This Is a Movie Review: ‘Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House’ is a Minor Addition to the Watergate Canon

September 28, 2017

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CREDIT: Bob Mahoney/Sony Pictures Classics

This review was originally posted on News Cult in September 2017.

Starring: Liam Neeson, Diane Lane, Marton Csokas, Tony Goldwyn, Josh Lucas, Michael C. Hall, Ike Barinholtz, Tom Sizemore, Julian Morris, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Kate Walsh, Maika Monroe, Bruce Greenwood, Brian d’Arcy James, Noah Wyle

Director: Peter Landesman

Running Time: 103 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for FBI Agents Yelling When Suspected of Leaking

Release Date: September 29, 2017 (Limited)

Former FBI Associate Director Mark Felt has been portrayed or parodied in plenty of movies and TV shows, his presence an easy source of tension, frequently cloaked in the shadows of intrigue and mystery. When Hal Holbrook set the template for all Felt performances in All the President’s Men, he literally remained in the shadows. Of course, for decades, the role was not “Mark Felt” but “Deep Throat,” the pseudonym for the informant who provided The Washington Post with key details about the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation. Now that Felt (here played by Liam Neeson) has been revealed as Deep Throat, a fascinating film about the man behind the informant is ready to be made, but The Man Who Brought Down the White House is too erratic and overstuffed to be that film.

The story of the Watergate break-in and its fallout is familiar to basically every American who has lived during the last 45 years. It is an ur-scandal, providing a lens through which all governmental scandals – really all public scandals – are interpreted. We don’t need Mark Felt to re-tell that story, and yet it does. To be fair, seeing everything through Felt’s perspective – the channel through which all information in this affair goes through – is fascinating, but not so fascinating to make the familiar exciting again.

As far as I can tell, Mark Felt’s main purpose is to draw back the curtain on all the hoopla that springs up around any person who exists anonymously for so long. There is plenty of material to mine for a rich domestic drama. Felt’s wife Audrey (Diane Lane) is alcoholic and shares much of the stress he’s under, but her story seems like it could be that of any FBI agent’s wife and not Deep Throat’s specifically. The film’s other major point is that for all the good Felt did as an informant, he was not exactly a hero through and through. He was as guilty as (perhaps more so) anyone else in the FBI who violated American citizens’ civil rights. But save for one compelling scene snuck in at the end, that aspect is merely glossed over.

The major shortcoming of Mark Felt is all it attempts to stuff into just a little more than an hour and a half. Every name in the impressively sprawling cast list brings their bona fides, but nobody has the space to carve out a memorable character. Mark and Audrey reunite with their daughter (Maika Monroe) at a hippie commune in a third act twist that plays like it is so supposed to put everything that came before in perspective but mostly feels like it comes out of nowhere. If Mark Felt makes any cogent point, it’s that you always need folks like Woodward and Bernstein to compile everything together cogently and lucidly.

Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House is Recommended If You Like: Watergate completism

Grade: 2 out of 5 (Nonexistent) Secret Files

Billboard Hot Rock Songs – Week of October 7, 2017

September 27, 2017

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Each week, I check out the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart, and then I rearrange the top 25 based on my estimation of their quality. I used to rank all 25, now I just rank the cream of the crop.

