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.
Frankenstein
Alita: Battle Angel movie review: ‘Rollerblade Runner’ with a Strong Female Character(TM)
Devoid of personality and soul, this hellish Frankenstein monster of processed entertainment product wallows in a stew of borrowed ideas and imagery and does absolutely nothing fresh with them.
movies by or about women opening UK/Ire from Wed Jul 04
Lex Scott Davis protests the Purge, Elle Fanning invents science fiction, Whitney Houston is eulogized in documentary form, and more…
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom movie review: back to Isla Nublar… again
Hollywood finds a way. To keep telling the same stories over and over again, that is. There’s too much going on in Fallen Kingdom, and yet somehow not enough, either. Still: dinosaurs!
movies by or about women opening US/Can from Fri May 25
Elle Fanning invents science fiction; Natalie Dormer overhears a murder; more…
The Titan movie review: bad science, worse science fiction
The science is ludicrous, the story is almost entirely free of drama, and the finale descends into the hoariest, most ridiculous clichés of the genre. But the future smart-house porn is lovely.
Victor Frankenstein movie review: monster mush
A riff on the Hollywood conventions of a story we know very well already, with little new to say. James McAvoy’s mad scientist is fun to watch, though.
Mr. Holmes movie review: the case of the missing myth
It looks lovely and Ian McKellen is amazing, of course, but it’s not very Holmesian. I suspect Holmes himself would snort in derision at its sentimentality.
Dracula Untold movie review: it doesn’t suck
A solid action fantasy more elemental and visceral than I expected, thanks to the potent presence of Luke Evans.
QOTD: Which iconic (or imaginary) actor pairings would be fun to reverse?
Like how Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman could have swapped roles in Les Misérables and it would have worked just as well…
