Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
October 31, 2025
Cinema, Movie Reviews A House of Dynamite, Abubakr Ali, After the Hunt, Andrew Garfield, Angel Reese, Anthony Ramos, Arielle Friedman, Arturo Castro, Ayo Edebiri, Aziz Ansari, Ben Leonberg, Brian Tee, Brittany O'Grady, Chloë Sevigny, Damian Lewis, Evan Peters, Francesca Carpanini, Gabriel Basso, Gbenga Akinnagbe, George Orwell, Gillian Anderson, Good Boy, Good Fortune, Greta Lee, Hasan Minhaj, Idris Elba, Indy the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Jared Harris, Jared Leto, Jason Clarke, Jeff Bridges, Joachim Rønning, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jonah Hauer-King, Julia Roberts, Kaitlyn Dever, Kathryn Bigelow, Keanu Reeves, Keke Palmer, Kyle Allen, Larry Fessenden, Lío Mehiel, Luca Guadagnino, Malachi Beasley, Michael Stuhlbarg, Moses Ingram, Noah Oppenheim, Orwell 2+2=5, Raoul Peck, Rebecca Ferguson, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Shane Jensen, Stuart Rudin, Tracy Letts, Tron, TRON: Ares, Willa Fitzgerald Leave a comment
Good Boy, Good Times at the Movies (CREDIT: Ben Leonberg/Independent Film Company and Shudder)
Okay, here we go. It’s time for me to release my thoughts about the new movies that I saw in the month known as October 2025 that I haven’t explicated until now. Trick-or-treat furever!
January 14, 2025
Cinema, Movie Reviews Aaron Pierre, Alan Tudyk, Anika Noni Rose, Antonio Banderas, Auliʻi Cravalho, Awhimai Fraser, Babygirl, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Billy Eicner, Blue Ivy Carter, Brian Cox, Dana Ledoux Miller, David Derrick Jr, David Fane, Donald Glover, Dwayne Johnson, Esther McGregor, Gaia Wise, Gerald Ramsey, Halina Reijn, Harris Dickinson, Hualālai Chung, Jason Hand, John Kani, Keith David, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Kenji Kamiyama, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Lennie James, Luke Pasqualino, Mads Mikkelsen, Mirando Otto, Moana 2, Mufasa, Mufasa: The Lion King, Nicole Kidman, Nicole Scherzinger, Preston Nyman, Rachel House, Rose Matafeo, Seth Rogen, Sophie Wilde, Temuera Morrison, Thandiwe Newton, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, Tiffany Boone, Vaughan Reilly Leave a comment
CREDIT: A24; Warner Bros. Pictures/Screenshot; Disney/Screenshot; Disney/Screenshot
Starring: Gaia Wise, Brian Cox, Luke Pasqualino, Mirando Otto
Director: Kenji Kamiyama
Running Time: 134 Minutes
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: December 13, 2024 (Theaters)
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, Sophie Wilde, Esther McGregor, Vaughan Reilly
Director: Halina Reijn
Running Time: 115 Minutes
Rating: R
Release Date: December 25, 2024 (Theaters)
Starring: Auliʻi Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Hualālai Chung, Rose Matafeo, David Fane, Awhimai Fraser, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Rachel House, Gerald Ramsey, Alan Tudyk
Directors: David Derrick Jr, Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Rating: PG
Release Date: November 27, 2024 (Theaters)
Starring: Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr, John Kani, Seth Rogen, Billy Eicner, Tiffany Boone, Donald Glover, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, Lennie James, Blue Ivy Carter, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Preston Nyman, Anika Noni Rose, Keith David
Director: Barry Jenkins
Running Time: 118 Minutes
Rating: PG
Release Date: December 20, 2024 (Theaters)
Oh hi, there! Well, you know how it goes. That annual time between Thanksgiving and New Year tends to be busy, both in terms of social obligations and new movie releases. So even someone who frequents the cinema as often as I do struggles to catch absolutely everything right when they arrive. But I do my best to catch up with them eventually! So here’s a roundup of my thoughts on recent holiday flicks with a focus on how much they put me in the holiday spirit.
