British Independent Film Awards Are First to Anoint Renee Zellweger in Best Actress

Could this be the start of an awards sweep for Renee? Olivia Colman began her run with this very same award last year for The Favourite. That’s probably the most significant winner from this group, which is the first awards body to give out their prizes. The British independent film For Sama seemed to be the favorite with them, but The Personal History of David Copperfield also did well (even though it doesn’t release in the UK until January, and even longer before we get to see it here).

2019 BIFA WINNERS

Best British Independent Film
For Sama

Best Director
WAAD AL-KATEAB, EDWARD WATTS, For Sama

Best Screenplay
ARMANDO IANNUCCI, SIMON BLACKWELL, The Personal History of David Copperfield

Best Documentary
For Sama

Best Actress
RENÉE ZELLWEGER, Judy

Best Actor
JOSH O’CONNOR, Only You

Best Supporting Actress
RUTHXJIAH BELLENEA, The Last Tree

Best Supporting Actor
HUGH LAURIE, The Personal History of David Copperfield

Most Promising Newcomer
SAM ADEWUNMI, The Last Tree

Hugh Laurie wins Supporting Actor from British Independent Film Awards

Lightning Round Reviews 2019: November, Part 2

I’m back with my latest batch of reviews! I’m trying to keep this rolling right along here, as I catch up with some summer/fall films, as well as go out to the theaters to see some new releases. There’s no question that The Irishman is the pick of this litter, but I’d also say Ford v. Ferrari and Official Secrets provide some considerable pleasures of their own. Enjoy!

MIDSOMMAR * * * (Dir. Ari Aster)

Enduring all manner of Swedish horrors

Ari Aster’s second film after Hereditary continues the writer-director’s fascination with cult imagery and the idea of forcing ordinary people into utterly bizarre situations. Midsommar is even more ambitious, if a bit less scary, than his first film. At two and a half hours long, it takes you on a long journey from one college student’s suffering of a terrible family tragedy (like in Hereditary) and her grief sending her on a quest for some sort of catharsis, which she finds in an utterly unexpected place. Florence Pugh stars as Dani, who, while still grieving the death of her family, tags along on a summer trip with her boyfriend (Jack Reynor) and his friends to Sweden, where their Swedish friend has invited them to Midsommar, a kind of family gathering that he describes as akin to a folk festival. But of course, that is not at all what it is. The movie is deliberately paced and slowly draws you in to what’s happening in this outlandish cult, with callbacks to British folk horror films like 1973’s The Wicker Man in particular, and saving most of the truly gruesome shenanigans for the last 30-40 minutes. But it’s never boring as you are almost mesmerized by the happenings in this remote spot, and the unique setting of this horror film which takes place almost entirely during the day, with Sweden’s long lasting hours of sunlight. You find yourself in a kind of trance, like Dani herself does after a while, but the meaning of her transformation or attraction to this cult (if that’s what she is experiencing) is a bit muddled, as Aster runs into a pacing problem and perhaps overreaches his ambitions and forgets about the intentions of his characters in the last act. Still, what works in Midsommar are the striking images and insane climactic events, and those make the movie worth watching.

THE LION KING * (Dir. Jon Favreau)

An exercise in pure, artistic soullessness

It’s hard to describe the experience of watching a movie for the first time and knowing every single scene, every line of dialogue, every musical sequence and every music cue before it happens. Knowing when it’s going to happen, knowing how it will play out, knowing how it will end. It’s not the same as a movie being predictable, it’s literally knowing ahead of time what will happen in every moment, because you’ve seen it before. It’s also not the same as a remake, because in this case, a shot for shot, scene by scene recreation of the same movie (but in CG!) is always, and will never not be, a hollow, cynical exercise. In that sense, The Lion King is the very worst of the Disney remakes, which have all been terrible and couldn’t have set a lower bar to begin with. You’ve seen this entire thing already. Jon Favreau’s CGI recreation of the cartoon classic brings nothing, maybe even less than nothing, to the table. This is not a real movie, it’s plagiarism for cash. If you want to marvel at the CG world they created (this is an entirely animated movie), that’s your prerogative, but despite being the same film, it lacks the life, the originality, the creativity and the character of the original. It is an utterly soulless, foul insult to everyone who was involved at one point, in making an original film. For those reasons, The Lion King is possibly even more banal and inherently offensive, than the god awful Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. It’s hardly worth mentioning the tweaks that were made to it-like the newly terrible voice acting performances that sound like they’re coming from somewhere offscreen and not the from the animals themselves, the padded running time which includes watching a mouse walk slowly into frame and dust move even more slowly across an entire countryside, the absolutely butchered songs from a director who clearly has no idea how to structure a musical, and the inability to tell any of the lions apart from each other when they’re all onscreen at the same time. It’s a shame that pointless garbage like this will do exactly what Disney wants it to (make a billion dollars worldwide), because it’s an affirmation of their constant insults to the intelligence of audiences. I would say we deserve better, but who knows. Maybe we don’t.

