Oscar Time!

 It's Oscar time again. Movies Movies Movies. The awards will be given out to people who will blather on about shit nobody cares about, to people like the guy or gal who snipped the film together and a whole new category copying the SAG awards where the entire cast of said movie gets one. Now I see lots of movies every year either in theaters or on the streaming services, but this year for the first time I will be short in seeing all 10 nominees. The Secret Agent has eluded me but here are my favorite 10 for 2025.

10) Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

It was a fitting goodbye to the tremendous series about a family of rich eccentrics living in a castle in England. It was like saying bye bye to family.

9) A House of Dynamite

Kathryn Bigelow is a master of directing white knuckle thrillers like Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. This thriller involves a rogue nuke heading for Chicago and how various characters in government react to stop it or deal with 10 million deaths. Please dont wait 7 more years for another movie, Kathryn.

8) The Life of Chuck

A story told in reverse. The world is ending and we back up to learn why. A guy named Chuck has the whole world's fate in his hands and when he dies so do we. It sounds depressing but it is not. The story gets more positive as it goes backwards. This isn't for everybody but it was for me.

7) Frankenstein

Guillermo Del Toro is one weird dude. But so am I. His movies are bizarre, thought provoking and great storytelling. This interpretation of Frankenstein is unique and fascinating. It is basically a story of fathers and sons.

6) Train Dreams

The story of a man's life in the early to mid 1900's. It's about a kind of loner who busts his ass through working the railroad and the lumber industry. The man finds happiness with a wife and family and then it goes wrong. The movie is heartbreaking yet inspiring. It shows hope keeps us alive.

5) Hamnet

This movie about Shakespeare and how he came up with Hamlet probably made me feel emotions more than any movie of the year. Jessie Buckley will win the award in maybe the only slam dunk of the night. Her portrayal of a grieving mother is top notch. Hamnet is an exercise in emotions.

4) Weapons

An entire classroom of kids has disappeared. Director Zach Cregger made the fantastic Barbarian, a very unique horror picture. Weapons is even better. Led by Josh Brolin as a father bent on finding out what happened to his son, Julia Garner as the teacher everyone blames for the disappearance and the Oscar worthy Amy Madigan as the creepy Aunt Gladys. I won't spoil it, but the last 5 minutes of this movie are the best 5 minutes of any movie this year. Funny AND horrifying.

3) Sentimental Value

The story of a neglectful father and his two estranged daughters. Stellan Skarsgard as the famous director Gustav, Renate Reinsve as daughter Nora, and Inga Lilleas as Agnes, the less pissed off daughter. When Gustav wants to make a swan song film about his mother who was tortured by the Nazis. Nora is an actress and refuses to do the movie out of spite. Bring in Elle Fanning as an American actress willing to do the movie. She's not right for it and leaves leaving Nora as the only possibility. This flick has an Oscar nomination for every actor in this. I found it moving and yet a joy.

2) Sinners

Michael B Jordan and Ryan Coogler have teamed up before. Fruitvale Station is a must see, But Sinners is a whole new level. Jordan plays twins, Smoke and Stack. They are opening a juke joint in 1932 Mississippi after being Al Capone mobsters for years in Chicago. The joint is hoppin. They will make lots of cash. But then, along comes a vampire and all hell breaks loose. The movie is about black entrepreneurs for an hour, black joy in 1932, and then the last hour is pure horror when the blood suckers show up (the fact the main vampire is white and exploitive is not lost on the audience). This film is one unique experience.

