Reel Views, Review

Snow White

In two months, Disney will release Lilo & Stitch, a live-action remake of an animated counterpart that’s barely 20 years old at this point. Next up is Moana, whose original version will not even be 10 years old upon the release of the “reimagining” in July of 2026. It remains to be seen how much — or how little — these redos will stray from the animated iterations but if the 2019 remakes of 90s classics Aladdin and The Lion King are any indication, they’ll stick to the lucrative “if it ain’t broke” formula. I’ve yet to read a compelling artistic rationale behind “refreshing” properties that don’t need to be modernized, which makes Snow White a welcome exception. Made in 1937, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs was Disney’s first full-length feature and an adaptation of Brothers Grimm fairy tale that was already over 100 years old upon the film’s release. At last, we have a Disney remake that actually justifies its own existence.

The setup here remains faithful to the traditional tale: an unnamed queen gives birth to a daughter named Snow White (Rachel Zegler) before falling ill and passing away. The king remarries and when he disappears in battle, the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot) takes the throne. Threatened by the presence of a potential heir, the Queen confines Snow White to the scullery and after the vainglorious Queen’s Magic Mirror deems Snow White as “fairest in the land”, the Queen tasks a Huntsman (Ansu Kabia) with Snow White’s execution. She flees the attempt on her life and finds refuge in a forest cottage, occupied by seven dwarfs who work in the nearby mines. Desperate to return to the kingdom and expose the treacherous Queen, she teams up with her septet of new friends and a charming young rebel named Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) to end the Queen’s nefarious reign.

Unlike Beauty And The Beast and The Little Mermaid, two masterworks which have also received “updates” in the past 10 years, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs doesn’t have a bevy of Menken-penned songs. The familiar and friendly tunes “Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work” have been dusted off for Snow White but the majority of the music comes courtesy of The Greatest Showman songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. They craft a compelling “all skate” opening number in “Good Things Grow” and a juicy villain treatise “All Is Fair” but Pasek and Paul’s finest contributions here are the tête-à-tête duets between Snow White and Jonathan. The thorny and clever “Princess Problems” gives way to the sweeping and gorgeous “A Hand Meets A Hand”, co-written by the talented young singer-songwriter Lizzy McAlpine.

These new songs soar thanks to the harmonious blend between Rachel Zegler and Andrew Burnap but Snow White is primarily Zegler’s show and she does an outstanding job bringing the iconic Disney character to life. The seven dwarf characters are all computer-generated, so she doesn’t have flesh-and-blood screen companions for long stretches of the story, but she remains a magnetic screen presence all the same. Saddled with wardrobe and hair styling that’s perhaps too reverent to the original movie, Zegler nonetheless finds her own way into the character without trying to shake things up beyond recognition. On the reverse side, Gal Gadot benefits from more exquisite costume design but can’t find her way under the skin of this slippery sorceress; I still have yet to see her excel in a role outside of Wonder Woman.

Snow White suffers from some of the same issues that have plagued Disney’s recent live-action “reimaginings”: the lighting is flat due to the abundance of green screens, the blend of live and CG characters is often unconvincing and the vocal tracks are overly-processed. Frankly, I don’t see Disney changing any of these aspects for future endeavors. But in terms of straight-ahead Disney remakes —not counting spinoffs or sequels like Cruella or Mufasa — Snow White is one of their best since 2015’s Cinderella. If they insist on continuing to revisit their catalog as opposed to making originals, they’d be better served looking back to their output from the 1940s and 1950s rather than to films that have been released this century. Snow White may not be the fairest of them all but it certainly dwarfs most of the retreaded material coming out of the House Of Mouse.

Score – 3/5

New movies coming to theaters this weekend:
Playing only in theaters is A Working Man, an action thriller starring Jason Statham and Michael Peña, about a construction worker whose experience as an ex-Royal Marines commando becomes useful when his boss’s teenage daughter is kidnapped by human traffickers.
Also coming to theaters is The Woman In The Yard, a psychological horror film starring Danielle Deadwyler and Okwui Okpokwasili, involving a mysterious woman who repeatedly appears in a family’s front yard, often delivering chilling warnings and unsettling messages.
Streaming on Amazon Prime is Holland, a mystery starring Nicole Kidman and Matthew Macfadyen, following a teacher in a small midwestern town who suspects her husband of living a double life but things may be worse than she initially imagined.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Reel Views, Review

