WWE WrestleMania 41 Review: A Story of Highs and Lows

Well I'm a few days late, but here's my review of WWE WrestleMania 41.  

The sixth two-night edition of the Showcase of the Immortals was a very mixed bag, with a couple strong standouts, some really disappointing outings, and a whole lot of middling filler.  As usual the actual wrestling content took up less than half of each show's running time and the gaps in between each match were longer than the respective match that followed.  I really don't understand why WWE fans are okay with this; do you need a 15-20 minute piss break in between every bout?

A few words about the venue - Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas is a great place to host a WrestleMania show.  The translucent roof harkens back to the unique presentation of WrestleMania III.  I always like when these shows start out during daylight and end at night.  Creates a special atmosphere.

Anyway, night 1 started off with a match by which I was pleasantly surprised.  Gunther and Jey Uso delivered a solid opener (It's still hilarious to me that we're back to the Royal Rumble winner OPENING WrestleMania instead of headlining it) that proved if nothing else that Jey is capable of good singles in-ring work with the right opponent.  Jey's hit-and-move strategy frustrated the Austrian grappler and after some finisher kickouts, Jey hit three top-rope splashes and put Gunther away with his own choke, to which the champion tapped almost immediately.  The decisiveness of that finish certainly surprised me.  Good start to the show.  ***3/4

WWE WrestleMania 41 Preview & Predictions

This weekend is WWE WrestleMania 41, their annual "buy one, get one extravaganza," as someone put it a few years ago.  More on that later.  Whatever you think of WWE's booking during this hot period, and I've personally been less than impressed with much of it, the general consensus for this year's build seems to be that Uncle Paul is running thin on ideas.  Even social media accounts that praise everything the guy does are expressing dissatisfaction with this slate of matches and stories.  I'll get into more detail as we go along, but there's a lot of wonkiness and general flatness to this WrestleMania lineup, and ticket sales are reflecting that (This will be the lowest per-night attendance for a non-COVID 'Mania show since 2006).  "In the mud," amirite?

Night 1

WWE Tag Team Championship: War Raiders vs. New Day

Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods are the only two black male wrestlers on either night.  AEW Dynasty had six on the main Dynasty card, including one in the main event.  Just putting that out there.  By way of a past WrestleMania for-instance, WrestleMania 13's seven matches featured three black male wrestlers - Rocky Maivia, Ahmed Johnson and Faarooq - plus the pre-show match included Flash Funk.  Between shit like this and WWE inviting Trump's favorite racist comedian on RAW and the WrestleMania roast event, Paul's never beating those allegations.  Ever.  Anyway this match should be solid.  War Raiders have had the titles since December so I could see New Day winning them here. 

Pick: New Day

AEW Dynasty 2025 Review: We're Still Stuck with Moxley

Christ, we're really gonna be stuck with Jon Moxley as AEW Champion until July, aren't we?  Just....why?  It's rare that an AEW PPV leaves me feeling like Tony made the wrong call, but this was one of those times.  Why TK won't move on from this Death Riders thing that's been pretty universally considered a misfire, I'm sure I don't know.  If the plan is for Will Ospreay to win the title at All In, fine, but why does it have to be against Mox, with whom so many of us are just bored?  Why couldn't Swerve-Ospreay be the All In match, or better yet, the Forbidden Door match, since FD is taking place in London?

So yeah, AEW Dynasty wasn't the homerun Revolution was, nor the homerun Dynasty 2024 was, but that's not to say it wasn't a really good show overall.  My dissatisfaction with the main event finish notwithstanding, this show had a ton of fine wrestling on it, and every other result was the right one.  It was missing a five-star classic, but a few bouts came close.

NJPW Sakura Genesis 2025 Preview & Predictions

I totally forgot there was also a NJPW show this weekend, Sakura Genesis!

Haven't kept up that well with New Japan since January/February, but this lineup looks pretty decent.  Most of the new guard are represented on this card, although I can't for the life of me figure out why Gabe Kidd is stuck going after the Trios titles instead of being featured in a major singles match.

Anyway let's look at the lineup....

Yuya Uemura vs. Sanada

Like several of the singles matches, this one has a future vs. present/past kinda vibe.  Uemura is on the cusp of being one of the company's new Big Four or Five and a win over the compromised Sanada would help.  The match should be ok, but Sanada really needs to get surgery for that arm.

Pick: Uemura

AEW Dynasty 2025 Preview & Predictions

Well it's not the stacked-to-the-gills show that was AEW Revolution 2025, and this lineup feels decidedly B-PPV in comparison, but AEW Dynasty is this weekend and should still be a very fun show (with almost certainly a better main event than last month).

