Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
March 29, 2024
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter, La chimera, Rugrats, Rugrats Passover Leave a comment
Part-y! (CREDIT: Nickelodeon/Screenshot)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–La chimera (Theaters)
TV
-“A Rugrats Passover” (Available to Stream on Paramount+) – A springtime viewing tradition of mine!
Music
-Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter
February 10, 2023
Best of 2022, Best of Music 2022, Music Albums, Best of 2022, Beyoncé, Cody Carpenter, Daniel DDavies, Firestarter, Florence + the Machine, John Carpenter, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Lizzo, Mandy Moore, Music, Santigold, Silversun Pickups, Soccer Mommy, Soft Cell, The Black Keys, The Weeknd, Tove Lo, Yeah Yeah Yeahs Leave a comment
Before publishing this list, I listened to each of these albums again to make sure that I still liked them. And I did! (But there was one other that I had on my preliminary list that I ultimately decided I didn’t like enough to include. Bonus points if you can guess what it was.)
February 2, 2023
Best of 2022, Best of Music 2022, Music Best of 2022, Beyoncé, Big Sean, Bob Moses, Chandrabose, Ellie Goulding, Kaala Bhairava, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Lizzo, M. M. Keeravani, Music, Naatu Naatu, Rahul Sipligunj, Regina Spektor, Steve Lacy, The Black Keys, The Weeknd, Tove Lo, Vedala Hemachandra, Weird Al Yankovic, Yeah Yeah Yeahs Leave a comment
CREDIT: Music Video Screenshots
Strong showing from movie tunes this year. And man, I just love it when those music-makers just jam out and go for it.
July 29, 2022
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Podcasts, Television Beavis and Butt-Head, Beyoncé, DC League of Super-Pets, Inside Jeopardy!, Maggie Rogers, Podcasts, Renaissance, reservation dogs, Sharp Stick, Surrender, Vengeance Leave a comment
B and B-H 2022 (CREDIT: Paramount Plus/Screenshot)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–DC League of Super-Pets (Theaters)
–Vengeance (Theaters)
–Sharp Stick (Theaters) – Lena Dunham’s getting back into movies.
TV
–Reservation Dogs Season 2 Premiere (August 3 on Hulu)
–Beavis and Butt-Head Reboot Premiere (August 4 on Paramount+) – Fire!
Music
-Beyoncé, Renaissance
-Maggie Rogers, Surrender
Podcasts
–Inside Jeopardy! – Hosted by actual Jeopardy! producers!
July 31, 2020
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Television An American Pickle, Beyoncé, Black is King, Muppets Now, Star Trek: Lower Decks, The Go-Gos Leave a comment
CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot
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 is King (July 31 on Disney+) – A new visual album from Beyoncé.
–An American Pickle (August 6 on HBO Max)
TV
–The Go-Go’s (July 31 on Showtime)
–Muppets Now Series Premiere (July 31 on Disney+) – It’s time to play the music again!
–Star Trek: Lower Decks Series Premiere (August 6 on CBS All Access) – The first animated series in Trek history.
June 25, 2020
Best of the 2010s, Best of the Decade, Music Adele, Ariana Grande, Beck, Best of the 2010s, Best of the Decade, Beyoncé, Carly Rae Jepsen, Charli XCX, Childish Gambino, Daft Punk, David Bowie, Hans Zimmer, Janelle Monáe, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Kendrick Lamar, Kesha, Lady GaGa, Lana del Rey, Lizzo, Lorde, Major Lazer, Miguel, Miley Cyrus, Pharrell Williams, Rihanna, Sia, St. Vincent, Tame Impala, Taylor Swift, Tegan and Sara, The Black Keys, The Weeknd, Tove Lo, Vampire Weekend, Weird Al Yankovic 1 Comment
CREDIT: YouTube Screenshots
One more list! One more list!
My Best of the 2010s list-making journey has finally come to a close! (Or has it? … For now, it has at least. The future will come as it may, and it may just surprise you, and me.) All this week, I’ve been posting my rankings of a few categories that I was inspired to put together after submitting them to a Best of the 2010s polls that I’m participating in with some of my fellow cultural aficionados. To wrap it all up, I guide you along to the realm of music and lyrics, as I present the Best Musical Artists of the 2010s.
My criteria was similar to that of my choices for Best Film Directors. I considered a combination of how much I enjoyed their musical output as well as how much – and how well – they influenced the industry at large.
