Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
March 28, 2025
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music Based on a True Story, Death of a Unicorn, Dreams on Toast, Forever Is a Feeling, Kyle Mooney, Lucy Dacus, Moretti, Opus, OPUS: The Moretti EP, The Darkness, The Real Me, The Woman in the Yard, Will Smith Leave a comment
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Death of a Unicorn (Theaters)
–The Woman in the Yard (Theaters) – Today’s the day.
Music
-Lucy Dacus, Forever Is a Feeling
-The Darkness, Dreams on Toast
-Kyle Mooney, The Real Me
–OPUS: The Moretti EP – I saw the movie, now I can’t stop listening.
-Will Smith, Based on a True Story
March 28, 2025
Cinema, Movie Reviews Aaron Paul, Ash, Ash movie, Beulah Koale, Eiza González, Flying Lotus, Iko Uwais, Kate Elliott Leave a comment
Her name’s not Ash, but things are looking pretty Ash-y (CREDIT: RLJE Films & Shudder)
Starring: Eiza González, Aaron Paul, Iko Uwais, Beulah Koale, Kate Elliott, Flying Lotus
Director: Flying Lotus
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Rating: R
Release Date: March 21, 2025 (Theaters)
I can’t say I’d ever like to find myself in an Ash Situation. Here’s how it goes down: an astronaut named Riya (Eiza González) wakes up to fellow crew members all dead before they can terraform a distant planet, and she has no idea what happened. She gradually starts to discover that their demises were most likely at the hands (or tentacles) of a parasitic alien. But even though this doesn’t exactly sound like a vacation to aspire to, maybe it was still a good idea to see this movie so that I can be prepared in case this ever does happen to me. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Give me a trippy sci-fi outer space warning over a true crime doc any day!
Grade: 2 Parasites out of 5 Lotuses (You Want Fewer Parasites)
March 27, 2025
Cinema, Movie Reviews Amber Midthunder, Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis, Mark Anthony Green, Murray Bartlett, Opus, Stephanie Suganami, Tatanka Means, Tony Hale, Young Manzino 1 Comment
Two of the cast members from the movie Opus are in this photographic image (CREDIT: Anna Kooris/A24)
Starring: Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Murray Bartlett, Juliette Lewis, Amber Midthunder, Stephanie Suganami, Young Manzino, Tatanka Means, Tony Hale
Director: Mark Anthony Green
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Rating: R
Release Date: March 14, 2025 (Theaters)
I don’t want to be a member of the cult at the heart of Opus, but I sure wish I could have been in the studio during those recording sessions! (John Malkovich has never sounded more impeccable.) The problem is twofold: I am opposed to cults in general, and also this particular cult’s goals are a little half-baked. It seems like they’re trying to achieve world domination by way of reawakening humanity’s artistic inspiration… good luck with all that.
Anyway, it was pretty fun while it lasted, minus all the killing. Make sure you listen to The Moretti EP!
Grade: NILE RODGERS AND THE-DREAM WROTE THE MUSIC!
March 26, 2025
Cinema, Movie Reviews A Working Man, Alana Boden, Andrej Kaminsky, Arianna Rivas, David Ayer, David Harbour, Emmett J. Scanlan, Eve Mauro, Isla Gie, Jason Flemyng, Jason Statham, Kristina Poli, Max Croes, Maximilian Osinski, Michael Peña, Noemi Gonzalez Leave a comment
I guess that’s what he is (Credit: Dan Smith/© 2025 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.)
Starring: Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng, Arianna Rivas, Michael Peña, David Harbour, Noemi Gonzalez, Emmett J. Scanlan, Eve Mauro, Maximilian Osinski, Max Croes, Kristina Poli, Andrej Kaminsky, Isla Gie, Alana Boden
Director: David Ayer
Running Time: 116 Minutes
Rating: R for Big Guns, Small Guns, and Even a Few Medium Guns
Release Date: March 28, 2025 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: Levon Cade is just trying to live a peaceful life as a construction worker in Chicago. But when his boss Joe’s (Michael Peña) daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) is kidnapped, he’s forced to revisit a side of himself he swore that he’d abandoned for good. There’s one actor who’s been specializing in characters like this more than anybody else the past 20 years or so, and once again Jason Statham is indeed in his sweet spot. (If you guessed Liam Neeson instead, I would argue that his ass-kicking characters are generally less ambivalent about getting violent than Statham’s.) Anyway, Jenny is now in the hands of human traffickers within the Russian mafia, who are certainly a formidable adversary. But to reiterate: Cade is a one-man wrecking crew played by Jason Statham.
