Supergirl (2026)

Supergirl isn't hateful or anything; indeed Milly Alcock is quite charming, but the script is absolute nonsense. Even the real stakes that the movie sets up—Supergirl's dog will die in three days if she doesn't get the antidote—are obviously not a real motivation for the film's protagonist, since she clearly could have gotten the antidote numerous times from the dozens of brigands she beats up (it's preposterous there there would be only one vial of the stuff being carried by the main baddie).

Unfortunately, Supergirl is also another offensively PG-13 violence-fest, in which hundreds of acts of violence are committed yet not one drop of blood appears onscreen. At one point, Kara even touches her head and says "I'm bleeding": in fact, she is not. There's no blood to see here. People don't actually get hurt in this movie. They just stop fighting. It's violence without consequences.

Matthias Schoenaerts is excellent as always, and Jason Momoa is fun. I also really liked Emily Piggford in a small role. And I love me some David Krumholtz, who speaks Kryptonian for his entire part.

Oscar Nominations 2021: 6 of 9

1. The Power of the Dog, Dune, Belfast, and West Side Story

2. King Richard, Drive My Car, Don't Look Up, and Nightmare Alley

3. CODA, Licorice Pizza, Being the Ricardos, and The Lost Daughter

4. The Tragedy of Macbeth, Encanto, No Time to Die, and Flee

5. Tick, Tick... Boom!, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and The Worst Person in the World

Cruella

2 Nominations

• Costume Design: Jenny Beavan (Mad Max: Fury Road, The King's Speech, Gosford Park, Anna and the King, Sense and Sensibility, The Remains of the Day, Howards End, Maurice, A Room with a View, The Bostonians)
• Makeup & Hairstyling

Director: Craig Gillespie

Cast: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, John McCrea, Mark Strong, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Emily Beecham, Kayvan Novak

I did not really care about this movie, and I waited a very long time to see it. It suffers from the same central problem that plagues The Devil Wears Prada: to wit, it loves its central villain, makes her the most fabulous character in all creation and then expects us to dislike her. Well, I didn't. I guess we're supposed to think she's terrible for committing lots of murders and stealing other people's designs and being a really good editor. But in a world like this where literally everything is fake and the reality is all just surfaces, how can one hate someone who is almost pure surface, who is supremely the best at surfaces? Also this movie is, for some reason, two hours and twenty minutes long. My other real gripe is that it didn't seem like Emma Stone was having very much fun. It felt really earnest for a really long time. Ok but there is something I want you to notice about Jenny Beavan's career. Her earliest nominations are all for Merchant-Ivory films – adaptations of novels by Henry James, E.M Forster, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Then she makes Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility, and she continues to dress rich British people, including kings. Then she makes Mad Max: Fury Road and wins. And now she's going to win again. I thought this was a longshot until I saw it. The film is filled with awesome dresses and creative silhouettes. My money is behind Jenny Beavan.

Will Win: Costume

Could Win: Makeup & Hairstyling

My Rating: #48 out of 58

Spencer

1 Nomination

• Actress: Kristen Stewart

Director: Pablo Larraín

Cast: Stewart, Sally Hawkins, Jack Farthing, Sean Harris, Timothy Spall, Jack Nielen, Freddie Spry, Stella Gonet, Laura Benson

I've written about this film here. I think Spencer is a polarizing movie, and the central performance is equally polarizing, although I fall firmly on the side of thinking Stewart is wonderful in it. There has been lots of drama with this nomination. Stewart was long considered the favorite to win the Oscar in this category, and then Nicole Kidman somehow won the Golden Globe award instead. This was followed almost immediately by a snub from the Screen Actors Guild, who thought Lady Gaga and Jennifer Hudson deserved nominations. Insanity. This was all rectified when Stewart scored her first Oscar nomination on February 8, but things were definitely touch and go. Smart money now says the favorite to win Best Actress is Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but I'm sticking stubbornly to Stewart. She's a hard-working actress who has been churning out excellent indie performances for years, and her performance in Spencer is lovely. I think she deserves this, and I think the votes will split in her direction.

Will Win: Actress

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #15 out of 58

The Hand of God (È Stata la Mano di Dio)

1 Nomination

• International Film: Italy (The Great Beauty, Don't Tell, Life Is Beautiful, The Starmaker, Mediterraneo, Open Doors, Cinema Paradiso, The Family, Three Brothers, Dimenticare Venezia, The New Monsters, A Special Day, Seven Beauties, Scent of a Woman, Amarcord, Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, La Ragazza con la Pistola, The Battle of Algiers, Marriage Italian Style, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow, 8 1/2, The Four Days of Naples, La Grande Guerra, Kapò, Big Deal on Madonna Street, Nights of Cabiria, La Strada, The Bicycle Thief, The Walls of Malapaga, Shoeshine)

Director: Paolo Sorrentino

Cast: Filippo Scotti, Marlon Joubert, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Luisa Ranieri, Renato Carpentieri, Massimiliano Gallo, Betti Pedrazzi