Original Version
1. Imagine Dragons – “Believer”
2. Portugal. The Man – “Feel It Still”
3. Imagine Dragons – “Thunder”
4. The Revivalists – “Wish I Knew You”
5. Fall Out Boy – “The Last of the Real Ones”
6. Linkin Park – “One More Light”
7. U2 – “You’re the Best Thing About Me”
8. Theory of a Deadman – “Rx”
9. Thirty Seconds to Mars – “Walk on Water”
10. Zach Williams – “Old Church Choir”
11. Foo Fighters – “The Sky is a Neighborhood”
12. Lord Huron – “The Night We Met”
13. The Killers – “The Man”
14. NEEDTOBREATHE – “Hard Love”
15. Blonde Redhead – “For the Damaged Coda”
16. Foo Fighters – “Run”
17. Judah & the Lion – “Suit and Jacket”
18. The Lumineers – “Angela”
19. Vance Joy – “Lay it on Me”
20. Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”
21. Queens of the Stone Age – “The Way You Used to Do”
22. Weezer – “Feels Like Summer”
23. Beck – “Up All Night”
24. Highly Suspect – “Little One”
25. My Silent Bravery – “Got It Going On”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. The Way You Used to Do
2. Feel It Still
3. Run
4. The Man
5. For the Damaged Coda
6. The Sky is a Neighborhood
7. Up All Night
8. Little One
9. You’re the Best Thing About Me
10. Hard Love
11. Feels Like Summer
12. Lay It On Me

Billboard Hot 20 – Week of October 7, 2017

September 27, 2017

jmunney Billboard Charts, Billboard Hot 100, Music , , , Leave a comment

Each week, I check out the Billboard Hot 100, and then I rearrange the top 20 based on my estimation of their quality. I used to rank all 20, now I just rank the cream of the crop.

Original Version
1. Cardi B – “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)”
2. Post Malone ft. 21 Savage – “Rockstar”
3. Taylor Swift – “Look What You Made Me Do”
4. Logic ft. Alessia Cara and Khalid – “1-800-273-8255”
5. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee ft. Justin Bieber – “Despacito”
6. French Montana ft. Swae Lee – “Unforgettable”
7. Imagine Dragons – “Believer”
8. Yo Gotti ft. Nicki Minaj – “Rake It Up”
9. Charlie Puth – “Attention”
10. Portugal. The Man – “Feel It Still”
11. Niall Horan – “Slow Hands”
12. DJ Khaled ft. Rihanna and Bryson Tiller – “Wild Thoughts”
13. Liam Payne ft. Quavo – “Strip That Down”
14. Shawn Mendes – “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back”
15. Demi Lovato – “Sorry Not Sorry”
16. Sam Smith – “Too Good at Goodbyes”
17. 21 Savage – “Bank Account”
18. Ed Sheeran – “Shape of You”
19. J. Balvin and Willy William – “Mi Gente”
20. Bruno Mars – “That’s What I Like”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Feel It Still
2. Mi Gente
3. Unforgettable
4. Wild Thoughts

This is a Movie Review: With ‘Lucky,’ Harry Dean Stanton Left Us One Final Great Performance

September 27, 2017

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CREDIT: Magnolia Pictures

This review was originally posted on News Cult in September 2017.

Starring: Harry Dean Stanton, David Lynch, Ron Livingston, Tom Skerritt, Beth Grant, James Darren, Ed Begley Jr.

Director: John Carroll Lynch

Running Time: 88 Minutes

Rating: Unrated, But Keep an Eye Out for Old Farts Who Don’t Hold Their Tongues and Occasionally Get High

Release Date: September 29, 2017 (Limited)

Not many actors – nay, not many people, period – get to a point in their lives and careers that Harry Dean Stanton got to. He was still performing as he reached his 90s, thereby allowing him to quite naturally play a role that served as a meditation on preparing for death. And while he appeared relatively healthy for a man nearing the century mark (he was healthy enough to work, after all), there is always the chance that a death from natural causes could come calling at any point. Thus, Stanton has left us with the parting gift of Lucky, released only two weeks after his passing at the age of 91.

The directorial debut of prolific character actor John Carroll Lynch (Fargo, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Drew Carey’s brother on The Drew Carey Show), Lucky screams, “Made By and For Harry Dean Stanton Fanboys.” The whole film is basically an excuse for the iconic rail-thin character actor to stomp around and insist that life should be exactly as he demands it should be. As the titular coot, he is a 90-year-old atheist living in a quiet desert town, making him the ideal embodiment for irritable libertarianism. He is the kind of guy who gets banned for life from one bar and then spends all his time in the town’s other bar insulting all his friends. But everyone still loves him, probably because it is impossible for Stanton not to give a deeply humanistic performance.

