Best Picture Challenge: Anora

 So, I took me long enough!

The 2025 Best Picture Winner: Anora

This 2024 film is about a woman named Anora. She is a call girl/stripper that ends up meeting a man, Vanya, who comes from money and is about to go back to Russia to start working. In an attempt to have fun the last two weeks he is here, he hires her to be his fake girlfriend for that time. In the process thy goes to Vegas, get married, and they both think they are going to have it made in their new life together. However, when his parents find out, they come to the states to make them get an annulment. Vanya runs away from the three bodyguards that his parents sent to keeps him there, and this leads guards and Anora on an all night man hunt to find him. 

So, I didn't even hear of this movie last year before is was announced for Best Picture Nominee. Now that I have seen it.. I have no clue why it was nominated or how in the world that it won. 

It starts off like it's going to be some sort of "Cinderella" type deal. That she doesn't have to be a prostitute anymore, and can change her life. She gets like 25,000 total at the end of the film, ends up with and annulment, thinking that the man-child actually was in love with her. I'm watching this going that someone who is that line of work can not be that stupid to think that She was going to get a happy ever after that way. With a "man" like that. I mean he is spoiled boy whose parents all of a sudden expect him to grow up and start working, when he never had to before. He those money at everything, money that is not his and says so at the start of the film. 

So, this is a going into the category of never going to watch again, next to most of the Best Picture winners from the 70s.

Now Fly! Fly!: Marry Poppins

 So, Obedience only works when you actually listen and follow through on the actions. Sometime the rules don't make sense, or the things asked of you make less sense. Like snapping you fingers and it cleans your room. 

Marry Poppins is a 1964 film about a seemingly magical Nanny that comes the Banks House to take care of Jane and Michael. She expect everything to be "spit spot" and for the children to listen to her when asks them to do something. She seems rather stern with the kids, but really she cares for them and know that sometimes following rules can actually make your life better, even when not listening seems like more fun. Really, she is there to make the Bank's family closer, since Mr. Banks and Mrs. Banks seem to not see much past the end of their own nose. 

This, or course, is a classic film that I have seen many times in my life. I have quoted it, and wished that I could laugh to hard that I could float. Every time I hear someone with a unique laugh, I always hear the different ways Marry Poppins and Bert laugh to show how many different types there are. 

However, asked myself what is the lesson about obedience should I take away from this movie? Well thankfully, the movie gave me  direct quote.

"In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun, and snap, the job's a game."

In reality when it comes to my faith, there have been times where I am getting up in the morning and follow a schedule. It allows for time for me to read my Bible, Pray, and spend some very much needed time with God. When I do follow it I feel so at peace, and like walking into the world focused and not stressed. It's not a game but there is an element of fun when I am obedient in my walk. 

Like I have said, this last year has been heartbreaking and I  can't get myself to do much more than what I need to do. However, here is the truth. I need to have that time more than I need anything else. I am not just now sure why I mentally dread it now. 

I know that that was in issue before last year's drama started, but it's only escalated. The times in the last year that I have made myself get up and do everything I feel so much better! Then something happen and I skip and it all goes down hill. 

I know that consistency is something that I need to really focus on this coming month.  

Brian Tyler Takeover: There Are None

 So, Plot twist, I didn't watch any Brian Tyler movies this month. 

Why?

Well, none of the first seven films were available to stream. 

List of Movies:

1. Bartender

2. Six String Samurai

3. The Settlement

4. Simon Sez

5. Shadow Hours

6. Panic

7. Four Dogs Playing Poker

In years past I would normally find the movies and buy them so I can make everything happen. Well, I decided that I am going to be smart, and not do that. The things is I know that it would ultimately be note a good use of my money. I would watch the movies once, never watch them again, and then either give sell them, or trade them in at Mckay's. Both would be for less money than I would have bought them for. So, February will have to be the month that I watch and report. 

However, my Music for the Movies Class starts this coming week, and I know there are movies that Brian Tyler has composed for that I can watch. So, Hopefully whatever I learn for the class will be applied for when I do watch his movies!

Welcome To 2026!!!

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

What a crazy ride that 2025 was, but it's honestly the first time in a long time that I have been happy to see a year go! It's been crazy but I now that this year has to be better than last. I don't know how but I think it will be.

