The Hollywood idea of “fake it till you make it” is taken to horrifying extremes in the new documentary Bad Actor: A Hollywood Ponzi Scheme. It’s a true-crime documentary that should be of interest to film aficionados like myself who follow the industry and pay attention to its many wheelings and dealings. As a movie, it’s fairly standard in execution, but does have a few added twists that not only enhance the central themes, but also may leave you thinking long after the film ends.

Perhaps if you frequent the dark corners of film libraries that I do, you may have heard of or even seen a film starring Zach Avery (whose real name is Zachary Horowitz), an aspiring actor whose output never really rose above the D-list, which raises the question of how he ended up in some of these movies in the first place. However, his film career hid a ponzi scheme of massive proportions. Roping in his friends and others though a web of lies and deceit, he had them invest in his enterprise to buy the rights to independent films through his company, 1inMM (One in a Million) Productions, and sell them to Netflix and HBO. Everything seemed legit. Documentation was provided. Contracts had been made. The films were certainly real. Yet, it eventually became apparent that they were the only things real about any of this, and by the time the scheme fell apart, it was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

As a true crime documentary, it makes an effort to stand out from the typical talking-head-and-re-enactment fare. Since getting Avery to be in the movie was a borderline impossibility, the filmmakers obviously had to resort to re-enactments, but the process of casting them is a part of the film itself. As the main theme of this movie is the slippery nature of truth, the experience of actors getting inside the head of someone who used their talent for acting for nefarious purposes is an interesting detail that elevates this. Granted, Avery’s talent for acting applies solely to his crimes. The footage of Avery’s filmography makes it obvious why he never made it legitimately. However, the archival footage of Zach doing interviews is chilling in just how believable he is even as he’s lying through his teeth. There’s seemingly not much that sets him apart from any other aspiring actor talking about their potential big break.

There’s a lot of details to this story I won’t spoil, and the filmmakers do a decent job putting everything together. As someone with a pretty extensive knowledge of film, The extent of Avery’s criminal enterprise did shock me, as his influence spreads to more legitimate projects than I anticipated. This is a story of a top-shelf fraudster, and a number of the reveals of how he pulled some of this off I legitimately did not see coming. In addition to the re-enactments and footage of Avery’s career, the filmmakers incorporate heavy use of famous film clips to get their points across, but I did think they used this device a bit too much at times. I feel like this story will definitely appeal more primarily to film buffs compared to a lot of other true crime fare. As a film buff myself, though, i was pretty stunned for the whole thing.

Despite seeming like a pretty standard movie structurally, there is one last trick the film has up its sleeve before the credits roll. I won’t reveal what it is, but it’ll make you question everything you just watched, and give you pause on the nature of documentary filmmaking in general. Overall, I’d say that if you’re into movies, it’s worth a watch. It’s the tale of a despicable yet fascinating actor that, while devastating, is certainly thought-provoking.

Side note: In an unexpectedly niche example of industry competition, shortly before the film’s premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, Amazon MGM Studios announced their own documentary on this story, Hollywood Ending. Whether Neon’s or Amazon’s documentary ends up being superior is yet to be seen, and it could just be a total coincidence that the announcement was made when it was. It’s not like competing documentaries on the same topic is a regular occurrence, but it does happen. Regardless, I saw this one first, and maybe I’ll review the other one when it comes out.

It’s almost time for the Oscars, so here are my picks and predictions for the winners. As far as the nominees are concerned, I’d say this was a great year overall, and many of the best films of 2023 are represented. There were some major snubs, but that’s always the case. However, it was also a tumultuous year as well, with the strikes pushing a number of Oscar hopefuls, among them Dune: Part Two, into next year. The major nominations are certainly interesting. If you had told me early last year that the Barbie movie would be a Best Picture nominee and have multiple other major nominations, to say I’d be skeptical would be an understatement, but here we are. Anatomy of a Fall is easily the most cathartic of the multi-nominees, as France basically blew their shot at the Best International Film Oscar by submitting The Taste of Things instead. It made it to the shortlist, but not past that, while Anatomy received a Best Picture nomination and 4 other major ones. The Best Picture lineup also includes The Zone of Interest, easily the most experimental and daring nominee I’ve seen recently. Anyway, here are my picks and predictions (with a major source for my projected winners being GoldDerby).

