Category: Movies

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ASR Film. Oscars 2024: Recap and Some Predictions

By George Maguire

I have now seen every film and performance nominated for an Academy Award. I’ve let them germinate in my mind and with the SAG awards coming and the Golden Globes already history, it’s time to ruminate.

Let it first be said that even with the global success of Barbieheimer, the year was finally a testament to what can be achieved during and after the COVID pandemic.

… will win … should win … and some potential dark horses…

So, I am splitting my predictions into what I think will win, what should win, and some potential dark horses. Enjoy!

Best Picture:

  •  Oppenheimer
  •  Barbie
  •  Anatomy of a Fall
  •  American Fiction
  •  Zone of Interest
  • ` Past Lives
  •  Killers of the Flower Moon
  •  The Holdovers
  •  Poor Things
  •  Maestro
  •  Will Win: Oppenheimer
  •  Should Win: American Fiction

Best Actress:

  •  Annette Benning (Nyad)
  •  Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon)
  •  Sandra Hueller (Anatomy of a Fall)
  •  Emma Stone (Poor Things)
  •  Carey Mulligan (Maestro)
  •  Will Win: probably Lily Gladstone
  •  Should Win: Anyone else
  • I found Lily Gladstone (who spent most of the film in bed) monochromatic. Emma Stone may pull a surprise here in a film I loathed—a rarity for me. My hope is that Annette Benning can pull an upset and finally win an Oscar.

Best Actor:

  •  Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)
  •  Bradley Cooper (Maestro)
  •  Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction)
  •  Coleman Domingo (Rustin)
  •  Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)
  • Will Win: Jeffrey Wright – I sincerely hope this is so. Cillian Murphy has a leg up though as Oppenheimer is a frontrunner.
  • Should Win: Jeffrey Wright
  • And bravo to local hero Colman Domingo for his beautiful work in Rustin (and in Color Purple)

Best Supporting Actress:

  •  Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer)
  •  Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Holdovers)
  •  Danielle Brooks (Color Purple)
  •  America Ferrera (Barbie)
  •  Jodie Foster (Nyad)
  • Will Win: Da’Vine
  • Should Win: Da’Vine This is assured!!!

Best Supporting Actor:

  •  Sterling Brown (American Fiction)
  •  Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)
  •  Robert DeNiro  (Killers of the Flower Moon)
  •  Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things)
  •  Ryan Gosling (Barbie)
  •  Will Win: Robert Downey Jr.
  •  Should Win: Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer). A side of him we have never seen before. Stunning!!!

Best Director:

  •  Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall)
  •  Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon)
  •  Jonathan Glazer (Zone of Interest)
  •  Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
  •  Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things)
  •  Will Win: Christopher Nolan
  •  Should Win: Christopher Nolan.  No competition here!

Best Original Screenplay:

  •  Anatomy of a Fall (won the Golden Globe, will win here)
  •  The Holdovers
  •  Maestro
  •  Past Lives
  •  May/December

Best Adapted Screenplay:

  •  Zone of Interest
  •  Poor Things
  •  Oppenheimer (will win this!!)
  •  Barbie
  •  American Fiction

Best International Film:

  •  Io Capitano (Italy)
  •  Perfect Days (Japan) – a perfect film!! Should win here!
  •  The Teacher’s Lounge (Germany)
  •  The Society of the Snow (Spain)—done before as Alive.
  •  Zone of Interest (UK)

Best Animated Film:

  •  The Boy and the Heron (The absolute best!)
  •  Spiderman across the Universe (excellent, but no Heron!)
  •  Elemental
  •  Nimona
  •  Robot Dreams (No one saw this!)

So there we are my friends.

As I said I found Poor Things just awful (as did Mick LaSalle of the SF Chronicle). Half way through the film, two girls next to me stood up and stormed out. As a SAG voter, I never leave a film.

I found Zone of Interest terrific and horrid, telling the story of the family who lived next to Auschwitz, without getting into “documentary commenting.” Either way you perceive it, it is a must see!

Oscars are March 10th at 4 p.m. Pacific with host Jimmy Kimmel.

