Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
February 23, 2019
Best in Film 2018, Best of 2018, Cinema, Oscars Academy Awards, Annihilation, Jeff Malone Academy Awards, Oscars, Sorry to Bother You Leave a comment
CREDIT: Paramount Pictures/Skydance
If I were in charge of unilaterally selecting the Oscars, here is who would be selected. Nominees are listed alphabetically, winners in bold.
Best Picture
Annihilation
The Endless
First Reformed
Sorry to Bother You
Widows
Best Director
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, The Endless
Alex Garland, Annihilation
Steve McQueen, Widows
Boots Riley, Sorry to Bother You
Paul Schrader, First Reformed
February 22, 2019
Awards Shows, Cinema, Oscars, Television 91st Academy Awards, 91st Oscars, Academy Awards, Oscar Predictions, Oscars Leave a comment
CREDIT: Carlos Somonte/Netflix
Here’s my final rundown of who I will think will be taking home the little gold men on Sunday, February 24, 2019, and whom I would vote for if I had a ballot.
Best Picture
Prediction: Roma is tied for the most nominations, and it’s won the most noteworthy precursor awards.
Preference: BlacKkKlansman is absolutely electric, a quality that is all too rare in Best Picture winners.
Best Director
Prediction: Expect Alfonso Cuarón to continue the recent Mexican dominance in this category.
Preference: A win for Spike Lee would have lifetime achievement oomph, and it would also be deserved in particular for BlacKkKlansman.
February 20, 2019
Cinema, Movie Reviews America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Craig Ferguson, David Tennant, Dean DeBlois, F. Murray Abraham, Gerard Butler, How to Train Your Dragon, How To Train Your Dragon: THe Hidden World, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Kit Harington, Kristen Wiig Leave a comment
CREDIT: DreamWorks Animation
Starring: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, F. Murray Abraham, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig, Kit Harington, David Tennant
Director: Dean DeBlois
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Rating: PG for High-Flying Fantasy Danger
Release Date: February 22, 2019
I do not remember a whole lot about the first two How to Train Your Dragon films other than the fact that I generally enjoyed them. The first one was among the initial wave of expansive 3D animated blockbusters. But nine years later, studios hardly ever bother to even screen their films in 3D, and I almost never seek the extra dimension out myself. But the CG animation is still of the utmost quality. Hair blows delightfully in the wind, and from what I have heard from the trenches of animation, realistic hair movement has been one of the biggest bugaboos in this medium. And this is a franchise about dragons, which don’t have a lot of hair! So the fact that the HTTYD team cares that much about rendering its human characters as well as its fantastical creatures should tell you all you need to know about the level of craft at play.
The Hidden World, the third in the series, finds Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his trusty dragon Toothless realizing that they are running out of room on their little island for all the humans and dragons to fruitfully co-exist. Meanwhile, an infamous dragon hunter named Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham) has declared he has his sights set on Toothless and all the other domesticated fire-breathers. There are admirable messages here about looking past surface differences and treating nature with respect, but there is also a bit of a sense of same-old, same-old. At this point, shouldn’t everyone know that these dragons are as loyal and affectionate as dogs? But while the story may be a little pedestrian, the animation continues to stun. Toothless develops himself a bit of a crush, and let’s just say, the dragon seduction dance is a (family-friendly) sight to behold.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is Recommended If You Like: The Most Thorough Animation in the Business
Grade: 3 out of 5 Night Furies
February 17, 2019
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television Don Cheadle, Gary Clark Jr., Roach-Ex, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 44, SNL, SNL Season 44 Leave a comment
CREDIT: Will Heath/NBC
Jeffrey Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then organizes the sketches into the following categories: “Love It” (potentially Best of the Season-worthy), “Keep It” (perfectly adequate), or “Leave It” (in need of a rewrite, to say the least). Then he concludes with assessments of the host and musical guest.
Love It
Roach-Ex – Man, maybe all SNL sketches should be under three minutes long. Perhaps every once in a while, you can bust out a ten-minute behemoth, but there is plenty to be said in favor of economical storytelling. The twist of how visceral the fight against the roaches is just hits so hard with this approach.