OFFICIAL SECRETS * * * (Dir. Gavin Hood)

Remembering the outrages of the Iraq War era

In 2003 a British whistleblower leaked a classified GCHQ memo to the press because she was worried that her country was being lied into what would turn out to be a disastrous war in Iraq. She was charged with violating Britain’s Official Secrets Act, and then a year later the charges were dropped, the war happened anyway, and the story was all but forgotten. Now, Gavin Hood directs this film recalling that little known scandal which briefly captured the attention of the British press but was likely never even heard by the rest of the world, including here in America. Keira Knightley plays Katherine Gunn, who was at the time a 28-year-old translator for GCHQ (the British equivalent of the NSA) and spy who was passionately against the war and alarmed when she was sent a memo from the Americans directing a coordinated effort to use the intelligence agencies dig up dirt on members of the UN Security Council. The intent was to blackmail the smaller countries into voting for a war resolution, so Katherine followed her conscience and leaked it to the press, knowingly in violation of the law but in service of her country. Official Secrets details the true life affair in three distinct parts- Katherine’s initial discovery and leak of the memo, the efforts of the press, led by a reporter at the Observer (Matt Smith) to publish the document in spite of the legal complications is arises, and finally Katherine’s confession of the crime and the government’s attempts to prosecute her for her actions. This is a stark, compelling film, with a lean, un-melodramatic approach to the material. It’s in the vein of movies like All the President’s Men and Spotlight, but with a more personal focus on the whistleblower herself, this time an ordinary British citizen who felt nothing but an intensely personal desire to follow her principles, putting herself and her Turkish immigrant husband at risk in the process. And for what? The issue with this particular story is that it really was all for naught. The war did happen, and this leak had minimal effect at best. The movie raises questions about the actions of whistleblowers and the role of the press when the government lies to the people, and it can’t help but recall current events when government propaganda and lying is so out of control it startles you to remember how angry people were in the early 00’s, when the Bush and Blair governments were doing the same thing and yet somehow now seem civil in comparison. Are we destined to repeat our mistakes forever, with consequences ever more profound? The movie is well cast and impeccably acted by Knightley, Smith, Ralph Fiennes as Katherine’s defense attorney and Rhys Ifans as a particularly angry anti-war journalist who steals his scenes with comedic urgency. It fits nicely into the political thriller genre, but you can’t help but wish Katherine Gunn’s actions had had a bigger impact.

HUSTLERS * * (Dir. Lorene Scafaria)

J-Lo struts her stuff as a badass wannabe crime lord

For anyone who’s been sorry to see Jennifer Lopez spend most of the last twenty years of her movie career in terrible projects, you’ll be happy to hear that she, and really she alone, is the reason to see Hustlers. It’s the role of her career, maybe the one she was born to play. As the world weary, cynical Ramona, professional stripper who acts as Mama Bear to the younger girls she takes under her wing, she gets to pole dance, strut around in one designer tracksuit after another with perfectly manicured nails that look most comfortable holding a cigarette or a wine glass in the middle of the afternoon as she instructs the lessers in the intricacies of her burgeoning drug business. And boy does she make it look effortless. The movie loses energy whenever she’s not onscreen as a matter of fact, which is unfortunately, a pretty good chunk of this film. The woefully untalented Constance Wu stars a Destiny, who befriends Ramona and becomes her devoted pupil as a stripper in a high end club catering specifically to rich Wall Street guys in the years before the 2008 recession. After the crash though, Destiny, Ramona and a couple of other girls (Keke Palmer and Lili Reinhart) are in desperate need of cash and develop a hustle to drug and scam their former clientele out of their money. The movie wants to be about female empowerment through sexuality and payback to men that no one feels sorry for (and you really don’t), but Lorene Scafaria directs the film like a low rent American Hustle (which was itself a low rent Goodfellas), and this third tier imitation feels tired. Its especially cheesy framing device (Destiny relays these events through interview with an overacting Julia Stiles as the reporter who wrote the New York Magazine article on which the movie is based) only emphasizes how out of her depth Wu is as the lead in a movie that strives for higher ambitions and larger meaning. The movie is entertaining in parts, but never comes together as much as it should, despite J-Lo’s dynamic screen presence. 

THE IRISHMAN * * * 1/2 (Dir. Martin Scorsese)

Much of the joy of this movie is watching acting legends reunite and spar with each other

Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Casino, and The Departed established Martin Scorsese as the mafioso of the modern day mob movie, and with so many to his name, he now finishes off his oeuvre of mafia films with the last remaining vestige of one. And who better to collaborate with on a project like this than his longtime star Robert DeNiro, who plays Frank Sheeran, a ninety-something who was a hitman for the mob from the mid-fifties to the late 70’s, and the man who allegedly (according to him) killed Jimmy Hoffa. To accomplish this, Scorsese uses state of the art de-aging technology to have DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino play men from their 40s into their 80’s and beyond, a groundbreaking feat of technological advance that could open the door to actors playing themselves younger well into middle and old age. It’s an experimental film in that regard, and the affect is jarring at first and takes some getting used to (we all know what Robert DeNiro looked like as a young man, and this is not quite the same thing, and besides that, the bodies of men in their late seventies cannot help but move differently from those in their forties). But thankfully, the sharp screenplay by Steven Zaillian brings us into the story of Frank Sheeran and his life with Italian mobsters, and the performances by acting legends in these roles are incredibly skilled and honed in, regardless of the CGI at work. This is a Scorsese move through and through- the master has lost none of his touch in a vibrant, energetic look at the life of one man that spans 60 years, but this is a more melancholic, subdued version of his mobster movies of yore. Frank is a passively violent, amoral man who feels no guilt or remorse for his life of murder for hire, and DeNiro’s performance is at first indifferent but evolves into a tragic, poignant look at the lifespan of a man who eventually has nothing and no one left in it but his memories of misdeeds and violence. Joe Pesci, come out of retirement for this role, is wonderful as Frank’s longtime mentor Russ, aged to be older than his protege, but with a quiet grace that resembles nothing of Pesci’s own iconic gangster roles, and Pacino (working with Scorsese for the first time) brings his particular brand of spry, wiry scenery chewing to become a scene-stealing, hilarious Jimmy Hoffa- these are memorable comeback roles for all three acting giants, and the pleasures of watching the three of them interacting onscreen could go on well longer than the three and a half hours The Irishman lasts. Scorsese directs with such a brisk verve and Zaillian’s script is so sharp and polished, that this movie is one of the most entertaining and funny films of the year, as well as one of the most reverent. It’s likely the final word from the master of gangster films on a genre that bears his stamp in multiple areas, and a more reflective ode to the life is not likely to be found. 

