Bill Skarsgård Ends Up ‘Locked’ in a Car by Anthony Hopkins, and That Goes About as Well as You’d Expect

March 19, 2025

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The Locked guy before he gets Locked (CREDIT: The Avenue)

Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Anthony Hopkins

Director: David Yarovesky

Running Time: 95 Minutes

Rating: R for Road Rage in a Parked Cars

Release Date: March 21, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Eddie Barrish (Bill Skarsgård) is desperate. Desperate, I say! And I’m pretty sure you’ll be inclined to agree with me if you go see Locked. He’s been trying to get his life back on track for the sake of his young daughter, but that’s a little hard to do when he doesn’t have the cash he needs to pay for his car repairs so that he can go pick her up from school. So he turns to carjacking for a quick score, which turns out so much worse than he ever could have possibly imagined. That’s because the vehicle he targets happens to be owned by a fellow named William (Anthony Hopkins), who’s been a victim of one of too many carjackings himself. So Eddie ends up trapped in the car, with William having rigged it up so that everything is controlled remotely. A simple apology is hardly enough to end this nightmare, and thus a deadly game of very targeted vigilantism commences.

What Made an Impression?: Sociopathic Overload: William is basically the answer to the question, “What if instead of bats, Bruce Wayne was inspired by felines, specifically the way that they mercilessly toy with mice before eating them?” The police were useless to him when he needed them, so now he’s enforcing his own brand of justice. But you get the sense that he’s just been looking for an excuse to behave this way for a very long time. Whenever Eddie pleads with him about how the deck is stacked against guys like him, William just automatically shuts him down and ups the torture. Hopkins is certainly talented enough to make William’s sociopathy entertaining, but it’s more than a little overwhelming when it’s this relentless.
Efficient Mileage: About 75% of Locked takes place in one location, and its cast consists almost entirely of just two guys, one of whom primarily phones in his performance. With a movie like this, you will likely end up with one of two reactions: either “Wow, this is cheap, and it shows,” or “Wow, this is cheap, but they worked around their limitations.” In this case, it’s mostly the latter. The subject matter may be torturous, and the villain may be overcooked, but director David Yarovesky keeps everything locked in gear. All the tightly contained torture may turn a lot of viewers claustrophobic, but it’s possible to appreciate the technical chops even while you’re wincing.

Locked is Recommended If You: Wish That One of the Saw Movies Had Taken Place in a Car

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Vigilantes

Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 3/14/25

March 14, 2025

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worth a listen (CREDIT: Headgum)

Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.

Movies
–Black Bag (Theaters)
–The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (Theaters)
–Novocaine (Theaters)
–Opus (Theaters) – Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich are in this.

Sports
-Men’s March Madness (March 18-April 7 on CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV) – And Selection Sunday is on Sunday the 16th on CBS.
-Women’s March Madness (March 19-April 6 on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPNEWS) – And Selection Sunday is on Sunday the 16th on ESPN.

Music
-Coheed and Cambria, Vaxis – Act III: The Father of Make Believe

Podcasts
–Wayne Brady’s What If?! with Jonathan Mangum – The improvisational spirit is strong with this one.

‘Novocaine’ is About a Guy Who Can’t Feel Pain, But You’ll Probably Feel Plenty of Pleasure While Watching It

March 12, 2025

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Jack Quaid as Mr. Novocaine (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures)

Starring: Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Jacob Batalon, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh

Directors: Dan Berk and Robert Olsen

Running Time: 110 Minutes

Rating: R for Grave Bodily Injuries

Release Date: March 14, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: San Diego resident Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) spends his days working his sensible job as a bank executive and his evenings at home playing video games. He’s never really allowed himself to aspire to much more than that, which makes sense when you consider that he has congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP). After all, if he eats solid food, he might accidentally bite his tongue off and not even realize it. So better to opt for the most vanilla life possible and not risk any danger that his body won’t be able to warn him about. But then one day, he goes on a date with his new co-worker Sherry (Amber Midthunder), and she scrambles his brain so much that he starts to think it might actually be worth taking a risk here and there. So much so that when she’s taken hostage by bank robbers the very next day, Nathan decides to turn into an avenging superhero to set her free.

