The Skolney Blog

In theaters: MY OLD ASS I figured that the movie where Aubrey Plaza talks to her younger self would be pretty good. Plaza is a fun actress who mostly does good stuff. What I did not expect was that this movie would hit me in the feels like this, and be one of my absolute favorite movies of the year. This film is fantastic, using a loosely explained time travel premise as an excuse to craft one of the very best, most nostalgic, coming of age style comedies I have seen. Plaza is terrific, but she isn't even the real star. That would be the wonderful Maisy Stella, who plays that younger self and is a dazzler of effortless charm and likability (she's crazy cute, too). This movie really got to me, but it is very funny too. JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX Well, let me first say that Joker 2 is bad, but I don't quite think it is AS BAD as many are saying. I did find a handful of scenes effective, Phoenix again commits, and Lady Gaga has never been so hot. However, the film is also horribly st...

1984: Four decades ago, a film came out that both established its star as a movie star, and announced the arrival of a filmmaker who would become one of the greatest showmen in film history. Obviously, The Terminator pre-dated my movie fandom, but I started to know about when T2 was coming out. It was this big, hyped movie, but I didn't even know the original movie was a thing.  I'm even pretty sure that I saw the sequel first, and it's kind of jarring to watch the original after that. The original film was not made to push forward grand new special effects technology. You watch it even in the early 90s, and you can see how fake some of the model work is. But for its time, this was still pretty good. Arnold Schwarzenegger was already a rising action star before this film. But this was the film that really cemented him as an action icon. Humorously, he was originally going to okay Kyle Reese (the Michael Biehn human character), which would have made no sense. And...

RAMS 30 VIKINGS 20 No. This can't be. It can't be happening again...can it? Is it 2016 all over again, when the Vikings surprisingly started 5-0, with a couple impressive wins over good teams, only to then have their bye and come out of said bye as a terrible team that plummeted to a 3-8 finish?  Well, these Vikings are following those steps. They started 5-0, and with some of those wins really good ones. Then they had the bye...and have exited the bye not looking at all like the team they were.  What a horrible week.  The Sunday loss to the Lions was more annoying and unfortunate than worrisome. But what happened Thursday night was something much more alarming. And yeah, it's looking like we may really be in for another collapse. The Vikings loss to the Rams was the kind of loss that forever alters seasons, in more ways than one. Following their usual pattern, the Vikings offense did start fast. Darnold fed JJ, Jones ran well, and the OL was a wall. The first two drives ...

Liberty 67* Lynx 62 To the victor go the spoils. And no amount of after the fact complaining is going to change anything.  But the WNBA crowned an illegitimate champion on Sunday night. The records will forever show that the New York Liberty were the 2024 champions.  Bullshit. Everybody watching the finale of this ultra tense and competitive series saw what happened. The Lynx won. And the refs blatantly stole it from them. Is it even worth recapping the game? I mean, the Lynx came out focused and determined. Unlike games 1 and 2, New York did not jump out to big early leads. It was the Lynx who built a double-digit lead at points in the half, leading by as much as 12. It finished with the Lynx up 7. It was a physical, defensive game that fit what the Lynx want to do. And the refs were letting the teams play.  But that all went away after halftime. Here came a flurry of whistles. All of them going in favor of the Liberty. In real time, it got as bad at one point that the L...

LIONS 31 VIKINGS 29 The Vikings aren't actually any good. Their 5-0 start was a mirage, and now they are going to sink out of the playoff race. And the Lions are the best team in the NFL and a lock for the Super Bowl. Well, those are all the narratives you can expect to hear ad nauseum now, since the Vikings lost their 1st game of the season, on a field goal in the final seconds to the Detroit Darlings. I picked the Vikings to lose this game, just because they aren't going to win every game, and this seemed like a logical one to drop. But it was within the Vikings grasp a few times, so this will go down as one that got away. As it has been all season, the Vikings started fast. Crazy Dan Campbell illogical ran a fake punt on the opening drive, which was stuffed, handing the Vikings superb field position. They quickly cashed in as Aaron Jones busted a long TD run. The defense forced a for real punt, and the Vikings moved just close enough for Will Reichard to boom a 57-yard field...

LYNX 82 LIBERTY 80 The 2024 WNBA Finals are already assured of being remembered as one of the most dramatic championship series ever, worthy of any sport. Game 1 was an unbelievable OT epic won by the Lynx. The Liberty pulled away late in game 2, then won with a last second dagger 3 in game 3. Game 4 was another classic, and the Lynx dug deep and forced what, odds are, will be an epic game 5 on Sunday back in New York. After what happened at the end of game 3, who knew what the hangover might be. Would that be the final death blow that the Lynx could not overcome? No. Because these Lynx, despite some at times glaring shortcomings, are the grittiest, toughest team this franchise has ever produced. Unlike the 1st 3 games, game 4 had no big runs. Neither team ever led by more than 6 for the whole game. It was tied after 1. The Lynx held 1 point leads at the half and after 3. There were a few points the Liberty seemed to be revving up for a run, only for the Lynx to nip it in the bud. The ...

There are probably a couple of movies I rank ahead of Pulp Fiction, but nothing I have ever seen or will see re-wired my brain like Quentin Tarantino's iconic breakthrough did. When it comes to looking at film, there is before Pulp and after Pulp. Obviously, the film hit during 1994, the year that I think I have mentioned before here was the year that movies went from being a thing I liked into being a bona-fide obsession. Most of the films most responsible for making that year what it was were kind of out of nowhere surprises. Pulp Fiction was no different. I do remember seeing the trailer a handful of times in the lead-up to its release, and it definitely looked cool. This was basically still pre-internet, but even I heard the buzz. It had won the top prize at Cannes. And I knew most of the actors mentioned in the trailer. But I didn't know Tarantino. Now, I had not seen Reservoir Dogs at this point. I'm pretty sure I had seen True Romance, which he wrote, but...

LYNX 88 SUN 77 Five months ago, nobody saw this coming. The Lynx looked to be a lower level playoff team at best, still a long way away from contending for a 5th franchise title. And now the Lynx are 3 wins away from that title, as this most unexpected great season rolls on after they slayed the pesky Sun in a deciding game 5 on Tuesday night at a raucous and then very joyous Target Center. This series should have ended in game 4 this past weekend. The Lynx controlled the first half, only to then spend the 2nd half imploding in a mess of missed shots and poor defense. But it didn't take very long in game 5 to show that the Lynx were not going to have any sort of hangover. Yeah, the Sun were hot in the opening minutes and took a 9-4 lead, but that was wiped out by a 10-0 Lynx run, and the Sun would never lead again.  The first half was basically perfect for the Lynx. Up 13 after 1, up 19 at the half, they were dominant on both ends. The defense was stifling, and the shooting was on ...

VIKINGS 23 JETS 17 The Vikings have become the biggest surprise of this NFL season, largely by playing extremely complete football in all 3 phases (offense, defense, special teams). But you don't always get to have such games. Sometimes, you may only have one of those phases working, and you just have to figure it out. That was Sunday out in London, where the Vikings had to figure it out when only their defense was doing what it was supposed to. In likely the last ever Vikings game against Aaron Rodgers, it looked early like I thought it would, that the Vikings would roll. The defense quickly showed a bounceback from the 2nd half in Green Bay. The Jets didn't get a 1st down until 20 minutes into the game. By the time that happened, the Vikings already led 10-0, due to a long Will Reichard field goal and a glorious 63-yard pick six by Andrew Van Ginkel. Cam Bynum also picked off Rodgers, and the defense stuffed Breece Hall on a 4th down. The Jets offense had nothing going. The V...