The 12th Annual Mickey©®™ Awards (2025)

12th Annual Mickey©®™ Awards (2025)

The ultimate awards show is upon us!!!

The Mickeys©™® are superior to every other award imaginable…be it the Oscar, the Emmy, the Tony, the Grammy or even the Nobel. The Mickey©®™ is the mountaintop of not just artistic but human achievement, which is why they always take place AFTER the Oscars!

This year has been a rather mundane one for cinema but there are still a multitude of films eligible for a Mickey©™® award.

Actors, actresses, writers, cinematographers and directors are all sweating and squirming right now in anticipation of the Mickey©™® nominations and winners. Remember, even a coveted Mickey©™® nomination is a career and life changing event. 

Before we get to what everyone is here for…a quick rundown of the rules and regulations of The Mickeys©™®…The Mickeys©™® are selected by me…I am judge, jury and executioner. The only films eligible are films I have actually seen, be it in the theatre, via screener, cable, streamer or VOD. I do not see every film because as we all know, the overwhelming majority of films are God-awful, and I am a working man so I must be pretty selective. So that means that just getting me to actually watch your movie is a tremendous accomplishment in and of itself…never mind being nominated or winning!

Enough with the formalities…let's start the festivities!!

Is everybody in? Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin...

Ladies and gentlemen…welcome to the 12th annual Mickey©™® Awards!!!

Let’s start things off with a bang!!

POPCORN MOVIE OF THE YEAR– There weren’t quite as many big budget popcorn movies this year as we are used to mostly because the Superhero genre is fading and fading fast. There were a few of them though…most notably Superman and The Fantastic Four, neither of which were anywhere close to being good never mind worthy of a prestigious Mickey©®™.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

F1 – I am a fan of F1 the sport and so I was an easy target for this movie…and while it is aggressively formulaic, it still delivered some racing thrills and while it is a low bar – that was enough for me. Congrats to the F1 cast and crew for the Mickey©®™ award!!

BEST HORROR FILM OF THE YEAR –

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

WEAPONS – Weapons is a horror film but it feels like a whole helluva lot more than that. Wonderfully written and directed by Zach Cregger, the film never fails to captivate and it leaves you constantly unnerved and relentlessly on edge.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – Not a sterling year for the art of cinematography…but there were some notable exceptions.

Bugonia – Robbie Ryan’s approach on Bugonia was a rather simple one but it was impeccably executed and created a crisp and clear visual to go along with the film’s muddied character arcs. A fine piece of work.

Train Dreams – Adolpho Veloso borrowed heavily from Terence Malick and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s distinct style to give Train Dreams an ethereal and…dare I say it…dream-like visual style. Floating cameras and languid looks at nature are not easy to pull off but Veloso did it and deserves credit for paying homage to Malick and Lubezki’s brilliance.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

TRAIN DREAMS – ADOLPHO VELOSO – I am an enormous fan of Terence Malick and Emmanuel Lubezki…and while Veloso’s work is sort of Malick-lite…Malick-lite is better than no Malick at all. And to Veloso’s credit…he is borrowing from the best and he executes it masterfully.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR –

William H. Macy – Train Dreams: Macy’s turn as an old-timer in a logging camp is a brilliant bit of work that brings both a bit of levity and humanity to Train Dreams. Macy has been M.I.A. for some time now, so it was nice to see him back and at his best.

Pedro Pascal – Eddington: I find Pedro Pascal to be a grating screen presence…and he is that in Eddington…but he uses it to great effect. His cool and holier-than-thou character needed to be instantly, but subtly, off-putting…and Pascal is perfectly built for that.

Aiden Delbis – Bugonia: Delbis, a novice who is on the autism spectrum, plays a good-hearted and loyal cousin who is on the autism spectrum. You might think that he is essentially playing himself – a person with autism, but Delbis brings such a genuine and authentic energy to every scene he inhabits that he nearly steals the whole movie from such luminaries as Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. I have no idea if Delbis will ever act again, but it was a pleasure to watch him in this film.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

AIDEN DELBIS – BUGONIA: This is the supporting performance that impressed me the most this year. Delbis was so real, so present, so alive in each scene that it made his screen presence uncomfortable to watch…and that is the highest of compliments as he makes it feel like you’re eavesdropping on real life when he’s on-screen. Congratulations Aiden Delbis on your first movie and your first Mickey©®™!!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS –

Emily Blunt – The Smashing Machine: Blunt gives it her all in a terribly written part in a terrible movie…and she still shines through despite everything working against her. Blunt is a terrific actress and I hope she finds better material for her talent.

Amy Madigan – Weapons: Madigan is so great in Weapons it actually took me a half hour of watching the movie to figure out it was her…and even then I wasn’t so sure. An iconic performance that will no doubt inspire Halloween costumes for generations to come.

Rebecca Ferguson – A House of Dynamite: I wanted this movie to be good…it wasn’t…but Rebecca Ferguson was the only good thing in it. Given a dreadful script, Ferguson managed to bring a touch of actual humanity and reality to the proceedings…and has a genuinely moving moment that is nearly lost amidst the tsunami of suck.

