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Curb Yourself Onto HBO's 'Clear History'

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Jesus' beard, I have missed Larry David in my life. It's been two years since David's genius comedy improv show Curb Your Enthusiasm has been on the air, finishing its eighth season on HBO in 2011. Larry David is back as the star and co-writer of the HBO comedy film Clear History, which tells the story of Nathan Flomm, a marketing executive at Electron Motors who developed the first electric car "The Howard," along with his partner (and boss) Will Haney, played by Jon Hamm (Mad Men). Flomm then sells his share of what would become a billion dollar investment, due entirely to his neurotic ways. Larry David dons a homeless beard, a Jesus-gone-wrong hairdo, and a Hawaiian shirt while working at the office, who, as Danny McBride put, "looks like the guy who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart" - a worse office getup than Curb's "casual Friday" episode. The brains behind Edible Arrangements, Flomm asks pressing social questions like: "why are we hiding outlets?" 

 Years later we see that "The Howard" is everywhere, including Martha's Vineyard, an island where Nathan Flomm is living under the name of Rolly (yet another unfortunate name). The never-failing-expectations Danny McBride plays Rolly's sidekick and mentor - and it is comedy nerd heaven. Everybody wants to work with Larry David. Other cast members include Eva Mendes, Kate Hudson, Bill Hader, and a crazed Michael Keaton, who is back to his comedy roots, using his Beetlejuice voice as Joe Stumpo. I love Michael Keaton - bone deep in comedy. Flomm/Rolly assembles the team pictured above, and seeks revenge on the billionaire yuppie that ruined his life.

If you've seen Curb Your Enthusiasm, which you should, then this is familiar ground; extending familiar everyday annoyances into drawn-out quarrels. From only a 35-page script, Clear History's actors improvise their way through a 100-minute movie. The neurotic cousin to Woody Allen - Larry David has a presence about him that makes you side with/root for him, even though he repeatedly digs his own grave, and generally never gets what he wants. This is precisely why Danny McBride is an exact fit as Larry David's sidekick; McBride's Kenny Powers on HBO's Eastbound & Down operates in the same way. Clear History is good comedy with signature improvisation, but at times tends to feel like a long episode of Curb (which doesn't mean it's bad). Although, the movie gradually gets better when it finds its course. 

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