Green Lantern (2011) - Action and Reynolds/Lively cast sparks in Campbell's massive flop

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Ryan Reynolds in a green CGI-suit in a neon-drenched CGI universe on this poster for Martin Campbell's Green Lantern

Hal is a jet pilot and a daredevil, who is chosen by the ring of dying green guardians to become one of the protectors of the universe and the green lanterns, when the evil Parallax strikes.

Green Lantern is written by Greg Berlanti (Arrow (2012-20)), Michael Green (Sex and the City (1998, TV-series)), Marc Guggenheim (Supergirl (2017-19)) and Michael Goldenberg (Peter Pan (2003)), based on the DC Comics characters started by Martin Nodell in 1940, and directed by Martin Campbell (The Sex Thief (1973)).

The pace - not least in the action scenes - animatedly fierce and often spectacular in this fresh piece of superhero escapism. Its comic book-like lightness and irony makes it comparable to the later, successful Guardians of the Galaxy movies (2014; 2017). The plot is more than simple, cruising around fear versus willpower, and one shouldn't expect everything to make logical sense in Green Lantern.

But Ryan Reynolds (Smokin' Aces (2006)) gives his character his own brand of wry humor and sympathetic charisma, and his romance with Blake Lively (Accepted (2006)), - which continued backstage, - makes for some sexy sparks.

All in all Green Lantern is quite a lot better than its reputation may make you think and fairly good entertainment.

 

Related post:

 

Martin Campbell: GoldenEye (1995) - Brosnan arrives in Campbell's dumb Bond mess

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 200 mil. $ (some uncertainty; could likely be 209 mil. $)

Box office: 219.8 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.95-1.09 times its cost)

[Green Lantern was released 14 June (New Zealand) and runs 114 minutes. Many people were in talks to head the film since the late 1990s. Berlanti has since stated that he was fired as writer and director and had "nothing to do with the finished product." Shooting took place in Louisiana, including New Orleans, and in California, including San Diego, from March - August 2010 and January - March 2011. Reynolds injured his shoulder during filming in July 2010. It has been reported that Warner Bros. raised the film's VFX budget with 9 mil. $ in post production to meet the release deadline, - but curiously this has not made the 200 mil. $ cost tag bounce to 209 mil. $. The film opened #1 to a 53.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#3) and grossed 116.6 mil. $ (53 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 12.4 mil. $ (5.6 %) and Brazil with 10.2 mil. $ (4.6 %). An additional 100 mil. $ were reportedly spent on marketing. Roger Ebert gave it a 2.5/5 star review, equal in rating to this one. Sequel plans were scrapped; a reboot has not materialized; but a Green Lantern TV-series is reportedly in development at HBO. Green Lantern is rotten at 26 % with a 4.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Green Lantern?

Going in Style (2017) - Flip the bird to banks with game veteran stars

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Three beloved veteran stars walking away with poorly secured loot makes up this bright poster for Zach Braff's Going in Style

When a retired bank customer witnesses a successful heist during a time in which he is forced out of his home, because his pension has been canceled, he gets a smart idea...

 

Going in Style is written by Theodore Melfi (Winding Roads (1999)) and directed by great New Jerseyite filmmaker Zach Braff (Garden State (2004)). It is a remake of Martin Brest's same-titled 1979 heist comedy hit starring George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg.

It is Braff's best work yet as a director by far, and perhaps the year's most welcome, funny and heart-warming film about a jolly good time. SPOILER It is good also because it doesn't splash despondently together in a fix about the world's regrettable constitution today but instead shows us that people are generally good and helpful, although there are greedy bastards in banks and elsewhere that are keen to defraud their next man. The sympathetic analysis of the modern world here gives rise to three adorable veteran stars giving these miscreants a solid knock in the head:

Michael Caine (California Suite (1978)) has his best part in many years and is downright fabulous. Morgan Freeman (Dreamcatcher (2003)) and Alan Arkin (Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)) are also both delightful; and so is Ann-Margret (Carnal Knowledge (1971)), the actress playing the stewardess, Matt Dillon (Deuces Wild (2002)) and John Ortiz (Take the Lead (2006)) as the helpful latino criminal. Christopher Lloyd (Clubhouse (2004-05)) is a bit caricatured as an Alzheimers patient, and Joey King (Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)) as Caine's granddaughter is unnatural and not credibly written, but Going in Style is wonderful and unpretentious all the same.

