Blue Moon - 2 Nominations

 

• Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Ethan Hawke

• Best Original Screenplay: Robert Kaplow (writer)

It is opening night of Oklahoma!, and Richard Rogers’ big night without his longtime collaborator, Lorenz Hart. Hart has arrived early to the bar where the show’s after party at Sardis is set to take place, and at first, he resists the temptation to drink, but not to rant. Rogers has taken a hiatus from working with Hart both to give Hart time to deal with his alcoholism, and also because when he was drinking, he was an unreliable partner. Hart has a lot of opinions about Oklahoma, but primarily that it was too silly and happy and upbeat (minus the rape, of course), and wants Rogers to get back to working with him on more serious pursuits.

The film is very close to a monologue, and Ethan Hawke is in every single scene. I imagine pages and pages of lines without a single interruption. It’s Olympic level acting, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him better. His longtime partnership with Director Richard Linklater takes a whole new path with this movie where little happens but you simply can’t look away. I’m pretty sure that I had my mouth agape for a good portion of the film, just dazzled by this performance that was nothing like I’ve seen before.

It doesn’t matter if you know who Rogers and Hart are, if you’ve ever seen Oklahoma!, or if you know anything about New York theater. I hope you’ll see the film just to see Hawke’s work in this role, a truly unexpected but brilliant execution. It’s not a showy movie, but it’s fantastic.

The Secret Agent - 4 Nominations

 

Best Casting: Gabriel Domingues

Best International Feature Film: Brazil

Best Motion Picture of the Year: Emilie Lesclaux

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Wagner Moura

For a second year in a row, Brazil has a strong showing for the Oscars, with almost identical nominees (Best Pic, International Feature, and a lead acting role) with only the addition of the new category for the Casting award. Brazil of the 70s is certainly rich fodder for movie making. This time, Marcelo is returning to his hometown as anonymously as possible in kind of a witness protection program to see his young son who has been staying with his wife’s parents while he has been on the run. Simultaneously trying to keep his cover as he looks through official records to see what information he can get about his mother, while also hiding from those who want to do him harm thanks to a patent he holds to a game changing invention. His is a dangerous life but this doesn’t keep him from dreaming of a future with his son.

The Secret Agent unfolds just slowly enough to be intriguing and just fast enough to keep you engaged. From the opening scene, it’s clear that this is a dangerous place. Dangerous to drive, dangerous to live, dangerous to connect, dangerous to share anything real about oneself, and definitely very dangerous to have invented something that powerful people want. I think this is the likely International Feature winner (much like I’m Still Here last year) but unlikely to win the others.

I’m still getting my arms around the casting category, but this is surely a tribute to the lead actor and everyone in the supporting cast who surrounds him. I thought this film was outstanding and so worth watching. It’s another chapter in the brutality of an authoritarian regime, surely a worthwhile topic for the days we are living through now, eh?

Marty Supreme - 9 nominations

 

Best Casting: Jennifer Venditti

Best Achievement in Cinematography: Darius Khondji

Best Motion Picture of the Year: Eli Bush, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Anthony Katagas, Timothée Chalamet

Best Achievement in Directing: Josh Safdie

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Timothée Chalamet

Best Original Screenplay: Josh Safdie (writer), Ronald Bronstein (writer)

Best Achievement in Production Design: Jack Fisk (production designer), Adam Willis (set decorator)

Best Achievement in Costume Design: Miyako Bellizzi

Best Achievement in Film Editing: Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie

Marty Mauser is a shoe salesman with a dream - to become the world champion table tennis player. He is a hustler, he has a married girlfriend who is pregnant with his baby, and what’s more, each one of his disastrous decisions puts him in danger, or at least right at the edge of it. But he is singularly focused on achieving greatness, much like the actor who plays him and openly says that he aspires to be one of the all-time greats in his own field. The film is frenetic, much like Josh Safdie’s other works (especially Uncut Gems), and this is another year in a row when the Producer/Director is also the Writer/Editor and is nominated for all four categories (including Best Picture). Last year, Sean Baker took home all four prizes.

Does this put Marty Supreme on the path for the big win, Best Picture? In the mix, maybe. For the win? I don’t think so. Having said that, it’s hard to argue that the frenetic style of movie making - when done well - must be a top contender for Editing. And Timothee (who longtime readers of the blog will know I have nicknamed “Greasy” because even after an on-screen shower, he still somehow looks a bit greasy to me) was outstanding. For an actor who brings his A game powerfully in every role, this was his best performance of his career. The nominations in some of the technical categories (costume, production design) are expected for period pieces but are unlikely winners against films like Hamnet and this year’s darling, Sinners.

I highly recommend the film with the caveat that it can be dizzying. If you’re not up for that kind of experience, then give it a skip.

