Best Pictures #123: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Hamnet

 by A.J.

Best Pictures #123: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Hamnet

"These but the trappings and suits of woe."

Hamnet begins with a note explaining that the names Hamnet and Hamlet were interchangeable. It gives no such note about the names Anne and Agnes, which it seems were interchangeable as well: Anne Hathaway, later Anne Shakespeare, was referred to in her father's will as Agnes; the film refers to her only as Agnes (pronounced Ayn-yes). I suppose it does not matter whether she was Anne or Agnes because we do not really get to know this character or her husband, Will. This is really too bad because the point of the movie is to make the audience share in their grief over their son Hamnet, who died at the age of 10. This film, and the novel it is based on by Maggie O'Farrell, who co-wrote the screenplay with director Chloe Zhao, suggest that out of that grief Shakespeare was inspired to write his most famous play, Hamlet.

Jessie Buckley plays Agnes, whose mother was rumored to be a forest witch (more of a slander than, at the time, a serious legal accusation) and who herself is deeply connected to the natural world. The opening shot of the movie is of her barefoot and asleep nestled in the root of a gargantuan and ancient tree. To give birth to her first child, a girl, Susanna, she hobbles out to the woods alone. She is unable to do so for the birth of the twins, Judith and Hamnet. 

Paul Mescal plays Will, a mediocre glovemaker, part time tutor, and aspiring poet and writer. The movie goes to great pains to avoid the names William and Shakespeare. When we finally do hear the name “William Shakespeare” it is played as though the full identity of Anne/Agnes’s husband is a great revelation or even a twist. This would make sense and be acceptable if Hamnet was really meant to tell the story of an average Renaissance era woman and did not depend, moreover require, you to know, if only vaguely, who Shakespeare was and that his most famous play is Hamlet in order to have any pathos at all. 

It seems that Buckley and Mescal were not meant to play people so much as vessels for grief and woe. Agnes is not presented as especially witchy, but she does have a vision that at her deathbed only two children will be at her side. So, when the newborn girl seems stillborn then finally breathes, Agnes believes that Judith is marked for death. However, we the audience know that Hamnet is the child fated to die (because that is the premise of the movie), so it is only a shock to Agnes, not the audience, and plays like a cruel joke only meant to increase her pain and suffering. It does not enhance the drama of the movie. Jessie Buckley is almost certain to win the Best Actress Oscar, but I never felt that Agnes was a full character, much less a person that really lived. A scene of Will in London consumed by grief as he stands at the edge of the Thames River and speaks the “To be or not to be” soliloquy made my eyes nearly roll out of my head.

The pacing never felt slow and very few scenes felt extraneous, yet afterwards I wondered how this movie took up 2hours and 5 minutes. Until Hamnet’s death from the plague, the movie is scenes of day to day life in a rural Renaissance era English village, specifically around one cottage. The romance between Agnes and Will is sweet and passionate; both feel like outsiders in their families and their community. Agnes encourages Will’s move to London because she believes he is meant for more. However, we do not get any hint of his potential greatness; at least a sonnet would have helped. All we get is a scene of him so frustrated with writer’s block that he wakes their baby. 

The most exciting part of Hamnet is the performance of Hamlet at the Globe theater. This is meant to be the great catharsis of the movie for both Will and Agnes, but it does not work. Agnes behaves as though she is an alien just arrived on earth and has no idea what the hell a play is. She shouts at the actor playing Hamlet. She frantically and confusedly speaks to her brother and the stage itself so loudly that even the groundlings, notorious for their rowdiness, shush her. We know from a scene earlier in the movie, where the children act out what would become the Weird Sisters/Witches opening scene of MacBeth, that Agnes is familiar with the idea of a performance and of people pretending. I applaud Buckley for playing this straight but that is far from the same as saying she should be nominated or win the Best Actress Oscar. 

