Fanfare Roundup: The Work Is Mysterious and Important
February 19, 2025 3:12 PM   Subscribe

THIS WEEK IN FANFARE... NEW MOVIES: Captain America: Brave New World, for those still loyal to the MCU; Apple TV's action/romance/sci-fi yarn The Gorge; Hulu's mob wives drama Fresh Kills; and harrowing 1972 Olympics drama September 5. AND IN TV: season three of Yellowjackets is hot off the fire; season three of The White Lotus checks in; new episodes of Severance, Paradise, The Pitt, and Abbott Elementary. Meanwhile, SNL turns 50 years old and throws itself a big party.

Recently Released Movies:
  • Fresh Kills - Jennifer Esposito wrote and directed this story set in 1980s New York City. Francine is married into a Brooklyn organized crime family, who have just moved to the more spacious surroundings of Staten Island. However, for her and her daughters Rose and Connie the shadow of the mafia remains ever present.
  • Memoir of a Snail - A bittersweet memoir of a melancholic woman called Grace Pudel - a hoarder of snails, romance novels, and guinea pigs.
  • The Gorge - Two very dangerous young people who, despite the corrupt and lethal world they operate in, find a soulmate in each other. Stars Miles teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Sigourney Weaver.
  • Captain America: Brave New World - Sam Wilson, the new Captain America, finds himself in the middle of an international incident and must discover the motive behind a nefarious global plan.
  • September 5 - During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, an American sports broadcasting team must adapt to live coverage of the Israeli athletes being held hostage by a terrorist group.
Older Releases, New to FanFare:
  • Heavy Metal Parking Lot - Cult fave doc from 1986 fans tailgating in the parking lot before a Judas Priest concert.
  • The Parking Lot Movie - 2010 doc about parking lot attendants.
  • Catfish - 2010 doc that led to the popular term for scamming someone in a fake online relationship, as well as a subsequent MTV reality show.
  • White House Down - phunniemee says, "In a daring departure from his usual oeuvre, Roland Emmerich destroys a city with James Woods instead of inclement weather."
  • Starcrash - 1978 Italian-made, low budget hodge-podge of Star Wars-isms, celestial objects distractingly close to one another, Caroline Munro in a revealing outfit, Hasselhoff, and Christopher Plummer, as the Emperor of the Universe.
Older Movie Posts with Newer Comments Current TV Shows with New Posts:
  • Paradise - Secret service drama with Sterling K. Brown. On Hulu. Two eps got posts this week: In The Palaces of Crowned Kings and You Asked for Miracles.
  • Apple Cider Vinegar - Netflix true crime drama about a wellness guru who pretended to be keeping cancer at bay with her own therapies.
  • SNL50: The Anniversary Special - All-star extravaganza thing about SNL.
  • The White Lotus - HBO/Max favorite returns for a third season and a third locale, this time in Thailand.
  • AEW Collision - The AEW's first time in Australia.
  • Abbott Elementary - Catching up with three new posts, The Science Fair, District Budget Meeting and Girard Creek.
  • Only Connect - Two new episodes of the long-running UK quiz show
  • Yellowjackets - Season three of the Showtime (or is it just Paramount Plus now?) mystery drama about the survivors of a plane crash, told both right in its aftermath while they are still young people, and some years later, when someone or something seems determined not to let their secrets rest. Two episodes mark the return: It Girl and Dislocation.
  • The Pitt - Max real-time ER drama reaches the 1 pm mark.
  • Severance - Episode 5 of season 2of the Apple TV puzzle box show. And if you think I would spoil anything, you are out of your MIND.
  • Cobra Kai - It's wax off forever for Netflix's Karate Kid spinoff.
Vintage TV Shows and Rewatches: Older Shows, Newer Comments Books
posted by DirtyOldTown (21 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was thinking about seeing the new Captain America but when it came to it, I couldn't be arsed.
posted by biffa at 3:17 PM on February 19


I'm currently watching the reboot of Rurouni Kenshin and reflecting that it's been 30 years since the original series. With the MCU (and Star Wars and Star Trek, heck, even Doctor Who) I think it would be best everyone would just take a break for a decade or so and let some new, fresher IPs develop. Maybe come back to superhero movies after something else has had a few years at the top.

So far, New Kenshin is the same as original Kenshin, so it is. The animation has been updated to modern broadcast standards (if you seen the old One Piece episodes, you know how much screen resolution has advanced). About the only change I've noticed thus far is that the word, rurouni, is not translated in the subtitles, but is left alone, like samurai. This is good, because I can recall some fans of the original series thinking that "rurouni" was part of Kenshin's name. (Kenshin still affects the "humble polite" speech pattern, so he does. It's a little awkward, but it's a plot point that his speech pattern changes when he drops into "battousai" mode.)
posted by SPrintF at 3:48 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]


Why is it rurouni instead of ronin?
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 4:12 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]


Reacher Season 3 starts tomorrow and I've never been more excited in my life to have the flu!!!
posted by ifatfirstyoudontsucceed at 4:13 PM on February 19 [5 favorites]


I've been enjoying lurking in the Severance threads. I'm also watching Space: 1999, free right now on Kanopy with no tickets. It's super bonkers, right from the premise in episode 1. The Gerry Anderson models are a treat. Great guest stars too. Christopher Lee! Peter Cushing!
posted by td2x10e3 at 5:15 PM on February 19


I'm not sure what the solution is for Star Trek, other than a break; Star Wars, I think they just have to concede that there may never have been much meat on the bone. Who...jeez. It might be time for a big rethink on that one. When it came back the first time, it was very different from its original incarnation. It might be time to reimagine it again.

