Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Ariana Grande/Cher

December 21, 2025

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

Cher-ing is caring (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

Jeff “jmunney” Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then reviews all the sketches and segments according to a “wacky” theme.

Wow, would you look at that? For the 9th episode of the 51st season of Saturday Night Live, we’ve got Ariana Grande as host and the one and only Cher as musical guest. I appreciate this reality we’re living in. At least this little slice of it.

As this is the last new episode before the 25th, and I’ve been in a particularly festive mood this holiday season, my reviewing gimmick for this episode will consist of saying “Merry Christmas” to whatever aspect of each sketch most deserves it.

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‘Wicked: For Good’ Touches Down and Gets Some Things Off Its Chest

November 19, 2025

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To have and to Wicked, For Good and for worse (CREDIT: Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures)

Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Marissa Bode, Ethan Slater, Michelle Yeoh, Sharon D. Clarke, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Colman Domingo

Director: Jon M. Chu

Running Time: 137 Minutes

Rating: PG for Steamy Sensuality and Broom Fights

Release Date: November 21, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Oz is of course a wonderful and magical place, but it isn’t always filled with honesty. That is what Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) is desperately trying to tell us at the beginning of Wicked: For Good. Now that she knows the dark truth about what the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) are up to, she’s gone off into hiding into the woods as she plots to lift the curtain and free the animals. Meanwhile, Glinda (Ariana Grande) is taking a much less revolutionary approach as an official representative of Oz, though she still holds out hope that she and Elphaba can reconcile. On top of all that, Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) is caught in the middle between these witchy ladies, Elphaba’s sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) is now governor of Munchkinland, her Munchkin friend Boq (Ethan Slater) is bristling at his position working for her, and a certain visitor from the Midwestern United States is about to get dumped into the middle of all this finagling.

What Made an Impression?: Another Way of Looking at Things: It’s a simple realization, but worth drawing out: the whole endeavor of Wicked on the big screen is a matter of shifting perspectives. Indeed, that was already true about this franchise when it previously existed in just book form and then as a stage musical examining a decades-old and oft-revisited property from exciting new angles. As someone who’s never read Gregory Maguire’s novel (or any of its sequels) or ever seen the show, I’m only catching a whiff of the panorama expansion that these big screen adaptations have established. But even that lack of perspective is another perspective! So I understand your frustration, Elphaba, when everyone else is unable or unwilling to see the bigger picture. And you too can have that realization! All you have to do is open your eyes to how much your eyes remain closed.
We’ve Made Mistakes, Now What Do We Do?: Everything comes home to roost in this conclusive chapter, which is how things tend to go in conclusive chapters, after all. In this case that means we see a much more dour Wizard, a warier dynamic between friends and former friends, and a thoroughly less whimsical populace. That equals a significantly less fun outing compared to the first Wicked movie, though the upside is that the psychological depths are more acutely felt and impossible to miss. There’s a sense of inevitability that at times can come off as deflating but that also feels honest and necessary. Now’s not the time to soar but to carve out a compromise you can live with in an imperfect world. Is that a formula for keeping the fire of cinematic magic fully aflame? I have mixed thoughts on that matter, but the final warnings we’re left to reckon with nevertheless remain timeless.

Wicked: For Good is Recommended If You Like: Filling in the edges

Grade: 3 out of 5 Bubbles

When ‘The Wedding Banquet’ Lasted ‘Until Dawn’

April 29, 2025

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TFW it’s April at the movies (CREDIT: Sony Pictures/Screenshot; BleeckerStreet/ShivHansPictures)

The Wedding Banquet (2025)

Starring: Han Gi-Chan, Kelly Marie Tran, Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Joan Chen, Youn Yuh-jung

Director: Andrew Ahn

Running Time: 103 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: April 11, 2025 (Theaters)

Until Dawn

Starring: Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Maia Mitchell, Peter Stormare

Director: David F. Sandberg

Running Time: 103 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: April 25, 2025 (Theaters)

Let me be absolutely clear about one thing: I would NOT want The Wedding Banquet to last Until Dawn.

Fortunately, these are two separate movies that I’m talking about right now. And further fortunately, you don’t have to attend a matrimonial event to watch The Wedding Banquet, nor do you have to stay up all night to watch Until Dawn. (Although actually a wedding-themed movie marathon during my own nuptials sounds like a pretty grand idea. I’ll have to store that away for future reference, thank you.)

Anyway, to quickly sum up my most essential takeaways from this pair of flicks: The Wedding Banquet lovingly underscores the value of interlocking the intricacies of friends, family, and lovers no matter how queer you are, while Until Dawn is quite possibly the most exciting sandbox Peter Stormare has ever been given to play around in (give or take a Gorb).

