Happy Mother’s Day! If you’re planning on singing with Mom, then listen to this episode!
That’s Auntertainment! Karaoke Korner 29: Mother’s Day Edition
May 8, 2022
Podcasts, That's Auntertainment Danzig, karaoke, Karaoke Korner, Podcasts, Queen, That's Auntertainment, Three Dog Night Leave a comment
Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 5/6/22
May 6, 2022
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Sports, Television Arcade Fire, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Hacks, Happiness Not Included, Kentucky Derby, Soft Cell, The Pentaverate, We Leave a comment
The Pentaverate (CREDIT: Zoe Midford/Netflix)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Theaters)
TV
–The Pentaverate (Premiered May 5 on Netflix) – Mike Myers gets back to work.
–Hacks Season 2 Premiere (May 12 on HBO Max)
Music
-Arcade Fire, We
-Soft Cell, Happiness Not Included
Sports
-Kentucky Derby (May 7 on NBC) – Would anyone like to make me a mint julep?
‘We’re All Going to the World’s Fair’ … But Should We?
May 5, 2022
Cinema, Movie Reviews Anna Cobb, Jane Schoenbrun, Michael J. Rogers, We're All Going to the World's Fair Leave a comment
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (CREDIT: Utopia/Screenshot)
Starring: Anna Cobb, Michael J. Rogers
Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Running Time: 86 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Release Date: April 15, 2022 (Theaters)
When writing movie reviews, I often ask myself, “Would I like to do what the title is telling us to do?” And what do you know, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is basically tailor-made for that. The “world’s fair” that the characters are “going to” is really some sort of viral online challenge that supposedly results in a mysterious illness after you make a video declaring your intentions. It’s all vague enough to dismiss as hogwash, some hauntingly off-putting images notwithstanding. So if I do attempt to go to this here World’s Fair, I probably have nothing to worry about. But as with similar legends like Bloody Mary or Candyman, why risk it? Although, there’s also a segment that features an 8-bit video game version of the World’s Fair Challenge, and I’d kinda like that to be real.
Grade: All’s Fair in the Endless Stream of Internet Videos
In ‘The Twin,’ an Idyllic Life in Finland is Hard to Do When You’ve Got a Creepy Kid
May 4, 2022
Cinema, Movie Reviews Barbara Marten, Steven Cree, Taneli Mustonen, Teresa Palmer, The Twin, Tristan Ruggeri Leave a comment
CREDIT: Shudder/Screenshot
Starring: Teresa Palmer, Steven Cree, Tristan Ruggeri, Barbara Marten
Director: Taneli Mustonen
Running Time: 108 Minutes
Rating: Unrated (PG-13 Level for General Creepiness)
Release Date: May 6, 2022 (Theaters, On Demand, and Streaming on Shudder)
The Twin is an English-language horror flick with a Finnish director and what appears to be a mostly Finnish crew. Which is to say, I was all prepared for a convoluted-in-translation affair in which the actors do their best to turn an oddly phrased screenplay into natural-sounding dialogue. But for the most part, this tale of a grieving husband and wife who move to Finland with their young son after his twin brother dies in an accident is fairly straightforward. Perhaps a bit too straightforward, insofar as it comes off as a pastiche of earlier trailblazing horror flicks. Spoilers are unavoidable if I want to mention what those movies are, so I’ll add a SPOILER ALERT!!! Here and note that what at first seems like a Rosemary’s Baby-style cabal turns out instead to be a sloppier version of the Shutter Island gambit. (SPOILER ALERT OVER)
So The Twin is hardly reinventing the wheel, but at least Teresa Palmer (who plays mom Rachel) is always compelling, no matter how much the material does or doesn’t rise up to her level. Outside of her acting career, Palmer is a mother herself who also co-runs a lifestyle brand called “Your Zen Mama.” Which is to say, she’s philosophically committed herself to a theoretical and practical investigation of what motherhood is all about, and that absolutely comes across in her performance.
