Best Pictures #118: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Marty Supreme

Best Pictures #118: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Marty Supreme

“I have a purpose. If you think that it's some kind of blessing it's not. It means I have an obligation to see a very specific thing through.”

In 2025 the directorial team of the Safdie brothers (Benny and Josh, whose previous films include much lauded and extremely tense Uncut Gems) each released their solo directorial efforts: Benny with the sports biopic The Smashing Machine and Josh with Marty Supreme, inspired by, but not based on, real life table tennis player Marty Reisman. It would be reductive and inaccurate to call Marty Supreme a sports movie, but like all great sports movies it is not really about the sport. This is a character study equally fascinating and frustrating because while Marty Mauser is very talented at table tennis, his real passion is the next win. This, more than any of the misfortunes and misadventures that Marty encounters, is the great conflict of the movie. Yet, no matter what the Oscar nominated original screenplay by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein throws at Marty, somehow he comes up with a plan and, somehow, no matter how absurd or stressful things get, it is all very entertaining.

Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) is on his way to a stable, average life in New York City in the 1950’s. He works in his uncle’s shoe store and is such a good salesman that he is about to be made manager; but the job is only a way for him to make money to pay his way to compete professionally in the emerging sport of table tennis. Perhaps this is a mild spoiler, but he loses that tournament–he’s quick to blame the type of paddle, not the talent of his opponent–and spends the rest of the movie scheming and hustling to come up with enough money to enter the next global tournament and prove that he really is the best in the world. 

If Marty seems frustrating and annoying that’s because he is, but Chalamet's performance and natural charisma go the distance required to make the character and the movie work. There are three things in Marty’s favor. 1) Chalamet’s screen presence: Marty talks fast and big with a mixture of boasts, lies, and bent truths. Chalamet really makes us feel that the next big, epic win is just around the corner; he just needs to get around the corner first. 2) Chalamet’s youthful look: Marty is 23 and each mistake and misadventure feels like a chance for him to learn something. 3) Marty is genuinely, supremely talented at table-tennis/ping-pong and may actually be the best in the world; the only thing standing in the way of a spot in the professional big time is himself. 

Although, to be fair, not all of the obstacles Marty faces are his own doing. Marty catches the attention of a wealthy businessman Milton Rockwell (Kevin O'Leary, AKA Mr. Wonderful of TV's Shark Tank), who sees the potential for profits in a new field, but wants Marty to take a dive. (Marty’s affair with Rockwell’s wife, Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), a movie star of yesteryear preparing for her stage comeback only sets up more complications and is Marty’s own doing.) A series of random and ridiculous events has Marty looking after and then almost immediately losing a stranger's dog to a deranged farmer who insists the dog is his. Rachel (Odessa A'zion), his now married childhood friend turned lover and mother-to-be of Marty’s child, tries a hustle of her own and gets Marty wrapped up in a dog ransom scheme with violent gangsters. In so many other movies a plotline involving gangsters and a shootout would feel like a contrived way to force action and "raise-the-stakes”–a favorite term of unimaginative studio executives and screenwriting professors. Here, however, it makes eye-rolling sense; of course Marty Mauser would manage to get mixed up with violent gangsters over something like a dog.

Though firmly set in a realistic 1950's, the soundtrack utilizes music from the 1980's and a score evocative of that later time period. This shouldn't work. It should feel like forced retro hipness, but the music choices hit at the core feelings of particular scenes in such a way that it does not matter if the music is period accurate or not; it is emotionally accurate. 

No matter how stressful, frustrating, or absurd the movie gets, it never feels like an assault on the audience or the main character. It feels like we are watching a flawed person deal with their mess instead of watching a fictional character get slapped around for the sake of shock value. Marty Supreme earned an impressive 9 Academy Award nominations, including: Best Picture, Best Actor for Chalamet, Director for Josh Safdie, Original Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, and the brand new Casting category. It may not be my first choice to win any of these categories but it is a worthy film. Marty Supreme is a rare thing these days: a major studio movie for grown ups. 