Grades:
The Wedding Banquet: 333 Grandmas out of 444 Ruses
Until Dawn: It Was a Darky and Occcasionally Stormare Night

‘Wicked’ Takes Flight and Delivers the Zest

November 20, 2024

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Wicky-wicky-Wicked (CREDIT: Universal Pictures)

Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Arian Grande, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James

Director: Jon M. Chu

Running Time: 160 Minutes

Rating: PG for The Birth of the Flying Monkeys

Release Date: November 22, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Is there a single living soul who’s never encountered any of the many adaptations of L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? One of the most popular is surely the musical Wicked, based on the revisionist novel by Gregory Maguire. But just in case you’re coming into totally fresh to the big screen version, here are the key details: Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) is a green-skinned outcast in the Land of Oz who encounters the uber-popular Galinda Upland (Ariana Grande) as they enroll at Shiz University. After initially clashing, they forge an unlikely friendship while learning the ways of magic under the tutelage of Headmistress Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). Elphaba demonstrates prodigious supernatural talents that are the envy of everyone else. That puts her on a collision course with the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), who wants to utilize her skills for his own mysterious ends. Meanwhile, conspiracies are underfoot that could transform Oz forever and lead Elphaba and Galinda towards their inescapable destinies.

What Made an Impression?: A Witchy Good Time: Maybe I’m totally kooky for saying this, but for me, the main appeal of Wicked isn’t the music. Sure, there are some culture-shifting numbers (“Defying Gravity” doesn’t pull out any stops in its silver screen moment, that’s for sure), but for my money, it’s all about the crackling interplay between Elphaba and Galinda. And true, singing is definitely a big part of their interactions, but they make an enduring impression no matter how they communicate, with Erivo and Grande emphatically making the roles their own. Now, I’ve never seen the stage version, so I suppose I can’t make that statement with complete authority, but they are in no way doing mere impressions of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. In Erivo’s hands, Elphaba is a force of nature who is never to be underestimated, while Grande (who’s credited by her full name of Ariana Grande-Butera) makes a total hoot out of the profound insecurity of the popular girl.
Don’t Take Magic for Granted: The world of Wicked may have originated from source material that’s more than a hundred years old, but it would fit right at home with the many young adult fantasy series of the past couple decades, what with the witches and the magical school and the talking animals. But this story is a little more complicated than just a metaphor for adolescence. Magical and non-magical beings exist uneasily alongside each other, and political machinations are tricky to parse. Jeff Goldblum’s casting as the Wizard proves to be a stroke of genius, as he utilizes his signature offbeat diction to charm anyone who can’t immediately see through to his charlatan nature. But while there is plenty of subterfuge afoot, there is also plenty to love about this version of Oz. And yet, it seems like there’s also always someone lurking around every corner, ready to snatch that goodness away. So appreciate the magic while you can, and do your best to understand why someone wouldn’t want you to be able to. (Also, take note of this Slight Spoiler: despite the lack of acknowledgement in the advertising, this is just Part 1, with Part 2 due to arrive in theaters in November 2025.)

Wicked is Recommended If You Like: Schoolyard cattiness, Baritone goats, Blinding lights

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Brooms

‘The Garfield Movie’ is Like 100 Tons of the Silliest Lasagna You’ve Ever Consumed

May 21, 2024

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This review was written on a Monday. (CREDIT: DNEG Animation)

Starring: Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillén, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, Janelle James, Snoop Dogg

Director: Mark Dindal

Running Time: 101 Minutes

Rating: PG for Kitty Calamities

Release Date: May 24, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Everyone’s favorite lasagna-loving feline is back on the big screen, and this time, it’s called… The Garfield Movie! (I guess all those other cinematic outings were merely “A” Garfield Movie?) Anyway, now he’s voiced by Chris Pratt, and his gluttony is fueled by his owner Jon Arbuckle’s (Nicholas Hoult) seemingly limitless credit card and all the food delivery apps he can get his paws. He’s pretty happy just lounging around devouring his daily feasts with his beagle buddy Odie (Harvey Guillén). But then his absentee dad Vic (Samuel L. Jackson) shows up out of the blue to wrangle him into a hero’s journey, as they attempt to heist some milk from a farm to square away Vic’s debt with Jinx (Hannah Waddingham), the devilish crime boss Persian cat.

