March 26, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Bad Trip, Dan Curry, Eric Andre, Kitao Sakurai, Lil Rel Howery, Michaela Conlin, Tiffany Haddish
Bad Trip (CREDIT: Dimitry Elyashkevich/Netflix)
Starring: Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish, Michaela Conlin
Director: Kitao Sakurai
Running Time: 84 Minutes
Rating: R for Thoroughly Shameless Crudity, Nudity, and Psychoactive Drug Indulgence
Release Date: March 26, 2021 (Netflix)
I sure wish I had been able to experience Bad Trip in a packed theater, but at least my hearty laughs in my solo viewing experience were enough to fill my living room. This delightfully demented piece of guerilla filmmaking is basically a feature-length version of the man-on-the-street bits from Eric Andre’s anarchic eponymous Adult Swim talk show. Starring alongside Andre are a couple of famous funny people as well as dozens of unsuspecting members of the public. There’s a bit of a story (with the screenplay credited to Andre, Dan Curry, and director Kitao Sakurai), in which Florida Man Chris (Andre) has a chance meeting with his old school crush Maria (Michaela Conlin), who invites him to come check out her art gallery in New York City. He then invites his best pal Bud (Lil Rel Howery) on a road trip to the Big Apple, and they abscond in a car that belongs to Bud’s incarcerated sister Trina (Tiffany Haddish), who busts out and tracks down the boys with deadly intentions. The narrative actually hangs together a lot more nicely than I would expect in a prank film, but ultimately it’s just an excuse for a bunch of outrageous shenanigans.
Practical jokes can be hilarious, but ethically speaking, if you’re going to be a professional hooligan, you ought to be careful about who you select as the butts of your jokes. I approve of Andre’s mischief because he is consistently the target of his own pranks. He renders himself into every possible version of a fool, while the unsuspecting public provides another layer of humor by serving as witnesses struggling to make sense of the chaos unfolding around them. In Bad Trip, that chaos includes fake blood splatter, fake projectile vomit splatter, and fake semen splatter. (Shame is a foreign concept to Eric Andre.) The crowd might get hit by some shrapnel, but Andre’s the only one who’s truly suffering for his art.
Bad Trip unsurprisingly holds up when considered on a scene-by-scene basis. But it’s tough to sustain a narrative when utilizing a sketch-comedy sensibility. But shocker of shockers, it turns out that the script delivers some satisfying emotional payoffs to all of its characters. It helps that everyone involved takes a decidedly askew approach to the tropes of buddy flicks. For example, there’s a runner about the notorious 2004 Wayans Brothers cross-dressing comedy White Chicks that improbably gets its own little mini-arc and cathartic conclusion. We all need a space for our ids to run free every once in a while, and I’m so glad that Eric Andre and his cohorts have put theirs on display for all the world to see.
Bad Trip is Recommended If You Like: The Eric Andre Show, Jackass, Borat
Grade: 4 out of 5 Stolen Cars
March 23, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Aleksei Serebryakov, Bob Odenkirk, Christopher Lloyd, Connie Nielsen, Derek Kolstad, Gage Munroe, Ilya Naishuller, Nobody, Paisley Cadorath, RZA
Nobody (CREDIT: Allen Fraser/Universal Pictures)
Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Christopher Lloyd, RZA, Aleksei Serebryakov, Gage Munroe, Paisley Cadorath
Director: Ilya Naishuller
Running Time: 92 Minutes
Rating: R for All The Expected Blood and Profanity
Release Date: March 26, 2021
When I saw the trailer for Nobody and was teased by its promise of Bob Odenkirk pushed to the edge to protect his family, I couldn’t resist. This is a guy who’s famous for his nonpareil knack for frustrated bursts of a certain profanity, after all. How has he not been getting cast in some of the secret-badass roles that Liam Neeson’s been hogging the past decade? But then when the movie actually gets going, it makes a very odd decision. During an opening home invasion scene, Odenkirk just … lets the burglars get away with it. It’s strongly implied that that’s actually the safest decision for everyone, but this doesn’t appear to be the mild-mannered-man-goes-rogue story we’ve been promised. Nor does it seem like we have the appropriate setup for a tale of vengeance. What’s the deal?!
Despite what the title and the thoroughly suburban setting assures us, Hutch Mansell (Odenkirk) is far from a nobody. He doesn’t have to summon his penchant for violence out of nothing; in fact, he has a history of violence just bubbling under the surface. The film is vague about that backstory, but it’s clear that regardless of how he learned, he knows how to bash heads. But what really flipped my head is the explanation of Hutch’s entire motivation for his spree of mayhem. As it turns out, the thieves took his young daughter’s kitty-cat bracelet Sammy (Paisley Cadorath), and that’s apparently enough to convince him to take on an entire crime organization., even though Sammy doesn’t seem especially bothered by the loss! In fact, none of the shenanigans that Hutch gets up seem to be on behalf of his family. It’s more like it’s just done out of his desire to star in his own outrageous action movie.
