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If you need a bit of background on the invasion of Ukraine by Russia this week, the Netflix documentary Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom is absolutely essential and unmissable.
Contemplative and tenderly observed, a slow-burn romantic and family drama about two complicated, difficult people and what they’re willing to risk to achieve their dream. Plus: Scandi food porn!
I join hosts RogerBW and Nick Marsh to talk about the 1988 Oscar winner Cinema Paradiso.
I join special agents Scott and Cam to talk about the 2012 Kathryn Bigelow film Zero Dark Thirty.
An intriguing story with engaging performances about a compelling real-life character, but oddly inert, and can’t quite make all its many aspects gel into a wholly satisfying or wholly coherent story.
This otherwise gorgeous nature documentary is marred by the banal self-therapy of its human protagonist… and he is nowhere near as interesting as the manic pixie dream octopus who changes his life.
I correctly guessed 11 out of the 24 23 categories, which is slightly better than last year.
The brilliantly unsettling “Two Distant Strangers” is not only the most important of the nominees but one of the movies of the year, of any length. Its surprises are more brutal than mere plot twists.
“Hunger Ward,” an unvarnished vérité look at starving Yemeni children and the medics trying to save them, best encapsulates the human experience of pain and resilience that all the nominees embody.
I don’t see how the astonishing “Opera,” by Erick Oh, doesn’t win the Oscar for Best Animated Short. This is a stupendous achievement, a cartoon clockwork depicting life, the universe, and everything.
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