Sooo yeah, it's the beginning of a new cycle of storylines, whereas Revolution was the climax of several of the previous ones.  You're not going to follow up the greatest women's feud ever for example with something that tops it, only four weeks later.  Will Ospreay is probably not overshadowing the greatest cage match in history with a first-round Owen Cup match against a last-minute substitution.  But Dynasty will have some pretty great matches and hopefully, mercifully, if things go the way they should, we'll have a brand new AEW Champion who will finally get to continue the reign that never should have ended the way it did.  

Let's take a look at the nine-match main show card.....

Women's Owen Cup: Mercedes Moné vs. Julia Hart

The brackets of both Owen tourneys have been announced, and Mercedes is gunning for a fifth strap to add to her collection (I guess sixth if you include the Owen belt and the AEW Women's Title she's aiming for at All In).  Looking at this field she's obviously a favorite to win the whole thing, especially since Toni Storm vs. Mercedes Moné is the biggest possible women's match they could do in Arlington.  But it's possible they have Athena beat her in the semifinals to set up a TBS Title match between them.  What's not in doubt is that Mercedes is beating Julia here.  The match should be very good; Julia can deliver with the right opponent, and Mercedes is one of the best in the game.

Pick: Mercedes

AEW Revolution 2025 Review: All Kinds of Awesome

Welp, AEW Revolution once again set an extremely high bar for every other wrestling PPV to try and clear.  Jesus, this was a helluva show.  One of the best cage matches of all time, one of the best women's matches of all time, a host of other great bouts, significant story progression, a clear direction for next month's main event, and a mostly very hot crowd.  I'd have maybe changed up the match order for reasons I'll get to, but overall this was yet another stellar show from a company that's been building great momentum over the last couple months.

The opener, surprisingly, was MJF vs. Hangman Page.  They had an excellent wrestling match where MJF worked Page's arm in between moments of trying to avoid him.  Max hit Page with a front pelvis attack, which pissed Page off.  Page kept trying to set up the Buckshot Lariat but Max kept rolling out of the way.  Page finally hit one but Max was too close to the ropes.  They fought outside and Page went for a Tombstone piledriver but his arm gave out.  Instead he moonsaulted into position but Max reversed and hit a Tombstone on an open folding chair, which looked brutal.  Page barely made it back into the ring in time.  Page hit a sick-looking Angel's Wings, in tribute to Christopher Daniels, that planted Max right on his face (I hope he's alright) and then hit another Buckshot for the win.  Great opener that left room for a rematch.  ****1/2

Oscar Film Journal: The Hollywood Revue (1929)

Still chipping away at some old Academy Award nominees and bangin' out some Oscar Film Journal entries here at Enuffa.com!

Therefore let's talk about another nominee from the 1920s, The Hollywood Revue, essentially a stage bound song and dance show captured on film at a time when audiences marveled at the fact that movies now had sound.  To capitalize on this still-novel technological innovation, MGM put all their contracted stars in one extravaganza, complete with three segments shot in two-strip Technicolor.  There's no narrative or drama here, just some songs (including "Singin' in the Rain"), a lot of dancing and a bit of light comedy.  The show is MCed by Jack Benny and features appearances from Laurel and Hardy, Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, Charles King, Bessie Love, Anita Page (the three stars from the studio's Oscar-winning The Broadway Melody), Buster Keaton, Lionel Barrymore, and so on.  

AEW Revolution 2025 Preview & Predictions

Ho-lee shit, look at the lineup for this Sunday's AEW Revolution PPV.  In terms of match quality this might be the most on-paper stacked show this company has ever put together.  Look past the main event which is, granted, not the most exciting thing story-wise but should still deliver big in-ring, and there's a murderer's row of ****+ matchups.  AEW is definitely trying to keep the Revolution streak alive.  The build for this entire show has been excellent and AEW has had more momentum over the last couple months than they've had in a long time.

I'm just gonna get right into it....

Zero Hour: Big Boom AJ/Orange Cassidy/Mark Briscoe vs. Johnny TV/MxM

Yeah they're still capitalizing on Big Boom and his YouTube followers, but whatever, it's on the pre-show and doesn't matter.  If it entices some extra PPV buys, cool.  The babyfaces obviously win.

Pick: Big Orange Briscoe

AEW Tag Team Championship: The Hurt Syndicate vs. The Outrunners

Alright, down to business.  The Outrunners are finally getting a real tag title shot, and while they sorta banana-peeled into it, the crowd should be pretty hot for this.  Magnum and Turbo are super popular and Lashley and Benjamin are over like crazy.  I predict a lot of dueling chants.  There's no way THS is losing the belts already but hopefully The Outrunners will look good in a loss the same way Harley Cameron just did.