Hamnet is absolutely not how Shakespeare came up with Hamlet. Of course Shakespeare in Love is absolutely not how he came up with Romeo and Juliet either, but that film behaves as though it knows everything it is showing you is made up. Hamnet takes itself too far too seriously without giving you anything, aside from the premise, to stand on. Shakespeare left no diaries or letters for later generations to know what he thought and how he felt. This is a gift to modern storytellers who want to make Shakespeare into whatever they will. This one falls flat. Every high school student has the same reaction when they find out that Shakespeare’s son was named Hamnet and his most famous play is Hamlet–at least currently, as Shakespeare’s most popular play changes with whatever the era. This story would have you believe that Hamnet's death and the production of Hamlet happened one after the other. In reality four years passed between Hamnet’s death and the first performance of Hamlet. Shakespeare was much more likely cashing in on the trend of “revenge plays” like The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd. Shakespeare wrote plays about fathers and sons before Hamlet and did so after. His last sole authored play, The Tempest, is about a father and daughter; Shakespeare’s daughters have little purpose in this movie. A much more moving and affecting version of everything Hamnet is striving for has already been put on screen in Kenneth Branagh's All is True (2018)–a movie I assure you exists–which has all the insight and pathos that Hamnet lacks.

Nominees: Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Gonda, Steven Spielberg, Sam Mendes, producers

Director: Chloé Zhao

Screenplay: Chloé Zhao & Maggie O'Farrell; based on the novel by Maggie O'Farrell

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson

Production Companies: Hera Pictures, Neal Street Productions, Amblin Entertainment, Book of Shadows

Distributor: Focus Features

Release Date: November 26th, 2025

Total Nominations: 8, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actress-Jessie Buckley; Director-Chloé Zhao; Adapted Screenplay-Maggie O'Farrell, Chloé Zhao; Production Design-Fiona Crombie (production designer), Alice Felton (set decorator);  Costume Design-Malgosia Turzanska; Original Score-Max Richter; Casting-Nina Gold

Best Pictures #122: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: The Secret Agent

 by A.J.

Best Pictures #122: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

The Secret Agent

“Our story is set in the Brazil of 1977, a period of great mischief…”

The Secret Agent has intrigue, characters with mysterious backgrounds and multiple identities, characters on the lam, hired assassins, secret meetings, escape plans that need fake passports, corrupt authority figures, and underground networks, but it is not a spy movie. If the titular 'secret agent' is anybody, it’s Jean-Paul Belmondo in the 1973 film Le Magnifique, also titled, The Man From Acapulco, The Magnificent One, and The Magnificent Secret Agent, in which he plays an author who has elaborate and ridiculous fantasies about being a spy. We see a clip of the trailer at the movie theater where one of the characters works. Perhaps it was unintentional but no less fitting that director Kleber Mendonça Filho included a reference to a movie that had different names for different locations. The main character of The Secret Agent also goes by different names in different locations. 

This is an incredibly well crafted film set in 1977 in Brazil during its military dictatorship about how the realities of living under a dictatorship have forced ordinary people to behave and act like they are a secret agent in a spy movie. So, Marcelo (Wagner Moura) does more or less everything you might expect a secret agent to do. We do not learn his backstory for a long time but we never really get the impression that he is a spy or anything close to it. As I mentioned before, there is mystery and intrigue, and even a shoot out, but this is far from an action movie. It is a moving drama that you hope never turns into a thriller because of what it would mean for the characters. 

When Marcelo returns to the city of Recife at the start of Carnivale he is greeted with surprise and even apprehension by nearly everyone he meets, except for his young son Fernando. We come to learn that Marcelo is not his real name, that he is mourning the loss of his wife, wants to leave Brazil with his son, and his only friends and allies are those who are also out of favor with the state. In a moving scene at the apartment of Dona Sebastiana (Tânia Maria), an elderly woman who provides shelter and assistance to those on the run, one after one reveals that they are under a death threat. Marcelo is set up with a job at the identification documents institute where he searches for evidence to prove that his mother existed; we never learn the full story of her disappearance. This could be a whole movie in itself but Marcelo is only there to bide time until he can flee Brazil with his son. 

