Monthly Archives: March 2018

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 2 Comments

by John Walters

Tweet du Jour

 

Starting Five

Bonzie, far right, banked in this go-ahead prayer

The Down 21 Club

Trailing 47-26 with just over 15 remaining in the second half, the Fighting Irish went on an epic run versus Virginia Tech at the ACC tourney. Matt Farrell induced a momentum-altering technical foul and Bonzie Colson gave Notre Dame its first lead of the second half via a banked in three-pointer from the elbow extended with the shot clock running out.

Irish win 71-65, outscoring the Hokies 45-18 over the final 15 minutes. It’s the largest come-from-behind win in school history. Wild. Up next? Duke. The tourney is not a sure thing, but it would be with a win over the Boo Devils.

2. A Shooter Without A Gun

On the same day, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Miami Heat super duper star Dwyane Wade visit Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Separately. You’ll never guess which one showed up unannounced, hung out in the hallways with the students and was boisterously well-received.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGrUlX3DNLw

As for DeVos…

 

 

3. The Nutty Professor

Harvard professor Jorge Dominguez, 72, resigned after being accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior by 18 different women over the course of a couple of decades.

United States president Donald Trump, 71, keeps on presidenting after being accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior by 19 different women, not including the porn star who is alleging the two had an affair a dozen years ago.

Apparently, to use a term the Harvard academic would appreciate, this is all being graded on a curve.

By the way, in Trump’s now infamous unsigned NDA, he goes under the pseudonym “David Dennison.” As Jimmy Kimmel noted, “Even his initials have to be double D’s.”

4. This Never Happens At The ESPYs

 

This is Terry Bryant, the man who purportedly pilfered Frances McDormand’s Best Actress Oscar from a table at the Governor’s Ball on Sunday evening. Before McDormand even had a chance to inquire how much it would cost to buy space on three billboards on Sunset Boulevard to shame the LAPD for not solving the caper, Bryant was nabbed.

Don’t! Don’t put that on the floor, Fran.

It was pretty easy sleuthing, as Bryant was bragging in public about his Oscar and Jordan Peele was the only black dude anyone saw win an an Academy Award that night. Marge Gunderson would’ve solved this before William H. Macy even ratted himself out.

Bryant, who considers himself an amateur journalist (so do we!) pleaded not guilty and was released without bail. The story here is how he is able to get into the Governor’s Ball with just a tuxedo and a smile. Could be the launch point for a Coen Brothers film.

5. First and Fourth

This dude abides

If you follow us on Twitter, we’ve been saying that Quenton Nelson is a monster since early  October and possibly, after Saquon Barkley, the best overall player in April’s NFL draft.

Earlier this week a CBS Sports mock draft (there will likely by five more before Sunday) put Barkley No. 1 to the Browns and Nelson No. 2 to the Giants. We kinda like that. Either way, the thing to do if you’re Cleveland, we feel, is to pick Barkley No. 1 overall. Why?

Because he’s the true game-changer, the Todd Gurley/Ezekiel Elliott/Adrian Peterson level dude. And he’s a TOP character guy; everyone who knows him loves him, and with good reason.

Barkley would be the most awesome Brown since Jim Brown

Why do you do this? Because after you select Barkley first, you’re still gonna get Sam Darnold or Josh Allen or Josh RosenRosen (or Baker Mayfield or Lamar Jackson, both Heisman winners) fourth. Although if it were us and Nelson is still available at 4, we’d take him.

On average, give us a fifth-year QB who doesn’t have as much glam over an untested rookie QB who can launch a rocket 70 yards. Look at Nick Foles and Jimmy Garoppolo.

Music 101

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Four chords—E, A, G, C (repeat)— and three musicians who shook the world. We were lucky enough to stand on the stage during one of the shows on Nirvana‘s epic tour in late 1991/early 1992.

Remote Patrol

Notre Dame vs. Duke

7 p.m. ESPN 

ACC Quarters

Not the Dollar Shave Club

The Irish are definitely NCAA-bound with a win. Duke is probably still a No. 1 seed even if they lose.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 2 Comments

by John Walters

Tweet du Jour

 

Starting Five

Cohn Heads Out*

*The judges will grudgingly accept “Tariff Tiff”

Yesterday afternoon, not long after Donald Trump boasted, “Everybody wants to work in the White House,” his Chief Economic Adviser, Gary Cohn, turned in his resignation letter.

