SNL Review February 3, 2018: Natalie Portman/Dua Lipa

February 5, 2018

jmunney Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television , , , , , , 1 Comment

CREDIT: Will Heath/NBC

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

NewsCult Entertainment Editor Jeffrey Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then organizes the sketches into the following categories: “Love It” (potentially Best of the Season-worthy), “Keep It” (perfectly adequate), or “Leave It” (in need of a rewrite, to say the least). Then he concludes with assessments of the host and musical guest.

Love It

No “Love It” sketches this week, although there are a few with elements that I love. Most everything is decent and/or perfectly fine, with a few flashes of brilliance. More

This Is a Movie Review: ‘Winchester’ Fails to Explore Its Premise by Visiting Very Few Rooms in Its Vast Haunted Mansion

February 3, 2018

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

CREDIT: Ben King/CBS Films

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

Starring: Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke, Sarah Snook, Finn Scicluna O’Prey, Angus Sampson, Eamon Farren

Directors: Peter and Michael Spierig

Running Time: 99 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Gunfire, Creepy Contact Lenses, and a Very PG-13 Moment of Nighttime Companionship

Release Date: February 2, 2018

When a truly original idea arrives in horror, you’ve got to hold on to it tight. Winchester has quite a unique and intriguing premise, but you would not be able to tell from the execution. Inspired by true events, it is a haunted house tale that takes place in, as one character adroitly puts it, “a house under neverending construction built on the orders of a grieving widow.” But the film never takes full advantage of all that lurks within the title abode.

Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren, fully embodying gothic haute couture) is the heiress to her late husband’s eponymous arms company, and Winchester’s plot is set in motion when Dr. Eric Price (Jason Clarke) is asked to evaluate her mental fitness and therefore capability to continue overseeing the company. Her fellow executives and shareholders have their doubts because of her obsession with endlessly adding more rooms to her mansion, which she is doing to contain the spirits of the many haunted souls who have been killed by Winchester firearms.

There is a perfect opportunity with this setup for a face-off between skepticism and belief in the supernatural. But instead, the existence of the ghosts is pretty much never in question, and no character expresses significant skepticism (nor indeed do they have any reason to). That is not necessarily a big loss, though, as the house itself allows plenty of opportunities no matter what the status of the ghosts. With construction having no master plan or endpoint, the mansion could be the most disorienting maze ever. But the film barely takes advantage of that spatial horror.

I do not mean to tell Winchester what sort of film it must be, but I do mean to express disappointment when what it chooses to be is so indistinct. Forgoing the more challenging haunts that it hints at, it instead is a run-of-the-mill possession and revenge story, with Sarah’s great nephew (Finn Scicluna O’Prey) doing his best creepy kid performance, rendering “Beautiful Dreamer” the stuff of nightmares. He is being influenced by the ghost of a Civil War veteran (Eamon Farren) who is predictably defeated in a final standoff, and then everyone moves on with their lives, the evil contained, for now at least.

Directors Michael and Peter Spierig (who previously worked with Winchester’s Sarah Snook on the twisty, heady Robert Heinlein adaptation Predestination) have a few tricks up their sleeve, holding on a shot just long enough for it to be unnerving when an arm suddenly bursts through a previously hidden opening. But overall they never develop a firm grasp on the jump scares or the slow burns, and they do not seem to be particularly committed to either. Plus, the underlying message of what constitutes terror in this story – something about fear being only in the mind – does not jibe with what is actually happening.

Winchester is Recommended If You Like: The Woman in Black, Helen Mirren in Period Clothing

Grade: 2 out of 5 Rifles

The Good Place Season 2 Review

February 2, 2018

jmunney Television, The Good Place , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

CREDIT: Colleen Hayes/NBC

This post was originally published on News Cult in February 2018.

