Oscar Nominations 2025: Post 1 of 10

Every year I post about each of the films nominated for Oscars—this year there are 35 features plus 15 short films (exactly the same as last year). Usually, I see all of them except for the documentaries (I am just not that interested in documentary film; I'm not sure why), but I'm also going to do myself a favor and skip the live-action short films. As a group they tend to be terrible every single year, and then for some reason the worst one usually manages to win.

This year with the enormous amount of political turmoil in our country and the ascendance of fascism in the U.S., it feels so stupid to be posting about movies. And for that I apologize. The state is murdering its own citizens in the streets, and I'm here to talk about Diane Warren... it's frivolous; I admit. But I write about politics in other places—I write about state violence, prison, racism, homophobia, and torture—and we all need an occasional break from thinking about the end of US American democracy. (Fucking gerrymandering, by the way, is anti-democratic; the fact that we just accept it as a political exigency is totally absurd. People should be represented in the government. The United States purports to be a government by the people and for the people. I live in a district that has been so viciously and cynically gerrymandered that I have no representation in Congress. It's a helpless state of affairs that serves the self interest of a political ruling class instead of the people.) 

In any case, I'm gonna post about the Oscars as usual. It makes me feel less alone, and crossing these movies off my list makes me feel like I can accomplish something in a state where I am nearly powerless because of the corruption of my government.

This is a good year. I will have more to say about this as we go through the nominees, but the Academy did really well this year, I think. My top ten for 2025 looks much closer to the Academy's than last year, and part of the reason for that is that the Academy's nominees look much more international than usual. This is due to the much more international Academy—an excellent state of affairs. My own list is always going to veer more international than the Academy's, and it's always going to be a good deal gayer, too, but that's a whole other story.

One thing I fundamentally believe, however, is that the Oscars are a jumping-off point for discussion rather than the final word on anything... So let's discuss!

I will go film by film discussing each movie individually rather than by category—beginning with the movies most beloved by the Academy this year. If the nominee has been nominated for Oscars previously, their previous nominations will be listed next to their name in parentheses. This year's nominees are:

Sinners

16 nominations

• Picture
• Director: Ryan Coogler (1st time nominee)
• Actor: Michael B. Jordan  (1st time nominee)
• Original Screenplay: Coogler (1st time nominee)
• Supporting Actor: Delroy Lindo (1st time nominee)
• Supporting Actress: Wunmi Mosaku (1st time nominee)
• Film Editing: Michael P. Shawver (1st time nominee)
• Cinematography: Autumn Durald Arkapaw (1st time nominee)
• Production Design: Hannah Beachler (Black Panther) & Monique Champagne (1st time nominee)
• Original Score: Ludwig Göransson (Oppenheimer, Black Panther)
• Costume Design: Ruth E. Carter (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Black Panther, Amistad, Malcolm X)
• Casting
• Sound
• Visual Effects
• Makeup & Hairstyling
• Original Song – "I Lied to You": Göransson (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) & Raphael Saadiq (Mudbound)
  

Director: Coogler

Cast: Jordan, Miles Caton, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O'Connell, Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Benson Miller, Lindo, Li Jun Li, Yao, Lola Kirke, Peter Dreimanis

This is a record-breaking number of nominations, as I'm sure you've heard by now. Part of the reason for this is the new Oscar category for casting, but more important is that Sinners garnered nominations in all the below the line categories as well as its three acting nominations. This is is an unusual state of affairs. More typically, a film that everyone loves will do great below the line (think Avatar or The Fellowship of the Ring) without having any real support from the acting branch. In fact, this is what most everyone expected of Sinners but then here we are, and it crushed the competition on the morning of the nominations. I loved this movie, and I think it deserves all of its accolades. It's a bit of an unusual fit for Oscar, but I think what Ryan Coogler has proved so beautifully is how rich a genre picture can be. This is a full-out vampire revenge adventure–suspense thing. It's a delight from start to finish, and yet it feels like a prestige picture, even though its main goal is entertainment. This is is Coogler's incredible strength as a filmmaker, and I'm here for it. Most of the film's nominees are first-timers—including Delroy Lindo, Michael B. Jordan, and Coogler himself. The old-timers here are Ruth Carter and Ludwig Göransson, both winning previously for another Coogler film. I can't say enough good things about this movie. It's not the Academy's normal fare, but I'm so glad it's here. For this reason, and because of this enormous, record-breaking shakeup, I think this movie is going to pull ahead and win Best Picture.

