Best Pictures #127: 2025 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: One Battle After Another

by A.J. 

Best Pictures #127: 2025 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

One Battle After Another

“Do the revolution, baby. Go do it.”

At first glance One Battle After Another can seem like an intimidating film. Certain images and plot points seem like they have been ripped from the headlines and reflect current news coverage almost too strongly. The plot is serious but the main character is out of his depth to a comedic but frightening degree. There is also the lengthy runtime of 2hours 42 minutes. Yet, from the first shot to the last, master filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson has crafted a thoroughly engrossing and captivating one of a kind film. This is an action movie, a satire, a thriller, a family drama, a comedy, a chase movie. It received an impressive 13 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director, and Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, and is indeed a most Oscar worthy movie. 

The runtime is long but need not be intimidating. The first 30 minutes breeze by like the first 10 minutes of most other movies. This is all the more impressive since so much information is clearly and cleanly delivered without feeling rushed. This steady pace continues throughout the rest of the movie. The Best Editing nomination for Andy Jurgensen is certainly deserved. The shifts in tone may sound jarring–one scene will be serious and tense, another will be slapstick comedy–but they are never abrupt or take you out of the experience. No scene or character feels out of place because this was meant to be a strange movie. 

Plotwise and character-wise there is a lot to unpack, but nothing is ever hard to follow. From what I understand, Anderson’s screenplay is only loosely based on the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland, about a group of Nixon-era radicals dealing with living in the Reagan-era. Anderson moves the story to a time resembling the present day, even when the story jumps forward 16 years; it’s worth noting that no specific year is ever given. In the world of this movie, the military seems to be the police or the police have been so militarized that there is no difference. The branch of the military that the villain, Col. Stephen J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn, in one of his best performances), belongs to is never stated. He uses all the resources at his disposal, including unnecessary immigrant raids and inciting a riot, to pursue a personal vendetta against the main characters and secure a place in the secret right-wing white supremacist cabal that runs the country and calls themselves the Christmas Adventurers Club. They greet each other by saying “Hail Saint Nick.” Again, this movie is meant to be strange.

Lockjaw’s vendetta stems from his hate and desire for a member of the revolutionary group The French 75 named Perfidia Beverly Hills (Supporting Actress nominee Teyana Taylor in an extremely memorable but brief performance). After she disappears, Lockjaw then pursues her romantic partner, who now goes by Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) and spends his days getting stoned and watching old movies, and Perfidia’s now teenage daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), who thinks her dad’s talk about secret codes and surveillance is just paranoia. Lockjaw swoops in, Willa goes on the run, and Bob has to spring back into action, but the springs are 50 years old and very rusty.  

Leonardo DiCaprio is great at playing a dad, especially the type that thinks they are the “cool dad.” One of the funniest scenes of any movie from last year is Bob grilling Willa’s friends who stop by to take her to the school dance; the way he calls one of them “homie” is comedic gold. I think the one quick moment that best encapsulates his character is when he greets a group of Hispanics not with hello but with a very earnest, “Viva Zapata.” Maybe the biggest hurdle Bob faces is remembering the password to get the location of the rendezvous point from the annoying and obdurate revolutionary hotline operator.  His main ally, and in many ways the secret hero of the movie, is Sensei Sergio (Benicio Del Toro), whose unshakable calmness is a much needed counterpoint to Bob’s franticness and is very funny in its own way. 

For some viewers and critics this movie is too political, for others it is not political enough. There are no didactic scenes or speeches. Anderson’s screenplay makes no attempt to solve the issues and political situations that force the characters into their positions. Such an attempt would be reductive to the real world issues the movie mirrors and come across as foolish, no matter how sincere. The core of the story is a parent trying to protect their child. The main theme, which again is never stated, is that the good fight is never done. These are the things that will give One Battle After Another a lasting resonance beyond the current time.  

The look of the movie is absolutely fantastic with Oscar nominated cinematography by Michael Bauman. Two sequences in particular stand out. The first is the nighttime run across rooftops of Bob and a group of Hispanic teenagers as they are lit by fiery chaos below. The second is the climactic car chase over the sharp hills of a lonely stretch of desert road. This is one of the best photographed scenes of action in years (maybe only Top Gun: Maverick comes close in comparison). 