Network: NBC

Showrunner: Mike Schur

Main Cast: Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, Manny Jacinto, D’Arcy Carden

Notable Guest Stars: Marc Evan Jackson, Tiya Sircar, Maribeth Monroe, Jason Mantzoukas, Dax Shepard, Maya Rudolph, Seth Morris, Angela Trimbur

Episode Running Time: 22 Minutes

It is difficult to talk about The Good Place in detail without spoiling anything, so SPOILER ALERT. But also go watch the entire series if you haven’t already. It’s really good.

Stylistically and tonally, The Good Place follows in the footsteps of the NBC Must See TV sitcoms that have preceded it, but since it is at its heart a mystery box puzzle show, its closest forerunner is Lost. Based on what I have gathered from interviews, creator Mike Schur conceptualized it as the NBC sitcom version of that stranded-on-a-desert-island juggernaut. Accordingly, it has been applying the lessons of what worked and what didn’t work on the island. So what we have in The Good Place Season 2 is a show that is constantly reinventing itself that amazingly is yet to show any wear and tear.

Lost dithered around occasionally in its first three seasons, but momentum locked into place for its final three years once an end date was set and the season episode orders were shortened. Thus, I have been heartened, and not worried at all, that NBC has given The Good Place 13-episode seasons right from the get-go instead of forcing it to stretch out to a more typical 20-plus run. It really feels like a series-long vision is in place. The first season finale, which revealed that Eleanor (Kristen Bell) and company were really in the Bad Place and were just being mentally tortured to think otherwise, seemed like a logical endpoint for the whole story, but in fact it has proven to be the perfect button on the first chapter that has been matched with just-as-satisfying shocks in Season 2.

After a two-part season opener in which our demon architect Michael (Ted Danson) tries and fails to reset everything with a bit of memory erasure, “Dance Dance Resolution” comes along to offer an entire series’ worth of plot twists in one episode. Not a season’s worth, a whole series’ worth. The Good Place has solved the problem that plagues shows that burns through plots too quickly by … burning through plots faster than anyone has ever seen. A glorious montage resets the status quo thousands of times. Subsequent episodes slow down that pace, but there is still about one reboot per half hour.

One of the reasons that The Good Place is one of the best shows currently airing is because it works for the smartest people in the room and the dumbest people in the room. If you want to figure out the twists ahead of time, the clues are there for you to puzzle them out, but if you prefer to be passive, the twists will eventually be explained, in a manner that avoids patronizing or reiterating the obvious. This is a show that rewards freeze-framing and re-watching (and there is still not enough room to contain all the flourishes from the writing staff). But it is also bright and boisterous enough for one helping to be filling. You don’t need to brush up on your Kant and Hume to understand the philosophical and ethical debates, but the supplementary reading is out there should you wish to seek it out.

While The Good Place has clearly done its homework regarding history’s most influential thinkers, I do wonder what the show’s own philosophy on existence and morality is. In aggregate, it is hard to pin down, which can be freeing, but also frustrating. Part of that is just the nature of fiction that tackles the afterlife. What happens after death is too ineffable to really be captured in any fully comprehensible fashion. The Good Place does not have to come up with some grand unified theory to be successful, but it is trying to say something weighty. Under close examination it can appear contradictory, though its message has thus far worked and can fairly be called “complicated.”

Should we really believe that a callous demon like Michael (the sublimely natural Ted Danson) can so quickly be humanized? Your mileage may vary on that conundrum, but Danson’s performance buys into the transformation, and perhaps these demons are fallen angels, or some similar beings that really do have capacity for goodness. It is easier to buy into the nature of A.I. program Janet (Arden), whose existence has been more or less created out of whole cloth. But the bugs she demonstrates suggest a haphazardness unexpected for infinity.

Along those same lines, the fate of our four principal lost souls can often seem petty, even without considering the self-improvement they began in Season 1 and have more or less been wholly committed to in Season 2. Sure, Eleanor is chronically thoughtless, Chidi (Harper) is dangerously indecisive, Tahana (Jamil) is profoundly self-absorbed, and Jason (Jacinto) is unselfconsciously vulgar. But they all have charms that elevate them beyond their worst selves. That is surely partly to due with the charming nature of each actor’s performance and how we as viewers tend to identify with lead characters, but at a certain part it feels like they are just being toyed with beyond what is fair or makes sense.