What really makes The Secret Agent something special is that it is filled with so many characters, who, no matter their screen time, could be the main character of their own movie. There is Marcelo's father-in-law who works at the movie theater and looks after Fernando; There is Elza, a member of the underground resistance who interviews Marcelo and tries to arrange his passport; There is Dona Sebastiana and everyone she gives shelter to. There is the German Hans (Udo Kier in his final performance for one intense and powerful scene) who the obnoxious and corrupt local police chief likes to show off like an oddity because he believes Hans is a former Nazi soldier (Hans is actually a Holocaust survivor).  The police chief and his son and adopted son are the contacts for the pair of hitmen hired to kill Marcelo. The Secret Agent is among the first films to receive an Oscar nomination in the brand new Best Casting Oscar category. This nomination is most well earned and is my pick for what film should win. 

The story is divided into three chapters with an unofficial prologue that is a brilliant short film in itself. Marcelo stops at a gas station where there is a dead body on the ground half covered by a piece of cardboard. Police arrive but they do not care about the body. They inspect Marcello’s car looking for something to charge him with and force a bribe. When they find out Marcello has no cash they settle for his cigarettes and leave. This perfectly sets up the realities of the time and place we are about to see.  

There is also, unexpectedly but calculatedly, a storytelling device that introduces a plotline in the present day. It is jarring at first and each time the film cuts back to this storyline it feels something like a commercial break. However, this plotline does provide the conclusion and catharsis. More importantly, it ties the events of the past to the present. 1977 is nearly 50 years ago which is more than a long time to most people, but by joining the story of Marcelo in the past to the researcher today, the film confronts the audience with the fact that the terrible and oppressive past really was not that long ago. It still affects people today and perhaps resonates so strongly because the corruption and oppression feel unfortunately familiar at present. This happened not that long ago, so why can’t it happen again?

The Secret Agent is available to stream on Disney+/Hulu and to rent on Amazon Prime.

Nominees: Emilie Lesclaux, producer

Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho

Screenplay: Kleber Mendonça Filho

Cast: Wagner Moura, Carlos Francisco, Tânia Maria

Production Companies: CinemaScópio, MK Productions, One Two Films, Lemming Film, Arte France Cinéma

Distributor: Neon

Release Date: December 5th, 2025

Total Nominations: 4, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actor-Wagner Moura; Best International Feature; Casting-Gabriel Domingues

Best Pictures #121: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein (2025)

by A.J.

Best Pictures #121: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Frankenstein (2025)

"What manner of creature is that? What manner of devil made him?"

I am a fan of director Guillermo del Toro, however, it always seems to be a coin flip whether I'll like his next movie or not. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of my favorite books and holds the rare distinction of being a book I have read more than once. So, I was more trepidatious than excited to see del Toro's adaptation of Frankenstein. There have been so many Frankenstein movies from the silent short in 1910 to the landmark Universal monster movie in 1931 to many, many more and now to del Toro. With so many versions of Mary Shelley's story, so many variations, so many re-imaginings, do we really need one more? The answer is yes, if it is this one.

It’s no surprise that this was a passion project for del Toro, who has been obsessed with the novel and 1931 film, directed by James Whale, since childhood. His wonderfully macabre visual style, approach to certain themes, and ability to create sympathetic portrayals of monsters make Frankenstein the perfect story for him to tell. Even more than Pan's Labyrinth or The Shape of Water, this feels like the ultimate Guillermo del Toro movie. It is the movie he was meant to make. 

