Sitcom Surplus: Ghosts, Abbott Elementary, American Auto, How I Met Your Father

Now that we're done with the Oscars and you've crammed your way through a series of prestige films, is your mind craving the nourishing comfort of simple TV sitcoms? Well you're in luck, because I have been watching a slew of comedies.

Ghosts: Over a few weeks, I binged all three seasons that are currently available on HBO Max, but which originally aired on the BBC. An American adaptation of this show just started airing this year on CBS, and I have heard very good things, so I will probably start watching it shortly, but for now, I'm here to tell you that you can do no wrong if you check out the British version. The premise is as follows: Alison (Charlotte Ritchie) and Mike (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) are a young couple who move into a crumbling mansion that Alison inherited upon the death of a very distant relative. Unbeknownst to them, the mansion is teeming with the ghosts of people who died in that house or on its land and who have yet to pass on. When Alison has an accident, she gets the power to see the ghosts, which means that she is now having to interact both with the living and the dead on a daily basis while Mike has to deal with his wife randomly talking in empty rooms and going crazy when all the ghosts just won't stop pestering her about their many woes.

The show is so clever - the writing is impeccable and the cast is superb, each actor bringing myriad layers to their performance. Each ghost has a backstory that we will get in dribs and drabs over the course of the three seasons, and while they all start out as heightened caricatures, they get rounded out with more nuance and pathos with each episode. It is lovely to watch how Alison and Mike's relationships with these spirits evolves over the course of the show, and how they all weirdly become a little family. But most importantly, this is a show that is jam-packed with jokes, and you will be giggling non-stop as you binge your way through.

Abbott Elementary: Out of all the sitcoms released on American networks this year, this is the jewel in the crown. It follows a group of teachers at a Philadelphia public school and every single episode is brimming with humor and heart. There's Janine (Quinta Brunson, the genius who also created this show), an idealistic teacher who is relatively new to the profession and is determined to make a difference and do anything she can for her students. Jacob (Chris Perfetti) is similarly new and idealistic, while Melissa and Barbara (Lisa Ann Walter and Sheryl Lee Ralph) are the older and wiser teachers who have been at this school for a while. Unlike most shows where the older teachers may be wizened and jaded, these two ladies are incredible role models who are still dedicated to their students, but they do get very tired at having to explain the system to the younger folk and having to rein in their boundless enthusiasm once in a while.

To round out the cast, we have Ava, played by Janelle James, who is delivering one of the weirdest and wildest performances as the thoroughly incompetent principal of this school who struts about the place insulting her employees, making fun of the kids, and generally causing a ruckus. She does not deserve to have this job, a fact that is noted by Gregory (played by Tyler James Williams, all grown up from Everybody Hates Chris!), who aspired to be the the principal, but is currently only able to get a substitute teaching gig. This show is a sweet, hilarious workplace comedy, and it both makes you guffaw and gives you the warm fuzzies. It is comfort food for your soul every week, so give it a go and get some nourishment.

American Auto: Created by Justin Spitzer, who created Superstore, and worked on The Office, this show has great pedigree and hits all those familiar beats. There's the boss who's in over their head, the will they-won't they couple, and a range of kooky cast members who are all agents of chaos in their own special way. It's a simple workplace comedy set at an American car company, Payne Motors, and the action picks up when they get a new CEO, Katherine (the incomparable Ana Gasteyer). She formerly worked for Big Pharma and knows nothing about cars - she can't even drive. So naturally, there's a steep learning curve, and she is surrounded by a bunch of employees who are alternately going to try to help her succeed or secretly root for her failure.

Some criticisms I have heard of this show are that it feels like things we have seen before and/or that it traffics in too much cynicism. As someone who adores British sitcoms, however, this tone is right up my alley. Yes, this is a show that often makes it hard to root for any character. But oh man, the writing is sharp and clever, each episode densely packed with jokes, and some of the plots they come up with are genius. The pilot episode that featured a racist car stole my heart from the very beginning, and by the end of the first season, the show did reveal how far these people had come after dealing with numerous crises. This show has great bones, and I hope it gets many more seasons to fully delve into all these characters, give us all the permutations of them working together on crazy adventures, and make me laugh hysterically as yet another car falls apart for utterly bewildering reasons. 

How I Met Your Father: The title should tell you everything you need to know here. Brought to you by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas who gave us nine seasons of How I Met Your Mother, this is the gender-swapped spin-off where it's now a woman's turn to tell her kid about how she met his father. Kim Cattrall plays the older Sophie who is narrating this story in 2050, but most of the action involves young Sophie in 2022, played by the charming Hilary Duff. You will meet her friends, and in the first episode, we will meet several men who have the potential to be love interests for Sophie, one of whom, we are promised, will eventually be the Father.

This is peak comfort food right? If you loved the original show and watched it to the bitter end, you will be charmed by this update. It's a very traditional multi-camera sitcom, unlike the ones I've reviewed above that are all single-camera and laser-focused on tight scripts. On this show, the focus is more on creating a vibe of the perils of dating in New York City and the eternal quest to find your person, accompanied by a laugh track. The actors are great, including Chris Lowell, one of my fave actors from Veronica Mars, who plays Jesse. The cast is also much more diverse, featuring Asian and Hispanic actors in Sophie's friend group, so that's a welcome change from the original show, even if the main leads are still conventionally pretty white people. This is a good show with some good twists and turns in its first season, and some fun cameos from the HIMYM world, so give it a try. It's not high art, but it's soothing and fun and is a cozy way to while away an afternoon.

And the 2022 Oscar Goes To...

For the ninth year in a row, it's time for me to go over all the Oscar nominees and tell you about the movies I loved, the ones I'm shocked got nominated, and the performances and artistry that I deem most worthy of a statue. If past years are any indication, my tastes and preferences rarely tally with those of the Academy, so if you're reading this blog post in order to get some insight into your office Oscar pool, you're out of luck. But if you're merely looking for some inspiration for what to watch, or some quick-fire summaries so you can avoid watching these movies yourself, you've come to the right place. Let's delve right in!

Best Picture: I am slightly underwhelmed by this year's crop of nominees. I has a perfectly enjoyable time watching all of them, but I'd be hard-pressed to say that I found myself profoundly moved by any of them, unlike in years past when I've often had a visceral reaction to some Best Picture nominees. For my money, The Green Knight was the best movie I saw last year, and that film didn't receive a single Oscar nomination. But enough about the folk that were snubbed. Of the ones who actually snagged a nomination, I am rooting for Belfast. That movie felt somehow both cinematic and personal, telling a grand, sweeping tale, but doing so in such an intimate manner through the eyes of a young boy. The frontrunner, however, appears to be The Power of the Dog, which would be a perfectly good choice. It is a spare and eerie Western that features some spectacular performances. I wish I had seen it in theaters instead of at home on Netflix, because I would have probably enjoyed the cinematography and quiet pace a lot more in that setting, but nonetheless, it's a worthy contender. I thoroughly enjoyed West Side Story, so you can't go wrong with giving Spielberg another Oscar, particularly for his very first musical. And Dune was a fun cinematic experience, so if the Academy somehow wants to go wild and give the main award to a science fiction epic, I wouldn't be upset, but we all know that ain't gonna happen. CODA was a lovely movie, and everyone should watch it, but the story didn't elevate itself into the ranks of Best Picture for me (the performances are another story, and we'll get to that below in the Best Supporting Actor discussion). And Drive My Car is the dark horse here, with people predicting that it may pull a Parasite and become yet another foreign film that wins in this category. I don't think this is as likely, because this is a much slower and languid movie than Parasite, and while it was fine, it didn't thrill me the way Parasite did when I first saw it in theaters. Then we have King Richard, which was a perfectly decent and inspirational biopic, and Nightmare Alley, which was aesthetically pleasing and cinematically unsettling. Again, both are fine movies, but not quite Best Picture-worthy. Which leaves us with Licorice Pizza and Don't Look Up. Two movies written and directed by the kind of white men that the Academy loves to honor and I simply cannot stand. My feelings about these movies have already been documented on the blog so I shall not belabor them here. Suffice to say, if either of those movies win, I will be throwing a tantrum.