With Hard Eight and Punch Drunk Love being the (still superb) exceptions, Paul Thomas Anderson always finds a way to give his movies a sprawling epic feel. No matter the story or the setting, his films do not unfold the way you might expect. Also, no matter the story or setting, he finds humor in the most unlikely scenarios, which goes a long way to making his films approachable and entertaining. I’m not sure where I would rank One Battle After Another in Anderson’s filmography, but among the movies of 2025 it ranks at the top. 

One Battle After Another is available to stream on HBOmax.

Nominees: Adam Somner, Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson, producers Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti Production Companies: Warner Bros. Pictures, Ghoulardi Film Company Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures Release Date: September 26th, 2025 Total Nominations: 13, including Best Picture Other Nominations: Actor-Leonardo DiCaprio; Director-Paul Thomas Anderson; Supporting Actor-Benicio Del Toro; Supporting Actor-Sean Penn; Supporting Actress-Teyana Taylor; Adapted Screenplay-Paul Thomas Anderson; Cinematography-Michael Bauman; Production Design Florencia Martin (production designer), Anthony Carlino (set decorator); Editing-Andy Jurgensen; Original Score-Jonny Greenwood; Sound-José Antonio García, Christopher Scarabosio, Tony Villaflor; Casting-Cassandra Kulukundis

My Top 10 Movies of 2023

by A.J. 

For me, the Academy Awards marks the end of the movie year. It took me a while to see everything in my watchlist, but there's just enough time left to present my list of the best movies of 2023.

My Top 10 Movies of 2023

1. Oppenheimer

It should be a history lesson or another by the numbers biopic, but in the hands of Christopher Nolan, who is proving himself to be a master filmmaker, this is a rare blend of entertainment and art and is the best movie of 2023. 

2. Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese made one of the best movies of [insert whatever year] to the surprise of no one. The skill at work once again proves he is a master and his depiction of the terrible crimes against the Osage makes for a difficult but powerful film. 

3. Barbie

The Barbie movie didn't have to be sharp satire about gender issues with emotional character arc for Barbie and Ken, but is and it also tremendous fun and a genuinely great movie. 

4. Past Lives

A gentle and moving story about relationships and more importantly connections. 

5. American Fiction

A very smart comedy and fun satire grounded by a relatable family story. 

6. Bottoms

Absurd. Ridiculous. Hilarious. This manages to be both a parody of high school/teen movies but also a good high school teen movie. The leads have great chemistry and are very good (maybe even too good) at playing teenagers.

7. The Taste of Things

From France. This is a gentle and lovely film about the joy of cooking, the joy of friends, the joy of lovers, the joy of life.

8. Godzilla Minus One

Maybe the best Godzilla movie ever? The human characters are great and Godzilla is scary, probably the scariest he's ever been.

9. You Hurt My Feelings

Nicole Holofcener's great comedy about an author who accidentally finds out what her husband thinks of her latest book. The characters and their problems feel realistic even though they come across as silly too. 

10. Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part One

The action is great, of course, especially the climax on a runaway train and of the very high quality we've come to expect from Tom Cruise and these movies. 

Best Pictures #91: 2022 (95th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Top Gun: Maverick

by A.J.

Best Pictures #91: 2022 (95th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Top Gun: Maverick

“You’ve been called back to Top Gun.”

I was skeptical, more than skeptical actually, about a sequel to Top Gun thirty-six years later. Even though I enjoy the original very much, and am a big Tom Cruise fan, I was flat out dismissive after seeing the trailer. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel that no one asked for, is not just a fantastic, entertaining summer action movie, it is a masterfully crafted, exciting, and fun movie that every big budget action movie should strive to be like. If it was released in the 1980’s or 90’s this might be just another action movie, but in 2022, Tom Cruise, as star and producer, and director Joseph Kosinski have created a dazzling technical achievement, a thrilling entertainment, and something truly special. 

After his program testing experimental supersonic jets is shut down in favor of a drone program, Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is called back to the Navy’s elite pilot training program known as Top Gun. However, Maverick won’t just be teaching young pilots, he will be training them for an almost impossible mission deep in enemy territory. Like the first Top Gun movie, the “enemy” is never specified or seen up close. Like the first Top Gun, this film can be seen as patriotic Navy propaganda or an elaborate recruitment video. However, like the first movie, Top Gun: Maverick is neither political nor mindless. It is a thrill ride with enough sense to allow room for characters to grow and even emotions to build. 