September 13, 2023
Cinema, Movie Reviews America Ferrera, Anthony Ramos, Craig Gillespie, Dane DeHaan, Dumb Money, Myha'la Harold, Nick Offerman, Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Rushi Kota, Sebastian Stan, Seth Rogen, Shailene Woodley, Talia Ryder 1 Comment
So Dumb (CREDIT: Sony Pictures/Screenshot)
Starring: Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Seth Rogen, Shailene Woodley, America Ferrera, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, Sebastian Stan, Dane DeHaan, Myha’la Harold, Rushi Kota, Talia Ryder
Director: Craig Gillespie
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Rating: R for Dumb Profanity and Cheeky Nudity
Release Date: September 15, 2023 (Limited Theaters)/September 29, 2023 (Expands Wide)
What’s It About?: STONKS! I could attempt to continue to write the rest of this review of Dumb Money in the lingua franca of the r/WallStreetBets subreddit, but alas, I’m probably not well-versed in it enough to produce something coherent. So I’ll instead keep it generally prosaic. Back in 2020 and early 2021, r/WallStreetBets was the social media hub for something rather strange happening in the stock market. Based on the advice of a chicken tender-obsessed financial analyst named Keith Gill (Paul Dano), a whole cadre of amateur traders decide to go all in on the retail chain GameStop. Meanwhile, Wall Street types like Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) and Kenneth Griffin (Nick Offerman) are fairly confident that they should do exactly the opposite by short selling GameStop stock, what with the general decline of in-person retail video game sales. But the meme-fueled enthusiasm of working class folks like a nurse (America Ferrera), a couple of college classmates (Myha’la Harold and Talia Ryder), and even a GameStop cashier (Anthony Ramos) ensures that Opposite Day will be arriving very soon.
What Made an Impression?: Cutting Through the Malarkey: If you feel that the financial markets are a rigged game, it’s probably because their rules are too intricate and incomprehensible to anyone who can’t afford to spend hours poring over them every day. So it’s a bit of a minor miracle that Dumb Money is so easy to understand despite all that. It certainly helps that it’s based on a story that was widely covered by the media. And the underlying concepts are straightforward enough that you don’t have to sweat the details. But maybe we’ve also become more financially literate as a society since the days of Occupy Wall Street and the other populist movements that followed in its wake, along with the democratizing rise of the Robinhood stock trading app, which plays a major role in this story. But also, it comes down to simple storytelling skills: the characters are compelling, so it’s easier to pay attention to what’s going on.
A Busy Pandemic: Recent history is a major part of popular cinema, and if that trend is going to continue, then we can’t ignore the COVID-19 of it all. As this story takes place during the height of the pre-vaccinated pandemic, there are a lot of face masks. That was a time of heightened anxiety, but it was also a time of doing whatever the hell else was part of your life, whether that meant surreptitiously texting in class, trying not to curse in front of your kids, or even trying to run that sub-4:00 mile you could never quite pull off in college. Buying stocks that become worth millions of dollars isn’t cool, you know what is cool? Making billion dollars’ worth of memories that you’ll cherish forever.
What’s Behind the Screen?: Context is king. Dumb Money relies on a fair amount of pre-existing news footage, as well as clips of real politicians from Congressional hearings. This mix of documentary and dramatization equals illumination. The events of this story initially played out behind Zoom screens and Internet-speak, and now we get some juicy peeks into how those scenes might have played out in the flesh. They’re filled with the high-stakes foibles of humanity, offering an irresistible mix of voyeurism but also sympathy, as well as savagery but also a dollop of optimism. If the Almighty Dollar remains king, we’ll all remain dumb for it, but hopefully we can still blast through the status quo a bit in the meantime.