As mentioned in earlier articles, my picks (or preferred picks, at least) for the short films are Ninety-Five Senses for Best Animated Short, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar for Best Live-Action Short, and The Last Repair Shop for Best Documentary Short, with 20 Days in Mariupol as my pick for Best Documentary Feature. For Best International Feature Film, The Zone of Interest is an absolute lock. However, I’d say that the category as a whole represents some of the best films of the past year. Society of the Snow, Perfect Days, Io Capitano, and The Teacher’s Lounge are all worth seeing, with some being must-see films.

For Best Animated Feature, the obvious pick would probably be Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which isn’t just the year’s best animated film, but easily one of the biggest cinematic achievements in recent memory. However, it may actually have some competition, as Hayao Mizayaki’s The Boy and the Heron has racked up a few major awards in recent months. I wouldn’t be surprised if Heron takes it. Aside from having the name recognition of being directed by one of animation’s great masters, it has an advantage over Spider-Verse in that it isn’t a sequel to a film that already won, and it’s also a full story.

Now to cycle through the technical and music nominees. For Best Song, Barbie (which has two nominations) is predicted to win for Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For”. For Sound, Oppenheimer is the projected winner, and is certainly a contender. However, I feel like the one that really deserves it is The Zone of Interest, which conveyed the horrors of its subject matter entirely through the sound mix. For Best Score, Oppenheimer is my pick, though Poor Things definitely deserves merit there. For Best Cinematography, Oppenheimer will likely win, but Poor Things’ use of wide-angle lenses to enhance the atmosphere made it my favorite of the nominees. For Production Design, it’s gonna be a matchup between Barbie bringing its plastic source to vivid life, and Poor Things’ steampunk phantasmagoria. Both are stunning examples, but only one will win. For Best Makeup, Maestro will likely take this one for transforming Bradley Cooper into Leonard Bernstein and Carey Mulligan into Felicia Montealegre. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up Poor Things as a contender, especially Willem Dafoe’s scarred makeup job. Barbie will likely take Best Costume Design, with Poor Things a contender as well.

Now, on to two of my favorite technical nominees. For Best Editing, there are so many great examples, from The Holdovers playing out like a lost 70s film, to Poor Things and its often garish or fantastical shot choices, to whatever Anatomy of a Fall did to make 150 minutes seem like 90 to me. However, Oppenheimer is likely taking it, and rightfully so. The film does a great job moving at an engaging pace, and deftly switches between the perspectives of its characters. For Best Visual Effects, the projected winner is Japanese blockbuster and stateside sleeper hit Godzilla Minus One. However, it could have competition in The Creator, which managed incredibly convincing CGI work on a budget that was large but still far below what one would expect for a film like that. I would also like to mention Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is probably the only Marvel film I’ve seen recently that I felt actually deserved this nomination. (The “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” sequence alone makes it a contender.)

The Best Adapted Screenplay race has a lot of great contenders, but the actual winner might be a fairly recent surprise. While Oppenheimer was seen for a while as an obvious winner, Cord Jefferson’s great script for American Fiction has made major gains in the last couple months and is now seen as a serious contender. While I felt the script had some tonal issues, it’s still incredibly funny, heartfelt, and often whip-smart. Poor Things is also a great nominee with its twisted gutbuster of a screenplay. For Best Original Screenplay, honestly, the competition’s tough. Anatomy of a Fall, Past Lives, and The Holdovers all had great screenplays for different reasons. It seems a lot of people are predicting Anatomy, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if Holdovers’ hilarious and heartwarming screenplay took it.

Best Supporting Actor is going to Robert Downey Jr. for his performance in Oppenheimer as Lewis Strauss. That’s an absolute certainty. Meanwhile, Robert De Niro did an incredible job as William King Hale in Killers of the Flower Moon with his subdued but absolutely chilling portrayal. For Best Supporting Actress, Da’Vine Joy Randolph will easily take it for her incredible and wrenching performance as Mary Lamb in The Holdovers. Other nominees of note include Danielle Brooks’ powerhouse performance as Sofia in The Color Purple (who elicited multiple rounds of applause from the audience I saw it with), and Jodie Foster as Bonnie Stoll in Nyad.

For Best Lead Actor, Cillian Murphy looks to take it for his searing performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer, which I already knew would be one of the year’s best. However, the category as a whole is top-notch. Paul Giamatti’s side-splitting performance as cantankerous boarding school professor Paul Hunham in The Holdovers was one of my favorites this year, as was Jeffrey Wright’s as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison in American Fiction. Both actors walked the line between the comedic and the dramatic aspects of their performance with ease. I also enjoyed Bradley Cooper’s performance as Leonard Bernstein.