This older version of Maverick is a more mature character, deeply informed by the tragedy in his past, the death of his best friend and F-14 Tomcat partner, Goose (played by Anthony Edwards in Top Gun). Maverick is concerned with the safety of his students, but not his own. It is interesting to note that in Top Gun, characters are referred to almost exclusively by their call signs. Before watching the sequel I could not have guessed Maverick's real name. In Top Gun: Maverick, he is called Pete more than a few times. In the training scenes and in the air, Tom Cruise shows us Maverick. In the scenes on the ground, in scenes showing concern and vulnerability, Cruise lets us see Pete Mitchell. I’m a huge fan of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible movies, but this movie's Oscar nominated screenplay allows for character driven acting that we haven’t seen from Cruise in a while. 

Jennifer Connolly plays Penny, a divorced mother and owner of a bar in Fighterown, USA, the location in San Diego of the Top Gun training facility. She is also an old flame of Maverick. They reconnect in a pretty amusing scene of him violating her bar policy and having to pay for everyone’s drinks. But there are other scenes where Connolly gets to play a mature character, not just a trophy. These more intimate scenes I enjoyed as much as the rest of the movie. 

The other important relationship for Maverick is with Bradley Bradshaw, callsign Rooster, who is Goose’s son and also a Top Gun pilot. I’ve been no fan of Miles Teller, but he does a fine job as Rooster, the cautious flyer with a chip on his shoulder. Maverick pulled strings to set back Rooster’s career as a Navy pilot to keep him safe. Now, Maverick must decide on sending Rooster on a mission with slim chance for survival. Visually, Teller is essentially cosplaying Anthony Edwards as Goose; his entrance is played on the right side of parody. Character-wise Teller and the screenplay avoid the pitfalls of this kind of character; he never comes across as whiny or over burdened, nor is he simply a rehash of Goose. I would have liked more time with the other new pilots (Hangman played by Glen Powell and Phoenix played by Monica Barbaro) but, as is, they are all the movie needs. 

Maverick’s biggest supporter, and the reason he still has a Navy career, is his old rival turned friend, Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer), now an admiral and commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Iceman is suffering from throat cancer, similar to what Kilmer experienced recently in real life, so he and Maverick communicate via text messages. Kilmer has only one scene where he and Cruise meet face to face and it, like so much of the movie, avoids pitfalls even though it plays out how you might expect. It is a wonderful and emotional character focused scene. 

Top Gun: Maverick received 6 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Original Song for “Hold My Hand” by Lady Gaga and Bloodpop, Visual Effects, Sound, and Editing. Curiously absent is a nomination for the outstanding cinematography by Claudio Miranda. It is not just that there are great landscapes captured from the air by zooming jets. New techniques were developed to mount the IMAX quality cameras to the jets and Miranda worked with Sony to develop cameras that would fit inside the F-18s. This thrilling point of view footage combined with the excellent and rightfully nominated sound design really make you feel like you are in the jets, flying at supersonic speeds, trying not to blackout as the jets and pilots are pushed to their limits. Cruise made it well known that this movie used real jets and real G-forces and not only did I feel that in the theater, I even felt it watching at home on my regular TV with a regular sound set up. The cinematography and sound and editing and visual effects do more than just create thrills; they effectively convey the danger facing the pilots, which enhances the drama, which in turn adds another layer of substance. 

The references to the first Top Gun are more than just pandering winks and nods. Miles Teller plays “Great Balls of Fire” on a bar piano just like Anthony Edwards did in Top Gun, but this segues to a flashback to the first movie that builds drama while also functioning as exposition. The ending feels contrived but action movies, like horror movies, don’t have to be realistic, they just have to be good and Top Gun: Maverick is the best of the best. 

Nominees: Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison, Jerry Bruckheimer, producers

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Screenplay: Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks; based on characters created by Jim Cash & Jack Epps Jr.

Cast: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connolly, Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Val Kilmer

Production Companies: Paramount Pictures, Skydance, TC Productions, Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Release Date: May 27th, 2022

Total Nominations: 6, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Adapted Screenplay-Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie, Peter Craig, Justin Marks; Editing-Eddie Hamilton; Original Song-Lady Gaga, BloodPop for "Hold My Hand"; Sound-Mark Weingarten, James Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor; Visual Effects-Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson, Scott R. Fisher

Best Pictures #71: 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Promising Young Woman

by A.J. 

Best Pictures #71: 2020 (93^rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Promising Young Woman

“No use hiding from the piper.”