FORD V. FERRARI * * * (Dir. James Mangold)

Bale and Damon make a well-matched screen duo

This is the kind of movie that’s in danger of existing- an old-fashioned, big studio adult drama with big names above the marquee, and actually given a wide release in theaters across the country. For that reason alone you can’t help but want it to succeed, especially given that it was made by 20th Century Fox before it was acquired by Disney, which has no interest in releasing anything but pre-existing IP’s that can make a billion dollars at the box office. The struggle between that kind of corporate demand over the creative teams that actually make the movies, in a funny way kind of mirrors what’s going on in Ford v. Ferrari itself, which is ostensibly about who won the 1996 Le Mans, but is really about the conflict between the free thinking creatives (the driver, the car designer) versus the pressures and business demands made on them by the Ford company as they strive to build a racecar that will finally defeat the mighty Ferrari before the eyes of the world. Matt Damon and Christian Bale star as Carol Shelby, the car designer and former driver who was forced to retire due to a heart condition, and Ken Miles, whom Bale plays as a hotheaded, kind of eccentric kook from Manchester who lives in America and repairs cars at a garage, racing in his spare time. The two of them are a well matched duo, but Bale pretty much owns the screen here, bringing a live wire energy to creating a unique, oddball character who stands out in an otherwise conventional movie filled with solid, charismatic performances across the board. The movie is long (2 and a half hours) and takes its time, spending much of the first half on that conflict between Ford, led by Tracey Letts as CEO Henry Ford II, Jon Bernthal as Lee Iacocca and Josh Lucas as the particularly antagonistic Leo Beebe, head of the racing program and for some reason, self-appointed oppressor over Miles (I guess the movie felt it needed some sort of traditional movie villain). The corporate drama is less interesting as it plays out onscreen than the actual racing scenes, which are thrilling and extremely well-executed by director James Mangold. The last half of the film literally picks up speed as Miles drives Daytona and Le Mans in less than ideal conditions and you can feel your heart racing along with him as he makes the dangerous turns and gets his door stuck on the crucial first lap of the race. As a sports movie, it delivers the goods in the last half while the subject matter in the first half keeps it from being a purely conventional film, though it is told in traditional Hollywood storytelling manner (not an insult). For anyone who loves cars and parts and grease and ambitious, masculine rivalry, I can imagine the first half of this movie is just as thrilling as the last half. For those who aren’t, you can appreciate the fun and the well told nature of the movie while really gearing up for the triumphant finish. It’s a good movie, not a great one. But what’s wrong with that?

Indie Spirit Awards Like 'Uncut Gems,' 'The Lighthouse'

Okay, so these are a bit random if you ask me. Lots of movies I’ve never heard of, and Marriage Story gets in for Best Feature, but not director, lead actor or actress? Weird. This is a bit of a boost for Jennifer Lopez, who’s striving to get her first Oscar nomination for Hustlers, and it looks like these guys went for her. But overall, I don’t think these have any bearing on the Oscar race at all this year. The only movie to get both a Best Feature and Best Director nomination was Uncut Gems? That makes it seem like they didn’t particularly like much of anything, really.

2019 INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARD NOMINATIONS

Best Feature
A HIDDEN LIFE
CLEMENCY
THE FAREWELL
MARRIAGE STORY
UNCUT GEMS

Best Director
Robert Eggers – THE LIGHTHOUSE
Alma Har’el – HONEY BOY
Julius Onah – LUCE
Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie – UNCUT GEMS
Lorene Scafaria – HUSTLERS

Best First Feature
BOOKSMART
THE CLIMB
DIANE
THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO
THE MUSTANG
SEE YOU YESTERDAY

Best Female Lead
Karen Allen – COLEWELL
Hong Chau – DRIVEWAYS
Elisabeth Moss – HER SMELL
Mary Kay Place – DIANE
Alfre Woodard – CLEMENCY
Renée Zellweger – JUDY

Best Male Lead
Chris Galust – GIVE ME LIBERTY
Kelvin Harrison – Jr., LUCE
Robert Pattinson – THE LIGHTHOUSE
Adam Sandler – UNCUT GEMS
Matthias Schoenaerts – THE MUSTANG

Best Supporting Female
Jennifer Lopez – HUSTLERS
Taylor Russell – WAVES
Zhao Shuzhen – THE FAREWELL
Lauren “Lolo” Spencer – GIVE ME LIBERTY
Octavia Spencer – LUCE

Best Supporting Male
Willem Dafoe – THE LIGHTHOUSE
Noah Jupe – HONEY BOY
Shia Labeouf – HONEY BOY
Jonathan Majors – THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO
Wendell Pierce – BURNING CANE

