Oh So Geeky

Every year movie buffs root for their personal faves throughout the award show season. Though we might disagree on who should win, history and hindsight often reveals when other performances were worthier of recognition. In celebration of trying to figure out  this year's Oscars odds , I thought it'd be fun to revisit several recent ceremonies and pin down who won versus who should've won. Which Oscar winners in the past do you think should've won? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Wandering Through the Shelves hosts  Thursday Movie Picks . It's a weekly series where bloggers post and share various movie picks every Thursday.  The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page  here . This week is Thursday Movie Picks - TV EDITION - Opening Title Sequence.

The Athena Film Festival is the premier festival celebrating and showcasing women's leadership in documentaries and feature films as well as in-depth conversations with industry experts. One of their prominent program areas features short films grouped into specific themes that explore and highlight a wide range of issues from climate change to social justice movements. This year’s festival included several themes including Resilience Through Uncertainty, Nothing About Us Without Us, and Tear It Down: Dismantling White Supremacy. While covering the festival this month, I had access to short films from each of these sections and provide reviews to my selections below.

(This review contains spoilers for Promising Young Woman). T wo different nights in Austin, Texas set the stage for Test Pattern – the first charming meet-cute between Renesha (Brittany S. Hall) and Evan (Will Brill) ends with the couple’s courtship blossoming into a loving lived-in relationship; the second similar night ends with Renesha drugged and sexually assaulted by a stranger during a girl’s night out at a bar. And the couple dealing with the health care system as they try to secure a rape kit.

Wandering Through the Shelves hosts  Thursday Movie Picks . It's a weekly series where bloggers post and share various movie picks every Thursday.  The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page  here . This week is Thursday Movie Picks - Fake Identity

We're only a few days away from The Falon and The Winter Soldier premiering on Disney+. Now seemed like the best time to also drop part two of my brief eseries Everything I Love About Sam Wilson as part of my series  celebrating Captain America  in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Right now, I plan on limiting this continuation to the movies, knowing once the show starts I may fall behind keeping up - though time will tell.  Here's brief run-through in  Captain America: Civil War,  Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame . Hope you enjoy!  

2020 marked the deadliest year on record for transgender and non-conforming individuals. Even with the emergence of trans entertainers and activists  likeJanet Mock and Laverne Cox in mind, how rare it is for LGBTQ+ youth to have a blueprint or example of trans icons who defy such unnecessary and transphobic circumstances. Just as equally rare is an inspirational documentary that Mama Gloria joyfully fills the void of.  Told fully from her perspective, the documentary directed by Luchina Fisher affords Gloria Allen the opportunity to share her journey of transitioning in Chicago’s south side in the 1950s to her contributions as trailblazer today – now in her 70s. Most notably, she’s recognized for starting a charm school for her fellow trans women, especially homeless youth; the school also later became a play “Charm” which has inspired trans actresses to follow in her footsteps and come out as transgender. Where there is such glorious success, however, there are also advers...

I've always liked Wanda, but mostly watched her show without a lot of expectations. After it was over, there was a lot more than I thought I'd need to get off my chest about her arc, Vision, and their series WandaVision as an essay? rant? rave? It contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.  Wanda’s powers has grown in tandem with her emotions - how to understand what she's capable of, how others feared her, and what she has to do to protect her loved ones. Since she and her brother Pietro debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2012, she’s had more than her fair share of repressed emotions to sort through.  Her abilities were, after all, born out of a "hopeful" act of revenge against Tony Stark – whose bombs killed both of their parents and nearly left them for dead. It wasn’t long before they switched teams to The Avengers. With enough pain to wield once Pietro was caught in the crossfire, we got a taste of what she could do if she was affected deeply enough:...

For the second time in her life, Julia Scotti rocked the comedy world when she auditioned for America’s Got Talent in 2016. After drawing approval and laughter from the live studio audience and judges, her humbling revelation of having transitioned and comedic verve made her a beloved favorite and later a finalist that year. Though many might know her best from her original televised comeback, it’s one of just many that’s highlighted and explored in the documentary Julia Scotti: Funny That Way. Shot over a period of five years, director Susan Sandler’s documentary with Julia Scotti trails the comedian’s comeback and her complicated journey of transitioning, identity, and healing. Going primarily from the title, humor is an easy way ‘in’ to enjoying the documentary. There are plenty of jokes and anecdotes sprinkled throughout, as well as heartwarming meetings with comedy pals and stand-up routines, that will put a smile on your face. But underneath the surface the duo – Sandler and Sco...

