After the “Oscar Do-Over” episode. Aunt Beth discovered that Jeff had NEVER seen Rain Man! Of course, that’s definitely about to change. Keep listening to find out what happens next…
Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 4/16/21
April 16, 2021
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television American Dad!, Big Shot, Greta Thunberg, Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World, Greta van Fleet, Independent Spirit Awards, John Stamos, Let the Bad Times Roll, Melissa Villasenor, The Battle at Garden's Gate, The Offspring Leave a comment
Big Shot (CREDIT: Disney Plus/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.
TV
–Big Shot Series Premiere (April 16 on Disney+) – John Stamos coaches girls basketball.
–American Dad! Season 18 Premiere (April 19 on TBS)
–Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World (April 22 on PBS)
-36th Independent Spirit Awards (April 22 on IFC) – Hosted by funny lady Melissa Villaseñor!
Music
-Greta Van Fleet, The Battle at Garden’s Gate
-The Offspring, Let the Bad Times Roll
The Comforting Confusion of ‘The Father’
April 15, 2021
Cinema, Movie Reviews Anthony Hopkins, Florian Zeller, Imogen Poots, Mark Gatiss, Olivia Colman, Rufus Sewell, The Father 1 Comment
The Father (CREDIT: Sony Pictures Classics/YouTube Screenshot)
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss
Director: Florian Zeller
Running Time: 97 Minutes
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: February 26, 2021
Whenever I think about The Father, I can’t help but pronounce it the way that Mike Myers does when he encounters Marv Albert in the “Dieter’s Dream” SNL sketch (“Fah-thuh!”, although for some reason I add a “z” i.e., “Fah-zhuh”). Weirdly enough, that’s an apt comparison, as Florian Zeller’s film is pretty much equally surreal as the avant-garde German talk show host’s trip into the subconscious. Apparently, the way to make a movie about dementia exciting instead of a total bummer is to arrange it according to the whims of the dementia-addled mind. It’s rough to see Anthony (Hopkins) losing his sense of reality, but it’s fascinating to be bent back and forth by the facial mismatches and temporal-spatial distortions he’s experiencing. In the absence of a cure, maybe embracing the absurdity is the best way to handle something as disorienting as dementia. At the very least, it worked for this movie.
Grade: 4.0 out of Dec. 31 Missing Watches
‘In the Earth’ Follows Its Cinematic Brethren Into the Woods
April 14, 2021
Cinema, Movie Reviews Ben Wheatley, Ellora Torchia, Hayley Squires, In the Earth, Joel Fry, Reece Shearsmith Leave a comment
In the Earth (CREDIT: NEON)
Starring: Joel Fry, Ellora Torchia, Reece Shearsmith, Hayley Squires
Director: Ben Wheatley
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Rating: R for A Few Scenes of Grievous Bodily Harm
Release Date: April 16, 2021 (Theaters)
In the Earth combines elements of some of my favorite dread-filled horror and sci-fi flicks, which is good enough to grab my attention, but you can see the seams in the synthesis. A scary trip to the woods quickly leads to reality-altering vibes in the vein of Annihilation and The Blair Witch Project, and then there’s also the society-breaking-down milieu typical of any zombie flick. And I even catch a whiff of pod people-energy, as I worry that certain characters’ misplaced priorities could lead to some body snatching. It’s a hodgepodge, occasionally a visual feast, and ultimately more of an experiment than a landmark achievement.
My only previous exposure to writer-director Ben Wheatley was his overcaffeinated shoot ’em up Free Fire. In the Earth is equally non-squeamish (it does feature a guy getting his toes cut off, after all), but it’s also more reflective and meditative. Conceived and produced during the pandemic, it obviously required a more scaled-down and intimate approach. It’s ostensibly about the cure for a global virus, but it hardly resembles our current reality, at least not in any way I or anyone I know has been experiencing it. In practice, it’s just a spooky sylvan journey, making it just the latest in a long and dense cinematic tradition. Something weird is happening, a couple of characters are sent off on their own to figure it out, and then they encounter some other weird happenings. It happens!
During In the Earth‘s early going, I said to myself, “Is this just Annihilation but with a micro-budget?” That trip to Area X is one of my favorite movies of the past five years, so I quickly steeled myself for inevitable disappointment. But it’s always nice to be reminded of something that I love, so it wasn’t all bad. Then about halfway through, there was a sharp turn to a completely different movie. Well, perhaps not “completely” different. More like “tangential” and “different enough.” One major crisis had been dealt with (or at least escaped from), and then some other characters got some more screen time, and I felt myself thinking: well, it’s better to steal from a whole bunch of movies than it is to be the cheap knockoff of just one movie.
