The 12th Annual Mickey©®™ Awards (2025)

12th Annual Mickey©®™ Awards (2025)

The ultimate awards show is upon us!!!

The Mickeys©™® are superior to every other award imaginable…be it the Oscar, the Emmy, the Tony, the Grammy or even the Nobel. The Mickey©®™ is the mountaintop of not just artistic but human achievement, which is why they always take place AFTER the Oscars!

This year has been a rather mundane one for cinema but there are still a multitude of films eligible for a Mickey©™® award.

Actors, actresses, writers, cinematographers and directors are all sweating and squirming right now in anticipation of the Mickey©™® nominations and winners. Remember, even a coveted Mickey©™® nomination is a career and life changing event. 

Before we get to what everyone is here for…a quick rundown of the rules and regulations of The Mickeys©™®…The Mickeys©™® are selected by me…I am judge, jury and executioner. The only films eligible are films I have actually seen, be it in the theatre, via screener, cable, streamer or VOD. I do not see every film because as we all know, the overwhelming majority of films are God-awful, and I am a working man so I must be pretty selective. So that means that just getting me to actually watch your movie is a tremendous accomplishment in and of itself…never mind being nominated or winning!

Enough with the formalities…let's start the festivities!!

Is everybody in? Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin...

Ladies and gentlemen…welcome to the 12th annual Mickey©™® Awards!!!

Let’s start things off with a bang!!

POPCORN MOVIE OF THE YEAR– There weren’t quite as many big budget popcorn movies this year as we are used to mostly because the Superhero genre is fading and fading fast. There were a few of them though…most notably Superman and The Fantastic Four, neither of which were anywhere close to being good never mind worthy of a prestigious Mickey©®™.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

F1 – I am a fan of F1 the sport and so I was an easy target for this movie…and while it is aggressively formulaic, it still delivered some racing thrills and while it is a low bar – that was enough for me. Congrats to the F1 cast and crew for the Mickey©®™ award!!

BEST HORROR FILM OF THE YEAR –

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

WEAPONS – Weapons is a horror film but it feels like a whole helluva lot more than that. Wonderfully written and directed by Zach Cregger, the film never fails to captivate and it leaves you constantly unnerved and relentlessly on edge.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – Not a sterling year for the art of cinematography…but there were some notable exceptions.

Bugonia – Robbie Ryan’s approach on Bugonia was a rather simple one but it was impeccably executed and created a crisp and clear visual to go along with the film’s muddied character arcs. A fine piece of work.

Train Dreams – Adolpho Veloso borrowed heavily from Terence Malick and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s distinct style to give Train Dreams an ethereal and…dare I say it…dream-like visual style. Floating cameras and languid looks at nature are not easy to pull off but Veloso did it and deserves credit for paying homage to Malick and Lubezki’s brilliance.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

TRAIN DREAMS – ADOLPHO VELOSO – I am an enormous fan of Terence Malick and Emmanuel Lubezki…and while Veloso’s work is sort of Malick-lite…Malick-lite is better than no Malick at all. And to Veloso’s credit…he is borrowing from the best and he executes it masterfully.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR –

William H. Macy – Train Dreams: Macy’s turn as an old-timer in a logging camp is a brilliant bit of work that brings both a bit of levity and humanity to Train Dreams. Macy has been M.I.A. for some time now, so it was nice to see him back and at his best.

Pedro Pascal – Eddington: I find Pedro Pascal to be a grating screen presence…and he is that in Eddington…but he uses it to great effect. His cool and holier-than-thou character needed to be instantly, but subtly, off-putting…and Pascal is perfectly built for that.

Aiden Delbis – Bugonia: Delbis, a novice who is on the autism spectrum, plays a good-hearted and loyal cousin who is on the autism spectrum. You might think that he is essentially playing himself – a person with autism, but Delbis brings such a genuine and authentic energy to every scene he inhabits that he nearly steals the whole movie from such luminaries as Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. I have no idea if Delbis will ever act again, but it was a pleasure to watch him in this film.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

AIDEN DELBIS – BUGONIA: This is the supporting performance that impressed me the most this year. Delbis was so real, so present, so alive in each scene that it made his screen presence uncomfortable to watch…and that is the highest of compliments as he makes it feel like you’re eavesdropping on real life when he’s on-screen. Congratulations Aiden Delbis on your first movie and your first Mickey©®™!!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS –

Emily Blunt – The Smashing Machine: Blunt gives it her all in a terribly written part in a terrible movie…and she still shines through despite everything working against her. Blunt is a terrific actress and I hope she finds better material for her talent.

Amy Madigan – Weapons: Madigan is so great in Weapons it actually took me a half hour of watching the movie to figure out it was her…and even then I wasn’t so sure. An iconic performance that will no doubt inspire Halloween costumes for generations to come.

Rebecca Ferguson – A House of Dynamite: I wanted this movie to be good…it wasn’t…but Rebecca Ferguson was the only good thing in it. Given a dreadful script, Ferguson managed to bring a touch of actual humanity and reality to the proceedings…and has a genuinely moving moment that is nearly lost amidst the tsunami of suck.

Regina Hall – One Battle After Another: Hall gives the only genuine and grounded performance in this entire film…and it is deeply unfortunate that she didn’t have more screen time. Hall’s inherent humanity was so evident despite her minimal focus in the story…a really impressive piece of work when we got to see it.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

AMY MADIGAN – WEAPONS: Madigan has been working in Hollywood for over forty years and she is so great in Weapons that she finally reaches the apex of achievement in the art of acting…a Mickey©®™ award!!

BEST SCREENPLAY –

Eddington – Ari Aster: It is actually stunning how Ari Aster was able to turn the mania and madness of the Covid/Black Lives Matter and Post-Covid/Black Lives Matter era into one of the most compelling, insightful and intelligent films of the year. A stunning achievement that tells more truth than any piece of media in recent years.

 It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi: Panahi took a simple idea and turned into a monumental storytelling achievement that explores the deepest depths of humanity, morality and ethics. Remarkable script.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

EDDINGTON – ARI ASTER: This screenplay is so brilliant it boggles the mind. That Aster was able to weaves so many tales of mania and hysteria and turn them into a cohesive story about the conspiracy that lies beneath the conspiracies…is nothing short of genius.

BEST SCENE –

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT – I won’t give anything away but the ending of this movie is so well-executed and so brilliantly set up that there is just no other competition. It is the perfect combination of great direction, great writing and great filmmaking…and just like the film itself…it is simple yet perfect.

BEST ACTRESS –

Rose Byrne – If I had Legs, I’d Kick You: Byrne is a fantastic comedic actress, but with this film about an overwhelmed mother she proves her dramatic acting chops in spades. An absolutely stellar piece of work that never relents and never delivers anything but the truth…even when it is lying.

Jessie Buckley – Hamnet: Buckley’s turn as Shakespeare’s witchy wife could have been a mess in lesser hands, but she brings a powerful magnetism and earthy heart to the role that brings it to life in an extraordinary way. A visceral and moving performance that reveals Buckley to be among the best.

Emma Stone – Bugonia: Stone is always so good it is easy to overlook how good she actually is…and in Bugonia she is putting on a masterclass. Stone’s work is as captivating as anything she’s done and is incredibly subtle and nimble. An impressive piece of work.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

ROSE BYRNE – IF I HAD LEGS, I’D KICK YOU: Byrne is so good in this film it is jaw-dropping. A difficult yet delicious role that lets the beauty Byrne be ugly and unlikable and to fail and flail and fall flat on her face without ever playing for pity. Bravo Ms. Byrne…you may be a terrible mother but you’ve finally gotten yourself a Mickey©®™ award!!

BEST ACTOR –

Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon: Ethan Hawke gives a startlingly great performance in this film as the diminutive giant Lorenz Hart. The film is essentially a stage play but Hawke fills the screen with a verve and aplomb as the drunken and fading lyricist and it is the best work of his career.

Joaquin Phoenix - Eddington: Joaquin Phoenix is the best actor we have, and his deft and visceral work in Eddington is just more proof of this fact. Phoenix dissolves into his role as Sheriff Joe and his descent into the madness of Hurricane Covid/BLM and all the rest is staggering to behold. A brilliant and bold performance.

Jesse Plemons – Bugonia: Plemons’ work in Bugonia is extraordinary as he is simultaneously sympathetic and repulsive…a hero and villain all at once. Plemons’ inherent humanity works to his great advantage in this role as he engenders viewer’s empathy but then he abuses it and you are left confused but always captivated.

Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent: Moura is a phenomenal actor and he does his very best, most complex and most skilled work in The Secret Agent…essentially playing three roles (I won’t give away what I mean by that). Moura is such a master craftsman that it is impossible to take your eyes off of him even when he is doing the most mundane of tasks in this film. A truly impressive performance.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

JOAQUIN PHOENIX – EDDINGTON: This is a loaded category but Hawke was so deliriously great in Eddington that he gets the coveted Mickey©®™.

ACTOR/ACTRESS OF THE YEAR –

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

EMMA STONE: Stone…one of the very best actresses in the world, was in both Eddington and Bugonia this year…two of the very best films of the year…and she did terrific work in both of them. Kudos to Emma Stone for picking challenging material and for using her clout to get important films made…and congrats on ANOTHER Mickey©®™ award!! (She won in 2024 for Poor Things)

BEST ENSEMBLE –

Eddington – A stacked cast all do extraordinary work…led by the brilliant Joaquin Phoenix.

Bugonia – Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Aiden Delbis absolutely crush their roles and as a whole are a formidable acting trio.

It Was Just an Accident – A collection of Iranian actors I have never heard of come together to create as stunning a cast performance imaginable.

The Secret Agent – A sprawling cast all do solid and sometimes spectacular work in this brilliant Brazilian film.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT – It truly is remarkable how good all of these actors are and how insanely compelling they all are as well. The film is in Farsi but you could watch the whole thing and not read the subtitles and still understand everything they are conveying and still be deeply affected by it.

BEST DIRECTOR –

Ari Aster – Eddington: Aster’s masterful direction on Eddington helped the film avoid the multitude of traps it could have fallen into…and he did it with a deft touch and a brilliant understanding of the deeper story he was telling.

Yorgos Lanthimos – Bugonia: Lanthimos has a distinct taste and style and I am a sucker for it…and he brings all of his weird talent and skill to bear on Bugonia and it is a joy to behold.

Jafar Panahi – It Was Just an Accident: A simple story and a minimalist execution of that story reveal Panahi to be a master moviemaker and a brave one at that.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

ARI ASTER – EDDINGTON: Aster has shown over the course of his career that he has a keen eye and a sharp and original mind…but it wasn’t until Eddington that he has made the leap from very good to great. Eddington reveals Aster to be not only a great filmmaker but an astute observer and commentator of our troubled times when the overwhelming majority of his peers are too blind to see the forest for the trees and to recognize the reality of recent history and the current moment. Aster has earned this Mickey©®™ award the hard way…not by telling audiences what they want to hear…but rather by telling them the very uncomfortable truth.

BEST PICTURE –

5. The Secret Agent – A cinematic glimpse into the moral morass that was Brazil in 1977, writer/director Kleber Mendonca Filho masterfully pulls all the pieces together of his sprawling story and leads viewers on a personal and perilous journey into the jaws of fascism.

4. Bugonia – Yorgos Lanthimos dives deep into conspiracy culture and never comes up for air as his film keeps viewers in the dark about the secret at the center of it all. Your expectations and assumptions die a slow and glorious death on Lanthimos’ cinematic guillotine.

3. Train Dreams – A deeply moving and affecting mediation on life and its meaning from Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar. A deliberately paced and wonderfully shot film that very quietly, yet profoundly, asks the question we all would prefer to ignore.

