Oh, The Studio \u2013 how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Or at least allow me to gaze, rapt, from behind an ornamental palm tree as your vintage convertible hurtles towards yet another catastrophic Hollywood assignation.<\/p>\n
The Emmy-winning creation of Seth Rogen and long-term writing partner Evan Goldberg, The Studio follows Matt Remick, an idealistic film executive who finds himself unexpectedly promoted to head of Continental Studios. \u201cThis could be my time!\u201d he gasps, cock-a-hoop to find himself in charge of the company to which he has devoted the last 22 years of his life. He is, unfortunately, correct. \u201cFilm is my life,\u201d he splutters during his tearfully grateful acceptance speech to CEO Griffin Mill (Bryan Cranston). Mill \u2013 an oleaginous sod with a spray tan the colour of a 70s ski lodge \u2013 smiles thinly. \u201cAt Continental, we don\u2019t make films. We make movies. MOOOOVIEEEEES that people wanna PAY to see,\u201d he explains, tightly, and Matt\u2019s face proceeds to sink like a souffle. And it continues to sink over 10 exquisitely excruciating episodes, as his hopes for a new era of intelligent, auteur-helmed blockbusters are repeatedly marmalised by a system both frightened and angered by anything that can\u2019t be deposited in a Swiss bank account.<\/p>\n
Seth Rogan\u2019s Matt Remick makes Martin Scorsese cry in The Studio. Photograph: AP<\/p>\n
Matt is played, perfectly, by Rogen, whose resemblance to a depressed Fozzie Bear is entering its imperial phase (I can\u2019t be the only one who spent the series half-expecting Rogen to turn to camera after his latest clanger and say \u201cwocka wocka,\u201d sadly, in a neckerchief).<\/p>\n
Matt is a well-meaning coward whose best intentions are fatally stymied by his need to be liked by celebrities. He is also only too aware that he is clinging to his new job by his fingertips; a schlubbily bearded echo of the scene in 1923\u2019s Safety Last! in which Harold Lloyd dangles desperately from a clockface. (A reference that cinephile Matt would doubtless enthuse over, even if the ensuing pitying looks from his colleagues would only remind him, once again, that he is very much in The Wrong Job). Matt struggles to spin his many idiot plates, whether while attempting to cobble together a movie cast that won\u2019t offend anyone or pretending to Ron Howard that he likes his new three-hour film (\u201cWhy do you keep lying?\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know!\u201d).<\/p>\n
Highlights? Matt, having accidentally destroyed Sarah Polley\u2019s new movie, being chased off set by an incensed crew while shouting, \u201cI\u2019m trying to support women!\u201d Cranston\u2019s deliciously seedy throwback Mill and Kathryn Hahn as perpetually furious marketing maven Maya Mason. Antonio Sanchez\u2019s breathless, clanking, jazz-elbowed panic attack of a score.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s not scathing enough!\u201d bleat the naysayers, miffed at the prospect of another episode in which Matt falls over an expensive prop, or makes Martin Scorsese cry, or shouts at his own penis because it\u2019s not weeing fast enough to allow him to return to a film set in time to inadvertently ruin yet another scene. Where are the razorblades, the grumblers ask; where is the satirical deathblow that will reduce Hollywood to a smoking ruin? To which The Studio says: phooey. It isn\u2019t that kind of comedy. It knows Hollywood is circling the drain, but it still wants it to succeed; its deep and unironic affection for cinema ensuring that even when it\u2019s pointing out the industry\u2019s infinite hypocrisies, it still has enough warmth to power one of Continental Studio\u2019s gamechanging blockbusters (eg Duhpocalypse: a satire about zombies with diarrhoea).<\/p>\n
For all its fancy trimmings and celebrity cameos (Zac Efron! Charlize Theron!), The Studio isn\u2019t doing anything new. Not really. But what it does do \u2013 beautifully calibrated farce; unapologetically niche in-jokes; men in tan leisure-suits shouting \u201cI seem to be panicking all the time, man!\u201d while Martin Scorsese sobs in the background \u2013 is more fun than almost anything else around.<\/p>\n
Long may it panic, man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oh, The Studio \u2013 how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Or at least allow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-356005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}