Will win: Picture, Original Screenplay, Score, Costume Design

Could win: Director, Actor, Editing, Casting

My rating: #5 out of 88

One Battle after Another

13 nominations

• Picture
• Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza, Phantom Thread, There Will Be Blood)
• Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (Once upon a Time... in Hollywood, The Revenant, The Wolf of Wall Street, Blood Diamond, The Aviator, What's Eating Gilbert Grape)
• Adapted Screenplay: Anderson (Licorice Pizza, Inherent Vice, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia, Boogie Nights)
• Supporting Actor: Sean Penn (Milk, Mystic River, I Am Sam, Sweet and Lowdown, Dead Man Walking)
• Supporting Actor: Benicio del Toro (21 Grams, Traffic)
• Supporting Actress: Teyana Taylor (1st time nominee)
• Film Editing: Andy Jurgensen (1st time nominee)
• Cinematography: Michael Bauman (1st time nominee)
• Production Design: Anthony Carlino (Babylon) & Florencia Martin (Babylon)
• Original Score: Jonny Greenwood (The Power of the Dog, Phantom Thread)
• Casting
• Sound

Director: Anderson

Cast: DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Penn, Del Toro, Taylor, Regina Hall, Wood Harris, Tony Goldwyn, D.W. Moffett

This has been the frontrunner for many months, and it probably still is the frontrunner—the love it received from the acting branch is evidence of that. It's also just flat out great, though this film, like Sinners, is also basically a genre picture. This is a shoot out, action–comedy thing that feels very unlike, in the first place, a film that the Academy would normally like and, in the second place, unlike a typical Paul Thomas Anderson film. (The truth is, though, that Anderson surprises us constantly, switching without any seeming effort between comedies and very serious art-house fare.) This is one of my favorite movies of the year, and I think its timeliness (the fascist cops on the street rounding up protestors and trying to find immigrants) makes this movie feel like it just understood the year 2025 in a way that doesn't usual seem possible in the cinema. My main gripe about this film is that the white supremacists in it are too silly. It is true that white supremacists are absurd, of course, but they're also deadly, and because Anderson's film is a comedy with a very silly group of white supremacists as its chief antagonists, it feels like it doesn't quite take this fascist agenda quite as seriously as it ought to. I expect this to do very well on Oscar night. I don't think it will win Best Picture anymore, but I think Anderson will and should win Best Director. It's his fourth nomination, and he's earned it.

Will win: Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actress 

Could win: Picture, Actor, Film Editing, Score, Casting

My rating: #3 out of 88

Affeksjonsverdi (Sentimental Value)

9 nominations

• Picture
• Director: Joachim Trier (1st time nominee)
• Actress: Renate Reinsve (1st time nominee)
• Original Screenplay: Trier (The Worst Person in the World) & Eskil Vogt (The Worst Person in the World)
• Supporting Actor: Stellan Skarsgård (1st time nominee)
• Supporting Actress: Elle Fanning (1st time nominee)
• Supporting Actress: Inga Ibsdotter Illeaas (1st time nominee)
• Film Editing: Olivier Bugge Coutté (1st time nominee)
• International Picture: Norway (The Worst Person in the World, Kon-Tiki, Elling, The Other Side of Sunday, Pathfinder, Nine Lives: the Story of Jan Baalsrud)
  

Director: Joachim Trier

Cast: Reinsve, Skarsgård, Illeaas, Fanning, Andreas Stoltenberg Granerud, Øyvind Hesjedal Loven, Anders Danielsen Lie, Cory Michael Smith, Catherine Cohen

This movie is so good. It’s about family in a way that is decidedly unsentimental, despite its title, and it gets at ties between family members that don’t really make sense but repeat or resurface. It’s about trying to tell a story or find the words for feelings or intuitions that don’t have words for them. In many ways, it's also a movie about a house, or at least it tells its story from the perspective of the house. It's a brilliant stroke of writing. I am sorry that Joachim Trier standby Anders Danielsen Lie's part was too small to sneak him a Best Supporting Actor nomination (and Stellan Skarsgård is decidedly committing category fraud running as a supporting actor). The fact that this did so well with the Academy is wonderful Trier has been making excellent (maybe even perfect) movies for a long time, and it's great that people are catching up to that! I don't think this can win anything on the big night except Supporting Actor (although it may also get International Feature). But almost everyone here is a first-time nominee, and they're all gonna just be happy to be there. 

