Billboard Hot Rock Songs – Week of May 5, 2018

May 2, 2018

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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 of the top 25, now I just rank the cream of the crop.

Original Version
1. Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”
2. Imagine Dragons – “Thunder”
3. Imagine Dragons – “Believer”
4. Portugal. The Man – “Feel It Still”
5. Bad Wolves – “Zombie”
6. Foster the People – “Sit Next to Me”
7. Alice Merton – “No Roots”
8. Panic! at the Disco – “Say Amen (Saturday Night)”
9. lovelytheband – “Broken”
10. Five Finger Death Punch – “Gone Away”
11. Portugal. The Man – “Live in the Moment”
12. Godsmack – “Bulletproof”
13. Vance Joy – “Saturday Sun”
14. Muse – “Thought Contagion”
15. Two Feet – “I Feel Like I’m Drowning”
16. Shinedown – “Devil”
17. Coldplay – “A Sky Full of Stars”
18. 30 Seconds to Mars – “Dangerous Night”
19. Sir Sly – “&Run”
20. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – “You Worry Me”
21. Three Days Grace – “The Mountain”
22. AWOLNATION – “Handyman”
23. Breaking Benjamin – “Red Cold River”
24. The Score – “Unstoppable”
25. Florence + the Machine – “Sky Full of Song”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. No Roots
2. Feel It Still
3. You Worry Me
4. I Feel Like I’m Drowning
5. Live in the Moment
6. Sky Full of Song
7. &Run
8. Thought Contagion
9. Handyman

Billboard Hot 20 – Week of May 5, 2018

May 2, 2018

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. Drake – “Nice for What”
2. Drake – “God’s Plan”
3. Ariana Grande – “No Tears Left to Cry”
4. Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line – “Meant to Be”
5. Post Malone ft. Ty Dolla $ign – “Psycho”
6. J. Cole – “ATM”
7. Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey – “The Middle”
8. J. Cole – “Kevin’s Heart”
9. BlocBoy JB ft. Drake – “Look Alive”
10. J. Cole – “KOD”
11. Ed Sheeran – “Perfect”
12. Lil Dicky ft. Chris Brown – “Freaky Friday”
13. Camila Cabello – “Never Be the Same”
14. J. Cole – “Photograph”
15. J. Cole – “Motiv8”
16. Cardi B, Bad Bunny, and J Balvin – “I Like It”
17. Bazzi – “Mine”
18. Migos ft. Drake – “Walk It Talk It”
19. The Weeknd – “Call Out My Name”
20. J. Cole – “1985 (Intro to the Fall Off)”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. No Tears Left to Cry
2. Never Be the Same
3. Call Out My Name

This Is a Movie Review: ‘RBG’ Presents Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Story as a History of American Justice

May 1, 2018

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CREDIT: Magnolia Pictures

This review was originally published on News Cult in May 2018.

Starring: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Gloria Steinem, Nina Totenberg, Clara Spera

Directors: Betsy West and Julie Cohen

Running Time: 97 Minutes

Rating: PG for Eyeroll-Style Rebukes to Years of Discrimination

Release Date: May 4, 2018 (Limited)

RBG is not so much about lionizing Ruth Bader Ginsburg as much as it is about capturing the moment of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It is compelling in that regard because the fact that a woman achieves her greatest fame in her eighties, for whatever reason, is notable in and of itself. Ginsburg’s singularity is understandable insofar as becoming a justice on the United States Supreme Court is typically the culmination of a decades-long career, but her uniqueness is nonetheless still remarkable. Directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen make the case that this moment is richly deserved, as Ginsburg has played critical roles in key moments in American legislative history. This is a documentary that makes the case for someone who has so assiduously made many cases for others.

As a progressive-minded individual, and a fan of Ginsburg’s already, I am pre-disposed to enjoy a doc that takes an admiring approach towards her. But as a critic, I am always inclined to wonder if I have fallen prey to a bit of hagiography. I imagine this film would not have gotten made if not for the existence of the “Notorious R.B.G.” tumblr, but this is not the “RBG memes” movie. It puts in the work to justify why this story is worth being told. In clear, efficient terms, it presents how Ginsburg was integral in multiple landmark decisions involving gender equity, as she rectified institutional discrimination that had been hurting both men and women. And as much as RBG reveals how Ginsburg deserves gratitude from certain constituencies, it does not turn a blind eye to her more questionable moments, as it examines the appropriateness, or lack thereof, of her critical comments about Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign.