Pick: Hurt Syndicate retains

Oscar Film Journal: Nickel Boys (2024)

The 97th Oscars may be over (Congratulations to Anora for scoring the big statuette, well-deserved!), but the Enuffa.com quest to see all 610 Best Picture nominees keeps rollin' along (I'm currently at 328).....

Another nominee at the 97th ceremony was RaMell Moss's powerful narrative feature film debut Nickel Boys, based on the novel by Colson Whitehead (itself inspired by an appalling true story of racism, abuse and murder at a Florida reform school).  Set mostly in 1960s Jim Crow-era Florida, the story follows a young black man named Elwood Curtis, raised by his grandmother, who shows interest and aptitude in both school and in the Civil Rights movement.  Elwood is accepted into a free college program but makes the mistake of hitchhiking to the college, his driver stopped by the police for operating a stolen car.  Elwood is sent to the segregated Nickel Academy and subjected to harsh, racist conditions.  He meets another student named Turner, and the boys form a strong bond.  Turner is cynical about ever experiencing a better life, while Elwood is ever-optimistic and envisions justice and equality for himself and his fellow African-American students.  

WWE Elimination Chamber 2025 Review: John Cena Is a Heel

WWE Elimination Chamber 2025 is in the history books, and overall it was a very good, historic show that served as a good setup for WrestleMania 41.  You had two strong Chamber matches, a show-stealing fight, a filler tag match, and a big angle to close the PPV.  I have some gripes about a few things, but this was one of WWE's better offerings in recent years.

The show opened with what I thought was the superior of the two Chamber bouts, the women's match.  Liv Morgan in particular shined in this match as one of the first two participants and the last one to be eliminated.  By the end she had welts all over her from various bumps.  Liv and Naomi were the first two combatants, the bell rang and suddenly Jade Cargill came out and was able to get into the Chamber because the door was still open.  So wait, you mean to tell me the officiating is so sloppy they couldn't get the cage door shut in the time it took for the bell to ring and for Jade to make her slow entrance in a stadium??  That's some bad storytelling.  Anyway, Jade made it look like she was going to attack Liv (who sold it like she was terrified), but instead went after Naomi, beating the crap out of her.  Naomi was ruled unable to continue, which is pretty fuckin' thin considering basically all the women in the match took more punishment than she did; why couldn't Liv have just pinned her right away?  Liv gloated as the officials took Naomi away and then Belair was the next entrant.  Liv got the advantage early as Belair was preoccupied with her injured friend.  Roxanne Perez was next and ran wild for a little while, before Bayley entered.  Alexa Bliss was the final entrant.  They all exchanged some good, crisp action before Liv took Bayley out with Oblivion. Alexa pinned Roxanne after Twisted Bliss.  Alexa hit Bianca with Sister Abigail but got rolled up by Liv for the pin.  The match really got good when it was down to just Bianca and Liv.  Morgan repeatedly whipped Bianca into the cage with her braid, but Bianca came back and swung Morgan repeatedly into one of the pods.  At one point while they were fighting on top of the pod, Bianca whipped Liv with her braid, which made a loud cracking sound and left a sick-looking welt.  They settled back in the ring and tried to finish each other off but Bianca countered Oblivion and hit the KOD for the win.  Very good Chamber that built to a strong peak.  ****1/4

Oscar Film Journal: The Broadway Melody (1929)

Welcome to another edition of the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Set your Wayback Machine for almost a century ago to 1929, when the Hollywood musical was born, more or less.  Sound films were all the latest rage, particularly sound films that featured singing and dancing.  One of the most significant films of this type was entitled The Broadway Melody, which went on to be the first sound film (and only the second film overall) to win Best Picture.  

Directed by Harry Beaumont and starring Anita Page, Bessie Love and Charles King, The Broadway Melody is a showbiz melodrama about two sisters, the man who loves them both, and the love quadrangle that ensues when a rich playboy tries to seduce one of the sisters.  Harriet "Hank" and Queenie Mahoney are aspiring song and dance girls hoping to make it on the Great White Way, where their childhood friend Eddie Kearns works as a songwriter.  Eddie and Hank have been engaged to be married for some time, but upon seeing Queenie for the first time as an adult he immediately begins to fall for her.  Wealthy womanizer Jacques Warriner has his eye on Queenie as well, and what follows is a series of shouting matches between Queenie and Hank and Queenie and Eddie, both trying to talk her out of getting involved with Jacques, who has promised her a lush Manhattan lifestyle.  Eddie also professes his love for Queenie, who somehow never reveals this to her sister; Hank figures it out on her own.

