Hale, Tony (1970- )

Subterms

    Latest story

    113 Shares139 Views

    ‘The Decameron’ Review: They Take a Holiday. Death Doesn’t.

    by

    A loose Netflix adaptation turns Boccaccio’s story cycle into a gleeful satire of class war in plague times.TV audiences have an appetite for a good class-conscious satire of rich people on holiday in a fabulous location — say, a stunning Italian getaway — and the servants who attend them. The new Netflix series “The Decameron” draws on medieval literature to offer a raucous twist on this premise, heightened with the looming threat of bubonic plague.“The White Lotus,” meet the Black Death.In the 14th-century work by Giovanni Boccaccio, a precursor to Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” 10 young people flee to a rural estate from disease-ridden Florence, entertaining one another by telling stories both dramatic and raunchy. The 10 tales per refugee, as told over 10 days, makes for a cycle of 100 stories, proving that even before streaming media, creators know how to stretch out material to series length.The eight-episode Netflix series, arriving Thursday, is a loose adaptation — very loose, like a caftan. It borrows Boccaccio’s character names and setting, with some nods to the source stories. But the creator, Kathleen Jordan (of the gone-too-soon “Teenage Bounty Hunters”), reimagines it as a rollicking social comedy of striving and survival.Jordan introduces four sets of characters, offered respite at a villa in, as the invitation puts it, “the beautiful, not-infected countryside.”We meet Pampinea (Zosia Mamet), a noblewoman anxious about being unmarried as “a shriveled-up, 28-year-old maid,” and her perhaps-too-devoted servant, Misia (Saoirse-Monica Jackson); Tindaro (Douggie McMeekin), a sickly and pompous young noble attended by his quackish physician, Dioneo (Amar Chadha-Patel); the devout and secretly randy Neifile (Lou Gala) and her social-climbing husband, Panfilo (Karan Gill); and Licisca (Tanya Reynolds), the eccentric and put-upon handmaiden to the imperious Filomena (Jessica Plummer).The holiday offers a chance at life, solace and social advancement — especially for Pampinea, who has managed a sight-unseen engagement to the villa’s absent lord. But despite the estate’s gorgeous furnishings and manicured maze gardens, there are deceptions and dangers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    More stories

    • 100 Shares129 Views

      in Television

      ‘The Decameron’ Finds Fun in a Medieval Pandemic

      by

      Set during the plague in 14th century Italy, Netflix’s “The Decameron” finds dark humor in a group of nobles and their servants trying to survive.“The Decameron,” a new limited series, opens in Florence, Italy, in 1348. As bells toll peacefully over the rooftops, a raven lands on a window ledge, and peers around inquisitively before being struck by a stone hurled by a young boy as he yells, “Food.” The raven splats to the ground, dead, not far from the body of a shoeless man, also dead. “Mom, I got a chicken,” the boy calls out. Cheery music announces a title card: “The Black Plague.”This darkly funny scene sets the tone for the show, which arrives on Netflix July 25. Loosely based on Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century book of the same name, the show’s eight episodes tell the story of a group of nobles who attempt to escape the plague by taking refuge in a villa, some with their servants.Setting a dramedy during one of the most devastating periods in human history, estimated to have wiped out up to half of Europe’s population, might not seem like the most obvious choice, especially coming on the heels of the coronavirus pandemic, which also killed millions around the world.But on the “Decameron” set in Rome in March last year, the cast and crew appeared to be having a lot of fun.“It’s like a perfect tonic of brilliant, hilarious people,” Saoirse-Monica Jackson, second from left, said of the show. Giulia Parmigiani/Netflix“It’s been probably too fun,” said the British actor Tanya Reynolds, who plays one of the villa guests. “I feel like every night I go home and my actual torso aches, my ribs hurt because I’ve been laughing so much.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 75 Shares169 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Eat Wheaties!’ Review: Chasing Ms. Banks

      by

      In this film, Tony Hale plays a man whose obsession with Elizabeth Banks almost ruins his life.With his debut film, “Eat Wheaties!,” Scott Abramovitch has wrangled the kind of cast that most first-time directors dream of: a who’s-who of TV comedy that includes Tony Hale (“Arrested Development,” “Veep”), Elisha Cuthbert, Lamorne Morris, Sarah Chalke and Alan Tudyk. But what Abramovitch does with such a lineup is an unfortunate, unfunny mess.Hale plays a sad office worker named Sid Straw who, while organizing his University of Pennsylvania class reunion, sets up a Facebook account for the first time and becomes obsessed with getting in touch with his old classmate: the Hollywood star Elizabeth Banks. (Her supposed catchphrase from college, “Eat Wheaties!,” informs the title.)Too much of the film’s foundational joke falls on Sid creating a Facebook account — a digital preoccupation that feels stale from the get-go. In real life, Sid has the kind of uncomfortable presence that makes this cringe comedy all cringe and no comedy. His inability to read social cues lands him in hot water when his incessant and desperate — and very much public — wall posts to Elizabeth Banks go viral, setting off a restraining order from Banks’s team and a firing from his job.Sid lawyers up with the cheapest — and the most inept — attorney possible (played by Paul Walter Hauser, the film’s small highlight) and eventually restores his reputation as a nice, albeit awkward, guy. But by reclaiming Sid’s character, the movie gives a pass to, and perhaps even endorses, online harassment masked as “well-intentioned” conduct, something most women on social media, myself included, are likely familiar with.Eat Wheaties!Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes. In theaters and on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More