Rating: Unrated (I’d peg it as PG, or maybe a soft PG-13)
Release Date: January 15, 2021 (Theaters and On Demand)
In the beginning of Some Kind of Heaven, one of the residents of The Villages remarks that living in a retirement home is more than a little bit reminiscent of college life. And it’s true. For those who like to spend their golden years this way and are fortunate enough to afford it, it promises a pretty cushy arrangement in which hanging out with your friends requires little more than stepping out your door. Situated in central Florida, The Villages takes the college comparison several steps further with a reputation as “Disneyland for Retirees.” Hanging out with your best buds every day is great; spending each one of those days at the most wonderful place on Earth is pretty dang expensive. With that in mind, Some Kind of Heaven focuses on a quartet of folks who are caught on the margins of The Villages.
For such a sunny setting, director Lance Oppenheim’s documentary takes a rather glum approach, as we witness some of The Villages’ most overcast days (literally and metaphorically). I’m sure that all the residents have their own set of troubles, but I’m willing to bet that we meet the ones burdened with the most upheaval. There’s Anne and her husband Reggie, who’s losing his hold on reality while turning to psychedelic drugs as he tries to insist that their relationship is strengthening. Their story is somewhere in the nexus of delusion and enlightenment. Elsewhere is Barbara, a widow surprised to find herself still working full time, bringing out the melancholy in full force. Then there’s 82-year-old Dennis, who’s not actually a resident but living in his van while he looks for a rich gal and tries to outrun his legal troubles. Some retirees really are just late-in-life adolescents, aren’t they?
I was surprised at the intimacy of Some Kind of Heaven‘s approach. Its subject struck me as more suited to an expansive overview of a unique subculture. Instead, it goes piecemeal in a way that I suspect may have been more suited to a series of half-hour episodes. Regardless of the medium and format, though, the clear-eyed and verite empathy shine through. Our stories and struggles don’t always end quite so smoothly as we may want them to, and the glitzy promises of a place like The Village tend to paper over the more complicated details.
Some Kind of Heaven is Recommended If You Like: Slice-of-life documentaries, Directorly unobtrusiveness, A dog randomly humping a cat during an interview
Any ranking of the best entertainment of the year is necessarily incomplete and represents the personal proclivities of the ranker, and that’s especially true in the case of podcasts. I listen to more podcasts than anyone I know personally (by a wide margin), but that’s still less than approximately 0.0001% of all the podcasts out there. So for my Best Podcasts of 2020 feature, I decided to make it particularly personal by listing ALL the podcasts that I listened to in the past year, because they’re all special, and all worth shouting out. I’ve organized them into a few categories: 2020 Debuts, Veterans, a few specialty categories that you’ll discover when you get to them, and Podcasts That I Host.
Karaoke Korner is back in 2021 with a trip through the decades (courtesy of Jeff’s 1st cousins-once-removed Elsa and Mia), as we hit up Culture Club, Lizzo, Bruno Mars, and Elton John.
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
TV
–Dickinson Season 2 Premiere (January 8 on Apple TV+) – I just started watching Season 1, and I hope to be caught up soon!
–Whose Line is it Anyway? Season 17 Premiere (January 8 on The CW)
–A Discovery of Witches Season 2 Premiere (January 9 on Shudder and Sundance Now) – You know I GOT TO watch a show with Teresa Palmer.
–Critics Choice Super Awards (January 10 on The CW)
–Search Party Season 4 Premiere (January 14 on HBO Max) – The third season arrived less than a year ago!
When making Best Episode lists, some TV critics limit themselves to one entry per show, but I never operate by that self-imposition, as certain shows are just masterful when crafting a single hour or half-hour (or whatever runtime they feel like using), and that ought to be reflected in the ledger. So you’ll find that several shows have wound up more than once in this list, and those tended to be the ones that also fared the best on my Best Shows of 2020 list. You’ll also find at least one program that didn’t make my Best Shows list, as it’s possible to have one excellent outing within an otherwise disappointing season. So forthwith, if someone who missed all TV in 2020 asked me for a refresher, here is where I would direct them:
Clockwise from Top Left: What We Do in the Shadows, Never Have I Ever, Better Call Saul, How To with John Wilson (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshots)
Last year, I decided to rank as many TV shows as I felt like recognizing in my year-end list, and that worked out so well that I decided to do it again for 2020. So welcome to my ranking of the 67 Best TV Shows of 2020! Not every show is accompanied by a blurb, just the ones that I felt like I really needed to say something about.
