Calebs Video Store Issue #7

Hello and welcome back to another issue of Calebs Video Store. This is a series where I talk about anything thats film related whether it be current news, something I got to experience, or something I just want to passionately talk about. Award season has finally ended and I look forward to getting to focus now on the new releases of the year that will follow. Also I’ll be graduating in May so I’ve been preparing for that and planning to write something that will be released toward graduation time so look forward to that! We got a great issue today as I talk about watching the longest film I’ve ever watched in a theater, A quick recap of my favorite and least favorite moments from the Oscars, and talking about why we need more animated films in the Criterion Collection. With all that said, lets jump into some topics.

So at the beginning of this month, I ended up watching not only the longest film that I’ve ever seen, but I watched it in a theater. The film that I ended up seeing was Satantango. Satantango is a 1994 Hungarian film from Bela Tarr about a group of villagers who follow a unreilable leader that takes their money and promises a bright future for them. The film shows the bleakness of the situation and how these villagers cope with the situation. I’ve had this film on my radar for a while now but I didn’t know when the opportunity would come for when I watch it. Then I saw that my local independent theater was doing a showing of it at the start of the month. The ticket was $31 as a lunch would be provided toward the middle of the film. I decided you don’t usually get an opportunity like this so I decided to buy a ticket for it and prepare myself for what would be one of the most unique experiences i’ve had with a movie.

So the film started at 10 am the day of the showing. I got to the theater at around 9:45 and got to my seat and waited for it to start. The film starts and played the first two hours. This might have been the hardest stretch to watch as I honestly didn’t get proper sleep the night before, so there was a couple times I was ready to fall asleep. I didn’t however and was able to make it those first two hours. After, a 20 minute intermission happened in which I decided to get myself a popcorn and soda just so I could have some energy in me for the rest of the time. After that the next 2 hours of the film played. This felt a lot better to get through although there was a sequence in the film that I’ll explain later that felt like it lasted an eternity lol. After that, the next intermission happened and it was an hour lunch. They provided sandwiches which were really good and it was honestly nice to have that hour after already watching 4 hours of a film. There’s a bookstore right next to the theater that I went into during the hour where they also served coffee which I got one. The coffee was surprisingly really good and definitely needed for the next stretch of the film. After the hour, the last 3 hours of the film played and I managed to sit through all of it. Finally it was over and I felt a huge relief. I didn’t know if I was going to make it during those first 2 hours, but I stayed all 7 hours and I was happy that I was able to watch all of it.

As for my thoughts on the film, I feel I did end up walking out of there feeling mixed about the film itself. On one hand, I found it to be a very unique experience to watch a film like this and the story itself was quite interesting in places. The cinematography despite going for a static approach does look gorgeous and I think this film has a lot to say with how it decides to communicate it. However while there’s films out there that feel like a breeze to get through despite the runtime, you feel every second of this film and I think the long runtime does end up weighing it down. Now some say the whole point is to be kinda excruciating to watch, but I don’t know if I feel the same way. There’s moments in this film that feel like an eternity to get through. There’s a sequence towards the middle of the film where it’s a shot of the villagers dancing in a bar and this one single shot goes on not even joking for like 15 minutes. I think while I understand why those choices are made, it doesn’t make me a fan of it. Also there’s a sequence with a cat that’s kinda hard to watch where you can tell the cat is in discomfort with what they are doing. While Tarr himself has claimed that the cat was never in no real danger, I still feel really iffy about the scenes involved with it. I appreciate the artistic choices that the film decides to take, but I’m ok with saying that not everything works for me, but I can appreciate the artistic choices that were made through it. I give it props for being something that I’ve never seen before and I think that’s worth something.

Overall though, I found the experience watching this in a theater to be one of the most unique theater and film watching experiences that I’ve had. Yes at times the film was frustrating and really tested my patience, but it was something that I’ve never done before and I’m glad I was able to do it. Now I can’t wait to watch the film Logistics in a theater (search that runtime up it’s insane lol).