Will win: Supporting Actor

Could win: Original Screenplay, Editing, International Feature

My rating: #10 out of 88

All 2025 Oscar posts:

1. Sinners, One Battle after Another, Sentimental Value

2. Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, Hamnet
3. Bugonia, The Secret Agent, Train Dreams

4. F1, Blue Moon, It Was Just an Accident

5. Sirāt, Avatar: Fire and Ash, K-Pop Demon Hunters

6. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Song Sung Blue, Weapons, The Voice of Hind Rajab

7. Arco, Elio, Zootopia 2, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain

8. Animated Short Films

9. Live-action Short Films

10. Jurassic World: Rebirth, The Lost Bus, Kokuho, The Smashing Machine

11. The Ugly Stepsister, Diane Warren: Relentless, Viva Verdi!

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!

Oscar Nominations 2019: Part 2 of 11

Part 1: Roma, The Favourite, Vice, A Star Is Born.
Part 2:

Black Panther

7 Nominations

• Picture
• Production Design: Hannah Beachler & Jay Hart (Pleasantville, L.A. Confidential)
• Costume Design: Ruth Carter
• Score: Ludwig Goransson
• Sound Mixing
• Sound Editing
• Song – "All the Stars": Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, Solana Rowe, Mark Spears & Anthony Tiffith

Director: Ryan Coogler

Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Daniel Kaluuya, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Sterling K. Brown, Winston Duke, Martin Freeman, Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis, John Kani.

This movie was cool. I was really into it. Mostly, of course, this was due to Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan and the great energy they bring to working together. Coogler is just so good at what he does. He takes a silly genre picture like this and makes it meaningful and resonant. For me, Black Panther really used this tired old Marvel formula to address important issues of blackness in the United States as well as larger class questions within Black America. This is a very interesting film, and if it is predictable because of its largely formulaic comic-book plot, it does everything that it does in interesting, exciting ways. This movie just won the SAG ensemble award, and it's hard to argue with an award like that. Half the movie, I found myself exclaiming John Kani is in this?! Forest Whitaker?! Angela Bassett?! This is awesome.

Will Win: Sound Editing

Could Win: Sound Mixing

My Rating: #18 out of 66

BlacKkKlansman

6 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Spike Lee
  
• Adapted Screenplay: Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing), David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel & Kevin Willmott
  
• Supporting Actor: Adam Driver
• Film Editing: Barry Alexander Brown
• Score: Terence Blanchard

Director: Lee

Cast: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Ryan Eggold, Topher Grace, Michael Joseph Busemi, Jasper Pääkkönen, Ashlie Atkinson, Robert John Burke, Harry Belafonte, Corey Hawkins

I thought this movie was great. It is worth saying, first of all, that Spike Lee has never been nominated for best director and that this is only his second screenplay nomination. That is actually crazy. But this is also Lee's best movie in years. It's a brilliant analysis of contemporary policing and the connections between the KKK in the 1970s and the resurgence of white supremacist politics in the 2010s. And it's funny. Lee's frequent Brechtian techniques work beautifully here. This is an excellent film and it's one of my favorite of the year. I will say that BlacKkKlansman's popularity with Academy voters is a little surprising to me. This is a film that spends time with racism and takes a hard look at it. The Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild, the National Board of Review and plenty of other awards bodies looked more favorably on the milquetoast, candy-coated 1960s of Peter Farrelly's Green Book and mostly ignored the more racist and volatile 1970s in Lee's film. But here the Academy is, handing out more nominations to Lee's movie than to Farrelly's. This is good for everyone.

Will Win: Film Editing

Could Win: Director, Adapted Screenplay
My Rating: #13 out of 66

Green Book

5 Nominations

• Picture
• Actor: Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic, Eastern Promises)
  
• Original Screenplay: Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly & Nick Vallelonga
• Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
• Film Editing: Patrick J. Don Vito

Director: Farrelly

Cast: Mortensen, Ali, Linda Cardellini, Sebastian Maniscalco, Dimiter D. Marinov, Mike Hatton, Jon Michael Davis

I had a lot of problems with this. But I wasn't surprised that this movie got as much love with other awards bodies as it did here. Note that this film got a best film editing nomination. Usually those are linked with Best Picture, but Green Book, as you can see, is film #7 on the list this year. It probably wouldn't have gotten a best picture nomination if there were only five nominees. It looks as though most of the love that was shown to this film ahead of the Oscar nominations has begun to fade. Farrelly, who got a best director nomination in lots of places before January 22, did not (and rightly so) get a nomination here. Still, Nick Vallelonga, despite his recent racist comments on Twitter, got a screenplay nomination, and that editing nomination means that some people still really like Green Book. One thing everyone can agree on is that we love Mahershala Ali. It looks like he's going to win in the supporting actor category come February 24th. All good and well, but I do wish the Academy could think out of the box just a little more. Ali won the Oscar only a couple of years ago for Moonlight. He doesn't need another one. I don't see how giving him another one helps the industry or Ali's career.
Will Win: Supporting Actor

