The backfiring of my cheeky 10 a.m. movie

You know I've been in Australia for too long when I start incorporating the word "cheeky" into my daily
language too often. But here we are.

When you have a certain hobby you're passionate about -- let's say, movies -- the goal can be to fit it in when it doesn't cause a conflict for the people who rely on you. A good time of that is late at night, but you're often tired late at night.

Another good time for it? A weekend morning, when the rest of your family traditionally lounges around until lunchtime. 

The only problem is, movies don't usually play early enough in the morning for it to truly not interfere with the rest of your day. 

But they can, sometimes. Like the showing of 100 Nights of Hero I attended Saturday at 10 a.m.

Combine the fact that it's only 91 minutes long with the fact that the Sun in Yarraville only plays five minutes of trailers before the movie, and there was a chance I'd get all the way back to my house before noon. (I didn't, because I decided to go next door to get some fried zucchini -- like french fries but with breaded zucchini instead of breaded potato -- at Grill'd.)

I left a little too late, but it wasn't because I was sleeping in. I was up before 8 as I almost always am. But my wife did text me within ten minutes of when I planned to leave, asking if I could bring her a tea. (Don't worry, this is a thing I do for her almost every weekend morning. But she usually wakes up earlier than 9:30.)

So I was definitely squeezing the lemons (catching every yellow light I could) while driving to Yarraville, mildly cursing drivers who didn't react to the changing of the lights quickly enough, and opting for the first available parking spot I could find. But I sat down just as the theater's final pre-show message was playing, this being the locally produced documentary short that appears before every movie at this theater, and for three minutes looks into some local phenomenon. 

The movie was really good. Four out of five stars, though I did consider 4.5. I'm trying to be a bit more judicious with the second-highest rating.

So why was this a "backfire," then?

Because the movie doesn't actually count toward 2026! 

I don't know when is late enough in the year to assume that a new release is from the current calendar year, even though we sometimes get things in Australia later than they do in other parts of the world. Apparently, July is not late enough. 

100 Nights of Hero actually came out in the U.S. on December 5th, as it turns out. And the U.S. release date is the standard I use when deciding whether the movie belongs among the films I'm ranking in the current year. Or really, whichever comes first, the Australian release date or the U.S. release date. If a movie is released in Australia one year, and I see it that year, but it doesn't get released in the U.S. until the next year, I'll still rank it. The reverse, unfortunately, is not true. 

So I still got to get in my cheeky movie, and it was still really good, and I still got to eat some yummy zucchini chips. I just don't get to rank it.

I guess three out of four ain't bad.