2. It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi brings viewers on a compelling odyssey through the maze of modern Iran’s fascist existence. Morality and humanity are endangered species in this world and Panahi is able to use them to tell the truth about his existence in a corrupted world.

1 Eddington – Ari Aster’s film is so daring and so bold that it boggles the mind. That the film was not well-received is no surprise, as the targets of its truth bombs were the same guardians of popular culture who were at a minimum complicit with the moral, ethical, intellectual and political corruption and madness it portrays. As the years go by this film will continue to grow in estimation and will ultimately be proven to be the greatest film about the truth and consequences of the Covid/BLM era. It will be considered not only well ahead of its time but extraordinarily insightful about its own time.

MOST IMPORTANT FILM OF THE YEAR

Eddington/Bugonia – Eddington and Bugonia are the two most important films of the year because they do something that no other films even attempt to do…tell the uncomfortable truth.

Both films reveal the reality that “conspiracy theories” aren’t crazy…they are just ahead of the learning curve and if given enough time will be proven correct. The truth is that the time between something being called a “conspiracy theory” and it being proven correct is at an all-time low. If you hear some buffoon shrieking about something being a “conspiracy theory”…just wait three months and it will no longer be a “conspiracy theory” but an acknowledged, and resolutely ignored, fact.

Eddington, in particular, was brilliant in its evisceration of the idiocy of the mainstream, anti-conspiracy, mindset. It showed not just the surface level moronity of the Covid/BLM bullshit, but dug deeper and gave brief glimpses of the wider power structure pulling the strings of our world and creating the shadows dancing on our cave wall that we think is reality.

If you can watch Eddington and Bugonia and then go back to watching cable news or reading the New York Times and believing a single word you hear or see…then you need to have your head examined.

Truth is anathema in a world ruled by the demonic Epstein Class. Look no further than the current war raging in the Middle East, or the fact that our global empire is controlled by an evil Zionist entity for proof of that. Both political parties are so beholden to the Epstein Class and their Zionist overlords that who you vote for makes no difference whatsoever.

Moral, ethical, political and corporate corruption is so blatant now it goes unnoticed and unmentioned. The ruling elite want you angry, they want you confused, they want you disoriented, they want you disheartened….and that is why they rub your nose in the shit of their demonic criminality in broad daylight. That is why they steal, rape, kill and pillage right in front of you and laugh at any suggestion they’d be held accountable for their crimes against humanity.

That is why they refuse to close borders – so that European and the U.S. populations can be overrun by third worlders who will turn Europe and the U.S. into third world countries – if you don’t believe me go to Los Angeles – a massive third world city where hordes of helpless and hopeless people live and shit on the streets – and we are incapable of helping them because of corruption.

The third worlders are here to replace the “natives” because they will work for less and are less attached to those pesky right bestowed upon us by God. In other words they will accept the boot in their face better than the natives. This is how the Epstein Class wants it…because third worlders are easier to exploit and are necessary as a revolutionary force against the middle class.

The Epstein Class wants to make everything worse for you because it makes everything better for them. Gas prices skyrocket…sucks for you, is good for them. Inflation? Bad for you, good for them. Rising crime rates? Bad for you, good for them. Housing through the roof…bad for you, good for them. Prices for healthcare, food, shelter, college…out of control…bad for you…good for them.

The ruling elite of the Epstein Class and their Zionist overlords aren’t indifferent to your plight…quite the opposite…they actually hate you with a passion. They want to see you suffer and they want to exterminate you. They want you and your bloodline permanently extinguished.

They want your sons to die in foreign wars for their benefit and your daughters to be raped by foreign hordes in their homeland. They want your culture to disappear and they want your country to be unrecognizable to your ancestors. They want Europe, Ireland and the U.K. to look like the slums of Pakistan or Nigeria and the U.S. and Canada to look like the slums of Mexico or India. This is what these unrepentant, foul demons desperately want. This is what they are working toward…and every day that passes they are closer to their ultimate goal…your extinction.

You are nothing but a resource to exploit and an obstacle to ultimately obliterate for the Epstein Class…and they want to, and will, turn you into roadkill. They already control our economy, our media, our politics, our government and for the vast majority, our minds.

Eddington and Bugonia do not have happy endings…and the truth is…I don’t think our civilization infected by the Epstein Class and their Zionist overlords will have a happy ending either.

Two other films that point to what our near-term future looks like are The Secret Agent and It Was Just an Accident. Those films show the normalization of fascism and how fascists states are marinated in a corruption so deep that it becomes commonplace and simply ordinary.

Politics are so corrupt in those films (in Brazil and Iran) that corruptions seeps into every interaction in everyday life. To get treated in a hospital you must pay off the receptionist…then the nurse…then the doctor. To get protection from crime you must pay off the cops, pay off judges, pay off criminals.

Corruption is everywhere and eventually sinks in so deep as to corrupt the hearts, minds and souls of everyday people. Humanity is removed in favor of a moral and ethical corruption that spreads like a cancer and can never be eradicated.

This is where we are right now…our country and our populace is so morally and ethically demented that it embraces a suicidal path that will guarantee its destruction. You can’t vote your way out of it, no political party is free of the Epstein Class virus…no smooth-talking politician can save the day. The disease of the Epstein Class and their Zionist overlords has metastasized and it is killing the U.S. and Europe in a very deliberate and agonizing way.

There is no off-ramp…there are only momentary reprieves from the anxiety over the reality of our current moment. Know this…this car keeps moving at a rapidly increasing pace to its final destination…hurtling off a cliff.

Well…on that bright note the prestigious Mickey©®™ awards come to a glorious conclusion. Thank you for reading and for all of your comments…I hope we have a much better cinematic year in 2026 than we did in 2025…but either way the Mickeys©®™ will be back to let you know the best of the best in the art of cinema!!

©2026

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 153 - Oscar's Round Up and Predator: Badlands

On this episode, Barry and I share our takes on the Oscar's ceremony and then talk all things Predator: Badlands, now streaming on Hulu. Topics discussed include the shoddy Oscars production, the underwhelming Oscar line-up, and the hopes for the Predator franchise. There's also a scintillating Predator-themed brainstorming session which produces pure movie-business gold!!

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 153 - Predator: Badlands

Thanks for listening!!

©2026

Oscars Round Up - Comfortably Dumb

OSCARS ROUND UP

Well…the Oscars happened last night and I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that once again I won my Oscar pool! The bad news is that the only reason I won my Oscar pool is because I have no friends and no family left to compete against (Fyi – my one-legged wife left me for a sexy Neil Diamond impersonator with a bad heart). Such is the plight of the unlovable loser – or winner as the case may be!!

I thought Sinners was going to be the big winner, and while it did pretty well, it wasn’t the juggernaut I thought it would be…proving once again that I am still slightly flummoxed by the “new” Academy. Sinners did well but it didn’t win the middle of the road awards a juggernaut needs, and it lost head-to-head against One Battle After Another too much to be Oscar champion.

Speaking of One Battle After Another, it is well-documented that I am no fan, but PT Anderson is one of my all-time favorite directors, so his winning Best Director and Best Picture did not fill me with rage…only a touch of ennui with a dash of malaise. My one hope is that he gets his mojo back and starts making masterpieces again. I admit I am not optimistic.

Jessie Buckley, Amy Madigan and Sean Penn winning acting awards is fine…but Michael B. Jordan winning Best Actor is so ridiculous as to be clinically insane. Jordan seems like a nice guy, but over the years he has shown himself to be a remarkably limited…and often bad, actor.

I once thought, back in The Wire and Friday Night Lights days, that Jordan was going to be Denzel 2.0…but as he’s become more famous, he’s become much worse an actor, which is disheartening. On the bright side, at least he’s not an asshole.

Ryan Coogler winning Best Original Screenplay is…predictable and absurd. Sinners is the type of movie that stupid people think is smart and dumb people think is deep…and the script is a perfect monument to that thesis.

I loved Coogler’s first big film Fruitvale Station – also starring Michael B. Jordan…but since then he’s churned out big studio slop that people have fawned over and that I’ve been repulsed by.

Black Panther is a middling Marvel movie…Black Panther II is…GARBAGE. Creed is much the same. And Sinners is sort of an amalgam of all of the things wrong with those franchise films stuffed into a derivative new franchise. Ugh.

Also on the bright side…Coogler seems like a good guy…so I am glad for him but not glad for what his success means for the art of cinema.

Cinematography went…as I predicted, to Autumn Durald Arkapaw of Sinners, the first woman to win the award. The cinematography of Sinners is actively awful (as was her earlier work on Black Panther)…but because she is a woman, and a woman of color to boot, she was a shoe in to win this award over a bevy of white dudes. Shrug.

The actual Oscar telecast seemed to me to be a disaster. Conan O’Brien hosted and to put it mildly…he struggled. I’ve never understood the appeal of Conan and never thought he was ever funny…and he proved those sentiments to be accurate on Sunday night.

Hosting the Oscars is a tough gig…hosting the Oscars when you aren’t funny but are trying to be seems like a Herculean task…one that Conan is incapable of doing well.

The ceremony was stuffed with cringy bits by award presenters and a bevy of technical glitches. The only two funny parts were when some poor bastard desperately wanted to say something after winning an award but was played off and his mic turned off…which made me laugh out loud, and the other when the luminous Anne Hathaway presented an award with fashion queen Anna Wintour. Hathaway and Wintour did two funny bits that were so well executed they deserved Oscars themselves. Bravo!!

As for me, there will be no “Bravo!!” My shameful performance in my Oscar picks is a true embarrassment and will be a stain I will never, ever be able to wash off. I got a measly 18 out of 24 picks correct…and that’s with giving me the benefit of the doubt on the tie in the Best Short Film category.

My hope is that since we live in a country and culture that has a chronic case of alarmingly aggressive myopia and has the memory of a Tsetse fly, that by next year’s Oscars everyone will have forgotten my abysmal performance this year and I will be able to arrogantly boast about my Oscar picking prowess once again.

But for now, I will, like our degenerate and corrupt ruling class when they’re exposed as being deviant criminals, simply feign humility and promise to “do better” going forward.

Thanks for reading and keep an eye out later this week for the pinnacle of cinema awards…THE MICKEYS©®…and also THE SLIP-ME-A-MICKEY©® awards which recognize the very worst of 2025’s movies.

©2026

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 152 - It Was Just and Accident

On this episode, Barry and I bask in the glow of the brilliance that is Jafar Panahi's fantastic film, It Was Just an Accident - nominated for Best International Feature Film at this year's Academy Awards. Topics discussed include the film's simplicity, Panahi's artistry, and the benefits of creation through limitation. Then stay tuned for a brief rundown of the Oscars and our Oscar picks. 

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 152 - It Was Just and Accident

Thanks for listening!

©2026

98th Academy Awards - 2025 Oscar Predictions Post

98TH ACADEMY AWARDS

It is that time of year again when the good narcissists of Hollywood gather round to pucker up and kiss some ass and break their arms patting themselves on the back…IT’S OSCAR TIME!!

Everyone knows that the Oscars are the most important, most profound, and most holy of events in the human calendar. God created the earth in six days and on the seventh day he watched the Oscars…and was flabbergasted that a pedestrian piece of shit CODA won Best Picture a few years ago.

Speaking of pedestrian, don’t believe the hype regarding 2025. This past year has been a rather mundane movie year…there were a handful of movies I liked but none of them rose to the level of being called “great”. That hasn’t stopped the ever-growing collection of sycophants and shitheads who have declared the relentlessly sub-par One Battle After Another and Sinners to be cinematic masterpieces. Yawn.

The Oscars have diminished greatly in the 21st Century, and its loss of cultural cache has been hard-earned. The film industry has forgotten how to make great movies and that is a function of poor leadership and decision-making at the studio level, and artistic atrophy at the filmmaking level.