Best Director: We have another woman nominated in this category, Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog, and it seems like she has a good shot at winning it. It would a well-deserved win and a testament to her quiet and powerful work in the Hollywood boy's club. So that is who I am rooting for. However, I wouldn't be terribly affronted if the award went to Kenneth Branagh for Belfast, Ryusuke Hamaguchi for Drive My Car, or Stephen Spielberg for West Side Story. But if Paul Thomas Anderson wins for Licorice Pizza, you shall know my wrath. 

Best Actress: There are some sterling performances here and you can't go wrong with any of them. For my money, I am personally rooting for Kristen Stewart to get the acclaim she deserves and win a statue for that haunting performance as Princess Diana in Spencer. However, Jessica Chastain delivered an absolutely insane performance in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. If she wins an Oscar, that's a triple award for Acting, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling. She has been nominated twice previously and never won, so she's a likely contender for this prize (third time's the charm!) - first-time nominee Stewart may have to wait her turn. But I was also floored by Penelope Cruz's work in Parallel Mothers. She has an Oscar already though, so she can afford to spread the wealth. Likewise with Olivia Colman, who did great work in The Lost Daughter, and Nicole Kidman, who was a wonderful Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos. Good job ladies, you made it a pleasure to go to the cinema this year. 

Best Actor: Benedict Cumberbatch is probably thirsting the most for this award, so maybe we should give it to him for his work in The Power of the Dog? My personal favorite might actually be Andrew Garfield for that marvelous turn in Tick, Tick...Boom! especially considering the man couldn't even sing before he was cast in the film. However, chances are this is Will Smith's chance to finally nab an Oscar for his good work in King Richard after being nominated three times before. The British boys will have to wait their turn. Similarly, while Denzel Washington and Javier Bardem put in good performances in The Tragedy of Macbeth and Being the Ricardos respectively, they already have Oscars, so they can sit this one out. 

Best Supporting Actress: Give it to Ariana DeBose for West Side Story please. This is already a lock for the lady, and she is so charming and charismatic and fully deserving. And it would be thrilling to see a Latina win for playing the exact same role that Rita Moreno played when she became the first Latina to win an Oscar in 1962. All of the other nominees are excellent in their respective movies, and perhaps it's unfair that they have to compete against Ariana when they did quieter "supporting" work, while she got to twirl her skirts around the big screen belting "America." Jessie Buckley had quite a lot of angst and anger to convey in The Lost Daughter, Judi Dench was a sweet and stalwart Irish grandmother in Belfast, Kirsten Dunst was a twitchy and nervous wreck in The Power of the Dog, and Aunjanue Ellis made it clear that she might be more of a champion than her husband or her daughters in King Richard. Fantastic work ladies, but this is Ariana's to lose. 

Best Supporting Actor: This should be a lock for Tory Kotsur for CODA. The man uses sign language for the entire movie and makes each sign feel like a poem. Out of everyone in the film, he is the one you probably don't ever need subtitles for, because the expressions on his face and the eloquence of his hands (which are occasionally signing the most filthy things imaginable) is all you need to get the message. I'm starting to realize there's a pattern here where the Supporting categories are where you get less "traditional" winners, but I am excited to give this man an award and see him sign a filthy acceptance speech - I hope the network censors have to blur his hands. Again, no shade against the other nominees. Both Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee did great work in The Power of the Dog (Smit Mc-Phee could have been considered a co-lead with Cumberbatch), J.K. Simmons perfectly captured the essence of William Frawley/Fred Mertz in Being the Ricardos, and Ciaran Hinds offered up a lot of the emotional heart and soul of Belfast. But Kotsur deserves this award for an extraordinary and delightful performance that was unlike any other this year. 

Best Original Screenplay: Kenneth Branagh needs to win for Belfast for two reasons. One, it was a great script and he did a fantastic job translating his personal childhood experiences into a universal and relatable tale. Two, most of the other nominees made me viscerally angry and I cannot believe they are nominated for this award. The less said about Don't Look Up, the better (though it just won the Writer's Guild Award so blech). Licorice Pizza? No. The Worst Person in the World was structurally interesting and had many writerly flourishes, but the actual content thoroughly annoyed me and made me feel like these male screenwriters had no idea what a woman's life is actually like. King Richard was perfectly fine, and did a good job of not falling into the biopic trap of telling a birth-to-death story. But nothing can beat that Branagh script. If it does, I will scream.