What Made an Impression?: Destruction/Efficiency Dilemma: Lately, I find myself bemoaning the extreme measures of ultra-violent action flicks more and more, and I have to ask, “Did I change, or did the movies?” Then I remember that I never used to watch this genre all that much when I was younger. So the most likely answer is that neither of us changed, we just got to know each other. Anyway, I’m not trying to say that A Working Man and its ilk cause real-life violence, because I genuinely don’t believe that that’s the case (at least not in a direct one-to-one correlation). But after having my eyeballs treated to a series of gaping gunshot wounds, I can \ repeat to myself “It’s just a movie” only so often before it becomes too exhausting to handle. At least David Ayer and Sylvester Stallone’s script is a little quippier than the typical Statham actioner. It’s still a blunt force instrument, but it’s got enough self-awareness for me to appreciate it.
The Shakedown: Cade has a couple of vulnerabilities in the form of a tween daughter named Merry (Isla Gie) and a father-in-law who hates him because he blames him for the death of Merry’s mom. You might expect that the Russians would target Cade’s family to try to make him desperate, and they certainly do, but it thankfully doesn’t get as traumatic as it could. But anyway, I don’t really want to focus on all that right now. Instead, I want to mention how great a relationship Merry and her dad have, and how nice it is that he’s able to keep his PTSD in check whenever he’s around her, and also there’s an early scene where they go out for a lunch of burgers and milkshakes. We don’t see them actually downing any of that greasy grub, but it nonetheless looked delicious to the point that it had me eagerly anticipating my own first milkshake of 2025 once the weather gets warm enough. And I’m grateful for that! Most bloody action flicks don’t bother to include shots of delicious sweet treats, nor do they shoot them so lovingly as they are here. But A Working Man went above and beyond.
A Working Man is Recommended If You Like: All the other Jason Stathams. This one’s a lot like those.
Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Shotgun Blasts
March 25, 2025
Cinema, Movie Reviews Alex Scharfman, Anthony Carrigan, Death of a Unicorn, Jenna Ortega, Jessica Hynes, Paul Rudd, Richard E. Grant, Steve Park, Sunita Mani, Téa Leoni, Will Poulter 1 Comment
This is what looks like when a unicorn dies (CREDIT: Balazs Goldi/A24)
Starring: Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, Richard E. Grant, Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, Anthony Carrigan, Sunita Mani, Steve Park, Jessica Hynes
Director: Alex Scharfman
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Rating: R for Supernatural Creature Violence and Some Drug Use
Release Date: March 28, 2025 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: Widower Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) are on their way to sort out some legal business at the mansion of Elliot’s boss, Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant). The occasion is that Odell has terminal cancer, and he’s put Elliot in charge of sorting out his estate. But thanks to an unexpected visitor, they may not have to worry about that, as Elliot and Ridley crash into a one-horned mythical quadruped right before arriving. The unicorn looks like a goner, but before it perishes, its blood appears to magically cure Elliot’s eyesight and Ridley’s acne. And do those healing properties extend to cancer? Why yes, they seem to be limitless. The Leopolds quickly become greedy with the possibilities of curing every physical ailment everywhere, while Ridley tries to warn everyone that they might want to be careful about slaughtering these majestic creatures.
What Made an Impression?: Predictably Vicious: If you find yourself sympathizing with Ridley throughout Death of a Unicorn, then you are watching this movie in the way that the universe intended. If however you find her annoying, then you might be a rich a-hole. Or perhaps more generously*, you agree with her but you wish that there were more depth to these characters. (*-More generous to you, not to the movie.) Basically, everyone behaves exactly as you would expect them to considering this situation. Ridley is befuddled and indignant, Elliot is ineffectual, the Leopolds are outrageously arrogant, and the unicorns are magnificent and prideful. That predictability is more of a feature than a bug, as you’re supposed to be eternally frustrated at all the would-be modern-day Prometheuses.
Something Mystical: Here are a couple of things that happen in Death of a Unicorn that you might not be able to predict from the trailer: Ridley develops a psychic connection with the unicorns, and she remembers when she was on vacation with her parents and they saw tapestries at a museum depicting people being slaughtered by unicorns. That woo-woo and that alternate history certainly make sense when supernatural animals play a big part in the story. Although for the most part the action all remains grounded in the real world, at least as much as it can. Perhaps some viewers would prefer going further off the deep end. As for me, I was mostly satisfied with the pleasant mix of a fantastical flight of fancy, sarcastic humor, and bursts of grievous horror.