As a species, we are still reckoning with how to live to an age when our biological functions are partially or completely shutting down. Lucky’s (the film) answer is mostly that the best we can do is make arrangements for death so that our left behind loved ones will not have to deal with the stresses of funereal and actuarial bureaucracy. Lucky (the person) is open to this sort of Zen practicality, but as someone who does not have any close family or friends, his perspective is a little more prickly and a little more ambivalent. Ultimately, the answer is that we really don’t know with absolute certainty how to live and how to die, but we do what we can. And if that includes hearing Lucky’s friend Howard (an always delightful on-camera David Lynch) wax poetic about his pet tortoise President Roosevelt, then it will have all been a little bit worth it.

Lucky is Recommended If You Like: Harry Dean Stanton’s career, David Lynch’s acting career, Gran Torino

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Lollipops Up the Ass

This Is a Movie Review: The Tom Cruise-Starring Biopic ‘American Made’ is a Rollicking Indictment of Governmental Abuse of Power

September 27, 2017

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CREDIT: Universal Pictures

This review was originally posted on News Cult in September 2017.

Starring: Tom Cruise, Sarah Wright Olsen, Domhnall Gleeson, Caleb Landry Jones, Jayma Mays, Jesse Plemons, Lola Kirke

Director: Doug Liman

Running Time: 117 Minutes

Rating: R for High Stress Profanity and a Quick Sex Montage

Release Date: September 29, 2017

Did Barry Seal live the American Dream? The marks of such an achievement are all there. The former TWA pilot rose from relatively modest means, married a beautiful woman (Sarah Wright Olsen), had three beautiful kids, was enriched by his own government, used those riches to move his family into a huge plot of land, and now Tom Cruise is playing him in a biopic. But if this is indeed the American Dream, ideals are not immune to being warped by the harshness of reality. Spoiler alert for a true story: Barry dies at the end. He still manages to accrue an insane streak of good luck, and the deadliest parts of his story are filled with mythic iconography, but his example is a stark reminder that this country’s greatness is not always so straightforward as it purports to be.

As American Made portrays him, Seal is an opportunist, but the opportunities come straight to him, from sources that are pretty hard to say no to. A mysterious CIA agent (Domhnall Gleeson) shows up out of the blue and offers him a deal to fly reconnaissance missions and then act as a courier to the Latin American political figures that the U.S. government covertly supports. His presence leads him into the clutches of Pablo Escobar and the Medellín cartel, who strongarm him into smuggling their product. You might think this would be the end of the road for Seal, but the U.S. is kinda-sorta allies with the Medellíns (anything to oppose the commies!).

Seal’s smuggling does attract the ire of just about every major American law enforcement agency, but he keeps sliding free. While the bulk of his work is illegal, it is also mostly government-sanctioned, even when the CIA erases his existence from their files. Ultimately, though, his government – the same one that made him very rich – hangs him out to dry. As the affairs in Latin America ultimately lead to the Iran-Contra scandal, it becomes unavoidably clear that the highest echelons of government are populated by international geopolitical criminals. And yet it is the Barry Seal’s of the world, who nominally remain private citizens, who bear the bulk of the suffering. True, he chooses to play his part and is not exactly the most upstanding person, but he is never really free to live as he pleases. His life looks pretty fun, but it is not hard to notice the gross abuse of power underneath that slick veneer.

With American Made and 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow, director Doug Liman is now a specialist in subverting the aura of Tom Cruise. If you know nothing of the actor’s personal life, it is pretty much impossible not to be charmed by him. And even if you do know about the Scientology shenanigans and all the rest of it, he still might win you over a bit despite yourself. Cruise cranks the charm at full throttle to get Seal out of so many sticky situations, but it only works if the powers that be say so. American Made shows that his star still shines on but also that he (just like the myth of the American Dream) only endures because powers greater than any one individual allow it to.

