by Emily Nagle
[usr 4]
For this Film Review Friday, I’m reviewing the second season of the HBO Max original Close Enough.
I’ll start with a little background about the show. Close Enough is an adult animated sitcom created by J.G. Quintel (who’s best known for creating the Cartoon Network series Regular Show). It follows Josh and Emily, a couple in their early thirties, who are living in an apartment in Los Angeles with their six-year-old daughter Candice, along with their divorced friends Alex and Bridgette. Much like Regular Show, all of the episodes revolve around a small problem that eventually turns into a surreal, sci-fi-style adventure of large proportions. Like Josh joining a gym so he can be strong enough to pick up Candice, but it actually turns out to be an addictive cult.
The series premiered on HBO Max in July 2020, and got renewed for a second season less than a month later, which arrived on the platform on February 25, 2021. Two weeks prior, the series got renewed for a third season. It’s been met with mostly positive reviews by users on Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, and IGN.
While it has a lot in common with Regular Show, Close Enough is for a slightly older target audience, skewing more towards Millennials than kids and teens as we watch the couple and their best friends/roommates transition from their 20s to their 30s. Like that awkward time period between spontaneous college life and settling down to start a family or career.
With that being said, let’s dive into season 2. With the last season setting up the cast of characters and getting us used to their personalities and quirks, I found this new season to be a little different. There were episodes focusing on the other characters in the show besides Josh and Emily, which I liked a lot. I got to see more of the other occupants of the duplex, including their landlord Pearle and her adopted son Randy.
One of my favorite episodes from Season 2 was “Cyber Matrix,” one of the two segments of episode 3. This segment focused on Alex’s refusal to get a smartphone, as he believed that it would become addictive. Sure enough, the quirky, washed-up community college professor ends up switching to a smartphone after his old phone breaks (with the selling point for him being that it has a calculator feature). When the virtual assistant ends up seducing Alex into a smartphone addiction so intense he’s literally connected to the phone, it’s up to Josh to connect to him via VR headset and bring him back to reality.
Josh and Emily’s daughter got her own episode as well, titled “Sauceface.” This was also one of my favorite episodes of the season, featuring the six-year-old starting an illegal hot sauce ring after the school cafeteria bans it so she and her friend can buy a drone.
I’m really liking Close Enough so far, and find it to be a super creative, funny show about growing up and becoming an adult. As someone who grew up watching Regular Show, this show almost feels like a spin-off (Quintel even confirmed that it takes place in the same universe), and it’s almost like this is what Regular Show grew up to become. It has that same witty, quick humor, and I love how it turns mundane, everyday situations into wild fantasy situations. I’m excited to see where this show goes in the future!
By Kurt Balingit
The CW has casted Kaci Walfall as Naomi in the upcoming series based on the DC Comics. In the comics, Naomi is described as a teenage superhero from an alternate Earth. She’s a likeable high school student who is the adopted daughter of highly touted parents. She is unafraid to embrace her intelligence and comic book–loving nerdiness.
After a supernatural event leads to the discovery of super powers within her, she pursues her hidden destiny. The character of Naomi debuted in her own comic book series in 2019 and was illustrated by Jamal Campbell. In the comics, Naomi had energy-based powers as well as an ability to transform into a state that gave her super strength and many other abilities.
Alexander Wraith will star as Dee, the owner of a local tattoo parlor who knows more than he tells. Cranston Johnson will star as Zumbado, the owner of a local used car lot who Naomi actively tries to avoid, but after a tense encounter makes her curious about his past. Camila Moreno will star as Lourdes, a young woman who works in a vintage collectibles shop and has a crush on Naomi, and she shares an obsession with classic comics with her.
by Emily Nagle
Yaphet Kotto, an actor best known for his roles in “Alien” and the James Bond film “Live and Let Die,” has passed away in the Philippines at the age of 81.
Born and raised in New York City, Kotto first became inspired to start acting when he was 16 years old and watched “The Defiant Ones” starring Sidney Poitier, an African-American actor. “Standing right there on the screen was this tall black man,” Kotto recalled in a 1994 interview with the Chicago Tribune. “And I said to myself, ‘I could be like him.’” Also an inspiration for him was Marlon Brando of “On the Waterfront” fame.
