Brent Brennan: Here to Stay

It seems like most Arizona fans are taking Brent Brennan's hiring in stride, but for those worried about his 34-48 record at San Jose State here's some important context, as well as why he's the right person for the job at this moment in Arizona football. 

Photo: Arizona Athletics

In the 24 years before Brennan's hiring San Jose State had three winning seasons. They've now had three in the last four years, including a 7-1 2020 season where they finished ranked in the final AP poll for only the second time ever. 

Brennan accomplished this despite working at, as detailed in The Athletic last year, one of the worst-resourced programs in FBS. San Jose State may play in the best Group of Five conference (the Mountain West) but they have only two full-time strength coaches (for a team of over 100) & one full-time recruiting staffer. They practiced on a field with broken goal posts, that they shared with the school soccer teams, this season. And Brennan has to fundraise to ensure there's money for players to have breakfast at team facilities (Many Power Five schools provide three meals, & even player-specific nutrition plans). In the age of NIL, he had nothing to work with, & still made bowls.

Also, let us not forget Jedd Fisch was 8-19 (9-20 if you count his two games as UCLA's interim coach in 2017) before Noah Fafita took the field, saved the Stanford game, & then led us to a 7-2 record down the stretch. If Fifita, Tetairoa McMillan, & the majority of this roster stick together (still a BIG IF) there's a good chance they'll provide a similar boost to Brennan's win percentage. 

Now, there are no guarantees. Mike MacIntyre was the architect of San Jose State's best season, which he parlayed into the Colorado job where he had one winning season in six years. Fifita, T-Mac, & co. could still leave, creating another full-on rebuild. None of us knows how this will play out (as the failure of Sumlin, & success of Fisch has already proven), but there is one thing we can confidently say. If things do go well, Brent Brennan won't bail. 

Brennan and Dick Tomey at San Jose State

Photo: Brent Brennan

The guy who worked under Dick Tomey - the winningest coach in Wildcat history - for six years, as a grad assistant in Tucson & an assistant coach in San Jose, isn't going to see Arizona as a stepping stone. The man who viewed Tomey as a father figure, talking to him after every game & speaking at his celebration of life ceremony at McHale Center five years ago, won't be jumping ship. The coach whose wife & brother are Arizona alums will be in it for the long haul.

Hopefully, that'll include the same sort of highs Brent's brother Brad saw playing under Tomey, catching three TDs for the famed 98 Wildcats that went a program-best 12-1. 

Even if it doesn't though, in this college landscape where many coaches preach dedication & loyalty to players and fans without giving it in return, I'll enjoy rooting for someone whose love for the city, university, program, & (by all accounts) players is genuine. Someone whose favorite Dick Tomey-ism is, "Your actions speak so loud, I can't hear what you're saying."

Best of luck, & Bear Down, Coach Brennan. 

Brennan and his wife Courtney, happy to be back on campus
Photo: Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star

Why Trump's Reelection Odds are Lower than You Think

Will Trump still reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 4 months? I have my doubts. Evan Vucci / Associated Press

On Tuesday, which marked six weeks till this year's federal elections, I asked on Facebook what people thought Trump's chances of reelection were. The feedback was not overwhelming (Only four people answered, including a text exchange) but the most common response was that Trump is a moderate underdog with the Supreme Court opening & the potential for poor debate performances by Biden leaving the door open for this to turn into a toss-up. The one dissenting opinion had Trump as a solid favorite, citing incumbent advantage (four of the last five have won), a strong pre-COVID economy, & lack of excitement around Biden. 

All of the answers had some solid reasoning behind them, but I wasn't surprised to find that they all gave Trump better odds than I do (I'd put him at around 25%). At the risk of being proven a fool in six weeks, here are my thoughts on why it's unlikely:*

*A quick note: References to current polling/odds are often linked to FiveThirtyEight, or The Economist, whose polling & election models are constantly updating, thus numbers may have changed slightly since I posted this. 

2020 NFL Preview

 A couple of months ago I wasn't sure we'd have an NFL season, a month ago I doubted we'd finish the season, but thus far the NFL's robust testing program has kept things running smoothly &, after some early stumbles, MLB also seems to be going well so *fingers crossed, knock on wood, say the Rosary, etc.* we might actually get a full season of the NFL! With that in mind here are my annual - & seemingly always late - predictions which will hopefully have the accuracy of Drew Brees on the football field & not Drew Brees reading the room. 