Apparently, Cohn had written the resignation after his boss equated the people protesting the Charlottesville Nazis with the Charlottesville Nazis (wouldn’t this make a great name for a AA minor league team?) themselves, but was not moved to act on it until Trade Wars: The Last Tariff was released on Monday.

 

What is stultifying here is how some of the supposedly smartest and most accomplished men in the U.S.A. (e.g, Cohn, John Kelly) have come to the White House and seem genuinely shocked and disappointed by the president’s behavior. Were they not paying attention the past 30 years?

Trump’s White House really is a lot like The Apprentice: a different character departs each week and some folks are given immunity.

2.  Selection Sunday Sorrow

We miss Thomas Walkup

How to make a gaggle of sportswriters gloomy and irate at the same time? Tell them you’re changing the format of the March Madness Selection Show (never mind that you’re airing it on Turner, not CBS).

This year, for the first time, all 68 teams will be informed whether they are in or not, first, in alphabetical order. Only then will the brackets be revealed. In the past viewers would learn their team, its opponent and where it was playing its first game(s) all at once.

Turner’s idea, and we’re more than willing to give it a chance, is a double reveal. The first reveal is all about Who’s In/Who’s Out. The second reveal, and this will keep your eyes glued to Turner longer as opposed to switching over to ESPN or focusing on your bracket immediately, is where and who your team gets.

It’s actually very, very smart from a programming standpoint. It keeps you tuned to CBS longer and it rolls out the information you desperately want in two stages. It’s sock-sock, shoe-shoe as opposed to the old way, which was sock-shoe, sock-shoe. We can dig it. Or at least give it a chance.

I mean, Sunday is the first day of Daylight Savings Time, which may as well be a national holiday on the East Coast. Why get upset about anything?

3. He Sells Bombshells in the Seychelles

The most provocative thing we can recall about the Seychelles before yesterday

We know. We know. We know: You have Trump-International-Skulduggery-Bombshell Fatigue. You’re forgiven. But the latest is that the FBI detained a Lebanese-born American and United Arab Emirates adviser,  George Nader, last December because he attended a meeting in the Seychelles Islands (Indian Ocean) in 2017 that involved a Russian investor and Trump adviser/Blackstone founder Erik Prince. Nader is cooperating with Robert Mueller.

Nader, who may be a distant relative of Darren Rovell

So many bombshells. It’s like the beach at Dunkirk at Robert Mueller’s office.

4. The Labors Of Hochulis

Ed Hochuli, buff ref extraordinaire, announced his retirement from the NFL yesterday. Upon further review, the 67 year-old zebra’s retirement was upheld. The NFL cannot bear to be without a Hochuli, though, so his son Shawn, a back judge, to replace him.

5. Weathering The Stormy

How is an incarcerated “Russian Sex Coach” (MH, yesterday) supposed to get any attention with Stormy Daniels‘ incessant high-pressure system dominating the headlines? On Monday it was reported that Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, was “complaining” that he had not been reimbursed for the $130,000 in hush money he paid Daniels on his boss’ behalf.

This is Classic Trump: allegedly cheating on his newly mothered wife with a porn star, then having his lawyer pay her to keep mum, promising to reimburse the lawyer and then conveniently forgetting all about it. If you’re keeping score, Trump stiffed Stormy Daniels AND Michael Cohen.

Now Daniels, through her lawyer, is claiming that the NDA she signed is invalid because Trump did not also sign it. Sing away, Stormy. Sing away!

There are those on the right who’d call Daniels a venal opportunist in their defense of the world’s most venal opportunist.

Reserves

Durban Chainsaw Attack 

In South Africa, triathlete Mhlengi Gala was out for a training ride when three men abducted him, pulled him off his bicycle, and attempted to hack off his legs with a chainsaw. Why do humans keep behaving like such sh*ts?

The men fled after sawing Gala’s left calf. Doctors believe they will be able to save the leg.

****

Trump Panama: A harbinger?

Music 101

Karn Evil 9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P19BpRijJD4

We’re giving you the abridged, AOR-radio-friendly 9-minute version of Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s ambitious 29-minute, 37-second musical suite. From 1973, off the album Brain Salad Surgery. This is about as Seventies as it gets.