While The Twin probably won’t keep you up at night, I would recommend that any horror devotee check it out to keep a pulse on the genre beyond the most high-profile releases. If you’re like me, you know that we fright flick folks like to keep a taxonomy of how filmmakers are spooking us nowadays, and The Twin‘s efforts are instructive in its attempts to pull from various inspirations. It’s available on Shudder, and if you’re a Shudder subscriber, you’re probably the type of person who will gladly take a chance on something off the beaten path like this anyway.
The Twin is Recommended If You Like: Old lady neighbors who might be friend or foe, Slo-mo silent shots of devastated screaming, Confusing possessions
Grade: 2 out of 5 Cloudy Days
That’s Auntertainment! Episode 44: Entertainment Weekly
May 1, 2022
Podcasts, That's Auntertainment Entertainment Weekly, Podcasts, That's Auntertainment Leave a comment
Aunt Beth, Jeff, and Jeff’s brother Rob have all been mightily influenced by the one and only Entertainment Weekly, so they came together to eulogize the print edition.
Apologies to Gillian Flynn for mispronouncing the “G” in her name!
Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 4/29/22
April 29, 2022
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Podcasts, Television, Video Games A Beautiful Time, Alpha Games, Bloc Party, Duncanville, Girls5eva, Hatching, Holey Moley, Holey Moley Fore-Ever, Let's Eat Grandma, Marvel's Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show, Memory, Milana Vayntrub, Miranda Lambert, Palomino, Podcasts, Rammstein, Rifftrax, Rifftrax: The Game, Squirrel Girl, The Chase, Two Ribbons, Undone, Video Games, White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, Willie Nelson, Zeit, Ziwe Leave a comment
Holey Moley Fore-Ever (CREDIT: Christopher Willard/ABC)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Hatching (Theaters)
–Memory (Theaters) – This looks like any other Liam Neeson action of the past ten years, but Martin Campbell is directing, so…
TV
–Undone Season 2 (April 29 on Amazon Prime Video) – One of my favorite new shows of 2019 is finally back!
-White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner (April 30 on C-SPAN) – Trevor Noah hosts.
–Duncanville Season 3 Premiere (May 1 on FOX)
–Ziwe Season 2 Premiere (May 1 on Showtime)
–Holey Moley Season 4 Premiere (May 3 on ABC) – The Muppets join Joe and Rob.
–The Chase Season Premiere (May 3 on ABC) – Featuring three new Chasers this season!
–Girls5eva Season 2 (May 5 on Peacock)
Music
-Bloc Party, Alpha Games
-Miranda Lambert, Palomino
-Let’s Eat Grandma, Two Ribbons – I don’t think I’ve listened to this band before, but I pretty much have to now with a name like that.
-Willie Nelson, A Beautiful Time
-Rammstein, Zeit
Podcasts
–Marvel’s Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show – Milana Vayntrub finally joins my regular podcast rotation!
Video Games
–Rifftrax: The Game (May 5 on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox One) – Now you can make monkeyshines at the picture show, too!
Just Try to Resist ‘Anaïs in Love’ – I Dare Ya!
April 28, 2022
Cinema, Movie Reviews Anaïs Demoustier, Anaïs in Love, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, Denis Podalydès, Jean-Charles Cliche, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi Leave a comment
Anaïs in Love (CREDIT: Magnolia Pictures)
Starring: Anaïs Demoustier, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Denis Podalydès, Jean-Charles Clichet
Director: Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
Running Time: 98 Minutes
Rating: Unrated (R-Level for getting Pretty Hot and Heavy)
Release Date: April 29, 2022 (Theaters)/May 6, 2022 (On Demand)
Early on in Anaïs in Love, a soon-to-be ex-boyfriend tells the title character, “You don’t know what human interaction is.” But hey, dude, there are different types of humans and therefore different types of interaction that are recognizably human. Although I do understand his frustration. Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) is the type of person who will skip one academic symposium that she’s supposed to be working at to attend another one that she just found out about. She’s also the type of person who will suddenly start having an affair with an older married man, and then just as suddenly end things with him and track down his wife to have an affair with her. We’re not catching Anaïs at the one moment that she happens to be in love, because there isn’t just one moment. Instead, that title refers to an eternal state of being.