Could Win: Picture, Original Screenplay, Film Editing

My Rating: #44 out of 66

Bohemian Rhapsody

5 Nominations

• Picture
• Actor: Rami Malek
• Film Editing: John Ottman
• Sound Mixing
• Sound Editing

Director: Bryan Singer

Cast: Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joseph Mazzello, Allen Leech, Aiden Gillen, Tom Hollander, Mike Myers, Aaron McCusker, Meneka Das, Ace Bhatti, Priya Blackburn

Sigh. I get why this is as popular as it is, but it really is not a good movie. I've written about how homophobic I think this film is here, but also, I feel like Awards bodies are giving awards to this movie just to thumb their noses at the critical consensus around the movie, which had been very harsh. And that's not a good reason to give a movie awards. Most people I know who liked this movie have told me they liked it with an apologetic tone, as though they felt guilt for liking the movie as much as they did. I don't blame them, and I don't know why they're blaming themselves except that they know the movie isn't good, even if they did enjoy it. Will Rami Malek win best actor? I think that is insane – his performance cannot compare in any way with Bradley Cooper's brilliant work in A Star Is Born, but Malek has won the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild award now, so he is definitely the front runner. This is so crazy. So maybe I'm just ignoring the writing on the wall, but... I think the Screen Actors Guild skews toward television, and so what we're seeing is residual love for Mr. Robot, the show that Malek felt he got too big for. TV viewers love Malek. My thought is that the Academy, which watches a lot less TV, will vote for Bale instead.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Actor, Film Editing
My Rating: #53 out of 66

Oscar Blackout

One of my standing frustrations with the Academy is that Academy members aren't watching enough movies, and one of the reasons we don't see more black nominees is that Academy members aren't watching enough movies directed by, written by, and starring people of color.

But what should they be watching? I asked a couple of friends to help me out, and I thought the three of us might just rant about some badass movies made by and starring black folks. So, I am joined by my friends Adwin Brown and Dr. Leah P. Hunter. He's a film actor in Los Angeles and she's a professor of communication who specializes in diversity in film and television. I gave them free rein to talk about whatever films they felt like ranting about.

So, if you feel like protesting the Oscars' lack of inclusion, or just wanna watch some awesome movies starring and made by black folks, here are some recommendations.

* * *

ADWIN: Dope is a coming-of-age crime comedy-drama that debuted at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was bought for distribution by Open Road Films. Boasting an incredible cast (Kimberly Elise, Chanel Iman, Tyga, A$AP Rocky to name a few) and an even more impressive production team, (produced by Forest Whitaker, executive produced by Pharrell Williams and Sean “Diddy” Combs) Dope is a hilarious and touching story about millennials, made for millennials. As the movie begins, we meet Malcolm (played by Shameik Moore) a black nerd living in crime-infested Los Angeles (intriguing already, I know) who plays in a rock band with his two best friends. The three of them are obsessed with '90s hip-hop culture, which provides a very welcoming throwback vibe to the entire film that any '90s baby would enjoy. Malcolm dreams of going to Harvard, but after trying to impress a pretty girl that lives across the street (played by Zoë Kravitz) and ending up at a party he shouldn’t have been at, Malcolm and his friends are taken on a scary and hilarious journey of drugs and self discovery that could land them all in huge trouble. If I can be frank, there are honestly so many things to love about this movie – it’s beyond fun! And the script seems to really toy with the idea of playfully mocking the earlier ghetto/hood dramas of the '90s (Boyz n the Hood, Baby Boy, etc.) and mixing up the usual stereotypes associated with them. Visually, the movie is bright and vibrant and the story gets you hooked from the beginning—equally hilarious and violent, and an accompanying soundtrack that will have you bobbing your head the entire film.  

LEAH: Dope was ... um, well ... dope! While it was a classic coming-of-age story, the story itself was turned on its ear because of the racially diverse cast and the choice to make the characters outcasts and not really a part of the culture they were coveting. But, really, they were a part of that culture, right? And, that is what makes Dope such a good film because it goes against stereotype to show the universality of hip hop music (primarily early hip hop) and to give a little insight on how the genre was so identifiable to people who in no way lived the life. Because of all of this, I believe that Rick Famuyiwa should have gotten acknowledged in the Best Director category. Dope is a beautifully shot film! And, Famuyiwa does a great job of directing the cast of young actors. What hurts him though is that the story itself often delves into silliness. Part of what makes the film fun (the coke-out dream girl who is filmed going to the bathroom in bushes, for example) also pushes it more in the comedic direction, which typically means Oscar suicide. Despite that, the movie Dope, and Famuyiwa in particular, remain on my top of the year list.

