Entertainment
‘Little Brother’ Review: Wholesome and Weird Comedy Makes for Tonal Whiplash
I have a soft spot for sitcom-style comedies where a comic mix-up or polarized personalities conflict. I remember rewatching the Sinbad comedy “Houseguest” where he cons his way into the life of Phil Hartman’s family and makes them richer for the experience. There’s a similar vibe in Frank Oz’s “What About Bob?” where the neurotic Bob (Bill Murray) provides a constant nusance to beleaguered psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss).
These are firmly PG hijinks, and the new Netflix movie “Little Brother” tries to find a way to use the soft premise of an unwanted houseguest and inject it with Eric André’s signature edge. But as much as I like André and his co-star John Cena, Matt Spicer’s comedy never reconciles its distinctively different tones. It aims to be a raunchy comedy with a sweet center but always plays as off-balance.
When he was a teenager, Rudd (Cena) signed up for a Big Brother/Little Brother program and paired with Marcus (André), a lonely kid who was constantly moved around foster homes. For Rudd, this relationship was a blip, but it meant the world to Marcus, who continued to idolize Rudd for decades. Thinking he’s staying in touch with Rudd (when it’s actually Rudd’s assistant Mia (Sherry Cola)), Marcus senses that his big brother is in trouble, so he busts out of a psychiatric hospital and rushes to Rudd’s aid only to be t-boned by a truck. Since he has Rudd listed as his emergency contact, Rudd and his big-hearted wife Deirdre (Michelle Monaghan) come rushing to the hospital thinking the call is about Rudd’s actual brother, the grotesquely wealthy and successful Josh (Christopher Meloni). While Rudd, who is trying to land a reality show gig that will boost his real estate business, is reluctant to help Marcus, Deirdre insists that they take him in while he recuperates. Shenanigans ensue.
On the surface, Spicer seems like a good fit for the material given the central relationship in his previous movie, “Ingrid Goes West,” which also focused on a parasocial relationship. But while that film had a consistent tone of menace and obsession, “Little Brother” never seems clear on what it wants to be. The film opens with a charmingly bizarre exchange between Marcus and his roommate at the hospital and the roommate offers Marcus his companion, a rock with googly eyes, as a goodbye present, noting that “she’s a tender lover.” But Rudd is in more of a typical sitcom-style comedy where he’s worried about the big presentation, measuring up to his older brother, and other conflicts that track as fairly relatable. The idea that Marcus is coming to blow up Rudd’s life in an ultimately positive fashion never fully clicks because everyone has to accept that Marcus is a breath of fresh air and Rudd is being unreasonable.
In a PG comedy, these comedies of errors manage to work because the encroachment is big, but never offensive to anyone other than the most uptight person, represented by their co-lead. Here, Rudd is uptight, but Marcus is so chaotic that it’s tough to buy everyone else seeing him as a lovable eccentric.
For example, when Rudd is forced to take Marcus along to the first day of shooting on the reality show, he demands that Marcus stay in Rudd’s fancy Porsche so as not to screw anything up. Marcus, a grown man, needs to use the restroom, but seeking to obey Rudd’s edict, decides that the compromise position is to piss out the window. But then this weirdness gets brushed out of the way when the TV show’s producers love the angle of Rudd teaming up with his former little brother, so Marcus becomes a co-realtor with Rudd. Him urinating into the street out of a parked car never bothers anyone.
“Little Brother” is not consistently weird enough to own that tone in the way of André’s hidden camera comedy “Bad Trip” or a David Wain film like “Wet Hot American Summer,” but neither is it gentle enough to be the “workaholic-learns-the-value-of-family” comedy that Cena represents. This means you get scenes that can be funny in a piecemeal fashion like a shocked Rudd discovering that Marcus is having sex in his study with a nurse from the hospital while her husband watches, but we then have this bizarre world where Rudd is the only one upset by it while his wife just shrugs it off.
