Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 6/20/22 — 6/26/22

Posted on June 26, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

There is much that I could and probably will eventually say about the Supreme Court ruling this week but I’m not going to say it tonight and I’m not going to say it in this post and I’ll simply ask people to respect my decision as far as that’s concerned.

The Emmy nominations are right around the corner so I spent most of this week watching the various contenders for Outstanding Limited Series and TV Movie. This upcoming week, I’ll be getting caught up on all of the sitcoms and the dramas that I missed the first time that they aired. There’s going to be a lot of binging going on.

Here’s what I watched, read, and listened to this week:

Films I Watched:

Beavis and Butt-Head Do The Universe (2022)
Book of Love (2022)
Chip N’ Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)
Crush (2022)
Dangerously Close (1986)
Demons (1985)
Fresh (2022)
The House (2022)
Jolt (2021)
I Want You Back (2022)
Lisa (1990)
List of a Lifetime (2021)
The Manor (2021)
Olivia Rodrigo: driving home 2 u (2022)
Parts: The Clonus Horror (1979)
Psych 3: This is Gus (2021)
Strategic Command (1997)
Three Weeks (2022)
Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off (2022)
The Valet (2022)
The Voyeurs (2021)

Television Shows I Watched:

Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer
The Deep End
The Essex Serpent
The Flight Attendant
Gordon Ramsay’s Uncharted
History’s Greatest Mysteries
Impractical Jokers
Inspector Lewis
The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray
Love is Blind
Moon Knight
The Offer
Painting With John
Sketchbook
Slasher: Flesh and Blood
Two Sentence Horror Stories
You
The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In the Window

Books I Read:

The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made (2008) by David Hughes

Music To Which I Listened:

Arctic Monkeys
Black Eyed Peas
Britney Spears
The Chemical Brothers
David Bowie
David Guetta
Dillon Francis
Fatboy Slim
Katy Perry
Lena Katina
Lorde
The Marias
Olivia Rodrigo
Portishead
Procul Harum
Saint Motel
Shakira
Taylor Swift
T. Rex
Tove Lo

News From Last Week:

Box Office: ‘Elvis’ and ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Battle for No. 1 With $30.5 Million Each

Links From Last Week:

Links From The Site:

Erin shared Fantastic, Summer, If, Inside Detective, Black Mask, 69 Babylon Park, and The Nylon Pirates!
With my help, Doc shared music videos from Portishead, Lena Katina, David Guetta, Arctic Monkeys, Lorde, T. Rex, and Procul Harum!
Ryan shared Do Comic Publishers Need Readers Anymore, Part One and Part Two!
Ryan reviewed The Devil’s Grin and Time Zone J!
I reviewed The Offer, Moon Knight, and I Want You Back!
I shared my June Oscar Predictions and my Week in Television!

More From Us:

Ryan has a patreon and you should subscribe!
At her photography site, Erin shared cross, A Day Out, Arrival, City, trees, summer sidewalk, and Blue!
At my music site, I shared songs from Procul Harum, T. Rex, Tove Lo, Olivia Rodrigo, Britney Spears, Lena Katina, and The Marias!

You can check out last week by clicking here!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 6/19/22 — 6/25/22

Posted on June 25, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I watched a lot this week. I’m getting prepared for the Emmys!

Allo Allo (Sunday Night, PBS)

Because Edith was named The Spirit of Nouvion, it was decided that she should marry Bertorelli for propaganda purposes. Meanwhile, the British airmen ended up trapped in some wine barrels that were floating in the sewers underneath the city. Wait, what? Actually, by Allo Allo standards, it’s all pretty normal.

Angelyne (Peacock)

I reviewed Angelyne here!

Collector’s Call (Sunday Night, MeTV)

On this show, fans of classic television get their collectibles appraised and discuss their collections. It’s a simple show that owes an obvious debt to Antiques Roadshow (though Collector’s Call usually only focuses on one collector as opposed to several) but, at the same time, it’s also a rather sweet-natured celebration of nostalgia and the joy the can come from collecting.

Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer (Netflix)

This Netflix true crime docu-series dealt with a series of murders that occurred in New York and New Jersey in the 70s. The majority of the victims were sex workers who were especially vulnerable because they couldn’t go to the police without running the risk of ending up in jail themselves. The series also took a look at the sleazier days of Times Square. It ended with modern day footage of the killer, now imprisoned in New York and looking a bit like Santa Claus. That was a bit jarring.

The Deep End (Hulu)

The Deep End originally aired on FreeForm. I watched it on Hulu on Saturday afternoon. The Deep End is a four-episode documentary about Teal Swan, a creepy “spiritual guru.” Swan, apparently, cooperated with the making of The Deep End and then got pretty upset when the final product portrayed her as being a manipulative bully who takes advantage of the emotionally vulnerable. Cults are so weird to me. I guess people need something to believe in but I will never understand how people can fall for obvious charlatans like Teal Swan or the NXIVM people. For her part, Swan appears to be very good at taking advantage of our current culture of victimization.

The Essex Serpent (Apple TV+)

In 19th Century Britain, both Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston investigate a legend of a sea serpent. Danes is a scientist while Hiddleston is a clergyman. Of course, they fall in love but Hiddleston is already married and the recently widowed Danes is determined to establish a life and identity of her own. The Essex Serpent is a mix of history, gothic romance, and horror. Danes’s closest friend is a social reformer who reads Marx. Another potential suitor is an arrogant doctor who has the potential to be a pioneer in the field of heart surgery. The show might seem like it’s about a serpent but it’s actually about the eternal conflict between superstition and science and, in the end, it turns out that neither has all the answers. It’s a bit uneven but, in the end, rewarding. It’s always nice to see Hiddleston get a chance to play someone other than Loki.

Full House (Sunday Evening, MeTV)

This week, both episodes of Full House were pretty stupid. The first episode recycled the old Saved By The Bell plot of having a love note circulating around that everyone thought was sent to them by a secret admirer. The second episode found Danny having to spend the weekend with his daughters without the help of Jesse and Joey. At one point, Danny was so tired that he passed out in bed and his daughters couldn’t wake him up. That was …. not easy to watch.

Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (Disney Plus)

Gordon Ramsay explores the world! I watched two episodes on Tuesday. Ramsay went to the wilds of Michigan and Finland. Ramsay may be best known for shouting at hapless chefs on Hell’s Kitchen but I always enjoy shows where he gets to show his nicer side.

History’s Greatest Mysteries (History Channel)

I watched two episodes on Wednesday. One episode explored the death of Bruce Lee while the other was about the recently discovered journal of Harry Houdini. I love history. I like a good mystery. I enjoyed what I watched.

Impractical Jokers (HBOMax)

In this show, four friends go out of their way to humiliate each other and the people around them. I watched a few episodes on Thursday, largely because the show has been submitted for the Outstanding Structured Reality Show Emmy. The four jokers sometimes tend to come across as being a little bit too amused with themselves a little bit but, at the same time, I do have to admit that I laughed quite a bit.

Inspector Lewis (YouTube)

I watched an old episode of this British detective show on Tuesday. Lewis and Hathaway were investigating a Halloween murder that may or may not have involved vampires. It was very foggy, very amusing, and very British.

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (Apple TV+)

Samuel L. Jackson plays a 90 year-old man who tries to solve a mystery before losing his memories to dementia. I watched a bit of this Friday. It never quite captured my attention the way that I expected it to, given the show’s intriguing premise. The show’s greatest strength, not surprisingly, is Samuel L. Jackson’s powerful performance in the title role.

Love is Blind (Netflix)

In this reality dating show, couples can talk to each other but, sealed away in their own individual pods, they can’t see each other. In fact, they only get to see each other if one of them proposes marriage and the other accepts. Is love truly blind? Is this show absolutely silly? Yes, it is! However, I watched a few episodes this week and it was all pleasantly silly.

Moon Knight (Disney Plus)

I reviewed Moon Knight here!

The Offer (Paramount Plus)

I reviewed The Offer here!

Painting With John (HBOMax)

Musician, actor, and artistic gadfly John Lurie paints pictures while talking about whatever he feels like talking about. I watched three episodes on Monday. At one point, Lurie told everyone watching to imagine their hand turning into a light bulb. That’s my type of artist.

Sketchbook (Disney Plus)

Disney animators teach viewers how to draw their favorite characters. I watched two episodes, one of Friday and one on Saturday. I learned how to draw Simba. It’s a cute show.

Slasher: Flesh and Blood (Shudder)

I watched this horror-themed miniseries on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! A killer brutally killed off the members of a particularly greedy family. David Cronenberg played the family patriarch and gave a nicely eccentric performance. I appreciated this show for its atmospheric locations, its ruthless killers, and its willingness to kill off just about anyone. It was a bit of a spiritual sequel to Harper’s Island. It was horror for people who appreciate horror.

Slippin’ Jimmy (Prime)

It’s the early days of Jimmy McGill! This is an animated prequel to Better Call Saul. The episode that I watched, on Sunday, was an Exorcist parody. It should have been funny but it just never worked for me. The humor was a bit too obvious and predictable for me. Maybe I’ve just seen too many Exorcist parodies for the idea to really capture my imagination.

Two-Sentence Horror Stories (Netflix)

This horror anthology actually airs on The CW but I watched the third season on Netflix, on Sunday and Monday. The season was made up of ten episodes and, as is somewhat typical of anthology series, the end results were uneven. I did, however, like The Crush episode, which was kind of an extra macabre take on What Ever Happened To Baby Jane.

The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window (Netflix)

This miniseries, directed by Michael Lehmann, does for the Netflix what A Deadly Adoption did for Lifetime. It’s a pitch perfect satire of the type of movies that tend to show up on Netflix, one that pokes fun but does so in such a dry way that some viewers will undoubtedly miss the point. Since films like The Girl On The Train and The Woman In The Window are already kind of self-parodies, this is the best approach to take. Kristen Bell is great in the role of the wine-drinking neighbor who is haunted by the strange things that she sees across the street. Can she conquer her fear of the rain and solve the mystery!? Watch to find out!

You (Netflix)

I watched You‘s third season over the course of the week. Joe and Love are now parents living in the suburbs but Joe is still up to his old tricks. Unfortunately, for Joe, so is Love. The first episode was great but the rest of the season couldn’t live up to it. Penn Badgley always does a good job as Joe but the rest of the season felt like a knock-off of some of Dexter‘s later seasons.

Lisa Marie’s Early Oscar Predictions for June

Posted on June 24, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s the time of the month again! It’s time for me to share my brave attempts to randomly guess at what will be nominated for the Oscars next year! I do this on a monthly basis. For the first six or seven months of the year, it’s a bit of a fool’s errand. Usually, it’s not until late September and October that the Oscar race really starts to become a bit clearer and, even then, there’s always a few surprises and late additions. So, in other words, take the predictions below with a grain of salt. Actually, take them with several grains of salt. A few of these films and performers will definitely be nominated. Several probably won’t but these are the best guesses that I can currently make based on the rumors and speculation that I’ve seen online.

Probably the biggest Oscar news this month was that Top Gun: Maverick is still dominating the box office. That’s good new for Maverick, both because it reminds the Academy of how much people love the film and it will also help to keep the movie fresh on everyone’s mind as the rest of the year unfolds. To those who say that Top Gun: Maverick isn’t a traditional Oscar movie, I would say that 1) they have a point and 2) the same could have been and was said about Mad Max: Fury Road, Get Out, Joker, Black Panther, Dune, and several other recent nominees that both did well at the box office and scored several Oscar nominations. It’s probably time for us to stop thinking about whether or not a movie is a “traditional” nominee because it’s been a while since that’s really been a deciding factor. The times are changing.