I worked with a self-imposed rule that I had to have watched at least 50% of a show’s 2020 output for it to be eligible, but there were some shows that I’ve only just begun to watch that I wanted to recognize as well, so they’ve got their own Honorable Mention section. And there were also some shows that aired relatively few episodes in 2020 to the point that I didn’t think they should be eligible either, so they’ve also got an Honorable Mention section. And then there’s one more show that’s managed to establish its very own Honorable Mention section, and that’s where we start.
Alex Trebek (CREDIT: Jeopardy!/YouTube Screenshot)
In honor of Alex Trebek’s last week of new episodes, the That’s Auntertainment team is re-releasing their Jeopardy! episode (original airdate: 12/7/19), in which 2019 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions semifinalist Steven Grade joins Jeff and Aunt Beth to discuss all things Jeopardy!
We all feel a little out of space sometimes (PHOTO CREDIT: Selfie)
Post-March, the options for seeing a movie in the theatre 100% safely were notably limited in 2020. As such, this list of my moviegoing is far from an exhaustive representation of all the new films I saw this past year.
(Included with the list of titles are grades, dates, showtimes, theatre locations, and folks I saw the movies with.)
The Chase; Celebrity Wheel of Fortune; The Hustler (CREDIT: Ron Batzdorff/ABC; Carol Kaelson/ABC; 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 –Pieces of a Woman (January 7 on Netflix)
TV –Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks (January 1 on BBC America) –Earth to Ned Season 1 Part 2 (January 1 on Disney+) – A delightful talk show hosted by an alien. I wrote about it on my newsletter. –RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 Premiere (January 1 on VH1) –Call Me Kat Series Premiere (January 3 on FOX) – Starring Mayim Bialik and cats. –The Great North Series Premiere (January 3 on FOX) – New animated show with the voices of Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Jenny Slate, Will Forte, and others. -Alex Trebek’s last week of new Jeopardy! episodes (January 4-8, check local listings) –The Hustler Series Premiere (January 4 on ABC) – Another game show on ABC! This one’s hosted by Craig Ferguson. –History of Swear Words (January 5 on Netflix) – Hosted by Nicolas Cage himself. –Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist Season 2 Premiere (January 5 on NBC) –Name That Tune Reboot Premiere (January 6 on FOX) – Hosted by the one and only Jane Krakowski. –Celebrity Wheel of Fortune Series Premiere (January 7 on ABC) –The Chase Reboot Premiere (January 7 on ABC) – Jeopardy! all-time greats Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and James Holzhauer square off against contestants. Sara Haines hosts. –Mr. Mayor Series Premiere (January 7 on NBC) – Ted Danson gets right back in the sitcom swing.
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, Donnell Rawlings, Angela Bassett, Questlove
Directors: Pete Docter and Kemp Powers
Running Time: 106 Minutes
Rating: PG
Release Date: December 25, 2020 (Disney+)
Graham Norton as a hippie sign waver? I wasn’t expecting that. I like it!
I’m going to go ahead and whip out the “Does this movie make me want to do what it’s about?” type of review. So here goes: does Soul make me want to have a soul? Very much so! I may already have one, but if I don’t … I’d like one! Also relevant: when I’m listening and/or singing along to soul music, that’s pretty dang invigorating as well. (Soul features more jazz than soul, but soul and jazz are often in conversation with each other.)
It’s ultimately a religio-philosophical matter whether or not an inner essence exists, and what it should be called, and how it should be defined. Which is all to say, we probably can’t fully ever know all there is to know about the soul. This film is part of that inquiry, and if its inquiring essence resonates with anybody, then it might just be worth incorporating its ideas into our personal philosophies. Soul posits that our purpose isn’t what we’re passionate about, but how we’re passionate. That’s pretty damn life-affirming from my vantage point.
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