Promising Young Woman is the rare kind of movie that remains engrossing and even exciting in its more uncomfortable moments, of which there are many. Revenge movies are intertwined with, and can’t help but exploit, violence in one way or another: tragic violence leads to righteous violence. As the premise for an action movie, they are usually pretty entertaining. For the icky and loathsome rape/revenge subgenre, the result, more often than not, is usually grim and joyless. However, the debut film from writer-director Emerald Fennell is a different kind of revenge movie; in fact, it is a different kind of movie all around. To describe this film as simply a revenge picture, or a dark comedy, or a social issue movie, or a thriller would be a disservice. It is all those things and more, much more. Just like its main character, Promising Young Woman plays with expectations to great effect. This is is easily one of the best films of 2020.

Carey Mulligan gives an absolutely incredible performance as Cassie, a 30-year-old medical school dropout with a peculiar hobby. On certain nights she dons a completely out of character outfit, goes out to a club or bar, and pretends to be falling down drunk. Without fail, a man will offer to take her home… or back to their place. Once they are alone and the man begins to take advantage of the nearly passed out Cassie, she reveals that she is not drunk at all. They have been caught, and what she does next is not what you might expect. 

The movie becomes something really special when the revenge plot kicks in. A chance meeting with someone from her medical school days spurs Cassie to give certain people from her past their overdue comeuppance for an ignored crime. The film reveals slowly, piece by piece, the events in Cassie’s past that set her on her current path. Fennell’s screenplay spares us flashbacks or exposition dumps. Cassie becomes more and more layered with each bit of information revealed and Mulligan’s performance becomes more complex and interesting as well. Cassie goes to some dark places and does unlikeable things, but Mulligan always holds our interest if not our sympathy. As smart as I think Fennell’s screenplay and direction are, I also think that Promising Young Woman does not work without Carey Mulligan. Her Best Actress Oscar nomination is well deserved.

Cassie’s revenge targets are numbered, literally, with roman numerals. You might be reminded of The Bride’s list of revenge targets in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill or The Bride’s list of revenge targets in François Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black. While those women only had murder on their minds, Cassie’s revenge for her targets is far less violent, but far more devastating. Cassie’s goal is not what you would expect from decades of movies in which a woman is wronged or abused, toughens up, then has a physically violent revenge. What happens in Promising Young Woman is so much more interesting and, in many ways, more disturbing.

Promising Young Woman’s valid commentary on rape culture and those that participate in it or look the other way and society’s attitudes towards the abuse of women is so interwoven into the story that the film never feels didactic. Even in its darkest moments, Promising Young Woman is never dour or grim or dreadful. There are great moments of tension and unease and it has difficult scenes and difficult characters, but the film itself is not difficult to watch. As Roger Ebert would say, “no good movie is depressing.” There are moments of comedy, both light and dark, that break some of the tension and offer some relief but they also enhance the tone of the scenes. It is a delicate balance but well executed. The shifts from light to dark, comedy to drama, are stealthy and believable thanks to Fennell’s deft direction. Her sharp and clever screenplay takes turns and then turns again and every turn is challenging and intriguing. Fennell's Oscar nominations for Best Director and Original Screenplay are very well deserved. It is impressive and wonderful that everything in Promising Young Woman works as well as it does. I wish more movies were this daring and inventive.

Nominees: Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell, Josey McNamara, producers

Director: Emerald Fennell

Screenplay: Emerald Fennell

Cast: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Allison Brie

Production Companies: FilmNation Entertainment, LuckyChap Entertainment

Distributor: Focus Features

Release Date: December 25th, 2020

Total Nominations: 5, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actress-Carey Mulligan; Director-Emerald Fennell; Original Screenplay-Emerald Fennell; Editing-Frédéric Thoraval

Best Pictures #63: 2019 (92nd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: The Irishman (I Heard You Paint Houses)

by A.J.

Best Pictures #63 
2019 (92^nd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

The Irishman (I HeardYou Paint Houses)

“It’s what it is.”

Things aren’t stated directly in the mafia. They use codes and euphemisms but everyone involved understands clearly. So, when mob hitman Frank Sheeran is told by his boss and longtime friend, Russell Bufalino, “It’s what it is” about Frank’s other longtime friend and mentor, Jimmy Hoffa, his heart crumbles.  Those words signal a point of no return for everyone involved and set into motion the final hour of Martin Scorsese’s I Heard You Paint Houses, or, The Irishman. It is also the most poignant and compelling hour of filmmaking of any film I saw from 2019. The proceeding two and a half hours, also excellently done, bring the total runtime to 3hours 29minutes. This is Scorsese’s longest film, and, also, one of the best films in the career of one of, if not the, greatest living film directors.

