The Everything - April 30, 2023

Polite Society is the natural successor and antidote to Beau is Afraid. No, I will not be explaining myself. Go see for yourself.

A quick wrap-up of everything else I watched this week. (Life is chaos, so no full-length review this week.)

Bringing Up Baby (1938) - It's loud, it's frantic, characters fall down a lot... and I love every second of it. Cary Grant plays a flustered nerd who just wants to secure funding for his museum and get married, but ends up mixed up with O.G. manic pixie dream girl Katherine Hepburn, her pet leopard, and a cast of characters who seem determined to drive him to madness. Howard Hawks directs. It's one of the funniest movies ever made.

The Evil Dead Trilogy (1981-1992) - What a weird, wonderful journey this trilogy goes on. Sam Raimi made a genuine horror classic then remade it as a comedy when he was asked to not make the sequel a sword-and-sandal hybrid... And then used its success to make that bizarre third entry. None of this should have worked! But it absolutely rules! Bruce Campbell is hilarious. The effects are gross and campy in equal measure. The filmmaking is scrappy and endlessly inventive. Just incredible. I'm almost afraid to watch the new one, because there's no way it can match the energy of the originals... But I also can't wait to see what they do differently.

Ghosted (2023) - Dexter Fletcher must have owed someone at Apple TV+ a favor, because this Netflix-level-bad action-comedy is a huge step down from his last film, the lovely Elton John biopic Rocketman. Ana de Armas and Chris Evans are coasting in roles they could have excelled at: She's a spy, he's a doofus who accidentally gets wrapped up in one of her missions after a date. That could have worked, but the script is forced and unfunny. And it feels like everyone involved knows it. The end result is like if Hallmark tried to make Spy. Skip it.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022) - Haunting, desperate, and timely.  And so smartly structured. We watch the film's central plot - a group of relative strangers assemble in Texas to do just what the title suggests - unfold and get flashbacks along the way revealing why each of these people is risking their lives and freedom to send a message to the nation and its oil companies. I loved it.

John Mulaney: Baby J (2023) - Mulaney's first stand-up special since a very public stint in rehab (followed by a divorce and baby with a new partner that the Internet, well, did not respond well to) is as skillfully-crafted as any of his past specials, if not quite as funny. Not that it needs to be; the man is clearly still working through things and isn't quite sure where he stands with the public (rehab is the primary focus, with almost nothing about his romantic or parenting life)... It's very much worth a watch (it's streaming now on Netflix) and I'm so glad John Mulaney is still with us.

Jury Duty, Season 1 (2023) - It's a risky move to build a sitcom around an unwitting participant, but somehow this show did it. Ronald is selected for jury duty... But what he doesn't know is that it's all fake. Luckily, he crushes it! The show is maybe a little hindered by the need to stay somewhat realistic so that he doesn't catch on, but Ronald comes out of it unscathed and the big reveal at the end is shockingly effective. Also, James Marsden plays a fictionalized version of himself, which had to be the hardest role of all, and he nails it. The whole season is available now on Freevee (whatever that is).

Polite Society (2023) - Nida Manzoor's directorial debut is an absolute treat. Ria (newcomer Priya Kansara) wants to be a stunt person, lives in a heightened reality where full-on martial arts set pieces can just happen at school, and is about to lose her older sister to a hastily arranged marriage. But she's not giving up without a fight! It's sort of Scott Pilgrim. It's sort of Tarantino-ish. But it's wholly its own thing: a fast and funny action movie that may or may not be purely about growing up and learning to let go. Catch it while it's still in theaters!