Billboard Hot Rock Songs – Week of June 17, 2017

June 7, 2017

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 – “Believer”
2. Linkin Park ft. Kiiara – “Heavy”
3. twenty one pilots – “Heathens”
4. Imagine Dragons – “Thunder”
5. Rag’n’Bone Man – “Human”
6. Lord Huron – “The Night We Met”
7. Portugal. The Man – “Feel It Still”
8. The Revivalists – “Wish I Knew You”
9. The Allman Brothers Band – “Midnight Rider”
10. Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”
11. Paramore – “Hard Times”
12. Soundgarden – “Black Hole Sun”
13. Lana Del Rey ft. The Weeknd – “Lust for Life”
14. Ocean Park Standoff – “Good News”
15. Foo Fighters – “Run”
16. Audioslave – “Like a Stone”
17. Electric Light Orchestra – “Mr. Blue Sky”
18. Fleetwood Mac – “The Chain”
19. Bleachers – “Don’t Take the Money”
20. The Allman Brothers Band – “Ramblin’ Man”
21. The Allman Brothers Band – “Melissa”
22. Papa Roach – “Help”
23. Cold War Kids – “Love is Mystical
24. Sir Sly – “High”
25. The Gregg Allman Band – “I’m No Angel”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. The Chain
2. Like a Stone
3. Human
4. Mr. Blue Sky
5. Ramblin’ Man
6. High
7. Black Hole Sun
8. Run
9. Melissa
10. Feel It Still
11. Midnight Rider
12. Love is Mystical
13. Hard Times
14. I’m No Angel
15. Lust for Life

Billboard Hot 20 – Week of June 17, 2017

June 6, 2017

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. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee ft. Justin Bieber – “Despacito”
2. Bruno Mars – “That’s What I Like”
3. DJ Khaled ft. Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper, and Lil Wayne – “I’m the One”
4. Kendrick Lamar – “Humble.”
5. Ed Sheeran – “Shape of You”
6. Future – “Mask Off”
7. Zedd and Alessia Cara – “Stay”
8. The Chainsmokers and Coldplay – “Something Just Like This”
9. Lil Uzi Vert – “XO Tour Llif3”
10. Post Malone ft. Quavo – “Congratulations”
11. Julia Michaels – “Issues”
12. James Arthur – “Say You Won’t Let Go”
13. Kygo x Selena Gomez – “It Ain’t Me”
14. Sam Hunt – “Body Like a Back Road”
15. Imagine Dragons – “Believer”
16. KYLE ft. Lil Yachty – “iSpy”
17. Childish Gambino – “Redbone”
18. French Montana ft. Swae Lee – “Unforgettable”
19. Brett Young – “In Case You Didn’t Know”
20. Ayo & Teo – “Rolex”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Redbone
2. Stay
3. Humble.
4. Unforgettable

This is a Movie Review: Of Course Sam Elliott is ‘The Hero’ We Need Now and Forever

June 6, 2017

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

This review was originally posted on News Cult in June 2017.

Starring: Sam Elliott, Laura Prepon, Nick Offerman, Krysten Ritter, Katharine Ross

Director: Brett Haley

Running Time: 93 Minutes

Rating: R for Never Being Too Old for Drugs and Sex

Release Date: June 9, 2017 (Limited)

If you hear the logline “legendary cowboy actor who gets confused when an awards show clip featuring him goes viral” and do not immediately cast Sam Elliott, well then, I am glad you are not one of the people who made The Hero. The role of Western icon Lee Hayden is as tailor made for the famously drawling, silver-mustachioed Elliott as any role as ever been for anyone. He might not be as confused by modern media or as melancholy as his character is, but I do not know all the details of his personal life, and we all have our moments.

In the midst of Lee’s renewed burst of notoriety, he spends his days smoking weed with his buddy/dealer (Nick Offerman), attempting to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Krysten Ritter), and striking up some sort of an affair with a stand-up comedian a few decades younger than him (Laura Prepon). It is the latter relationship that gets the most narrative weight. May-December romances with big shot men can be a formula for a ton of tired creepiness, but Prepon holds her own in terms of self-assuredness and Elliott plays Lee as ambivalent as any viewer might be. What we see of Prepon’s stand-up is much more questionable.

All that this type of singularly focused character study requires to work are a compelling central performance and at least one resonant idea. We have already established that the former is met (it would be a shock if it weren’t). As for the latter, Lee utters the line, “Movies are other people’s dreams,” and this acts as the driving principle for much of the film. A series of dream sequences feature him at the edge of the ocean, waves lightly breaking in. Nothing much happens, but the mundanity is transcended by the beauty of simply living.

The Hero is Recommended If You Like: Being a Sam Elliott Fanboy

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Weed Strains

 

This Is a Movie Review: With ‘Beatriz at Dinner,’ Salma Hayek Ain’t Taking No Guff From Racist John Lithgow

June 6, 2017

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

This review was originally published on News Cult in June 2017.