Dumb Money is Recommended If You Like: The Social Network, The Big Short, Memes
Grade: 4.5 out of 5 STONKS
August 1, 2023
Cinema, Movie Reviews Ayo Edebri, Brady Noon, Giancarlo Esposito, Hannibal Burress, Ice Cube, Jackie Chan, Jeff Rowe, John Cena, Maya Rudolph, Micah Abbey, Natasia Demetriou, Nicolas Cantu, Paul Rudd, Post Malone, Rose Byrne, Seth Rogen, Shamon Brown Jr., Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, TMNT 2 Comments
Mayhem in More Than Just a Half-Shell (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies)
Starring: Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Jackie Chan, Ayo Edebri, Ice Cube, Hannibal Burress, Rose Byrne, John Cena, Natasia Demetriou, Giancarlo Esposito, Post Malone, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Maya Rudolph
Director: Jeff Rowe
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Rating: PG for Stylized Action Violence and Jokes with a Rude ‘Tude
Release Date: August 2, 2023 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael (Micah Abbey, Nicolas Cantu, Shamon Brown Jr., and Brady Noon, respectively) just want to spend more time living out of the sewers. Is that too much to ask?! Alas, their adoptive father Splinter (Jackie Chan) insists that they must remain in the shadows. He’s a walking and talking rat, and they’re walking and talking turtles, and all the evidence indicates that humans just aren’t ready to interact with mutated animals. But the boys are growing up, and New York City has plenty of delicious pizza. So when they befriend budding journalist April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri), they really start to believe that humans are worth getting to know. And when they encounter a cadre of other mutants led by the giant housefly Superfly (Ice Cube) intent on taking over the surface world, they decide that they must become humanity’s protectors.
What Made an Impression?: Not Afraid to Be Scary: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a fascinatingly enduring franchise. What began as a reputedly dark comic book in the 80s turned into an inescapable cheesy phenomenon with the live-action 90s films. It was a supernova that burned out quickly, but it’s hung around with occasional reboots and several TV series. You don’t need to know any of that backstory to enjoy Mutant Mayhem. But you do have to be comfortable with some kid-targeted entertainment that isn’t afraid to get dark. The animation and the fantastical nature softens the edges a bit, but still, this is a movie where the threat of mutant-on-mutant and mutant-on-human violence is very real. Younger viewers might be spooked a bit, but they’ll appreciate how hardy the heroism feels.
Milking the Gags: The turtles are a bunch of adolescent jokesters, so any TMNT flick worth its ooze will deliver the laughs. Mutant Mayhem pulls this off by crafting its own yuks from the ground up. There’s one particularly satisfying running gag about whether or not the turtles can be milked. (They don’t have nipples! … Or do they?) Two of the producers and screenwriters are Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen (the latter of whom also voices mutant warthog Bebop), and you can just feel how much they’ve been itching to put their own spin on these characters for quite some time. These aren’t just tossed-off quips and catchphrases, but zingers and character beats that reward you for paying attention.
Sliced-and-Diced Animation: The sharpness of the comedy meets its match in the animation, with every cel feeling like it’s been lovingly sliced by a katana blade. This is no standard-issue CG rendering; instead, deep thought has clearly been considered about what style fits the story’s personality. It’s an irreverent, adrenaline-filled adventure crossed with a neon sugar rush. Every pixel feels like it’s working, and the whole picture just undeniably pops on screen.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is Recommended If You Like: Pizza, Viral puking videos, The Spider-Verse
Grade: 4 out of 5 Half-Shells
April 4, 2023
Cinema, Movie Reviews Aaron Horvath, anya taylor-joy, Charles Martinet, Charlie Day, Chris Pratt, Fred Armisen, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Kevin Michael Richardson, Michael Jelenic, Nintendo, Sebastian Maniscalco, Seth Rogen, Super Mario, The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 Comments
Plumbing the depths (CREDIT: Nintendo and Universal Studios)
Starring: Chris Pratt, Anya-Taylor Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan Michael-Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Sebastian Maniscalco, Charles Martinet, Kevin Michael Richardson
Directors: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic
Running Time: 92 Minutes
Rating: PG for Scrapes and Scuffles That Don’t Leave a Mark
Release Date: April 5, 2023 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: The Mario brothers are ready to take their plumbing business to the next level! Better watch out for those pipes, though. Based on the long-running series of Nintendo video games, the gang’s all here in the faithfully colorful Super Mario Bros. Movie. Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) find themselves suddenly sucked into a fantastical kingdom where wooden blocks hold the promise of physical transformation. They team up with Princess Peach (Anya-Taylor Joy) to defeat the over-the-top villainous Bowser (Jack Black), while a mushroom creature (Keegan Michael-Key) and a goofy gorilla (Seth Rogen) round out the core crew.