* * *

AARON: I've already talked about how good Beasts of No Nation is, so I won't repeat that here, but you should know how much I love it. Instead I want to highlight a really awesome African film: Timbuktu. Abderrahmane Sissako's Timbuktu was nominated last year for the Foreign Language Oscar. This movie is absolutely gorgeous, and is perfectly shot from start to finish. Timbuktu is also about the way that a kind of religious fundamentalism has started to take over in Sissako's home country of Mauritania. This film, though, approaches the price of religious fundamentalism and the rule of religious law from the perspective of a young girl – but then really it is an entire city – as they cope with these rules that have nothing to do with their lives. It's a powerful, awesome film. It is important to note, too, that this is a film that is not "about" race, but is about religion and about attempting to live with the difficulties of religious rule. It's an exquisite movie.

* * *

LEAH: Can we talk about how that list of writers (there are 5 people!) who are nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Straight outta Compton should not have been nominated?! It’s probably a moot point because Spotlight won and deserved to win. But, it’s laughable that this film about an African-American rap group, directed by an African American (F. Gary Gray) and starring a majority African-American cast would only have the white folks nominated! In my opinion, though, it was not a great screenplay. Great biopics show all sides of the story. Ray not only showed Ray Charles' genius, but also showed his womanizing and debilitating drug addiction. This is where Straight outta Compton falls short. How can this be seen as an authentic telling of their story when there is no acknowledgement of their abusive treatment of women? No acknowledgement of Dee Barnes or Michelle, among others? By only showing the highlights of NWA’s lives, the screenwriters sucked the humanity out of the characters. Only Jason Mitchell (who played Eazy-E) had some meat to his character, and even then he was portrayed as a hero in the end – just disregarded all of the foul things he did earlier. It just felt a little after-school-special at the end.

 * * *

ADWIN: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (based on the book with the same title) is another coming-of-age drama/comedy that tells the story of a teenage boy’s newly formed friendship with a girl who is dying from cancer. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival with a standing ovation from the audience and was purchased for distribution by Fox Searchlight Pictures. The film is filled with superb performances by the cast, but one of the strongest stand-out performances comes from newcomer, RJ Cyler. In the movie, Cyler plays Earl, the POC best friend to the white lead, Thomas Mann, and although this may sound like familiar territory, I promise you it does not play out like your typical story. In most movies, having a POC best friend is very common – whether it be the "cool" black guy, the "responsible" Asian guy, or the Indian guy with the "funny accent" – these characters are generally one-note and are only necessary to establish backstory and/or maintain the story-line of the (usually) white lead character. However, while viewing Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, I was pleasantly surprised to see how in many situations in the film Cyler’s character seemed to be the voice of reason. Earl could easily be played as another black kid “from the bad part of town”, but Cyler really found a fun and intriguing balance of being extremely wise beyond his years while still maintaining his comically blunt street smarts. And although the movie follows the platonic relationship between the characters of Greg and Rachel, in many instances Earl is the catalyst between them. Earl is the one who jump-starts their friendship by forcing Greg to show Rachel his homemade movie collection, and at the peak of the movie, Earl is the one who is sympathetic to Rachel’s situation and influences Greg to feel the same way. I believe it can be very easy to fall into familiar traps when writing a script and creating characters, and I am glad that Me and Earl and the Dying Girl went against everything I was expecting.

* * *

AARON: Slightly more recent and also released this year is a film by Jonas Carpignano about Italian immigrants called Mediterranea. This film is, frankly, awesome, and follows a pair of brothers who immigrate to Italy in order to make a better life for themselves, to find work and make money that they can send back home. What they find in Italy is terrible living conditions, terrible working conditions, and the racism of Italian citizens. They find themselves embroiled in violent skirmishes that are protesting the way that police corruption has made the lives of the people in their immigrant community absolutely impossible. It's a powerful story with an extraordinary central performance from Ghanaian actor Koudous Seihon. This film was on many, many critics' top ten lists, which is why I watched it, and it is really revealing as to the immigration crisis that exists in European nations (and not just the U.S.). I can't recommend this movie enough.

* * *

LEAH: I want to say, too, that I am shocked that Creed would get only one nomination and it would be for Sylvester Stallone. Creed was a beautiful film! It was luscious and I cannot believe that Ryan Coogler was not nominated. Second, Coogler’s body of work to be so young in the business is extraordinary! (Fruitvale Station was robbed the year it came out.) That he managed to direct a tentpole film like Creed, still part of the Rocky series, and managed to not only make it big and violent (fight scenes) while at the same time offer the audience very tender moments (virtually every moment with Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson) speaks to his abilities as a director. At the very least, Coogler should have gotten a nomination for Best Director. And, the fact that he collaborated on the screenplay (along with Aaron Covington) as well makes me even more convinced of this.