Four of these guys will be in the playoffs, you can probably guess which four. ESPN

A Look at Ten Recent Streaming Movies

 (Clockwise from top) The Old Guard, Bad Education, Eurovision, & Greyhound. Netflix; HBO; Netflix; Apple

With movie theaters continuing to be closed there's never been a time where streaming has been more dominant as the way we consume movies, especially new ones. With that in mind I've watched ten movies that debuted on streaming platforms over the last three months, one by an Oscar winning director, others by first timers, some starring bonafide movie stars, others relative unknowns, to help guide you on which ones you might want to check out. There is one glaring omission, Hulu's by all accounts fantastic Palm Springs, which I haven't seen yet, but there's still plenty of others to recommend. Without further ado...

24 Shows You Can Watch in 24 Hours

Undone, The People v. O.J. Simpson, & The Terror. Amazon Studios; FX; AMC

There are so many good shows to stream these days that it's impossible to watch them all, especially when some of them run for dozens, or even hundreds, of episodes. This is all the more true if you're someone who enjoys the comfort of rewatching old favorites. Thus shorter running shows can be a godsend, allowing you to experience a great story in a limited amount of time. With that in mind here are twenty-four* shows that run for less than twelve hours each, meaning you can knock them out in one day if you're motivated or over a few days more casually.

*Two of the shows are anthology series, but I'm only counting their first seasons which are entirely unrelated from their second. 

For each show I've included a description of the plot, shows/movies that are similar in tone, visuals, and/or subject matter, as well as who's in it. You can also click on a show's title to see a trailer for its first season. 

There are six shows each from the main streamers (Netflix, Hulu, & Amazon), three from HBO, & one each from Apple TV+, CBS All Access, & Disney+, to ensure you'll have something to check out no matter what services you have. 

The Matz Brothers Present: The 10 Best Basic Cable Shows of the 2010s

This is the second installment of my brother Sam's & my best TV shows of the decade (You can read the first, which covers network shows, here). This time we're looking at the ten best shows that aired on basic cable, those shows that still had to deal with the burden of commercials but could get away with a little more adult content than their network (NBC, CBS, etc.) brethren.

A brief reminder on how we compiled the lists:

• There will be four top 10 lists (network, basic cable, premium cable, streaming) and then a final, top 50, list that combines the previous four, plus ten shows that didn't quite make the first four. If you want to know more about why we chose to break it down this way read the first installment. 
• Any show that aired in the 2010s is eligible, regardless of when it started, but only seasons that occurred during the decade are considered -- for example The Office could've make the network TV list, but its first five seasons didn't count so it didn't come close. 
• To create the lists Sam & I individually compiled our own top 20 for each category & then combined them, with a first place selection worth 20 points, second worth 19, & so forth. The scores of our top 10 are listed to give you an idea of which shows elevated themselves above the pack & which ones we might order differently on any given day. In the event of a tie I ultimately broke it, though not always in favor of my bracket. 
• We also list each show's best character, season, & episode, as well as where you can stream it, because we're thorough like that. While we discussed these, the person who wrote about a show made the final call on these categories. 

And don't worry, we avoided any major spoilers because if you haven't seen any of these shows we'd love for you to watch them.

The Matz Brothers Present: The 10 Best Network Shows of the 2010s

It's been a little over a month since the 2010's ended which has given myself and my brother, Sam, time to catch up on a few things & organize our thoughts on the best TV & film of the last decade. 

To fully explore the breadth of what the decade had to offer though we didn't merely want to throw together one long list of things we liked (Though there will be two long lists!) because our tastes might sway the whole thing too far in one direction or another. For example we might end up with a list of movies filled with dramedies & only a few action or horror films, which would be a shame because there were some amazing genre films last decade. So we've decided to break down television & film into distinct categories to create a list of top 10s before combining those into our definitive top 50 (And yes, we counted shows that started before 2010 -- though only their seasons that aired in the decade -- because, with all due respect to Sam Esmail, it's fucking dumb not to. The alternative is Breaking Bad & Parks & Rec never making/being near the top of a decade list & that's just dumb). First up we've got the best of network television, if you want to know more about our process -- like why that's a category -- read the next two paragraphs, if not you can skip down to the list. 