Starring: Salma Hayek, John Lithgow, Connie Britton, David Warshofsky, Chloë Sevigny, Jay Duplass, Amy Landecker, John Early

Director: Miguel Arteta

Running Time: 83 Minutes

Rating: R for Verbal Knifeplay

Release Date: June 9, 2017 (Limited)

What would you do if you have had a chance encounter with the person who represents all that you oppose? I imagine that many people would feel quite strongly when responding to this question but also that it would produce a number of disparate, potentially conflicting answers. Beatriz at Dinner, the latest collaboration from the Chuck & Buck team of writer Mike White (School of Rock, HBO’s Enlightened) and director Miguel Arteta (Youth in Revolt, Cedar Rapids), fundamentally understands this tension, with conviction in its ideals and uncertainty about how to live by them.

Beatriz (Salma Hayek) is a goat-owning masseuse/healer who makes a house call to her wealthy client Cathy (Connie Britton). When her car breaks down, she finds herself stuck at Cathy and her husband’s Grant’s (David Warshofsky) fancy dinner party. Cathy is happy to have Beatriz there, as she considers her family ever since she helped her daughter through cancer treatment. But Beatriz is culturally light years away from client’s friends and colleagues. Chloë Sevigny, Jay Duplass, and Amy Landecker are right in their cluelessly arrogant upper class wheelhouses. (Sample dialogue: “I love psychic stuff.”) And then there is real estate mogul Doug Strutt, brought to gloriously, hideously racist life by John Lithgow.

Comparisons between Strutt and a certain current world leader are inevitable, among perhaps both his detractors and his supporters. But it is worth noting that Lithgow’s performance is as far as can be from crudity, in terms of style if not so much substance. His default presence makes him a natural at playing oddly trustworthy authority figures. He has a hint of eccentricity – not so much that he ought to be dismissed, but just enough that he is allowed to get away with it. That reputation is ripe for subversion, as in the NBC sitcom Trial & Error, where his eccentricity verges on bumbling idiocy, or here, where it is a cover for plain evil.

While Lithgow’s performance is impressive in the most expected ways, Hayek’s is fascinating for how surprisingly, and occasionally even bafflingly, Beatriz behaves. But there are not really any logical inconsistencies here, as there is no blueprint for how to act in this situation. Beatriz believes that she recognizes Strutt as the developer who destroyed her Mexican community, and so she viciously chews him in front of the whole party. In this game of chess, she may have sacrificed her queen too early, but perhaps it is all part of her strategy. She bobs and weaves, offering up apologies, or feigning them, or mixing legitimate apologies in with lip service. In the meantime, she gathers up evidence to potentially prove Strutt’s misdeeds. But to what end? This is a man who boasts of skirting, or even running roughshod over, the law.

Responding to this moral vacuum requires counterintuitive behavior, which inspires a career-best performance from Hayek but puts the film on shaky narrative ground. The story ultimately becomes just as untethered as Beatriz, and accordingly it cannot really figure out how to conclude. Should it go in for the kill and ramp up the intensity, or should it settle for the moral victory? It offers up both versions, which is a little frustrating, but the straightforward viciousness is fun while it lasts.

Beatriz at Dinner is Recommended If You Like: Enlightened, Evil John Lithgow, Clapping Back

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Aperitifs for Destruction

This Is a Movie Review: ‘It Comes at Night’ Isn’t Just About Paranoia, It IS Paranoia

June 5, 2017

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , 2 Comments

This review was originally published on News Cult in June 2017.

Starring: Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbott, Riley Keough, Kelvin Harrison Jr.

Director: Trey Edward Shults

Running Time: 91 Minutes

Rating: R for Frequent Bouts of Vomiting Blood

Release Date: June 9, 2017

A common rule of thumb in horror is that which remains unseen makes for the scariest monsters. What if this guideline were stretched to its furthest limit? Could a total lack of evidence – the unseen itself as a concept – be the ultimate horror? The paranoia-fueled It Comes at Night makes a strong case for just that.

While the titular “It” remains beyond anyone’s perception, its effects are clear and visible right from the get-go. The film opens in a cabin in the woods, that staple of horror film settings, stripped down to its bare essentials. Paul (Joel Edgerton) and Sarah (Carmen Ejogo) live with their teenage son Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) in a most desolate location. Their first order of business is disposing of Sarah’s father Bud (David Pendleton), who has succumbed to some sort of deadly contagion that appears to be looming as a threat over the entire world. How far from society has this family removed itself? Or has civilization broken down entirely such that there is no society to detach from? How far into the future does this take place, or is this present day? Does time even matter?