American Made is Recommended If You Like: Top Gun, Re-evaluating Top Gun, Deconstructing Tom Cruise, Narcos

Grade: 4 out of 5 Kilos

What Won TV? – September 17-September 23, 2017

September 27, 2017

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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 – Rick and Morty was probably the best, but I can’t get that voice of an angel (Tim and Eric’s Bedtime Stories) out of my head.
Monday – People of Earth
Tuesday – Difficult People
Wednesday – Broad City
Thursday – Nathan for You: A Celebration
Friday – VICE
Saturday – Halt and Catch Fire

This Is a Movie Review: In ‘Friend Request,’ the Horror of Social Media is Entrancingly Weird But Off-Puttingly Cruel

September 22, 2017

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CREDIT: Entertainment Studios

This review was originally posted on News Cult in September 2017.

Starring: Alycia Debnam-Carey, Liesl Ahlers, William Moseley, Connor Paolo, Brit Morgan, Brooke Markham, Sean Marquette

Director: Simon Verhoeven

Running Time: 92 Minutes

Rating: R for Suicide by Possession and Wasp Swarm Attacks

Release Date: September 22, 2017

Friend Request asks the question: what horrors await those of us addicted to social media? The trouble is, none of its characters actually suffer from such an addiction. Instead, their usage of Facebook is all healthily moderate. Maybe witches don’t understand new technology. Or maybe something got lost in translation with German co-writer/director Simon Verhoeven. In actuality, the only reason that California college girl Laura’s (Alycia Debnam-Carey) life is destroyed by the evil of Friend Request is sheer bad luck. But it also has something to do with her inherent sense of politeness.

Laura is marked for companionship by Marina (Liesl Ahlers), a new student in her psychology class who looks just like a mini-Lisbeth Salander and is just as socially awkward but a million times creepier. Before Laura accepts Marina’s request, the latter has exactly zero Facebook friends, which should be the first sign of trouble, but Laura looks upon the situation with kindness. Alas, allowing Marina into her life leads to obsession, which leads to unfriending, which leads to suicide, which leads to the video of Marina’s death mysteriously appearing on Laura’s Facebook page.

Laura is unable to delete the video, or do anything at all to prove her innocence, as some sort of demonic virus has infected her entire online presence. This leads to everyone at school deciding she is a terrible person, which leads to the film’s big visual hook: a countdown ticker displaying all the Facebook friends that she is losing. The implication is that this would devastate her because of how obsessed she is with social media. But she is not obsessed, and her life is hellish enough with the supernatural presence that is causing all of her friends to kill themselves.

The individual scares manage to pack a bit of a punch, as moments of Marina making her afterlife presence felt are heralded by swarms of black wasps. Plus, the makeup game is on point. Furthermore, Friend Request can be appreciated for its off-kilter weirdness that is probably partly unintentional but is still transfixing. As Laura and all the people in her life are affected more and more by the evil presence, they start to act less and less human. In particular, a pair of cops investigating the string of deaths are so casually frustrated by every new twist. They are incredulous whenever they behold a dead body, despite such developments being a normal part of a law enforcement official’s job.

While there are pleasures to be had from that strangeness, it is hard to fully embrace Friend Request, as it is too unjustifiably cruel. It acts like it needs to teach its main character a lesson, even though she is genuinely nice and level-headed. Sure, true evil does not play fair, but a film about true evil needs to know how evil it is if it wants to win over an audience that is not just as evil.

Friend Request is Recommended If You Like: The weirder elements of The Bye Bye Man, John Mulaney’s routine about Ice-T on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Grade: 2 out of 5 Black Mirrors

This Is a Movie Review: ‘The Tiger Hunter’ is a Cliché, But Harmless, Fish Out of Water Immigrant Tale

September 22, 2017

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CREDIT: Shout! Factory

This review was originally posted on News Cult in September 2017.

