Oscar Film Journal: The Apartment (1960)

Welcome to the first Oscar Film Journal installment of 2025!  For those just joining us, my goal over the next several years is to watch every Best Picture-nominated film ever.  When I decided four years ago to undertake this.....undertaking, I'd already viewed 214 of the then 563 all-time nominees.  As of this writing I'm up to 305 out of 600 (One film from the 2nd Oscars, The Patriot, is lost and therefore unavailable).

Today I'll be talking about the Best Pic winner for 1960, Billy Wilder's romantic dramedy, The Apartment, starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray.  Lemmon plays C.C. Baxter (or "Bud" as his coworkers know him), a lowly desk jockey at a New York insurance firm who allows a handful of office managers to use his apartment for their extramarital affairs in exchange for glowing job reviews, in the hope of becoming an executive.  This bizarre and rather grotesque arrangement begins to pay off with a promotion, but the catch is the company's top personnel director Jeff Sheldrake (MacMurray) wants in on the fun as well, in addition to his own copy of Baxter's key.  Baxter develops a crush on Fran Kubelik (MacLaine), one of the building's elevator operators, unaware that Fran is having an affair with the married Sheldrake, who's been stringing her along for two years, promising he'll divorce his wife.

WWE Royal Rumble 2025 Preview & Predictions

It's January and that means it's time for the annual WWE Royal Rum-- wait, it's not in January this year?  What the hell??  Yes, for the first time ever WWE's equivalent of the All-Star Game is in February for some reason.  Fortunately the lineup this year actually looks pretty good, with the men's Rumble boasting several credible combatants with a chance of winning, plus the two undercard bouts look great on paper.  The women's Rumble not quite so much.  Then again only 1/3 of the field has been announced for that one.

But let's take a look....

Women's Royal Rumble

Yeah, not much star power going on here.  You have Bayley, Iyo, Liv, Bianca and a returning Charlotte Flair, plus five other names, Nia Jax, Naomi, Raquel Rodriguez, Lyra Valkyria and Ivy Nile.  I assume the newly signed Jordynn Grace will join the fun, maybe Jade Cargill will return from injury, and rumors abound that Becky Lynch will be back after a several-month hiatus.  But this match looks on paper to be yet another sequence of entrances without much in the way of story advancement, until someone wins.  And aside from the 2023 men's Rumble that approach has plagued these events for the last several years.  I think either Charlotte or Becky wins this to set up either Tiffany vs. Charlotte (so Flair can squash yet another up-and-comer's push at 'Mania), or maybe a Becky vs. Rhea rematch from last year.  I'll go with Charlotte though.

Pick: Charlotte Flair, so she can pad her World Title wins

The 2024 Enuffa.com Year-End Pro Wrestling Awards

Welcome to the 11th Annual Pro Wrestling Year-End Awards, here at Enuffa.com, where I hand out nonexistent awards for achievements in a pretend sport. Unlike Pro Wrestling Illustrated and its readers though, I actually pay attention to companies not named WWE at the end of the year, because how much money a wrestling product makes is of little consequence to me when it comes to judging its quality.....

Another year gone, another 12 months of "WWE great, AEW bad, because money" discourse.  Ho-lee shit am I tired of hearing that one.  As a wrestling fan watching a wrestling show, does the amount of money or people watching said show even enter your mind as you're enjoying or not enjoying it?  If it does, I feel like you're doing it wrong.  

Yes, WWE once again smashed records for another year, partly due to the exorbitant prices they're now able charge for tickets (They're laughing at you folks), but partly because their product is still legitimately very popular at levels we haven't seen since the Attitude Era.  Don't ask me why that's the case, I watched a lot of it in 2024 and I still can't figure it out.  Is it better than the unwatchable shit show the company had long become under Vince?  Absolutely.  Is it the best work WWE has ever done?  No.  Stop with that hyperbolic nonsense.  

Yes, AEW once again struggled with ticket sales and their ratings are down from a year earlier (along with virtually everything else on the dying medium known as cable television.  But, and this is a big but, AEW just signed a new TV deal worth over half a billion dollars over three years, which will make them the second-most profitable wrestling company in history.  Surely to the folks judging a wrestling product by the amount of money it pulls in this means something, right?  RIGHT??  Oh, apparently not, we're still dealing with "AEW circling the drain" bullshit, despite the massive chunk of change it's bringing in now.  Weird how quickly the goalposts moved.

NJPW is in a rebuilding period, having lost two more of their top stars in 2024 in Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay.  And while they haven't figured out who exactly will take the place of those two legendary performers, they have a strong slate of up-and-comers in Shota Umino, Yota Tsuji, Yuye Uemura, David Finlay and Gabe Kidd.  Plus Zack Sabre Jr. is carrying the ball admirably for the time being.  There's reason to be hopeful about NJPW's future.  

So with all that said, let's hand out some awards....

 

NJPW/AEW/CMLL/ROH/Stardom Wrestle Dynasty Review

The second of the two nights at the Tokyo Dome was the cross-promotional extravaganza Wrestle Dynasty, featuring stars from NJPW, AEW, CMLL, ROH and Stardom.  It was much less storyline-driven than WrestleKingdom 19 and thus didn't draw the box office of the latter (16,000 tickets vs. 25,000 the night before), but overall Dynasty ended up being the stronger wrestling show, boasting an absolutely wild semi-main event plus a slew of good supporting bouts.