Three years later, he got his first professional acting role in Othello. After years of acting on Broadway, his first major film role came in 1973, when he played villain Mr. Big in the James Bond film “Live and Let Die.” In 1979, he played Parker, the chief engineer in the sci-fi horror hit “Alien.”
Kotto is survived by six children, along with his wife Tessie Sinahon, who announced his death in a heartbreaking Facebook post Monday night. She wrote, “You played a villain on some of your movies but for me you’re a real hero and to a lot of people also. A good man, a good father, a good husband and a decent human being, very rare to find.”
By Kurt Balingit
Adrien Brody will play hall of fame basketball coach Pat Riley in HBO’s upcoming sports drama series about the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980. As of now, the series is untitled but was ordered by HBO in December of 2019. It’s being described as a chronicling of the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers. The Showtime Lakers is one of the most revered and dominant teams in all of sports history.
Pat Riley coached the team to four NBA championships with his iconic style, confidence, and fast-break offense, he defined the era’s style of basketball. The show is based on Jeff Pearlman’s book “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.”
Brody won the Academy Award for best actor for his starring role in “The Pianist.” He also stars in Wes Anderson’s films, “The French Dispatch,” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel,”. Along with Brody, the show will have John C. Reilly playing Jerry Buss, Jason Clarke as Jerry West, Gaby Hoffmann as Claire Rothman, Hadley Robinson as Jeanie Buss, DeVaughn Nixon as Norm Nixon, Molly Gordon as Linda Zafrani, Rob Morgan as Earvin Johnson Sr., Spencer Garrett as Chick Hearn, Kirk Bovill as Donald Sterling, Delante Desouza as Michael Cooper, Stephen Adly Guirgis as Frank Mariani, Tamera Tomakili as Earletha ‘Cookie’ Kelly, and Joey Brooks as Lon Rosen.
by Emily Nagle
Coronavirus restrictions are gradually loosening across the United States, specifically for movie theaters. With cinemas slowly reopening – at reduced capacity – people are thrilled to be able to leave their homes and enjoy films on the big screen for the first time in a year, and the box office is flourishing, slowly returning to the active and prosperous state it was in before the ongoing pandemic.
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of March 12-14, 2021:
1. Raya and the Last Dragon
2. Tom and Jerry
3. Chaos Walking
4. Boogie
5. The Croods: A New Age
The highest grossing film for last weekend was Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon. Having been in theaters and available on Disney+ with Premier Access since March 5, this film continues to soar at the box office a week after its release, raking in $5,500,000 this past weekend. In total, the animated action feature has grossed $15,837,165 since its release.
Tom and Jerry, which had the most successful opening weekend of 2021 when it first rolled out to theaters and HBO Max on February 27, continued to thrive at the box office this weekend, grossing $4,100,000. The live-action/CGI film following the iconic cat-and-mouse rivals as they chase each other around the Big Apple has now made $28,200,000 in total.
Now in its second week of release, Chaos Walking grossed $2,250,000. This sci-fi action film stars Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, and is based on Patrick Ness’ novel series of the same name. It has now grossed a total of $6,911,407 since its March 5 release.
Coming in at number four is coming-of-age drama Boogie, which made $730,000 this weekend. Written and directed by Eddie Huang, this film follows basketball prodigy Alfred Chin, also known as “Boogie,” who feels pressured by his parents as they make him focus on earning a scholarship.
The fifth highest-grossing film for this past weekend is The Croods: A New Age. This Dreamworks animated feature released on Thanksgiving in 2020, and has now been out for sixteen weeks. Over the weekend, it grossed $520,000, a slight decrease compared to the weekend before. In total, it has grossed $54,303,725 since its release nearly four months ago.
by Emily Nagle
Invincible Entertainment has signed with free streaming platform Glewed TV.
Glewed TV is a free, entirely ad-supported streaming service that can be accessed online, on iOS and Android, on streaming devices including Apple TV and Roku, or on any smart TV. Delivering professional produced content to the public since 2017, Glewed TV boasts thousands of hours of programming that’ll appeal to everyone no matter what kinds of shows or movies they’re into. Genres include sports, crime, comedy, travel, and much more.
This will add Invincible content to Glewed TV’s already diverse catalogue of digital content.
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