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PICKS & PANS |
This week's reviews: 'Safety,' 'Art of Losing,' 'Beene'
(PEOPLE) -- This week PEOPLE.com looks at the film "The Safety of Objects," American Hi-Fi's album "The Art of Losing" and "Oliver Beene" on Fox.
Go to: Movies | Music | TV
Movie review: 'The Safety of Objects'
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Glenn Close and Patricia Clarkson star in "The Safety of Objects."
PEOPLE
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The edges on this movie have all been sanded to such a fine finish that the final product doesn't have enough texture to make much of an impression. An ensemble drama, "The Safety of Objects" boasts a talented cast playing suburban neighbors. There's a mother (Glenn Close) tending to her comatose son (Joshua Jackson); a single mom (Patricia Clarkson) trying to get over her husband's leaving her; and a lawyer (Dermot Mulroney) who has been passed over for partner at his firm. All must learn to let go of what they have lost. Easier said than turned into a film that grabs you.
Bottom line: Objectively, we're underwhelmed
--Leah Rozen
Music review: 'The Art of Losing'
American Hi-Fi (Island)
Like the bratty spawn of Cheap Trick and Green Day, American Hi-Fi cranks out power punk-pop on its sophomore disc. The Boston quartet proves that you're never too old to be immature, even doing a bit of Kim Wilde's adolescent anthem "Kids in America" on the brash title track. Although Stacy Jones's whiny lead vocals can be grating, the band has no shortage of alt-rock raucousness, thanks to the crashing drums of Brian Nolan and the loud guitar crunch of Jamie Arentzen. Unfortunately, unabashedly juvenile cuts like "The Breakup Song" won't go over big beyond the Jackass crowd.
Bottom line: Hardly high art, but not a total loss
-- Chuck Arnold
TV review: 'Oliver Beene'
Grant Rosenmeyer (center) holds on to pals Daveigh Chase (left) and Taylor Emerson.
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FOX (Sundays, 8:30 p.m. ET)
Blatant imitation is so commonplace on TV that I can't get too upset with the makers of this strained sitcom for ripping off "The Wonder Years." I just wish they'd done a better job of it.
The new series (premiering March 9) looks at the early '60s from what's supposed to be an ironic distance. The central character is Oliver Beene (Grant Rosenmeyer), a pudgy 11-year-old in the New York City borough of Queens, with narration provided by Oliver as a grown-up (David Cross off-camera). This voice-over commentary is sometimes funny but more often annoying, particularly when the contemporary Oliver bludgeons us with reminders that the show's humor is based on 1962 attitudes. The head of the family is Jerry (Grant Shaud), a crass dentist who moons poolsiders at a club he's applying to join. No wonder wife Charlotte (Wendy Makkena) has a social inferiority complex. Though the narration aptly describes Oliver's 14-year-old brother Ted (Andrew Lawrence) as a jerk, a Mrs. Robinson type (guest Wendie Malick from "Just Shoot Me") tries to seduce him. Like the show, she's a little desperate.
Bottom line: No blast from the past
