F1 (2025)

Joseph Kosinski does it again. F1 is great. It hits every beat it needs to. The sound is amazing. The script is perfect Hollywood nonsense, but it cleverly avoids most of the worst traps. And this movie has Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem and Kerry Condon, so the acting is just fuckin stellar. All three are absolutely pitch perfect. Damson Idris is great in the Miles Teller part. Sarah Niles is wonderful. The whole thing just sings. 

And, sure, it’s a retread of Maverick. I mean, yeah fine. It’s mostly about the same thing and it’s mostly a similar script, and the director’s the same, and it’s giving "older guy bucks the system and blesses the young people with his wisdom". But I didn’t care one bit. I saw this on a gigantic screen and it felt like I was on a ride the whole time, and this rocked. Great score, great soundtrack, great editing. I was into it.

(PS. Why did they sell this as F1: the Movie? That makes no sense to me.)

Oscar Nominations 2022: 2 of 9

This year's nominees:

The Fabelmans

7 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Steven Spielberg (West Side Story, Lincoln, Munich, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
• Actress: Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea, My Week with Marilyn, Blue Valentine, Brokeback Mountain)
• Original Screenplay: Tony Kushner (Lincoln, Munich) & Steven Spielberg
• Supporting Actor: Judd Hirsch (Ordinary People)
• Production Design: Rick Carter (Lincoln, War Horse, Avatar, Forrest Gump) & Karen O'Hara (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Alice in Wonderland, The Color of Money)
• Score: John Williams (Star Wars: Episode IX – the Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars: Episode VIII – the Last Jedi, 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)

Director: Spielberg

Cast: Williams, Paul Dano, Gabriel LaBelle, Seth Rogen, Hirsch, Mateo Zoryan, Keeley Karsten, Julia Butters, Alina Brace, Birdie Borria, Robin Bartlett, Sam Rechner, Oakes Fegley, Chloe East

This is a very strange movie. Obviously Spielberg understands that some wonderful directors – Paolo Sorrentino, Alfonso Cuarón, Paul Thomas Anderson, James Grey – are mining their own childhoods for important stories right now, and so Spielberg tries his hand at this too. Except that he co-wrote the story of his own childhood with Tony Kushner. The thing is that Spielberg isn't really very good at mining anything for meaning or nuance. He's very good at a particular kind of movie shallowness. The Fabelmans is, accordingly, a very shallow exploration of something that might perhaps have deserved depth. What we come away from this film with is something like "the power of film" or "the magic of a boy and his camera" or somesuch business. Platitudes, in other words, rather than depth; clichés rather than insight. I was skeptical, as soon as I saw the trailer, of Michelle Williams' questionable accent, but the performance is actually so much worse. It's just an odd, odd, performance for which I don't really have words. I am not sure what she's doing or why anyone let it continue without talking to her about it. Mind you, now she has been nominated for best actress, so... I guess it was successful? I loved Paul Dano in this movie, though. I will say that. And Gabriel LaBelle and Judd Hirsch are good too. One more thing to say about Michelle Williams: props to her for not committing category fraud like Ke Huy Quan and so many other actors. They could easily have run her as a supporting actress, since she's a mother character, but she chose to run in the lead category, and she's top billed. So that's exactly what should have happened.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #33 out of 63

Tár

6 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Todd Field
• Actress: Cate Blanchett (Carol, Blue Jasmine, Elizabeth: the Golden Age, I'm Not There., Notes on a Scandal, The Aviator, Elizabeth)
• Original Screenplay: Todd Field (Little Children, In the Bedroom)
• Film Editing: Monika Willi
• Cinematography: Florian Hoffmeister

Director: Field

Cast: Blanchett, Nina Hoss, Noémie Merlant, Sophie, Kauer, Sylvia Flote, Mark Strong, Zethphan Smith-Gneist, Nicolas Hopchet 

I loved this. I've written about it here, so I won't say too much more about how exquisitely crafted this film is, but it is worth repeating how finely made Tár is, how haunting and difficult and mysterious. It's a gripping modern Greek tragedy, and it works beautifully (at least until the very last sequence). I'm betting against Blanchett here. She already has two Oscars (this is her eighth nomination) and Michelle Yeoh doesn't have any. To me, that means that Michelle Yeoh deserves the Oscar no matter how good Blanchett is. Blanchett will be nominated many more times. She gives Oscar-worthy performances every year (last year she was the best thing about Nightmare Alley). My prediction means that I'm suggesting that Tár won't win any awards, though, and that doesn't seem right. So if you're filling out your own Oscar pool at work, you might still want to bet on Blanchett.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Director, Actress, Original Screenplay, Cinematography
My Rating: #5 out of 63

Top Gun: Maverick

6 Nominations

• Picture
• Adapted Screenplay: Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects), Eric Warren Singer (American Hustle), Peter Craig, Ehren Kruger & Justin Marks
• Film Editing: Eddie Hamilton
• Sound
• Visual Effects
• Song: Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born, The Hunting Ground) & BloodPop