Best Screenplay
Noah Baumbach – MARRIAGE STORY
Jason Begue, Shawn Snyder – TO DUST
Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie – UNCUT GEMS
Chinonye Chukwu – CLEMENCY
Tarell Alvin Mccraney – HIGH FLYING BIRD

Best First Screenplay
Fredrica Bailey, Stefon Bristol – SEE YOU YESTERDAY
Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen – DRIVEWAYS
Bridget Savage Cole, Danielle Krudy – BLOW THE MAN DOWN
Jocelyn Deboer, Dawn Luebbe – GREENER GRASS
James Montague, Craig W. Sanger – THE VAST OF NIGHT

Best Cinematography
Todd Banhazl – HUSTLERS
Jarin Blaschke – THE LIGHTHOUSE
Natasha Braier – HONEY BOY
Chananun Chotrungroj – THE THIRD WIFE
Pawel Pogorzelski – MIDSOMMAR

Best Editing
Julie Béziau – THE THIRD WIFE
Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie – UNCUT GEMS
Tyler L. Cook – SWORD OF TRUST
Louise Ford – THE LIGHTHOUSE
Kirill Mikhanovsky – GIVE ME LIBERTY

John Cassavetes Award
BURNING CANE
COLEWELL
GIVE ME LIBERTY
PREMATURE
WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY

Robert Altman Award
“Marriage Story”

Best Documentary
AMERICAN FACTORY
APOLLO 11
FOR SAMA
HONEYLAND
ISLAND OF THE HUNGRY GHOSTS

Best International Film
INVISIBLE LIFE, Brazil
LES MISERABLES, France
PARASITE, South Korea
PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, France
RETABLO, Peru
THE SOUVENIR, United Kingdom

Someone to Watch Award
Rashaad Ernesto Green – PREMATURE
Ash Mayfair – THE THIRD WIFE
Joe Talbot – THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO

Truer Than Fiction Award
Khalik Allah – BLACK MOTHER
Davy Rothbart – 17 BLOCKS
Nadia Shihab – JADDOLAND
Erick Stoll & Chase Whiteside – AMÉRICA

Annual Bonnie Award
Marielle Heller
Lulu Wang
Kelly Reichardt

Willem Dafoe was great in The Lighthouse, but I really don’t like that Robert Pattinson nomination. Gimme a break.

New 'Cats' Trailer Looks Just as Crazy as the First One

So, I still think this movie looks quite insane and can’t imagine sitting in a theater accepting any of it. I have to assume this is aimed squarely at fans of the Broadway show and pretty much no one else, so here’s hoping they enjoy it, I guess. I will not be seeing this one.

Ben Affleck Coaches Basketball in 'The Way Back'

So, obviously this is a movie that’s been made many times before. Down on his luck, alcoholic guy redeems himself by redeeming a losing sports team, etc. A very old story. The only resonant thing about this trailer is the way it kind of makes you uncomfortable about watching Affleck as a struggling alcoholic, given that you can’t help but wonder if he’s playing really close to himself here. This movie comes out in March. I suppose it could be a feel good, overcoming the odds kind of thing, but like I said, it just feels so predictable.

Lightning Round Reviews 2019: November, Part 1

I’m back with another round of 2019 movies! This is my favorite part of the year, where a lot of really good stuff starts coming out, so hopefully these batches will start to be posted at least twice a month through January. There are some really good movies in this group, but I’d have to say Jojo Rabbit is my favorite and most definitely my highest recommendation. See it.

CRAWL * * 1/2 (Dir. Alexandre Aja)

Swimming with alligators

As far as B-movies go, you definitely get your money’s worth with Crawl, a two-hander about a father and daughter who team up during a hurricane to battle their way out of a drowning house filled to the brim with alligators. Yes, that’s the plot, and yes, the movie does take it seriously (for the most part), which is the key to the success of any B-movie (just ask Snakes on a Plane). Directed by Alexandre Aja from a script by brothers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen (and produced by B-movie king Sam Raimi), Kaya Scoledario is a college swimmer who drives down to Florida during a Category 5 storm ravaging the coast when her dad (Barry Pepper) stops answering his phone. From there she finds him passed out in the underground crawl space of their old house, and he’s not alone. And the storm’s getting worse. This movie is a tight, action-packed 80 minutes, jammed with plenty of gator attacks, blood, and gruesome deaths, and Scoledario is a believable action heroine, which in itself is kind of a feat in this sort of silly movie, but you do buy her determination. The father-daughter relationship healing itself in the midst of impending doom is predictable and corny, yes, but so are her swimming skills being used to their fullest to outrace a bunch of swarming alligators. These are killer animals in the Jaws style of movie monsters, rather than realistic predators, and they definitely look CG (even in close-ups where a puppet could have been used to better effect). But you do have to admire all that Aja mines from the barebones nature of the setup. There are some decent scare moments in this and with a solid female lead who holds the screen very well, you could do worse.