97th Academy Awards Preview & Predictions

It's Oscar time once again, folks!  And that means that for the TENTH time(!) my colleague Mike Drinan and I will regale you with our predictions for who wins what awards!

Best Picture

Anora

The Brutalist

A Complete Unknown

Conclave

Dune Part Two

Emilia Pérez

I'm Still Here

Nickel Boys

The Substance

Wicked

Justin: It's a solid field this year based on the seven films I've seen (you can click on my individual reviews above).  I'm hoping to cram the last three nominees in over the next five days.  I loved Anora, A Complete Unknown, Dune and The Substance (only the fourth horror film to garner a Best Picture nod), enjoyed Conclave, and had mixed feelings about Wicked and Emilia Pérez.  For months it felt like The Brutalist was primed to take this award, but then Anora seemingly came out of nowhere and snagged the PGA award.  Oddsmakers are also not sleeping on Conclave, which could pull off an upset.  But I'll go with the modern-day Cinderella story to take home the gold.

Pick: Anora

Mike: I’ve only seen A Complete Unknown out of the bunch this year but I’ve wanted to see the majority of these nominees, except for Wicked. When I saw trailers for The Brutalist I was certain it was going to be the Best Picture. It just checked all the boxes for your typical Oscar winner, but then Anora kept popping up in coversations with Conclave and now it seems as if The Brutalist has fallen out of favor. Can’t sleep on Conclave though since voters love a good Catholic church drama. Like you, I’m going with Anora. There’s too much consistency in the response.

Pick: Anora

WWE Elimination Chamber 2025 Preview & Predictions

It's February, er, March and that means it's time once again for WWE Elimination Chamber, the annual event where the world championship NOT being defended against the Royal Rumble winner gets a top contender for WrestleMania.  

Like Hell in a Cell, the Chamber was once one of WWE's most brutal gimmick matches, and like the Cell it was rather defanged during the PG era.  It almost seems redundant to have this match on the same PPV calendar as WarGames given how influenced by the latter was its inception, but whatever.  There have been some great Chamber matches over the years and some not-so-great ones (2002 I'm looking in your general direction), but it's usually a moderately enjoyable 35 minutes.  Having two on one show is taxing though, just like WarGames and the Rumble.

This year's lineup is only four bouts and on paper it's a decent enough slate.  Let's take a look.

Tiffany Stratton & Trish Stratus vs. Nia Jax & Candice LaRae

Okay I'm not sure why this is on here as it smacks of "free TV match," but here we are.  I'll keep saying it every time she's featured on a PPV, but if Triple H's decisions around who gets included on PPVs is all about talent regardless of ethnicity, then what in the blue fuck is Nia Jax doing on this show?  She stinks, period.  I don't imagine they brought Trish back to team with Tiffany just for them to lose, so they're my pick.

Pick: Trishany Strattonus

Oscar Film Journal: The English Patient (1996)

Welcome to another edition of the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  Still plugging away at some older films I missed when they were new...

Today's subject is The English Patient, an epic romantic war drama that pulled in a staggering twelve Oscar nominations and walked away with nine awards, including Best Picture.  This was a film I resented at the time due to the fact that it beat out Fargo (a film I still consider basically perfect), but you can't form an intelligent opinion of a movie without seeing it, now can you?

The English Patient was written and directed by Anthony Minghella (based on the 1992 novel), and stars Ralph Fiennes, Kristen Scott Thomas, Juliette Binoche, and Willem Dafoe.  The story concerns both the lead-up to and aftermath of a plane crash, more precisely a biplane shot down by the Germans during World War II.  Of the plane's two passengers only one (Fiennes) survives, with severe burns all over his body.  He is taken to an Italian monastery and cared for by a French-Canadian nurse, who coaxes out of him some details of who he is and why he was in that plane.  Over the course of the film's 160-plus minutes we learn that although he speaks with an English accent, he is actually a Hungarian map-maker named Lazslo Almasy, stationed in North Africa in the late 1930s.  Almasy fell in love with another man's wife and the two had an affair, which the husband eventually discovered.  As this backstory is being recounted a wounded Canadian intelligence agent named Caravaggio arrives on the scene, showing great interest in Almasy and suspecting him of being the reason for Caravaggio's capture and torture at the hands of the Germans.  Meanwhile the nurse begins to fall in love with a Sikh bomb squad engineer stationed in the area.