Anyway, below you’ll find my nominees for the month of June! If you want to see how my thinking has progressed, be sure to check out my predictions for February, March, April, and May! They’re good for a laugh if nothing else.

Finally, if I had to predict a winner for Best Picture, I would probably go with The Fabelmans. I think Steven Spielberg making a film about his childhood will be hard to resist and I think there are some people who feel that Spielberg didn’t quite get the amount of Oscar love that he deserved for West Side Story.

Best Picture

Babylon

Empire of Light

Everything Everywhere All At Once

The Fabelmans

Killers of the Flower Moon

My Policeman

Rustin

She Said

Top Gun: Maverick

Women Talking

Best Director

Damien Chazelle for Babylon

Joseph Kosinski for Top Gun: Maverick

Maria Schafer for She Said

Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon

Steven Spielberg for The Fabelmans

Best Actor

Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick

Colman Domingo in Rustin

Brendan Fraser in The Whale

Tom Hanks in A Man Called Otto

Brad Pitt in Babylon

Best Actress

Naomi Ackie in I Wanna Dance with Somebody

Cate Blanchett in Tar

Ana de Armas in Blonde

Margot Robbie in Babylon

Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Supporting Actor

Paul Dano in The Fabelmans

Tom Hanks in Elvis

Anthony Hopkins in Armageddon Time

Tobey Maguire in Babylon

Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Supporting Actress

Jessie Buckley in Women Talking

Jamie Lee Curtis in Everything Everywhere All At Once

Sally Field in Spoiler Alert

Li Jun Li in Babylon

Michelle Williams in The Fabelmans

Film Review: I Want You Back (dir by Jason Orley)

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Poor Peter and Emma!

Peter (Charlie Day) and Emma (Jenny Slate) both work in the same building in downtown Atlanta. That’s one thing that they have in common. Peter works for a soulless nursing home company. At a typical meeting, Peter listens as the other executives debate whether or not it’s actually necessary to spend so much money feeding the residents. Peter dreams of starting his own nursing home, one where the elderly will be treated with the respect that they deserve. Emma is an administrative assistant in an orthodontist’s office. She lives in an apartment with two college students, even though she hasn’t been enrolled in college for years. Though they’re both in their early thirties, neither Peter nor Emma have really be able to get their lives going yet. That’s another thing that they have in common.

And there’s a third thing that they have in common. They’ve both recently been dumped. Anne (Gina Rodriguez) left Peter because she felt that Peter was stuck in a rut and she’s now dating a pretentious but dashing middle school theater teacher named Logan (Manny Jacinto). Emma’s ex, personal trainer Noah (Scott Eastwood), is now deeply in love with a pastry chef named Ginny (Clark Backo). Anne and Noah may have moved on but both Peter and Emma want their exes back.

When Emma and Peter meet each other while looking for a place to cry in the office stairwell, they strike up a quick friendship. They also hatch a brilliant scheme. Emma will volunteer to work on Logan’s production of Little Shop of Horrors and, while doing so, she’ll seduce him and cause Anne to break up with him. Meanwhile, Peter will befriend Noah and convince him that Ginny really isn’t right for him.

Of course, things don’t go as smoothly as expected. We’ve all seen Strangers on a Train enough times to know that these “You’ll help me and I’ll help you” schemes never seem to work out. Peter does manage to befriend Noah but it turns out that Noah is deeply in love with Ginny. Meanwhile, Logan is more than open to the idea of being seduced but it turns out that Anne is also interested in exploring new things. While Peter and Noah are hitting the clubs and getting taunted, for being “old,” by Pete Davidson, Emma is being forced to sing Suddenly Seymour with the 13 year-old star of Little Shop of Horrors. Peter and Emma are also growing closer, even as they try to get back with their exes.

Currently streaming on Prime, I Want You Back is an amusing romantic comedy, one that works due to a surprisingly clever script and a charming cast. For all the indignities that Peter and Emma go through in their quest to win back the exes, the film always treats their emotions with respect. The scene in which 30-something Emma wipes away tears while a bespectacled 13 year-old sings Suddenly Seymour to her is a wonderfully comedic moment but, because Emma feels like a fully realized character instead of just a comedic caricature, the film works on an emotional level as well. “I’m not ready for this,” Emma mutters as the kid starts to sing and it’s a funny line that works because it’s also a line to which everyone can relate. Everyone knows the feeling. Jenny Slate and Charlie Day are charming as the two leads and both Scott Eastwood and Gina Rodriguez bring some welcome depth to the role of the exes. No one in this film turns out to be as simple or as one-dimensional as the viewer might initially expect. Instead, we find ourselves caring about not only Emma and Peter but also about Noah and Anne, as well.

I Want You Back is a sweet-natured and genuinely funny romantic comedy. The final scene is perfect. Check it out on Prime.

Miniseries Review: Moon Knight (dir by Mohamed Diab and Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson)

Posted on June 21, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

No sooner had Ryan posted his essay about whether or not comic book companies like Marvel or DC actually need readers anymore then I came over here to type up my review of Moon Knight.

Why is that relevant? Well, Moon Knight is a 6-episode miniseries based on a character who made his debut in the pages of Marvel comics. The character has a loyal following of readers but the Disney miniseries has introduced him to a whole new group of people, many of whom have never even held a comic book, let alone read one. I’m one of those people. If not for the miniseries, I wouldn’t have the slightest idea who Moon Knight is because, for the most part, I’ve never been a comic book reader. I would have to imagine that if I was a comic book reader, it would bug the Hell out of me that people who have never read a comic book are now suddenly acting as if they’re experts on all of the various costumed characters who have been published by Marvel and DC over the past few decades. I can remember how upset I was when everyone suddenly decided that they were an expert on Dario Argento and Italian horror just because they had read some lame article on the remake of Suspiria. No, I wanted to say, you haven’t done the work!