Movie stars are a relic of the past…and influencers are the medium of the moment…Timothee Chalamet seems to be a little bit of both and not enough of either.

As for the awards come Sunday…well…I have not lost an Oscar pool since I’ve been swimming in them…so if you want to be a big hit at the Oscar party you no doubt will not be attending because no one has Oscar parties anymore because no one cares about the Oscars…then you’ve come to the right place.

In all honestly…I would not put money on my Oscar picks this year. I have struggled to figure out what the hell the Academy has been doing in recent years and all the usual Academy tells seem to be getting turned on their heads. Will that stop me from boastfully declaring my picks while acting like I know what I’m talking about? No, of course not.

Thankfully the world is deeply enmeshed in a plethora of peace and prosperity and no pedophile cult of Satanic elites is running roughshod over the world and no war where innocents and schoolgirls are callously slaughtered rages anywhere – especially not in the Middle East…so since everything is calm and cool and safe and peaceful so we can all focus on what really matters the most…THE ACADEMY AWARDS!!

So…let’s get to it!!

This year it is an all-out battle between One Battle After Another and Sinners. Sinners has a record 16 nominations, and OBAA has won all the precursor awards. I disliked both movies so I have no dog in this fight…and would be happy to see either of them lose. There should be some indications early on which movie will win big on Oscar Night…and the first two awards will be pretty important.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another

Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein

Delroy Lindo – Sinners

Sean Penn – One Battle After Another

Stellan Skarsgard – Sentimental Value

Who will win: DELROY LINDO - SINNERS

Who should win: I guess Jacob Elordi?

Indicator win: Sean Penn – OBAA big night/Delroy Lindo – Sinners big night

Ok…this is a really tough one…Sean Penn has won a bunch of pre-cursors…but Delroy Lindo has all the momentum somehow and is the pandering choice. My guess is…pandering wins. Lindo is a fine enough actor but he does nothing even remotely interesting in the over-rated Sinners. If I am being honest the only performance that I thought was good in this group was Jacob Elordi. (I have not seen Sentimental Value – and Skarsgaard could definitely win). If Lindo wins then Sinners is going to have a HUGE night!!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value

Amy Madigan – Weapons

Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners

Teyana Taylor – OBAA

Who will win: AMY MADIGAN - WEAPONS

Who should win: Amy Madigan (Note that I’ve not seen Sentimental Value)

Indicator win: Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners huge night/ Teyana Taylor – OBAA huge night.

Teyana Taylor was the leader for a long time but her momentum seems to have diminished…and now it appears to be a race between Amy Madigan and Wunmi Mosaku. I really like Wunmi Mosaku…but she does nothing of note in Sinners…and if she wins here, it is completely a pandering pick. Madigan on the other hand has two things going for her – this is essentially a lifetime achievement Oscar, and also…she is very good in the role. So, I am going with Madigan but will not be the least bit surprised if Mosaku wins – and if she does it is an indication that Sinners is going to have a BIG night.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Blue Moon

It Was Just an Accident

Marty Supreme

Sentimental Value

Sinners

Will win: SINNERS – RYAN COOGLER

Should win: It Was Just an Accident

Indicator win: If Sinners loses then this night is turned upside down…would be genuinely shocking.

Sinners is winning this…end of story. The script and the film is garbage….but it’ll win.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Bugonia

Frankenstein

Hamnet

OBAA

Train Dreams

Will win: One Battle After Another – PT ANDERSON - OBAA

Should win: Train Dreams

Indicator win: If OBAA loses this award this will be a major shock and turn the night on its head.

This could be much tighter than people expect…but I do think One Battle After Another pulls it off…but don’t be surprised if Frankenstein or Hamnet sneaks in for the win.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Arco

Elio

KPOP Demon Hunters

Little Amelie or the Character of Rain

Zootopia 2

Will win: K-POP DEMON HUNTERS

Should win: I’ve not seen any of these movies.

KPOP Demon Hunters is a phenomenon and it’ll win here. If it doesn’t then I assume that Zootopia 2 will win.

BEST INTERNATRIONAL FEATURE

It Was Just an Accident (France)

The Secret Agent (Brazil)

Sentimental Value (Norway)

Sirat (Spain)

The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia)

Will win: SENTIMENTAL VALUE

Should win: It Was Just an Accident

This may be the very best category of the night. It Was Just an Accident and The Secret Agent are the only two films I’ve seen and they are definitely deserving of the award…and word is that Sentimental Value and The Voice of Hind Rajab are as well. My pick is Sentimental Value only because director Joachim Trier is also nominated for Best Director and it got two acting nominations as well which would indicate the film has deep support. Another thing to keep in mind is that The Secret Agent is a Brazilian film and Brazil has a very powerful contingent in the Academy….so don’t be shocked if it wins.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

The Alabama Solution

Come See Me in the Good Light

Cutting Through Rocks

Mr. Nobody Against Putin

The Perfect Neighbor

Will win: THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR

Should win: I’ve not seen any of these

The Perfect Neighbor deals with race and that is usually a ticket to Oscar gold. Wouldn’t be a shock if Mr. Nobody Against Putin wins because anti-Russia stuff is always a big favorite.

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

All Empty Rooms

Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud

Children No More: Were and Are Gone

The Devil is Busy

Perfectly a Strangeness

Will win: ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS

Should win: I’ve not seen any of these

All the Empty Rooms is about children and gun violence. Check!

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

Butcher’s Stain

A Friend of Dorothy

Jane Austen’s Period Drama

The Singers

Two People Exchanging Saliva

Will win: TWO PEOPLE EXCHANGING SALIVA

Should win: I have not seen any of these.

Two People Exchanging Saliva is the favorite but Butcher’s Stain has a shot to win…but it might on the “wrong” side of the Israel-Palestine divide to get Oscar gold.

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Butterfly

Forevergreen

The Girl Who Cried Pearls

Retirement Plan

The Three Sisters

Will win: BUTTERFLY

Should win: I’ve not seen these.

Your guess is as good as mine…but Butterfly looks good…and it’s a Holocaust movie – so it’s a shoe in.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Bugonia

Frankenstein

Hamnet

OBAA

Sinners

Will win: SINNERS

Should win: No one

Indicator win: If OBAA wins it’s a big deal and will portend a big night…if Sinners wins as expected – it will be part of a Sinners juggernaut

I think this is a very important category as it will indicate how the evening will go…if OBAA wins giving Johnny Greenwood a “make-up” Oscar then OBAA will dominate…if Sinners wins…big night for Sinners. I have Sinners winning.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“Dear Me” – Relentless

“Golden” – KPOP Demon Hunters

“I Lied to You” – Sinners

“Sweet Dreams of Joy” – Viva Verdi!

“Train Dreams” – Train Dreams

Will win: K-POP DEMON HUNTERS

Should win: No idea.

I think that KPOP Demon Hunters wins but if Sinners wins this award – a distinct possibility, then the juggernaut is in full swing and the film will win a record number of awards.

BEST CASTING

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

OBAA

The Secret Agent

Sinners

Will win: SINNERS

Should win: The Secret Agent

Indicator win: If Sinners loses this it will be a big deal and portend a lesser night.

Sinners will win for some reason.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

F1

Jurassic World: Rebirth

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Sinners

The Lost Bus

Will win: AVATAR FIRE AND ASH

Should win: F1

Indicator win: If Sinners wins this award – look out!!

No one gives a shit about Avatar movies but they always seem to win technical Oscars like this one…and I think that trend continues. If Sinners wins this then the universe might collapse in on itself as it is going to win the most Oscars of any movie ever made…quite an accomplishment for a shitty movie!

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Frankenstein

Sinners

The Smashing Machine

The Ugly Stepsister

Kokuho

Will win: FRANKENSTEIN

Should win: The Smashing Machine

Indicator win: Sinners.

I think The Smashing Machine, which is a terrible movie, should actually win…but it won’t. So, it comes down to Frankenstein and Sinners…just like in Production Design…and I think the outcome is the same…Frankenstein.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Sinners

Will win: SINNERS

Should win: Frankenstein

Indicator win: Frankenstein – if it wins a handful of awards, it will blunt Sinners’ momentum.

Once again it is Frankenstein vs Sinners and once again Sinners racks up the victory as the juggernaut continues…it should be noted that if Frankenstein wins this, Hair and Makeup and Production Design…my prediction of Sinners dominance is down the toilet and OBAA is the movie that will be the juggernaut.

FILM EDITING

F1

Marty Supreme

OBAA

Sentimental Value

Sinners

Will win: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

Should win: One Battle After Another

Indicator win: If Sinners wins then the night is over and we can all go home.

F1 is getting some buzz for this…but the real battle is between OBAA and Sinners…and this is a big one…but this time I think OBAA gets the win…but if Sinners wins this one…LOOK OUT!!

BEST SOUND

F1

Frankenstein

OBAA

Sinners

Sirat

Will win: F1

Should win: OBAA

Indicator win: This is a neat little category that if either Sinners or OBAA win will let us know which movie will have a big night.

I think F1 will win…cars make cool sounds…BUT…this is another category that might go to Sinners just because it is pandering time. My pick though is F1.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

OBAA

Sinners

Will win: FRANKENSTEIN

Should win: Not sure.

Indicator win: Sinners. If it wins here and in Hair and Makeup and in costume…a real possibility…then Sinners is an all-time juggernaut.

Frankenstein is the favorite and could very well win…but Sinners is the potential juggernaut…and this is the type of award a juggernaut might win.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Frankenstein

Sinners

OBAA

Train Dreams

Marty Supreme

Will win: SINNERS

Should win: Train Dreams

Indicator win: OBAA should win this as cinematographer Michael Bauman has won all the pre-cursors…so if Sinners wins it is an upset and means Sinners is having a huge night.

Sinners is winning this despite looking like shit. It will win because its cinematographer, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, is not only a woman but a woman of color and no woman of any color or any non-color has ever won this award. Signal of virtue achieved!!

BEST ACTOR

Timothee Chalamet – Marty Supreme

Leonardo DiCaprio – OBAA

Michael B. Jordan – Sinners

Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon

Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent

Will win: MICHAEL B. JORDAN - SINNERS

Should win: Ethan Hawke/Leonardo DiCaprio/Wagner Moura…even Little Timmee when measured against Michael B. Jordan.

This is a very tough category…little Timmee had momentum and that seems to have gone up in smoke. Leo never had any momentum at all for some reason…and Hawke and Moura, who both gave great performances, were never taken seriously it seems. So, it would seem that Michael B. Jordan – who has proven himself over the years and in Sinners in particular, to be a truly dreadful and awful actor, will win Best Actor…and we will have to pretend he is worthy. Michael B. Jordan is easily the very worst actor in this group and gives the worst performance. I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

BEST ACTRESS

Jessie Buckley – Hamnet

Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue

Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value

Emma Stone – Bugonia

Will win: JESSIE BUCKLEY – HAMNET

Should win: Jessie Buckley/Rose Byrne/Emma Stone

Jessie Buckley is winning this thing and she definitely deserves it. I would also argue that Rose Byrne is most definitely deserving of the award as well…and I would be happy if either of them wins. One can only hope that Kate Hudson is happy to be there because she is not deserving of being there and should go away as quickly as possible.

BEST DIRECTOR

Chloe Zhao – Hamnet

PT Anderson – One Battle After Another*

Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme

Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value

Ryan Coogler – Sinners

Will win: PT ANDERSON – OBAA

Should win: No idea…not a fan of any of these films – but have not seen Sentimental Value

There’s a chance Coogler gets the victory here but I think this is a lifetime achievement Oscar for PT Anderson. The funniest part will be if PTA wins Best Director and Sinners wins Best Picture the usual suspects will still be crying racism because Coogler didn’t get Best Director…either way I will laugh heartily.

