The way I feel right now, totally exhausted, I'm not sure how anything could be "premature" about the end of ranking 2025 movies, which will come later this week after a record total ranked this year. I'll save any further discussions of that record for later in the week.
It's premature only because it's not coming as much later in the week this week as it usually does.
The Oscar nominations are revealed at 12:30 a.m. Friday morning, my time, which is early Thursday morning in Los Angeles. I usually work it out so I have a movie finishing no later than 10:30 on Thursday night, giving me two hours to finalize things -- and to hope that the last movie I chose to watch doesn't totally throw a wrench in the parts of my rankings post I will have necessarily prewritten.
This year, that last viewing is early enough that any and all wrenches can be easily dealt with.
At the moment my plan is to watch that final movie tomorrow night, Tuesday night rather than Thursday night, which means only two more total to watch, including whatever I watch tonight.
No, I haven't suddenly turned into the sort of person who finishes something well in advance of the deadline. I never finished a paper in college more than 12 hours before it was due, and it makes sense that I always work up to the deadline in this case, considering that the deadline itself is the thing that tells me it's time to stop watching movies.
No, it's that this year, I have conflicts on not one, but both of the final two nights before my ranking deadline.
And they both came in the form of Christmas presents.
When I got tickets to the Australian Open, which will be my first time going since 2021, I noted the date of Wednesday the 21st and thought "Hmm, that's right before my ranking deadline." When it was later revealed that I got tickets to see David Byrne at the Sidney Myer Bowl, the very next night, I thought "Hmm, that's right on my ranking deadline."
Of course I did not make these thoughts known to the givers of the gifts. I just thanked them for their generosity, with plenty of real gratitude. Indeed, I am excited to do both things.
But there was a part of me that acknowledged that this year's home stretch will feel a bit different, as I won't be running right up to the wire as I usually do, and am already now down to my last two movies of the year. Better choose carefully.
I'm including the Blue Moon poster with this post because I expect this to be my last viewing. I've waited as long as I could for the rental price to come down on this one (it isn't out in Australian theaters yet) and it did, at some point, come down from $19.99 USD to $14.99. That's still a lot more than I've paid for any other rental this year, but at least I did save a couple bucks by waiting. If I wait until tomorrow night instead of watching it tonight, there's a small chance it will be down to $9.99 by then.
I might have just let this one go by, but there's something I'm planning to do that requires me to have seen this movie, the details of which will be revealed later in the week.
I tell you, though, I won't mind having the extra time to smooth over my rankings, rather than feeling under the pump to get it just right with only two hours to spare.
Twenty twenty-five was certainly a "different sort of year," to put it mildly, so I suppose it makes sense that I'd be finishing it in a slightly different manner. If we were going only on last year's ranking deadline, I'd already be on my second day of recap posts by today, so no wonder I feel so exhausted.