I adore Paolo Sorrentino, as you probably know. And The Great Beauty is one of my favorite films of all time, so I fully expected to love The Hand of God... and I did. It's a beautiful, very funny film, even quirky according to Sorrentino standards. The performances are excellent – particularly by Teresa Saponangelo and Luisa Ranieri – and the editing, photography, and design are all impeccable. It's the usual perfect Sorrentino movie, directed with supreme confidence. I loved this. It's on Netflix, and if you haven't seen it yet, I recommend it.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #8 out of 58

Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom (লুনানা)

1 Nomination

• International Film: Bhutan

Director: Pawo Choyning Dorji

Cast: Sherab Dorji, Ugyen Norbu Lhendup, Kelden Lhamo Gurung, Pem Zam, Sangay Lham

I've been rooting for Lunana since Bhutan submitted it for the 2020 Oscars but it was disqualified because it was never released because of the global pandemic. Then Bhutan submitted it again for the 2021 Oscars (a couple of countries did this), and it seemed a real longshot. This got a final slot in the five nominees for International Film. Drive My Car, Flee, and The Worst Person in the World all got multiple nominations, and so it's clear that they were shoo-ins for the category. There still remained a large amount of competition, including Finland's Compartment No. 6, which already had a U.S. distributor, Iran's A Hero, directed by multiple winner Asghar Farhadi, and Austria's Great Freedom, which I was also rooting for – since it stars Franz Rogowski and is about a gay prisoner. In any case, Lunana scored a nomination! The film itself, however... is pure Disney. It's a sentimental plot through and through: young man who wants to leave Bhutan is forced to teach small children in the most remote school in the world, high in the mountains. He is resentful and bitter, but then he slowly learns to love their way of life. It's sweet and wholesome, and the vistas are gorgeous. This movie does get better at its end – the last twenty minutes are actually excellent. But, and I hate to say this, you've seen plenty of movies just like this before. Whatever. I'm glad Bhutan got its first nomination, I'm glad Pawo Choyning Dorji made this movie, and I'm glad I saw it.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: Unranked; this is a 2022 release.

7. Cyrano, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Luca, and Raya and the Last Dragon
8. Spider-man: No Way Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Free Guy

9. House of Gucci, Coming 2 America, and Four Good Days

Oscar Nominations 2018: Part 3 of 12

Back to Part 1 or Part 2.

My Best of 2017.

Call Me by Your Name

4 Nominations

• Picture
• Actor: Timothée Chalamet 
• Adapted Screenplay: James Ivory
• Song – "Mystery of Love": Sufjan Stevens

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Cast: Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, Victoire Du Bois, Vanda Capriola, Antonio Rimoldi

This is my favorite movie of the year. I love it unapologetically and unabashedly. One of my favorite things about it is that it is a deeply sensual film – like of all of Guadagnino's movies – but that when Elio falls in love with his idol Oliver, the film shows us this in ways other than the traditional male-gaze ways of doing this (normally the camera would focus on specific body parts and linger on them, and through this we would experience Elio's attraction to Oliver). But Guadagnino shows us that Elio sees Oliver not as a sex object but as a conquering hero, someone way cooler than him, someone free and unrestricted and confident, and it is this that attracts him. The novel on which this is based covers a great deal more area than this film; in the tradition of the coming-of-age movie, Guadagnino and Ivory's movie focuses on the one summer of Elio and Oliver's meeting, and only gestures toward the longterm effects of that summer. This is a choice that works well for the film. Movies need to cut down the plot elements in novels for time reasons (Mudbound ought to have taken a note about this). There is so much more to love about Call Me by Your Name. I think I loved every single scene. I found the whole thing deeply moving. I love this film, and so I also think it is ridiculous that it didn't get a best director nomination, that Michael Stuhlbarg didn't get a supporting actor nomination, that Walter Fasano isn't nominated for editing, and that Sayombu Mukdeeprom didn't get a cinematography nomination. Apparently this connected with Academy members fairly well, but they weren't as overwhelmed as I was. Oh well. As for winning Oscars, James Ivory is going to win. Although he has been nominated for directing A Room with a View, Howards End, and The Remains of the Day, this will be his first Oscar in his more-than-fifty-year career. I can't wait for his speech.