Related post:

Zach Braff: Garden State (2004) - Braff's hugely overrated deadweight debut (writer/director/co-star)

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $

Box office: 84.9 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.39 times its cost)

[Going in Style premiered 1 April (Beaune Film Festival, France) and runs 96 minutes. Shooting took place in New York in August 2015 - ?. The film opened #4, behind holdover hits The Boss Baby and Beauty and the Beast and fellow new release Smurfs: The Lost Village, to an 11.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weekends in the top 5 (#5-#5-#4) and grossed 45 mil. $ (53 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 4.2 mil. $ (4.9 %) and the UK with 3.9 mil. $ (4.6 %). Braff has returned as director on two TV-series and with a short. Caine returned in Dear Dictator (2017); Freeman in Madam Secretary (2015-17) and theatrically in Just Getting Started (2017); and Arkin in Get Shorty (2017, TV-series), with a voice performance in Dumbo (2019), The Kominsky Method (2018-19) and physically and theatrically in Spenser Confidential (2020). Going in Style is rotten at 47 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Going in Style?

Top 10: Best erotic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

 

1. Call Me By Your Name (2017) - Luca Guadagnino

 

 

2. Lust, Caution/色，戒/Sè, Jiè/Sik1Gaai3 (2007) - Ang Lee 

 

3. Blue Velvet (1986) - David Lynch

 

 

4. A Stranger Knocks/En Fremmed Banker På (1959) - Johan Jacobsen

 

 

5. The Fourth Man/De Vierde Man (1983) - Paul Verhoeven 

 

6. The Blue Lagoon (1980) - Randal Kleiser  

7. The Duke of Burgundy (2014) - Peter Strickland

 

8. And God Created Woman/Et Dieu... Créa la Femme (1956) - Roger Vadim

 

9. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Stanley Kubrick

 

10. In the Mood for Love/花樣年華/faa1joeng6 nin4waa4/huāyàng niánhuá (2000) - Wong Kar-Wai 

 

Chosen out of 32 titles labeled 'erotic'

Previous Top 10 lists:

Best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adapted movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date        
Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date         
Best debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best Danish movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best Disney movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best documentaries reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best dramas reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Top 10: Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  

What do you think of the list?
Which erotic movies would make your personal Top 10?

Game of Thrones - season 1 (2011) - Martin's impressive realm comes to the small screen

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Lord Stark/Sean Bean sits comfortably in the amazing throne made for the series on this gloomy poster for the first season of David Benioff and D.B. Weiss' Game of Thrones

 

The following contains SPOILERS:

 

Mysterious 'White Walkers' assassinate two outposts in the forest, and Lord 'Ned' Stark (Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001))) of the North executes the home-coming deserter. The great king of the Southern capital arrives to persuade Stark to take his crown; but Stark's wife is against it, and a shocking letter reveals that their friend behind the king was murdered by the dangerous Lannisters, an incestuous power-couple of twin brother and sister. Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Blackthorn (2011))) pushes Ned's son Brandon to a great fall and subsequent coma upon his discovering their copulating. In the South exiled prince Viserys Targaryen pressures his sister Daenerys (Emilia Clarke (Dom Hemingway (2013))) to marry the killing machine wild-man Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa (Aquaman (2018))) to attain his army to ride North with on a future conquest.

Jon Snow (Kit Harington (Testament of Youth (2014))), Ned's bastard son, ventures away to join the Night's Watch, meant to keep beasts outside the Wall. Daenerys, now renamed Khaleesi and pregnant by Drogo, is attacked by her brother and threatens him, if he ever does her harm again. Stark's wife travels with the 'imp', Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage (Pixels (2015))) as her prisoner to her frightening sister for answers. Meanwhile Ned gets captured by Jaime and is wounded in a fight.

