We're a little more than a fortnight away from Oscar nominations, and one of the more intriguing subplots regarding the ceremony - and Awards Season writ large - this year is the good number of foreign films that will end up competing for mainstream hardware. Not only is this shaping up to be the most … Continue reading The Shark Has Such Teeth – The Secret Agent
It's the most wonderful time of the year. Oh, not Christmas, but the we're getting ever so close to the next Oscar Blitz! We're just over a month away from the reveal of the nominees, and today the Academy released their shortlists for half the categories in the field, 12 of the now 24! It's … Continue reading Santa’s Got Nothing on This – 98th Academy Awards Shortlists!
For years now the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been attempting to find ways to improve their annual awards ceremony to draw in more viewers. They've tried adding pandering categories, removing categories from the telecast, emphasizing musical numbers (even for songs that aren't nominated), expanding the Best Picture field to 10 films, … Continue reading Oscar Blitz 2025 – International Feature
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
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
It's that time again, folks. The pre-Blitz is on! This morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed their shortlists in 10 of the 23 categories for next year's Oscars. As always, I'll provide links to any relevant reviews I've done on these semifinalist selections, as well as any top line reactions I … Continue reading One Long and 10 Shorts of It – 97th Academy Awards Shortlists Announced
I've spent a lot of space on this blog over the last year complaining about movies that are just too long. This is mostly because the guilty filmmakers don't use the extra time properly. I don't hate long movies in general. I believe a creator should take all the time that is necessary to tell … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – The Long Shots
Damn, this has been a busy week so far, and it's only Thursday. Awards Season got itself into full swing basically overnight, and already I'm doing my best to keep up. For example, over the last 48 hours I've been trying to get a handle on foreign films in anticipation of the Academy's announcement of … Continue reading Spirit Fingers, Everyone! – 36th Independent Spirit Nominations
The "unofficial" phase is finally over. We are now firmly and officially into Awards Season! The next three months of hardware, hand-wringing, and haranguing kicked off this morning with the announcement of the nominees for the 35th Annual Independent Spirit Awards, which were presented by Zazie Beetz and Natasha Lyonne. There's a lot of love … Continue reading We’ve Got Spirit (Awards), Yes We Do! – 35th Independent Spirit Awards Nominations Announced!
I Actually Paid To See This 