Pop Culture Ephemera

- Front Room (2024) (Directed by Sam Eggers): “Help me, Belinder… .!” – Solange. Director Sam Eggers has a long way to go to be considered in the same breath as his half-brother Robert Eggers (Nosferatu). Pregnant Belinda (Brandy) and her husband, Norman (Andrew Burnap), are struggling after Belinda loses her job. At the funeral of Norman’s father, they meet his stepmother, Solange (Kathryn Hunter), who will pay off their mortgage in order to move in with them. After a rather long prelude for a 90-minute film, I just couldn’t decide what this film was trying to do. I caught hints at Rosemary’s Baby (1968), especially as it regards a previous miscarriage that’s soon abandoned. The “Solange and baby competition for attention” theme allows for lots of pee and scat humor that makes a point in one scene, but it loses all power the 13th time. Eggers is bailed out by Hunter’s tremendous acting, as she plays her part with abandon. There could have been more made of fear of motherhood and death that is lost among more juvenile humor.
- Severance – “Hello, Ms. Cobel” (2025) (S.2 E.1) (AppleTV+): “Hey, no running in my halls…that tickles.” The plight of Mr. Milchick trying to establish his role as the new boss, but running into roadblocks at every turn is brilliantly symbolized with his computer stuck on “Hello, Ms. Cobel” The second season is off to a great start. It had just the right balance of references to the end of last season and the bridge to more questions for the new season. We hit the ground running, learning more about the history of the building. I can’t mention many details because it all feels like spoilers. One thing that fascinates me is their work. We had more glimpses at their work computers in this episode, and I’m interested in the fact that each has a slightly different type of work. The new rewards are great, including pineapple bobbing. This show had quite a bit to live up to for a second season, and this episode gives me hope.
- David Bowie – “Young Americans” (1975) (from Young Americans): “We live for just these 20 years / Do we have to die for 50 more?” Then, just like that, Bowie takes another career turn, and his instinct is absolutely correct. The rich sound of this song with the congas, horns (David Sanborn on sax), and great backing vocals (including Luther Vandross) create a template Bowie will pull from for the next decade. The song is influenced by the Philly Soul sound, combined with newsworthy lyrics influenced by a friendship with John Lennon and it created a song that sounds fresh and a throwback at the same time. I love the evolution of Bowie, the artist.
- Last Night in Soho (2021) (Directed by Edgar Wright): “Has a woman ever died in my room?” – Eloise. As much as I liked Baby Driver (2017), I had hope that this Edgar Wright story would continue his evolution as a storyteller. Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie) leaves her small town to go to school in London with dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Shaken by her encounters with her classmates, Ellie retreats to a dream world where she follows Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy) in the mid-’60s in Soho through windows and mirrors. The plot takes on a Hitchcockian level of ghosts reflecting the present through how we see the past. All pretense to that are clear when Ellie dies her hair blonde to match Sandie. The music is pure Edgar Wright, and he picks the perfect songs for the perfect moments. The plot is where it goes off the rails. Ellie’s story of trying to fit into current London while maintaining the spirit of her ’60s influences is interesting and worthy. The last third of the film can’t let the ghost story well enough alone. Once the mystery is solved, it’s not over unfortunately. I felt that Ellie’s real journey was flipped, and I was left with a film that looks and sounds great but missed the point.

- Babygirl (2024) (Directed by Halina Rejin): “You’re confusing ambition with morality. They’re different things.” – Romy. The trailer made this look like a pretty commonplace erotic thriller. The actual movie throws that out the window from the start as we realize that husband and wife, Romy (Nicole Kidman) and Jacob (Antonio Banderas), don’t have a healthy relationship to be broken up. They are already broken. Once Samuel (Harris Dickinson) enters the picture as the intern at Romy’s company, the story seems to flex into a dominate-and-submissive story. Yet, that story is never the actual story, but more of a catalyst. It’s hard to talk about the third act without spoiling the film. The story depends on some key moments that are only hinted at, especially regarding Romy’s upbringing and her work structure, that need more exposition. The film is part of a trend of movies that appear on the surface to be erotic or sexual, but that’s just window dressing. Nicole Kidman deserves all of the accolades she’s been receiving for this role, but the star here is Dickinson who plays the role right down the middle as required by the story. This borders on being a great film.