Regina Hall – One Battle After Another: Hall gives the only genuine and grounded performance in this entire film…and it is deeply unfortunate that she didn’t have more screen time. Hall’s inherent humanity was so evident despite her minimal focus in the story…a really impressive piece of work when we got to see it.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

AMY MADIGAN – WEAPONS: Madigan has been working in Hollywood for over forty years and she is so great in Weapons that she finally reaches the apex of achievement in the art of acting…a Mickey©®™ award!!

BEST SCREENPLAY –

Eddington – Ari Aster: It is actually stunning how Ari Aster was able to turn the mania and madness of the Covid/Black Lives Matter and Post-Covid/Black Lives Matter era into one of the most compelling, insightful and intelligent films of the year. A stunning achievement that tells more truth than any piece of media in recent years.

 It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi: Panahi took a simple idea and turned into a monumental storytelling achievement that explores the deepest depths of humanity, morality and ethics. Remarkable script.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

EDDINGTON – ARI ASTER: This screenplay is so brilliant it boggles the mind. That Aster was able to weaves so many tales of mania and hysteria and turn them into a cohesive story about the conspiracy that lies beneath the conspiracies…is nothing short of genius.

BEST SCENE –

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT – I won’t give anything away but the ending of this movie is so well-executed and so brilliantly set up that there is just no other competition. It is the perfect combination of great direction, great writing and great filmmaking…and just like the film itself…it is simple yet perfect.

BEST ACTRESS –

Rose Byrne – If I had Legs, I’d Kick You: Byrne is a fantastic comedic actress, but with this film about an overwhelmed mother she proves her dramatic acting chops in spades. An absolutely stellar piece of work that never relents and never delivers anything but the truth…even when it is lying.

Jessie Buckley – Hamnet: Buckley’s turn as Shakespeare’s witchy wife could have been a mess in lesser hands, but she brings a powerful magnetism and earthy heart to the role that brings it to life in an extraordinary way. A visceral and moving performance that reveals Buckley to be among the best.

Emma Stone – Bugonia: Stone is always so good it is easy to overlook how good she actually is…and in Bugonia she is putting on a masterclass. Stone’s work is as captivating as anything she’s done and is incredibly subtle and nimble. An impressive piece of work.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

ROSE BYRNE – IF I HAD LEGS, I’D KICK YOU: Byrne is so good in this film it is jaw-dropping. A difficult yet delicious role that lets the beauty Byrne be ugly and unlikable and to fail and flail and fall flat on her face without ever playing for pity. Bravo Ms. Byrne…you may be a terrible mother but you’ve finally gotten yourself a Mickey©®™ award!!

BEST ACTOR –

Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon: Ethan Hawke gives a startlingly great performance in this film as the diminutive giant Lorenz Hart. The film is essentially a stage play but Hawke fills the screen with a verve and aplomb as the drunken and fading lyricist and it is the best work of his career.

Joaquin Phoenix - Eddington: Joaquin Phoenix is the best actor we have, and his deft and visceral work in Eddington is just more proof of this fact. Phoenix dissolves into his role as Sheriff Joe and his descent into the madness of Hurricane Covid/BLM and all the rest is staggering to behold. A brilliant and bold performance.

Jesse Plemons – Bugonia: Plemons’ work in Bugonia is extraordinary as he is simultaneously sympathetic and repulsive…a hero and villain all at once. Plemons’ inherent humanity works to his great advantage in this role as he engenders viewer’s empathy but then he abuses it and you are left confused but always captivated.

Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent: Moura is a phenomenal actor and he does his very best, most complex and most skilled work in The Secret Agent…essentially playing three roles (I won’t give away what I mean by that). Moura is such a master craftsman that it is impossible to take your eyes off of him even when he is doing the most mundane of tasks in this film. A truly impressive performance.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

JOAQUIN PHOENIX – EDDINGTON: This is a loaded category but Hawke was so deliriously great in Eddington that he gets the coveted Mickey©®™.

ACTOR/ACTRESS OF THE YEAR –

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

EMMA STONE: Stone…one of the very best actresses in the world, was in both Eddington and Bugonia this year…two of the very best films of the year…and she did terrific work in both of them. Kudos to Emma Stone for picking challenging material and for using her clout to get important films made…and congrats on ANOTHER Mickey©®™ award!! (She won in 2024 for Poor Things)

BEST ENSEMBLE –

Eddington – A stacked cast all do extraordinary work…led by the brilliant Joaquin Phoenix.

Bugonia – Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Aiden Delbis absolutely crush their roles and as a whole are a formidable acting trio.

It Was Just an Accident – A collection of Iranian actors I have never heard of come together to create as stunning a cast performance imaginable.

The Secret Agent – A sprawling cast all do solid and sometimes spectacular work in this brilliant Brazilian film.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT – It truly is remarkable how good all of these actors are and how insanely compelling they all are as well. The film is in Farsi but you could watch the whole thing and not read the subtitles and still understand everything they are conveying and still be deeply affected by it.

BEST DIRECTOR –

Ari Aster – Eddington: Aster’s masterful direction on Eddington helped the film avoid the multitude of traps it could have fallen into…and he did it with a deft touch and a brilliant understanding of the deeper story he was telling.

