It's been just over a week since the Oscar nominations were announced, and the annual Blitz is already in progress. The timeline is extremely tight this year, with only five and a half weeks between the nominee release and the ceremony itself, which as I've previously mentioned is the shortest window since the pandemic. Normally … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – A Compressed Blitz
There are some years where the Academy Awards are just downright boring when it comes to the so-called "major" categories. Best Picture, Best Director, the two Screenplay fields, and all four Acting contests are susceptible to this disappointment. During the very low era during and immediately following the COVID pandemic, we saw this far too … Continue reading Oscar Blitz 2025 – Supporting Actor (VIDEO)
I always like to include some fun trivia and facts about certain categories when I do the Oscar Blitz. It's not just a run-of-the-mill opinion piece, there's got to be some flavor. I mean, we have nearly a century of history to draw from, so there's always something interesting to discuss. Take tonight's category, Original … Continue reading Oscar Blitz 2025 – Original Score
Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, horny stoners who thought they typed in "actuallyLAID.com," welcome to the 2025 Oscar Blitz! The stage is set, the merits have been weighed, Netflix's checks cleared for everyone who had to pretend Emilia Pérez was good, and it's time to finally dive in and break this sucker down! … Continue reading Oscar Blitz 2025 – Visual Effects
The Oscar Blitz begins proper in 24 hours, people. The annual marathon labor of love is just a day away! I'm so excited I can't sleep! I'm also running myself ragged and begging for sleep! The things we do for our art. HAH! Like what I do is art. Anyway, adjacent to the Blitz coverage … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Jet-Setting, Part Two
The countdown to the 97th Academy Awards is officially underway, and in 48 hours, I'll begin the Oscar Blitz in earnest with the first category breakdown. However, there's still one major block of movies that I haven't really discussed yet, the shortlist for International Feature. Of the 15 films, I've already seen 14, and the … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Jet-Setting, Part One
In Netflix's never-ending quest to destroy the theatrical film model once and for all, they put forward a lot of movies in hopes of garnering some Academy hardware. In addition to the two International Feature submissions they put their marketing heft behind (Chile's In Her Place and the massively overblown exercise in missing the point … Continue reading DownStream – TUDUM! Part Three – Narrative Features
You know, it takes a lot for me to throw my carefully laid plans careening out the window. Last night, after I put up the Hub Post for the Oscar Blitz, I watched The Six Triple Eight, as it's one of the six outstanding films (though the film itself is far from outstanding) I needed … Continue reading Commitment to Sparkle Potion – The Substance
Outside of the pandemic years, this will be the most accelerated Oscar Blitz I've ever done. Normally I have at least a week after nominations are announced to get my shit organized, and I usually have six or seven weeks to do the actual analysis. Not this time, though. Thanks to the L.A. Wildfires, the … Continue reading Oscar Blitz 2025 – The Hub
The time has come, ladies and germs! At the ass crack of dawn this morning, and with significant portions of Los Angeles County still on fire, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences brought out Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennot to announce this year's Oscar nominees. I myself did NOT watch the proceedings live, … Continue reading No Huddle BLITZ! – 97th Academy Awards Nominations
I Actually Paid To See This 