There’s no rule that these two tones can’t come together, and there’s certainly a whole genre of raunchy comedy that has a sweet center. It’s more the bizarre, chaotic energy André brings that has trouble finding a place in the staid, sitcom confines of the larger world. When André showed up as a futuristic cop in the madcap “I Love Boosters,” he fit perfectly with the outré approach of writer-director Boots Riley. But here, he’s adrift, a big ball of comic energy that tears through a movie that accommodates him but never fully embraces him. Marcus is supposed to be fun, but the film has to bend over backwards to make his joviality appear socially acceptable. Perhaps with a more confident direction and firmer tone, this would have worked, but here it merely plays as abrasive. Rudd is uptight, but that doesn’t inherently make him wrong. The rest of the film has to do more to show that Marcus is the upheaval that Rudd needs.
In the case of “Little Brother,” the film probably should have followed the weirdness set by André’s character and performance. That’s the brightest color in the film’s palette, and although contrasting it with relative normalcy makes dramatic sense, there comes a point where such a contrast is no longer narratively tenable. Instead, “Little Brother” feels like it’s trying to catch up to André’s whirlwind and ends up getting swept away.
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Entertainment
How The Bear Ended After 5 Seasons
Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Bear” Season 5, Episode 8.
“The Bear” wrapped up its final service in heartwarming fashion, with a triumphant series finale that served as an emotional epilogue to a particularly chaotic day at the titular Chicago restaurant.
After four seasons of inventive storytelling and big-name guest stars, Season 5 hyperfocused on the efforts of the Bear staff to get through one busy service, brought upon by a glitch in the reservation system that overbooked the restaurant after a massive rainstorm — with the chefs not having enough food and having to ration portion sizes to make it work. This was all happening while Cicero (Oliver Platt) decided whether to sell the building that housed the restaurant and close it down for good, and after Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) decided to leave his post but was still sticking around in the transition.
The penultimate episode saw as the team barreled through the reservations, along with impressing a Michelin star critic and his local celebrity guest Tom Skilling; a show of tremendous growth for everyone on the staff built under Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Sugar (Abby Elliott) and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach).
Below, read how “The Bear” ended its run after five seasons:
End of service
Episode 8, titled “The Original Beef of Chicagoland,” began the morning after that difficult day of service, as the characters prepared to do it all over again with the promise of changes looming large in the kitchen. Sugar and Richie celebrated making payroll and making enough to buy supplies and do repairs after the storm — but there was no money left to count as profits this time.
Sydney and Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) reflected on how the stress of the night before led to their best work yet. “We’re going to fight all together,” Tina said, as the crew arrived for a new day.
Sydney also spoke with Carmy, asking him what he was planning to do when he finally let go of the Bear. He said he had an idea in his mind, but refused to share any details. That led to her playfully messing with him for having no real skills for the job market.

Later, Sugar asked Carmy about a man who called asking about the restaurant and noting that he had been trying to reach the chef directly. He likely was behind the unidentified caller Carmy ignored in Episode 7. He assured her of his plans to leave, while she maintained no one was telling him to go anywhere.
Sugar made sure to praise Sydney for her leadership the night before, noting that she wasn’t worried about looking at the restaurant’s numbers because the Bear finally had a proper “captain” to guide them through the chaos. Sydney admitted that despite going through hell the night before, it felt like they were all exactly where they were meant to be.
The man looking for Carmy, named Peter Clark, finally got ahold of him and shared something that left him in shock. Sydney pressed him for information and he eventually relented. Turns out the man who tested the Bear for a Michelin star hadn’t shown up the night before as they had thought, but two months prior on a night they had not clocked him. He called the food “truly exceptional and creative” and all kinds of other compliments.
He gave the Bear two Michelin stars, officially cementing the restaurant as a bona fide hit. Sydney and Carmy celebrated their triumph with a silent hug, opting not to share the great news with the rest of the staff until after service.

Beef supremacy
Ebra (Edwin Lee Gibson) spent most of the season working up the courage to pitch his idea to franchise the Beef to Carmy — a pitch that ended up landing just right with Cicero’s confidante Cheese (Elsie Fisher). At the start of the series finale he was still practicing his pitch, unaware that Cicero was already coming to his nephew with his decision.