What Made an Impression?: The Sensitive Man’s Unlikely Action Hero: Jack Quaid is having quite the starmaking moment. He’s been banging around in big ensembles like Oppenheimer and Scream, while also letting loose with frequent guest appearances on the podcast Comedy Bang! Bang! He nailed it as the lead earlier this year in the robots-gone-wrong thriller Companion, and now he’s an even bigger casting coup in Novocaine. If he’s going to play a badass, of course it’s going to be the type of badass who can’t feel anything physically while feeling plenty emotionally. This movie is knowingly over-the-top, capturing the feeling of life-changing love making you do things that you never thought were possible. Nathan is profoundly in over his head, but for a guy who’s been living out under his head his entire life, it’s basically impossible not to cheer on his foolhardiness.
Loyal and Goofy Support: I simply mustn’t ignore the clutch supporting cast surrounding Quaid. First of all, Midthunder nails the hook of adorability (while harboring a secret that prevents her from drifting into manic pixie dream girl territory). Then we’ve got Jacob Batalan as Nathan’s video game buddy Roscoe, the latest in his specialty of preternaturally reliable friends. And finally, there are a couple of detectives on Nathan’s trail in the form of Betty Gabriel and, wait for it … Upright Citizens Brigade co-founder Matt Walsh. It should be a law (if it’s not already) that serious action movies like this must have a comedy legend like Walsh in an essential supporting role. Does this all add up to a movie that’s effective enough to cure CIP among any of its viewers? Not literally. But metaphorically? Definitely.

Novocaine is Recommended If You Like: Die Hard, John Wick, First dates

Grade: 4 out of 5 Gunshot Wounds

‘Black Bag’ Review: The Couple That Spies Together, Rides or Dies Together

March 11, 2025

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What’s in the Black Bag?! (CREDIT: Claudette Barius/Focus Features)

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page, Pierce Brosnan

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Running Time: 94 Minutes

Rating: R for Adults Talking About Their Adult Affairs, as Well as a Few Bursts of Violence

Release Date: March 14, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: George Woodehouse (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett) are a happily married childless couple. But it’s a little complicated because they’re both spies and therefore can’t exactly always be 100% honest with each other. But somehow they’ve managed to make it work! It perhaps helps that they carefully cultivate relationships with some of the younger employees at their agency, even if things do occasionally get a little (or a lot) messy. When Kathryn flies out for her latest covert meeting, it looks like she might be turning treasonous, or perhaps it’s all a setup. So how far will George go to protect his wife, and is anyone foolhardy enough to stand in his way?

What Made an Impression?: Confusing, Until It’s Not: I’ve long since given up on trying to understand the plots of espionage movies, and the beginning of Black Bag didn’t do anything to change my mind. Instead, it felt like an homage to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? that had me going, “Did the trailer just straight-up lie about this movie’s plot?” But then after about 40 minutes of finely deliberate setup, screenwriter David Koepp and director Steven Soderbergh finally showed their hands, and they had me going, “Ah, there are the stakes.” I won’t delve too much more into this point because much of the pleasure of Black Bag is that “a-ha” feeling. But let’s just say that Soderbergh has demonstrated once again that it pays to figure out what you want to do ahead of time and then go ahead and execute that plan.
Scenes From a Marriage: Are George and Kathryn #couplegoals? I’d certainly be happy to see that conversation play out in the wake of Black Bag‘s release. They undoubtedly have each other’s backs, and they also consistently give each other the benefit of the doubt. But on the other hand, they leave a bit of a trail of destruction in their wake, although that might say more about their profession than it does about them. And though they don’t have any kids, you can kind of think of the characters played by Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, and Regé-Jean Page as their stand-in children. But that interpretation makes things go a little wibbly-wobbly, as it probably isn’t the best idea for parents to subject their kids to a round of polygraph testing. And yet, that is something that indeed happens in this movie. In conclusion, George and Kathryn’s ultimate suitability as a couple remains uncertain, but their turns as Spy Daddy and Spy Mommy are finely fulfilled.

