Robin Robin (2021)

Nominated for Best Animated Short    

Orphaned as an egg, Robin (Bronte Carmichael) the robin is raised by a family of mice.  The mice are very good at sneaking into houses to steal crumbs of food but Robin has never quite grasped the concept.  Determined to prove herself to her family, Robin decides to sneak into a house on her own, but runs into a recovering magpie (Richard E. Grant) and a self-esteem destroying cat (Gillian Anderson) along the way.  

It's a cute short about embracing differences and what family means.  It's also by Aardman, the studio that puts out the Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep films.  I'm not sure it's super revolutionary but it is nice to see a non-Disney studio putting out regular work.  Animation is expensive to produce and all of it should be celebrated.

Robin Robin is currently streaming on Netflix.

The Windshield Wiper (2021)

Nominated for Best Animated Short    I can't say that I enjoyed watching this but it was an interesting mix of animation styles.

The Windshield Wiper is a series of vignettes that show alienation and loneliness, companionship and joy while it asks the question "What is Love?"

No plot, only vibes.  

It's currently streaming on YouTube but you will get so many videos of how to change your windshield wipers when you search, so make sure you add "animated short" to the name.  Also, there is some animated nudity but the whole thing is only 16 minutes so it's not like a major part or anything.

The Hand of God (2021)

Nominated for Best International Feature    Oh, hey, another coming of age story of a straight, cishet white boy.  

Fabbietto (Filippo Scotti) is an average teenage boy in 1980s Naples.  He is mostly concerned with fantasizing about his hot aunt, Patrizia (Luisa Ranieri), and with whether or not Naples is going to be able to lure soccer superstar Diego Maradona into a contract.  A family tragedy forces Fabbietto to reconsider his priorities and his future.

Honestly, who the fuck cares?  I am so sick of seeing a version of this exact same story get nominated every goddamn year.  Can we please get somebody else's life?  

Also, the incest subplot was completely unnecessary.  Just gross.  I was really hoping that she would at least only be related by marriage but no, IMDb makes it very clear that Patrizia is his mother's sister.  In the immortal words of Cleveland from Family Guy, "That's nasty."

It's streaming on Netflix but I wouldn't bother.

The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021)

Nominated for Best Animated Feature    I hope this wins.

Katie Mitchell (Abbi Jacobson) can't wait to get to college and leave her family behind.  To finally find real acceptance with others just as passionate about creating art.  In one last, desperate bid to connect, her dad (Danny McBride) decides that instead of taking Katie to the airport, the whole family should drive her cross-country to California in a road trip.  This is a disaster, not least because a tech company unwittingly unleashes the robot apocalypse and the Mitchells are suddenly the last people not captured.  They must band together and figure out how to incorporate their differences in order to survive and maybe save the world from evil rogue AI, Pal (Olivia Colman).  

This was insanely cute.  And had a better Olivia Colman performance than The Lost Daughter.  I don't think it's breaking new ground with things to say about generational divides and parents not necessarily understanding their children but wanting to, but it feels like a fresh take.  Sometimes that's all you need.  It's currently streaming on Netflix.

Cruella (2021)

Nominated for Best Costumes and Best Hair and Makeup    This is an objectively awful movie.

As a child, Estella (Emma Stone) dreamed of being a fashion designer, but sudden poverty and the death of her mother (Emily Beechum) put paid to that idea.  Her grifter gangmate, Jasper (Joel Fry), secures her an opportunity to work at a high-end department store and an incident with a front window display brings her to the attention of The Baroness (Emma Thompson), the most premier fashion designer in London.  Estella works as the Baroness's apprentice but soon comes to learn the woman is responsible for all of Estella's troubles, so Estella creates an alter ego named Cruella to directly challenge the Baroness and all of London's fashion society.  

Y'all, it's so dumb.  Like, bad dumb.  And some of the worst CGI you've ever seen.  This was created by a multi-billion dollar corporation that somehow could not find live dogs to be on screen.  There are dog actors!  Specifically trained to perform in movies!  Disney's never heard of them, apparently.