THE NIGHTINGALE * * * 1/2 (Dir. Jennifer Kent)

Revenge is best dished out to those who really deserve it

Jennifer Kent’s second film after 2014’s The Babadook packs a brutal gut punch fueled by absolute rage that makes for a very tough sit, but an overwhelmingly powerful experience. The Nightingale is a tale of true life horrors, set on the island of Tasmania off the coast of Australia in the 1820’s, where Clare (Aisling Franciosi) is an Irish convict under the thumb of Captain Hawkins (Sam Claflin), who routinely rapes her and refuses to release her freedom papers even after she’s served her sentence. Then, when he and his fellow soldiers rape her again and murder her husband and baby, Clare is powered by an unearthly need for revenge and blood lust, and she teams up with an Aborigine tracker named Billy (Baykali Ganambarr) to help her find these men and deliver her own brand of justice. Even the plot description lets you know what you’re in for here, and though the rape/murder scene is truly horrific, there’s no hint of exploitation through any frame of this film. The violence, though harsh, is realistic and all the more harrowing because we know that men like these military officers colonized the British empire through systematic campaigns of terror, using rape and murder as their tools of power and dominance. Everything they do in this film happened- it happened then as it happens now. Franciosi and Ganambarr turn in fiercely honest performances as the aggrieved victims of evil men. Billy himself and his people suffer the British reign of terror, his whole life subjugated to colonizers who’ve inflicted cruelty, indignity and violence at every turn. As a newcomer to acting, professional dancer Ganambarr is incredibly appealing and charismatic as Billy, and the bond he and Clare form as they seek out the British is the essential core of this brutal film, recalling 1971’s Walkabout, another Australian film about a relationship formed between a white woman and an Aborigine man, and no doubt an influence on Kent’s stylistic decisions. For all the historical reality, there is something about this movie that recalls the rage of today, as we continue to see powerful white men constantly go unpunished for their horrifically evil deeds, including rape and assault, still enabled by feeble toadies, blind followers and complicit, passive onlookers. All of them are equally guilty, none of them deserve to be spared, a fact this movie implicitly understands. This is an uncompromising, unforgiving story- there is no apology for Clare and Billy’s anger, their defiance, their desire for vengeance. The direction at times can meander, and there’s a choppiness to Clare’s recurring nightmares, but it all adds to the rawness of her emotions, the authenticity of her pain. This is a movie about justified anger, and justified payback. This is a primal scream directed at all the Trumps and Kavanaughs who wield their undeserved, unearned power over the rest of us, for all women and minorities who suffer and have suffered the injustices of men who perform cruelty with coolness, who look like gentlemen and behave like animals. This endorsement of anger is not for everyone, but it is for those who were told and treated like they didn’t matter, who faced down their torment, for those who survived and those who didn’t. They are seen by this film. They are here.

JUDY * * 1/2 (Dir. Rupert Goold)

Renee Zellweger goes for the Oscar in Judy

It’s easy to go broad when playing an icon like Judy Garland, who is sort of like Elvis in that universally known and caricatured sense of ubiquitousness. When you’re playing Judy in decline, in the last years or months of her life, you can really go for broke and Renee Zellweger does that here, as she portrays the legend during her final shows in London in the late 60’s. Based on a stage play, this is a contained, small scale story, but the entire reason for its existence appears to be as a vehicle for Zellweger to turn in a physically grueling, feat of acting performance that’s screaming to be paid attention to and admired. There’s nothing inherently wrong with these kinds of films, as watching someone achieve perfect physical impersonation can indeed be admirable, in the same way one man/one woman shows might be (I can envision this quite easily on the stage). Director Rupert Goold does his best to open it up a little more, with talented actors like Jessie Buckley and Finn Wittrock in supporting roles, but the show belongs to Zellweger, and she delivers the best she can, especially in the concert scenes, where she comes alive and pulls off the singing much better than she did in Chicago, 17 years ago. But she never quite disappears into the role, simply because Renee Zellweger’s own quirks, mannerisms, voice and facial tics can’t be suppressed entirely to form into Judy Garland’s very specific ones. It’s a blend of two very particular people that doesn’t quite mesh 100%, even if Zellweger’s performance is technically impressive. And aside from that, though the movie is never boring, it doesn’t illuminate anything new about Garland herself. We all know that her last days were tragic ones, made worse by her lifelong addictions and child abuse suffered at the hands of an unkind studio system (sketched out in vague flashbacks here), but if we’re going down the Hollywood biography route, why not tell us something new? Explore her childhood, her family, her career? The intense focus on Garland’s final days seems intended solely as an acting challenge for its star rather an exploration of its subject. And since Renee can only get about 80% of the way there, it’s not as effective as it could have been.

DOLEMITE IS MY NAME * * * 1/2 (Dir. Craig Brewer)