Starring: Danny Pudi, Jon Heder, Rizwan Manji, Karen David, Iqbal Theba, Kevin Pollak

Director: Lena Khan

Running Time: 94 Minutes

Rating: Unrated, But I Would Peg It as a Light PG-13 for the Shenanigans That Arise When a Dozen Men Live Together

Release Date: September 22, 2017 (Limited)

Shout! Factory is primarily known for its home video releases (particularly its Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD collections), but the company is now branching into theatrical distribution with the release of The Tiger Hunter. Unsurprisingly given its distribution pedigree, this is a film that has the aesthetics and ambitions of a straight-to-DVD release. There is a certain lo-fi charm to the proceedings, thanks mostly to its largely agreeable cast, but with all the other movies that already exist in that, you have to hope that every new one aims high, and this particular movie mostly does not.

The premise commences as young engineer Sami (Community’s Dani Pudi) leaves his native India for the more promising professional and social prospects of 1970s America. So far, so good, so archetypical. Of course, hijinks ensue when the job he was promised turns out to be already filled by the time he arrives, so he is forced to move in with about a dozen other similarly broke and overqualified immigrants in a cramped Chicago apartment. And of course the big reason he is doing all this is so that he can manage to look like marriage material to the father (Iqbal Theba) of his childhood best friend/one true love (Karen David). And of course he is motivated/haunted by the legend of his late father (the pride of the village, thanks to his titular feline slaying). And of course he concocts a Three’s Company-esque scheme to appear more successful than he actually is to potential dad-in-law.

Ultimately, The Tiger Hunter wraps up in the “just be yourself” platitudes typical of not just struggling immigrant stories but also just about every film genre in existence that ever attempts to be inspirational. That lack of originality could be infuriating, but it manages to be bearable, mostly due to Pudi’s ability to earnestly sell lines like “I want to be a professional American” and his knack for claiming with a straight face that Mary Tyler Moore told him he was going to make it after all. If you are an immigrant yourself, you may recognize parts of your story in this movie, but mostly just the lazy afternoons that you spent watching random movies like The Tiger Hunter.

The Tiger Hunter is Recommended If You Like: Danny Pudi Loyalty, Holding out Hope That Jon Heder Still Has Another Hit in Him

Grade: 2 out of 5 Wacky Roommates

This Is a Movie Review: ‘Victoria & Abdul’ Reunites Judi Dench with a Classic Role and One of Her Best Directors

September 22, 2017

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CREDIT: Focus Features

This review was originally posted on News Cult in September 2017.

Starring: Judi Dench, Ali Fazal, Eddie Izzard, Tim Pigott-Smith, Adeel Akhtar, Michael Gambon

Director: Stephen Frears

Running Time: 112 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Uptight Brits Trying (and Sometimes Failing) to Avoid Cursing and Discussing Naughty Bits

Release Date: September 22, 2017 (Limited)

With Victoria & Abdul, Judi Dench returns to the role that earned the dame her first Oscar nomination 20 years ago, and the Academy may very come calling yet again. Of course, such recognition is a distinct possibility for every Dench performance, but that is no reason not to say it again whenever it is called for. As with Mrs. Brown, the narrative focuses on the widowed Queen Victoria’s deeply close relationship with a servant. This time it is Abdul Karim (played with boundless oomph by Bollywood star Ali Fazal), an Indian man whose trip to England was originally meant to be a quick appearance to present the queen with a gift from her subjects but who ultimately became her confidant and spiritual teacher.

Looking over some of the other reviews of Victoria & Abdul, I must admit that I am probably lacking the best experience with which to approach this film. I am not a British citizen, nor do I hail from any country that has ever lived under the kingdom’s imperialist rule. The film might be guilty of whitewashing or revisionist history. I cannot speak sufficiently to its value as a document of record, but I can say that as storytelling, it is dynamic and morally engaging. It might make its heroes and villains more clear-cut than they actually were, but that approach does paint a valuable picture of what it means to be human towards each other.