Death of a Unicorn is Recommended If You Like: Body horror crossed with Amblin wonderment
Grade: 3 out of 5 Horns
March 22, 2025
Cinema, Movie Reviews Anthony Mackie, Basel Adra, Candi Milo, Captain America: Brave New World, Carl Lumbly, Daffy Duck, Danny Ramirez, Eric Bauza, Fred Tatasciore, Geoffrey Rush, George Henare, Giancarlo Esposito, Hamdan Ballal, Harrison Ford, James Ashcroft, John Lithgow, Julius Onah, Laraine Newman, No Other Land, Peter Browngardt, Peter MacNicol, Petunia Pig, Porky Pig, Rachel Szor, Shira Haas, The Day the Earth Blew Up, The Rule of Jenny Pen, Tim Blake Nelson, Wayne Knight, Xosha Roquemore, Yuval Abraham 1 Comment
CREDIT: (Clockwise from Top Left): Marvel Entertainment; Ketchup Entertainment; Stan Alley/IFC Films; Cinetic
Oh wow, look at the time! I guess I’ve been pretty busy the last few weeks. (For a variety of reasons!) That means I’ve got more than one movie to catch up with my thoughts about. It’s quite a mix that we’ve got on the agenda: some blockbusters or would-be blockbusters, a heartbreaking award winner, and an indie from the depths of the muck.
First up, we checked back into the MCU, and I found myself in rare agreement with SNL‘s Drunk Uncle, which is to say: “Not my Captain America!” Nah, actually, Sam Wilson, you’re cool, dude. But Brave New World was neither brave, nor new, nor a world. Discuss.
March 21, 2025
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television Ash, Benny Blanco, For Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women), I Said I Love You First, Is, Japanese Breakfast, Lola Kirke, Misericordia, My Morning Jacket, Selena Gomez, Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco, Snow White, Snow White 2025, The Conners, Trailblazer Leave a comment
That depends on what the definition of the album “Is” is
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Ash (Theaters) – Trippy-looking space movie directed by Flying Lotus.
–Misericordia (Theaters)
–Snow White (Theaters) – Starring Rachel Zegler as Snow.
TV
–The Conners Season 7 Premiere (March 26 on ABC) – Final Season Alert!
Music
-Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco, I Said I Love You First
-Japanese Breakfast, For Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women)
-Lola Kirke, Trailblazer
-My Morning Jacket, Is
March 20, 2025
Cinema, Movie Reviews Alain Guiradie, Catherine Frot, David Ayala, Félix Kysyl, Jacques Develay, Jean-Baptiste Durand, Misericordia, Salomé Lopes, Sébastien Faglain, Tatiana Spivakova 1 Comment
TFW you have Misericordia (CREDIT: Janus Films/Screenshot)
Starring: Félix Kysyl, Catherine Frot, Jean-Baptiste Durand, Jacques Develay, David Ayala, Sébastien Faglain, Tatiana Spivakova, Salomé Lopes
Director: Alain Guiradie
Running Time: 102 Minutes
Rating: Unrated, But Featuring Graphic Nudity and A Few Bursts of Violence
Release Date: March 21, 2025 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: It only takes one person to rock an entire community to its core. Especially when that community is a small enclave in rural France, and that person is the enigmatic Jérémie (Félix Kysyl). He’s back in his hometown to attend a funeral, and he ends up staying in an empty bedroom at the house of the widowed Martine (Catherine Frot), mother of his childhood friend, the hot-tempered Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand). Vincent suspects that Jérémie is trying to sleep with his mother, which he almost definitely isn’t, but Jérémie isn’t exactly the sort to just let a little offense roll off him easily. Eventually, the conflict boils over to the point that everything changes irrevocably.
What Made an Impression?: There Was Never Any Turning Back: Misericordia is one of those movies where something shocking happens about a third of the way through, so it would be fair to call that part of the premise. And indeed, it’s in the synopsis and the trailer, though it plays more like a twist that you don’t see coming. Considering this film’s powerful Hitchcockian vibes, I must say that this situation is like the conundrum of describing Psycho: is Norman Bates killing Marion Crane part of the premise, or a surprise dagger? (Spoiler alert.) If you were watching it in 1960, perhaps it was the former, but ever since then, it’s been the latter. And I imagine our conceptualization of Jérémie as a moviegoing society will turn out to be quite similar. If you’re fated to see Misericordia with no preconceived notions, you’ll be wondering how he could do such a thing. But eventually you’ll surely come to understand that that was the only way he ever was.