The plot is, dare I say, familiar. I read some reviews that claimed this adaptation was more faithful to the novel, which is a sign that someone has not read the novel. This is something that gets said whenever a movie includes the framing device of the arctic expedition that discovers Frankenstein and the Creature. del Toro's adaptation does begin with an arctic expedition trapped in the ice that comes upon a weary and ailing Victor Frankenstein who tells his woeful tale to the captain. Of course, del Toro makes sure that the Creature also gets to tell his tale. 

In this version, young Victor Frankenstein learned the basics of medicine from his cold and demanding father (played by Charles Dance, of course). At university Victor’s (Oscar Isaac) boundary pushing experiments and ideas catch the attention of the eccentric Harlander (Christoph Waltz), who agrees to bankroll Frankenstein’s experiment to create a new and improved man. Frankenstein becomes infatuated with Harlander’s niece, Elizabeth (Mia Goth), who is engaged to his younger brother, William. The movie takes its time before the Creature is introduced; fortunately none of that time is wasted and Jacob Elordi as the Creature does not disappoint. 

Like Sofia Coppola in Priscilla, del Toro uses Elordi’s 6’5” stature to overwhelming effect. The special makeup effects are quite impressive (Make Up and Hairstyling are just one of a total 9 Oscar nominations), and all the more impressive because they do not hide or distract from Elordi’s performance. He effectively conveys the longing and anger of the Creature so well articulated in Mary Shelley’s novel. Elordi has earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, the film’s only acting nomination. Neither a trophy nor a damsel, Mia Goth as Elizabeth is the promise of comfort and safety and love for Victor, William, and the Creature. Her compassion is the first kindness that the Creature knows. Oscar Isaac is at his best when playing mad scientists (see also Ex Machina for further proof and another excellent performance not nominated by the Academy). Isaac is delightfully over the top, clearly having fun with the role, and the movie benefits from it. Frankenstein is audacious, rakishly charming, arrogant and also selfish, abusive, and cowardly. One of the first things he does with the Creature is to put it in chains in the laboratory basement. His arc from protagonist to essentially a villain is done with care and Isaac handles Victor’s complexity very well. 

Both the Production Design and Costumes received Oscar nominations, and rightfully so. The story is set in the 1850’s, though things are not quite period accurate. They are, however, accurate to del Toro’s sensibilities. An elaborate statue of an archangel comes to fiery life during a nightmare (inspired by a real waking nightmare del Toro had as a child). The former armory turned laboratory is a bizarre and impractical but visually stunning tower on the edge of a cliff. There is a large chute down the middle from the top of the tower to the basement–reminiscent of the hole in the roof of the estate in Crimson Peak, itself inspired by Poe’s The Fall of House of Usher–that I can’t imagine would serve any real purpose. The costumes, especially Mia Goth’s gowns, follow this same outlandish but eyecatching style.

There is enough of the novel in this adaptation to satisfy a fan like me. There is also enough that is new and different that a viewer, horror fan or not, won't feel like they're watching the same old story. Though one of the great pillars of horror literature and cinema, the Frankenstein story is more macabre and spooky (gothic, you might say) than scary. The best film adaptations tune into Shelley's sympathy for the Creature and that Victor is actually a mad scientist, and even a villain. Mary Shelly created a thematically complex story and that is not lost in del Toro’s version. This movie gets gory and violent at times and it is perfect for a dreary day, a stormy night, or any time you’re in a spooky mood.

Frankenstein is available to stream on Netflix.

Nominees: Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale, Scott Stuber, producers

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro; based on Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz

Production Companies: Double Dare You, Demilo Films, Bluegrass 7

Distributor: Netflix

Release Date: October 17th, 2025

Total Nominations: 9, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Supporting Actor-Jacob Elordi; Adapted Screenplay-Guillermo del Toro; Cinematography-Dan Laustsen; Production Design-Tamara Deverell (production designer), Shane Vieau (set decorator); Costume Design-Kate Hawley; Makeup and Hairstyling-Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, Cliona Furey; Original Score-Alexandre Desplat; Sound-Greg Chapman, Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira, Christian T. Cooke, Brad Zoern

Best Pictures #120: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Bugonia

by A.J.

