The nominations for the 97th Academy Awards have been announced, and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that the only nominees for Best Picture that I got to see on the big screen are Dune 2 and The Substance. The other nominees include a few movies that I regret not taking a road trip for since my local Regal Cinema didn't bother to book them at all (Anora, Conclave, and Emilia Perez). They also include a few movies that I wasn't all that interested in seeing, but I'm kind of curious to see them now (The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, I'm Still Here, and Nickel Boys), and one movie that I have no interest in seeing that will probably end up sweeping the awards (Wicked).
Nosferatu is up for awards in four categories, but I was disappointed to see that Best Picture was not one of them. Also, after all of the positive things that I've heard about Challengers, I was shocked to see that it wasn't nominated in any category. That one falls into the category of movies that I wasn't all that interested in seeing based on its trailer, but the word of mouth it has gotten has piqued my curiosity.
With that in mind, here are the movies that I got to see for the first time in January 2025. Unfortunately, none of them were on the big screen due to a combination of mandatory overtime and 60 hour work weeks at my job, and the fact that my local Regal Cinema has done a pretty lousy job of booking films recently.
Joy Ride looked interesting to me the first time I saw the trailer. Unfortunately, it premiered in July 2023 which was right in the middle of the Mahoning season, and it was taken off of the screens at my local Regal Cinema before I had time to go see it on the big screen.
The trailer made this look like something that I would enjoy, but it was even better than I expected. Sherry Cola was very funny, and both Ashley Park and Sabrina Wu gave excellent performances with a lot of heart. I'd recommend this to just about anyone who doesn't get bent out of shape over sex and drug humor.
Challengers is one of those movies that I had grown sick of before ever actually seeing it. In the weeks leading up to its release in April of last year, the trailer for this film played constantly. I must have seen it at least twenty times, and it made me less interested in seeing it every time that it played. It was only after I read the almost universal praise that it has gotten from both fans and critics that I had any interest in seeing it.
Barbarian was released in 2022 and is frequently mentioned as a must-see horror flick on a lot of YouTube channels that I subscribe to. Fortunately, I managed to either avoid any spoilers about the plot, or I wasn't paying close enough attention to the videos at the time because I had no idea where this story was going from one scene to the next. I'm hesitant to say anything else about it at the risk of spoiling it for anyone else, but it's a modern horror classic and it's absolutely worth your attention. Check it out on Hulu.
Director Renny Harlin filmed The Strangers: Chapter 1 concurrently with a Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 film that have yet to be released. Based on the reaction that this film has gotten, I think there's a better than average chance that the next two chapters may end up skipping the theaters and headed straight for a streaming platform.
My wife is a big fan of Jason Statham films, so she suggested that we watch Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre a few weeks ago. It's a Guy Ritchie film that also stars Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone, and Hugh Grant. The film premiered in theaters in the United States in March 2023, but I don't remember hearing anything about it at the time.
It's What's Inside is a movie that I've seen on a lot of "best of 2024" lists. It went straight to Netflix without a theatrical run, which is a shame because it's a very entertaining movie with a clever plot device that deserved to be seen on the big screen.
I was pretty ticked off that my local Regal Cinema didn't carry The Substance, but I really couldn't believe that they didn't carry Anora either. Both movies have received almost universal praise from fans and critics, and both have been nominated for Best Picture. I understand that it's just a ten screen theater in a small city, but if they can find room to keep the crap from Angel Studios on their screen for weeks at a time, surely they should be able to book two of the most critically acclaimed films of the year.
For as much as I loved Dune: Part Two and The Substance, if I had a vote for Best Picture out of the films that have been nominated, it would go to Anora. It's an incredible film from start to finish with one of best performances of the year from actress Mikey Madison. It's a dark Cinderella story about a stripper and sexworker named Ani who meets Vanya, the young son of a Russian oligarch that is played brilliantly by Mark Eydelshteyn. It's hard not to fall in love with Ani, but Vanya is one of the most unlikable characters I've seen in a long time. Picture the title character from Arthur if he was a heartless coward with the sexual maturity of a high school freshman.
