The Highly Subjective 11 Best Sketches of the 2020-2021 SNL Season

Despite a bloated cast--can we officially declare that the show's vets have zero exit strategy?--this has been a surprisingly successful season of SNL that was a much-needed respite through the ups and downs of Covid and political upheaval.

Here are eleven of the best sketches:
Wario on Trial (Elon Musk): This sketch reminds me of the College Humor sketches that crossed a newer media concept with an older genre (a few alumni from the YouTube sketch channel have crossed over to SNL so it’s no surprise). The way the sketch stays consistent with the lame Italian pronunciations is a nice touch as comedy needs to get the fine details of its world-building squared off before it can launch to the humor.

The sketch already had me sold about halfway through which meant that everything that followed was icing on the cake, and boy was it a lot of icing. Chloe Fineman played Princess Peach like a Barbie Doll partially come to life with the same stilted Italian accent and the inability to move her arms that one can imagine is an 8-bit programming limitation. And then, whammo! The smoking gun: Raunchy text messages exposed between Peach and Luigi about a secret affair and I’m doubling over.

Lastly, this was good gruntwork by Heidi who often is cast in ditzy roles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrTXBFcvoMQ 

Lesbian Period Drama (Carey Mulligan): This is a great sketch in that it gets so many details of what a slow-moving period drama is. The path to affection is so sluggish that Heidi Gardner’s character starts out as an iceberg. She prefers rocks to her eventual lover and it’s hard to tell if she’s ever into her (which seems to be part of the joke).  Kate McKinnon’s appearance is an ex-lover with a deadpan charm represents one of my favorite tropes: Anachronism stew wherein character is clearly not from the time period. Her lines --“The sex was so bad, we broke up even though there’s not another lesbian for 5 other countries” and “It’s 1840, I don’t think that’s been invented yet” – are pretty big barn burners.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgaLlP0xmqE 

The War in Words-Bertie and Mary (Carey Mulligan): I’m generally of the school of thought that SNL’s recurring sketches are condoned laziness and are a vestige of when the show didn’t put all of its clips online. Because you couldn’t see Spaceman Astronaut Jones or Mary Catherine Gallagher whenever you wanted, there was an ephemeral joy of seeing a wholly unoriginal sketch at 12:15 a.m. because who knew when you would see it again and these bits are often funny enough to hold up on repeat viewing. Nowadays, I suspect unoriginal yet funny recurring sketches primarily work for the in-studio audience. It would have the same effect as when a top 40 artist does a concert and the audience gets more fired up when they do their hit single. But that’s just me: If most people like seeing “What’s Up with That?” for the 15thtime with a new guest being talked over and everything else constant, then maybe I’m not the target audience.

On the other hand, Mikey Day’s recurring sketch-- about a soldier in either World War I or World War II having an increasingly frustrating correspondence with a daft wife -- is one that holds up well because a lot of elements are changed each time. In this version with Carey Mulligan, we’re introduced to cocaine. Hey, I haven’t seen that before! And the confusion about fallen comrade Stephen: Oy vey!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBL9l4aDxqM 

A Teacher Parody (Kristen Wiig)-Chris Redd is often my pick for SNL MVP, and Ego and Punkie have promising careers. Maybe if they give plus-size Lauren Holt some screen time, I could fall in love with her too and Bowen has added some different flavors. As a result, I can appreciate the diversification of the cast beyond a token black guy. However, it’s been a little tragic that I’ve felt like most of the white guys who don’t immediately stick out like Jon Rudnitsky and Brooks Whelan recently are kind of doomed. This came to a screeching halt with the mysterious case of Luke Null who was on so little that I could have filed a missing report with the NYPD for him at 11:30 p.m. on a Saturday and I doubt they would have found him.

Which is a roundabout way of saying, I found Andrew Dismukes’s survival of the first season pretty improbable when I saw how little he was used in the first few episodes. But with “A Teacher”, I not only felt sure that he was going to make it, but that he really could be the future of the show.

This sketch’s interplay between Ego and Andrew is so strong that I completely forgot who the host was (Kristen Wiig) and whether she appears in this sketch at all. Ego is a great scene partner to Andrew here putting an emphatic stop to his reality and adding some decisive jabs at every turn. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOYYwV33Ijo

Adele on The Bachelor (Adele)-The Bachelor parodies makes for good ensemble play among the ladies of SNL, but it rarely makes room for interaction between contestants. In this version, the contestants are bonded through a mutual fear of Adele’s wrath which takes the form of song in this twisted jukebox musical. This makes for a bit more of a narrative arc and what’s especially effective here is the way that host Adele (who many people are seeing do anything but sing for the first time) slips into and out of crazy jealous mode on a dime. The sketch ends with Adele breaking the fourth wall and stepping out into the audience which harkened back to the first few years where SNL was an unpredictable variety show where anything could happen.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_mj1CuXrPE 