1) One Battle After Another

It can be argued that Paul Thomas Anderson is the best director out there. From Boogie Nights to There Will Be Blood to One Battle this guy produces quality regularly. Leonardo Di Caprio is a washed-up revolutionary named Bob. Hiding out for years, being pursued by Sean Penn as Col Lockjaw, who needs to know if Bob's daughter is actually his so he can then kill her to keep his secret romance with Teyana Taylor (Bobs wife) from disturbing his entrance into a white supremacist exclusive club. This thing is all over the board with side stories about freeing immigrants from detention centers, robbing banks and Lockjaw's obsession with finding Willa, his mixed-race child (maybe). Chase Infiniti as Willa stands out in an acting debut. Benicio Del Toro shines for the 10 minutes he is in it and Teyona Taylor as the angry black revolutionary also shines. Meanwhile, Leonardo Di Caprio, like a great point guard, is the glue. This is the best movie I saw in 2025.

Other flicks I liked include

Nonnas is the Vince Vaughn Love letter to grandmothers and their cooking

All The Empty Rooms is a documentary about school shooting victims

Nuremberg is a warning about what should never happen again yet does

My Mom Jayne is Mariska Hargitay's attempt to understand her mother, Jayne Mansfield  

Good Boy is a horror flick from a dog's perspective. Trust me it works. The dog Indy deserves an Oscar

Alto Knights, Thunderbolts, Sovereign, The Tank and Blue Moon also were great experiences.

Now the worst movies of 2025

Love Hurts may be the worst movie EVER with two Oscar winners. It is terrible.

 Megyn 2.0 is trash much like Exorcist 2. A terrible sequel to a good movie.

Final Destination Bloodlines sucks your life out of you more so than the story itself.

Honey Don't is horrible. The attempt to be a Coen Bros movie fails miserably.

And finally, a praised movie that I hated.

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You had good performances, but the goddamned story was boring and pointless. It couldn't end fast enough.

That's it. Onward to the awards.

The Iran War!

 Holy shit, this is bad. Under the orders of Trump's handlers, Bibi Netanyahu, Mike Huckabee, Pete Hegseth and the rest of the nuts who advise him, the attack on Iran, aka Operation Epstein Files, was launched. Now the vast majority of these warmongering Christian Nationalists, all trying to bring about Jack and the Beanstalk, no I mean the Rapture or Armageddon are all in on death and destruction. Jebus, please come back. This insanity is what troubles the United States since about 1783 when the first "Christian" decided killing all the folks already here was a spiffy idea by jove! Since those dark days it's only gotten worse since about 1981 when the "amiable dunce" Ronnie Reagan embraced the likes of Jerry Falwell and the rest of the "Christian" right. The anti-Jesus crowd. The ones who think Jesus was a white man with blue eyes who wanted white supremacy and fuck the poor as policy. Insanity spreads quickly as we have all found out.

Trump, fresh off Epstein videos allegedly showing him with minors, listened to the neo cons who convinced him that Iran was going to kill him and to get them first. Now the neo cons knew damn well this was bullshit but appealing to the Narcissist In Chief about it being about HIM allowed them to get their way. Much as the previous Dimwit in Chief kowtowed to the Cheney Bot and attacked Iraq the neo cons knew who to manipulate. Boom Boom!! How cool to middle aged adolescents like Pete Hegseth and the Bros. Hegseth, who seems like he's about to bust a nut every time he talks about war and booms and death from above, is about as bad a cabinet member as has ever existed. The weekend third banana with the Crusader tats is a danger to humanity. He may actually believe that Rapture shit. But to be fair, he's usually drunk.

The war seems like it's going great per our current state run TV that decries the MSM even mentioning American deaths as "making Trump look bad'. Well excuse me, dead Americans may be inconvenient to the "all is fine" crap, but it's reality. But we know, reality doesn't exist in this rogue regime. Reality is the opposite of reality. Alternative facts. Nah, it's just lies.

Whoops! The Americans bombed a school, a girl's school in Tehran to be precise, and killed 170 plus. Now it may have been an error, but the "error" was made worse when 40 minutes later, with first responders and parents present looking for their children, Hegseth sent in the old double tap. Another missile hit the school, killing more. Then came the propaganda. It was Iran, it was Israel, it was Martians not us. We the good guys, fellas! Israel immediately threw Trump under the tank saying hey not us dude. Yeah we know. We have the typical right-wing crazies out there. John Bolton sez hey its the kids fault for going to a school next to a military base. The very handsy closet case, Matt Schlapp, actually suggested the girls were better off dead rather than wearing a burka. Well shit Matt, I think you'd be better off not grabbing other men's junk. These people are insufferable.

