TV Movie Review

TV Movie Review: TIG NOTARO: BOYISH GIRL INTERRUPTED [HBO]

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Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted (2015) TV Movie Review,  Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted an HBO film directed by Jay Karas and Tig Notaro and starring Tig Notaro is an impish spectacle of the once downtrodden comic, Tig Notaro, who became a laugh legend in L.A. by announcing she had breast cancer to her audience in an honest yet feisty reversal of her personal tragedy. Her dark personal theme prevailed as her future shows naturally incorporated all near life and death tragedies, including the actual death of her (former) mother, who fell and hit her head.

In the HBO special Tig is slow to warm up, but the audience is fiery.

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She doesn’t talk about her mom’s death directly in the nearly hour long set, but garners a more personal than distant approach on a lighter side, and takes a stab at personal career failure. It’s impossible not to laugh at this woman making fun of herself with the caper about a mysterious chocolate ice cream mustache that culminated fourteen bombed shows in a row and humiliated her above acceptable levels a person should experience. Striving to do better comedy suits her well as an ironic joke, but so does being topless. And she is unequivocally topless for the second half of this show.

Before stripping down she takes a naughty romp with a friend looking for the perfect Santa, calls the audience “dumb”, fantasizes about an actual pig making snorts at her jokes, has an embarrassing family story about being barefoot and drunk in New Orleans, cracks the darkest bit of the set which is about extra burial plots that her stepfather bought on sale, and personifies her lost breasts who she believes were trying to kill her. Then, the shirt is removed. And I cried from exertion as I was laughing so hard.

Half exposed Tig is just as funny as fully clad Tig. It all makes sense if you know she was raised to just be funny as expected by her mom, who she revealed in Tig, the Netflix documentary, was hilarious and constantly pranking people. What more should we expect in the flesh? Her delivery is deadpan with a stoic aplomb which makes you want to believe that all her struggles were worth having. She truly believes that too. Well, sort of. Her balance of frustration and attention grabbing for laughs is deeply ingrained in authenticity. She has lived a life congruous with her style and was chic enough to push boundaries of humor and heartbreak until they abutted their respective counterpart. She has no equal. I don’t care what she thinks her fiancé is. She’s definitely not a man. Where did she get that from?

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Stephanie King

I am a meticulous writer. Story is my strong suit. I do not waste time on political "critique" or paranoid "undertones" that might have been an inspiration to a story writer, but clearly are not a main or secondary theme. I can identify high concept, main and sub theme(s), protagonists and antagonists, secondary character roles, the turning point, the key, the antagonist's story thrust, the spine, twelve sequences, the climax, the resolution, and most importantly, the goal of any film. I am aware of the act structure which can be from three to five acts, generally. Aristotle elaborates in his Poetics on Plato's Republic on act structure.
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