Did you guys see this bit about Alison? It was announced this past Tuesday that she was joining the cast, the same day principle photography began. That was fast! I'm not sure she's even done filming her scenes for the Dr. Thorne adaptation yet.... Sounds like an interesting project and definitely not a comedy. She seems willing to branch out, although she does seem to lean towards indy projects and that doesn't always work out, given how many movies she's appeared in that are in some level of release hell. Oh well, good to see she's staying busy in a variety of projects.
RE: New Alison newsbriefan1972November 2 2015, 01:22:49 UTC
I wasn't really suggesting that this movie was an indy (although I don't know), just that a lot of her films through the years have been and there almost always seems to be some sort of hangup getting them into distribution. I mean when are we going to be able to see No Stranger Than Love?
RE: New Alison newsaussiefan1November 2 2015, 01:49:53 UTC
Sleeping with other People has only been released across 30 cinemas nationwide here in Australia. The folks at Madman Productions (the production company behind the movie) were good enough to respond to my tweet with a list of those cinemas (with the closest one being an hour away which is nuts as there are two large chains and three independent cinemas within a 10 minute radius of my house) but they are hardly going to draw big numbers.
RE: New Alison newsbriefan1972November 2 2015, 02:18:11 UTC
Sleeping With Other People only saw release at one theatre where I live. Grand Rapids is the second largest city in the state after Detroit, with multiple large cineplexes very abundant in the area. It got about two weeks of release at the theater five minutes from me (and the second week was one showing each day at 10:15 pm) and that was it. I'm assuming it also showed around Detroit and maybe Lansing but I doubt anyone else got it. I was thinking it would actually have a decent release but it seems not. Which is odd because Sudekis and Brie were really hitting the late night and morning talk shows in the weeks leading up to the September 11 release, promoting the hell out of it.
RE: New Alison newsaussiefan1November 2 2015, 02:59:08 UTC
Neither Sudekis or Alison are all that well known here. Sudeekis would be by the far the more notable to Australian audiences but even then he would go largely unnoticed. More like "where do I know him from" than anything else. As for Alison, put it this way. Community was even more a cult show here than it was in the States and much the same could be said about Mad Men as well. Both were restricted largely to payTV which only reach 1 in 6 homes and the little free TV exposure they got was on the channel known more for its obscure foreign cinema offerings than anything else. So, she's essentially a non-entity here. Which is a shame.
So, I wasn't expecting a wide release more restricted to the independents (which suits me just fine) but it appears to have been bought by the largest chain in the country on a very limited release in both location and timeframe.
RE: New Alison newsbriefan1972November 9 2015, 11:18:51 UTC
I honestly wouldn't say they're that well known here, either. Sudekis is kinda decently known-ish, for his run on SNL and being in a couple mainstream flicks that did well here in the States, Horrible Bosses and We're the Millers. That's about it though. Almost everything Alison's been in is pretty niche. Between my friends, coworkers and extended family I know a lot of people and I don't know anyone who's seen either Community or Mad Men. Maybe a couple of her movies but she's generally a support or bit player in most stuff that people might have seen. I would certainly say that neither one is a household name or really even close to being one.
RE: New Alison newsjdp1979November 2 2015, 17:11:20 UTC
(Yeah, yeah. I know. I made the above comment with a Jeff/Annie icon. But the trend of casting actresses in movies who are sometimes decades younger than their "husbands" is getting to the point of being a joke.)
That's one of the best things about J/A, it's actually an issue between them. It's not ignored or treated as perfectly normal as in 99,99% of other media. Hollywood is a disturbing place...
RE: New Alison newsbriefan1972November 2 2015, 21:30:21 UTC
This is a really interesting point. One of the main 'reasons' that J/A detractors always sited was the age difference and yet, so often in popular media, couples are frequently depicted as having a large age discrepancy, almost always an older man with a younger (or much younger) female wife/girlfriend/companion. Such an age difference is depicted as normal, although I think stats would tell a different story. Regardless of the accuracy of such an idea of older men with younger women, the preponderance of it in popular culture would suggest that most people have no issue with it, which is why I always wondered why it struck such a chord with the anti Jeff and Annie crowd.
RE: New Alison newsblovichNovember 5 2015, 18:58:25 UTC
@jdp1979 On one hand I can understand you seeing it as positive that the age difference was never ignored as there are multiple real life and fictional examples of this sort of thing being brushed aside. However in Jeff and Annie's case I felt it was something that just held them back and was handled very poorly by the writers. It was seldom dealt with seriously, if they did it was done in such an oblique and vague manner it could be interpreted to mean something else. The few times it was dealt with directly it was done comedically and to reinforce the opinion that the relationship was creepy.
RE: New Alison newsjdp1979November 6 2015, 17:10:01 UTC
True, but the show has done that with so many issues. Jeff's drinking, Annie's drug addiction, etc. There are elements of the show that would've made a great hour-long drama, but ultimately it's still a 21 minute sitcom. And yeah, Dan's a stubborn sob.
Ultimately, I'm happy with what we got. It could've been better and there could've been a lot more of it, but what ifs won't change how mustard tastes...
