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.
Michael B. Jordan
Sinners movie review: bootleg vampires
Wildly primal, big and bold, fueled by pain and rage, by community and family, throbbing with love and sex and joy, infused with magic. A sumptuously textured, unmissable howl of a passion project.
Just Mercy movie review: fighting the never-ending good fight
This true origin story of a literal social-justice warrior is earnest, passionate… and exhausting. We need to keep telling these stories, yet each is but another tiny drop of water in a rough ocean.
AWFJ 2018 EDA Awards winners announced
Our most honored films are Roma (five awards), The Favourite (four awards), and Can You Ever Forgive Me? (three awards).
OFCS 2018 awards winners announced
Roma wins four awards including Best Picture; Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is Best Animated Feature.
Creed II movie review: a bout of familiarity
Can’t quite manage to continue the first film’s smart, unsentimental examination of male emotion and men’s relationships. At best achieves a draw with a genre path that is already extremely well worn.
Black Panther movie review: absolute Marvel
Classic comic-book stuff made fresh by drawing on underexplored mythologies and cultures, yet still deeply resonant and deeply universal. An exhilarating pulp-fiction dream that ups the ante on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
OFCS 2015 awards winners announced
Mad Max: Fury Road gets a lot of love…
Creed movie review: the boxing ring of truth
Feels natural and organic, not forced by the dictates of movie franchises. A smart, engaging, unsentimental portrait of male friendship and male emotion.
Fantastic Four movie review: fantastic bore
There isn’t an authentic human motivation or emotion to be found here. The bar has been raised too high on comic-book movies for us to accept junk like this.