Black Bag is Recommended If You Like: Leather and wine

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Satellite Feeds

Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Lady Gaga/Lady Gaga (2025)

March 9, 2025

jmunney Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television , , , , 1 Comment

Talkin’ ’bout the goo-goo, talkin’ ’bout the Gaga (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

Jeff “jmunney” Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then reviews all the sketches and segments according to a “wacky” theme.

Here’s the deal: Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (better known by her stage name Lady Gaga) has memorably appeared multiple times on the sketch and variety show Saturday Night Live. And she did it again on the episode that began airing on March 8, 2025. Indeed, she served as both the host and the musical guest. She can’t help but keep herself busy, I reckon.

Because this episode aired on the eve of my birthday, and I’m writing the review on my birthday, I will be reviewing it by determining what was the most *festive* part of each segment.

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That’s Auntertaiment Mini-Episode: 97th Oscars

March 8, 2025

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CREDIT: ABC/Screenshot

Did Aunt Beth and Jeff adore Anora, or were they just clapping for Conan?

Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 3/7/25

March 7, 2025

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Good to know! (CREDIT: Netflix/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
–In the Lost Lands (Theaters)
–Mickey 17 (Theaters)
–On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Theaters)
–Queen of the Ring (Theaters) – Starring Arrow alum Emily Bett Rickards.

TV
–The $100,000 Pyramid Season Premiere (March 9 on ABC)
–The Righteous Gemstones Season 4 Premiere (March 9 on HBO) – Final Season Alert!
–Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney Series Premiere (March 12 on Netflix) – Streaming each Wednesday for 12 weeks in a row.

Music
-Jethro Tull, Curious Ruminant
-Lady Gaga, Mayhem

‘Mickey 17’ Mines Quite a Tale Out of a Deadly Existence

March 5, 2025

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Oh, Robert, you’re so fine (CREDIT: Warner Bros./Screenshot)

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Steven Yeun, Anamaria Vartolomei, Holliday Grainger

Director: Bong Joon-ho

Running Time: 137 Minutes

Rating: R for Violent Illnesses, Bloody Accidents, and Fictional Illicit Drug Use

Release Date: March 7, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Things aren’t going so well for Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) on Earth in the middle of the 21st century. So he decides to try his luck on an interstellar mission to colonize the distant planet Niflheim. But here’s the kicker: he’s signed up to be an “expendable,” meaning he carries out the most dangerous mission with the expectation that he is almost certainly going to die. But that’s no big deal, because a new version of him with all of his memories and the same personality is just going to be 3D-printed every time that happens. After a particularly blistering day, the 17th iteration of Mickey returns to his bed, only to find … Mickey 18! And that status quo just cannot stand, as multiples are not supposed to exist side by side.