Black Bag

A marriage story disguised as a spy caper, Steven Soderbergh’s latest Black Bag stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as the partners at the center of this outstanding potboiler. They play George and Kathryn, respectively, both intelligence officers working for the same British organization, who use the phrase “black bag” like a safe word when skirting around confidential intel with one another. George’s boss Meacham (Gustaf Skarsgård) asks him to investigate the leak of a dangerous software program named Severus and gives him a list of potential suspects within their agency. They include satellite imagery specialist Clarissa (Marisa Abela), her boyfriend Freddie (Tom Burke), psychiatrist Zoe (Naomie Harris), and her boyfriend James (Regé-Jean Page). The fifth name on the list, as it should happen, is Kathryn.

Like NEON did with Soderbergh’s Presence a couple months ago, Focus Features is pitching Black Bag as something a bit different than what it actually turns out to be. The ads make it seem like more of an action-packed affair along the lines of a James Bond movie; incidentally, two alumni from that franchise (Harris and Pierce Brosnan in a small role) also appear here. Instead, its story is driven not just on dialogue but the tone and inflection of how the characters, all trained in espionage, carefully deliver their words. Serving as screenwriter for a third time with Soderbergh after Kimi and Presence, David Koepp loads his script with tense exchanges and spy lingo, along with bits of droll humor, to make this tricky, duplicitous world seem plausible.

Even the most adroit script could fall flat with pedestrian storytelling but with Soderbergh working, as he’s often done, as director, cinematographer and editor, Black Bag is quietly riveting. A dinner scene with six guests could absolutely be a ho-hum volley of shot-reverse shot interactions but without getting too ostentatious, Soderbergh finds perfect angles around the corners of the table to pique our interest. George suggests they play a game where each person effectively speaks on behalf of the person sitting to their right and the pacing and composition of the shots turns this normal-seeming party game into something much higher stakes. As with many of his projects, Soderbergh uses natural room lighting here and the globe lights on the table provide enough coverage on each of the characters’ faces but also emit a gauzy halo that smears the frame the way these suspects fudge their facts.

While George is undoubtedly Black Bag‘s central character as the paranoid interrogator, the film gives ample time for each of the main players in the exceptional ensemble cast to shine. The standout for me is Marisa Abela, playing an analyst who is still trying to prove herself early in her career but who also demonstrates she’s more than capable in the art of deception. Following up his role as a war-ready tanker driver in last year’s Furiosa, Tom Burke is back to playing the more conniving and cunning roles that helped him break out in The Souvenir and Mank. Regé-Jean Page and Naomie Harris play things cool and sharp-tongued while still allowing for spots of vulnerability to shine through. Every one of them is impeccably dressed and, yes, everyone in this movie is, to quote Zoolander, “ridiculously good looking”.

Black Bag is certainly a riveting whodunit within this cloak-and-dagger world but I especially appreciated the level of domestic drama Soderbergh and Koepp infuse in this movie. Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender also flesh out their characters beautifully, both coming across as unreadable and enigmatic at the outset but slowly revealing the emotional concentric circles that would cause the two to fall for one another. It also helps that the two actors, some of the best we have, possess dynamite chemistry with one another. With almost 40 films under his belt at this point in his incredible career, Steven Soderbergh is simply one of the most exciting filmmakers around and Black Bag is yet another example of how there’s no genre he can’t enliven.

Score – 4/5

New movies coming to theaters this weekend:
Snow White, a live-action Disney remake starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, retells the story of a princess who joins forces with seven dwarves to liberate her kingdom from her cruel stepmother The Evil Queen.
The Alto Knights, a biopic starring Robert De Niro and Debra Messing, involves a pair of legendary mob bosses — Vito Genovese and Frank Costello — who were rivals for control of a major crime family in the mid-20th century.
Ash, a sci-fi horror thriller starring Eiza González and Aaron Paul, follows an astronaut as she wakes up to find that the entire crew of her space station has been killed and sets course for a nearby planet to find answers.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Reel Views, Review

Mickey 17

Warner Bros. bets big on Parasite auteur Bong Joon-ho with Mickey 17, the director’s first film since that historic Oscar night over 5 years ago. However, those going into his follow-up expecting the meticulously-crafted thrills of that Best Picture winner may do well to recalibrate tonal expectations closer to Joon-ho’s other English-language features Snowpiercer and Okja. Though the budget and scale are the largest that he’s worked with so far, the film tracks thematically with Joon-ho’s previous output, exploring subjects like class imbalance and mankind’s impact on the environment. This time around, he leans into other themes like the rise of authoritarianism and finding one’s humanity within a broken system, speaking more directly to our current political moment. When it’s all said and done, the movie is a maximalist mess that still ends up working, despite itself.