* * *

This list is far from over. These are the films my friends wanted to call attention to, but there is also Z for Zachariah, a cool exploration of dystopia and race in a world where (apparently) there are only two people left. And there is Spike Lee's Chi-Raq, an updated version of Euripides' Lysistrata. And Girlhood, Céline Sciamma's film about an African-French teenager living in a Paris suberb, who joins a girl gang. The film stars Karidja Touré and has gotten superb reviews across the board.

In any case, Adwin, Leah and I would like to encourage you to support films made by and starring people of color. There are some awesome films out there made by black filmmakers and other filmmakers of color. The only way we can diversify the end-of-the-year awards is by calling attention to – and actually going to see – more films made by and starring people of color. Happy movie-watching!

Oscar Nominees 2016: Part 6 of 11

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7. Part 8. Part 9. Part 10. Part 11.

Straight outta Compton

1 Nomination

• Original Screenplay: Andrea Berloff, Jonathan Herman, S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus

Director: F. Gary Gray

Cast: O'Shea Jackson Jr., Jason Mitchell, Corey Hawkins, Paul Giamatti, Neil Brown Jr., Aldis Hodge, Marlon Yates Jr., R. Marcus Taylor, Carra Patterson, Alexandra Shipp, Keith Powers, Lisa Renee Pitts, Tate Ellington

I absolutely loved this movie. I don't know how it didn't get more awards buzz than it got. It is so excitingly fierce and fun, and then it very intelligently takes a turn toward the serious, and documents an important moment in USAmerican music history. Straight outta Compton also manages to be a movie about racism and police corruption in Los Angeles. It manages to do a lot of things, in fact. It's also gorgeously shot – the concert sequences are perfectly done – and cleverly scripted. The acting is superb as well, and F. Gary Gray, who directed, manages to strike the right tone throughout, surprising the audience at just the right times, carefully balancing the characters' bravado, sentiment, and danger. Somehow this only got an original screenplay nomination, and this film, directed by a black man, got nominations only for the four white screenwriters. It's an odd little joke, really. And a joke that isn't very funny. Still, I am glad it got this nomination. It is well deserved. The acting in this movie is great, too, by the way, Jackson, Mitchell, and Hawkins – the three men at the film's center – are excellent, and in a small role, Lisa Renee Pitts kills it.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Original Screenplay

My Rating: #5 out of 65

Creed

1 Nomination

• Supporting Actor: Sylvester Stallone (Rocky)

Director: Ryan Coogler

Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashād, Tony Bellew, Ritchie Coster, Andre Ward, Jacob "Stitch" Duran, Malik Bazille, Graham McTavish, Wood Harris

Another of my favorite movies of the year. I've written about this movie already here, so I won't add a lot more, but I will complain (as I did for Straight outta Compton, above) that this movie got only this single nomination. I'm glad it got it, don't get me wrong – Stallone is great, and he deserves to win the Oscar that he'll win on Oscar night – but Coogler is one of the most exciting young directors working today, and Michael B. Jordan is superb in this film. The screenplay, too, is a kind of marvel; it reuses old tropes and makes them new again, breathing new life into a tired genre. Creed is a film about fatherhood, about making a name for one's own self, and about making a family out of the people who love you and the people you love. It's excellent.

Will Win: Supporting Actor

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #14 out of 65

Cinderella

1 Nomination

• Costume Design: Sandy Powell (Carol, Hugo, The Tempest, The Young Victoria, Mrs Henderson Presents, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Shakespeare in Love, Velvet Goldmine, The Wings of the Dove, Orlando)

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Lily James, Richard Madden, Stellan Skarsgård, Holliday Grainger, Sophie McShera, Helena Bonham Carter, Nonso Anozie, Derek Jacobi, Ben Chaplin, Hayley Atwell, Alex Macqueen, Rob Brydon, Tom Edden

This film, I am happy to report, is surprisingly charming. The young white girl at the center is a little bland, but Cinderella more than makes up for it with the fun it has retelling this animated Disney film. The prince and his own story is made a little heftier by the screen treatment, and the stepmother, played by Blanchett, takes a much larger role here. This is all to the good. The tale is a pleausure, and Helena Bonham Carter's little scene as the fairy godmother is itself worth the price of admission. I found the whole thing delightful, to be honest. And the costumes are breathtakingly exquisite. Sandy Powell must win another Oscar this year. She just must. She deserves to win for this, but if not this, she really needs to win for Carol. (Girlfriend already has three Oscars, but when you're at the top of your game?) Click on the image above if you don't believe me.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Costume Design

