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La Grazia December 5, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Inside Italian auteur Paolo Sorrentino lie two wolves, each representing a near equal amount of his quarter-century spanning filmography. On one side lies a man fascinated by the complexities of love and beauty, often expressed through hedonistic behavior. His most acclaimed and awarded work, The Great Beauty , follows a man who fills the dark emptiness of his heart with the debauchery of the Roman nightlife. Excess is often the name of the game, with the visuals matching the grandiosity of the experience. On the other side is an examination of the church and state. Supreme powers are held by flawed men who lie within the halls of the Vatican and the Quirinal Palace. Loro and Il Divo center themselves on famous prime ministers, the former on Silvio Berlusconi, the latter on Giulio Andreotti. The closest these two sides came to merging was in the HBO miniseries The Young Pope , where a brash American cardinal played by Jude Law is unexpectedly elected as one of the youngest popes in Catholic history. He’s disruptive to the old ways, his actions spurred by the love he never received throughout his orphaned childhood. 2025 is also a year where everything comes together, although still in a mutually exclusive fashion. Released in February in the United States after playing internationally in 2024 was Parthenope , led by the most beautiful woman in the world, as she discovers desire and determination in Naples. Coming now in December, after stops at the Venice, Telluride, and New York Film Festival, is La Grazia , a sobering drama about a sunsetting Italian president dealing with a complex executive decision and the sadness he endures after his wife’s passing. The opening is cold and austere, listing out the contents of Article 87 of the Italian Constitution against a plain blue sky. Within the president lies the ultimate legal powers, instilled so that he may be a righteous symbol for the Italian people (something that America has lost sight of). After commendably serving as a lawyer and judge for many years, Mariano De Santis (Tony Servillo) has become the man for the job. He’s a stately person, self-described as boring and clinical. He’s not perfect, as he indulges in cigarettes as he stands atop the palace late at night, overlooking the millions of Romans that he has sworn to serve. Just as a leader needs a strong mind, he also needs a strong heart. Mariano’s has been crushed by the death of his wife ever since he took office. He leads out of a sense of duty, but can no longer find the gratification in the work. He falls asleep every time he prays, and is starting to have doubts about all things both spiritual and literal. This is the eighth occasion that Servillo has appeared in a Sorrentino film, a collaboration that has been wonderfully fruitful for the pair. Servillo displays a wealth of sadness with each look, his soul conflicted as he has lost purpose while occupying the most important job in the country. To sign or not to sign. That is the central question for Mariano, as his daughter and assistant, Dorotea (Anna Ferzetti), presents him with a bill to legalize euthanasia and a trio of options for pardons. She is aggravated by his stubbornness, his nickname within the halls being “reinforced concrete.” As always, Sorrentino finds immense beauty in these proceedings. The frames are cool and calculated, like pristine marble. The soundtrack is elegant, with the prominent inclusion of “Le Bimbe Piangono” by Guè Pequeno included for an extra bit of spicy levity. “Who owns our days?” is a question that is brought up on numerous occasions throughout the film. Is it the best version of ourselves, or the version racked with doubt and guilt? The road to perfection is one marked by pain and heartache. Yet, it’s what makes us stronger, winning the battles in a never-ending war. La Grazia takes a roundabout way to illustrate that theme, mixing in Sorrentino’s in-the-moment, flashy style with a sneaky amount of depth. More Reviews Marty Supreme December 1, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Wake Up Dead Man September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Song Sung Blue December 14, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hamnet September 10, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Fackham Hall December 4, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen The last several weeks of the year are usually reserved for heavy dramas and blockbusters seeking awards attention. This year’s crop of films exemplifies that pattern. Hamnet explores how the grief caused by the death of William Shakespeare’s son inspired the author’s most famous tragedy. Sentimental Value untangles decades of thorny family relations between an estranged father and his emotionally distraught adult daughters. In Marty Supreme , Timothée Chalamet hustles and scams his way to the top of the table tennis charts, all while riddled with anxiety. Even a self-described comedy like Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? examines a marriage in freefall and the midlife crisis that ensues for both partners. This is where Fackham Hall (you’d better get used to that pun, because it’s said a lot in the film) makes its mark. From “the studio that watched the first two seasons of Downton Abbey ” comes a film without lofty awards ambitions or a need to secure a placement on a bevy of critics’ best of the year lists. It’s not some sneaky meditation on the human condition, sowing social commentary within the laughter. No, it’s a silly and noodle-brained comedy whose only goal is to make you chuckle as many times as possible within its ninety-seven-minute runtime. That’s a very backhanded way to describe a movie, implying that a film is lesser than another simply because of what it strives to be. It’s not the size of the target that matters; it’s how well you hit it. Many filmmakers will tell you that comedy is exponentially more difficult than it seems. You need to make a structurally consistent film with the same arcs and beats as any other story, all while delivering worthy jokes at a consistent rate. It takes a lot to conceive a funny joke, and expert precision to tell it just right. One half-second of fat on the edit, or a half-baked delivery, can have the best gag land with a thud. All-star British comedian Jimmy Carr knows a thing or two about how to make people laugh. Making his screenwriting feature debut alongside co-writers Patrick Carr and The Dawson Bros. (Steve, Andrew, and Tim Inman), Carr has crafted a parody of upstairs-downstairs period dramas, such as Downton Abbey and Gosford Park , crossed with the laugh-a-minute comedies of yesteryear, like Airplane! and Monty Python . Every piece of signage is an opportunity for crude wordplay, such as the gate entrance to the titular estate displaying the famous Latin quote: “Incestus ad infinitum.” Performing those acts of power consolidation are the Davenports, one of England’s most noble families. The Great Depression has made its way across the pond, and the Davenports have been besieged by tragedy. One by one, all four of their sons - John, Paul, George, and Ringo - have unexpectedly died. One drowned on the Titanic, the other crashed in the Hindenburg, and one was playing