Earlier this week, I worked as an election clerk here in Los Angeles. From a very early age, my mother and my grandmother instilled in me the value of voting and the importance of being politically engaged. For my Gram, she was born just a decade after women were finally granted the right, and for … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – The Darkest Timeline
We're on the cusp of Awards Season, with the end of September and the beginning of October bringing the first major studio hopefuls looking to gobble up hardware. However, there's still some unfinished business to attend to from last year's festivities. As previously detailed, I have paid for a membership to Film Independent, which grants … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – The Final Stragglers
It's been a hot minute since I've reviewed anything, mostly because I haven't really seen all that much. August tends to be a wasteland for the studios, churning out crap that's flashy enough for Blockbuster Season, but still so creatively bankrupt and repugnant (evidenced by Borderlands hovering around 10% on Rotten Tomatoes and The Crow … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Animation Preparation
We're at the midway point of the year, where Summer Blockbusters and various studio tentpole films dominate the multiplexes. However, away from the typical glitz and glamor, we're also smack dab in the middle of Festival Season, where high profile independent works compete for hardware and distribution, clamoring for those precious moments of attention that … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Festive Tykes
Welcome back to my eternal backlog. Believe it or not, I'm almost caught up, in that I only have one full review left until I'm back on track with the films released last weekend. That said, I still have several flicks to look at. Thankfully, they all fall into three neat little groupings, perfect for … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Righteous Kills
I'm not the best at promotion or social media. I concede that I just got too old to keep up. Also, being an introvert, what little I do get across takes a bit of psyching myself up. You have no idea how many times I went back and forth on starting a YouTube channel before … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – A Show of Our Own (VIDEO)
Every year when I do the Oscar Blitz, there are inevitably a few movies that I didn't see before the nominations were announced. Most of the time these are documentaries or foreign entries that haven't gotten a domestic release or that only had a minimal theatrical run earlier in the year. On occasion there's a … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – The Shortest Blitz Ever
Awards Season is almost over, and as such, I've got to wrap up all my old business from 2023. This includes the two films I had to watch after the Oscar nominations came out, as well as the final four publicly released films that got nods at the Independent Spirit Awards. It was incredible binging … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – The Spirit Stragglers, Part Four
As I sit here typing, we are three weeks out from Oscar Night, and somehow I still have 10 movies from 2023 to review. God I'm piling a lot of stuff on my plate! Eight of those 10 are Independent Spirit nominees. I successfully cast my ballot this past Monday, and I look forward to … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – The Spirit Stragglers, Part Three
As we come ever so much nearer to closing the book on 2023 cinema, it is time to return to the realm of documentaries. I've already covered the Documentary Feature category on the Oscar Blitz, including my admission of defeat in my annual quest to clear the shortlist, having come up one short. I did … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Witness to Truth, Part Two
I Actually Paid To See This 