The opener was the mystery gauntlet match which involved Jr. Heavyweights from NJPW and some CMLL stars.  Hechicero and Kosei Fujita started things off and were rapidly joined by Soberano Jr., Master Wato, Taiji Ishimori, Mascara Dorada, Titan, and finally El Desperado, fresh off his title win the night before.  Lots of fast-paced action and aerial spots before Taiji stole a pin on Despy to set up a title shot.  This was an enjoyable party match to start things off but didn't need 16 minutes when 12 would've done.  ***1/4

Next was the Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata match set up at WrestleKingdom.  Sadly it was a five-minute exhibition so obviously no one was going to win this.  They locked up and stayed that way for an uncomfortably long time and then did a chopping battle, and that was about it.  Maybe we'll see a real match out of these two before Tana hangs it up?  N/R

Movie Review: A Complete Unknown (2024)

Welcome to a special movie review here at Enuffa.com!  It's not often we do this, but since my colleague Mike Drinan and I are both huge Bob Dylan fans and we've both seen the new Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, we thought we'd tag team this one.  

A Complete Unknown was directed by James Mangold, based on the book Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald.  Timothee Chalamet stars as the mercurial singer-songwriter who turned folk music on its ear and stirred up big-time controversy when he broke tradition at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival by playing rock n' roll songs.  The film covers his 1961 arrival in New York City's folk scene through that fateful festival, plus his relationships with mentor Pete Seeger and two of his major romantic interests, Joan Baez and Suze Rotolo (called Sylvie Russo in the film).

JB: Mike, what are your thoughts on A Complete Unknown?

NJPW WrestleKingdom 19 Review: The Feeling Is Coming Back

This past weekend gave us a pair of Tokyo Dome shows, one the traditional WrestleKingdom PPV, the other a special cross-promotional show featuring not only NJPW stars but guests from AEW, CMLL, ROH and Stardom.  Both nights offered lots of good wrestling and I'll get to the Wrestle Dynasty review soon, but first let's take a look at WrestleKingdom 19.

This show didn't quite recapture the magic of NJPW's recent golden age but it did feel like a step in the right direction, with a big focus on the younger generation of stars and a feeling of commitment to the future.  There wasn't a bona fide Match of the Year on this show but there were a few matches just below that level and plenty of drama in the main event.

The show kicked off with a 4-way tag team ladder match for the Jr. Tag belts, with Intergalactic Jet Setters defending against Catch 2/2, Bullet Club War Dogs and Ichiban Street Boys.  This was a pretty standard ladder match with lots of action and big spots, some of which didn't land.  I think I'd have preferred a straight 4-way like the openers of WrestleKingdoms past.  As I expected, the one team who hadn't held these titles came out on top, with Kosei Fujita grabbing the belts for his team.  Solid opener.  ***1/2

NJPW/AEW/CMLL/ROH/Stardom Wrestle Dynasty Preview & Predictions

WrestleKingdom 19 isn't the only big event taking place at the Tokyo Dome this weekend.  On January 5th there's a huge cross-promotional PPV with stars from NJPW, AEW, CMLL, ROH and Stardom, and it looks on paper like a doozy of a lineup.  Among the numerous first-time bouts is the in-ring return of Kenny Omega, after 14 months on the shelf.  This show looks just as exciting as WK19, even if there isn't a big story to most of the matches.

Let's dive in.  Note: There's an 8-man gauntlet match where the participants won't be announced until the match is happening, so obviously I can't predict that one.

Pre-Show Women's International Cup: Willow Nightingale vs. Athena vs. Persephone vs. Momo Watanabe

I'm a little disappointed this isn't on the main card since AEW spent a fair amount of time setting up their portion of it.  The winner gets a title shot in a promotion of their choosing.  Since Willow is beloved everywhere she goes, I'll pick her to win here.

Pick: Willow

Pre-Show ROH Tag Team Championship: Sammy Guevara & Dustin Rhodes vs. Sho & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

House of Torture is involved here so get ready for a clusterfuck.  I suppose HoT could win to set up a title defense in the US but I'd be a little surprised if the ROH Tag belts get that kind of treatment at this point.  I think the champs keep them.

Pick: Sammy & Dustin retain

NJPW WrestleKingdom 19 Preview & Predictions

Ten years ago I sat down to watch a pro wrestling PPV event from a company that was entirely new to me.  I had heard great things about this company from sources like Wrestling Observer and noticed that a few familiar faces were plying their trade over there, and I was excited to check out something new and fresh.  After 28 years as a wrestling fan I was long overdue for a product that actually excited me, something WWE had been failing to do since 2002 and Ring of Honor had stopped doing around 2010.  I figured I'd give this other thing a try, and subscribed to NJPW World to watch their flagship event, WrestleKingdom 9.  And I was treated to one of the greatest wrestling shows I'd ever seen.  From there NJPW became my new favorite wrestling product (till about 2021) and their stellar matches ate up my annual Top 10 ranking.  Hard to believe that was already a decade ago.  New Japan changed the business in a big way around the time of that event, exposing WWE-weary fans to a whole new philosophy and style of what a wrestling show could look like.  Over the next few years they gained so much ground in North America and inspired so many fans like me who needed an alternative, that a whole new company was spawned.  NJPW has seen tumultuous times since their 2012-2019 golden age, but January 4th at the Tokyo Dome will always feel special.

With that in mind let's look at this year's WrestleKingdom 19 show.  This lineup finally feels like a fresh start, from a company that desperately needs one.  Most of the top stars from the aforementioned golden age are either nearing retirement or have moved on to other companies, and it's way past time for New Japan's next generation to show us what they've got.  This show feels like that moment has finally arrived.  

**Side note**: Every year the preshow consists of a Rumble (or Ranbo as they call it), where everyone not on the main card gets a few minutes of fun.  This year though, the winner of the Ranbo gets a World Title shot, so for the first time there's actually something at stake.  No idea who's in this thing but maybe someone will either return from excursion or they'll bring in an outside guest from AEW to set up a PPV match.