Burnout Paradise (Off-Broadway)

I had no idea what I was walking into. And I'm still not really sure quite how to describe it. It is a kind of improv that takes place all on treadmills. It relies on audience participation from the whole theater, not just the front seats. There's lots of people running up and down the aisles, going on stage and such. It's like Taskmasters but in real life. So there's four "players" who rotate on four stations in four 12-minutes rounds. At one station they are cooking a three-course meal while on a treadmill. At another station they are writing an arts grant application while on a treadmill. At another station they do random performances (song, Hamlet, origami, stripping, etc) while on a treadmill. And at the last station they have to complete a series of tasks with the audience. The random tasks is probably the best part. Meanwhile they have a collective mileage goal. Oh and the host is selling merch and serving blue Gatorade. It's all pure fun chaos, those crazy Aussies. You do have to be in a mood to want to participate. But I was happy to laugh along. 

The Expanse (2015-2022)

I watched The Expanse because Philip and Nancy and David rave about it. They know that I like sci-fi and space politics and that's precisely what The Expanse is. And when it's good, it's really quite good. For example seasons 2, 3 and 5. The first season is abundantly confusing. And the final season leaves us on such a cliffhanger it's kind of disappointing in the end. There are three more books they didn't get to adapt. When the show moved to Amazon in Season 4, you could see the production value go way up, the special effects far outshine the basic cable they started on. The most famous actor on the show is probably David Straitharn but in the main cast it's probably Shohreh Aghdashloo. She's good as the intensely ruthless and steadfast UN diplomat but there are lines she reads that sound like she doesn't speak English, as though she is losing her breath in exasperation. Unfortunately Steven Strait as the definitive hero protagonist James Holden never really did it for me. I much preferred Wes Chatham as Amos, the hothead who you come to love for his protective spirit. Something I really appreciate is the Belter language and accent. I don't imagine the accent comes from the book. Created for the show, it manages to be relatively consistent across the cast who voice Belters, even though it's impossible to describe yet distinctive in its own way. Anyways, we should have more sci-fi politics on TV!

98th Academy Awards (2026)

I'm hosting again this year! It's been an excellent year at the movies, not just good quality but movies we need. We've been spoiled with movies that speak to our here and now with urgency. There are many movies that would be worthy winners, to represent the (challenging) year. How lucky we are that in the inaugural year of the Best Casting Award, there are five superbly well cast nominees. Sinners was perhaps the best theatrical experience of the year and it was handsomely rewarded with nominations in every category for which it was eligible, a record even if you discount the new Casting award. I also want to call out the extraordinary showing for foreign language films in both topline and below-the-line categories; nice to see single nominees in the crafts that I've never even heard of making you really think they're deserved nominations not just riding coattails of a popular movie. And in the top categories, there's really only one lock (Jessie Buckley giving the performance of the year), so it's anybody's game. 

My Top Movies

1. Sinners
2. Marty Supreme
3. One Battle After Another
4. Resurrection
5. The Baltimorons
6. It Was Just an Accident
7. Sentimental Value
8. Splitsville
9. Happyend
10. Hamnet
11. Black Bag
12. Train Dreams
13. The Secret Agent
14. F1
15. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl 

 Best Picture

1. One Battle After Another
2. Sinners
3. Marty Supreme
4. Hamnet
5. Sentimental Value
6. The Secret Agent
7. Frankenstein
8. F1
9. Train Dreams
10. Bugonia

Best Director
Will Win: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Should Win: Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Honorable Mention: Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident

Best Actress
Will Win/Should Win: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet

Best Actor 
Will Win: Michael B Jordan, Sinners
Should Win: Timothee Chalamet, Marty Supreme

Best Supporting Actress
Will Win: Amy Madigan, Weapons
Should Win: Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Honorable Mention: Tania Maria, The Secret Agent 