Salt Bae (Dan Kaluuya)-This parody of a ----wait, what is this a parody of? One thing to love about this sketch is that a server at a restaurant who puts on a vaguely sexual show with salt and meat and charges you exorbitant prices doesn’t really exist. Or if it does, I’m blissfully unaware and all the better. Maybe it’s a half-parody of hibachi? I have no idea but the escalating frustration in Dan Kaluuya who serves as our audience surrogate here is priceless. It also contrasts well with Mikey Day as his double date partner that slowly succumbs to salt bae’s spell. Also, what the hell is the word “Bae”? Part of the mystery, I guess.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ByJ2dZEE4&t=140s

Post-Pandemic Super Bowl Party (AKA Super Bowl Pod) (Dan Levy) and Madame Vivelda, Fortune Teller (Adele)-Two sketches that succeed because they are so spot-on relatable to our current experience, that they’ll leave young viewers puzzled 15 years from now. Post-pandemic superbowl party has a set-up that’s a little basic but each of the characters has a specific color of stupidity with regard to pandemic caution that each vignette adds up to the sum of its parts.

Madame Vivelda sets Kate McKinnon free to do the type of crazy-eyed character she excels in and that’s always a treat. The things like coloring books and vacations to Kentucky might not be relatable to each of us but you can see them being relatable to each character. I do have to object by what I view as an politicized shot at JK Rowling (whatever I think of her actions, I don’t view her as someone we should all agree to hate, so SNL is sort of leading the audience on what to think there). Still, I give it a passing grade.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8p0iDjAiwE 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7hoynDj4WI&t=238s 

Pandemic Game Night Turns into an FBI Bust (Jon Krasinski)-Take note that I’ve renamed the sketches from what they’re labelled with on YouTube. I’ve never  liked the vagueness of the official sketch titles. The official name, “Pandemic Game Night” could just as easily describe the above-mentioned sketch from the Dan Levy episode.

However, considering that this sketch’s punchline is based on a ginormous twist (that one of the neighborhood gang was involved with the January 6th insurrection), this might be appropriate. And the twists never really stop piling on top of each other which is always admirable for a sketch that lasts just 4 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSTu1I5t700&t=6s 

Universal Studios Tour Guide (Dan Levy)-Dan Levy has been mostly known for one thing so SNL was a humongous test for him to see if he can break out of one character type. For the most part, he passed with flying colors. If you don’t count the monologue, this was Levy’s first sketch of the night so a lot was riding on his ability to play this character who is significantly different from David Rose in that he’s excitable and wet behind the ears. The sketch veers to so many TMI sex jokes (except the line about cocaine) that it gets a little predictable but the sheer outrageous and fodder for great reaction lines by Mikey Day as the tourguide and Kenan Thompson and Andrew Dismukes as passengers are great.

Strangely enough, Mikey Day did this character once previously in Adam Driver’s Medieval Times sketch, but it’s hard to know whether to define this a recurring sketch. It must be interesting to know how they came up with using half a duo from a recurring sketch and making it a hit.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSTu1I5t700&t=6s

The Iceberg (Carey Mulligan)-How much pop culture has been made about the Titanic over the years? SNL has mined the Titanic for laughs (I know there’s a Zach Galifianakis sketch) as has Family Guy and I’m guessing dozens more. Yet, no one has thought to tell the Titanic from the ice berg’s point of view.

Pretty much every line of this Weekend Update segment hits from the ice berg consistently getting the death toll wrong to his wanting to promote his EDM album. While Bowen Yang played the iceberg and co-wrote the sketch, the MVP goes to whoever did his snazzy costume here. Just the site of Bowen decked in a white blazer with diamond studs and an iceberg on his head is enough to have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP5bu9hLH9E 

70s Recording Artist Fliona (Regina King)-In this sketch, musical superstar Fliona (or is she?) is on tour and has a set of expectations that collides with reality in a pretty hilarious way. She asks Maurice if has a list of 12 pre-concert snacks in her rider and Maurice says “of course” before they go through a check list and Maurice says no to every one. The only thing the venue provided was a dried salad with no dressing. She smacks him as if this is a pretty common thing between the pair.

At first, it’s the juxtaposition between expectations and reality that’s the source of the comedy. Then it’s the repetition. This sequence repeats with the stylist (Aidy Bryant) and her list of beauty products, the band (Andrew Dismukes and Kenan Thompson) if they know her songs, the band again over what instruments they have, and the booking manager (Kyle Mooney) over who’s in the audience. And the wordplay in each sequence is glorious. And more slapping. Who doesn’t love that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBnRjFoS8hs

What I'm Watching: June Edition

 

Cruel Summer (Freeform)-Teen melodramas are a dime a dozen and a few of them like The Society (Netflix) and 13 Reasons Why (Netflix) have chosen to incorporate life-and-death stakes into their premise rather than something like "The O.C." which went from glittery and fun to heavy only in later seasons.