All this uncertainty ensures that no happy ending can come out of someone breaking into Paul and Sarah’s thoroughly boarded-up home. Will (Christopher Abbott), the intruder, somehow manages to get an invitation out of Paul to join them in the house, along with his wife Kim (Riley Keough), and their young son Andrew (Griffin Robert Faulkner), but it is an uneasy peace. The two families divvy up their supplies evenly, but the issue here is not fairness, it is trust, which is impossible to establish. The specter of death in these woods is ever-present but also unknowable – anyone could be its agent, even without intending to be. A simple changing of one’s mind is cause for confrontation.

At the risk of giving too much away, I think it is important to note that It Comes at Night might not exactly be the film that its advertising makes it out to be. This is a major issue at a time when horror hounds expect visceral thrills out of something low-key like It Follows or they anticipate comprehensibility out of something inscrutable like The Witch. It Comes’ trailers give the sense that there is some monster lurking in the woods that is the source of the disease. That might be true, but that is also beside the point. It could also be a government experiment gone wrong, or it could be a nameless, faceless apocalypse-level pandemic. But the prime monster in this slice of the world is paranoia. When the structure of one’s reality breaks apart irreversibly, there is no such thing as security or sanity.

It Comes at Night is Recommended If You Like: The Thing, The Others, The Blair Witch Project

Grade: 4 out of 5 Infections

What Won TV? – May 28-June 3, 2017

June 4, 2017

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In this feature, I look back at each day of the past week and determine what shows “won TV” for the night. That is, I consider every episode of television I watched that aired on a particular day and declare which was the best.

Sunday – Twin Peaks
Monday – Angie Tribeca
Tuesday – Downward Dog
Wednesday – Fargo-go-go-go!
Thursday – Beat Shazam once, shame on you. Beat Shazam twice, shame on Shazam.
Friday – RuPaul’s Drag Race
Saturday – Doctor Who

This Is a Movie Review: ‘3 Idiotas’ Scramble for Academic Glory in This Mexican Remake of a Bollywood Blockbuster

June 1, 2017

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This review was originally posted on News Cult in June 2017.

Starring: Alfonso Dosal, Martha Higareda, Germán Valdés III, Christian Vázquez, Vadhir Derbez, Rodrigo Murray

Director: Carlos Bolado

Running Time: 106 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Fairly Painful, Occasionally Crude Physical Comedy

Release Date: June 2, 2017

The Mexican comedy 3 Idiotas makes the case that Hollywood clichés about higher education translate easily south of the border and that those same clichés can still be entertaining when delivered by spirited performances. Based on 3 Idiots, one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time, Idiotas (the third of at least six remakes, including a planned American version) follows titular knuckleheads Pancho (Alfonso Dosal, a dead ringer for Rami Malek), Beto (Germán Valdés III), and Felipe (Christian Vázquez) as they work their way to an engineering degree. They are branded as fools not because of a lack of academic acumen (for the most part) but because of their tendency to run afoul of authority, particularly blowhard professor Esaclona (Rodrigo Murray).

Felipe is the first in his family to make it to college, Beto would rather be a photographer; these two get sufficient resolutions, but this is mostly Pancho’s story. Their college exploits are presented through a frame story, in which Felipe and Beto recount their earlier days while tracking down Pancho, who disappeared on the cusp of graduation. Pancho is one of the university’s most promising students, and his budding romance with med student Mariana is obviously headed for a happy ending, even though he ruins her sister’s wedding and his dad is the aforementioned Escalona. There are some rom-com detours into over-the-top complications, which are a bit frustrating, but they are not a dealbreaker when the crux of the story is the mix of coming-of-age maturation and aspirational academia.

Essentially, 3 Idiotas’ purpose is a combination of standing up to authority, inspiring its characters and viewers to invent new products, and scatology. That sounds like a ridiculous menu, but somehow it left me delighted throughout. As Escalona, Murray is fully committed to the power-hungry academic role that is the bane of many a cinematic free-thinker. His is an exaggerated stereotype, but he wears it well. The inspirational angle feels shoehorned in out of necessity; it is too vague to produce real results, but at least it is plenty earnest. And then there are the farts. So many farts. One character is branded with the nickname “Stinky McToilet.” Maybe that moniker lost some dignity in translation from Spanish to English, but quite frankly, I hope not.

And because this is a remake of an Indian film, there is Bollywood-style closing credits dance extravaganza. It pretty much comes out of nowhere, but how can you ever say no to the rhythm?