He is still able to ascend the throne, empty from the now exiled king, as he learns the disturbing true origin of Prince Joffrey, as a Lannister! Khaleesi is obsessed with the dragon eggs she was given as a wedding gift; and her power-mad brother gets himself killed at the hand of Drogo, by way of liquid quicksilver!

Tyrion's liberation has not reached Winterfell castle, where power-mad Joffrey attacks Stark, as tension rises. Joffrey is successful, as Snow joins the oath of the Night's Watch and slays zombie-like White Walkers. Through diplomacy, Ned is promised his life if he admits to betrayal in front of the people, which he does, only for Joffrey to demand his head nonetheless.

Snow attempts to flee the Watch but is stopped. Joffrey's marrying Sansa Stark, Ned's daughter, is made difficult by his brutality. Khaleesi gives birth to a possibly dragon-scaled stillborn and strangles infected, wounded Drogo to death. She then burns her witch woman and walks into the flames herself, hatching her three dragon eggs.

Game of Thrones is created by David Benioff (Troy (2004)) and D.B. Weiss (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2013, TV-series)), based on A Game of Thrones (1996), the first novel in George R.R. Martin's (A Dance with Dragons (2011)) A Song of Ice and Fire novel series.

It presents an elaborate, major fictional universe that seems to have the ability to be ever-expanding, which can be most meaningfully compared to the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien in his Lord of the Rings novels (1954-55). The tone and atmosphere is different here though, with power-madness and extreme selfishness the general rule, and episode stables are sex scenes and violent slayings.

The series has a thrilling pilot and impresses with a handsome score (by Ramin Djawadi (Prison Break (2005-17))) and great performances by Dinklage and Bean. But there are also less than exciting episodes and one that seems downright stalling (episode 9: Baelor). Perhaps the second season will immerse me more fully in the conflicts on the continent of Westeros.

 

Best episodes:
 

Episode 1: Winter Is Coming - written by Benioff, Weiss; directed by Timothy Van Patten (Perry Mason (2020, TV-series))

The world of Game of Thrones and its central characters are introduced

 

Episode 7: You Win or You Die - written by Benioff, Weiss; directed by Daniel Minahan (True Blood (2008-12))

The king is deadly wounded by a wild boar and passes on his power to 'Ned' Stark; assassination attempts are launched against both he and Khaleesi, as tensions escalate.

Related post:

David Benioff: 25th Hour (2002) or, Taking a Second Chance (novel/screenplay)

 

Watch a trailer for the first episode of the season here

 

Cost: 50-70 mil. $ (different reports)

Box office: None - TV-series

= Uncertain

[Game of Thrones - season 1 was first broadcast from April 17 - June 19 (HBO) and runs 10 episodes of around 55 minutes, approximately 550 minutes in total. Tom McCarthy directed the original pilot, which was deemed "unsatisfactory" and re-shot by Van Patten. Several episodes were 10 minutes too short for HBO, due to the creators not being used to the strict conventions of TV, prompting Benioff/Weiss to write and shoot 100 new pages of inexpensive dialog scenes, (many of the season's serious criss-cross dialogs stem from this.) Shooting took place in Ireland and Malta. The second season was ordered on strength of the reception of the pilot, which had 2.22 mil. North-American viewers. The season's ratings went from 2.2 mil. (ep. 2: The Kingsroad) to 3.04 mil. (ep. 10: Fire and Blood). Finance-monthly.com have assessed that the season earned HBO 171.5 mil. $. The season won 2/13 Emmy award nominations, an AFI award, 1/2 Golden Globe awards and several other honors. Benioff & Weiss returned with Game of Thrones - season 2 (2012); Weiss also executive produced The Specials (2009-14, TV documentary series). In 2011 Dinklage also appeared in A Little Bit of Heaven and Scat's Continental Crack-up: Part 2 (short); Bean in Age of Heroes. Season 1 of Game of Thrones is certified fresh at 90 % with an 8.38/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Game of Thrones - season 1?