Identity Crises: And yet, despite that firm conclusion I just made about Jérémie, much of Misericordia is about his struggle to reconcile his own behavior with his sense of self. He can’t explain why he did what he did in that moment, but you get the sense that he would struggle to define himself even without a guilty conscience. He’s just a lost soul awkwardly wearing a human costume as he wanders along this unforgiving plane. Just about every other character wears their ostensible roles awkwardly as well. There’s the local priest (Jacques Develay), who’s more interested in seducing the mysterious protagonist while also offering a warped version of spiritual guidance that’s useful in some ways, morally dubious in others. A neighbor named Walter (David Ayala) becomes Jérémie’s loyal drinking buddy, while also becoming baffled by everything that’s going on around him. Meanwhile, Martine is too stuck in grief to act rationally, while the lead detective (Sébastien Faglain) has no idea how much of a fool he is. It’s a relentlessly topsy-turvy world when we bumble our way through moral dilemmas.
Misericordia is Recommended If You Like: Psycho, Match Point, Mushroom Foraging
Grade: 4 out of 5 Houseguests
March 19, 2025
Cinema, Movie Reviews Anthony Hopkins, Bill Skarsgård, David Yarovesky, Locked Leave a comment
The Locked guy before he gets Locked (CREDIT: The Avenue)
Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Anthony Hopkins
Director: David Yarovesky
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Rating: R for Road Rage in a Parked Cars
Release Date: March 21, 2025 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: Eddie Barrish (Bill Skarsgård) is desperate. Desperate, I say! And I’m pretty sure you’ll be inclined to agree with me if you go see Locked. He’s been trying to get his life back on track for the sake of his young daughter, but that’s a little hard to do when he doesn’t have the cash he needs to pay for his car repairs so that he can go pick her up from school. So he turns to carjacking for a quick score, which turns out so much worse than he ever could have possibly imagined. That’s because the vehicle he targets happens to be owned by a fellow named William (Anthony Hopkins), who’s been a victim of one of too many carjackings himself. So Eddie ends up trapped in the car, with William having rigged it up so that everything is controlled remotely. A simple apology is hardly enough to end this nightmare, and thus a deadly game of very targeted vigilantism commences.
What Made an Impression?: Sociopathic Overload: William is basically the answer to the question, “What if instead of bats, Bruce Wayne was inspired by felines, specifically the way that they mercilessly toy with mice before eating them?” The police were useless to him when he needed them, so now he’s enforcing his own brand of justice. But you get the sense that he’s just been looking for an excuse to behave this way for a very long time. Whenever Eddie pleads with him about how the deck is stacked against guys like him, William just automatically shuts him down and ups the torture. Hopkins is certainly talented enough to make William’s sociopathy entertaining, but it’s more than a little overwhelming when it’s this relentless.
Efficient Mileage: About 75% of Locked takes place in one location, and its cast consists almost entirely of just two guys, one of whom primarily phones in his performance. With a movie like this, you will likely end up with one of two reactions: either “Wow, this is cheap, and it shows,” or “Wow, this is cheap, but they worked around their limitations.” In this case, it’s mostly the latter. The subject matter may be torturous, and the villain may be overcooked, but director David Yarovesky keeps everything locked in gear. All the tightly contained torture may turn a lot of viewers claustrophobic, but it’s possible to appreciate the technical chops even while you’re wincing.
Locked is Recommended If You: Wish That One of the Saw Movies Had Taken Place in a Car
Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Vigilantes
March 14, 2025
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Podcasts, Sports Black Bag, Coheed and Cambria, March Madness, Novocaine, Opus, Podcasts, The Day the Earth Blew Up, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, Vaxis – Act III: The Father of Make Believe, Wayne Brady's What If?! with Jonathan Mangum Leave a comment
worth a listen (CREDIT: Headgum)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Black Bag (Theaters)
–The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (Theaters)
–Novocaine (Theaters)
–Opus (Theaters) – Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich are in this.
Sports
-Men’s March Madness (March 18-April 7 on CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV) – And Selection Sunday is on Sunday the 16th on CBS.
-Women’s March Madness (March 19-April 6 on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPNEWS) – And Selection Sunday is on Sunday the 16th on ESPN.
Music
-Coheed and Cambria, Vaxis – Act III: The Father of Make Believe
Podcasts
–Wayne Brady’s What If?! with Jonathan Mangum – The improvisational spirit is strong with this one.
Jmunney's Blog 