Newsletter Update: A Few Changes Incoming...
Changes Coming To Podcast & Video Streaming Plans, Weekly Film Reviews, Oscars Projections Update Schedule, And Upcoming "Best Of" Lists & Personal Ballots
It’s the most exciting time of year for us cinephiles as we enter the final quarter; when the studios unleash what they believe to be their very best films of the season. With a flood of screening invites, screener links filling my inbox, and discs arriving in the mail, I’m ready to dive into the awards contenders that will shape the last few months of 2025. On a personal note, it’s also about to be close to Halloween, “spooky season”, my favorite time of the year.
And with a baby girl on the way, who will no doubt keep me busy for a good portion of next year, I thought now was the perfect time to roll out some changes to the newsletter’s site and content plans in preparation for this big life shift.
You may have already noticed a few updates to the site’s presentation, like a much-expanded “About” page. Here’s a rundown of what else has changed (or soon will):
Film Reviews: Starting with my review of Eleanor The Great (publishing tomorrow morning as of this writing), reviews will include a small pros-and-cons section placed between the main body and my initial grade for the movie. Coverage will remain focused on major releases and awards contenders. Once we return to non-awards season early next year, the frequency of reviews will naturally slow - just in time for my spring hiatus when my daughter is due. I’ll always be regularly updating my logs of any films I watch, including those I don’t sit down and do a proper written review for, over at my Letterboxd.
Reel Lounge Podcast: If you missed it, I highly recommend catching at least the final ten minutes of the latest stream I recorded with my brother. I explain the changes in detail, but in short - we’ve reset the podcast and its YouTube channel for a fresh start. Going forward, episodes will drop every two or three weeks instead of weekly, and we’ll focus only on film and gaming topics we truly want to dig into; not attempting to keep up with all the weekly news for both fronts. For the full picture, definitely give that episode a listen.
“Best Of” Lists: I’ll be re-publishing and refining my “Best Of” lists, which rank my favorite films from every year of cinema. I’ll begin with the 2020s and work backward all the way to the pre-1920s, then keep the lists regularly updated from there. I’ll also be planning to cover these lists on the podcast itself and hopefully have a video version of these lists available for the YouTube channel.
Personal Ballots: I’ll also re-publish and refine the personal awards ballots I’ve created since beginning my film criticism journey. These ballots, which guided my own votes, will be available for readers to explore soon. Going forward, I’ll update them once a year at year’s end (I won’t be retroactively doing ballots for anything pre-2020).
Oscars Projections: I will continue to update these about once a month. I’ll only stick to projecting the races for the above-the-line categories until the shortlists drop. My version that includes extra analysis will continue to be published over at Ordinary Times.
Media Appearances: I will continue to make guest appearances on podcasts and other media when invited on.
So that’s a preview of the slight changes and tinkering I’ve been doing behind the scenes. It’s been a long process of figuring things out, but I’m excited to finally have it in place. Most of all, I’m looking forward to sharing the coverage ahead; whether it’s reviews, favorite-film lists, or Oscars projections.