February 15, 2019
Best of 2018, Best of Music 2018, Music All the Stars, Ariana Grande, Back Down, Beck, Bob Moses, Boo'd Up, Childish Gambino, Colors, Come on to Me, Dennis Lloyd, Ella Mai, Elle King, God is a Woman, Good Morning, I Feel Like I'm Drowning, Janelle Monáe, Kendrick Lamar, Love It If We Made It, Make Me Feel, Max Frost, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Nevermind, No Place, No Tears Left to Cry, Paul McCartney, Portugal. The Man, Pynk, Rüfüs Du Sol, Shame, SZA, The 1975, This Is America, Tidal Wave, Two Feet, Tyler the Creator, U.S. Girls, Velvet 4 Sale, You Worry Me, You're a Mean One Leave a comment
CREDIT: Ariana Grande/YouTube
These were the singles released in 2018 or that first became hits in 2018 that had the strongest impacts on me.
1. Ariana Grande – “No Tears Left to Cry” – Has any other singer besides Ariana Grande ever endured so many personal struggles so publicly and on such a massive scale? She still had a lot of heartbreak left to come after releasing “No Tears Left to Cry,” but luckily she was already equipped with and had gifted the world with a timeless anthem for how to insist on finding the joy amidst all life’s turmoil.
2. Dennis Lloyd – “Nevermind” – The ultimate kind of elastic groove to which you can chill out or dance ’til you drop.
3. Ella Mai – “Boo’d Up” – Ella Mai captured the language of infatuation in 2018, but the feelings are eternal.
4. Ariana Grande – “God is a Woman” – Oh, trust me, I believe. I was certain once I heard that first sexy guitar strum.
5. U.S. Girls – “Velvet 4 Sale” – This is the sort of rock music that makes me happy to currently be an adult human.
6. Beck – “Colors” – Is Beck the greatest dance artist of his era? “Colors” makes a strong case.
7. Janelle Monáe – “Pynk” – If we all had our own personal “Pynk” to announce to everyone who we are, the world would be a much better place.
8. Rüfüs Du Sol – “No Place” – I imagine that this is what it will sound like when I drift off this mortal coil.
9. Childish Gambino – “This Is America” – The musical equivalent of getting shot in the head and living to tell the tale.
10. Portugal. The Man – “Tidal Wave” – The force of extreme weather, but going down smooth and easy.
11. Janelle Monáe – “Make Me Feel” – Feeling good should sometimes feel like there’s a worm dancing in your brain.
12. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – “You Worry Me” – It’s good to know that some musicians are out here to make sure we’re safe and sound.
13. Elle King – “Shame” – It’s healthy to exorcise the lowdown dirtiest impulses of your humanity through song.
14. Paul McCartney – “Come on to Me” – I know I’d also like to remain this punny and lusty into my seventies.
15. Bob Moses – “Back Down” – An ideal soundtrack for making an unstable night feel just a little bit more stable.
16. Kendrick Lamar and SZA – “All the Stars” – The kind of song that assures you that all the spirits of your community are with you.
17. Max Frost – “Good Morning” – I’m happy to admit when I wake up in a day-conquering mood, and Max Frost has packaged that feeling.
18. Tyler, the Creator – “You’re a Mean One” – Maybe all kids movie theme songs should be crafted by pansexual oddballs.
19. Two Feet – “I Feel Like I’m Drowning” – When the sound cuts out right before the chorus, and then the guitar chimes in so nastily, I feel like I’m drowning, into the Sunken Place or something … and I like it.
20. The 1975 – “Love It If We Made It” – The desire to make it all the way through together really does often sound this urgent, doesn’t it?
February 14, 2019
Best of 2018, Best of TV 2018, Television #MurphyToo, A Boy and His Priest, A Random Killing, Atlanta, Barbershop, Barry, Best of 2018, Better Call Saul, Big Mouth, Bojack Horseman, Canada (1950–Present Day), Chapter Eight: Know Your Truth, Childish Gambino, Donald Glover, Donald Glover/Childish Gambino, Giving and Receiving, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Joe Pera Talks to You About the Rat Wars of Alberta, Joe Pera Talks with You, Mac and Me, Mac Finds His Pride, Milk, Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos, MST3K, Murphy Brown, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Pose, Saturday Night Live, Sharp Objects, SNL, South Park, Swipe Right, Teddy Perkins, Thanksgiving and Taking, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, The Gang Solves the Bathroom Problem, The Last O.G., The Planned Parenthood Show, The Showstoppe, Winner, Woods Leave a comment
CREDIT: Guy D’Alema/FX/FX Networks
If you’re still catching up on the best TV of 2018, the following playlist would be a great way to go about it.
