Tag: film

First, if you didn’t see yesterday’s look at the Best Picture category, you might want to do so. Or you might not. We’re cool either way.

Second, the previous post was extra long since I wrote about every nominee. I won’t do that today, instead just focusing on my selection. We do have 11 categories to cover though, so let’s get moving.

Oh, wait. If you’re lost, the 98th Academy Awards will be presented tonight (7 p.m. EDT on ABC and streamed live on Hulu and various streaming services; hosted by Conan O’Brien.).

Best actor

Nominees: Timothée Chalamet, “Marty Supreme”

Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another”

Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon”

Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”

Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent”

While I was disappointed in “Marty Supreme,” Chalamet’s preparation was incredible, spending years working on his table tennis game. DiCaprio produced an expansive character that ran counter to the feel of most of the movie, putting him always in the spotlight. Moura’s tightly packaged character was fun to watch. Jordan does a Hayley Millsesque job pulling off his double-character roles.

But I’m going with Ethan Hawke in “Blue Moon.” His portrayal of a self-tortured man begging to remain relevant in a field that’s leaving him behind is gut-wrenching and painfully real.

Best actress

Nominees: Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”

Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”

Kate Hudson, “Song Sung Blue”

Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value”

Emma Stone, “Bugonia”

This category is special. I started with Kate Hudson, who has the only nomination from the movie. Strong performance. Then came Emma Stone and … wow. I said then that anyone else would have to prove themselves worthy.

Considering my logic in picking Ethan Hawke for best actor, Rose Byrne is a strong candidate as the film throws everything at her character and she continues to build on it.

Then, as the final week passed, I watched Renate Reinsve and Jessie Buckley turn in powerful performances. I can’t make a bad pick.

In the end, I’m turning again to “Hamnet” and giving best actress to Jessie Buckley.

Best supporting actor

Nominees: Benicio Del Toro, “One Battle After Another”

Jacob Elordi, “Frankenstein”

Delroy Lindo, “Sinners”

Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”

Stellan Skarsgård, “Sentimental Value”

Quite differently here, I scroll through this list and don’t really have anyone jump out at me. I read down it saying, “No, no, no, no,” and then play back in my memory the quietly strong impressions made by Stellan Skarsgård.

So, a win for the Norwegian film, “Sentimental Value.”

Best supporting actress

Nominees: Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value”

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value”

Amy Madigan, “Weapons”

Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners”

Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another”

Similarly, one actress stands out in this category.

“Weapons” is maybe the strangest film I’ve seen from this Oscars list. Amy Madigan, whose only previous Oscars nomination came 40 years ago, was onscreen only about 14 minutes of the movie, but she definitely made good use of that time.

Madigan for the win.

Branching out

I have no problem choosing best actors or even best films, but getting down into specific fields, I feel, often goes beyond my knowledge and, to be honest, I don’t always take in those areas as well.

That even applies to directing, even though I’ve always included it when making these selections. For the first time, though, I’m adding six more categories simply because I’ve seen all the films nominated in each. Don’t expect much explanation for the following choices; many may be made by my gut alone.

Directing

Nominees: Chloé Zhao, “Hamnet”

Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme”

Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”

Joachim Trier, “Sentimental Value”

Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”

From this group, Zhao is the only one to have previously won a directing Oscar, that for “Nomadland.” Safdie, Trier and Coogler are all first-time nominees. Anderson has had 11 previous nominations, three for directing, without a win. I say all this because we so often hear about the Academy awarding someone who’s often been jilted.

I’m not a big fan of that logic, but I do give my best directing award to Paul Thomas Anderson for pulling together “One Battle After Another.”

Best original score

Nominees: “Bugonia,” Jerskin Fendrix

“Frankenstein,” Alexandre Desplat

“Hamnet,” Max Richter

“One Battle After Another,” Jonny Greenwood

“Sinners,” Ludwig Göransson

I wrote yesterday that one could blindfold themselves during “Sinners” and simply enjoy the music. A golden statuette for Ludwig Göransson.