Yorgos Lanthimos – Bugonia: Lanthimos has a distinct taste and style and I am a sucker for it…and he brings all of his weird talent and skill to bear on Bugonia and it is a joy to behold.

Jafar Panahi – It Was Just an Accident: A simple story and a minimalist execution of that story reveal Panahi to be a master moviemaker and a brave one at that.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

ARI ASTER – EDDINGTON: Aster has shown over the course of his career that he has a keen eye and a sharp and original mind…but it wasn’t until Eddington that he has made the leap from very good to great. Eddington reveals Aster to be not only a great filmmaker but an astute observer and commentator of our troubled times when the overwhelming majority of his peers are too blind to see the forest for the trees and to recognize the reality of recent history and the current moment. Aster has earned this Mickey©®™ award the hard way…not by telling audiences what they want to hear…but rather by telling them the very uncomfortable truth.

BEST PICTURE –

5. The Secret Agent – A cinematic glimpse into the moral morass that was Brazil in 1977, writer/director Kleber Mendonca Filho masterfully pulls all the pieces together of his sprawling story and leads viewers on a personal and perilous journey into the jaws of fascism.

4. Bugonia – Yorgos Lanthimos dives deep into conspiracy culture and never comes up for air as his film keeps viewers in the dark about the secret at the center of it all. Your expectations and assumptions die a slow and glorious death on Lanthimos’ cinematic guillotine.

3. Train Dreams – A deeply moving and affecting mediation on life and its meaning from Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar. A deliberately paced and wonderfully shot film that very quietly, yet profoundly, asks the question we all would prefer to ignore.

2. It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi brings viewers on a compelling odyssey through the maze of modern Iran’s fascist existence. Morality and humanity are endangered species in this world and Panahi is able to use them to tell the truth about his existence in a corrupted world.

1 Eddington – Ari Aster’s film is so daring and so bold that it boggles the mind. That the film was not well-received is no surprise, as the targets of its truth bombs were the same guardians of popular culture who were at a minimum complicit with the moral, ethical, intellectual and political corruption and madness it portrays. As the years go by this film will continue to grow in estimation and will ultimately be proven to be the greatest film about the truth and consequences of the Covid/BLM era. It will be considered not only well ahead of its time but extraordinarily insightful about its own time.

MOST IMPORTANT FILM OF THE YEAR

Eddington/Bugonia – Eddington and Bugonia are the two most important films of the year because they do something that no other films even attempt to do…tell the uncomfortable truth.

Both films reveal the reality that “conspiracy theories” aren’t crazy…they are just ahead of the learning curve and if given enough time will be proven correct. The truth is that the time between something being called a “conspiracy theory” and it being proven correct is at an all-time low. If you hear some buffoon shrieking about something being a “conspiracy theory”…just wait three months and it will no longer be a “conspiracy theory” but an acknowledged, and resolutely ignored, fact.

Eddington, in particular, was brilliant in its evisceration of the idiocy of the mainstream, anti-conspiracy, mindset. It showed not just the surface level moronity of the Covid/BLM bullshit, but dug deeper and gave brief glimpses of the wider power structure pulling the strings of our world and creating the shadows dancing on our cave wall that we think is reality.

If you can watch Eddington and Bugonia and then go back to watching cable news or reading the New York Times and believing a single word you hear or see…then you need to have your head examined.

Truth is anathema in a world ruled by the demonic Epstein Class. Look no further than the current war raging in the Middle East, or the fact that our global empire is controlled by an evil Zionist entity for proof of that. Both political parties are so beholden to the Epstein Class and their Zionist overlords that who you vote for makes no difference whatsoever.

Moral, ethical, political and corporate corruption is so blatant now it goes unnoticed and unmentioned. The ruling elite want you angry, they want you confused, they want you disoriented, they want you disheartened….and that is why they rub your nose in the shit of their demonic criminality in broad daylight. That is why they steal, rape, kill and pillage right in front of you and laugh at any suggestion they’d be held accountable for their crimes against humanity.

That is why they refuse to close borders – so that European and the U.S. populations can be overrun by third worlders who will turn Europe and the U.S. into third world countries – if you don’t believe me go to Los Angeles – a massive third world city where hordes of helpless and hopeless people live and shit on the streets – and we are incapable of helping them because of corruption.

The third worlders are here to replace the “natives” because they will work for less and are less attached to those pesky right bestowed upon us by God. In other words they will accept the boot in their face better than the natives. This is how the Epstein Class wants it…because third worlders are easier to exploit and are necessary as a revolutionary force against the middle class.

The Epstein Class wants to make everything worse for you because it makes everything better for them. Gas prices skyrocket…sucks for you, is good for them. Inflation? Bad for you, good for them. Rising crime rates? Bad for you, good for them. Housing through the roof…bad for you, good for them. Prices for healthcare, food, shelter, college…out of control…bad for you…good for them.

The ruling elite of the Epstein Class and their Zionist overlords aren’t indifferent to your plight…quite the opposite…they actually hate you with a passion. They want to see you suffer and they want to exterminate you. They want you and your bloodline permanently extinguished.

