Billboard Hot Rock Songs – Week of July 22, 2017

July 12, 2017

jmunney Billboard Charts, Billboard Hot Rock Songs, Music , , , Leave a comment

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. Imagine Dragons – “Thunder”
3. twenty one pilots – “Heathens”
4. Portugal. The Man – “Feel It Still”
5. The Revivalists – “Wish I Knew You”
6. Rag’n’Bone Man – “Human”
7. Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”
8. Lord Huron – “The Night We Met”
9. Paramore – “Hard Times”
10. Foo Fighters – “Run”
11. The Killers – “The Man”
12. Linkin Park ft. Kiiara – “Heavy”
13. Stone Sour – “Song #3”
14. Weezer – “Feels Like Summer”
15. Bleacers – “Don’t Take the Money”
16. Imagine Dragons – “Walking the Wire”
17. Zach Williams – “Old Church Choir”
18. Sir Sly – “High”
19. NEEDTOBREATHE – “Hard Love”
20. The Dirty Heads – “Vacation”
21. Muse – “Dig Down”
22. Arcade Fire – “Everything Now”
23. The Lumineers – “Angela”
24. LANY – “Super Far”
25. Imagine Dragons – “I Don’t Know Why”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Human
2. The Man
3. High
4. Run
5. Feel It Still
6. Everything Now
7. Hard Love
8. Dig Down
9. Hard Times
10. Feels Like Summer

Billboard Hot 20 – Week of July 22, 2017

July 12, 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. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee ft. Justin Bieber – “Despacito”
2. DJ Khaled ft. Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper, and Lil Wayne – “I’m the One”
3. Bruno Mars – “That’s What I Like”
4. DJ Khaled ft. Rihanna and Bryson Tiller – “Wild Thoughts”
5. Ed Sheeran – “Shape of You”
6. Kendrick Lamar – “Humble.”
7. Imagine Dragons – “Believer”
8. Sam Hunt – “Body Like a Back Road”
9. Post Malone ft. Quavo – “Congratulations”
10. French Montana ft. Swae Lee – “Unforgettable”
11. Zedd and Alessia Cara – “Stay”
12. Future – “Mask Off”
13. The Chainsmokers and Coldplay – “Something Just Like This”
14. Shawn Mendes – “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back”
15. Charlie Puth – “Attention”
16. Childish Gambino – “Redbone”
17. Lil Uzi Vert – “XO Tour Llif3”
18. Halsey – “Now or Never”
19. Julia Michaels – “Issues”
20. James Arthur – “Say You Won’t Let Go”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Redbone
2. Stay
3. Humble.
4. Unforgettable
5. Wild Thoughts
6. Now or Never

This Is a Movie Review: It Isn’t Shakespeare, But This ‘Lady Macbeth’ Is Still Dangerous (and Sexy as Hell)

July 12, 2017

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , 1 Comment

CREDIT: Laurie Sparham/Roadside Attractions

This review was originally published on News Cult in July 2017.

Starring: Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Naomi Ackie, Paul Hilton, Christopher Fairbank

Director: William Oldroyd

Running Time: 89 Minutes

Rating: R for Unapologetically Passionate Sex and Scarily Desperate Killing

Release Date: July 14, 2017 (Limited)

Sometimes you are knocked out by a supernova of an onscreen performance that you never saw coming. Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth is the latest stunner to pull it off. Logically, I can understand why I had previously never heard of her and why this film in particular snuck up on me. She is 21 and has only three previous IMDb credits, and Lady Macbeth stars English actors I have never heard of. But emotionally, it feels like her star power exists outside of time and that I should have somehow sensed her talent my whole life.

Director William Oldroyd’s film is not based on Shakespeare, but rather Nikolai Leskov’s 1865 novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District. Still, the central character is a ruthlessly canny power-grabber, so the Bard’s influence is clear and intentional. This adaptation keeps it in the nineteenth century but transfers its setting to England. Katherine (Pugh) is married off to Alexander (Paul Hilton), who is either impotent or uninterested in her, or both. But he offers the security of an estate to live in, and it is not like she has any say in the matter anyway. At first, this appears like it is going to be the bleakest of tough watches. It may be true that English women suffered systemic abuses in this time period, but that does not make it any easier to endure.

Soon enough, though, control of the situation, and the narrative, shifts rapidly. With Alexander away from the estate for weeks to attend to pressing business, Katherine initiates a torrid affair with a groundskeeper (Cosmo Jarvis) and dispatches her father-in-law (Christopher Fairbank), the owner of the estate. Her handmaid (Naomi Ackie) is so shocked that she is rendered mute for the remainder of the film.

Katherine doubles down at every opportunity to procure what she desires to the point that the only possible conclusion is the most lethal of conflicts. Lady Macbeth admirably does not back down from the dangerous requirements it has thus set for itself. At first, you feel sorry for Pugh. Then suddenly you hail her as a new feminist icon. And then in a blink of an eye, you have never been more scared of anybody.