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Cast: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Bashir Salahuddin, Jon Hamm, Charles Parnell, Monica Barbaro, Glenn Powell, Ed Harris, Lyliana Ray, Jay Ellis, Lewis Pullman, Danny Ramirez, Jack Schumacher, Manny Jacinto, Greg Tarzan Davis, Kara Wang, Raymond Lee, Jake Picking

This movie saved theatrical distribution. Everyone says so. Steven Spielberg said it to Tom Cruise at the Academy nominees luncheon just this week. This is because it's true. So, you know what? Throw every Oscar at this thing. I mean it. It does not deserve its adapted screenplay nomination – that is absurd – and I wouldn't have nominated it for best director either, but it definitely deserves its best picture nod, and it probably deserved more than this: score and cinematography; I wouldn't even have been mad at best actor. Cruise is great in this. His scene with Val Kilmer is incredible. Jennifer Connelly is great. Miles Teller's star is undimmed. The whole thing is wonderfully made and it fucking delivers. The screenplay bugged me throughout, and it unnecessarily repeats one of its third-act moves, but other than that, this movie is completely good fun. I expect it to win many Oscars.
Will Win: Film Editing, Sound, Visual Effects, Song

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #20 out of 63

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

5 Nominations

• Supporting Actress: Angela Bassett (What's Love Got to Do With It)
• Costume Design: Ruth E. Carter (Black Panther, Amistad, Malcolm X)
• Visual Effects
• Make-up & Hairstyling
• Song: Ryan Coogler, Ludwing Goransson, Rihanna & Tems

Director: Coogler

Cast: Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Bassett, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Dominique Thorne, Martin Freeman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michaela Coel, Michael B. Jordan

This is a pretty good action movie with a superb villain, wonderfully played by Tenoch Huerta Mejía. There is a trouble at the center of this Black Panther sequel, however. It's a bit more self-important than it needs to be; it lacks the fun and discovery of the first film. This is, of course, demanded by the loss of Black Panther's magnetic and brilliant star, Chadwick Boseman, and it's dealt with very smartly by Ryan Coogler. But the film positively dwells in its frustration and difficulties. This is, in fact, a plot point: who will be the next black panther is the film's central question. Unfortunately, the answer is a grim one. The next black panther is T'challa's sister, played by Letitia Wright, and Wright is not a movie star. She's outshined by everyone else in the movie, and she looks small next to all of the other actresses in the movie – Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong'o, and Danai Gurira. Things get better in her scenes with Huerta Mejía, but she's just not up to carrying a movie this big on her shoulders. As for Oscars, Bassett is going to win, hands down, and I'm happy about it. She's a superb actress, and she's overdue for an Oscar. I expect Ruth Carter to win too, and she deserves it. But I do wish the Academy would start paying attention to Carter's design work in non-Marvel films. She should have been nominated for last year's Coming 2 America and the fact that she wasn't nominated for 2019's Dolemite Is My Name is a crime. We should all be banging the drum for Ruth Carter. Her work is incredible every time she makes a movie. 

Will Win: Supporting Actress, Costume Design

Could Win: Visual Effects, Make-up & Hairstyling, Song
My Rating: #32 out of 63

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Banshees of Inisherin, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Elvis

More posts coming soon:

3. Avatar: the Way of Water, Triangle of Sadness, The Whale, and Babylon
4. The Batman, Women Talking, Living, and Aftersun
5. Blonde, To Leslie, Glass Onion, and Causeway
6. Argentina, 1985, Close, Eo, and The Quiet Girl
7. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Pinocchio, Puss in Boots: the Last Wish, Turning Red, and The Sea Beast
8. Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, Empire of Light, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, RRR, and Tell It like a Woman

Check out my new book Love Is Love Is Love – out March 24!

Why Is This Movie Called Oblivion?

The first thing to say about Oblivion is that it is essentially a bad movie that is gorgeously designed, beautifully scored, and acted with enough energy and commitment to make it watchable.

Tom Cruise is a guy living on Earth in the future with his partner. They are living on a planet decimated by an alien invasion (or something) and are now harvesting all of the ocean water off of Earth in order to move to the moon Titan in Saturn's orbit (or something like that). But Tom Cruise is plagued by memories of another woman, and also feels a longing, a nostalgia for Earth that seems somehow inexplicable for a man who has had his memory wiped for "security reasons".

Anyway, Tom Cruise basically fixes droids and flies around in a really, really cool helicopter thing until a USAmerican spaceship lands and on it is the woman who haunts his dreams/memories. The rest is the mystery of the plot. And Oblivion functions like a mystery, unfolding slowly and revealing to the audience more and more of what actually happened before the movie started.

Did I mention that all of this is sort of cheesy and laughable? It sounds less silly here as I type it out, so let me elaborate. Oblivion is interested in the sort of anti-technology/love-the-earth/grow-your-own-tomatoes politics that so many films about the future find interesting (WALL·E, for example). In the midst of all of this technology, Tom Cruise loves books (well, looking at them, anyway: he appears not to have time to actually read any of them) and sleeping on the grass, and he changes into flannel and a Yankees cap whenever he gets the chance, because he's, like, longing to be real, see, and all of this futuristic stuff is really just getting in the way.

