Sometime around 2013, I wrote a short story as a form of creative expression in a time when I was feeling very empty inside. It was about a young man who meets a little girl in a Tokyo train station when she mistakes him for her older brother. I had written shorts before, even entered … Continue reading Oscar Blitz 2026 – Adapted Screenplay
In less than 48 hours, I'll begin the Oscar Blitz, and run a gauntlet for five weeks breaking down every category and nominee, as I've done every year that I've kept this blog up. As I write this, I still have 11 films from 2025 on my review backlog, not counting the nine I had … Continue reading DownStream – For Your Consolidation, Part 3: Narrative
I've mentioned this before, most recently on a new episode of No Rest for the Weekend with my friends over at Behind the Rabbit Productions, but 2022 saw a real resurgence in the quality of animated films. Three of my personal top 10 pictures for the entire year were animated, compared to one from 2021 … Continue reading Oscar Blitz 2023 – Animated Feature
I like to think that, overall, 2022 was a better year than 2021. There were some down moments, to be sure - Billie Eilish won an Oscar before Lin-Manuel Miranda, I had to move my mother into hospice, Republicans retook the House, basically every celebrity we still cared about died, AMC charged us more money … Continue reading The Best (and Worst) of 2022
There's a beautiful complexity to Guillermo del Toro's new version of Pinocchio that few other filmmakers could have reasonably pulled off. I think it's because there isn't one direct element of this latest adaptation that commands attention as being the thing that sets it apart from all the others. It isn't just the high quality … Continue reading A Real Life – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
My dear readers, we come to it at last. The big one. The mamma jamma. The reason any of us still pay attention to any of this - Best Picture. Ten films are up for the highest honor in cinema, but only one will walk away with the prize. That is, assuming the presenters don't … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2022 – Best Picture
The Screen Actors Guild had their say a couple weeks ago when they announced their slate of nominees. Next week our friends across the Pond will get their turn when the BAFTA Award nominees come out. Today, we have the meat of this Awards Season undercard sandwich, as the other three major American production unions … Continue reading An Invitation from THE GUILD! – DGA, PGA, WGA Nominees
One of my favorite films of all time is the 1932 pre-Code horror film, Freaks. Like many of the great "monster" movies of the age, the film succeeds because of its very sympathetic treatment of the carnival workers that make up the bulk of its cast, asking the crucial, "Who is the real monster?" question … Continue reading Can You Read My Mind? – Nightmare Alley
If you've followed this blog since its inception, and even if you haven't, you might well be aware that I have a personal rule regarding cinematic remakes. With very few exceptions, the basic line is, "fuck those cynical cash grab pieces of shit." However, there are times when even I'll violate my longstanding procedure, and … Continue reading DownStream – Halloweenies
I meant to do this yesterday, but I just did a 16-day streak of blog posts, and in the end I decided that napping was more important. Plus, it never hurts to have a few more hours to process things. So now that the dust has settled, let's recap the proceedings. I'm not offended by Green … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2019 – Postmortem
I Actually Paid To See This 