Oscar Film Journal: Bridge of Spies (2015)

Welcome to yet another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

I'm swingin' back around to recent years, specifically a decade ago to those carefree days of 2015.  For some reason there were three recent Steven Spielberg Best Picture nominees I hadn't seen, so I've taken care of one of them here, and that's Bridge of Spies, the political drama chronicling a Cold War-era prisoner exchange between the US and the Soviet Union.

The story covers events from 1957 to 1961, kicking things off with the arrest and trial of suspected Soviet operative Rudolf Abel.  Assigned to his defense (mostly for optics) is New York insurance attorney James B. Donovan, who takes the case seriously despite the US government's intention to railroad Abel to the electric chair while putting on the charade of a fair trial.  The presiding judge makes it clear to Donovan he believes Abel to be guilty and refuses the lawyer's request to disqualify illegally obtained evidence, or even to grant a continuance so Donovan can better prepare Abel's defense.  Donovan's neighbors and even his wife also resent him for taking the case at all.  Abel is convicted, but Donovan convinces the judge not to give him the death penalty, lest any US spies be captured in the USSR and the government should be interested in a trade.  This hypothetical comes true when American spy Francis Gary Powers' U-2 surveillance plane is shot down in Soviet airspace and he is imprisoned, and the CIA enlists Donovan to facilitate an exchange (The Agency is of course too cowardly to send him as an official government representative).  Donovan is sent to Berlin to meet with a KGB agent and an East German lawyer, about Powers and another American who's been detained.  

Oscar Film Journal: The French Connection (1971)

Welcome to yet another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

Still chipping away at the 1970s, today I'm talking about a film I watched years ago but didn't remember all that well, so I've given it another look.  It's the 1971 Best Picture winner, The French Connection, directed by William Friedkin and starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider.  The film loosely chronicles the exploits of NYC detective Eddie Egan (renamed Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in the movie), who famously uncovered and helped dismantle a French heroin smuggling ring in the early 60s, as described in the 1969 non-fiction book of the same name.  Set a decade later and somewhat fictionalized, the film version plays as more of a character study of this unscrupulous, rather dirty cop whose prodigious instincts and street smarts help him sniff out this conspiracy.  Doyle's police captain Simonson (played by Eddie Egan himself) disapproves of his methods and gives him the latitude to pursue the case against his own better judgment.  The film cuts back and forth between Doyle's investigation and dingy lifestyle, and the smuggling racket.  A narrative tension is established between Doyle's correct conclusions and his ability or lack thereof to prove he's right.  Doyle and his partner "Cloudy" Russo tail the suspected principles for weeks without much success, until one of them decides to try and murder Doyle, finally creating a break in the case.

Oscar Film Journal: Jaws (1975)

Welcome to a special Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the iconic film about a giant fish that eats people, the movie that defined the cinematic blockbuster as we know it, the project that put Steven Spielberg on the map as arguably the greatest popcorn film director of all time, Jaws!

Few things can be said about this masterpiece that others haven't already said more eloquently, but I'll say them anyway, so humor me for a bit....

Jaws was of course originally a novel conceived by former news editor Peter Benchley, after reading stories of shark attacks off Long Island.  As he put it, "I wondered what would happen if one of these things showed up and wouldn't go away."  Three years later the novel was published and became an instant sensation, and film producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown snapped up the movie rights, ultimately hiring then 27-year-old Spielberg to helm the project.  The youthful, adventurous Spielberg was just the right age and experience level for this massive undertaking; he didn't yet know how backbreaking it would be to film on the water - an infamously cruel and unpredictable setting - and to deal with an even more infamously unpredictable mechanical prop as the film's centerpiece.  

Oscar Film Journal: Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Welcome to another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!  It may be summertime but there's still time for a Best Picture nominee of years past.