Our protagonist in this near-future madcap journey is Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), a hapless entrepreneur who signs up for a space expedition to get off the planet where ruthless loan sharks are hot on his trail. His business partner Timo (Steven Yeun) joins him on the mission to the ice planet Niflheim but since Mickey lack’s Timo’s pilot skills, he has to sign up as an “Expendable”. This means that he’s treated like a human guinea pig, tasked with the most dangerous jobs onboard and in the event of his death, the crew simply prints up a new version of Mickey with his memories intact. After the 17th iteration of Mickey takes a nasty fall while researching cave-dwelling critters, he’s left for dead but when he ends up making it back to base, he finds that he’s already been replaced by a new clone.

This creates a conundrum that serves as Mickey 17‘s primary conflict, as the instance of multiple versions of the same individual is strictly against protocol and if 17 and 18 are discovered, both will be killed and their backed-up memories will be erased. The cloning technology has been outlawed on Earth and before politician and mission leader Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife Ylfa (Toni Collette) take off for Niflheim, they agree to terminate any “multiples” that may crop up. Shortly after 17 and 18 meet, they both appear to Mickey’s on-board girlfriend Nasha (Naomi Ackie) but are soon after discovered by cadet Kai (Anamaria Vartolomei), who isn’t nearly as willing as Nasha is to keep the Mickeys’ secret.

So obviously Mickey 17 has plenty going on and it’s hard not to feel like Bong Joon-ho simply has too many plates spinning during this story. Subplots take over the entire narrative for stretches and then aren’t addressed again, while potentially intriguing avenues generated by the high concept premise are never explored. As he did with Okja, Joon-ho dedicates too much screen time to actors luxuriating in their characters’ quirks, without generating much insight or humor in the process. Collette is a talented actress but she could play this sort of generically manipulative type in her sleep and Ylfa’s odd fixation with sauces is, for some reason, given precedence late in the film. Ruffalo is playing things way too broad, taking a megalomaniacal role that may have been written with some finesse on the page, but loses any of its nuance in his scenery-chewing performance.

The engine that makes Mickey 17 run, despite its preoccupations and obstructions, is the work of Robert Pattinson in a demanding dual role. Even though 17 and 18 have the same genetic makeup, Pattinson finds ways to delineate the personalities between the two so we’re never confused who is who. While 17 has subservient and beleaguered demeanor, 18 is more stern and prone to act decisively — in some cases, violently. 17 remains the kind of hard-luck good guy it’s easy to root for in a tale like this but 18 represents the darker impulses that can reside in that same man. Also narrating the movie’s voiceover, Pattinson is all over Mickey 17 and with a lesser actor at the helm, the project wouldn’t work nearly as well. He makes it an intergalactic trip worth taking.

Score – 3/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Playing in theaters is Novocaine, an action comedy starring Jack Quaid and Amber Midthunder, involving a mild-mannered bank manager with a rare disorder that prevents him from feeling physical pain who fights to rescue the girl of his dreams after she’s taken hostage in a robbery.
Also coming to theaters is Opus, a music-based mystery starring Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich, following a young writer as she’s invited to the remote compound of a legendary pop star, who mysteriously disappeared thirty years ago.
Premiering on Netflix is The Electric State, a sci-fi adventure starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, about an orphaned teen who hits the road to find her long-lost brother, teaming up with a mysterious robot, a smuggler and his wisecracking sidekick.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Reel Views, Review

My Dead Friend Zoe

Adapted from his short film Merit x Zoe, the new dramedy My Dead Friend Zoe is the feature debut of writer/director and Bronze Star Medal recipient Kyle Hausmann-Stokes. His experiences serving overseas in the Army during the Iraq War directly impacted both projects, which center around the invisible wounds that so many veterans return home with. But even though it’s mainly about characters who have been in the military, Hausmann-Stokes weaves in universal themes like perseverance after trauma and the power of human connection into a story that’s deeply affecting whether you’ve served or not. Led by what should be a star-making turn from Sonequa Martin-Green, this is a bitingly funny and ultimately moving tribute to the brave men and women in the armed forces.