1. Atlanta, “Teddy Perkins”
2. Saturday Night Live, Donald Glover/Childish Gambino
3. Atlanta, “Barbershop”
4. Mystery Science Theater 3000, “Mac and Me”
5. Big Mouth, “The Planned Parenthood Show”
6. BoJack Horseman, “The Showstopper”
7. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “The Gang Solves the Bathroom Problem”
8. The Assassination of Gianni Versace, “A Random Killing”
9. Barry, “Chapter Eight: Know Your Truth”
10. Pose, “Giving and Receiving”
11. Joe Pera Talks With You, “Joe Pera Talks to You About the Rat Wars of Alberta, Canada (1950–Present Day)”
12. BoJack Horseman, “Mr. Peanutbutter’s Boos”
13. Murphy Brown, “Thanksgiving and Taking”
14. Atlanta, “Woods”
15. Murphy Brown, “#MurphyToo”
16. Better Call Saul, “Winner”
17. The Last O.G., “Swipe Right”
18. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “Mac Finds His Pride”
19. South Park, “A Boy and a Priest”
20. Sharp Objects, “Milk”
February 13, 2019
Cinema, Movie Reviews Dwayne Johnson, Fighting with My Family, Florence Pugh, Jack Lowden, Lena Headey, Nick Frost, Paige, Stephen Merchant, Vince Vaughn 1 Comment
CREDIT: Robert Viglasky/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
Starring: Florence Pugh, Jack Lowden, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Vince Vaughn, Dwayne Johnson
Director: Stephen Merchant
Running Time: 108 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for The Bodily Sacrifices of Wrestling, Crude Comments, and Drunken Misbehavior
Release Date: February 14, 2019 (Limited)/Expands Nationwide February 22, 2019
Most inspirational sports flicks follow the same rise-fall-rise structure, down to every little setback and triumph. But it makes sense that audiences have never fully tired of this genre, because while it may be repetitive, it is rarely unrealistic. Athletics is one field of human endeavor in which you can explicitly say whether or not you have emerged the winner. And just about every champion, or at least the ones worth watching, has at some point felt like an underdog. The professional wrestling biopic Fighting with My Family does nothing to mess with that formula. But while wrestling may be staged, there is still plenty uncertain along the way, and there is similarly enough uniquely compelling and surprising about Fighting with My Family to make its allegiance to formula plenty forgivable.
Florence Pugh stars as Saraya “Paige” Bevis, who at the age of 21 in 2014 became the youngest winner ever of WWE’s Divas Championship. (As far as I could tell from the movie and looking up footage of Paige’s actual fight, this is one WWE tournament in which the winner is not predetermined.) Paige comes from a wrestling-obsessed family in working-class England, and she and her brother Zak (Jack Lowden) have dreamt their whole lives of rising to the ranks of WWE together, but alas, only Paige is given the opportunity.
You don’t have to be a wrestling fan to know that there will be a happy ending. You just have to watch the commercials and have enough common sense to know that if Paige didn’t become a champion, there probably wouldn’t be a movie about her. But considering that it ends on a note of such undisputed victory, there is a lot of bleakness along the way. Figuring herself a weirdo outcast, Paige struggles to get along with the more traditional hard bodies among her fellow recruits, and the isolation she experiences in sleekly empty, oppressively artificially lit hotel rooms is palpable. Even more intense are Zak’s demons. He put all his chips in the WWE basket, and as he feels that dream slipping away, he quickly transforms from a chipper young buck devotedly in love with his girlfriend and happy to be a new father into the most resentful person in the world. When Paige ultimately triumphs, it is as inspiring as it ought to be, but because of those descents into darkness, Fighting with My Family‘s most heartening moments are the times when the Bevis family make it clear that they have each other’s backs, and that is why this entry lifts itself atop the genre.