Nominees: Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein, Eli Bush, Anthony Katagas, Timothée Chalamet, producers

Director: Josh Safdie

Screenplay: Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie

Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary

Production Companies: Central Pictures

Distributor: A24

Release Date: December 25th, 2025

Total Nominations: 9, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actor-Timothée Chalamet; Director-Josh Safdie; Original Screenplay-Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein; Cinematography-Darius Khondji; Editing-Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie; Production Design-Jack Fisk (production designer), Adam Willis (set decorator); Costume Design-Miyako Bellizzi; Casting; Jennifer Venditti

13 Nights of Shocktober: American Psycho (2000)

 by A.J. 

Night 2: Serial Killer Night

This is not an exit.

 

American Psycho

American Psycho is surprisingly watchable (and even rewatchable) and very entertaining given its violence and dark, disturbing subject matter. Like the novel by Brett Easton Ellis, the film drew controversy and protests. Even now it still retains an aura of controversy and danger. The main protests against the novel and film were accusations of misogyny, the scenes of graphic violence against women, and seeming glorification of the lifestyle of the killer. I admit that at first I was surprised when I learned that two women were the principal filmmakers: director Mary Harron and screenwriter-actress Guinevere Turner. However, this makes total sense; only female filmmakers could see completely through the façade of 1980’s Wall Street executive Patrick Bateman and even the writing and opinions of Brett Easton Ellis. They are also not intimidated by Patrick Bateman or the violence and deliver a dark satire of 1980’s consumerism, masculinity, male aggression, and performative conformity. 

This movie is also very funny. There are scenes of humor in the book but the movie’s humor works so well and really comes through because of Mary Harron and Guinivere Turner’s screenplay and the excellent performance of Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman. At different points throughout the 1990’s Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, and Leonardo DiCaprio were interested in playing Patrick Bateman. Bale was Harron’s choice because he seemed to be the only actor who not only saw Patrick Bateman as a pathetic, shallow, and actually dorky character but was willing to play him that way and without an artificial redemption. My favorite comedic touch is the weird hyper dance Bale does while preparing a murder scene and explaining the nuances of Huey Lewis and the News’s “Hip to Be Square.” In a subtle but brilliant choice, the sound of the sword being unsheathed can be heard whenever the Wall Street guys take out their business cards. Bateman proudly explains the minutiae of the front and texture and paper of his card only to be upstaged by his colleagues’ cards. Justin Theroux, playing one of Bateman’s interchangeable colleagues, hesitates to show Bateman the business card of a rival because it is just too great a business card. Of course, all of the cards look the same.

When I say this movie is darkly funny, I don’t mean to suggest that the scenes of violence are funny. These scenes are sometimes elaborate, sometimes cruel, and though very bloody there is never much gore on screen. Whether it is the humorously embarrassing scene of Bateman having a threesome with two sex workers and being more interested in checking himself out in the mirrors or the scene of him killing a homeless man and his dog, there are scenes that will be uncomfortable to watch no matter how many times you watch the movie. Is this a misogynist movie? No. Does it have misogynist characters disgustingly comfortable in their lifestyles? Yes. Maybe the only likable or relatable characters are Matt Ross as Bale’s closested coworker, trying extra hard to fit in with his "macho" co-workers, and Chloe Sevigny as his put upon secretary.

There is a question of whether or not all of the murders are purely in Patrick’s mind. This would explain the logistics of the chainsaw scene. The scene where Patrick is confronted with this possibility is quite cryptic and unsettling. However, the chance that the murders are not real does not make the film any less disturbing or Bateman any less dangerous. Harron and Turner show that the real horror is that Bateman lives in a world where he could kill and get away with it if he wanted; the entire system has been designed to benefit men like him, killers or not. 

American Psycho is a great movie but it is also an uncomfortably misunderstood movie, not unlike another movie critiquing and satirizing masculinity, Fight Club. In the making-of special features on the DVD, screenwriter Guinevere Turner says that she's met men (and only men) who tell her, "You wrote American Psycho? I think that movie's so cool. I am Patrick Bateman." Her response: "Really? So, are you saying you're a dork or a serial killer? or both?"

American Psycho is available to stream on Netflix and Paramount+.

Best Pictures #87: 2022 (95th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Triangle of Sadness

 by A.J.

Best Pictures #87: 2022 (95th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Triangle of Sadness

“Can you relax your triangle of sadness?”