My Rating: #34 out of 65

Hundraåringen Som Klev ut genom Fönstret och Försvann 
(The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window
and Disappeared)

1 Nomination

• Makeup & Hairstyling

Director: Felix Herngren

Cast: Robert Gustafsson, Iwar Wiklander, David Wiberg, Mia Skäringer, Jens Hultén, Alan Ford, Georg Nikoloff, Bianca Cruzeiro, Sven Lönn

This was whimsical and very silly, and I have to say that it got a couple of good guffaws out of me. The 100-Year-Old Man is like an unpretentious version of The Butler or Forrest Gump, in which the main character (who is something of an explosives expert) meets Franco and Reagan and Stalin and Oppenheimer and a host of other important world leaders over the course of his century of life We are told this in flashback, of course. Meanwhile the real plot of the film – which is a sort of crime caper involving a great deal of money, a gang of skinheads, a rescued circus elephant, and more vodka than I could track – proceeds apace, filled with absurdity, cartoonish violence, and poetic justice. Robert Gustafsson, who plays the film's eponymous centenarian, is only half that old, and so this nomination is for his old-age makeup, which, I will admit, looks pretty great. Not as great as, say, Bad Grandpa from a couple of years ago, but pretty great. Usually this makeup category is filled with films that don't feature in the Best Picture category: movies like The Wolfman or The Iron Lady or, you know, Pirates of the Caribbean: at World's End, but invariably the one film that is the most respected of the bunch wins this Oscar. The 100-Year-Old Man, in other words, has no chance of winning, against its two rivals in this category: The Revenant, with its 12 nominations, and Mad Max: Fury Road, with its 10.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #49 out of 65

Two 2015 Movies about Punching People

More boxing movies? I am not sure, actually, why Hollywood keeps making boxing movies, or for that matter, why I keep going to them, but boxing is certainly that most cinematic of sports. The camera gets close up in the faces of the pugilists; we hear the thuds and thwacks and the clang of the bell; and it really does feel like we're there. I'd definitely rather watch a boxing movie than a basketball movie (there aren't many of those, come to think of it) or a movie about, say, the 400-meter relay.

The trouble is that there have been so many boxing movies and there are, consequently, so many established tropes and clichés. I remember being totally baffled when everyone went nuts over David O. Russell's The Fighter: isn't it just another typical boxing movie? But, then, I don't know if I can tell you why I liked Creed enormously and why I found Southpaw to be mostly boring and cliché-ridden. I am going to try anyway.

 * * *

Antoine Fuqua's Southpaw is a movie about a rage-filled champion whose wife is senselessly killed and who, following this event, completely loses his mind, does an enormous amount of dangerous activity, loses his house, and gets his kid put into protective custody because he is a total mess of a parent. He must (and this is a standard boxing-movie trope) get a new trainer, straighten up and fly right, and bounce back.

Jake Gyllenhaal is pretty awesome as the film's protagonist (he's sentimentally called Billy Hope), and the actor has really been on a roll, with excellent performances in Prisoners and Nightcrawler; sooner or later critics and the Academy will pay attention. In Southpaw he has transformed physically into a completely ripped and lean beast of a man-child, and his characterization is very interesting: he mumbles and stumbles his way through the film, solidly creating an unpredictable but rather lovable figure.

Still, I found it hard to root for this character, and maybe this is because the film as a whole is so dependent on feelings. Billy Hope is pure anger, lashing out at anyone and everyone, and then, when he needs to get his daughter back, he becomes pure sentiment, weeping his way through the film's third act. Southpaw sees this transition as totally natural, and perhaps it is, but I remain rather unconvinced by the idea. Does a man with enough of a problem with rage that he gets his kid taken away from him suddenly become father of the year after a couple of weeks working with Forest Whitaker? I am skeptical.

I think the kid thing bothered me, too. I need to become the light heavyweight champion of the world because my daughter needs lunch-money isn't, after all, that exciting of a reason for a film's final sequence. Once we got to act three I really kept hoping that Southpaw wouldn't end with a big boxing match but would avoid the trope and end with Billy Hope training kids and just worrying about making ends meets instead of worrying about getting a championship belt. If one's major concern is paying the rent and feeding the family, one doesn't actually need to make a $30 million deal with HBO. But, no, Southpaw ends the way you think it's going to end; no surprises here – just lots of feelings.

* * *

Creed has plenty of feelings, too, don't get me wrong. But I was into this movie from the very beginning. Ryan Coogler's film has its share of clichés, as well – difficult childhood, disapproving mom, complicated relationship with a trainer, and phrases like the real enemy in the ring with you is yourself.

