“Clerks III”
Once hailed as an auteur filmmaker for the common man with films like “Clerks,” “Chasing Amy,” and “Dogma,” Kevin Smith has now been relegated to his own corner of the filmmaking community where he churns out nerd podcast after nerd podcast and makes strange low-budget films from time to time that could only be described as…well, niche (looks in the direction of “Yoga Hosers” and “Tusk”). Post-heart attack, Smith had a bit of a revelation that led to him wanting to use the characters from his old movies again. “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” is basically a Kevin Smith movie for Kevin Smith and Kevin Smith die-hard fans and was mildly influenced by his brush with death. It has its moments, but it ultimately feels like a bit of a rehash and a victory lap all at once.
With “Clerks III,” Smith doubles down on the rehash and autobiographical elements and makes a movie about a guy who works in a convenience store making a movie about guys that work in a convenience store, complete with a heart attack subplot. Is this Kevin Smith swallowing his own tail? Absolutely. But he also manages to bring back some of the magic that made the first “Clerks” so fun, inventive, and endearing. The surprising part comes when Smith manages to make you not only laugh and care for these shmucks all over again but actually shed a tear or two for them. Now if only we could get a sequel to “Dogma.” – Mike DeAngelo
“Love Is Blind”
In a TV landscape filled with plenty of toxic reality shows, Netflix’s “Love is Blind” is perhaps the most toxic of all. Labeled an “experiment,” the format is relatively simple: participants get to know each other through dating in “pods,” cozy booths with a microphone that allows them to speak to one another without the pressure — and distraction — of looks. After a few rounds of dates, they can either fall in love or not; in the case of the former, there is a blind proposal followed by a dramatically staged meeting where the two lovebirds run into each other’s arms, promises of eternal love made in the heat of physicality.
Now in its third season, “Love is Blind” has become a nifty platform for hopeful influencers and a disturbing window into the aftermath of putting your life on worldwide display. Still, I can’t seem to shake myself from it, binging episodes with an eagerness that assures me I’m part of the problem while allowing me to reflect on the rapidly changing nature of reality television. Twistedly, it also offers me the somewhat comforting reassurance that sometimes the best one can do is walk away. Should it be back for a fourth season? No. Will I watch it? Yes. – Rafa Sales Ross
“Inventing Anna”
Yes, yes, it was “nominated for the Best Limited Series Emmy — but let’s be honest. We didn’t watch “Inventing Anna” because it was good. We watched it because it promised something mindless, trashy, and gaudy in the guise of prestige TV. Amidst a punishing glut of seriously-minded miniseries dropping ahead of the Emmys, this Shondaland production gave us the sugar rush of the true-crime scammer saga with no pretense of headiness.
I couldn’t stop watching “Inventing Anna” even as I quickly realized it was probably the lowest common denominator option of its peers. Framing the story through the lens of journalist Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsky) makes no sense and entirely mistakes where the audience’s interest lies in the story of fake heiress Anna Delvey (Julia Garner). Especially when Delvey’s absurd exploits ripping off the wealthy and connected simmers down in the latter stretch of the season, Shonda Rhimes’ show lost its luster. But when it’s operating in a fun and campy mode, perhaps not always by design, the show made for a raucous ride. I’m still undecided if Garner’s wild accent and soapy performance are actually any good, but it’s certainly one of the most memorable of 2022. – Marshall Shaffer
“Moonfall”
Save for “Independence Day” and “Stargate,” you could call every Roland Emmerich film a guilty pleasure. And yet, I love them. I adore the ecological lunacy of “The Day After Tomorrow;” I embrace the bloatedness of “2012;” I’ll even give a seat at the table for the cliched, yet highly engrossing disaster that is “Midway.” Just let Emmerich’s name flash across the screen and I’ll be there for whatever bombastic, gravity-shattering mess he’s cooked up. Having said all of that, nothing could’ve prepared me for the brain-breaking space flick that is “Moonfall.”