They want your sons to die in foreign wars for their benefit and your daughters to be raped by foreign hordes in their homeland. They want your culture to disappear and they want your country to be unrecognizable to your ancestors. They want Europe, Ireland and the U.K. to look like the slums of Pakistan or Nigeria and the U.S. and Canada to look like the slums of Mexico or India. This is what these unrepentant, foul demons desperately want. This is what they are working toward…and every day that passes they are closer to their ultimate goal…your extinction.

You are nothing but a resource to exploit and an obstacle to ultimately obliterate for the Epstein Class…and they want to, and will, turn you into roadkill. They already control our economy, our media, our politics, our government and for the vast majority, our minds.

Eddington and Bugonia do not have happy endings…and the truth is…I don’t think our civilization infected by the Epstein Class and their Zionist overlords will have a happy ending either.

Two other films that point to what our near-term future looks like are The Secret Agent and It Was Just an Accident. Those films show the normalization of fascism and how fascists states are marinated in a corruption so deep that it becomes commonplace and simply ordinary.

Politics are so corrupt in those films (in Brazil and Iran) that corruptions seeps into every interaction in everyday life. To get treated in a hospital you must pay off the receptionist…then the nurse…then the doctor. To get protection from crime you must pay off the cops, pay off judges, pay off criminals.

Corruption is everywhere and eventually sinks in so deep as to corrupt the hearts, minds and souls of everyday people. Humanity is removed in favor of a moral and ethical corruption that spreads like a cancer and can never be eradicated.

This is where we are right now…our country and our populace is so morally and ethically demented that it embraces a suicidal path that will guarantee its destruction. You can’t vote your way out of it, no political party is free of the Epstein Class virus…no smooth-talking politician can save the day. The disease of the Epstein Class and their Zionist overlords has metastasized and it is killing the U.S. and Europe in a very deliberate and agonizing way.

There is no off-ramp…there are only momentary reprieves from the anxiety over the reality of our current moment. Know this…this car keeps moving at a rapidly increasing pace to its final destination…hurtling off a cliff.

Well…on that bright note the prestigious Mickey©®™ awards come to a glorious conclusion. Thank you for reading and for all of your comments…I hope we have a much better cinematic year in 2026 than we did in 2025…but either way the Mickeys©®™ will be back to let you know the best of the best in the art of cinema!!

©2026

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 148 - Bugonia

On this barn-burner of an episode, Barry and I shave our heads and castrate ourselves as we fight over Yorgos Lanthimos' Academy Award nominated film Bugonia, starring Emma Stone. Topics discussed include the positives and negatives of Lanthimos' particular taste and style, challenging audience expectation, and Alex Jones, David Icke and the current conspiracy cultural moment.

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 148 - Bugonia

Thanks for listening!

©2026

Bugonia: A Review - The Madness and Mastery of King Yorgos

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE IT. An arthouse gem of a film that speaks insightfully to the madness of our modern age.

Bugonia, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, tells the story of two conspiracy-obsessed cousins who kidnap a CEO of a nefarious company.

The film, which is a remake of the South Korean film Save the Green Planet!, hit theatres on October 24th and didn’t make much of a splash – despite mostly positive reviews it made $40 million on a $45 million budget. It is currently streaming on Peacock, which is where I just watched it.

Director Yorgos Lanthimos is definitely an acquired taste…but one which I am grateful to have acquired. I remember years ago loving Lanthimos’s film The Lobster (2015), which is an absurdist arthouse black comedy, and highly recommending it to a friend of mine. He then went and saw the movie with his parents and all three of them hated the movie with the fury of a thousand suns. What can you do?

Since The Lobster, Lanthimos has churned out a bevy of really fantastic and unique films. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2018) was a weird and woolly arthouse gem. The Favourite and Poor Things were phenomenal films that garnered Best Actress Academy Awards for their lead actresses Olivia Colman and Emma Stone respectively. Kinds of Kindness was an oddball anthology that was one of my favorite films of 2024.

Bugonia is right in Lanthimos’s wheelhouse as it is definitely an arthouse black comedy project but one that can appeal to more mainstream tastes if given the chance.

I won’t give much of the plot of the film away as I think it best to avoid any semblance of spoilers in order to appreciate the film to its fullest. But as stated in the opening paragraph, Bugonia follows the travails of Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aiden Delbis), two conspiracy theorist cousins, as they plot to kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), a hard-charging CEO of a pharmaceutical company.

The magic of Bugonia is that it could be a stage play as it is rudimentary in its dramatic set-up, but it is also gorgeously photographed by Robbie Ryan with a stunning simplicity. In other words, it is an actor’s dream of a screenplay – which Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons devour with aplomb, that is glorious to look at due to Ryan’s deft, subtle and crisp cinematography.

The performances of Stone, Plemons and even newcomer Delbis, are remarkable.

Emma Stone has two Best Actress Academy Awards and if we lived in a just world, she would be receiving her third one this year for her work on Bugonia. Stone is at the point in her career where she is so good her greatness is taken for granted and overlooked.

