The fantastic Bill contacted me a bit ago about his work to get a screening of The Best and the Brightest in Philadelphia. Part and parcel of the whole process was that he got an advanced screening of the film and he was kind enough to write us up a review! Thanks Bill!

“The Best and the Brightest” Review
By Bill Crossland

If an armed assailant pointed a loaded weapon at my head and demanded that I describe The Best and the Brightest in only two words, I would have to go with “utterly refreshing.”

The new comedy is a studio quality production crafted at the independent level, and perhaps even more delightful is that it offers a much needed alternative to the stale formulas that have characterized the majority of mainstream post-nineties comedy films.  It’s not that the film won’t appeal to mainstream audiences, but that it represents the kind of mature yet lighthearted fun that they don’t get the opportunity to enjoy much these days.

The story centers on a young couple, Jeff and Sam (played by Neil Patrick Harris and Bonnie Somerville) who, after inheriting some money courtesy of a dead aunt, relocate their family to upstate New York.  It’s when the two middle-class parents take on the task of getting their daughter into an elite private kindergarten that things get deliciously wacky.  For Sam, breaking through the stonewall of fake smiles and gag-inducing pretentiousness becomes symbolic of her last shot to have her family move up in the world, and the ridiculous lies she must sustain to blend in with the yuppies propel the comedy forward.

Here’s the thing: while The Best and the Brightest may not be the perfect film, it’s got the perfect measures of all the great comedy ingredients.  It’s not a one note joke — it seems that, too often, comedies take one simple idea (drinking, doing drugs, don’t have sex with your friends) and stretch it out for two to two and a half insufferable hours.  This film actually has a story, and kudos to first time feature film director (and co-writer) Josh Shelov for crafting comedic scenarios which flow naturally from the drama of the story rather than just having the characters sit around talking about how funny they are.  The jokes don’t need explaining — probably because they’re funny to begin with.

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Camp Wanatachi: A New Musical

by Beth Levendis August 27, 2009

**** [FOUR STARS] Camp Wanatachi takes a topic often exploited for provocative drama—a gay teen’s sexual awakening—and strips it down to a sweet story about a simple crush. Natalie Weiss’s musical, cowritten with composers Conrad Winslow and Travis Stewart, is set at an all-girls summer camp, and evokes that fraught environment well. Much of the play is spent familiarizing us with the show’s archetypal characters (a bossy girl, a slutty girl, an awkward girl, a nerdy girl, horny counselors, goofy boys from the camp across the water); a weird subplot involving disgruntled New York City expatriates bent on disrupting the camp with radio transmissions keeps things interesting. It’s only in the second half that one of the girls falls for another. In the meantime, you’re treated to music worthy of the program’s Fischerspooner namedrop; and although the cast does an excellent job—particularly Aleque Reid, Biet Simkin and Weiss herself—the live band may be the real stars of the show. Camp Wanatachi defies all expectations of both gay coming-of-age tales and musicals. The result is refreshing and uplifting.

The review and directions to where to see the performance on the 28th are here: http://newyork.timeout.com/events/fringe-festival/298277/camp-wanatachi