This series is generally in the former camp but it toggles between three successive years in the lives of two teenage girls as if the editor was fidgeting with a remote control. The two teenagers—privileged, popular Kate (Olivia Holt), and reserved Jeannette (Chiara Aurelia)—have their lives transformed by trauma. Kate is kidnapped and held hostage in a basement for several months while Jeannette is (from our initial point of view) unfairly blamed for the crime.

Over the course of three years, we see the two transform from relatively innocent to jaded individuals and the series does a pretty impressive job of developing these characters if you can get over the mood whiplash. Kate and Jeannette and the support systems around them don’t feel overly archetypal though there is one exception in Kate’s haughty socialite mother (played by the ordinarily awesome sitcom actress Andrea Anders).

There is plenty of mood whiplash as there seems little rhyme or reason to the editing but the season mostly works. Additionally, it takes about seven out of ten episodes for this show to get into the “I’m hooked” territory which is way too long for a serialized show. On the whole, it’s watchable at every stage, so that’s enough to keep one going.

Mosquito Coast (Apple TV)-I previously reviewed this show about two episodes in when I felt it had potential through the mysteries of what’s not revealed about the characters.

After making it to the end of the seven-episode first season, I’m having much more trouble recommending this. In the mold of "Prison Break", "Breaking Bad", and more recently "The Americans" or "Ozark", this is one of those shows where characters are pushed on all ends to impossible situations. It’s as if there is a linear relationship between how much tension you infuse a show and how well it’s received.

Well, not according to me. I never bought the “I’m doing it for my family” excuse of Walter White and I buy it even less here with the character of Allie Fox (Justin Thoreaux). Very often these shows make for characters far less likeable or sensible than they’re meant to come across. In this case, Allie Fox has so many deadly bands of baddies after him, it’s generally a miracle if he can survive longer than five minutes. For him to carry his kids into such danger is either underestimating how much of a liability he is (doubtful) or supremely selfish.

The original book and film adaptation are about attempting to create a paradise abroad but this is mostly like watching “The Bourne Ultimatum”: Any philosophical points the work is trying to make plays second fiddle to the extremely engrossing action. Credit goes where it’s due: The action scenes are extremely good, but without more, it’s just a narratively inconsistent action flick.

 

Home Economics (ABC)-Mostly an effort to fill the safe family programming hole left by “Modern Family” except this is a bit more generationally horizontal than vertical. The series centers on the lives of three adult siblings whose kids are roughly the same age. Their parents (Nora Dunn and Richard Kind) make occasional appearances but are safely in recurring guest star territory while the kids are about as important to the formula as “Everybody Loves Raymond”: Screen time is doled out to them if it helps develop one of their parents’ arcs. Frankly, they could have recast the kids in between episodes and I wouldn’t have noticed.

On to the roll call! Jimmy Tatro plays a well-off financial trader who’s a bit difficult to buy considering this actor has appeared quite convincingly in a number of dim guys (from my small sampling). Topher Grace plays a novelist with a bit of neuroticism. Their sister, played by Caitlin McGee, is a lesbian who casually spouts off terms like male privilege and microaggressions. All three are married and all three have kids. The spouses are pretty disposable except Saturday Night Live alum Sasheer Zamata pops up as Caitlin McGee’s other half. Way to bounce back, Sasheer!

As a 30-something with no kids and wife (and highly self-conscious about it), I started the show thinking “what’s in it for me?” until I started to see how well the show poked at the thin veneer of marital bliss.

Within a couple episodes, Tatro’s character gets divorced. In one episode, it’s revealed that neither Topher Grace nor his wife have any ability to attract the opposite sex anymore. As for McGee’s holier-than-thou wokeness, the show does an excellent line of lampooning her occasional moments of self-righteousness without ever showing her beliefs to be unworthy.

The show might not be ambitious, but it’s disarming and has the potential to be consistent entertainment.

We Are Lady Parts (Peacock)-Growing up Jewish, I was never exposed to much about Islam culture and I’m going to take a wild stab here and guess that many of you weren’t either. Perhaps, that’s why I’ve responded like a delighted visitor to shows like “Little Mosque on the Prairie” and “Ramy” which have taken me to a world I might have never seen before.

Part of my fascination is because the way that Islam has been subtly villainized in my upbringing has given me a curiosity of exoticism about the culture. However, there’s a lot of inherent conflict in any practicing Muslim dealing with modernity that makes it ripe for drama. In “We Are Lady Parts”, all the contradictions of modernity and Islam are milked for great character drama among an ensemble that spans the biggest contrasts of the Muslim community in London.