Best Lead Actress has been a brutal race, but it seems like a clear winner may be in sight. Carey Mulligan and Annette Bening gave incredible performances in Maestro and Nyad, respectively. Sandra Hüller also got a nomination for her lead performance in Anatomy of a Fall. After first seeing her in Toni Erdmann, I’m glad she’s gotten more recognition. However, the real matchup has been between Emma Stone in Poor Things and Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon. Both were two of the best performances of the year, but for entirely different reasons. Emma Stone effectively transforms over the course of Poor Things from a childlike woman learning about the world around her to someone strong, wise, and independent. Lily Gladstone’s utterly wrenching portrayal of Mollie Burkhart channels generations of pain into one brutal performance that absolutely makes the film. I’ll have to tune in to see who wins, but it finally looks like Lily might be the projected winner, and if true, she absolutely deserves it.

Best Director is absolutely going to go to Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer, but in all honesty, basically everyone nominated has merit. Of particular note is Jonathan Glazer’s nomination for The Zone of Interest. In an inspired directorial choice, he rigged a house with cameras so the actors could be filmed in real time before the footage was edited down. This gives the movie a voyeuristic feel, and allows for more realistic performances (not to mention some happy accidents). It does feel like we’re watching people like life as normal, even as the unthinkable is happening offscreen. Yorgos Lanthimos’ direction for Poor Things was also among my favorites of the nominees this year. Finally, Best Picture is going to Oppenheimer, and it deserves it. All that’s left to do now is to see the results, capping off a turbulent but still great year for cinema as a whole. Thank you for reading my coverage of this year’s Oscar nominees.

My look at the hidden gems at the Oscars continues with the live action short films: like most of the nominees, only shorter. There’s an obvious frontrunner this year that’s substantially bigger than the other nominees, so I feel it’s even more important to talk about the other films (although I feel some might be possible competition).

The After features David Oyelowo as a man left shattered after the death of his wife and daughter in a brutal attack one year prior. As an Uber driver, his encounters with passengers lead him to confront his grief. David does a great job, but this was by far one of the weakest shorts this year, and I mean that in general. It isn’t much other than depressing, and the ending felt extremely hollow.

Red, White and Blue features a great Brittany Snow in a hot-button short that honestly feels like a feature in miniature. Single parent Rachel needs to find an abortion clinic, but unfortunately lives in Arkansas. Unable to support another kid, she is forced to hit the road towards a state where it’s legal. As mentioned, it has the makings of a feature film shrunk down to 23 minutes, but it’s good as is. I’m going to keep this one brief in case any readers see this short, because the ending will make your jaw hit the floor. If the premise didn’t already convince you, this is an absolute emotional gut-punch of a short.

Knight of Fortune is another look at grief, only this one is unexpectedly funny. A darkly comic drama from Denmark, it focuses on Karl, who has just lost his wife but is unable to face seeing her at the morgue. Then, Karl meets Torben, who has also lost his wife and who he finds a connection with. Torben helps Karl process his grief—under unusual circumstances. Again, this short is way funnier than you might expect, peppered with gallows humor and a reveal that’ll bring cringe laughs before touching your heart. This one was a surprise in what was a pretty downbeat lineup of shorts this year.

Invincible is a Canadian short that was one of my favorites of the lineup. A personal story based on true events, it follows Marc-Antoine Bernier, a 14-year-old trying to get out of a juvenile detention center, in his last 48 hours of life. (That isn’t a spoiler, as the film opens with his death.) Marc’s troubled, rebellious behavior is at odds with his genuine desire for freedom, even as he’s told that only being officially released will make him truly free. I’m admittedly drawn to stories like this, so my opinion might be a bit biased. Nevertheless, the performances are great across the board, especially Léokim Beaumier-Lépine as Marc. Notably, the director was friends with the real Marc, and felt compelled to make this short to understand the tragedy. If there’s any short that I feel might be able to beat the next one, it’s Invincible.

