Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
February 20, 2016
Best of 2015, Best of TV 2015, Television Arnold Baumheiser, Better Call Saul, Blaine DeBeers, Carol Pilbasian, Chuck McGill, Dean Sanderson, Elliot Alderson, Fargo, Fresh Off the Boat, Jessica Huang, Jessica Jones, Kent Woolworth, Kimmy Schmidt, Liz Greenberg, Mike Milligan, Moonbeam City, Mr. Poopybutthole, Peggy Blumquist, Phil Miller, Rad Cunningham, The Grinder, The Last Man on Earth, Titus Andromedon, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Leave a comment
1. Rad Cunningham (Will Forte), Moonbeam City – On an underseen show, Will Forte worked his indelible powers of empathy and open-mindedness to birth another one of his beautifully pathetic creations. In the patently ridiculous Moonbeam City PD, Rad is the most ridiculous, and the most childish, but also the most profoundly human.
February 18, 2016
Best of 2015, Best of TV 2015, Television Better Call Saul, Nathan for You, Rectify, Review (TV Series), Rick and Morty, The Eric Andre Show, The Middle, The Muppets on ABC, Tim and Eric's Bedtime Stories Leave a comment
These were the moments that had me had me keeling over, on the edge of my seat, and begging for mercy.
10. The Eric Andre Show, “Bird Up!” – Focus group – This is how TV gets made, apparently.
February 18, 2016
Best in Film 2015, Best of 2015, Cinema Chi-Raq, Ex Machina, Inside Out, Jurassic World, Mad Max: Fury Road, Magic Mike XXL, Minions, Sicario, The Big Short, Unfriended 1 Comment
The best mini-movies that had us rocking in and falling out of our seats in the past year.
10. Jurassic World, T. Rex vs. Indominus Rex – A.K.A the 2015 Late Night War.
February 18, 2016
Television, The Middle, The Middle Episode Reviews Hecks at a Movie, The Middle, The Middle 715, The Middle Season 7 Leave a comment
“Are potatoes a classic movie snack?” http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2016/02/18/the-middle-season-7-episode-15-recap-h
February 17, 2016
Muppets (2015 TV Series), Muppets Episode Reviews, Television Got Silk?, RuPaul, The Muppets, The Muppets 113, The Muppets on ABC, The Muppets Season 1 Leave a comment
Is Piggy that hard to like? http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2016/02/17/the-muppets-season-1-episode-13-recap-
February 17, 2016
New Girl, New Girl Episode Reviews, Television New Girl, New Girl 507, New Girl Season 5, Wig Leave a comment
February 14, 2016
Cinema, Movie Reviews Carol, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Todd Haynes 2 Comments
“We’re not ugly people,” Carol Aird pleadingly, but assuredly, insists to her husband during a custody fight that threatens to turn nasty. Carol is a thoroughly humanistic examination of the affair between a shopgirl and a housewife in 1952 New York, and the men in their life who struggle to understand them. It is about identity: the internal challenges to find your own and the external challenges to live it out. It mostly keeps it cool, in a manner that viewers who are not already fully attuned to director Todd Haynes’ restrained style might struggle to fully embrace. But when Cate Blanchett delivers the “ugly people” emphasis, Carol finds the winner’s circle.
February 14, 2016
Cinema, Movie Reviews 45 Years Leave a comment
If a film is about a decades-long marriage rocked by the revelation of long-held secrets, the natural expectation is that the marriage will fall apart. 45 Years is a little more complicated than that. Kate (Charlotte Rampling) is initially fine when the dead body of her husband Jeff’s (Tom Courtenay) ex-lover Katya is discovered. But tensions rise as the extent of Jeff and Katya’s relationship is revealed. It is never fully clear if Jeff has kept these secrets due to selfishness, embarrassment, deviousness, forgetfulness, or some combination of the above. Similarly, it is left ambiguous whether or not Kate can remain satisfied with their marriage amidst the dishonesty. Ergo, 45 Years works best as a showcase for the complications that Rampling can convey with gasps, furrowed brows, and heavy cheeks.
February 14, 2016
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television Kanye Breath, Kanye West, Kyle Mooney, Melissa McCarthy, No Kanye's Left, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live 4113, Saturday Night Live Season 41, SNL Season 41 Leave a comment
SNL: Kanye West, Melissa McCarthy, Taran Killam (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)
This review was originally posted on Starpulse in February 2016.
Melissa McCarthy is one of the most reliable “SNL” hosts of this decade. She always brings her A-game, making herself right at home at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. She has her critics who call her out for playing the same character over and over: brash, over-the-top, and painfully awkward. That can be a problem with a film career (though she usually brings more depth than her critics give her credit for), but in sketch comedy, it can easily be a winning formula. Frequent musical guest Kanye West is also reliable, but his is a reliable unreliability, in which the stage design and sound style will never be the same twice.
I Can’t Make You Love Me – Instead of the umpteenth debate sketch, the leadoff political sketch finds its angle via the electorate. Its take on what appeals to voters about Bernie over Hillary is a little shallow, but that is a small blemish, as that patter is just setup for the main thrust of the sketch: Hillary’s take on Bonnie Raitt. This is Kate McKinnon pulling off the same note of desperation she’s been hitting, but this time she is really complicating the question of whether or not Mrs. Clinton is cool. She tries so hard, which is cool because of the commitment but not cool because of the strain. There is some reference to how support of Hillary or lack thereof affects feminism, but this sketch is more astute about the much less complicated issue of whether or not Hillary is cooler than the drab, depressing Jeb Bush. B
February 14, 2016
Television, What Won TV? Baskets, Childrens Hospital, Jane the Virgin, Man Seeking Woman, Saturday Night Live, SNL, Super Bowl Babies, The People vs. O.J. Simpson Leave a comment
In this feature, I look back at each day of the past week and determine what shows “won TV” for the night. That is, I consider every episode of television I watched that aired on a particular day and declare which was the best.
Sunday – Super Bowl Babies
Monday – Jane the Virgin
Tuesday – The People vs. O.J. Simpson
Wednesday – Man Seeking Woman, Jesus Edition
Thursday – Baskets
Friday – Childrens Hospital
Saturday – Kanye vs. Kyle rap battle on SNL
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