The Skolney Blog

1995: By 1995, my favorite filmmaker was easily John Singleton. I think I have been doing these blogs long enough now that I have touched on most of his early career. Poetic Justice had been the film that was the first time I was hugely anticipating a film because of its director. And I adored that film, so nothing changed. But that film hadn't hit in quite the same way Boyz N The Hood had, so it was almost like he was back being the scrappy underdog. Enter Higher Learning. This was another just massively anticipated film for me. All I really knew about it was what I saw in the trailer, and probably seen snippets about in a couple of movie mags. It was not anticipated to be some big movie. It wouldn't have opened in January if it were. I loved it. Even more than Boyz N The Hood. Even more than Poetic Justice. Even more than any other film I had ever seen to that point. Yes, Higher Learning was my favorite film of all time, for a while anyway. Spoiler alert, it no lo...

In theaters: THE FIRE INSIDE Good sports movie about a young female boxer (played by a super newcomer Ryan Destiny) who goes all the way to the Olympics. It's based on a real woman, but I don't follow the sport, so it was all new to me. The twist here is that the normal climactic fight comes halfway through the film, and then the rest of the film is about her struggling to find the endorsements other athletes do. It's a welcome pivot for the genre to show how winning doesn't always mean happy ever after.  BABYGIRL I wondered why AMC didn't show that Nicole Kidman ad before this Nicole Kidman movie. Is it that the film opens with her loudly orgasming? Not a Kidman fan, but she definitely goes all out in this movie about a married woman having a fling with a younger man. The film is just okay, and basically says it's fine if a woman cheats on her husband, but it has a sense of humor about itself too.  SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 These movies continue to be big hits, so t...

RAMS 27 VIKINGS 9 Every Vikings playoff season has eventually ended badly. No franchise has so many playoff trips without a title. And they have ended in all sorts of ways. Some in heartbreaking fashion, some in blowouts, a few even in mundane ways.  But never has a Vikings season gone from so full of promise to dead so quickly. On January 5th, the Vikings were playing for the NFC North title and the #1 seed. On January 13th, their season ended. Just like that, in an abrupt collapse so antithetical to what this team and season looked to be. Losing to Detroit made the road to the Super Bowl a lot tougher for sure, but it didn't seem impossible. This team had played great, clutch football for weeks before that. Sam Darnold had a major clunker, but you could chalk it up to just a bad day. And the Rams, on a neutral site since the game was moved cause of the California fires, did not seem to pose some unbeatable challenge.  And this Vikings team was 14-3 in a season where nearly e...

LIONS 31 VIKINGS 9 Everything was on the line for the Vikings on Sunday night in Detroit. The NFC North title. Home field advantage in the playoffs. And a chance for not just a signature win, but one of the biggest wins in regular season history. Well, so much for all that. The moment proved far too big for this team, particularly its Cinderella quarterback, and so a 14 win team will spend the playoffs on the road, after a kind of unfathomable 31-9 shellacking by the now back to back division champion Lions. The optimism for this game on the Vikings end stemmed both from the very good, clutch play by Sam Darnold the last 6 weeks, and the fact that the Lions defense has been decimated by injuries. Many starters out, and just 6 days earlier they let the tattered remains of the 49ers put up 28 points even with a couple turnovers and missed field goals. Surely the red hot Vikings could at least score with the Lions.  That's the NFL though. Sometimes you know exactly what will happen, u...

The Top 20: 1. My Old Ass I figured the comedy about Aubrey Plaza talking with her younger self (irresistible mega star in the making Maisy Stella) would be pretty good. What I never expected was for it to be an emotionally resonant and, at times, deeply moving film. 2. Strange Darling The surprise of the year, if not the millennium. I went in totally cold on this and was blown away. The most cleverly twisty and expectation-upending thriller (horror? comedy?) in years. In a just world, Willa Fitzgerald would be showered with awards.  3. Inside Out 2 The best Pixar film in years. Took the original concept and built on it in hilarious, smart, and emotional ways. It deserved to be the runaway #1 hit of the year.  4. Anora Mikey Madison, the star that you are.  5. Deadpool and Wolverine BUT I WAS TOLD Marvel was dead.  6. The 4:30 Movie Kevin Smith's best movie in 20 years, a deeply heartfelt and charming ode to being young and obsessed with the movies.  7. We Live ...

2004: (cause I want this one on top) The 2nd of Natalie Portman's pantheon films of 2004, Closer brought her her 1st Oscar nomination.  The trailer for this hit right around the time Garden State came out, and I was blown away by how she looked in this and her acting. The brief shot of her as a stripper was stunning.  In one of those crazy coincidences that I may have once thought meant more, the film opened ten years to the day of the first time I saw The Professional.  The film is directed by Mike Nichols, who worked with Natalie on stage a few years earlier, and is based on a play. It's maybe my favorite film based on a play. It's really just 4 actors with speaking roles. Natalie, Julia Roberts, Jude Law, and Clive Owen. Closer is like the worst date movie of all time. Most of the film is structured around showing relationships ending. Often in brutal fashion. The 4 characters meet, get together, cheat, and break up.  The film has one of the great open...

In theaters: Y2K Kind of disappointed in this comedy directed by SNL alum Kyle Mooney. Set at New Year's Eve 1999, when the Y2K bug actually happens, turning all electronic devices into bloodthirsty killing machines. Before the shit goes down, it's a pretty run of the mill teen comedy where the nerdy guy pines for the pretty girl (Rachel Zegler, one of the prettiest, no doubt). The energy perks up when the action does, although at no point was I ever more than just kind of amused. I'm a real target audience for this, since man do I have endless nostalgia for this time period, and early on, the film is drenched in references and needle drops. It has moments of inspired silliness, and the cast is likable. It also has a 3rd act cameo from one of the biggest douchebags in music history, which for some reason takes over the film.  VENOM: THE LAST DANCE Oh please do be the last one. For some reason, the first 2 Venoms, despite not being above deeply mediocre, were massive hits. T...