On the 2017-18 College Football Postseason

A few predictions:

• On the final playoff field:
• To me, Clemson, Oklahoma, and Georgia were a cut above everyone else (in that order). After that, it's hard to get too worked up about the debate over the 4th spot. I'm fine with Alabama - they don't have any truly bad losses, like Ohio State did against Iowa. I also would've been fine with Ohio State; their because of their big wins over Penn State and Wisconsin were more impressive than any of Alabama's wins. You can spin it either way, and both teams would have only had themselves to blame for being left out. Personally, I think Alabama has the higher ceiling of the two teams if they can get their linebackers healthy,  and so that's who I probably would've picked.
• For what it's worth, I would have preferred seeing Auburn get a second crack at Clemson than watch either Alabama or Ohio state get smoked. But I understand why the committee felt they couldn't justify selecting a 3-loss team that got smoked in the SEC championship.

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On the 2017 College Football Season

A few predictions:

• On the SEC:
• Last year, Alabama had the best front seven - and as a result, the best defense - of the Saban era. Alabama is a recruiting factory, but it's pretty naive to think there won't be a meaningful drop off on that side of the ball. But I'm a big believer in Jalen Hurts. His youth was obvious last year when he struggled against Washington's and Clemson's (elite) defenses in the playoffs. But I liked what I saw during the regular season and expect him to keep growing as a passer with another year in Saban's offense. I think Hurts will be the first time Saban has had a quarterback who's dynamic enough to win games when the defense doesn't play well, and as a result he'll be able to mask the talent losses they're suffering from last year. The Crimson Tide will have the conference's best roster, the best coach, and maybe the best quarterback, and they get LSU at home - I think you can pencil in Alabama for another playoff berth.

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On 3 Idiotas

(Spoiler alert - spoilers ahead).

The original version of 3 Idiots is probably my favorite Bollywood film of all time, because of how closely its themes resonated with me and my fellow engineering friends. For a whole generation of Indian-American students, Rancho was almost a superhero - a genius engineer, but always on his and only his terms. Because of this, I was thrilled to hear about the Spanish remake, 3 Idiotas. I was hoping for a movie equally powerful and magical. Unfortunately, 3 Idiots falls well short of its potential. The basic plot is the same - 3 students (the 'idiots') meet each other at an intense engineering college run by a ruthless director. All three have their own motivations and pressures for being there. The film chronicles the ups and downs of their academic and social lives. Later, in the present day, two of the friends, (Beto and Felipe in 3 Idiotas, Raju and Farhan in 3 Idiots) search for a lead on their friend (Pancho in 3 Idiotas, Rancho in 3 Idiots), whom they haven't seen since graduation. There are some key differences between the original and the remake which illuminate the ways in which director Carlos Bolado didn't fully understand what made the original movie work so well.

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On the 2017 Oscars

The Pics

Previous Reviews
Hail, Caesar/Deadpool
Zootopia
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
Mr. Right
The Nice Guys
Finding Dory
Cafe Society/Ghostbusters
Collateral Beauty
Jackie
Moonlight

Hell or High Water:  Wittier, more tightly written version of No Country for Old Men.

Everybody Wants Some!!:  At one point a character states "It's all about finding tangents within the framework" while taking a bong hit.  I doubt any scene could more perfectly describe Richard Linklater's aesthetic.

Everybody Wants Some!! is a fantastic exploration of masculinity and fraternity, and how it can be both wonderful and toxic.  I think what elevates this movie from good to great is the end, when the jocks crash the theater party.  On the surface the two groups couldn't seem more different; but we get to see that for both groups, the excitement and fear of a once-big fish moving to a bigger pond is universal.  Zooey Deutch is a revelation in this act - she steals all her scenes and manages to create a character every bit as compelling as any of the baseball players.  I would really love to see a sequel to this movie about her quest to find her place within the collegiate theater world.

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On Moonlight

Moonlight begins with the camera following Juan (Mahershala Ali) out of his car.  It constantly pans around to survey the neighborhood, while rotating around Juan and his friend before eventually settling into a static frame.  The scene efficiently gives us a sense of place and makes its world feel lived-in; moreover, the camera movement evokes the feelings of one both anxiously surveying for danger and frantically trying to find his/her place in the world.  Even though the main character isn't in the scene, the camera moves as if it were from his point of view.  We don't know it yet, but the camera has already put us into his frame of mind and hinted at how his story is going to unfold.

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On Fist Fight

Fist Fight takes place on the chaotic last day of the year at Roosevelt High School.  Tensions are high as the teachers must navigate senior pranks and job/budget cuts.  For Andy Campbell (Charlie Day), whose wife is pregnant and whose young daughter is fretting over her upcoming talent show and general popularity, the day is extra stressful.  When Campbell witnesses Ron Strickland (Ice Cube) lash out at a miscreant student by using an axe to chop the student's desk in half, Campbell is eventually forced by the school principal (Dean Norris) to either rat out Strickland or lose his job.  When Campbell opts for the former, Strickland challenges him to the titular fist fight after school.  Word of the fight spreads all around town, resulting in several gags and jokes as movie builds up to the fight before settling into its limp ending.

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