From Joy Ride to The Horror Of Dolores Roach, Should You Add These To Your Watchlist?
From raunchy comedies to empanadas of horror, should you check out these shows and movies? The writers of Pop Culture Planet have the scoop.
Glamorous
Miss Benny stars as Marco Mejia, a young gender non-conforming queer person who feels stuck in life until landing a job working for the legendary makeup mogul Madolyn Addison (Kim Cattrall), in Netflix’s Glamorous.
While the show can be cute and campy, it doesn’t know what it wants to be and doesn’t deliver on the promised glamour of its title. Instead it gets caught up in repetitive storylines and weak writing. The trust Madolyn has in Marco feels unearned and the stakes are fairly low for a show about saving a huge legacy makeup company. It’s tiring to follow Marco’s love triangle with Parker (Graham Parkhurst), who doesn’t accept them for who they really are, and the nerdy Ben (Michael Hsu Rosen), who allows Marco to hurt him over and over again. Marco overuses the excuse of being “inexperienced” to get away with being immature and toxic in relationships, at work, and at home. Meanwhile Chad (Zane Phillips), who is introduced as a foil to Marco, ends up having the most compelling story as he struggles to live up to his fabulous mother and feel appreciated by her.
It’s worth a watch for the “Cell Block Tango” performance alone, but, if you’re looking for a better show in a similar vein, you should just re-watch Ugly Betty.
Glamorous is streaming on Netflix.
- Kristen Maldonado
Joy Ride
Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu are literal magic together in Joy Ride. It’s especially exciting to see because Ashley Park has often been a supportive best friend in projects and she really gets to shine here in a role unlike we’ve ever seen her in before. Joy Ride has got everything — it’s raunchy, hilarious, emotional. My whole row in the theater was sniffling tears back in the third act.
I also love that the film subverts expectations and the model minority trope when it comes to these women and non-binary actors. They are loud, insecure, sexual, awkward, confident, messy. We really get to see so many different types of Asian characters coming together here as friends and going on a journey of self-discovery. The title is perfect because it’s literally a joy of a ride to follow along with.
Joy Ride is playing in theaters.
- Kristen Maldonado
The Horror Of Dolores Roach
Attend the tale of Dolores Roach, her magic hands slowly approach…
If you wanna hook me, the promise of a contemporary Sweeney Todd set in a gentrified Washington Heights is the way to do it. Justina Machado plays Dolores Roach, an ex con looking to start life over again in her old city. She turns to massaging people under an empanada shop, but her rage at her situation finds her snapping at people… and snapping people... in half.
Unfortunately, I didn’t believe Machado as this Orange Is The New Black-style ex con or her romance with the cannibalistic Empanada Loca owner (Alejandro Hernandez). Turning people into empanadas is horrific, but, girl, you also killed those people. It’s like she sees herself as the victim instead of owning up to her part of it too. There’s this looming figure of her ex lover that never really pays off. While the premise is clever and there are some fun meta moments, it doesn’t hook you. The stakes are low and Dolores’ motivation doesn’t hold up. She’s got nothing on Sweeney Todd and leaves us with an unsatisfying ending.
The Horror Of Dolores Roach is streaming on Prime Video.
- Kristen Maldonado
The Out-Laws
Adam Devine stars as Owen Browning, a bank manager awaiting his upcoming wedding to Parker McDermott (Nina Dobrev). The fiancé meets his in-laws (Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin) for the first time just days before the wedding, and a coincidentally timed robbery of his own bank occurs shortly after. Now Owen tries to understand who his in-laws are and how to fit into this new family.
The Out-Laws has plenty of action including large stunts, speed racing, and lots of gunfire. However, the comedic part of this action comedy did not hit as expected with leading man Adam Devine. There are a few funny moments, but, with such a star-studded cast, expectations were high. Many of the jokes just didn’t land or got lost with all of the action sequences.
The film was produced by Adam Sandler and his company Happy Madison Productions. They’re known for Grown Ups, Murder Mystery, and Just Go With It. If you’re a fan of Sandler’s comedy, especially Murder Mystery, then this film might be for you.
The Out-Laws is streaming on Netflix.
- Jordan Bohan