What Made an Impression?: Slingshot All Day: I’m not going to call out a cartoon for its unrealistic portrayal of physics. After all, part of the advantages of this medium is that it doesn’t have to be bound by the laws of science in the same way that live action movies are. That comes into play with a series of train-based set pieces, as Garfield fails to board one of the cars cleanly and ends up getting bounced around by a ridiculous series of objects providing an inordinate amount of thrust. I wasn’t scandalized by the lack of respect for the natural world, but I was befuddled. Perhaps if I had been in a sillier mood, I would have been more ready to throw out a laugh or several.
Wait, What World is This?: The plot of The Garfield Movie isn’t much to write about (or at least it’s not much that I’m interested in writing about), so instead I’m focusing on the weird details that made me go, what the heck is the context here? To wit: at one point during Garfield’s adventures getting tossed hither and thither, he flies by a giant balloon float version of… himself. So does that mean that this movie is taking place on Thanksgiving? And that Garfield is famous in this world as an actual real-world somewhat-anthropomorphic kitty?
Also, what’s the deal with all the blatant product placement? I guess Garfield is just a classic capitalist consumer with a bad case of brand loyalty. Perhaps you won’t notice these details as much as I did. Or perhaps you will notice them but will find them amusing. The people in my screening who were cracking up the most appeared to be in their twenties or thirties, so you apparently don’t need to be a kid for these shenanigans to work. But you probably do need to hate Mondays and LOVE telling people that you hate Mondays.

The Garfield Movie is Recommended If You: Believe That Mass Quantities of Food Are the Most Hilarious Thing Ever

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Tabbies

Once Within a Dicks: The Creator

October 25, 2023

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CREDIT: Oscilloscope Laboratories/Screenshot

The Creator

Starring: John David Washington, Madeleine Yuna Voyles, Gemma Chan, Allison Janney, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, Amar Chadha-Patel, Ralph Ineson

Director: Gareth Edwards

Running Time: 133 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: September 29, 2023 (Theaters)

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And You May Ask Yourself: What Awaits Us in ‘The Lost City’?

March 22, 2022

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The Lost City (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures)

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Patti Harrison, Oscar Nuñez, Brad Pitt, Raymond Lee, Bowen Yang

Directors: Aaron and Adam Nee

Running Time: 112 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for A Few Bursts of Violence and Strategically Shot Nudity

Release Date: March 25, 2022 (Limited)

Should The Lost City be discovered, or should it remain lost? That is the question. Or maybe it’s not really the question, but I’ll nevertheless go ahead and ask it because I’d like to have something to focus this review around. And by bringing up the topic of focus, I don’t mean to imply that this film lacks focus. Far from it, in fact! You heard it here first, folks: this is a movie with a straightforward plot that’s easy to follow. Sandra Bullock plays Loretta Sage, a novelist who gets kidnapped and taken to a legendary location from her latest book, while Channing Tatum plays the ditzy cover model who attempts to rescue her, and eventually they make their way out the other end. It’s globe-trotting, high-stakes fun that’s designed to be oohed, ahhed, and laughed at. And I imagine that pretty dang close to 100% of audiences will know exactly when to provide those gasps and chuckles.

So if I have one big criticism about The Lost City, it’s that it’s perhaps a little too straightforward. I hoped for some charming repartee between Bullock and Tatum, as well as a full course of comic relief supporting performances from the likes of Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Patti Harrison, and Bowen Yang. And that’s exactly what I got! But not much more. There’s one surprising development early on involving one of the biggest stars, but afterwards I was left with a sense of, “Yes, that was an adventure.” Here’s the deal: if you’re going to cast Daniel Radcliffe as an eccentric billionaire villain, things should probably get unabashedly weird. Instead, they only get kind of weird. Who knows, maybe I was just infected by the malaise that Loretta was giving off by resenting her career and audience.

But here’s what stuck with me in a welcome way, and why The Lost City might just be worth tracking down. A showcase scene involves Bullock peeling leeches off Tatum after a jungle river swim, which necessitates him dropping trou to make sure she checks every crack and crevice. They keep it PG-13, but this is a classic case of survival-minded lack of modesty that keeps things rolling along. And then there’s an unforgettable performance from Oscar Nuñez (aka Oscar from The Office) as a guy who has a plane and a goat. It makes sense in context, or at least part of it does. And the rest that remained nonsensical is where I derived most of my joy from. So I guess my answer is: I’d like to find this titular city while still feeling like I’m at a loss.

The Lost City is Recommended If You Like: Sandra Bullock unexpectedly witnessing her male co-stars in the buff

Grade: 3 out of 5 Cover Models

SNL Love It/Keep It/Leave It: Sandra Oh/Tame Impala

March 31, 2019

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CREDIT: Megan Krause/NBC

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

Discover Card – There’s a current ad campaign about people reaching their doubles at customer service, and there’s a current hit horror movie about people being targeted by their doubles. Somebody at SNL made the connection and astutely decided, “Let’s mash ’em up!” And lo and behold, we have this hilarious commercial parody in which it turns out that the you’s of Discover Card are actually the Tethered of Us, and Ego Nwodim finally gets a showcase performance.

It’s good to know that everyone can be so wonderfully, specifically overwrought in the Test Prep sketch.

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