CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot
Somehow, Jeff had never seen an episode of Freaks and Geeks in its entirety before May 2020. So Aunt Beth decided he ought to rectify that. Let’s find out how it went!
That’s Auntertainment! Mini-Episode: Aunt Beth Tells Jeff to Watch ‘Freaks and Geeks’
May 31, 2020
Podcasts, That's Auntertainment Freaks and Geeks, Podcasts, That's Auntertainment Leave a comment
Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 5/29/20
May 29, 2020
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television Celebrity Family Feud, Central Park, Chromatica, Fred Willard, Fuller House, Lady GaGa, Loren Bouchard, Match Game, Press Your Luck, Quiz, Space Force, Steve Carell, The Vast of Night Leave a comment
CREDIT: Aaron Epstein/Netflix
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–The Vast of Night (May 29 on Amazon)
TV
–Central Park Season 1 (May 29 on Apple TV+) – From Bob’s Burgers creator Loren Bouchard, but is it enough to convince me to sign up for Apple TV?
–Space Force Season 1 (May 29 on Netflix) – Steve Carell and friends (including a posthumous Fred Willard) go to space!
–Celebrity Family Feud Season Premiere (May 31 on ABC)
–Press Your Luck Season Premiere (May 31 on ABC)
–Match Game Season Premiere (May 31 on ABC)
–Quiz Miniseries Premiere (May 31 on AMC) – A cheating scandal on Who Wants to be a Millionaire!
–Fuller House Season 5 Part 2 (June 2 on Netflix)
Music
-Lady Gaga, Chromatica
‘The Vast of Night’ Delivers the Small-Scale Sci-Fi Goods
May 27, 2020
Cinema, Movie Reviews Andrew Patterson, Bruce Davis, Gail Cronauer, Jake Horowitz, Sierra McCormick, The Vast of Night 1 Comment
CREDIT: Amazon Studios
Starring: Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz, Gail Cronauer, Bruce Davis
Director: Andrew Patterson
Running Time: 89 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for The Looming Threat of Something Alien
Release Date: May 29, 2020 (Amazon Prime Video)
Imagine, if you will, a movie coming out in 2020 that presents itself as an episode of a fictional anthology TV series called Paradox Theatre, which is clearly inspired by the most famous actual anthology series of all time. Twilight Zone fever is alive and well, baby! The truth is, Rod Serling’s iconic creation, and all the brethren it’s inspired, has never really gone away. (That would still very much be the case even if the CBS All Access revival didn’t exist.) It’s pretty damn hard, nearly impossible even, to recapture the spirit of O.G. Twilight Zone, but I nonetheless love that The Vast of Night wears its influence so openly on its sleeve. The Paradox Theatre framing device could have been deployed even more thoroughly than it is, but it nevertheless sets a vibe that assures you that debut director Andrew Patterson is worth paying attention to.
Patterson and screenwriters James Montague and Craig W. Sanger whisk us back to one night in 1950s New Mexico, where there’s a big basketball game at the local high school that everyone in town is headed to. But we’re not here to follow anyone on the team. Instead, we’re going along with two other students as they head off to their jobs sending audio content through the ether. Fay (Sierra McCormick) is a switchboard operator, and Everett (Jake Horowitz) hosts a radio show. He’s constantly razzing her, but he also takes her seriously enough to know it’s worth doing some digging when she alerts him to some weird noises coming through the boards.
If you’re into the genre, you know where this is headed, i.e., EXTRATERRESTRIAL VISITORS HAVE A MESSAGE FOR US! The fun and the thrill of it is getting to study Fay and Everett’s faces as it dawns on them that major secrets are about to reveal themselves. Something bigger than their regular old small-town life might just actually exist.