Unfortunately, that’s the way of the world now. With the current pop cultural dominance of the MCU and the DCEU, everyone’s a super hero fan regardless of whether or not they’ve ever read a comic book. And, with the explosion of social media over the past decade, everyone is now in a position to present themselves as being an expert regardless of whether they’re tweeting their own thoughts or just plagiarizing what they’ve read on Wikipedia. It doesn’t matter whether the topic is politics, television, history, science, religion, or comic books. Everyone now claims to be an expert and, as the old saying goes, when everyone’s an expert, no one’s an expert. Again, if that annoys the Hell out of you, I sympathize.

Perhaps you can take some consolation in the fact that, even though I watched all six episode of Moon Knight today, I hardly feel like an expert as far as the character is concerned. For the most part, I enjoyed Moon Knight but I would be lying if I said that I was always able to follow what was going on. Oscar Isaac plays Marc Spector, a mercenary who is mortally wounded in Egypt but who is revived by Khonshu (voiced by F. Murray Abraham), the Egyptian God of the Moon, who tasks Spector with protecting humanity from evil or something like that. Sometimes, however, Spector becomes Steven Grant, a mild-mannered and neurotic Brit who works in a museum gift shop and who is haunted by strange dreams. When Grant discovers that he’s actually Spector, this leads to him meeting Spector’s wife, Layla (May Calamawy) and also having to battle Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), a fanatical cult leader who is trying to get his hands on ancient scarab that will …. let him do stuff, I guess. Harrow’s evil, Moon Knight’s good, and I guess that’s all we really need to know. Moon Knight is basically a typical MCU “let’s all fight over the artifact” story, with the main twist being that all of the Gods are Egyptian instead of Norse and the hero has dissociative identity disorder and might actually very well be a patient at psychiatric hospital.

With all that in mind, Moon Knight is actually pretty entertaining. It’s biggest strength, not surprisingly, is Oscar Isaac, who appears to be having a ball playing several different versions of the same character. When he’s Marc Spector, he gets to play at being a grim and serious action hero. When he’s Steve Grant, he gets to play a comedic bumbler who gets the chance to prove that he’s stronger and more capable than anyone gave him credit for. Isaac does a good job with both roles and the show is at its best when it’s just Isaac arguing with himself. Playing a villain in an MCU production is often a thankless task but Hawke’s brings the right edge of fanaticism to Arthur Harrow and F. Murray Abraham voices Khonshu with the just the right combination of righteous indignation and weary frustration. The show makes good use of its Egyptian setting and the fourth and fifth episodes are enjoyably surreal as they delve into the corners of Spector’s mind.

Unfortunately, the show’s conclusion leaves a bit to be desired. After all that build-up, it all pretty much leads to a standard MCU street battle and the possibility of more Moon Knight action in the future. That said, I enjoyed the show for what it was. Turn off your mind, relax, and float across the Duat, as the old saying goes.

Miniseries Review: The Offer (dir by Dexter Fletcher, Adam Arkin, Colin Bucksey, and Gwyneth Horder-Payton)

Posted on June 20, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Almost despite myself, I enjoyed The Offer.

That may come as a surprise to some. The Offer is a 10-hour miniseries about the making of The Godfather and how Hollywood politics aren’t really that much different from Mafia politics. As anyone who has regularly read this site over the past few years should know, I absolutely love The Godfather. It’s my favorite movie. It’s a movie about which I’ve done a lot of personal research. There’s very little about the making of The Godfather that I don’t know. If we’re going to be honest, I’m probably a little bit of a snob about it.

So, like many people, I was a bit skeptical when I first heard about The Offer. It didn’t seem like something that was particularly necessary and it was hard for me to imagine how the miniseries would ever be able to convincingly cast anyone as Marlon Brando or Al Pacino or, for that matter, Francis Ford Coppola. My skepticism only increased when I learned that the story was going to be told from the perspective of the film’s producer, Al Ruddy. Everyone agrees that Ruddy was an important part of The Godfather team but he’s never been quite as compelling a figure as the brilliant but often self-destructive Brando or the neurotic but playful Pacino. When people talk about what makes The Godfather such a brilliant film, they talk about the quotable dialogue. They talk about the masterful performances. They talk about Coppola’s skill as a storyteller. They talk about the way that Gordon Willis lit the scenes so that the characters often seemed to be on the verge of being swallowed by their shadows. They even talk about how Robert Evans insisted that the film could only be directed by an Italian and how Evans defied Paramount when the studio originally demanded that Coppola cut the film down to two hours. When Al Ruddy is praised, it’s usually for staying out of the way.

I knew that I would have to watch The Offer eventually but I avoided it while it was actually airing and I made sure not to read anyone else’s opinion to it. Despite my own obvious biases, I did want to try to maintain as open a mind as I possibly could. That said, I wasn’t expecting much when I finally watched The Offer this weekend.

But, as I said at the start of this review, I enjoyed it.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a bit of a silly show. If The Offer was a sitcom, it would be called Everybody Loves Ruddy because the main theme of the show seems to be that Al Ruddy (played by a miscast Miles Teller) was literally the most important man in the entire history of Hollywood. There’s not a problem that Ruddy can’t solve, whether it’s convincing CBS to air a tasteless sitcom called Hogan’s Heroes or convincing Paramount to take a huge risk on a mercurial director named Coppola and an unknown actor named Pacino. When gangster Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi) tries to interfere with production, Ruddy befriends him and is soon a popular guy with the crew. When Al Pacino (Anthony Ippolito) signs a contract with MGM, Ruddy puts the pressure on Paramount to find a way to get Pacino out of it. When Coppola (Dan Fogler) has a fight with Gordon Willis (T.J. Thyne), Ruddy convinces them to make up. When Robert Evans (Matthew Goode) goes on a coke binge, Ruddy snaps him out of it. When …. well, you get the idea. There’s nothing Al Ruddy can’t do! When Evans mentioned that Henry Kissinger was coming to the Godfather premiere, I half expected Al Ruddy to negotiate a ceasefire in Vietnam.

