Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 3/18/22

March 18, 2022

jmunney Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Human Resources (CREDIT: Netflix)

Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.

Movies
–Deep Water (March 18 on Hulu) – Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas directed by Adrian Lyne.
–The Outfit (Theaters)
–Umma (Theaters)
–X (Theaters)

TV
–Human Resources Season 1 (March 18 on Netflix) – Big Mouth spin-off.
–Atlanta Season 3 Premiere (March 24 on FX)
–One Perfect Shot Series Premiere (March 24 on HBO Max) – Based on the Twitter account.

Music
-Charli XCX, CRASH
-Rosalía, Motomami

‘X’ and ‘Umma’: Short Titles, Ambitious Scares

March 17, 2022

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

Umma (CREDIT: Saeed Adyani/Sony Pictures); X (CREDIT: Christopher Moss/A24)

Umma:

Starring: Sandra Oh, Fivel Stewart, Dermot Mulroney, Odeya Rush, MeeWha Alana Lee, Tom Yi

Director: Iris K. Shim

Running Time: 83 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Terrifying Memories and a Terrifying Present

Release Date: March 18, 2022 (Theaters)

X:

Starring: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Brittany Snow, Scott Mescudi, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, James Gaylyn

Director: Ti West

Running Time: 105 Minutes

Rating: R for Plenty of Sex and Violence

Release Date: March 18, 2022 (Theaters)

This week, we’ve got a couple of new horror releases arriving with pithy, vague titles. They pair well as a potential double feature, so I decided to go ahead and review them together. They’re also both operating in familiar subgenres with their own unique flourishes that you may or may not see coming. Let’s dig in.

First off, we’ll take a look at Umma, which to English speakers might sound like baby-talk. In a way it kind of is, but anyone who knows Korean will surely clock what’s in store. Starring Sandra Oh as a single mother named Amanda who lives alone with her daughter (Fivel Stewart) in an electricity-free home, this is one of those supernatural tales in which a ghost attaches to a person’s soul and just won’t let go. The East Asian pedigree suggests a throwback to the early 2000s when The Ring and The Grudge inaugurated a wave of J- and K-horror. But while those influences are certainly noticeable, a story of what we owe and inherit from our mothers resonates across cultures.

More