Film and TV

Some of the Best Shows Returning This Fall And It's About Time

Some of the Best Shows Returning This Fall And It's About Time

Reviews For The Easily Distracted: The Creator

Reviews For The Easily Distracted:
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Amid the Writers' Strike, What New Shows Are Ahead This Fall

By Jamil David
Sep 25, 2023

There are a ton of shows releasing this fall despite Hollywood’s turbulent time with the ongoing actors and writers strike. There are several new shows that will provide some good and engaging television in a year that has been very hit or miss. There are a lot of thrillers and...
Reviews For The Easily Distracted:
It Lives Inside

By Pete Vonder Haar
Sep 22, 2023

Title: It Lives Inside Describe This Movie In One Big Trouble In Little China Quote: JACK BURTON: When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if you've paid...
There are Fewer Marvel Releases Now Than Before MCU Phase 4

By Jef Rouner
Sep 19, 2023

A common complaint for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that there is simply too much of it to keep up with now. The weird thing about this claim is that, by the numbers, Marvel has actually slowed down in terms of releases since 2020. It’s easy to forget...
Reviews For The Easily Distracted:
A Haunting In Venice

By Pete Vonder Haar
Sep 15, 2023

Title: A Haunting in Venice Describe This Movie In One Simpsons Quote: BART: And the question mark leaves the door open for a sequel. Brief Plot Synopsis: Former Flemish flatfoot faces fearsome (fraudulent?) phantoms. Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 2.5 serial killer dwarves out of 5. Tagline: "Death is just...
Winning Time is Packed With Story Lines But Can Be Powerful

By Jamil David
Sep 13, 2023

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty is a lot. Chronicling the rise of the most famous team and brand in basketball, it dramatizes the behind-the-scenes stories of the 1980s Lakers. It's a sports movie, it's a family drama, it's a workplace comedy and drama. It has to mythologize...
Reviews For The Easily Distracted:
Sitting In Bars With Cake

By Pete Vonder Haar
Sep 8, 2023

Title: Sitting in Bars with Cake Describe This Movie In One Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill Quote: GRIM REAPER: You! Cake or death? PERSON: Uh, death please ... no, cake! Cake! Sorry. GRIM REAPER: You said death first! Ha! Death first! PERSON: Well, I meant cake! GRIM REAPER: Oh, all right...
Reviews For The Easily Distracted:
The Good Mother

By Pete Vonder Haar
Sep 1, 2023

Title: The Good Mother Describe This Movie In One Cannonball Run Quote: VICTOR: And those priests, they weren't fathers. J.J. MCCLURE: They were ... VICTOR: Mothers! Brief Plot Synopsis: Wire hangers are the least of this mommy's problems. Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 1 Underwood Five out of 5...
Apple TV+ Gathers Momentum This Summer Beyond Just Ted Lasso

By Jamil David
Aug 29, 2023

There are too many options in the streaming television era we are in. Half a dozen major streaming apps flanked by a dozen smaller apps make deciding what to watch a stressful endeavor, especially if you are looking for something to hold your attention for a few hours and seem like it was...
Rethinking The Breakfast Club’s Controversial Makeover Scene

By Jef Rouner
Aug 25, 2023

My kid turned 14 last week, so the Wife With One F and I thought it was a good time to show them the 1985 classic teen drama The Breakfast Club. The kid immediately recognized how much of their Gen X parents’ personalities came from this film. I was a...
Reviews For The Easily Distracted:
Blue Beetle

By Pete Vonder Haar
Aug 18, 2023

Title: Blue Beetle Describe This Movie In One Young Guns Quote: DIRTY STEVE: We're in the spirit world, asshole! They can't see us! Brief Plot Synopsis: Jewelry of unknown origin Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 3.5 Gad Hassans out of 5. Tagline: "He's a superhero, whether he likes it or...
Woke Films Make More At The Box Office (With Some Caveats)

By Jef Rouner
Aug 17, 2023

The phrase “go woke, go broke” has never really held up in practice. There are just too many factors involved for such a reductive phrase to be universally true. For instance, let’s look at theatrical releases in 2023. On average, woke films have made more at the box office. Here’s...
Celebrating Quadrophenia—The Who's "Other" Rock Opera

By Bob Ruggiero
Aug 16, 2023

It’s not the Who’s most famous rock opera—that would be the one about the deaf, dumb and blind kid with great flipper action, Tommy. Nor is it the great “What If?” never-assembled rock opera—that would be Lifehouse, most of which ended up on Who’s Next, considered the band’s greatest album...
American Idol Makes A (Virtual) Pit Stop in Texas, Looking To Scout The Next Kelly Clarkson

By Vic Shuttee
Aug 7, 2023

Texans are getting the chance to show off their pipes! Idol Across America, the virtual audition for the producers of ABC’s American Idol is setting aside five hours to hear the best the Lone Star State has to offer in one-on-one auditions happening Wednesday, August 9. “We call it Idol...
The Righteous Gemstones Switches Genres Effortlessly

By Jamil David
Aug 7, 2023

The Righteous Gemstones has been referred to as “Southern Succession” since its debut, and it's very easy to see why. The Danny McBride comedy features an elderly patriarch constantly telling his three children, who are next in line to take over the family business, that they are not serious people...
Opinion: The Link Between Kenergy and Radical Misogyny

By Jef Rouner
Aug 3, 2023

Spoilers Ahead for Barbie The Barbie movie is an absurdist masterpiece, an art film given a giant budget, and one of the greatest things I have ever seen in a theater. It’s also a terrifying depiction of how “nice guys” get radicalized into violent misogyny movements. In Barbieland, the Barbies...
How Pop Culture Witches Fail Real Witch Hunt Victims

By Jef Rouner
Jul 28, 2023

I’ve been consuming a lot of books and TV shows about witches lately, and one thing always sticks in my craw. These stories love to portray the victims of witch hunts in America and Europe as actual magical beings who were persecuted. This is insulting to the real world victims...
Reviews For The Easily Distracted:
Talk To Me

By Pete Vonder Haar
Jul 28, 2023

Title: Talk to Me Describe This Movie In One Simpsons Quote: LENNY: They say he carved it himself ... from a bigger spoon. Brief Plot Synopsis: Children shouldn't play with dead things. Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 3 "pain boxes" out of 5. Tagline: N/A Better Tagline: "It's all fun...
Steven Soderbergh's Two Very Different Projects: Full Circle and Command Z

By Jamil David
Jul 26, 2023

Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Oceans 11, Magic Mike), one of the most prolific American directors of the past 40 years, has been making some of the most creative endeavors of his career in recent years, making several films for streamers, and has now released two very different, very interesting TV series. Soderbergh is no...
New Doc Explores Chicago Blues—in Black and White

By Bob Ruggiero
Jul 21, 2023

While the respective champions of New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta can (and will) continue to tussle over a claim to the “birthplace” of the blues, there’s only one Kind of Town that can lay a fairly unchallenged status as the epicenter of the music once it went electric: Chicago...
Cows, Pigs and Prisms: New Doc Tells the Graphic Story of Hipgnosis

By Bob Ruggiero
Jul 14, 2023

If you were a rock performer or band in the late ‘60s and ‘70s and wanted a cover for your record that was mysterious, arty, and a bit jarring all at the same time, then Hipgnosis was you go-to graphic design company. Founded by designer Storm Thorgerson and photographer Aubrey...

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