Oscar Film Journal: Libeled Lady (1936)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal here at Enuffa.com, where I'm slowly chipping away at the 280-something Best Picture nominees I haven't seen....

We're back in the 1930s with a romantic comedy called Libeled Lady, starring a pair of actors who were considered America's sweethearts back in the day, William Powell and Myrna Loy, plus Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow.  Powell and Loy starred in 13 films together, two of them in the year 1936, both nominated for Best Picture.  This particular film is about wealthy heiress Connie Allenbury (Loy), falsely accused by a newspaper of breaking up a marriage.  In retaliation she sues the paper, whose workaholic managing editor Warren Haggerty (Tracy) concocts a plan to stage an actual scandal in which to catch her, thus rendering the lawsuit easily dismissed.  Haggerty enlists his friend, former reporter Bill Chandler, to get married on paper to his own fiancée Gladys (Harlow) and then seduce Connie so Gladys can publicly discover the "affair."  But things don't go as planned, first because Connie initially doesn't show much interest in Bill, and later because the two of them actually start to fall in love.

Oscar Film Journal: Anora (2024)

Welcome to another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  Time for another 2024 nominee (only three more to go)!

Over the weekend I caught the unusual new comedy-drama Anora, written and directed by Sean Baker, about a high-priced stripper/escort who falls in love and elopes with the son of a Russian oligarch, only for things to go awry when the boy's domineering parents find out about the marriage.  That's about all the plot summary I can divulge without spoiling anything.

Mikey Madison gives a tour de force as the title character (who prefers to be called Ani), a stalwart, streetwise Russian-American living in Brooklyn.  Her work routine consists of flirting with her club's clientele and soliciting expensive private dances, occasionally offering more intimate services if the price is right.  Ani is presented not as a shame-filled woman desperate to improve her station, but as a confident sex worker fully in control of her craft, as it were.  She clearly enjoys what she does and mostly has loving relationships with her coworkers (one catty rival excepted).  But when she meets Ivan, a gentle and impressionable 21-year-old with seemingly unlimited cash, she jumps at the chance to make some serious bank while letting the kid fall for her, ultimately falling for him too.  The film initially feels like a modern Cinderella story of sorts, which is what I expected going into it.  But after the first act it takes a very (pleasantly) surprising turn.

Oscar Film Journal: Call Me By Your Name (2017)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  We're back in the 20-teens for this one...

Today it's the 2017 romantic drama Call Me By Your Name, starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer, directed by Luca Guadagnino, and written by James Ivory (who directed A Room With a View), from the novel by André Aciman.  CMBYN is the story of two young men who meet in 1980s Italy and reluctantly fall in love over the span of a summer.  Chalamet plays Elio, a precocious 17-year-old living with his parents.  His father invites one of his grad students, the 24-year-old Oliver (Hammer) to stay with them for the season.  Elio and Oliver initially don't seem to get along well but slowly they develop an almost brotherly bond, which gives way to an unspoken attraction.  Elio is the first to broach the subject but Oliver is reluctant to pursue anything, fearing the social implications.  Eventually the two give in to their feelings and share a very intense but sad romance in the short time remaining before Oliver has to return to the US.

Oscar Film Journal: The Big Chill (1983)

Welcome to another round of Oscar Film Journal shenanigans, here at Enuffa.com!

Heading to the 1980s once again for a film that I'd seen once a long time ago but needed to rewatch in order to write about it.  It's Lawrence Kasdan's ensemble piece The Big Chill, starring Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger, William Hurt, Mary Kay Place, JoBeth Williams, Meg Tilly, and infamously an uncredited Kevin Costner as various unidentifiable body part closeups of a dressed corpse.  

The film takes place over a weekend in South Carolina, when a group of old college buddies reunites for a friend's funeral.  Alex Marshall committed suicide for reasons the film doesn't disclose, and the group decide to spend a couple nights at the summer home of Harold (Kline) and Sarah (Close).  During those two days they talk, reminisce, argue, and wonder how they all went from idealistic 60s college kids to disillusioned 80s thirty-somethings.  Each of them has their issues and personality quirks; Sarah had an affair with Alex five years earlier and feels guilty that it hurt their friendship, Harold has become a successful, sometimes unscrupulous, rather conservative businessman, Michael (Goldblum) is a womanizer who works for People magazine but hates it, Sam (Berenger) has a hit TV cop show but his marriage has recently ended, Nick (Hurt) is a former TV psychologist and veteran who is now impotent and addicted to cocaine, Karen (Williams) is in a loveless marriage and has long carried a torch for Sam, Meg (Place) is chronically single but wants to have a baby, and Chloe (Tilly) is Alex's girlfriend who seems too emotionally immature to deal with the loss she's just experienced.  

