RobertR

Einstein's definition of insanity: "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". It's not an emotional decision, it's an insane decision to not make a change. Which head coach has suddenly elevated his team to a super bowl contender after 7 seasons of disappointment? He's never going to do it in Green Bay.

The only motivation I see from the Packers is to avoid injury. They better show up next week. Otherwise there ought to be serious discussion about LaFleur's future. Injuries I understand but the lack of focus and inability to fix problems have been consistent issues.

I ended 2025 with Joe Dante's The Movie Orgy from 1968. The 5 hour cut. If you're not aware, it's essentially a cut of tons and tons of movie clips from a variety of sources that becomes something of a stream of consciousness one of a kind experience. It's like in the old days of just flipping through channels on the dial. It's ridiculously funny and entertaining throughout as you can't predict what's going to come next. I'll see it again, but it's worth seeing by every film fan at least once.

I think there's a good case to be made that it's the cult film of the 2020s. You should see it with an audience. They generally go all out to make a screening special.

By next week, I'll have forgotten he exists.

So I was watching Netflix these past two weekends. Frankenstein surprised me by what it was and was not, I went in expecting a fairly straight adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel filtered through the art of Bernie Wrightson. And while both are there, prominently even, Del Toro kind of does an amalgam of all of the popular incarnations of Frankenstein. There's both the Universal and Hammer versions in the mix. (Including a related homage to the climax of Dracula: Prince of Darkness.) Maybe even the Edison short. It's a lot looser than I expected and has a lot of the themes that Del Toro is interested in. And designed within an inch of its life. But, overall I enjoyed it. I thought Jacob Elordi was very good and a fresh take on the creature. That said, when you take from so many contradictory influences, is it any wonder that you can't reconcile every take into one cohesive statement? This weekend I watched Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague. I wonder if you have no knowledge of or affection for the French New Wave if you'll get much out of it. I can imagine that the cameos for a lot of viewers mean nothing. And, to be honest, I got nothing much about the making of Breathless that is not already evident in the movie. That said, Linklater has a light touch with the material and I had fun with the love letter to the French New Wave and breaking rules. Heck, we probably wouldn't have Linklater without it. It's a light souffle of a love letter. Maybe it will encourage someone to actually watch Breathless for the first time. It's a trifle but an entertaining one.

There's no future to O'Neil.

There's nothing typical about windy, cold, and wet. Except it typically results in offensive struggles. Yeah, it wasn't a warm weather team coming to town, but the weather absolutely played a role. I was there and you could see the weather's effects. Now, Washington should have beat Wisconsin regardless, but the weather definitely played a role in limiting offensive options. Albeit, Wisconsin was almost totally ineffective with the passing game, it certainly looked like they'd have zero passing yards going into halftime. Washington certainly had more success there, but maybe it was foolish to try to pass as much as they did.

This is just getting ridiculous. Don't stop!

I see the Oriental is showing Seven Samurai and High and Low the next couple of weeks. I'd consider both Must-Sees for sometime in your life

The Cardinals aren't a "solid contender. " Could they acquire Helsey in a trade? Sure. I expect they will look at relievers, but I wouldn't expect to pay any sort of premium for one

PFAs are everywhere. It's just taken a long time to start testing for them. At low enough detection limits. Lots of treatment plants spread their sludge after treatment. Milorganite is also a potential source. Usually the contaminants will be absorbed along the way from ground surface to the water table, but unfortunately PFAs don't break down easily. Fortunately, groundwater used for drinking water in SE Wisconsin is deep and covered with glacial clay so it takes decades for PFAs to get there. Other parts of the state aren't so lucky

I'd say Black Bag is kind of a mix of Tinker, Tailor,Soldier, Spy and The Thin Man with a bit of Who,s Afraid of Virginia Woolf in the mix. I thought it was a ton of fun.

The Milwaukee Film Festival started yesterday and goes until May 8th. The Shrouds is on my list, but not until next weekend.

I haven't seen it yet, but it's been awhile since I've heard buzz on a film like for Sinners.

This seems to be the right place to mention that I saw EEPHUS over the weekend and I think people here would enjoy it. It's fairly bittersweet, albeit not overly sentimental about an end of an era for a pair of rec league teams that are losing their field for a school sometime in the '90s. Undoubtedly it's for the overall good, but the love of the game holds part of this community together, even if their time playing is coming to a close. There's lots of trash talking, abeit it's good natured. Especially compared to the coming internet era. Lots of subtext to read, even if it doesn't build to a rousing ending.

Went and saw Black Bag yesterday and had a great time. Kind of a combination of Le Carre' and The Thin Man. Lean and fun. See it with your spouse or significant other. Saw Mickey 17 earlier in the week and while it's not the weakest Bong Joon-ho film, it's also well below the best. It's kind of like someone wanting to meld Brazil and Star Wars. It plays like something of a greatest hits package, Okja meets Snowpiercer and has a fine lead performance,but it's very messy and runs a good 15 to 20 minutes too long.

My advice is to see which way your league is biased and zig where they zag. If the league leans heavy to offense, go pitching first. Also, there's not much you can do at the deadline for BA, ERA, or WHIP. Come out of the draft strong in those categories. I usually let the other owners lead me to my strategy. Also, guys who play everyday with a good BA inevitably lead you to RBIs and Runs. I like to concentrate on building up the middle to avoid the dregs at catcher and middle infield that can really drag your BA down while adding little to no value elsewhere. Also, never chase wins on draft day. And remember that it's all about accumulating value.

Yeah, not great but it knew its story was silly and embraced it. I had fun. I did wonder what a Sam Raimi version would be like though.

I thought about it, but didn't think there was much interest this year. As far as the Oscars go, I like and respect ANORA so I was okay with it winning even if I'm not passionate about it. After a big studio blockbuster winning everything last year, it was the right year for a little independent, imo. As far as the ceremony went, I was hoping for a few more surprises, but nothing egregious won, albeit I thought both "Supporting" winners were category fraud. I thought the ceremony itself was fine. Conan was silly and non-controversial and while it wasn't his best, he was always welcome. They presented the In Memoriam segment so that you could see and read everything, without annoying cutaways to on stage performers, which is a low bar, but one they passed this year. Yes, Uecker and a few others would have been nice to see included, but there were some huge names this year so I understand if not everyone could be included. I liked the return of clips. Starting at 6 and finishing before 10 is a plus. I didn't really understand why we had a 7 minute Bond medley though in a year without a Bond film. Not the best ceremony but far from the worst.

I started rewatching Twin Peaks from the beginning. I don't have anything new or insightful to say except when Lynch wanted to be funny he could be very funny. And scary. And genuinely affecting. Looking forward to getting back to The Return as well.

I'm a fan of the new Nosferatu. Gorgeous. No real surprises, other than Orlok looks like book Dracula, but about as good as you can do this story.

Eberflus more than earned his firing. If nothing else, the Bears are in real need of leadership. Head coach would be a real start, but unless it was a mutiny, there were 11 people on the field at the end of the game who showed no game awareness. I expect that Caleb Williams will get better, but there were 10 other people on the field at the end and not one said anything to get them organized or instilled any sense of urgency. That's mainly on the coach, but a bunch should take a real look in the mirror.

It's easy to forget that a 2-score win in the NFL doesn't come easy. But, the Packers played as complete a game as they have all season and they certainly have a chance vs Detroit. The only caveat is that Miami is certainly not built to win in the cold and it showed.