Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
January 24, 2022
Best in Film 2021, Best of 2021, Cinema Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Bad Trip, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, Best of 2021, Flee, House of Gucci, Malignant, Old, Red Rocket, Shiva Baby, Summer of Soul, Summer of Soul Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised Leave a comment
CREDIT (Clockwise from Top Left): Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures, Lionsgate, Utopia
These are the movies I loved the most from 2021. There were many others, but these are my favorites. Forthwith are some descriptions of what happens in these movies. Hit me up in the comments if you’d like to know more about what I thought about them!
December 3, 2021
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television Abbott Elementary, Benedetta, Diff'rent Strokes, Flee, Jeopardy!, Live in Front of a Studio Audience, PEN15, The Atlas Underground Railroad, The Facts of Life, Tom Morello, Wolf Leave a comment
PEN15 (CREDIT: Hulu/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
–Benedetta (Theaters) – Paul Verhoeven’s lesbian nun movie.
–Flee (Theaters)
–Wolf (Theaters)
TV
–PEN15 Season 2, Part 2 (December 3 on Hulu) – This is reportedly the end.
–Jeopardy! Professors Tournament (December 6-17, check local listings)
–Abbott Elementary Series Premiere (December 7 on ABC) – Starring Miracle Workers‘ Quinta Brunson.
–Live in Front of a Studio Audience: “The Facts of Life” and “Diff’rent Strokes” (December 7 on ABC)
–Welcome to Earth Series Premiere (December 8 on Disney+) – The World According to Will Smith
Music
-Tom Morello, The Atlas Underground Flood
December 2, 2021
Cinema, Movie Reviews Amin Nawabi, Animated documentary, documentary, Flee, Jonas Poher Rasmussen 2 Comments
Flee (CREDIT: NEON)
Starring: Amin Nawabi
Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Running Time: 90 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Disturbing Corruption and Poor Living Conditions
Release Date: December 3, 2021 (Theaters)
In the days leading up to my viewing of Flee, it was always the Red Hot Chili Peppers that popped into my head whenever I said the title to myself. But of course, this movie has nothing to do with a certain rock ‘n’ roll bassist, so this information is kind of irrelevant, but I like my readers to know where my mind was at when they’re reading my reviews. And Flee had that mind captivated to the point that Flea no longer occupied my headspace pretty much immediately.
Instead, this Flee refers to the act of fleeing, which a man by the name of Amin Nawabi has had to do quite a bit over the course of his life. He’s an Afghan living in Denmark by way of Russia, with a few other bumpy stops along the way. We meet him at a point in his life when he’s finally able to stay in place much more than in his younger on-the-run days. This stability has helped him to open up and tell his story to his friend Jonas Poher Rasmussen, who went ahead and directed this film. Most of Amin’s journey was unrecorded at the time (save for a few fortuitous pieces of security footage), so Rasmussen resorts to animating the tale along with a soundtrack of Amin recounting his memories. The end result is basically a vibrant and heart-tugging artistic therapy session.
Like countless other refugees, Amin and his family are just trying to escape the threat of violence in their homeland. And then like just about everyone else in post-Soviet Russia, they have to make their way through the muck of chaos and corruption (which is of course more suffocating for outsiders). And on top of all that, Amin is coming to terms with his queer identity after growing up in a country that doesn’t even have a word for “gay.”
But Flee is far from an unrelenting horror show. There are moments of sheer joy, particularly through Amin’s pop culture touchstones. He’s enamored with a certain musclebound Belgian action star, and whenever he gets to watch some kickboxing on TV, it’s fully infectious. There are also a couple of lovely music-fueled bookending scenes, as a young Amin listens to a-ha’s “Take on Me” on his Walkman, while towards the end his first trip to a gay club is soundtracked by Daft Punk’s “Veridis Quo.” He made it through, I’m glad I got to hear his story, and I bet you will be, too.
Flee is Recommended If You Like: 80s synth pop, Queer acceptance, Jean-Claude Van Damme
Grade: 4 out of 5 Fake Passports
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