AEW Revolution 2024 Review: An All-Timer

For the third straight year AEW has delivered a Revolution PPV that is unlikely to be topped the rest of this calendar year.  After the second match I said to my wife "Bryan Danielson just shit out another classic."  And that ended up the third-best match on the show.  No one does PPV like AEW does PPV....

Revolution was of course built around the retirement of 64-year-old legend Sting, and while his match delivered about as well as anyone could ever want, there were so many great bouts on this show it was actually an embarrassment of riches.  The 16,000+ fans were molten for most of the PPV, the only real lull being the Women's Title match, which still kept them interested.  Think about how rock-solid a lineup needs to be for anyone to follow Ospreay-Takeshita for example and still have the crowd eating out of the wrestlers' hands.  I don't ever want to hear anyone say a wrestling show needs buffer matches or long gaps between bouts to let the crowd catch their breath; this show was wall-to-wall wrestling and the crowd ate it up.

The main show kicked off with Christian Cage vs. Daniel Garcia for the TNT Title and the crowd was very much behind the idea of Garcia taking the title off him.  Garcia outwrestled Cage early, but Cage took over after faking a knee injury.  Garcia would target Cage's ankle to soften him up for the anklelock.  Nick Wayne tried to interfere but Garcia sent him over the barricade.  Killswitch hit a chokeslam behind the referee's back, but Daddy Magic ran down and fought him up the ramp.  Cage went for a spear but his ankle buckled and Garcia hit a piledriver for a nearfall.  Shayna Wayne distracted the ref long enough for Nick to run in with a cutter, and Cage hit the Killswitch to finish Garcia off.  Damn good opener.  ****

Oscar Film Journal: Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Turning another page in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Another film I missed from 2022, today's nominee is the pitch-black satirical comedy (a word I use loosely for this film) Triangle of Sadness, from Swedish director Ruben Östlund.  How to describe the plot....  It's basically the story of a luxury cruise involving a group of vapid, obscenely wealthy passengers, that goes horribly wrong.  Spoiler alert, by the way.

The film is split into three acts, the first of which focuses on a young couple, Carl and Yaya, both professional models, who date more for the social media engagement than for love.  Or at least that's how Yaya feels.  She's a very successful model and influencer, he's on his way up but earns a fraction of her salary.  And they get into a heated argument after dinner at an upscale restaurant, when the check comes and she ignores it.  Carl reminds her that she promised to pay for the meal but Yaya insists she didn't notice the check had arrived, having been fixated on her phone at the time.  The spat continues in the cab and all the way back to their hotel room, where Carl tells her he actually loves her and promises she'll come to love him back.

Oscar Film Journal: Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Backing up to the 2016 slate of Best Pic nominees and one I never got around to seeing at the time, today's subject is Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson and starring Andrew Garfield and Vince Vaughn.  The film tells the kinda sorta true story of Desmond Doss, a World War II medic who earned a Medal of Honor for saving 75 of his fellow troops at the Battle of Okinawa.  A conscientious objector and Seventh-day Adventist Christian, Doss refused to carry a rifle and fought hard during training to be allowed to stay in the military as a pacifist medic, at one point facing a court martial for insubordination.

The film is split into two halves, the first covering Doss's troubled upbringing and first experiences with violence; his father was a World War I vet with PSTD and a violent alcoholic (played pretty superbly by Hugo Weaving).  We learn that as a child he nearly killed his brother while rough housing, and his regret stemming from that incident remained throughout his life.  A later confrontation with his father involving a gun left him with a severe aversion to firearms, hence his refusal to use one while in the military.  This half of the film uses a lot of familiar movie tropes - the awkward budding romance, the forceful drill instructor (Vaughn, whose status as a goofball comedian makes him less than intimidating here), the goofy misfit bullied by his unit.  None of this material is particularly profound, but Garfield's performance makes most of it work, at least on a Hollywood level.

AEW Revolution 2024 Preview & Predictions: Sting's Last Match

It's that time, folks.  The final wrestling match of the legendary Sting!  

That's right, after five best-selling albums with The Police and a slew of Grammy-winning solo records, Gordon Sumner is finally hanging up his wrestling boots, and.....

Wait, what?  It's....he's not the same....it's a different Sting?  Oh....uhh......alright.....

That's right, after nearly forty years, numerous historic world championship reigns and iconic moments and matches, Steve Borden is finally hanging up his wrestling boots, and it's happening in an AEW ring!  Sting for me was always one of those wrestlers I was never that into as a kid, but the older I get and the more like wine he's aged, the more respect I've developed for him.  By all accounts he's a true gentleman behind the makeup, gracious and humble, and over the years he's gone to great lengths to reinvent himself and stay fresh.  At just shy of 65 years old he moves like a man 10-15 years his junior, and takes absolutely insane risks to prove he still belongs in there with the young fellas.  And this Sunday it all culminates in the same building where Sting put himself on the map 36 years earlier, the Greensboro Coliseum, site of the first NWA Clash of the Champions show.  The atmosphere alone, amid a crowd of 16,000+, should be very special. 

And the card itself is pretty damn solid too.  This show is one of the more difficult ones to predict for me.  Let's get into it....

All-Star Scramble: Wardlow vs. Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Chris Jericho vs. Brian Cage vs. Dante Martin vs. Magnus vs. Hook vs. Lance Archer

This was thrown together last-minute as a substitute for the intended Meat Madness (obviously intended to be a buncha huge guys beating the shit out of each other), but some of the slated participants were unavailable.  So it's a...Fatal 8-Way, I guess?  Anyway the winner gets a title shot.  So unless it's to be just a throwaway match on free TV you can rule out Lance, Magnus, Dante, and probably Cage.  Hook just had a match with Joe so it's probably too soon to go back to that well.  That leaves Jericho, Hobbs and Wardlow.  And of those three, Wardlow is the only one talking about going after the champ, so we'll go with him to win.  Hard to say what to do with Wardlow right now, as it all depends on when Adam Cole and MJF are coming back.  Cole said he wanted Wardlow to win the title and give it to him, and Wardlow and MJF still have unfinished business.  You could have MJF appeal to Wardlow as a real friend this time and turn him against Cole.  "Adam is using you the same way I was, trust me, it takes a scumbag to know a scumbag."  That sorta thing.  But ol' Wardlow needs to have his spark reignited.  