3 Idiotas is Recommended If You Like: Dead Poets Society, Easy A, Nacho Libre (for the farts)

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Scorched Scrotums

 

Billboard Hot Rock Songs – Week of June 10, 2017

May 31, 2017

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 – “Believer”
2. Linkin Park ft. Kiiara – “Heavy”
3. twenty one pilots – “Heathens”
4. Imagine Dragons – “Thunder”
5. Soundgarden – “Black Hole Sun”
6. Rag’n’Bone Man – “Human”
7. Audioslave – “Like a Stone”
8. Lord Huron – “The Night We Met”
9. Portugal. The Man – “Feel It Still”
10. Jesse Larson – “Woman”
11. Lana Del Rey ft. The Weeknd – “Lust for Life”
12. The Revivalists – “Wish I Knew You”
13. Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”
14. Soundgarden – “Fell on Black Days”
15. Paramore – “Hard Times”
16. Temple of the Dog – “Hunger Strike”
17. Fleetwood Mac – “The Chain”
18. Soundgarden – “Spoonman”
19. Audioslave – “I Am the Highway”
20. Audioslave – “Show Me How to Live”
21. Ocean Park Standoff – “Good News”
22. Electric Light Orchestra – “Mr. Blue Sky”
23. Muse – “Dig Down”
24. Soundgarden – “Outshined”
25. Temple of the Dog – “Say Hello 2 Heaven”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. The Chain
2. Like a Stone
3. Human
4. Mr. Blue Sky
5. Fell on Black Days
6. Show Me How to Live
7. Black Hole Sun
8. Feel It Still
9. Hunger Strike
10. Hard Times
11. Dig Down
12. Lust for Life
13. Spoonman

Billboard Hot 20 – Week of June 10, 2017

May 31, 2017

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. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee ft. Justin Bieber – “Despacito”
2. Bruno Mars – “24K Magic”
3. DJ Khaled ft. Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper, and Lil Wayne – “I’m the One”
4. Kendrick Lamar – “Humble.”
5. Ed Sheeran – “Shape of You”
6. Future – “Mask Off”
7. Zedd and Alessia Cara – “Stay”
8. The Chainsmokers and Coldplay – “Something Just Like This”
9. Lil Uzi Vert – “XO Tour Llif3”
10. Kygo x Selena Gomez – “It Ain’t Me”
11. Julia Michaels – “Issues”
12. James Arthur – “Say You Won’t Let Go”
13. Post Malone ft. Quavo – “Congratulations”
14. Sam Hunt – “Body Like a Back Road”
15. Imagine Dragons – “Believer”
16. KYLE ft. Lil Yachty – “iSpy”
17. Harry Styles – “Sign of the Times”
18. Miley Cyrus – “Malibu”
19. Brett Young – “In Case You Didn’t Know”
20. Kendrick Lamar – “DNA.”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Stay
2. Sign of the Times
3. Humble.
4. DNA.

This Is a Movie Review: Indie Rom-Coms Continue Chugging Along with Demetri Martin’s ‘Dean’

May 31, 2017

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This review was originally posted on News Cult in May 2017.

Starring: Demetri Martin, Kevin Kline, Gillian Jacobs, Rory Scovel, Mary Steenburgen

Director: Demetri Martin

Running Time: 87 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for A Little Bit of Language, A Little Bit of Relations

Release Date: June 2, 2017 (Limited)

If you look at Demetri Martin – the moptopped, artistically inclined comedian whose Wikipedia page once listed Socrates as an influence – and think “romantic comedy lead,” then chances are that you and I would get along famously. And wouldn’t you know it, we now have the perfect topic to discuss: Dean, a minor-key charmer serving as Martin’s directorial debut.

Martin plays the title character, a Brooklyn illustrator living through with the fallout of his mother’s death and a breakup with his ex-fiancée (Christine Woods). Instead of dealing with all that, he flies out to Los Angeles to meet with an ad agency interested in using his drawings. Alas, the pitch and the hipster-bro vibe put him off. (SNL’s Beck Bennett is perfect as the exec who remains on his office treadmill the entire scene.) At this point, Dean really should head back home and sort out matters with his father (Kevin Kline), who is eager to sell their house. But he finds himself too entranced by La La Land to head home, because he meets this girl named Nicky, and she is played by Gillian Jacobs, a Pittsburgh native who often inhabits West Coast gals who inadvertently knock the lead characters out of their stupors and makes it look effortless (it’s not a Manic Pixie Dream Girl thing, it’s a chill vibe thing).

Spoiler alert: this budding romance does not exactly end happily. But that does not mean there is no satisfying resolution to be had. The reason the title is Dean as opposed to “Dean & Nicky” or “Millennial Love Story” is because it is about the individual. (Dad, also gets his own storyline, a suitably engaging romance with his realtor, played by Mary Steenburgen.) There are plenty of stories about looking for love and growing up, and this one is hardly groundbreaking. But they keep being told because new storytellers keep creeping towards their thirties and forties. What we as viewers humbly request of them along the way is that they find honesty and individuality in their voice. And in the guise of Dean, I am happy to hear from Demetri Martin has to say.

Dean is Recommended If You Like: Demetri Martin’s illustrations, (500) Days of Summer, Celeste and Jesse Forever

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Pubic Clown Wigs

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