And that really sums up the entire m.o. of Nobody. If I were a betting man, I would bet that screenwriter Derek Kolstad and director Ilya Naishuller noticed that Bob Odenkirk had never been showcased in this genre and they decided that they needed to rectify that immediately. Then they mixed in a Russian drug lord, plenty of guns, and a car chase set to Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker,” and they decided that they were good to go. What’s missing from all this? Any sense of logic at all! Now, you may ask, do you need to have logic when Odenkirk’s brother is played by RZA and his dad is a shotgun-toting Christopher Lloyd? Honestly, I think it would’ve helped. But, eh, nobody needs logic, and certainly neither does Nobody.
Nobody is Recommended If You Like: Senseless violence delivered with conviction
Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Kitty Cat Bracelets
March 19, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television
Chemtrails Over the Country Club, Doctor Who, Happily, Lana del Rey, Ringo Starr, Superstore, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Zoom In
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (CREDIT: Marvel Entertainment/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.
Movies
–Happily (Theaters and On Demand) – I always got to stump for my Community alums.
TV
–The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Series Premiere (March 19 on Disney+) – More MCU on Disney+!
–Doctor Who: Fury From the Deep (March 21 on BBC America) – Another set of lost Who episodes reconstituted in animated form.
–Superstore Series Finale (March 25 on NBC)
Music
-Lana Del Rey, Chemtrails over the Country Club
-Ringo Starr, Zoom In
March 17, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Aric Generette Floyd, Bailee Cowperthwaite, Bira Vanara, Chris White, Darius Levanté, David Hemphill, Doors, Dugan O’Neal, Ed Hobbs, Jeff Desom, Josh Peck, Julianne Collins, Kathy Khanh, Kristina Lear, Kyp Malone, Lina Esco, Rory Anne Dahl, Saman Kesh, Wilson Bethel
Doors (CREDIT: Epic Pictures)
Starring: Josh Peck, Lina Esco, Wilson Bethel, Kyp Malone, Dugan O’Neal, Kathy Khanh, Julianne Collins, Aric Generette Floyd, Rory Anne Dahl, Kristina Lear, Bira Vanara, Bailee Cowperthwaite, Darius Levanté, David Hemphill
Directed by: Saman Kesh, Jeff Desom, Dugan O’Neal
Created by: Chris White
Running Time: 81 Minutes
Rating: Unrated (There’s some intense sci-fi that most 10-year-olds could probably handle)
Release Date: March 19, 2021 (Theaters)/March 23, 2021 (On Demand)/April 6, 2021 (DVD/Blu-ray)
There’s something kind of thrilling about watching a movie that’s an interconnected series of vignettes and not even realizing that fact until the very end. Or at least, I was thrilled while I had this experience during my viewing of Doors, as I was on the edge of my seat wondering how these disparate sets of characters would eventually come together into a single narrative. In my defense, the sci-fi subject matter lends itself to this possibility, as a bunch of probably-extraterrestrial so-called “doors” pop up all over the world and offer the promise of entry into different dimensions. Thus, the film’s scattered approach – in which sequences don’t end so much as stop – feels like a feature rather than a bug. Its underdog vibes are all over the place, but they’re buoyed to victory by an eagerness to explore. And that, my friends, is always going to grab my attention.
Fair warning: Doors features several generic B-roll shots accompanied by woo-woo voiceover, which would usually be a big ol’ Red Alert, warning us that we’re entering into SyFy original Z-grade territory. And while Doors‘ budget probably isn’t much higher than the latest Sharknado or MegaRocktoGatorKookaburra, that lack of cash actually results in an alluring surreal charm. Each segment has this same sense of resourcefulness. The visual effects rarely go beyond simple camera tricks, or undulating liquid-ish metal, or multiple Josh Pecks wearing different outfits. But the acting makes up for the lack of fireworks with bald emotionality. To paraphrase Troy Barnes, pretty much everyone’s whole brain is crying at some point. The last segment is just a videoconferencing call between two guys that manages to pull off some Lynchian end-of-the-world panache by sheer virtue of overwrought screams of agony.
So in conclusion, if you like a good Narnia-esque jumping-through-worlds setup and a generous dollop of student film energy, then you ought to give Doors a try. This is committed sci-fi that doesn’t mind getting silly in the name of knocking the screws in your cerebrum just a little bit loose.