Best Pictures #120: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Bugonia

"Trust me. I've done a shit-ton of research on this."

I suffer from two compulsions: 1) I must watch every Best Picture Oscar nominee and 2) I have to watch everything Emma Stone is in. This year my dual afflictions converged with disappointing results. Bugonia has a premise that sounds intriguing but could potentially turn grim: Two cousins kidnap the CEO of a pharmaceutical company believing her to be an alien from the Andromeda galaxy here to destroy humankind. They have only four days–when they believe the mother ship will arrive–to force her to confess and cooperate. She tries to reason with them and convince them that she is not an alien. This is a science fiction premise but Bugonia is not a science fiction movie, not really. There are elements that resemble a horror movie, especially with how graphically violent it gets, but it is not a horror movie. I suppose genre-wise it is a thriller. It should be a psychological thriller, but it is not. It has some dark and awkward humor, but this is not a comedy or a satire. The only thing Bugonia is for certain is joyless and disappointing. 

Emma Stone, in her fourth collaboration with Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, plays Michelle, the seemingly progressive CEO of a pharmaceutical company who uses lots of placating buzzwords and phrases (like “changing the culture” and “diversity”) and says that the staff does not need to stay after 5:30...unless they have work to finish. Jesse Plemons plays Teddy, a low level wage worker at the company, whose mother is in a hospital dying, he believes, because of the company and the nefarious alien plan. Teddy recruits the help of his cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis), who is reluctant but does not want to disappoint his cousin. Teddy is the ultimate example of a conspiracy theorist. He's done his own research online. He knows how to tell the signs of an alien, like narrow feet. He has created a model of what the alien ship probably looks like. Certain things he says lead us to believe that he has probably done this kidnapping and interrogation/torture before. 

Bugonia seems like it is going to tackle sociopolitical issues, perhaps even satirize them, or perhaps bring them up just to be provocative. The disappointment of Bugonia is that it doesn't do much of anything; it does not even offend. It seems that Teddy's suspicions of Michelle could be rooted in that she is at the top of the food chain at the company he feels has exploited his labor and his mother's health. His suspicions could also be rooted in misogyny; Teddy convinces Don that they need to chemically castrate themselves before confronting Michelle to protect themselves from attempts at seduction. Teddy's plan is to have Michelle admit that she is an alien and then take him to the alien mother ship so he can negotiate with the alien leaders the withdrawal of secret aliens from earth. Why would they negotiate with him? Does it have to do with the delusions of grandeur and unappreciated importance that are part of believing a conspiracy theory, that your secret knowledge actually makes you special and important and significant? None of this matters because the question of whether she is an alien or not is answered definitively without any room for ambiguity. One might expect that with this are-they-or-aren’t-they premise there would be disappointment no matter what. Some viewers would prefer certainty, some would prefer ambiguity. The main thing Bugonia does, even after it answers the alien question, is bide its time until the final minutes, which are the only thing that the movie and director Lanthimos really cares about.

The best thing, honestly the only good and enjoyable thing, about Bugonia is the performances by Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. Stone received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance (her 4th Best Actress nomination, two of which she has won; her 5th total acting nomination when you count her Supporting Actress nomination for Birdman) and though I am a fan, I have to admit that I am perplexed and disappointed by the performances the Academy chooses to recognize, Bugonia included. Jesse Plemons, who was not Oscar nominated, has the real stand out performance. He elicits almost every possible reaction as his character is villainous, crazed, sympathetic, lost, over confident, and insecure. The film’s awkward sense of humor comes mainly from Plemons. Early on in her captivity, Michelle says that she wants to have a dialogue. Teddy responds that this is not Death of a Salesman. Plemons and Stone are great facing off against each other. Honestly I would rather watch them in Death of a Salesman or something similar. 