What Made an Impression?: Mario and Luigi have of course made it onto the big screen before, though 1993’s live-action Super Mario Bros. was widely considered an unmitigated disaster. Bizarrely enough, this latest cinematic adventure keeps the same basic skeleton, as the Mario brothers drive around Brooklyn in their plumbing van, only to then find themselves in the middle of an interdimensional conflict. But beyond that shared setup, it’s a vastly different journey this time. The 1993 version isn’t exactly a misunderstood classic, but it is unlike pretty much anything else that came before or after. Meanwhile, this computer-animated update is basically a series of right-down-the-middle cutscenes.
It’s harmless and amusing in spots, but stripped of way too much personality. It all starts with the voice of the stocky fellow at the center. Chris Pratt has some useful tools in his skill set, but bringing to life an iconically cartoonish ball of energy is not one of them. There’s even a joke about how he sounds nothing like the Mario of the video games! Now look, Bob Hoskins didn’t exactly sound like classic Mario either, but he brought something undeniably unique. Pratt’s mandate, meanwhile, appears to be to turn him into Bland Everyman Hero.
At least everyone else is able to stretch and have some fun. Black in particular has a blast, as he transforms Bowser into the dragon-turtle version of Tenacious D, while Fred Armisen’s Cranky Kong sounds just like his impression of Anna Nicole Smith trial judge Larry Seidlin. There are also plenty of reliable needle drops, though I’m not sure some of them have anything to do with Mario. (“Take on Me,” anyone?) Ultimately, my favorite part of The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the Illumination logo at the beginning that features a Minion attempting to drive a go-kart, which led me to realize that it’s high time to incorporate those little yellow fellas into the Nintendo universe.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is Recommended If You Like: Bright colors and simple plots
Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Power Ups
November 9, 2022
Cinema, Movie Reviews Gabriel LaBelle, Jeannie Berlin, Judd Hirsch, Julia Butters, Keeley Karsten, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Robin Bartlett, Seth Rogen, Sophia Kopera, Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans 1 Comment
What a Fabel, man. (CREDIT: Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment)
Starring: Gabriel LaBelle, Paul Dano, Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Jeannie Berlin, Judd Hirsch, Julia Butters, Keeley Karsten, Sophia Kopera, Robin Bartlett
Director: Steven Spielberg
Running Time: 151 Minutes
Rating: PG-13 for Some Cheeky Moments and a Few Bursts of Anger
Release Date: November 11, 2022 (Limited)/November 23, 2022 (Expands Nationwide)
What’s It About?: He’s been making some of the iconic movies in cinematic history for more than 50 years, and now he’s finally welcoming us into his personal life. I’m talking about Steven Spielberg, of course. Or actually I’m talking about Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle), his fictionalized avatar in The Fabelmans.
Now, when I said a few sentences ago that Spielberg was “finally” letting us in, I was kind of joking, since certain aspects of his biography have been public knowledge for quite a while: the childhood in New Jersey and Arizona, the amateur moviemaking, his mother leaving his father for his father’s best friend, his dad making significant contributions to the history of computing. In fact, his background has already informed much of his filmography. So for plenty of cineastes, The Fabelmans is hardly necessary. But just because something isn’t surprising doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching, and there’s plenty to enjoy in Spielberg’s excavation of his own memories.
What Made an Impression?: You know, when I start reading a book, I often like to skip ahead to the last sentence to give myself a little preview of my future. So with that in mind, I’ll mention that The Fabelmans ends with a delightful bang in the form of Sammy’s encounter with a certain real-life legendary director, as played by another legendary director. I won’t say who they are, but I will say: you guys are gonna love it.
Anyway, what else should I spotlight that happens in the 2-plus hours leading up to that meeting? How about the fact that everyone in the cast is so fully committed? That’s certainly to be expected, considering their resumes and the level of professionalism around them. But seriously, everyone is such a character. Each member of the Fabelman family is bound to leave an indelible imprint on your heart. As Sammy’s mom and dads Mitzi and Burt, Michelle Williams and Paul Dano are exactly the sort of (usually, but not always) supportive mid-century suburban parents you’d hope they would be. And as the oldest of Sammy’s younger sisters Reggie, Julia Butters is wonderfully unrecognizable to those who know her from American Housewife and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood… Even Uncle Boris is unforgettable despite only showing up for a few days to sit shiva. That’s what happens when you give a small but crucial part to Judd Hirsch, I suppose.
