The Skolney Blog

In theaters: THE LONG WALK Based on a Stephen King story and directed by Francis Lawrence, the simple premise has a group of young men walking. But if they slow down too much, they die. Somehow, this isn't tedious. Most of the film is dialogue heavy, and it is very well written, and the cast is very good, including Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, two of the best young actors out there. Mark Hamill is also the main bad guy.  ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER The kind of film that when you see it, you know you've seen a new classic. The new film from one of our greatest filmmakers, Paul Thomas Anderson, combines all his skill, his ear for rich dialogue, and ability to draw out peak work from actors, and this time also has palpable passion and real sweetness. This film takes on current issues in America in a way I never expected from him. I guess if we have to live in an increasingly authoritarian shithole country, we might as well get some great films out of it.  Another fantastic ense...

For 15 years, even through years that didn't end in championships, the Lynx have been the shining light of Minnesota sports, the one franchise that could never hurt me. Well, welcome to true Minnesota sports, I guess.  Ever since the Lynx were robbed of their championship last year, it was all about using that injustice as fuel to get back to the finals and win it. It was the revenge tour, and the Lynx did use it as fuel to storm to the league's best record. They were so far and away better than everybody else that they clinched with many games to play, and the injury that knocked out Napheesa Collier for some games didn't even matter. They did seem to lose some of their edge late in the season. I didn't think too much of it. No reason to think they weren't going to make a deep playoff run again. But the Lynx never did seem like themselves in the playoffs. The first round against the Valkyries was a 2 game sweep, but they needed a massive comeback to win game 2, and...

STEELERS 24 VIKINGS 21 Something happened on Sunday that has never happened before: the Vikings lost a game in Europe, this time specifically Dublin, Ireland. It happened because something else happened that is happening far too often: the Vikings being badly outcoached in a game in which their offensive line was a serious problem. The 3 point margin of defeat is incredibly misleading. This was every bit as ugly as the home opener, or the first 3 quarters in Chicago. Or, for that matter, the debacle against the Lions and Rams that ended the 2024 season. If you're scoring at home, that's 5 terrible performances by the Vikings in the last 6 games. I certainly didn't expect a repeat of last week's demolition of the Bengals. That's the kind of game you're lucky to see once a year. But the Steelers aren't a great team. They needed a ton of turnovers just to squeak by the Patriots last week. The first play of the game was a Jalen Redmond sack of Aaron Rodgers. The...

VIKINGS 48 BENGALS 10 Sunday's game felt like a pivot point in this young Vikings season. Win and we could keep up optimism that this season can still be something fun. Lose, and we might be sinking towards oblivion. Well then! Not only did the Vikings win, but they won by the largest margin they have since 1998. And dropped the all-time most lopsided loss for the Bengals. It was 48-3 after 3 quarters! Coming in it was the battle of the backups. The Bengals lost Joe Burrow last week to another major injury, and were starting ex-Viking Jake Browning. And the Vikings lost JJ McCarthy to an ankle sprain suffered late in last week's debacle, and were turning to Carson Wentz, who has barely been here a month and would start for his 6th different team in 6 years. Browning orchestrated a big comeback on us 2 years ago, and Wentz hasn't been relied on as a regular starter in 3 years, so this figured to be a close one. I was just hoping for a little stability, and let the defense do...

Guardians 6 Twins 0 My Target Field season ended with game 1 of the Twins Saturday doubleheader against the red hot Guardians. There were not many people there. The people who made noise were all Cleveland fans. The Twins went down to defeat listlessly, falling 6-0. Haha suckers, I still saw the better game of the day (they lose the nightcap 8-0). Not much to say about the game. The Twins had only 3 hits, and only one after the 2nd inning. Joe Ryan gave up 4 of Cleveland's 5 solo homeruns. This was my 1st trip to Target Field since just before the abomination of a trade deadline that decimated the franchise. The Twins have MLB's worst record since the deadline, and are going to lose 90+ games in a season in which they once had a 13 game winning streak and were within 3 games of first as late as Memorial Day weekend. Being a Twins fan has never felt more hopeless. Another hyped core of players has come and largely gone without living up to the hype. The deadline deals gutted the...

FALCONS 22 VIKINGS 6 Oh boy. As much as that 4th quarter comeback in Chicago energized a fanbase desperate to believe their young QB could be a franchise player, their home opener on Sunday night did an equal amount to drain all that enthusiasm, all that hope, and sows serious doubt about not only the rest of this season but the future.  Overreaction? I hope so, but you must forgive me after witnessing easily one of the worst in-person Vikings games of my life.  This game was absolutely revolting. The vibes right away were off. Atlanta's 1st 2 offensive plays were chunk runs by Bijan Robinson. The packed crowd actually assisted in holding the Falcons to just a field goal, who had a false start, a delay, and had to burn a timeout. So then we get the encore. JJ McCarthy was named NFC offensive player of the week off that Chicago comeback. The hope was that things had been figured out, and we were ready to roll.  That hope was gone quickly. The Vikings quickly went 3 and out...