Pick: Wardlow

TNT Championship: Christian Cage vs. Daniel Garcia

This is a weird one, is Adam Copeland not available on Sunday?  It felt like they were heading for another Cope-Cage rematch but now it's Garcia in this spot.  I'm not complaining, the match should be very good.  But does Copeland interfere to cost Cage the match so Garcia can move on with the title and Cope vs. Cage can just be a grudge match?  Maybe Copeland doesn't want a title?  Or does Matt Menard turn on Garcia, allowing Cage to win again, and Copeland challenges him one more time?  Tough one here.  I guess if Copeland is around Sunday it doesn't make sense for him not to be on the card, so maybe it's the latter?

Pick: Cage retains

Oscar Film Journal: The Martian (2015)

And we're back with yet another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

Set your time machine for 2015, because we're going all the way back to Ridley Scott's sci-fi drama-comedy(?), The Martian, starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor and a host of other recognizable supporting actors.  Essentially a desert island movie set in space, The Martian tells a simple and familiar story but does so with great attention to detail, a lighthearted sense of humor, and some stunningly convincing special effects.  The film is set in the not-too-distant future where NASA has begun sending manned missions to Mars, and during one such mission a dust storm sends an AV unit crashing into one of the astronauts, presumably killing him.  His team evacuates the planet before the storm disables their ship, and heads back toward Earth.  But Mark Watney is still alive and now must figure out how to survive on a barren planet until the next Mars mission arrives in four years.  Through video diary entries and fun montages we watch Damon's character try to tame this hostile environment, supplementing the team's food stores with potatoes he grows inside the habitat, fertilized with the team's frozen excrement.  Back on Earth though, NASA uses satellite images to deduce Watney is still alive and scrambles to plan a rescue mission.

Oscar Film Journal: The Zone of Interest (2023)

Nine down, one to go!  Welcome to another Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com....

Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest is unlike any other film you'll ever see about the Holocaust.  Told entirely from the point of view of Nazi Commandant Rudolph Höss (Christian Friedel) and his family, stationed in an affluent home adjacent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, the film is startlingly dispassionate in its depiction of the most heinous of war crimes.  Höss takes his family swimming, goes horseback riding, gets a boat for his birthday, throws backyard parties, leads a typical well-to-do suburban lifestyle.  And just over the garden wall plumes of smoke float up from the incinerators next door.  Höss's young son mimics the mechanical furnace sounds they hear all night, his daughter has trouble sleeping and watches the orange glow of the fires through a hallway window, but aside from his wife pilfering the occasional stolen fur coat and his older son examining his collection of gold teeth, this family scarcely acknowledges the unfathomable horrors taking place in their own backyard.

WWE Elimination Chamber 2024 Preview & Predictions

Sigh....I'm not sure why I'm still covering WWE PPVs right now given how much awful shit has come out about that company and some of the people still working there, but here we go....

This Saturday the Elimination Chamber emanates from Perth, Australia, and like the Royal Rumble the card consists of the two gimmick matches plus two other matches.  As usual the Chamber matches will be a rather toothless affair since there's no blood allowed and the company substitutes weapons and occasional high spots for brutality, but there's enough talent in both matches that they should be pretty entertaining.  Aside from that we have a women's title match with a forgone conclusion, and a tag title match with a forgone conclusion (though that one should be excellent).

Let's take a look.

WWE Tag Team Championship: Finn Balor & Damian Priest vs. Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate

Thank Christ Pete Dunne gets to use his real ring name again.  That "Butch" stuff was fucking stupid.  Because most of Vince's creative ideas are fucking stupid.  Fuck that guy for all eternity.  Sorry, back on track.  This should be a helluva match; the challengers are fantastic wrestlers and the champs aren't too shabby either.  In fact I'd be shocked if this doesn't steal the show.  Give these guys 15-20 minutes and let 'em fly.

Pick: Champs obviously retain

Oscar Film Journal: Don't Look Up (2021)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Plugging away at the list of 601 all-time Best Picture nominees, I'm now ten away from the halfway point, having just watched Don't Look Up, the sociopolitical satire from Adam McKay, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence.  The two leads play a pair of Michigan State astronomers who discover a comet somewhere between five and ten kilometers wide, which they've calculated will collide with Earth in just over six months, causing an extinction-level event.  When they present this information to the vapid, unqualified US President (Meryl Streep), her response is predictably dismissive and she cares more about how this will affect her polling numbers than the near-certainty that the world is going to be destroyed.  And even after the government's scientists confirm the data, the POTUS is nonchalant about formulating a plan to divert the comet, aborting the mission after an obscenely wealthy industrialist (a creepily soft-spoken Mark Rylance) informs her the comet contains ultra-rare minerals that can be mined for a massive US profit.  The story plays out as something in between a satire and a farce, I guess?

Oscar Film Journal: Mank (2020)

The Oscars are only a few weeks away, so let's revisit a recent Best Picture nominee in this installment of the Oscar Film Journal!

I've seen this film a few times now and it's paradoxically both immersive and emotionally distant, it's David Fincher's Mank, starring Gary Oldman as infamous screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, the man who co-wrote Citizen Kane.  Jumping back and forth between Mank's 1930s heyday and his early 1940s exile, this unusual biopic tackles his self-destructive alcoholism, his touchingly sweet friendship with actress Marion Davies, his tangental involvement in the Upton Sinclair gubernatorial election bid, and his alienation of newspaper magnate William Randloph Hearst via the Kane script.