Best Supporting Actor
Will Win/Should Win: Stellan Skarsgard, Sentimental Value

Best Adapted Screenplay
Will Win/Should Win: One Battle After Another 

Best Original Screenplay
Will Win/Should Win: Sinners 

Best Casting
Will Win/Should Win: Sinners

Best Cinematography
Will Win: One Battle After Another
Should Win: Train Dreams 

Best Costume Design
Will Win/Should Win: Frankenstein 

Best Film Editing
Will Win/Should Win: F1

Best Makeup and Hair
Will Win/Should Win: Frankenstein 

Best Production Design
Will Win: Frankenstein
Should Win: Hamnet 
Honorable Mention: Resurrection

Best Score
Will Win/Should Win: Sinners
Honorable Mentions: Resurrection, Marty Supreme, Happyend

Best Song
Will Win: Golden, Kpop Demon Hunters
Should Win: I Lied to You, Sinners 
Honorable Mention: Bad As I Used to Be, F1

Best Sound
Will Win/Should Win: F1 

Best Visual Effects
Will Win/Should Win: Avatar: Fire and Ash

Best Animated Feature
Will Win: Kpop Demon Hunters
I've neglected to watch the biggest pop culture phenomenon of the year because I don't have Netflix and I feel weird watching a kids movie at home by myself. 

Best Documentary Feature
Will Win/Should Win: The Perfect Neighbor 

Best International Film
Will Win: The Secret Agent 
Should Win: Sentimental Value
Honorable Mention: Resurrection

Best Animated Short
Will Win/Should Win: Butterfly 

Best Documentary Short
Will Win/Should Win: All the Empty Rooms
Geeta Gandbhir has a chance to double up in the documentary categories but I'm rooting for Steve Hartman.

Best Live Action Short
Will Win: A Friend of Dorothy
Should Win: Two People Exchanging Saliva 
I was so taken by Two People Exchanging Saliva, I chose it for the next movie club which I'm hosting on Monday.

Update: 16/24 but we had a great party. Rob, Sophia and Billy had a three-way tie, all with the exact same predictions as Polymarket. Future reference, ten people is the perfect number of people for a party at the Hague.

All Out (Broadway) (2025)

It sort of plays out like an episode of Saturday Night Live, 90 minutes without commercials of sketch comedy with special guests and musical performances. The music here is performed by the band Lawrence. We got an understudy for Gracie Lawrence, but she (Olivia Puckett) was also excellent. I'd never heard of Lawrence before but I quite liked their music and fun instrumentation. Clyde Lawrence has a fantastic raspy singing voice. The show is basically half Lawrence concert. The other half is sketch comedy, not so much acted out, but read aloud, mostly on book from a seated position. Like SNL, some of the sketches are better than others, some just a few lines long; occasionally an audible laugh but mostly clever chuckles. They rotate the cast. We went for Ray Romano. But the star was really Nicholas Braun, who is basically playing Cousin Greg himself. He's comically tall and awkward. He improv-ed a bit, making his cast mates laugh. Jenny Slate also did a funny sketch where she plays a horse. Not just any horse but Paul Revere's midnight ride horse.  It was fun, the music was good, the show wasn't too long. 

High Spirits (2026) (Encores!)

At its core, Encores! at City Center is about reviving shows you've never heard of with big names on little rehearsal. High Spirits embodies this spirit. Almost everyone was on book, save for Rachel Dratch who hardly has any lines, though she is hilarious just moping around. Andrea Martin was not only on book, but she lost her spot and had to halt the show. Steven Pasquale kindly hustled over to help her find her line. That was the funniest part of the show because she's such a comedienne about it. The show is a musical adaptation of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit. Coward's wry humor is light and British. It's like watching Downton Abbey; the latest Downton movie actually featured a visit from Mr Coward himself. Philippa Soo has the sensibility and mannerisms for it. She plays opposite her real life husband, Pasquale, playing his second wife. The plot is about a seance that brings back his first wife's ghost. None of the music is all that memorable, or good frankly, but Katrina Lenk has a couple songs as the first wife that suit her voice nicely. Overall, it's a weird show. It actually quite closely resembles the plot of Death Becomes Her. But it's not as funny or fun as Death Becomes Her.