With film we divided primarily along genre lines: action, comedy, drama, etc., but we decided to try something different with TV. Rather than do the simple drama/comedy divide that most awards bodies do we opted to break them down by where the shows aired, in that way recognizing the different restrictions they work under & the different ways we consume them. So our four categories are Network (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, & the CW) which all deal with commercials & content restrictions, Basic Cable (AMC, FX, etc.) which has commercials but fewer restrictions, Premium Cable, (HBO, Showtime, etc.) which has neither commercials or content restrictions, & Streaming (Amazon, Netflix, Hulu) which takes lack of restrictions even further with varying run times & the ability to immediately binge all the episodes (save Hulu, which stuck to the weekly model). We think this makes sense because while Parks and Recreation and VEEP are both hilarious comedies half of the dialogue of the latter would be bleeped out if it aired on NBC, which is why we want to initially judge programs against those playing by the same rules before throwing them all into one top-50 batch.

Now that top-50 will include all forty shows that make up the various top 10 lists, plus 10 that narrowly missed out. And we came to our top 10 lists by individually compiling a top 20 for each category & then combining them with a first place worth 20 points, second worth 19, & so forth. I'll be posting those scores to give you an idea of which shows elevated themselves above the pack & which ones we might order differently on any given day. In addition we'll also be giving you each show's best character, season, & episode, because we're thorough like that. Alright, let's get to it.

Oh, & don't worry, we avoided any major spoilers because if you haven't seen any of these shows we'd love for you to watch them. To quote a tiger I know, they're great!

2019 NFC Preview, with Awards & Super Bowl Pick

Yesterday I covered the AFC so today I'm going over my predictions for the superior conference, awards, & the Super Bowl. Let's get to it. 

Is Doug Pederson the best coach in the NFC? (Jeff Fusco) 

NFC Preview

NFC East
1. Eagles         13-3 (1)
2. Cowboys      8-8
3. Giants          6-10
4. Washington 4-12

Last year Philadelphia lost more games due to injury, including five by Wentz, than any other team in the NFL. They made the playoffs & if not for a single Alshon Jeffery drop they could've made the NFC Championship. With Foles in Jacksonville their margin for error is smaller, however if Wentz stays healthy there may not me a more loaded team. With the return of DeSean Jackson no team can switch more effectively between 11 & 12 personnel (three wide receivers to two tight tends), first round pick Andre Dillard gives them key depth at offensive tackle, & their defensive line rotation remains the envy of the league. Corner is the only position that isn't an obvious strength, yet when compared to the injury decimated unit that finished out last year it'll be hard to complain about. Throw in head coach Doug Pederson & defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz as the best coaching combo outside New England & the Eagles are the team to fear in the NFC. 

2019 AFC Preview

The NFL is back for it's 100th season, finally giving me the chance to redeem myself after last year's Falcons over Chargers Super Bowl prediction. This year I've split the preview into AFC & NFC sections, the latter of which will run Sunday & include awards & the Super Bowl, because otherwise this would be way too long. Now let's get to it before Antonio Brown switches teams again.

One hundred years of CTE! (Bill Feig / Associated Press)

 AFC Preview

AFC East

1. Patriots   13-3 (1)

2. Jets           8-8

3. Bills           5-11

4. Dolphins   3-13

A month ago New England's biggest weakness appeared to be a less than stellar receiving corps, now they have Josh Gordon &, somehow, Antonio Brown. There may be no guarantees either is still playing in January, but if anyone can keep them on the field & productive it's the Brady/Belichick duo. They've also got a strong line, good stable of running backs, a steal from the draft in end Chase Winovich, & a defense built around the best cover corner in football, Stephon Gilmore. The only question in the regular season is if they'll be the one or two seed in the AFC.

These guys on the same team? That seems unfair. (USA Today)

2018 NFL Preview

Football is back! As is my annual, slightly late preview. Let's not waste any more time & just get to it.

AFC

AFC East

1. Patriots   12-4 (1)

2. Jets          6-10

3. Dolphins 5-11

4. Bills        3-13

There are definitely questions about the talent level on this Patriots team (Chris Hogan is there #1 receiver for the first four weeks!), but they still have the best coach & QB, & the easiest schedule -- that's good enough for a 1 seed. Sam Darnold gives the Jets some liveliness on offense that they haven't had since... Chad Pennington? Couple that with Jamal Adams & Trumaine Johnson giving Todd Bowles the type of DBs to fully run his blitz heavy scheme & the Jets aren't a team to be overlooked. I like Adam Gase but there just isn't much to love about this Miami team. They jettisoned a lot of their elite talent & they're not exactly the deepest team either, it's gonna be a long season. Then again, nothing will be as brutal as this Bills season. Tyrod Taylor carried them to the playoffs for the first time this century last, . so naturally they ditched him for pick machine Nathan Peterman & Josh Allen, the least accurate QB in this draft class. I'm sure that'll work out. 