From the start, The Offer is full of visual cues and dialogue that pay homage to not only The Godfather but the other films of the period. The first line of the miniseries is Joe Colombo telling someone to, “Leave the cannoli.” At first, I groaned but, slowly but surely, the show won me over. By the end of the first episode, it was obvious that The Offer was not necessarily meant to be taken literally. The Offer doesn’t tell the story of what Hollywood was really like in the late 60s and early 70s. Instead, it tells the story of how people like me, who were born a few decades too late, imagine it was. It’s less about the decade itself and more about how that decade continues to fascinate us and spark our imagination. In our imagination, Robert Evans is snorting coke in his office, Ali MacGraw is lounging by the pool, Frank Sinatra is making angry phone calls to Joe Colombo, Al Pacino is so nervous that he can’t look anyone in the eye, and Marlon Brando is wandering around his mansion in a kimono and talking about how he can’t get anyone to see his latest, politically-charged film. In our fantasies, it only makes sense that Evans and his assistant Peter Bart (Josh Zuckerman) would spend all of their time dropping titles of well-regarded, still-remembered films because why would anyone fantasize about them discussing a film that was forgotten? And, of course, no one is going to fantasize about people discussing some actor who was briefly big in 1972 and then spent the rest of their career on television. Instead, in the fantasy, it’s all about Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Liz Taylor, and Marlon Brando. It also makes sense that only classic 70s music would be heard in the background of every scene because, seriously, who ever fantasizes about a bad song playing at a party?

Once it is accepted that it is all meant to be a fantasy, it becomes much easier to appreciate The Offer for what it is, a gossipy, Hollywood story with a Mafia subplot and an overabundance period detail. Once the viewer accepts The Offer is a fantasy, the viewer is freed up to appreciate the 70s-chic wardrobe. Once the viewer gets past the fact that the cast is playing characters based on actual people, it becomes much easier to appreciate the performances of character actors like Colin Hanks (who plays an uptight executive) and Burn Gorman (who plays the notoriously eccentric businessman, Charles Bluhdorn). Patrick Gallo is slyly funny as Mario Puzo while Dan Fogler does a credible enough job as Coppola, even if he never quite captures Coppola’s larger-than-life persona. Even Lou Ferrigno gets a nice bit, playing a mob enforcer turned unwilling actor. At the center of it all is the absolutely brilliant Matthew Goode, giving a charismatic performance as the brilliant but sometimes unstable Robert Evans.

As a history, The Offer won’t win any points for accuracy. But, as a fantasy, it’s undeniably entertaining. It’s not so much the story of how The Godfather was made but the story of how we wish it was made.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 6/13/22 — 6/19/22

Posted on June 19, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This year’s Emmy submissions were finally posted online on Thursday and, looking them over, I quickly realized that I have a lot of things to watch and not much time to watch them. So, I’m just going to post what I watched and listened to this week and then I’m getting back to watching The Offer.

Films I Watched:

The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970)
Cone of Silence (1960)
Controlling Britney Spears (2021)
The Eye: Calanthek (2021)
Heathers (1989)
I Bury The Living (1958)
Keeping Company with Sondheim (2022)
The Last Hunter (1980)
A Little Dead (2022)
Merry Wives (2022)
Rita Ora At The Eiffel Tower (2021)
Shatner in Space (2021)
Spell (2020)

Television Shows I Watched:

2022 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards
Allo Allo
Angelyne
Archer
Bob’s Burgers
Brooklyn Nine Nine
Cheer
Collector’s Call
Community
Dr. Death
Full House
Hart to Heart
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
Inspector Lewis
Making the Cut
Married at First Sight
The Offer
Rick and Morty
Robot Chicken
Selling Sunset
Slippin’ Jimmy
Step Into …. The Movie With Derek and Julianne Hough
Taylor Tomlinson: Look At You
The True Story With Ed and Randall
Two Minute Horror Stories
Undone
Voir
We Need To Talk About Cosby
What If….?
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
You

Music To Which I Listened:

BTS
Cannons
Carly Simon
The Chemical Brotherrs
Coldplay
Demi Lovato
Edgar Allan Poets
Foreigner
Halsey
Holly Humberstone
Julia Jacklin
Michael Fredo
Muse
Public Service Broadcasting
Radiohead
REO Speedwagon
Rita Coolidge
Saint Motel
t.A.T.u.
Yvonne Elliman

News From Last Week:

Links From Last Week:

Links From The Site:

Ryan reviewed Gecko, Perry Midlife, and Town & County!
Erin shared Flying Aces, Astounding Science Fiction, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Codeword: Nemesis, Walk The Dark Streets, The Storm Lord, and Protest!
Doc shared music videos from Blind Channel, Holly Humberstone, Demi Lovato, t.A.T.u, Julia Jacklin, Halsey, and BTS!
I shared my week in television! I reviewed A Little Dead, Angelyne, and Shatner in Space!

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Miniseries Review: Angelyne (dir by Matt Spicer and Lucy Tcherniak)

Posted on June 19, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Who is the real Angelyne?

That’s question that is at the heart of Peacock’s new miniseries, Angelyne. The obvious answer is that Angelyne (played, quite well, by Emmy Rossum) is a Los Angeles icon who, in the 80s and 90s, was known for having her image plastered on billboards across the city. The billboards usually featured a provocative picture of Angelyne, her name, and a phone number that one could call. Billboards, of course, are used for advertising and Angelyne was advertising herself. What service did Angelyne provide? She provided the service of being a celebrity that people might actually run into while walking or driving around the city. She drove her pink Corvette across Los Angeles, waved at tourists, and sold merchandise to her fans. She even twice ran for governor. Before the Kardashians and the explosion of social media, Angelyne was famous for being famous. And when people asked who Angelyne was before she became Angelyne, she replied that she had always been Angelyne. Sometimes, she said she was someone who had come to Los Angeles from another state. Sometimes, she said that she was a literal angel, sent down to spread peace and help people believe in themselves. Other times, she suggested that she was an extra-terrestrial. Perhaps her most honest response was that she was whatever the person looking at her wanted to be. People saw Angelyne and they projected their own feelings onto her.