Sinking an Iranian ship? Participating with India in some sort of ceremony that included the United States. In India. Then sailing back to Iran, an American sub sank it. It was unarmed. Ok that's not cool. The sub followed protocol and rescued as many sailors as they could, right? Oh hell no. They took off and let them drown. Christ, that's two war crimes at once. Why did we do that? Per the Maniac in Chief, it was more "fun" to sink it than capture it. Himmler got nuthin on this guy.

So that's what we have. War crimes, burning oil fields, raining oil, environmental disasters, bombing freshwater facilities, dead Americans, stranded Americans, dead Iranian children, dead Iranian sailors, a raging Sec of Defense, a dimbulb President, a soulless Sec of State, a Joint Chiefs head with a penchant for just following orders, double taps, and an oil crisis costing Americans a fortune. Sounds great. This what you voted for? Yeah of course it is because you voted for this criminal pedo because you didn't like a black woman's laugh (or just the black part). 

What's it all mean? It means after this horrid regime is gone, the Hague awaits. And it waits for anyone participating in this monstrosity. Iranian mullahs or POTUSES. You are all on notice. You cannot avoid what's coming. 

What it also means is this. The Epstein files aren't going away. Trump is not only a pedo, but he's also a war criminal. And that's fine by MAGA, who worship at the feet of this scumbag.

Sorry, but the rapture and Armageddon are fantasy. It's as real as The Eye of Sauron, which is Israel and us. 

Mr. Frodo, save us.

Cricket's Revenge!!

Cricket's revenge is 75% complete. Kristi Noem, who took Cricket, at 14 months, to a gravel pit and shot him in the face and then shot a goat in the face, has been on thin ice as DHS commandant for a long time is gone. The Fuehrer had enough of her grandstanding, cosplay, her funneling of money into her friend's bank accounts along with her own and screwing an underling. That's HIS fucking job. Don't take attention away from Fat Nixon. 

Noem has been a disaster from Day One. Her unleashing of untrained thugs into cities to beat up and even kill Americans who dared question their lack of skills was bad enough but the constant ads to promote her own ego was the straw. There's only one ego that matters here, Icarus Noem. 

Noem bought airplanes with bedrooms, claimed the planes were for deportations, spent $220 million on herself in ads with huge cowboy hats, flak jackets, camel riding, horse riding on the beach, plumbers' overalls, Top Gun outfits, and hair extensions. She also lived on a military base free of charge, in a general's house after he was thrown out, and was allegedly canoodling with a pardoned convict named Corey Lewandowski, a married pardoned felon. Noem is married also (it was nice for the House and Senate committees to provide Mr. Noem with a cuck chair). 

Noem brought this on herself with her absolute lack of self-awareness. She thought she WAS the DHS, After a mediocre stint as Governor of South Dakota, that R after her name ya know, Noem was considered a real Veep candidate because Der Fuehrer only hires the worst people. But then Noem wrote a book and actually thought shooting Cricket and the goat was worthy of telling because she thought that made her "tough". No Guv Extensions, that makes you a psycho puppy killer in 90% of Americans minds. The one thing about Magats everyone can like is they like dogs too. That's about it.

So, Kristi not only blew up her Veep chances (she lost out to a dullard named J D Vance) but she's now blown up her DHS reign of error because she can't stop lying under oath and taking attention away from the Orange Mussolini. Good luck with that Shield of American Bullshit or whatever she's going to be doing in between indictments.

