Shower Beer Vol VIII: Stuff We’re Watching

Hey there fellow movie and television fans. If you've ever listened to our podcast you know that the second segment of our show is called our "protein shake" where each bro discusses things that are "in our cup", or what have we watched lately. Well recently I've been watching too much shit to bring up on just the podcast, so with the help of our creative team (Nate Thurmond) we decided to blog about a few of the things we've seen recently that we wanted to discuss that we might have left out. We're naming it after the greatest pre-gaming invention of the 21st century, the shower beer!

Here are the things I've seen lately as well as the link to their IMDB page if you want a little bit more info to see if it's something down your alley. In addition, I write Letterboxd reviews for all the movies I see without any spoilers, but I might go into a bit more detail in this blog than I do over there.

1) Abducted on Prom Night - (Lifetime Original Movie, Amazon Prime rental) I have this addiction to these Lifetime Original movies and how they just don't give a fuck and go for it with crazy premises and over the top performances. I have to say, Abducted on Prom Night is one of the most competently written and acted movies of it's ilk. The script is actually rock solid, and there isn't a single performance in the movie that I found cringeworthy. Definitely punches above it's weight, and in the third act it really swings for the fences which is much appreciated.

2) Somebody I Used to Know - (Amazon Prime) The second film that Dave Franco has directed (the first being The Rental in 2020), and for me he is 2/2 and improving with his subsequent outing. Somebody I Used to Know seemed based on the trailer to fall into the dramedy cliche of the person who returns to their hometown after years away and finds that although the town has not changed, they very much have. Allison Brie is still not a leading lady in my opinion, but this avoids a lot of the pitfalls of being really predictable and feels very earnest. Kiersey Clemens is awesome in this, and I very much enjoyed the ending.

3) Too Scared to Scream (1984) - (Paramount +) I saw this pop up on a list of "horror movies you need to watch", and although it was tough to find it since it wasn't on Paramount + for the longest time, it finally became available. It is very dated, and the score is the most 80's part of it (which I actually found pretty fun) along with the visual cues. Ian McShane in an early role is absolutely chewing the scenery to bits and having the time of his life. It is very slow, especially in the first act, but begins to ramp up just as it was starting to lose me. If people think this is a hidden classic they are overrating it, but the final fifteen minutes are bonkers in all the right ways.

4) Triangle - (Peacock) If you're looking for some sleeper thriller/horror movies, Peacock has a pretty solid collection. This film is eerily similar to another movie I watched recently called Coherence in that it's a total mindfuck that I had to watch a few youtube videos about after I saw it just to make sure I understood what was actually going on. It's one of the first things Liam Hemsworth was in, and it's wild how little charisma he has. While I think I enjoyed it, I'd honestly need to talk through it with someone else to make sure I'm grasping the ideas it puts out there. Pretty trippy though and definitely something that will have your mind in a pretzel afterwards.

5) Fractured - (Netflix) Staying on the theme of thrillers, Fractured was one that slipped through the cracks a few years ago for me because honestly I thought it was a remake of the Ryan Gosling and Anthony Hopkins movie Fracture which is nearly perfect to me so I stayed away. Sam Worthington is pretty brutal in this, but all the supporting cast around him drag his dead weight into a very fun and kinetic movie. The ending will lose some people, but I thought it pretty much stuck the landing. It also looks great, especially for a Netflix movie.

6) Summer House S6 - (Peacock) If you've read any of our other Shower Beer Squad Blogs you know this is my top guilty pleasure reality TV show right now. Been plowing through this bad girl, and season 6 is probably in the top half of seasons of the show. We're back in the Hamptons with no Covid restrictions, and Kyle and Amanda finally have to shit or get off the pot with their decision to go through with their wedding. Obviously I would die before I spoiled this show for anybody out there who hasn't seen it, but suffice it to say this is a very enjoyable mindless watch to throw on while you're eating. I know that probably sounds like I'm shitting on the show, but in reality it just scratches a certain itch perfectly.

7) Renfield - (Amazon Prime rental) I was surprised how excited I was for this movie after the first trailer came out. The concept seemed hilarious to me to focus on Draculas Executive Assistant, and the casting of Hoult and Cage had me ready to go. It did not disappoint, and while it's been getting mixed review, the over the top gore and comedy paired together very nicely. Ben Schwartz is hilarious as the main antagonist, and Awkwafina has become one of my favorite comedic actors the past few years.

8) 12 Desperate Hours - (Lifetime Original movie, Amazon Prime rental) Ok take basically everything I said about Abducted on Prom Night, and invert it for this movie. There are a few good performances in this, but they really just make the film very disjointed as our main antagonist, who has the bulk of the heavy lifting with the narrative, flounders at every turn. The script is very kinetic and takes us to a lot of locations and the passage of time is used interestingly, but ultimately this was just a snooze fest with no suspense to be found anywhere.

9) The Artifice Girl - (Amazon Prime rental) The most thought provoking movie I've seen so far this year. The framing device is a three act structure, each act taking place roughly twenty years after the one previous. The plot centers around the creation, and subsequent use of AI to lure and arrest child predators and all the dangers and pitfalls of utilizing Artificial Intelligence as it might apply in our society. It avoids the "machine takes over mankind" trope, and focuses more on the things that AI will eventually be used to do, and the moral grey areas that will accompany it's growth. Very glad I gave this a poke, but it is incredibly dialogue heavy for those who find themselves turned off by movies like that.

10) Tiny Beautiful Things S1 - (Hulu) Katherine Hahn stars in the eight episode drama based on an acclaimed book about a failed author who is dealing with a crumbling marriage and using an advice column to help cope with her own real life past tragedies. While there are some moments of levity that Hahn is great at executing, this thing is in general a pretty big downer. Episodes are short, with none exceeding 30 min, but it still took the wife and I almost a month to get through it. It's not a poorly made show, just nothing really pushing you from one episode to the next and the growth of all the characters just isn't there.

-JH