Mostly Screen Time: February 2025

What I watched so you can watch it too.

This month: SNL turns older than any person I’ve ever met, Christina Aguilera acts, and that British bear in a rain outfit despite the weather eats more jam.

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• SNL50 Anniversary Special - Surprise this was fantastic! From a red carpet where the oft-failing-in-the-award-show-looks comedy stars actually slayed, to the mix of nostalgic and new content (hey I requested this!), it was the rare program to be able to go over time and not overstay its welcome. The highlight for me was the rotating cast of characters who dropped by the Weekend Update desk — Cecily Strong’s “Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With at a Party” is an all-timer, and I got more of my political news from her than I have from the White House press briefings this months. Shout out to OG cast member Garrett Morris for the best quote of the night: “Way back there when I joined the cast of Saturday Night Live, I had to idea y’all I’d be required to do so many reunion shows.” And future props to Lady Gaga, who has to be the first host back on the regular season to follow this up.

• The Monkey - Horror-Comedy is the greatest genre we have right now, the best theatrical experiences that elevate a mediocre movie to be great. UNFORTCH THIS WAS BAD. Not enough comedy nor horror to clarify what it wanted to be. And I’ve been told by no less than two people that it’s “camp” but unfortunately we still need a semblance of an explanation to tie up the plot to say a movie is camp.

  

  Poster slayed, motion picture flopped.

• Heart Eyes - Recall earlier when I said “Horror-Comedy is the greatest genre we have right now, the best theatrical experiences that elevate a mediocre movie to be great.” I was quite wise with that quote.

• Paddington in Peru - European filmmakers setting their tale in another culture but this time with more research than Emilia Pérez. Not this movie having me nearly in tears on the eve before my birthday! Too bad I aged a year the next day and now I’m a grown up and thus will never cry to a family movie with a valuable lesson again.

• You’re Cordially Invited - What if we just sliced off the last bit where a romantic plot was shoehorned in?? Could’ve earned points back if this *romcom* was just allowed to be a *com*!!

• Burlesque (2010) - Big curly bangs looking to make her big curly dreams come true! This was a rewatch but made me recall the fall I first moved to Los Angeles and, in an effort to maintain the struggling artist narrative, paid for one movie ticket but snuck into a second. This is okay to admit because the theater is now under different corporate ownership due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 and can’t get me. If I’m recalling correctly, I paid for Burlesque but also saw Tangled (2010).

Cher and Christina Aguilera in Burlesque

• Shrinking S2 (AppleTV+) - God what a cast (see the vibes from the SAG Awards excerpt below). This season more-so than the last gave all of the supporting characters more to do, and you know it’s particularly devastating when a character purely there for comedy gets hit with an emotional storyline. Who’s ready to discuss the lack of hotness of Ted Lasso Emmy AWard Winner Brett Goldstein without a beard though. Yikes.

• Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (Disney+) - What we’re gonna do is pay attention to Marvel Animation output as their projects so far (specifically X-Men ‘97) have been loads more interesting than the MCU theatrical output these days. WHICH TAKES ME TO…

• Captain America: Brave New World - Imagine if the marketing team could have fashioned a trailer out of this without revealing that Harrison Ford would turn into a red Hulk. Of course, without that, this movie doesn’t have much going for it. I went back to watch the trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) (great movie!) to compare the political thrillers in the Marvel canon and now I’m more stoked to watch an 11-year-old movie again than I ever will be to rewatch Brave New World.

And because it’s the last week before the Oscars will cease to matter for 9 months:

• Nickel Boys (2024) - In one of the opening scenes someone picked up a coin and I thought “omg here’s the titular nickel” and then the camera got closer and it was a penny.

• I’m Still Here (2024) - I’m still here, checking off Oscar nominees. Good but I shan’t praise too much as to cast any doubt on Demi Moore’s Oscar chances.

• Flow (2024) - Animation can be beautiful and not make sense to me! Maybe it’s a Noah’s Ark allegory! Maybe it’s just animals being silly! Don’t ask me to describe the no-plot-just-vibes-and-cat-statues movie!

And for ALL OF MY RABID FANS ASKING: I shan’t officially list ongoing series/seasons until they wrap up. But I am enjoying things like Severance S2, The White Lotus S3, The Traitors S3, and Yellowjackets S3.

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Looking Forward to March: Death of a Unicorn, Daredevil: Born Again, Mickey 17, Running Point, Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney, Good American Family, The Studio