The less said about the script, the better.

Emma Thompson is the only thing worth watching in this.  The costumes are okay but could have gone further.  Hair and makeup are elaborate, sure, but nowhere near the level of the other nominees.

It's streaming on Disney+ but you should avoid it at all cost.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)

Nominated for Best Actress and Best Hair and Makeup    Okay, I know what I said about Spencer, but I was wrong.  Jessica Chastain totally deserves this Oscar.  There's still a chance for Penelope Cruz to pull it out of the bag but right now, it is Chastain's to lose.

Growing up surrounded by religious charismatics, young Tammy Faye (Jessica Chastain) dreamed of being able to spread her own version of the gospel.  She met the young Reverend Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) at college, and together, they broke in to the tight-knit world of televangelism.  They went on to become two of the most recognizable faces in America in the 80s, building a huge franchise, their own television network, and even a freaking theme park.  But all of it was based on a lie and in 1994, it all came crashing down.

Jessica Chastain made me care about a con-woman desperate for love and attention with insecurities thicker than her mascara and if that's not talent, I don't know what is.  She also did multiple puppet voices and her own singing.  That's wild.  

The movie itself is kind of basic.  It really depends on how much you care about seeing hypocrites get what was coming to them.  Vincent D'Onofrio is typically excellent as Jerry Falwell, and should probably get an Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award for consistently disappearing into roles.  It's currently streaming on HBO Max.

Spencer (2021)

Nominated for Best Actress    Right now this is my frontrunner and I didn't even like this movie.

Content warning:  bulimia

Diana (Kristen Stewart), Princess of Wales, spends Christmas with the in-laws at Sandringham Castle.  Her every move is scrutinized, criticized, and held against her in that icily polite British way.  Her husband (Jack Farthing) is having a very public affair and she keeps dreaming of Anne Boleyn.  

I am old enough to remember the Diana Years but young enough that I didn't really care.  I'm not really into the fetishization that is happening with her life (there's a musical, for God's sake) and death.  It seems ghoulish.  

Hair, makeup, and wardrobe are the real MVPs here.  From a few feet away, Stewart could have passed for Diana.  She is absolutely game with trying to complete the illusion, though.  There's a "wounded doe" aspect of Diana's that Stewart nails.  It's something in the eyes.  A mute appeal for mercy.  You can see it in some of her official photographs.  Anyway, the Boleyn parallels were a little on the nose for me but otherwise, this could have been an A24 horror movie with a couple of tweaks.  

It's streaming on Hulu.

Being the Ricardos (2021)

Nominated for Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor    Happy Presidents' Day.  Here's a completely unrelated movie.

Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) are TV's biggest power couple.  Their show, I Love Lucy, is watched by 60 million people a week.  But they are not immune to bad press.  One fateful week, two news stories drop at the same time:  a tabloid piece claiming that Desi is stepping out and a radio allusion by Walter Winchell that Lucy is a Communist.  Twenty years ago, Lucy checked the box for the Communist Party on her voter registration as a tribute to her pro-union grandpa who raised her.  Not a big deal until it is.  Facing these twin fronts, they also have five days to prep an episode before live filming before a studio audience.

I kept reading that this was bad, that especially Bardem was bad in it and it's not?  It's fine??  The dialogue is very lively and sharp and the pacing is quick.  Personally, I think Bardem was a little too hardened for Arnaz; I would have liked to see the juxtaposition between a more baby-faced actor and how badass Desi had to be.  I just think the contrast would have been more striking.  But it's fine.  Kidman is fine.  Bardem is fine.  I don't know that either will win but that's just me.  I do feel like J.K. Simmons shouldn't have been nominated.  If anybody was going to get a nod for supporting in this film, it should have been Tony Hale.  Simmons is great, don't get me wrong, but this was not the role to garner a nomination.

Being the Ricardos is streaming on Amazon Prime.

The Lost Daughter (2021)

Nominated for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay      I'll tell you flat out:  I didn't get this movie.  Not a single thing in it made sense to me.

Leda (Olivia Colman) is on holiday in Greece at the same spot as a large family of obnoxious Americans.  She strikes up a bond with Nina (Dakota Johnson) after helping find the latter's daughter after she wanders off.  Leda spends a great deal of time remembering what it was like when she was Nina's age, coping with an academic career and two small children.

I was so bored.  I just kept waiting for something interesting or sensical to happen and it never did.  This is the exact same movie as Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood without any of the humor or charm.  It is a slog.

Colman is wasted here.  I'd never seen Jessie Buckley in anything, but I've heard she's a rising star.  They both deserved better.  It's currently streaming on Netflix.  Maybe if you figure out what the point is, come back and tell me.

CODA (2021)

 Nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay   

Ruby (Emilia Jones) is the only hearing person in her family.  She helps her father (Troy Kotsur) and brother (Daniel Durant) on their fishing boat before school most days, on top of the unpaid labor of acting as interpreter.  When she decides to join the school choir as something just for herself, she discovers she has a true talent for singing.  Her teacher (Eugenio Derbez) thinks she even has a shot at getting into Berklee College of Music.  Ruby has to make her family understand her dreams even as it pushes her further away from them.

This has almost no shot at Best Picture.  It's too slight, too sweet, too middlebrow.  It's a good movie, an easy watch, but there's nothing about it that elevates it above the other contenders.  I don't know how it compares to its source material so I can't say if it's got a chance with Adapted Screenplay.  Kotsur is very good in it and is probably the strongest prospect for CODA taking home an Oscar.  I'm still missing one film from that category but right now, he's my pick for Supporting Actor.

CODA is streaming on Apple+.

Mamma Mia (2008)

  Good news!  This cured me of wanting to watch musicals.

On the eve of her wedding, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) greets the three men she thinks might be her father.  Her mother (Meryl Streep) had a diary from her youth that detailed her involvement with Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgaard), and Harry (Colin Firth) the summer Sophie was conceived.  Sophie hopes that she'll be able to immediately tell which of them is her dad but can't.  As the weekend moves on and the ceremony looms ever closer, how will Sophie break the news that only one of them can walk her down the aisle?

Okay, so this movie is ridiculous, which is fine.  It's a musical.  They are, by definition, ridiculous.  It takes an ironclad suspension of disbelief to just let people sing 50% of the plot at you.  (If it's over 50%, it's operetta and if it's over 90%, it's opera, which moves back to being Very Serious and Important.  I don't make the rules.)  But Sophie is probably one of the dumbest people on film.  

As for the music, I dislike ABBA in general.  Streep and Seyfried are game, however, and of course there's Christine Baranski, who is amazing.  Brosnan, I'm sorry to say, deserved every harsh word said about him here.  He is awful.  He just doesn't have a pop voice.  He'd have been better off doing Rock of Ages instead.  

It's currently streaming on Starz, which I get through Amazon Prime.

The Pajama Game (1957)

  I just wanted to watch musicals because I was having a bad day.  I was going to watch Carousel but then it started with an introduction from PBS that was like, "Based on the tragic opera, this musical deals with themes of brutality and loss," and I was like Nope.  Not today, Satan.  Then I saw the Pajama Game, which I had also never seen, and thought, Ah, Doris Day.  She won't let me down. 

It's about unions in the garment industry trying to get a 7.5 cent raise from management.  It's basically The Garment Jungle in Technicolor.

Sid Sorokin (John Raitt) has landed a job at the Sleeptite Pajama Factory as a supervisor.  An altercation with a worker brings him to the attention of Babe Williams (Doris Day), the union grievance committee head.  Sparks fly but they are on opposite sides of the current simmering debate.  The union wants a seven and a half cent raise and the management doesn't want to give it.  

Seven and a half cents.  Not percent.  Less than a dime.

So, anyway, Bob Fosse choreographed the musical numbers, which include "Steam Heat" and "Hernando's Hideaway", two very famous Broadway show tunes.  If you're a fan of classic musicals, you've probably already seen this, but if you haven't, it's on Amazon Prime.  It's very much a product of its time.  At least one number is cringingly racist towards Indigenous Americans and the cast is as white as Wonder Bread.  Forewarned is forearmed.