The MCU...I feel like what was a feature, originally, has become a bug. It's just too much work to follow all this shit, and with the most popular characters dead or retired, there isn't much incentive to do so. The continuity was what made these movies so much fun at first, but now it's killing them. Marvel needs to be able to start over from scratch.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:21 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]


The Parking Lot Movie is very good and offers a look at American class structure. (As a former UVa grad student, I vouch for the movie's truth.)
posted by CCBC at 5:35 PM on February 19


Is anyone else watching Common Side Effects? Because it is extremely good! It's a comedy suspense thriller that features the voice of Hank Hill as a checked-out pharmaceutical CEO.
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:56 PM on February 19 [2 favorites]


Oh! I am enjoying that show a lot, too.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:13 PM on February 19


I'm boycotting the new Captain America movie in theaters because of the inclusion of Sabra. I'll probably watch it eventually, but I'm not going to pay them for the privilege.
posted by limeonaire at 6:17 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]


We saw Heart Eyes last weekend and if you're on a weird Venn diagram where you can say you sincerely enjoyed You've Got Mail as well as the bloody retro slasher Thanksgiving, it's a winner. Not sure how many people live in that overlap, but they really do successfully stake out a place at that intersection. I need to post that one soon.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:39 PM on February 19


Bookwise, would anyone be interested in a First Law read/reread before The Devils comes out?

I'm trying to be realistic here.
posted by East14thTaco at 7:04 PM on February 19


September 5th was really good. I know it’s a hard time to not think about the politics of it but I was very entertained.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 7:32 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]


Also in pop news Jessica Simpsons new single drops on 2.21 and here’s the preview.

I am liking the synth + rhythm guitar mix !!
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:36 PM on February 19


We dipped back into Netflix for a bit...

Mo 2nd season; serious-ish humour with Houston's best hot-tempered Palestinian olive oil producer/wholesaler. Plot twists ahead. I recommend it!

Decameron (half-way through) Not quite like the book, but it's something!
posted by ovvl at 9:03 PM on February 19


Also recommend Mo
posted by jragon at 10:52 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]


Hello everyone! Some of you may have noticed that I've fallen behind again on doing Last Week Tonight posts. The truth is, back during 2016-2020 I felt sick on almost a daily basis reading social media and hearing what The Worst Person In The World was doing. I was hugely dreading what might happen if he won again, and all my fears are proving well-founded. In short, I fear hugely for my mental health if I follow the news as closely as I did before, and so I don't think I can keep up with LWT, at least on an episode-by-episode basis, anymore, certainly not enough to do a recap of episodes.

I still think it's important that it happen, both to let people know what's covered in each episode and to give people a place to talk about it, but I don't feel like I can provide that any longer. No one has ever said that I'm the only one who can make LWT recap posts, but I feel like people might not have wanted to step on my toes. I'd like to say, please, someone take the baton from me. Not if it'll drive you to as much distraction as I've been feeling, but if you have a mind to do it, don't feel like I'm standing in your way.
posted by JHarris at 12:40 AM on February 20 [4 favorites]


tailgating in the parking lot before a Judas Priest concert.

I read this and was dubious that you could get a whole film out of someone trying to sneak into a car park behind someone else, but its not that.
posted by biffa at 1:10 AM on February 20


What I'm finding with FanFare is, I really like reading conversations about things I'm not watching and maybe not going to watch. The new Iron Man movie is really interesting to read about, but I'll probably give it a pass as I've done the last few Marvel movies. But I find I cannot listen to people talk about, say, Severance! There's this weird anxiety that they'll spoil something--even though I'm watching them right as they come out! (Although it occurred to me, I just finished S2 of Silo, I ought to go read those threads!)

(Meanwhile, everyone should watch Apple Cider Vinegar, it's so weirdly enjoyable plus agonizing!)
posted by mittens at 4:29 AM on February 20 [1 favorite]


I can't say I'll never see another Marvel film, because I'll be back when Fantastic Four comes out, and my inner fourteen year-old will demand I see it whenever they drag X-Men back onto the big screen.

But I've tumbled all the way down from "must see every single one" to "they can have another chance if it's from a series I truly love."

And if they in any way bungle those properties, I'm probably done for good.

The big stupid franchise return I'm most excited about is Final Destination, which returns this year. Even the least of that series were chockablock with badass kill sequences that made them a hoot. Guaranteed good time.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:04 AM on February 20 [2 favorites]


I just watched the first episode of Paradise.

I loved it! But I'm now struggling with how to describe the show in future FF roundups. What has been in there so far has been accurate, but--obvious to anyone who has watched the show--laughably spoiler averse and incomplete.

It's not what it frigging looks like, that much is for sure.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:08 AM on February 21


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