Martin-Green plays Merit, a sergeant in the middle of an 8-year tour in Afghanistan who primarily works on-base as a wheeled vehicle mechanic. By her side is the bratty and chatty Zoe (Natalie Morales), a specialist waffling between either reenlisting or going to college after her current stint. After returning home, Merit sits recalcitrant while Dr. Cole (Morgan Freeman) leads up group therapy and Zoe, who has since passed away, appears only to Merit as a gabby apparition. The manifested memory of Zoe follows Merit as she’s asked to take care of her grandfather Dale (Ed Harris), who’s struggling with early Alzheimer’s, in his Pacific Northwest cabin. While looking for potential retirement communities for her grandpa, Merit strikes up a tentative relationship with Alex (Utkarsh Ambudkar), a manager of one of the facilities.

The hook of My Dead Friend Zoe is right there in the title, a comedic conceit where Zoe can poke and prod at Merit all she wants because no one else can see her. It’s not like we’ve never seen this concept before but in the context of this movie, it helps visualize the inner monologue and mental health struggles that veterans can face after coming home. Though we don’t exactly know the circumstances of Zoe’s death until late in the film, it’s implied that Merit feels guilty and potentially responsible for her passing. Zoe typically has an impish and impudent disposition as a ghostly hanger-on but when Merit attempts to open up with others about her trauma, Zoe’s demeanor is much more dour and hostile, as if her existence is under attack. It’s an apt way to convey how some feel that opening up about their experiences will be too burdensome and choose to bury their feelings instead.

Lest one get the impression that My Dead Friend Zoe is too heavy a meal, Hausmann-Stokes and his co-writer A.J. Bermudez pepper in plenty of deadpan snipes in the interactions between Merit and Zoe. As we see during flashbacks of their time together in Iraq, these two young women may not have been immediate friends stateside but as battle buddies, their friendship is full of warmth and humor. The version of Zoe in Merit’s head seems consistent with who she was in life; when the pair visit a cemetery and Merit tries to scold Zoe for making fun of names on headstones, she shoots back with, “I can joke about the dead; these are my people!” There are also pithy exchanges as Merit begins to open up to others as well; “The Army doesn’t own PTSD,” she tells Alex on a date, wryly following up with, “We are the best at it though.”

As a first-time director, Hausmann-Stokes occasionally gets bogged down in the tropes and contrivances that can hinder both comedies and dramas but most importantly, he does a fine job navigating the movie’s tricky tonal balance. Similarly, Martin-Green does a superb job portraying a character who is obviously holding onto so much but can still find the comedy in her situation and day-to-day interactions. She’s a terrific screen presence with Morales and especially Harris, an acting heavyweight who seems to relish his time on-screen with Martin-Green. A sly slant on a serious subject, My Dead Friend Zoe is a great example of a first-time feature filmmaker translating their unique life experiences to the big screen.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is Mickey 17, a sci-fi comedy starring Robert Pattinson and Naomi Ackie, about a financially strapped young man who signs up to become a disposable clone worker and is sent on a dangerous journey to colonize an ice planet.
Also playing in theaters is The Rule Of Jenny Pen, a psychological horror movie starring John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush, following a former judge who is confined to a secluded rest home after a debilitating stroke and is subsequently tormented by one of the residents there.
Premiering on Netflix is Plankton: The Movie, an animated musical comedy starring Mr. Lawrence and Jill Talley, putting the spotlight on the SpongeBob SquarePants supervillain as his plans for world domination are put to a halt when his computer wife decides to take charge.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Reel Views, Review

The Monkey

Dying is easy but comedy is hard in The Monkey, Osgood Perkins’ morbid, but not particularly mordant, follow-up to last year’s outstanding serial killer thriller Longlegs. That film had such an icy solemness to it that even morsels of humor felt like a filling meal but the balance is simply off in the recipe Perkins serves up this time. Liberally adapted from the Stephen King short story of the same name, The Monkey hammers home a monotonous drum beat of gallows humor absent from the source material. The movie certainly doesn’t skimp on any of the gory details — rather, it revels in them — but it barely maintains an air of suspense in between the string of over-the-top death sequences. It’s a horror movie devoid of true scares and a comedy whose best gags were already given away in the superb red-band trailer.