Finally, my pick for the live action shorts is definitely the most notable short nominated overall. Last summer, Wes Anderson released his latest feature Asteroid City, which may have sounded like an Oscar hopeful but ultimately left a lot to be desired. However, he still made it to the nominations with The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, his adaptation of Roald Dahl’s short story of the same name and one of four short films he made for Netflix based on Dahl’s stories last year. It’s obvious that Anderson has a major advantage here, with major name recognition, an all-star cast, and production values that more independent shorts couldn’t compete with. That said, it’s still the best short of the five. First of all, while Anderson has adapted Dahl before with Fantastic Mr. Fox, this film takes a more unconventional approach by having the characters effectively read the text almost as-is, even the third-person portions. This isn’t surprising given that the story as written is perfect for Anderson, with a narrator and two layers of nested stories built in, both among his directorial trademarks. (Ralph Fiennes plays Roald Dahl, who serves as the main narrator.) The production and staging are absolutely outstanding, but not at the expense of the overall quality. Finally, the short is just a blast to watch. The screening of the live action shorts I saw put this at the very end, and it’s easy to see why. With the other nominees dealing with such heavy subject matter, this one definitely stood out for just how fun it was, both for the audience, and seemingly for the people making it as well. I feel like Wes has been overdue for an Oscar for quite some time now (the closest he’s come was four technical Oscars for The Grand Budapest Hotel, but never beyond that), and if this finally earns him one, it’s well-deserved.

Overall, this was a decent batch of shorts, with one standout, one dud, and some good ones in-between. Stay tuned for more of my coverage of this year’s Oscars.

You can find us (and a number of other awesome podcasts) on the ACPN family of shows.

The Emerald City Video Podcast is a periodic podcast hosted by entertainment journalist Russ Burlingame, with a rotating cast of hosts who used to work at the Emerald City Video store in East Syracuse, New York. The store was once awarded by the Video Software Dealers of America as the best small video store in the U.S. Though it closed in 2009, the store’s legacy still touches the daily lives of a lot of the people who used to work there, and the Syracuse community as a whole still has a lot of fondness for its memory.

The idea behind the podcast, which launched in 2016, was to bring the discourse you would get at a video store — talking with real humans about your movies, rather than trusting in an algorithm — back to…well, if not the world, or even Syracuse, at least to the guys who maybe missed that human connection the most: a bunch of pop culture junky loudmouths who used to run a really cool video store. Over the years, the Emerald City Video banner has flown over a number of themes, including specific episodes about TV series like Riverdale and Psych.

If you like what we’re doing here, you can become a patron of the Emerald City Video Podcast, which comes with fun perks. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We also have Instagram and Vero accounts where we share images, photos, memes, and nonsense. You can support us on Patreon, too, and do things like requesting custom episodes and the like.

Be back for more by noon on the fifth day, and please — always remember to rewind your videocassettes.

While you all are getting over those food comas, let’s take a second and once again declare to the world: Happy Jacksgiving! Because, while it may have been Thanksgiving on Thursday, it was also Jack’s birthday.

What was the best thing you ate this week? What are you thankful for? Shout us out in the comments!

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK:

• “The Walking Dead” experienced another ratings drop in its 5th episode of Season 8. The episode brought in 7.8 million viewers which is a 10% drop from episode 4. The Season 8 premiere, which was the show’s 100th episode, brought in the lowest ratings for a season premiere since Season 3.
• Ellen Page will star in Netflix’s “Umbrella Academy” series as Vanya, the black sheep of the superfamily the series revolves around.
• CBS is developing a “Stripes” TV series. The adaptation comes from Trevor Moore, Sam Brown, and Zach Cregger from sketch group, “The Whitest Kids U’ Know,” and Ivan Reitman will even return to direct.
• Fred Armisen will write, executive produce and star in a new Spanish language half-hour series on HBO. The project is called “Mexico City: Only Good Things Happen,” and it’s reportedly about a group of friends in a “dreamy version” of Mexico City who are “obsessed with horror films and monster makeup.”
• Neil Brennan, the co-creator of “Chappelle’s Show,” is set to write and host a new Late Night series for FOX. According to Variety, it’ll be a “topical political and cultural talk show” that also has “sketches and man on the street segments.” The last late night show FOX had was “The Wanda Sykes Show” in 2009 — it lasted one season.

