John Slattery, Jack Black and current “Saturday Night Live” employees Mike O’Brien and Aidy Bryant are part of IFC’s series “Documentary Now!” the brainchild of SNL vets Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen and Bill Hader.
Chatshow host Meyers wrote the episodes, which always (at least in the first few episodes made available for review) take hilarious and unexpected turns.
“Nanook of the North” homage “Kunuk Uncovered,” for example, sees a simple Inuit decide he wants to take creative control of the filmmaking process after he is chosen to star in a pioneering documentary effort.
“Sandy Passage” starts off as a hilariously detailed send-up of 1975’s “Grey Gardens,” then veers off into something more akin to “The Blair Witch Project.”
The series was on Tuesday renewed for two more seasons, suggesting IFC truly could not give a shit if anybody watches. The first seasons consists of six half-hour episodes, one of which pretends to be a documentary about another documentary. A press release provides descriptions of all six:
* “Sandy Passage”: Examination of mother and daughter socialites that create a self-imposed world in a dilapidated mansion.
* “Kunuk Uncovered”: Exposé on the world’s first documentary about the Inuit.
* “Dronez”: Guerilla-style journalists travel to Mexico to investigate a drug cartel.
* “Blue Jean Committee”: Classic rock n’ roll story of fame, fighting and making music history.
* “Al Capone Festival in Iceland”: Exploration of an Icelandic town’s festival celebrating an American gangster.
* “Under 45 Seconds”: Crime mystery about a man sentenced to life in prison for a murder he did not commit.
... the re-creations are so perfectly done that it's nice to have the room to revel. You can feel the care and love that went into every ridiculous frame. …
... The attention to detail is as impressive as the laughs are frequent. … the “Kunuk” episode is a high-water mark, with Armisen starring as the increasingly unhinged title character and Hader, under layers of prosthetics, hilariously narrating — from Meyers’s deft script — how the film went off the rails. …
... becomes an exceedingly hit-miss proposition …
... mimic the films they’re parodying to a riotous degree. …
10 p.m. Thursday. IFC.