Doors is Recommended If You Like: V/H/S, Evil flowers, The formal inventiveness of Unfriended
Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Knockers
March 16, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Al Madrigal, BenDavid Grabinski, Breckin Meyer, Charlyne Yi, Happily, Joel McHale, Jon Daly, Kerry Bishé, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Natalie Morales, Natalie Zea, Paul Scheer, Shannon Woodward, Stephen Root
Happily (CREDIT: Saban Films)
Starring: Joel McHale, Kerry Bishé, Stephen Root, Natalie Zea, Paul Scheer, Natalie Morales, Jon Daly, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Shannon Woodward, Charlyne Yi, Breckin Meyer, Al Madrigal
Director: BenDavid Grabinski
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Rating: R for A Very Horny Couple and Other Couples Who Wish They Were That Horny
Release Date: March 19, 2021 (Theaters and On Demand)
Do you know a married couple who are so in love that you absolutely hate them for it? That’s the hook of Happily, and it’s a good one. Tom and Janet (Joel Mchael and Kerry Bishé) said “I do” 14 years ago, but even after all that time, every time they look at each other it’s like they’re discovering the entire concept of love for the very first time. They can barely go five minutes without going all the way in the nearest bedroom. Their conflicts (insofar as they have any conflicts at all) consist of little more than one of them asking for an omelette, but then doing it on their own, and immediately apologizing for being ever-so-slightly thoughtless. But then one day a fellow played by Stephen Root in a business suit shows up at their doorstep, and he might as well have a flashing sign shouting “DANGER!” above his head.
More
March 12, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Podcasts, Sports, Television
Assembled, Grammys, Kesha, Kesha and the Creepies, kid 90, March Madness, Podcasts, Rob Zombie, The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy, WandaVision
kid 90 (CREDIT: Hulu/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.
Movies
–kid 90 (March 12 on Hulu) – 90s videotape footage courtesy of Soleil Moon Frye.
TV
–Assembled: The Making of WandaVision (March 12 on Disney+)
Music on TV
-63rd Annual Grammy Awards (March 14 on CBS) – Hosted by Trevor Noah.
Music
-Rob Zombie, The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy
Sports on TV
-March Madness (March 18-April 5 on CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV)
Podcasts
–Kesha and the Creepies – This podcast premiered back in November, but I’m just discovering it now. It features talented musician Kesha discussing the supernatural with guests like Alice Cooper, Dana Carvey, and Insane Clown Posse.
March 11, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Alan Tudyk, Awkwafina, Benedict Wong, Carlos López Estrada, Daniel Dae Kim, Don Hall, Gemma Chan, Izaac Wang, Kelly Marie Tran, Lucille Soong, Raya and the Last Dragon, Run Boy Run, Sandra Oh, Thalia Tran
Raya and the Last Dragon (CREDIT:
Walt Disney Animation Studios/YouTube Screenshot)
Starring: Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Izaac Wang, Gemma Chan, Daniel Dae Kim, Benedict Wong, Sandra Oh, Thalia Tran, Lucille Soong, Alan Tudyk
Directors: Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Rating: PG
Release Date: March 5, 2021
Now that I’ve seen Raya and the Last Dragon, do I want a dragon of my own? It doesn’t have to be a “last” dragon, but I guess if that’s all that available… Anyway, if she’s voiced by Awkwafina, I won’t complain. In fact, that’s a positive in my book! She’s good company. That’s probably my most positive takeaway about this movie. Sisu’s a friend to all, as she’s been imbued with the personality of the lady who voices her, i.e., one of our favorite current Queens-bred rapper-actor-comedians. And I’m also happy to report that friendship ultimately shines through brilliantly in this flick, even with creatures who initially seem like they’re going to be enemies. That’s great news in a world in which magic objects can turn people to stone. You suddenly find yourself alone, but next thing you know, a dragon’s your best friend.
Also, the music reminds me of Woodkid’s “Run Boy Run,” a song that’s had a surprisingly strong pop cultural impact.
Grade: 3 out 5 Credit Purchases
March 5, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television
Coming 2 America, Critics Choice Awards, Game of Talents, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years, Kings of Leon, Raya and the Last Dragon, South Park, Stray, The Masked Singer, Wayne Brady, When You See Yourself
Kamp Koral (CREDIT: Paramount 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.
Movies
–Coming 2 America (March 5 on Amazon) – “2,” not “to.”
–Raya and the Last Dragon (Theaters and Premier Access on Disney+)
–Stray (Theaters and On Demand) – Dog documentary.
TV
–Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years (Premiered March 4 on Paramount+)
-2021 Critics Choice Awards (March 7 on The CW)
–The Masked Singer Season 5 Premiere (March 10 on FOX)
–Game of Talents Series Premiere (March 10 on FOX) – Hosted by Wayne Brady!