Oscar Film Journal: Brooklyn (2015)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  We're heading back to the mid-20-teens....

And from there back to the early 1950s for John Crowley's romantic period drama Brooklyn, about an Irish immigrant starting a new life in America.  Saoirse Ronan stars as Eilis Lacey, a young woman with a go-nowhere job at a local grocery store in a small Irish town.  Eilis lives with her mother and sister and has basically no prospects, professional or romantic.  A priest who has already emigrated to New York sponsors Eilis's relocation and sets her up at a boarding house, arranges a department store job, and also enrolls her in night classes to learn accounting.  She meets an Italian-American boy named Tony and they immediately hit it off.  Everything is going well for Eilis in America, but a sudden family issue summons her back to Ireland, where her mother and friends and a well-to-do neighborhood fella named Jim Farrell all pressure her to stay, leaving her torn between her successful new life and her Irish roots.

Oscar Film Journal: Tender Mercies (1983)

And we're back with another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com, once again revisiting an 80s film that got the big nod (With this one under my belt I've now watched half the 1980s nominees).

Today it's the 1983 drama Tender Mercies, directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Robert Duvall as a Mac Sledge, a former country & western singer, now a penniless drifter.  Mac stays with a friend at a roadside motel one night, they get drunk, and the friend beats him up and ditches him there.  The next morning instead of running out on his bill, he goes to the owner, a lonely widow named Rosa Lee (Tess Harper) and offers to work it off.  That leads to him becoming her employee, and later the two get married.  Mac develops a fatherly relationship with Rosa's son, filling a void left by the daughter he's no longer allowed to see.  One day a traveling young country band stops by for gas, having read a story about Mac in the local paper.  The band are big fans of his work, and over the course of a few weeks, coax him back into the music business.  At the same time Mac's daughter Sue Anne pays him a visit and the two begin to reconnect.

Oscar Film Journal: A Room with a View (1986)

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

Today I'm traveling back to the 1980s, and from the 1980s back to the turn of the century, via James Ivory's 1986 romance film A Room with a View, starring Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands, Maggie Smith and Daniel Day-Lewis.  Based on E.M. Forster's 1908 novel, ARWAV tells the story of Lucy Honeychurch, a young Englishwoman who meets and becomes interested in a free-spirited fellow countryman named George Emerson while on holiday in Florence.  The two share a conversation and an awkward kiss, but Lucy's older cousin Charlotte witnesses the incident and swears Lucy to secrecy.  Back in England Lucy agrees to marry an uptight fop named Cecil Vyse, but things become complicated when George and his father move into the neighborhood, and Lucy must decide which gentleman's company she'd prefer.

This film was released to universal acclaim and was nominated for eight Oscars including Best Picture, and, well.....I don't get it.  A Room with a View felt to me like what popcorn filmgoers think of when they think "stuffy award-winning period piece."  The source material was meant to be kind of a satirical look at well-to-do British society in the early 1900s, but for me the film didn't convey much of this humor at all, aside from Daniel Day-Lewis's portrayal being amusing; he's a hopelessly prim and proper dandy who isn't even able to kiss a girl without knocking the glasses off his face.  But other than that I didn't feel much of anything throughout this film.

Oscar Film Journal: The Red Shoes (1948)

Welcome back to another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, 2025!  

Today I'll be reviewing a classic early color film from 1948, a British production entitled The Red Shoes, co-directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.  This whimsical film is about an up-and-coming ballet dancer who becomes an overnight sensation but is quickly forced to choose between her art and her love life, by her domineering company director.  The narrative is simple and familiar, but the storytelling is handled so artfully, particularly in a stunning 17-minute ballet centerpiece, that the film defies genre and has become a favorite of many lauded directors.

Oscar Film Journal: Pygmalion (1938)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  Still making my way through the 1930s to fill in the gaps....

Today I'm talkin' about the 1938 Best Pic nominee Pygmalion, based on the play by George Bernard Shaw, itself inspired by a Greek myth about a sculptor who falls in love with one of his creations, causing her to come to life.  The play and film however are about a professor of linguists named Higgins, who as a social experiment takes a poor flower girl Eliza under his wing and teaches her to be classy and sophisticated, hoping to pass her off to his contemporaries as a duchess.  Eliza agrees to the arrangement as a way to advance socially but Higgins is very callous in his training and sees her as subhuman, often brutal in his dismissiveness.  As she becomes more and more educated the two of them develop chemistry together, but Eliza also begins to assert her independence, with Higgins both annoyed and intrigued by her newfound confidence.