The Vast of Night is in its sweet spot when it keeps things claustrophobic. Eventually Fay and Everett venture back out into the night to track down the source of the noises, and there is a nice frantic energy, as they (and seemingly the entire town) become swallowed by panic and paranoia. But when Everett is flipping tapes and Fay is turning knobs and switching wires, there is a pleasantly intense procedural quality to the awe they experience while just sitting around and going through their routine. When you realize that you’re at the mercy of something as vast as the universe just outside your window, it’s enough to make you lean in and become a budding little investigator. Throw in some era-appropriate fixings like thick-framed eyeglasses, full-length skirts, and jokes about the future of cell phones, and you’ve got yourself a slick little satisfying genre picture.
The Vast of Night is Recommended If You Like: The Twilight Zone, Amazing Stories, The X-Files
Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Switchboards
If Only ‘The Lovebirds’ Were More for the Birds
May 26, 2020
Cinema, Movie Reviews Andrene Ward-Hammond, Anna Camp, Issa Rae, Kumail Nanjiani, Kyle Bornheimer, Michael Showalter, Paul Sparks, The Lovebirds Leave a comment
CREDIT: Skip Bolen/Netflix
While appraising the Michael Showalter-directed, Kumail Nanjiani-and-Issa Rae-starring The Lovebirds, I feel a lot like Graham Chapman’s Colonel character from Monty Python, but like, in reverse. I want to pop in there and go, “I noticed a tendency for this movie to not get silly enough. Now let’s move it along and be more silly.” For something as outrageous as this bad-night-gone-wrong-then-worse rom-com, “not silly enough” might sound like a patently ridiculous accusation. Which is fine by me, as I love being ridiculous and securing a patent for it. Furthermore, it’s possible to be over-the-top without being silly. The Lovebirds takes a grounded approach, wondering how a couple on the verge of a breakup would realistically react if someone jacked their car to murder someone in cold blood and then they proceeded to uncover a conspiracy connected to that fresh killing. The result is kind of funny and fairly heartfelt, which is enough to make me put a checkmark to my to-watch list and maybe add a smiley face.
As a veteran of The State, Stella, and Wet Hot American Summer, Michel Sho clearly has a transcendent amount of silliness in his funny bone. And Kumail certainly does, too, as he was so, so stupendously silly on Portlandia as a series of weirdly officious service employees. From what I know of Issa, she’s more awkward and goofy than silly, but I’m sure she could get into the silly groove with the right team. Now generally, I don’t like to review movies by taking them to task for what they could’ve been. Instead, I like to approach them on their own terms and ask if they did a good job at pulling off what they were attempting. But if The Lovebirds was attempting to show how people would really react to a bunch of life-threatening shenanigans, well, I believe there are some folks who would bulge out their eyes and cock their heads and maybe stare at the camera. Or maybe not. Perhaps this isn’t a proper review. Could it be that this is actually the introduction of my journey to become the Reverse-Colonel? … Bird is the word!
I give The Lovebirds 2.5 Bacon Strips out of Hot Bacon Grease.
That’s Auntertainment! Episode 12: Best Movies of the 2010s Part 2
May 25, 2020
Podcasts, That's Auntertainment movies, Podcasts, That's Auntertainment Leave a comment
In the exciting conclusion, Jeff and Aunt Beth reveal #’s 5-1 on their Best Movies of 2010s lists! Visitors from the future and the recent past await you, as do subconscious invaders and devoted football fans.
That’s Auntertainment! Episode 12: Best Movies of the 2010s Part 1
May 24, 2020
Podcasts, That's Auntertainment Fred Willard, Ken Osmond, movies, Podcasts, That's Auntertainment Leave a comment
Aunt Beth and Jeff are finally ready to reveal their favorite movies of the past decade! In my part, they get through #’s 10-6, which includes awesomeness, subterfuge, and plenty of Emma Stone.
They also take some time at the top of the episode to memorialize the recently deceased Fred Willard and Ken Osmond.