Is this just how the French are, and perhaps always will be? There’s a long tradition of the country’s cinema and literature that indicates that this is a mercurial people when it comes to affairs of the heart, after all. But in this case, there are some clear signs that Anaïs isn’t representative of everyone. In fact, she is the outlier in her orbit, and if everyone else seems just as passionate as her, that’s mainly thanks to how infectious she is. It’s as if Cupid or Venus took on the form of a mortal but could never be fully satisfied in such an arrangement.
There’s also a scene in which Anaïs accompanies her brother as they take a monkey to the vet. I don’t know why that little detour exists, but I’m glad it does. Life can’t be all about following the whims of your spirit and loins. Sometimes you find a furry little critter writhing around on the carpet. If Anaïs had just run away from that obligation, or if she had ignored her mom’s cancer diagnosis, I probably would have been a lot less patient with her. Or maybe not! Her charms are pretty irresistible, I must say, and they make for a compelling sexual journey I can’t help but witness without judgment.
Anaïs in Love is Recommended If You Like: Jules et Jim, Madame Bovary, Tips for leg stretches
Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Love Letters
Finnish Body Horor ‘Hatching’ is for the Bird in All of Us!
April 27, 2022
Cinema, Movie Reviews Hanna Bergholm, Hatching, Jani Volanen, Oiva Ollila, Reino Nordin, Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkilä 1 Comment
Hatching (CREDIT: Andrejs Strokins/IFC Midnight)
Starring: Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkilä, Jani Volanen, Oiva Ollila, Reino Nordin
Director: Hanna Bergholm
Running Time: 87 Minutes
Rating: Unrated (But Gnarly Enough for an R)
Release Date: April 29, 2022 (Theaters)/May 17, 2022 (Digital/VOD)
I am excited to spread the word about Hatching, the debut feature from Finnish director Hanna Bergholm. If memory serves me correctly, it’s the first Finnish film I’ve ever seen, and appropriately enough, it’s an auteurist vision that I’ve never quite experienced before. If you’re a horror hound who’s wondering how the Finns spook each other, this would make for a fine introduction. It’s about a 12-year-old girl who forms a unique bond with a ravenous bird-like creature, so if you find that premise eminently relatable, you’re in the right place.
Right from Hatching‘s start (or hatching, as it were), it’s clear that the worst impulses of the YouTube era have made their way to the northernmost reaches of Europe, as the vlogger mom (Sophia Heikkilä) introduces us to her “Lovely and Ordinary Finnish Family.” But that picture-perfect image is quickly punctured when a crow flies into the house from out of nowhere. Young Tinja (Siiri Solalinna) is curious about the bird, but her mom breaks its neck and tells Tinja to throw it in the trash. But that was just a harbinger of what’s to come, as Tinja discovers a giant egg that she brings into her bedroom, only to quickly realize that’s she invited much more than she bargained for.
There aren’t a whole lot of cinematic avian monsters out there, and this one’s a doozy. Tinja is hoping that she’s made a friend, as she names the creature “Alli.” But really it’s more of a hellspawn and avenging angel, as it decapitates the neighbor’s dog and then starts taking aim at everyone else who’s ever wronged Tinja. And it’s not like her day-to-day isn’t already stressful enough, what with Mom pressuring her to be the absolute best at gymnastics and the revelation that she’s also starting a new family on the side with her hunky boyfriend (Reino Nordin). Meanwhile, straitlaced khaki-wearing Dad (Jani Volanen) remains blissfully unaware of pretty much everything going on around him until it’s too late.
Hatching easily works as a metaphor about adolescence, with Alli representing a body transforming into something shockingly unfamiliar. Not to mention, the mother-daughter strife that can be so typical of this period is in full force. But I couldn’t help but also make the connection to another recent horror flick that has very little to do with puberty, as Tinja’s visions of Alli stalking her prey are reminiscent of the shared death visions in Malignant. With that in mind, Hatching is really about the terror of being a human with a body who has familial connections, particularly when Alli starts to become Tinja’s doppelgӓnger and threatens to take over her life. Sometimes our own impulses or the ones of those closest to us are the most terrifying of all.