That line shutting down having a dialogue really hits at the heart of the film. In Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis, the protagonist, Caesar Catalina (Adam Driver), declares that "We are in need of a great debate about the future." Yorgos Lanthimos does not want to have a debate or dialogue about the future or how or if people can or should change. In all of his films he has a dour outlook of humanity at large and of what particular people deserve. Here, that message is as blunt as possible.

I despised Adam McKay's doomsday film Don't Look Up, a 2021 Best Picture nominee, which used one apocalyptic disaster (planet killing meteor impact) as a metaphor for another (climate change) while blaming the audience for not caring and dooming the earth. Yet, I can see how that film could have been meant as a non-sugarcoated wake up call to change. The final moments of this film are not meant to serve as a call to change; they are not meant to shock the audience into rethinking things. They are simply drawn out, indulgent images of doom and gloom. 

The Korean film Save the Green Planet! on which Bugonia is based–not that Bugonia wants you know, as the credit for this is hidden in small font well into the closing credits–has the same conclusion but apparently different final imagery perhaps meant to be something more than a kick in the crotch or Nelson Muntz (of The Simpsons) "ha-ha" at the audience. There are good, even great movies, that have bummer endings. But those enhance the story and how it affects the audience. They linger in the mind and spark thoughts and conversations and debates. This movie sparks nothing. It is not misogynist or anti-capitalist, or woke or anti-woke, or even cynical. It is nihilistic but it is like the nihilists in The Big Lebowski who are kind of annoying and then run away after a minor scuffle. I can't even be mad at this movie because it amounts to such a nothing. This might be the first time that my reaction to a movie was to think of a bible quote (appropriately enough from Revelation): “So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

Bugonia is available to stream on Peacock.

Nominees: Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Lars Knudsen, producers

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Screenplay: Will Tracy; based on the film Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan

Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis

Production Companies: Element Pictures, Square Peg, CJ ENM, Pith, Fruit Tree Enterprises

Distributor: Focus Features

Release Date: October 24th, 2025

Total Nominations: 4, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actress-Emma Stone; Adapted Screenplay-Will Tracy; Original Score-Jerskin Fendrix

Best Pictures #119: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: F1

 by A.J.

Best Pictures #119: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

F1

“When I said I like straight talk, I meant me. From others, I prefer mostly praise, flattery, idolatry. Sometimes, even gibberish.

Nearly everything about F1 feels familiar. It follows the basic formula of a washed up veteran getting a second chance, being at odds with the younger hot-shot, defying expectations, and wowing everyone. It also follows the basic formula not just of other racing movies, but sports movies in general: the underdogs with no chance think outside the box to overcome the odds. Following a formula isn't necessarily a bad thing; it is relying only on the formula, using it as a crutch, that gets a movie in trouble. The familiarity of the plot, structure, and character types are the chassis upon which the expert direction of Joseph Kosinski and a great Brad Pitt performance have their fun. This movie does not reinvent anything about its genre or subgenres; it does not aim to do that. Like Kosinski’s previous film, the spectacular 2022 Best Picture Oscar nominee Top Gun Maverick, it makes the most of the familiar. 

Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a dedicated racecar driver, who is not so much of a has-been as a never-was. A prologue shows that he is clearly a good driver, with little patience for anyone who isn't as dedicated to his sport as he is, but after winning the 24 Hours of Daytona race, and being offered a permanent spot on the team, he moves on. This is when an old friend, Ruben (Javier Bardem), appears right on cue to ask Sonny to join his failing Formula 1 team and turn things around. Bardem's team is performing so badly that if they cannot win at least one of the remaining races of the season then "the board" will sell the team. Sonny isn't sure about the offer because dramatic structure dictates that the hero must first refuse the call to action, but then he turns up in London to race in F1 for the first time since he crashed and burned 30 years ago.