We learn from an elderly Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), narrating his life story from a nursing home, that a “house painter” is mafia code for a hit man. De Niro’s narration is quiet and full of reflection and regret. He isn’t narrating so much as confessing. He tells an unseen listener about a road trip he and Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) took with their wives to attend a wedding, but the real reason for the road trip was “business.” The story of the road trip acts a spring board to flashback to the 1950’s when Frank went from a union truck driver looking to make extra money to a “house painter” to bodyguard and friend of Teamsters Union president, Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino).

The screenplay, adapted by Steve Zaillian from the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, allows the characters to build their personalities and inner lives through small moments like conversations in cars or restaurants. The back and forth between the actors bring the characters and the movie to life. There are several scenes that are as tense as they are entertaining, especially Hoffa’s meeting with a rival in the teamsters, who arrives late and wearing shorts. It’s the kind of scene that Scorsese specializes in.

De Niro gives one of his best and most “Robert DeNiro” performances. Narration aside, he says as little as he can with as few words as he can, even then stammering over phrases. Emotion is just below the surface of a quiet, stony exterior. Joe Pesci comes out of retirement to give one of his best and most unexpected performances. Unlike the hot head tough guy characters he is most famous for, Pesci as Bufalino is a calm tough guy. He never has an outburst or raises his voice but his aura is no less intimidating. Here, Pesci tries to mediates potentially violent situations. He asks an agitated Hoffa if there’s “another reason” for his actions in such a calm and inoffensive tone you get the feeling that Pesci’s version of Bufalino would have been a good therapist or marriage counselor. Al Pacino is over the top as Jimmy Hoffa but his acting style works because the real-life Hoffa was an outspoken, flamboyant, larger than life personality (Jack Nicholson’s performance as Hoffa in Danny DeVito’s film, Hoffa, is among his most ostentatious). Harvey Keitel, who starred in Scorsese’s first film has a small part as the mafia boss, Angelo Bruno. He sits like a king in his restaurant booth exuding a cool but threatening presence.

The digital de-aging of the actors to make them look up to 30 years younger than their actual ages works well enough; it helps that their ages are never specified. As an effect, the de-aging is far from convincing but not very distracting, except for one shot where young Joe Pesci’s face appears to be floating over his body. The overall effect, however, is no different than dying their hair darker. However, the performances do feel richer for having the same actors in the same roles throughout the film.

Films like Mean Streets, Goodfellas, and Casino (featuring Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci) have made Scorsese synonymous with the modern gangster picture. Each of those films glamorized the criminal life to a certain extent to show its insidious appeal. There is not a bit of glamour to be found in The Irishman. There is no luxury or appeal to Frank’s lifestyle. When not carrying out hits or driving a truck across the country, he acts as a go-between for Hoffa and the mob bosses trying to diffuse potentially dangerous situations.

The Irishman is an epic film. It sprawls not over picturesque landscapes but a life in crime. It feels episodic, any complete life story would, but it flows smoothly. The doo-wop song “In the Still of the Night” by The Five Satins opens the film and plays more like a dirge than a pop song. It sets the tone for the film perfectly. The brilliant score by Robbie Robertson feels like it grew out of the film’s contemplative, somber tone. This story explores what it means to survive a life of crime and what it leaves a person with. Frank entered the criminal world to make more money to take care of his family, but there are tellingly few scenes of Frank with his family. What was it all for?

This is a long movie and it feels like a long movie—I won’t argue that—but it is also thoroughly engrossing. I was completely immersed in these lives and this world without ever wanting to be a part of them. The first two-thirds of the film builds up emotions so subtly that you are taken by surprise and overwhelmed when those emotions come into play in the final act. When Frank and Bufalino go to prison, the film doesn’t jump over their sentence, we stay with them. Scorsese knows that the real power of this story is to stay with Frank as an old man instead of using a montage or epilogue cards. This biopic of Frank Sheeren is a sad, tragic movie, but it is so well executed cinematically and emotionally that it is a joy to watch. I was reminded of a quote from the great critic Roger Ebert, “No great movie is depressing. All bad movies are depressing”

Nominees: Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, Emma Tillinger Koskoff

