Matthew Pizana

The ole’ academy has named the 2019 nominations for their latest incarnation. And boy was it, eh.  

First off, the fact that Death of Stalin isn’t nominated for anything is reason alone to protest the show. I’m not going to but dang guys, come on. The Favourite gets 10 nominations but Stalin can’t get one?

Kind of surprised in general by the lack of diversity in the movies itself. Minus the foreign film category, there is roughly only about a dozen films were nominated for all of the awards. Why not use some of the secondary categories to recognize other outstanding films that were made that weren’t quite good enough to be the best. How about a nomination for a film like a Heredity for best score or Mandy for best cinematography. Did A Star is Born really need another nomination?

The best picture category has 8 nominations this go around. Not quite ten yet, including a movie like BlackkKlansman is a big plus in my book. Is it a lifetime achievement award for Spike Lee? Could be but that’s kind of how the academy works sometimes. On the other side of things, I guess Blank Panther can be counted as well for surprise nomination except,  

I’m not taking some kind of Bill Maher stance against comic book movies but, was Black Panther really one of the best movies of the year? Maybe one of the best experiences for a lot of moving going people. It certainly is a cultural milestone in the film biz. However, as far as movies go, just like The Dark Knight a decade before, it was a fun superhero movie that had good moments. Good moments don’t make an Academy Award-winning film.

Whoever is running the Bohemian Rhapsody public relations arm is a genius who needs a raise. Not only has the movie cleaned up at the box office, it has multiple nominations for a movie that is a paint by numbers storyline at best. There’s certainly no qualms about a nomination for Rami Malek who is superb at channeling the idea of Freddy Mercury. A best picture nod? You’d have to go back many years to find such an average movie rising to the chosen level of academy movie.

Regardless of how anyone felt about the second season of True Detective, the reviews during the show’s initial airing and ever since seem to be filled with more vitriol and anger than was necessary. Some might point to the high bar that was set after season 1 and the perceived disappointment of the story and execution of season 2 but others might suggest critics had something personal against the creator himself. No matter where you stood about round number 2 of True Detective, season 3 has arrived and it looks like all that critical negativity has taken the ambition from Nic Pizzolatto.

First things first. Season 3 will be really good at its worst. Between the skills of the creator Nic Pizzolatto and the eye of Jeremy Sauliner behind the camera, plus having Mahershala Ali out front, it is almost impossible not to make something wonderful and interesting to watch that will be among the best shows of the year. The characters will have great depth. The story will be mesmerizing.

What is also true is that the media, and those amateur critics that love to bash anything and everything online, have changed the way Nic Pizzolatto approached the new season. Instead of going even farther outside of the box like he did in season 2, season 3 is a return to season 1 form with the same kind of feels, characters, and environment.

And that’s too bad. Nic proved he can do that. Season 2 was intriguing specifically because of the ambition of the project.   

Ambition is what has driven movie making since its inception. Movie making as an art form is one of the most, if not the most, ambitious mediums an artist can work in. 2001 A Space Odyssey is all ambition. Star Wars. Jaws. The Godfather. All made of pure ambition.

True Detective Season 2 is filled with powerful performances from outstanding actors. Each character dealing with their own failures of masculinity as their worlds continue to be shaped by trauma. And let’s not pretend like political corruption isn’t always a relevant topic in America. Instead of a small town in Louisiana, the devious nature of men switches to the city of angels. Powerful men still seem to be as awful and as evil as their southern counterparts.  

I’m happy to be wrong on this. Maybe Nic just wanted to revisit some of the themes and feelings from the first season. There is nothing wrong with that. He created them for goodness sake. But I imagine after a relentless barrage of negative criticism of his work, Nic Pizzolatto might have felt like it was easier to return to something that was previously successful versus branching out and trying something even farther outside the box than Colin Farrell’s red headed son.

We are just over a month away from All Star break time in the league which means, there is a hearty sample size of games to do some reflection on some of the key moments/players/events of the early part of the NBA season.

Freaking Derrick Rose. What a ride it has been for the Memphis graduate. From the top of the world, earning the MVP award in 2011, to barely getting getting playing time the last couple of years on the Bulls, the Knicks, and culminating in the disaster that was last year with the Cavs.

But, as a reminder that it sometimes only takes one person to believe in you, Tom Thibodeau brought D Rose to Minnesota and low and behold, Derrick Rose is relevant again. He is averaging almost 19 points a game and getting some All Star chatter (and votes) in the process.

There certain is the off the court stuff but, purely from a basketball standpoint, this has been the surprise of the year as well as one of the happier moments or a player returning to form.

Who is the team to beat this year? The default answer, of course, is the Golden State Warriors but they have looked anything but unbeatable this season. Currently, they sit second in the standings behind the Denver Nuggets and have more losses than they had their entire 2015 run to the title.   

Speaking of the Denver Nuggets, what a resurgent story they have been. Even with half their lineup missing time this year due to injury, they just keep plugging along and winning games. The combination of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray have set expectations super high for this Nuggets team. Can they ride this to the number one seed come playoff time? Time will tell but unlike last year, it doesn’t look like they will have to worry about losing out on the playoffs on the last game of the season this year.

In the East, five teams matter at the top. The Raptors, Bucks, Celtics, 76er’s, and the Pacers are head and shoulders above the rest of the lowly East teams and it’s not even close. Still, every team has question marks headed into the second part of the season. Will Kawai every play a back to back game for the Raptors and, even with LeBron now out West, can they win come playoff time? Can the Bucks survive if Giannis has an off night? The Celtics have been a clunky team so far this season. What will it take to get them to gel? A trade maybe? The 76’ers sure felt good when they picked up Jimmy Butler from the Wolves. It sure felt good for about two weeks before Jimmy decided to be Jimmy and try to bring down another team’s chances of success. And the Pacers. The Indiana Pacers are coming and they are looking to upend one of the top four teams and make their own path to the finals.

James Harden is willing the Rockets back to the mountaintop with 40 point games seemingly ever night. LeBron had the Lakers humming as a unit until his body finally remembered he was an old man and put him down with a groin injury. Now, they are struggling to keep with the Sacramento Kings of the world. San Antonio is asking Kawai who as they decided to destroy the rest of the league for over the second half of December and rolled that on in to January.

It was somewhat lost on me. This situation that I found myself in. But I’m here so why not. And away we went.

It’s only upon reflection that I can even remember a thing about the night before. The excess of pill ingestion seemed to relieve my brain of it’s core functions only allowing the brain to ensure I did not soil myself. Sometimes, it’s just about the basics.

It’s late. Don’t have the energy to deal with this shit. But,

What can I do for you Minnie?

I just need a favor. A little one at that

Favors are never little.

But this one is.

Alright, hit me with it. And she did. All 20 minutes of her dramatic tale that boiled down to she fucked up, she needed help, and I had no desire to get mixed up in that kind of help from those kinds of people.

Maybe Hunter can help.

Hunter? Fucking asshole. Guess there’s some fall out from that I was unaware.

Alright, look. These people. They might be friendly to you because of your face but I can assure you, my face they will not take too kindly to.

You big baby, she says but not with much conviction. She had to know that would be my answer. I’m not hero and I’m certainly not a man that is looking to get his block knocked off for something he was never involved in. No, not this time. No can do.

And then she looked at me just right.

Alright, look I’ll go talk to them. But I can’t promise anything. Hell, I can’t even promise I will come back.

I knew you’d help me out. Big hug. I knew you would. You always take care of me.