The dominant storyline in fiction of religious Islam, Judaism, and Orthodox strands of Christianity (such as Mormonism) is young people defining themselves against their parents’ expectations of restraint and tradition. This is why it’s such an effective 180 that the protagonist, Amina (Anjana Vasan), is a prim and proper by choice (and more so than her parents, even) because she’s all about husband chasing. Through convoluted circumstances, she meets a quartet of young women who want her to join their rock band. The first season can be seen as a battle for Amira’s soul with the punk rockers on one side and her prom and proper friends which are more “Sex and the City” annoying then what passes for Muslim stereotypes these day. There’s also a nicely meandering love story underneath the story.

One beautiful thing about the show is that while this quartet of punk rockers doesn’t lack for the requisite anti-authoritarian streaks, they still exist within the confines of Islam. The band manager, Momtaz (Lucie Shorthouse), for instance, smokes and works in a lingerie shop, but we never see her without her niqab.

House Broken (Fox)-On what could be the next big thing in Fox’s animation block, Lisa Kudrow plays a poodle, Honey, who leads a therapy group for all the neighborhood pets. There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit here for the jokes—simply imagine what your pet would say if they could talk to a therapist and viola! – but the jokes really hit, so I’ve been gobbling it up so far. There’s also the typical anthropomorphic tics that you see Seth MacFarlane occasionally do with Brian on “Family Guy” (why I predict this will catch on). These anthropomorphic jokes are about 15 times more frequent but I’ll let it slide because, hey, funny is funny.

It also helps that Lisa Kudrow injects Honey with a mix of spunk and relatable aimlessness that makes her character wonderful.  Beyond her, the ensemble is a little bloated but there are some highlights in there. In particular, Will Forte voices a turtle who’s in love with a croc shoe and Jason Matzoukas is a neglected cat with one eye.

To Tell the Truth (ABC)-This game show format has been done before since the 1950s with What's My Line. A group of celebrity panelists try to guess about people with unusual hobbies or claims to fame. With a good host, good guests, and the right finesse, it’s a timeless formula. In the three episodes, I saw the guest panelists and contestants kept things moving along at a jaunty pace so I’m satisfied. The cherry on top is that host Anthony Anderson has his mom on as a fourth panelist of sorts and that’s the sort of randomness that shakes things up.

What I'm Watching: Mosquito Coast, Girls5Eva, Mighty Ducks, New Girl, The Monkees, Psych

Mosquito Coast (Apple TV) (through two episodes)-Based on a novel in the 1980s that was adapted into a Peter Weir film starring Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, and River Phoenix. The protagonist, Allie, was inspired by novelist Paul Thoreaux's self-reliant father (who would often take his kids dumpster diving) along with American cult leaders like Jim Jones and Joseph Smith (father of Mormonism and all-around wild and kooky guy) who wanted to take what they viewed as the American ideal and create that utopia with it somewhere else. 

Fortunately, Allie does not want to kool-aid a thousand people to their deaths or marry dozens of women. He has a family and just wants to live off the grid in Central America where he can test new societal theories or something or other. That's all in the book, which I didn't really read or in the faithful film adaptation (which, coincidentally, I haven't watched yet).

In this series, Allie (played by Paul's nephew Justin coincidentally) isn't so much wanting to leave as he happens to be the most wanted man in America based on how many federal agencies are after him. Why he and his wife are on the run isn't revealed, which is perhaps the smartest adaptational move. We're left guessing how severe their transgression must have been if cops and feds must care about them so much. In the tradition of "Lost", it's always nice leave the audience piecing a puzzle together. The series is well-paced and the family dynamic keeps this story above the level of a standard narrative thriller.  

Girls5Eva (Peacock)-This is more in the "what I'm giving a chance to" thread but will soon quit if I don't see some results. This take on 90s girls groups juxtaposed with current times is well below the level of the Fey/Carlock creations Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, 30 Rock, Mr. Mayor. I'm trying but it's not grabbing me even though it's kind of an interesting cast (Paula Pell, pop singer Sara Bareilles, Eliza from Hamilton, Busy Phillips). Perhaps, it's just that shows about entertainers making a comeback are stale.

Also, maybe it's time that Tina Fey stop leaning so heavily on Fey's husband music director Jeff Richmond for his trademark boinkiness. It's ok, Tina, let him down gently. 

I instead recommend the Comedy Central Show "The Other Two." 

Mighty Ducks (Disney Plus) -It's in the tone of the 90s film and it's more of a pre-teen drama than a teen drama which is an interesting dynamic that evoked nostalgia for the 10 year old me who watched this in the movie theater. In other words, it's a capable reboot if you can put yourself in the shoes of the audience. The show mostly works on the dynamic between Lauren Graham and Emilio Estevez. As original coach Gordon Bombay, Estevez begins his narrative arc pretty far down at the bottom of the well. He appears to have PTSD'ed out of the sport. Graham, like Zooey Deschanel or Kristen Bell, is all-purpose sitcom gold. She brings a spunk and energy that has worked in everything she's been in so she's a welcome infusion here.