golf in a lightning storm. This has forced Lord (Damian Lewis) and Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston) to marry off their eldest daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), to a rich bachelor. Luckily, that man happens to be Poppy’s first cousin Archibald (Tom Felton). At twenty-three years of age, youngest daughter Rose (Thomasin McKenzie) is a “tired and barren husk of a woman, with no hopes of finding a man to give her life worth.” That is, until she meets the new hall boy, Eric Noone (pronounced no-one, and played by Ben Radcliffe). It was love at first sight when she ran him over with her car, and at second sight when he watched her stuff her face with deviled eggs. They are star-crossed lovers, their romance forbidden by the rules of society, and the Davenports need to marry for money. Most of the best bits are in the trailer. And yet, they were just as funny in the final product as they were in the advertisements, and there’s plenty of other chuckles to be had. We witness London’s oldest ever chimney sweep dying at the age of seven, and Rose ignites some passion between her and Eric by revealing that she’s reading “One Shade of Grey.” There are several instances of similar-sounding words being used for extended bits reminiscent of “Who's on First?” Joining forces with the Liam Neeson-starring Naked Gun reboot from this summer, Fackham Hall is here to swing the comedy pendulum back into the realm of slapstick and dirty gags. Sure, it’s not going to win awards or become some cornerstone of the genre. But I think I can guess what the creators and fans of these films say to all those naysayers: Fuck 'em all. More Reviews Marty Supreme December 1, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Wake Up Dead Man September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen La Grazia December 5, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hamnet September 10, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Awards Update: The First Oscar Predictions of the Season June 13, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Welcome to an ongoing series where I cover the 2025/2026 awards season. On a regular basis, I will update my Oscar predictions, taking into account the new information that has been received since the last update. Full predictions in every category can be found on the Home and Awards page. The summer movie season is in full swing, packing the multiplexes with big blockbusters and nine-figure box office grosses. The warm winds also mean it's time to scratch the burgeoning itch that is the upcoming Oscar season through some early scouting and shot-in-the-dark predictions. Luckily, two of the major film festivals of the year, Sundance and Cannes, are in the books. The former featured little to no contenders beyond the usual smattering of documentaries, while the latter debuted a few seemingly strong contenders. As we've learned over the years from Parasite , Triangle of Sadness , Anatomy of a Fall , The Zone of Interest , The Substance , and Anora , to be a Best Picture contender born at Cannes, you must leave there with a prize in hand. That leads us to first look at this year's Palme d'Or winner: Jafar Panahi's It Was Just an Accident . As evidenced by the assortment of festival prizes, Panahi is a revered auteur in the cinephile sphere of influence. This victory was part of a natural progression for him. That momentum and the film's potent political messaging are the main ingredients that could bring it into the Best Picture race. However, there are also several drawbacks. Iran will certainly not be submitting it for Best International Feature, and coproducers France and Luxembourg have previously illustrated that they won't submit non-native films. This will also be a tough sell at the box office, with a low ceiling that might not be high enough to gather public momentum. Distributor Neon clearly has a lot on their plate, and were in a similar situation last year with the Iranian thriller The Seed of the Sacred Fig , which turned out to be an awards disappointment. The company has grown as a campaigner over the years, but it remains to be seen if it can handle pushing multiple films into the top categories. Between the reported 15-19 minute standing ovation, enthusiastic reviews, and headlining stars, Sentimental Value will be Neon's main priority. They bought the film at last year's Cannes Film Festival before production had commenced, so they've had their eggs in this basket for a while now. They also just announced the same mid-fall release date as Anatomy of a Fall and Anora , so there's little reason to doubt that it will be a major player. I expect it to appear at all the major fall festivals before then. From there, it’s hard to gauge how the other prize winners will perform. Rigorous features like Sirât , Sound of Falling , and Resurrection each received acclaim and were picked up by reputable distributors. They likely won't appear in any major Oscar categories, but could factor into the Best International Feature race, should they be submitted to compete. Leaving empty-handed was Die, My Love . The reviews were mixed-positive, with all praise going to Jennifer Lawrence's lead performance. That would normally be enough for an Oscar favorite like her, but it's difficult to predict a lone acting nomination for a film that will be quite hostile towards audiences. Mubi did part with a chunk of change for the distribution rights, so they'll be making a big effort to get the film recognized in more categories. Other than the already premiered films, the rest of the predictions are a patchwork of educated guesses. As a reminder, this phase is solely about the nomination. We won't be thinking about winners until the new year. At this time last year, I had Joker: Folie à Deux , The End , and The Piano Lesson in my Best Picture lineup, so everything here is written with pencil. TIFF already announced its opening night film ( John Candy: I Like Me ), so the fall festival train has already left the station and will be accelerating over the next few months. My next update will come later this summer once we have a clear picture of what will be competing. More Reviews Marty Supreme December 1, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Fackham Hall December 4, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen La Grazia December 5, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hamnet September 10, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen

Is This Thing On? October 26, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Is Thing Thing On? screened at the 2025 Twin Cities Film Fest. Searchlight Pictures will release it in theaters on December 19. Whether it was intentional or not, Bradley Cooper’s third outing as a director, Is This Thing On? , feels very much like a direct response to all the negative criticisms surrounding the extreme formalistic showmanship of his sophomore feature, Maestro . Jumping from the populist smash hit that was A Star Is Born into a 4:3, mostly black-and-white biography on a semi-closeted classical composer was always going to be a major leap, especially when the aggressive awards campaign pushed Cooper to be labeled as a try-hard, a dubious title that results in polite responses from the industry, but no genuine love from the public. Unfair as those criticisms were to Cooper and his monumental biographical achievement, Is This Thing On? is the right move at the right time, a strategic downshift into a less pressurized register, all while retaining an uncanny skill at producing respectful adult entertainment. Cooper’s first appearance in the film is not as the lead, but as a supporting character named Balls (yes, really). At a party he and his wife Christine (Andra Day) are hosting at their New York City loft apartment, he falls over and spills milk all over the carpet. His immediate laughter and everyone’s bemoaning signals that this is a common occurrence, likely a symptom of his need to be high all the time and a head-in-the-clouds mindset after being upgraded from an understudy in a local play. He is the comic relief to this story, the foil to bounce off the dramatic journey that fellow partygoers Alex and Tess Novak (Will Arnett and Laura Dern) are on in their marriage. Twenty-six years of partnership are at its end, with Alex taking an apartment in the city while Tess stays in their home with their “Irish twin” sons. Wandering the streets on a restless night, Alex stumbles upon the Comedy Cellar. Rather than pay the $15 cover charge, he signs himself up for the open mic night and improvises through a routine where he candidly lays out all his cards for the audience. That level of honesty is cheaper and more fun than therapy, so Alex decides to modestly pursue this avenue of self-expression. Having done similarly cathartic work on television in Flaked and BoJack Horseman , Arnett is adept at finding the balance between innocent humor and flawed darkness. There is a required level of awareness to be able to write and perform these self-deprecating jokes, but also a similar amount of cowardice to convince yourself to bear it all with complete strangers rather than your significant other. Meanwhile, Tess, after years of retirement due to motherhood, finds herself dipping back into the world of professional volleyball. She’s been offered a coaching position for the Olympic team, a decision that will push her to think of herself for the first time in years. Dern is positively magnetic, rediscovering her character’s individuality with an endearing attitude. Part of this narrative is inspired by the true story of John Bishop, a British man who turned to stand-up as a method of reconciliation after a breakup with his wife. Writing with Mark Chappell, Arnett and Cooper maintain that sense of grounding by forgoing the usual Hollywood-isms found in relationship dramas. There isn’t a big blow-up scene or a string of fights that eventually break the camel’s back, just a mutual understanding that it’s time to cut everyone’s losses. There’s a lot of humor in the logistics of this situation, as agreeing to a breakup doesn’t mean it immediately happens. Where will Alex sleep while he’s searching for a place to move to, and how will Tess manage her friendship with Alex’s parents, Jan and Marilyn (Ciarán Hinds and Christine Ebersole), who live just down the street from their house? The production is light on its feet, with Cooper being his own camera operator as he glides through the streets and cellar hallways. Long takes are used for both comedic and dramatic effect, with much of Arnett’s routines being captured in one swoop of close-ups. When Alex and Tess are walking to the subway from the initial party, a long pause of silence fills the air as their conversation hits its conclusion. They’re likely thinking about the same thing at that moment, but are both unable to fully express what they’re feeling. Convenience and contrivances for the sake of connecting the dots do come into play later on, with one pivotal scene featuring Peyton Manning as a volleyball coach, taking Tess on a date throughout the city. At some point, you do have to give yourself over to the fact that this is a movie, and shortcuts are necessary to truncate a year-long path down to two hours. Stuff like that rarely hurt Nancy Meyers or James L. Brooks in finding the truth of the human condition, and neither does it hinder Cooper, who can seemingly do no wrong once he has a man, a woman, and a camera. More Reviews Marty Supreme December 1, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Fackham Hall December 4, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen La Grazia December 5, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hamnet September 10, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen It’s an open secret that the first half of the stage version of Wicked is far superior to the latter. The initial few hours contain the best song and dance numbers (“Dancing Through Life,” “Popular,” “Defying Gravity”), more moments of chemistry between Elphaba and Glinda, and a relatively self-contained story about friendship and self-empowerment. The final stretch shifts gears towards a darker tone, with an equal amount of time allocated to supplementing the story of The Wizard of Oz as is spent on finishing this one. Universal and producer Marc Platt’s film adaptation follows the same trajectory, with last year’s Wicked being given all the assets required to launch a multi-billion-dollar brand extension. The adaptations of the songs were catchy, and the casting of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, created a match made in heaven. This time around, director Jon M. Chu is more concerned with not losing than winning, meaning that everything feels like the guardrails are up. He can’t roll a gutter ball, but he also can’t take much pride in rolling a ho-hum spare. It doesn’t take long for the bleakness to bleed into Wicked: For Good , with the opening scene showing that the famous yellow brick road was not built through magic, but the blood, sweat, and tears of the animals that have been silenced by the so-called Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum). Elphaba, now dubbed the Wicked Witch of the West, continues her mission of exposing him as a fraud. But the propaganda arm of Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) keeps the people of Oz in check, giving them an enemy to despise and a hero in Glinda to worship. Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) is the high school prom king to her queen, although his heart lies to the west. Wicked: For Good is much plottier than its predecessor, with the bulk of the first act dedicated to reintroducing the characters and their situations. Screenwriters Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox focus their efforts on the ideas of authoritarianism and how people would rather be fed a comfortable lie than a thorny truth. It doesn’t take much of a leap of the imagination to draw the allegorical comparisons between the plight of the citizens of Oz and our real world. Although by extending that metaphor, Holzman and Fox display little respect for the common folk, perpetually having them mindlessly buy into whatever is thrown right in front of them. The ending is also ideologically backwards, leaving things on a morally muddled note. And then there’s also the twists and turns that have to be made in order to get this pretzel into the eventual shape of The Wizard of Oz . The color of Nessa’s slippers turns to a ruby red, a house falls on someone, and a few characters have their anatomies changed to fit a few famous companions to