This should be said upfront: Triangle of Sadness is not for everyone. This is not only because of a prolonged scene of people vomiting and defecating all over a pleasure yacht, but also because of its slow but deliberate pace, penchant for awkward, uncomfortable humor, and not too subtle themes. I’m no fan of cringe-inducing humor or heavy handed messaging, but here writer-director Ruben Östlund pulls off the same delicate, deft touch that Rod Serling achieved with his The Twilight Zone, successfully combining socio-political commentary with entertainment. 

Triangle of Sadness is divided into three chapters and it is impossible to talk about the movie without revealing a little bit of each chapter, so, very mild spoilers follow. In Chapter 1, titled Carl and Yaya, we meet male model Carl (Harris Dickinson) and his financially struggling influencer girlfriend Yaya (Charlbi Dean). They are vapid young people and aren’t poor but also aren’t mega-wealthy. Their issues and arguments might be the most relatable part of the movie. In chapter 2, The Yacht, we meet some of the mega-wealthy 1 percent including a very proper British couple who made their fortune from manufacturing landmines and hand grenades (U.N. regulations really cut into their land mine profits). They also meet Dimitry (Zlatko Buric), a loud mouthed Russian oligarch who proclaims himself to be the “king of shit” because he made his fortune selling fertilizer. In Chapter 3: The Island, after the yacht is struck by a storm and pirate attack, the survivors find themselves on an island where their whole social order is turned upside down since the only person with survival skills is Abigail (Dolly De Leon), the ship’s toilet cleaner. The quandary posed by the power inversion of Chapter 3 is the crux of the movie, so though it takes a while to get there, most of what comes before feels worthwhile. 

There is no doubt that Triangle of Sadness will be remembered as the movie with an extended sequence of the characters vomiting and defecating everywhere on a fancy yacht. Supposedly it took six months to edit this sequence. This might be the most jarring and grossest out of place sequence since the vomit heavy story Gordy tells to his friends in Stand By Me. 

One of the ultra wealthy passengers, in her “kindness,” insists that all the crew members should have fun and swim in the ocean. She is wealthy enough, and the captain cannot be bothered to intervene, so the crew swims which pushes the dinner back to coincide with a choppy storm that throws the boat around while the guests are served fine dining. The captain, not a fan of fine dining, eats a cheeseburger and fries. Characters projectile vomit as the ship loses power and the crew do their best to maintain a sense of ordered normality. As the waves throw the ship around we see one character slide around the vomit covered floor of her bathroom as she tries to catch the toilet. The Marxist, not communist, Captain (Woody Harrelson), and Dimitry have an amusing drunken debate broadcast over the PA system while toilets explode and rivers of shit spill down staircases. The heavy rock music accompanying the scene somehow makes this all easier to take and conveys the intended humor and absurdity. 

In spite of everything that happens in Triangle of Sadness, it is not dour or mean spirited. Every character is vapid on some level, including the oppressed Abigail, but none are especially or intentionally cruel. Everyone is limited by their own limited experiences, and when confronted with a new scenario in Chapter 3 becomes overwhelmed. The brilliance of Triangle of Sadness is that it resists the temptation to turn into a Tales From the Crypt episode or slasher movie in which you watch, and enjoy, terrible people getting their karmic comeuppance. Östlund constructs a conundrum based on everything you’ve seen and then poses a question to the viewer. This means that, yes, there is an ambiguous ending–another reason this movie is not for everyone.

Triangle of Sadness, a reference to the area between the eyebrows and down to the nose, is ultimately a fine dark, off-kilter comedy and social commentary. This is not an out-and-out comedy though many scenes and situations are quite humorous. Östlund plays out several scenes in wide shots leaving us to fill in the detail, making the viewer as an observer rather than a participant. That none of the characters are especially likable or unlikeable makes this more complex than just a morality play. Östlund’s Oscar nominations for Original Screenplay and Best Director are unconventional but well earned. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious Palme d’Or award, Triangle of Sadness is a most atypical Best Picture nominee.  

Nominees: Erik Hemmendorff, Philippe Bober, producers

Director: Ruben Östlund

Screenplay: Ruben Östlund

Cast: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Dolly de Leon, Zlatko Burić, Woody Harrelson

Production Companies: Imperative Entertainment, Film i Väst, BBC Film, et al.

