Ty Watches "Spaceman"

I'm going out of town for the rest of the week tomorrow, thus meaning I'm going to take the rest of the week off after today, but I wanted to leave you all with my review of the new Adam Sandler Netflix movie, "Spaceman". I will be back next week, but I wanted to get one more in before taking a few days off.

I was excited to see this movie. I am a big, unabashed Adam Sandler fan. I enjoy most of his stuff. There are definite duds, but for the most part, Sandler's stuff entertains me. And his recent stuff I have truly enjoyed. I loved "Hustle". "Uncut Gems" is one of the best movies I've ever watched. So, to see him take on another hard drama role, I was intrigued. He has been knocking it out of the park lately. I also like Paul Dano, Carey Mulligan and Isabella Rosselini, all of whom are cast in this movie. And I am lukewarm on Kunaal Nayar, who I only know from "The Big Bang Theory", a show I have only ever seen bits and pieces of. I have never watched a full episode of that show. So, this movie had a ton going for it before I even turned it on.

After watching and thinking about it this morning, I think the movie is fine. It isn't great and it isn't bad. It has good moments that seem to be buttressed by boring or dull moments. The performances are wonderful. I have to say that. Sandler nailed it again. He is a good actor. He knows what to do when given good work to act from. He also does good work when a director kind of pushes him to do good stuff. He delivers in this movie. I bought him as a lonely Russian astronaut. I was with him throughout the whole movie. I was sad when he was sad. I was lonely when he was lonely. It was a job well done. Carey Mulligan is about as reliable as it gets. She does very good work with a smaller role here. She is the co-star here. She is second on the call sheet. But she gives a very heartfelt, very meaningful performance. I enjoy her work. Ever since I saw "Promising Young Woman" I have been onboard for Mulligan's work in movies. Isabella Rosellini was hardly in the movie, but she has this air about her. She is a true legend and she brings in when she is cast. Kunaal Nayar was very good here. I dug his work in this movie. I also liked his time appropriate moustache. He did a solid job here. And Paul Dano, lending only his voice, was creepy and monotone and awesome. This is what I have come to expect from him. Everyone did their job and did it well. I have no qualms with the acting here.

My issue, the movie got very boring at times. It also came off pretentious from time to time. There are shots of Sandler in space that seem to stay on an image far too long. I understand that the mission needs to be addressed, but I don't have to see the same purple space scene over and over again for long stretches of time. There is also some stuff with the look and the dialogue that comes off a bit pretentious. This is a love story, but I don't need some stuff jammed in my face as a viewer. I get it. I understand what they are going after. But it came off weird for me sometimes. I feel like they could have cut the movie by about 20 minutes, make it a nice 85 minute long movie, and they would have had a hit on their hands. But, with the direction they chose, this is going to be a forgotten movie for some fans of the actors. It will kind of come and go.

Did I like it? Sure. Will I watch it again? No. But don't let that cloud your judgement. By all means, watch this movie, if only for Dano's role. It is different and weird and I truly loved his work in this movie. Otherwise, maybe skip this movie if you are on the fence. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches the Trailer for "Spaceman"

Yesterday I watched the trailer for the movie "Spaceman". This is the new Adam Sandler movie that premieres on Netflix in March. Let’s discuss.

I have been an Adam Sandler fan from the moment I first saw "Billy Madison". I then went back and watched his stint on "SNL", and pretty much all of his other stuff. He had a fan for life from then on out. I even saw "Little Nicky" in theaters, on my birthday. I watched both "Grown Ups" movies in the theater. I have never finished "Ridiculous 6". I enjoy Sandler's work and will continue to watch almost everything he is involved in. So, this new movie "Spaceman" got my attention simply because I saw Sandler in a picture for the trailer.