Director: Martin Scorsese

Screenplay: Steven Zaillian, based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt

Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci

Production Companies: TriBeCa Productions, Sikelia Productions, Winkler Films

Distributor: Netflix

Release Date: November 1^st, 2019

Total Nominations:10, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Director-Martin Scorsese; Supporting Actor-Al Pacino; Supporting Actor-Joe Pesci; Adapted Screenplay-Steven Zaillian; Cinematography-Rodrigo Prieto; Costume Design-Christopher Peterson, Sandy Powell; Production Design-Bob Shaw, Regina Graves; Film Editing-Thelma Schoonmaker; Visual Effects-Pablo Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Nelson Sepulveda, Stephane Grabli

Best Pictures #54: 2018 (91st) Academy Awards: My Pick for Best Picture

by A.J.

Best Pictures #54: 2018 (91st) Academy Awards

My Pick for Best Picture

The 91st Academy Awards for films released in 2018 was held on February 24th, 2019 and will be remembered as the year that the Academy tried to change things up to reach a larger audience. In order to boost ratings (even though the Oscars are the highest rated non-sports event on TV), the Academy and Oscars telecast producers proposed ideas such as cutting out performances by the Original Song nominees, giving out awards during commercial breaks, and, most notoriously, adding the category of Best Popular Film. After massive backlash from people in the film industry and Oscar fans, all of these decisions were rolled back. Actor-comedian Kevin Hart was set to host, but he and the Academy caught heat for Hart's years old homophobic jokes on Twitter. The Academy wanted Hart to formally apologize, Hart refused, and dropped out as the host. So, the Oscars would air without a host for the first time since 1989. The final hiccup for the telecast happened when, after announcing that all of the Original Song nominees would perform, Kendrick Lamar announced just days before the ceremony that he would not be performing "All the Stars" from Black Panther. 

The ceremony itself was no more or less eventful than previous ceremonies with hosts (excluding the year the wrong movie was read for Best Picture). Queen (with Adam Lambert singing) opened the show, presenters had mostly amusing banter, and, of course, eye-catching gowns and dresses. Alfonso Cuaron won his second Oscar for Best Director and, as a fan and Latin/Hispanic person, his award had a special meaning for me. In 2013 (Cuaron's Gravity), 2014 (Inarritu's Birdman), 2015 (Inarritu's The Revenant), 2017 (Del Toro's The Shape of Water), and now 2019 (Cuaron's Roma) the winner of the Best Director award has been a Mexican filmmaker. Glenn Close was the odds-on favorite to take home Best Actress, but The Favourite's Olivia Colman took home the award and no doubt upset the ballots of people trying to win their Oscar pools. My ballot was thrown off too, but I was very happy she won. Spike Lee finally won an Oscar for his work on BlacKkKlansman's adapted screenplay. Samuel L. Jackson, who presented Lee with the award, was almost as excited as Spike Lee, who jumped and hugged his friend. 

Samuel L. Jackson's reaction to Green Book winning Best Original Screenplay could not have been more radically different; he stuttered over the names of the winners as he did a double take in disbelief. This was the reaction had by everyone at my Oscar party when Green Book won Best Picture. After a progressive step forward last year with the unconventional The Shape of Water as Best Picture, the Academy took a giant leap backwards by giving Best Picture to a mediocre, bland, conventional, and unchallenging movie like Green Book. Green Book will now have the distinction of joining Crash and The Greatest Show on Earth as one of the worst films to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. If ever there was a year that made the case for going back to just five Best Picture nominees, this was that year. Of the eight nominees, there were five solid, quality pictures (Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, Roma, and A Star is Born) and three that belonged nowhere near any conversation about the best movies of the year (Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book, Vice). Of those five quality pictures, there is one for me that stands out as the actual best picture of 2018.