Distributor: Neon

Release Date: October 7th, 2022

Total Nominations: 3, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Director-Ruben Östlund; Original Screenplay-Ruben Östlund

Best Pictures #75: 2021 (94th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Don’t Look Up

 by A.J. 

Best Pictures #75: 2021 (94th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Don’t Look Up

 

“You guys discovered a comet? That's so dope. I have a tattoo of a shooting star on my back.”

It is entirely possible to care about pop culture and the climate crisis. Just because you are interested in a celebrity break up or a subpar movie on Netflix doesn’t mean you have no concern for the condition of the world and its future. These things are not mutually exclusive. Neither are comedy and serious issues, or even comedy and earnestness. With Don’t Look Up it seems that director Adam McKay and co-writer David Sirota believe that such concerns are an either/or matter and their film vacillates between comedy and stone-cold seriousness. A balance is never found. Don’t Look Up aims to be a satire on the level of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove—a worthy goal, especially for a film meant to be about climate change. However, to satirize the Cold War, Kubrick made a film that was actually about how a nuclear Armageddon could happen because of foolish politicians and in spite of the best efforts of concerned individuals. To satirize the blending of news and entertainment, Paddy Chayefsky wrote a movie about the blending of news and entertainment, Network. To tackle the climate crisis, Don’t Look Up gives us an allegory full of unfocused anger lashing out at everyone, audience included. Instead of commentary on contemporary culture (both political and pop) we get condescension. Recent years have made satire even more difficult to do effectively. You need to use a scalpel. McKay uses a sledgehammer. 

In an ironic wasting of resources, an all-star cast is assembled and squandered. One night a young astronomer, Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), discovers a massive comet. Her mentor, Dr. Mindy(Leonardo DiCaprio), does calculations and realizes the comet is heading right for Earth and will cause an extinction level event in six months. They alert NASA’s head of Planetary Defense, Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan, in one of the film’s two standout performances), who takes them to see President Orlean (Meryl Streep), a female stand-in for Donald Trump (or any of his acolytes). Neither she nor her incompetent son and chief of staff (Jonah Hill) are concerned with the comet and decide to do nothing until they need to distract from a scandal and help with the midterm elections. The mission to blow up the comet is called off when an oddball tech-billionaire (Mark Rylance)—in full SNL host shoved into a weird character and just following direction mode—realizes the comet is full of minerals to make electronics. His plan is to send machines to mine the comet right before it hits Earth. Everything goes how you expect.

The only characters that feel like actual people are Rob Morgan as Dr. Oglethorpe and Melanie Lynskey, as Dr. Mindy’s wife—the second standout performance of the film. Overall, every part is well played. It’s no surprise that Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Mark Rylance, Melanie Lynskey, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, Timothee Chalamet, and Ron Perlman do their jobs well, but you know that each performer could’ve done more.

Throughout the movie I kept asking myself: am I supposed to laugh? I am not shy about dark comedy or gallows humor but the broad jokes and intense seriousness whiplash against each other and I don’t know how the movie wants me to feel. Certain moments seemed to lampoon the manufactured sincerity of scenes from movies like Michael Bay’s Armageddon, but Don’t Look Up isn’t a disaster movie parody. Later, it uses those same techniques, sincerely this time, to make sure its gut-punch of an ending hits hard. 

Just as with Vice, McKay’s biopic of Dick Cheney revealing how Cheney was a terrible person and dangerous politician, my reaction to Don’t Look Up is: I already know. I knew it then, I know it now. I already experience persistent unrelenting existential dread about this all the time. I can’t imagine that this movie would be the straw that finally broke a climate denier’s back and made them “look up.” Everyone that already acknowledges the ever increasing and undeniable effects of climate change is in for a depressing, humorless, masochistic experience. Don’t Look Up is dull satire with stale jokes, full of repeated observations and no new insights. So why do I need this movie, especially if it is not even very funny? 

Tapping into the anxieties of the zeitgeist with extremely thinly veiled allegories and metaphors was the forte of master storyteller Rod Serling with The Twilight Zone. Even when Serling appeared at the end of an episode and directly told you the themes and moral of the story, neither he nor the episode had a hint of condescension or scorn. Many episodes were so well executed that they remain loaded with pathos. I mention this only to point out that making a razor thin allegory to affect and entertain is possible. I wish it happened more often. It does not happen in Don’t Look Up.