An unlikely comedy and movie star changes the game

Rudy Ray Moore was not your typical Hollywood leading man. He also wasn’t your typical blaxploitation leading man, or for that matter, your typical comedian or singer or any number of showbiz roles he aspired to in Hollywood. He was told no over and over again, but he refused to accept it and kept at it until he finally hit on something that took hold in the 1970’s, when he was well into his late forties, working at a record store in a black Los Angeles neighborhood. That was the character of Dolemite, the stage persona he adopted from hearing the stories of the various residents in the neighborhood, which he then fashioned into a kind of stand-up routine that most resembled early rap lyrics in his rhyming, musical style of performance. After becoming a hit on the Billboard charts with his outrageous and filthy comedy records, Moore was determined to make a movie with Dolemite as the lead and set about doing it the only way he could- with his own money and a loan from the record executives, using his friends and some film school students as the cast and crew. This delightful film takes elements from movies like Ed Wood and the Murphy starring Bowfinger (to me, always one of Murphy’s greatest performances) to tell the story of Rudy Ray Moore’s career that he essentially willed into existence. There was something that Roger Ebert called the “joy of performance,” and that is what evokes every element of this movie, from Eddie Murphy’s electric performance in the lead, to the ensemble of great comedic actors like Keegan-Michael Key, Craig Robinson, Titus Burgess, Da’Vine Joy Randolph (a standout), and an almost unrecognizable Wesley Snipes as the credited actor they got to direct Dolemite, D’Urville Martin, who plays the role as a pretentious upstart embarrassed to be messing around with these amateurs and practically steals the movie. You can’t help but root for Rudy, always an underdog even when he experiences success, and to watch he and his friends having the time of their lives filming what ends up being critiqued as a terrible film, but one that finds success with black audiences who get the spoof angle he’s going for, is the ultimate feel good triumph and one of the most fun times at the movies all year. The one unfortunate thing is that this movie, which really should be seen in theaters, will reach most people on Netflix only, and for a movie as made for a mass audience as this one, that’s a shame indeed.

JOJO RABBIT * * * 1/2 (Dir. Taika Waititi)

How could a black comedy about Hitler be so sweet?

It takes something special to get a performance out of a child that can carry an entire movie. Much credit is often due to the director, if he or she has a feel for working with children, but the best child actors have a certain special gift- a natural ability to assert charisma in front of the camera that can’t be taught or coaxed. In other words, you have to get lucky. Taika Waititi was one of the lucky ones when he cast 10-year-old Roman Griffin Davis, who carries the irresistibly charming Jojo Rabbit on his shoulders throughout its entirety. Waititi wields a certain brand of humor that runs throughout the writer-director-actor’s films, from Hunt for the Wilderpeople to What We Do in the Shadows to Thor: Ragnarok. He now brings that zany humor to a fable set in WWII Germany, where the war is winding down and little Jojo Bletzer is an obsessive Nazi zealot, dedicated to the Hitler Youth and so committed he’s conjured up an imaginary friend in Hitler himself, played hilariously by Waititi. There are those who will always be uncomfortable with lampooning Nazis, preferring to take the horrors perpetrated by the Third Reich deadly seriously if you’re confronting them at all. But we’ve had this conversation before, almost from beginning with Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator and Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be, films made during the war that mocked the propaganda and pomposity of Nazis with all their might, and suffered criticism for it. But fascism must be mocked and parodied, ridiculed at every turn, and to me there is nothing offensive about setting comedies in this era, taking the lead out of the Nazi balloon. Everyone in this film is funny, and everyone gets their moment, from Sam Rockwell as the disillusioned, incompetent Nazi commander in charge of the youth, to Rebel Wilson and Stephen Merchant in bit, but memorable parts as fellow fanatics. Scarlett Johansson fares best of all as Rosie, Jojo’s mother, and turns in a surprisingly moving and funny performance, showing comedic range, perhaps for the first time, in a role unlike anything else she’s ever done. Rosie is a secret resistance fighter and hides a Jewish teenager named Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) in the attic, whom Jojo accidentally stumbles upon and must now confront the terrible “jewish monsters” face to face. Every scene in this movie is from Jojo’s perspective (Davis is in fact in every single scene), from the Nazis to the girl in the attic, to his mother’s lessons in celebrating life and love, not condemning it. The odd couple friendship between Jojo and Elsa is the beating heart of the movie, and much of it rests on Davis’s enchanting performance. We love this kid and we want him to come to his senses. This isn’t the real world, it’s Waititi’s own comedic universe, and as such, the movie works wonders as an original fairy tale and an ode to love in the face of a child’s eye view of terror.

THE LIGHTHOUSE * * (Dir. Robert Eggers)

Madness and emptiness in The Lighthouse

Robert Eggers’s second film after 2015’s The Witch is on par with that film’s unique visionary and experimental tone, but unfortunately there’s not much going on under the surface of some stunning black and white imagery, aside from two people descending into madness, but not in a particularly interesting way. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson star as two men set to work four weeks in a lighthouse somewhere in vague 19th century New England, and almost immediately Pattinson starts experiencing hallucinations the minute he sets foot on the coast. These visions include that of a mermaid who keeps swimming onto the surface to seduce him, but any sort of David Lynch, Eraserhead-style visual experience is undercut by consistent table side conversations between Dafoe and Pattinson that seem too steeped in reality to mark as surreal. None of the character’s backstories amount to anything and there’s no attempt to make you invest in them as real people once the madness keeps setting in. This movie wants to have it both ways- it’s not as surreal as it could have been, nor as realistic, so we as the audience are caught in the middle. The black and white cinematography by Jarin Blaschke is striking and moody, but we can’t get involved in what’s happening onscreen. Willem Dafoe is effortlessly convincing as an old Irish sea captain, but Robert Pattinson suffers from “wooden actor desperately trying to be taken seriously” syndrome and spreads it all over the screen with an inexplicable accent and forced mannerisms. There’s an emptiness to these kinds of guys who are simply out of their depth and know it, but try to hide behind multiple affectations and mumbling dialogue. I wasn’t fooled. The Lighthouse could have been a far more effective film if it had something, anything on its mind.