April 16, 2020
Best of the 2010s, Best of the Decade, Music Adele, Ariana Grande, AWOLNATION, Best of the 2010s, Best of the Decade, Beyoncé, Carly Rae Jepsen, Childish Gambino, Daft Punk, Disclosure, DJ Snake, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Kendrick Lamara, Kesha, Lana del Rey, Lil Jon, Lorde, Miguel, Miley Cyrus, Nile Rodgers, Pharrell Williams, Rihanna, Sia, Tame Impala, Taylor Swift, The Black Keys, The Chemical Brothers, Tove Lo 1 Comment
CREDIT: YouTube Screenshots
Of all the pieces of art and entertainment that I’m ranking for the decade, songs are probably the most personal. Yet somehow I feel compelled to consider how they affected the world at large moreso than all the other categories. The tunes that I value the most aren’t just the ones that make my own heart sing but also the ones that draw all of us closer together. So as I assembled this list, I asked myself both, “What has made me dance these past 10 years?” and “How would I like to dance with everyone else?” Here’s what that playlist looks like.
(I aimed to stick only to songs that were released as singles, as opening this to deep album cuts would’ve made things so overheated.)
April 2, 2020
Best of the 2010s, Best of the Decade, Music A Seat at the Table, Audio Video Disco, Avicii, Awaken My Love!, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Best of the Decade, Beyoncé, Black Messiah, Blackstar, Brothers, Childish Gambino, Circuital, D'Angelo, D'Angelo & the Vanguard, Daft Punk, David Bowie, Disclosure, Duck Sauce, Justice, Kanye West, Lana del Rey, Lemonade, Lonerism, Lorde, Miguel, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, My Morning Jacket, No Geography, Norman Fucking Rockwell, Pure Heroine, Quack, Random Access Memories, Settle, Solange, St. Vincent, Strange Mercy, Tame Impala, The Black Keys, The Chemical Brothers, True, Wildheart 1 Comment
One of the big themes about entertainment in the past decade is the incomprehensible explosion of available content in every medium. While this may be a recent development in cinema and television, it’s been the case for music for centuries, or even millennia. Since humans have been banging on rocks and clapping their hands, really. Of course, it was a little more recent than that when recorded music became readily available.
This is all to say, I of course haven’t listened to every album of the past ten years that made its way onto SoundCloud or Spotify, or even all the Billboard chart-toppers. But I did listen to enough of them to be able to assemble a vibrant and varied soundtrack of my life in the 2010s. Here are the musical collections of the era that I just haven’t been able to stop pushing play on.
[4/2/20 2:00 PM UPDATE: This post originally mistakenly included Justice’s †, which came out in 2007.]
July 17, 2019
Cinema, Movie Reviews Alfre Woodard, Beyoncé, Billy Eichner, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Disney remakes, Donald Glover, Eric Andre, Florence Kasumba, James Earl Jones, JD McCrary, John Kani, John Oliver, Jon Favreau, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Shahadi Wright Joseph, The Lion King, The Lion King 2019 1 Comment
CREDIT: Disney Enterprises
Starring: Donald Glover, JD McCrary, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner, James Earl Jones, John Kani, John Oliver, Beyoncé, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Florence Kasumba, Eric Andre, Keegan-Michael Key
Director: Jon Favreau
Running Time: 118 Minutes
Rating: PG for Leonine Fratricide
Release Date: July 19, 2019
I’ve expressed before that Disney’s recent spate of remakes of its animated catalog is not an inherently bad idea. Plenty of stories have been told and then subsequently retold in fresh ways. For a classic example, William Shakespeare’s plays have remained relevant as many different versions have had their say over hundreds of years. But the major difference, and this is especially clear in the case of The Lion King, is the source document. A feature film that has been recorded on and uploaded onto a variety of durable formats sets a more indelible imprint than an initial theatrical performance that was presented before such recording technology existed. If you want to revisit the journey of Simba’s ascendance to the throne, you can always pop in the DVD or find the right streaming channel. Thus, a fresh feature length retelling demands that there be something new on offer.