Recovering from a car crash at a southern California ranch and accompanied only by his secretary, Mank is recruited by Orson Welles (Tom Burke, doing maybe the best Welles impression I've heard) to pen the script for his debut feature film, for which Welles was famously given creative carte blanche (the only time the studio would ever entrust the young iconoclast with such control).  Deprived of alcohol by the ranch owner's "dry house" policy, Mank suffers writer's block until having booze smuggled into the house.  From here his script comes together quickly, a scathing indictment of Hearst that threatens to ruin Mank's career if the film is allowed to be made.  

Top Ten Things: Oscar Snubs, Best Picture Edition

Welcome to another Oscar-themed edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!  The big Academy shindig is just days away, so why not take this opportunity to do more complaining about stuff they ignored over the years?

You may have seen my previous Oscar Snubs list, which centered on individual performances Oscar failed to recognize, but this time I'm talking about entire films that flew under the radar in the all-important Best Picture category.  So many great films both mainstream and otherwise have come and gone with little or no attention paid by the Academy, and some of them seemed tailor-made to garner award nominations.  But for whatever reason (in some cases political) they garnered large quantities of the shaft instead.  Here are twelve such examples, in chronological order...

1. City Lights (1931)

Only one of Charlie Chaplin's classic films, The Great Dictator, was ever nominated for Best Picture (partly because much of his work predated the Oscars), but here's a second film that should've been included.  City Lights is the delightfully touching story of Chaplin's Little Tramp, who falls in love with a blind flower girl, happens upon some money, and gives it all to her so she can get her eyes fixed.  Such a simple plot, but executed in the signature Chaplin style that earns both laughs and tears throughout.  The Academy was still finding its legs in 1931 (the release window was split over calendar years at this point), but surely there must've been a slot for what is widely considered one of Chaplin's greatest films.

Key Scene: The finale in which the now-seeing flower girl hands the Tramp a flower, touches his hands, and realizes he's the one who helped her see, remains one of the most genuinely touching in cinema history.  If this doesn't choke you up, you're a monster.

2. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Walt Disney's first full-length animated film broke box office records and blew everyone's mind-holes upon its release.  Disney had gambled basically his entire career and studio on this ambitious, expensive project, hoping to revolutionize animation, and it paid off in truckloads of cash and a cartoon feature dynasty.  An art form that had previously been aimed at entertaining children for 5-10 minutes in front of "real" movies was now looked upon as a true artistic achievement, and just about every animated feature since owes something to the success of Disney's first homerun.  But the Academy more or less viewed the animated film as something of a cheat, not to be judged alongside live-action movies.  Thus when it came time for awards season Walt Disney was given a somewhat begrudging Honorary Oscar instead of a bona fide Best Picture nod.  It wasn't until 1991 that an animated feature was given the big nomination (Beauty and the Beast), and not until 2001 did the Academy create a separate category for animated features.

Key Scene: Hard to pick just one, but I always loved the Queen's transformation into the old hag, reminiscent of Jekyll & Hyde.  Kids back then must've freaked the fuck out.

Top Ten Things: Oscar Upsets

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!  It's a list of ten things that stand aTOP all other things.  See?

Well we are in the midst of movie awards season, which for me means a mad dash to catch up on all the Oscar bait I haven't seen yet.  Thus when the Oscars roll around I'll be much more educated and opinionated about the winners and losers.  Over the years we've seen some pretty shocking winners; some pleasant surprises, some bile-churning outrages.  Very often it seems Mr. Oscar suffers from acute myopia, as literally dozens of Best Picture winners fail to make much of a lasting impression on the American lexicon, while many of the losers are universally lauded as masterworks for decades to come.  The same can be said of individual performances and the actors attached to them.  Sometimes an actor or actress can win the gold statue and go on to do literally nothing of note, while perpetually snubbed thespians continue to impress critically and commercially despite the lack of Academy love.

So let's take a look at the ten most noteworthy upsets in Oscar history.  This list includes nominees for Best Picture, Director, and acting awards.

10. Crash over Brokeback Mountain

One of the most infamous recent shockers took place in 2006, as Paul Haggis's ensemble piece about racial tensions in America took home the gold despite the outpouring of support for Ang Lee's touching cowboy love story.  Almost immediately Crash suffered something of a backlash, and few people today recall it as an all-time classic, while Brokeback Mountain helped launch the serious acting careers of Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, and of course the late Heath Ledger.  For the record I enjoyed both films but I didn't consider Crash a multiple-time watch.

9. Bob Fosse (Cabaret) over Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather)

Speaking of memorable vs. not-so-much, in 1973 choreographer/musical theater director Bob Fosse won the Best Director award for Cabaret, despite Francis Ford Coppola seeming a shoe-in for his masterful work on The Godfather.  The epic mafia drama has since become an essential part of any cinephile's collection, while Cabaret is.....well, not so much.

Top Ten Things: Oscar Snubs, Acting Edition

Hello and welcome to a special Academy Awards edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!

Today I'll be talking about some of the great acting award snubs in Oscar's long and glorious history.  Every year it seems there are at least one or two major films or performances that either go ignored by the Academy or lose to inferior competition.  I can think of several films now heralded as all-time classics that were shown little Oscar love back in the day - Citizen Kane, It's a Wonderful Life, and the original Star Wars for example. 

Then there are the baffling upsets like Shakespeare in Love beating out Saving Private Ryan, Ordinary People being chosen over Raging Bull, Kramer vs. Kramer over Apocalypse Now, and of course Forrest Gump trouncing both Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption.

Additionally certain universally-acclaimed films over the years have simply been shut out of the proceedings.  Hoop Dreams for Best Documentary in 1994, The Lego Movie for Best Animated Feature in 2015, and for me, Boogie Nights for Best Picture in 1997.

But maybe the most common examples of the Academy failing to recognize deserving achievements fall into the acting categories.  So many great performances have gone unnoticed by the myopic Oscar over the decades.  I can name many more than ten, but this being a Top Ten Things column I've narrowed it down to what I feel are the ten most egregious snubs in Oscar history.

