Review: ‘Schmigadoon!’ is hilarious, fun, and clearly made by people who love musicals

Schmigadoon!

Here’s a true fact: I grew up watching musicals. I spent a lot of time at my grandmothers house when I was a kid and she had lots of them on VHS. It is my heartfelt belief that she loved them, but it was probably also that they were super long and could keep us distracted for hours at a time. Anyway, the point is that I have seen a lot of the classic musicals and my appreciation for the musical continues to this day.

So it is easy to see why I really like AppleTV+’s new series Schmigadoon!, which features two modern day characters dropped into the middle of a classic 1940s musical.

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Review: ‘Palmer’ is pretty good!

Palmer

Here’s a confession: I love Justin Timberlake. The guy is a triple threat. He can sing, he can dance, and he can act. Not everything he has been in has been gold, but he’s put in enough good performances that I am ready and willing to see just about anything he is in these days.

It has been a few years since Timberlake has been seen in person in a film, and Palmer represents exactly the kind of movie that an actor looking to re-assert themselves after a bad role or an absence (or both) would take. So is it any good? Yeah. Mostly.

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Review: ‘Wolfwalkers’ beautiful Irish fairy tale is one of the best animated features of 2020

Wolfwalkers

If there was once magic in this world, then progress has likely snuffed most of it out. Our relentless expansion into the spaces where Mother Nature lives destroys our ecosystems and in many ways the wonders of this world. This is the conflict in Wolfwalkers, the new AppleTV+ exclusive from Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon.

It’s the mid-1600s, and the English are in Kilkenny to expand the empire and force their rule on the Irish. The city is being expanded, and the woods next door are being logged for resources to do it. The problem is the deadly pack of wolves who make the forest their home, who defend it at all costs. This is the reason Bill is in the city, a hunter by trade from Yorkshire, he lays traps in the forest to try to make it safe for the men working. What few realize is that there is something more in the forest.

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Review: ‘On The Rocks’ has Bill Murray and Rashida Jones exploring how the comfort of a relationship can sometimes be the problem

On The Rocks

Every relationship has that point where you are so comfortable that you become uncomfortable. In these moments we can either behave rationally, or we can freak out, or we can do anything in between.

With On The Rocks, Sophia Coppola tells a story about a successful Manhattan couple who have reached this point, where despite all their success and comfort, something doesn’t feel quite right. Rashida Jones plays Laura, a successful author and mother of two who is stuck in this rut but. She begins to think there is more going on when her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) stumbles home from a work trip one night and begins a passionate embrace, only to then seem like maybe she was someone else.

Her suspicions are not without cause, her father Felix (Bill Murray) cheated on her mother and in later life has become a serial philanderer. Laura can’t help wondering if every man is like her father. Felix assumes that every man is exactly like him, and so the adventure begins.

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‘Ted Lasso’ has one of the best first seasons of TV in years

Ted Lasso

Dozens, if not hundreds, of new shows debut every year now. That might be hyperbole, but it certainly feels true. Every network has original programming now, and so does every streaming service. Everyone needs to offer unique content, and they’re all spending millions of dollars to make their films and series stand out.

It’s amazing then that all they had to do was be nice.

Ted Lasso, the new series from AppleTV+, concludes its first season today. The series has become one of my favourite things of the year and it did so not by being dark, or edgy, or cynical, but by being positive, uplifting, and relentlessly good-hearted.

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Awesome News: Saturn Awards, Creative Emmy Awards, Kung Fury, AppleTV+, Disney+, and more!

Kung Fury

Another week gone by, another literal ton of news to go over. Welcome to the third edition of Awesome News! This week we cover the Hugo Award and Creative Emmy Awards winners, Hailee Steinfeld joins Hawkeye, AppleTV+ launch date and price, Disney+ full launch day roster, a feature length Kung Fury is still happening, Michael Fassbender is working with Taika Waititi, and new movies from Funko Pops (yes, really) and M Night Shyamalan. No word on a collaboration between those two. Yet.

Anyway let’s get to it.

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