I have to say, as we approach Thanksgiving, there are years where it gets really hard to find anything for which to be thankful, because what the sentiment actually means is an acknowledgement of the good things in your life. This has been an incredibly difficult year for my family and me. We've suffered a … Continue reading This Film Is Not Yet Watchable – November 2025
Life is, if nothing else, a continuous learning experience. That old adage of picking up new information every day might be trite, but it's also extremely accurate. For example, I just found out today that I've been doing the title of this column wrong for all these years. I'm supposed to capitalize "Is" because despite … Continue reading This Film Is Not Yet Watchable – March 2025
I make no secret that I am not a fan of what I refer to as "Best Actor/Actress Showcase" films, movies that only exist to spotlight a particular performer, usually one who has been celebrated but never given any hardware during their career, and use it as a vehicle to get an Oscar nomination or … Continue reading Back Row Thoughts – Please Give Me an Oscar I Don’t Deserve
To put it lightly, August was... a cultural wasteland, a bubonic plague of cinematic garbage where one disaster after another flooded your local multiplex, to the point that Nicole Kidman saying "We make movies better" actually made you wonder how terrible the flick you watched was before AMC magically improved it by doing nothing. We … Continue reading This Film is Not Yet Watchable – September 2024
Happy birthday, America! Or rather, Happy Barbecue and Fireworks Day, as the Supreme Court decided three days ago to essentially kill the republic by declaring the former President a monarch unaccountable to the law. Hey, we had almost 248 years. It was a good run. In that spirit, I have decided that for this month's … Continue reading This Film is Not Yet Watchable – July 2024
A large part of what made Denis Villeneuve's 2021 Dune remake so special was its sense of scale. Through its amazing use of cinematography, editing, and inspired visual effects (done for about half the budget of your average Marvel movie), the film truly gave viewers a sense of what the world of Arrakis could be … Continue reading Welcome to the World – Dune: Part Two
It's been eight months since my mom died, and to be perfectly honest, I haven't been able to move past it yet. I thought it would be easier, as we had time to prepare for it. She was diagnosed with dementia three years ago, and we had to place her in a nursing home. The … Continue reading A Mother’s Love – The Boy and the Heron
Throughout the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there have been two subseries that have been my absolute favorites, namely Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy. The two are vastly different in terms of tone, story, and character, but at their absolute core, they kept the same high points throughout. More than anything else, … Continue reading Rocket’s Man – Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3
When I saw Old a couple years ago, I commented on the fact that M. Night Shyamalan had a solid idea on his hands that could have been insanely compelling, but that almost all of the fun and suspense of the film was lost because of his over-reliance on twist endings. As I said back … Continue reading A Plague on this House – Knock at the Cabin
Man this is going to be a busy month. Between my work, the Oscar Blitz, and any number of other side projects, it'll be any wonder if I sleep at all over the next four weeks. Imagine if I had a girlfriend right now. She'd be so neglected. But hey, I love what I do, … Continue reading This Film is Not Yet Watchable – February 2023
I Actually Paid To See This 