Tick...Tick... Boom! (2021)

Nominated for Best Actor and Best Film Editing    I freakin' love musicals.  This made my gay little musical theater heart explode.

Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) is 29 and hasn't made it big on Broadway.  He has a musical that he's been working on for eight years that is finally (almost) ready for a live workshop.  The only thing he's missing is one song.  It's maybe sort of crucial to the entire plot but he's sure he can bang it out.  No problem.  Except for all his problems.  He's alienated from his friends, his girlfriend (Alexandra Shipp) wants a commitment, his day job sucks, it's the middle of the AIDS epidemic, and he's not sure he can make it.  All his hopes are pinned on this workshop catching the attention of a producer.  

This is the obligatory Oscar biopic.  It's based on Jonathan Larson's autobiographical musical of the same name.  Very famously, Larson went on to write the musical Rent and then died shockingly young.  This is like catnip to Oscar voters.  But why should you see this movie?

Because it's extremely good.

It is dramatic and funny and filled with angst and heartbreak and growth and truths about art and artists.  Garfield knocks himself out as Larson, singing, swimming, struggling.  Vanessa Hudgens is quiet but powerful and frankly underrated.  Alexandra Shipp is a goddamn star.  Robin de Jesus carries the emotional weight of the film like it's a feather.  And holy God are there so many cameos.  The whole diner scene is like a mini Tony awards.  I haven't seen a good musical in recent years that wasn't animated but this was great.

It's currently streaming on Netflix.

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

Nominated for Best Actor, Best Cinematography, and Best Production Design     Oh, hey, it's the Scottish Play.  Does it still count as a curse if it's not a stage production?  These are the questions that keep me up at night.

Macbeth (Denzel Washington) is a loyal subject to King Duncan (Brendan Gleeson) until a trio of witches (Katheryn Hunter) tell him he is prophesied to be the next king.  He immediately writes home to the wife (Frances McDormand) who is over the moon.  But then King Duncan names his son Malcom (Harry Melling) as heir and Macbeth feels cheated.  So he and the missus come up with a plan.  Not a great plan, mind you, but an actionable one.  You can guess from the title (or 11th grade English) how it goes.

This is just a straight production of the play.  No modernizations, no fancy additions, just bare sets and A-list actors.  Like Laurence Olivier and Ingmar Bergman had an extremely pretentious baby.  Your enjoyment will be based on how much you like black and white Shakespeare.  Washington and McDormand are incredible actors and this is like breathing for them.  The real star here is Katheryn Hunter, who played two roles, one of which had three voices.  Shit's wild and she's never even been mentioned in the promos.

It's streaming on AppleTV.

No Time to Die (2021)

 Nominated for Best Original Song, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound    Well, it's not the worst Bond movie.  It's not even the worst Daniel-Craig-as-Bond movie, but it's not great either.

James Bond (Daniel Craig) is retired and living happily with Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) but what does he really know about her?  Their secrets come between them and Bond decides to go his own way.  Still retired but no longer happy, he is roped into One Last Job as a favor for Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) and runs into the new 007, Nomi (Latasha Lynch), on the same mission.  Bond thinks his old nemesis Blofeld (Cristoph Waltz) is pulling strings from prison but the truth is much worse.  Bond's own government has developed a weapon capable of targeting specific DNA and someone is after it, and for once, it's not Bond's past coming back to haunt him.  It's Madeleine's.

Daniel Craig is over playing Bond and it's clear in how exhausted the character is.  It's not a bad send-off but of course it doesn't feel like the end.  Not with a billion-dollar franchise that still has people breathlessly speculating about who could be next to fill his shoes.  I liked Craig as Bond.  He brought a real brawler sense to what had become kind of a dandified character.  The puns I could do without but that's canon so I just have to suffer.  It'll be interesting to see what the next Bond will be like.  