Her successor? One Markwayne Mullin, a Senator from Oklahoma (What the fuck Okies?). Mullin is a tough guy wannabe. He has cauliflower ears from rolling around in a ring with other guys and sold a plumbing business for millions freeing up his time to con the people of Oklahoma into electing him to the House and then the Senate. Mulin was famously hiding from his constituents on Jan 6, and on one occasion threatened to fight a witness at a committee hearing. His appointment does not include any kind of hope for the better. Mullin was always in contention for Dumbest Man in the US Senate with Tommy Tuberville. Tuberville always won but it was close. Mullin moves on to run ICE. 

Wonderful, now ICE will be MMAing American citizens in a cosplay to be Greg Bovino. Mullin is just another short man being pissed at his Creator for making him that way and by gawd he's going to exact his revenge. The only good thing about Mullin is at least, as far as we know, never shot a puppy.

"Only the best people" is still funny as hell.

The Music Man!

 

The Music Man is one of those classic musical theater shows that are in the country's zeitgeist. Even if you've never seen this show, the movie or The Simpson's famous monorail tribute, you know all the songs. I've never seen any of this except the Simpson's tribute, but the songs from the show are burned into my brain. My parents had this album when I was a kid and I listened to it prior to discovering the Beatles, The Doors and of course the Monkees.

Professor Henry Hill (Elliot Andrews) is a con man. Jumping off a train in River City, Iowa in 1912 or so, Hill is going to con the "stubborn Iowans" into starting a boy band by buying instruments and uniforms from him and then skipping town. Along the way, Hill meets Marion (a wonderful Elizabeth D'Aiuto) a widow who serves as the town librarian. The con goes bad, Hill is found out, he falls in love with Marion and the townspeople forgive him once the band is formed. That's the story. But the music is the draw here.

The beginning of the show features a train full of salesmen rapping. Yes, rapping in 1957. Whether it was known as rap or not, that's what the song is. It's kind of fascinating. All the songs are there. 76 Trombones, Gary, Indiana, Wells Farro Wagon, Marion the Librarian, Shipoopi, and Trouble where T it rhymes with P and that stands for pool. It's a great time.

The performances by this musical theater staple are fantastic. Especially Elizabeth D'Aiuto as Marion. Her voice is operatic and though it's her tour debut, she could be Christine in Phantom easily. Wow.! Elliott Andrews as the grifter Henry Hill is a fast-talking great lead. He keeps it together. He definitely is the glue. The others are also a step above including the number of children who get a lot of time and a lot of songs to sing. Dylan Patterson as Winthrop, Marion's son, shines with a solo song that drew huge cheers.

This play has 3 more performances at the Lied Center in Lincoln. It's well worth the time.

This show has the chops to be done at the middle school level right up to this professional show. To see it by the pros first will make any other type equally as fun. It's old fashioned, unapologetic, and sticks to the original.  

Bravo!

& Juliet!

 Imagine if Juliet didn't off herself after Romeo did. Imagine if Juliet decided living was more important than any man. That's the premise of the fun & Juliet that opened in Omaha last night.

Juliet died and William Shakespeare is adamant that the story is done. Anne Hathaway, his wife, asks to be allowed to rewrite the ending and make Juliet a real woman. Anne's story is played out onstage in all of its many possibilities. Juliet heads for Paris with her nonbinary friend, May, and Anne joins in. Along the way Juliet, May and Anne enjoy the fruits of Paris, meeting a gang of goofballs along the way. Romeo comes back to life (thanks to Bill) and throws a wrench into the whole thing much to Anne's dismay and anger. This may sound very serious, but it is not, trust me. It's fun fun fun.

It's a jukebox musical; there's even a jukebox onstage at the start. But let me see, if you are a boomer who listens only to classic rock and disdains modern pop hits, this is not a jukebox musical. It's just a musical. I knew perhaps 33.3% of the music. Since You Been Gone and It's My Life along with some Katy Perry and Backstreet Boys is about it. Those songs were great cuz I knew them. The others were new to me and enjoyable.