Overall, RBG demonstrates admirable commitment to the concept of cura personalis, Latin for “care for the entire person” (an idea that graduates of Jesuit institutions will intimately recognize). This is surely not the first documentary focused around the totality of an individual, but this particular doc displays care for the entire person more than most, whether or not its makers are familiar with any particular term. It is hardly groundbreaking that a chronicle of Ginsburg’s career is accompanied with stories of her family life, or friendly interactions with her colleagues, or her reactions to Kate McKinnon’s SNL impression of her as a Def Jam-style comedian. (It is perhaps a little bit surprising, though, that we also get to see footage of her daily workout routine.) Ultimately the value of a film like this is fully in focus in the scenes with Ginsburg and her granddaughter, law student Clara Spera (who is equal parts admiring of the public figure and loving of the family member), and that value is that everyone should be treated with such thorough, compassionate care.

RBG is Recommended If You Like: Ruth Bader Ginsburg the Person, Ruth Bader Ginsburg the Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg the Meme, Kate McKinnon’s impression of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Grade: 3.75 out of 5 Dissents

This Is a Movie Review: With ‘Disobedience,’ the Rachels Weisz and McAdams Seek Love in an Orthodox Place

April 26, 2018

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CREDIT: Bleecker Street

This review was originally posted on News Cult in April 2018.

Starring: Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, Alessandro Nivola

Director: Sebastián Lelio

Running Time: 114 Minutes

Rating: R for Bodily Fluid Swapping

Release Date: April 27, 2018 (Limited)

It’s nice when a movie like Disobedience, which looks like it is on a one-way track to a depressing conclusion, actually manages to have a happy ending. Now, “happy ending” might be a bit of a stretch, as it does not wrap up with the most joyous of notes, but the main characters do have decent prospects for the future, thus managing a note of hope I was nowhere near expecting.

Ronit Krushka (Rachel Weisz) is a photographer living in New York who returns to the insular Orthodox Jewish community in London where she grew up to attend the funeral of her rabbi father, a pillar of the community. While there, sparks re-emerge between her and Esti Kuperman (Rachel McAdams), a childhood friend and clearly much more. Disobedience then is a close relative to Brokeback Mountain, as it is a gay love story negotiated within an oppressively culturally conservative community, but whereas Brokeback’s arc is tragic, Disobedience manages to be about resolution and compromise.

While the Orthodox Judaism of this film is hardly open-minded to the prospect of a lesbian couple, there are other traditional ideas that manage to be more insidiously oppressive. It feels like a bigger scandal that a woman would choose to be childless or abandon her home than for her to fall in love with another woman. Thus, Ronit bears the brunt of the ostracization, whereas Esti, who has married a man and made a steady living as a schoolteacher, maintains cordiality and respect despite her orientation being something close to an open secret. Esti’s husband Dovid (Alessandro Nivola) knows the truth about her, and he embodies the idea implied by the community that if you are a woman and you have an affair with another woman, it will be more or less ignored so long as you get married and have sex once a week and at least try to have a baby. Disobedience is smart about recognizing that while romance and its attendant passions are important, there are other fundamentals to life that are worth focusing on.

This is a drab film, with characters endlessly dressed in black or other dark tones. Surely that is partly to due with mourning the loss of a loved one, but you get the sense that this is how this community always dresses. Perhaps they are taking a cue from the perpetually rainy weather of their hometown. Even the brunette Esti wears a wig of a darker shade. While these outfits strike me as painfully passionless, much of the community wear them well. Esti can make them work to a certain extent, while Ronit is clearly uncomfortable throughout. This is a story about whether the two of them can meet in the middle, and being surprisingly okay with it when they cannot quite get there.

Disobedience is Recommended If You Like: Brokeback Mountain, Doomed (But Not That Doomed) Romances, Portrayals of Orthodox Life

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Orthodoxies

Billboard Hot Rock Songs – Week of April 28, 2018

April 24, 2018

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 – “Whatever It Takes”
2. Imagine Dragons – “Thunder”
3. Portugal. The Man – “Feel It Still”
4. Imagine Dragons – “Believer”
5. Bad Wolves – “Zombie”
6. Foster the People – “Sit Next to Me”
7. Alice Merton – “No Roots”
8. Panic! at the Disco – “Say Amen (Saturday Night)”
9. Florence + the Machine – “Sky Full of Song”
10. lovelytheband – “Broken”
11. Five Finger Death Punch – “Gone Away”
12. Portugal. The Man – “Live in the Moment”
13. Godsmack – “Bulletproof”
14. Breaking Benjamin – “Red Cold River”
15. Elton John – “Rocket Man”
16. Ghost – “Rats”
17. Muse – “Thought Contagion”
18. Vance Joy – “Saturday Sun”
19. Shinedown – “Devil”
20. Two Feet – “I Feel Like I’m Drowning”
21. Thirty Seconds to Mars – “Dangerous Night”
22. Three Days Grace – “The Mountain”
23. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – “You Worry Me”
24. Sir Sly – “&Run”
25. Breaking Benjamin – “Torn in Two”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. No Roots
2. Feel It Still
3. You Worry Me
4. I Feel Like I’m Drowning
5. Rocket Man
6. Live in the Moment
7. Sky Full of Song
8. &Run
9. Thought Contagion