The Jon Favreau-directed photoreal Lion King remake does in fact offer something new, at least (or if only) on a technical level. Every speck of dirt and strand of fur is rendered in painstaking fashion. But to what end? I’m reminded of Steven Soderbergh’s mashup of Hitchcock’s original Psycho and Gus van Sant’s remake, which is the sort of thing that you do just because you feel like it. And so, as far as I can tell, the team at Disney recreated the “Circle of Life” opening sequence with an updated animation style just because they felt like it. I have a bit of a Pavlovian reaction to that wonder of a kickoff, but this time it was just a secondhand Pavlov to a secondhand routine.
On a positive note, I will admit that I found this viewing experience valuable for making me feel more amenable to the adult perspective of believing that Simba just needs to get around to taking care of his responsibility. But I don’t know if that is a unique feature of this version or just a function of me happening to see this particular version instead of the original on this particular day.
In conclusion, while I have mostly focused on the disappointments, I do ultimately recommend nü-Lion King thanks to the Timon and Pumbaa of it all. As Simba’s meerkat and warthog companions, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen are given more free rein than anyone else in the cast to find the characterization that suits them. Their performances avoid any inadvisable postmodern Shrek-style smart-aleckry, while also suggesting that they are at least self-aware of the all-franchise-fare-all-the-time pop culture landscape they are operating within. If you’re going to go back to the well, you can’t be too precious about what came before, and thankfully, enough of Timon and Pumbaa’s non-preciousness is on display here for us to get by.
The Lion King is Recommended If You Like: The wonders of animation technology, Perfectly suited yin/yang comedy duos
Grade: 3 out of 5 Circles of Life
March 4, 2017
Best of 2016, Best of Music 2016, Music A Tribe Called Quest, Alessia Cara, Ariana Grande, BANKS, Beck, Beyoncé, Bishop Briggs, Childish Gambino, Drake, Flume, Glass Animals, Gold, Gucci Mane, Highly Suspect, Kaleo, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Kiiara, KONGOS, Lady GaGa, Leonard Cohen, Phantogram, Rae Sremmurd, Rag'n'Bone Man, Rihanna, Sean Paul, Sia, Tove Lo 1 Comment
All songs on this list were released as singles in 2016, or 2015 but didn’t make an impact until 2016.
1. Kiiara – “Gold” – An ingenious production trick wins the top spot. The best music in the world rewires your brain.
2. Beyoncé ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Freedom” – Beyoncé BUSTS out every emotion of the year.
3. Phantogram – “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore” – I can feel myself dissolving in the despair.
4. Lady GaGa – “Perfect Illusion” – GaGa’s crying out in beautiful pain.
5. Kanye West – “Fade” – From another dimension.
6. Rag‘n’Bone Man – “Human” – The blues are alive and kicking.
7. Sia – “The Greatest” – Sia’s career is the soundtrack for perseverance.
8. Alessia Cara – “Scars to Your Beautiful” – What could have been an anodyne message piece instead infuses an influx of attitude.
9. Flume ft. Tove Lo – “Say It” – An airy, effervescent blast from 2016’s top DJ.
10. Childish Gambino – “Me and Your Mama” – Where did this burst of neo-P-Funk come from?!
11. Rae Sremmurd ft. Gucci Mane – “Black Beatles” – This sounds like nostalgia and the future.
12. Glass Animals – “Life Itself” – Alternative quirk’s top spot of the year.
13. Bishop Briggs – “River” – I need at least one lady rocker belting it out like this per annum.
14. Beyoncé – “Formation” – The production is so much more adventurous and more mature from Queen Bey than ever before.
15. BANKS – “Gemini Feed” – Icy and boopy, with attitude to spare.
16. Leonard Cohen – “You Want It Darker” – I’m vociferously nodding along to every declaration Mr. Cohen makes.
17. Kaleo – “Way Down We Go” – That title is sort of like musical onomatopoeia.
18. Highly Suspect – “My Name is Human” – These guys from Cape Cod ought to be rocking stadiums to their core.
19. Beck – “Wow” – Beck’s gonna keep uncovering these strange corners in the aural landscape.
20. Kongos – “Take It From Me” – These South African rockers are totally in control.
21. Tove Lo – “Cool Girl” – Tove keeps freaking up the airwaves.
22. A Tribe Called Quest – “We the People” – A necessary anthem.
23. Sia ft. Sean Paul – “Cheap Thrills” – Bounce along when you’re looking for fun.
24. Ariana Grande – “Into You” – Features the year’s most killer opening line
25. Rihanna ft. Drake – “Work” – One of those great songs that defy natural analysis.
Jmunney's Blog 