The End of the F***ing World (Netflix)-A British high-concept show about two teenagers who are both uniquely disturbed. James considers himself a psychopath who feels like he needs to kill someone to come of age. Alyssa's the epitome of a goth girl. What she lacks in outer appearance (eye shadow, black ensemble, ripped stockings, etc.) she makes up for in top-notch bluntness and a vocal timbre that's as varied as a barnyard cow. Alyssa wants to run away and takes James with him and the two form an awkwardly pubescent Bonnie and Clyde with no real idea where they're going or what they're doing.  Highly recommend.

New Girl-(Originally ABC, now Netflix)-I've been re-watching the first season and impressed how the show is so low-concept. Jess Day being "new" or a "girl" isn't really much to build a show around. The concept is basically "let Zooey Deschannel go full Zooey Deschannel" and her outlandish personality is hilarious enough  in an absurdist way to carry the show. The three other leads--Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, and Lamorne Morris--all got a big boost visibilitty-wise from this show but they are mostly replaceable archetypes of fun-loving single guys. Although the show has a different creator (Elizabeth Merriweather), this show seems to be a commercial successor to "How I Met Your Mother" in that some of the humor comes from the characters inside jokes (or at least that's what the dialogue aims for).

The Monkees (originally NBC, then MTV, now YouTube)-This is an extremely charming 60s series that was made to emulate the success of the Beatles 1964 film "A Hard Day's Night" (a comic film in which the Beatles played themselves getting into exaggerated hijinks at a tour stop) with four goofy guys trying to make a living as a rock band. As someone who has seen "A Hard Day's Night", I can certifiably say this improves on the original. Rater than have the band just be naturally goofy in a cute "they don't take themselves too seriously" winky way, the Monkees are full-throttle anarchy akin to the Marx Brothers. Being defiant of authority and order is intrinsic to who they are, far more than being handsome me who want to seem relatable. Reality-breaking tricks like fast-forwards a la Keystone Cops, over-the-top musical cues and the gang breaking into song (the reason that the group existed) cements the comic climate that this is a world where anything goes. It also helps that A) the band was not famous in-universe or at the start of the series and B) the four have distinct personalities. Davy is the love-struck front man, Peter is most child-like, Mike is aloof, and Mickey is the silly one.

Psych (USA now Peacock)-I remember watching one episode when it came out and thinking it was over the top and ridiculous. It's in the mold of other USA shows at the time about exiled geniuses who worked outside the system (sidenote: it's incredible that the network built an entire slate of shows with the same exact premise). The protagonist is a guy with a militaristic dad  who, for reasons beyond me (possibly OCD), wanted to imbue his son with the gift of being able to notice things really well when he was young. As an adult, Shawn pretends to be psychic so he can be hired as a police consultant and he drags his friend, Gus (Dule Hill) along for the ride.  I've heard people cite the pair as a great example of BFFs but Hill often comes off as a pushover in relation to Shawn and while the character is supposedly anti-authoritarian in a fun way, he often comes across as annoying. This especially the case when he's theatrically pretending he solved the case. If not for the chemistry between Shawn (James Roday Rodriguez) and Juliet (Maggie Lawson), this show is still terribly over-the-top. I could however see the outline of a better show if James Roday Rodriguez was just given some network notes to dial it back 10-20%.

Bless the Harts (Fox)-As good as always. I've reviewed this plenty of times before. The show is on the brink of cancellation so now's a great time to support it and get in on the letter-writing campaigns. 

15 Best Scenes at the Movies 2020

 Out of about 46 movies I saw this year, this list was surprisingly easy to make owing to the fact that there are some great movies I saw that I can’t remember a stand-out scene from months later. Not every film here is among my favorites but I have a clear memory of the scene and continue to look back on these film moments fondly.

1. Borat 2-Rudy Giuliani gets caught with his pants down

Perhaps as an effort to differentiate himself as one of the good guys, Sasha Baron Cohen opted for more staged scenes than trickery with his subjects that could be construed as mean-spirited. One walloping exception? Rudy Giuliani, one of the most hated politicians of 2020, got caught in a compromising position. It was authentic, true to what we’d come to expect of Giuliani, hilarious and damn cathartic.

