Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
January 24, 2022
Best in Film 2021, Best of 2021, Cinema Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Bad Trip, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, Best of 2021, Flee, House of Gucci, Malignant, Old, Red Rocket, Shiva Baby, Summer of Soul, Summer of Soul Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised Leave a comment
CREDIT (Clockwise from Top Left): Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures, Lionsgate, Utopia
These are the movies I loved the most from 2021. There were many others, but these are my favorites. Forthwith are some descriptions of what happens in these movies. Hit me up in the comments if you’d like to know more about what I thought about them!
January 23, 2022
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television Måneskin, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 47, SNL, SNL Season 47, Will Forte Leave a comment
SNL: Will Forte, Kenan Thompson, Måneskin (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)
Believe it or not, Orville Willis Forte IV is now an SNL host. Formerly he was an SNL cast member. Now he’s both! Rock band Måneskin is neither of those things, but they are an SNL musical guest, and that’s pretty cool, too.
Now I’m going to talk about the episode! For Season 47, I’ve been listing the sketches in various orders. This time, since the episode is being hosted by an alum, and there’s thus an expectation for the return of some of his recurring bits, I’ll be listing the sketches in order from least to most original. So the recurring sketches will be covered first, with those that deviate the least from the formula covered up top. Then I’ll get to the one-off bits, with the big conclusion reserved for the most original sketch of the episode.
January 23, 2022
Podcasts, That's Auntertainment John Denver, karaoke, Lou Bega, Podcasts, Sisqo, That's Auntertainment Leave a comment
Karaoke Korner is finally old enough to rent a car! The setlist this time comes courtesy of Jeff’s lifelong friend Jeff, who picked the first artists to pop into his head.
January 21, 2022
Cinema, Movie Reviews Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Israel Elejalde, Julieta Serrano, Milena Smit, Parallel Mothers, Pedro Almodóvar, Penélope Cruz, Rossy de Palma Leave a comment
Parallel Mothers (CREDIT: Sony Pictures Classics/Screenshot)
Starring: Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Rossy de Palma, Julieta Serrano
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Rating: R
Release Date: December 24, 2021 (Theaters)
Those mothers aren’t parallel! On the contrary, they intersect quite a bit!
But I’m okay with that! It probably would have been a worse movie if they had remained fully parallel. And I’m also okay with the title not being 100% mathematically correct. Pedro Almodóvar is more of a poet than a professor, after all. But now I’d kinda like to see him make a movie about a calculus professor…
Grade: Top-Notch Soap Operatics
January 21, 2022
Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television American Dad!, Astrid & Lilly Save the World, Aurora, Fraggle Rock, Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, grown-ish, Night Call, Resident Alien, The Gods We Can Touch, Years & Years Leave a comment
Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (CREDIT: Apple TV+)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
TV
–Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock Series Premiere (January 21 on Apple TV+)
–American Dad! Season 19 Premiere (January 24 on TBS)
–Astrid & Lilly Save the World Series Premiere (January 26 on Syfy) – This looks a little kooky, but I’m gonna give it a shot.
–Resident Alien Season 2 Premiere (January 26 on Syfy) – One of the best new shows of 2021 is back!
–grown-ish Season 4 Part 2 Premiere (January 27 on Freeform)
Music
-Aurora, The Gods We Can Touch – I’ve become interested in this Norwegian singer after she teamed up with the Chemical Brothers.
-Years & Years, Night Call
January 20, 2022
Best of 2021, Best of Music 2021, Music Aly & AJ, Best of 2021, Cat Power, Charli XCX, Cold War Kids, Doja Cat, Halsey, Lil Nas X, Meg Myers, Modest Mouse, Olivia Rodrigo, Royal Blood, Sigrid, Tori Kelly, tune-yards, twenty one pilots, Willow, X Ambassadors Leave a comment
CREDIT: Music Video Screenshots
According to my 2021 Spotify Wrapped, my top musical moods of the year were “bold” and “ecstatic.” So let’s call these the Best Bold & Ecstatic Songs of 2021.
January 19, 2022
Best of 2021, Best of Music 2021, Music Adele, Andrew WK, Annette, Best of 2021, Chvrches, Courtney Barnett, Damon Albarn, Halsey, Julien Baker, Lil Nas X, Modest Mouse, Olivia Rodrigo, Prince, Rostam, Royal Blood, Sparks, Sting, The Pretty Reckless, tune-yards, Weezer 1 Comment
In all the years I’ve been listing my favorite songs and albums, this is probably the first year that I’ve had a better handle on the albums. That’s mainly due to my lack of radio listening compared to earlier eras in my life. Nowadays, my most frequent music consumption habit is one album at a time on Spotify.
Here are all the releases that pleased my ears (and my feet and brain, and all the rest of me) the most in 2021, including a number one that I’ve been obsessively re-listening to over and over in a way I didn’t realize was still possible.
January 16, 2022
Cinema, Movie Reviews Leave a comment
CREDIT: Utopia/Screenshot
Starring: Madeline Quinn, Betsey Brown, Dasha Nekrasova, Mark Rapaport
Director: Dasha Nekrasova
Running Time: 81 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Release Date: December 2, 2021 (Select Theaters)/December 24, 2021 (Digital)
I think Dasha Nekrasova is one of those people who’s living on another planet. Like metaphorically. Or maybe even also literally, if the multiverse theory is to be believed…
Anyway, you might know Nekrasova as Comfrey on Succession, or as co-host of the dirtbag left podcast Red Scare, or for her breakthrough performance as “Sailor Socialism.” Now she’s co-written, directed, and starred in a movie about a couple of girls who move into an apartment that supposedly formerly played host to the pedophiliac exploits of Jeffrey Epstein. There are some solid low-budget creeper scares and a few demented laughs, but mostly it’ll have you going “What chu talkin’ ’bout?” and “Why did you say it that way?” It’s worth it for a trip to the cinematic underground.
Grade: 3 out of 5 Pentagrams
January 16, 2022
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television Ariana DeBose, Bleachers, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 47, SNL, SNL Season 47 1 Comment
SNL: Jack Antonoff, Ariana DeBose, Bowen Yang (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)
Good morning, I’m coming to you live from January 2022! It’s the first new Saturday Night Live episode of the year, that’s what I’m going to be talking about here. Speaking of firsts, it’s the first time that singing actress Ariana DeBose is the host and also the first time that Jack Antonoff’s band Bleachers is the musical guest, but not the first time that Jack’s been here, as he also performed with fun.) Hopefully that’s not too confusing!
In case this is your first time reading one of my reviews, you should know that this season, I’ve been ordering the sketches in a variety of ways, like alphabetical and reverse airing order. This time, I’m doing it in order of the number of speaking/singing roles per sketch. A few notes on this: narrators are counted, except for Darrell Hammond during the monologue (since that’s more a part of the opening credits). The person introducing the musical guest IS counted for the musical performances, while backup singers are NOT counted if they only sing backup. And for Weekend Update, the parts with guests are counted separately from the parts that are just Michael and Colin telling jokes.
Okay, here we go!
January 16, 2022
Podcasts, That's Auntertainment Podcasts, That's Auntertainment, West Side Story Leave a comment
CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot
Aunt Beth and Jeff like to watch movies in America, which is good because they release a new West Side Story every 60 years.