However, I suspect that that pettiness might be a feature of the show, and not a bug. The last couple episodes certainly seem to suggest that. The finale makes a case for making it up as you go along, with a gambit allowing the dead folks to (unwittingly) prove themselves in a simulation of how their lives could have played out if they were still alive. The haphazardness is unavoidable, but playing fast and loose with the rules (which might not be as intractable as we’ve been led to believe) could be the right thing to do if it makes the right connections. The parameters have been set up by a writers’ room, but they are justifying themselves thus far.

And finally, here’s to BORTLES! and accidental timeliness.

Best Episodes: “Dance Dance Resolution,” “The Trolley Problem,” “Rhonda, Diana, Jake, and Trent”

How Does It Compare to Season One? With its first and therefore biggest twist out of the way, The Good Place has necessarily become less surprising but the tradeoff is that it has become more daunting. It is a tricky high-wire act, but it has been sustained for at least one full season so far.

The Good Place Season 2 is Recommended If You Like: Lost, Pushing Daisies, Community

Where to Watch: Season 1 is available on Netflix, while Season 2 is currently available on NBC.com.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 Shirt Balls

 

Watch And/Or Listen to This: The President Of Boliviguay Invites Conan To His Country

February 1, 2018

jmunney Conan, Television, Watch And/Or Listen to This , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

CREDIT: TBS via YouTube

You can’t visit Boliviguay until you get your shots for:

-Too Many Hands Disease
-The Disappointing Tingles
-Jeff Breath
-Total Scrotal Confusion
-Resting Bitch Ankle
-Banana Syndrome
-Penile Senility
-Some-heimer’s Disease
-Face-Pocalypse
-Listing Fake Diseases Disease

Billboard Hot Rock Songs – Week of February 3, 2018

January 30, 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 – “Thunder”
2. Portugal. The Man – “Feel It Still”
3. Imagine Dragons – “Believer”
4. Walk the Moon – “One Foot”
5. Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”
6. Alice Merton – “No Roots”
7. Fall Out Boy – “Hold Me Tight or Don’t”
8. The Cranberries – “Zombie”
9. Theory of a Deadman – “(Rx) Medicate”
10. 30 Seconds to Mars – “Walk on Water”
11. Foster the People – “Sit Next to Me”
12. Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar on Me”
13. The Cranberries – “Linger”
14. The Cranberries – “Dreams”
15. Fall Out Boy – “Church”
16. Fall Out Boy – “The Last of the Real Ones”
17. Beck – “Up All Night”
18. Fall Out Boy – “Wilson (Expensive Mistakes)”
19. Fall Out Boy – “Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea”
20. Portugal. The Man – “Live in the Moment”
21. Five Finger Death Punch – “Gone Away”
22. Fall Out Boy – “Young and Menace”
23. Bastille – “World Gone Mad”
24. Def Leppard – “Photograph”
25. Bad Wolves – “Zombie”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Zombie (The Cranberries)
2. Dreams
3. No Roots
4. Up All Night
5. Feel It Still
6. Photograph
7. Linger
8. Church
9. Pour Some Sugar on Me
10. Live in the Moment
11. World Gone Mad

Billboard Hot 20 – Week of February 3, 2018

January 30, 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 – “God’s Plan”
2. Ed Sheeran – “Perfect”
3. Camila Cabello ft. Young Thug – “Havana”
4. Post Malone ft. 21 Savage – “Rockstar”
5. Bruno Mars and Cardi B – “Finesse”
6. Halsey – “Bad at Love”
7. Drake – “Diplomatic Immunity”
8. Dua Lipa – “New Rules”
9. Imagine Dragons – “Thunder”
10. G-Eazy ft. A$AP Rocky and Cardi B – “No Limit”
11. Migos, Nicki Minaj, and Cardi B – “MotorSport”
12. Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line – “Meant to Be”
13. Sam Smith – “Too Good at Goodbyes”
14. NF – “Let You Down”
15. Kendrick Lamar ft. Zacari – “Love.”
16. G-Eazy and Halsey – “Him & I”
17. Lil Pump – “Gucci Gang”
18. 6ix9ine – “Gummo”
19. Post Malone – “I Fall Apart”
20. Cardi B ft. 21 Savage – “Bartier Cardi”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. New Rules
2. Havana
3. Love.
4. Diplomatic Immunity

