Meryl Streep

Only Murders in the Building – Ah, Love!

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Only Murders in the Building – Ah, Love!
  • wiki: link

Date night comes to Only Murders in the Building in an episode that doesn’t actually deal with Joy (Andrea Martin) as a suspect but instead focuses on Charles’ (Steve Martin) emotional issues with the help of his old friend Sazz (Jane Lynch). By the end of the episode, Charles has worked through his panic of dating yet another possible murderer and fears of commitment, but it turns out to be too little too late to save his unplanned engagement. While Joy is crossed of the list in Oliver’s mind, it is interesting that the episode doesn’t actually rule her out as a suspect (although her story does reveal more about the altercation between Charles and Ben on opening night).

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Only Murders in the Building – Grab Your Hankies

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Only Murders in the Building – Grab Your Hankies
  • wiki: link

The first episode of the season to stay completely in the present moves forward the threads of both the play and murder as Oliver (Martin Short) works furiously to turn his failed Broadway return into a musical, Charles (Steve Martin) hunts for a cast member without their hanky, and Mabel (Selena Gomez) spends a little time with documentarian Tobert (Jesse Williams) when the pair catch each other snooping for clues to Ben‘s (Paul Rudd) death. By the end of the episode, the show has new life and the podcast has a new suspect in Kimber (Ashley Park) who, given how early the season is highlighting her, suggests she is likely not the killer despite evidence of jealous rage, potential motive for the crime, and a missing handkerchief. 

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Only Murders in the Building – The Show Must…

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Only Murders in the Building – The Show Must…
  • wiki: link

As was teased in last season’s epilogue, the show’s Third Season opens up with a murder. Well, technically it opens up with two murders, of the same victim (Paul Rudd). The first takes place on stage during the Broadway premiere of Oliver‘s (Martin Short) comeback. We get some conversations among our trio about the sudden death, and an awkward afterparty turned wake, but the majority of the episode begins to fill in events between the solving of the last murder and opening night through a series of flashbacks. Oh, and then the victim shows up after being miraculously resurrected at the hospital only to be killed again that night (this time in the building). You know what that means, podcast listeners!

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People Suck in Indiana

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Prom
  • IMDb: link

The Prom movie reviewAdapted from the stage musical, The Prom sends a group of Broadway performers (Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, and Andrew Rannells) to Indiana looking for a cause to turn around public opinion about their narcissistic nature. What they find is a teenage high school student (Jo Ellen Pellman) denied the right to take her girlfriend (Ariana DeBose) to the prom.

Directed by Ryan Murphy, The Prom is a bawdy life-affirming story populated by mostly paper-thin characters walking through the plot to set-up the next song and dance number. While Corden has received the most criticism for a stereotypical performance, other than the two girls in love, none of the characters have any more depth than a damp sponge. Pellman turns out to be one of the best casting choices as the beautiful young woman who wants nothing more than to be herself, and DeBose manages to steal a moment with her performance of “Alyssa Greene.”

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Little Women

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Little Women (2019)
  • IMDb: link

Little Women movie reviewGreta Gerwig becomes the latest to adapt Louisa May Alcott’s popular novel (over the years it has been adapted more than a dozen times to film and television as well as both a musical and opera). The semi-autobiographical tale follows the lives of the four March sisters (Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlen) following the Civil War.

Saoirse Ronan gets the most screentime as the rebellious Jo, a writer with dreams and desires that don’t always fit the conventions of her time. Watson is perhaps underused as the elder and more conventional Meg, while Pugh sinks her teeth into the more complex Amy. Scanlen is put to good use as the tragic and talented Beth. And Timothée Chalamet smolders as the boy next door.

The film is divided into later years with Jo in New York and Amy in Paris with flashbacks to the family all living under the same roof. The structure allows Gerwig to highlight themes that repeat and keep coming back to the tight family unit even after tragedy and time have taken their toll on the March family.

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