Anora is marketed as a love story, but that's not how I felt watching it. My takeaway is that it's a story of two people who are looking to escape. Ani sees Vanya as a way to escape poverty and her ticket to a life of wealth and luxury, and Vanya sees Ani as a way to escape his parents and his ticket to a green card and a life in the United States. The difference between the two is that Ani is intelligent, strong, and courageous. She stands up for herself and for Vanya even after he runs out on her. On the other hand, Vanya is an overgrown child who folds under pressure and makes it pretty clear that he doesn't give a damn about Ani or anybody else for that matter.
I really can't say enough good things about this movie It's shot beautifully, it's heartfelt, it's funny as hell at times, and it has an ending that will be a conversation starter for a long time.
Challengers is one of those movies that I had grown sick of before ever actually seeing it. In the weeks leading up to its release in April of last year, the trailer for this film played constantly. I must have seen it at least twenty times, and it made me less interested in seeing it every time that it played. It was only after I read the almost universal praise that it has gotten from both fans and critics that I had any interest in seeing it.
The plot seems to have sparked a lot of debate on social media. For what it's worth, I don't think Tashi loves Art or Patrick. She's sexually attracted to both of them, but that's all it is. She loves tennis. When it's taken away from her, the anger that she feels in that moment toward Patrick drives her to Art, and her relationship and marriage to Art doesn't seem to mean much more to her than a way to stay connected to the sport. She tolerates him as a partner and as the father of their child, but the only thing that she is shown to love is the sport.
It's a better than average movie overall, but I didn't fall in love with it as much as many other folks seem to have. There isn't a lot of chemistry between any of the sides of this love triangle, so the sexuality just kind of felt flat and kind of boring. The time jumps were also a bit jarring, and tennis really isn't all that interesting of a sport to me. I enjoyed it well enough, but it's not the kind of movie that I'd want to see a second time.
Barbarian was released in 2022 and is frequently mentioned as a must-see horror flick on a lot of YouTube channels that I subscribe to. Fortunately, I managed to either avoid any spoilers about the plot, or I wasn't paying close enough attention to the videos at the time because I had no idea where this story was going from one scene to the next. I'm hesitant to say anything else about it at the risk of spoiling it for anyone else, but it's a modern horror classic and it's absolutely worth your attention. Check it out on Hulu.
Director Renny Harlin filmed The Strangers: Chapter 1 concurrently with a Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 film that have yet to be released. Based on the reaction that this film has gotten, I think there's a better than average chance that the next two chapters may end up skipping the theaters and headed straight for a streaming platform.
I'm not really sure what the filmmakers were going for with Chapter 1. Harlin claims that this wasn't intended to be a remake or a reboot of the original 2008 film, The Strangers. Oh yeah, buddy? Then what the hell is it?
Chapter 1 isn't a bad movie if it's the only one in the series that you ever watch, but it feels kind of pointless if you've seen the original film. Chapter 1 is practically the same exact movie, but not nearly as good. Given the choice between the two films, I can't think of any reason why anyone would choose to watch this over the original. I can't even really think of why someone would want to watch both unless the next two chapters in this series are so amazing that fans will want to go back and watch the three in a marathon. Based on what I've seen here, I'm not holding my breath on that being the case.
My wife is a big fan of Jason Statham films, so she suggested that we watch Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre a few weeks ago. It's a Guy Ritchie film that also stars Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone, and Hugh Grant. The film premiered in theaters in the United States in March 2023, but I don't remember hearing anything about it at the time.
This movie bombed at the box office when it was released two years ago, and I think a lot of that can be blamed on its title. It was originally going to be called "Five Eyes", which is a reference to the intelligence alliance between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. It was retitled "Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre" during production. I don't know if that's the worst title for a movie that I've ever heard, but it's definitely up there. It sounds like something you'd put on the poster for a seminar on cryptocurrency or property flipping.