Oscar Film Journal: Emilia Pérez (2024)

Welcome to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  Chipping away at this year's nominees....

With that in mind, let's talk about the new crime musical Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard and starring Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofia Gascon and Selena Gomez.  Emilia Pérez concerns a hardworking but unappreciated Mexican lawyer named Rita, whose clientele mostly consists of sleazy businessman types for whom she manages to get acquittals despite thinking they're obviously guilty.  One night she receives a mysterious phone call offering millions of tax-free dollars to arrange an unspecified favor.  She is blindfolded and thrown in a van, and it turns out her strange benefactor is a powerful drug lord named "Manitas" Del Monte.  Manitas enlists Rita to procure a secret gender reassignment procedure so he can disappear and assume a new, fulfilling life as a woman, and also to move his wife and sons to Switzerland to ensure their safety.  The plan goes off without a hitch, but things become complicated when Emilia Perez, as Manitas is now known, wants her family back by her side in Mexico.  Rita helps Emilia establish the subterfuge that she is Manitas's wealthy distant cousin, now a philanthropist helping the families of drug cartel victims.  

Oscar Film Journal: Marty (1955)

And it's time for another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!  With this film under my belt I'm down to only five remaining calendar years where I haven't seen any of the Best Picture nominees: 1935, 1936, 1949, 1956 & 1959.

Today's subject is the 1955 Best Pic winner, which at 93 minutes holds the distinction of being the shortest film to ever take home the big trophy, Marty, starring Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair.  This light-hearted dramedy directed by Delbert Mann and written by Paddy Chayefsky (based on his own teleplay) is about a lonely bachelor in his mid-thirties whose siblings have all gotten married.  Marty works as a neighborhood butcher and despite pressure from his family and customers, has more or less accepted that he'll never find a nice girl to settle down with.  We learn very early in the film that it's not for lack of trying; at his friend Angie's suggestion he makes a phone call to a woman he met at a movie theater a month earlier and asks her out again, but she turns him down flat.  Marty lives with his widowed, old-fashioned mother who all but pushes him out of the house that night to go to a singles dance, and after striking out all night he notices a sad girl sitting by herself, her blind date having ditched her.  Marty and Clair spend the evening dancing, talking, walking around the neighborhood, and form a rather sweet, innocent connection despite their shared social awkwardness.  But by the next day his mother and his friends discourage him from calling her up again, entirely for their own selfish reasons.

Oscar Film Journal: Awakenings (1990)

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

Here's an early-90s drama that I was interested in at the time but just never got around to seeing.  Awakenings, starring Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro and directed by Penny Marshall, is a medical drama based on true events, about a young, curious doctor assigned to the neurological disorder wing of a hospital in the Bronx.  The year is 1969, and Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Williams) discovers that all the patients in this particular group had suffered a specific form of encephalitis that rendered them catatonic.  But it turns out this catatonia can be momentarily broken by specific stimuli, for example tossing a patient a tennis ball to catch, or playing a piece of music that speaks to them.  With one patient Leonard Lowe (DeNiro), Sayer is able to communicate via the letters on a Ouija board.  He theorizes that the shared disorder of these patients is similar to Parkinson's, that their tremors became so severe they caused the patients to simply freeze up.  A Parkinson's drug called L-DOPA is administered to Leonard, and overnight he can move and speak again, after spending three decades as a prisoner in his own body.  The drug is used on the rest of the ward with similar results, but unfortunately the disease isn't such a simple one to cure.

Oscar Film Journal: The Substance (2024)

Welcome to another Oscar Film Journal entry here at Enuffa.com!  Time for a wacky one....

Today I'll be talking about the outrageous body horror/black comedy film The Substance, written and directed by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat.  This often funny, often nauseatingly disgusting social commentary stars Demi Moore as an aging former movie star turned TV fitness host Elisabeth Sparkle.  Elisabeth has just turned fifty and is informed by her producer Harvey (a gleefully slimy Dennis Quaid) that she's being forced into retirement and replaced by a younger model.  She then learns of a new miracle medical breakthrough that allows an older person to become "a more perfect version" of themselves on a weekly part-time basis.  Elisabeth then assumes the mantle of "Sue" (a glowing Margaret Qualley) and lands the TV fitness host gig, but things start to go awry when Sue doesn't want to go back to being Elisabeth.  More plot details I will not spoil here, as it's best to know as little as possible.

Oscar Film Journal: Dead End (1937)

Time for another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  Still chipping away at the catalogue of Best Picture nominees....

