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'POTUS,' an all-female political farce, battles the patriarchy at the Geffen Playhouse

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'POTUS,' an all-female political farce, battles the patriarchy at the Geffen Playhouse

Farce, particularly of the bedroom variety, has traditionally leaned male. A prototypical situation involves a playboy type trying to keep two women apart on a puzzle-box set conveniently equipped with multiple doors.

“POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive,” Selina Fillinger’s comedy that had a turn in the Broadway spotlight in 2022, is a decidedly female addition to the genre. The first word spoken in the play — shrieked, in fact — is an unprintable expletive for female genitalia favored by the Brits.

Fillinger isn’t just being naughty. She’s staking out territory for her side, issuing a theatrical corrective and delivering a feminist proclamation.

An all-female cast of seven makes its own statement.

The characters of “POTUS” are all connected to the unseen occupant of the Oval Office — another randy male president routinely distracted by the consequences of his misbehavior. His team of enablers is fighting a losing battle to make him look good.

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The spin room operates on a 24/7 schedule. It’s a pressure cooker, and Harriet (Shannon Cochran), the commanding White House chief of staff, has the weary look of a military general overwhelmed by enemy fire.

More often than not, Jean (Celeste Den), the White House press secretary, is on the receiving end of Harriet’s bellowing commands. Harriet knows she can trust Jean to get the job done, whereas she has less faith in Stephanie (Lauren Blumenfeld), the president’s high-strung secretary, whose main task is blockading his office door when a dalliance is in session.

Margaret (Alexandra Billings), the fed-up first lady, seems to be only adding fuel to the public relations fire. An overachiever with a resume to dwarf her husband’s, she can’t understand why she’s not president — or rather, she has grown tired of accepting the sexist reason.

Meanwhile, Chris (Ito Aghayere), a political reporter on the hunt for embarrassing scoops, has her ear cocked for scandal, which doesn’t take long to arrive. Dusty (Jane Levy), the president’s mistress, saunters in with an announcement: She’s pregnant.

But that’s not the only controversy. Bernadette (Deirdre Lovejoy), the president’s sister, has wheedled her way out of prison. Wearing an ankle monitor and lugging a duffle bag of narcotics, she has come for a presidential pardon but is more likely to be rearrested.

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Jane Levy plays the president’s mistress, left, and Lauren Blumenfeld is his secretary in the Geffen Playhouse production of “POTUS,” directed by Jennifer Chambers.

(Jeff Lorch)

How can Harriet and Jean possibly keep up with the mayhem? Out of this chaos, Fillinger whips up another emergency. The first act culminates with a bust of suffragist Alice Paul flying into the president’s office like a guided missile.

This inadvertent attack on the commander in chief overwhelms even the hypercompetent damage control of this experienced White House team. But never underestimate a group of scared women who have formed an unholy alliance.

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Sounds like a laugh riot, no? I wish I could report that the Geffen Playhouse production lives up to its delirious premise, but this spinning top of a play makes itself dizzy from overexertion. Farcical success depends on timing. Flat-footed contrivances, compounded by hackneyed humor and stereotypical targets, contribute to the sense that the play is always a beat behind.

The game cast members, under the direction of Jennifer Chambers, hurl themselves into their roles, fully committing themselves to even the playwright’s most questionable choices. But the strain begins to show.

Ito Aghayere is a political reporter, left, and Alexandra Billings is the first lady in “POTUS.”

(Jeff Lorch)

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On Broadway, an ensemble that included Vanessa Williams, Lea DeLaria, Rachel Dratch and Julie White may have distracted from its playwriting problems. But no such luck here.

Stephanie, the president’s Nervous Nellie secretary, undergoes a personality change after dipping into Bernadette’s bag of pills. For a good portion of the second act, Blumenfeld runs around the stage in a swimming tube acting kooky. The bit quickly wears out its welcome, but she gives it her all.

As Dusty is called upon to deploy her sexual talents to divert the president’s secret service agents, Levy delivers lines that are meant to play up the liberation of her character. Her performance as an erotically confident farm girl who slurps blue slushies is vivaciously, at times even scene-stealing-ly charming. But the comedy is too often at Dusty’s expense, and not even her increasing empowerment can compensate for the way she’s demeaned for cheap laughs.

It’s refreshing to see bodily truth liberated from shame, but Chris, the White House reporter who recently gave birth, is defined less by her dogged journalism than by the lactating stains on her blouse. As for Bernadette, there’s not much Lovejoy can do with the gruff, felonious lesbian deployed by Fillinger more as a comic device than a dimensional figure.

Billings, an actor who became a crucial character on the Amazon series “Transparent,” portrays the powerfully contentious first lady role with broad strokes. Punchlines strut from Billings’ mouth as though they’re walking the red carpet at the Academy Awards.

