This is the part of the program where I admit to something that, based on references I've made for the last few years, might come as a shock. I've never seen either of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musicals. It's not that I'm not interested, just that opportunities are few and far between. The last time I went … Continue reading These Are The People In Your Neighborhood – In The Heights
I've been thinking about doing this for a while, and over the holiday weekend, I got my chance to devote the necessary uninterrupted hours and see it through. After a year of incorporating YouTube videos into the blog via TFINYW (not to mention my annual coverage of the Oscar Original Song category), as well as … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – I Did a Thing
As I mentioned in the July edition of TFINYW, this has been a relatively weak year for animation so far. We've got one genuine hit in The Mitchells vs. the Machines and a passable-to-decent Disney outing in Raya and the Last Dragon, which has gorgeous artwork but a very subpar script. Meanwhile, we've had to … Continue reading Sleeping with the Fishes – Luca
Something amazing happened the other day. Over the last three years that I've been doing this blog, I've been wowed and humbled when I've gotten positive feedback. I love it when I get comments on the posts to respond to, or when a production company retweets or likes the links I put out on Twitter. … Continue reading This Film is Not Yet Watchable – July 2021
There are basically two elements of a music documentary that determine its quality for me. The first is the story. Tell me stuff I've never heard before and would never really know other than by doing independent research. The world of the music industry, particularly from the mid-20th century on, is a fascinating and endless … Continue reading The Greatest Band You’ve Never Heard Of – The Sparks Brothers
I feel like singing. It doesn't happen all that often, but every once in a while, a movie comes along that puts a song in my heart. I was just as surprised as anyone else that this would be the one to do it, but I cannot deny it when inspiration strikes. So sit back, … Continue reading Crime Continues to Pay – Cruella
First off, I just want to deliver a brief apology for the delay in this review. I saw this movie a few weeks ago, but then spent about two weeks covering this year's Brooklyn Film Festival for my friends at "No Rest for the Weekend." I'll have a recap post in the coming days, but … Continue reading Sounds Easy Enough – A Quiet Place Part II
I apologize if that headline is not grammatically correct. My knowledge of Spanish is comprised entirely of what I remember from Sesame Street and the Taco Bell menu, so I'm relying on Google Translate and hoping the conjugation is right. Anyhoo, after a surprisingly kick-ass trailer for this movie, as noted in the May edition … Continue reading Morir Las Vegas! – Army of the Dead
Today is Memorial Day, the day where Americans honor their fallen military over the course of our history. We're also living in an era where fascism is once again on the rise, anti-Semitism runs rampant, and certain seats of government throughout the country are working with increased zeal to dismantle the very foundations of representative … Continue reading Five Stages of the Third Reich – Final Account
There's an odd weather condition in southern California known as the "June Gloom." Here in SoCal it's a bit of an annual tease. Sometimes we're in drought conditions, and some years we're not, but in either case, we basically only get rain during the winter months, occasionally dipping into April. But once spring is in … Continue reading This Film is Not Yet Watchable – June 2021