BEST PICTURE

Bugonia

F1

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

The Secret Agent

Sentimental Value

Sinners

Train Dreams

Will win: SINNERS

Should win: Train Dreams/Bugonia

I know the odds-on favorite is One Battle After Another…but the vibes I’m getting are that Sinners is going to have an enormous Oscar night. I think the movie is a steaming pile of pedestrian horseshit…but I also think it will win Best Picture because it gives the Academy a chance to pander and virtue signal – their favorite thing to do! Maybe I’m wrong…and don’t get me wrong…I have no love for One Battle After Another either…but it could win…or we could get a reverse split and have Coogler win Best Director and OBAA win Best Picture…or Sinners could win both or OBAA could win both. It is going to a big fight between these two movies all night and from what I’m gathering it looks like Sinners will be the big winner. We can all rest assured though that no matter how many Oscars Sinners wins…and I think it will win a lot…it won’t be enough and people will be crying “racism!” in the wake of the Oscars…so at least we have that to look forward to.

Well…that wraps up the Oscar predictions for this year…but my predictions for next year are essentially the same…there will be a cornucopia of underwhelming movies everyone pretends is great and I will once again want to light myself on fire. YAY!!!

Alright everybody….I’ll see you at the after party!!

©2026

It Was Just an Accident: A Review - Profound Film for our Dark Times

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE. IT. NOW. - Unquestionably one of the very best films of the year.

It Was Just an Accident, written and directed by Jafar Panahi, tells the story of Vahid, a mechanic who struggles with a monumental decision about whether to confront his past or to move on from it.

The film, which is a French/Iranian production (in Farsi with English sub-titles) that is nominated for the Best International Feature Film award at this year’s Academy Awards, is currently streaming on Hulu, which is where I just watched it.

It Was Just an Accident was surreptitiously shot in Iran by acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi – who, besides being imprisoned for his outspoken criticism of the Iranian government, was also banned from making films. Panahi shot the film essentially guerrilla style without any permits or permission...a bold and daring choice to make in authoritarian Iran.

Considering the current state of the world…which includes a brutal war between Israel and the U.S. against Iran, Panahi’s fantastic film takes on a much greater power and meaning than its simple, poignant and profound story already tells.

The film, which I will not spoil in any way shape or form so as to keep its impact preserved for those that haven’t yet seen it, is a relentlessly compelling and captivating meditation on the struggle between revenge and forgiveness, and about how difficult it is to fight against tyranny without becoming a tyrant and losing one’s soul.

It Was Just an Accident is one of the very best films of the year. It is a mesmerizing mixture of a morality tale, comedy caper, road picture and a thriller wrapped in an indictment of the Iranian regime and a plea to the humanity of all.

The film, which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, starts slow but then builds and builds and builds to a truly phenomenal ending, gaining dramatic momentum with every scene and every performance.

That this movie could be so simple and yet spotlight such a complex moral and ethical conundrum and its consequences speaks to the brilliance of the script and of Panahi’s direction. The film could have been a Manichean manifesto that gives viewers what they want – but instead it is one of those movies that reveals a confounding complexity through its storytelling simplicity.

It Was Just an Accident was the third film I watched this week, the first two being The Secret Agent – a Brazilian film also nominated for Best International Feature, and Nuremberg, a big studio movie about the Nuremberg trials. I will review The Secret Agent and Nuremberg later this week. The one thing all three of these films have in common is that they address fascism and its toxic and corrosive effect on individuals and on society.

The most notable thing about fascist societies (whether they know they are fascist or not is irrelevant) is that they are riddled with corruption…not just moral and ethical corruption but actual physical/financial corruption.

In all three films corruption is so prevalent as to be the air that people breathe. Cops are corrupt, businesses are corrupt, nurses are corrupt, bureaucrats are corrupt…bad guys are corrupt, good guys are corrupt, everyone is corrupt. Corruption is contagious until it just becomes normalized…just like it is here in the U.S.

I am always amused when I read an article or hear some talking head in the U.S. bemoaning the corruption in some far-off land like Russia or China or Brazil and they use some study that shows the amount of corruption in those countries as opposed to the pristine nature of the U.S. as proof of their thesis. The problem with studies and theories like these is that corruption in the U.S. has simply been codified into law…so it is no longer considered corruption….but it is still corruption. Look no further than the ungodly amounts of money thrown around in the American political system for proof of that. In other countries that would be considered corruption…here it is just considered business as usual.

What makes It Was Just an Accident so remarkable is that is transcends its national and cultural borders and places all of us in the same predicament as its Iranian protagonist Vahid. We know the monumental question he grapples with and the danger it poses. We also understand how not only his life but his soul is on the line. We don’t just see what he is struggling with…we struggle right along with him.

All of this is a credit to Jafar Panahi, his brilliant writing, his exquisite filmmaking, and his uncompromising attitude and artistry.

Panahi obviously made this film as an indictment against the Iranian regime that has persecuted him, but this story simply cannot be contained within those borders. The moral and ethical insights Panahi provides can be applied just as equally to Iran’s attackers – Israel and the U.S., as it can to the despotic Iranian regime itself. Which is why this filmmaker and this film are so brilliant.

It has not been easy writing a review of this movie without giving any of its plot to readers, but I think that is necessary in order to enjoy the film to its fullest.

I cannot recommend this film enough and urge people to go check it out on Hulu. If you don’t have Hulu…get a free week or something and then go watch It Was Just an Accident and also watch The Secret Agent – which is also streaming there.

My recommendation is to turn off the mindless, flag-waving, disinformation, propaganda news channels here in the U.S. (I assume you’re not watching the propaganda news channels in Iran), and instead go spend an hour and forty minutes and watch It Was Just an Accident right now…you will be very glad you did.

©2026

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 151 - Song Sung Blue

On this episode, Barry and I harmonize while singing the blues over the absolutely insane Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson film, Song Sung Blue. Topics discussed include how this movie is totally bananas, how mind-blowing it is to watch, and how on earth did Kate Hudson get nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for this performance?

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 151 - Song Sung Blue

Thanks for listening!

©2026

Predator: Badlands - A Clever Twist on the Predator Formula

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE IT/SKIP IT. A mixed bag of a movie that could have been better but entertains nonetheless.

Predator: Badlands, directed by Dan Trachtenberg, is the seventh film in the Predator franchise and it tells the story of Dek, a young predator who is exiled from his Yautja family and must kill an unkillable beast on a far-away planet to prove his worth to his father.

The Predator franchise, which began in 1987 with John McTiernan’s glorious Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, has been revitalized in recent years after decades of disrepair, and it is all thanks to filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg.

Trachtenberg helmed the 2022 film Prey, which set the usual Predator formula amongst a Native American tribe back in the 1700s. I thoroughly enjoyed that film and found it be a clever twist on the Predator story.

Next up for Predator and Trachtenberg was 2025’s Predator: Killer of Killers, an animated anthology that set the Predator formula amongst Viking warriors, Japanese Samurai, and World War II American pilots. I found this film to be a mixed bag – better as an idea than in execution.

Which brings us to Predator: Badlands, which hit theatres on November 7th of last year and performed quite well at the box office – garnering $185 million on a $105 million budget. The film is now available to stream on Hulu, which is where I watched it.

It is undeniably an interesting idea to turn the Predator formula of a Yautja – the official name of what a “predator” from all the movies actually is, from a vicious villain into a hero with whom you are meant to sympathize.

Badlands is aided in this transition in audience expectations by the ever-charming Elle Fanning, who plays Thia, a Weyland-Yutani (the evil company from the Alien film franchise) humanoid robot, who becomes Dek’s sidekick on his journey to redemption/revenge.

All of the pieces are in place for Predator: Badlands to be a big success, and it almost pulls it all off. Unfortunately, it still feels like a better idea than it is a movie. It isn’t a bad movie…it just feels like it could’ve been a better one.

The opening which gives an insight into the family dynamics of the Yautja, is a bit bumpy, but it delivers the message loud and clear – Dek is a runt of the litter and no one respects him. So, he must go prove himself by killing an apex predator – the Kalisk, in order to be officially welcomed into the Yautja klan.

The world where Dek goes to hunt the feared Kalisk, Genna “The Death Planet”, is supposed to be this treacherous place filled with the coolest of deadly flora and fauna, but all the flora and fauna are pretty silly looking and disappointing.

The fight and battle scenes in the film are pretty underwhelming too…repetitious and often-times not very imaginative. Even the big bad Kalisk doesn’t seem so big and bad once we get a look at it…except it possesses one trait which is like a cheat code in a video game.

The best part of the film is without question Elle Fanning’s Thia. Thia, who is a humanoid robot on a fact-finding mission for Weyland-Yutani – the same nefarious corporation behind the mayhem in the Alien franchise (and also my current employer), has been stranded, cut in half and left in a vultures nest on Genna.

Dek stumbles upon Thia and she claims she can help him on his hunt, so he saves her. The problem is that she only has an upper torso, and due to this disability Dek must carry her around the planet on his back.

Thia is a motor-mouth and gives a running and rather humorous commentary on everything going on during their odyssey. Why Thia, a robot, is so funny and sarcastic is beyond me…but this one-sided repartee definitely works. Dek on the other hand, like all Yautja, is seemingly incapable and allergic to humor, so the pairing of the witty Thia and the diabolically serious Dek, makes for as fun a rom-com couple as I’ve seen in years.

The story goes from there and while I won’t give any spoilers away, I will say that it has some twists and turns in it that I did not see coming…which is no small accomplishment.

The thing about this movie is that it does have a lot going for it…Elle Fanning’s charms and a clever twist on the formula being the two prime examples, but it never felt to me like it quite put it all together in the very best possible way.

That said, I am glad that Dan Trachtenberg is in charge of the Predator franchise…and to be honest I’m just glad somebody is in charge of the franchise.

For all of Trachtenberg’s faults – like his reliance on tired woke tropes to spice up storytelling, he at least gives a rat’s ass about the franchise. He is trying stuff…and that is better than the vast majority of franchise entertainment nowadays.

I feel the same way about Trachtenberg’s Predator franchise that I do about the current state of the Alien franchise – namely that they are poised to potentially be interesting science-fiction entertainment for the next decade…middle-of-the-road entertainment…but entertainment nonetheless.

The fact that Predator and Alien are two intertwined franchises makes for the possibility of fun and interesting storytelling…especially with the awful Alien vs Predator stuff having already been done and done badly in the past. One can only hope that these franchises…which seem to be at least headed in a decent direction despite having had some really bad movies in their canon, can keep going in the right direction.

As for Predator: Badlands, I think that there are worse ways to spend your time than with the luminous Elle Fanning – even just half of her, and with a Yautja out for blood.

The movie isn’t perfect…in fact, it is mostly just average, but in a world where the vast majority of franchise entertainment, be it superhero stories or narcissistic Mission: Impossible adventures, are bloated big budget messes and misfires, Predator: Badlands is a harmless bit of mindless entertainment – if you enjoy such things in general, and Predator films in particular, you should check it out.

©2026

Song Sung Blue: A Review - A Bizarre and Bewildering Bio-Pic

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SKIP IT/SEE IT. This is one of the strangest stories and movies I’ve seen in a while. It isn’t the slightest bit good, but it could be something worth watching just to see the absolute insanity of it all.

Song Sung Blue, starring Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman, is a bio-pic that chronicles the tumultuous life and times of Mike and Claire Sardina, a duo who back in the 1990s performed as Lightning and Thunder – a Neil Diamond tribute band.

The film, which is written and directed by Craig Brewer and is based on the Greg Kohs book of the same name, hit theatres on Christmas Day and is now available to stream on Peacock…which is where I just watched it.

I don’t know how else to say this but…Song Sung Blue is one of the most batshit crazy movies I’ve seen in a long time. What makes it all the more insane is that it is actually a true story.

