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

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