Filmed in a manner that combines faux documentary footage with flashbacks, each of Angelyne‘s five episodes focuses on someone from Angelyne’s past as they talk about their role in Angelyne’s enigmatic life. Often times, they seem to be struggling to come to terms with the fact that they’re obsessed with someone about whom they actually know very little. A smarmy reporter (Alex Karpovsky) and a twerpy filmmaker (Max Allen) both investigate Angelyne’s past and it’s hard not to resent their efforts to bring her down to Earth. (The reporter, at one point, actually says that Angelyne lost her right to privacy when she ran for governor, as if anyone seriously believed Angelyne was going to be the next governor of California. Seriously, most viewers will want to smack him.) Cory Hunt (Philip Ettinger), the lead singer of a band that Angelyne was briefly a member of, tries to take credit for creating her persona but he’s never credible and Angelyne even interupts their flashbacks to say that he’s lying. Wendy Wallace (played by Molly Ephraim) struggles to come to terms with the fact that her father, Harold (Martin Freeman), not only bankrolled Angelyne’s billboards but also neglected his family to “manage” Angelyne’s career. Angelyne’s assistant, Rick (Hamish Linklater), devotes his life to supporting and protecting Angelyne but sometimes, even he has to take a break.

All of them get their chance to tell their story and, as played by Rossum, Angelyne gets to tell her story. Not surprisingly, Angelyne’s story often differs from the stories being told about her. Frequently, a flashback will come to a halt as soon as Angelyne announces, “That’s not what happened.” When the twerpy filmmaker claims that he got Angelyne to admit the truth about who she was before she remade herself as Angelyne, Angelyne pops up to tell us that it never happened. Even after the “truth” of Angelyne’s past has been revealed, Angelyne shows up to assure that the story isn’t true and, if it is true, it’s only halfway true and it’s impossible not to respect Angelyne’s refusal to accept or admit to being anyone other than a Los Angeles icon named Angelyne. The miniseries suggests that Angelyne is someone who dealt with unimaginable pain and trauma by creating herself as almost a cartoon of what it means to be a celebrity. The miniseries also suggests that, at the very least, Los Angeles should be thankful that she did.

In many ways, Angelyne feels like a superior companion piece to Hulu’s Pam & Tommy. Both miniseries are about the curious nature of fame and the America’s bizarre celebrity culture. The main difference is that while Pam & Tommy was thuddingly literal and featured Seth Rogen wandering around with that stupid mullet, Angelyne is stylish and imaginative and there’s not a mullet in sight. Whereas Pam & Tommy struggled to justify its existence, Angelyne features a scene where the title character flies a UFO over Los Angeles. Whereas Pam & Tommy presented Hugh Hefner as being a benevolent father figure, Angelyne features a scene where Angelyne tells off a smug Hefner and informs him that there’s nothing his magazine can do for her that she can’t do for herself. For that scene alone, Angelyne deserves to be seen.

Lisa’s Week In Television: 6/12/22 — 6/18/22

Posted on June 18, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As opposed to last week, where I didn’t watch anything except for old episodes of King of the Hill, I ended up watching a lot this week. That’s because the official Emmy ballots have dropped and I now know everything that was officially submitted this year. That ballots have given me a roadmap of what I need to check out over the next week and a half, before I announce what I would nominate for the Emmys, if I was an Emmy voter and had all the power.

So, without any further ado, here are some thoughts on what I watched this week:

The 2022 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards (Shudder)

Now, really this is what all award shows should be like! The show honored “the best in horror,” and while I didn’t necessarily agree with all of the winners, I did appreciate that it only took them 90 minutes to hand out all the awards and that the show didn’t take itself too seriously. Maybe the Oscars should move to Shudder.

Allo Allo (Sunday Night, PBS)

Rene tried to flee to Spain while Michelle decided to smuggle the British airmen out of France in wine barrels. Needless to say, nothing worked out.

Archer (FX)

While searching for the mysterious assassin known as the Dingo, Sterling Archer confronted painful memories of his past. For whatever reason, I never seem to get a chance to watch Archer as much as I probably should. Whenever I do catch an episode (and I watched this one on Hulu on Thursday), I always enjoy the show’s Bond-parody humor.

Barry (Sunday Night, HBO)

Barry’s third season came to an end on Sunday night and oh my God! What an amazing episode! From Gene betraying Barry to Barry breaking down in the desert to NoHo Hank somehow managing to escape in Colombia to Sarah Goldberg’s amazing performance as Sally, this was an incredible episode. That said, it played like a series finale. I have no idea where the show can go from here but I’m looking forward to finding out.

Bob’s Burgers (Fox, Sunday Night)

I’ve lost track of how long Bob’s Burgers has been on. I don’t watch it regularly but, whenever I do, I usually laugh a few times. The episode that I watched this week was also the show’s Emmy submission. After being made fun of yet again at school, Tina escaped into a Blade Runner-inspired fantasy world. Bob and Teddy, meanwhile, dealt with their insecurities about running a crappy restaurant by obsessing over some derogatory graffiti. I laughed enough to enjoy the show.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Hulu)

I finally watched the final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine on Friday afternoon. (It was only nine episodes long.) I know that a lot of people complained that the final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine was too political and anti-cop and, if I had seen the show when it originally aired, I probably would have agreed. But, seeing it in 2022 and with the failures of the Ulvade cops still on my mind, I didn’t mind that the main villain was the head of the policeman’s union and that a major theme of the season was that police reform is going to have to start with the culture of policing itself. Fortunately, the Andy Samberg-led ensemble was as strong as ever and helped make the more heavy-handed moments palpable. The highlight, for me, was the episode where Peralta’s previously unmentioned nemesis, Johnny Franzia, returned. It worked as both a domestic comedy and a parody of shows like Law and Order: Criminal Intent and the CSIs.