My Pick for Best Picture of 2018: A Star is Born 

Long before the fourth version of A Star is Born hit theaters, critics were singing its praises and raving about it non-stop. This always makes me skeptical about a movie. By the time a regular filmgoer like me gets to see the movie, will it be hyped out? Were the critics suffering from a bad case of festival fever (liking a movie too much because you saw it before anyone else)? In the case of La La Land: yes. A Star is Born, however, completely justifies the praise it has received. No other movie in 2018, not even Roma, affected me quite like the characters and pathos in Bradley Cooper's A Star is Born. I have no doubt that this was a passion project for Cooper; you can tell that care and thought went into every scene. While I'm happy Alfonso Cuaron won Best Cinematography for his excellent work in Roma, I would have given that award to Matthew Libatique for A Star is Born. Consider the image of Jackson performing "Pretty Woman" while extremely drunk. The camera sways slightly, but the angle is canted so we see him from below, cast in shadow and harsh stage lights, while the rest of the musicians wait anxiously for him to play the opening riff. The image of Cooper, head tilted down, wearing a cowboy hat and suit accompanied by his badass distorted electric guitar should be a very cool image. Instead this is one of the most tense moments in the movie. From the choice of angle and the lighting, you feel that he may fall flat to the floor (and on top of you) at any moment. It is thoughtful cinematic touches like this that work on a subconscious level that set Cooper's A Star is Born apart from not only its predecessors, but, for me, every other film in 2018.

A.J.'s Top 10 Movies of 2016

by A.J.

January is the time to catch up on all the movies that were released at the very end of the last year to qualify for the Academy Awards. Now that it is February, I've (mostly) caught up. This year, the Academy nominated nine films for Best Picture of 2016, but there were 10 movies from last year that I found exceptionally entertaining.

10. Hell or High Water

Hell or High Water is a modern day western about a pair of bank robbers and the lawman pursuing them. This movie has great cinematography of the Texas plains, great performances, and a screenplay that divides our sympathies between both cops and robbers. It doesn’t reinvent or shake up the genre, but it doesn’t need to, it’s executed extremely well.

9. The Witch

Released in the first half of 2016, The Witch is the story of an isolated family living in colonial America being menaced by seemingly supernatural events. I recommended this film a lot during Shocktober at the video store and wrote about it for 13 Nights of Shocktober 2016.

8. Hunt for the Wilderpeople

In New Zealand, a delinquent young boy, Ricky, is sent to live with a kind woman named Bella, and her husband, Hec, a gruff, grumpy outdoorsman (played by Sam Neill). After Bella dies suddenly, Ricky is scheduled to go back into the state foster system, but he and Hec go on the run and live in the wilderness while evading the authorities. This is a wonderful, sweet, and charming movie with a broad, offbeat sense of humor. Written and directed by Taika Waititi, who co-wrote and directed the hilarious What We Do In the Shadows, it delivers a fun story that is heartwarming without being saccharine.

7. Zootopia

I wasn’t planning on seeing this Disney animated movie, but I’m very glad I did. Judy Hopps, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, is the first rabbit to be accepted into the Zootopia police force, but she feels underused, stuck on menial traffic duties. She ends up teaming up with a fox conman (confox?) voiced by Jason Bateman to solve a missing persons case that uncovers something more sinister. Zootopia ends up being a film noir that deals with race and gender issues while being a great buddy cop movie. It is also about a young woman that is living on her own for the first time in the big city and has to work 10 times harder to prove everyone’s underestimations of her wrong.

6. Sing Street

Writer-director John Carney, who brought us Once, one of the best films of the last decade with equally fantastic music, has created another non-musical musical set in Ireland and it is an absolute joy. Sing Street is a sincere tribute to 80s new wave music, a genre much looked down on. We follow Conor, who is dealing with his parent’s divorce and starting a new school run by a cruel, petty priest whose discipline is actually bullying. Conor wants to impress the pretty and mysterious Raphina, so he tells her that he’s in a band and asks her to be in their music video. When she accepts, he actually has to form a band, write songs, and make a video. The songs they make are genuinely good and their music videos are amusingly amateurish, but accurately capture the style of professional videos of the era. This movie never laughs at its characters or their ambitions. This is a wonderful coming of age film without a single cynical frame.

5. Arrival

We’ve been lucky enough to have had some excellent science fiction films recently (Interstellar in 2014, and The Martian in 2015 come to mind), and Arrival is among them. Mysterious alien spacecrafts appear at different locations all over the world and a renowned linguist, played by Amy Adams, is brought in by the government to try to communicate with the alien beings. Adams turns in a great performance (entirely deserving of an Oscar nomination that she did not receive) that grounds the entire film in genuine emotion even as it moves into heady sci-fi territory. Even though Arrival does not go out of its way to simplify or explain itself, it never becomes inaccessible and only becomes more intriguing and entertaining as the story unfolds.

1. Four-Way Tie
There were four movies I saw last year that I found so completely wonderful and well-made from beginning to end that I couldn't place them in an order. So, here is my four-way tie for the best movie of 2016.