Remote Patrol

Notre Dame vs. Virginia Tech

ACC Quarterfinals

7 p.m. ESPN2

Bonzie’s beckoning the brackets….

 

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 2 Comments

by John Walters

Tweet du Jour

(that’s the former CIA Director hitting back at the prez)

 

Starting Five

Judgment at Nun berg*

*The judges will also accept “Samdemonium” and “The Hangover”

America’s biggest television star, after spending yesterday afternoon and last night doing the CNN/MSNBC car wash, is former Trump campaign advisor Sam Nunberg. Sam-I-Ammo accused Carter Page of colluding with the Russians, Donald Trump of knowing about the Russia meeting at least a week earlier, and boasted defiantly that he will not comply with Robert Mueller’s subpoena out of loyalty to “my mentor” Roger Stone. 

 

“They’re not gonna send me to jail,” he told hosts Jake Tapper, Ari Melber and Erin Burnett in three different interviews. “You think they’re gonna send me to jail?”

When Nunberg asked Tapper if he’d comply with Mueller, Jake said, ” I would comply…but I’m a different breed of cat.” Yes you are, daddy-o.

The funny thing about Nunberg is that, as unhinged as he is, he is entertaining and he is strangely likable. And credible. Imprudent and occasionally crass, but credible. I really hope he replaces Lee Corso on College GameDay when the time comes—if he’s outta jail by then.

2. UConn: Still Dominant

The Huskies reeled off a 26-0 2nd quarter in their 75-21 defenestration of Cincinnati last night in the AAC semis. The Huskies are now 100-0 since joining that conference. Fuuuuunnnnnnn.

And Mississippi State, the only other school in D-I that was unbeaten and the last school to have beaten the Huskies, lost on Sunday. UConn is now 142-1 dating back a couple years, its last defeat coming to the Bulldogs in last year’s Final Four.

3. Brokedown Palace Intrigue*

*Apologies to you soccer fans who thought by the title that this was going to be an item about flirting-with-relegation Crystal Palace falling in the 92nd minute yesterday to 2nd-in-the-BPL Man United. 

What if Sam Nunberg and all the accompanying hysterics/hysteria was just cover for the “Russian Sex Coach” story that got dropped into the second half hour of most cable news programs last night?

From The Washington Post…

Anastasia Vashukevich, an escort service worker from Belarus who catapulted to a certain measure of fame after filming a yacht trip with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko, was detained in Thailand over the weekend in a police raid on her “sex training” seminar. While still in custody Tuesday, she published Instagram videos asking U.S. journalists and intelligence agencies to help her.

We’re not sure how Vashukevich, who claims to be able to connect the dots between Russia and Trump, had access to her phone and Instagram while detained, but that’s pretty spectacular. Imagine being able to potentially break Trump Tower Moscow caper from a prison cell in Bangkok. Also, these “sex training” seminars sound like something out of Season 1 of Game of Thrones (“It is known”).

I hope Vashukevich realizes there’s a slow death via food poisoning in her future, though.

4. No Nukes Is Good News

“You all agree with me? Again? How wonderful!”

Who knows if they mean it, but North Korea says it’s open to talks about possibly kinda maybe let’s-sleep-on-it, we’ll-see its nuclear weapons, and that caused the already fully amped stock market to soar again today in pre-market trading. Amazon (AMZN, $1,531, up 31% since New Year’s) and Netflix (NFLX, $319, up 61% since New Year’s) are at all-time highs.

Why is your money on the sideline? HELP ME HELP YOU! (mom)

5. Towering Figure

Kids, once upon a time there were these fabulous places called record stores (“Do you want go look at Carly Simon album covers?” –Dr. Johnny Fever, WKRP in Cincinnati) where you could hang out, listen to music, gape at giant posters of Robert Plant holding a white dove on stage, and file through albums that were slotted alphabetically (this may be the reason Queen named themselves Queen…they had the Q’s all to themselves).

Anyway, no record store was a bigger deal than Tower Records, whose founder, Russ Solomon, died on Sunday night at age 92 while watching the Oscars. Thank you, Mr. Solomon.

The death of the record store and the concurrent slow death of rock is not a coincidence.