Best Adapted Screenplay: This is such an interesting bunch of nominees and I honestly cannot say I am rooting for or against anyone. CODA just won the Writer's Guild Award, so perhaps Sian Heder is the favorite here. A win for Dune would be fascinating, but unlikely. I would love to see Maggie Gyllenhaal get an Oscar for writing The Lost Daughter since she couldn't get a nomination for directing it. Jane Campion is probably due for other Oscar for The Power of the Dog so she can skip this one, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi seems destined to get Best Foreign Film for Drive My Car, so he seems like an unlikely winner here too. But again, this is a stacked category, with people who wrote extraordinary scripts, so it's impossible to make a bad choice. 

Those are my thoughts for the major categories. Some other predictions/wishes: Ari Wegner must win for Best Cinematography for The Power of the Dog as she would be the first female cinematographer to win in the history of the awards (I know, it's 2022, but let's shatter another glass ceiling ladies). And it would be kind of hilarious to give Best Makeup and Hairstyling to House of Gucci just so that movie has to be eternally known as an Oscar winner. For Best Score, I have a soft spot for Alberto Iglesias' work in Parallel Mothers, but Jonny Greenwood wrote the score for two great movies this year. So I would like to give him the prize as a reward for his combined efforts in creeping me out in The Power of the Dog and Spencer. And Billie Eilish is so freaking young, but sure, go ahead and give her and Finneas O'Connell an Oscar for Best Song.

That's it. Another Oscar year has come and gone. Unlike last year, I saw most of these movies in the theater and they served as a powerful reminder of how transporting movies can be when you see them on the big screen. Let's hope 2022 bring us more wondrous tales so we can do this again next year. I'll see you at the movies.

Mid-Week Watch: Cyrano, Kimi, Turning Red

No matter what you’re in the mood for this week, I have quite the selection on offer. A Rear Window-style thriller, an animated movie about metaphorical menstruation, and a musical set in 17th century France (but no one has the slightest French accent). Let’s go to the movies!

Turning Red: This is the latest Pixar film, the first to be solely directed by a woman, Domee Shi, so of course, they didn’t bother to give it a proper theatrical run in the US and sent it straight to streaming on Disney+. Argh. But seek out this movie immediately. It is infinitely clever, kind, and beautiful, destined to be a part of the classic Pixar canon. And it should be required viewing for anyone who either gets a period or has to deal with people on their period, aka all of humanity.

Set in Toronto (which means you will get to see the CN Tower in the background of nearly every scene), the movie follows Meilin "Mei" Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), a thirteen-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl who is a perfectly normal teenage girl until she suddenly starts turning into a giant red panda any time she experiences strong emotions. It's certainly a fluffy and cute way of reflecting what PMS feels like.

There are a lot of reasons this is happening, having to do with Mei's ancestors, and I won't get into all of that. But what makes this movie so special is how it tackles Mei's relationship with her mother, Ming (voiced by the wonderful Sandra Oh). Mei is moving away from being Ming's little girl and may not embrace all the ambitions foisted upon her, and it captures the fractious tumult that accompanies all mother-daughter relationships as you try to find your own identity and forge your own life path. The movie even brings in Mei's grandmother to highlight the challenging relationship Ming has with her own mother. I don't think there's a single person on this planet who could watch this movie and not instantly relate to all these problematic family dynamics. 

In addition, you have Mei's relationship with her three best friends, a gaggle of girls who are all obsessed with a boy band called 4*Town, and who look out for each other as best friends should. They are kind, supportive, and wonderful, a reflection of the best that teenage friendships can offer, and made me very nostalgic for my childhood girl gang. And the songs by that boy band were all written by Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell, if you needed any more reasons to enjoy this splendid film. Go forth and revel in it - you will giggle and cry in equal measure, which is the hallmark of a great Pixar movie.