I don't give it high chances at the statuettes but it's an honor just to be nominated, right?  The song is pretty good but felt disconnected from the film.  Like it is its own separate thing now.  Rami Malek is not the worst villain in the franchise by a long shot but I don't know how well he's going to be remembered.  This has been an issue with the last three films in the series.  Bond's internal struggles with guilt, grief, and rebellion against the very authority figures he answers to are much more interesting than another megalomaniac with an overly complicated plan for taking over the world.  

Don't Look Up (2021)

 Nominated for Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Screenplay    This is billed as a comedy but it depressed the shit out of me, y'all.

Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and grad student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) are elated to have discovered a brand-new comet, until they calculate the trajectory and realize it's a planet-killer on a direct line to Earth.  They reach out to the head of the Planetary Defense Office, Dr. Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan), who gets them in to see the President (Meryl Streep).  President Orlean patently does not care and sits on the information until it can be of use to her in the mid-terms.  Even then, there's enough time to save the world until billionaire tech magnate Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance) calculates exactly how much the comet is worth.

Remember how I was frustrated by Idiocracy because it's become a documentary instead of fiction?  This is Idiocracy + Wag the Dog.  Sure, it's funny.  Right up until it's not.  And then you'll just want to scream and scream and scream.  

Honestly, my main problem with this film is the nihilism.  People are presented as having no hope and therefore no incentive to care.  And I get it.  It's exhausting having to care All. The. Time.  But the minute you stop caring, you've lost.  There will never be a solution if you don't care enough to look for one.  I hope to God this doesn't win Best Picture.  Because it's entirely the wrong message.

It's streaming on Netflix.

Nightmare Alley (2021)

 Nominated for Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and Best Costumes    I feel like this is Del Toro punishing us for going so wild over The Shape of Water.  "Oh, you like monster fucking?  How about the real monsters are people?!"  

Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) comes upon a traveling circus that asks no questions.  He starts out at the bottom but quickly manages to ingratiate himself with Madame Zeena (Toni Collette) and her mentalist husband, Pete (David Strathairn).  Pete mentors Stanton in the art of cold reading and sizing up marks, but warns him about never falling for his own schtick and never doing "spook" shows, i.e. pretending to contact the dead, seances, etc.  It gets out of hand too easily.  Stanton takes Molly (Rooney Mara) as his assistant and things are looking up.  The pair are headliners.  But an icy psychologist (Cate Blanchett) is on to the con and allows Stanton to approach with an offer:  he does his act for the wealthy and damaged while she feeds him inside information from their therapy sessions.  What could go wrong?

Holy shit, this movie is dark.  Like, dark-night-of-the-human-soul dark.  You thought Willem Dafoe was creepy as Green Goblin?  Wait til you see him as a carny.  Jesus.  The mustache alone is a felony.  

This has got production design sewn up in the bag.  Maybe costumes too, we'll see.  Probably not Best Picture or Cinematography, though.  I watched it on Hulu but it's also streaming on HBO Max.  Pick something light for after, though.  

The Power of the Dog (2021)

Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (x2), Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score      So this is the odds-on favorite.  You may have heard of it, you may not have.  Maybe you only know it from a Jimmy Kimmel monologue.  Here's what Jimmy Kimmel seems to have forgotten (which is odd, considering he hosted the Oscars twice):  the Oscars exist for one purpose and it is not to crown the most popular picture of the year.  That's what the box office does.  It's to recognize films, actors, and crew that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.  It is an award given by peers.  Do they get it wrong?  Frequently.  There's a long history of the Academy snubbing films for being "too genre".  Somebody on Twitter was saying that if the Academy ever really looked at horror films in competition, they would dominate the Visual Effects category every year and they are not wrong.  Being under-seen does not make The Power of the Dog a bad movie.  It is worthy of its nominations in every category.  