This year I do have some cool projects that I will be doing, and I already have plans that I have coming that I know are going to be so much fun! However, This year marks 10 years since my first successful project My Year Of Review. It's been 10 years since I watched 100 movies in the theaters! I can't believe that it' been that long! So many changes have happened not only in Movies in general but in my life. Would I love to watch 100 movies in the theater again? Yes, but I am not going to because I have so much going on already. However, I am so thankful for that year because it's one of the best years of my life, but it's also lead me here. I never thought I would try, and experience, so many wonderful things just because movies inspired me to do it. 

So, what are this year's project? 

Well, we are talking Obedience and... music?

So, I have done several projects over the years that have dealt with my faith. However, it's just part of it. In the last few years I have struggled with Obedience, and this year that is going to be my focus. Now, I am not going to like do a whole big excel sheet, or a step by step process of what I need to do. I already know what I need to do, I have just not been doing it. Whether that is out of laziness, heartbreak, or any excuse that I can come up with, it needs to change. I need to change. So, I will be starting my normal mourning routine again, and I am sure when I start being obedient in the everyday then I am sure God will ask me to do something I find CRAZY! 

If/when God asks me to do something crazy, I will write about it here through that year as it happens. If nothing else, I will be writing how I am feeling and if I have been keeping up with talking to God on the daily. I will be continuing the Bible Recap with Tara-Light Cobble and I have another year long bible reading plan that looks really good that I will try to get through as well. I have spent all of last year listening to books written by R.C. Sproul and I have enjoyed them. However, listening to a book doesn't stick to me like reading it with my eyes does. So, this year I want to start my way through the Bible Recap's study books. They are like 10 week long courses so I hope to start that in the next few months, because I have a Bible study I have been neglecting called Braved and Beloved by Meredith Storrs. I have done the first two lessons and I really want to see that through before in over my head. 

This project is still based in a character from The Wizard of Oz and that would be the Flying Monkeys. They do not speak in the film, but The Wicked Witch of the West tells them "Now Fly! Fly!". In the book the monkey are controlled by a golden helmet that I forget how the Wicked Witch attains. They Monkeys are forced to be Obedient. Now, this year is not meant to see if being Obedient to God is good or bad, because I already know that it's good. I have walked long enough with the Lord to know that. However, sometimes we are obedient to the wrong person, and that's bad. Sometimes we can't help it, because of a curse, we are scared not to be, or because we tricked. The Devil doesn't want us to be obedient to anyone, so we can unknowingly follow him to our death without knowing Jesus. What I want to explore is what does the obedience that character are follow, or forced to follow, looks like and how we can be tricked that it's a good or a bad thing. 

The next project is going with a theme I didn't plan for this year but it's falling into place on it's own. 

The Brian Tyler Takeover. 

So what is this all about? Well, Brian Tyler is a composer to has TAKEN OVER MY HEAD! 

Back in like 2018, I was at work watching a movie on my phone listening to it with my headphones. The movie was Now You See Me 2. It was where Morgan Freeman is on the plan with Mark Ruffalo going to China to get the Horseman. Now, I turned my head and I heard fives notes. Just five. The scene that was now in my head from these five notes is not what is playing on the phone. It was a scene Thor: The Dark World. This Thor movie is my all time favorite stand alone Marvel film of all time. I love the soundtrack to that film. The violins when Frigga is sent off for her burial at sea and her soul float ups to the stars pinches my heart ever single time I hear it. Finding out he did both of these movies was shocking. I have never been able to pick out a composer of a film before. There was something about this fact that altered my brain.

Little did I know just how much until 2023. 

Picture it.. April 2023, me sitting in the movie theater watching Super Mario Bros. and the last battle scene is coming on, it just hits me out no where that the musical score of this film is brilliant! I didn't play many Mario games when I was young but I have played enough to know what the video game sounds are like. I can recognize sounds from the game even if I don't know what sound means what. However, this music that was so wonderfully epic fit so well into the film. It incorporated the video game sounds and the insane adventure of the world in a way I didn't know that any could. It was like the music was not just there to help you feel what you needed to feel in the moments that you needed to feel it, but it was there as part of the world building. 

It was Brian Tyler. 