What Made an Impression?: Pushed to the Limit… and the Limit and the Limit and the Limit: Mickey 17 is just the latest triumphant example of director Bong Joon-ho indulging his speciality of characters hanging on the economic precipice who wind up in absurd scenarios to achieve some semblance of peace and justice in this ridiculous universe. Mickey is in such dire straits because he and his buddy Timo (Steven Yeun) are impossibly indebted to a loan shark. And he ended up an Expendable because he basically didn’t read the dozens and dozens of pages of fine print. Now, he and the rest of the ship finds himself at the mercy of garish politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife Ylfa (Toni Collette), aka Lady Macbeth by way of the Real Housewives of Outer Space. And the slop served on board the ship runs the full spectrum of the dystopian rainbow: from gray to brown to chrome to sepia. Mickey’s situation is not enviable in any way according to any reasonable analysis, but at least he has a droll humor about it all, not to mention a wildly enthusiastic and slightly unhinged girlfriend (Naomi Ackie). If you can see yourself in Mickey, you’re probably doing all right at not doing all right.
Our New Alien Neighbors: Niflheim is not a barren planet, as it’s populated by a species dubbed Creepers that are essentially giant pill bugs. If this were a B-movie from the 50s and 60s, the appropriate response to them would be, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Monsters!!!!!!!!!!!!!” But if they had instead arrived on the scene in the 80s in the wake of E.T., we probably would have said, “Oh, I think they might actually be our friends.” In 2025, it’s a little more complicated, especially in one of director Bong’s signature loony landscapes. They’re kind of like the creatures from Arrival in their attempts to communicate with the humans, but a lot edgier and scrappier. And that’s the key that Bong continues to successfully play in: his influences are clear, but this isn’t quite something that moviegoers have ever quite had the opportunity before to experience or  make sense of.

Mickey 17 is Recommended If You Like: Any of Bong Joon-ho’s other movies, but you wished they’d been set on another planet

Grade: 4 out of 5 Mickeys

‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’ Review: Dead Uncle + Dysfunctional Family = Kinda Surreal

March 4, 2025

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How fowl. (CREDIT: A24)

Starring: Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela, Henry B.J. Phiri

Director: Rungano Nyoni

Running Time: 95 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Mature Themes Including References to Abuse

Release Date: March 7, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: A woman named Shula (Susan Chardy) is on her way to see her family, but first, she has a very important phone call to make to her father. She’s just encountered her Uncle Fred on the side of the road, and he’s dead. Shula’s reaction to the situation is a little hard to parse. She’s far from devastated, though she is aware that practical matters like corpse collection must be taken care of. Just who was Uncle Fred to Shula, and for that matter, who is Shula within the scheme of her family? Those questions will be answered – or perhaps ignored – as all the grudges and secrets among her extended Zambian relatives come spilling out in the wake of the funeral.

What Made an Impression?: Death Breaks Reality: Shula’s encounter with dead Uncle Fred is like a dream, but one of those low-stakes dreams where basically nothing happens, and yet somehow everything feels mildly/completely off. Her dad doesn’t seem to register what’s going on, Shula’s dressed like Missy Elliott in “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” music video, and there’s some impenetrable bureaucracy and a drunk person for good measure. It’s like we’ve entered an alternate universe, or a simulation, where almost everything is completely the same.
Human Behavior: On Becoming a Guinea Fowl ultimately leads up to a climactic shouting match between two warring factions within the family, filled with apparently ritualistic attempts to make amends and/or assert dominance. Writer-director Rungano Nyoni was born in Zambia and moved to Wales with her family when she was a child. As a viewer who has basically zero knowledge of the culture of Zambia, I found myself asking: is this typical behavior of British-Zambian families? Or are Shula’s clan members the outcasts? Or did Nyoni create a wholly new, fictional dynamic, but perhaps rooted in her own lived experience? Whatever the case, I was struck by what is to me at least an undeniably original vision.

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is Recommended If You: saw I Saw the TV Glow and wanted something with vaguely similar vibes from another continent

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Funerals

Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Shane Gillis/Tate McRae

March 2, 2025

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Something seems fishy* (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)
*-That’s a pun based on the host’s last name

Jeff “jmunney” Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then reviews all the sketches and segments according to a “wacky” theme.

It’s a case of the Terrible Twos! Shane Gillis and Tate McRae are both in their SNL Toddler Era, as they simultaneously make their sophomore guest appearances on the March 1, 2025 episode.

Since this is the first episode after the 50th anniversary special, I’m going to review it by discussing whether or not I think each segment will end up being spotlighted in the 100th anniversary special.

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