The flagship Tower store in Manhattan, on Broadway and 66th or so, is now an Apple store. Time marches on.

Reserves

Worth noting, legislators…

 

This is genuine, and true…

 

 

Music 101

Heat of the Moment

We mocked Asia and fans of the band mercilessly in high school, and now I don’t quite understand why. They were a supergroup, formed from members of King Crimson, Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. And this song would have vanished into the midst, at least for millennials, were it not for The 40 Year-Old Virgin. That opening guitar lick comes courtesy of the greatest rock guitarist living, Steve Howe of Yes/Asia. This song went to No. 1 for six weeks in 1982, which is more than most rock bands/stars can ever claim.

Remote Patrol

BYU vs Gonzaga

WCC Championship

9 p.m. ESPN

In his first and only week of ACC play this season, Bonzie Colson was named ACC Player of the Week

You remember Gonzaga? The Zags advanced to the NCAA championship game last spring. They’re back at 29-4, ranked sixth in the country. With a win tonight, is a 2-seed in their future?…Also, ESPN2 has Pitt-Notre Dame at 2 p.m. in the ACC tourney.

 

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | Leave a comment

by John Walters

NOTE: IF YOU HAVEN’T READ CHRIS CORBELLINI ON THE OSCARS, HERE IT IS!

 

March is here.

Starting Five

1. Oscars So Wet

At the 90th Oscars, The Shape Of Water wins Best Picture and Guadalajara native Guillermo del Toro wins Best Director. Turns out Mexico IS sending us their best people.

We liked The Shape of Water but feel the Academy was voting to make sure—as we would’ve—that Three Billboards did not win. Get Out would have been the bold choice and Dunkirk perhaps the better one. Our feeling is that Dunkirk will age better than the rest of these. The Shape of Water was basically an update on E.T. except our alien creature was from the Amazon and the friendship went to a different level.

Host Jimmy Kimmel: “Thanks to Guillermo, we will always remember this as the year that men screwed up so badly that women started dating fish.”

Also, Kimmel: “We don’t make films like ‘Call Me By Your Name‘ for money. We make them to upset Mike Pence.”

No context necessary (I’ve had dreams like this)

Our one catty comment: Sally Hawkins needs to eat and immediately.  We are worried about her. We know that you’re essentially weightless in water, but she’s weightless on land as well.

2. Shaq Crushes Combine

Central Florida linebacker Shaquem Griffin, who had to have his left hand amputated when he was a baby, was not even invited to the NFL Combine as of January. Then a wave of populist support came his way, and unlike a Stoneman Douglas high school student, this Florida-based student got the support he needed.

So the NFL invited Griffin, whose older TWIN brother is an NFL cornerback, to Indy. And he went out and ran the fastest 40 by a linebacker in 15 years. Shaq’s time of 4.38 (unofficial, but all of them are) was better than Saquon Barkley‘s 4.40. Wow.

Someone is going to look very smart in the first 5 picks…but who?

Some smart team will select Griffin, whose UCF team finished 13-0 this season. Maybe not in the first round, but they’d be fools not to take him.

 

As for the rest of the field, Saquon Barkley established himself as the top overall player in the draft and some team (Cleveland?) is going to have trouble deciding between Sam Darnold and Josh Allen…if they ever escape that revolving door.

3. Bitcoin Update

Three months ago Bitcoin was the greatest thing since Brooklyn BBQ. Its price had soared to $19,343, more than eight times greater than its price of six months before. Millennials were getting PAID!

Then in early February Bitcoin was the worst thing since Brooklyn BBQ. Its price had dropped to $6,914, decreasing by nearly two-thirds.

Now, just one month later, Bitcoin is Junior’s Cheesecake. The price has been on a steady rise and currently sits at $11,460, a 66% leap from just one month ago. It pays to pay attention to the tulip.

4. Ned’s Roach Away*

*The judges would remind you to check the acronym

After a Pyeongchang-induced hiatus, Saturday Night Live returned with Sir Charles Barkley as host. This was the most clever idea.

 

Meanwhile in Florida, legislators voted down a two-year moratorium on AR-15s and then held a moment of silence for the 17 Parkland victims. This is like sending your rape victim a “Get Well Soon” card.