Cicero encouraged Carmy not to give up on his dreams just because things got hard. He then spilled the beans on the franchise idea, which Carmy immediately accepted as a smart move for the business. But he was still set on leaving the restaurant to Sydney, admitting that Lee (Bob Odenkirk) was right when he said he had to “break patterns” so he could find what truly makes him happy.
Later, Ebra shared the pitch with the other Beef employees, who gave him their support. Carmy quickly came in and Ebra started to share his long-winded pitch; but Carmy stopped him almost immediately and gave him the green light. We later saw Ebra and team check out a new location for the first Beef franchise — setting the stage for its success.

The Bears are alright
As the finale unfolded, some on staff looked into new opportunities. Richie was invited to a professional seminar in Japan — which after some hesitation he decided to accept despite his fear of flying, thanks to a heartwarming heart-to-heart with Carmy.
He also took things to the next level with Jess (Sarah Ramos), sharing a flirty moment before the start of the new day’s service — which included an engagement reservation. Jess ended up going with him to Japan, solidifying the new couple before series’ end.
Before going into the restaurant, Marcus (Lionel Boyce) said goodbye to Chef Luca (Will Poulter), who was heading back to Copenhagen following his short tenure at the Bear. After some tension the day before, they ended their partnership with an “I Love You” and the promise to see each other again soon.
As for Tina, she celebrated her promotion to Chef de Cuisine with a warm conversation with her husband, who assured she was more than ready to take on the demanding role. Sydney also reunited with her dad, who made sure to tell her how proud he was of all her accomplishments.
Stevie (John Mulaney) got Carmy a meeting with a woman named Sue (special guest star Bonnie Hunt), and encouraged him to go in ready to share all his pain and trauma. In a passionate monologue, and an incredible performance from White, he opened up about the danger and nerve-wracking nature of restaurants, and his desire to bring the passion at the center of the profession to light through art.
Sue turned out to be an architect interviewing him for an intern position — so who knows why Stevie gave him that advice. But the talk made him realize his rightful place was back with his fellow Bears at the restaurant. He’s not going anywhere after all!
The episode ended with Richie finally bringing his daughter Eva (Annabelle Toomey) to the Bear, which turned out to be hosting a surprise birthday party full of her friends and loved ones — including Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis), ex-wife Tiff (Gillian Jacobs), Claire Bear (Molly Gordon) and many other members of the family. Carmy also texted his late brother, telling him “All’s good” after all this time.
Even the Faks got a couple of silly moments out of their system before the end of the series — all is right in Chicagoland.
“The Bear” Season 5 is now streaming on Hulu.
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movies
Scott Pelley Signs With CAA After CBS News Firing
Following his ousting from 60 Minutes and CBS News earlier this month, Scott Pelley has found new representation.
Deadline can confirm the 51x Emmy-winning news anchor has signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) just weeks after he was fired over an alleged confrontation with new executive producer Nick Bilton under Bari Weiss’ reign.
While many current and former 60 Minutes correspondents are represented by UTA, Pelley joins former colleague Lesley Stahl in the CAA family.
More than 35 years into his CBS career, Pelley was fired on June 2 over a verbal confrontation in which he put the new leadership on blast. In a letter to Pelley, Bilton said they could not “find a path forward together” following the confrontation, which he called a “performative display of hostility.”
In his first interview since the termination, Pelley told The New York Times that the new leadership doesn’t “know what they’re doing.”
“We have people who’ve been installed in these jobs who through no fault of their own have no experience in television,” said Pelley. “They don’t know what they’re doing. And there’s a subtle political bias that I’ve never seen at 60 Minutes before, or at CBS News before. So that is my hope: a return to sanity. We can save this. It’s possible to land this plane. But right now, CBS News is on fire.
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Entertainment
‘Camp’ Review: Friendship Is Magic, and Tragic, in Avalon Fast’s World
Lots of disturbing movies take place at summer camps. “Friday the 13th,” “Sleepaway Camp,” “Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation,” the list goes on, and it just keeps going because shoving dozens of kids into an emotional pressure cooker at the edge of civilization with minimal supervision and no escape is usually a bad idea. And that’s before you give them all bows and arrows.