Now, did I like it?  No.  But that still doesn't make it a bad movie.  Content warning:  animal death, animal abuse

George Burbank (Jesse Plemons) has lived under the torment of his asshole brother, Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch), all his life.  They share a ranch, a house, and even a bedroom.  But when Phil casually mistreats the waiter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) at an inn on a cattle drive, causing the boy's mother (Kirsten Dunst) to cry, George makes a break.  He marries Rose and puts her son, Peter, into medical school.  Phil is furious, claiming that Rose is a gold digger, and makes a point of belittling and tormenting her at every turn.  When Peter comes to the ranch on a break from school, he finds his mother has become an alcoholic and nervous wreck.  Phil mocks Peter relentlessly until the boy discovers his secret.  

Okay, it gets kind of spoiler-y from here on out so I'm going to turn the text white and you can highlight it to read it if you want.  **SPOILERS**  At what point does it become a hate crime?  Like, Phil is 100% shown as closeted, lashing out at Peter until he thinks that Peter might also be gay/blackmail him.  And technically, Peter murders him for being an asshole, not for being gay, but ehhhhhhhh, I'm feeling like it could be a gray area.  Also, Peter should probably reconsider being a doctor with how quick he was to jump to murder as a solution.  Pretty sure that Hippocratic oath is like Day 1.  **END SPOILERS**

Just so you know, this is like the anti-Call Me by Your Name.  If I had known that going in, I might have enjoyed it more but it's presented as just a Western.  The cinematography is flawless and the acting is very good.  I didn't read the source material but the script was very tight, no wasted moments.  It's currently streaming on Netflix.

Flee (2021)

 Nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature, and Best International Feature     Human trafficking is bad, people.  Jesus.  Also, knowingly sending people back to a country that will kill them.  Just because it's legally right doesn't make it ethical.

Amin (Amin Nawabi) is an Afghan refugee living in Copenhagen.  He recounts his life fleeing from the Taliban to Moscow, living in a constant state of desperation, his family scraping enough money together to get them piecemeal to Europe.  Alone, a minor, Amin has to lie about his background to claim asylum in Denmark.  He hides his past from the authorities but he is also hiding who he is from his family.  He doesn't know if they will accept him as a gay man.  How can he risk the last parts of himself after losing so much?

It's animated to protect Amin's identity and some of the names and places are changed for the same reason.  I don't know if it's the first documentary to do this; I seem to remember one a few years ago but I'd have to look it up and I'm lazy.  At any rate, it feels novel.  

Not going to lie, it's kind of a hard watch.  This is a dude recounting the most painful years of his life and it's clear he hasn't fully processed the trauma of it all.  It's probably going to win Best Documentary.  I don't know yet, because I haven't seen the rest of them, but that's my guess.  The Academy loves to see people destroy themselves on film.  Anyway, it's currently streaming on Hulu.

Free Guy (2021)

Nominated for Best Visual Effects    I watched the majority of this movie when I was at home for Christmas; I just didn't finish it.  It was one Tyler was interested in, so I didn't mind re-watching it.  It's not my favorite Ryan Reynolds movie but it's cute.

Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is a background character in the open world game Free City.  He is happy, if a little lovelorn, going through his routine until he meets MolotovGirl (Jodie Comer), a player on a mission.  In real life, Millie is looking for evidence that the game code in Free City was stolen from her and her partner, Keys (Joe Keery).  She has a line on some video footage shot by a player that would confirm her suspicions but no way to get to it.  She doesn't have time for a brand-new AI following her around, but Guy quickly proves himself by leveling up without resorting to cruelty, bullying, or being a dick.  The game's designer, Antwon (Taika Watiti), is furious that a glitchy NPC is somehow tanking his pre-sales for the game's sequel and orders Guy to be destroyed.  Millie and Keys have 48 hrs to prove Antwon stole their code before Guy's whole world is vaporized.

Like I said, it's cute.  It's not super-revolutionary but it's a damn sight better than Ready Player One.  There are a bunch of famous YouTubers making cameos (I assume.  I'm old and I don't watch YouTube.) and a couple of celebrities hiding out in the credits.  Channing Tatum in particular looks like he's having the time of his life.  