Will Win: Adapted Screenplay

Could Win: Actor, Song

My Rating: #1 out of 78

Mudbound

4 Nominations

• Adapted Screenplay: Dee Rees & Virgil Williams
• Supporting Actress: Mary J. Blige
• Cinematography: Rachel Morrison
• Song – "Mighty River": Mary J. Blige & Raphael Saadiq & Taura Stinson

Director: Rees

Cast: Garrett Hedlund, Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Mary J. Blige, Jonathan Banks, Kerry Cahill

This movie is a real disappointment, and I continue to be surprised that of all the Netflix movies that would actually break through, that it is this mess of a film that managed to do it. (Beasts of No Nation, which appeared only two years ago, easily deserved six nominations and got zero.) I guess what maybe is even more disappointing to me is that Dee Rees, whose first film was the lesbian coming-of-age drama Pariah made this rather boring movie that is mostly about straight white folks. I hope her next movie is a return to something interesting. I don't think I'll say anything more about the film; I've already written about how wooden I think Mary J. Blige is and what a mess the screenplay is, but I will say I recently saw Hostiles, and that film's cinematography is much, much, much better than the work in this movie. So now I'm annoyed about that nomination, too. Sigh. Who knows why the Academy likes what it likes.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Song
My Rating: #62 out of 78

Star Wars: Episode VIII – the Last Jedi

4 Nominations

• Score: John Williams (Star Wars: Episode VII - the Force Awakens, The Book Thief, Lincoln, War Horse, The Adventures of Tintin, Munich, Memoirs of a Geisha, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Catch Me If You Can, Artificial Intelligence: A.I., Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Patriot, Angela's Ashes, Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Sleepers, Nixon, Sabrina, Schindler's List, JFK, Home Alone, Born on the Fourth of July, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Accidental Tourist, Empire of the Sun, The Witches of Eastwick, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The River, Return of the Jedi, E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, Superman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, The Towering Inferno, Tom Sawyer, Cinderella Liberty, Images, The Poseidon Adventure, Fiddler on the Roof, The Reivers, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Valley of the Dolls)
  
• Visual Effects
• Sound Mixing
• Sound Effects Editing

Director: Rian Johnson

Cast: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Mark Hammill, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, Carrie Fisher, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Laura Dern, Benicio Del Toro, Andy Serkis, Frank Oz, Lupita Nyong'o

Yesterday I listened to a friend of mine go on a rant about why this movie was not good, but his points were related to the plot choices that the series is making – not enough Skywalkers – and then also a discussion of the silliness of the movie, its irony about its own cheesiness. Obviously I am not really a fanboy of this series, and so it does not matter to me what they do plot-wise. And because I already think these movies are really cheesy, I rather like it better when a film admits to being silly, when it knows it is silly. As pertains to Oscar, I will say that I was actually sort of shocked that John Williams' score for this movie got nominated. The music branch will nominate Williams every single year – this is his 51st nomination. That certainly is no surprise, but it is odd to me that they didn't opt for his music for The Post instead of the recycled scoring in this movie. It's sort of embarrassing that they do this every year.
Will Win: Visual Effects

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #34 out of 78

I, Tonya

3 Nominations

• Actress: Margot Robbie
• Supporting Actress: Allison Janney
• Film Editing: Tatiana S. Riegel

Director: Craig Gillespie

Cast: Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Paul Walter Hauser, Julianne Nicholson, Bobby Cannavale, Ricky Russert, Anthony Reynolds, Joshua Mikel

This movie was not for me. It was fun for everyone I saw it with, but I was rather annoyed with its single note, its almost complete lack of stakes, and its missed directing opportunities. I never knew what the stakes were at any given moment – if she wins this competition what happens? Does she get rich? Does she get an endorsement deal? Does she think she'll be happy? The movie never communicates any of this. This is partly because of the perspective that the film takes, where we're listening to interviews about something that happened a long time ago, but it is partly because the film doesn't script these things into what its doing and the direction is unclear. I liked Margot Robbie in the movie well enough, but Allison Janney plays the same scene again and again; I found this a bit exhausting, actually. The more I've thought about it, the more I think this movie would've been better if it had been a better sports movie.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Supporting Actress
My Rating: #50 out of 78

Ryan Gosling and the Blow-up Doll

Craig Gillespie's Lars and the Real Girl is—dare I say it?—a heartwarming film about a boy who deludes himself into believing that an anatomically correct and very life-like sex doll is his disabled girlfriend whom he met over the internet. I liked this film. It's funny and sweet and has a couple of really great scenes. It's blackly humorous and resists being sentimental with all its might. It doesn't really succeed at this last goal, but it tries very hard and for that I give it lots of credit. The actors are wonderful: Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider (a new favorite of mine), and the always dependable and excellent Patricia Clarkson. It's, as you might imagine, a very cleverly written piece of work, penned by former "Six Feet Under" scribe Nancy Oliver.
And finally the film is about growing up, letting go of our fears of being children, and what it means to become a man. A passage from I Corinthians read near the end of the film was a perfect fit and I thought it resonated nicely:

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

If I think about the film too hard, though, the whole thing becomes a little sinister. This boy creates a woman for himself in order to escape dealing with his family, sex and growing up. In a sense, he is always in control of this phony woman. Still, Lars and the Real Girl is really sweet and the performances and very smart script make it worth seeing. Gillespie handles the comedy deftly, and it finally becomes rather difficult not to feel some affection for the doll. She means so much to him and we become so fond of him, that is difficult to resist.