Cheer (Netflix)

I watched the second season of Cheer early on Saturday morning. The Navarro cheerleaders are still obsessive perfectionists who seem to take cheerleading maybe a little too seriously. This season deserved some credit for being honest about how disruptive their sudden fame was. (That’s one of those things that many reality shows chose to avoid.) The first episode featured an unforgettable montage of smarm as we saw everyone from Ellen to Colbert to a dazed-looking Biden talking to the cheerleaders. The show also acknowledged both the legal troubles of one of the first season’s breakout stars and the outsized influence that Varsity Brands has on the cheerleading industry. All in all, it was a good show even if you kind of wanted to tell the cheerleaders to take it down a notch and maybe enjoy their time in college.

Community (Netflix)

“We had name for people like you in prison. We called you …. the mean clique!” Still a classic.

Dr. Death (Peacock)

I watched this Peacock miniseries on Tuesday and Wednesday. Joshua Jackson played an incompetent and possibly sociopathic surgeon while Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater played the two doctors trying to, at the very least, get Jackson’s license suspended. It was a good and disturbing miniseries, though I imagine that some of my reaction was due to the fact that my Dad is currently having issues with back pain and is exactly the type of patient who was victimized by Jackson’s coke-snorting surgeon. This show is based on a true story. It was also set in Texas but, for the most part, it avoided all of the stereotypes that usually make me cringe. When Slater dismissed Jackson as being an arrogant yankee, a part of me cheered. Of course, the show had to feature a character blaming everything on Rick Perry, which was dumb and felt out-of-character, but that’s the entertainment industry for you.

On a final note, the show was very well-acted and, yes, that includes Alec Baldwin. When Baldwin wants to be, he can still be a very good and, dare I say, subtle actor.

Full House (MeTV, Sunday Evening)

I watched two episodes of this stupid show on Sunday. First, Jesse went to his high school reunion, performed with his old band (how many bands did this dude have?) and was tempted to leave Aunt Becky for his high school girlfriend. Why was Jesse always tempted to abandon Aunt Becky? Jesse was supposedly only 28 so he was still a little bit young for a midlife crisis. (In other words, STOP CRYING, JESSE!) This was followed by an episode where Danny suddenly had a girlfriend and he had to look after her obnoxious son. It was pretty dumb.

Hart to Heart (Peacock)

Kevin Hart interviews his celebrity friends. I watched two episodes on Thursday, mostly because the show was submitted to the Emmys. Kevin Hart is not a bad interviewer, though none of the conversations were really that in-depth. This is a good example of the “Famous Person Knows Other Famous People” talk show genre.

I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson (Netflix)

This short comedy sketch show is best-known for being the source of the “We’re all trying to figure out who did this” meme. I watched the show’s second season on Thursday night. (Each episode is less than 20 minutes long so the season went by quickly.) While the 2nd season never quite reached the heights of the “We’re all trying to figure out who did this” skit, it was still amusing. A bit about an “aggressive store” that sold “busy” shirts to men was a highlight.

Inspector Lewis (YouTube)

I watched this British detective show from the aughts with my friend Shirley on Tuesday. Inspector Lewis and Inspector Hathaway investigated a series of murders surrounding a quiz competition. The episode took place at Oxford and the scenery was lovely.

Making the Cut (Amazon Prime)

After Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn left Project Runway, they began to appear in Prime’s Making the Cut. Making the Cut is basically the same show as Project Runway, just without Nina Garcia or the lingering stench of the Weinstein Company. I binged the second season on Tuesday and I loved it. Tim and Heidi really were Project Runway‘s main selling points and watching them on Making the Cut filled me with nostalgia for a time of fun reality shows, as opposed to what’s going on now.

Married at First Sight (Lifetime, Wednesday Nights)

It has been forever since I watched an episode of Lifetime’s apparently immortal Married at First Sight franchise so, on Saturday morning, I watched two recent episodes on Hulu. It was pretty much as I remembered. Five couples, who had just met and married, took part in a group honeymoon in Florida and tried to get to know each other. One couple split up. Another couple debated whether to get undressed in front of each other. Even though the episode were from the most recent season, they left like they could have been from any season of the show. Don’t mess with success, I guess. It’s a silly show but undeniably addictive, as silly shows often are.

Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)

On Thursday, I watched the episode of Rick and Morty that was submitted to the Emmys. Morty made the mistake of landing a spaceship in the ocean, which led to Rick having a summit with his arch nemesis, a flamboyant sea king of some sort. Morty tried to keep his date with Jessica while all this went on. An attempt to get wine for the summit led to a centuries-old civilization being developed around the idea of Morty being a demon who had to be destroyed. It was chaotic and it made me laugh.

Robot Chicken (Adult Swim)

Oh wow, those toys are cursing and telling dirty jokes! Stoner humor at its best. It made me laugh.

The Rockford Files (Tubi)

This is a 70s detective show, starring James Garner as a detective who lives in a trailer on the beach. On Sunday, I watched an episode in which a vacationing family from Indiana accidentally stole Garner’s grill and the diamonds that were hidden inside of it. Apparently, this sort of thing happened quite frequently.

Selling Sunset (Netflix)

This totally spontaneous and not at all scripted “reality” series is all about real estate. A group of beautiful women work at a real estate company owned by a guy who we are told is handsome and sexy but who actually looks like a gnome and has all the charisma of a brick wall. When they’re not selling amazing houses, the real estate agents re gossiping about each other and talk about how much they dislike anyone new who their boss hires. Again, totally spontaneous and not at all staged, right?

Anyway, I watched a few episodes of the latest season on Netflix. There’s literally no one likable on the show but the houses make up for it.

Step Into The Movies With Derek and Julianne Hough (Hulu)

This special originally aired on ABC but I watched it on Hulu. Derek and Julianne Hough recreated classic move dance scenes. I loved it. The scenes were recreated with love and respect and Derek and Julianne were as adorable as ever.