I went into Song Sung Blue expecting a sort of light-hearted, feel-good, little love story or rom-com type of movie featuring Jackman and Hudson doing their usual charming movie star turns, getting some laughs, and singing some Neil Diamond songs – a decent enough formula.

The film certainly seems like just that exact thing through the first hour of its two-hour and twelve-minute runtime. Then, literally out of nowhere, things go absolutely apeshit. And when I say absolutely apeshit…I mean…ABSOLUTELY APESHIT.

I will not give any spoilers about this movie at all because that wouldn’t be fair to readers and also you wouldn’t believe me if I told you anyway. Let’s just say that Song Sung Blue is definitely not a romance or a rom-com or a feel-good sing-song fun time. No, Song Sung Blue is definitely a drama…a bad, hackneyed drama, but a drama nonetheless.

Apparently, the Mike and Claire Sardina story – which is essentially a modern version of the Book of Job chronicling the plagues through which these two poor people must suffer, is somewhat well-known, but it wasn’t well-known to me, and frankly, it is so insanely crazy that it feels fake…like something conjured in the mind of a psychologically-twisted soap opera writer who is very drunk and also on copious amounts of psychedelics.

Writer/director Craig Brewer struggles mightily to make this outrageous story feel the least bit real. It’s shot like a bad Hallmark channel movie, and it features some of the most bizarre scenes and sequences you’ve ever seen in your life. The one overriding characteristic of the film is that it is drowned under a gigantic tsunami of schmaltz.

There’s a bevy of paper-thin, cardboard cutout characters that do not in any way resemble human beings, who all have hearts of gold and soft-smiles. There’s a cavalcade of ludicrous situations made all the more ludicrous by the ham-fisted way in which they are executed. There’s also a hospital sequence that, like much of the rest of the film, feels like an SNL skit that was cut from the show because it was too over-the-top, unintentionally funny and also it made no sense.

Kate Hudson has been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her work as Claire – Thunder to Mike’s Lightning. Hudson does all the things she thinks she’s supposed to do…wears frumpy clothes, talks with a Midwestern accent, and all the rest…but what she doesn’t do is even try to hide the fact that she is trying really hard to act. Everything she does seems fake and completely devoid of any genuine humanity. It is all posing and preening and seems like someone not particularly good at acting trying really hard to actually act and signal to you that she’s acting.

Hudson, who has in her life been married to two prominent singers – Chris Robinson (of The Black Crows) and Matt Bellamy (of Muse), has fancied herself a singer in recent years and even put out an album in 2024. It seems like she took this role so she’d have a chance to sing on screen…no shame in that I suppose…but it all feels so forced and not organic and more than a little performative in a self-conscious, cutesy way.  

Hugh Jackman, always one to want to break into song and/or dance, does his usual Hugh Jackman stuff as Mike. He pushes way too hard and overacts a helluva lot, and it all feels like a sort-of-gay, theatre-muffin Wolverine is now the lead singer of a Neil Diamond tribute band.

Jackman’s singing, which is not something I think is generally very good, actually fits this character as he is not supposed to be all that great…so mission accomplished. But the more complicated emotional acting stuff needed from Jackman is not nearly as successful.

There are a cornucopia of supporting turns by the likes of Michael Imperioli – as a Buddy Holly impersonator, and Jim Belushi as a bus driver, and Fisher Stevens as a dentist, that are all rather cringe-worthy in their vacuity….so there’s that.

The strangest thing about this movie is how it tackles some rather enormous dramatic material in the most thoughtless and frivolous of ways. It is such a tonally deaf and emotionally obtuse movie that it frankly feels kind of offensive towards the real people it is dramatizing and their sizable real-life suffering.

Maybe I am either over or under-thinking the whole thing. Maybe making a schmaltzy, saccharine and slightly unhinged movie about two slightly unhinged people who make a life out of singing the saccharine and schmaltzy anthems of Neil Diamond is the point of all this. If so, then…I guess they did their job. But unfortunately, the movie just doesn’t work except in having you continually shaking your head and dropping your jaw in disbelief at what just happened on the screen.

I was thinking that this might be the type of movie that certain segments of the population might seek out and enjoy. Older audiences who are Neil Diamond fans might seek it out. And Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson fans as well. But I can’t help but think that they would have the same expectations that I did going in and really be shocked, and probably disappointed, at what they find.

Those who go into the film knowing it is a drama might receive it a bit better, but only people who like a rather broad and basic type of drama will truly enjoy it – and I don’t say that as a negative judgement on those people, just in an attempt to properly categorize the film.

The bottom line is that I don’t think this is a good film…but it might be a fun film to watch just to see how batshit it really is – just know that going in and it will make the viewing experience more worthwhile. So, if you want to spend a little over two hours laughing at the poorly rendered misery of two very unfortunate real-people…then Song Sung Blue might be for you.

©2026

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 150 - If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

On this episode, Barry and I climb through a gaping hole in our ceiling to discuss filmmaker Mary Bronstein's terrific movie meditation on the madness of motherhood, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, starring Rose Byrne. Topics discussed include the undeniable talent of Rose Byrne, Bronstein's deft direction, and the small movie's big time friends. Also included in the pod is a discussion about the all-time great acting icon Robert Duvall, who died this week at 95.

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 150 - If I Had legs I'd Kick You

Thanks for listening!

©2026

Blue Moon: A Review - Ethan Hawke Hits it Over the Moon

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE IT. A flawed film that features a very noteworthy performance from Ethan Hawke that makes it well-worth watching.

Blue Moon, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Ethan Hawke, tells the story of famed lyricist Lorenz Hart (Hawke) navigating emotional turmoil as he attends the 1943 opening night party of his former writing partner Richard Rodgers’ new Broadway musical Oklahoma!

The film, which has garnered two Academy Award nominations – Best Actor for Ethan Hawke and Best original Screenplay for Robert Kaplow, hit theatres on October 17th with little fanfare and is now available to stream on Netflix…which is where I just watched it.

For those of you unfamiliar with Lorenz Hart, he – along with his collaborator Richard Rodgers, made up Rodgers and Hart - one of the great musical duos in music theatre history – creating such notable numbers as “Lady is a Tramp”, “Isn’t it Romantic?”, “My Funny Valentine”, and of course, “Blue Moon”.

Hart was a notorious drunk and difficult collaborator, and so Rodgers looked for other writing partners and found one in Oscar Hammerstein…and remarkably that duo outdid the success of Rodgers and Hart – churning out a bevy of Broadway box office smash hits like Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music among others.

Which brings us to Blue Moon, which is a curious venture.

The film is, in a clever nod to its subject, essentially a stage play, as it is set in Sardi’s bar – the famed apres-show eatery for Broadway big wigs, where Lorenz Hart, struggling with alcoholism mixed with self-doubt and existential angst, holds court amongst wannabes and some notable somebodies, as he awaits a party to start for his former partner Richard Rodgers on opening night of his soon-to-be smash hit musical Oklahoma!

Anyone who has spent even a modicum of time in the theatre or entertainment world is very familiar with the archetype of the aging gay queen that poor Lorenz Hart is occupying as he holds court at the corner of a bar regaling sycophants, stoics and sad sacks alike with his wondrous tales, which, if seen through more discerning eyes are less funny comic confessionals than they are malignant, narcissistic ramblings.

The film is contained within the walls of Sardi’s, and that is the stage for Ethan Hawke to spin his masterful brilliance as Hart flails with flair on the downward spiral of his life.

Ethan Hawke has done some of his very best work with Richard Linklater at the helm (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight, and Boyhood) and Blue Moon is the very best of the bunch. He is utterly fantastic in this role. Hawke’s Hart is a magnetic, brilliant, and existentially sad shlub, marinated in a profound melancholy of his own making and it is absolutely captivating to behold.

Hawke’s Hart is funny, frustrating and at times deeply moving and always compelling. Hawke is nominated for Best Actor at this year’s Academy Awards and while he stands no chance to win, he certainly is deserving of the award.

As much as I loved Ethan Hawke in the film and also loved that it is essentially a stage play, Blue Moon does have some major flaws to it.

First off, the character of Elizabeth – the Yale undergrad theatre student with whom Hart has become infatuated despite his being homosexual, is, despite being a cornerstone of the storytelling, a not-needed and often annoying distraction.

To be clear, I love Margaret Qualley – the actress who plays Elizabeth, and have ever since I first saw her in Novitiate in 2017. She is a dynamic talented and a luminous beauty…but both the Elizabeth character and Qualley’s performance just don’t work for me.

The same is true of Bobby Cannavale as the bartender Eddie. I must admit that I think Bobby Cannavale is awful in everything I see him in…and he makes everything he is in worse…and Blue Moon is no exception.

Andrew Scott and Patrick Kennedy fare much better in supporting roles as Richard Rodgers and E.B. White respectively…so there’s that.

But again…even as much as I liked Kennedy’s reserved performance as E.B. White, it touches upon another issue I had with the film…namely the Zelig/Forest Gump-esque quality of Lorenz Hart in this film to touch history with his nearly every interaction.

For example, Hart gives prescient writing advice to E.B. White (who goes on the write Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little), prescient storytelling advice to George Roy Hill (who goes on the direct Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid among others), and prescient insight to a pre-pubescent Stephen Sondheim (who goes on to be a giant in musical theatre).

This series of historical interactions is so cheesy it made my lactose intolerance act up…and most importantly…it is entirely made up…it never happened in real life. Why the writer Kaplow and Linklater thought the story needed this corny nonsense is utterly beyond me.

Kaplow did write a strong one-man show for Hawke to flex his acting monologue muscles as Hart, and he should be credited for that, but he stumbles badly in terms of structure and secondary characters and storylines.

As for Linklater, Blue Moon is the second film he has put out this year, the other being Nouvelle Vague – the story of the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s classic French new wave film Breathless. Nouvelle Vague served little purpose but to get people to watch Breathless again…or for the first time…and that’s a noble cause, but Blue Moon feels like the more compelling movie to me…maybe that’s because I know less about Lorenz hart and musical theatre than I do about Breathless and French New Wave cinema….who knows?

The truth is that neither film is quite as good as it should have been…but Blue Moon is a much better movie because Ethan Hawke is absolutely crushing it in the lead role.

The bottom line is that while Blue Moon certainly has its flaws, it is an undeniably compelling watch simply because Ethan Hawke is so damn good as Lorenz Hart.

If you are a current or former theatre muffin, or if you are a devout and devoted lover of musical theatre, I think Blue Moon will be worth a watch to get a glimpse of Hawke masterfully bringing the troubled Lorenz Hart back to life before your eyes.

For those not as enamored of musical theatre, fret not…Blue Moon still works as a one-man Ethan Hawke acting show that will hold your attention despite its unevenness. So, if you get a chance, you could do worse than check out Blue Moon.

©2026

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 149 - The Smashing Machine

On this episode, Barry and Mike square off in the octagon and do battle over Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's UFC drama, The Smashing Machine, directed by Benny Safdie. Topics discussed include The Rock's troubled career arc, director Benny Safdie's sad solo future, and the unbridled joy of everything Emily Blunt.

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 149 - The Smashing Machine

Thanks for listening!!

©2026

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere - A Review: Born to Run in Place

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SKIP IT. This bio-pic starts strong but finishes much too weakly to be a worthwhile venture. It could have, and should have, been significantly better.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, written and directed by Scott Cooper, is a bio-pic of sorts that chronicles both Bruce Springsteen’s struggle to make his critically-acclaimed 1982 album Nebraska and his battle with depression.

The film, which stars Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen, hit theatres on October 24, 2025 and is now available to stream on Hulu…which is where I watched it.