The Monkey centers around the Shelburn family circa 1999, with pilot Petey (Adam Scott) deserting his wife Lois (Tatiana Maslany) and twin sons Hal & Bill (both played by Christian Convery) one day. When rifling through their dad’s left-behinds, the boys find a wind-up toy monkey that seems to cause a random person to die horribly every time its key is turned. After several ill-advised turns and subsequent drum rolls, Hal & Bill attempt to destroy, and eventually bury, the simian souvenir before it can do any more damage. 25 years later, Hal & Bill (both played as adults by Theo James) are estranged from one another but when their aunt Ida (Sarah Levy) dies near where they trapped the monkey, they must reckon with the malevolent force for good.

Much of The Monkey delights in what kind of violent scenarios this evil device can supernaturally conjure from seemingly innocuous circumstances, similarly to how Death works in the Final Destination series. While not all the killings are fashioned with Rube Goldberg-like synergy, some involve multiple elements conspiring together for sudden carnage, like the one in the gut-spinning prologue set in a pawn shop. Others are such comic overkill, as when 67 horses trample on top of a camper in a sleeping bag, that we’re not meant to be terrified by the circumstances as much as amused that such random tragedy could even take place. To this end, Osgood Perkins does come up with creative enough demises to make The Monkey almost work as a tongue-in-cheek splatter film.

But Perkins wants to have his blood-battered cake and eat it too and there’s not enough else here to keep one’s stomach full. Much of the drama hinges on the fraught relationship between Hal and his son Petey (played by Colin O’Brien) but their story isn’t nearly interesting enough to hold as the centerpiece of the plot. The acting between Theo James and O’Brien is stilted and unconvincing, even given that they’re playing two characters who aren’t on good terms with one another. There are well-known actors who only pop up for one scene each, while there are others lesser known who stick around for much longer but aren’t exactly a welcome addition. Heading up the movie’s best running joke, Nicco Del Rio hits the sweet spot as a beleaguered young priest tasked with leading increasingly bizarre funerals on behalf of the small town.

The inevitability of death is certainly a weighty central theme for a horror film to tackle but the issue is that The Monkey really doesn’t bother exploring it in an especially nuanced manner. “Everybody dies and that’s life,” Lois laments — the phrasing in the film’s official tagline is decidedly more colorful — but the sentiment isn’t really unpacked beyond that in the text. It’s more intriguing to infer what Osgood Perkins, whose parents both had tragically notable ends to their lives, feels about the chaotic cruelty of the universe assigning each person an inescapable demise. Now that Oz got The Monkey off his back, here’s hoping he can return to the staid supernatural scares that seem to better speak to his sensibilities as a storyteller.

Score – 2.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Playing in theaters is Last Breath, a survival thriller starring Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu, which tells the true story of seasoned deep-sea divers as they battle the raging elements to rescue their crew mate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean’s surface.
Also coming to theaters is My Dead Friend Zoe, a dramedy starring Sonequa Martin-Green and Natalie Morales, about a female Afghanistan Army vet who comes head to head with her Vietnam vet grandfather at the family’s ancestral lake house.
Premiering on Netflix is Demon City, an action movie starring Tomu Ikuta and Masahiro Higashide, telling the story of an ex-hitman out for revenge after he’s framed for his family’s murder and left for dead by masked “demons” who have taken over the city.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Reel Views, Review

Captain America: Brave New World

The silver screen shield has officially been passed from Steve Rogers to Sam Wilson with Captain America: Brave New World, the first MCU movie with Anthony Mackie in the titular role. It’s been almost four years since the Disney+ miniseries The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, which set up the transition, and any inertia or excitement that show built up has largely been dissipated in the time since. It’s perhaps not a surprise, then, that this movie feels like it’s been pulled in a thousand different directions through its development and the result is about as inorganic an artistic endeavor as Marvel Studios has put in theaters thus far. Despite its subtitle, there’s very little “brave” or “new” about this film and whatever emerging “world” it’s ushering us into isn’t particularly enticing.

After stopping a sale of classified materials in Mexico, Captain America/Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is invited to the White House by newly-elected President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, replacing the late William Hurt in the role). He tells Sam he’d like to form a new group of Avengers but that plan is put on hold when an attempt is made on Ross’ life later that same evening. Despite Ross’ insistence that he wants his team, led by security advisor Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), to investigate the assassination attempt, Sam goes poking around with the help of the new Falcon (Danny Ramirez). Their efforts put them in the crosshairs of the special ops team Serpent Society, led by the ruthless Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito), but their mission uncovers an even deeper conspiracy.

