Entertainment Spring 2025

You’re Cordially Invited

Prime Video, Rated R , Starring Reese Witherspoon, Will Ferrell

It’s rare to come across a comedy starring two well-loved actors that we can watch from the comfort of our own homes on a Friday evening, so when I discovered You’re Cordially Invited on Prime, I could hardly believe my good luck. A movie with Will Ferrell AND Reese Witherspoon?! It was sure to be silly – but I hoped in a good way.

Well, I was right – and then I was wrong – and then I was right again. In other words, this movie turned out to be a bit of an emotional roller coaster. It opens with some ho-hum drama about Jenni, daughter of Jim (Will Ferrell), played rather flatly by Geraldine Viswanathan, announcing her engagement to some dude named Oliver. The story of a father who’s blindsided over “losing” his daughter to marriage (didn’t Steve Martin cover this?) hardly captivated my attention, but I plugged along, waiting for Reese’s debut.

When she came on screen as Margot, a high-powered career woman with no partner or kids but a fierce devotion to her bride-sister, Neve (Meredith Hagner), I was irritated at Hollywood’s typical single-woman stereotype – not to mention the fact that Margot’s character seems 20-plus years younger than Ferell’s character, yet the two are only a decade apart in real life.

Eye-rolls aside, some bright spots unfolded over the movie’s almost two hours, some that made me laugh out loud like the “insult haiku” (we writers love a word joke!) and the strange and fantastical sequence with the gator. I also love a movie set in the South; New York and the like get so old sometimes.

My other more serious accolade is that I appreciated the movie’s cautionary tale against emotional enmeshment in families. Neither Jim nor Margot wants their closest relative to find love and presumably another life – but they learn to make peace with it. In this way, I found You’re Cordially Invited to be remarkably timely, since we’re living in the hyper-psychiatric age. And if Hollywood gives us a comedy starring two of the funniest people from the last 30 years and making us look harder at our lives, well, I’m happy to accept the invite.

Lady Gaga

Mayhem

Streamline/Interscope

Lady Gaga is finished with what she called a healing pause from performance, and she’s back with fresh work. Mayhem, the artist’s eighth studio album, shows that the break was well-timed, since she seems better than ever. “Abracadabra” and “Disease” are high-powered, highly-danceable singles worth the download for a jolt of energy, while “Die with a Smile” (a collaboration with Bruno Mars) is a tender, sing-a-long ballad.

Mumford and Sons

Rushmere

Glassnote Records

Fans of Mumford and Sons will be delighted that the band has released their first album in seven years. A collection of 10 songs, Rushmere (an Old English word meaning a lake or pond), is the first without former guitarist and banjoist Winston Marshall. The title track is sure to please longtime listeners (YouTuber comments support my claim), and nine other songs, produced and performed in the style that made the band famous, make this one a solid choice.