Long Weekend Watch: Bad Trip, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, We Broke Up

I watched many random things this month. So now that a long weekend is upon us, I figure I should offer up some caveated recommendations and you can take your pick like a virtual tombola. Step right up, step right up, perhaps something will tickle your fancy!

Bad Trip: The easiest way to describe this movie is that it is a more uplifting Borat. Eric Andre stars as Chris, a Florida man (that's always a dicey descriptor) who decides to take a road trip to New York so he can be with the woman of his dreams. His friend Bud (Lil Rel Howery) comes along for the ride, but things go awry as they've taken Bud's sister's car. Unfortunately, his sister, Trina (Tiffany Haddish) is a violent criminal who just broke out of jail, so she is chasing them down to have her vengeance. 

All of that is the fictional plot of this movie. But it is being filmed with hidden cameras with unwitting real-life people encountering these actors and their shenanigans, and the results are startlingly heartwarming. Unlike Borat, where the goal is to capture people saying racist, sexist garbage and generally making you feel terrible about humanity, this movie is being predominantly filmed in Black spaces. Remember how in the Borat sequel, the standout was Jeanise Jones, a compassionate Black woman who tried to help his daughter instead of running away from these obvious lunatics? This movie is filled with lovely people like that who try to actually help these men despite some insane circumstances. Some of them go above and beyond in what would be extremely dangerous situations, and perhaps not surprisingly, no one ever seems to resort to calling the police. 

This is not a movie for the faint-of-heart; the humor is extremely crass, and you will sometimes be subjected to unwanted nudity. But it has this warm gooey center and is only 84 minutes long, so is well worth a watch, particularly for the end credits. It's dumb, silly, kinda uplifting, and perfect for a lazy summer weekend.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: The latest Marvel-Disney+ collaboration, this is a straightforward series about how Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) team up in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame. The action sequences are extraordinary and cinematic, but that's about all I could say for this show. I watched it week-to-week and was hard-pressed to remember any details from the convoluted plot that bounced around from Europe to Asia to New York and featured a gang of terrorists that had gotten a hold of the super soldier serum and were bent on wreaking havoc. In the meantime, a man called John Walker (Wyatt Russell) is appointed by the US Government as the new Captain America, which obviously causes some tensions with Sam and Bucky that escalate in fine fashion.

The show had some wonderful social commentary about what exactly it means for Sam to be a Black superhero in today's America and the history of Black super soldiers that were used for experimentation while Steve Rogers got to be revered as a national hero. There was also a lot of commentary about refugees and how we ought to treat global problems with diplomacy rather than force, which is also very pertinent to our current day and age. But overall, this show felt a bit too ham-handed to me. I love the actors, I enjoyed the action set pieces, but I never knew what was going on at any given moment, and I would have liked a bit more innovation and weirdness a la WandaVision, rather than the earnest melodrama. But the series is only six episodes long, so if you're a Marvel fan and you need to while away the hours, this is definitely a contender for your weekend. 

We Broke Up: This movie stars two of my favorite sitcom actors - William Jackson Harper (who played Chidi in The Good Place) and Aya Cash (who played Gretchen in You're The Worst). Here they play Doug and Lori, a couple that have been dating for ten years, but have suddenly realized they want different things out of life and break up. Unfortunately, they break up the day before they are supposed to head to Lori's sister's wedding, so they decide to attend as a couple and not ruin the weekend. Naturally, some hi-jinks ensue.

This movie is...fine. I was initially very excited when I saw that it also starred Peri Gilpin as Lori's mother and Larisa Oleynik as the wedding planner. Unfortunately, those ladies didn't stick around for very long and what followed was a mildly entertaining movie that was a little bit funny, then a whole lot sad, and eventually petered out with a bit of a whimper. It's only 81 minutes long so it's not a huge time investment, and if you love these actors, you could give it a try. But otherwise, be prepared for a dramedy that says what it is on the tin and doesn't innovate too much beyond that.

Netflix Binge: The Woman in the Window & The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Netflix offers up a lot of content to keep those bingewatches going. But quantity does not always equal quality. This month, I watched two movies that were sold to Netflix after being delayed by the pandemic. One was great, and the other was...so bad that it was kinda great. So let's see which one you might be in the mood for when it's time for your next lazy day on the couch.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines: Yes this is an animated movie, but don't fear, it's filled with an absurdist humor that works for every age group. And frankly, the voice cast alone is fully worth a watch/listen. Written and directed by Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe, this is a movie about a dysfunctional family that is forced to come together and put aside their troubled family dynamics during a global crisis. What's the crisis? Robots have taken over the world and are preparing to destroy the entire race. The Mitchells are the only people who can stop them. 

Is that high stakes? Sure. Is there much hilarity and insanity? You bet. Despite all that overarching action and the desperate mission to save humanity, this is a sweet and wonderful family movie that really hones in on the idea of what it means to find your "people" in the world and feel completely misunderstood by your family. Our heroine is Katie Mitchell (voiced by Abbi Jacobson), an aspiring filmmaker who cannot wait to leave her family in Michigan and get to film school in California. Her father (Danny McBride) never says the right thing and is wildly unsupportive of her creative ambitions, while her mother (the magnificent Maya Rudolph) is wildly supportive but still doesn't really "get" this daughter of hers. Katie loves her little brother Aaron (voiced by the co-director himself, Mike Rianda), who is obsessed with dinosaurs, so their bond is over being nerds, but their interests wildly differ. 