Hatching is Recommended If You Like: Turning Red, Malignant, Single White Female
Grade: 4 out of 5 Giant Eggs
Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 4/22/22
April 22, 2022
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television Barry, Billie Eilish, Bonnie Raitt, Just Like That…, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Night Gnomes, Omnium Gatherum, Petite Maman, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, The Duke, The Northman, The Simpsons, The Simpsons: When Billie Met Lisa, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Three Busy Debras, We're All Going to the World's Fair Leave a comment
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–The Duke (Theaters)
–The Northman (Theaters)
–Petite Maman (Theaters)
–The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Theaters) – Cage for Cage.
–We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (Theaters) – This came out in limited release last week, and I should have included it then.
TV
–The Simpsons: When Billie Met Lisa (April 22 on Disney+) – “Billie” as in “Eilish.”
–Barry Season 3 Premiere (April 24 on HBO)
–Three Busy Debras Season 2 Premiere (April 24 on Adult Swim)
Music
-Bonnie Raitt, Just Like That…
-King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Omnium Gatherum
-Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Night Gnomes
‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ is Kinda Heavy, Man
April 21, 2022
Cinema, Movie Reviews Alessandra Mastronardi, Ike Barinholtz, Jacob Scipio, Lily Sheen, Neil Patrick Harris, Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Tiffany Haddish, Tom Gormican 2 Comments
The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent (CREDIT: Karen Ballard/Lionsgate)
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish, Sharon Horgan, Ike Barinholtz, Alessandra Mastronardi, Lily Sheen, Jacob Scipio, Neil Patrick Harris
Director: Tom Gormican
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Rating: R for Mainly Salty Language and a Few Shootouts
Release Date: April 22, 2022 (Theaters)
How self-aware is too self-aware? That’s a question inherent to the life of any movie star, but it’s especially salient in the case of Nicolas Cage. He’s equally beloved, mocked, or lovingly mocked for his over-the-top performances in the likes of Ghost Rider, Face/Off, The Wicker Man, and countless others. Word eventually got around to him that he was more meme than man in some corners, but instead of winking at repudiating this reputation, he’s mostly continued to follow his own particular muse in the form of his self-professed “Nouveau Shamanic” acting style. But now he’s forced to confront his career as thoroughly as possible as he plays a lightly fictionalized version of himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. I’m one of the biggest Nic Cage fans in the world, so my feeling coming into this flick was that it would either be my new favorite movie ever, or it would be a little too on the nose. The truth is somewhere in the middle, as Cage is of course up for whatever, but there are some Uncanny Valley-esque vibes.
The setup is basically National Treasure meets Bowfinger: in the midst of an existential crisis that has him contemplating retirement, Cage is surreptitiously hired by the CIA to aid in some geopolitical subterfuge. It all goes down in the sun-dappled vistas of Mallorca, where he’s fulfilling a million-dollar gig to attend the birthday party of Javi (Pedro Pascal), a budding screenwriter who’s also the suspected head of a cartel and supposed mastermind behind a recent kidnapping. But mostly, he’s an audience surrogate, with the obsessive collection of Nic Cage memorabilia to prove it. If you’re thinking that somebody who loves Nicolas Cage this much couldn’t possibly be that bad, then you should know that one of this movie’s core messages is to trust your instincts.
And what do my instincts tell me as I’m writing this review? Mostly, they say that I was kind of weirded out by how similar this Nic Cage is to the real thing without being exactly the same. Offscreen, he has a few ex-wives and two sons, while the Massively Talent-ed version has at least one ex (Sharon Horgan) that’s still a part of his daily life and a daughter named Addy (Lily Sheen). I don’t know what his relationships with his sons are like, but I hope that he’s not forcing them to watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to the point that they need to hash it out in therapy. This is all to say, Unbearable Weight gets the broad-stroke details of Cage’s unique story correct, but it renders his mystique a bit too quotidian. It’s respectful, but not transcendent. It pulls off the requisite action-adventure thrills just fine, but if you really want to know what makes this man tick, just check out any of his interviews.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is Recommended If You Like: Nonstop introspection, Geeking out about German expressionism and Paddington, Emotional straight male bonding
Grade: 3 out of 5 Nouveau Shamans
