The quest for completion during Oscar season can at times be arduous, not to mention tedious and expensive, especially when you don't actually complete. As I do every year, I set the goal of finishing all the films submitted and accepted as eligible by the Academy for the Animated Feature prize. I knew from the … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Cleanup Animation
The Oscar nominations are officially out, and the annual Blitz is on! I'll determine my coverage schedule over the next few days, with the first breakdown coming on Monday, February 9. In the meantime, though, I have a TON of films still to review, 36 to be precise. Yeah, between stuff that got nominated, stuff … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – International Festivities
We're less than 24 hours away from this year's Oscar Blitz, with nominations due tomorrow morning. As usual, it's been a bit of a sprint to catch up on everything I might have missed in the last year, as well as keeping up with all the end-of-year Awards Season contenders. But 2025 was extreme even … Continue reading A Dishonest Living – Marty Supreme
Over the last few years, Netflix has continued to grow and grow into a cultural powerhouse, consolidating its content licenses and making big swings towards trying to change the entertainment industry, if not take it over entirely. They're currently mired in a battle with Paramount to buy Warner Bros., attempting to pull one of the … Continue reading DownStream – For Your Consolidation, Part 1: Animation
When I was in my junior year of college, I took my first screenwriting course. The goal was to create a solid first draft of a feature-length script in the 14 weeks we had in the semester. Early on, we pitched our ideas to the professor and the rest of the class. Of the entire … Continue reading Burn it All Down – Avatar: Fire and Ash
It's a rare thing when a foreign film gets a public release in the United States, and even rarer when it's picked up by major distributors for a wide release in mainstream theatres. You can imagine then my pleasant surprise when Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice got not only that treatment, but a Christmas debut, … Continue reading Making a Killing – No Other Choice
To quote Nelson Muntz upon watching Naked Lunch, after seeing Wicked: For Good, my immediate reaction was, "I can think of at least two things wrong with that title." And guess what? It isn't the word "for." I admit I enjoyed the first film to a degree, which was really the first part of the … Continue reading Yellow Brick Road to Nowhere – Wicked: For Good
Every year, I make it my mission to see all the shortlisted films for Documentary and International Feature, as well as the entire accepted submission list for Animated Feature. I don't always accomplish the goal, usually due to accessibility and release issues (in fact I've never completed the Animated field), but I try all the … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – The Occupied
Have I mentioned yet that there are 35 official entries for Animated Feature this year? Because there are. Thirty-five fucking movies, even though several high-quality films were left off! As of right now, it looks like I'll end up taking in 32 of them, which is far from shabby. I'm just miffed that once again … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Take Me to Church
I have to be honest with you guys. I came dangerously close to including Chloé Zhao's new film, Hamnet, in the November edition of TFINYW (and before you say anything, I will resume the series; I just had to take a hiatus for December and January due to all the hectic bullshit I was dealing … Continue reading Shakespeare in Mourning – Hamnet
I Actually Paid To See This 