Two items of business to address right up front. First, my financial/employment situation has not improved, so as you've no doubt already noticed, coverage of new movies is down severely at this point, and will likely continue for the foreseeable future. I've only reviewed one film for July, and I have one more in the … Continue reading This Film Is Not Yet Watchable – August 2025
This past Sunday marked a year since my mother died. For the most part I think I've handled things as best as can be managed, but I confess it hasn't gotten "easier" to deal with the fact that she's gone. Part of that is because I hadn't come up with a proper way to honor … Continue reading LANGUAGE! – Wicked Little Letters
I admit that I can be a bit defensive about some classic movies. When something has been made truly spectacularly, to the point that one might call it "magic," it becomes pretty sacrosanct to me. Such is the case with the likes of Blazing Saddles or It's a Wonderful Life, both of which have had … Continue reading Oh Fudge! – Wonka
I fully admit that I have soured on the Shrek franchise ever since Shrek the Third. The first film was innovative, silly, and was a great update for big kids like me to the old "Fractured Fairy Tales" segments from reruns of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show that ran constantly on Nickelodeon in the 80s … Continue reading Avoiding Cat-astrophe – Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
There are fleeting moments of brilliance in Sam Mendes' latest film, Empire of Light, in particular those that allow its chief actors, Olivia Colman and Michael Ward, to show off their talents. The combination of wistfulness in Colman and aspiration in Ward is particularly strong, as both characters represent the same desires and insecurities we … Continue reading Focus. FOCUS! – Empire of Light
While it's often thought of as the most glamorous award of the evening, Best Actress is often a category that gets underserved. This is mostly due to two main factors. One, as I've mentioned before, there's a marketing strategy that I refer to as the Best Actress Showcase, where a film is specifically made to … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2022 – Best Actress
The moment has come at last. After a truncated year of eligibility, way too much hype for remakes, and for some reason a "documentary" about Billie Eilish, it is time to finally announce this year's nominees for the Academy Awards. I was up early (but not bright) at 5am Pacific Time to watch and react … Continue reading WAKE UP! IT’S TIME TO BLITZ! – 94th Academy Award Nominations
While the Oscars are the main event of Awards Season, there's still a good deal of information to gather along the way for those trying to win their office pools. Just about every major production branch has its own union that votes on internal awards, but the big four in this regard are the unions … Continue reading Acting! Genius! – 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Nominees
The calendar has finally turned over, and of course, because we just can't have nice things, the universe decided to take Betty White out at the last fucking minute. But anyway, the official book has closed on 2021, a year where we almost, kinda, sort of got back to something resembling normal, only for the … Continue reading The Best (and Worst) of 2021
The "Best Actress Showcase" film is a common thing during Awards Season, typically in the form of a story uniquely suited to a female lead character, and often cast and shot in a way that heavily features the top line actress in an attempt to garner some hardware at the expense of everything else. It's … Continue reading The Parent Trap – The Lost Daughter
I Actually Paid To See This 