As the CEO Michelle, Stone delivers a dexterous and complex performance that is sharp, savvy and nimble. Stone’s Michelle is always believable even when she isn’t.

Jesse Plemons is a terrific and often overlooked actor and he brings the full weight of his talents to bear as Teddy, the “brains” of the two-man conspiracy addled operation.

Plemons’ Teddy is a cauldron of suppressed emotions and wounds ready to burst at the seams. Thanks to Plemons’ mastery, Teddy’s eyes betray his twisted and tormented inner life.

One of the more incredible performances in the film comes from newcomer Aiden Delbis as Don. Delbis, who is autistic, was discovered in an open casting call to play the autistic Don…and he is amazing in the role.

What is most striking about Bugonia is that it is ideologically audacious and philosophically brazen. There is something in the zeitgeist in the last year or so, with films like Eddington and now Bugonia, both of which wear their conspiracy obsession on their sleeves and poke their thumbs into the eyes of their target audience while pretending to cozy up to them.

As someone who is often contemptuously labelled a conspiracy theorist by friend and foe alike, I was both unnerved and overjoyed when Plemons’ Teddy numerous times vociferously pontificated an unhinged conspiracy rant that was alarmingly similar to rants that I’ve shouted over the years…so much so that I thought to myself the old joke, ‘I resemble that remark!’

Of course, the joy of being a conspiracy theorist in our current corrupt and crazy age is that the time between being ridiculed for presenting a conspiracy theory and that conspiracy theory being proven correct is at an all-time low.

While discussing the film afterwards with my wife, we spoke about how Bugonia is a perfect double feature with Eddington, a conspiracy themed movie directed by Ari Aster - and one of the very best films of 2025, when her keen eye spotted that Ari Aster is one of the producers of Bugonia. This makes sense, as both Aster and Lanthimos are unique auteurs and artists who are keenly aware of the collective unconscious and the murmurings of madness just beneath the surface of our civilization…and have dramatized that in their films.

Bugonia and Eddington are films that have expansive artistic vision and enormous political and cultural insight to them, which is in stark contrast to the current film bro darling and Oscar front-runner One Battle After Another.

One Battle After Another is what comfortable neo-liberal activists imagine themselves to be, while Eddington and Bugonia are glimpses of the ugly and messy reality at contrast with that self-serving and delusional vision. In other words, One Battle After Another tells liberal coastal elites what they want to hear, and Eddington and Bugonia tell them the unvarnished and uncomfortable truth. Or even more bluntly…One Battle After Another is what “resistance” liberals want to be, and Eddington and Bugonia are what they really are.

My despondence over the state of the world is well-documented. The world is losing its mind faster and faster as every hour of every day passes…and we hurtle blindly toward a conflagration that will engulf us all and suffocate all the humanity out of us and the world. (As an aside…if you think Venezeula is a one-off and not a continuation, or is the end and not the beginning - God help you because you’re too thick for words.)

In my despondence over the world, I turn to art to try and find some insight or solace or understanding…and what I usually find is artistically benign and politically malignant neo-liberal corporate capitalist garbage. But with Bugonia and Eddington I find hope amidst the hopelessness. If two great artists like Lanthimos and Aster are seeing and saying what I am seeing and saying…then at least there is a light that can be a beacon to others who have not lost their way in all of this darkness. Or maybe it isn’t as positive as all that…maybe I am just a cynical, self-serving prophet who is happy to see signs that I am right. Who knows?

All I know is that Bugonia is one of the best films of the year. Be forewarned…it is an arthouse film and it is not for everybody. But even mainstream audiences, if they go into the film with an open mind, can enjoy the madness and mastery of Bugonia.

So go to Peacock – and if you don’t have a subscription, you can get a free week trial – and watch Bugonia, it is well-worth your time, and it might even open your eyes and your mind.

©2026

Civil War: A Review - A Lukewarm Film for our Scorching Hot Times

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE IT/SKIP IT. This is a mixed bag of a movie that should have, and could have, been great, but ultimately pulls its punches and ends up being just okay.

Civil War, written and directed by Alex Garland, is a new dystopian war film that follows the travails of photo-journalists as they chronicle the last stages of a modern-day American civil war.

The premise of Civil War is a provocative one – what if the cold civil war that rages in our culture and country turned hot? Unfortunately, Civil War doesn’t exactly live up to the promise of its provocative premise.

Civil War suffers because it isn’t popcorn enough to be a blockbuster, and not intellectually hefty enough to be an arthouse darling, and not quite enough of either to be award’s material.

That is not to say that the film is bad…it isn’t…but it also isn’t great. It is undeniably compelling and is cinematically very well-crafted, but it is definitely a middlebrow movie posturing like it’s high-brow.

The film follows four journalists, Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), Joel (Wagner Moura), Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and aspiring photojournalist Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), as they head out of New York City in the hopes of getting to Washington, D.C. to interview the three-term President presiding over a chaotic civil war who hasn’t given an interview in fourteen months.

The country has broken into multiple factions and the government seems on the precipice of falling to the Western Forces – made up of California and Texas, all while other factions like the Florida Alliance and the New People’s Army are roaming around.

To get to D.C. the journalists must drive west to Pittsburgh, then head south to Charlottesville in the hopes of getting to D.C.. The film is essentially a road movie as the journalists navigate the treacherous journey to the failing nation’s capitol.

Much has been made about Civil War being apolitical, and I suppose that is true to a certain degree as the film never explicitly lays out the context, political or otherwise, of the civil war that now rages, but that is not the major problem with the film. No, the biggest issue with the film is that the journalists who are our protagonists are some of the least developed, and least captivating, characters you will ever stumble across.

Kirsten Dunst leads the charge as world-renowned photojournalist Lee Smith, but we know next to nothing about her and never get to know her on the journey. Yes, Smith undergoes a character arc of sorts, but it is predictable, and at its climax, trite and poorly executed. Dunst is good at giving a sort of dead-eyed, thousand-yard stare, but beyond that she fails to generate enough of anything to be able to carry to narrative load.

Wagner Moura is a decent actor but he is nearly invisible as Joel, the journalist set to ask the tough questions to the tyrannical president. Moura lacks the charisma to make his poorly written character come to life, and that he is front and center at the most critical point of the film diminishes its impact.

Cailee Spaeny plays Jessie Cullen, the young woman who wants to be like her photo-journalistic idol, Lee Smith. Spaeny does her best with what she’s given, but like her co-stars she isn’t given nearly enough, and she is not quite dynamic enough to generate interest.

Stephen McKinley Henderson plays the veteran, aging journalist Sammy, who has seen a lot and wants to see how this civil war concludes. Henderson has an innate humanity about him which jumps off the screen, and he does the best of the cast despite being limited by a poorly developed character.

The best performance in the film, and the best scene in the film, is by Jesse Plemons who plays a nameless militiaman the journalists have the unfortunate luck to come across. This scene is electrifying and Plemons absolutely crushes his role with an underplayed yet undeniable aplomb.

Another issue I had with Civil War was that the way it was constructed eliminated much of the drama. For example, early on in the story the journalists are on the road and then somehow are embedded with a rebel force, I suppose the Western Forces, but we never see the first contact between them. How did they hook up with the Western Forces? Were they in danger when they first met? How did either side know who was friendly and who was dangerous, especially in a world where the most banal of things and people are menacing? That would’ve been a great scene filled with drama – just like the scene at a gas station earlier in the movie, but it is never shown so we’ll never know. This type of thing happens throughout the film and it diminishes the drama.

Director Alex Garland cinematographer Rob Hardy shoot the film well and it is gorgeous to look at. The soundtrack is very good too and so is the editing by Jake Roberts. I would say that this is easily Garland’s second-best film, but it is miles behind from his directorial debut Ex Machina (2014), which was a mini-masterpiece. I found Garland’s two other features, Annihilation (2018) and Men (2022), to be underwhelming and poorly executed.

As for the politics of this film…well…when a movie titles itself “Civil War” and sets itself in modern-day America, the expectation of audiences is that current politics will be front and center. Civil War though never clearly sets the context for the war it dramatizes and so we don’t know the why or how or even the who of it all. This is not a crime in and of itself, but it does limit the film in terms of its appeal to more blockbuster-oriented audiences.

That said, the reality is that there is an undercurrent of present-day politics in the film, but for the most part the movie is sly enough to let the viewer project their own political pre-suppositions onto the festivities, which is a very arthouse sort of way to go about things. Liberals will see the bad guys as Republicans and conservatives will see the bad guys as Democrats…for the most part. For example, there is a reference in the film to an “Antifa massacre” but it never states whether it was Antifa being massacred or doing the massacring, which is pretty clever.

The president in the film (played by Nick Offerman) certainly seems Trumpian enough though to satiate the left and piss off the right, but it’s never too explicit and that’s probably the point.

On the other hand, the racial politics are pretty clear as the bad guys out in Middle America only like “real Americans” and kill unwhite people, and a black woman plays a pivotal role in the climax of the film and that is definitely not a coincidence.

Another thing to remember when judging the film’s politics, or lack thereof, is that this movie had a budget of $50 million – which isn’t a whole lot, yet it had to use a pretty decent amount of military equipment…helicopters, tanks, fighter jets, etc…and those things aren’t free…unless you make a deal with the Pentagon and turn over final edit and final say over the theme of your movie. It seems to me that Garland neutered the politics of his movie in order to get it made and play nice with the Department of Defense. I don’t know that for a fact but I would bet it’s true.

The political “subtlety” of the film is certainly a choice, but it clashes with the action-oriented/Hollywood climax that is meant to appeal to blockbuster audiences, and so the film, with clowns to the left of it, and jokers to the right, is stuck in the middle.

When I walked out of Civil War I admit I was a bit perplexed by the mixed bag I had just watched. I wanted the movie to be better, and thought it should have been better. Alex Garland had, a decade ago, made one of the very best, and most currently relevant films of this century when he took on the topic of Artificial Intelligence in the movie Ex Machina, and in the context of our current debate over AI, Ex Machina was eerily prescient.

But Civil War seemed less relevant than it should have been considering the political moment we find ourselves in here in the U.S. and across the globe. That’s not to say Civil War won’t seem prescient ten years from now, but right now it feels too lukewarm to be meaningful, which is a terrible shame.

To quote Jesus from the Book of Revelations 3:15-16 (what other book from the bible should you be quoting nowadays but Revelation?), “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth”.

I enjoyed the taste of Civil War as a compelling, if intellectually and often dramatically vacuous, piece of cinema. But ultimately, I’ll spit it out of my mouth because it is too lukewarm for my liking.

 Follow me on Twitter: @MPMActingCo

©2024

Love and Death (HBO) - Miniseries Review: Trite True Crime Deep in the Heart of Texas

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SKIP IT. Despite a great cast this is just another true crime retread with a prestige tv veneer.

The HBO miniseries Love and Death, which stars Elizabeth Olsen and Jesse Plemons and tells the true story of an extra-marital affair and murder in the small town of Wylie, Texas in 1980, finished its seven-episode run on Thursday.

The series, which was written by David E. Kelley, recounts the salacious tale of Candy Montgomery, a mild-mannered Texas housewife and church choir member who has an affair with a fellow married church member Allan Gore. Months after the affair ends Allan’s wife Betty is found brutally murdered with an axe.

Despite the fact that this is apparently a well-known tale and has already been made into a Hulu miniseries (Candy – starring Jessica Biel – which I have not seen), I did not know the Candy Montgomery story prior to watching Love and Death and so I won’t recount it in detail here for you in order to preserve spoilers for any of you who are in the same boat as I am.

The verdict regarding Love and Death is that it’s little more than a true-crime, Lifetime movie with an HBO prestige veneer and some top-notch acting.

Elizabeth Olsen is particularly good as Candy, as she masterfully captures the performative nature of a certain breed of Southern woman. Candy’s mask is so effective it even fools Candy into thinking she’s not who she really is.

As evidenced by her breakout role in Martha, Marcy, Mae, Marlene (2011), Olsen is a terrific actress but her career seems to be a bit stuck at the moment after getting caught in the MCU cul-de-sac. Her performances in the MCU films as Scarlet Witch have not been notable, but her work in the MCU TV series Wandavision was magnificent for the intriguing first half of that flawed season.

One can only hope that Olsen has put the MCU in the rearview mirror and now that she’s financially secure can explore more interesting projects and roles. Love and Death may have been her attempt at doing that, but unfortunately the series never lives up to her stellar work in it.

Jesse Plemons is also very good as the subdued and rather odd character Allan Gore, who sports a hairdo that is a first ballot Hellacious Haircut Hall of Famer.

Plemons is a master at filling quiet characters with a peculiar and pulsating inner life, and his Allan, who we are told has a “perfectly formed penis” – good for him, is bustling just under the surface and behind those curiously dead eyes but is always assiduously contained and constrained.

Plemons is one of the more oddly compelling actors of his generation and it’s always a treat when he’s on screen, even here in the tepid Love and Death, but he deserves better than this series.

Tom Pelphrey, who recently made a name for himself in the Netflix show Ozark, is terrific in the under-written role of the passionate and combative lawyer Don Crowder. After reading the post script at the end of the series I have to say that Crowder’s life seems to be much more interesting post Love and Death than it is during this story, and would prefer to have seen that tale told.

And finally, Lily Rabe does the very best she can with the unfinished character Betty Gore, and she too deserved much better than what was written for her.

As good as the cast is across the board, the problem with Love and Death is without a doubt the overrated writer David E. Kelley, who simply never elevates the story or makes it more than just another recounting of a true crime in a culture awash in true crime.

Kelley is considered one of the untouchables in Hollywood but I’ve never understood his appeal. Doogie Howser, Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Boston Legal, Ally McBeal and Big Little Lies are his most famous series and they’re all egregiously awful to the point of being entirely unwatchable. I’ve never liked a single one of his shows and never understood why others fawn all over him.

The failure of Love and Death lies at the feet of Kelley, who across his career has seemed allergic to insight and addicted to disingenuousness. Kelley’s consistent vacuousness as a writer and his vapidity as a storyteller infects Love and Death and leaves it completely devoid of profundity and power.

Love and Death reminded me of another true crime story given the HBO prestige treatment last year, The Staircase. That series, which starred Colin Firth and Toni Collette, was intriguing on its salacious surface but once you dig in to it there was nothing there…as it was devoid of even an ounce of drama or insight.

Like The Staircase, Love and Death is underwhelming as the longer the series went on the less interesting it became until finally you only finish watching it out of a demented sense of obligation or in my case, completion OCD.

Ultimately, Love and Death plays acts at being meaningful but is a rather vacant exercise in true crime exploitation and failed titillation. If you haven’t watched the series then trust me when I tell you that you never need to start. And if you have watched it then I assume, like me, you either regret the time committed or have entirely forgotten it.

 Follow me on Twitter: @MPMActingCo

©2023

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 63 - The Power of the Dog

On this episode, Barry and I put on our ten gallon hats, chaps and cowboy boots to discuss director Jane Campion's Oscar front-running anti-Western, The Power of the Dog. Topics discussed include toxic masculinity, Benedict Cumberbatch's lack of masculinity, and the state of the CODA v The Power of the Dog Oscar race.