Kimi: The latest from director Steven Soderbergh, this is a tight 90-minute thriller starring Zoe Kravitz as Angela, a woman who works as a data analyst for a company that manufactures a home voice assistant called Kimi (it works like Amazon’s Alexa). When Angela is listening to anonymous data streams received from Kimi devices across the country, she stumbles across one recording where it sounds like a woman may have been sexually assaulted. Perturbed, she starts to seek out more information, and as she delves further into investigating what she heard, things start to unravel in a classic Hitchockian conspiracy.

The added twist is that this movie is set in the midst of the pandemic, and Angela, who was already struggling with anxiety and agoraphobia, has become increasingly unable to leave her house during lockdown. Unfortunately, this investigation is going to push her to face her fears and come to terms with her corporate overlords, and you’ll have to see how it all goes down. Written by David Koepp, this movie is not particularly surprising or inventive, but it offers up a taut thriller and a good central performance from Kravitz. It’s perfect for a streaming release, something to watch on a rainy afternoon when you need to liven up your day. After watching so many three-hour-long movies recently, it was a relief to watch a plot-driven thriller that knew exactly what it wanted to accomplish and did so quickly and efficiently. Sometimes that all you want from your pop culture, you know? 

Cyrano: Set in 17th century Paris, this is the classic tale of Cyrano de Bergerac, the man who longed for Roxanne, but thought he was too repulsive so wooed her through Christian, a handsome intermediary. Written by Erica Schmidt and directed by Joe Wright, the twist here is that Cyrano is played by the wonderful Peter Dinklage, so his physical "deformity" is his dwarfism rather than having a large nose. Also, this adaptation is a musical, which is…challenging. Because Dinklage is a great actor, but he definitely cannot sing.

The other actors do seem to have been cast with more of a mind to musical ability, so there are some good numbers that aren’t as grating to sit through. The music was written by brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner from the band The National, so there's some good stuff there. Haley Bennett, who plays Roxanne, is famous for her debut performance in Music and Lyrics as a teenage popstar, so she acquits herself well, alongside Kelvin Harrison, Jr. as Christian. At one point there’s a splendid war song sung by soldiers played by the actual singers/musicians, Glen Hansard, Sam Amidon, and Scott Folan. But overall, this movie is not revelatory. Everyone is trying their best, but they are dialed up to eleven when a six would suffice. It’s a love story, but the language is terribly heightened and it’s hard to know who to root for when there’s so much deception afoot. It’s all a bit silly until it all becomes a bit tragic, and then the whole thing ends rather abruptly.

The film does have the most gorgeous production design by Sarah Greenwood and costumes by my girl Jacqueline Durran (together with Italian designer Massimo Cantini Parrini). In fact, this movie has a very well-deserved Oscar nomination for its costumes. Even now, as I write this, I am thinking about the ethereal blue outfit Roxanne wears early in the film and I might need to go watch the movie again just for that. I have also just learned that Haley Bennett is Joe Wright's partner, so that might further explain why she is so beautifully shot throughout this film. So yeah. This is a gorgeous movie to look at, but there isn’t much more substance behind it. Dinklage and Bennett are a fine pair, but I wish they had done a modern-day romcom, with no singing, instead of this maudlin tale. It's spring, don't we need more hopeful romantic tales?

Death on the Nile & The Batman: Fictional Fan Favorites

I love Agatha Christie's novels and I love Christopher Nolan's Batman movies. So now you know where I stand and you should not be very surprised by the reviews that follow. You have been forewarned. 

Death on the Nile: This is not a "good" movie per se. But this is a movie that delivers exactly what it promises, i.e. famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot on a Nile river cruise, solving a murder using the deductive reasoning of his "little gray cells." The murder doesn't happen till halfway through the film, so part of the fun is wondering who is even going to get killed. And then in classic Christie style, every single person on the boat has a motive. Will Poirot find the murderer? You bet.

Directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also stars as Poirot, this feels like a TV movie except for the fact that they spent a lot of money on production design, costumes, and getting together an insane cast, including Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening, Letitia Wright, and even Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders in some rather fun stunt casting. These actors are clearly having a grand ol' time swanning around in fabulous costumes and taking in the sights on this spectacular Nile cruise. However, remember how I said they spent a lot of money? Well yes, they did, but none of it was spent particularly well. The whole film was shot in England, not in Egypt, and there's this bizarre green screen-ish quality to all the proceedings. They recreated the Temple of Abu Simbel for a big set piece, and while that's impressive, it's also fairly obvious when you watch this movie on the big screen that this is all just elaborate set dressing.

To be fair, even though this movie does feel a bit fake and bombastic, it certainly made me want to go visit Egypt for real. And it was entertaining to watch the proceedings as Poirot interrogated everyone and whipped them all into a frenzy before the final denouement. I read the book years ago and had completely forgotten the details of both the killer and the killed, so I still got to enjoy watching the events unfold and piecing the mystery together. But the fact that Branagh keeps trying to give Poirot a whole romantic back story is utter hogwash. These movies are way too Hollywood, but if you are in need of some cinematic comfort food, this film goes down easy and is a perfectly pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

The Batman: This movie is three hours long. But if you are a fan of Batman and his many iterations over the years, those are three hours you will comfortably spend glued to your seat, enjoying all the swashbuckling antics on your screen. And surprise, surprise, Robert Pattinson is a brilliant Batman, something that I absolutely did not expect going into this film. If you were expecting a glittery waif of a vampire, think again. You're gonna get a hulked-up superhero who beats up everyone in his way and has chiseled cheekbones that should be registered as lethal weapons in their own right.

This movie is simply fan service from end-to-end. You won't just see Batman battle against one classic villain. Instead, you'll get to see him puzzle out clues with the Riddler (a marvelously creepy Paul Dano), go head-to-head with the Penguin (an absolutely unrecognizable Colin Farrell), and team up with the kick-ass Catwoman (the always beguiling Zoe Kravitz). I would say that it's impossible to be bored, but that's because I'm a fan. The movie definitely suffers from some Lord of the Rings: Return of the King-style finale problems where it simply doesn't know when to end, but I was ready to stay and watch every single scene. 

The aesthetics of this movie are particularly fun, with great care being paid to every element of the iconic costume and associated Batman accessories. Yes, this is an extremely dark and grim movie, but unlike some action films, where darkness has been used as a way to cover up a low budget and not invest as much in action sequences, this film uses darkness to enhance the ominousness of gun battles and emphasize Batman's ability to wreak havoc in the shadows. This is also a story about revenge (he doesn't even acknowledge his identity as Batman until the end - for most of the movie, everyone is just referring to him as "Vengeance") and the fact that Batman is the most antihero superhero we have. It's a very James Bond-esque performance, where Pattinson gets beat up almost as much as he beats other people up, and I was completely here for it. And to round things out, there's a brilliantly atmospheric score from Michael Giacchino that sets the tone throughout. I'm not going to pretend that The Batman is the greatest movie ever made. But it was exactly what I wanted, and it delivered the goods. Consider this fan fully serviced.

Comedy Chaos: Space Force & The Afterparty

Last week I binged the second season of Space Force and watched the season finale of The Afterparty. They are both broad and silly comedies with fantastic casts and showrunners with classic comedy pedigrees taking the helm. If you need a laugh, these shows might be destined to be your next binge. 

Space Force: I watched the first season last year when we would binge anything on Netflix to escape the pre-vaccine pandemic gloom. As a big fan of The Office, I was very excited to see a show created by Greg Daniels and Steve Carell, who also stars in and occasionally writes for the show. The show follows the establishment of the fledgling Space Force, that glorious agency created by our former President Who Must Not Be Named, and the ensuing inanity as General Naird (Steve Carell), who is a very straight-laced and conservative military man, tries to wrangle together a bunch of scientists, astronauts, and marketing folk to ensure that Space Force can actually do some good in the world and defy all the mockery that is coming its way. By and large, he is not successful.