2. Trial of the Chicago Seven-The List of Fallen

Sorkin’s latest courtroom drama represents a drastic improvement in self-constraint for the bombastic screen writer. Rather than deliver a big soliloquy to close out this nonsensical court case, the Chicago Seven fights nonsense with the perfect counterdose of nonsense. As a closing statement, Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) reads a list of names of fallen soldiers rather than save his neck for a lighter sentence. In reality, the list of names was read throughout the trial but it’s an acceptable break from history

3. 7500-Lifeboat ethics pushed to the limit

With Trial of the Chicago Seven, Project Power and this tightly scripted thriller, JGL batted three for three and elevated a typical genre picture to a visceral film about the difficulty of lifeboat ethics at certain points. Gordon-Levitt plays a pilot who has to face down the demands of a hijacked plane and decide between placating terrorists or letting his pregnant girlfriend perish.

4. Palm Springs-Montage of Hijinks

Palm Springs spoke to where I was this year as it spoke to the fun you can have out of static circumstances (yes, I’m talking to you Covid). Andy Samberg has always been more goofball than actor but it was a joy to which Christine Milioti go toe for toe with him on such fun adventures like stealing a plane and upstaging the bride at a wedding by pretending to be Russian spies.

5. Project Power-Surviving a Bullet to the face

Never underestimate the potential for a good action scene when you have a clever enough concept. In Project Power, a street drug enables the user to have superpowers for exactly one minute. An undercover cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) takes the drug that gives him bulletproof abilities and sets the timer on his watch down from 60 before pursuing a couple of enhanced criminals. When a trigger-happy perp shoots him, he falls to the ground right as his superpower expires and the bullet bounces off his face. Behind the scenes, Gordon-Levitt endured having his face air blasted.

6. Promising Young Woman-“What are you doing?”

If there’s a case for screenwriter Emerald Fennell to get the Oscar (which she won), it’s her knack for throwing twist after twist that shakes up the direction of the story all over the tonal spectrum. None is as killer as the first one where Carey Mulligan’s character, Cassie, looks as if she’s about to be raped before she turns the tables on her assaulter. All Cassie needs to do to establish control of the situation is to add a dash of inflection to her voice.

7. Seberg-A Sincere Apology Too Late

Several films this year entailed roughly the same plot: Marginalized historic figures (most often black) in the mid-20th Century being horrifically conspired against by powerful institutional forces comprised mostly of white men in suits that are governed by wrong-headed beliefs. United States vs Billie Holiday, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Trial of the Chicago 7, Seberg and (from what I hear) Judas and the Black Messiah make up this list. Additionally, they all have an upright figure caught in the middle who’s morally conflicted about it. I wouldn’t call Seberg the best of these films. However, the covert conversation between G-Man Jack Solomon (Jack O’Connell) and actress Jean Seberg (Kristen Stewart) at an anonymous hotel bar where he issues a fruitless apology (her life has already been ruined) is certainly a poignant scene.

8. Trial of the Chicago 7-Quote of the Year

Yes, Aaron Sorkin gets blabby as stated earlier but a good courtroom drama needs great dialogue. The characters are lightning quick in expressing their thoughts in ways that the screenwriters get some leeway with since these are characters who have been schooled on how to best use the spoken word. Anyway, this is a doozy:

Judge Julius Hoffman: Mr. Kunstler, I have lived a a very long time, sir, and you’re the first person ever to suggest that I have discriminated against a black man!

Leonard Weinglass: Then let the record show that I am the second.

9. The Father-Antony shows a little more kindness to Laura

Just as a film based around a first-person look at dementia is constructed like an enigma, so is Antony. He’s charming one minute and fiercely defensive the next and at one point he’s downright cruel to his new nurse (Imogen Poots). The next day, the two meet for their first session and it’s a sweet moment of connection combined with a deserved apology. This scene also sets up a casting shift later on as Poots is replaced by Olivia Williams.

10. Tenet-Crashing a plane into an airplane hanger

Making no compromises in terms of stunts or production, Christopher Nolan ran up a bill of over $200 million (his second most expensive film) and had the misfortune of having it released during the pandemic. Poor guy. If he’s willing to crash a freaking plane into an airplane hangar for our enjoyment, I’ll give him a slot in the top ten.

11. Troop Zero-Two old comrades share a cigarette

This Southern-fried tragi-dramedy of a spunky girl’s (McKenna Grace) dream to enter a Girl Scout contest and win contact with astronauts isn’t about a triumph of the underdog or the joy of achieving your dreams. It’s a bittersweet slice-of-life drip about the noble struggle in almost making it. Viola Davis plays a beleaguered legal assistant, Miss Rayleen, to Grace’s father who begrudgingly takes over troop leader duties when no one else will take the job and she finds herself dealing with a rigged playing field by a scout administrator (Miss Massey, Allison Janney) who happens to be a childhood friend. A certain amount of racism or classicism is coming into play over what’s holding the pair back but this isn’t a film about the evil of racism as it is just a portrait of what is. At the end of the film, the two colleagues share a cigarette and Miss Massey tells her she should go off to law school implying that she knows life’s unfair in this town and there’s a place where she’ll be more appreciated.