The Best of SNL Season 45
May 24, 2020
Saturday Night Live, SNL Season Recaps, Television Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 45, SNL, SNL Season 45 Leave a comment
CREDIT: Mary Ellen Matthews/NBC
At the end of Season 45, we’ve got some seasoned veterans in this here SNL cast. Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Aidy Bryant have all just completed their eighth full seasons, while Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney aren’t too far behind at seven each. Those are some healthy runs, and under normal circumstances, I would be encouraging them to look towards a future beyond Studio 8H. (Kenan Thompson, meanwhile, continues to defy all SNL tenure logic as he creeps ever closer to a previously-unheard of 20 seasons.)
But these aren’t normal circumstances, of course, as the last three episodes of this season weren’t exactly live. So if those veterans want to return for at least part of Season 46 for a proper send-off, they’d be justified in doing so. As for what they and their castmates accomplished in the past year, I would like to celebrate that, as I usually do. So here’s what happened on SNL between September 2019 and May 2020 that made me go, “Good, good.” (My thoughts on the best sketches of the season can be found here.)
Most Valuable Cast Member
The veterans delivered veteran-quality work. Cecily stands out on the very top for her consistently capable canine corralling.
Cecily Strong
Runners-Up:
Kenan Thompson
Kate McKinnon
Best Sketches of SNL Season 45
May 23, 2020
Saturday Night Live, SNL Season Recaps, Television Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 45, SNL, SNL Season 45 2 Comments
CREDIT: NBC/YouTube Screenshots
If you are a human being who watched every minute of Saturday Night Live Season 45 and didn’t laugh at least 15 times, I would be surprised. HERE ARE MY RANKINGS OF THE BEST SKETCHES OF THE SEASON! (All sketches from the 2019-20 season were eligible, whether they were from regular episodes, or from stay-at-home episodes, or posted online after being cut for time. New cut-for-time sketches have continued to steadily trickle in since the season finale; with that in mind, this list will be regularly updated accordingly if necessary.)
15. Food Dudes: Ingenuity can take people far if they’re sufficiently motivated.
Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 5/22/20
May 22, 2020
Cinema, Comedy, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., AKA Jane Roe, Douglas, Hannah Gadsby, Homecoming, Issa Rae, Jeopardy!, Kumail Nanjiani, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Notes on a Conditional Form, The 1975, The Lovebirds Leave a comment
CREDIT: Amazon Prime Video/YouTube Screenshot
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–The Lovebirds (Streaming on Netflix) – Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae finally team up!
–AKA Jane Roe (Premieres May 22 on FX) – A documentary portrait of the woman behind Roe v. Wade.
TV
–Homecoming Season 2 (May 22 on Amazon) – Now starring Janelle Monáe!
–Jeopardy! Teachers Tournament (May 25-June 5, check local listings)
–Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 7 Premiere (May 27 on ABC) – The final season!
Music
-The 1975, Notes on a Conditional Form
Comedy
-Hannah Gadsby: Douglas (May 26 on Netflix)
How Mascot-errific Are the Mascots (And Everyone Else) in ‘Mascots’?
May 19, 2020
Cinema, Movie Reviews Chris O’Dowd, Christopher Guest, Christopher Moynihan, Don Lake, Ed Begley Jr., Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, Mascots, Parker Posey, Susan Yeagley, Tom Bennett, Zach Woods Leave a comment
CREDIT: Scott Garfield/Netflix
I’d been meaning to watch Mascots for a while ever since it arrived on Netflix in 2016. Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries represent one of the most significant trends in American comedy, after all, so I need to stay on the up-and-up. So on May 16, 2020, I decided that it would finally be the day. And then after that personal resolution, I heard the news of Fred Willard’s passing. And well, I had no choice at that point. It was almost as if Willard himself had left me a note saying, “If I die, please have fun by watching this.” He seemed like the sort of guy who would leave behind such a message. Thanks for the laughs, Fred!
CREDIT: Scott Garfield/Netflix
So now that I’ve watched, I’ve decided to rank several of the main actors by how much their acting embodies the spirit of mascots, which consists of a mischievous mix of adorable and devious, plus a dash of uncanny valley. My evaluations are based mostly on Mascots, with some consideration given towards their performances in other Guest films (where applicable):
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