Dorothy, who is never seen in close-up or from the front. The problem with this lore-centric approach is that the plot machinations of The Wizard of Oz are very low on the list of things that make it so special. It’s the succinct majesty around those moments that gives them their power. It’s a lot more fun to eat the sausage rather than see how it gets made. Based on a few of his directorial choices, Chu seems to partially agree with that sentiment. The most magical moment of the film strips down most of Nathan Crowley’s sets and Paul Tazewell’s costumes, and just lets it two stars share a moment. Their rendition of “For Good” is sensational, delivering the emotional beat that had been missing for a large chunk of the lethargically paced 138-minute runtime. Grande is served more this time around, given a new solo number called “The Girl in the Bubble,” which unfolds in a (seemingly) unbroken take that emphasizes her wonderful voice. Erivo is often unfairly subjected to standing in front of giant, muddled green screens, and the rest of the supporting cast doesn’t have as much to work with. Should a combined cut of the two films arrive at some point in the future, it would be a good idea for Chu (or any ambitious editor) to excise/condense much of this second chapter. That’s a bit of an insult, but this is still a very successful venture when viewed as a whole. It’s just a little hard to appreciate that fact at the moment. At least Wicked: For Good can take a great deal more pride in itself than the seemingly abandoned Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2 , whose only purpose is to be a lesson in how poorly this strategy of bifurcation can go. More Reviews Marty Supreme December 1, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Fackham Hall December 4, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen La Grazia December 5, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Hunter Friesen

Discover a new dimension of storytelling as we delve into the world of cinema, sharing our perspectives and sparking conversations about the latest and greatest movies. Reviews Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Reviews by Hunter Friesen Reviews by Tyler Banark

Eternity November 24, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Eternity puts a whole new spin on the phrase “Till death do us part.” Like a Pixar movie for adults, the first stage of the afterlife has been literalized as a train junction. The souls of the recently deceased are brought into the hub and are given one week to decide where they would like to spend eternity. Booths line up the halls, each stationed by a tenacious salesperson to persuade souls to come to their unique eternity. One booth is selling Smoker’s World, where everyone is allowed to smoke at all times, and with none of the health risks! Another booth brags about Capitalist World, where you can endure as a hedonistic Wall Street tycoon. Through the combination of endless options and the threat of eternal permanence, people show their true selves when they enter the afterlife. In the mortal world, restrictions such as geography, financial situations, and societal morals made the hard choices for us. Now the guardrails have been lifted, and it’s time to get serious. Larry and Joan were one of those couples that could only be separated by death. After sixty years of marriage, they both parted within the span of a week. He accidentally choked on a pretzel at their gender reveal party for their impending grandchild, and she had terminal cancer. It’s not a competition, but I’d say one of them will have a more respectable story to share in the afterlife. When arriving at the junction, your physical form reverts back to when you were happiest, which is where Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen come into play. But before they can choose a world, a chaos agent arrives in the form of the irresistibly handsome Callum Turner. He plays Luke, Joan’s first husband, who died in the Korean War. Death parted them, and now the afterlife has brought them back together. He’s been waiting at the junction ever since, and now Joan must choose between a renewed life with him or sticking with Larry. There isn’t a rule that says Joan has to choose between either of them, but it would be a little awkward for all three to live in the same eternity (although this situation would make them perfect for Soap Opera World). It wouldn’t really matter if there were a hard rule about this sort of thing, as director David Freyne and co-writer Patrick Cunnane keep everything a little vague for its own good. Beach World seemingly only has beaches, and Mountain World seemingly only has mountains. But what about Smoker’s World, or Queer World? Is smoking or being queer the only thing you’re allowed to do there? Nudist World seems pretty normal (sans clothes, of course), and I’d assume a nudist beach would be a popular attraction. The salespeople for each of these worlds talk bout quotas, and unpopular worlds are shut down. If someone developed Everything World, then they’d probably dominate the market share. Right now, I’d pick Golf World, as that’s probably the best chance I have of ever getting a hole-in-one. It’s not like these gaps are game-breaking. But it was a worrying sign that they were at the top of my mind throughout most of the runtime, instead of the emotional stakes at play. Despite the otherworldly concept, the plot is tied down to our world’s concepts of a love triangle. That means that one side gets the leg up on the other for some time, only for a shocking revelation to tip the scales in the other direction. Freyne’s pacing doesn’t help the matter, with the 112-minute runtime feeling significantly longer than it actually is. Miles Teller delivers the best performance, channeling the personality of a senior citizen in the body of a young adult. He’s a bit curmudgeonly and always had a bit of resentment over being jokingly referred to as “Joan’s second choice,” but he has a heart of gold and proves that she made the right choice. He also makes the hilarious discovery that his new body allows him to bend over and do squats, something that the mortal world barred him from doing. Olsen and Turner are fine, constantly outshone by Teller and the comedic pair of Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early as the deceased trio’s Afterlife Coordinators. Two hours was more than enough time to spend with all these people, much less an eternity. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hamnet September 10, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Wake Up Dead Man September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Eternity November 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Final 2025 97th Academy Awards Predictions February 28, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen One of the most chaotic award seasons in recent memory is finally coming to a close, and it looks like it’ll be a photo finish. For almost the entire nine-month duration since Cannes, we’ve been going back and forth on who’s got what it takes to be the top dog. Enough drama has been created, ended, and recreated to match a whole season of one of those “The Real Housewives” shows. Just as I mentioned in my nominations predictions update, the key to the Oscars is focusing your attention on what matters. So you’re going to see little analysis in categories with clear frontrunners and more in tighter races. Notable precursors that will be used to determine likely winners are the Golden Globes (GG), Critics Choice Awards (CCA), Screen Actors Guild (SAG), BAFTAs, and any category-specific guild award. I’d also like to point out that I will be predicting the three short categories, but won’t be producing analysis since I have none to offer. I’ll just be going with the GoldDerby consensus. Best Picture Anora Conclave The Brutalist Emilia Pérez A Complete Unknown Wicked I'm Still Here The Substance Nickel Boys Dune: Part Two After successive years of watching Everything Everywhere All at Once and Oppenheimer run the table, it's been fun to witness what this year has brought. Anora secured its frontrunner status after it had a whirlwind weekend where it picked up the CCA, PGA, and DGA awards. But then the winds shifted towards Conclave , which then took home the BAFTA and SAG Ensemble. Conclave 's predicted wins for Adapted Screenplay and Film Editing were enough for Argo , and Anora 's predicted wins for Director and Original Screenplay were enough for Parasite . If Anora were to lose, the combination of precursor wins it has would place it alongside Brokeback Mountain and Saving Private Ryan in the pantheon of Oscar upsets. That's something I can't predict will happen again. Best Director Sean Baker (Anora) Brady Corbet (The Brutalist) Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez) Coralie Fargeat (The Substance) James Mangold (A Complete Unknown) It's been a slugfest between Brady Corbet and Sean Baker; the former winning the Golden Globe and BAFTA, and the latter netting the DGA. The DGA award is the most predictive of the bunch, and people like Tom Hooper ( The King's Speech ) and Alejandro G. Iñárritu ( The Revenant ) have gone on to win the Oscar with only that award in their arsenal. It's still hard to pick Baker because Corbet's work is so much more aligned with what this branch rewards. I said the same thing when it came to Sam Mendes and Bong Joon-ho a few years back, and I was wrong to make the more conventional choice. The tide is with Anora more than it is with The Brutalist , so I'll go with that and bite my nails until the very end. Best Original Screenplay Anora A Real Pain The Substance The Brutalist September 5 For a brief moment, it seemed that The Substance was gaining some momentum after its win at the CCA. But that stopped once A Real Pain won the BAFTA. All this division means that I'll default to the WGA winner and Best Picture frontrunner, Anora . Of course, the fact that it's been unable to handily win this category across so many shows means that there's some weakness, so maybe we're in for a surprise. Best Adapted Screenplay Conclave Nickel Boys A Complete Unknown Emilia Pérez Sing Sing Just as I said during the nomination predictions, the choosing of four other nominees to lose to Conclave is merely a formality. Peter Straughan's screenplay has won the Globe, CCA, and BAFTA. It was not eligible for the WGA award, which means that the winner there, Nickel Boys , gets to be the unofficial runner-up. Best Lead Actor Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) Ralph Fiennes (Conclave) Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) With A Complete Unknown getting four total nominations at SAG compared to the single mention for The Brutalist , it was no surprise that Timothée Chalamet claimed victory there. If he had won somewhere else between the Globes, CCA, or BAFTA, then I would be picking him here. But Brody took all those other awards, and The Brutalist received a lot more love here. Still, it would not be a surprise if Chalamet won considering this category continually falls head over heels with biopic performances and equally admired A Complete Unknown . Best Lead Actress Demi Moore (The Substance) Mikey Madison (Anora) Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here) Cynthia Erivo (Wicked) Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez) Demi Moore has won the Golden Globe - Comedy, CCA, and SAG awards; Mikey Madison has the BAFTA, and Fernanda Torres has the Golden Globe - Drama. Madison does have the power of the Best Picture frontrunner on her side, which would be more decisive if The Substance and I'm Still Here weren't also beloved and nominated for Best Picture as well. I think that Torres will siphon enough votes from Madison, and Moore will claim her final victory. Best Supporting Actor Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) Yura Borisov (Anora) Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown) Guy Pearce (The Brutalist) Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice) We all know it's going to be Kieran Culkin winning this award. Let's move on and spend our energy elsewhere. Best Supporting Actress Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez) Ariana Grande (Wicked) Isabella Rossellini (Conclave) Felicity Jones (The Brutalist) Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown) The one thing that the lovers and haters of Emilia Pérez can agree on is that Zoe Saldaña delivers a great performance, a sentiment that's carried her to wins at all the major precursors (GG, CCA, BAFTA, SAG). She's also delivered some great speeches as of late, which will make sure she doesn't become one of the victims of the controversies surrounding the film. Best Cinematography The Brutalist Nosferatu Maria Dune: Part Two Emilia Pérez The American Society of Cinematographers gave their top prize to Edward Lachman for Maria . It's not a surprising victory considering the legendary status that Lachman carries within that profession. But it's also a little surprising since Maria has greatly underperformed on the awards front, as evidenced by its sole nomination being in this category. Nosferatu won the CCA and The Brutalist got the BAFTA. Given that the latter award has some Oscar overlap, I'll go with that. Lol Crawley's work in The Brutalist is also more in line with the grand scale of previous winners like Dune and Oppenheimer . Best Film Editing Conclave Anora Emilia Pérez The Brutalist Wicked The not Oscar-nominated Challengers won the CCA, and the ACE awards are after the Oscars, which means we're flying pretty blind into this category. Conclave won the BAFTA and is the likely ACE - Drama frontrunner, which is just enough to convince me it'll win here. I'd also watch out for Anora given that it'll likely win ACE - Comedy and has the Best Picture frontrunner boost. This is going to be one of the most decisive categories of the night. Best Original Score The Brutalist Conclave Emilia Pérez The Wild Robot Wicked The Golden Globes and CCA threw a wrench into this category by awarding their prize to Challengers , which was not nominated at the Oscars. That means the BAFTA winner, Daniel Blumberg ( The Brutalist ), is the precursor favorite heading into the night. Volker Bertelmann ( Conclave ) took down equally stiff competition when he beat Justin Hurwitz's score for Babylon a few years back. But the fact that he lost at the BAFTAs despite Conclave winning the top prize shows that Blumberg's work is more beloved this year. Best Original Song El Mal (Emilia Pérez) The Journey (The Six Triple Eight) Mi Camino (Emilia Pérez) Never Too Late (Elton John: Never Too