The Blu Spot

The Films: There are few things that cause a larger burst of nostalgia for my childhood than the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." It was the first phenomenon that I can remember becoming obsessed with as a kid, which had me hooked on the popular cartoon series & collecting action figures, comics, posters, and more. With the incredible success of the show, it was hardly a surprise that a feature film came to fruition within a few years, though it was a bit of a surprise to see

The Film: When Jonathan Larson's "Rent" burst onto Broadway back in 1996, it became an instant hit that not only garnered four Tony Awards (including Best Musical, Book, and Original Score), but also had it going on an incredible 12-year run. During that time, it's hardly a surprise that the idea of a film was brought up pretty quickly, leading to an adaptation being brought to theaters in 2005 from director Chris Columbus and screenwriter Stephen Chbosky that featured six of

The Film: When it comes to documentaries, there are none that I enjoy more than those that involve the creation of art, whether it's the method of recreating a painting in the astounding "Tim's Vermeer," the preparation of a film that never came to be in the fascinating "Jodorowsky's Dune," or the chaos of making a film that has everything go wrong in my favorite documentary of all time, "Lost in La Mancha." This brings us to one of the most famous docs of this kind, Fax Bahr

The Hollywood Foreign Press has just announced their nominations for the 83rd Annual Golden Globes, and it comes as no surprise to find that Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" leads the way with nine nods, followed closely by Joachim Trier's "Sentimental Value" with eight. As usual, there were a few surprises, including the shocking omission of "Wicked: For Good" in Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, where "Blue Moon" and "Nouvelle Vague" made surprise ap

The Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) has announced their winners for 2025, with Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" dominating the awards with a record-setting ten wins, including Best Film, Director, Actor, Original Screenplay, and Ensemble. Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" followed in a very distant second place with three wins for Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Actress. Please see a full list of winners below. Film WINNER: S

The National Board of Review has announced their winners for 2025 with Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another taking the top prize, along with Best Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, and Breakthrough Performance. Best Film: One Battle After Another Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another Best Actress: Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Best Supporting Actor: Benicio Del Toro, One Battl

The New York Film Critics Circle has just finished announcing their awards for 2025, with Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" taking the top prize. The film also won Best Supporting Actor for Benicio del Toro. The only other film to win more than one award was "The Secret Agent," which took Best Actor for Wagner Moura and Best International Feature. Please see below for a complete list of winners. BEST FILM: One Battle After Another BEST DIRECTOR: Jafar Panahi,

The Film: Hot on the heels of "Hard Boiled" and the "A Better Tomorrow" Trilogy, Shout! Studios is continuing their Hong Kong Cinema Classics series with what is very likely world-renowned action director John Woo's most popular & well-known work, 1989's "The Killer." The film is being given an incredible 4K upgrade for a new three-disc set, packed with over two and a half hours of commentaries, featurettes, and more, so now it's time once again to go back and revisit this ac

The Film: "The Conjuring" series has been a somewhat unusual roller coaster ride over the course of its 12-year existence. It started off pretty shaky with a surprisingly dull entry that didn't do much to elicit scares, but came back pretty strong with a sequel that fixed many problems that plagued the original. However, the third film (the poorly-titled "The Devil Made Me Do It") fell back on the same tired cliches & issues that held back the first entry. Now we come to what

The Show: There have been a few shows that have attempted to tell a story set in the world of TV news/journalism, most notably Aaron Sorkin's marvelous "The Newsroom," which had an all-too-short 25-episode run, but there haven't really been any that have tried to focus on something that's usually a lot less serious: Morning Shows, which certainly have their own share of news, but also consist of a wide-variety of segments like cooking, fashion, music, and more. However, just