The showstoppers were probably the end of Act 1 where Romeo comes back to life and belts out It's My Life (Bon Jovi) with a full ensemble of backup singers and the end of Act 2 where Tell Me Why (Backstreet Boys) brings Bill and Anne back together. 

The performances were phenomenal. This may be a musical about Shakespeare and Juliet, but this is Anne Hathaway's play (yes there are jokes about the name). Crystal Kellogg plays Anne with a flair of humor, feminism and a great voice. She is the glue here. Armani Ponder-Keith played Juliet (she is an understudy) with innocence and charisma along with a great voice. Shakespeare played by another understudy, James Tracht, is an arrogant dude who thinks he's always right. He plays off Kellogg with the knowledge that he is an equal yet also a backup. He lets her go do her thing. Kathryn Allison is Angelique (not an understudy) and she is an adult in the room with great presence. Nico Ochoa as May, the non-binary friend prances around the stage with the elegance of a ballet dancer. Romeo is played by Joseph Torres as a kind of an insecure Elvis. Now for a minor character named Lance. Played by Paul Jansen with a baritone French accent, when he is onstage, he dominates. Pay attention to his show stopping line in Act 2. It brought the house down.

This Max Martin musical isn't going to change your life, but it is gonna make your life more enjoyable for a couple of hours. It's a wonderful time.

There is a lot of "woke" in this. A non-binary character, a feminist theme that brings cheers from the kids, and some gay themed storylines. But don't get your red hats all in a bind, it's all in good fun (not to mention I doubt red hats even go to theater). 

& Juliet is not nutritious; it's a box of Mike and Ikes or a bag of chips. It's a bag of buttered popcorn at a movie. It's a birthday cake. In other words, it is a joy.

Go enjoy yourself.

Jesus Wept!

 Ok as if this "war" isn't bad enough, more illegal and more wrongheaded, now we have American military commanders telling their NCO's that Trump is anointed by Jesus to bring on Armageddon. Wut?

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an organization that is there to take complaints from troops who feel their religion or lack of is not respected, has received over 100 complaints about kooky military leaders telling the troops, ya know the ones who will die first, that the Second Coming is upon us and they must be honored to take part in ending the world. Hoo boy great. Theres's dozens of Col Lockjaws out there spewing their bullshit about death and Jesus and toxic masculinity. Now we know the tough guys on the right have always idolized fictional nutjobs like Col Jessup and General Jack D Ripper because of some deep seeded insecurity, but sorry incels, but this is reality. Pete Hegseth is a toxic bro itching to fight anyone. He's a tough guy in name only. Hegseth is just another lamebrain with Christian nationalist tats performing for an audience of one.

US commanders are not supposed to push their religious bullshit onto their troops because quite frankly, it's dangerous and gets people killed. This suicidal charge is for Jesus!! Meanwhile, their crazed commanders sit back and watch in the comfort of a basement. Jesus didn't anoint Trump, there is no such thing as Armageddon, the Book of Revelations is fiction, and these commanders are fucking insane.

Have a seat, Pete Hegseth. At a bar. And drink yourself under the table where you're less batshit crazy.

The Clintons testify before the hillbillies on the House Oversight Committee about Epstein. But not in public because the Clintons would take the likes of Comer, Boebert, Luna and Mace out back and kick em in the nuts they think they have. Yeah, that's what happened anyway as the tapes were released yesterday. Hillary V Boebert was the equivalent of Joe Louis' Bum of the Month club. Hillary V Mace was the equivalent of a therapist ordering the orderlies to put that woman in a rubber room where she can't hurt herself. Up the meds Nutty Nancy, you are obviously not well. Hillary is smarter than that entire committee combined and it showed. She's also tougher. What the fuck was America thinking in 2016?