Fighting with My Family is Recommended If You Like: Professional wrestling and the stories behind it, Rocky, Warrior, Wacky working-class families
Grade: 4 out of 5 Title Belts
February 12, 2019
Cinema, Movie Reviews Adam DeVine, Betty Gilpin, Isn't It Romantic, Liam Hemsworth, Priyanka Chopra, Rebel Wilson, Todd Strauss-Schulson 1 Comment
CREDIT: Warner Bros.
Starring: Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam DeVine, Priyanka Chopra, Betty Gilpin
Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson
Running Time: 88 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Stereotypically PG-13 Rom-Com Behavior
Release Date: February 13, 2019
Do romantic comedies offer any applicable lessons for our own lives? Or are they all just toxic fantasies and at best valuable only for the escapism they offer? Isn’t It Romantic would like us to believe that even the most unrealistic rom-coms can provide inspiration for how to navigate our love lives. It’s a lesson that its main character Natalie (Rebel Wilson) would be wise to take to heart (and ultimately of course, she will). An architect living in an accurately smelly and sweaty New York City, she has been raised to be cynical about the genre, and fairly enough, she calls out its most destructive tropes: from the female co-workers who are mandatory rivals to the gay best friend who has no personal life of his own. But her cynicism blinds her to the existence of potential true love around her, partly because she does not believe that most guys would be interested in a “normal” girl like her. She is someone who would clearly benefit from saying “yes” more often, even if what she says yes to is living out an over-the-top stereotypical rom-com. Somehow, that experience leads to self-acceptance and fully listening to the people who truly appreciate her.
Nat is transported to this fantasy world when she hits her head while getting mugged in a subway station. She finds herself in a suspiciously fragrant version of NYC in which just about everyone is a little too open to the possibility of random meet-cutes. For her, that means a whirlwind romance with Blake (a never-better Liam Hemsworth), a client of hers who speaks almost exclusively in Buddhist aphorisms. And for Nat’s best friend and co-worker Josh (Adam DeVine), that means falling into the embrace of Isabella (Priyanka Chopra), the improbably employed “yoga ambassador.” It turns out that the rom-com storyline at play here is actually “best friends realize they were supposed to be together all along, almost before it’s too late,” and chances are pretty high that the corresponding happy ending will come to fruition. But the real raison d’etre of this whole affair is for Natalie to separate the chaff from the wheat of what rom-coms have to offer. Yes, they might be unrealistic and sometimes even toxic, but that is no reason to be miserable and reject love in our own lives. Isn’t It Romantic deconstructs to remind us why these silly, frothy stories are still worth telling.
Isn’t It Romantic is Recommended If You Like: Enchanted, They Came Together, Rebel Wilson and Adam DeVine’s chemistry in Pitch Perfect
Grade: 4 out of 5 Mornings After
February 12, 2019
Cinema, Movie Reviews Christopher Landon, Happy Death Day, Happy Death Day 2 U, Israel Broussard, Jessica Rothe, Phi Vu, Rachel Matthews, Ruby Modine, Sarah Yarkin, Steve Zissis, Suraj Sharma 3 Comments
CREDIT: Universal Pictures
Starring: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phi Vu, Suraj Sharma, Sarah Yarkin, Ruby Modine, Rachel Matthews, Steve Zissis
Director: Christopher Landon
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Comically Absurd Death Scenes
Release Date: February 13, 2019
Happy Death Day 2U is a tricky movie to review while avoiding spoilers, because a lot of the fun is derived from the glut of surprises that the plot has in store. That may sound unlikely for a sequel to a film about someone repeating the same day over and over again. But it is true that one of 2U‘s great strengths is its unpredictability. In that sense, it is most reminiscent of The Cabin in the Woods, which is similarly impossible to talk about without spoiling at least a tad. But also like Cabin, Happy Death Day 2U is so chock-a-block full of twists that it is impossible to spoil entirely. So even if you go in knowing the first twist, there are about twenty-five more waiting for you, which is quite an accomplishment for any sequel. I will try to be as non-specific as possible for the rest of this review, but if you want to be thoroughly unspoiled, stop here and just know that 2U succeeds wildly in its go-for-broke mentality. (But if anyone wants to get deeper into the details, please feel free to send a comment my way because I happy to talk about this movie as much as possible.)