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Proximity to realism is reserved for Cochran’s Harriet and Den’s Jean, both of whom do their best not only to right the White House ship but to rescue the play from its worst excesses. It’s a losing game when drugs and violence inflame the increasingly preposterous action.

The cast is up against not only an out-of-control plot but a set by Brett J. Banakis that is as logistically cumbersome as the play’s subtitle. Stagehands are set in frantic motion when a different corridor of the White House is required or the scene shifts to the ladies’ room.

At least “POTUS” has the courage of its zany conviction. It’s a thrilling sight to see a stage full of women unleash their power for the benefit of womankind rather than a single, over-promoted man. The play transforms in the end to a feminist rally, but too many false farcical moves spoil the emancipatory fun.

‘POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive’

Where: Gil Cates Theater at Geffen Playhouse,10886 Le Conte Ave., L.A.

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When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Feb. 25

Tickets: $39-$129

Contact: (310) 208-2028 or geffenplayhouse.org

Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes, including intermission

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Movie Reviews

Jeremy Schuetze’s ‘ANACORETA’ (2022) – Movie Review – PopHorror

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Jeremy Schuetze’s ‘ANACORETA’ (2022) – Movie Review – PopHorror

PopHorror had the chance to check out Anacoreta (2022) ahead of its streaming release! Does this meta-horror flick provide interesting story telling or is it a confusing mess.

 

Let’s have a look…

Synopsis

A group of friends heads to a secluded woodland cabin for a weekend getaway, planning to film an experimental horror movie. As the shoot progresses, the project begins to fall apart—until a real and terrifying presence emerges from the darkness.

Anacoreta is directed by Jeremy Schuetze. It was written by Jeremy Schuetze and Matt Visser. The film stars Antonia Thomas (Bagman 2024), Jesse Stanley (Raf 2019), Jeremy Schuetze (Jennifer’s Body 2009), and Matt Visser (A Lot Like Christmas 2021)

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My Thoughts

Antonia Thomas delivered an outstanding performance as the female lead in Anacoreta. It was remarkable to watch her convey such a wide range of emotions with authenticity and depth. I was continually impressed by her ability to switch seamlessly between different dialects. I absolutely loved her delivery of the dialogue of telling The Scorpion and the Frog fable.

Anacoreta employs a distinctive, meta-horror style of storytelling. The narrative follows a group of friends creating a “scripted reality” horror film, and as the plot unfolds, the boundary between their staged production and their actual lives becomes increasingly blurred. This was interesting, but at the same time frustrating as a viewer.

Check out Anacoreta on Prime Video and let us know your thoughts!

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Todd Meadows, ‘Deadliest Catch’ deckhand, dies at 25

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Todd Meadows, ‘Deadliest Catch’ deckhand, dies at 25

Todd Meadows, a crewmember on one of the fishing vessels featured on the long-running reality series “Deadliest Catch,” has died. He was 25.

Rick Shelford, the captain of the Aleutian Lady, announced in a Monday post on Facebook and Instagram that Meadows died Feb. 25. He called it “the most tragic day in the history of the Aleutian Lady on the Bering Sea.”

“We lost our brother,” Shelford wrote in his lengthy tribute. “Todd was the newest member of our crew, he quickly became family. His love for fishing and his strong work ethic earned everyone’s respect right away. His smile was contagious, and the sound of his laughter coming up the wheelhouse stairs or over the deck hailer is something we will carry with us always.

“He worked hard, loved deeply, and brought joy to those around him,” he added. “Todd will forever be part of this boat, this crew, and this brotherhood. Though we lost him far too soon, his legacy will live on through his children and in every memory we carry of him.”

A fundraiser set up in Meadows’ name described the deckhand from Montesano, Wash., as a father to “three amazing little boys” who died “while doing what he loved — crabbing out on Alaskan waters.”

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According to the Associated Press, Meadows died after he was reported to have fallen overboard around 170 miles north of Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

“He was recovered unresponsive by the crew approximately ten minutes later,” Chief Petty Officer Travis Magee, a spokesperson with the Coast Guard’s Arctic District, told the AP. The Coast Guard is investigating the incident.

Meadows was a first-year cast member of “Deadliest Catch,” the Discovery Channel reality series that follows crab fishermen navigating the perilous winds and waves of the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and snow crab fishing seasons. The show debuted in 2005. No episodes from Meadows’ season has aired.

Deadline reported that the show was in production on its 22nd season when the incident occurred, with the Shelford-led Aleutian Lady being the last of the vessels still out at sea at the time. Production has subsequently concluded, per the outlet.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic passing of Todd Meadows,” a Discovery Channel spokesperson said in a statement that has been widely circulated. “This is a devastating loss, and our hearts are with his loved ones, his crewmates, and the entire fishing community during this incredibly difficult time.”