This Is a Movie Review: ‘A Fantastic Woman’ Finds a Trans Woman Making Her Defiant Case That She Deserves to Be Treated Like a Human Being

January 30, 2018

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , Leave a comment

CREDIT: Sony Pictures Classics

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

Starring: Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco, Aline Küppenheim, Amparo Noguera, Nicolás Saavedra

Director: Sebastián Lelio

Running Time: 104 Minutes

Rating: R for Nudity Borne of Passion and Invasive Procedure, and Prejudicial Assault/Harassment

Release Date: February 2, 2018 (Limited)

A lot of the discussion around films and TV shows about underrepresented communities focuses on the value of those people being given a voice. And while that discussion is important, I fear that it has given subpar storytelling a pass or promoted the merely decent to excellence. But A Fantastic Woman (an Oscar nominee for Foreign Language Film), about Marina (Daniela Vega), a trans Chilean woman, and the prejudice she faces in her daily life, is the rare example in which the act of giving the voiceless a voice is baked so seamlessly into the narrative. It is possible that it resonates so much with me because its experience is so far outside my purview (I do not have many close trans friends, I do not know Chile or its people very well) that it feels so revelatory where for others it might seem matter-of-fact. But regardless of familiarity or lack thereof, Fantastic Woman registers as successfully as it does because Marina’s story is so intrinsically about her fight to live and love as she pleases.

A Fantastic Woman begins as almost a fantasy of what life could be if trans people were fully accepted, and embraced, for whom they truly are. This is not it portrays anything physically impossible but rather it presents what is socially improbable. But it is possible, because even for those who are most oppressed, there are slivers of perfection, and this is indeed a sliver, but it is awash in sensuousness, romance, and tranquility. Orlando (Francisco Reyes) strolls into the club where Marina, his girlfriend, is singing, via an inviting tracking shot. It is her birthday, and they conclude the evening with a night of passion at their shared apartment. She may be trans, and he might be 30 years older than her, but this is the life they have carved out for each other, so none of that other stuff matters.

But alas, this is all a prelude to Orlando suddenly falling ill and dying at the hospital. Immediately, Marina is now alone, even before Orlando’s family arrives to shut her out. Her evasive reaction might be what makes her appear suspicious to the authorities, but the truth is that she was never going to have a fair chance to mourn Orlando. His son Bruno (Nicolás Saavedra) openly disdains her and is not against using abuse and harassment to show it. His ex-wife, Sonia (Aline Küppenheim) is more civil, though she makes it clear enough that she would like to erase Marina from existence. She has a bit of an ally in his brother Gabo (Luis Gnecco), but he is too ineffectual to make a difference. Then there is the female detective (Amparo Noguera) who has worked cases involving trans women before and tries to present herself as a friend, but in her assumptions of foul play, she proves to be among the most invasive.

As Marina walks around adrift in her distressing new normal, there are some flashes of actual fantasy. A visit to a nightclub results in a music video interlude that lifts her up in the style of Björk’s “It’s Oh So Quiet.” A moment of walking along the sideway turns into a fight against the elements as she stands diagonally, pushing against a sudden sustained gust of intransigent wind. This shot, encapsulating willpower vs. status quo, embodies the whole of A Fantastic Woman. Despite how much someone is constantly knocked back, no matter how systematically, there are still opportunities for transcendent, ineffable bursts of humanity.