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ASR Contributing Writer George Maguire is a San Francisco-based actor/director and Professor Emeritus of Solano College Theatre. He is a voting member of the Screen Actors Guild, and of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: gmaguire1204@yahoo.com

 

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Pick! ASR Film ~~ “The Crime Is Mine”—French Screwball Satire Carves Up Justice, Feminism

By Woody Weingarten

Screwball comedies satirizing traditional love stories peaked in the early 1940s — after having begun to gain popularity during the Great Depression.

New examples of that romantic comedy sub-genre would manage to pop up every few years thereafter, but they’d usually fail to be as funny or polished as those of yesteryear.

But now comes The Crime Is Mine, a French-language satire (with subtitles, of course) that stands up with the best of them. The one-hour, 42-minute film time-warps back to 1930s Paris and provides a Duisenberg-speed storyline that repeatedly twists and turns as it focuses on a sexy, penniless actress who figures she can become famous by confessing to a murder she didn’t commit.

 … “The Crime Is Mine” ain’t subtle, but delightfully tasty it is …

Scheduled for release on Christmas Day by Music Box Films, the flick lays onto the marvelous comedy, an equally marvelous carving up of feminism, the class system, show biz antics, and courtroom machinations.

In the final analysis, though, within weeks after watching the movie, you’re likely not only to have forgotten slices of the plotline but exactly who is who, especially when it comes to lesser characters such as the judge, the prosecutor, the police inspector, and a boyfriend (even though all are amusing) and exactly what who said to whom.

Madeleine, played by Nadia Tereskiewicz, is tried for murder in “The Crime Is Mine, a screwball comedy.

Nadia Tereskiewicz merrily plays blonde bombshell Madeleine Verdier, a talent-less wannabe who desperately craves stardom and her close-up. She’s aided in her quest for fame by her brunette BFF and starving garret roomie, Pauline Mauléon (played by Rebecca Marder), a young lawyer with no other clients who launches a campaign based on the notion of self-defense against sexual assault.

Supporting their skillful acting chops is Isabelle Huppert, a French icon who, while chomping on the scenery, portrays silent film star Odette Chaumette, the real killer turned blackmailer.

All the main characters, each of whom is self-serving, mug a lot (except the murdered producer) — and every now and then, Madeleine’s combined flightiness and earthiness may remind a filmgoer of Renee Zellweger playing Roxie Hart in Chicago.

 … Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 100% rating …

François Ozon’s direction of this adaptation of a 1934 stage play is almost as perfect. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 100% rating with 22 credits so far.

Best buddies and roomies — Madeleine (Nadia Tereskiewicz) and Pauline (Rebecca Marder) — hatch a scheme to beat the system in “The Crime Is Mine.”

With humor ranging from dry to frivolously farce-like, it’s virtually impossible not to like the film—whether or not you can relate to kooky but intelligent women who easily outmaneuver the men in their lives.

The Crime Is Mine ain’t subtle, but delightfully tasty it is — a cinematic soufflé that never falls.

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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/

ProductionThe Crime is Mine
Directed byFrançois Ozon
Run DatesOpens December 25, 2023
VenuesTBA
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5//5
Overall4.25/5
Performance4.25/5
Script4/5
Pick?YES!
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PICK! ASR Film ~~ “Stop Making Sense” Still Rules

By Barry Willis

Approximately forty years after its first release, Stop Making Sense is back, to near-universal acclaim. Jonathan Demme’s ultimate concert film chronicles art-rock band Talking Heads at the height of their frenetic creativity.

Pieced together from several performances at the same venue, the film famously opens with lead singer/band founder David Byrne solo on stage, accompanying himself on guitar with rhythm supplied by a boom box. Various band members appear one-by-one—bassist Tina Weymouth, drummer Chris Frantz, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, percussionist Steve Scales, guitarist/keyboardist Jerry Harrison, guitarist Alex Weir, and singers/dancers Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt.

…Stop Making Sense is a must-see…

As they appear, black-clad stage hands carefully assemble the set. It’s one of many moments of cinematic brilliance—matched by the musical and performance brilliance of one of the quirkiest and most talented bands of the late 20th century.

The amazing Talking Heads in their “Must See” movie! — Barry Willis

Talking Heads were unlike any group before or since. In an era of poseurs and pretentions, they delivered powerful commentary on everything in contemporary life, drawing from sources as diverse as snake-handling Pentecostal religious practices, black gospel traditions, and ongoing social problems such as the worldwide fear of nuclear annihilation that permeated the Reagan-Thatcher-Gorbachev period. Talking Heads’ music was—and is—both celebratory and cautionary.

The film has been re-released several times since its debut, but the latest stands far above its predecessors. Newly remastered, its visual impact features superior color saturation, focus, and detail. Supervised by Talking Heads original member Jerry Harrison, the discrete 7.1-channel 24 Bit/48Khz Dolby Atmos soundtrack is crisp, punchy, and completely engaging without any of the annoying artifacts often inserted into remasterings by engineers eager to put their personal stamp on iconic recordings.

Director Jonathan Demme passed away in April, 2017. He did not live to see his magnum opus lovingly honored as it is in this new release, essential viewing for film fans and rock music aficionados alike.

Now playing at a cinema near you, Stop Making Sense is a must-see.

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ASR NorCal Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: barry.m.willis@gmail.com.

 

Production  —  Stop Making Sense

Developed by  —  Talking Heads/Jonathan Demme

Directed by  —  Jonathan Demme

Rating  —  4.75 of 5. PICK!

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ASR Movies ~~ ‘King of Animation’ Unveils Slide, Spoof About Fighting Evil

By Woody Weingarten

An online bio of the animator notes that “Plymptoons Studios started in 1987 with the creation of the Bill Plympton’s Oscar-nominated short film ‘Your Face.’”

It neglects to mention that many fans regard Plympton as an animation and graphic design genius.

As if to prove them right, the 77-year-old’s credited with animating, writing, producing, and directing Slide, a new, dark, musical Western that acerbically spoofs Hollywood while feeling like an animated graphic novel.

…the flick’s worth looking for…

The 1 hour, 20-minute flick spotlights a slide-guitar player, the title character, who assumes multiple roles but always keeps his cowboy hat on.

Action begins quickly, when Slide faces off with two obese, evil twin brothers, Mayor Jeb Carver, who kills people without blinking, and Zeke, the town’s sheriff, whose niece Delilah is a plaintive Lucky Buck Saloon and Bordello hooker who craves a singing career. The brothers aim to cut down the forest, pave over Sourdough Creek, their 1940s Oregon logging town, and build a casino.

To make all that happen, the twins enlist the aid of an army of assassins, one at a time. One of Plympton’s most creative inventions, tangentially, is a contest for most evil laugh among the hired killers.

Slide, a combo hero/anti-hero who at one point runs a bulldozer, seemingly can do anything. He slips through a tornado, fights off a humongous Hellbug, saves Delilah from a torrent of bullets, stops a cadre of protesters who want to burn down the Lucky Buck, and, naturally, joins two other musicians onstage.

Plympton’s signature hand-drawn animation is stylistically sketchy and primitive but highly artistic. The result is either a viewer’s delight (along with multiple laugh-out-loud moments) or repulsion.

The multi-talented artiste, who funded Slide in part via an $85,000 Kickstarter campaign, is often considered the King of Indie animation. His skill set has resulted in his winning a second Oscar nomination, and collaborating with Madonna, Kanya West, and Weird Al (on videos and book projects),

Plympton has compared the music in Slide — in the style of Hank Williams and Patsy Cline — to the outrageousness of Blazing Saddles, one of his favorite movies.

He’s written that the flick “looks beautiful” and is “different from any other animated film I’ve ever seen.” Accurate, but spoof or no spoof, this feature film contains so much amusing but hardline sexual content that parents should keep their kids away.

According to the IndieWire website, Plympton noted last year at the Mendocino Film Festival that he likes “to try to break the rules as much as possible.” Clearly, Slide, succeeds in doing just that.

Slide has had difficulty finding a distributor, so it currently has no opening dates, and it was pulled from the Mill Valley Film Festival, where it was supposed to be screened in two movie houses this week.

The flick’s worth looking for, though — whenever animator / writer /  producer / director Bill Plympton pins down what he needs to pin down.

ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle,  he is the  author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/

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