When I was growing up my first real introduction to Bruce Springsteen was his massively popular 1984 album Born in the USA. I was not fan of that song in particular, and the album in general…so much so that I wrote off Springsteen altogether. He seemed terribly uncool (something that was important to me as a young teen) and the jingoism of Born in the USA was repulsive to me on its face.

Then about a decade later a buddy of mine had an extra ticket to a Springsteen concert and gave it to me for free…and who am I to turn down a free concert ticket…so I went.

The concert was Springsteen without the E Street band and was part of the tour promoting his solo albums Human Touch and Lucky Town – two albums I didn’t think much of if I ever thought of them at all. Our seats were elevated and essentially behind the stage…which didn’t seem ideal….then Springsteen hit the stage.

It is a testament to Springsteen’s talent and skill that he turned a malevolent anti-fan like me into a big fan over the course of one concert. I understood by the end of that night what all the fuss was about regarding Springsteen…and why he was called The Boss.

Since then, I have essentially gone back and experienced his early albums for the first time, and even saw Born in the USA from a different perspective and liked it. It also helped hearing the stripped-down acoustic version of the song which is deliciously caustic in regards to its intentions.

After having spent the last three decades appreciating and absorbing The Boss’ work, I have come to the conclusion that he is one of the most essential American singer-songwriters of his era and maybe of any era.

Which brings us to Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.

This film is a bit of an odd duck, as the first half of it is as ambitious and audacious as any music bio-pic you’ll find, but the second half of it is so painfully trite and pedestrian it feels like an after-school special.

Let’s start with the good. The film’s first half deals with Springsteen fighting to keep his artistic integrity amidst pressure from his record label and struggling to make a stripped down, dark album that satiates his artistic urges.

Watching a film attempt to dramatize an iconic artists’ life by getting into his actual creative process and seeing what inspired him and propelled his work, is something that doesn’t fit nicely into the music bio-pic formula…and that’s what makes this choice so bold and brazen.

This is easily the best part of the film, as we see Springsteen research a murder in Nebraska that piques his interest and sparks his imagination and artistry. This is the less glamourous part of The Boss being The Boss. No fanfare, no nonsense, just him, his guitar, paper, pencil and long hours.

The album he eventually records at home on a four-track becomes his iconic work Nebraska…but he has to get the record label on board first, and maybe re-record in the studio…and this is when the film shifts.

The second half of the film is not about creation or artistry, it is about Springsteen dealing with his family, his fame, and his depression…all standard fare for a music bio-pic….and none of it is very compelling.

The decision to all of a sudden make the movie about Bruce’s struggle with depression is a bizarre creative choice as it scuttles any momentum and it feels entirely unearned. Also unearned is a romance with a local Jersey girl that feels random and lifeless.

The ending of the film has a written epilogue that is reminiscent of an after-school special where the viewer is informed that everything worked out for Bruce as he becomes a massive superstar and he essentially overcomes his depression with help from professionals. Yikes.

That epilogue reminded me of the textual epilogue at the end of Clint Eastwood’s 1988 film Bird – a biopic about jazz legend Charlie Parker that features a brilliant performance from Forest Whitaker. Bird is overall a pretty bad movie, and that is only accentuated by the epilogue which – in true Regan era sloganeering form, tells us that unlike the drug-addled Charlie Parker who died at 34, supporting-character “Red Rodney is actively performing today, providing an example of musical excellence and a drug-free life.” Thanks, Nancy Reagan.

Deliver Me from Nowhere didn’t need its textual epilogue…at all. It should have just let sleeping dogs lie but it couldn’t, probably because Bruce Springsteen had control of what could, and couldn’t be in the movie. That is unfortunate because when it happens the much-needed hard edges of drama and artistry get softened and rounded.

Jeremy Allen White does a decent enough job as Springsteen throughout. He is hamstrung by the script which in the second half is a bit too melo-dramatic than it should be.

I’ve not watched White’s popular series The Bear, but I can see why he is as popular as he is because he has a screen presence that is appealing and a certain magnetism that serves him well. I thought overall his work as Springsteen was not spectacular but, ironically, workman like.

Jeremy Strong plays Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau – who is a legend in the music industry. Strong is a very good actor, but he isn’t given much to do in this role. He, like White…is just fine in the role but not great.

The biggest takeaway I had from the performances of both White and Strong was that this movie had the opportunity to be great…but it never coalesced into what it could have, and maybe should have, been.

A lot of the blame for the film’s failing lies with writer/director Scott Cooper. Cooper has had a strange career. His first film was Crazy Heart (2009), which won Jeff Bridges his best Actor Oscar. Pretty impressive. His next film was Out of the Furnace (2013) – which despite a stacked cast bombed at the box office and was critically forgotten.

In 2015 Cooper delivered the film Black Mass, about the life and times of Whitey Bulger, and while I like that film, it underperformed and underwhelmed. Since then, he’s made Hostiles (2017), Antlers (2021) and The Pale Blue Eye (2022), none of which made much of a dent in the culture despite their top-notch casts.

Cooper’s biggest issue with Deliver Me from Nowhere is that he doesn’t commit to the arthouse version of the film where it is just about Springsteen trying to write and record Nebraska. Trying to round out that story with flaccid familial drama and cookie-cutter mental health stuff feels like an attempt to make the movie more commercially viable…which ironically is what I think made it less commercially viable.

Speaking of which, Deliver Me from Nowhere did not do well at the box office, making $45 million on a $55 million budget. It also did not receive any award nominations or critical praise…which pretty much is in line with what happened to the rest of Scott Cooper’s filmography.

Ultimately, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is a harmless and pretty forgettable movie which has moments of artistic insight that if further pursued could have led to brilliance….but t’was not to be.

I’d also like to say one thing about Springsteen himself. I think you’d be much better served going back and listening to his entire discography, including the outtakes and live material, than watching this movie. I also think you’d be better served watching his Broadway one man show, Springsteen on Broadway, on Netflix, and reading his autobiography Born to Run…both of which are excellent.

One final matter regarding the The Boss that I feel needs be said, and it’s this. Bruce Springsteen is an icon and avatar for the working class in this country, the white working class in particular…despite by his own admission, having never had a real job in his entire life.

What bothers me about Springsteen nowadays is that he has more money than he’ll ever know what to do with….and his kids, his grandkids, and all the way to his great-great-great grandkids, will never have to work a day in their lives if they don’t want to. And yet…Springsteen charges the most exorbitant and outrageous prices for his concert tickets…essentially forcing his hard-working fans to either shell out a huge chunk of their savings/credit or miss out on seeing their blue-collar savior.

This bothers me no end. It bothers me because I want to believe that Bruce Springsteen is the real deal…that he gets it and gets working class people and understands the struggle. But then he gets greedy, and reveals himself to be just another pompous, self-serving, boomer shit-lib prick who is only playing the working-class thing as a shtick to separate fools from their money – (consider me among the fools).

I feel the same about another band of greedy boomer shit-libs, U2, who have forever and ever been preaching about their political and spiritual righteousness in one form or another, and lots of people…like me for instance…have fallen for it. U2 are calculated con-men playing the role of concerned citizens. They don’t believe in anything but their own fame and fortune. This is why they spoke out about South African apartheid in the 1980s, but refused to pick sides in the struggle in Northern Ireland (only waving a white flag)…because one of the sides in that struggle was the largest market they needed to break in to…England. They couldn’t make a moral and ethical stand over civil rights for Catholics in Northern Ireland because that would alienate the audience they needed...but it cost U2 nothing to make a stand regarding South Africa. This is also why U2 refused to speak out against apartheid Israel and its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank…they wouldn’t dare stand up to the powerful Zionist moneyed interests in Israel and the U.S. Nevermind the bands use of tax havens while demanding working Americans and the Irish pay for their foreign policy moral preening projects.

Now that the scales have fallen from my eyes, I see U2 and Bono and The Boss not just as bullshit artists but genuinely malignant and nefarious actors in the public sphere. That’s not to say that their music sucks and to discard all of the things they’ve created…it’s just to say that it’s difficult to take what they say – be it in the world or in their music, at face value once you’ve seen who they really are behind the mask.

The truth is that this entire topic is worthy of a much deeper conversation, but that conversation is for another day, but I thought I’d just throw these thoughts out there as a little appetizer.

As for Springsteen: Deliver me from Nowhere…if you are a Springsteen fan you will probably watch it regardless of what I say, and you’ll probably be a bit underwhelmed by it just like me. If you’re not a Springsteen fan, the reality is that you really have no need to watch this movie at all.

©2026

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 148 - Bugonia

On this barn-burner of an episode, Barry and I shave our heads and castrate ourselves as we fight over Yorgos Lanthimos' Academy Award nominated film Bugonia, starring Emma Stone. Topics discussed include the positives and negatives of Lanthimos' particular taste and style, challenging audience expectation, and Alex Jones, David Icke and the current conspiracy cultural moment.

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 148 - Bugonia

Thanks for listening!

©2026

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You: A Review - The Madness and Mania of Motherhood

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE IT. Be forewarned, this film isn’t so much a dramedy as it is a horror-comedy that is nightmare fuel for parents…it also features a terrific performance from Rose Byrne.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, written and directed by Mary Bronstein, follows the travails of Linda, a mother who must deal with a plethora of disasters in her life all while caring for her chronically ill daughter.

The film, which stars Rose Byrne – who is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work, opened in theatres back on October 10th, and is now streaming on HBO Max…which is where I just watched it.

The basic plot of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is that Linda (Rose Byrne) is caring for her daughter, who I guess is maybe 7 or 8 years old, who has a mysterious chronic condition that requires a feeding tube. Linda is caring for her daughter while working full-time as a psychotherapist and while her husband is away for a few months for his work. In other words, Linda is on her own and has her hands full…and life keeps throwing one catastrophe after another at her until she is overwhelmed by the sheer scope and scale of disasters in her life.

The film bills itself as a psychological comedy-drama…which is sort of a tortured way to describe it. When I was about two-thirds of the way through the film I finally recognized what the movie really is…it is a horror movie. I think if you watch the movie as a horror film it will actually make a lot more sense and it will heighten its positive attributes.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a difficult film to watch…that’s not to say it’s bad because it isn’t, but it is extremely effective and affecting. The odyssey that Linda goes on and the gauntlet she endures is the stuff of real-world nightmares. Any parent will immediately recognize the hell on earth that Linda is living through and will be greatly uncomfortable. Every parent has been through those times when everything is off and everything goes wrong and you have a bad day…or even a bad week…but Linda’s torment goes on for months and it is excruciating to witness.

Filmmaker Mary Bronstein does a terrific job of using all the tools at her disposal to increase the anxiety of viewers throughout, most notably through sound…the constant sound of the daughter’s over-night feeding device beeping, or the incredulously grating sound of the daughter’s voice whenever she opens her mouth…all of it adds to the tension.

Bronstein also is very clever in that she puts all the focus on Byrne’s Linda and just uses the child as a prop of agitation…so much so that you never see the daughter’s face. The faceless daughter is not an object of love to be adored, she is an irritant to be endured. In this way Bronstein effectively captures what it’s like to be in the worst moments of parenthood…unfortunately for Linda this moment lasts for months on end and not an afternoon.

Rose Byrne has gotten much acclaim for her performance in the film, and there’s an outside chance she wins a Best Actress Oscar for it…and it would be well-deserved. She is fantastic as the haggard Linda, who is constantly on the verge of absolutely losing her mind and with it her shit.

Byrne has always been an under-rated actress, and seeing her embrace such a tortured and ugly role is a joy and reveals her to be quite the subtle craftswoman. Watching Byrne’s Linda shift the masks she wears in public for differing audiences…be they her daughter, her daughter’s doctor, her clients, her own therapist, her neighbors…and have it all be believable no matter how unbelievable she is, is impressive. Her performance is akin to watching as frog in a pot of water as it slowly boils…as it is both captivating and cruel.