Best adapted screenplay

Nominees: “Bugonia,” Will Tracy

“Frankenstein,” Guillermo Del Toro

“Hamnet,” Maggie O’Farrell and Chloé Zhao

“One Battle After Another,” Paul Thomas Anderson

“Train Dreams,” Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar

Going straight to my gut here: the Oscar goes to “Frankenstein” and Guillermo Del Toro.

Best casting

Nominees: “Hamnet,” Nina Gold

“Marty Supreme,” Jennifer Venditti

“One Battle After Another,” Cassandra Kulukundis

“The Secret Agent,” Gabriel Domingues

“Sinners,” Francine Maisler

Winner: “One Battle After Another” and Cassandra Kulukundis

Best production design

Nominees: “Frankenstein”

“Hamnet”

“Marty Supreme”

“One Battle After Another”

“Sinners”

I thought this was easy but then made it difficult by thinking about it. Flip a mental coin and go with “Frankenstein.”

Best film editing

Nominees: “F1,” Stephen Mirrione

“Marty Supreme,” Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie

“One Battle After Another,” Andy Jurgensen

“Sentimental Value,” Olivier Bugge Coutté

“Sinners,” Michael P. Shawver

Not going to outthink myself on this one. The win goes to “One Battle After Another” and Andy Jurgensen.

Best cinematography

Nominees: “Frankenstein”

“Marty Supreme”

“One Battle After Another”

“Sinners”

“Train Dreams”

This time, I’m going with my heart instead of my gut. Passion was digitally captured in “Train Dreams” and they get the Oscar for it.

The 98^th Academy Awards will be presented Sunday night (7 p.m. EDT on ABC and streamed live on Hulu and various streaming services; hosted by Conan O’Brien.).

I was again able this year to see all 10 Best Picture nominees. Just in case you’re bored right now, I thought you might care which was my favorite. Next, I’ll put together a much shorter version of the other top five categories and a bonus six additional categories. I’ll have it posted later tonight or Sunday well before the show starts.

But first … a public service announcement.

As always, I encourage anyone to read and to comment. Please tell us what movies you like and why. However…

There are always people who feel a need to share that they will not watch the awards and proceed to describe just why they think we’re addled for watching. “Those Hollywood types are just rich crybabies.” “I haven’t been in a theater since John Wayne died.” “They’re all pushing wokeness and caring too much about people’s feelings and whether or not the poor have food, housing and medical care.”

You get it. You’ve seen it before. But here and now, those comments will not be approved and nobody will see them. If you post such on my Facebook or Bluesky link, it will be deleted.

There. Now, let’s have a good time.

Whittling down

I’ll start, not necessarily in any particular order, with “F1.” Yeah, just “F1.” IMDb says it’s now known as “F1: The Movie.” That’s pretty much the way I received it. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a good movie, definitely worth watching, and I gave it a 7, but it’s not a great movie. Frankly, great movies are in short supply this year, which may explain why this film, featuring Brad Pitt doing a great Brad Pitt impersonation, made it into the final 10. A confession: I’ve never been a car racing fan, so I know there were things I missed. If you’re a gearhead … well, you’ve probably already seen it.

Now we’re down to nine movies. See how that works?

“One Battle After Another” hits hard, even before it starts, just by its cast. You’ve got Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Benicio Del Toro, with four Oscars between them. Each is nominated for an acting award in this movie, as is Teyana Taylor. And there are still nine more nominations to go, including sound, screenplay, production, editing and even music.

As the title suggests, it’s a non-stop steamroller, which is part of the problem. (Hey, that worked for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”) Penn, for example, really should have had a stroke by the time he finished playing a character wound so tightly that he could only be named Col. Steven J. Lockjaw. Really. On the other hand, DiCaprio’s character, Bob, was frenetic but also fun to watch.

It may be due only to taste, but I don’t see this one coming out on top, even though I rated it an 8.

Eight hopefuls remain in our countdown.

“Train Dreams” is my kind of movie, peeling away the layers of the world, delving into how we’re all connected, and giving respect to pain, heartache, joy and wonder. In fact, it’s the only movie nominated that I saw before the list was released.