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Meadows is the latest among “Deadliest Catch” cast members who have died. Previous deaths include Phil Harris, a captain of one of the ships featured on the show, who died after suffering a stroke while filming the show’s sixth season in 2010. Todd Kochutin, a crew member of the Patricia Lee, died in 2021 from injuries he sustained while aboard the fishing vessel, according to an obituary. Other cast members have died from substance abuse or natural causes.

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‘Hoppers’ review: Pixar’s best original movie in years

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‘Hoppers’ review: Pixar’s best original movie in years

“So it’s like Avatar?” one character quips in Disney and Pixar’s “Hoppers,” bluntly translating the film’s high-concept premise for the sugar-fueled kids in the audience. And yes, the comparison is apt. The story follows a nature-obsessed teenage girl who manages to quite literally “hop” her consciousness into the body of a robotic beaver in order to spark an animal rebellion against a greedy mayor determined to bulldoze their forest for a freeway. 

It’s a clever hook. The kind of big, elastic idea Pixar used to make look effortless. “Hoppers” does not reach the rarified air of “Up,” “Wall-E,” or “Inside Out,” but after a stretch of uneven originals like “Turning Red” and “Luca,” and outright misfires such as “Elemental” and “Elio,” this feels like a genuine course correction. The environmental messaging is clear without being preachy, the animals are irresistibly anthropomorphized, and the studio’s once-signature emotional sincerity is back in sturdy form.

Pixar can afford to gamble on originals when it has a guaranteed cash cow like this summer’s “Toy Story 5” waiting in the wings, but “Hoppers” earns its place in the catalogue. Director Daniel Chong crafts a warm, heartfelt film that occasionally strains under the weight of its own ambition, yet remains grounded by character and theme. Its meditation on conservation and animal displacement feels timely in a way that never tips into after-school-special territory.

We meet Mabel, voiced with bright conviction by Piper Curda, as a child liberating her classroom pets and returning them to the wild. Her moral compass is shaped by her grandmother, voiced by Karen Huie, who imparts wisdom about nature’s sanctity. True to both Pixar tradition and the broader Disney playbook, this beacon of guidance does not survive past the opening act. Loss, after all, is Pixar’s favorite inciting incident.

Years later, Mabel is still fighting the good fight, squaring off against the smarmy Mayor Jerry, voiced with slick menace by Jon Hamm. He plans to flatten the glade where Mabel and her grandmother once found solace. Mabel’s resistance feels noble but futile. The animals have already mysteriously vanished, the machinery is coming, and her last-ditch plan involves luring a beaver back to the abandoned forest in hopes of jumpstarting the ecosystem.

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That’s when the film gleefully pivots into mad-scientist territory. At Beaverton University, Mabel discovers her professor, voiced by Kathy Najimy, has developed a device that can project human consciousness into synthetic animals. The process, dubbed “hopping,” allows Mabel to inhabit a robotic beaver and infiltrate the forest from within. It’s an inspired escalation that keeps the film buoyant even when the plotting grows predictable.

Her new posse includes King George, a lovably beaver voiced by Bobby Moynihan with distinct Bing Bong energy; a sharp-tongued bear voiced by Melissa Villaseñor; a regal bird king voiced by the late Isiah Whitlock Jr.; and a fish queen voiced by Ego Nwodim. As is often the case with Pixar, even in its lesser efforts, the world-building is meticulous. The animal hierarchy, complete with titles like “paw of the king,” is layered with jokes that play for kids while slyly winking at adults.

The plot ultimately follows a familiar template. Scrappy underdog rallies community. Corporate villain twirls metaphorical mustache. Emotional third-act sacrifice looms. At times, you can feel the machinery working a little too cleanly. Pixar, and Disney at large, has grown increasingly reliant on sequels and established IP, and “Hoppers” does not radically reinvent the wheel. In an animated landscape where films like “K-Pop: Demon Hunters,” “Across the Spider-Verse,” and “Goat” are pushing stylistic and narrative boundaries, being safe and sturdy may not always be enough.

And yet, there is something refreshing about a Pixar original that remembers how to tug at the heart without squeezing it dry. “Hoppers” is playful, peppered with cheeky needle drops, and builds to a sweet emotional catharsis that may or may not have left this critic a little misty-eyed. It feels earnest and engaged. 

“Hoppers” may not be top-tier Pixar. But it is a welcome return to form, a reminder that the studio still knows how to marry big ideas with a bigger heart.

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HOPPERS opens in theaters Friday, March 6th.

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