Bill was equally dominant. Keeping his cool unlike the performers on the committee, he denied it all. He also kept Trump from being implicated which explains Trump's sudden shift from the lie "Bill Clinton was on Epstein Island 28 times" to "I don't like it him being deposed". Bill couldn't tell them what he didn't know.

The Clintons are an obsession with the right. They cannot handle the structured close to the vest Clinton vibe. Brainwashed by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, these weak brains are intent on proving shit like "Pizzagate", The Killary List, Mena, and other such nonsense. Sorry but you'll never prove any of it. Cuz it's all bullshit.

Meanwhile, Jesus slaps his forehead, despairs that his most ardent followers are all Judases, Philistines and Romans and asks Dad what the hell were you thinking?

Endless Wars Are Back! MAGA!

 No more endless wars. America First! No more regime change! Did I mention America First?

The attack on Iran, aka Operation Epstein Files, began over the weekend after careful and expert consideration under a tent at Mar A Lago featuring a map of secret locations of US bases in the Middle East and Suzy Wiles' Apple watch for all to see and hack. These people are performance artists with nukes. It's a perfect scenario for AI to do its thing and bomb the shit out of anybody the Pedo in Chief deems an enemy or a diss. As long as a preprogrammed AI tells this band of amateurs to attack, that's what they'll do. And that's what they did.

This bullshit has been brewing for about 75 years now since the United States of the Dulles Bros decided that Iran's oil was ours and not the people of Iran and overthrew Mohammed Mossadegh and installed the Shah. The Pahlavis, a family of thugs and ass kissers of the American oil lobby, brutalized the Iranian people for about 26 years both domestically and aboard with the SAVAK, a tortuous and murderous clan that placed spies into virtually any American University to keep an eye on their students. Trust me on this, at the University of Nebraska in the late 70s, I had an Iranian roommate. He would go out to protests in a mask, get weird phone calls from sketchy voices and tell me to hang up on these people if he wasn't there. He eventually disappeared, I mean one day he was just gone and we never saw him again. This was SAVAK in the late 70's.

From 1953 to 1979 the USA set up what's going on now with its money over people philosophy. And then it blew up in our faces with the Islamic Revolution and the hostage crisis. Thus, a new brutal regime of murderers and foreign terrorism began. Women were suppressed; Iranian ICE type thugs roamed the streets beating up women and killing anyone getting out of line. Public hangings using cranes were abundant and Iranian sleeper cells infiltrated Western countries. One brutality was replaced by another. Much like in Cuba, where a brutal regime was also replaced by another brutal regime, Iran was lost. The United States was involved in all of it. 

Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu, two international terrorists if there ever were any, decided to act. Netanyahu has been bugging American presidents to attack Iran for years. Ya know, the old Iran is two weeks away from getting a nuke that's been going on for 30 years. Then Trump, backed into a corner by either the Epstein Files or by Mossad pictures and tapes, "obliterated" Iranian nuclear facilities, But to Bibi, that's not enough. Attack Attack Attack. Gaza is destroyed, thousands are dead and next up, Iran. Trump bit, or acquiesced to blackmail, and attacked. These two old men killed another old man and killed 180 schoolgirls (hey now, "liberating" women doesn't mean killing them in their childhood). Fuck these guys, all of them.

Now what's going to happen? American kids are dying already and per Trump more will die. But hey, "It is what it is." Fuck this oligarch and his family of draft dodgers.

I don't give a shit that the horrific Ayatollah is deader than a capped oil well. He was a monster. All of them can rot in hell. Their monsters and our monsters.

It's a shame that American kids (sans Barron Trump) will die for this Godzilla Trump/Bibi. But this was entirely predictable because Trumpstein has been projecting for years about Obama or Biden attacking Iran due to low poll numbers. Some of us knew it's EXACTLY what he would do. Every stance is a deflection of projection. The 2024 loser of the election told you all of this but hell, y'all didn't like her laugh.

Now all of us have to live with it.

Now what for Iran? Well in the words of one Peter Townsend, meet the new boss same as the old boss