Billboard Hot 20 – Week of April 28, 2018

April 24, 2018

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. Drake – “Nice for What”
2. Drake – “God’s Plan”
3. Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line – “Meant to Be”
4. Post Malone ft. Ty Dolla $ign – “Psycho”
5. Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey – “The Middle”
6. BlocBoy JB ft. Drake – “Look Alive”
7. Ed Sheeran – “Perfect”
8. Lil Dicky ft. Chris Brown – “Freaky Friday”
9. Cardi B, Bad Bunny, and J Balvin – “I Like It”
10. Nicki Minaj – “Chun-Li”
11. Migos ft. Drake – “Walk It Talk It”
12. Bruno Mars and Cardi B – “Finesse”
13. Camila Cabello – “Never Be the Same”
14. Bazzi – “Mine”
15. Cardi B – “Be Careful”
16. Rich the Kid – “Plug Walk”
17. The Weeknd – “Call Out My Name”
18. The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar – “Pray for Me”
19. Camila Cabello ft. Young Thug – “Havana”
20. Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Pray for Me
2. Havana
3. Never Be the Same
4. Call Out My Name

This Is a Movie Review: A Wrinkle in Time

April 22, 2018

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CREDIT: Disney

I certainly enjoyed Ava DuVernay’s spin on A Wrinkle in Time, though I am a little disappointed it does not reach the level of blockbuster classic that I hoped it would. I think much of that has to do with its too-low-calorie mix of epic and low-key. Sure, Meg travels a great interdimensional distance to save her father from a dark entity threatening the entire universe, but she does so over just the course of an afternoon. That relative speed is part of the hook, sure, but it should not feel so speedy. It really would have been beneficial to more deeply explore the effects of tessering on Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace.

There are a lot of wonderful design elements and sufficiently creepy moments, but much of those do not feel terribly specific to what this particular film is trying to say. Perhaps the scariest sequence is the disturbingly harmonious cul-de-sac on Camazotz, but that is not really preying on any unique Murry family fears; the fight at hand is not really one against suburban conformity. As for the supposedly weightless bromides of inspiration and self-confidence, I do not find them terribly off-putting, but they certainly could have benefited from the offbeat verve that Zach Galifianakis naturally taps into as the Happy Medium.

I give A Wrinkle in Time 3 Happy’s out of 5 IT’s.

This Is a Movie Review: ‘I Feel Pretty’ Mines Humor and Self-Confidence Out of Cognitive Dissonance

April 19, 2018

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CREDIT: Mark Schafer/STX Films

This review was originally posted on News Cult in April 2018.

Starring: Amy Schumer, Rory Scovel, Michelle Williams, Aidy Bryant, Busy Philipps, Lauren Hutton, Tom Hopper, Emily Ratajkowski, Adrian Martinez

Directors: Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein

Running Time: 110 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Strategically Filmed Nudity

Release Date: April 20, 2018

A friend who accompanied me to the I Feel Pretty screening remarked afterwards that Amy Schumer was the wrong fit for the lead role and that an actual plus-size actress like Nicole Byer or Aidy Bryant (who plays one of Schumer’s close friends) would have made more sense. Her point is salient, for while Schumer does not have a supermodel’s stereotypical rail-thin body, she is hardly anywhere near obese. But this movie, in which a cosmetics company employee suddenly starts believing that she is transcendentally beautiful, is about perception more than reality. What it requires in the lead then is someone with a body that can both convincingly cause self-esteem issues and be stunningly attractive. That is to say, it could be anybody, and that is the underlying message. I Feel Pretty is not about a fat girl who starts to believe that she is skinny, but rather, it is about someone with low self-esteem who transforms into the most self-assured woman ever.

Writing/directing duo Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein take their cues from the likes of Big (even featuring clips from that 1988 Tom Hanks classic to make the connection even more obvious), as Renee (Schumer) wishes at a fountain that she can be one of the beautiful people that commands the attention of any room she walks into. The next day at SoulCycle she gets knocked out after hitting her head, and when she comes to, she looks in the mirror, and voilà! Her wish has come true, and she proceeds to admire and shamelessly caress all her assets. But here’s the kicker: her appearance has not changed, and there is no indication that she is hallucinating an idealized version of herself. The audience sees the same body she has had the whole time, and presumably that is what Renee sees, too. It is only how she sees it that has changed.

I Feel Pretty walks an unceasing tightrope, as it is built on a foundation of cognitive dissonance. Schumer has to play a character who is insane enough that she has a sort of inverted body dysmorphia but not so insane that she cannot function in society. (Appropriately enough, one of the biggest laugh lines comes from her being assured that her company offers plenty of mental health services.) She gets away with it by maintaining a relaxed energy befitting the self-confidence she achieves. And besides, while constant confusion may not be the best formula for logic, it is a perfect formula for laughter, as the brain attempts to make sense of the nonsense of self-discovery.

