Minari Who Should Win? It s quite a feat to go from literal unknown to Oscar nominee, all while fending off Rudy Giuliani s advances, but that s where we are with Bakalova. Holding your own alongside Sacha Baron Cohen is no mean feat, either.
Who Will Win? However, all the momentum at this point favors
Youn Yuh-jung, which is doubly hilarious considering how little the lifelong performer apparently cares.
Who Really Wins? Not Glenn Close. Maybe next time don t hitch the wagon to a dude who supports white replacement conspiracies. ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Sacha Baron Cohen - Daniel Kaluuya -
Better Tagline: My goodness, my hemoglobin. Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: In the quiet town of Six Mile Hill, Eugene Moffat (Jack Rowan) and his dad Francie (Nigel O Neill) don t see eye-to-eye on much. Francie thinks Eugene is an aimless goof-off, while Eugene bides his time messing with the tourists who stop by due to the town s tenuous connection to
Dracula author Bram Stoker. But when a freak accident awakens an ancient evil, can father and son come together to save the town? Critical Analysis: Nothing like an Irish horror movie to make you search for the subtitles setting.
Writer/director Chris Baugh, adapting his own 2013 short film, may be best known as the director of a handful of episodes of
Better Tagline: There is unrest in the forest. There is trouble with the trees.
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: Mankind is suffering from a terrible pandemic (sound familiar?), which doesn t stop Martin (Joel Fry) from traveling to a remote English nature preserve to conduct his crop experiments. He s escorted to his destination by Alma (Ellora Torchia), a park ranger. As they venture deeper into the woods, it becomes apparent that stranger things than the virus are afoot. Critical Analysis: Writer/director Ben Wheatley wrote and directed
In the Earth over a 15 day stretch in autumn of last year, as COVID brought the rest of the world to a standstill. It s an impressive achievement that even accounting for the the external factors and macro themes at play nevertheless resulted in a disjointed end product.
Better Tagline: I am in a world of shit.
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: In the early 1980s, all South African males age 16-60 were conscripted into the South African Defence Force to defend their country s apartheid regime against Soviet-backed Angola. One new recruit, Nicholas van der Swart (Kai Luke Brummer), has to contend not only with the brutal training, but hiding the fact he s gay (derogatorily referred to as a moffie in Afrikaans) from both military command and his brothers-in-arms. Critical Analysis: There s an adage that says the best time in history to live as a woman (or person of color, or LGBTQ) is right now. The next best time is tomorrow. Those fond of pining for the good old days tend not to fall into those categories, for reasons that should be obvious.
Better Tagline: You know what this redemption story needs? Lens flare.
Not So Brief Plat Synopsis: Our unnamed protagonist (Tom Holland) experiences all the highs and lows you d expect after deciding to enlist in the Army because your girlfriend Emily (Ciara Bravo) told you she was moving to Canada (then didn t). Now you suffer from PTSD as a result of your experiences as a combat medic, get hooked on heroin, and ultimately turn to robbing banks to support your habit. Somehow Life is a Highway just doesn t cover it. Critical Analysis: Someone once referred to playing a junkie as being a kind of career aspiration for actors. Something about the spectrum of emotion one runs through, and the requirement to summon your own inner darkness in order to fully convey the experience.