It’s a shame that Brave New World is such a mess of plot holes and logic gaps because Anthony Mackie steps up to the challenge dutifully and gives his best performance so far as Sam Wilson. One of the film’s many themes and throughlines is about the pressure of taking over the mantle of an iconic hero and the imposter syndrome that Wilson feels in the process. There’s a muted subtext about the added pressure that is placed on Black artists when they enter the spotlight that applies to both Wilson the character and Mackie the actor. He more than holds his own in his scenes with Harrison Ford but is even better building rapport with Danny Ramirez and Carl Lumbly, the latter of whom plays a superpowered war vet who is mistreated by the government. I wish the movie had more time for them as a trio.

Instead, director Julius Onah and his four credited co-screenwriters are busy dredging up storylines from subpar MCU outings like Eternals and The Incredible Hulk in addition to the already convoluted political thriller plotline. Like Thor: Ragnarok before it, not only has the marketing for Brave New World spoiled the inclusion of a Hulk character in the film but the ads have leaned into a Captain America vs. Red Hulk showdown as much as possible. It’s deflating that we’re already seen much of the climactic battle, especially when we realize the film doesn’t have much else to offer in terms of story or spectacle. Given that, my favorite action sequence involves Captain America and Falcon intercepting two rogue pilots as they fire missiles at a Japanese fleet, which deftly captures the exhilaration of aerial combat.

If you look at a film like Captain America: The First Avenger, which also has the titular hero squaring against a red baddie, it took the time to develop who Steve Rogers was before and after taking the super soldier serum. Captain America: Brave New World doesn’t have the same obligation to an origin story but ultimately, Sam Wilson feels secondary to the plot machinations. In other words, this doesn’t feel like a project that had Captain America at its center during its development. It’s more concerned with resolving loose ends that no one cares about and setting up prospects for future episodes, including one subplot that hints at a revision of X-Men’s Wolverine. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has produced worse films than Captain America: Brave New World but I can’t think of one more fragmented or scatterbrained.

Score – 2/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is The Monkey, a horror comedy starring Theo James and Tatiana Maslany, about a pair of twin brothers who witness a string of horrifying deaths unfolding around them, seemingly at the hands of their father’s vintage toy monkey.
Also playing in theaters is The Unbreakable Boy, a drama based on a true story starring Zachary Levi and Meghann Fahy, telling the tale of a young boy with both a rare brittle-bone disease and autism, whose life-affirming world view that transforms everyone around him.
Streaming on Apple TV+ is The Gorge, a sci-fi action movie starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy, involving two elite snipers who are assigned a mysterious mission: to guard either side of a deep and impenetrable chasm, without knowing what actually lies beneath them.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

List

Notes on the 2025 Oscars

Best Picture

Netflix’s quest to win Best Picture continues as Emilia Pérez, their worst contender thus far, leads the pack with a baffling 13 nominations. Despite this, it hasn’t really been considered a frontrunner during awards season, with Anora and The Brutalist primarily jockeying for first with Conclave in the mix as well. Right now, Anora seems to have the momentum but Picture could end up being a surprise this year. Speaking of surprises, I was pleasantly surprised to see I’m Still Here and my personal 2024 favorite Nickel Boys make the cut here. Obviously I’d love if the latter took home the top trophy but with the exception of Emilia Pérez, these are all worthwhile nominees.

My Prediction: Anora
My Vote: Nickel Boys
Overlooked: A Different Man

Best Director

For the first time since 1998, all five nominees in the Best Director category are first-timers. This one is less of a toss-up, as Brady Corbet will almost certainly take home the gold for his work in constructing the towering and expansive The Brutalist. It’s not his first film but the jump in scale from Vox Lux is simply staggering and Academy voters will no doubt take notice how much he accomplished on such a limited budget. Coralie Fargeat’s nomination here is especially impressive, given that only 8 other women have been recognized in the category in the past and that the Oscars have historically ignored work in the horror genre.

My Prediction: Brady Corbet
My Vote: Coralie Fargeat
Overlooked: RaMell Ross – Nickel Boys

Best Actor

If Adrien Brody is playing a Holocaust survivor in a film that starts with “The” and ends in “ist”, then it’s time to give him that statue. Kidding aside, Brody is excellent as the enigmatic László Tóth at the center of The Brutalist and is clearly a crucial component to that film’s success. I slightly prefer Colman Domingo’s tender and impassioned work in Sing Sing and was glad to see him make the list of five here. 29-year-old Timothée Chalamet is the youngest two-time Best Actor nominee since James Dean in 1957; please drive safely, Timmy. Sebastian Stan does indeed do a very convincing Trump in The Apprentice, although I preferred his work in the more challenging and thematically complex A Different Man.

