Joey’s Home Movies For the Week of February 15th – Harley Quinn and ‘Random Acts of Violence’

Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, Season Two of Harley Quinn hits shelves, alongside Jay Baruchel‘s horror film Random Acts of Violence. Both projects are fairly extreme, but supremely entertaining, to say the least. Read on for more…

Joey’s Top Pick

Harley Quinn: The Complete Second Season

This animated show is a complete riot. As witty as it is filthy and funny, it now contains several of my favorite versions of DC’s Supervillains. Kaley Cuoco as Harley Quinn herself is front and center, while Lake Bell is an amazing Poison Ivy. The more it actually comments on some of the weirder elements of the Batman story, the better. Plus, Harley Quinn is a show that actually pays more than lip-service to the toxic nature of her relationship with Joker. From top to bottom, it’s fantastic, so pick up this second season for sure, but watch Season One if you haven’t done so yet. You can thank me later!

Recommended Viewing

Random Acts of Violence

Jay Baruchel’s latest behind the camera effort is a gnarly piece of grindhouse horror. His movie Random Acts of Violence, is dark, gory, and very original. It very much feels like an homage to the types of things that Baruchel clearly worshipped, growing up. The flick really is only for those who love bloody horror, but if that’s your thing, the actor-turned-filmmaker sure does it right. Give it a look and you’ll see what I mean…

Also Available This Week

Archenemy

The Informer

Lovecraft Country: The Complete First Season (TV)

My Hero Academia: Season Four, Part Two (TV)

Criterion Corner

Mandabi

From The Criterion Collection: “This second feature by Ousmane Sembène was the first movie ever made in the Wolof language—a major step toward the realization of the trailblazing Senegalese filmmaker’s dream of creating a cinema by, about, and for Africans. After jobless Ibrahima Dieng receives a money order for 25,000 francs from a nephew who works in Paris, news of his windfall quickly spreads among his neighbors, who flock to him for loans even as he finds his attempts to cash the order stymied in a maze of bureaucracy, and new troubles rain down on his head. One of Sembène’s most coruscatingly funny and indignant films, Mandabi—an adaptation of a novella by the director himself—is a bitterly ironic depiction of a society scarred by colonialism and plagued by corruption, greed, and poverty.”