And there are plenty of other people to meet outside the family as well! Seth Rogen is the most avuncular he’s ever been as Burt’s coworker/best friend Bennie. And Sammy’s quite the friend-maker himself. He needs to round out the casts for all the ambitious home movies he’s making, after all. Then when he makes his way to high school, he can’t help but encounter bullies, and girls who help clean him up after he runs afoul of those bullies. On that note, one of the best scenes is a conversation that he has with his soon-to-be-girlfriend and another girl who’s just learned (from Sammy) that her boyfriend’s been cheating on her. You know how teenagers are! Similarly, you probably also know how Steven Spielberg is, and it’s lovely to see that play out in Fabelman Form.
The Fabelmans is Recommended If You Like: E.T., Just about any American movie or TV show set in the 1950s or early 60s, and probably Cinema Paradiso (which I haven’t seen in its entirety, but based on what I’ve heard, it sounds like a good comp)
Grade: 4 out of 5 Cameras
February 13, 2022
Commercials, Sports, Super Bowl Commercials, Television Mary J. Blige, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Super Bowl, Super Bowl Commercials Leave a comment
Super Bowl commercials are generally available to be watched online ahead of time, but I waited to watch them during the game, like God intended.
August 11, 2020
Cinema, Movie Reviews An American Pickle, Brandon Trost, Sarah Snook, Seth Rogen Leave a comment
CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot
Starring: Seth Rogen, Sarah Snook
Director: Brandon Trost
Running Time: 89 Minutes
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: August 6, 2020 (HBO Max)
I recently started a review strategy in which I determine the success of a movie according to whether or not it makes me want to do the thing that it’s about. So I asked of Eurovision Song Contest: did it make me want to watch the actual Eurovision? And now I ask of An American Pickle: does it make me want to become pickled and wake up without having aged a day one hundred years later?
To which I answer! … Maybe, kind of?
I’m pretty sure that’s not how the pickling of humans works, but hey, this is a fantasy, so let’s roll with it! The movie certainly does. Seth Rogen is basically the perfect choice to capture that vibe as he plays opposite himself as his great-grandfather and goes, “Hey dude! You’ve just woken up in the future! How crazy is that?!”
Rip Van Winkle-style stories tend to play up the confusion of the man out of time, but Herschel Greenbaum, the titular pickled man, figures out a way to get along more easily than most. Which just goes to prove my suspicion that people from any time period understand that life in the past used to be different and that life in the future will also be different. With that perspective in mind, I believe I could be resilient enough to get on with an unexpected time leap, just as Herschel is. But also like Herschel, I would be quite emotional over not being able to see my kids and grandkids grow up. Pickles are great, but they’re not a panacea!
Grade: 3 Pickles out of 5 Glasses of Seltzer Water
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
June 7, 2019
Cinema, Movie Reviews Alexander Skarsgård, Andy Serkis, Bob Odenkirk, Charlize Theron, Jonathan Levine, June Diane Raphael, Long Shot, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ravi Patel, Seth Rogen Leave a comment
CREDIT: Philippe Bossé
I’m not sure what Long Shot‘s sense of the political landscape is. It seems to believe that the difference between Democrats and Republicans can actually be quite nebulous, which is interesting to think about, and maybe true in some cases, but certainly not in the majority of my experience. It also has some valuable things to say about the importance of compromise, although it’s kind of shouty and generic about it. But anyway, this is mostly a love story.
At first blush, it might look like the same old tale between a beautiful blonde (Charlize Theron as a presidential candidate) and a lovable schlub (Seth Rogen as a journalist-cum-speechwriter), but it downplays any eyeroll-worthy aspect of that setup by clearly illustrating the mutual attraction here. So Long Shot works best when it investigates what ambitious people are willing to sacrifice or not sacrifice, and why, in the name of the people they care about, though it would have benefited from more specific political window-dressing.
I give Long Shot My Satisfied Endorsement.
Jmunney's Blog 