My main issue is that Ryan Reynolds is playing a version of the same character he's played in the last six movies he's been in.  It's basically just shades of Deadpool.  I get it.  People love that.  It's just starting to wear a little thin for me.

The visual effects are omnipresent and they are very pretty.  It does look fake but it's supposed to be fake so I don't know its chances.  It's coming to Hulu and HBO Max on 18 Feb if you want to check it out at home.

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

Nominated for Best Animated Feature    Long ago, the four nations-- just kidding.

Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) has searched her ravaged world for the last dragon, Sisu (Awkwafina).  Only Sisu's magic can banish the Druun, giant swirls of energy that turn people to stone.  Sisu had done this once before, 500 years ago, when her brother and sister dragons sacrificed their magic to create a gem capable of banishing the Druun.  An act of childhood betrayal sees the gem smashed and scattered around the world.  Raya and Sisu must travel to each capital, retrieve the gems, and drive the Druun away again.  On their tail is Princess Namaari (Gemma Chan), who wants the exact same thing as Raya, but wants her nation to be the one in control of the magic.

First things first, this is a beautifully animated film.  The colors are lush, the details are fantastic, and everything moves.  It's not going to win, but it is beautiful.  

The story is terrible.  Yeah, I said it.  

In this plague-ridden year, where almost one million people in this country have died because a small minority advocated not taking any kind of precaution, where we now have multiple strains of a highly contagious virus because a vocal few threw hissy fits about staying at home and making small sacrifices for the greater good, a film about "can't we all just trust each other and get along" falls a little fucking flat.  Call me a cynic.

Maybe in a few years, when I'm not quite so angry all the time, I will revisit this and think it's a lovely piece of filmmaking.  Right now, I just can't handle the naïveté.  It's currently streaming on Disney+.

Oscar Nominations for 2022

Okay.  It's year three of the pandemic and the Oscar nominations can't be stopped.  Here we go.

Best Picture

Belfast

CODA

Don't Look Up

Drive My Car

Dune

King Richard

Licorice Pizza

Nightmare Alley

The Power of the Dog

West Side Story

No surprises here.  Pretty much the same list from the Critics' Choice and the Golden Globes.

Best Director

Paul Thomas Anderson - Licorice Pizza

Kenneth Branagh - Belfast

Jane Campion - The Power of the Dog

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi - Drive My Car

Steven Spielberg - West Side Story

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain - The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Olivia Colman - The Lost Daughter

Penélope Cruz - Parallel Mothers

Nicole Kidman - Being the Ricardos

Kristen Stewart - Spencer

So Lady Gaga got snubbed in favor of Kristen Stewart.  Interesting.  In fact, House of Gucci got shut out except for Makeup and Hairstyling.  That's gotta hurt.

Best Actor

Javier Bardem - Being the Ricardos

Benedict Cumberbatch - The Power of the Dog

Andrew Garfield - Tick, Tick...Boom!

Will Smith - King Richard

Denzel Washington - The Tragedy of Macbeth

Best Supporting Actress

Jessie Buckley - The Lost Daughter

Ariana DeBose - West Side Story

Judi Dench - Belfast

Kirsten Dunst - The Power of the Dog

Aunjanue Ellis - King Richard

Best Supporting Actor

Ciarán Hinds - Belfast

Troy Kotsur - CODA

Jesse Plemons - The Power of the Dog

J.K. Simmons - Being the Ricardos

Kodi Smit-McPhee - The Power of the Dog

Best Costume Design

Cruella

Cyrano

Dune

Nightmare Alley

West Side Story

Best Sound

Belfast

Dune

No Time to Die

The Power of the Dog

West Side Story

Best Original Score

Don't Look Up

Dune

Encanto

Parallel Mothers

The Power of the Dog

Best Adapted Screenplay

CODA

Drive My Car

Dune

The Lost Daughter

The Power of the Dog

Best Original Screenplay

Belfast

Don't Look Up

King Richard

Licorice Pizza

The Worst Person in the World

Best Animated Short

Affairs of the Art

Bestia

Boxballet

Robin Robin

The Windshield Wiper

Best Live Action Short

Ala Kachuu - Take and Run

The Dress

The Long Goodbye

On My Mind

Please Hold

Best Film Editing

Don't Look Up

Dune

King Richard

The Power of the Dog

Tick, Tick...Boom!

