I will fully admit that I’m not a financial expert. My late mother was a payroll accountant for 25 years, and through her I learned how to balance a checkbook and do my taxes. For me, that’s basically good enough. I had a 401(k) when I worked for ESPN, one…

Something that’s all too rare to see these days is entertainment for children that actually gives them a degree of intellectual credit. You do get it here and there, particularly from the works of Laika and Ghibli, but for the most part, the bulk of kiddie fare either panders to…

Apologies for the lack of content over the last few days. I was babysitting a bubbert. However, the viewing schedule has definitely started to accelerate, and I’m here with the second International Feature submission of this Awards Season. As of this writing, 51 countries have made their decisions so far…

When I was in seventh grade, I met a guy named Alex. He was new to the district, having moved from New Jersey. I’ve mentioned before in this space how we became friends, I think, basically me trying to get out ahead of all the rumors that bullies had successfully…

I always love it when we get into Awards Season and I can start tracking down the various films submitted for International Feature. There are usually around 90 entries each year from all over the globe, with an endless array of intriguing stories to tell and techniques to convey them…

As Awards Season gets underway, you’ll notice a shift in my regular coverage. I’ll of course watch and review every mainstream movie I can muster the strength to see, but as we get ever closer to next year’s Oscar Blitz, I’ll also be taking whatever steps possible to get out…

One of the cornerstone principals of comedy is the idea of escalation. The further you can take a premise or scenario, the higher the odds of hilarity become. In improv, the phrase, “Yes, and…” encapsulates it perfectly. You accept the concept that another has given to you, and you expand…

Those who understand the above reference are almost certainly pausing to pull up the remix on YouTube. For those blissfully unaware, allow me to sully your brains. Back in 1992, Sega released a home port of the side-scrolling science fiction shooter game, Zero Wing, which was popular in Japanese arcades…

In 2007, Helen Mirren, inarguably one of the greatest film performers of all time, won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in The Queen, where she portrayed the late Queen Elizabeth II in the wake of Princess Diana’s death. …