CinemaFunk

We burn them to ashes and then burn the ashes.

In the 21st Century we are often given film adaptations of novels with well-known directors, it is something we are very used to. When you tag François Truffaut (the godfather of French New Wave) to direct the famous Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451, you are bound to get a stylistic rendition from an auteur who must adapt the genius of a central figure in speculative fiction. From the opening credits (which are spoken, not written) there is no doubt that Fahrenheit 451 is no longer an adaptation of Bradbury's book, but a film created by a master auteur.

Guy Montag is a fireburner who is right on the edge of receiving a big promotion at the fire station. Fire stations are no longer emergency disaster response units, but censors who burn hedonistic books at 451 degrees Fahrenheit, which is apparently an emergency. Montag meets Bernard Herrmann who questions his career and poses the question, "do you read any of the books you burn?"

Patton Oswalt as Paul

Robert Siegel maybe one of the most important writer/director auteurs to surface in the past several years. After writing The Onion Movie and The Wrestler, Siegel took the writer/director role of Big Fan, a 2009 Sundance Film Festival selection that strayed away from typecasting Patton Oswalt and prevented the film from emerging as a typical comedy.

Paul Aufiero (Oswalt) considers himself the world's biggest New York Giants fan so much that he defends the team he loves against "Philadelphia Phil", an Eagles fan who who rants against the Giants on a radio program. When not devouring information about his beloved team, Paul works as a parking lot attendant. His family berates his love of the Giants and his lack of pursuit in anything else, including a family. Regardless, Paul is content with just the Giants.

Paul and his friend Sal (Kevin Corrigan) happen to see the star for the Giants, Quantrell Bishop (Jonathan Hamm) and follow him from a drug deal to a strip club. At the strip club, Paul and Sal introduce themselves and after slipping up and admitting that they followed Bishop, Bishop attacks Paul putting him in the hospital.

Will not reach cult status.

Mike Judge is either known for his comedic brilliance or for the downfall of decency in American television. Either way, Judge has created some of the most important characters in American popular culture including the prime-time cartoon sit-coms Bevis and Butthead and King of the Hill, and commercial failures that ultimately led to high cult status such as Office Space and Idiocracy.

Extract is a different breed, however. Judge has created a little niche in character and story creation that revolves around middle-class imprisonment during the working hours and how we are then subjected to our own productivity in the media and in consumer products. Extract may as well be the height in Judge's typical signatures and topics. Armed with an ensemble cast, Judge as director has more control than ever before, yet fails to deliver the same clever comedy of his previous films offered.