This week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced some new rule changes regarding eligibility and voting for the Oscars.

The main change? Oscar voters are, as of this season, REQUIRED to watch all nominees in each category they vote in. Why this wasn't a rule beforehand is beyond me, but y'know, if the best time to throw water at a burning house is at the start, the second best time is now.

Along with this is some language regarding generative AI, new submission deadlines, updates to the voting process for the Animated Short Film and Cinematography categories, and the rule reveal for how the new category for Best Casting will be decided.

I was fully ready to let this Oscars news be the full episode, but Thierry Fremaux and his band of merry folx had different plans. Part deux of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival lineup dropped yesterday, adding 16 films to the official selection, including Kristen Stewart's directorial debut THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER and Lynne Ramsay's DIE MY LOVE (which will be featured In Competition).

How can I pass up an opportunity to talk about even more potentially kickass movies? Do you SEE the name of this podcast?---
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This week, the Cannes Film Festival announced its lineup for their 78th edition. Taking place in the beachside town of Cannes, France from May 13-24, the festival opens up the movie lover's summer to the widest swath of exceptional global cinema, blockbuster premieres and the first glimpses of next year's Oscars contenders.

This episode sees me fumbling through pronunciations to share the movies announced and highlight the ones that look most rad (Ari Aster! Spike Lee! Julia Ducournau!). Pop a squat and let's look forward to the summer movie season!

For more information on the festival, click here!---
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Just because ANORA wears the Oscars' Best Picture crown doesn't mean the movies nominated turn to dust. In fact, as the Best Picture nominees slowly trickle out to home video, discussing them feels more pertinent. A movie's lifespan isn't limited to the awards calendar, especially when it comes to WICKED.

Jon M. Chu's fantasy musical, based on the Broadway show, vacuumed up the world's cash to the tune of nearly $750 million, a testament to the musical's 20+ year success. This thing's been around long enough on its own to discuss it in generational terms.

But WICKED owes it all to THE WIZARD OF OZ, being a prequel exploring the college years of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Galinda (Ariana Grande), who will be known later in life as the Wicked Witch and Good Witch, respectively.

Grande's lovably bubbly narcissism makes me laugh. Even the camera can't stop following her hair flips and flighty trots across the sets. Erivo seems incapable of playing a false note. They carry years worth of pain behind a restrictive, poised demeanor, presenting confidence as a defense tower.

Our technicolor understanding of the land of Oz is muted by a change in perspective. We're not from Kansas anymore, Toto. Director of photography and frequent Chu collaborator Alice Brooks gives Oz a more tactile, European feel, at times flooding the background with natural light that gives the sets a lived-in presence. This isn't a Marvel Studios CGI nightmare (for the most part).

But this idea of a realistic Oz, marked by more serious ventures into ANIMAL FARM-esque allegories for fascist subjugations within a caste system, doesn't always gel with the magic or whimsy WIZARD OF OZ is known for. It feels as though each creative grabbed their own idea of what WICKED should be and stretched it in said direction. The result is something that doesn't coalesce but I'll be damned if I say I didn't have fun with it.

Though I'm still stunned Chu got a Critics' Choice Award for Best Director. Go home; y'all are drunk.

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THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA stars Paul Walter Hauser as Michael Larson, an ice cream truck driver who travels from Ohio to California with hopes of contesting for the Big Bucks on PRESS YOUR LUCK.

What follows is a lucky streak that'll put Larson in the history books...that is, if the game show execs don't discover his secret and pull the plug.

Director/co-writer Samir Oliveros has crafted a story for the outsiders, the people uncomfortable walking the tried-and-true paved paths to success. Michael's an anxious guy; he's got everything on the line and a history of increasingly risky methods of making it work. From the lighting to the sound design to Hauser's performance, the movie delves into Michael's interior, turning game show glitz against him, putting me in the perspective of a guy who sees his window of fame and quick cash shrinking by the second. The beast of a game board hums and growls, ready at any second to snap its jaws and send Michael back north. But much like an avid lion tamer, Michael's got some tricks up his sleeve and for once, the wild card has a foolproof plan, steeped in his authenticity. It makes for a brilliant character arc and gives THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA its tender, beating heart.

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA is now available to watch at a theater near you. And when you return home, go catch Samir Oliveros' debut BAD LUCKY GOAT for free on Tubi. It's a goddamn gem.

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Samir Oliveros directs THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA, a comedy starring Paul Walter Hauser as a man who, in 1984, takes game show execs and a studio audience for the thrill of a lifetime as he aims to pocket the most money ever won on PRESS YOUR LUCK. The execs say he must be cheating. The audience cheers him on, a bumbling working-class zero given the opportunity of a lifetime.

I interviewed Oliveros about this kind of person, someone who doesn't wish to walk the safe, paved paths to success, instead carving out their own swath of the jungle. Where do the spirits of a guy chasing a game show streak and a Colombian filmmaker pursuing storytelling as a living with - limited - resources intersect? Let's find out.

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA is available to watch on the big screen in a theater near you. Do your own spirit some good and give it a watch.

After you've returned, pop on Oliveros' debut, the quirky microbudget comedy BAD LUCKY GOAT, on Tubi. It's about a brother and sister who strike a goat with their dad's truck and have to scrounge up the money for the repair before he finds out. It plays a great balance of chilled-out island life against the desperation of someone who's seemingly going for broke to tell this story as if they'll never get another shot. Lots of playful camerawork, vibrant colors, and a bickering lead duo for the books. ---
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I missed Leigh Whannell's newest film, WOLF MAN, in theaters. Bit of a bummer since he's a director who's earned my highest personal honor of earning my view purely off of goodwill - no trailer, no social media post needed.

So what was I to do? Nothing, but that's where Universal Pictures stepped in and (thankfully) sent me a review copy of the WOLF MAN Blu-ray (Seriously, y'all. Thank you.)

WOLF MAN changes quite a bit from the original source material. The werewolf transformation develops not as a curse but rather, a disease, an infection. Instead of a fur-covered beast with extended snout, David Cronenberg's THE FLY inspires a look that stems from the idea of two separate genomes warring within the same body. It's more akin to the creatures in Alex Garland's ANNIHILATION.

But where WOLF MAN differs the most is in its family story. Christopher Abbott plays Blake, husband to Charlotte (the seriously-needs-a-goddamned-Oscar-as-of-like-yesterday Julia Garner) and father to Ginger - nickname Snaps? - (Matilda Firth). After his father's death, Blake inherits the remote Oregon farm in which he spent his childhood (complicated at best, emotionally abusive at worst).

Upon arrival, Blake and family are attacked by a mysterious creature. Blake sustains a scratch wound and if you've seen a werewolf movie, you know that in here lies the inevitable. It's just a matter of time.

But the real tragedy of WOLF MAN doesn't just lie in the creature of it, but rather the character. Blake desperately tries to be a kinder, less angry father and husband than the example he experienced. But old environments bring that nature-nurture battle back to a head. Some wounds may simply be too deep to overcome.

This movie may be paced a little wonky and some of the ideas are executed a little too silly for its own good, but goddamn, did this hit hard for this father of a 4 and 1.5 year old.

On the director's commentary, Whannell talks about the need to follow one's own barometer for success. If you laugh or cry or fear your own material, it'll translate. And I'm so happy to report Whannell, for me, at least, is 3 for 3.

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