One Battle After Another - 13 nominations

 

Best Casting: Cassandra Kulukundis
Best Achievement in Cinematography: Michael Bauman
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score): Jonny Greenwood
Best Sound: José Antonio García, Christopher Scarabosio, Tony Villaflor
Best Motion Picture of the Year: Adam Somner, Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson
Best Achievement in Directing: Paul Thomas Anderson
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Leonardo DiCaprio
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Benicio Del Toro
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Sean Penn
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Teyana Taylor
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson
Best Achievement in Production Design: Florencia Martin (production designer), Anthony Carlino (set decorator)
Best Achievement in Film Editing: Andy Jurgensen

How about a year when 13 nominations isn’t even the most nominations a picture has received? Well, that’s exactly what you get in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film. PTA is a little all over the place for me - some of his movies are bafflingly good (like this one and Boogie Nights) and others are The Master.

Let me tell you a little bit about this very exciting plot. “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun and Perfidia Beverly Hills are young activists and revolutionaries reminiscent of the Weather Underground. They pull off an explosive action to release detained immigrants that could well be defined as domestic terrorism, despite its noble intent. Before they do, Perfidia meets and humiliates commanding officer, Steven Lockjaw who continues to hunt the members of their group for the next 16 years. He will not rest until they are all dead.

Perfidia has a baby, Charlene, but she refuses to change her lifestyle and leaves. Meanwhile, Pat and Charlene flee and become Bob and Willa, hiding from the danger Pat knows will always hunt him. Years pass, and Bob has become a tired and rundown paranoid couch dweller, while his teenage daughter has thrived but has been raised with an off the grid paranoia. When danger comes to his doorstep, he runs, and Willa is taken from her high school to an out of town order of revolutionary nuns. Once he is able, Bob mounts a quest to find his daughter and reunite with her.

And, as is true with all PTA films, I left out quite a bit of the plot, because all of this is to say, you should watch this movie. Simplistic on its face, it asks all the important questions about governmental overreach, domestic terrorism, resistance in the face of injustice, the role of white supremacy, immigration, and more. What does lawlessness look like from those with unchecked power, and what is the appropriate and rational response to it? At its core, the film examines how commitment—to art, to politics, to other people—evolves over time, and whether persistence itself can still count as a form of victory.

This is no popcorn movie, but it is worth every minute of your time. If you don’t finish and do just a little bit of questioning of your own lens and politics, then either the film hasn’t done its job, or you haven’t.

Sinners - 16 nominations

 

Best Casting: Francine Maisler

Best Achievement in Cinematography: Autumn Durald Arkapaw

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling: Ken Diaz, Michael Fontaine, Shunika Terry

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score): Ludwig Göransson

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song): Ludwig Göransson (music and lyric), Raphael Saadiq (music and lyric) - For “I Lied to You”

Best Sound: Chris Welcker, Benjamin A. Burtt, Felipe Pacheco, Brandon Proctor, Steve Boeddeker

Best Achievement in Visual Effects: Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl, Guido Wolter, Donnie Dean

Best Motion Picture of the Year: Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Ryan Coogler

Best Achievement in Directing: Ryan Coogler

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Michael B. Jordan

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Delroy Lindo

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Wunmi Mosaku

Best Original Screenplay: Ryan Coogler (writer)

Best Achievement in Production Design: Hannah Beachler (production designer), Monique Champagne (set decorator)

Best Achievement in Costume Design: Ruth E. Carter

Best Achievement in Film Editing: Michael P. Shawver

---

Identical twin brothers Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore (both played by nominated lead actor Michael B. Jordan) return home after years in Chicago looking to start fresh by opening a juke joint for the Black community. They recruit family and friends, including a young blues guitarist, but their hopes are soon eclipsed by a deadly supernatural threat in the form of vampires descending on the town. As the night unfolds, survival becomes as much about confronting internal demons as the literal vampire menace. The brothers may not share a fate in the long run, but they certainly share a destiny.

There’s something bafflingly special about this movie, and that’s not just about 16 Oscar nominations, but also that Sinners had nominations in every single category for which it was eligible except one (lead actress), and it didn’t really have a lead actress. Ruth Carter has worked with Coogler before and has won 2 Oscars for Costumes for the Black Panther films, thanks to that association. Ludwig Goransson is also Coogler’s longtime music collaborator who also won an Oscar for the original Black Panther film. Coogler has a talent for assembling a band of exceptionally talented artists in front of and behind the screen, and this film is surely his masterpiece.

Don't forget to subscribe to the blog over on substack!

The Apprentice - 2 nominations

 

• 
  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

  • Sebastian Stan
• 
  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

  • Jeremy Strong

Guys, I really really wanted to like this movie. I wanted to tell you that watching the young Donald Trump being mentored by the notorious Roy Cohen was a pleasure, and how deeply I've misjudged the person. I wanted to tell you that I found, if not compassion, at least an understanding of the immoral bully we see today. I especially wanted to tell you about the charms that the person of the moment grew out of, but at least a reminder that there was a time when Trump, molded in the image of a somehow worse person, Roy Cohen, was at least a human in search of success who was taught to behave in the worst ways for nothing but selfish reasons. (and let's repeat the refrain here - movies are not documentaries - you don't watch a narrative film to find out the truth, so even that beginning makes me remind myself that I shouldn't have been connecting the film's narrative with the real life DJT, no matter how similar the real life events may have been.)