–South ParQ: Vaccination Special (March 10 on Comedy Central)
Music
-Kings of Leon, When You See Yourself
March 4, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Akiley Love, Arsenio Hall, Bella Murphy, Colin Jost, Coming 2 America, Craig Brewer, Eddie Murphy, James Earl Jones, Jermaine Fowler, John Amos, KiKi Layne, Leslie Jones, Louie Anderson, Luenell, Nomzamo Mbatha, Paul Bates, Ruth E. Carter, Shari Headley, Teyana Taylor, Tracy Morgan, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Wesley Snipes, Zamunda
Coming 2 America (CREDIT: Quantrell D. Colbert/Paramount Pictures)
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Jermaine Fowler, Arsenio Hall, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, Kiki Layne, Shari Headley, Wesley Snipes, Teyana Taylor, James Earl Jones, Bella Murphy, Akiley Love, Paul Bates, John Amos, Louie Anderson, Luenell, Colin Jost, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Paul Bates, Nomzamo Mbatha
Director: Craig Brewer
Running Time: 110 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Occasionally Crude Silliness and a Drunken Sex Flashback
Release Date: March 5, 2021 (Amazon Prime Video)
So the big question we must all ourselves is: does Coming 2 America make me want to come 2 America? Well, I’m already in America, and have spent the vast majority of my life in this country, but I have to believe that there’s a difference between “coming to” and “coming 2,” because otherwise why even make this 30-plus-years-later sequel? Maybe in this case, “2” means the opposite of “to,” considering that this time around, Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy, happy to be surrounded by friends) and company actually spend more time in Zamunda than they do in the U.S. of A. With that in mind, maybe “America” is a state of mind more than just a physical place. Looking back at Queens in 1988, that was a magical place for Akeem, despite its rough-and-tumble exterior. It’s where he found his queen, and it can now be seen as the wellspring of his own family, and in the sequel, it’s been elevated to the level of myth with the recreation of special Queens landmarks in Zamunda (in particular, the McDonald’s-knockoff McDowell’s). Is that feeling of home just as strong in 2021?
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March 3, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Movie Reviews
Óscar Jaenada, Chaos Walking, Cynthia Erivo, Daisy Ridley, David Oyelowo, Demián Bichir, Doug Liman, Kurt Sutter, Mads Mikkelsen, Nick Jonas, Tom Holland
Chaos Walking (CREDIT: Lionsgate)
Starring: Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen, David Oyelowo, Demián Bichir, Cynthia Erivo, Nick Jonas, Kurt Sutter, Óscar Jaenada
Director: Doug Liman
Running Time: 109 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Wham-Bam Action
Release Date: March 5, 2021
Chaos Walking is one of those movies where I’m not entirely sure what’s going on, but I kind of wish I did know more, because the things that I can make sense out of really do grab my attention. It’s an apt title then. Chaos really is walking everywhere, baby! That’s most obvious in the form of its signature visual motif: a swirl of inner thoughts dancing around people’s heads known as “the Noise.” All the men on this planet are afflicted by this condition, and it’s presented so matter-of-factly and therefore so effectively. I initially found it jarring, almost overwhelming, but within ten minutes it made all the sense in the world. I wish I could say the same thing about the plot, though. It’s driven by some sort of fight to figure out the secrets underpinning society, as is the case with so much dystopian sci-fi. I can tell that Tom Holland is earnest and well-intentioned and that Daisy Ridley is probably the key to everything and that Mads Mikkelsen doesn’t want them to succeed because he’s so grumpy, but beyond that, I feel like I needed to study the novel trilogy the film is based on to really understand the specifics.
If you can’t quite follow a movie’s storyline, you can at least vibe with it a bit if you can get on the wavelength of its action energy and its stylistic approaches. From a production design standpoint, Chaos Walking‘s decor is basically Hunger Games-esque arboreal but without the whiz-bang flamboyance. On a thematic level, it clearly has something to say about religion, though who’s to say what exactly that something is, though it’s at least fun to hear characters shout things like “I am the sinner! Purify my sin!” And on the action front, director Doug Liman is a reliable pro. He can even make you absolutely compelled by a chase scene that’s clearly a ripoff of Return of the Jedi‘s speeder bike sequence. (It even features Star Wars‘ very own Daisy Ridley, to boot!)
In many ways, Chaos Walking struck me as shouty, empty, and stitched-together. But I don’t want to dismiss it entirely, because it also struck me as intriguing, unique, and unburdened by expectations. This is a movie that’s comfortable being its own damn self, almost a little too much so. But that qualification is also why I admire it. At first glance, it looks like a generic slice of dystopian YA, but sticking with it allows it time to reveal that it’s a bit of an odd beast. Chaos is indeed walking, and it’s reigning supreme, and I can’t argue with that.
Chaos Walking is Recommended If You Like: Lots of trees, Visually loud neuroticism, Differences between boys and girls writ large
Grade: 3 out of 5 Spackle Noises
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