I watched it, and I am amped to see it in a little over two months. The movie looks very cool. I am a fan of sci-fi space movies. The set alone will draw me in no problem. I like movies that take place in space because I know I will never go into space. So, I like to see how these writers and actors portray that on screen. I love the "Alien" franchise, minus some of the newer movies. "Blade Runner" is one of my all time favorite movies. I really loved watching "Gravity" in 3-D. That was the best way to watch that movie. That was the closest I think I will get to feeling like I'm in space. I'm a sucker for a space movie. So, I was sold based on that alone. Then I watched and focused on the story. I am all in now. It is about some NASA employees that go on lone space missions. They study and record what life is like, alone in space. I got a real "Black Mirror" vibe from the trailer. Carey Mulligan plays Sandler's wife, and she is one of the best actors in Hollywood. She always brings it, always does a great job and brings brevity to any movie she is in. In this trailer that comes across tenfold. Once she shows up I have an immediate reaction thinking this is an upper tier movie. Then the trailer tells us the movie is written by the people that wrote "Chernobyl". I never saw that show, but from what I read, it was pretty amazing and very grim. These are three key facts that very much intrigue me. As I said before, I'm all in on this movie. Throw in the fact that Paul Dano plays a talking spider, that is icing on the cake. This movie is going to be weird and awesome, hopefully. I cannot wait.

I also want to say, I love this new direction Sandler is going with his movie choices. He is doing some really interesting stuff and I'm here for it. I loved "Uncut Gems". It is a little overlong, but that movie is intense and Sandler crushes it in the lead role. It is criminal that he didn't get awards consideration. Then he did "Hustle". I like that movie even more. I am a sucker for basketball movies and Adam Sandler movies. Combine those two, what a recipe for success. "Hustle" also happens to be a very well made, well written and well acted movie. And now we have "Spaceman". Sandler is on a roll of movies that speak to me as a fan. These are not outrageous comedies, which he already has done and perfected. These aren't movies where he is letting his buddies goof around. These aren't paycheck movies that he is making to just get paid. He is taking real chances on interesting and different styles of movie. I love that and I love that he is stretching his chops. I hope he keeps doing cool stuff like this for a good long while. This is awesome. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

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Ty Watches "Promising Young Woman"

For date night this past week I chose the movie "A Promising Young Woman" for my wife and I to watch. I hadn't heard much about the movie, but Adam Brody was on "Comedy Bang! Bang!" promoting a different movie, and Scott Aukermann mentioned how much he liked "A Promising Young Woman", and how cool he thought it was that some comedy actors had bit parts in the movie. That piqued my interest. Then my wife kept talking about how much she wanted to see it. Then it got nominated for a bunch of Oscars. I was already getting on board, and then all this other stuff put it over the top for me. So we rented it on Amazon and watched.

We both loved it. This movie does have some comedic elements to it, but make no mistake, this is a thriller. And Carey Mulligan is so good as the lead actor. I bought her from moment one. The movie, no spoilers, is about a lady who loses a friend, and then kind of goes on a revenge tour in her honor. We come to realize that the friend was assaulted, and she is turning the pages on guys, and messing with their heads. This is where some of the comedy actors show up. Brody plays a guy at a bar that picks her up and brings her back to his house. You think he is being nice, but it is all a ruse to get her more drunk and take advantage of her. But this is what she wants. She wants these guys to think they are in the clear, that they can take advantage of her, and then she reveals that she is not drunk, and chastises these assholes for the punks and scum they are. It is great. She does this same thing to Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Sam Richardson. She does start to date a gentleman in the movie, a very solid performance from Bo Burnham, but that has quite the twist in the end as well. Laverne Cox is very good in this movie too as her overbearing but well meaning boss and only friend. Molly Shannon is very good in her very small role too.

All the acting is great. but this is a tour de force from Mulligan. She is so goddamn good in this movie. The way she manipulates these low lifes, the stuff she lets them get away with before calling them out, the thing she does to the dean of her college, Mulligan pulls it off so well. There were moments where I was like, damn she is cold blooded, but then I remembered why she is doing what she's doing, and I am instantly back on her side. Even when she tries to give it up, to move on if you will, that's when things kind of crumble in her everyday world, and she goes on a truly vengeful trip after that. But that works in her favor. She finds a bachelor party of the guys who did horrible things to her friends, and that is when she takes over. Even when it looks like she may have been had, she finds a way to turn the tables in the best possible way. Mulligan more than deserves her Oscar nomination. She is that good in this movie. I also like the message of the movie. Hopefully some frat boy idiots will see it and think twice before they try to take advantage of a seemingly drunk person. I love the way they did the thriller stuff in the movie too. There is no jump scares or blood or gore, it is all mental, and it still has me shook and thinking about it almost five days later.

I highly recommend this movie. Watch it for Mulligan's performance alone, and in doing that, I think you will really end up liking the movie, or at the very least it will leave you thinking about it. This movie is good. Watch it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.