In the Earth is Recommended If You Like: Annihilation, Blair Witch, The Walking Dead, and whatever ever else Ben Wheatley watched during the pandemic, all tossed carelessly into a blender
Grade: 3 out of 5 Backpacks
A Day in the Farm Life: ‘Gunda’ Documentary Review
April 13, 2021
Cinema, Movie Reviews Bulls, Chickens, Cows, documentary, Gunda, Pigs, Viktor Kossakovsky Leave a comment
Gunda (CREDIT: NEON)
Starring: Pigs, Chickens, Cows, Bulls
Director: Viktor Kossakovsky
Running Time: 93 Minutes
Rating: G
Release Date: April 16, 2021 (Select Theaters)
I first stumbled upon Russian documentarian Viktor Kossakovsky’s work a few years ago when I saw Aquarela, which was just an hour and a half of H2O doing what it does. Now his subject matter is fully alive (instead of life-sustaining), as he takes us to the farm in Gunda. Shot in stunning black-and-white cinematography, this is a meditative document of swine, poultry, and bovines going about their day. There’s no on-screen human presence in any capacity, but this isn’t strictly cinema verite. As straightforward as the presentation is, you can sense the pulse of mediation. Watching Gunda isn’t the same as visiting a farm. It may be simple and no-frills, but I don’t think anyone else quite has the capacity to make it the way that Kossakovsky did.
Fair warning: if you’re going to watch Gunda, you absolutely have to be comfortable with maximum levels of snorting. The biggest star of the show is a momma pig who spends a significant portion of the runtime suckling her piglets, and simply put, she makes the sounds that pigs make, and she’s not ashamed to do so. That’s the general vibe of this entire film. Farm animals typically aren’t ashamed to be themselves, but that seems especially true here. While watching, I felt like I was stumbling upon personal moments that I wouldn’t have otherwise have had access to. Or maybe I’m just noticing things that I’ve never noticed before because presenting it all in a feature format forces me to pay attention. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen cows and bulls whipping their tails against each other, for example, but that’s what they’re doing here.
Overall, there’s a bit of unexplainable magic at play in Gunda that makes it all so very compelling. I could do my best to break down how Kossakovsky managed to pull off such stunning cinematography, or take inventory in quotidian terms of everything that the animals get up to over the course of 93 minutes. But I don’t know why a pig walking around in the grass managed to transport me as much as it did. And yet somehow it did, and I’ve gotta respect her for that.
Gunda is Recommended If You Like: A day at the farm minus all the smells
Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Snouts
Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Carey Mulligan/Kid Cudi
April 11, 2021
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television Carey Mulligan, Kid Cudi, L'Eggs, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 46, SNL, SNL Season 46 Leave a comment
SNL: Kid Cudi, Carey Mulligan, Kenan Thompson (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)
Fun fact: I enjoy watching Carey Mulligan acting in the movies1 Does that mean I’ll also enjoy watching her host Saturday Night Live for the first time? If you read this review, you just might find out! The musical guest is Kid Cudi, who I mostly know from his one-season stint as bandleader on Comedy Bang! Bang!, though I did also know him before that, and now I’ll know him even more after this.
I got my first COVID vaccine dose approximately 10 hours before this episode started airing. I’ve had some soreness around the injection site, but that didn’t really affect my viewing experience in any significant way.
The cold opening goes the local news route by putting an Eye on Minnesota (Grade: 4/5 Eyes) and the Derek Chauvin trial, and quite frankly, everyone involved does a fine job being goofy in the midst of such a distressing topic.
That’s Auntertainment! Episode 29: Oscar Do-Over (w/ Rob Malone)
April 11, 2021
Podcasts, That's Auntertainment Oscars, Podcasts, That's Auntertainment Leave a comment
Credit: @ohhoe/Twitter
Have you ever found yourself saying, “Why didn’t (X Movie) Win (Y Oscar)?!” Well, Jeff, Aunt Beth, and Jeff’s brother Rob sure have, which is why they’re talking about various movies and performances that didn’t win Academy Awards, even though they really should have. Their selections include loungewear, sunglasses, farmer overalls, a really hot summer day, an iconic dog, and a naughty word on a hitman’s forehead.
Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 4/9/21
April 9, 2021
Entertainment To-Do List, Television BAFTAs, Dad Stop Embarrassing Me, David Alan Grier, Jamie Foxx, Kyla-Drew Leave a comment
Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! (CREDIT: Saeed Adyani/Netflix)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
TV
-74th BAFTAs (April 11 on BBC America)
–Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! Season 1 (April 14 on Netflix) – Jamie Foxx plays a dad! David Alan Grier plays his dad!
‘Held’ Locks Up a Married Couple on the Edge for a Little Bit of Torture
April 7, 2021
Cinema, Movie Reviews Bart Johnson, Chris Lofing, Held, Jill Awbrey, Travis Cluff Leave a comment
Held (CREDIT: Magnet Releasing)
Starring: Jill Awbrey, Bart Johnson
Directors: Chris Lofing and Travis Cluff
Running Time: 93 Minutes
Rating: Unrated, But This is R Territory for Bloody Bodies and Bloody Profanity
Release Date: April 9, 2021 (Theaters and On Demand)
The two main characters of Held are held captive, and I daresay this movie would like our attention to be held as well. So was my attention indeed held for an hour and a half? I’m going to have to be honest with everyone here… it was! It helps that everything starts out simply enough: husband and wife Henry and Emma (Bart Johnson and Jill Awbrey, the latter of whom also wrote the script) haven’t been feeling too romantic lately, so they decide to spend a few days away at a rental house. Now, this premise doesn’t necessarily have me jumping out of my seat, as it’s a little more angsty than I’m typically in the mood for. But I’m happy to be on board, if for no other reason than Awbrey’s striking resemblance to Liz Cackowski. That latter name may not mean a lot to too many people, but if you’re like me and you love shows such as Community and Speechless, you’ll find yourself going, “Hey, that lead character looks a lot like someone who’s guest-starred on some of my favorite sitcoms!”
Co-directors Chris Lofing and Travis Cluff wisely upend any sense of stability almost immediately, as we soon discover that some all-seeing mastermind with a voice modulator has hacked into the house’s smart devices and is keeping Emma and Henry all locked up until they complete a gauntlet of psychological manipulation. The unseen villain is so outrageously evil that it’s a little hard to believe that this couple could in any way be deserving of this torture. But that’s part of the fun of a nasty little genre piece like this one. The commitment to the bit (the bit here being “false imprisonment”) is so thorough that I just cannot help but be impressed by all the metaphorical mustache-twirling.
Eventually there is an explanation for why Emma and Henry are being targeted, and I won’t reveal that here, because the social contract of reviews of mysterious movies assures us that twists are to remain unspoken. But suffice it to say that the revelation gives way to some satisfyingly sizzling takes about what’s going in our world today and how married men and women have related to each other over the years. As a tease, let me just say that there’s nothing quite like a genre pic leaning hard into awful stereotypes. Weirdly enough, Held is kind of like the gender politics version of what Antebellum was trying to be, and that’s something to be excited about.
Held is Recommended If You Like: Funny Games, The Dharma Initiative tapes on Lost, Mad Men
Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Commands
Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Daniel Kaluuya/St. Vincent
April 4, 2021
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television Daniel Kaluuya, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 46, SNL, SNL Season 46, St. Vincent 1 Comment
SNL: St. Vincent, Daniel Kaluuya, Aidy Bryant (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)
Holy moly, this is a review of an SNL episode hosted by Daniel Kaluuya with musical guest St. Vincent! Kaluuya was great in Get Out, and he’s great in everything else I’ve seen him in as well, and while most of those credits aren’t terribly similar to sketch comedy, I had a feeling he had it in him to deliver the funny in front of a live audience. And as for Ms. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, she always brings it without fail.
So this is an episode airing on Easter Weekend, I ran 8 miles on Saturday morning, the spring sun’s blazing in the mid-Atlantic, and I’m still freaking out over that Final Four buzzer-beater. This is all to say, a bunch of dopamine is swirling around my system, which is a perfect formula for me to laugh aplenty. Did the sketches also give me reasons to laugh? Let’s find out!
First off, we’ll check in with Britney Spears (Chloe Fineman’s impression version) with another edition of Oops, You Did It Again (Grade: 3/5 Easter Bunnies). A few guests stop by, including Pete Davidson as Congressman Matt Gaetz, who looks just like his Andrew Cuomo impression except for a more colorful tie.
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