As he proved with Philomena (the last time he guided Dench to an Oscar nomination), director Stephen Frears knows how to gradually suss out the seriousness from what at first appears to be a happy-go-lucky buddy flick. This could have just been the story of a woman in her twilight years who serendipitously developed a new close friendship that was surprising in many ways. And that would have been perfectly charming. But Victoria and Abdul’s story is much more than that.

Victoria uses the powers of her throne to insist that all subjects be treated justly and properly, thus bucking the push for decorum from the more openly racist members of her court. This is relatively low-risk for someone in her position of power, but that does not make it any less admirable. Much more complicated is Abdul’s behavior. He is encouraged by a fellow Indian servant not to prostrate himself so readily to the oppressor, but he finds a higher spiritual calling in the work of a servant, no matter what the greater context. Those who detect a problematic approach in Abdul’s portrayal are not necessarily wrong, but it is worthwhile to test out the more transcendent approach.

Victoria & Abdul is Recommended If You Like: Philomena, Any and all British royal pictures, Judi Dench at her Dench-iest

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 Carpets

This Is a Movie Review: ‘The Lego Ninjago Movie’ is Stupidly the Best Father-Son Bonding Movie in Ages

September 22, 2017

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CREDIT: Warner Bros.

This post was originally published on News Cult in September 2017.

Starring: Dave Franco, Justin Theroux, Olivia Munn, Jackie Chan, Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson, Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Peña, Zach Woods

Directors: Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher, and Bob Logan

Running Time: 101 Minutes

Rating: PG for Ripped-Off Lego Limbs and Feline-on-Toy Destruction

Release Date: September 22, 2017

If you want to learn how to nail down comic timing, you could do much worse than studying the repartee in The Lego Ninjago Movie. This second spin-off of the toy block film franchise and the first based on the speciality Ninjago line (which also already has its own long-running Cartoon Network TV show) should ostensibly be the most action-oriented of the series, but its cast ensures that it is instead defined by the cheeky humor that has buoyed each of the Lego films thus far. The voices of the high school-age core ninja group include improv and sketch veterans like Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson, Kumail Nanjiani, and Zach Woods. And their leader, Master Wu, is brought to life by the always comedically inclined martial arts legend Jackie Chan. As they protect their home city of Ninjago and seek to become one with the elements, they pop off quips like “Can I be the element of surprise?” and display their meta bona fides by complaining about Wu’s “needlessly cryptic metaphors.”

The thrust of the plot mostly revolves around Green Ninja Lloyd (Dave Franco) and his struggle against his father Lord Garmadon (Justin Theroux), a four-armed warlord seeking to conquer Ninjago who keeps mispronouncing (or correctly pronouncing?) his son’s name as “L-loyd.” Lloyd’s attempts to reconcile with the father who abandoned and forgot about him make for the dopily cliché stuff of legend. This is the same evil-father/chosen-one-son knockoff typical of so many Star Wars copycats. But of course, that dopiness is the point. In a world where love stories begin by opponents in war detecting unbearable beauty on opposite sides of the battlefield and the biggest hit on the radio is the weirdly personal “Boo Lloyd!,” fully embracing clichés only makes sense.

For those of you wondering how the real world intervenes in the block world this time around, it should be noted that there is a cute kitty cat who stomps around the town. Dubbed “Meowthra,” this feline is the secondary villain, the monster that indiscriminately and unknowingly ruins intricately designed block structures.

Where Ninjago falters is in its actions sequences. To be fair, its earthbound fighting moments have plenty of visual wit, but when the ninjas take to the skies, the aerial sequences are as unintelligible as the Transformers series at its worst. But that will only be a minor bother when you make it through to the end credits and fall in love with the latest buoyantly terrific song from a Lego movie.

The Lego Ninjago Movie is Recommended If You Like: Lego’s entire filmography, Star Wars father-son relationship parodies, Silicon Valley, Finding the humor in “Cat’s in the Cradle”

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Ninjanuities

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