So we finally concluded the award season with the Oscars and I think they went as well as it could go. There was a lot of intrigue going into this award show especially with the actor award categories and I honestly felt satisfied with most of the awards given out during the night. There wasn’t one that made me upset. Out of my predictions I got 18 right and 6 wrong and I think that’s the best I’ve ever done. Also Conan is a pretty good host. I think his stuff last year was a bit better, but I do love seeing a host that you can tell obviously loves film and gives it the appreciation it deserves. When it comes to the Oscar’s there’s least favorite moments but also some great moments that accompany it so iw wanted to talk about my least favorite moments as well as my favorite moments.

Least Favorite:

Both KPop Demon Hunter Speeches Being Cutoff: I always hate seeing speeches get cutoff as you’re taking away the artists moment to get the appreciation they deserve on stage and this would happen when KPop Demon Hunters got it’s wins. When best animated was up, they were luckily able to finish their speech, but when original song was up, they were not so lucky. I just find it annoying that an award show decides to cutoff speeches for time but then has no problem spending 10 minutes on skits that could easily be cut down. The academy really needs to fix this and let the artists that create these films have their moment.

Bridesmaid Reunion Segment: So we get the whole speeches having to get cutoff, but then they spend time on moments like this where they’re just talking on stage for 5 minutes. I don’t mind the reunion, but I think this went on far longer than it should’ve and again that time could’ve been used on the speeches that deserve it.

RDJ and Chris Evans Presenting Best Original and Adapted Screenplay: Again this is another bit where it just goes on too long and it becomes unfunny. I think they thought bringing RDJ and Chris Evans would bring a funny banter between them, but it just ended up being unfunny for the most part. The saving grace of this bit was the Channing Tatum moment but overall it was not a good bit.

Favorite Moments:

Sinners Taking Home 4 Oscars: Sinners took home 4 Oscars during the night and each of them were rightfully deserved. Michael B. Jordan took home best actor and this was such an awesome win. You could tell everyone was really happy to see Michael get his flowers. Then Ryan Coogler took home his first as well with best adapted screenplay which was another win I think everyone was happy with. Ludwig Goransson took home an Oscar for score making it his third one which hell yeah the score rocks. Finally Autumn Durald Arkapaw took home the Oscar for best cinematography making her the first woman and person of color to do so and this was so awesome to see. The way Sinners was shot you can tell so much effort went into the the creative choices with it and it got people excited to watch it in 70 mm IMAX so I was really happy with this win. I would have loved to see it take home more wins, but the wins it did take deserve to be celebrated and they are all very much deserved.

PTA Finally Got His Oscar: PTA has been in this industry for more than 30 years, but never got the appreciation for his work from the Academy until now. One Battle After Another took home 6 oscars and PTA was part of 3 of them with best adapted screenplay, best director, and best picture. It was really great to finally see him get that oscar love for a film that definitely deserves it.

Best Casting: The first casting award was given at this years Oscars and it was a cool moment to see casting finally have its moment. Casting obviously plays a huge part in the filmmaking process and I think it’s nice to see it have its moment. Shoutout to Cassandra Kulukundis for taking it home!

The Best Actors Photo Not Having Sean Penn in it: Honestly while I’m happy with all the actor wins. I’m so glad Sean Penn was not included in the pictures with the best actor winners. Sean Penn is fantastic in One Battle, but he’s not the greatest guy so his presence in that photo would kinda weigh it down. Shoutout Michael B. Jordan, Jessie Buckley and Amy Madigan though lol.

Kumail Nanjiani’s Handling of the Live Action Short Tie: One last shoutout I have to give is Kumail Nanjilianis handling of when best live action short was given to The Singer and Two People Exchanging Salvia making it the seventh tie in Oscar history. I think Kumail got flashbacks of the La La Land and Moonlight incident because you could see the panic in him when he read the names. Luckely he handled things graciously and let them go up one at a time so shoutout for him handling that moment lol.

That’s the moments I found to be my favorite and least favorite of this years Oscars. Overall I think it was a fine award show this year. I’ve been thinking about how this show is going to be changing in the next couple years as they will be moving the show on YouTube and into a new theater with the Peacock theater, but I guess we’ll have to see what the change will show. Also the 100 anniversary show will be next year which will exciting. Until then I guess we wait. Now I will campaign for Project Hail Mary to win every Oscar.

