
What’s going to Fall? (CREDIT: Lionsgate)
Fall:
Starring: Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Director: Thomas Mann
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: August 12, 2022 (Theaters)
Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
August 31, 2022
Cinema, Movie Reviews Alessandro Nivola, Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Ayden Mayeri, Ben Sinclair, Debby Ryan, Ego Nwodim, Fall, Fred Armisen, Grace Caroline Currey, Hiro Kanagawa, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Baena, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Julia Stiles, Lil Rel Howery, Mason Gooding, Matthew Finlan, Molly Shannon, Orphan, Orphan: First Kill, Rossif Sutherland, Spin Me Round, Thomas Mann, Tim Heidecker, Tricia Helfer, Virginia Gardner, William Brent Bell, Zach Woods 1 Comment
What’s going to Fall? (CREDIT: Lionsgate)
Starring: Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Director: Thomas Mann
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: August 12, 2022 (Theaters)
June 24, 2022
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Sports, Television Elvis, Flux Gourmet, High School, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Only Murders in the Building, Soccer Mommy, Sometimes Forever, The Black Phone, Tim Heidecker, Westworld, Wimbledon Leave a comment
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
–The Black Phone (Theaters)
–Elvis (Theaters)
–Flux Gourmet (Theaters and On Demand) – This looks kinda surreal.
–Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Theaters)
TV
–Westworld Season 4 Premiere (June 26 on HBO)
–Only Murders in the Building Season 2 Premiere (June 28 on Hulu) – It seems like just yesterday we had our first murder…
Music
-Soccer Mommy, Sometimes, Forever
-Tim Heidecker, High School
Sports
-Wimbledon (June 27-July 10 on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC)
January 28, 2021
Television, Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! Celery Man, Eric Wareheim, Nude Tayne, Tayne, Tim and Eric, Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!, Tim Heidecker 1 Comment
I’m a HUGE fan of Misters (Tim) Heidecker and (Eric) Wareheim, but I didn’t fully feel that fandom until after Awesome Show, Great Job! ended its original run. So up until quite very recently, I hadn’t seen a single episode in its entirety (with the exception of the 10 Year Anniversary Special).
So I rectified that in the past year by watching ’em all! (Great job.) And wouldn’t you know it, there were certain sketches that I just had to watch over and over again. The short run times (sometimes sub-one minute) certainly help with that rewatchability. So in the interest of spreading joy out in the world, I decided that I would list the top 10 Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! sketches I just can’t stop watching!!
November 6, 2020
Entertainment To-Do List, Literature, Music, Television Answers in the Form of Questions, Claire McNear, disco, Fred Armisen, Jeopardy!, John C. Reilly, Kylie Minogue, Moonbase 8, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Unicorn, Tim Heidecker Leave a comment
Moonbase 8 (CREDIT: Showtime/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.
TV
–Moonbase 8 Series Premiere (November 8 on Showtime) – Fred Armisen, Tim Heidecker, and John C. Reilly go to the moon!
–The Unicorn Season 2 Premiere (November 12 on CBS)
Music
-Kylie Minogue, Disco
Music on TV
-2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (November 7 on HBO)
Books
–Answers in the Form of Questions: A Definitive History and Insider’s Guide to Jeopardy! (November 10) – Written by The Ringer‘s Claire McNear!
October 27, 2020
Comedy An Evening with Tim Heidecker, No more bullshit, stand-up comedy, Tim Heidecker Leave a comment
An Evening with Tim Heidecker (CREDIT: Tim Heidecker/YouTube Screenshot)
I’d love to review the bad comedy-deconstructing Evening with Tim Heidecker in the style of a poorly written blog, but it took Tim years to perfect his routine, so I think it might be safer for me to do something a little more straightforward. So here are some of my favorite bits from the special, recorded in the hope that this will increase their chances for meme-ification and being remembered fondly for posterity.
-Tim says early on, “I love T&A.” It might not mean exactly what you think…
-“Boy, there’s a lot of women in music these days.”
-Lady Gaga? “What’s next? Lord Goo-Goo?”
-Tim’s New Year’s resolution: “No more bullshit.” And then there’s a whole routine about not putting up with any more bullshit!
