KTOslin at the Haven found this:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,194044,00.html
Another great review by Fox News
'Groomsmen' Is One of Tribeca Festival's Feel-Good Films
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
By Catherine Donaldson-Evans
While Burns' contribution to the genre is good, it can't compete
with the festival's standout, "The TV Set," a farcical look at
the inner workings of network television and the evolution of
pilots starring Sigourney Weaver and David Duchovny.
Duchovny is wonderful as leading man Mike, a bright, earnest and
frequently discouraged sitcom writer who watches in horror as
his half-hour show "The Wexler Chronicles" goes from a pithy,
nuanced comedy to a silly, trite melodramedy before it even
lands on the air.
The former "X-Files" star plays the part with just the right
mix of wry wit and straight-man seriousness, all delivered with
priceless (often cringing) facial expressions. You can't help
but feel deeply sorry for his character even as you laugh at
the growing quandary in which he finds himself.
"It's the nature of the business," Duchovny said before he went
into the premiere this weekend. "It changes -- sometimes for
the better, sometimes for the worse -- and can be completely
different from what you imagined."
Weaver is brilliant and hilarious as the antagonist, Lenny,
a deadpan network executive who is relentless in her quest
to dumb down any and all material she gets her hands on.
Her character has some of the funniest, most absurd lines
in the film
"Truthfully, original scares me a little," Lenny tells Mike
at one point when she's trying to convince him to drop his
premise that the main character's brother has killed himself.
"You don't want original. We have research from other shows
that suicide is, like, depressing to 82 percent of everybody."
During another scene, she disgustedly describes his show as
"so f—-ing artsy" and "smart" and Mike himself as "Blue State."
And when the network's reality show "**** Wars" grabs sky-high
ratings (sample: "For one of these ****s, the journey ends here
tonight ... Carla, put your clothes on and get out of here"),
Lenny tries humility: "Let's face it: If you can't sell 15
****s in the Caribbean, you've got problems."
Don't call her the villain of the movie, however -- at least,
not to Weaver's face.
"I don't like that term," she said jovially before going into
the premiere. "I play a woman convinced that it's my job to
keep any complexity out of the material. She very sincere
and that's what's so scary."
Writer and director Jake Kasdan's expertly cast ensemble also
includes Justine Bateman as Mike's pregnant but sup****tive wife,
Judy Greer as his saccharine, selfish agent and Ioan Gruffudd
as the BBC re****ter brought from across the pond to win back
Thursday prime-time numbers for the fictitious Panda Network.
"I'm very familiar with doing pilots, obviously," said Bateman,
who starred in the 1980s sitcom "Family Ties" and just
finished her latest pilot with Patricia Heaton. "To an outsider,
it seems exaggerated, but that does wind up happening."


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