RE: New Alison newsbriefan1972November 7 2015, 00:42:12 UTC
I agree so much. It could have been better, at times, and I certainly would've liked more of it but I'm glad we got what we got. Ifs and buts won't change a thing, things went they way they went and wishing it had gone differently won't do anybody any good.
You're right about the fact that there were many times when Community very much could have shifted into being a drama or a dramedy. It actually felt a bit like it, in certain moments.....
RE: New Alison newsblovichNovember 7 2015, 05:22:58 UTC
What did we as JA fans really get though after six years? IMO Nothing really of actual substance, just fan service and vague hints at something possibly happening later. I honestly wouldn't have minded if the writers had definitively ended things but the finale was them yet again dangling a preverbial carrot and giving more excuses as to why it can't happen now. I know my complaints are just wallowing in what should have been but as a fan who's been watching since 2009 I can't help how much the ending of the show still bothers me. It's just sad that fanfiction is way more satisfying then what we got onscreen.
RE: New Alison newsjdp1979November 7 2015, 09:57:20 UTC
I don't disagree with you, but I can see the other side of the argument as well. The side that says when you actually put two people together on a sitcom everything that was great about the couple gets lost.
I would've liked to see them in an actual relationship (and see the show try to avoid those pitfalls and be truly innovative which it could've been) but I'm also glad we didn't get the whole: get together, then split up over something silly, then showing the audience they still have feelings for each other, then starting the cycle all over again. I liked Ross and Rachel just fine the first two seasons, and then they were just annoying...
But yeah, something a little more would've been nice. Though Harmon has hinted at that happening in the movie, so who knows what we might still get (if we get more).
RE: New Alison newsliz_marcsNovember 7 2015, 12:18:29 UTC
I kind of agree with you both.
As it was, J/B fell into that category. They got together on screen, then were FWB on the downlow, and then were brought back after we were shown time and again that they were very definitely over.
For J/A, though, I can't help but think about what James Roday said about Psych as it was winding down: At some point you know when you're closer to the end than the beginning, and at some point you know it's pretty much the end.
Dan pretty much knew when S6 started that Community was much closer to the end than the beginning. If it wasn't the last season, it was close to it. He was bleeding cast members. He was convinced he was going to lose at least one more. By mid-season, he pretty much knew that S6 was it
( ... )
RE: New Alison newsbriefan1972November 7 2015, 15:35:10 UTC
I've been thinking about this a lot (the likelihood of there being any actual J/A in a movie) and I'm pretty much in agreement with you. A movie is going to be such a small and limited window for Dan to write in that I don't see him dedicating much if any time to a ship he was never fully behind in the first place. I don't think he will want to 'waste' a second on Jeff and Annie's relationship status. I think if you go into a movie (assuming it even happens at all) expecting a big J/A payoff, you are setting yourself up for massive disappointment.
Did you guys see this bit about Alison? It was announced this past Tuesday that she was joining the cast, the same day principle photography began. That was fast! I'm not sure she's even done filming her scenes for the Dr. Thorne adaptation yet.... Sounds like an interesting project and definitely not a comedy. She seems willing to branch out, although she does seem to lean towards indy projects and that doesn't always work out, given how many movies she's appeared in that are in some level of release hell. Oh well, good to see she's staying busy in a variety of projects.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
So, I wasn't expecting a wide release more restricted to the independents (which suits me just fine) but it appears to have been bought by the largest chain in the country on a very limited release in both location and timeframe.
Reply
Reply
That's one of the best things about J/A, it's actually an issue between them. It's not ignored or treated as perfectly normal as in 99,99% of other media. Hollywood is a disturbing place...
Reply
Reply
Reply
Ultimately, I'm happy with what we got. It could've been better and there could've been a lot more of it, but what ifs won't change how mustard tastes...
Edit:
Ha, and right after that I bump into this fic.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5156285
I think you'll probably agree with most of it. Enjoy!
Reply
You're right about the fact that there were many times when Community very much could have shifted into being a drama or a dramedy. It actually felt a bit like it, in certain moments.....
Reply
Reply
I would've liked to see them in an actual relationship (and see the show try to avoid those pitfalls and be truly innovative which it could've been) but I'm also glad we didn't get the whole: get together, then split up over something silly, then showing the audience they still have feelings for each other, then starting the cycle all over again. I liked Ross and Rachel just fine the first two seasons, and then they were just annoying...
But yeah, something a little more would've been nice. Though Harmon has hinted at that happening in the movie, so who knows what we might still get (if we get more).
Reply
As it was, J/B fell into that category. They got together on screen, then were FWB on the downlow, and then were brought back after we were shown time and again that they were very definitely over.
For J/A, though, I can't help but think about what James Roday said about Psych as it was winding down: At some point you know when you're closer to the end than the beginning, and at some point you know it's pretty much the end.
Dan pretty much knew when S6 started that Community was much closer to the end than the beginning. If it wasn't the last season, it was close to it. He was bleeding cast members. He was convinced he was going to lose at least one more. By mid-season, he pretty much knew that S6 was it ( ... )
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment