Live Tweet Alert: Join #FridayNightFlix for Lionheart!


As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly watch parties.  On Twitter, I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday and I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday.  On Mastodon, I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, at 10 pm et, I will be hosting #FridayNightFlix!  The movie?  1990’s Lionheart!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, find Lionheart on Prime, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag!  I’ll be there happily tweeting.  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

See you there!

The Films of 2025: Song Sung Blue (dir by Craig Brewer)


Ever since the Oscar nominations were announced, there have been a lot of people on social media complaining about Kate Hudson’s nomination for Best Actress.  She was nominated for the musical biopic, Song Sung Blue, and the argument that I keep seeing, over and over again, is that the nomination should have gone to One Battle After Another‘s Chase Infiniti or maybe Eva Victor for Sorry, Baby.

To those people, I can only say, “Shut up and watch the damn movie.”

In Song Sung Blue, Kate Hudson plays Claire, a hairdresser and part-time Patsy Cline imitator who meets and marries Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman), an auto mechanic who loves to sing and perform.  (When they first meet, Mike has been hired to pretend to be Don Ho at a county fair.)  Claire and Mike start performing as Thunder and Lightning, performing covers of Neil Diamond songs and eventually becoming something of a pop cultural institution in Wisconsin.  (At their height, they open for Pearl Jam.  The actor who played Eddie Vedder looks nothing like Eddie Vedder but you do have to appreciate a celebrity impersonation in the middle of a movie about celebrity impersonators.)  Eventually, tragedy strikes.  A car accident leaves Claire struggling with pills and her own mental health.  Mike, who is 20 years sober when the movie begins, struggles with his sobriety.  There are laughs and there are tears.  In fact, there’s a lot of tears.  I knew the details of the story before I saw the film but, having recently lost both my father and my aunt, I was still sobbing by the end of the movie.

As for Kate Hudson, she’s wonderful in the film and more than deserving of her nomination.  Both she and Hugh Jackman give empathetic and sincere performances as the type of people who other movies would probably hold up to ridicule.  They’re both eccentric and they both have their demons.  Mike is haunted by his experiences in Vietnam and his daughter points out that Mike has essentially switched addictions, from alcohol to music.  Claire struggles with depression even before the car accident that changes her life.  They’re not flawless.  They’re not perfect.  But they’re beautiful when they’re performing together.  As played by Hudson, Claire goes from being somewhat insecure to being someone who has definitely found her voice and when it appears that she might never perform again, it’s heartbreaking because the viewer understands exactly how much being on stage means to Claire.

As a film, Song Sung Blue runs a bit long but in the end, I was charmed by its unashamed celebration of Americana.  Song Sung Blue allows us to enter a world where a bus driver can also be a talent booker and a dentist can double as an agent.  It’s a world where anyone with the courage to take the stage and perform from the heart can be a star, if just for one night.  It’s a crowd-pleasing film, one that says it’s okay to sometimes sing the popular song that everyone loves.  “He has other songs!” Mike says whenever anyone demands that he start his show with Sweet Caroline but, in the end, everyone is really happy when he sings it.  How could they not be?  He and Claire sing it really well.

One final note about Kate Hudson.  I’ve always felt that a lot of her films, for better or worse, were versions of the type of films that her mom could have starred in during the 1970s and 80s.  And I do have to say that it’s easy to imagine younger versions of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell playing Claire and Mike.  However, Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman make both the film and the characters their own.  By the end of the movie, you’ve forgotten that you’re watching Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman.  You’re watching Thunder and Lightning!

Sinners Dominates The Oscar Nominations


Here are the Oscar nominations!  Sinners received a record-setting 16 nominations but will that be enough to overcome the fashionable radical chic on One Battle After Another?

I’m happy that F1 and Train Dreams were nominated.  I’m less happy that I’m going to have to sit through another Yorgos Lanthimos film.  I haven’t seen Song Sung Blue but I like Kate Hudson and I love her mom and stepfather.

Wicked: For Good was pretty much shut out.  Not even Ariana Grande made the list and I’m okay with that.  Avatar: Fire and Ash received a few technical nominations and not much else so I guess the tyranny of Avatar at the Oscars is now finished.

Best Picture
“Bugonia”
“F1”
“Frankenstein”
“Hamnet”
“Marty Supreme”
“One Battle After Another“
“The Secret Agent”
“Sentimental Value”
“Sinners”
“Train Dreams”

Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson – “One Battle After Another“
Ryan Coogler – “Sinners“
Josh Safdie – “Marty Supreme“
Joachim Trier – “Sentimental Value”
Chloé Zhao – “Hamnet”

Best Actress
Jessie Buckley – “Hamnet”
Rose Byrne – “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
Kate Hudson – “Song Sung Blue”
Renate Reinsve – “Sentimental Value”
Emma Stone – “Bugonia”

Best Actor
Timothée Chalamet – “Marty Supreme”
Leonardo DiCaprio – “One Battle After Another”
Ethan Hawke – “Blue Moon”
Michael B. Jordan – “Sinners”
Wagner Moura – “The Secret Agent”

Best Supporting Actress
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – “Sentimental Value”
Amy Madigan – “Weapons”
Wunmi Mosaku – “Sinners“
Teyana Taylor – “One Battle After Another”
Elle Fanning – “Sentimental Value”

Best Supporting Actor
Benicio Del Toro – “One Battle After Another”
Jacob Elordi – “Frankenstein”
Delroy Lindo – “Sinners”
Sean Penn – “One Battle After Another”
Stellan Skarsgård – “Sentimental Value”

Best Adapted Screenplay
“Bugonia” – Will Tracy
“Frankenstein” – Guillermo Del Toro
“Hamnet” – Maggie O’Farrell & Chloe Zhao
“One Battle After Another” – Paul Thomas Anderson
“Train Dreams” – Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar

Best Original Screenplay
“Blue Moon” – Robert Kaplow
“It Was Just an Accident” – Jafar Panahi, Nader Saeivar, Shadmehr Rastin & Mehdi Mahmoudian
“Marty Supreme” – Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie
“Sentimental Value” – Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt
“Sinners” – Ryan Coogler

Best Animated Feature
“Arco”
“Elio”
“KPop Demon Hunters”
“Little Amélie or The Character of Rain”
“Zootopia 2”

Best Documentary Feature
“The Alabama Solution”
“Come See Me in the Good Light”
“Cutting Through Rocks”
“Mr. Nobody Against Putin”
“The Perfect Neighbor”

Best International Feature Film
“It Was Just an Accident” – France
“The Secret Agent” – Brazil
“Sentimental Value” – Norway
“Sirāt” – Spain
“The Voice of Hind Rajab” – Tunisia

Best Casting
Gabriel Domingues – “The Secret Agent”
Nina Gold – “Hamnet”
Cassandra Kulukundis – “One Battle After Another”
Francine Maisler – “Sinners”
Jennifer Venditti – “Marty Supreme”

Best Cinematography
“Frankenstein”
“Marty Supreme”
“One Battle After Another”
“Sinners”
“Train Dreams”

Best Costume Design
“Avatar: Fire and Ash”
“Frankenstein”
“Hamnet”
“Marty Supreme“
“Sinners”

Best Film Editing
“F1”
“Marty Supreme”
“One Battle After Another”
“Sentimental Value”
“Sinners”

Best Make-Up & Hairstyling
“Frankenstein”
“Kokuho“
“Sinners”
“The Smashing Machine”
“The Ugly Stepsister”

Best Production Design
“Frankenstein”
“Hamnet”
“Marty Supreme”
“One Battle After Another”
“Sinners”

Best Original Score
“Bugonia”
“Frankenstein”
“Hamnet”
“One Battle After Another”
“Sinners”

Best Original Song
“Dear Me” – “Diane Warren: Relentless”
“Golden” – “KPop Demon Hunters”
“I Lied to You” – “Sinners”
“Sweet Dreams of Joy” – “Viva Verdi!”
“Train Dreams” – “Train Dreams”

Best Sound
“F1”
“Frankenstein”
“One Battle After Another”
“Sinners”
“Sirāt“

Best Visual Effects
“Avatar: Fire and Ash”
“F1”
“Jurassic World: Rebirth”
“The Lost Bus”
“Sinners”

Best Animated Short Film
“Butterfly”
“Forevergreen”
“The Girl Who Cried Pearls”
“Retirement Plan”
“The Three Sisters”

Best Documentary Short Film
“All the Empty Rooms”
“Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud”
“Children No More: ‘Were and are Gone’”
“The Devil is Busy”
“Perfectly a Strangeness”

Live Action Short Film
“Butcher’s Stain“
“A Friend of Dorothy”
“Jane Austen’s Period Drama”
“The Singers”
“Two People Exchanging Saliva”

Music Video of the Day: Whenever I’m Away From You by John Travolta (1977, dir by ????)


John Travolta sings!

Actually, I guess that’s not a surprise.  He did co-star in Grease and all that.  Still, it’s kind of interesting to see Travolta doing the sensitive singing teen idol routine.  Why is he dressed like Prince Valiant?  It was the 70s, I guess.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Profane Prophecy by The Black Crowes (2026, dir by Dagger Polyester)


Today’s music video of the day is the latest from the Black Crowes.  Enjoy it and spare a thought for those of us at the North Texas branch of Through the Shattered Lens because we are about to get hit by snow and 8 degree weather.

The last time we had weather this bad, we had rolling black-outs and were actually off-line for a few days.  So, if you don’t see me or Erin or Jeff around for a while, don’t worry.  We’re just waiting for the sun to come out!

Enjoy!

8 Shots From 8 David Lynch Films


4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

Today, on what would have been his birthday, we take the time to pay tribute to one of our favorite directors.  Needless to say, when it comes to David Lynch, there’s an embarrassment of riches.

Here are….

8 Shots From 8 David Lynch Films

Eraserhead (1977, dir by David Lynch, DP: Frederick Elmes, Herbert Cardwell)

The Elephant Man (1980, dir by David Lynch, DP: Freddie Francis)

Blue Velvet (1986, dir by David Lynch, DP: Frederick Elmes)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992, dir by David Lynch, DP: Ron Garcia)

Lost Highway (1997, dir by David Lynch, DP: Peter Deming)

The Straight Story (1999, dir by David Lynch, DP: Freddie Francis)

Mulholland Drive (2001, dir by David Lynch, DP: Peter Deming)

Inland Empire (2006, dir by David Lynch, DP: David Lynch)

Music Video of the Day: A Real Indication by Thought Gang (1992, dir by David Lynch)


Thought Gang was a musical collaboration between two much-missed artists, David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti.  This video was directed by Lynch and it starred none other than Angelo Badalamenti himself!

Enjoy!