Late) Like a Bird (Sing Sing) With sixteen total nominations across thirty-five years, Diane Warren has to win at least once, right? Surely she'll win once within the next few years, but how am I supposed to predict that when history tells me it's very unlikely? "El Mal" from Emilia Pérez has already won the Golden Globe and the CCA, giving it every reason to be favored here. Best Sound Dune: Part Two Wicked A Complete Unknown Emilia Pérez The Wild Robot It's been a pretty split race all season. A Complete Unknown won the main prize at the Cinema Audio Society, Dune: Part Two won the Sound Editing prize at MPSE, as did Wicked for Music Editing. I'm thinking the two music-heavy films will cancel each other out, allowing for Dune: Part Two to repeat its victory from the first film. It also won this award over Wicked at the BAFTAs, with A Complete Unknown not even being nominated. Best Production Design Wicked Nosferatu Conclave The Brutalist Dune: Part Two Wicked won the CCA, BAFTA, and ADG - Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film awards, giving it a clear edge. Conclave did win the Contemporary category at the Art Directors Guild, as well as Nosferatu in the Period category, giving them both of them at least a chance. Best Costume Design Wicked Conclave Nosferatu A Complete Unknown Gladiator II The exact same circumstances from Best Production Design are repeated here, and so is my pick for who will win the Oscar. Best Makeup & Hairstyling The Substance Wicked Nosferatu Emilia Pérez A Different Man Horror makeup has historically been undervalued through this category's history, so the much-predicted victory for The Substance will be more than deserved. It's won the CCA, BAFTA, and multiple prizes at the Make-Up and Hair Stylists Guild, and also aided in the transformation for Demi Moore's possible Oscar-winning performance. Best Visual Effects Dune: Part Two Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Wicked Better Man Alien: Romulus This category has been sewn up ever since Dune: Part Two delayed its release from November 2023 to February 2024. Further proof has been provided from its victories at CCA and BAFTA, as well as its mighty haul at the Visual Effects Society awards. However, the top prize at the latter ceremony went to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes . But ape fans can't get their hopes up, as this scenario has played out for each of three previous Apes films, each one of them losing at the Oscar. Best Animated Feature The Wild Robot Flow Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl Inside Out 2 Memoir of a Snail The circumstances of this year's race in this category are nearly a repeat from last year's battle between Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Boy and the Heron , with The Wild Robot and Flow taking the spots of the former and the latter, respectively. But I think the opposite result is going to come true this year. Flow doesn't have the BAFTA win that The Boy and the Heron got, and one could make the argument that the love for the legendary Hayao Miyazaki was worth far more than any precursor. The Wild Robot is also helped by the fact that it isn't a sequel like Spider-Verse was, which this category tends to dislike unless it's from the Toy Story franchise. Best International Feature Emilia Pérez (France) I'm Still Here (Brazil) Flow (Latvia) The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany) The Girl with the Needle (Denmark) Until this year, no film has ever been nominated for both Best International Feature and Best Picture and lost the former award, meaning that either Emilia Pérez or I'm Still Here will become a victim of circumstance and carry that unwanted distinction. Emilia Pérez won this award at both the Golden Globes and BAFTAs, and has a whopping ten more total nominations than I'm Still Here . But that doesn't mean this is an open-and-shut case, as the recent controversies surrounding Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón, as well as the general vitriol towards the film itself, is a major thorn in its side. There's also the fact that I'm Still Here getting that Best Picture nomination illustrates that there's a lot of support for it, which seems to only keep growing. Best Documentary Feature No Other Land Porcelain War Sugarcane Black Box Diaries Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat As usual in this category, the precursor leader, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story , hasn't even been nominated here. This gives the edge to the DGA-winner, Porcelain War . However, the critical swell of support for No Other Land cannot be denied, especially when coupled with the extremely compelling fact that it's still fighting to secure US distribution. I'm going to lean with where everyone's heart seems to be, although it would not surprise me if that doesn't turn out to be true. Best Animated Short Film: Wander to Wonder Best Documentary Short Film : The Only Girl in the Orchestra Best Live-Action Short Film : A Lien More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hamnet September 10, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Wake Up Dead Man September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Eternity November 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen

Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Rental Family had its World Premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Searchlight Pictures will release it in theaters on November 21. From its plucky opening strings by Jónsi and Alex Somers, and twinkling cinematography, Rental Family immediately announces its intentions to burrow deep into our hearts. Co-writer/director Hikari’s film is all about relationships, specifically how we blend reality and fiction to create the other person’s perception of ourselves. It’s also about the truths and lies we tell to shield ourselves from the harsh truth. While having lived there for seven years, Phillip Vanderploeug (Brendan Fraser) is still a gaijin, or “outsider,” to Japan. His dumb luck fame as the superhero star of a silly toothpaste commercial gave him the confidence to fully commit to breaking into the Japanese acting industry. Very few chances have come his way since, with the isolation and rejection further exposing his cracks. While wide, his smile displays no happiness, and he always seems sorry to be occupying any amount of space. One of his auditions is for “sad American,” which requires him to wear a suit and tie. But instead of showing up at a talent agency, he stumbles into a funeral for someone he’s never met before. It turns out that the majority of the attendees were paid actors, a gathering large enough to make the deceased seem more impressive to his family. This rental service is run by Shinji Tada (Takehiro Hada), who offers a surrogate person to help fill a gap in someone’s life. Phillip’s first assignment as a full-time employee for Shinji is to be fake married to a lesbian woman so she can use the marriage license to move out of the country with her girlfriend. Before you claim all of this to be far-fetched, I’d like to point out that it is a real practice in Japan. Filmmaker Werner Herzog made a documentary about the industry in 2019 titled Family Romance, LLC , centered on an actor hired to impersonate the missing father for a young