***Note*** Given how difficult it is to rank acting performances I'll be presenting these in chronological order.

1. Miriam Hopkins - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

As fiery dance hall girl Ivy Pearson, Hopkins delivered a performance on par with her Oscar-winning co-star Frederic March.  Their onscreen chemistry was phenomenal and helped elevate this version of Stevenson's classic novella into much more than a typical 1930s monster movie.  Throughout the film Hopkins' character is horribly victimized by the sadistic, abusive Hyde, and she amazingly conveys Ivy's desperation and hopelessness. 

Key Scene: Ivy visits Dr. Jekyll for help, unaware that he and Hyde are one and the same.  As she implores Jekyll to save her she erupts into tears while he looks on, overwhelmed by guilt at being the cause of her torment.  This is a heartbreaking scene.

2. Jeff Goldblum - The Fly (1986)

Another horror film that didn't require an Oscar-worthy performance per se, David Cronenberg's remake of The Fly is largely remembered for its gross-out makeup effects, as its protagonist Seth Brundle gradually deteriorates into a repulsive larva-man.  But underneath all that disgusting makeup is Jeff Goldblum, who went above and beyond to make Brundle into a three-dimensional character we simultaneously fear and pity.  The film is essentially an AIDS parable; Brundle's condition is presented as a cellular disease that both breaks down his body and strips him of his humanity.

Key Scene: Late in the film Brundle's ex-girlfriend Veronica (Geena Davis) visits his apartment one final time.  By this point Brundle has become a lumpy brown mass with insect mannerisms whose human side has almost totally receded.  He warns her to stay away, delivering a tragic monologue about the brutality of the insect brain.

Oscar Film Journal: American Fiction (2023)

Welcome to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com - eight Best Picture nominees down, two to go!

**Here there be spoilers**

Today's subject is Cord Jefferson's feature directorial debut American Fiction, starring Geoffrey Wright, Sterling K. Brown and a host of strong supporting actors.  Part family drama, part sociopolitical satire, American Fiction is about a struggling black writer who can't seem to sell any of his books to a publisher because they aren't "black" enough.  Thelonious "Monk" Ellison is an intellectual and a literature professor, and unfortunately the literary marketplace seems to only have room for black voices if they convey the usual stereotypes - poverty, broken families, violence and oppression.  Case in point a fellow novelist Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) publishes a novel called We's Lives in Da Ghetto to widespread critical acclaim and massive sales.  So Monk decides to write a similar novel under a pseudonym (Stagg R. Lee) as a middle finger to the publishing industry, a pandering, cliché-ridden downer called My Pafology, and much to his surprise and chagrin, his agent is able to sell the book for a whopping $750,000, plus a $4 million offer for the movie rights.  

Top Ten Things: Well-Deserved Oscars

Welcome to another Oscar-related edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!

Taking a break from reviewing Best Picture nominees, here's a list of acting performances that absolutely deserved to win Oscars and rightly did.  I've talked before about times the Academy snubbed a great performance, and about shocking upsets, but there have certainly been times the right person won for the right role.  In fact there have been years when I've decided, "Regardless what wins Best Picture and all the others, as long as this person wins this award I'll be happy."  Below are sixteen such examples, in chronological order.

1. Rita Moreno (West Side Story)

Steven Spielberg's West Side Story may have defied expectations for a remake of a beloved classic, but said beloved classic still holds up all these years later, and one of the main reasons is because of the supporting turn by Rita Moreno as the strong-willed, sassy firecracker Anita.  Torn between her independent streak and her loyalty to boyfriend Bernardo and his gang, Anita reluctantly supports her best friend Maria's romantic pursuit of sworn enemy Tony, while at the same time trying to instill upon Maria how futile such a relationship really is.  Moreno lights up the screen every time she appears, bursting with effortless charisma and drawing all eyes to her.  When I discovered this film at age 13, it was Anita, and not Maria, whom I had a crush on.

Key Scene: I've never been a huge musicals guy, but for some inexplicable reason the "America" musical number brings a tear to my eye whenever I watch it.  This scene is just so spectacularly executed, plus the song itself so organically expresses the conflicting viewpoints of the American immigrant experience.  Bernardo and his friends long for Puerto Rico, a place where they aren't treated as second-class citizens because of their ethnicity, while Anita and the girls love the opportunities America affords them.  Such a neat little microcosm of this country's advantages and drawbacks.

   

2. Robert DeNiro (Raging Bull)

The Academy may have dropped the ball in many other categories from 1980 (Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor), but one award that absolutely went to the right guy was the Best Actor statuette.  Robert DeNiro's tormented, violent turn as middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta remains his most noteworthy performance, and it's also the most famous example of an actor altering his body shape for a film (DeNiro gained about sixty pounds for the later scenes in which LaMotta lets himself go and becomes a seedy nightclub owner).  Had anyone else walked away with this award it would've been a crime.

Key Scene: Probably the most purely visceral scene is the one in which LaMotta goes to prison and throws a self-loathing-induced fit, pounding the crap out of the cement wall and wailing like a madman.  I can't imagine an actor having to endure more than a single take of this scene.

3. Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda)

A rare case of a comedic performance outshining the competition, Kevin Kline's brilliantly hilarious turn as Otto provided dozens of quotable lines and managed to steal the show from comedy legends John Cleese and Michael Palin.  Kline brought to life a dimwitted character in the smartest way possible, with an amazingly nuanced, uproarious delivery.

Key Scene: Probably my favorite moment (and my favorite to quote) is the profanity-laced chain of insults Otto hurls at Archie (Cleese) after catching Archie with Wanda.  Such a magnificent tirade.

4. Kathy Bates (Misery)

Stephen King's thriller about a crazed fan taking her favorite author hostage was skillfully adapted by Rob Reiner in 1990, and the main reason the movie version worked so well was the performance of Kathy Bates.  A relative unknown at the time of her casting, Bates adeptly alternates between matronly warmth and terrifying emotional instability.  She is totally effective as this obsessed manic-depressive, but in a very realistic way, making the whole ordeal that much more harrowing.

Key Scene: Upon learning her guest Paul Sheldon has been out of his room, she ties Paul up and drugs him, and explains both her discovery, and his punishment.  The calmness she conveys as she prepares to hobble him is truly chilling.

Oscar Film Journal: Tàr (2022)

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

Backtracking a bit to last year's field and one of the three films I missed at that time, today it's the psychological drama Tàr, starring Cate Blanchett in yet another Oscar-nominated masterclass.  Directed by Todd Field - shockingly only his third feature as a filmmaker - Tàr is a character study about an acclaimed orchestra conductor whose life begins to come apart at the seams amid accusations of sexual misconduct and abuse of power.  As public opinion turns against Lydia Tàr, her mental/emotional state spins out of control and she alienates everyone in her circle.  

Despite being centered around a fictional character, this film plays very much like a biopic, namedropping several real-life figures (Lydia was mentored by Leonard Bernstein) and structuring the narrative as an episodic series of events.  The first act is elegantly written, dumping lots of exposition about Lydia - her accomplishments, her views on music - in the form of an interview with Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker.  We learn that she's set to record an album performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony in Berlin, where most of the film ends up taking place.  

Oscar Film Journal: Past Lives (2023)

Seven 2023 Best Picture nominees down, three to go....

Today it's the debut feature from director Celine Song, a romantic drama called Past Lives, about two childhood friends who were separated at age twelve just as they were developing feelings for each other, now reunited after 24 years.  Na Young (renamed Nora after her family immigrated to Canada and then the States) and Hae Sung find each other on social media in their twenties and develop a very close virtual courtship, but their respective situations preclude them from meeting in person.  Another twelve years pass, and they finally have a chance to see each other, but now Nora is happily married.  Thus the major theme of nostalgic romance vs. a practical, loving marriage is explored.

Past Lives stars Greta Lee in a delicate, understated performance (Lee has a particular gift for conveying so much character insight and emotion with just her eyes), Teo Yoo as her would-be forever partner, still so unsure of himself after two-plus decades he almost seems in a state of arrested emotional development, and John Magaro as Nora's husband Arthur, a successful writer who is self-aware to a fault, acknowledging that in a traditional rom-com he would be the villain in this love triangle.

Oscar Film Journal: Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

Still rolling along with this year's Best Pic nominees, it's time for another entry in the Oscar Film Journal!

Today's subject is the procedural drama Anatomy of a Fall, from French director Justine Triet, about a woman unexpectedly put on trial after her husband is found dead from a three-story fall out a window.  Did he fall by accident or was he pushed?  The government suspects it was the latter.

Sandra Hüller stars as the wife (coincidentally named Sandra), a famous novelist who lives with her husband Samuel and their visually-impaired son Daniel.  The married couple has a strained marriage, in part due to her infidelity but probably even moreso because of her success as a writer where he failed.  Sandra is being interviewed by a female student when her husband, working in the attic, begins blasting music so loud the interview has to be rescheduled.  Sandra takes a nap while Daniel goes out to walk his dog Snoop, and on his return Daniel finds his father unresponsive and bleeding on the ground.

This sets in motion an investigation in which it feels like the authorities have already determined Sandra's guilt and at the ensuing trial it seems the burden of proof is on her rather than on the prosecution.  In one alarming moment the state's lawyer is actually allowed to present character dialogue from one of her novels as evidence Sandra herself was inclined to murder.  Throughout the trial we're given an increasingly clear picture of a crumbling marriage, leading up to a climactic flashback sequence (via secret recording) where Sandra and Samuel have a fiery conversation that dissolves into a shouting match and worse.  But of course the problem with the prosecution's case is that no one's life can be distilled down to a random five-minute recording, and Sandra insists her husband had become suicidally depressed in recent years, in spite of what his therapist claims.

Oscar Film Journal: Oppenheimer (2023)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal here at Enuffa.com!  We're five weeks away from this year's awards ceremony, and coincidentally here's the fifth entry about one of this year's nominees....

The overwhelming favorite to take home the Best Picture trophy (and likely several others) this year is Christopher Nolan's epic biopic, Oppenheimer, chronicling the development and realization of one of the most important and terrible inventions of the 20th century, the atomic bomb.  Starring Cillian Murphy as the titular J. Robert Oppenheimer and a veritable who's who of a supporting cast, Nolan's three-hour opus is a cinematic tour-de-force, covering not only the American team's race to harness atomic weaponry before the Nazis did, but the far-reaching consequences of the bomb's World War II-ending implementation.

Murphy gives a career performance, playing Oppenheimer as a rather haughty but brilliant physicist whose political leanings are quite at odds with those of his imperialistic superiors in the war effort.  He understands that the atomic bomb is going to be invented, and that such a terrible power cannot fall into the hands of Hitler, but is also rightly haunted by the moral implications of such an innovation.  His opposite number is Rear Admiral and Atomic Energy Commission member Lewis Strauss, whose Machiavellian post-war plotting results in Oppenheimer's public disgrace once the government had gotten out of him what they needed.  Robert Downey is brilliant as this slimy, vindictive politician, quietly making moves to destroy the man who had made him look so foolish in front of the General Advisory Committee.  The third standout is Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer's wife Kitty, a sharp-witted free spirit who's able to see through the government's machinations and keeps Robert honest with himself.  