The first season was ten episodes and of middling quality. But like most comedies, the second season is where the show finds its footing and leans into all these weird characters. Ben Schwartz as Tom, the marketing guru, is on peak form, suggesting all manner of brand endorsements and collaboration that give Naird a headache every time, but through it all, it's clear that he has a heart of gold. Jimmy O. Yang and John Malkovich make a great team as the genius scientists who are actually trying to do some rocket science while everyone mucks about, while Tawny Newsome is wonderful as Angela Ali, who is aiming to be the first Black woman to go to the moon. 

There's much family drama going on with Naird (Lisa Kudrow plays his wife, and gets into a ton of trouble) and his rebellious teenage daughter, Erin (Diana Silvers), but in the second season, Erin is interning at Space Force so she gets to be a part of all the workplace shenanigans. This show has a LOT going on and there are several elements it can mine for comedy. Not every joke is successful, but this is a winning cast and showrunner and these actors are being their comic best. There's nothing quite so satisfying as watching John Malkovich swear up a storm and mock NASA or seeing Steve Carell's stoic face crack into abject panic when all the disasters bubbling up in this agency culminate into one god-awful snafu. So give Space Force a try, and let's see if they ever make that mission to Mars a reality.

The Afterparty: Created and directed by Christopher Miller, be prepared to enjoy a raucous and funny murder mystery over the course of eight delightful episodes. The show follows a group of thirtysomethings at the afterparty of their high school reunion. When one of their classmates plummets to his death, it's up to Detective Danner (the glorious Tiffany Haddish) to interrogate everyone at this party one by one and determine who is the murderer.

The cast includes TV comedy stalwarts like Sam Richardson, Ben Schwartz, Ilana Glazer, and Ike Barinholtz. And the show's conceit is that each week we get the story of what happened at the reunion and the afterparty from a different character's perspective, so it's a Rashomon-style Agatha Christie mystery, where you have to look out for inconsistencies in people's stories and sort through all their many motives and alibis to find the killer. What makes it even funnier is that each episode consists of a different cinematic genre - for example, we get Aniq's (Sam Richardson) story in the style of a bubby romantic comedy, while Chelsea's (Ilana Glazer) tale is a psychological thriller filled with eerie twists and turns.

The Afterparty is a marvelous feat of storytelling and will satisfy both comedy nerds and mystery nerds. The narrative is also short and sweet, amply contained in its eight action-packed episodes, and it never overstays its welcome or gets too cute. It has already been renewed for a second season, so binge your way through this one and get ready for more murder and mayhem next year. And if you need a little teaser about the many ways in which this show goes into extraordinarily silly and wonderful tangents, let me just say that there's a cinematic adaptation of Hungry Hungry Hippos that you didn't know your life was missing until this show came around. 

Foreign Films at the Oscars: Drive My Car, Parallel Mothers, The Worst Person in the World

Following the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, the Academy of Motion Pictures & Sciences has increasingly tried to diversify its membership, which has resulted in more foreign films breaking out of the Best Foreign Film silo and showing up as awards contenders in other categories. This year, there are three such films, and I watched them all to see if the hype was to be believed. The answer is Yes, No, and Somewhat.

The Worst Person in the World: I went into this movie with too-high expectations. It was getting rave reviews across the board and absolutely no one seemed to have a bad word to say. Well, let me be the contrarian. While I think the lead actress, Renate Reinsve, is sublime and deserves the accolades she has been receiving, I fail to understand why people thought this movie was so captivating and had anything novel to say. And perhaps the argument is that this movie is not saying anything novel, but represents how people behave in their twenties. To which I say, this was certainly not my experience in my twenties, so I can't love this movie on that level either.

We follow Julie (Reinsve), a young Norwegian medical student (she does not stay a medical student for long, perhaps the only connection I felt to her), who is trying to find herself and what she wants to do with her life. However, instead of actual soul-searching, she falls into a relationship with an older man. This is subsequently a movie about what happens with that relationship and the various questions and troubles that spring from it. At no point in this film does Julie appear to have any female friends or a life outside of her boyfriend. This movie is nominated for Best Original Screenplay, and I can see why - it has a very clever structure where it is set up in "Chapters" complete with a "Prologue" and "Epilogue" that give it a very literary feel. The chapter titles can sometimes give funny hints to what is about to transpire or ominously reveal impending doom. But this is a movie that emphatically doesn't pass the Bechdel test and is so obviously written by two men (Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier, who is also the movie's director). 