In 2019, Avengers: Endgame culminated with the end to Steve Rogers's run as Captain America, leaving a new star spangled man with a plan to take over his reign. After returning the Infinity Stones to their rightful timelines, Rogers came back to pass down the shield to his good friend and comrade Sam Wilson, also known as The Falcon.  Though it remains to be seen whether or not Wilson will become the next Captain America in his and Bucky Barnes' new series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier , I thought it'd be fun to continue the tradition that I had started with celebrating Chris Evan as Captain America  throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I plan on limiting this continuation to the movies, knowing once the show starts I may fall behind keeping up - though time will tell. Part 1 is dedicated to Captain America and The Winter Soldier,  Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man . Hope you enjoy!

Wandering Through the Shelves hosts  Thursday Movie Picks . It's a weekly series where bloggers post and share various movie picks every Thursday.  The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page  here . This week is Thursday Movie Picks - Movies That Haven't Aged Well. 

Wandering Through the Shelves hosts  Thursday Movie Picks . It's a weekly series where bloggers post and share various movie picks every Thursday.  The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page  here . This week is Thursday Movie Picks - Oscar Winners Edition: Best Actor and Best Actress. Unlike past weeks where I've probably over-thought the theme, I kept it simple with highlighting performances that come to mind every so often and remain as impressive now as when the film was released.

17-year-old  William O'Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) is recruited by the FBI to infiltrate the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party led by Fred Hamptom (Daniel Kaluuya). As O'Neal gains acceptance and camaraderie with Hampton and his comrades, the FBI pushes their campaign to criminalize Hampton that ultimately leads to his assassination. Similar to  Candice Frederick's review , I couldn't stop thinking about or comparing  Judas and the Black Messiah to The Departed  - its potential similarities and stark differences. Both films share the core structure of the spy story. For the former, William goes undercover into the Black Panther Party, and is continuously upended by his involvement. Even though William believes he is the rare example of an undercover agent, there are others lurking all over the place, forcing him to watch his back and always feel threatened by the potential of blowing his cover or having someone blow it for him. With The Departed , centered o...

Due to the corona-virus, our regular summer of movie-going has been postponed. With cineplexes closing temporarily (or forever) and theatrical releases moving to streaming services, there's been a massive shift in the dates of movies going forward this year. From Marvel and Disney to DCEU and beyond, I've compiled a list of dates for films that will have a new opening weekend either later this year or further down the road. Mark your calendars (with a pencil - just in case!). If you see a film missing from this list that you think I should add, feel free to share below. Which movies are you looking forward to seeing? This updated list has been expanded to include 2021 dates and beyond.

Something special happens for a director or writer when they can probe deep memories into a compelling story, and the audience who has their eyes opened to an event or perspective we haven't seen before. Both of these are at the heart of director Tracey Deer's first film Beans , setting an appropriate tone as the first film chosen to open the Athena Film Festival. Inspired by her own childhood, writer-director Tracey Deer mends the gap between a traditional coming-of-age tale against the backdrop of a historical event. In the summer of 1990, twelve year old Tekehentahkhwa's (Kiawentiio) adolescence unfolds with complicated friendships, standing up to oppression, and family dynamics against the backdrop of the Oka Crisis - a 78 day standoff of Mohawk people protecting their sacred burial grounds from overturning into a golf course by the White Quebec population. Through Beans, the audience is taken through the familiar territory of adolescence as well as the terrifyingl...

We don’t often learn of the opportunities and difficulties juvenile actors face until headlines show it or history becomes etched in memoirs. A rare chance to star in their own show or become a heartthrob leaves so many kids who love entertain discovering the risks and the realities of the industry before they're prepared to live in front of the spotlight. K id 90 , directed by Soleil Moon Free, brings us closer to taking a look behind-the-scenes and a generation of stars who learned to navigate the pitfalls of fame. As a teenager in the 90s, actress and director Soleil Moon Frye carried around a video camera everywhere she went and saved diaries, journals, and voice mail messages. After locking away the footage for almost 20 years, she revisits her childhood as a teenage star and presents an unprecedented time capsule of growing up in Hollywood and New York City. From her early days of starting out as Punky Brewster to nabbing smaller roles in B-horror movies, Frye shows us lif...

For the past eleven years, the Athena Film Festival has been the premiere festival to amplify women's leadership through film as well as provide in-depth conversations with industry experts. The festival works in conjunction with Barnard College's Athena Center for Leadership and Women and Hollywood to shift the cultural conversation of stories told of women. In celebration of March as Women's History Month, I'm excited to cover the event virtually. In the upcoming weeks,  I'll be providing reviews of a wide variety of shorts to documentaries and feature film screenings, which includes: Beans , directed by Tracey Deer. A twelve-year-old Mohawk Girl torn between innocent childhood and reckless adolescence as she grapples with her experiences of community, activism, and racism during the Indigenous uprising of 1990 known as The Oka Crisis. Mama Gloria - an intimate portrait of a trailblazing 73-year-old black transgender woman who transitioned before Stonewall, starte...