"Black Panther" Was Headed for Best Picture History but the New Popular Film Category Could Stop It

Ryan Coogler's Black Panther was primed for a Best Picture nomination.

Black Panther was going to be nominated for Best Picture. Ryan Coogler’s film was going to be the first superhero movie to be nominated for the film industry’s highest award, a lesser writer might even have proclaimed it the Jackie Robinson of superhero films. Then the Academy announced this year would feature a new award to honor the best popular film, & this breakthrough has been thrown into doubt.

2017 NFL Preview

As per tradition I'm posting my NFL preview during opening Sunday, so I won't waste your time with some expanded prelude discussing the greatness of the NFL, or its shittiness, or my past success with predictions (Half of the Super Bowl teams the last 8 years, & 3 of the winners). Let's get to it...

Will Tom Brady be celebrating again this season?

AFC

East

1. Patriots (1) 13-3
2. Dolphins      7-9
3. Bills            4-12
4. Jets              2-14

The Patriots may have lost their opening game, but their balance across all three facets of the game, plus their coach & QB, remain the envy of the league. That, & this terrible division, should allow them to grab home field advantage. Tannehill to Cutler doesn't make any difference in my feelings about the Dolphins, they simply aren't going to go 8-2 in one score games again. They were a mediocre team that got lucky last year, they'll just be mediocre this year. Ah, the Bills. A few months ago I might've taken them as a wildcard, now they've traded away half of their good players. Tyrod & LeSean will keep them competitive in a number games, but only for so long. The Jets are going to be so so so bad, two wins might be optimistic. 

Baby Driver: You Don't Want to Miss this Ride

We're now midway through the summer movie season &, with all due respect to the original Princess Diana, Baby Driver has sped past the competition to stake its claim as the best film thus far.

The poster is pretty kick-ass too.

Edgar Wright is one of those directors that film critics & aficionados hold in high esteem, but that the American public hasn't fully caught onto. Of his four previous films released in the U.S. none scored lower than 81% on Rotten Tomatoes or 69 on Metacritic, yet none of them made more than $32 million or finished in the top 90 in yearly domestic box office. Whether it's because of the overt Britishness (& R ratings) of his Cornetto Trilogy, or the consistent lack of star power* in his films, Wright's been unable to break through with mass audiences the way he has in the industry. Ant-Man was meant to provide that opportunity, but creative differences led to his leaving that film. Perhaps that was for the best, Baby Driver is more distinctively Wright than any Marvel film could ever be, & if things go well it will have exceeded the domestic box office office of any of his previous works by the end of the weekend. 

*With Brie Larson, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, & others, "Scott Pilgrim" has a lot of retroactive star power but at the time only Evans might've been a bigger draw than Michael Cera, crazy as that sounds.

And, by God, it should. Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Jamie Foxx, & Kevin Spacey, have all had major roles in $100 million hits, with the latter two having three Oscars to their names, & between his Emmy win & overwhelming handsomeness Jon Hamm's no slouch either. It's easily Wright's most high profile cast. Sony has ensured the film has had plenty of publicity & it's received the best reviews of Wright's career. More to the point, it's a ton of fun.

Wonder Woman: DC Finally Gets One Right

Wonder Woman's success this weekend was blinding.

Being the first female led (of the MCU/Justice League era), & directed, superhero movie makes Wonder Woman a great leap forward, but the actual film fits squarely within the confines of the genre -- with all of the strengths & the flaws that entails (most notably a listless CGI finale against a less than compelling villain).

Thankfully Wonder Woman is more reminiscent of the MCU than DC's previous oppressive slugfests. The film boasts a strong sense of humor throughout, with Gal Gadot & Chris Pine both showing off expert comedic deliveries, & the casting of the two leads proves to be the best move the film makes.

Holiday Movie Preview: A Dozen Movies to See in the Next Six Weeks

Brie Larson could look a little more excited to see these movies.

For the last several years my one New Year's resolution has been to see fifty-two movies released in that given year. That means catching up on older movies I haven't seen doesn't count, & I go off the Oscars' calendar, meaning movies like Selma & American Sniper that didn't have a wide release until this year still count as films from 2014 as they had already been released in Los Angeles. Those may seem like unnecessary hurdles, but if a resolution is easy what's the point? With six weeks to go in 2015 I've downed forty movies*, with that in mind this holiday movie preview will list the dozen movies I'm most excited for from today till the clock strikes twelve on January 1, 2016.