The story here is that a secret agent named Orson Fortune (Statham) has to put together a team of people to recover a stolen piece of technology that is dangerous in the wrong hands, but they don't know what it is or what it can do. One of the people that gets recruited into this mission is a Hollywood actor named Danny Francesco (Hartnett), who the arms dealer that is facilitating the sale of the device (Grant) is obsessed with. It's an excellent action comedy flick with an especially great performance from Hugh Grant. It's on Amazon Prime, and I really hope it finds its audience, but that god awful title isn't doing it any favors.
It's What's Inside is a movie that I've seen on a lot of "best of 2024" lists. It went straight to Netflix without a theatrical run, which is a shame because it's a very entertaining movie with a clever plot device that deserved to be seen on the big screen.
The story here is that a bunch of friends are getting together to celebrate on the night before one of them gets married. One of the guests who is invited to the party had a falling out with the rest of the group back in college and has been out of contact ever since. This friend, whose name is Forbes, shows up with a device that his company has been working on which allows for the transfer of human consciousness into another body. It's completely safe with no side effects, and Forbes mentions that he and his colleagues use it to play a game where they all swap bodies and then try to guess who is in each body.
I wasn't in love with the cinematography, and I was surprised that they didn't explore the concept of intergender body swaps all that much, but this is definitely a movie that's worth seeing. I'd like to see it get a sequel.
Melancholia has been on my watchlist for over a decade, but I didn't get around to seeing it until last Sunday. It has taken me a few days to collect my thoughts on how I feel about it, and here is where I landed. There are two stories being told in this film, and the fact that each of them has to coexist with the other does a disservice to them both.
In the world in which this story takes place rogue planet called Melancholia is headed for Earth. The people of this world have been assured that this rogue planet will come pretty close, but it won't strike Earth. However, if it does, it would mean instant destruction,
The main character of this story is a woman named Justine (played brilliantly by Kirsten Dunst) who suffers from severe depression When the film begins, she and her husband who she married earlier that day are in a limo on their way to a castle where their reception is being held. Most of her family are absolutely miserable people, as is her boss, who expects her to come up with a marketing slogan for one of their clients during the reception. She ends both her job and her marriage while at the reception, and then sinks further into a state where she is unable to eat, bathe, or get out of bed without assistance.
Without getting into any further details about what happens in the movie, I think this would have been better if these two stories were split into two entirely separate films: one about a rogue planet that may collide with the earth, and another that is centered around living with depression. The whole movie follows Justine, so I'm left wanting to know more about the rest of the world and how they're reacting to their potential destruction. I'm also left wanting to know more about how Justine lives her life when there's not an impending apocalypse. Don't get me wrong, it's a very good movie. It's depressing as hell, but it's absolutely worth seeing. Still, I would have preferred to see the two stories of this film being told independently of each other.
Last, but not least, I watched the George Lucas film American Graffiti. I've always wanted to see this movie, but I finally sat down to watch it because it fit the category of one of the challenges in the Everyone's A Critic book that my friend Cary gave me. The third challenge is "Low Budget, Big Box Office", and this film definitely fits that category. It was produced with a budget of just $777k and it made over $140 million at the box office, and it's success is largely responsible for Lucas being able to start filming Star Wars two years later.
About 15 minutes into this film, I found myself imagining that this movie and Dazed & Confused are from the same universe. Whereas Dazed & Confused is a 1993 film with an ensemble cast about being young in 1976, American Graffiti is a 1973 film with an ensemble cast about being young in 1962. Both movies are love letters to the music, the fashion, and the youth culture of their setting.
American Graffiti isn't a movie that I can really relate to on a personal level, but I appreciate it for what it is and I'm glad that I watched it.
And that's a wrap on the movies that I watched from the comfort of my sofa in January 2025.