5. Farewells To Bannister and Winchester

One of the most iconic sports photos of the 20th century

Over the weekend Sir Roger Bannister, the first known human to run one mile in less than four minutes, and David Ogden Stiers, who played Major Charles Emerson Winchester on M*A*S*H, passed away.

This shot receives much less play, but illustrates that Bannister ran in front of a packed house

Unlike Stiers, Bannister actually was a physician. He was in the midst of his neurology studies when he ran a 3:59.4 at Iffley Road sports ground on May 6, 1954. Bannister inspired an entire generation of Brits, principally future mile stars Steve Ovett, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram, all of whom would briefly hold the world record in the mile.

Bannister was 88 and passed away due to complications with Parkinson’s disease.

Stiers was 75

Stiers, who was raised in Oregon and was a graduate of Julliard, was primarily known for his role as the imperious snob who replaced Frank Burns and shared the tent with Hawkeye and B.J. Unlike Burn, he was an amicable nemesis and as the series wound on, one of the gang.

Fiercely private in his personal life, Stiers was well-regarded by his castmates as this tweet shows. Also, he whistled LOUDER when he was losing at poker.

 

 

Music 101

And She Was

This 1985 tune by Talking Heads peaked at 54 on the Billboard chart, but why would anyone change the station when this came on? The creative genius behind the band, David Byrne, just launched a tour this weekend.

Remote Patrol

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction

Netflix

David Letterman interviews the MH staff doppelgänger. I think half of America has eaten at that In-n-Out Burger and watched the planes land at LAX. We know we have.

Can A Whitesploitation Film Win Best Oscar? GET OUT!

by John Walters | Leave a comment

by Chris Corbellini

Editor’s Note: No one was manning (or womanning….#TimesUp) MH’s intergalactic HQ yesterday when our intrepid film critic filed, so alas this is being posted after the event. Truly, a post-facto post.

Nevertheless, we wanted you to see it and now with the advantage of MMQB hindsight, you’ll be able to see where Chris predicted precisely and where he foresaw fortuitously. And where he did not. We’ll reveal the actual winners below where the Academy erred, and when they concurred with Chris, we’ll simply leave an asterisk. 

White privilege?

The question I asked myself as I scanned the Oscar nominees for Best Picture: will GET OUT be judged as ahead of its time, or simply a three-and-a-half-star horror film with four-star themes?

The Academy voters for Best Picture will say the former. The movie will win, it will be a memorable speech, with the producers, director, and stars on stage genuinely shocked to have won Hollywood’s greatest honor. Great television. Inspiring. But again, we’ll have to wait to see if it truly began something in this creative field. Or a part of several momentous somethings, #MeToo, WONDER WOMAN and BLACK PANTHER included.

If it is, GET OUT deserves the prize.

Still, in the here and now, the most engrossing and technically imaginative movie I saw this past year was DUNKIRK. It must be experienced on an IMAX screen. In that setting, you feel like you are actually in the spitfire, trying to rescue the human dots on the beach, and lighting up enemy planes with machine gun fire. We’ve seen war movies before as good and probably better – there is nothing new in the story. War is hell and boys at war are basically walking meat waiting to be ground up. But the way DUNKIRK is presented – three different timelines, an hour, a day, a week – and the aerial footage adds something new to the genre.

More movies like this need to be made – it’s why we go see films on the big screen, instead of on our iPhone screen. So, it’s my vote for Best picture. It won’t win. It’s GET OUT’s year.

And here are my predictions for the rest. I’m better at predicting the technical categories than the big ones, mostly because I think the technical ones are just as big a deal:

Sound mixing: DUNKIRK*

The mix is actually a character in this movie, and probably the star. The moment you see the enemy plane in the sky, a ticking clock soundtrack kicks in. Then the sound drops out just as the last bomb almost hits one of the main characters early in the movie – and when a certain pilot is flying without fuel at the end. It also has not one but TWO ships sinking. That’s hard to mix.

Sound editing: DUNKIRK*

Just masterfully done, sound editors. Kudos. You cut the sh-t out of this movie. In conjunction with the sound mixers, at some point, you all must have realized you had something special when the soundtrack was dropped in on a track alongside everything you did to make this work.