Lady Macbeth is Recommended If You Like: Atonement, Mad Max: Fury Road, You’re Next, Being Aroused and Scared at the Same Time

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 Corsets

 

This Is a Movie Review: ‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ Makes for a Bleak But Transfixing Spectacle

July 10, 2017

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

Starring: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Karin Konoval, Amiah Miller

Director: Matt Reeves

Running Time: 142 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for War Violence Shot Artfully Enough to Avoid an R Rating

Release Date: July 14, 2017

The prequel/reboot Planet of the Apes series has been doing a fine job at that most pervasively needless of tasks: providing origin stories for elements from the original that never needed to be explained. The trick is to make those explanations part of their own particular tales that are compelling enough on their own. In the latest entry, War for the Planet of the Apes, the spotlighted origin is humankind’s loss of speech, which is essentially something that inexplicably and uncontrollably just starts happening, but is also presumably related to the virus from 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes that began to wipe out humanity and boosted apes’ intelligence. Far from a minor plot point, this provides the essential motivation for those who seek to stand in the way of nature.

Caesar (Andy Serkis) and the rest of the apes have been living mostly happily in the civilization they have constructed for themselves, but the peace between species they have brokered has only ever been uneasy. There is a vestige of what remains of intelligent humans that is intent on reasserting their dominance, most ferociously in the form of Colonel McCullough (Woody Harrelson), a ruthless fighter who justifies his tactics with a form of genetic engineering tinged with desperation. When a sneak attack by McCullough kills several of Caesar’s loved ones, the stage is set for an ultimate standoff. While Caesar’s reaction flirts somewhat uncomfortably with revenge territory, the conflict remains more generally compelling, as his larger motivation is protecting apes and simply wanting this war to end. The bleakness of ending war with more war (even in self-defense) is not ignored.

War for the Planet of the Apes can easily be read as a metaphor in which a dominant social group finds the status quo upended and tries to swing the pendulum back. Those moments can easily be found now and at many other points in the history of society. But what is remarkable is how much that is a side effect. This series is primarily devoted to commenting upon and analyzing itself more than anything else. That commitment extends to the thorough chilliness of the vision. It is never specified if the setting is in a particularly wintry area, or if the future is eternally snowy, or both. Either way, the effect is oppressive. There are moments of levity (most memorably from Steve Zahn’s “Bad Ape,” a jittery former circus animal who has gone a little loopy from cabin fever), but overall, this is a film that takes days to swallow to bear appreciating its majesty.

War for the Planet of the Apes is Recommended If You Like: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Apocalypse Now, The Searchers

Grade: 4 out of 5 Machine Gun-Toting Apes

What Won TV? – July 2-July 8, 2017

July 9, 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 – Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Monday – Jeopardy!
Tuesday – Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, despite ESPN’s sloppy editing
Wednesday – The Carmichael Show
Thursday – The Gong Show
Friday – Jeopardy!
Saturday – Tour de Pharmacy, mostly for the Nathan Fielder bits

This Is a Movie Review: Wonder Woman

July 8, 2017

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Has Wonder Woman always been noted for her blunt honesty? Obviously the truth has been a big part of her mythos from the beginning, what with the Lasso of that particular quality. Anyway, I am glad her debut film leans into that. Gal Gadot is strikingly perfect at playing Diana’s frustration that those in the world of man are often not straightforward or honorable. What really sells it are the moments when the truest explanations are beyond the scope of the Lasso. So good on Chris Pine as Steve Trevor for zeroing in on the motivation she needs to become the superhero this world needs right now. Diana’s not giving up on us, so I won’t give up on DC.

I give Wonder Woman 95 Ricochets out of 100 Bullets.

This Is a Movie Review: The Book of Henry

July 7, 2017

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The Book of Henry has been hailed by some as the next so-bad-it’s-good classic and by others as just one of the worst movies ever. But as I finished watching it, my reaction was, “What’s the big deal?” As I thought it over, though, I realized that some pretty crazy things did happen – Naomi Watts plays video games and buys a gun, Sarah Silverman kisses an 11-year-old on the mouth, Bobby Moynihan doesn’t debut a new catchphrase – but that lunacy does not really take this film to the realm of The Inexplicable. That is because when it comes to the strangest examples of cinema that truly need to be treasured, it is about tone more than plot – the how, not the what. And Book of Henry’s tone just isn’t that singular. It’s maudlin, bland, middle-of-the-road. All the actors are too traditionally competent and/or understated for the weirdness to really land.

Jacob Tremblay is still adorable, though.

I give The Book of Henry 400 “They Did That’s” out of 1000 “Whatever’s.”