Best of the Rest
- “Young Americans” is a rich song, so it’s surprising that it hasn’t been covered or sampled often. The best example of a good use of the song is a repurposing of the horns and the introductory licks in World Party’s “When You Come Back to Me” from the film Reality Bites (1994). World Party had a couple of hits, and in retrospect, it’s hard to listen to this and figure out why they didn’t find a larger audience.
- Entertainment Weekly (3/28/97): “Best Commercials of All-Time” #36 – Little Caesars “High Chair” (1991): Is it even a pizza commercial if we don’t see the “cheese pull”? This commercial took it to another level with a room-to-room cheese pull that turns into a cartoon of the baby being pulled through the house. The “Cheeser Cheeser” promotion (2 pizzas, extra cheese, up to 4 toppings, free Crazy Break for $8.98) was clever, but I don’t know that it’s even close to the best Little Caesars commercial of the decade.
- I love commercials. I also love out-of-the-box advertising. Severance (Apple TV+) went more “in the box” for their advertising for the new season with a pop-up at Grand Central Station in New York City. Bringing the show about innies and outies to the public is the type of meta advertising that is effective for fans of the show and probably a bit confusing to those who don’t know much about the show.
Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback
- On the Sunday Morning Tuneage from 6/4/2007 to 7/12/2009, I ranked my 100 Favorite Films of All-Time. I did one per week with the arbitrary rule that they had to air on television that upcoming week. It ended up being a pretty representative list in retrospect. A few were ranked out of order, but I stick with that list for that point in my life. The 2009 stats check out.
6 – Alfred Hitchcock films.
5 – Steven Spielberg films.
4 – Stanley Kubrick films.
4 – Billy Wilder films.
I’m going to attempt the impossible over the next 20 weeks. I’m going to use that old list as a template and rank five films a week, without planning it all out ahead of time. Remember, these are “favorite” and not necessarily “best” movies. Enjoy critiquing me along the way.
2025 Running Stats (#91-100)- 2 – Directed by John Hughes
- 1 – 1920’s
- 1 – 1970’s
- 4 – 1980’s
- 2 – 1990’s
- 2 – 2000’s
- FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL-TIME (2009)
- 95. The French Connection (1971)
- 94. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
- 93. Platoon (1986)
- 92. Heat (1995)
- 91. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
- FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL-TIME (2025)
- 95. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) Dir. Andrew Dominik. My love of Westerns is well known. This is among the best of the 21st Century so far.
- 94. Dazed and Confused (1993) Dir. Richard Linklater. It might take place in Texas in the ’70s, but this is the probably even more accurate to my high-school experience than The Breakfast Club (1985).
- 93. Die Hard (1988) Dir. John McTiernan
- 92. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) Dir. David Yates. Once again, this illustrates that these are my favorite films, not best films. The rewatch-ability of this film is high.
- 91. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) Dir. John Hughes. This piece of chaos is how I like my John Hughes’ films.

1975 in Review

- February – Arrgh! #2 (Marvel Comics): Cover Art by Marie Severin. Written by and Art by Tom Sutton. One of the stories in here, “Frank N. Stein” is a reprint from Crazy #1 (Marvel Comics). This book was a parody of the Universal Monster films.
- February 1 – President Ford announced that the Federal Deficit for 1976 would be a record $52 Billion.
- February 8 – TV Guide (Feb.8-14): Cover by Bob Peak. The MTM Comedy machine was riding high with Mary Tyler Moore, The Bob Newhart Show, Rhoda, and soon to be joined by Phyllis.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

International Delight: Wedding Cake
The tie-in to Love Is Blind is a mystery to me. Putting that mystery aside, this is one of the better non-holiday releases. It’s definitely cake-batter flavored and not too sweet. This had every chance to be too much, and it’s just a hint of sweet at the end. This is probably gone by March, so get some in the fridge now.

Scooby-Doo!: PizzaQuito
These were in the frozen-food section, so I assume they are for human consumption. They appear to have fully embraced the stoner vibe with their most recent releases. The pizza-quito is just what it sounds like. It’s a hybrid of the pizza roll and tortilla. I didn’t have any trouble finishing these, if that’s any hint at how I feel about pizza rolls. My one suggestion would be to use the full cooking time and a little bit more to make sure that the tortilla is crispy.

Cheerios Protein: Cinnamon
The 8g of protein won’t replace your oatmeal or eggs, but if you love your breakfast cereal and want some more protein, this isn’t a terrible choice. The cinnamon flavor isn’t overwhelming in scent or taste. It’s a pleasant cereal that works well with milk or just as a dry snack. There’s a strawberry flavor on the shelves that I’ll track down for comparison.
“They pulled in just behind the bridge
He lays her down, he frowns
“Gee, my life’s a funny thing, am I still too young?”
He kissed her then and there
She took his ring, took his babies
It took him minutes, took her nowhere” – David Bowie