The Skolney Blog

2006: By 2006, Martin Scorsese was legendary not just for his body of work,  but also for not ever winning an Oscar for his work. He should have won by then, of course, probably many times over. He had even been making some films that to many felt like blatant Oscar bait. And those films were not that satisfying. So, instead of doing period pieces and biopics, he went and did just a badass, cool as fuck crime movie...and finally won for it. The Departed is a remake of a foreign film called Infernal Affairs, retrofitted into a Boston setting complete with thick accents. The target is a mob boss, Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson gnawing the scenery in his last great performance). He has a mole in the police department, played by Matt Damon. And the police have an undercover against in Frank's crew, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. The bulk of the story is how each guy maintains their cover when almost every encounter could blow it. The film sizzles like all great crime movies. ...

In theaters: THE SOCIAL RECKONING Many years after The Social Network, a film that's very good if a bit overrated (the people who talk it up as one of the greatest films of the 2000s so far are nuts), comes this sequel, which only carries over writer turned director Aaron Sorkin.  I have no idea what purpose this film serves. While the previous film was all about the beginning of Facebook, this is a smaller story of a whistle-blower (Mikey Madison) and a journalist (Jeremy Allen White) exposing how Facebook cares more about engagement and clicks than it does about its users. I mean...yeah...duh. Even if we didn't know this, we knew this. FB has been a cesspool. There's a basically useless storyline here with Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong in for Jesse Eisenberg) preparing to testify to Congress. The Madison-White stuff is fine, I guess. Mikey is a soothing presence. But this film is so inconsequential, and the ending is treated like Facebook was an evil entity that got defeated....

VIKINGS 16 COLTS 10 November will dawn with only one undefeated team left in the NFL, and that team is the Minnesota Vikings! Off the bye, and facing a fading Colts team (which I picked to make the playoffs...hardly my worst prediction this year *cough*Chargers*cough*), the Vikings went about their usual 2026 business, winning a game in rather ugly fashion. But winning. I had hoped that coming off the bye and with the healthiest roster they will have all year, the offense in particular would look sharp. It didn't. The opening drive showed we were going to have another muck fest. We wasted another really good Myles Price return by running up the gut with Aaron Jones over and over, including a 4th and 1, and getting stuffed. A short time later, Jonathan Taylor (future Viking?) burst for a long TD run, and the Colts grabbed the 7-0 lead. A familiar pattern played out after this. The Vikings offense was occasionally able to move the ball, but only got field goals. The defense bounced b...

VIKINGS 23 SAINTS 13 I had high hopes coming into this Vikings season. I picked them to win the north, after all. But I never thought the Vikings would hit the bye week at 5-0. I thought 3-2 would be a solid start. Instead, they remain one of only 3 undefeated teams left (49ers and Chiefs the others). The latest victim: the New Orleans Saints. The latest venue: the Superdome, site of the Vikings' last playoff win and site of the single greatest injustice this franchise has ever suffered. Vikings fans have been perpetually mad so far this year, fretting over the offense being inconsistent to put it mildly. But there was tangible progress made in that Dolphins game last week. Kyler Murray had a terrific 4th quarter, and his positive momentum carried over to this game. Murray was incredibly sharp for much of this game, but especially early on. He hit on his 1st 12 passes and led two good drives. Problem is that the Vikings only got 3 points out of them. Following a Will Reichard field...

VIKINGS 15 DOLPHINS 10 Sunday presented the 3-0 Vikings hosting the 0-3 Dolphins. A classic spot for one team to overlook another, especially when that team is also mired in an offensive funk. But the Vikings have spent the early part of this season mastering the (abstract) art of the ugly win. Style points aren't happening. Doesn't matter. Wins matter. Keep winning. I do think this game eventually showed some evidence that the offense is figuring some things out. But it sure wasn't in the first half. It was a lot more of the same stuff we saw last week. A messy offense, with penalties and a skittish Kyler Murray. Justin Jefferson didn't play, and in the 1st half, we also lost both Donovan Jackson and Christian Darrisaw. But the offense was able to scrape together a trio of field goals from the machine Will Reichard.  The Vikings also got a couple of breaks. Malik Willis appeared to have lofted a long touchdown pass, but the receiver had stepped out of bounds before cat...

1996: Adam Sandler officially ascended to bona-fide comedy star with his consecutive hits Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. And later graduated to one of the biggest movie stars period with The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, and Big Daddy in succession. In the middle of all these hits is the almost completely forgotten Bulletproof. Bulletproof is classic 90s buddy action comedy stuff. Sandler is a low-rent criminal. Damon Wayans, top billed since it was still 1996, is an undercover cop who befriended him but then has to bust him. Plot stuff happens, and Wayans get shot by Sandler. Sometime later, Wayans has to escort Sandler to trial so he can testify against his criminal boss (James Caan), and Bulletproof becomes a chaotic road movie as they try to get from A to B. Bulletproof didn't break any new ground. Some of the dialogue is bad. But it works because of a couple of reasons. One is that it was directed by Ernest Dickerson, the Spike Lee cinematographer whose directing...