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Coming 2 America

Cruella

Dune

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

House of Gucci

Who saw Coming 2 America get a nomination?  Who remembered Coming 2 America came out last year?

Best Animated Feature

Encanto

Flee

Luca

The Mitchells vs the Machines

Raya and the Last Dragon

Best Documentary Feature

Ascension

Attica

Flee

Summer of Soul

Writing with Fire

Best Documentary Short

Audible

Lead Me Home

The Queen of Basketball

Three Songs for Benazir

When We Were Bullies

Best Original Song

"Be Alive" - King Richard

"Dos Oruguitas" - Encanto

"Down to Joy" - Belfast

"No Time to Die" - No Time to Die

"Somehow You Do" - Four Good Days

For some reason, the Academy likes to stick a random film in Best Original Song that is nominated nowhere else.  Never even heard of this one.

Best Cinematography

Dune

Nightmare Alley

The Power of the Dog

The Tragedy of Macbeth

West Side Story

Best International Feature

Drive My Car - Japan

Flee - Denmark

The Hand of God - Italy

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom - Bhutan

The Worst Person in the World - Norway

Look at Bhutan getting in the Oscar spirit!  

Best Production Design

Dune

Nightmare Alley

The Power of the Dog

The Tragedy of Macbeth

West Side Story

Best Visual Effects

Dune

Free Guy

No Time to Die

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Spider-Man: No Way Home

All right, ceremony is March 27.  You know the deal:  I try and watch as many of these as I can get my grubby paws on.  Clock starts now.

Phantom Thread (2017)

  I really can't recommend this movie.  It's very lush but stiff, like a beautifully dressed corpse.

Alma (Vicky Krieps) is the latest ingenue of designer Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis).  She is is muse, his model, and his lover but cannot seem to bridge a final distance between them.  People fall over themselves to coddle the designer, chief among them his iron-hearted sister, Cyril (Lesley Manville), leaving Alma to claw her way into his affections time and again by any means necessary.

People.  Please.  I am begging.  Stop dating/marrying/fucking people you don't actually like.  Alma and Reynolds are sooooo toxic and no one needs to live this way.  It's not cute; it's a cautionary tale.  

If I say it's Crimson Peak by way of Gosford Park, would that make sense to anybody?  It even has a ghost!  It's streaming on Netflix right now if you're interested.

Better Days (2019)

  This was a nominee from last year's Oscars.  I tried to watch it back in the spring when it was on Hulu but it was relentlessly depressing and I couldn't take it.  But I gave it another chance because I hate myself I don't like DNF'ing.  If I don't finish a movie, I don't review it, which means that it was a waste of my time.  I hate wasting my time.

Content Warning:  suicide, bullying, assault of a minor

Chen Nian (Zhou Dongyu) is one of hundreds of students at a prep school for college exams.  It's already a high-pressure environment but a clique of bullies, led by Wei Lai (Zhou Ye), make it even worse.  Nian strikes a deal with low-level criminal Bei (Jackson Yee) for protection on her way to and from school in exchange for a favor to be named later.  Their bond deepens but before they can make any real plans for the future, Wei Lai turns up murdered.  

Okay, so this is bullying, but like, Sissy Spacek being doused with pig's blood bullying.  Not "how's the weather up there, Stretch?" bullying.  Wei Lai is just lucky nobody in Hong Kong has telekinesis.  Anyway, the movie is extremely depressing and the violence is all teens vs other teens (so, children) which is also hard to watch.  The score is pretty, though.  It's a very earnest film, which comes across a little like a Very Special Episode PSA about bullying, but I think it means well.  It finishes with some mid-credits statistics about measures implemented to curb bullying and harassment in real life so stick around for a couple of minutes after The End.  

It might still be streaming on Hulu but I watched it on disc from Netflix.