But Creed just does all of this better. Michael B. Jordan is a young office worker named Donny Johnson who fights in Mexico on the weekends. He's the son of the boxer Apollo Creed from Rocky and Rocky II, III, and IV, and Creed both plays up this history and does something interesting with it. How does a person have a legend as a father and also try to make something of himself? What does the name mean? Does it hang over one like a curse? An impossible hurdle? Or can it be something that strengthens and emboldens one? This might seem like a less interesting reason to fight than, say, the love of one's small child, but I found this an infinitely more interesting character study.

Coogler's film also has Sylvester Stallone, the Oscar-nominated star of the Rocky films, and (obviously) a huge movie star in his own right. Stallone is wonderful in this, a retired boxer who wants nothing anymore to do with pugilism and isn't interested in training a young fighter. For Apollo Creed's son, however, Rocky Balboa sets aside his resistance and starts to work again.

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Stallone is great, but Michael B. Jordan, the film's star and the star of Coogler's first film Fruitvale Station, makes this movie. Jordan is a fine actor, who keeps getting great roles and keeps turning in great performances. His work in Creed is sensitive and angry and frustrated and confused all at once. The part must've been written for him, and he is perfect for it, allowing us into the character's personal struggle even while the character puts up walls.

The conscious, knowing tribute (it never felt like a gimmick) to Avildsen's 1976 film works beautifully because it's understated and mediated in clever ways. Donny watches his dad and Rocky fight, for example, by pulling up YouTube videos of their matches. And the famous theme from Rocky creeps quietly but unmistakably into Ludwig Göransson's Creed score. Another reason this works is that the characters in Creed are actively trying to deal with the events of the Rocky movies, even to destroy them.

These are some reasons, I guess, but I don't think I can fully say why I found Creed's use of boxing-movie clichés to be interesting and Southpaw's boring. Maybe I just like narratives about men dealing with their fathers better than narratives about men dealing with their eight-year-olds. I think, though, that Creed just really is a better movie all around – better acting, better script, better editing, better photography. I loved it.

Fruitvale Station

Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale Station is based upon the story of Oscar Grant, who was shot by Bay Area Rapid Transit police on New Year's Day 2009, Fruitvale explores New Year's Eve in the life of the 22-year-old man as he takes care of his daughter, tries to get his job back, and celebrates his mother's birthday.

The film isn't perfect. It opens with cell-phone-camera footage of the violence, and so it is clear from the movie's beginning that the story is headed in a terrible direction. At times, then, the movie feels like a done deal, as though we're wasting our time watching this man live his life, discuss his dreams with his girlfriend, help a customer at Trader Joe's learn how to fry fish, pet a stray dog. It's all going to end in violence, we know, and so I found myself, more than once, impatient with Coogler's movie.

But this is the point, actually. Oscar Grant is just going about his day. His day is difficult and filled with numerous minor conundrums. He has a lot on his mind and the stakes are high, but Oscar doesn't know that he will be shot by the police. He's just trying to figure out how to help his sister with her rent and still pay his own. If we are impatient with him it is because we do not value his troubles, these difficulties which really make up his life. The police who shot him, too, did not value this young man's life.

The performances in Fruitvale Station are excellent, particularly Michael B. Jordan's as Oscar. It is a charming, sensitive portrayal of a man trying to make all of the ends meet up. (I loved Jordan as Wallace in The Wire – and as the popular kid Steve in Chronicle – and I loved him again in this.)

Fruitvale is, finally, about the value that our society puts on the lives of young black men, the ways in which we have created a society that arrests them, imprisons them, keeps them from their families, and even kills them. And the thing that ought really to shock us about the true events of Fruitvale Station is that events like these – where actual police or transit police or security guards or neighborhood watchmen shoot our kids simply because they are black – are nowhere near isolated. If Oscar Grant's case sparked protests and calls for justice (there wasn't any, in case you hadn't heard of the case), we ought to remember that police violence against people of color both in prison and outside of it is normal for how our society works. And if the police (or a neighborhood watchman) can go free after shooting an unarmed young black man, it is because we as a society do not value black life and because we as a society have let them know that they should expect to get away with it.

What Fruitvale Station takes great pains to detail is exactly the opposite of this. Fruitvale shows us the beauty of Oscar's life, the different ways his family and his friends show their affection for him, the care he shows for others, and the fun he has with his girlfriend and even the strangers he meets during the day. This is a life with immense value, and Coogler's film is a powerful, exciting, tense portrait of the way our culture disregards lives such as his simply because those lives are lived by working-class black men.