Oscar Film Journal: Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

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

Today's subject is a doozy, Martin Scorsese's latest (and longest) film, Killers of the Flower Moon.  Adapted from David Grann's non-fiction book and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro (together onscreen for the first time in 30 years), KOTFM chronicles an appalling series of murders of members of the Osage tribe, who stumbled onto a massive Oklahoma oil supply in the 1920s, quickly drawing the attention of white opportunists.  Chief among them was William King Hale, a cattle baron and political boss who ingratiated himself with the tribe and inserted his dimwitted nephew Ernest Burkhardt as a benefactor by convincing him to marry into the family.  Hale and others then proceeded to consolidate the tribe's exorbitant wealth by killing off several members so more and more of the headrights (shares of the oil estate) would go to Ernest and his brother Byron in the event of their Osage wives' death.  The film chronicles one of the most shameful episodes in American history, as Hale and his accomplices commit these atrocities in plain sight, knowing that the systemic racism in place at the time would shield them from consequences.  

Oscar Film Journal: The Holdovers (2023)

Time for another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

Another of the current Best Pic nominees, this one comes from the director/star team that brought you the classic buddy/road/wine comedy Sideways, Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti.  Reunited after two decades, the pair are back with The Holdovers, a comedy-drama about a cantankerous teacher and his disobedient student, shut in together at their Massachusetts boarding school over the 1970 winter break.  Professor Paul Hunham gets stuck with this two-week assignment as punishment for failing a legacy student, while junior Agnus Tully is stranded at school after his mother cancels their planned family trip so she and her new husband can get away alone.  Both student and teacher profoundly resent each other but slowly begin to find common ground, thanks largely to a neutral third-party, the school's head cook Mary Lamb, whose son was recently killed in Vietnam.

Oscar Film Journal: Maestro (2023)

Rollin' right along with this year's Oscar Film Journal....

Today's movie is the Bradley Cooper-helmed biopic about Leonard Bernstein, entitled Maestro, in which a barely recognizable Cooper also plays the title role beneath some absolutely stunning makeup (about which there was some quite unnecessary to-do online).

The film documents Bernstein's rise to fame and prestige as one of the world's eminent orchestra conductors and composers, set as the backdrop for the film's real focus, his roller coaster relationship with wife Felicia Montealegre (an always fabulous Carey Mulligan).  Using numerous film formats (mostly 4:3) and color palettes (the first act is shot in glorious high-contrast black & white), Cooper and his cinematographer Matthew Libatique (A Star is Born) plunge us right into Bernstein's topsy-turvy world of music, parties and torrid affairs (mostly with men).  We follow the composer and his marriage from the mid-1940s to Felicia's tragic death of cancer in the late 1970s, and the camerawork and art direction really capture each era splendidly.

Less effective is Maestro's structure, which follows the tried and true biopic format - a series of important moments and episodes in the lives of these two people, almost entirely in chronological order.  Had Cooper et al found a less conventional way of assembling the screenplay it would've resonated much more strongly I think; the film keeps us a bit at arm's length, both in terms of never quite letting us past Bernstein's public persona, and via first-act dialogue that's so snappy and 1940s-esque it's hard to keep up with at times.  I did however appreciate the script's Orson Welles approach of having characters talk over each other as people tend to do in real life.

Oscar Film Journal: Barbie (2023)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal here at Enuffa.com!  Yes, my years-long trek toward viewing every Best Picture nominee continues for the fourth Oscars season (286 out of 601 as of now)....

***SOME SPOILERS AHEAD***

Catching up on some of the 2023 summer fare I missed (trips to the movie theater are sadly all too few and far between these days), I finally took a gander at the year's top blockbuster Barbie.  Directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig (with her husband Noah Baumbach), this monumental smash-hit pulled in over $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office and alongside The Super Mario Bros Movie and Oppenheimer, became part of the first triumvirate of films since 2001 to top the charts without a sequel among them.  Granted, two of the three are based on well-known toy/game properties, but it's a start.

But all that is neither here nor there, is the film any good?  Yes, quite actually.  Starring an absolutely magnetic Margot Robbie as "Stereotypical Barbie," Gerwig's first popcorn movie is rife with her signature biting sense of humor and quick wit, but also plenty of valuable social commentary.  

The film opens with an homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey, with narrator Helen Mirren explaining how for generations girls' dolls were designed with one objective: to help prepare their target audience for motherhood.  They were dolls modeled after babies and toddlers, and playtime consisted of little future homemakers caring for pretend offspring.  But with the advent of Barbie in 1959, suddenly girls were given a new type of role model, the impossibly statuesque career woman - Barbie could be a doctor, an astronaut, an athlete, etc.  And in a perfect world that would've been enough to create equality among men and women.

WWE Royal Rumble 2024 Review: Was That the Best They Could Do?

The 2024 WWE Royal Rumble was....a show.  Some stuff happened, there were some winners and losers, and the ending was the right one.

Whereas last year's Rumble show, while not a great PPV, felt purposeful and featured one of the best Rumble matches of all time in the men's edition, this year's felt rather obligatory and pretty bereft of memorable events, some surprise entrants excepted.  Both Rumble matches where just kinda there, and the crowd responded as such.  The hot San Antonio crowd from 2023 was sorely missed, as the St. Petersburg audience this year sat on their hands for a lot of the show, which dragged down large chunks of the two Rumble bouts.  The two non-Rumble matches likewise failed to light up the fans, no doubt in part because the results were a forgone conclusion.  Even CM Punk's return to a WWE ring for the first time in a decade didn't land the way it should have (which just further points to AEW executing his return better).

WWE Royal Rumble 2024 Preview & Predictions

It's that time of year again, where WWE actually makes an effort to get people excited, which means it must be Royal Rumble season....

Aaand once again this stupid company has barely announced anyone for these Rumble matches, because they've trained their audience to think "surprises" are preferable to a field of 30 viable contenders who have ongoing storylines with each other.  Nah, just a series of entrance pops, people do some stuff, and everyone gets thrown out except one.  I've said it before, but for a company (and fanbase) allegedly so concerned with "where's the story?" WWE sure puts no thought into making these Rumble matches meaningful.  Aside from a few of the big names confronting each other with "I'm gonna throw you over," "Nuh uh, I'm gonna throw YOU over," there's zero going on here.  Eh, who are we kidding, everyone in that company is just keeping the place warm till Dwayne shows up.

