Continuing the trend of biopics with A-list actors that perhaps aren’t interesting or important enough to warrant such a big-budget production, the Timothée Chalamet-led Marty Supreme (Dune, Beautiful Boy) is among them. The story is based loosely on a period of American table tennis player Marty Reisman’s life. If you’ve never heard of Marty Reisman, you aren’t alone. He lived a very unremarkable life, one that is far from the kind of role that would require one of the best working actors to spend time on during the peak of his career. This wasn’t a story about the Marty Supreme. This was about creating a character that Chalamet could lead to his first Best Actor Oscar win, which I believe will happen.
Category Archives: Academy Award Nominees
Sinners (2025)
Michael B. Jordan has arrived, at least for those who haven’t watched films in either the Creed or Black Panther franchises. For many, Jordan first arrived with his breakout role in Ryan Coogler’s 2013 film Fruitvale Station, the true story of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old black man who is on the straight and narrow with his girlfriend and young after spending time in prison, only to be caught up in a 2008 altercation following a night that ended in tragedy after watching New Year’s Eve fireworks in San Frnacisco that ended in tragedy. Jordan’s sympathetic performance as a man wronged by a system that seemed determined to persecute him before knowing all the facts leaves the viewer feeling angry and distraught at the film’s conclusion. It could have earned Jordan his first Academy Award nomination. Twelve years later, he is still searching for that Oscar nomination that will add him to an exclusive list of Hollywood’s elite.
The Brutalist (2024)
Brutal. That was how I had already decided how I was going to describe Brady Corbet’s (The Childhood of a Leader, Vox Lux) The Brutalist, regardless of what I thought about it. With a runtime of three hours and forty-five minutes (plus a 15-minute intermission), I asked myself before my theater viewing, “Why am I seeing this?” The answer is not because I had any interest in seeing it but because it had been nominated for ten Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Lead Actor (Adrien Brody – The Pianist, The Jacket), Best Supporting Actress Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything, On the Basis of Sex), and Best Supporting Actor Guy Pierce (Memento, The King’s Speech). I saw it in the theater because I was told by content creators I follow that the viewing experience had to be in the theater as Corbet shot the film using VistaVision. This process involves shooting the film horizontally on 35mm film stock to achieve a higher-resolution image for large screens. I wouldn’t have noticed a difference if I had not learned this beforehand.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Many deem Christopher Nolan’s (Interstellar, Oppenheimer) The Dark Knight the best comic book movie ever. Those and others consider Nolan’s three Batman films the quintessential superhero trilogy. The Dark Knight is the franchise’s standout, successfully eclipsing the superhero genre and delivering an eerie tale of good versus evil that requires many chief characters to make layered, moral decisions at a moment’s notice. In particular, The Joker (Heath Ledger – Brokeback Mountain, Monster’s Ball), the film’s villain, continually requires its protagonists to choose between what is best for them and society’s greater good. Fans of superhero movies and those who traditionally have little to no interest in that genre can equally appreciate The Dark Knight.
The Zone of Interest (2023)
Often, I like to go into a movie as blind as possible. I do this even more for Oscar-contending films, which are traditionally more artsy, independent, symbolic, innovative, or daring. It can be hit or miss. When it hits, it’s unforgettable. When it misses, I spend my time glancing at the time on my phone, wondering when the borefest will finally end. I am glad I didn’t approach Jonathan Glazer’s (Under the Skin, Birth) fearless The Zone of Interest.