A Fantastic Woman is Recommended If You Like: Brokeback Mountain, The Florida Project, Foreign Films Set in Countries You’ve Never Visited

Grade: 4 out of 5 Resilient Decisions

SNL Review January 27, 2018: Will Ferrell/Chris Stapleton

January 28, 2018

jmunney Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television , , , , , , Leave a comment

CREDIT: Alison Hale/NBC

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

NewsCult Entertainment Editor Jeffrey Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then organizes the sketches into the following categories: “Love It” (potentially Best of the Season-worthy), “Keep It” (perfectly adequate), or “Leave It” (in need of a rewrite, to say the least). Then he concludes with assessments of the host and musical guest.

Love It

A Message From the Former President – This is one of the most masterful impressions of all time because it is just bursting with ideas. “The ‘W’ stands “wassup?!,” “Washington, Lincoln, and I want to say, Kensington,” “Shoe me once once, shoe’s on you. Shoe me twice, I’m keeping those shoes” … I could go on forever! And amidst all the goofy bonhomie, there is also a strong clearheadedness about what points are being made, most prominently being: the main reason liberals are now romanticizing the George W. Bush presidency is because at least his disasters were a lot sillier.

More

This Is a Movie Review: ‘Like Me’ Captures the Beautifully Disgusting Travails of an Underground Internet-Famous Renegade

January 26, 2018

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , Leave a comment

CREDIT: Kino Lorber

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

Starring: Addison Timlin, Larry Fessenden, Ian Nelson, Jeremy Gardner

Director: Robert Mockler

Running Time: 80 Minutes

Rating: Not Rated, But It Could Be R for Its Disturbing Food-Based and Psychedelic Imagery

Release Date: January 26, 2018 (Limited Theatrically)/February 20, 2018 (On Demand)

Is social media breeding new forms of sociopathy, or is it the other way around insofar as those who are already sociopaths are naturally drawn to social media? Or maybe people just use whatever media they have available to them to deliver their messages, whether sociopathic, benign, or somewhere in between. Robert Mockler’s indie horror (or horror-adjacent, but horrific, nonetheless) Like Me does not provide any straightforward answers to any of these questions, but it is vividly drawn enough for viewers to draw their own conclusions.

A sort of 21st Century Taxi Driver with flashes of A Clockwork Orange, Like Me is primarily the portrait of a loner, burning for an outlet for her twisted proclivities. We never got much of a sense what Kiya’s (Addison Timlin) living or familial situation is, but we learn enough to know that she’s able to handle herself, despite her small, seemingly unimposing physicality. It is perhaps that unpredictability that allows her to pull off her … “schemes,” let’s call them. She harasses a convenience store employee into whimpering submission and then she lures a hotel worker with sexual promises into a force-feeding session that concludes with him vomiting milk (with the latter encounter leading into a bizarre buddy flick), broadcasting the most extreme moments for all her social followers to behold. Kiya definitely takes notice of the online reaction she engenders, but it appears to be the thrill of the moment itself that motivates her most.

If you’re like me, you’ll wonder why anyone could behave as Kiya does. Director Robert Mockler is not particularly interested in answering that conundrum, nor do I really want him to. Instead, he is more committed to crafting a sumptuous feast that overwhelms the senses. Kiya’s world is filled with dimly lit overwhelming colors. Gummy worms, a rotating camera, an ominous score heavily indebted to Goblin but with its own edge of urban dysfunction, and psychedelic light streams combine for a toxic blend of anti-satisfying sustenance. Several reaction videos to Kiya’s escapades are presented in Internet windows, captured in their full crappy webcam glory, clashing with the crisp digital photography of the main action. I can imagine this whole thing is a daydream that Mockler had one day, and it is probably healthy that he has now let it all out on the screen.

Like Me is Recommended If You Like: A Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, The Shining, Mixed Media Presentations

Grade: 3 out of 5 Forced Feedings

Great News Season 2 Review

January 26, 2018

jmunney Great News, Television , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

CREDIT: Art Streiber/NBC

I give Great News Season 2 4.2 out of 5 Hit Songs by Carol & the Liars: http://newscult.com/great-news-season-2-review-just-another-nbc-thursday-show-reaches-the-top-tier-of-sitcoms/

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