Recently Watched: Palm Springs, Close Enough, & The King of Staten Island

Not a lot of good has come out of being stuck in the house (Especially when I was doing that with my life anyway), but one thing is being able to catch up on my movie watchlist and being able binge more TV shows.

I use to highlight my recently watched movies back in the day with Watched This Week so I’m back doing that but this time with TV shows I recently binged because what else am I gonna do? Write album reviews? Okay, I just made myself sad. Let’s get started.

PALM SPRINGS

Palm Springs
Movie • Hulu • Release Date: July 10, 2020

Groundhog Day is probably my favorite movie of all time (I even made a confusing video about it one time). And while you would think I would hate other movies that take the same “suck in a time loop” premise, I invite them all. Movies like Edge of Tomorrow (Action sci-fi Groundhog Day), Russian Doll (TV Show Netflix Groundhog Day), and even Premature (Teen Comedy Ejaculation Groundhog Day?); I probably watched all of them and I enjoyed most of them. Add Palm Springs to the list. It’s basically Groundhog Day if Phil Connors had Rita Hanson also stuck in the same time loop with him.

Palm Springs had a lot of positive buzz before I watched it (It currently has a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes) and it made me think I was gonna love it. I just liked it. It does some new things with the Groundhog Day premise (the ability to add people to the time loop) and I root for Andy Samberg, but maybe it was my fault for expecting something extraordinary and life changing. Still a good movie and worth a look.

CLOSE ENOUGH

Close Enough
TV Series • HBO Max • Release Date: July 9, 2020

Even though it’s canceled, I still fucks with Regular Show heavy. It was basically an Adult Swim show disguised as a Cartoon Network show. So when that show ended and it was announced that Regular Show‘s creator, J. G. Quintel, was doing another show called Close Enough that was supposed to be aimed at older audiences, I was hype. Then years passed and nothing happened (Blame Louis C.K.). And then one day it was just on HBO Max. Okay.

While I wish they wouldn’t have canceled Regular Show, Close Enough does enough stuff to scratch that same itch (Well, close enough at least…). The main difference is where Regular Show was for people who were around their 20’s, Close Enough is about 30 somethings dealing with kids and divorce. Besides that and a different cast of characters, you still get the crazy adventures and weird animated comedy that works. Here’s hoping for a second season (Cut the check, HBO Max).

THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND

The King of Staten Island
Movie • VOD • Release Date: June 12, 2020

I didn’t think about it until I was writing this, but it feels like I watched a lot of Pete Davidson material recently: Big Time Adolescence, his Netflix comedy special Alive From New York, and now his latest, The King of Staten Island. And that’s not a diss; I have enjoyed all the things I just listed.

The King of Staten Island is basically director Judd Apatow doing his biopic-ish thing his usual does with comedians but this time with Pete Davidson. I guess my only complaint is that it too similar to Big Time Adolescence, Davidson’s other movie that came out in 2020. Both are about not wanting to grow up, both have the lead actor befriending kids, both include weird tattoos, and both include Machine Gun Kelly.

Still, I feel like if the movie theaters weren’t shut down, Pete Davidson might be a bigger star right now. Maybe he already his and I just don’t know it. Either way, the movie is worth a watch.