Nominees: Adam McKay, Kevin J. Messick, producers

Director: Adam McKay

Screenplay: Adam McKay, story by David Sirota

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep

Release Date: December 10th, 2021

Production Companies: Hyperobject Industries, Bluegrass Films

Distributor: Netflix

Total Nominations: 4, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Original Screenplay-Adam McKay, David Sirota; Editing-Hank Corwin; Original Score-Nicholas Britell

13 Nights of Shocktober: Freaky

 by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 11: Meta Horror Night

"Great. We're gonna be killed by Murder Barbie."

Freaky

Freaky is not a scary movie but it is a very entertaining one. There is enough here to satisfy any horror fan and the comedy angle is likely to bring in some viewers wouldn’t typically watch a horror movie. The premise is so simple you wonder why it hasn’t been done before and the result is so fun you’re glad it was finally done. A big, hulking serial killer and his intended teenage victim switch bodies by way of a plot devise in the form of a mystical dagger. A body switch movie needs excellent leads and Freaky certainly delivers on that front with Vince Vaughn as the killer known as The Butcher and Kathryn Newton as Millie, the unfortunate teen.

A title card with a familiar font informs us that the date is Wednesday the 11^th. A group of teenagers talk about murders that supposedly happened but also comment that those urban legends are invented to scare teenagers out of having premarital sex. These teens meet with gruesome and overly elaborate deaths: a wine bottle down the throat, a broken tennis racket slammed back together with someone’s head in the middle (this teen was on a tennis court so what else could they expect to happen). The killer wears a mostly featureless mask reminiscent of Jason from the Friday the 13^th Part 2 (before Jason donned the famous hockey mask in part 3) and Michael Myers from the Halloween movies.

The teenage actors overall are pretty convincing as teens, especially Millie and her friends. Kathryn Newton plays both of her roles very well. Millie has the standard traits of a horror movie protagonist: dealing with grief and trauma (the death of her father and her mother’s new dependence on her company), struggling at home and at school, shy, and bullied, but with a few loyal friends. Newton is able is bring some spark and real sympathy to what would be a cliched character. After the switch, Newton as the Butcher projects the right amount of menace and glee at his newfound situation. The Butcher’s menace is mistaken for Millie's newfound confidence and leads some to amusing moments. There’s nice and subtle dark humor in watching the Butcher (as Millie) scan a room for the best way to kill someone. It’s also refreshing to see that the Butcher’s strength did not transfer, so he becomes frustrated with Millie’s petite body and lack of strength. This forces the Butcher (as Millie) to be more creative with his kills.

The casting Vince Vaughn was a very shrewd and wise choice. Vaughn is an all-around solid actor, has well proven comedic talents, and has a very imposing 6’5” figure. Vaughn is excellent as Millie, humorous but believable. Millie in the Butcher’s body has what ends up being an emotional conversation with her mom and Vaughn is believable in this moment too, which never really sheds its comedic setup. As Millie gets used to her new oversize body there are some funny moments and Vaughn plays a gentle, clumsy giant well. A scene of Millie in Butcher’s body getting to know her crush is what you’d expect but it works: the humor leads to tenderness which leads to humor which makes the characters more sympathetic and relatable.

Freaky is a self-aware horror movie that thankfully never stoops to pandering in place of cleverness. There are visual references to other horror movies like Halloween, the Friday the 13^th movies, Hellraiser, The Shining, but aside from the font of the dates resembling the Friday the 13^th font, the movie doesn’t make a big deal about them. The characters are aware of horror movie tropes and Freaky is better for it. When Millie’s friends are being chased by the Butcher (unaware of the body swap) Josh (Misha Osherovich) shouts to Nyla (Celeste O'Connor), “You’re black, I’m gay. We are so dead!” Her friends don’t exactly have inner lives but they feel like full fledged characters thanks to the young performers.

Freaky has plenty of bloody violence. The kills are graphic and over the top, another nod to the slasher genre (the later Friday the 13^th movies in particular), but doesn’t revel in them. Freaky is something pretty rare, a character driven horror movie more concerned with its characters than kills. Director Christopher Landon, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Kennedy, blends comedy and horror in just the right way. There’s a definite love for the genre running through every scene. Freaky understands that horror movies can be fun and puts that front and center.

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