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.
Benicio Del Toro
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.
weekend watchlist: sweet, funny, frank pillow talk
Plus apocalyptic adolescence, exasperating planetary levels of bureaucracy, and more… (First published September 10th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
A Perfect Day movie review: war is hellacious
This compact little satire — set in 1990s Balkans — is a small, personal story about huge unfairnesses and injustices. Bleakly, bitterly, blackly funny.
why does the Sicario Region 1 DVD cover art make it look like Benicio Del Toro is the star of the film?
In a year when badass women are obviously doing very well for Hollywood, this is no explanation for this beyond unthinking, reflexive sexism.
OFCS 2015 awards winners announced
Mad Max: Fury Road gets a lot of love…
Sicario movie review: lies, injustice, and the American way
The “War on Drugs” has never felt more like an actual war in this brutal, scathing condemnation of the lawlessness of the battle… on the “good guys” side.
question of the day: Who should play Moe in the Farrelly Brothers’ Three Stooges movie?
Peter and Bobby Farrelly have cast MadTV’s Will Sasso as Curly and Will & Grace’s Sean Hayes as Larry. Will it be someone from the small screen as Moe, too? And who should it be?
February 12: DVD alternatives to this weekend’s multiplex offerings
We know how it is: You’d like to go to the movies this weekend, but they never let you bring champagne, truffles, and candlelight into the theater with you. But you can have a multiplex-like experience at home with a collection of the right DVDs. And when someone asks you on Monday, “Hey, did you … more…
The Wolfman (review)
The metallic tang of blood is all over the elegant facade of this mysteriously disappointing, dispassionately underpowered story of a British aristocrat who dances with the devil, in the form of a werewolf curse, in the pale moonlight.
