" or
"The Nanny" would be a grave mistake.

When "Strangers" first aired two years
ago as a piss-take on those weepy "After
School Specials" of the '70s, the show
tipped the scales with a warped wit
rarely encountered on the small screen.
Now, signed on for a third season on
Comedy Central, "Strangers" remains a
trusted outpost for those who find their
funny well beyond the standard sitcom
fare.

At center stage of the show is actress
Amy Sedaris, who plays the rumpled
chum-pot Jerri Blank. Blank is a former
teen runaway who, after a lifetime of
prostitution and drug abuse, has
returned to high school as a freshman at
age 46. With the possible exception of a
special trailer park edition of "Cops,"
"Strangers" is the only place one is
likely to encounter someone like Jerri
Blank.

A conversation with Errol Morris

Sat, 29 Jan 2000 17:00:00 +0000

More often than not, documentary filmmaker Errol Morris' camera is squarely aimed at the fringe-dwellers of society: men and women leading largely anonymous lives that, upon deeper inspection, become engagingly bizarre, endlessly fascinating and totally engrossing.

In his films "Gates of Heaven" (1978) and "Vernon, Florida" (1981), Morris investigated the stories behind two pet cemeteries and a community of eccentric swamp-dwellers, respectively. In his 1988 film, "The Thin Blue Line," he focused on the case of Randall Adams, a Texas man wrongly convicted of murder. With "A Brief History of Time" (1992), Morris adapted Stephen Hawking's book about the origins of the universe. And his 1997 project, "Fast, Cheap & Out Of Control," was the study of a topiary gardener, a lion tamer, a mole rat researcher and a robot designer.

His recently released documentary, "Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.," is the semi-tragic story of a diminutive, pocket protector-wearing man (Leuchter) who designs execution equipment for prisons across the country. Leuchter's world comes crashing down on him when he becomes affiliated with the Holocaust denial movement.

Nick Tosches, the man in the leopard-skin loafers

Fri, 12 Nov 1999 17:00:00 +0000

Choosing a place to meet Nick Tosches for lunch in New York is a foregone conclusion. Every day he eats at the same table at the same restaurant, Da Silvano. Routine helps to minimize chaos and distraction. With two books due out next year, magazine feature stories near completion, a screenplay plus a couple of developing novels on the horizon, Tosches has been remarkably productive the last few years. There is no time to sample the revolving door of restaurants in the West Village. Go with what you know.

Tosches emerged roughly 30 years ago from music magazines like Creem and Fusion where he placed the fringe figures of rock 'n' roll history in proper perspective. Providing a reminder to those at Woodstock that the party started years earlier with R&B giants like Joe Turner. Long before acid there was bootleg liquor. Long before free love there was Hank Ballard who let us know what working with Annie was all about. Along with Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer and a handful of other noble notables from the era, Tosches elevated rock writing to a new plateau.