This one is a doozy.  It's the 1962 Best Pic winner (one of seven trophies this film took home that year), the David Lean-helmed epic Lawrence of Arabia, starring Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Claude Rains, Omar Sharif, and shockingly billed last with an "Introducing" credit, Peter O'Toole in his breakout role.  The film tells the somewhat true story of T.E. Lawrence, a British officer stationed in the Middle East during World War I, who led a successful Arab campaign against Turkish forces and found himself torn between British and Arabian loyalty.  Shot on 70mm film, Lawrence was a massive cinematic roadshow event, playing out over a sprawling 216 minutes plus overtures and intermission.  It proved highly influential, inspiring in many ways Frank Herbert's Dune series, the original Star Wars, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and so on (Steven Spielberg cites this film as his all-time favorite and credits it as the movie that made him want to make movies).  

But does it live up to the iconic status it's achieved in the last sixty-plus years?  For me that answer is "Well, yes and no."

NJPW Dominion 2025 Preview & Predictions

This Sunday is Father's Day but it's also NJPW Dominion 2025, New Japan's second-biggest show of the year behind WrestleKingdom.  I guess technically third-biggest now that Forbidden Door exists, but that's a co-promoted show.  Anyway, this lineup looks quite solid, so let's get to it!

Bullet Club War Dogs vs. House of Torture

This is the BCWD B-team vs. three of Evil's lieutenants plus a TBA.  No idea who that'll be.  But since the War Dogs won the big match to determine who gets the Bullet Club name, I'll go with HoT to get some payback.

Pick: House of Torture

Shota Umino & El Phantasmo vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa

Very odd that Shota and ZSJ are this low on the card in some rando tag match.  Should be a good one though if it gets time.

Pick: My gut says Team Zack

WWE Money in the Bank 2025 Preview & Predictions

Time for another half-assed "premium live event" from WWE.  Ya know, I used to think PLEs and PPVs were the same thing, but WWE keeps proving that theory wrong, don't they?  AEW's Double or Nothing was an absolute banger, one of the best shows they've ever produced, easily the best show of 2025 thus far, but hold up, here comes a near-throwaway PLE from the bastion of mediocrity!

Four matches, two of them Money in the Bank ladder matches, and if you've read my stuff at all over the past several years I've been saying for a long time it's time to retire this concept.  It's a lazy, undisciplined way to elevate new stars and usually doesn't do much to elevate anyone long-term (not to mention the multi-person ladder match is so beyond played out at this point).  Surely the "Booker of the Year" can figure out an effective way to get someone over without resorting to a cheap cash-in after the champion's already wrestled.

Anyway, let's look at the lineup (For the record, only one black wrestler on the card, Naomi.  Never Beating Those Allegations.  N.B.T.A.).....

Women's Intercontinental Championship: Lyra Valkyria vs. Becky Lynch

I expect this to steal the show like it did at Backlash, and it's Becky's "last chance" so I imagine she'll win the title here.  I guess Becky/WWE wanted to give Lyra a big win before taking the belt off her.  It does however follow WWE's tired pattern of "Babyface champion beats heel challenger clean but gives heel challenger another shot anyway."  

Pick: Becky

Oscar Film Journal: Tootsie (1982)

It's been a little while, but welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

We're heading back to the early 1980s and the Sydney Pollack-directed romantic comedy Tootsie, starring Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr and Bill Murray.  Hoffman stars as struggling New York actor Michael Dorsey who is such an opinionated perfectionist he's burned all his bridges in town, and his agent (played by Pollack himself) has essentially given up on him.  Dorsey's roommate Jeff (Murray in an understated but still very funny performance) has written a quite promising play but the pair have no money to get it off the ground.  Dorsey's other close friend and acting student Sandy (Garr) has an audition for a soap opera but is quickly dismissed by the show's misogynistic director (Dabney Coleman) for not looking the part.  Dorsey then has the idea to audition for the role himself, in drag, and blows away the show's producers with snappy improvisation and a strong-willed presentation.  The character played by "Dorothy Michaels" becomes a sensation with the soap's audience, and Michael finds himself in a conundrum when he not only begins to fall for his co-star Julie (Lange) but the network wants to sign Dorothy to a long-term contract.