Sammy Younan
Girth Radio Presents…
The sad thing about surviving horror Halloween is that even if you make it to Sun up…you only have holiday/Christmas movies to look forward to. With this #SetTheVCR I’ve done my best to delay movies with some variation of jingle in the title; instead, hopefully, these recommendations fill you with warm cheer.
Sunday, November 8
The Circus (8 p.m. / Showtime & Crave)
The Simpsons: Season 32 (8 p.m. / Fox)
Fargo: Season 4 (9 p.m. / FX)
Sammy Suggestion: Moonbase 8 (11 p.m. / Showtime)
“Set in the isolated desert of Winslow, Arizona at NASA’s Moon Base Simulator, Moonbase 8 follows eager astronauts Skip (Fred Armisen), Rook (Tim Heidecker), and their leader Cap (John C. Reilly) as they attempt to qualify for their first lunar mission.” You know how this is gonna go: Fred Armisen and John C. Reilly don’t have The Right Stuff; thankfully with comedy though they got The Good Stuff.
Monday, November 9
Sammy Suggestion: Speed (Anytime / Starz on Crave)
On July 15, 1988 action movies as a genre was utterly transformed by the Holiday Hit Die Hard. It became a template and so throughout the 90s we got Die Hard on a Boat (Under Siege, 1992), Die Hard on a Plane (Passenger 57, 1992), Die Hard on a Mountain (Cliffhanger, 1993), Die Hard at a Hockey Stadium (Sudden Death, 1995) and of course Die Hard on a Bus (Speed, 1994). The premise of Speed is incredibly simple yet wildly tension inducing: “There’s a bomb on a bus. Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. What do you do? What do you do?” Speed the 1994 hit and one of Quentin Tarantino’s 20 Favorite Films Since 1992 is now on Crave. Ok, hotshot…what do you do?
Tuesday, November 10
The Cost of Winning (9 p.m. / HBO)
Rise of the Nazis (9 p.m. / PBS)
Sammy Suggestion: A Teacher: Miniseries (Anytime / Hulu)
So Kate Mara is a teacher and she’s engaged with ah…extracurricular activities with a student. Guess she doesn’t give an F. They get an E for Effort for wanting to explore male victimhood especially through the lens of power dynamics. We really don’t know how to talk about that when we C it. Though if we’re being honest that’s a hard sell I mean Kate Mara is a lovely woman I dunno if I’d qualify that D as abuse. (By now you know how I B…do I get any credit for not using the phrase “head” of the class?)
Wednesday, November 11
Trial 4 (Anytime / Netflix)
Sammy Suggestion: The Liberator (Anytime / Netflix)
Today is Remembrance Day, a day we set aside to commemorate those who have perished in armed conflicts. Do you remember that weird movie from 2006 A Scanner Darkly? It was kinda animated but not really? The Liberator’s animation is like that: a Saving Private Ryan World War II drama based on a nonfiction book by Alex Kershaw. It follows a diverse infantry unit through the fight to liberate Europe, ending with the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. So clearly it fits November 11’s themes. Oh, and the animation effect was supplied by Trioscope (hybrid animation technology that merges live action performance with computer graphics. Basically an updated form of the rotoscoping we saw in Scanner Darkly.). So a moment of silence for those men and women we lost in older conflicts then hit play on this unique visual tale.
Thursday, November 12
Lingering (Anytime / Shudder)
Sammy Suggestion: Colin Quinn & Friends: A Parking Lot Comedy Show (Anytime / HBO Max)
Sigh: the first social distancing comedy special. I’m not sure if this’ll work or how it’ll affect the comedy or the comedy experience so let’s get this a shot. “The special is part documentary and part stand-up with comedians who will tape at a repurposed drive-in movie theater in Brooklyn.” Kinda makes you Marge Murmur right? We got Colin Quinn of course…Rachel Feinstein, Keith Robinson a few others. Is this the future or a one-off?
Friday, November 13
I Am Greta (Anytime / Hulu & Crave)
Sammy Suggestion: Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (Anytime / Apple TV)
Happy Friday the 13th! If you’re interested in camping at Crystal Lake this weekend do take a moment to look up at the stars before you’re beheaded with a machete. Fireball is Werner Herzog’s warm uniquely German-accented fascination with meteorites. And not just in the sky but how they literally impact us and our culture here on earth. While this might be triggering for dinosaurs for the rest of us who do not spend enough time looking up this all about wonder. As in I wonder what’s out there…hmmm?
Saturday, November 14
Dolittle (8 p.m. / HBO)
Sammy Suggestion: Dark Waters (Anytime / Crave)
Lotta people haven’t seen Dark Waters. “A corporate defense attorney takes on an environmental lawsuit against a chemical company that exposes a lengthy history of pollution.” This time your Erin Brockovich is Mark Ruffalo who makes an ideal lawyer: you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.