I watched this film about astronauts traveling to a moon on the verge of crashing into the earth, fittingly, not in a lush theater, or comfortably at home in front of my television, but on a red-eye flight to Prague. It was bonkers. This scientifically incorrect lark offered the planetary destructive highs of “Interstellar” with the kind of overwrought self-indulgence akin to having ice cream for dinner during a sugar rush. Even with the gross kowtowing to Elon Musk, “Moonfall” is knowingly silly, gleefully unlikely, and also features a Halle Berry performance that is so much better than what this movie deserves. It annihilated my speck of an airline screen with a brazenness that works when the elevation of your plane is at the happy altitude where brain cells go to die. – Robert Daniels
“Halloween Baking Championship/Holiday Baking Championship”
My smooth brain oasis used to be shows on The CW, but most of my favorites have unfortunately been canceled over the last year. However, each fall The Food Network steps up to the plate (literally) with “Halloween Baking Championship” and “Holiday Baking Championship.” Each season of the show features about a dozen contestants vying for a big cash prize. As the year winds down, for an hour or so each week, I get super invested in the hopes and dreams and skills of these bakers. The only thread that ties them together is that chef Carla Hall is a judge on both. I love each seasonal show for different reasons. On “Halloween Baking Championship” the judges wear elaborate Halloween costumes each episode and the bakers are often asked to make the most disgusting looking treats (severed hands, severed heads, green goo, etc.). In contrast, on “Holiday Baking Championship” the bakers are often tasked with making vintage mid century desserts like Baked Alaskas or grasshopper pie. The red and green Christmas cheer oozes from every inch of the set. In the last few years they’ve even started having episodes centered on Thanksgiving, Kwanza, and Hanukkah. I love to see how ridiculous the challenges become as the season whittles the contestants down to the four who make it to the finale. I love watching them passionately talk about complex baked goods that I will never in my wildest dreams be able to make. Most of all, I love watching the judges as they eat these sweet, decadent goodies. Pass the pâte à choux please! – Marya E. Gates
“Mona Lisa And The Blood Moon”
“You don’t pick voodoo,” a fortune teller says to Craig Robinson‘s vexed beat cop halfway through Ana Lily Amirpour‘s “Mona Lisa And The Blood Moon,” “voodoo pick you.” A warning, likewise, for the viewer: surrender to the vibes of Amirpour’s third feature, or don’t. Either way, this scuzzy, street-wise, and oddly wholesome fantasia crawls out of the bayou on its own accord, much like how its heroine escapes her max-security psych ward. So don’t get caught up on what strange powers are at work here. Instead, let its warped lunar logic take hold and allow “Blood Moon” to be what it is: a loose, low-down hangout movie that’s no plot, just vibes.
Or maybe some plot, slight though it is. A girl with psychokinetic powers (Jeon Jong-seo, from “Burning“) builds a misfit surrogate family as she drifts through the fringes of New Orleans nightlife. Along the way, she meets Kate Hudson‘s grifting stripper, her sensible metalhead son Charlie (Evan Whitten), and Ed Skrein‘s trippy mimbo Fuzz, a part-time drug dealer and full-time DJ who may be Mona Lisa’s soulmate. It’s so straightforward it may as well be a superhero origin story, except Amirpour tells it obliquely and at a glacial pace. Or alternatively, it’s a tale about a fugitive’s great escape from society’s systems of control; only she flees for freedom along some weird karmic track, and asylum lies in the lurid unknown (i.e., Detroit).
But a better description might be this. Imagine if Stephen King ditched Maine for Louisiana, got into psychedelics instead of cocaine in the early-’80s, and crawled out of a K-hole to write “Firestarter.” Yup, “Mona Lisa And The Blood Moon” is one for the slanted and enchanted weirdos. Like it or not, this movie is on its own woozy wavelength. My advice? Relax, take a tab, and enjoy the adventure. – Ned Booth