Iliza Shlesinger: Hot Forever (2022)

Brian Keane is a name you should know.  Elsewhere is his newest short film. 

Everyone mourns differently.  One of the many ways that this manifests is being closed-off to the world.  Specifically, this can take the form of disclosing the smallest amount of information possible in an attempt to hide one’s inner feelings.  The first paragraph of this review is an example of that.  So is the main character of Elsewhere, Roman, played by Michael Raver.

Elsewhere is a film about mourning. Or, said with a more accurate synonym, coping with loss. We never find out exactly who Roman is mourning, but the film does a great job of slowly rolling out details that make an emotional impact. At first, the audience may be lulled into thinking this character is just generally depressed or cynical. The revelation that someone has passed is never explicitly made, and the most information we get is that they left several pieces of property behind, but it’s all made crystal clear very soon just by Roman’s expressions.

Comedy is one of the oldest forms of entertainment, much older than the cinematic medium of feature films. This is likely due to the freedom to express ideas that (hopefully) bypass mental defenses. Just you, the microphone in your hand, and an audience to openly express yourself. As promised, here are nine more comedians to add to your laugh track in 2023.

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Chelsea’s latest special, now streaming on Netflix, feels like a follow-up to her previous stand-up special from 2020, Evolution. If Evolution is a life-changing therapy session, Revolution is a trip to the rage room. Chelsea Handler’s comedy isn’t for the faint at heart because she doesn’t pull her punches. Some of her material is confrontational, especially in Revolution, where she calls out toxic white men while relating traumatic anecdotes. Her brand of dark humour is politically charged and often consists of jokes about subjects everyone isn’t comfortable joking about, like the Holocaust. Rest assured, none of the comedy makes light of tragedy, but rather points fingers at those who should be held accountable. Men like Jimmy Carr and Ricky Gervais are often lauded for being bold and uncompromising with the subject matter of their material, and Handler is out there being the same. She’s claiming the space that should have been shared to start with. And she isn’t being transphobic while doing so!