But the film was difficult to watch. There are Easter eggs sprinkled throughout the movie intended to wink at us and say, "remember when he said THIS thing on the campaign trail? This is where he got that!" The true irony of Roy Cohen looking any person in the face and asking how they could possibly have no loyalty and no compassion was laughable, and therefore, kind of brilliant.

What WAS superb though were these two performances. Sebastian Stan infuses mannerisms without becoming an impression. Jeremy Strong, who is likely one of the great actors of our age, is subtle and sinister and unapologetic without becoming a cartoon.

My friends who adore Trump will perhaps comment and say that I suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome (as though being a person who can't abide a leader who appears to have no human decency nor shies away from saying the most vile things, not to mention the constant lying - sometimes about the most obvious things is a bad thing), but I would simply respond with the number of times that I have lauded decisions and policies with which I agree (and yes, there are some). And in response, perhaps I would ask that person how many times they have denounced the most obvious of disgusting comments without explaining them away. So no, I didn't have trouble with the movie because I don't agree with many of Trump's policies and most of his behaviors, I had trouble with the movie because watching anyone debase others with glee is just hard for me to watch.  Make up your own mind, but it wasn't for me. 

And please, if you are going to threaten to kill my dog or me or my family because you don't like my review of a movie, please spend that time taking a hard look in the mirror. You are welcome to write your own review.

Sing Sing - 3 nominations

 

• 
  2025 Nominee Oscar

  • Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)

  • Abraham Alexander 
  • Adrian Quesada

  "Like a Bird"
• 
  2025 Nominee Oscar

  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

  • Colman Domingo
• 
  2025 Nominee Oscar

  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Clint Bentley 
  • Greg Kwedar 
  • Clarence Maclin 
  • John Divine G Whitfield

Listen up folks! THIS. This is the movie that you want to make time to see. This is the one that opens your heart just a crack to think about the criminals behind the walls of a prison. How easy it is to simply dismiss them, to ignore their treatment, to reduce their lives to just the worst moments of them, It's so much easier to assume that nobody gets convicted who is innocent, and that life behind bars should never have any privileges because those people deserve nothing. And then there are the heroes who work to bring life changing programs to prisons - and the theater program in Sing Sing prison is one of them (and in fact, without jumping the gun, no person who has participated in the theater program has ever returned to the system once getting out of jail).

Sing Sing follows wrongly convicted Divine G who is recruited to the theater program and has a natural aptitude for it. He bonds with his fellow thespians and writers, and he ends up becoming one of the leaders of the program while concurrently fighting for his own release. The professional running the program is played by none other than Oscar nominated Paul Raci, from the Sound of Metal. The most important performance comes from the real Divine G who was one of the Executive Producers and writers, and Coleman Domingo gives the best performance of his career, and probably the best performance of many people's careers. Many if not most of the actors playing inmates are themselves graduates of the real program at Sing Sing, and that tidbit is not clear until the very end of the film - these actors are that authentic.

I don't know why this movie didn't get so much more attention than it did. It's a small independent, and i suspect they simply didn't have the budget to launch a proper Oscars campaign. But that doesn't mean YOU have to miss it. The moment you get the chance, sit yourself down and turn this movie on. You won't regret it.

Conclave - 8 nominations

 

• • Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)

  • Volker Bertelmann
• 
  • Best Motion Picture of the Year

  • Tessa Ross 
  • Juliette Howell 
  • Michael Jackman
• 
  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

  • Ralph Fiennes
• 
  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

  • Isabella Rossellini
• 
  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Peter Straughan

•     Best Achievement in Film Editing

      Nick Emerson

• 
  • Best Achievement in Production Design

  • Suzie Davies (production designer) 
  • Cynthia Sleiter (set decorator)
• • Best Achievement in Costume Design

  • Lisy Christi
  • 
    

Palace intrigue meets 12 Angry Men in this fascinating story of the College of Cardinals who meet to elect the new Pope after the current Pope dies. If you're like me, you've watched a no action chimney for long periods just waiting for the signature white smoke that tells the world, we have selected a new head of the Catholic Church. Not unlike the political world, different cardinals come with different views - some more liberal, some more conservative, some clinging to the traditions, some looking to shake things up. With each successive vote where no candidate claims the majority, scandals and cover ups emerge, voting blocs are assembled, and brothers power swap to win the vote in the end. Interestingly, the film contains "a big reveal" that I didn't think was necessary, and I that I thought was more about making a point than anything else. It was like the ending after the ending. I found the film engaging enough without it, though I have heard others say they disagree.

I was utterly entertained by the movie, and not just because I'm into secret society, behind closed doors worlds (and don't get me started on cults). The allure of a process that millions pledge to abide by but have no insight into is fascinating. Ralph Fiennes gives one of his best performances which is subtle, quiet, and has tremendous depth. Surely Isabel Rossellini spends probably less than 15 minutes in the film but her role is pivotal in the telling of the story. Stanley Tucci brings his brilliance and every moment he is on screen is captivating. (And frankly, I would have voted for him.) Conclave's power is in the conversations and while I really enjoyed it, in a world with 5 Best Picture nominees rather than 10, I don't think this movie would make the final cut. Nonetheless, since it did, you won't regret watching it.