Of course, when a Zuckerberg-esque tech billionaire launches robots that are meant to help humans but then immediately turn on him and all of humanity, Katie and her family have to band together to save the world. I won't go into any further detail, but let's just say there are a lot of jokes about tech billionaires and the dangers of artificial intelligence and how we are all doomed. The action set pieces should immediately entertain all millennials, particularly one sequence with some dive-bombing Furbys, a.k.a the most terrifying thing ever portrayed on screen. And most importantly, the one and only Olivia Colman is the voice of the AI system, and oh lord is she brilliant. Honestly, you have not lived until you've seen a screaming mobile phone voiced by Olivia Colman have a temper tantrum. 

The animation is extraordinary and weird, and the whole thing has a climactic musical number that is utterly bizarre and fabulous. This is a silly, exuberant, joyful film about finding your place in the world, repairing relationships with your family, and figuring out what's important in life. All while battling some very demented robots. What's not to love? 

The Woman in the Window: This movie is based on the novel by AJ Finn. I read the novel last April and it was an absolute page-turner and a welcome distraction in the midst of everything else that was going on in 2020. The movie was supposed to come out in October 2019, but had to undergo re-shoots after some negative test screenings, and was delayed to May 2020. Obviously that ended up being a bust, so it finally premiered this month on Netflix and hoo boy. If this is what they thought was fit to release, I can't imagine what they left on the cutting room floor.

The film is meant to be a psychological thriller about a woman named Anna Fox (Amy Adams) who is agoraphobic and confined to her Harlem brownstone. Unable to leave her house, she spends her days watching Hitchcock movies (natch) and watching what her neighbors get up to across the street (an obvious nod to Rear Window). When the Russell family moves in across the street, she befriends Jane Russell (Julianne Moore) and her son, Ethan (Fred Hechinger), but Mr. Russell (Gary Oldman) doesn't seem too keen on being neighborly. And then, Anna thinks she sees a murder, and things quickly spiral.

This is an extraordinary cast (Brian Tyree Henry, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Anthony Mackie all show up as well), being directed by Joe Wright, with a screenplay adapted by Tracy Letts. These are all fantastic elements but somehow the sum is so much lesser than its parts. I already knew the various twists of the story, so I started out by enjoying the decisions the director had made with certain shots or focusing on certain story beats as I knew that they would all come back in the grand finale. But gradually I found myself waiting for this movie to end. Every actor seemed to be dialed to 11 and it became clear that the homages to Hitchcock were becoming an out-and-out parody. 

And then the movie ended. And that climax in the final fifteen minutes was HYSTERICAL. It's not meant to be--you're supposed to be terrified--but oh, I giggled like a loon. It felt like the filmmakers had collectively given up and decided that the thing could no longer be saved. There are frenzied and disjointed cuts, Amy Adams has to do about twenty insane things, and it is SO BAD that I immediately told people to watch it because it felt destined to become some sort of camp classic. So yeah. This is a terrible movie. But consider watching it just for those final moments when everything coalesces into one gloriously awful whole. Or otherwise, spare yourself and just read the novel to enjoy its twists and turns with the safety of your own imagination. Either way, you're gonna have some fun. 

Girls5eva: Spectacularly Dumb

I binged all of Girls5eva’s eight episodes over the weekend and realized that Peacock is rapidly becoming my go-to source for new sitcom fun times. While this show is not quite the same caliber as the Saved by the Bell reboot or Rutherford Falls, it is still an unhinged, glorious Kimmy Schmidt-esque tour-de-farce (yes, that spelling was intended), and you should watch it for the song lyrics alone.

This show tells the story of four middle-aged women who were in a girl band in their twenties but now live very ordinary lives. Dawn (Sara Bareilles) is married, has a cute son (destined to become a New York Lonely Boy, a real gem of a song featured in Episode 3) and works in her brother’s restaurant. Summer (Busy Phillips) is the supremely ditzy one, who married a guy from a boy band, and is now just a stay-at-home pop star who tries to make money off her brand. Gloria (Paula Pell) is a dentist and a divorcee (she and her wife were the first lesbian couple to divorce after fighting for the right to get married). And Wikie (Renee Elise Goldsberry) is the only one who’s still a star. She had the pipes and diva chops and appears to be an influencer on social media, always flying around in fabulous outfits to give performances around the world. She was the reason the band broke up in the first place as she wanted to pursue a solo career. But, things are not as they seem...

After one of their old songs gets sampled in a rap record, the ladies are inspired to cash in on that nostalgia and reunite as Girls5eva. At first it’s for a one-off performance, but they are in such desperate need of a change in their lives that they decide to see how they could actually spin this into a full-blown reunion. Also, if you’ve been paying attention, yes, their band name is Girls5eva because there were five women in the band, but one of them, Ashley (Ashley Park) died in a tragic infinity pool accident. Which means Park has the slightly thankless acting role of showing up only in flashbacks or grainy footage of the band’s old music videos. Since this show debuted on AAPI Heritage Month, that’s not a great boost for Asian representation in media but oh well (and this show is just crazy enough for that to potentially change in Season 2). 

This is a show about nostalgia and the 90s and the general insanity of the MTV generation. We get snippets of the music videos and songs that these women released in their heyday and oh lord are they spectacularly terrible. I loved listening to them because the lyrics (which are mostly written by the show's creator, Meredith Scardino) were so fantastic. It reminded me of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, albeit with slightly less production value on the music side. But if you’ve ever enjoyed the fake songs on 30 Rock or Kimmy Schmidt, you’ll be delighted with what you get here, courtesy of Tina Fey’s composer husband, Jeff Richmond (both Fey and Richmond serve as Executive Producers on this show and Fey does pop up in a wackadoodle cameo at one point). 

Girls5eva isn’t high art. But it’s four straight hours of a bunch of ladies being dumb and over-the-top and your brain can simply relax and enjoy itself. You will giggle, you may even guffaw, and at the end, you will have no regrets about whiling away an afternoon with this show. Isn’t that the best outcome you can hope for?