'Rocketman' and 'Bombshell' Lead the Makeup & Hairstyling Guild Nominations

So, it’s not just you. These are really early. The various industry guilds usually start announcing their nominees in December and through January, but for some reason the Makeup & Hair Guild wanted to go first this year, a whole two months earlier than they announced last year. I guess they must have seen everything already? They have too many separate categories, so it’s a little hard to tell Oscar nominations from this, but early hints may say something like Bombshell, Rocketman and Joker, since they each got more than one nomination (though I’d be interested to know why Joker got into period makeup, but contemporary hairstyling?). A snub would be something like Judy. And it could be a hint that Joker will do well with the guilds overall, since everyone still perceives it as something of an awards wild card, due to its dark nature and all the controversy. But it’s always hard for the industry to ignore that box office with a movie that succeeded in being considered prestigious, despite mixed reviews. We shall see.

2019 HAIR & MAKEUP GUILD NOMINATIONS

BEST CONTEMPORARY MAKE-UP
“Avengers: End Game”

“Bombshell”

“Hustlers”

“John Wick: Parabellum”

“Us”

BEST PERIOD AND/OR CHARACTER MAKE-UP
“Downton Abbey”

“Dolemite is My Name”

“Joker”

“Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood”

“Rocketman”

 BEST SPECIAL MAKE-UP EFFECTS
“Bombshell”

“Captain Marvel”

“It”

“Rocketman”

“The Irishman”

BEST CONTEMPORARY HAIR STYLING
“Bombshell”

“Hustlers”

“John Wick: Parabellum”

“Joker”

“The Laundromat”

BEST PERIOD AND/OR CHARACTER HAIR STYLING
“Downton Abbey”

“Dolemite is My Name”

“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”

“Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood”

“Rocketman”

Rocketman also succeeds in making Taron Egerton into Elton John

Pixar Releases a Teaser for 'Soul'

This is just a teaser trailer, but at least it looks better than Onward. The director of this one is Pete Docter, who did Monsters, Inc., Up and Inside Out, so he’s got a good track record.

Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce Star in 'The Two Popes'

This movie was highly praised on the fall festival circuit and is coming to Netflix on Dec 20th. There’s serious Oscar buzz for both these veteran actors, especially Jonathan Pryce as Pope Francis, who’s actually never been nominated. It does look like a good time just watching these two longtime pros simply talk with each other. The movie is directed by City of God’s Fernando Mereilles and written by Anthony McCarten, who wrote The Theory of Everything and Darkest Hour (and also Bohemian Rhapsody apparently, but let’s just overlook that, shall we?)

'Personal History of David Copperfield' Leads the BIFA Nominations

The British Independent Film Awards are the second critics awards to weigh in this year, and they seemed to really love Armando Ianucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield, which isn’t even coming out here in the U.S. until next year. As a fan of his though, I can’t wait to see it. Other big contenders here are Wild Rose, The Souvenir, and notably, Judy, which got five nominations and that’s a good sign for Renee Zellweger’s Oscar campaign. The Best International Feature category is also interesting, with Marriage Story, Parasite and Monos all nominated.

2019 BIFA NOMINATIONS

Best British Independent Film 

• Bait

• For Sama

• The Personal History Of David Copperfield

• The Souvenir

• Wild Rose

Best Director

• Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts, For Sama

• Oliver Hermanus, Moffie

• Joanna Hogg, The Souvenir

• Mark Jenkin, Bait

• Asif Kapadia, Diego Maradona

Best Actress 

• Jessie Buckley, Wild Rose

• Holliday Grainger, Animals

• Sally Hawkins, Eternal Beauty

• Vicky Knight, Dirty God

• Renee Zellweger, Judy

Best Supporting Actress 

• Jessica Barden, Scarborough

• Ruthxjiah Bellenea, The Last Tree

• Elizabeth Debicki, Vita & Virginia

• Tilda Swinton, The Personal History Of David Copperfield

• Julie Walters, Wild Rose

Best Screenplay 

• Joanna Hogg, The Souvenir

• Armando Iannucci, Simon Blackwell, The Personal History Of David Copperfield

• Paul Laverty, Sorry We Missed You

• Peter Strickland, In Fabric

• Nicole Taylor, Wild Rose

Best Actor 

• Sam Adewunmi, The Last Tree

• Tom Burke, The Souvenir

• Kris Hitchen, Sorry We Missed You

• Josh O’Connor, Only You

• Dev Patel, The Personal History Of David Copperfield

Best Supporting Actor 

• Chiwetel Ejiofor, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

• Hugh Laurie, The Personal History Of David Copperfield

• Edlison Manuel Olbera Núñez, Yuli – The Carlos Acosta Story

• Peter Mullan, The Vanishing

• Bluey Robinson, Dirty God

The Douglas Hickox Award (Debut Director)

• Will Becher, Richard Phelan, A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

• Fyzal Boulifa, Lynn + Lucy

• Ninian Doff, Boyz In The Wood

• Chiwetel Ejiofor, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

• Harry Wootliff, Only You

Debut Screenwriter 

• Kieran Hurley, Beats

• Lisa Owens, Days Of The Bagnold Summer

• Nicole Taylor, Wild Rose

• Emma Jane Unsworth, Animals

• Harry Wootliff, Only You

Best Documentary 

• Coup 53

• Diego Maradona

• For Sama

• Seahorse

• Tell Me Who I Am

Breakthrough Producer 

• Finn Bruce, Tucked

• Kate Byers, Linn Waite, Bait

• Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, Blue Story [Also Produced By Damian Jones]

• Becky Read, Three Identical Strangers [Also Produced By Grace Hughes-Hallett]