Today's entry is the 1937 crime drama Dead End, based on the 1935 play of the same name.  Dead End was helmed by acclaimed director William Wyler (Ben-Hur, The Best Years of Our Lives) and stars Sylvia Sidney (who you might remember as Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis's chain-smoking caseworker in Beetlejuice), Joel McCrea, and a young-ish Humphrey Bogart.  The story takes place in a run-down Manhattan tenement neighborhood, at a time when wealthy developers were beginning to take advantage of the view of the East River and building ritzy high-rises right next to poor riverfront property.  Drina (Sidney) and Dave (McCrea) are lifelong friends who clearly have feelings for each other, but Dave has been seeing well-to-do neighbor Kay, who is also attached to a rich fellow.  Drina's brother Tommy is part of a juvenile street gang involved in petty crime and bullying, but she dreams of getting out.  An old acquaintance of Dave's shows up after a long absence, Hugh "Baby Face" Martin (Bogart), and we find out he's wanted for multiple murders and has been on the run for years, having changed his name and gotten plastic surgery.  Martin is back in town to visit an old flame in the hopes of taking her on the road with him.

Oscar Film Journal: Conclave (2024)

Welcome to another entry in the Oscar Film Journal - hey this one's a current nominee!

The Pope dies.  The Dean of the College of Cardinals must oversee the election of a new Pope, and somehow remain impartial and sequestered with the other Cardinals, while also taking into account any information that might disqualify a particular candidate, including dirty secrets the previous Pope may have kept hidden.  Such is the dilemma facing Thomas Lawrence in Edward Berger's followup to his superb All Quiet on the Western Front, a mystery thriller entitled Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini.

Oscar Film Journal: Wicked (2024)

Welcome to another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  We have another current nominee for ya!

Today it's the smash-hit from last Thanksgiving season, the much-anticipated film version of the smash-hit Broadway show Wicked!  Or Wicked: Part 1, more accurately.  Yes, the FIRST ACT of the two-and-a-half-hour stage show was stretched out to 160 minutes for the screen.  Jesus, Hollywood, do ya not believe in editing rooms anymore??

Anyway, this Wizard of Oz prequel was directed by John M. Chu of Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights fame, and stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as the two main characters, Elphaba Thropp (or The Wicked Witch of the West as she would later be known) and Glinda the Good Witch of the North.  But of course this film takes place before either of them earned their famous monikers, when they were just students at Shiz University ("This school is the shiz!").  Galinda Upland as she was known then was a well-to-do, popular, entitled young woman, while Elphaba was an outcast of modest means, gifted in magic but isolated from her peers due to her green skin (one of two very on-the-nose metaphors in this film).  One of the school's prominent professors (Michelle Yeoh) takes an interest in Elphaba and thinks she shows enough promise to meet the celebrated Wizard (Jeff Goldbum, playing Jeff Goldblum).  This sparks jealousy from Galinda, who has been assigned against her will as Elphaba's roommate.  The two have an Odd Couple-esque relationship before finally becoming friends, and Galinda comes to support Elphaba's visit to the Emerald City.  But all is not what it seems....

WWE Royal Rumble 2025 Review: Jey Uso Yeets the Odds

The 38th WWE Royal Rumble is in the books, and it was a solid show, better than it's been in a handful of years anyway.  There wasn't anything great on the show I didn't think, but nothing bad either.  Picking a best match and worst match is tough because everything was in the 3.5 to 4 star range.  I had some gripes about some things but we'll get to that.  It was definitely too long a show, that's for sure.  Four hours and eighteen minutes is a long time for any PPV.

The show kicked off with the women's Rumble, and I think this was the most fun match for me.  Despite less star power than the men's, this match had a lot of exciting young talent, many of them from NXT, and the match cut a good pace that kept everything moving.  Iyo Sky, Ivy Nile, Lash Legend, Jordynne Grace, and Stephanie Vaquer all looked very good.  Nia Jax got to be the Kane of this match and eliminate 9 women.  I was surprised Becky Lynch didn't return, but instead we got Alexa Bliss.  As expected Charlotte Flair ended up winning, last eliminating Roxanne Perez of all people.  Also Iyo, Roxanne and Liv Morgan all beat Bayley's record from last year, which as I said in my preview has gotten out of hand.  If you keep breaking the longevity record it becomes pretty meaningless.  They certainly didn't need to do it three times in this one match.  Both Rumbles went excessively long, this one at 70 minutes.  But it looks like Tiffany vs. Charlotte for Mania most likely, unless the plan is a rubber match with Rhea Ripley.  ***3/4

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.