Let's pick some winners....

US Championship: Logan Paul vs. Kevin Owens

This might actually steal the show, as Paul is always fun to watch and Owens is one of the best workers in the company.  With only four matches on the card as of now, this should get plenty of time to breathe.  Sounds like fun.

Pick: Logan retains

Women's Royal Rumble

**Note: WWE couldn't even be bothered to make website graphics for either Rumble match.**

Seriously, these assholes have only announced six women for this thing.  Six.  You have Bayley, Becky, Nia, Bianca, Maxxine Dupri, and Ivy Nile.  The last two you can scratch off the list of potential winners.  Bianca just won it a few years ago, Becky won it five years ago, and Nia stinks.  So that leaves Bayley, who if she wins will I assume choose to challenge her stablemate Iyo Sky, thus turning babyface.  It's possible Jade Cargill debuts here, although considering how green she still is, debuting her in a 30-person match could be a disaster.  It's also possible Mercedes Moné returns to WWE but the rumors claim she is AEW bound.  Aside from that, you'll have your regular midcard women and a few names from the past like always.  And no real stories told, just a buncha random entrances and exits.

Pick: Bayley

NJPW New Beginning 2024 Preview & Predictions UPDATED

It's 2024 and New Japan has four, count them, FOUR New Beginning shows this year.  Seems a bit much but on the bright side there are more matches of consequence as a result.  

It's quite the hodge-podge of rematches, dream rematches, and guest stars on this tour.  And there are at least a couple names finishing out their NJPW deals.  Like I said before, New Japan needs a serious shakeup at the top of the card and there are numerous youngsters (yeah I said it) that to me seem fully ready to take up the mantle.  Hopefully starting with this year's New Japan Cup we'll see guys like Tsuji, Umino and Uemura positioned as this generation's Tanahashi, Okada and Naito.

But in the meantime....

Nagoya 1.20.24

KOPW Ring Fit Match: Taiji Ishimori vs. The Great O-Khan

This title is still stupid and this gimmick match sounds even worse.  As I understand it the Ring Fit match has a ten-minute time limit and whoever scored the final fall during that time is the champion.  Except ten minutes is awfully short to automatically expect even one fall, let alone numerous.  Plus every three minutes there's apparently a break for aerobic activity or some shit?  The thinking is O-Khan can't keep up with Ishimori's cardio?  Yeah, this is dumb.

Pick: Ishimori retains I guess?

The 2023 Enuffa.com Year-End Pro Wrestling Awards

Welcome to the 10th Annual Pro Wrestling Year-End Awards, here at Enuffa.com, where I hand out nonexistent awards for achievements in a pretend sport.....

Well 2023 was quite an eventful year in the world of professional wrestling.  The biggest story of course was the merger of WWE with UFC's parent company Endeavor, a move which finally at long last took creative control away from the 78-year-old malignant narcissist/serial philanderer/embezzler/accused sexual predator Vincent Kennedy McMahon.  Now running the company are Chief Content Officer/Head of Creative Triple H, and Nick Khan, who's become a more and more prominent executive over the last few years.  The results have certainly been positive for the company, which is breaking financial records left and right and currently offers the hottest WWE product since the Attitude Era.  The shows have been much better creatively as well, though that's a very low bar to clear since VKM's booking has been mostly terrible since he acquired WCW in 2001.  But things are looking rosy for WWE and its fanbase.

On the other side of the North American wrestling war, AEW's year was a mixed bag financially.  They pulled in an estimated $175 million for the year, way up from the $100 mil in 2022, but are likely still in the red, understandable for what is still a startup.  One big TV rights fees increase would solve that problem, but that's all up in the air at the moment, as WBD is considering whether to keep AEW's programming or swap it for WWE RAW.  We likely won't know much more till late next year unfortunately, but hopefully loyalty means something to WBD.  AEW also smashed their attendance record by a factor of four, drawing one of the all-time biggest wrestling crowds at Wembley Stadium for All In, while increasing PPV revenues by leaps and bounds with a slate of eight events as opposed to the usual four or five.  All In became the second-most bought AEW PPV at roughly 200,000 buys, while the rest of the events fell into the usual 100,000-140,000 range.  AEW also added a third weekly show, Collision, which has mostly drawn decent ratings for a Saturday night (as long as a major WWE PPV isn't airing opposite).  Like them or not, AEW is the most successful #2 promotion since WCW.

But it wasn't all good news for the company, as live attendance fell dangerously low for a few months (it has since stabilized thanks to better local promotion and lowered ticket prices), and their biggest draw self-destructed for the second time in a year, starting another backstage melee, this time with Jack Perry over a minor on-air verbal jab.  Yes, CM Punk was reluctantly fired from AEW after two years (half of which he spent on the shelf with injuries/suspensions), and went back to the company he'd spent a decade trashing, WWE ("I couldn't get well by going back to the place that made me sick" seemed like such a heartfelt sentiment at the time...).  The official over-under on how long he lasts there has yet to be determined.

On the other side of the globe, NJPW is setting the table for a new era after losing their two biggest gaijin stars in Jay White and now Will Ospreay, and possibly Kazuchika Okada, whose contract is up in January.  Couple that with Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tetsuya Naito no longer being close to peak form, and the company is long overdue for some new faces at the top.  Sanada's been the top champion since April but hasn't moved the needle much at all, while David Finlay has become the new top foreign name, and Yota Tsuji, Shota Umino and Ren Narita are being groomed as the next generation of Japanese main eventers.  Unfortunately NJPW is taking their sweet-ass time getting there and it's made the current product feel rather stagnant.

Impact is changing its name back to TNA, MLW won an antitrust settlement against WWE, and ROH continues to be a decent secondary brand for AEW.

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

 

NJPW WrestleKingdom 18 Review: Not the Homerun I Was Hoping For

WrestleKingdom 18 is in the books, and it was a very good show but I have to consider it a mild disappointment overall.  Too many matches didn't get as much time as they should, even one of the main events, and it was missing that top Match of the Year candidate almost every Tokyo Dome show has had since 2013.  I think I liked last year's show a little better.  That's not to say there wasn't a lot to enjoy here though.