My Prediction: Adrien Brody
My Vote: Colman Domingo
Overlooked: Aaron Pierre – Rebel Ridge

Best Actress

This is the category that has likely drawn the most media attention of the major awards this season, most recently due to resurfaced Tweets from Karla Sofía Gascón that have since nuked her chances. Mikey Madison was an early favorite in this group but after securing a few key acting awards, Demi Moore seems to be the current frontrunner. Her performance in The Substance was my favorite from last year, so I’d be thrilled if she took home her first Oscar at the age of 62. For the first time since 1978, all of the Best Actress nominees’ films are also nominated for Best Picture, which, to me, speaks to the importance of their work within their respective films.

My Prediction: Demi Moore
My Vote: Demi Moore
Overlooked: Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Hard Truths

Best Supporting Actor

My Prediction: Kieran Culkin
My Vote: Jeremy Strong
Overlooked: Denzel Washington – Gladiator II

Best Supporting Actress

My Prediction: Zoe Saldaña
My Vote: Monica Barbaro
Overlooked: Joan Chen – Dìdi

Culkin is a dead lock for A Real Pain, likely the most secure of the four acting categories, and Saldaña seems like a safe bet in Supporting Actress, although Ariana Grande could pull an upset. Supporting Actor is especially strong this year, with Jeremy Strong’s work standing out to me the most, but one could make a compelling case for any of these five. Saldaña’s acting is easily the most salvageable aspect of Emilia Pérez and if that film has to win a major award, I’d rather it be here than anywhere else. Grande is obviously an enormously talented singer but given that she’s effectively doing a stellar impression what Kristin Chenoweth already did in Wicked on Broadway, I can’t select her as my top pick here.

Best Original Screenplay

My Prediction: Anora
My Vote: The Substance
Overlooked: His Three Daughters

Best Adapted Screenplay

My Prediction: Conclave
My Vote: Nickel Boys
Overlooked: The People’s Joker

Best Animated Feature Film

My Prediction: The Wild Robot
My Vote: Inside Out 2
Overlooked: Orion And The Dark

Best International Feature Film

My Prediction: I’m Still Here
My Vote: I’m Still Here
Overlooked: MadS

Best Documentary – Feature

My Prediction: No Other Land
My Vote: No Other Land
Overlooked: Daughters

Best Documentary – Short Subject

  • Death by Numbers
  • I Am Ready, Warden
  • Incident
  • Instruments Of A Beating Heart
  • The Only Girl In The Orchestra

My Prediction: I Am Ready, Warden
My Vote: —
Overlooked: —

Best Live Action Short Film

  • A Lien
  • Anuja
  • I’m Not A Robot
  • The Last Ranger
  • The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

My Prediction: The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
My Vote: —
Overlooked: —

Best Animated Short Film

  • Beautiful Men
  • In The Shadow Of The Cypress
  • Magic Candies
  • Wander To Wonder
  • Yuck!

My Prediction: Beautiful Men
My Vote: —
Overlooked: —

Best Production Design

My Prediction: Wicked
My Vote: Dune: Part Two
Overlooked: Hundreds Of Beavers

Best Cinematography

My Prediction: The Brutalist
My Vote: The Brutalist
Overlooked: Nickel Boys

Best Costume Design

My Prediction: Wicked
My Vote: Nosferatu
Overlooked: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

My Prediction: The Substance
My Vote: The Substance
Overlooked: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Best Original Score

My Prediction: The Brutalist
My Vote: The Brutalist
Overlooked: Challengers

Best Original Song

  • “El Mal” from Emilia Pérez
  • “The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight
  • “Like A Bird” from Sing Sing
  • “Mi Camino” from Emilia Pérez
  • “Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late

My Prediction: “El Mal”
My Vote: “Never Too Late”
Overlooked: “New Brain” from Smile 2

Best Sound

My Prediction: Dune: Part Two
My Vote: Dune: Part Two
Overlooked: Civil War

Best Film Editing

My Prediction: Conclave
My Vote: Anora
Overlooked: Dune: Part Two

Best Visual Effects

My Prediction: Dune: Part Two
My Vote: Dune: Part Two
Overlooked: Twisters

Enjoy the show!

My thoughts on the movies