-“Because of Obamacare”
-Instead of “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia,” it’s “Russia, Russia, Russia.” (There’s a lot of strained pauses in the delivery of that one.)
-“You better watch your ass, Batman.” (I forget what led up to this line, but I wrote it down in my notes, so I just HAD to share it.)
October 23, 2020
Cinema, Comedy, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television American Housewife, An Evening with Tim Heidecker, Borat, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Bruce Springsteen, Letter to You, Superstore, The Eric Andre Show, Tim Heidecker Leave a comment
Eric Andre Show Season 5 (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
–Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (October 23 on Amazon) – If you’re in the mood for a Very Nice evening.
TV
–The Eric Andre Show Season 5 Premiere (October 25 on Adult Swim)
–American Housewife Season 5 Premiere (October 28 on ABC)
–Superstore Season 6 Premiere (October 29 on NBC)
Music
-Bruce Springsteen, Letter to You
Comedy
–An Evening with Tim Heidecker (October 23 on YouTube) – Should be as funny as 5 bags of popcorn.
September 25, 2020
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television Amber Ruffin, Bless the Harts, Bob's Burgers, Family Guy, Fargo, Fear of Death, Jane Lynch, Kajillionaire, South Park, The Amber Ruffin Show, The Simpsons, Tim Heidecker, Utopia, Weakest Link Leave a comment
The Amber Ruffin Show (CREDIT: Peacock/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
–Kajillionaire (Select Theaters)
TV
Despite the pandemic, the Fall TV Season is in full swing.
–The Amber Ruffin Show Series Premiere (September 25 on Peacock) – One of Seth Meyers’ writers strikes out on her own.
–Utopia Series Premiere (September 25 on Amazon)
–Bless the Harts Season 2 Premiere (September 27 on FOX)
–Bob’s Burgers Season 11 Premiere (September 27 on FOX)
–Family Guy Season 19 Premiere (September 27 on FOX)
–Fargo Season 4 Premiere (September 27 on FX)
–The Simpsons Season 32 Premiere (September 27 on FOX)
–Weakest Link Reboot Premiere (September 29 on NBC) – Hosted by Jane Lynch.
–South Park: The Pandemic Special (September 30 on Comedy Central)
Music
-Tim Heidecker, Fear of Death
March 27, 2020
Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television Beef House, Dua Lipa, Eric Wareheim, Future Nostalgia, Gigaton, Pearl Jam, Three Busy Debras, Tim & Eric, Tim Heidecker, Whose Line is it Anyway? Leave a comment
CREDIT: Adult Swim
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
TV
–Three Busy Debras Series Premiere (March 29 on Adult Swim)
–Beef House Series Premiere (March 29 on Adult Swim) – Tim & Eric’s latest venture.
–Whose Line is it Anyway? Season 16 Premiere – Improv institution returning a little earlier than expected.
Music
-Dua Lipa, Future Nostalgia
-Pearl Jam, Gigaton
October 7, 2019
Cinema, Movie Reviews Curtis Webster, Don Pecchia, Eric Notarnicola, Gregg Turkington, Mister America, Terri Parks, Tim Heidecker Leave a comment
CREDIT: Magnolia Pictures/YouTube Screenshot
Starring: Tim Heidecker, Gregg Turkington, Terri Parks, Don Pecchia, Curtis Webster
Director: Eric Notarnicola
Running Time: 89 Minutes
Rating: R for Language, Mostly and Some Drug Use Apparently
Release Date: October 9, 2019 (One Night Only)
Mister America is the latest, and perhaps most ambitious, entry in the Tim Heidecker/Gregg Turkington Fictional Universe. Now either that sentence is meaningless to you, or you’ve already made plans to see Mister America. For the uninitiated, the backstory is more ridiculous and labyrinthine than you could possibly imagine. Starting in 2011, Heidecker and Turkington started the podcast On Cinema, in which they review films as fictionalized, mostly incompetent versions of themselves. A couple of years later, the show became the webseries On Cinema at the Cinema on AdultSwim.com, and it’s since gone on to spawn spin-offs, like the action spoof Decker on Adult Swim proper, and then “The Trial,” an extended courtroom saga in which Tim was charged with murder following the overdose deaths at a music festival he organized. Mister America is a mockumentary that directly springs from “The Trial,” chronicling Tim’s revenge-fueled campaign to become district attorney of San Bernardino, California.