Billboard Hot Rock Songs – Week of July 15, 2017

July 5, 2017

jmunney Billboard Charts, Billboard Hot Rock Songs, Music , , , Leave a comment

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. Imagine Dragons – “Thunder”
3. twenty one pilots – “Heathens”
4. Portugal. The Man – “Feel It Still”
5. Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”
6. Rag’n’Bone Man – “Human”
7. The Revivalists – “Wish I Knew You”
8. Lord Huron – “The Night We Met”
9. Imagine Dragons – “Walking the Wire”
10. Fall Out Boy – “Champion”
11. Foo Fighters – “Run”
12. Imagine Dragons – “I Don’t Know Why”
13. Linkin Park ft. Kiiara – “Heavy”
14. Paramore – “Hard Times”
15. The Killers – “The Man”
16. Imagine Dragons – “Rise Up”
17. Imagine Dragons – “I’ll Make It Up to You”
18. Sir Sly – “High”
19. Imagine Dragons – “Start Over”
20. NEEDTOBREATHE – “Hard Love”
21. Bleachers – “Don’t Take the Money”
22. Electric Light Orchestra – “Mr. Blue Sky”
23. Zach Williams – “Old Church Choir”
24. HAIM – “Little of Your Love”
25. Soundgarden – “Black Hole Sun”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Human
2. The Man
3. Mr. Blue Sky
4. High
5. Black Hole Sun
6. Run
7. Feel It Still
8. Hard Love
9. Little of Your Love
10. Hard Times

Billboard Hot 20 – Week of July 15, 2017

July 5, 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. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee ft. Justin Bieber – “Despacito”
2. DJ Khaled ft. Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper, and Lil Wayne – “I’m the One”
3. DJ Khaled ft. Rihanna and Bryson Tiller – “Wild Thoughts”
4. Bruno Mars – “That’s What I Like”
5. Ed Sheeran – “Shape of You”
6. Imagine Dragons – “Believer”
7. Kendrick Lamar – “Humble.”
8. Post Malone ft. Quavo – “Congratulations”
9. Future – “Mask Off”
10. The Chainsmokers and Coldplay – “Something Just Like This”
11. Zedd and Alessia Cara – “Stay”
12. Sam Hunt – “Body Like a Back Road”
13. French Montana ft. Swae Lee – “Unforgettable”
14. Childish Gambino – “Redbone”
15. Lil Uzi Vert – “XO Tour Llif3”
16. Julia Michaels – “Issues”
17. James Arthur – “Say You Won’t Let Go”
18. Shawn Mendes – “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back”
19. Halsey – “Now or Never”
20. Kygo x Selena Gomez – “It Ain’t Me”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Redbone
2. Stay
3. Humble.
4. Unforgettable
5. Wild Thoughts
6. Now or Never

This Is a Movie Review: ‘A Ghost Story’ Has Intriguing Metaphysical Ideas But Mostly Just Tests My Patience

July 5, 2017

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

Starring: Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck

Director: David Lowery

Running Time: 87 Minutes

Rating: R for the Cause of Death (Though Most of the Content is Quite Mild)

Release Date: July 7, 2017 (Limited)

If you have heard of David Lowery’s A Ghost Story in passing, chances are you know one of two things about it: 1) the titular ghost is rendered by someone wearing a bedsheet with cutout eyeholes, and 2) Rooney Mara eats an entire pie for about 10 minutes straight. The former sounds dumb but is actually kind of charming, while the latter sounds like an admirable bit of anti-cinema but is actually representative of everything wrong with this movie.

The setup is notably (perhaps fascinatingly) bare-bones: a young couple, presumably married, listed in the credits as “M” (Rooney Mara) and “C” (Casey Affleck), move into an idyllic suburban house. C dies in a car accident and then awakens in the morgue as the sheet-ghost. He returns home and meets another sheet-ghost next door. He keeps an eye on M and occasionally throws some books off the shelf. She eventually moves out, presumably due to grief or maybe because of the supernatural goings-on (hardly anything is concretely explained). He sticks around and meets the new residents, haunting them a bit but mostly just observing them. Ultimately Lowery makes it clear that his conception of ghosts is not bound by the normal rules of time, as a temporal loop allows C to experience anew his and M’s entire relationship, with a few detours along the way.

A Ghost Story has an interesting metaphysical perspective, with its version of the afterlife steeped in feeling as much as ideas. It offers some rewards if you meditate over it, but actually watching it is a slog. The dialogue is sparse, and the action leads nowhere, which is not necessarily a problem if the aim is to be sensuously experiential. And in fairness, Andrew Droz Palermo’s cinematography is pretty to look at, but not so extraordinary that it can justify a movie that mostly just stands still. A film’s purpose does not need to be obvious, but it is preferable if it feels like something more significant than “we just felt like it.”

A Ghost Story is Recommended If You Like: Endlessly Ruminating

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Pies

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