Documentary feature: LAST MAN IN ALEPPO

AA: ICARUS

I want all five of these nominees to win, because so rarely do these films make any money. You really have to love the craft of documentary filmmaking to start the journey.

Makeup: DARKEST HOUR*

Nice work on Gary Oldman. He’s used to sitting in a makeup chair for long stretches (See: HANNIBAL and DRACULA), but still, masterfully done.

Costume Design: PHANTOM THREAD*

They’ll give Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie at least one Oscar.

Cinematography: BLADE RUNNER 2049*

Don’t fuck this up, Academy. You need to give Roger Deakins at least one win.

Production Design: BLADE RUNNER 2049*

BLADE RUNNER 2049 is a sequel, so it had a spectacular world in which to base this on. But there was also pressure to improve on that world, and they did so spectacularly.

Original song: “Remember Me,” from COCO*

Dart throw.

Original score: DUNKIRK

AA: The Shape of Water

The ticking clock sets a spooky tone. There is no hope. You are just waiting for your turn to die.

Documentary short subject: HEROIN(e)

AA: Heaven Is A Traffic Jam on the 405 (Editor: I’m assuming this film is just the first 5 minutes of “La La Land?”)

Again, I want them all to win. The budget is tighter on these than on full-length docs, and few ever see them.

Short film, live action: THE SILENT CHILD*

This one I had heard of before I saw the list on nominees, which is a very good sign.

Film editing: DUNKIRK*

It’s not only a well-cut movie in general, with crispy edits on land, sea and air, but the editing was crucial because the timeline is not linear at all. It has to make sense without a narrator explaining where we are, and what time in the rescue mission we are. And it does.

Visual effects: BLADE RUNNER 2049*

Child, please.

Animated feature: COCO*

Another dart throw.

Foreign language film: A FANTASTIC WOMAN*

THE SQUARE could nab this one as well. Nothing really stands out this year.

Adapted screenplay: CALL ME BY YOUR NAME*

Now we are getting to the categories where the creatives are awarded consolation prizes for not winning Best Picture.

Original screenplay: LADY BIRD

AA: Get Out

Tyroil Smoochie-Wallace is an Oscar winner….

You see? This one was almost a perfect coming-of-ager. Note that this may be the most competitive of all the categories. Each of the scripts nominated would have produced magic with any serviceable director. THREE BILLBOARDS could also take this one.

Actress in a supporting role: Allison Janney, I TONYA*

The easiest category to handicap. Just give it to her and watch the other nominees force smiles as Janney thanks all of them.

Actor in a supporting role: Sam Rockwell, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI*

Good group this year (isn’t it always?), with Willem Dafoe a real challenger.

Actress in a leading role: Margot Robbie, I TONYA

AA: Frances McDormand

Going with my heart and not my head on this one. Frances McDormand is the favorite.

Actor in the leading role: Daniel Kaluuya, GET OUT

AA: Gary Oldman

AND. HERE. WE. GO.

Director: Jordan Peele, GET OUT

AA: Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GeZsryVyHk

Christopher Nolan had the greater challenge with all those moving parts. It’s been said that the hardest thing to shoot is anything on water (Ask Spielberg, with JAWS), and a bulk of this movie is on the unpredictable sea. Plus, his aerial stuff was innovative in an industry always looking for the next innovation. But they’ll give Nolan a director Oscar later. We’re snowballing here.

Best picture: GET OUT

AA: The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water is just E.T. with a friendship that gets taken to the next level….

It’s a progressive time in the movie business, and a long time coming. Women in Hollywood are rallying around each other and speaking up, bonded by their shitty experiences with shitty men in power. One of their own directed WONDER WOMAN, a solid film with an amazing actress as the lead, and it is inspiring a generation. And months later, Marvel’s BLACK PANTHER is crushing it at the box office. Men and women of color are now putting together tent-poles with major financial implications for studios too, and proving they can produce box office hits. Maybe that’s the secret for this era of motion pictures – produce a genre film (horror, comic book) that stays within the boundaries of that genre, while pushing racial and gender boundaries.

The same, but different. Good on you for figuring it out, Jordan Peele.

Editor: If you’re scoring at home, Chris went 15 for 23, and half those misses were in the “easiest” or most-watched categories. He went out on a limb for Get Out and got bitten, but he absolutely nailed the technical categories. Thanks to our friend!