If you’re a fan of Heidecker (and his frequent partner Eric Wareheim), you’re probably automatically loyal to whatever weird project he’s committed 100%. But if you’ve instead been traumatized by just one moment of exposure to his brand of purposeful amateurism, you probably have no intention of ever giving him another chance. I’m certainly in the former camp, but I do worry how someone who usually works in 5-to-20-minute bursts will handle a feature length space with the same shtick. As amused as I am by Heidecker’s clueless right-wing blowhard altar ego, it can be patience-testing to endure him spouting a bunch of gussied-up nonsense over and over again. Luckily, Turkington is on hand to occasionally lighten up the proceedings with his trademark banal movie trivia “facts.”
Much of the action of Mister America takes place in the drab hotel setup that Tim has made his campaign headquarters (it was necessary to establish residency in San Bernardino). This soul-killing setting reminded me of The Brink, the recent actual documentary about Steve Bannon that was similarly trapped by temporary lodgings. That film had a decently keen insight into the former White House chief strategist, but it was a tough watch because its subject is so devoid of charisma. So with that contrast in mind, Mister America kind of works because it’s about an idiot who’s nonetheless charismatic in a through-the-looking-glass sort of way. If only all the racist dog-whistlers out there were this clueless, the world would be a much better and more amusing place.
Mister America is Recommended If You Like: Tim Heidecker Unbound
Grade: 3 out of 5 Crime Eliminators
March 21, 2019
Cinema, Movie Reviews Anna Diop, Elisabeth Moss, Evan Alex, Jordan Peele, Lupita Nyong’o, Shahadi Wright, Tim Heidecker, Us, Winston Duke, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II 2 Comments
CREDIT: Claudette Barius/Universal Pictures
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Evan Alex, Shahadi Wright, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Anna Diop
Director: Jordan Peele
Running Time: 116 Minutes
Rating: R for Scissor-Based Bloody Violence and Semi-Euphemistic Drug Talk
Release Date: March 22, 2019
The appeal of Get Out, Jordan Peele’s first film, had a lot to do with its underlying social message, which declared: this is the horror of what it’s like to be a black person in America. Now his follow-up Us is luring crowds primarily on the promise of its scare tactics, which are based on the fundamentally unnerving premise of a family terrorized by a group of people who look exactly like them. There is another social metaphor wrapped up in this package, and there is a good chance that you will figure it out by the end, or that someone will point it out to you. It’s clear enough, without being thuddingly obvious. Other reviews might reveal that subtext, but I’ll leave it unsaid, because there is satisfaction to be had in going in cold and having it click for you.
While Peele’s films are driven by an urge to convince people to look deeper at the world around them, they also work confidently on a surface level. Us is a striking triumph of the marriage of craft and performance. It would have to be for us to accept a world in which a group of doppelgängers, known as “the Tethered,” speak in a mixture of indefinably accented English, clicks, and blood-curdling screams. Occasionally, there is a chaotic mix of horror and comedy butting up against each other not exactly comfortably, with the tension breaking perhaps one too many times. But Peele is working in such unprecedented territory that I am inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. The acting is impressive across the board, especially in terms of a risk-taking appetite. A great deal is asked of Lupita Nyong’o, as the mother of the main family and the leader of the Tethered. She gives the sort of performance that is some unholy mix of ridiculous and brilliant – it might be a great folly, or the best of the year, or both.
CREDIT: Claudette Barius/Universal Pictures
The conclusion explains the rise of the Tethered with a twist that at first struck me as nonsensical. My instinct was to scramble back and fill in some extra-textual details that would fix what seemed like a glaring mistake. But now that I have had time to reflect, I am choosing to embrace the absurdity. It fits with a world in which people are often irrational and not fully paying attention to all that is around them. There are so many opportunities for reflection within Us, and you may be surprised, and perhaps invigorated, by what you see.
Us is Recommended If You Like: Get Out, Funny Games, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Grade: 4 out of 5 Scissors