12. Bill and Ted Face the Music-Bill and Ted create the most elaborate avant-garde song yet

One of the best gags of this much-anticipated laugh fest is seeing Bill and Ted going “bigger is better” with an increasingly elaborate song for Missy’s wedding dance. It starts with the traditional guitar and drum set-up before jumping into steel drums, throat singing, bagpipes, and poorly played jazz trumpet while the newlyweds have to figure out how to dance to this atonal arrhythmic mess. Eventually, Ted’s dad pulls the plug on the atonal mess which is a shame because I wanted to know where the song went next. Fun fact, Keanu Reeves learned to play the bagpipes for this scene.

13. My Octopus Teacher-Our eight-legged friend survives shark attack #2

Whether the octopus or shark survives is all part of the food chain — either one goes hungry or one becomes dinner — but this documentary created an unshakable bond between the octopus and audience at the expense of his predator. After losing a couple limbs in round one, the octopus swung around and latched himself onto the shark’s back when it came for him in the second round.

14. I Care a Lot-Two enemies agree to a compromise

For much of its running time, I Care a Lot is a brutally insensitive film that asks us to root for a heroine who commits the horrific act of elder abuse. Her only saving grace is that she’s going up against the mob but it’s a pretty close call who’s worse. I’ve rarely seen a film save itself in the past few minutes, however. When the two bad guys form an alliance at the end, the film morphs from being a misguided fable to a black comedy in which everyone has blood on their hands.

15. Prom-The “Love Thy Neighbor” number

Thank god for the against-type casting for this Broadway adaptation which saw James Corden play the flamboyant gay Midwesterner and Andrew Rannell (a gay actor who often gets cast that way) playing a non-descript Julliard graduate who shines as one of the film’s side characters. His “You Pick and Choose” number shows off Rannell’s effortless showmanship as he dances around a mall food court in a musical number that’s reminiscent of a modern day flash mob (they all take place at malls, don’t they?). His number echoes what most biblical scholars already know: That any condemnations of divorce, homosexuality, or marriage out of wedlock are pretty selective readings of the Christian bible.

Honorable Mention:

Blow the Man Down-Margo Martindale faces down three of her peers who object to her vice

Borat 2-Borat convincing Tutar that every women with a driver’s license they encounter is secretly a man

Borat 2-Borat’s encounter with a Holocaust survivor

The Dig-Lily James and Johnny Flynn get it amidst the psychological ruins

The Dig-Carey Mulligan goes to bat for Ralph Fiennes

Hillbilliy Elegy-Amy Adams cutting through the hospital on roller skates

Kajillionaire-Gina Rodriguez taking Evan Rachel Wood up on her offer of $1000 to say “I love you” and whisking her away from her abusive parents

I’m Thinking of Ending Things-Cut to a janitor who might or might not be Jesse Plemons

News of the World-Tom Hanks’s unusual ammunition

Palm Springs-Andy Sambergs cuts through the dance floor with perfect precision en route to impressing Cristin Milioti

Promising Young Woman-Cassie’s posthumous fail-safe mechanism

Soul-Our first view of the Great Beyond in its multi-chromatic splendor

Unhinged-Russell Crowe making mincemeat of Jimmi Simpson at a diner counter

United States verse Billie Holiday-“God Bless the Child”

The baffling failure of Rutherford Falls

Once upon a time, Greg Daniels and his writer Mike Schur set out to adapt a show around a stubborn protagonist who lived in his own reality. That was Michael Scott and within six episodes, he was retooled into a more self-aware character. The show instantly became better when the character at its center was more empathic and relatable.

 

So why do they keep repeating the same mistake. Leslie Knope was nauseating in the first season of Parks and Recreation before they righted the shop and General Mark Naird suffers from much the same problem in the inaugural season of Space Force. Apparently, they haven’t learned their lesson with the character of Nathan Rutherford.  Played be Ed Helms, he’s a proprietor of a historical museum, a mayor (the kind that has no actual power), and descendant of a town’s first settler who is obsessed with his place in history. 

He’s seen as a harmless rube until a proposal comes up to move a statue of Rutherford’s namesake and town founder from a traffic circle where it is causing traffic accidents. When Nathan attempts to defend his position, he puts his foot in his mouth and shows an entitlement and privilege large enough to get him cancelled on an epic scale. Before one thing leads to another, Rutherford invokes the wrath of the local Native American tribe and gets his family embroiled in a law suit that tears through the town.