*Of those forty, four have clearly stood above the others. "Inside Out," Pixar's latest masterpiece, "The End of the Tour," a beautifully nuanced two man show between Jesse Eisenberg & Jason Segel, "It Follows," already one of my favorite horror movies, & "Ex Machina," a clever sci-fi thriller that was my introduction to the astounding Alicia Vikander as well as a reminder that Oscar Isaac is the best actor working today. All of these films can be found on DVD or some form of streaming.

A few notes about this list. All of the movies listed have yet to debut in Tucson, if you live in a larger city you may have already seen a couple of them. The list, also, only includes movies that will play in Tucson before the New Year, so The Revenant & The Hateful Eight didn't make the cut as their wide releases aren't until January 6. Lastly, if a film's release date includes the "limited" qualifier it means that unless you live in L.A. or New York you'll have to wait a little longer to see it, for Tucson you generally need to add two to four weeks, & if you don't live in a city you may not get the opportunity to see such films in theaters at all. As always, if you click on a film's title you can see its trailer. Now, without further ado...

Arizona vs. UCLA: Can the Wildcats Exorcise Their Demons?

44-41 2OT

In this life, or the next, they will all pay for their sins.

Current students at the University of Arizona may not recall the score that still haunts the football program to this day, but those of us who were at the last Wildcat game to host ESPN's Game Day crew will never forget it. Arizona had Oregon on the ropes when many in the Zona Zoo prematurely jumped onto the sidelines in preparation of rushing the field, angering the football gods with their hubris*, & bringing the team's Rose Bowl hopes crashing down. More rational people may argue that the students didn't really cause the team to lose that day, & that the existence of football gods is a ridiculous attempt to bring order to an inherently chaotic sport. The Ducks quarterback, Jeremiah Masoli would agree with, at least, the first half of that sentiment, saying in regards to the students crowding the field, "I saw it and I actually smirked. It was kind of funny. I wasn't really worried about it." But football, with its Hail Mary's, Immaculate Receptions, & touchdown celebrating deities, is clearly a place of the spiritual, if not the downright supernatural, & Masoli was an asshole. Thus there is no doubt in my mind that the loss belongs squarely on those students who attempted to celebrate early, & the rest of my feelings regarding those kids can best be summed up by the great Samuel L. Jackson:

The players, coaches, & students at today's game are not the least bit responsible for that tragedy, but it is a legacy that they are tasked with putting to rest for the sake of the Arizona fan base, less that anguish follow us the rest of our lives.

*Less anyone accuse me of only chastising the students' actions because of the end result I want to be clear that I was at that game, I refused to leave the stands, & I warned my friend not to jump onto the sideline. I would never claim to fully understand the will of the football gods, but I knew that claiming victory before it was bestowed upon us could only have calamitous consequences. 

The Good & Bad of this Year's Emmy Nominations

For the seventh consecutive year Emmy voters failed to give Nick Offerman a nomination for his inspired work as Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation, to say nothing of Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, & the rest of the cast, yet I feel like voters did a better job than they have in years. For one, they gave Parks & Rec its second nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series! There were still some weird choices–Jeff Daniels got another nomination for his OK work on the mediocre, at best, Newsroom–& I'm going to criticize those, but when the good outweighs the bad at the Emmys it's cause for celebration. Without further ado a breakdown of the best, & worst, of this morning's Emmy nominations. We'll start with the worst so as to end on a high note. For a full list of the nominations click here.

2015 Summer Movie Preview: 20 Films to See from June through August

We’re off to a solid start to the summer movie season with the first five weeks gifting us a pair of solid sequels (Avengers: Age of Ultron & Pitch Perfect 2), The Rock defeating earthquakes/tsunamis in the wonderfully outrageous San Andreas, &, most notably, Mad Max: Fury Road which somehow managed to integrate themes of feminism & the dangers of religious fundamentalism into two hours of crazed action. That George Miller’s return to his Mad Max franchise would be both a worldwide hit, it’s grossed over $283 million to this point, & the best reviewed mainstream movie released this year gives some perspective on his accomplishment. While those who keep an eye on the indie scene have had a variety of interesting, & well reviewed, fair to choose from. There’s been an impressively cast period romance (Far From The Madding Crowd), an Ethan Hawke led examination of the drone war (Good Kill), another offbeat Kristen Wiig film (Welcome to Me), a gym comedy starring Cobie Smulders & Guy Pearce (Results), & an inventive western featuring Michael Fassbender & the Hound from Game of Thrones (Slow West).* Granted it hasn’t all been good. Poltergeist looks to have been another needless remake. Hot Pursuit was hot trash. The much hyped, by me anyway, Tomorrowland, was solid but never quite equaled up to the sum of its parts, while Aloha put an exclamation mark on Cameron Crowe’s decade long slump.  But misses are inevitable, what matters are the good ones & there are plenty left to come.

