my picks for tomorrow night’s 98th Academy Awards (the Oscars for 2025’s films) (winners indicated)
I correctly guessed 12 out of the 24 categories, which is about as well as I usually do. (Ten of my “should win”s did win!) At least I’m consistent.
curated cinema: two great movies by Rob Reiner
Watch 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap and 1987’s The Princess Bride and be reminded why Reiner was a gentle genius.
Wake Up Dead Man movie review: knives way the hell out (London Film Festival 2025)
Rian Johnson’s third outing with droll detective Benoit Blanc, perhaps the most memorable original new movie character in decades, is a grimly funny gothic romp through modern hot-button Americana.
Bugonia movie review: worst contact (London Film Festival 2025)
Grimly hilarious, this mashup of black comedy, social commentary, suspense, and horror is sharp and stinging, with a haunting gut punch of a finale… and it’s Yorgos Lanthimos’s most accessible film yet.
Good Boy movie review: horrors beyond canine comprehension
A haunted house movie from the dog’s perspective. No cheap gimmick but an absolute marvel, strikingly original and deeply affecting. An interspecies love story without a lick of phony sentimentality.
The Cut movie review: head not in the game
A real aspect of boxing — dangerously fast weight loss — sports films have ignored becomes body horror we have not seen before. The genre’s motivational clichés get twisted, nastily and poignantly.
One Battle After Another movie review: où est la résistance?
Brash, chaotic, full of bleak humor and bitter irony. With blockbuster vibes over an anarchic indie heart, it’s both earnest and winking. Outstanding in-flight entertainment for our societal freefall.
Sew Torn movie review: patchwork pastiche
The quirks of this slightly fantastical black-comedy crime thriller are many, varied, and messily disjointed. But there’s a delicious oddness to its unpredictability and its spin on familiar tropes.
curated cinema: the madness and genius of Brian Wilson
2015’s Love & Mercy is on Prime and Apple TV+ on both sides of the Atlantic.
curated cinema: how societies fall
2010’s Agora is on Prime in the US; DVD only in the UK.