The main card kicked off with the Jr. Tag championship, as Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney faced Catch 2/2 in another rematch from last summer.  TJP, who had been stuffed into a casket in the last bout between these teams, came out dressed as a mythical Filipino creature called Aswang, or a cannabalistic shapeshifter, which was a little hokey but looked kinda cool.  These teams had a crisp back-and-forth bout lasting close to ten minutes before TJP sprayed Moloney with red mist and Catch 2/2 hit double knees to regain the titles.  Solid match to start things off.  ***1/2

Next was the first of multiple bouts that got shortchanged, Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi.  The technician and the new NJPW President exchanged a ton of grappling, reversals, submissions, etc. and packed a lot into their nine minutes, but five more would've taken this match to the next level.  The two men went back and forth with rollups until Tana finally held Zack down for the three.  Very good but could've been so much more.  ***3/4

AEW Worlds End Review: Adam Cole is The Devil

2023 is now in the history books, and with it AEW's final PPV of the year, Worlds End.  It was a good show, not a great one as we've consistently come to expect from AEW PPVs, but a good one.  I'd say it was their weakest PPV offering of 2023 but to be fair, it had VERY stiff competition.  We were treated to multiple ****+ bouts but the show was missing that one match to get everyone talking.  Instead it had a huge title change and a memorable angle to close the show, and it'll be interesting to see how the company follows up on it all.

After three pre-show matches, the best of which was Hook vs. Wheeler Yuta, the show opened with the All-Star 8-Man Tag, pitting eight of the Continental Classic competitors against each other.  This was a very fun party match with eight great workers exchanging a ton of moves on each other.  It got plenty of time too, running almost 18 minutes and culminating in a big series of finishers before Daniel Garcia scored the pin on Jay Lethal.  The two BCC members Danielson and Claudio showed some respect for Garcia and I think it's time he joined their stable.  In other news, Brody King attacked Matt Menard on commentary after the match, so they must be setting something up there.  Really strong opener.  ****1/4

Next up was Andrade El Idolo's final AEW match, and as I suspected CJ Perry dumped him in favor of helping her husband.  These two worked hard and Andrade to his credit didn't phone anything in.  I do question why AEW booked him so strong in the CC tournament if they knew he was leaving; maybe they were trying to change his mind?  Anyway this went about 15 minutes and CJ put the kibosh on Andrade's Figure-Eight by sweeping his arms out from under him, allowing Miro to hit the mafia kick and Game Over for the submission win.  Solid match.  ***3/4

NJPW WrestleKingdom 18 Preview & Predictions

Oh by the way there's a huge Tokyo Dome show this week.....

NJPW's flagship PPV WrestleKingdom 18 is once again taking place on January 4th, and like last year but even moreso, this lineup feels a lot closer to the show's glory years from 2015-2020 (minus the main event).  We have a loaded ten-match card that's a good mix of the promotion's cast of regulars, some up-and-comers making their Tokyo Dome main card debuts, and a pair of AEW guest stars.  Should be a pretty damn good show overall, and apparently the advance ticket sales are even better than last year.  WrestleKingdom was for many years a can't-miss event and this card certainly has a bit of that aura.

Let's take a look....

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney vs. Catch 2/2 

Jr. Tags used to be the standard hot opening match at WrestleKingdom so I'm glad to see that tradition is being brought back.  There are few better ways to get a NJPW crowd hyped than with a blistering, fast-paced tag bout.  The Bullet Club War Dogs stable has been a welcome return to form for the longtime heel faction, after years of being so watered down.  Connors and Moloney have held these titles since July so I could see the babyfaces finally winning them back here.

Pick: Catch 2/2

NJPW World TV Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

We are now a year into the lineage of the NJPW TV Title and only one man has held said championship.  Does ZSJ's run end here or does he hold on a bit longer?  If I'm booking this I keep it on Zack, as Tanahashi isn't really in any condition to be defending championships (plus he's still 1/3 of the trios champs).  Also he's the new NJPW President so he's got a lot on his plate.  But I could see this going either way.

Pick: Eh, I'll stick with Zack to retain, maybe via time limit draw

AEW Worlds End 2023 Preview & Predictions

It's the final AEW show of 2023, and the first of its kind, AEW Worlds End!

2023 was a rather tumultuous year for the upstart wrestling promotion, but AEW achieved some major milestones both commercially and artistically, as well as expanding their PPV calendar to eight shows.  Worlds End was built around the finals of the inaugural Continental Classic tournament, which treated us all to some of the best free-TV wrestling we've ever seen in such a short window.  But there's a lot more to this show, including the presumed culmination of one of AEW's more intriguing storylines, plus a huge No DQ grudge match between two veterans.  On paper this show looks to be about on par with this year's Double or Nothing - not a blowaway lineup but plenty of potential.

Let's dive in, shall we?  There's a Zero Hour battle royal for a TNT Title match but we don't know the participants yet so I won't even attempt a prediction there.

Zero Hour FTW Rules Match: Hook vs. Wheeler Yuta

This one could've been added to the main card, as Hook really needs a proper PPV slot at this point.  Should be a fun No DQ match, I'd guess Hook retains.  Does Jack Perry come back to resume their feud (or is Jack the Devil as I'd previously speculated)?

Pick: Hook retains

Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli/Mark Briscoe/Daniel Garcia vs. Jay White/Brody King/Jay Lethal/Rush

These are the leftover guys from the tournament, and while there isn't a story here the match should be a lot of fun.  I'm not sure why Rush is on the heel team and Garcia's on the babyface team; surely they should be reversed, no?  Is this like the 1995 Survivor Series Wild Card match?  Anyway Jay White could use a win here after failing to unseat MJF last month and failing to make the tourney finals.

Pick: Team White