Reinsve is a wonderful actress, and there's one scene in particular where she's walking down a road, realizing that she might not be fully happy with her relationship, and her face crumples up in a very subtle fashion that made me tear up. But by and large, she is so underserved by this script. This is yet another example of male screenwriters thinking they know exactly how women act and feel and live their lives (there's also a subplot about her complicated daddy issues, but almost no time dedicated to her relationship with her attentive mother - spare me). And yes, there is a very funny moment in the movie where an older man mansplains what mansplaining means, but it is sort of trite and meta and merely showcases again that this woman needs more women in her life. Ultimately, I do think this movie highlights a terrible path that many women go down when they are younger, where they waste a decade before they realize they need to find themselves before they find a partner. But the film simply could not move me, except to mild annoyance. It's beautifully shot with some inventive cinematic sequences, and is certainly a great writing exercise; so if you want to watch a technically interesting movie and/or get an introduction to Oslo, go for it. But if you want something that feels emotionally resonant and true, ugh. Don't bother.

Drive My Car: From Japanese director Ryasuke Hamaguchi (who adapted this screenplay with Takamasa Oe from a short story by Haruki Murakami), this movie is a meditative three-hour character study that has a lot of interesting and beautiful ideas but will take as much time as it wants to get there. Listen, I grew up on Bollywood films, so I'm no stranger to long movies, but this movie was too slow for me and I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. 

This is a story about Yusuke (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a theater actor and director, who is married to a screenwriter, Oto (Reika Kirishima). We get a glimpse of their marriage, but when Oto suddenly dies, we then follow Yusuke's journey two years later when he is directing a production of Uncle Vanya and still coming to terms with his grief and loneliness. We meet a whole cast of characters involved in this play, as well as the wonderful Misaki (Toko Miura), a young woman who has been tasked with driving Yusuke to and from rehearsals every day. 

This movie is a mood. You need to give yourself up to the vibes and let them wash over you, almost as if you are in the backseat of a car and have no control of where you're headed. It has so many fascinating elements - the theater production is captivating, and thanks to this movie, I now know that Korean Sign Language is absolutely gorgeous to behold. Every actor is doing phenomenal work, and you don't need any subtitles to fully understand the impact of their emotions. But I lacked the patience for this movie. Perhaps if you watch it on streaming and give yourself breaks in between, you can fully absorb it without being worn down by its languid pace. I do think it is well worth a viewing, but you will need to ensure you are in the right frame of mind for this drive. 

Parallel Mothers: Written and directed by Pedro Almodovar, this movie was my favorite of the bunch. And of course, it isn't even nominated for Best Foreign Film, but instead for Best Original Score for Alberto Iglesias and Best Actress for Penelope Cruz. I can't quibble with those nominations since I thought both Cruz and the score were outstanding, but man, apparently I just don't have the same taste as the Academy when it comes to what deserves to be a Best Foreign Film. I'm gonna pull the sexism card and say that it's because this is a movie about two women and barely contains any men.

I don't want to give away any of the plot - when I saw trailers for this film, I had no idea what to expect, and after watching it, I'm so glad I went in cold. I let this story unfold and found myself constantly surprised and a little unnerved by its twists and turns. I also immediately felt like I needed to be watching more Almodovar movies. The word I keep coming back to when trying to describe how this movie felt is Hitchcockian. It is weirdly suspenseful and you can never quite predict what Cruz's character might be thinking or doing at any given time. And her co-lead, Milena Smit, turns in just as dazzling a performance. Aesthetically, the film is a marvel, filled with gorgeous colors and captivating production design that keep your eyes engaged throughout, and that score keep niggling at you, contributing to that overall wariness you feel about how things are going down.

This is a fantastic movie that has a lot to say about female friendship, motherhood, love, and surprisingly, Spanish history. You might think you're getting an intense character study, but also be prepared for some knowledge about Spain's fascist past. Almodovar takes an intimate and specific story and imbues it with universal meaning, and I found myself captivated throughout. So watch it. In my opinion, it's a perfect showcase of what Foreign Films do best.