AARON’S LOSERS: “Saturday Night Live,” “Future Man” and “Jim & Andy”
JACK’S LOSERS: “Future Man”
AARON’S FENCERS: “Bill Murray & Brian Doyle Murray’s Extra Innings,” “The Punisher,” “The Walking Dead” and “Stranger Things 2”
JACK’S FENCERS: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
AARON’S WINNERS: “At Home with Amy Sedaris,” “American Horror Story: Cult,” “The Exorcist,” “Mr. Robot” and “Marvel’s Runaways”
JACK’S WINNERS: “Marvel’s Runaways,” “The Shannara Chronicles,” “The Good Place,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “The Trixie and Katya Show,” “Night of Too Many Stars” and “The Last Man on Earth”

Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and comment!

Find us on Twitter: @PunchDrunk_TV, @flatlinejack and @aaronflux

Join the conversation on Facebook.

Welcome to Episode 76.
As always, #ClinktheDrink.

It’s the middle of October which means Halloween-times are in full effect. DJ SpookNasty and MC Tummy Troubles are extra loopy this week as Aaron was late to record, due to an incredible advance screening of “Thor: Ragnarok,” and Jack was already three drinks in.

Aside from discussing the important topics of the week, they bring back their Movie Corner segment and discuss the awesome horror streaming app all genre fans should check out, AMC’s Shudder.

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK:

• “Game of Thrones” stars Peter Dinklage and Charles Dance will executive produce “Qausimodo,” a new TV series adaptation of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It’s the first drama series to come out of Atrium TV — which is a new association of international streaming and telecommunication platforms that was launched earlier this year. Meaning, the show will air exclusively to a yet-to-be-named OTT overseas.
• Netflix sorta released some ratings numbers, which it never really does. The streamer says that, on average, more than 8 million viewers have watched at least one season of one series in 24 hours or less.
• Wyatt Cenac is getting his own late-night show at HBO. The project will be a comedic docuseries where Cenac goes on a “journey to understand some of the big issues of the moment and investigate real-world solutions.” HBO has given the series a 10-episode order and will premiere in the Spring of 2018.
• ABC Freeform has ordered a new docu-series titled, “Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings” which will go behind the scenes of different lavish weddings that take place at Disney destinations around the world.

AARON & JACK’S HORROR MOVIE CORNER:
WHAT AARON WATCHED THIS WEEK – “Happy Death Day”
WHAT JACK WATCHED THIS WEEK – “Ouija: Origin of Evil”

AARON’S LOSERS: “Dynasty,” “Supernatural” and MTV’s “TRL”
JACK’S LOSERS: “Dynasty”
AARON’S FENCERS: “The Last Man on Earth” and “Lore”
JACK’S FENCERS: “Channel Zero: No End House,” “I Love You, America” and “White Famous”
AARON’S WINNERS: “South Park,” “I Love You, America” and “Mindhunter”
JACK’S WINNERS: “DuckTales,” “The Shannara Chronicles” and the Youtube Channel, ChrisStuckmann

Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and comment!

Find us on Twitter: @PunchDrunk_TV, @flatlinejack and @aaronflux

Join the conversation on Facebook.

Welcome to Episode 72. As always, #ClinktheDrink

Here’s all the programming I could search for (if anyone does happen upon something not listed, let us know.):

Only first season available, unless otherwise noted. 

[adult swim] Shows:

Aqua Teen Hunger Force
The Boondocks
Childrens’ Hospital – Seasons 1 & 2
Delocated
Metalocalypse
Robot Chicken
Squidbillies – Seasons 1 & 2
Venture Bros

Cartoon Network Shows:

Adventure Time
Ben 10
Ben 10: Alien Force
Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
Camp Lazlo – Seasons 1 & 2
Chowder
Codename: Kids Next Door – First 3 Seasons
Courage the Cowardly Dog – Seasons 1 & 2
Cow and Chicken
Dexter’s Laboratory – Seasons 1 & 2
Ed, Edd, ‘n Eddy – Seasons 1 & 2
Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends
Generator Rex
Johnny Bravo
Mad
My Gym Partner’s a Monkey
Powerpuff Girls – First 3 Seasons
Problem Solverz
Regular Show
Robotomy
Samurai Jack
Secret Mountain Fort Awesome

Stream and enjoy!

As of now you can expect to see Cartoon Network favorites like Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Johnny Bravo. And [AS] series like The Boondocks, ATHF, Robot Chicken, and Children’s Hospital. Unlike AS On Demand and the AS website, this will allow you to watch whole seasons rather than waiting for certain episodes to show up. You can expect to see the shows on your Netflix account starting on March 30th.

(Source: http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/14/technology/netflix-time-warner/index.html)