So recently KPop Demon Hunters was announced to join the Criterion Collection sometime this year and it got a bit of a mixed reception since it’s such a new and popular film that you really wouldn’t put into these collection of films. Personally I’m fine with this addition to the collection. I think once in a while, you need that really popular film in order to curate some of the more obscure ones and I think this is a perfect film to do that with. This is an extremely popular film and I believe it will do amazing in sales. With that said, It did get me thinking about the animation representation in the collection. As of March 2026, there’s only 11 films/collections listed under the banner of the Criterion website and that number feels way too low in my opinion. Animation is an important medium in telling stories that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to in live action and it definitely deserves that representation in the collection. I decided to pick out a couple animated films that I think would be a great addition to the collection and I’ll give a sentence or two of my reasoning for it.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926): This is known to be the oldest surviving animated film and I think that reason alone makes sense to add it to here.

Fritz the Cat (1972): Ralph Bakshi is a huge figure in animation and he definitely deserves one of his films to be there, I think Fritz should be that pick as it played a huge part in adult animation and I think it’s worthy of having that spot.

The Secret of NIMH (1982): Don Bluth is another animation icon that deserves to be in there as well. So many iconic films to choose from him, but I think The Secret of NIMH would be the right film to pick for this.

The Iron Giant (1999): This is my personal favorite animated film of all time and I honestly would just love a 4k version of to in the collection. In the words of Ryan Coogler “If you haven’t seen this movie, holy f*cking sh*t this movie”.

Mary and Max (2009): A beautifully made stop motion film from Adam Elliot. I would personally have this and Memoir of a Snail in there, but if I were to choose one, Mary and Max seems to make the most sense to add to it.

It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012): Fun fact in that this was one of the first films I recommended in this series and it rightfully deserves to be put in the collection as well as Don Hertzfeldt’s other shorts he’s done.

Flee (2021): A documentary style animated film that was one of my favorites of 2021. With NEON having a good relationship with Criterion, this seems like a possibility of being added in the future which I would love.

Those are the films that I would add to the collection. I know Criterion doesn’t have the sole responsiblity to bring these films to their platform as there’s many other labels that can do so. I just think it would be cool to see more animation from them and I hope with KPop being added, maybe this is sign of the future for getting more animation representation. Let me know other animated films that you think would make a great addition to the collection as well. Also they should say f*ck it and add The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie to it as well because that is real cinema.

As always this is a segment towards the end where I go over some of the things that I watch during the month of March that I loved. With that said, here’s media from the month that I really loved.

Seven Samurai (1954): Funny enough I watched A Bugs Life a couple days before this only to find out that both films basically have the same plot lol. But in all seriousness, this a masterpiece of a film. It’s kinda amazing that a film like this was able to be pulled off in the first place. All the samurai are great to follow especially Kikuchiyo. This is Akira Kurosawa at his best and it makes me want to dive into more of his filmography.

Sorcerer (1977): Honestly another film that is crazy to think of how they were able to pull it off. I love the first hour of this movie letting you get to know the characters and then that last hour is just a pure panic attack in film form. Roy Schneider always proving as well how good of an actor he is in this. This is another film to add to the list that shows the 70’s were built different during this time in filmmaking.

Gorillaz Presents: The Mountain, The Moon Cave and The Sad God (2026): So Gorillaz released new album along with this music video to accompany it. Not only is the album fantastic (I highly recommend listening to it), but the music video is stunning to watch. They use the cel animation process for this which was the old technique used in animation back in the day and you can feel so much love put into this. It’s a great music video and album that I’m glad exists.

Project Hail Mary (2026): I already have a review out for this which you can read here. But this film rocks (no pun intended) and you should see on the biggest screen you can.

That concludes another issue of Calebs Video Store. I hope you enjoyed reading it! If enjoyed reading it, make sure to leave a like, comment, or share it around. We’ll be back next month for another exciting issue so look forward to it. Thank you for stopping by the store and I’ll see you next time for another issue!