The film is not perfect though, as it has some stories and character arcs that are pretty ineffective. For example, there’s a whole storyline involving James, Linda’s neighbor, that doesn’t make a bit of sense and sort of sucks the life out of the film every time it takes center stage. James is played by rapper ASAP Rocky, and he is, to be kind – a lifeless screen presence.

On the plus side, Conan O’Brien has a small supporting role as Linda’s therapist and he does a good job at being a douchebag…which I found amusing.

Speaking of amusing, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You certainly has funny moments but it doesn’t feel like a comedy. The laughs it generates are more a function of anxiety and tension than anything else. The biggest joke of all, of course, is just the Book of Job-like, continuous onslaught of horribleness that is perpetually inflicted upon poor Linda.

Ultimately, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a grueling endurance test for parents to watch…but it does bring with it some psychological insight and the briefest sprinkling of profundity, which all parents will recognize when it rears its head.

That said, I watched the film on my own, and I would be very curious to know what mothers think of it as I think it may cut way too close to the bone for even the most-hearty of matriarchs to endure. I mean, if a mother finally gets some free time, and they use it to watch a movie, do they want that movie to essentially be a horror film about a cavalcade of awful parenting shit being thrown at the lovely Rose Byrne who gets buried under a mountain of said shit? I honestly don’t know.

Mothers may find catharsis in the film by seeing themselves and their struggle, or they may leave the movie more anxious than when they went in. Who knows?

All I will say is that I think overall, the film is well-made by Mary Bronstein, and Rose Byrne gives a terrific performance as Linda. If you have the stomach for it, I recommend you at least give If I Had Legs I’d Kick You a try…but go in knowing it is essentially a horror film for parents…with a few laughs sprinkled throughout.

©2026  

The Smashing Machine: A Review - MMA Drama Lacks Punch

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SKIP IT. A missed opportunity of a movie that wastes a good performance by Dwayne Johnson with a bad script and sub-par filmmaking.

The Smashing Machine, written and directed by Benny Safdie, is a biopic that chronicles the personal life and career of esteemed amateur wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr.

The film, which stars Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt, was released in theatres on October 3, 2025, and is now available to stream on HBO Max, which is where I watched it.

Director Benny Safdie, who along with his brother Josh, made his name as a member of the Safdie brothers directing duo, is flying solo with The Smashing Machine just like his brother Josh was alone at the helm on his new movie Marty Supreme. I reviewed Marty Supreme yesterday and revealed how underwhelmed and annoyed I was with that movie…now it’s Benny’s turn in the barrel. (As an aside, a scandal broke yesterday regarding the Safdie brothers and the mistreatment of an underage actress on the set of their 2017 film Good Time – but that is a discussion for another day.)

The Smashing Machine follows the ups and downs of Mark Kerr (Dwayne Johnson), a decorated amateur wrestler turned mixed-martial arts fighter, as he navigates the early days of MMA, a tumultuous relationship with his girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt), and drug addiction.

The Smashing Machine is a truly perplexing movie. It is one of those films where you are constantly waiting for the actual story to start, but it somehow never does. The whole venture feels entirely cursory, scattered and frivolous, which is an odd thing to feel considering the rather compelling life that Mark Kerr has lived.

It is also a movie that seems at odds with itself. For example, the film’s star, Dwayne Johnson, is notorious for his rather putrid filmography and The Smashing Machine was supposed to be his big-breakout as a “real” actor and a potential Oscar contender. But that didn’t happen because the film flopped at the box office and with critics. What is crazy though, is that Johnson is actually pretty good in the role of Mark Kerr.

Johnson, aided by some fantastic make up by Kazu Hiro, is…as incredible as it is to say since he is such a distinctive star – unrecognizable as Kerr. His face is altered to look like Kerr – or at least to not look like The Rock that we all know. And Johnson does a good job in the dramatic scenes where he must navigate a character that is both guarded and yet also on the verge of being out of control.

The problem though is that the film never lives up to the good work Johnson does in it. The script is a dramatically incoherent mess that flits from one inconsequential scene to another, inhabited by paper thin caricatures pretending to be characters.

You would think that the fight scenes would at least be where Safdie and his cinematographer Maceo Bishop would flex their muscles…but no. The fight sequences in this movie are so visually stilted and relentlessly dull that it is rather shocking to behold.

It isn’t just the fight scenes that are cinematically flaccid, as the entire film looks like a second-rate tv movie.

Emily Blunt plays Kerr’s girlfriend Dawn, who is both a loving partner and an insidious influence on him. Blunt looks amazing, and actually does decent work in the role, but her character makes absolutely zero dramatic sense thanks to the abysmal script.

Both Johnson and Blunt deserved better…a better script, better direction, better cinematography. But what they got was a series of disconnected scenes where they do their best but it is all for naught.

The Smashing Machine eschews traditional sports movie structure and narrative arc, and that would have been a noble arthouse choice to make if the film were even remotely well-made…but it isn’t and so this eschewing of sports movie orthodoxy becomes nothing more than just another frustration for viewers.

The most frustrating thing about the film is that it could have, maybe even should have, been great…and it had many paths to greatness but Benny Safdie chose none of them.

It could have been a straight forward sports movie…sort of an early MMA Rocky movie. Or it could have been an arthouse exploration of a fighter’s dark side and decline…like Raging Bull. But for some reason Benny Safdie took the very worst aspects of both of those type of movies and threw them together haphazardly and turned out a movie so instantly forgettable it feels like it doesn’t even exist when you’re watching it. Hell, it could have been an intimate and in-depth study on the intricacies of mixed-martial arts and the clashing of fighting styles…but it isn’t that either…and it isn’t a redemption story or addiction story or relationship story.

One would assume that since Dwayne Johnson did not get the Oscar nomination and critical-praise he was seeking with The Smashing Machine, that he will revert back to being The Rock and churning out the most reprehensible big budget garbage imaginable from this point forward. That would be unfortunate for everyone involved…audiences most of all.

One hopes that Johnson continues to at least take chances in the roles he chooses and avoids the pitfalls he has repeatedly fallen in to over the course of his career.

One also hopes that Emily Blunt, who is a terrific actress and very charming movie star, will choose more arthouse movies and more challenging roles going forward. She is someone who should be in Oscar contention year in and year out…but she needs to make better choices in the movies she makes.

As for Benny Safdie…I don’t know what to say. I didn’t like Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme but there is no doubt that it is a vastly superior to The Smashing Machine. Josh is definitely winning the battle of the brothers and has shown himself to be the filmmaking talent in the duo.

Benny has fancied himself an actor as well, with roles in both Licorice Pizza and Oppenheimer….and he was as awful in both roles as he was at directing The Smashing Machine. Not good for Benny…and considering Benny might be the source who leaked the new Safdie scandal on Good Time in order to sabotage his brother’s Oscar chances this year…it would seem a filmmaking reunion between Benny and Josh isn’t in the cards.

As for The Smashing Machine…I simply can’t recommend it to anyone…be they cinephiles, sports movie lovers or MMA fans. It is a terribly missed opportunity for all involved and an absolute waste of Dwayne Johnson’s rarely seen talents.

©2026

Marty Supreme: a Review - Supremely Over-Rated

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SKIP IT. An overlong, annoying, grating and irritating movie devoid of drama, comedy, meaning, and purpose.

Marty Supreme, written and directed by Josh Safdie, is a dramedy that chronicles the travails of an arrogant, narcissistic, world-class ping pong player/con-man in the 1950’s.

The film, which stars Timothee Chalamet in the titular role, hit theatres on Christmas and has made over $100 million on a $70 million budget. It has also garnered nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Chalamet), Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

Director Josh Safdie, formerly of the directing duo the Safdie brothers, is the darling of the hipster set. His previous film (directed by the Safdie brothers) was Uncut Gems, which was adored by critics and despised by me.

That film featured Adam Sandler in the lead role playing a grotesquely repugnant gambling addict on an extended odyssey. Marty Supreme follows a similar roadmap, it tells the story of a grotesquely repugnant ping-pong player who is an arrogant asshole and compulsive bullshit artist on an extended odyssey.

I have heard in my life a lot of people complain about one movie or another by saying that ‘there was no one to root for’, or something along those lines. I understand that criticism but have never found it compelling. I don’t need to root for someone to enjoy a movie…at all.

But the problem with Marty Supreme…and with Uncut Gems…is that I found myself absolutely despising every single character on-screen for the duration of the film. I wasn’t rooting for them or against them…I was just wanting them to go away. I also was mystified by these lead characters and the actors playing them because they lacked charisma and magnetism and yet were supposed to be charismatic and magnetic. Shrug.

The problem with Uncut Gems and Marty Supreme is not unlikable characters, but rather unbelievable one-dimensional characters that are unlikeable.  

What bothered me about Marty Supreme is that it is much too sprawling and meandering a movie to hold one’s attention on such a fruitless ride with such a repulsive character as the lead.

The film never grabs you by the neck and demands your attention because it lacks focus and dramatic verve. Marty goes from one frying pan into the fire situation after another, and none of them are the least bit compelling…just repetitive and grating.

Marty’s odyssey takes him all over the world and puts him into conflict with rich and powerful men of varying degrees wherever he goes…and while the rich and powerful don’t come across very well at all, Marty comes across even worse. Marty is such a relentless, gigantic douchebag that this movie feels like a piece of anti-proletariat agit-prop.

I’ve heard the argument that Marty Supreme is about ‘the pursuit of greatness’ and I find that argument to be sorely lacking. Marty is not pursuing greatness – the truth is ping-pong is a distant second place in his hierarchy to his ego and his baser instincts. He isn’t pursuing greatness he is pursuing his own gratification and self-aggrandizement.

What I find fascinating is that Josh Safdie is Jewish (and obviously his brother is too) and yet in both Uncut Gems and Marty Supreme he has turned his Jewish protagonists into the most awful human beings imaginable animated by nothing more than Jewish stereotypes. They literally have zero redeeming qualities. I am not sure why he has done that, but he has definitely done it. It is so bad that if a non-Jewish filmmaker had made those two films, they would have been pilloried for being anti-Semitic…and rightfully so.

I have intentionally avoided delving too deeply into the morass that is the plot of Marty Supreme in order to avoid spoilers and because it is annoying to even try and recall. Just know that it is all over the place and none of it is worth paying attention to.

There are so many worthless and wandering scenes and sequences in this film it made my head hurt…for example there’s an entire chunk of the movie dedicated to Marty and a dog that is so relentlessly inane and absurd as to be infuriating.

Timothee Chalamet is the favorite to win Best Actor at this year’s Academy Awards, and I get why that is and it has nothing to do with this particular performance but rather with how he has masterfully positioned himself in the industry over the course of his career.

The reality is that Chalamet’s Marty is not a masterclass in acting. It is like a reality tv star performance crossed with a twitter troll come to life. Chalamet has one very good scene in the film and it is his final one…but beyond that he is less acting than he is play-acting…and badly at that.

Something that aggravated me throughout the film is that it is set in the 1950’s and yet Chalamet, and everyone else, speaks in a modern vernacular and acts in a modern way. I understand this is intentional on the part of Safdie – as he uses modern music throughout too, but I found it annoying as it took me out of the story – a story I was struggling to stay in to begin with.

Gwyneth Paltrow plays Kay Stone, a former movie star now trophy wife, with whom Marty has an affair. She does the best she can with a rather thinly written character, and has one scene where she realistically gets frantic, but beyond that there’s not much to see here.

Cinematographer Darius Khondji does his usual supreme – pardon the pun, work on the film. It is well-shot and well-lit, but that doesn’t make its storytelling failures any more palatable.