It was my favorite to watch from this list, but I don’t expect it to pull off an upset win. I gave it a 9.

I’m going to drop two for the space of one, partly for the same reason: It’s difficult to carry a non-English film all the way to an Oscar win.

“Sentimental Value” is a wonderful look into some complicated family dynamics, told rather charmingly from the vantage point of a house through the eyes of a child.

Its problem, of course, is that the dialogue is mostly in Norwegian with some English mostly in scenes with U.S. actress Elle Fanning. I gave it an 8.

“The Secret Agent” is almost all in Portuguese. The title seems a bit misleading, but I’m willing to accept that I missed some nuance while trying to follow the captions. I’m hesitant to try to describe it, but it was entertaining. I gave it a 7.

Moving across the halfway point, I feel the need to explain my rating system … or the lack thereof. I use the 10-star rating system on Internet Movie Database – imdb.com – and have reached back in my memory over the past 20-odd years to rate, to date, 2,589 movies. The ratings can be influenced by all kinds of things, such as ground-breaking techniques, for shattering a glass ceiling, or simply taking a chance by doing something different. I’ll give a bump to a film simply for making me feel good. I’ll punish one for something like underestimating the viewers’ intelligence. For what it’s worth, my average rating the last time I crunched the numbers is 6.380 stars. The largest group is 637 movies rated at 7 stars. There are 56 movies (2.16 percent) with 10 stars but only three (0.12 percent) with the minimum one star.

All of that is to ease the blow when I tell you I rated “Marty Supreme” with only 6 stars. You see, I went in with my expectations set too high. I love playing table tennis, first being exposed to it at my father’s fire station. My first semester in college, I visited the student center when I could to play on one of the two tables and, like Marty in the movie, was befuddled by some Asian students who held their paddles in a strange manner and made the ball bounce in fascinating ways. But the movie branched off in other things that could not hold my attention. It might still win but it wouldn’t get my vote.

Final four

Let’s regroup here with the first six movies sent packing. Four remain, and I gave each of them 8 stars: “Bugonia” … “Frankenstein” … “Hamnet” … “Sinners.”

Any one of them could win without a whisper of protest from me. The same is almost true of at least half of those listed above, which is why I said earlier that great movies are in short supply this year. But good movies are still worthwhile.

 “Frankenstein” is not a story that’s ever captured me. Well, with the exception of “Young Frankenstein.” This latest version of Mary Shelley’s 200-year-old novel is markedly different from the others I’ve seen, and I actually enjoyed it.

I started watching “Bugonia” with no idea what to expect. Come to find out, I would be in that state until the final seconds of the movie. Emma Stone does what we’ve come to expect from her and Jesse Plemons makes a worthy nemesis.

It all builds up to those final few seconds, and the ending has split viewers between loving it or hating it. I felt it was the only right thing to do.

Of these two, “Bugonia” has my nod, but for me the decision comes down between “Sinners” and “Hamnet.” Seriously, I’m typing this right now with no decision made.

Like “Frankenstein,” “Sinners” puts a different spin on an old horror tale. I’ve never liked vampire stories. When I was in junior high, I watched “Dark Shadows” and its spooky Barnabas Collins simply because it was talked about at school. But “Sinners” is not like your grandfather’s vampire flick. I mean, it would be worth watching with a blindfold just to listen to the music, but then you’d miss all the dancing.

“Hamnet” is speculation about the real-life death of William Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, and how the suffering of the parents and siblings might have guided Shakespeare in writing “Hamlet,” probably his greatest work. It’s a slow story, spread over many years from his meeting his wife until the staging of “Hamlet.” In fact, the bulk of the story never mentions his vocation, not even saying his name. This, I believe, helps to keep the focus on the real story, the family.

“Sinners,” of course, set a record with 16 Oscars nominations. “Hamnet” netted eight nominations.

Still thinking.

I’m going with “Hamnet” as the best picture of 2025.

 Watch for my views on best director and the four acting categories.