* If you’re in Tucson you can still catch “Slow West” at the loft & “Madding Crowd” at el con, where you can also still see the excellent “Ex Machina.” You might also try on demand for these smaller films.

Super Bowl XLIX Preview

Who will win this battle of football titans*?
*Obviously I don't mean the Tennessee Titans, they suck. 

I don't want to toot my own horn* about correctly predicting this Super Bowl five months ago so let's just get straight to talking about this fascinating game.

*Actually, I do. I'm 8-2 against the spread (Naturally, I haven't been betting), & straight up, in these playoffs. Only 6 of 64 ESPN experts correctly predicted this Super Bowl at the start of the year. In seven years of making preseason predictions I've got at least one Super Bowl team right in all but one year. I've now nailed 8 of the 14 teams during that span. King Kong ain't got s*** on me!
 
I know a lot of people aren't thrilled this game is between the Seahawks & the Patriots, the two most hated teams in the league, give or take the Cowboys & Steelers, but who cares what the haters think. The further this season went on the more apparent it became that this was the most interesting potential matchup. Sure, Denver fans would've loved a rematch, until it ended in another double digit loss. It was always a matter of time before the Colts got blasted by a better team, better for it not to be in the big game. Dallas... F@#$ that. Green Bay would've been fun though. Rodgers vs. Brady, a rematch of one of the few marquee matchups of the regular season that lived up to the hype, no one would've objected to that. This is even better though. Pete Carroll's shot at revenge on the team & owner that fired him. Tom Brady versus his successor in the clutch category, Russell Wilson (Who's 10-0 against Super Bowl winning quarterbacks, though that has a lot to do with the defense). The two best cornerbacks in the league demonstrating just how good they are. The Seahawks can become the first repeat champions since the Patriots. Belichick & Brady* can become only the second coach/QB combo to win four Super Bowls (Chuck Noll & Terry Bradshaw were the first). Brady gets a shot at beating the team that massacred his rival the year before, & in doing so cement himself as the best quarterback of his generation. They're also just the two best teams in football.** That's a lot of great storylines, & it's going to be awesome getting to see which ones play out.

*Listen, if you want to always see an asterisk next to those two names because of spygate & deflategate go ahead. You're being either extremely stupid, or biased if you do, because neither of those was A. exclusive to the Patriots or B. that big a deal, but go ahead & let your Patriot hate flow.

**Certainly some Packers fans will take exception to that claim what with Rodgers being hurt & Seattle needing a miracle comeback to win on their home turf. I'd counter that Russell Wilson quite possibly played most of that game with a concussion & the Seahawks turned the ball over 5 times & the Packers still couldn't beat them. You don't get better opportunities than that & if you can't capitalize you're simply not good enough –– at least not with your coach asleep at the wheel.

Oscar Nomination Reaction

NPH will be hosting this year's Oscars,
who will be joining him at the ceremony?

People like to say that awards don't matter, they're not wrong. Citizen Kane, regarded by many as the greatest film of all time (I've never seen it), famously failed to win best picture. Martin Scorsese had to wait three decades to win his Oscar, but no one doubted he was a master filmmaker beforehand. Peter O'Toole never won an Oscar, yet he'll always be a film legend. Films about famous dead Brits in Shakespeare In Love & The King's Speech defeated two of my favorite films, Saving Private Ryan & The Social Network, but I'll fight you if you think that makes any sense. 

Still, awards don't entirely not matter. They can change a career. Just getting nominated can give an actor a legitimacy they previously lacked (See: Jonah Hill), or a writer/director the ability to get a project green lit that never would've seen the light of day otherwise. Also, they're fun to debate! With that in mind here's a look at this year's Academy Award nominations, & my thoughts on various major categories. 

Here were my pre-announcement predictions for Best Picture, in order of my confidence in their being nominated:

1. "Boyhood" 
2. "Birdman" 
3. "The Imitation Game" 
4. "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
5. "The Theory of Everything" (The first 5 are locks)
6. "Whiplash"
7. "American Sniper"
8. "Selma"
9. "Nightcrawler"

"Everything is Awesome" from The Lego Movie is the first nominee announced, for Best Song. Is it too much to hope that description will be accurate for these nominees? Probably.