 

In an age where the country is sharply divided over the issue of whether any statues of white people should stand at all barring a demanding purity test, this seems like extremely risky territory to wade in to. It helps that the wide spectrum of attitudes of a statue (“I think they should make a statue about my grandmother instead”, “statues are boring”, “it’s a traffic hazard” etc.) beyond the typical “statues as symbols of hatred” are on display. But it’s an odd next project for as progressive a show runner as Michael Schur (who does enlist a Native American show-runner to be fair). I haven’t read any critics’ reviews but I watched the first episode thinking of all the ways that self-righteous bunch would be waiting to anoint this show with the Scarlett P (for “problematic”), even if the philosophy of the show hews more towards their values.

 
The show initially seems determined to make a strawman out of Rutherford—he’s exceedingly stubborn and so utterly resistant to change – that he’s basically what you’d get if Andy Bernard got educated by the Daughters of the Confederacy instead of Cornell. At the same time, the show is concurrently woke in almost every aspect outside of Nathan’s blindspot for protecting his heritage.  Nathan’s best friend is a Native American history obsessive and the two bond over shared history and he displays the appropriate sensitivity to microaggressions and intersectionality. When the two want to disqualify a white history fair candidate because he’s caught on tape using a patois, it’s the kind of societal overcorrection I wouldn’t be behind in real life but it might hit the social justice sweet spot for these viewers.

Similarly, Nathan’s intern/assistant/lackey is a Southeast Asian gay teen who he has a relationship based on mutual respect to the degree that doing drudge work for school credit isn’t considered exploitation for a high schooler of any race.

The problem again, is just the sheer oblivious of Nathan and the lack of character development until, perhaps, the last two episodes of the season.

This series dramatizes several issues like the value and profitability of nostalgia, how different oppressed peoples work together in the present, whether casinos are helpful or hurtful to Native tribes, if grievance is enough currency alone to accomplish objectives and more. These issues can spur thought-provoking conversations only if they involve characters that can be taken seriously.

The show has the potential to be better in the second season as things stand, but why take so long to set such elementary things into motion?

 

La Bamba (1987): Can a Rock God be Sweet?

Can a rock god be a sweet angelic boy — someone wants nothing more than to buy his mother a house and do right by his high school sweetheart and extended family?

My experience with rock and roll biopics (Ray, Walk the Line, Dreamgirls, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Doors, Almost Famous) has taught me otherwise. If the movies (and the occasional Rolling Stone article) has taught me anything, it’s that rock is a corrupting influence. It’s only a matter of time before your head gets big, you abandon your friends and business partners, you succumb to groupies (or in the case of Bohemian Rhapsody, a strangely evil form of gaydom) and drugs get the better of you.

In Bohemian Rhapsody, for instance, Freddie Mercury was far more a uniting force than a dividing force and there’s little evidence of him taking his band mates for granted. Contrary to what the movie states, they all started solo careers around the same time.

I’m not enough of an expert to comment on whether reality serves the story in these cases or the other way around, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some exaggeration was necessary.

Then again, a well-behaved rock and roller is not only a boring story, it seems antithetical to the spirit of rock and roll or any of its variants. Whether the country stylings of Johnny Cash or the sounds of Motown, it seems like music in the last 70 years wouldn’t be what it is if its creators weren’t driven by a rebellious streak.

This isn’t so in the case of Richie Valens. Or at least the version played by Lou Diamond Phillips in the 1987 film La Bamba was pure and angelic. Born Ricky Venezuela to a single Chicano mother, Venezuela was true to his high school sweetheart, forgiving of his abusive brother, and he never had a desire to do anything but earn enough money to buy his mother a house. Valens’ life came to an end in a plane crash along with Buddy Holly and J.P. Richardson in an event that served as a humongous blow to the burgeoning rock and roll movement. It was most famously catalogued in Don McLean’s hit “American Pie” where the term “The Day the Music Died” was coined.

You might say that Richie Valens was a paragon of virtue is giving him an awful lot of the benefit of the doubt considering he died at the age of 17. It’s possible that in an alternative reality, Valens would have knocked up seven girls and killed a cat had he survived to 18. In fact, one of the smarter things the film does is hint at that rock-and-roll-infused destruction and what might have been with Valens’ doppelganger in the form of his wreckless brother Bob who occupies a large role in the film. But 17-year-old Ritchie is rock solid. The film is pretty convincing that this is a man who would have stayed true to himself no matter what happened.

But just like my knowledge of what Johnny Cash or Ray Charles is limited, I don’t really know what the future of Ritchie Vallens held, and in a way it doesn’t matter. Rock stars have always been and always will be legends. In any given point in American history, there have been thousands of people who play the guitar and write songs but through some combination of marketing, luck, and talent, a few become symbols that are part of something larger than themselves.

Valens was immortalized by Don McLean who wanted to use his passing as a metaphor for lost innocence. American culture tended to get pretty metaphorical in that way as it came out the other end of Vietnam. The film chooses to symbolize Valens that way. I’ll take it.