girl. It’s an extreme and ethically dangerous line of work, with lying being a naturally needed skill. But some of these lies provide positive outcomes, such as Phillip being hired by the family of a lonely loser to help him regain his confidence. Plus, the pay is really good, and Phillip has a lovable foreign charm that makes people instantly trust him. Rental Family at least has the bravery to dive into the reason why such an industry exists. Mental health is stigmatized in Japan, with very few opportunities for therapy or life coaching. This is still a band-aid for a gunshot wound, but it’s probably better than nothing. Everything is transactional these days, so why can’t happiness? After those reasons, it’s best not to use the logical side of your brain anymore. Hikari leans towards the sentimental side of every decision, figuring that every problem can just be solved with a heart-to-heart conversation. Much of it is treacly, cloying at your heart at every turn. For each of the poor decisions that are made on paper, they’re excused by an apology and backed up by the universal message that humans are flawed creatures. It would be much more unbearable to constantly hear those answers if they weren’t delivered by a top-notch cast. Fraser is incapable of registering a false emotion, lending his sympathetic charm to a character that is unearthing just as much happiness for himself as he is for others. Takehiro Hira and Mari Yamamoto are his new co-workers, each of them slowly waking up to the realization that a career built on little white lies slowly permeates into their personal lives as well. A little more honesty goes a long way, both in Rental Family and reality. Those easier answers make for a comforting watch, yet not something that leaves a longer-lasting impression. Its heart is in the right place, and sometimes our hearts want what they want. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hamnet September 10, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Wake Up Dead Man September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Eternity November 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Gary Cooper: Jay Kelly. Cary Grant: Jay Kelly. Clark Gable: Jay Kelly. George Clooney: Jay Kelly. Not since The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent has a movie been about the actor playing the character as much as it is about the character themselves. Unlike Massive Talent , which mostly just used the meme-ified persona of Nicolas Cage for surface-level metahumor, writer/director Noah Baumbach plays it pretty straight, investigating the walls that have been built over decades to separate George Clooney the person from George Clooney the movie star. For instance, Jay Kelly and George Clooney have reached the point of fame where they pay the price of no longer being able to be a normal part of society. Merely walking down the street will initiate a mob of fans and paparazzi, and any form of contact is kept secret for security purposes. Everyone is either trying to get or give something, and the trajectory of his career and personal life is a perennial headline. It’s a lonely life, one that requires a great deal of sheltering and personal sacrifice to achieve and maintain. Sure, the rewards come in the form of millions of dollars and being worshipped as a god. But money can’t buy happiness, and it isn’t much fun to be a god to those you’ll never know. Baumbach communicates all of this in the opening set piece, a long take that swirls up and around the set of Jay’s newest film. There’s a person assigned to always be fixing Jay’s costume and makeup, a person to get him coffee, and a person to train the canine co-star. All those hours of work are to support the few seconds of artistic genius that are printed onto celluloid. Ron (Adam Sandler) and Liz (Laura Dern) manage Jay’s persona with the outside world. Does he want to do a movie with a pair of up-and-coming directors? Does he want to accept a career tribute award in Tuscany? Jay is on top of the world, which means the only direction for him to go is down. Jay is now becoming an empty nester after his youngest daughter is going on a European summer vacation before her fall semester at college. He’s estranged from his eldest daughter, the cost of his career blooming simultaneously as she was growing up. Jay’s longtime mentor, director Peter Schneider (played by Jim Broadbent), has also just passed away. He and Jay shared many good years in the past, making movies at the height of their powers. At the funeral, Peter’s son spins a different tale of his dad never being around, and how the movies both personally and financially ruined him near the end of his life. Jay fears that he may be heading down that path, so he decides to abandon his current plans and chase his daughter around Europe. Baumbach and co-writer Emily Mortimer (who also acts in the film as Jay’s personal hairdresser) never deny that the crux of this narrative was spurred by the fact that a rich, privileged actor is having a midlife crisis (or a three-quarters life crisis, since he is on the other side of sixty years old). His daughter is going on this trip because he’s paying for it, and he can follow her by immediately booking a private jet and having his entourage accompany him. With political and social upheaval, natural disasters, and the overall feeling of optimism fading away, why should I care about Jay Kelly? Frankly, there isn’t much of a reason to care about the plight of Jay Kelly beyond the fact that he’s so darn charming and likable. Clooney turns in one of his best performances, with the movie star wattage turned all the way up. But he’s also self-reflective and regretful, always asking if he can have one more take, a luxury that can only be afforded on a movie set. Ron’s biggest fault is that he can’t say no to Jay, always stuck between his roles as a manager and a lifelong friend. He gives and gives and gives, with the only source of gratitude being the 15% he claims from Jay’s paychecks. Sandler matches the excellence he previously delivered for Baumbach in The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) . The tide of public sentiment has turned in his favor over the years, and an Oscar nomination would be a deserved apex. Nicholas Britell’s score includes tender strings, and Linus Sandgren’s cinematography is richly textured. Right after Jay lands in Paris, there’s a shot of the string of cars circling a roundabout. The sun hasn’t yet risen, with the blue hour bathing the streets and faraway Eiffel Tower in a pool of coolness. It’s a breathtakingly beautiful shot, and it was the moment I realized that this was some of the most fun I’ve had with a movie all year. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen It took almost two million years for humans to make the journey from the discovery of fire to the invention of the light bulb. From there, it only took a few decades for superconductors. The Wright brothers flew the world’s first airplane in 1903. By 1969, Neil Armstrong was walking on the moon. Even today, at this very moment, AI-generated videos are becoming more and more lifelike, with only a few more years until they’re fully able to pass the eye test. All of these exponential growths in technology are enough to make a person feel small, a drop in an ocean that is progressively washing away. Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) is one of those small people, a lumberjack who lived and died in the Pacific Northwest throughout the early to mid-20th century. He doesn’t pay much attention to that fact, humbly accepting the notion that the world is passing him by year after year. He goes out into the forest for a few months at a time, cutting down trees to be used for railroad timber. He’ll then come back to his wife, Gladys (Felicity Jones), and daughter at their modest, isolated house. The cycle repeats over the years, a tranquil existence that goes by in the blink of an eye. Director Clint Bentley, co-adapting the 2011 Denis Johnson novella of the same name with his usual writing partner Greg Kwedar, doesn’t see Robert as just a small man. He’s a symbol of the millions in America, and billions worldwide, who lived full lives that weren’t fully defined by the increased monetization of the modern world. They had nothing of worth to their names, leaving little materialistic signifiers of their existence. But they shared memories with loved ones, some smiles and sorrows with fellow travelers, and made an impact in ways that aren’t easily identified. Impressionistically swaying between the past, present, and future, Bentley captures the span of Robert’s life with breathtaking beauty. Robert is often framed small and at the forefront of the frame, the American landscape enveloping him from corner to corner. Cinematographer Adolpho Veloso imbues each image with a rich texture, lulling us into the melodic rhythms of life with its sights and sounds. Will Patton narrates passages from the novella, and Bryce Dessner’s score lushly moves things along. Based on the projects that he’s written, directed, or starred in, Edgerton has always been an artist interested in the small-scale, rather than the blockbuster. Similar to how Terrence Malick was able to use A-listers to build characters who were both of this earth and larger-than-life, so does Bentley with Edgerton, trusting him to carry the entire emotional scope of the film through somber gestures and weighty presence. Words aren’t necessary when the feelings have already been communicated so effectively through sight. William H. Macy uses words to his advantage, passing on some old-timer wisdom through some wonderful speeches about the interconnectedness of nature and the human soul. Like life itself, Train Dreams is a film that often sneaks up on you in its profundity. It may take days or weeks for you to realize just how much one image or piece of sound has stuck with you, offering a new outlook on the existence we carve out for ourselves. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Triangle of Sadness May 28, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Triangle of Sadness had its World Premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Neon will release it in theaters on October 7. An influencer couple, a Russian capitalist, two British arms dealers, and an American Marxist sea captain all board a $250 million luxury yacht bound for the high seas. What could go wrong? You’ve seen movies better at dissecting economic classism than Triangle of Sadness . You’ve also seen much tighter and more succinct ones. And you’ve definitely seen ones that leave you with a better understanding of an issue than when you walked in. But, I don’t think you’ve ever seen a film that doesn't do all of that and still be as wickedly hilarious as Triangle of Sadness . Ruben Östlund has never found an issue he can’t tackle. Whether it be mundane social norms in Involuntary , male ego in Force Majeure (for which he was given the dubious honor of having remade in the English language with the woefully dull Downhill ), or the upside-down art world in The Square , the Swedish filmmaker has always found a playful way to show just how absurd life is. And, along with those themes of social skewering, the thing that has stayed most consistent is the praise he’s received. Force Majeure snagged the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, which allowed him to be “promoted” to the official competition with 2017’s The Square . The brighter lights did nothing to hinder his upward trajectory as he added the prestigious Palme d’Or to his trophy shelf. Now in 2022, Östlund’s stock continues to rise with his second consecutive Palme win, joining Michael Haneke and fellow countrymen Billie August as the only filmmakers to win the award for back-to-back films. So, with all the awards surrounding Triangle of Sadness as it sets its American theatrical release, the question remains: Does it live up to the hype? Well, yes and no. Taking a page out of the Zoolander school of satire, Östlund’s film opens with a modeling audition. At the age of 25, Carl (both smartly and aloofly played by the rising Harris Dickinson) is getting a little too close to being phased out of his career as the roles in the “grumpy” and “smiley” brands aren’t coming as easily as they used to. He’s left to languish in a slow and painful societal death, which includes losing social media followers and invites to his girlfriend Yaya’s (Charlbi Dean, who tragically passed away just after the film’s premiere) runway shows. This A Star Is Born dynamic threatens the pair’s relationship, which Östlund punctuates with a side-splitting cringe-fueled debate over who should pick up the check at a restaurant. Fortunately, the couple is bound for a superyacht vacation that will act as the final opportunity to mend their connection. On the boat, they become the middle class, stuck between the uber-rich guests and the lowly workers that service every passenger’s whim, which includes going for a swim to assuage their master’s guilt and promising to clean the sails, even though this a motorized vessel. In this second act of the film’s clear three-act structure, Östlund unleashes a tirade of written and visual allegories upon his micro-society, with two standouts being Woody Harrelson’s alcoholic ship captain and the closing scene where the ship fills with literal shit and vomit. Any viewers with a weak stomach have been properly warned. None of what Östlund is saying is revolutionary, but it is oh so funny. But that high level of hilarity can’t sustain itself across the film’s extremely bloated 150-minute runtime, which becomes quite clear during the final, and weakest, act. Through unforeseen circumstances, the passengers have been marooned on a desolate island. Things get even more in-your-face by Östlund as the social hierarchy completely flips, with the white-collar passengers proving to be inept and the “peasants” becoming royalty because of their basic survival skills. From here to the end, most everything only elicits a mild chuckle instead of the belly-aching that the first two hours had accustomed us to. Triangle of Sadness demands to be seen with the largest crowd possible, as its mixture of low and high-brow humor travels like wildfire in the moment. Unfortunately for the majority of the viewers, the post-pandemic theatrical landscape doesn’t create too many opportunities for that level of a collective experience for any non-MCU branded film. It’s a true pity, as my Cannes screening of Östlund’s farce in May has lasted longer in my memory than most blockbusters do the day after. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen