Now that this year’s Academy Awards have taken place, it’s never too early to look ahead to next year. There are some interesting options that could be up for the big prize next year, but here are the ten that I think will be the nominees. I look forward to seeing how wrong I was.
- After the Hunt
- Avatar: Fire and Ash
- Bugonia
- Deliver Me From Nowhere
- Hamnet
- Highest 2 Lowest
- Jay Kelly
- The Lost Bus
- Marty Supreme
- Wicked: For Good
I’m at least confident in half of them. You can see a complete list (25 films) over on the Oscar Stuff page of the films that could be int he running for next February. On to the reviews!
To talk about the elephant in the room, this was a complicated film to sit through. The film itself was uncomfortable in the best of ways at parts, and spinning its wheels at other times. Jonathan Majors is really good as Killian Maddox, an aspiring bodybuilder who is very socially awkward and completely obsessed with being a champion. What overall taints his entire performance is what we know about Major’s real life troubles. This film was part of the 2023 Sundance lineup and had some great acclaim. This was in conversations for that year’s Academy Awards. Then, Majors was convicted of assault and harassment. The film lost its December 2023 release date, and then lost its distributor. It took Briarcliff (the collector of orphan films at the moment) to acquire the distribution rights in October 2024, who then scheduled this for release on March 21st of this year.
While watching most of Major’s violent and emotional sequences, it is close to impossible to see the real Majors rather then Maddox. That really robs this film of most of its punch and that is all Majors fault doe to his awful choices. As for the film itself, I was really with it for the first 2/3 of the run time. It’s the third act that was the issue for me. It seems the main plot that was working for me came to it’s conclusion at the end of the second act, and we were sent on a meandering trek to the end of the film. That seems like a pretty big negative at first, but there is some interesting choices the film makes in that third act. It just seems like a completely different film. The only connection is us following a person who is slowly going downhill. This film is pretty good, but it won’t be loved by some, and will never have it’s big awards push it could have had. That is all the fault of one person and his choices.
Going in to Sundance in January, this was one that me, along with many others, thought sounded really intriguing. Following the festival, word about the film wasn’t very great. The trailer looked interesting, so I wondered if it would be like those in Park City thought it was. Unfortunately, it was. This was pretty disappointing. In the film, John Malkovich plays Alfred Moretti, a 90s popstar that has just announced a new album after 27 years. He invites 6 people to his compound to get a preview. This includes our main character Ariel (Ayo Edebiri), her boss, a talk show host, an influencer, a paparazzi, and a disc jockey. When the group arrives at the compound in the middle of nowhere Utah, they find Moretti is joined by a pretty large cult of people who call themselves Levelists. This unravel as the weekend moves on. Keeping things vague can be hard for movies like this.
There are parts of this film where you can see a good film in there. The whole thing just feels like they are hiding a big secret through the first half of the run time, then the second half is just a disjointed mess. Ariel seems to be the only one that has an idea of what is going on as people start disappearing, and is pretty weirded out by the Levelists from the jump. This film felt like what some people thought the TV show Lost was like. We are introduced to a new group of people. Events happen, and by the end, the creators of the show leave so much answered and keep the ending ambiguous. I don’t think the ending is completely ambiguous. I think I have a grasp of what they were going with and it leaves me with two options. First, either is is ambiguous and the whole movie is a puzzle box of sorts and you aren’t supposed to know what is real or not. The other option is it is straight forward, and that makes so much of what happened not make any sense. I think option 2 is the correct one, and that was so disappointing. Malkovich is eating the scenery here, so there is that at least.
Is it possible that the Russo brothers can only be good at making Marvel movies and episodes of the greatest television show, Community (six seasons and a movie!)? The argument for that question is the existence of the chores that are 2021’s Cherry and 2022’s The Gray Man. Both of those are woeful, but they are the only non-Marvel films the pair have directed since 2006’s You Me and Dupree (which was good). You could make the argument Marvel has broken them, and has called them home for the next two Avengers films. Before that, we have their most recent film, the long gestating The Electric State.
Time start with, the special effects look pretty good. You would hope they would with how high the budget is per reports, and how long it took for the film to come out. Brown and Pratt are ok here, but it’s really Tucci that makes things lively. He seems to be the only one who knows what kind of movie he is in. Everyone else is playing it serious, and is that the tone that an alternate 1990’s robot movie (with Mr. Peanut as character) should have? I say no. This just feels like it hope on Netflix. It probably would have been a huge bomb in theaters. Now it can try and find its cult following playing the long game.
I’m not quite sure what Zazlav is doing at WB? The delay films multiple times (Mickey 17), pull films and hold them (Horizon Ch 2), or cancel them for the write off (Batgirl). However, they release a Looney Tunes cartoon feature film which looks like it was plucked out of the 1980s when they were more popular. It’s also puzzling when you know WB also cancelled “Coyote vs Acme”. The animation style is very unique and feels like a Looney Tunes short from decades ago. I say that because when was the last time the Looney Tunes were really relevant? It could have been Space Jam 2, but WB ruined that one by making it a WB Universe thing. It was nice to limited this down to a story with just Porky and Daffy, as it focuses it down to their attempt to stop the Earth from being blown up by aliens. I am surprised though that this wasn’t sent straight to MAX, but it is nice to have options for the kids to watch in theaters. If this does well enough in the box office, maybe Coyote vs Acme will live again….
The second of two films this year from Steven Soderbergh, Black Bag is about a married couple (who are spies) being tested when a dangerous asset is stolen. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett play George and Kathryn, our main married couple, and they are both fantastic here. After a weapon is reportedly in the open, George is given a list of 5 name of who the traitor most like it is, and Kathryn is one of the names. The rest of the 90 minute runtime is George trying to find the traitor. The two stand out sequences here are both dinner scenes with George, Kathryn, and the other 4 on the list at their home. These sequences are very wordy, but that is what the majority of the film is. While this is a classified as a thriller, you aren’t going to see any action sequences. What you will see are conversations that push the plot along. This might not work for a lot of people, but it sure did for me. This was a sleek espionage drama that look is deceptive when it needs to be. The cast is excellent with no weak point. I just wish we got another 20 minutes to flesh out a few points so they don’t come out of nowhere during the conclusion. Soderbergh is 2 for 2 this year for me.
It may be another sign of the end of creativity, but Snow White is most certainly taking the top spot next weekend. Call it wanting to see a trainwreck or genuine interest in a new telling of a classic story. The money counts the same either way.
- Snow White
- Novocaine
- Mickey 17
- Black Bag
- Captain America: Brave New World
Tomorrow we will continue on to the Round of 16 in the Box Office Classic. Later in the week, the Quarterfinals will begin on Wednesday, and the Semifinals will begin on Friday. From a review standpoint, four movies again this week, but Snow White on Thursday is coming at me like an unstoppable train.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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