May 2023... Fast X.... same thing happens

June 2024... Transformers One... THE SAME THING HAPPENS.

I tell my best friend Alaina about this craziness in 2025. I tell her that I have this weird ear to pick up on Brian Tyler's compositions and I don't know why. She laughs and agrees that it's weird. 

We are currently watching all of the Marvel films in release order. We get to Thor: The Dark World and I tell her like what I love about the music and tell her again on this weird thing. Fast forward a few months and are watching Avengers: Age of Ultron....

I tell Alaina the music is really good..... 

BRIAN FREAKING TYLER!!!! 

You think 2025 I would be left alone cause there is no way that this is happening. Then Now You See Me Now You Don't comes out and I figured that Mr. Tyler has done the other two films it's very possible that he is doing this one as well. He is.... no big deal I saw it coming. 

Then my roommate and I go and see Nuremberg. It was during the part where the Nazi general is about to take his own life, because he was found guilty during the trials, that there was something about the moment where just a few notes his and the Brian Tyler bell went off in the back of my head. I tried to deny it. I really did because I have not known Mr. Tyler to do a film that was historically based. It was just odd to me..... 

The credits rolled... as did my eyes.... Brian Tyler. 

I thought I was done till I started watching Yellowstone for the first time a few weeks ago, and yet again Brian Tyler is now following me to the small screen as well. 

So, I give up. I am goin to watch this man's filmography. Now, I know that there seem to be a good number of scary films under his belt so I am not sure what to do about that. However, I will watch all of the other movies that he has done. I will say where I thought that music was just perfect and why, and then we will see if I can still pick him out of a random movie I see during the week still. 

The other reason that I love that I am doing something with music this year is because I just signed up for a Music for the Movies class at the University of Tennessee. It a just for fun class but I think everything is aligning for me to to do something with music and why not the man whose music has been surprising me for the past seven years?

So, there we are. We have the year set up and ready to go... Well at least the plan, I still need to hammer some stuff out but we are getting there. 

I am looking forward to all the things that this year has coming up and I can't wait to see what God has in store!

The Shawn Levy Shuffle: Deadpool and Wolverine

 Well, it's one of the best movies of the year last year, and there is a reason why.

Through a strange set of circumstances, Deadpool and Wolverine have to team up to save the world.

Look there is a reason that this movie was so good you have to see it for yourself. 

I will say again just how incredible and heartwarming this movie is, is all because of the man who directed it Mr. Shawn Levy. It's still about family, it's still about hope, and it's still about love in all of it's many forms. 

I am very glad that I got to see the world through Shawn Levy's eyes for a year. 

I hope that I hear the world differently next year...

No Place Like Movies At Home: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

 We are finally at the most recognized, and by far the most superior, Monty Python movie: Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Arthur and the Knight of the Round Table are on a quest. They seek the Holy Grail. A mission given to them by God and a journey the not one expected to happen.... 

So, I have watched a fait bit of British Television over the years. I am not expert or can say that I can pick up on any references made by our British counter parts, but enough to know how their different, and yet alike, their humor is from ours. From what I have seen I still don't know how the two other Monty Python movies fit into play. Like I am not sure if it's just a niche bit of humor that only some people in the United Kingdom like or if they thought that last two files we wildly accepted. Regardless, this is the one that most people have found funny than they other two. It's not the it so wildly different from the other two, but it's one of those movies that my mom and some of my friends still quote. My mom and I will still clap our hands like we are holding coconuts pretending to ride a horse!

I love this movie! It's a must see if you haven't already!

There They Are and There They'll Stay: The Wizard of Oz

 Now, for my favorite movie: The Wizard of Oz

Dorothy's life seems like it's falling apart. Her dog is being taken away and nothing else seems to be doing right. She runs away before he dog can be taken. When she runs into a nice man who "persuades" her to go back home, only to be caught up in a tornado and taken to the Land of Oz. Where so goes on and adventure in order to go back home to Kansas.

"Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead of our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked." 2 Corinthians 5:2-3

Longing to go home. Man if there was ever year that to know what that feeling feels like. It's odd cause I have been home to months and I find myself longing for a time that I can't go back to. However, that the funny thing about home. Your home will change over time but it will be a place of comfort. If your home is in Jesus than you will have a place that is always safe, and welcoming.