Much of the humor derives from the reactions of those around Renee. Her best friends Vivian (Bryant) and Jane (Busy Philipps) humor her assurances of “It really is me” while subtly worrying that she has lost her mind. As for those who meet her after her “change,” Rory Scovel, as Renee’s love interest, and Michelle Williams and Lauren Hutton, as her co-workers, get a lot of comedic mileage out of just looking on in stunned amazement at this truly singular woman in their presence. What they are responding to has almost nothing to do with her body and everything to do with her self-assurance. (Williams, for her part, is unforgettable in her affectation of a breathy baby-doll voice that is supposedly her character’s natural way of speaking.)

The story falters a bit in the middle for the sake of fitting into the genre’s typical denouement. Renee initially remains as nice as she always been after her transformation, but after a taste of life on the other side, she starts displaying some casual cruelty that feels less like a natural regression and more a betrayal of character consistency. These conflicts lead to some sweet resolutions, but they are not quite satisfying enough to make the means of getting to that point easy to stomach.

I Feel Pretty’s message that self-confidence and self-acceptance are the keys to success and happiness is no great revelation, but that does not make it any less true or not worth repeating. But I am left wondering: would it have resonated more if the lead had a less normative body type? From a business standpoint, it would be positive if more starring roles went to those who are plus-size, queer, trans, and/or people of color. But the point is that self-confidence and self-doubt are both available to everyone, no matter how traditionally attractive they are or are not. So theoretically the lead of I Feel Pretty could have been anyone, but in practice it had to be one person. At least there is a genuine invocation of inclusivity with a conclusive speech. It is the sort of speech that has been co-opted to sell cosmetic products (both within and outside the film), but it is nonetheless worth holding onto its positivity and running with it.

I Feel Pretty is Recommended If You Like: Big, Laughing While Being Confused, Finding the Inspiration to Achieve Your Dreams

Grade: 4 out of 5 Diffusion Lines

Billboard Hot Rock Songs – Week of April 21, 2018

April 18, 2018

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 – “Whatever It Takes”
2. Imagine Dragons – “Thunder”
3. Portugal. The Man – “Feel It Still”
4. Imagine Dragons – “Believer”
5. Bad Wolves – “Zombie”
6. Foster the People – “Sit Next to Me”
7. Alice Merton – “No Roots”
8. Panic! at the Disco – “Say Amen (Saturday Night)”
9. 30 Seconds to Mars ft. Halsey – “Love is Madness”
10. Walk the Moon – “One Foot”
11. Bishop Briggs – “River”
12. Five Finger Death Punch – “Gone Away”
13. lovelytheband – “Broken”
14. Portugal. The Man – “Live in the Moment”
15. 30 Seconds to Mars – “Dangerous Night”
16. Muse – “Thought Contagion”
17. Godsmack – “Bulletproof”
18. Two Feet – “I Feel Like I’m Drowning”
19. Vance Joy – “Saturday Sun”
20. Elton John – “Rocket Man”
21. Shinedown – “Devil”
22. Three Days Grace – “The Mountain”
23. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – “You Worry Me”
24. Breaking Benjamin – “Red Cold River”
25. AWOLNATION – “Handyman”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. River
2. No Roots
3. Feel It Still
4. You Worry Me
5. I Feel Like I’m Drowning
6. Rocket Man
7. Live in the Moment
8. Thought Contagion
9. Handyman

Billboard Hot 20 – Week of April 21, 2018

April 18, 2018

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. Drake – “Nice for What”
2. Drake – “God’s Plan”
3. Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line – “Meant to Be”
4. Post Malone ft. Ty Dolla $ign – “Psycho”
5. BlocBoy JB ft. Drake – “Look Alive”
6. Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey – “The Middle”
7. Ed Sheeran – “Perfect”
8. Cardi B, Bad Bunny, and J Balvin – “I Like It”
9. Lil Dicky ft. Chris Brown – “Freaky Friday”
10. Bruno Mars and Cardi B – “Finesse”
11. Cardi B – “Be Careful”
12. Migos ft. Drake – “Walk It Talk It”
13. Rich the Kid – “Plug Walk”
14. Bazzi – “Mine”
15. Camila Cabello – “Never Be the Same”
16. Camila Cabello ft. Young Thug – “Havana”
17. The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar – “Pray for Me”
18. XXXTentacion – “Sad!”
19. Migos – “Stir Fry”
20. The Weeknd – “Call Out My Name”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Pray for Me
2. Havana
3. Never Be the Same
4. Call Out My Name

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