Taylor Tomlinson: Look At You (Netflix)

I watched this Netflix stand-up special on Friday morning. Taylor told jokes about her meds and discovering that she was bipolar by doing a google search on what they were all supposed to do. That was humor to which I could relate.

The True Story with Ed and Randall (Peacock)

Everyday Americans sit down with Hollywood celebrities, Ed Helms and Randall Park, and tell the story of something interesting that happened in their life. While they tell the story, their actions are recreated by a group of comedians. I watched a few episodes on Monday afternoon. The show was a bit uneven, as one might expect when everything’s pretty much dependent on the story being told. That said, the show’s heart is in the right place and Ed and Randall seem to be genuinely interested in the stories being told. That’s a big plus.

Undone (Amazon Prime)

This is a rather bizarre animated series, one that features time travel and alternate realities. I watched the episode that was submitted for the Best Animated Episode Emmy. Even though I didn’t fully understand the story, the animation was so hauntingly beautiful that I couldn’t take my eyes away from the screen.

Voir (Netflix)

This Netflix show features various film critics talking about the movies that caused them to fall in love with cinema. I watched a bit on Wednesday. The first episode featured Sasha Stone talking about Jaws. This episode has been criticized, by many on Film Twitter, for focusing more on Sasha than on the film being reviewed. Of course, some people have said the same thing about my own reviews and I actually appreciated that Sasha acknowledged that falling in love with a film has lot to do with what’s going on in your own life at the time. The personal is important when discussing how we react to great art. (It should also be acknowledged that 95% of Film Twitter is never going to forgive Sasha Stone for not being a Bernie Sanders-loving socialist and that undoubtedly has something to do with the out-of-proportion criticism directed at her episode.) All in all, this is a good series and not worthy of the disdain that some have treated it with. I get the feeling that a lot of that disdain is fueled by critics who were not invited to participate.

We Need To Talk About Cosby (Showtime)

Indeed, we do. From W. Kamau Bell, We Need To Talk About Cosby is a four-part series about how Bill Cosby became a beloved media figure despite not really making any sort of an effort to hide his crimes. It looks at why Cosby was so important to so many people while also taking a harsh and honest look at the reality of who Bill Cosby actually is. Myself, I was lucky enough to grow up in a post-Cosby world but, after watching this show, I understand why so many people continue to struggle with the way they used to feel about Cosby.

What If….? (Disney Plus)

This is the MCU’s animated series, in which we visit alternate timelines and see what would happen if the heroes made different choices. The episode I watched featured Dr. Strange turning evil and basically destroying the universe. Yikes! It was effective, though. It helped that Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, and Tilda Swinton all lent their actual voices to the show, as opposed to Marvel trying to bring in sound-alikes.

Whose Line Is It Anyway? (The CW, Saturday Nights)

Hey, it’s improv! Improv is always uneven but it’s usually funny on Whose Line Is It Anyway. This show would probably be more acclaimed (or, at least, more prominent as an Emmy contender) if it wasn’t a CW show. Someday, though, the CW will break through! I have faith in you, CW!

Documentary Review: Shatner In Space

Posted on June 16, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Remember when William Shatner became the oldest man to go into space?

It’s okay if you’ve forgotten. It happened way back in 2021 and that was like — well, it feels like it was about 30 years ago. Add to that, Shatner went up in space as a part of Jeff Bezos’s space program and Bezos’s attempts to conquer space have pretty much been replaced by Elon Musk’s attempts to conquer space in the national consciousness.

That said, it was a really big deal when it happened. I think there were a lot of people who were concerned that, at the age of 90, Shatner wasn’t really physically fit to go into space and that it would be really depressing if Shatner didn’t make it back to Earth. There were others who pointed out that Jeff Bezos’s Blue Orbit may have gone high up in the sky but that it didn’t quite break through the atmosphere. The people on the ship, including Shatner, experienced weightlessness and got to see what the Earth looked like from space without actually literally going into space. George Takei had to be a whiny little child about it because that’s pretty much the way Takei reacts to anything positive happening to William Shatner. And, of course, many people said that Jeff Bezos should have been spending his money on fixing the Earth instead of trying to escape it. Those were the same people who, later that year, wrote positive reviews of Don’t Look Up.

That said, it was all just really cool. Star Trek may bore me to tears but even I was still moved by the thought of William Shatner going into space, even if it was just for a few minutes. It was a moment to spark the imagination and to inspire optimism. I think those are two things that the professional naysayers are incapable of possessing or understanding. But it’s imagination and optimism that will make the world a better place.

Anyway, there’s a 50-minute documentary about Shatner’s voyage into space, one that I just watched. It’s on Prime and, quite appropriately, it’s called Shatner In Space. In all honesty, Shatner In Space is largely a commercial for Jeff Bezos. There’s not point in denying that. The first half of the documentary features perhaps a bit too much footage of Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, trying to present himself as just being a humble sci-fi nerd who grew up on a ranch. Brilliant businessman that he is, Bezos is not the most charismatic person in the world and that’s especially obvious when he’s sharing scenes with William Shatner. There’s undoubtedly a lot that you can say about William Shatner but no one can deny that, even at 90, the man knows how to work a scene.

But, fortunately, Shatner himself seems to be so sincerely excited about the prospect of going into space that it even makes Bezos tolerable. The documentary doesn’t include as many scenes as one might hope of William Shatner training for his mission. Personally, I would be curious to know what type of precautions were taken before sending a 90 year-old person into space because, who knows …. I might be 90 before I get the chance to try it for myself! I did notice that, of the crew, Shatner was the only one not to really indulge in the weightless aspect of the trip. While everyone else floated around the capsule, Shatner seemed content to stay in his seat and look at the Earth below. The fact that Shatner, who has pretty much made a late-in-life career out of parodying his reputation for being a bit pompous, seems to be, at that moment, at a loss for words is actually rather touching.

Anyway, as I said, this is basically a commercial for Jeff Bezos but it’s hard not to enjoy watching Shatner go into space.