The challenge of any time loop narrative is making each successive go-round interesting instead of frustrating in its sameness. That pitfall would seem exponentially more challenging for a sequel. As the person who has to live it, Tree Gelbman is suitably enraged, perhaps even deranged, about being stuck in the predicament she thought she had just escaped. It plays to Jessica Rothe’s comic strengths to be able to just scream at the forces of fate torturing her. But it turns out that this same loop is just different enough for Tree and the audience to be optimistic. The tone shifts from the original so significantly, in fact, that 2U is essentially in an entirely different genre than its predecessor (to say which genre would constitute a spoiler). In that way, it is like Aliens, which shifted from the one-by-one elimination horror of Alien into a war-style action flick. That change was understandable given the succession from Ridley Scott to James Cameron. But in this case, Christopher Landon stayed on as director (while also taking over scripting duties from Scott Lobdell). That diverse tonal skillset is heartening to see in any filmmaker, and it makes me believe that the Happy Death Day franchise could actually pull off a third entry that is hinted at the end here.
Other highlights include beefing up the best parts of the first film. Tree gets wrung through an even more outrageous death montage, this time involving electrocution, skydiving in a bikini, and falling from a clock tower (in a possible nod to another time-based franchise). Meanwhile, Tree’s sorority sister Danielle is even more fleshed out as her own singular brand of clueless. Rachel Matthews has only a few credits to her name, but she deserves to be a star based on her Happy Death Day performances alone. With all this surplus of beef, 2U is perhaps a little busy. The slasher aspects might actually be unnecessary, though they do provide ample tension. Overall, this film has such a strong intellectual foundation for something so cheeky and demented that any slight misstep is easily forgiven once the next mind-tickling idea comes along.
Happy Death Day 2U is Recommended If You Like: Happy Death Day, Back to the Future Part II, Primer, Rick and Morty
Grade: 4.5 out of 5 Loops
February 11, 2019
Cinema, Movie Reviews Carmiña Martínez, Ciro Guerra, Cristina Gallego, Greider Meza, Jhon Narváez, José Acosta, Jose Vicente Cotes, Juan Bautista, Natalia Reyes Leave a comment
CREDIT: The Orchard
Starring: Carmiña Martínez, Natalia Reyes, José Acosta, Jhon Narváez, Jose Vicente Cotes, Juan Bautista, Greider Meza
Directors: Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra
Running Time: 125 Minutes
Rating: Unrated, But It Would Be R for Gun Violence
Release Date: February 13, 2019
As a movie critic who does not focus on any one particular genre, I aim to be as omnivorous as possible, watching as many new releases as I can, covering as many subjects as are available. Certain times, I will encounter perspectives similar to my own, and I will be able to offer my more or less expert expert take in those cases. Other times I will come across films so far removed from my background that I can only offer my first-hand experience of what it is like to witness them. So it is in the case of the Colombian film Birds of Passage, a sprawling tale of a Native American Wayuu family’s chronicle through the drug trade.
As far as I can gather, Birds of Passage (which is divided into five chapters, or “cantos”) is in favor of staying close to home and fostering strong familial and community relations. Living a violent life in service of those values can only lead to destruction back home. And make no mistake, this is a violent film. Taking place in the sixties and seventies, it covers the early days of the Colombian drug trade, but it did not take long for gunfire to become a staple of the business. There are plenty of scenes of women getting pushed around and abused, but there is also a heavy implication that the female characters with significant parts are strong and wise leaders, and this society would be a lot better off if it did a better job listening to them. There are also some transfixingly dreamy scenes that convey the importance of being in tune with a collective inner spirit. The drug trade in this film starts off with American Peace Corps members looking to score some weed, but that foreign influence is a red herring. Everyone has their own soul and that of their community to look after.
Birds of Passage is Recommended If You Like: The Other Films of Ciro Guerra, Probably
Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Cantos
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