20^th Century Women

Annette Bening is at the center of this ensemble comedy-drama that is the freshest coming of age film I’ve seen in quite some time. Bening plays a single mother of a 15-year-old son living in Southern California in 1979. She isn’t exactly a hippie parent, but she is certainly nontraditional and open to whatever may be the best way to raise her son. She enlists the help of the motley group of misfits (Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning, Billy Crudup) that lives with them. Each helps in their own way to raise Bening’s son and together form a makeshift family. Each role is well written and well-acted. Director Mike Mills throws in some stylistic touches that not only evoke the era, but also reflects what the characters are experiencing. The best thing about 20th Century Women is that the characters in this movie don’t just feel like people, they feel like people I know.

Jackie

This is not a traditional, by-the-numbers biopic, recreating people and events that we are familiar with as a pageant. Jackie is something far more special and affecting. It is an intimate and emotional glimpse of a woman dealing with tragedy and grief while the public watches. The assassination of JFK was a national tragedy, but it was also a personal tragedy for Jacqueline Kennedy and her family.

While watching Jackie I felt as though this could have been a traditional biopic; it certainly starts that way. Not long after the murder of her husband, Jackie agrees to an exclusive interview, but tells the reporter that this will be her version of the story. However, the approach director Pablo Larrain takes to tell her story, with flashbacks and close ups and the haunting score by Mica Levi, makes this an unconventional movie that avoids biopic clichés. Natalie Portman has the difficult task of portraying the enigmatic First Lady with the unique and distinct voice. Portman more than meets the challenge and is entirely deserving of her Oscar nomination for Best Actress (and she would have my vote). She shows us a woman that at all times projected a persona, both publicly and privately. But more than that, she humanizes a chapter in American history and captures the personal side of a public story.

Love & Friendship

To those people that think costume period pieces or films of Jane Austen books are dull, stuffy, or boring, I suggest they see the incredibly funny and lively Love & Friendship. Based on the early Jane Austen novella, Lady Susan, the story follows the duplicitous Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale), recently widowed, who moves in with her in-laws and begins a hunt for a wealthy husband. Her teenage daughter, after running away from her boarding school, joins her mother at the country estate. This complicates Lady Susan’s plans. Despite her scheming and plotting, Lady Susan remains a likeable character. Beckinsale is able to play Lady Susan as though she unintentionally has good intentions.  

Writer-director Whit Stillman understands the text, the subtext, the period, the characters, and the humor of the source material resulting in a Jane Austen adaptation that feels fresh and offbeat. In short, he is a perfect match for Austen. This film seems to have made critics realize that Stillman’s previous “comedies of manners” are actually modern day Jane Austen stories. I must admit I’m not usually a fan of Kate Beckinsale, mostly because of her choice of films (more Underworld sequels?), but with the right material and the right director (Stillman—see The Last Days of Disco for further proof) she can be an outstanding actress indeed. It may come as a surprise to some, but, yes, Jane Austen is very funny.  

The Nice Guys

If The Nice Guys feels like a throwback to the kind of action-comedies that Hollywood seems to have stopped making, it is likely because it was written and directed by Shane Black who wrote Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and The Long Kiss Goodnight. He’s written and directed the best Marvel movie so far, Iron Man 3, and the underseen but exceptional Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Now he brings us a thoroughly funny and excellently crafted modern film noir. The setting is Southern California in the 1970s and we meet Russell Crowe as a tough guy for hire seeking to improve himself. He reluctantly teams up with Ryan Gosling, a private detective that isn’t quite inept, but is certainly comical, to find a missing young woman. The case, of course, uncovers something far more sinister and complex.

Crowe and Gosling are wonderful as mismatched partners and have great chemistry together. Each turns in their most dynamic performance in years. Crowe excels at playing a tough guy that is actually, well, a nice guy. Gosling shows off his comedic talents, both verbal and physical (one of his best moments is his reaction to finding an open bar). They run into gangsters, shootouts, conspiracy theories and more. The action scenes are well done and pretty violent. The danger these characters find themselves in is real—innocent bystanders are killed by stray bullets—but this is not a dark or cynical movie. The Nice Guys evokes the 1970s while avoiding clichés like packing the soundtrack with hit songs from the era, and the costumes and hairstyles are believable on the cast members. This is a smart movie with a sharp sense of humor that I can't recommend enough.