Charm goes a long way in this movie. Damson Idris as Sonny’s new teammate, Joshua, is quite good at playing the young hot shot seeking fame and fortune. Idris is charming enough even though his character is at times more concerned with building a social media following, as advised by his cousin/manager Cashman, nice comic relief by Samson Kayo. The screenplay by Ehren Kruger gives little more to Joshua than the usual just-trying-to-win-money-to-take-care-of-my-mom motivation, but Idris makes the most of it. Pitt's charm might as well be the industrial strength garment rack on which everything that is not dazzling racing hangs. We've seen his character type before, but the smart, even clever, touch is that Sonny is willing to do whatever it takes to win even if that means playing the supporting role so the team can win. The twist is that he is a team player. He uses his reputation for wrecklessness and being a wild card to draw the attention of the other drivers to him, allowing Joshua to move closer and closer to first position. The frustrating part of the movie, and Sonny, is that he doesn't share this plan with anyone beforehand. His strategy is meant to be a revelation but that is only because he doesn't tell anyone. 

The race announcers have the thankless task of explaining the basics of F1 racing (what is allowed, expected, unexpected) and also being exposition machines. As someone who knows nothing about professional racing, I found this helpful but annoying because I knew I was being spoonfed information. The commentators never talk about the other drivers or teams, so it just comes across as weird that they only talk about Sonny and his backstory and the stakes for his team. 

The weakest part of F1 is its screenplay which does not give the actors much to work with and over emphasizes “the stakes” (that the team will be sold if it doesn't win). The problem is that “stakes” only matter to studio executives who think audiences will only care about a story if something big is on the line. The truth is we just want to see Brad Pitt be charming, play a character who's good at what they do, and see exciting races. On that front F1 delivers. Kosinski and cinematographer Claudio Miranda apply some of the same techniques to racing as they did to flight in Top Gun Maverick (cameras are mounted on the F1 cars, POV shots put us in the driver's seat) to great effect. The sound design is magnificent, even on simple TV speakers: the zipping of the cars, the high pitched roar of the F1 engines, the rumble of tires all enhance the experience of the racing scenes.

As for the performances, if anyone is impressive it is because of what they bring to the role, not the role itself. The screenplay includes such clunky lines of dialogue like, "So how does one get to be the first female technical director of an F1 team?" which Pitt does his best to deliver as an almost joke to his love interest Kate (Kerry Condon). She brings depth to her character more with how she plays her than anything in her familiar backstory. Sonny's dialogue varies from simple but effective (“Hope is not a strategy!”) to wry comments to an inarticulate speech about why he loves racing. Nevertheless, through peaks and valleys, Pitt makes the most of it. Like Sonny, he is doing the best with what he was given. 

It is no surprise that F1 got Oscar nominations for sound, editing, and visual effects, (the cinematography went surprisingly unnominated) but its Best Picture nomination came as a big surprise to me. Perhaps I should have seen it coming since the Academy Awards seems to love racing movies, like the 2019 Best Picture nominee Ford v Ferrari. That movie was derisively categorized as a "Dad movie" and many critics and commentators want to lump F1 into that nebulous sub-genre. However, F1 has a slick, polished veneer that skews towards a different and wider audience. I'm sure dads will like this movie, I know I did, and should you come across it, you'll have a good time too.

F1 is available on AppleTV+.

Nominees: Chad Oman, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Joseph Kosinski, Jerry Bruckheimer, producers

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Screenplay: Ehren Kruger; story by Joseph Kosinski, Ehren Kruger

Cast: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Javier Bardem, Kerry Condon

Production Companies: Apple Studios, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Plan B Entertainment, Monolith Pictures, Dawn Apollo Films

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures, Apple Original Films

Release Date: June 27th, 2025

Total Nominations: 4, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Editing-Stephen Mirrione; Sound-Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo, Juan Peralta; Visual Effects-Ryan Tudhope, Nicolas Chevallier, Robert Harrington, Keith Dawson