The success of the Safdie brothers in general, and Marty Supreme in particular, is a mystery to me. I find this film, and all of the Safdie brother’s films, to be relentlessly vacuous, vapid and venal. That critics and hipsters adore them doesn’t make me question my feelings about these films, but reinforces my feelings about critics and hipsters instead.

Ultimately, I cannot think of anyone who I know who would enjoy Marty Supreme, or even appreciate it as a work of cinematic art…and that is because I do not think it is much a work of cinematic art at all.

If you’re a Safdie brothers fan and loved Uncut Gems, then you will no doubt enjoy the interminably long, rather irritating roller coaster ride that is Marty Supreme. For everyone else…there’s nothing to see here.

©2026

Hamnet: A Review - To Be or Not To Be?

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE IT. A flawed but very affecting movie that features a fantastic performance from Jessie Buckley.

Hamnet, written and directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker Chloe Zhao, is a tragedy that dramatizes the life of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes, as well as the alleged origins of the play Hamlet.

The film, which is based on the book of the same name by Maggie O’Farrell, who also co-wrote the screenplay, stars Jessie Buckley as Agnes and Paul Mescal as the bard.

Hamnet hit select theatres here in the U.S. at the end of November and is in wide release still. I watched it over the weekend.

Let me start by saying that I am the ultimate target audience for this movie. First off, I am a classically trained actor…so I’ve done lots of Shakespeare, including playing Hamlet. And more importantly, how I got to be a classically trained actor fits perfectly into the thesis of Hamnet.

Here's the story…twenty-nine years ago my best friend, creative collaborator and overall partner-in-crime, Keith Hertell, with whom I had suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that accompany life as an artist in a cruel world, was killed in a car crash in Titusville, Florida.

At the time of his death, Keith and I were working a soul-crushing office job together, and he took a Friday off to fly down to Florida for a wedding. He never came back.

Due to a lack of talent and skill I am incapable of adequately expressing the devastation I felt, and still feel, regarding Keith’s death. He was the most unique, original, talented and magnetic person I have ever met. He was brilliant in a multitude of ways – a staggeringly gifted actor, comedian and musician. The most notable thing about Keith though was that he was unanimously adored by everyone who ever met him. He had an absurdly kind heart, a razor-sharp wit and an easy-going, disarming smile.

In the wake of Keith’s shuffling off his mortal coil and departing for the undiscovered country, from whose bourn, no traveller returns, I was absolutely inconsolable. I was disoriented, furious and depressed. I had nowhere to turn. Religion would have been somewhere for me to go but I was so angry at what God had done that I declared war on him…a foolish endeavour, no doubt, but fuck him…I had nothing to lose. It should come as no surprise that my war against God was an impulsive, ignoble cause and I was soundly defeated…although it took considerably longer than to be expected – anger is a remarkably useful fuel.

Then one day out of despair I picked up a paperback copy of Hamlet. I read it. In those pages I found a profound reflection of my own grief. It all made perfect sense to me now. Hamlet wasn’t crazy…he was grieving – which looks a lot like insanity to those outside of it.

I vividly remember riding the subway one day and being lost in my thoughts of Keith and having tears streaming down my face, and then remembering something hysterical he had done and laughing uncontrollably, and then weeping again…and then I sort of snapped out of it and noticed that everyone on the subway was staring at me like I was a lunatic – which I sort of was. My behavior on the subway that day was a perfect encapsulation of Hamlet. Grief knocks you out of the rhythm of everyday life, and you seem mad because you’re so out of sync with everyone, and everything, else.

Reading Hamlet, I found a dramatic rendition of my grief, which felt like profundity, if not solace, or at the very least understanding…which then gave me meaning and purpose. I set out from that moment on a pseudo-religious quest to learn as much as I could about Shakespeare’s work – not in an academic sense, but in an artistic one. I auditioned for a Shakespeare company, got in…then trained as much as I could…and ultimately went to London and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Pretty great experience born out of the most brutal experience imaginable.

Speaking of great experiences…or magical ones…I got to see Ralph Fiennes play Hamlet on Broadway thirty years ago…the best I’ve ever seen…then got to meet him – and his brother Joseph (of Shakespeare in Love fame), at RADA…pretty cool experience.

Which brings us to Hamnet. The thesis of the film is essentially that the play Hamlet was written in the deep throes of grief as a dramatic eulogy for Agnes and William Shakespeare’s lost child…which aligns with my experience of the play as grief personified.

The film is undeniably affecting, and boasts an emotionally powerful final twenty minutes that elicited from me guttural wails of grief, no doubt built up over a lifetime of heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.

The problem with Hamnet though, is that despite its moving final act, the film fails to fully form in its opening two acts.

The film is up and down…a walking dichotomy. For example, it is beautifully shot but poorly staged. There were multiple times where I marveled at cinematographer Lukasz Zal’s stunning work but was frustrated by a failure to provide adequate visual coverage of the dramatic events unfolding.

Another example is that the film boasts two exquisite performances from Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, but the script never develops the characters in any substantial way to have the drama they endure be anything but window dressing for the rending of garments that comes in the final act.

Speaking of the performances, Jessie Buckley, who is nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her work as Agnes, is spectacular in the role. Agnes is a delicious character for an actress, wild and witchy, and Buckley devours her with aplomb.

Buckley is the embodiment of primal maternal energy as Agnes…mother nature incarnate. She is grounded yet ethereal, and is aggressively compelling.

In the final act it is Buckley’s Agnes that is our avatar, and we watch the dramatic events unfold on stage through her eyes and it is a truly magical and mesmerizing experience.

Paul Mescal is not given quite as captivating a character as Buckley’s Agnes, but he makes the most of his Shakespeare role and truly comes to life when he is called upon to actually recite Shakespeare’s written words.

As previously stated, I am a sucker for anything in the SCU (Shakespeare Cinematic Universe), and while I found the final act riveting and emotionally potent, I feel like Hamnet could have…and should have…been better.

Unfortunately, Hamnet never fully coalesces into the coherent cinematic masterpiece that it obviously possesses the ability to be…and that was disappointing.

That said, I still found the film very moving, and if you like Shakespeare and like to cry, then Hamnet might be for you too. Is it as good as seeing a top-notch performance of Hamlet on stage? No. But what is?

So is Hamnet to be, or not to be? The answer is that conscience makes cowards of us all, and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied over with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pitch and moment, with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action….and so it is with Hamnet.

©2026

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 147 - The Rip

On this episode, Barry and I go undercover to discuss all things The Rip...the new Matt Damon and Ben Affleck cop action drama on Netflix. Topics discussed include our opinions on Matt, Ben, and Matt and Ben...and the nefariously negative influence of Netflix on the art of cinema.

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 147 - The Rip

Thanks for listening!

©2026

The Rip: A Review - Damon and Affleck's Generic Netflix Cop Slop

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: So instantly forgettable I am not entirely sure this movie even actually exists.

The Rip, starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, is an action thriller about Miami narcotics cops who discover a huge pile of drug money and have to figure out who among them is corrupt.

The film, written and directed by Joe Carnahan, is a Netflix original and hit the streaming service on Friday January 16th.

First off, let me say that in general I am a fan of both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as individuals, and have enjoyed the majority of work that they’ve done together over the years.

Damon and Affleck, of course, came to prominence in 1997 as writers/stars of the Academy Award winning Good Will Hunting, which is a deliriously compelling film. They didn’t write another film together until 2021’s The Last Duel – directed by Ridley Scott, which they also acted in. The Last Duel was overlooked due to Covid and disappointed many, but I thought it was quite good. Their most recent pairing on-screen was Air (2023) – the story of Nike saving itself by creating the Air Jordan sneaker, which neither of them wrote but which Affleck directed – it was good enough.

Good Will Hunting, The Last Duel and Air are a great, a good, and a decent film respectively, all of which feature, at a minimum, solid performances from Matt and Ben. The most striking thing about all three of these films is that they are well-made films that actually, in one way or another, mean something…and that is a credit to both Matt and Ben’s talent, and more importantly, their artistic integrity.

The Rip is a dramatic detour from the usual Damon and Affleck path as it is a rather thoughtless, tedious, worthless exercise in nothingness and meaninglessness. It is a painfully pedestrian affair that is steeped in the Netflix philosophy of “second-screen viewing”…trust me when I tell that if ever a movie were designed to have you scroll on your phone while watching it, it is The Rip.

The specifics of the plot are so generic as to make an AI bot blush. There’s a rough and tumble Miami Narcotics team whose captain was just murdered, and everyone is now a suspect. Then they go to a drug house and find millions of dollars in cash…do they steal it? Or is it a set up? Who is setting them up? They can trust no one!! Not even themselves!!

Yawn.

If you want to see Matt Damon and Ben Affleck say “ the rip” a lot, watch Affleck smoke some frighteningly feminine looking cigarettes that may or may not be Virginia Slims, see a bunch of absurdly improbable consequence-free action sequences despite being set in a “gritty” realist universe, and be fed a bunch of twists and turns and double-crosses and triple-crosses that don’t make a lick of sense…then The Rip is for you.

The film, like the vast majority of Netflix films, looks like shit. It has a budget of $100 million, bloated mostly because Damon and Affleck’s production company, Artists Equity, demands money up front to cover the equity cast and crew lose in the streaming world – a noble effort. But the film, instead of looking shadowy and sharp – like a noir, looks flat, muddled and hazy, like every other Netflix piece of shit product.

You’re supposed to care about the characters in the movie not because they are well-written and compelling characters – they aren’t, but because they are Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. And yet, even though they are Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, you really don’t give a shit about them.

Damon and Affleck do well-enough at the kind of move star play-acting that is required for their roles, but this is essentially them sleepwalking through the movie for 113 minutes.

I like Matt Damon a lot, and think he is actually a very under-appreciated actor on top of being a solid movie star, but I couldn’t help but notice that this is the second big streaming service movie he’s made that he essentially gives little to no effort in…the first being 2024’s The Instigators for Apple TV, starring another Affleck…Casey.

The Instigators – also an Artists Equity production, was the same sort of cheap, thoughtless, half-assed movie that The Rip is…and Damon sleepwalks through that one too.

The Instigators was so instantly forgettable I am not entirely sure it even ever really existed. It’s like one of those inconsequential dreams you have in the middle of the night that has no discernible attributes and distinguishable moments or scenes in it and then after waking up from it and going back to sleep you forget everything about it but then when you wake up in the morning you vaguely remember you might have had a dream at one point but you have no recollection of any of it at all…which now that I consider it sounds exactly like with The Rip too.

The Rip is so instantly forgettable that despite having watched it this past weekend I am still not sure it really exists…it may have just been something I heard discussed on an episode of Entourage back in the day (which is something you can say about virtually all of writer/director Joe Carnahan’s films).

It would seem that Damon and Ben Affleck are trying to churn and burn with these rather vapid, vacuous and venal movies in an attempt to build up Artists Equity’s filmography and standing in the industry. Unfortunately for them, and us, these movies are so egregiously insignificant and unexceptional that they are going to drain the hard fought, long-fostered equity they’ve built up with their audience over the years.

It would be one thing if Matt and Ben were failing at making some arthouse, experimental or avant-garde movie in the service of an auteur’s vision and the art of cinema, or some political progressive polemic…but they’re not…they are failing at making cookie-cutter, dime-a-dozen, generic action movies…quite a shameful turn of events.

As for The Rip…if you want to have something on in the background while you doom scroll Instagram or X, then this movie could conceivably be that thing. You won’t miss anything in the movie while scrolling because you won’t care what’s happening anyway…and if you did pay attention, you still wouldn’t really know or care what is going on the movie anyway…so there’s that.

In conclusion, in order to both express my disdain for this film and to also adequately spotlight how incredibly clever I am, I will conclude my review of The Rip thusly…

The Rip? More like R.I.P.

©2026