Avalon Fast’s sophomore feature isn’t a typical summer camp horror movie. It’s a trippy, melancholic tragedy about healing psychic wounds, and finding out they’re already infected. Try to imagine an angsty, indie teen drama that’s parasitically burrowing its way into a Florence + The Machine music video. Now imagine it’s in theaters now and it’s called “Camp.”
“Truth or Dare” is a crappy game, even on “Love Island,” but it’s even crappier at the start of “Camp.” The halfhearted young friends of Emily (Zola Grimmer) can barely muster enough gusto to come up with a dare, and when they give up, their fallback “truth” is just asking her for her biggest regret. It may have been a haircut. It may have been the time she ran over a four-year-old with her car. Either way it’s a lousy icebreaker.
As if her night couldn’t get any worse, Emily’s best friend overdoses in her car, sending her spiraling into grief and misery. Months go by and her father arranges to get her a camp counseling gig, looking after other troubled youths at a place called only “Camp.” (I’d say the least plausible part of Fast’s film is that the domain name “camp.net” wasn’t already taken, but shut my mouth, because it really isn’t.)
The kids are non-entities, a vague distraction from her worries, but her fellow counselors are badasses. They smoke. They drink. They say things like, “I feel like doing drugs” and look, you gotta give ‘em credit, when they say they’re going to do something they do it. I can’t even take the recycling downstairs most of the time and here these girls are, saying they feel like doing drugs and then doing the damn drugs, making me feel like a lazy jerk.
There’s just one problem. Or maybe there isn’t. Emily’s new cohort, led by the alluring and oddly motherly Clara (Alice Wordsworth), begins each summer with a ritual to make their wishes come true. Nev (Lea Rose Sebastianis) wishes to have sex with their boss, Dan (Austyn Van De Camp), “really, really hard” and wouldn’t you know it, her wish was essentially a command.
Avalon Fast knows that’s wrong, but she knows her characters don’t care very much. Dan starts trudging across the camp grounds, confused and disturbed. He was saving himself for marriage, the poor guy, and looks like he’s on the verge of something terrible. But sacrificing Dan’s virginity gave Emily and her friends a taste of power, and it manifests in sparkly animated hand flourishes, which do nothing, it seems, except look cool. But it’s their power and they’re taking it, and they’ll take a lot more.
The problem with describing the plot of Fast’s “Camp” is that it places way, way too much emphasis on the plot. This movie doesn’t run from scene to scene, it gradually sinks into emotional rot. Emily thinks she’s getting better, finding friends and — in her own way — finding her spirituality. It’s just a selfish, detached spirituality and sees no value in anyone else’s feelings. Or anything else about them. What looks like a film about finding your way back from the darkness is, instead, a labyrinth that Emily probably can’t solve. She may not even want to.
“Camp” is a dreary, disturbing day dream of a movie, the kind you have when you’re all in your feels and close to getting heatstroke. It’s not about getting better, it’s about getting worse, and how that sometimes feels like getting better. You may not have worked through your baggage, you may not have processed your trauma, but at least everything looks simple. You can just while away your days with excess, abandoning all empathy, even for yourself.
It’s a sad film, “Camp,” and it’s a little tricky. Fast is working with familiar horror movie clichés, and falling into the old routine where witchcraft is initially empowering, then horrifying, and that probably doesn’t do real-life witches many favors. Then again, neither do a lot of the classic witch films — especially “The Craft,” the goth 1990s elephant in the room — and most of them aren’t as emotionally salient as Fast’s interpretation, although they’re typically more “fun.”
“Camp” isn’t a fun movie. That’s not a criticism, it’s just the way it is. Avalon Fast’s gloomy, lo-fi aesthetic occasionally segues into ornate, gorgeous imagery, proving the filmmaker — and cinematographer Eily Sprungman — are in total creative control. Fast wants us to feel Emily’s despair and the futile moral ambiguity of her distractions. It’s a cautionary tale, perhaps, about not hanging out with the wrong crowd, or taking solace in mind-altering experiences, but more than anything it’s a sympathetic mirror, and it’s pointed at anyone who ever got lost.
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