Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of January 15, 2024
Fargo: Season 5
Rated TV-MA
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
Streaming on Hulu and FXNOW
Now that awards season is winding down, I finally get to enjoy what I’ve been missing in television, and I couldn’t wait to tear into the newest season of Fargo. While it states up front that the show is based on a true story, it is indeed entirely fictional. That being said, the story, once again, is truly fantastical. This time around, the narrative tells the story of a young woman (Juno Temple) who is arrested after accidentally assaulting a cop during a chaotic town hall meeting, only to find that her life is exposed to people who are looking for her. Thwarting kidnapping attempts and worse, she must find a way, to turn the tides on her aggressors. Full of great surprises and another bout of terrific writing by creator Noah Hawley, this season again proves to be very binge-worthy and almost impossible to stop watching once you dig in. With a memorable supporting cast, including Jon Hamm in a wickedly delightful turn as the main villain, the multiple nuances of the story are delivered in grand fashion by the ensemble. I especially loved Sam Spruell, who turns in the most eclectic performance as a hired gun with a strange history and an even stranger way of doing things. Enjoyable from the first minute to the last, Fargo Season 5 keeps up with its predecessors by providing what will be one of the most entertaining television shows of the year. A
Self Reliance
Rated R for language throughout
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%
Streaming on Hulu
From Lonely Island Productions (Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping) comes this surrealist comedy written, directed by and starring Jake Johnson as a loner who is given the opportunity by Andy Samberg (playing Andy Samberg) to enter into a game where, if he can survive assassination for 30 days, he will get a million dollars. When he learns that the rules state that he cannot be killed if he is with someone, he attempts to have someone around him at all times in order to stay alive. While the movie never reaches the level of hilarious comedy, it does stay weird and different enough to remain both interesting and engaging, giving the audience a nice diversion, even if the project doesn’t really go anywhere special. Any hope of a deeper meaning to the film is lost on me, as I didn’t find it to be overly intellectual, as I had hoped. But at 90 minutes, it is a quick and painless trip through a strange little rabbit hole. B-