But if those are Oblivion's politics, it traffics in exactly the opposite belief. In other words, what is cool about the movie is the absolutely awesome production design. Aside from the badass helicopter, Tom and his partner live on this station/outpost thing high in the sky where they have an enormous glass-bottomed swimming pool that is illuminated at night. The computers look sleek and innovative, like something Apple will design soon, and at one point Tom hops onto a motorcycle, which is also quite cool (with further echoes of Joseph Kosinki's previous film, Tron: Legacy).

The best line in the movie: Tom looks at Melissa Leo and with pitch-perfect delivery says... "Fuck you, Sally".

The costumes are great, as well, especially the ones worn by Andrea Riseborough (Tom's partner). Marlene Stewart has her decked out in all manner of muted, Stepford-Wife outfits accented with various metallic elements. And if she always looks the same or looks over designed or just a little too put together, she also looks totally fabulous.

So the film is selling one thing (badass video-game-style technologies) while telling us it values something else altogether (playing catch next to a lake with your kid). It wants us to think that flannel and tattered baseball caps are the things we should value the most in the world, but it lingers over Marlene Stewart's beautiful, futuristic costumes. Oblivion wants to tell us to value playing records on the old phonograph, but its score is by M83. And, in truth, all of Oblivion's "values" sort of fail, while all of its design elements all really succeed. The future wins again.

In a lot of ways, Oblivion is really just a repeat of Tron: Legacy. And if you found Tron: Legacy basically inoffensive and enjoyable, it seems likely that you'll feel the same way about Oblivion.

2011's Nominees: Part 10 of 12

UNSTOPPABLE

1 Nomination:

  · Best Sound Effects Editing

Director: Tony Scott
Cast: Chris Pine, Denzel Washington, Ethan Suplee, Rosario Dawson, T.J. Miller, Kevin Dunn, Kevin Corrigan, Kevin Chapman

 
I can't figure out why Netflix doesn't have this yet, but anyway, suffice it to say that this is one I haven't seen. I do love a Runaway Train movie as much as the next guy, and Tony Scott is an interesting director if a little – shall we say – repetitive. Still, I am intrigued by his use of violence in films. It is certainly a lot more interesting than, say, something like Salt, which refuses to actually show violence, and instead just shows a bunch of people kicking one another where no one gets injured.

Will Win: N/A
Might Win: N/A
My Rating: Not Yet Rated

TRON: LEGACY

1 Nomination:

  · Best Sound Effects Editing

Director: Joseph Kosinski
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Garret Hedlund, Bruce Boxleitner, Olivia Wilde, Beau Garrett, Michael Sheen, James Frain

 
I liked this picture. Now, granted, I was a little drunk when I saw it, but how else ought one to watch a sequel to a film from 1982. I saw it in 3D Imax, too. Why not? The thing is, the Academy obviously did not like this movie. Even Star Wars Episode I: Can't Remember the Subtitle did better than this in snagging effects nominations, and yet here is a movie basically designed to be a visual and sound effects behemoth with a score you can dance to, but the Academy all but ignores it. Consider this dead on arrival in terms of the Academy. This is due, granted, to the total absurdity of the filmmaking involved here. The effects people did great work, but the director and screenwriters basically delivered a television show in a really expensive outfit. No imagination. No wit in the writing. No sense in the plot. (I would see it again, though, just for the effects, I must admit, and I listen to the soundtrack regularly.)

Will Win: N/A
Might Win: N/A
My Rating: #25 out of 48

IRON MAN 2

1 Nomination:

  · Best Visual Effects

Director: Jon Favreau
Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johanssen, Samuel L. Jackson, Jon Favreau

 
After the delight that was the first Iron Man film, I assume I was not the only one disappointed by this offering from director Jon Favreau. There are more explosions, more drunken parties, and way more giant robots, but this film is, in a word, boring. Seriously. Nothing happens in this movie worth caring about. It is actually extraordinary how boring it is. Gwyneth Paltrow is sort of charming and Robert Downey, Jr. is his usual charismatic self, but this movie just falls flat. This leads me to something I've complained about before (in reference to the Transformers franchise) but want to repeat here. This film is filled with enormous giant robots who fly with jetpacks and have lasers that cut people in half and allegedly have access to all of this amazingly intricate and advanced technology, and yet... when it comes to a final showdown, all that the writers can think of for these incredibly advanced technological machines to do to one another is punch each other in the (metal) face. You are a giant robot! Don't punch the other giant robot; launch a grenade for fuck's sake. And this, after all, may have been the problem with Iron Man 2, it just looked too much like a Michael Bay movie. A step down, indeed, for Mr. Favreau and his franchise.
 
Will Win: N/A
Might Win: N/A
My Rating: #39 out of 48