Looking California and Feeling Minnesota: Episode 63 - The Power of the Dog

Thanks for listening!

©2022

The Power of the Dog: A Review

****THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!! THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW - YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!!****

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SKIP IT. A self-indulgent, dramatically inert and suffocatingly dull piece of empty Oscar-bait and arthouse fool’s gold that is as vapid as it is predictable and trite.

There has been a considerable amount of Oscar buzz and critical acclaim swirling around the new Netflix film The Power of the Dog, and understandably so, as it stars one-time Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch and is written and directed by Jane Campion, who won a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award back in 1993 for The Piano.

The movie, based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same name, tells the tale of the Burbank brothers, Phil (Cumberbatch) and George (Jesse Plemons), two cattle ranchers in Montana in 1925. The brothers are very different people, with Phil the grizzled, hard-edged cowboy and George the more reserved, rotund and less respected suit-wearer.

When George marries a local widow, Rose (Kirsten Dunst), and becomes step-father to her very “special” son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), the story takes a turn.

As a devotee of the arthouse, The Power of the Dog, which on its surface appears to be an intricate, gritty, western drama in the vein of Paul Thomas Anderson’s brilliant There Will Be Blood, would seem to be right up my alley.

After having watched the film all I can really say is looks can be deceiving.

Critics are fawning all over the self-indulgent, dramatically inert and suffocatingly dull The Power of the Dog, giving it a 95% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, but I think the only reason for that is because the film is allegedly a mediation on “toxic masculinity” and it’s directed by a woman.  

For instance, Brian Truitt of USA Today gushed over the movie declaring it “a picturesque, enthralling exploration of male ego and toxic masculinity, crafted by an extremely talented woman…”

Peter Travers of ABC ejaculated, “Can Jane Campion’s western about toxic masculinity and repressed sexuality win Netflix its first best Picture Oscar? Let’s just say that no list of the year’s best movies will be complete without this cinematic powder keg.”

The problem with these critics, and with director Jane Campion, is that apparently, they not only have no idea what great cinema is anymore, but they also have absolutely no idea what genuine masculinity is either, nevermind its toxic variety.

The biggest example of that is the praise Benedict Cumberbatch is receiving for his portrayal of Phil, the supposedly toxically masculine cowboy who bullies and berates those around him with abandon.

I like Benedict Cumberbatch as an actor, but let’s be honest, he isn’t exactly the picture of robust masculinity. In fact, he is so miscast as Phil that watching him strut and prance around in his cowboy regalia and put on a faux tough guy pose, takes on a most comical of airs. The main reason for that is Cumberbatch’s inherent delicateness and utter lack of manliness.

Phil needs to be a menacing, ominous physical presence, but Cumberbatch is a dainty posh Englishman and with his mannered American accent he comes across, as they say in Texas, as ‘all hat and no cattle’.

Phil is supposed to be an emasculating bully – so much so that, just like Jane Campion slaughters subtlety, he actually castrates young bulls by hand. But Phil comes across less like a bully and more like a High School mean girl brat who isn’t going to beat anyone up but sure as hell will say something catty and hurtful.

One of the main targets of Phil’s “toxic masculinity” is Rose’s teenage son Peter. Peter is a painfully thin, very effeminate young man who dresses like a dandy and likes to make flowers out of paper. Just so audiences are made completely aware of how effeminate the character is, and also so that nuance can be completely dispatched and unintentional comedy heightened to the maximum, when Peter is demeaned by Phil and a bunch of ranch hands at a dinner, he responds by going out behind the house and frantically blowing off steam by using a hula hoop. No, I’m not making that up.

The film’s insight regarding masculinity and its toxicity is as deep as a pool of cow’s piss on a flat rock. For example, not to ruin the surprise for you, but… in a plot twist you could see coming from miles away like a steam train crossing the plains on a cloudless morning…the reason Phil is a mean-spirited son of a bitch is because he’s a closet case homosexual.

Let’s be clear, you don’t exactly need the most advanced form of gaydar to see Phil’s hidden, super-secret sexual yearnings. Phil’s sexual proclivities are pretty obvious when he’s waxing nostalgic about his dead friend Bronco Henry as he delicately strokes Henry’s old saddle.

One of the few things I did like about The Power of the Dog was its score by Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood. But even that has its downside, as Greenwood’s score for The Power of the Dog is very reminiscent of his score for There Will Be Blood…and conjuring that masterpiece does no favors to this flaccid film.  

Come to think of it, I suppose The Power of the Dog is sort of like a cross between There Will Be Blood and Brokeback Mountain, but just without the powerful performances, insightful scripts or deft direction.

Ultimately, The Power of the Dog is not man’s best friend because it’s a movie about masculinity made by people who know nothing about the subject. It’s empty Oscar-bait and arthouse fool’s gold that is nothing more than a symptom of the plague of mediocrity that is currently ravaging the art of cinema.

So don’t waste your time on The Power of the Dog as this mangy old mutt needs to be taken out behind the barn and put out of its misery.  

 A version of this article was originally published at RT.

©2021