The Golf Specialist (1930) - Fields on the green is comedic gold

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W.C. Fields engaged with his golf club amid a general confusion in a delightful still from Monte Brice's The Golf Specialist

A rascally layabout, who attempts to steal money from a little girl, takes another man's flirtatious wife out on the tee to show her how a game of golf is played.

The Golf Specialist is a pre-Code comedy short directed by Monte Brice (Casey at the Bat (1927)), which was star W.C. Fields' (It's a Gift (1934)) first sound picture.

A part of this mostly studio-shot flick is pretty primitive; and especially the many sound gags are obviously a result of the recent advent of the novelty of sound on film, more so than they point to the future of comedy.

Most of the story takes place around Fields' first strike at the golf ball, which never succeeds due to various obstacles: a pie, flying papers and other ridiculous things. - One should be inordinately hard-boiled not to chuckle several times at Fields' grotesque routine there. - It is golden.

 

Watch a 2-minute clip from the short here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[The Golf Specialist was released 22 August (USA) and runs 20 minutes. Shooting took place in New Jersey. Fields' golf routine had been used in So's Your Old Man (1926) and again later in You're Telling Me! (1934). The film fell into public domain in the 1960s and can be seen and downloaded free and legally right here. Brice returned with Resolutions (1930, short). Fields returned in Her Majesty, Love (1931). 1,051 IMDb users have given The Golf Specialist a 6.3/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of The Golf Specialist?

The Great Wall/长城/Cháng Chéng (2016) - Damon appears foolish in unexciting, major US-Chinese monster turkey

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Things are exploding left and right and a frightening siege is apparently taking place, but star Matt Damon is on the wall with a bow and arrow on this poster for Yimou Zhang's The Great Wall

An Irish mercenary adventurer with a Spanish companion is searching for gunpowder in Song dynasty China [about 1,000 years ago], but they come into a massive battle against the monsters that the Great Wall are meant to keep out.

The Great Wall is written by Carlo Bernard (The Uninvited (2009)), Doug Miro (The Great Raid (2005)) and Tony Gilroy (State of Play (2009)), with Max Brooks (World War Z (2013, novel)), Edward Zwick (The Siege (1998)) and Marshal Herskovitz (A Marriage (2009, TV movie)) contributing story elements, and directed by Yimou Zhang (Red Sorghum (1988)).

It is an ambitious, giant production, which attempts to please both a Chinese and an American/Western audience with the result becoming an often involuntarily comical compromise. The presence of Matt Damon's (Syriana (2005)) ponytailed character alone in this old-Chinese context is comical: He is a hero of Western fabric, full of one-liners and incredible fighting skills. Across from him are Chinese by the boatloads, who appear very different; saluting uniformity and sacrifice for the majority's improvement. The Great Wall also marks a major cultural meeting that may be more than a bit anxiety-provoking for the China-skeptical Westerner.

There are impressive sets and costumes, strange, not very interesting monsters and a thankfully contained running time. The main  problem for this film, though, is a fundamentally unexciting story: The Great Wall marks a cultural summit that so far as the plot goes never really takes place.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 150 mil. $

Box office: 334.9 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2.23 times its cost)

[The Great Wall premiered 6 December (Beijing) and runs 103 minutes. Shooting took place in China and New Zealand from March 2015 - ?. It is Zhang's first English-language film and reportedly the costliest movie shot in China to its day. It reportedly employed 100 on-set translators to help with the communication between the international cast and crew. It opened #3, behind holdover hits The Lego Batman Movie and Fifty Shades Darker, to an 18.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another two weekends in the top 5 (#3-#4) and grossed 45.5 mil. $ (13.6 % of the total gross). It was the film's 2nd biggest market; the biggest by far was China with 170.9 mil. $ (51 %); 3rd biggest was Russia with 10.9 mil. $ (3.3 %). 110-120 mil. $ were reportedly spent to market the film worldwide, making its overall loss in the neighborhood of 75 mil. $ according to Deadline Hollywood. Regarding critique of his part in the film, Damon has stated: "For the first time, a film deeply rooted in Chinese culture, with one of the largest Chinese casts ever assembled, is being made at tentpole scale for a world audience. I believe that is a trend that should be embraced by our industry." The Communist Party of China have had negative reviews of the film removed from online sites in China. Zhang returned with Shadow/Ying (2018). Damon returned in Downsizing (2017). The Great Wall is rotten at 35 % with a 4.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Great Wall?

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis/Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini (1970) - An exquisite, painful De Sica WWII love drama

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A graphically recreated close-up of a young woman's beautiful face, encircled in autumn-colored leaves, makes up this striking poster for Vittorio De Sica's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

In late-1930s Italy, while the fascists' power and madness escalates, life continues in Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna, where Jewish Giorgio is in love with his childhood friend Micòl from the wealthy, Jewish Finzi-Contini family.

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is written by Ugo Pirro (Ogro (1979)) and Vittorio Bonicelli (Arabella (1980, miniseries)), adapting the same-titled 1962 novel by Giorgio Bassani (The Gold-rimmed Spectacles/Gli Occhiali d'Oro (1958)), and directed by Italian master filmmaker Vittorio De Sica (Rose Scarlatte (1940)), whose 25th feature it was. De Sica, Franco Brusati (Violent Life/Una Vita Violenta (1962)), Alain Katz (La Cosa Buffa (1972, second assistant director)), Tullio Pinelli (Flipper (1983, TV movie)), Cesare Zavattini (Lipstick/Il Rossetto (1960)) and Valerio Zurlini (Violent Summer/Estate Violenta (1959)) contributed uncredited screenplay work.

De Sica animates the fine, heart-rendering story with a familial tenderness, and the beautiful photography (by Ennio Guarnieri (Le Giraffe (2000))) and delectable costumes add much to this war-time drama/romance, which shows us the tragedy of WWII from a new angle: SPOILER Namely from the inside of two splendid Jewish families that are destroyed.

In this exquisite production the stars sparkle: Lino Capolicchio (An Impossible Crime/Un Delitto Impossibile (2001)) and Dominique Sanda (The Journey/El Viaje (1992)), along with Helmut Berger (Die Jäger (1982)) as the closeted homosexual and ill Alberto and Romolo Valli (Boom! (1968)) as Giorgio's proudly Italian father, whose patriotism is in vain. SPOILER Only the ending, in which the victims play tennis in slow-motion, is misbegotten.

 

Related post:

 

Vittorio De Sica: A Farewell to Arms (1957) or, Love in Spite! (co-star)

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: In excess of 596k $ (North America alone)

= Uncertain

[The Garden of the Finzi-Continis premiered 2 December (Jerusalem, Israel) and runs 94 minutes. Shooting took place in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Bassani was upset with how the relationship between Malnate and Micòl was made explicit in the film and distanced himself from De Sica. The only gross number readily available online is the 596k $ North-American gross. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: It won for Best Foreign Film and lost Adapted Screenplay to Ernest Tidyman for The French Connection. It also won 1/2 BAFTA nominations, the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, 1/2 David di Donatello nominations, was nominated for a Grammy, and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. De Sica returned with an anthology segment, a TV-series episode and a TV documentary prior to his theatrical return with Lo Chiameremo Andrea (1972). Capolicchio returned in Le Tue Mani Sul Mio Corpo (1970); Sanda in Sans Mobile Apparent (1971); and Berger in Love Me Strangely/Un Beau Monstre (1971)). The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is fresh at 100 % with an 8.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis?

Girls - season 2 (2013) - Hannah Horvath and Co. still make for fun TV chums

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 + Best Returning TV-series + Best Youth Title of the Year

 

Creator/star Lena Dunham fits in poorly to the conventional symbol of a woman next to a funny tagline on this fine poster for her Girls - season 2

Season 2 of creator/co-director/co-star Lena Dunham's (Creative Nonfiction (2009)) New York-set comedy series of four young female friends trying to find their place in life and relationships in the Big Apple drives on with the established characters and conflicts from the first season.

The following contains SPOILERS:

 

Hannah (Dunham) has moved in with her gay friend Elijah, and the two throw a party, in which Shoshanna (Zozia Mamet (Wiener-Dog (2016))) is awkward after having lost her virginity. Hannah acts as an unofficial nurse for her former flame Adam (Adam Driver (The Meyerowitz Stories (2017))) due to her co-responsibility for his getting hit by a truck one dramatic night, (in the final episode of season 1), while she also has a new sex friend in hot Donald Glover (30 Rock (2006-12)).

But she soon loses him to their differing political views and his lack of praise for her new essay; and Hannah calls the police, when Adam has let himself into her apartment.

Hannah has a one-day affair with a separated doctor (Patrick Wilson (Little Children (2006))) and quits her café job to fully pursue her writing. Soon after she has a gig to write an e-book, but this stresses her to the point that her OCD returns, and she visits psychiatrist Bob Balaban (Gosford Park (2001)).

Adam breaks his AA promise and returns to Hannah; and Marnie (Allison Williams (College Musical (2014))) uses her secret talent of singing at an event, which gets her bastard ex-boyfriend Charlie back to her. Even though he is a weak and very annoying character, she worships him. Adam recognizes Hannah's OCD, runs to her place and kicks the door in to better her.

 

An amusing but somewhat sentimental end to the season, which keeps development afloat for each of the four leads, along with three recurring male characters (Adam, Charlie and Ray), though with focus mostly on Hannah. Jessa (Jemima Kirke (Untogether (2018))) has the least development during season 2, but there is a full episode dedicated to her and Hannah's trip to the country to visit her (terrible) parents, played by Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)) and Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction (1994)) (episode 7: Video Games.)

It is great to have these Girls back on the small screen.

Best episodes:

Episode 3: Bad Friend - written by Dunham, Sarah Heyward (SKAM Austin (2018, TV-series)), Deborah Schoeneman (The Newsroom (2014, TV-series)); directed by Jesse Peretz (Divorce (2016, TV-series))

Hannah interviews at a magazine, whose editor wants stories that come from outside its writer's comfort zone. Hannah tries to give this by scoring cocaine from a neighbor and partying with Elijah, who confesses to having had sex with Marnie. Hannah throws him out and confronts Marnie with being, in Hannah's mind, a bad friend. Hilarious episode.

Episode 4: It's a Shame about Rey - written by Dunham, Heyward, Schoeneman; directed by Peretz

Hannah entertains with too acerbic imitations of her friends at a celebration of her first published article, leading to the evening breaking up. Shosh learns that her boyfriend Ray (Alex Karpovsky (Rosy (2018))) has moved in with her. Jessa meets her new husband's (Chris O'Dowd (Bridesmaids (2011))) parents, leading to a toxic break between the two, and her running off with 11,500 $. Touching, hilarious and original episode.

Related post:

Lena Dunham: 2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

Girls - season 1 (2012) - Dunham arrives with refreshing, idiosyncratic NY youth howler

 

 

Watch a 2-minute clip from episode 10 of the season here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: None - TV-series

= Uncertain

[Girls - season 2 premiered 13 January - 17 March on HBO and runs 10 episodes averaging 28 minutes, totaling approximately 280 minutes. Shooting took place in New York. The season had ratings from 484k to 866k viewers in North America, a sizable slip from the first season. The cast returned in season 3 in 2014. The season was nominated for 5 Primetime Emmy awards. Dunham also wrote and directed Best Friends (2013, short) and wrote Choose You (2013, short) during the year of season 2. Kirke did not get more credits before season 3; Mamet acted in The Last Keepers (2013); and Williams in The Mindy Project (2013). Girls - season 2 is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.03/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Girls - season 2?