• Jack Sidey, Moffie [Also Produced By Eric Abraham]

Most Promising Newcomer 

• Sam Adewumni, The Last Tree

• Vicky Knight, Dirty God

• Lorn Macdonald, Beats

• Roxanne Scrimshaw, Lynn + Lucy

• Honor Swinton Byrne, The Souvenir

Jessie Buckley had a good year, appearing in both Wild Rose and Judy, as well as HBO’s Chernobyl

The Discovery Award 

• A Bump Along The Way, Shelly Love

• Children Of The Snow Land, Zara Balfour, Marcus Stephenson, Mark Hakansson

• Here For Life, Andrea Luka Zimmerman, Adrian Jackson, James Lingwood, Michael Morris, Cressida Day

• Muscle, Gerard Johnson, Matthew James Wilkinson, Richard Wylie, Ed Barratt

• The Street, Zed Nelson

Best British Short Film 

• Anna

• Boiling Point

• The Devil’s Harmony

• Goldfish

• Serious Tingz

Best International Independent Film 

• Ash Is Purest White

• Marriage Story

• Monos

• Parasite

• Portrait Of A Lady On Fire

Best Casting 


• In Fabric

• The Last Tree

• Only You

• Wild Rose

• The Personal History Of David Copperfield

Best Costume Design


• The Personal History Of David Copperfield

• Wild Rose

• The Souvenir

• Judy

• In Fabric

Best Cinematography 

• Judy

• Beats

• The Personal History Of David Copperfield

• Moffie

• In Fabric

Best Editing 


• The Personal History Of David Copperfield

• Bait

• Diego Maradona

• For Sama

• The Souvenir

Best Effects


• A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

• In Fabric

• The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

Best Make Up & Hair Design 

• Dirty God

• The Personal History Of David Copperfield

• In Fabric

• Wild Rose

• Judy

Best Music 


• Wild Rose

• In Fabric

  For Sama

• Diego Maradona

• Beats

Best Production Design 

• The Personal History Of David Copperfield

• The Souvenir

• Judy

• The White Crow

• In Fabric

Best Sound 

• Gwen

• Beats

• Diego Maradona

• Wild Rose

• In Fabric

Judy was a British made production and did well at BIFA

Gotham Awards Nominate 'Marriage Story,' 'The Farewell'

It begins. The Gotham Award nominations kick off 2019 Oscar season, as the little brother of the Independent Spirit Awards. Their awards are handed out by New York critics, some of whom comprise the New York Film Critics circle, so this is a critics award, but most of their picks don’t end up getting Oscar nominations. Some do though, and usually one or two of their Best Feature noms get Best Picture nods. I’m guessing the one from this year will be Marriage Story, although the outright snub of Scarlett Johansson is funny (and maybe prophetic?). I’m glad they remembered The Farewell. I haven’t seen Uncut Gems, Hustlers or Waves yet, but I will eventually.

2019 GOTHAM AWARD NOMINATIONS

Best Feature

• “The Farewell”

• “Uncut Gems”

• “Waves”

• “Marriage Story”

• “Hustlers”

Best Documentary

• “American Factory”

• “Apollo 11”

• “The Edge of Democracy”

• “Midnight Traveler”

• “One Child Nation”

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award

• Laure De Clermont-Tonnerre, “The Mustang”

• Kent Jones, “Diane”

• Joe Talbot, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”

• Olivia Wilde, “Booksmart”

• Phillip Youmans, “Burning Cane”

Best Screenplay

• Lulu Wang, “The Farewell”

• Tarell Alvin McCraney, “High Flying Bird”

• Jimmie Fails, Joe Talbot, and Rob Richert, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”

• Noah Baumbach, “Marriage Story”

• Ari Aster, “Midsommar”

Best Actor

• Adam Driver, “Marriage Story”

• Aldis Hodge, “Clemency”

• Adam Sandler, “Uncut Gems”

• Willem Dafoe, “The Lighthouse”

• Andre Holland, “High Flying Bird”

Best Actress

• Florence Pugh, “Midsommar”

• Awkwafina, “The Farewell”

• Mary Kay Place, “Diane”

• Alfre Woodard, “Clemency”

• Elisabeth Moss, “Her Smell”

Breakthrough Actor

• Taylor Russell, “Waves”

• Julia Fox, “Uncut Gems”

• Aisling Franciosi, “The Nightingale”

• Jonathan Majors, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”

• Noah Jupe, “Honey Boy”

• Chris Galust, “Give Me Liberty”

Breakthrough Series – Long Form

• “Chernobyl”

• “David Makes Man”

• “My Brilliant Friend”

• “Unbelievable”

• “When They See Us”

Breakthrough Series – Short Form

• “Pen15”

• “Ramy”

• “Russian Doll”

• “Tuca & Bertie”

• “Undone”

The Gothams love Awkwafina and The Farewell

Rey Faces Down Kylo Ren Again in Final 'Rise of Skywalker' Trailer

As far as I’m concerned, the only semi-interesting thing that has happened in either of the first two movies of this bizarre reboot trilogy was that weird romance they teased between Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver in the last one. But since J.J. Abrams is back to right the ship that Rian Johnson wrecked with The Last Jedi, I’m guessing that’s thrown out the window. Even so, Kylo Ren probably gets redeemed somehow, given that he’s part Skywalker, and that’s what they do (after killing his own dad, I don’t really see how that’s possible, but I’m sure it will happen). I don't care about any of these characters though.