To Ham or Not to Ham

After not seeing it as part of Moviepalooza, we went and saw Hamnet last weekend. We wound up seeing it at the Coolidge Corner Theater, a venerable Boston-area independent movie house. Our local megaplex only had it opening weekend, as far as I can tell.

I'm glad we made the trip, as this was a pretty impressive bit of filmmaking. It's been a while since I read the book, but I feel like the adaptation was able to get all of the important parts right while not making it feel like things were missing (I think the book had more on Shakespeare's life in London and on Agnes's relationship with her brother, but I never felt like I needed more of either in the movie). It helps when the novelist is one of the co-adaptors.

It also helps to have a cast with this sort of depth. Lots of (deserved) Oscar talk for Jessie Buckley's portrayal of Agnes, while Paul Mescal gets more mileage out of Shakespeare's semi-absent father than most actors could. I also liked Emily Watson's performance as Shakespeare's mother and Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet.

There are a few reviews that have used the term "grief porn" or something similar to describe the anguish that Agnes exhibits on (spoiler alert?) Hamnet's death, but I didn't find it excessive, especially given Agnes's experience with her own mother. I think it's also important to have Agnes be that grief-stricken as it makes the revelation she has at the theater about how and why Shakespeare wrote Hamlet that much stronger.

Where we were at an independent theater we did not get Nicole Kidman, but we did get some classic bumpers (including "Let's all go to the lobby" sung by the concessions who apparently want to be eaten). We also only got two previews, one for The Testament of Ann Lee (seen previously, and which we'll probably have to go back to the Coolidge to see) and one for No Other Choice, a Korean film where an unemployed paper executive decides to ensure his hiring for a new job by eliminating the competition... literally. It looks pretty good, honestly.

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Moviepalooza 2025

 So after last year's Thanksgiving weekend where we saw three movies in the theater (Wicked, Bonhoffer, and Conclave), we sort of adopted this as a new family tradition. Except that this year, the number of local screens dedicated to Wicked: For Good and Zootopia 2 made it difficult to identify three films that we wanted to see. I suggested the new Knives Out movie, to little interest (the wife and I haven't seen the second one, and I don't think the kids have seen either of them), and we decided that we could stream Hamnet as easy as seeing it in the theater. 

Thus, the first two entries in Moviepalooza were watched at home in a Friday double bill. We started with a rewatch of Conclave, which the kids still watch and mention regularly. They quoted along with the movie like it was Rocky Horror or something. My mother in law was the only one of us who hadn't seen it before, and she didn't care for it as much as the rest of us (partially because all the quoting by the boys made it hard for her to actually hear the dialogue).

We followed this up with one of the kids' newest movie faves, The Banshees of Inisherin. I'm not sure why they like it so much, or even how they saw it before I did.  I'm sure there's some algorithm to blame somewhere.  I can't say I like the film as much as the kids do, I had a kind of "whole is less than the sum of its parts" reaction to it.  I appreciated individual performances, the setting, and the score, but overall am not that interested in seeing it again.

We finally returned to the theater to see Rental Family, where Brendan Fraser plays an American actor struggling to find consistent work while living in Japan.  He winds up landing a gig with a company that will rent you a family member (or other person) for a particular occasion. 

The bulk of the movie follows Fraser's character on two jobs for the company. In one, he plays the long-departed father of a girl, whose mother hires Fraser to play the dad in order to improve the girl's chance of getting into a particular school. On the other job he is hired by the daughter of a retired actor to play a journalist who wants to interview the actor about his career. The actor is worried about being forgotten, which is somewhat ironic as he is also suffering from memory loss.

The stories are kept relatively light, even with the tension of Fraser's character becoming too personally attached to the girl and the old man. That tension comes to a head when Fraser takes the old man back to his home town, and the man's daughter thinks Fraser's character has kidnapped her father. This intersects with subplots involving Rental Family's owner and a female employee, both of whom are paying an emotional (and sometimes physical) toll from their work.

The end of the movie was surprisingly moving, underscoring that one can develop real human connection from a non-personal beginning. Kind of a "fake it 'til you make it" approach. 

It's worth seeing if you have a chance. I'm still getting used to the idea of Brendan Fraser, serious actor, though in this role he gets to bring out his comedic side more than in, say, The Whale. Kudos as well to the actors playing the girl (Shannon Gorman) and the old actor (Akira Emoto).

Only four trailers before the movie (there may have been more, they were running when we got to the theater). One was for Reminders of Him, which I still have no interest in seeing. The other three:

The Choral, which sees Ralph Fiennes as a choir master hired to keep the local choir going during World War I. 

The Testament of Ann Lee, the story of the founder of the Shakers religious sect, played by Amanda Seyfried. It's listed in Wikipedia as a "historical musical drama film," which isn't a genre I'd thought of too much outside of Hamilton. It's the follow-up to The Brutalist for Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold (with Fastvold directing this time around). 

Ella McCay, James L. Brooks' return to feature film after 15 years away, and he apparently didn't use this time to focus his concept for this movie. It appears to be a family-political-romantic dramedy, at which point I don't know why we didn't just throw in some ghosts and a musical number to cover all the bases. It has Jamie Lee Curtis and Albert Brooks in it, so it may not be a total crapfest.

UPDATE: I forgot a trailer. It sucks to get old, kids. 

Is This Thing On? stars Will Arnett as a man who, facing the end of his marriage, gives stand up comedy a try more or less on a whim. As he continues going on stage, and making friends with his fellow comedians, he learns things about himself and his marriage. Cheaper than therapy, I suppose. Arnett co-wrote this with British screenwriter Mark Chappell and Bradley Cooper, who directs and appears as Arnett's best friend. The cast includes Laura Dern, Andra Day, Sean Hayes, and Peyton Manning (who was not in the trailer). I'd see this, but could wait to stream it.

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Wicked Meh

The family went out to see Wicked: For Good, mostly at the request/command of the wife. She was a big fan of the first film, the rest of us... not as much. And I think it's safe to say that our reactions to the current film mirror those of the former.

It's not a bad movie, but I found it didn't spend enough time with any one plot element to create an interesting story.  Between the propaganda campaign against Elphaba, the love triangle between her, Glinda, and Fiyero, the suppression of the talking animals, and the introduction of the Wizard of Oz characters, things never coalesced into a whole.  It feels like the movie tried to incorporate more from the novel to take advantage of the combined run time of the two movies, but either added too much or didn't add appropriately.

On the plus side, the singing was excellent. I probably would have more enjoyed a concert film of the musical using the film's cast.

We were also treated to an unexpected number of trailers, to the point where I kind of forgot there was an actual movie to see:

Eternity, where a woman (Elizabeth Olsen) has apparently died, and need to choose between her two husbands (Miles Teller and another guy who kind of looks like Miles Teller) for who she'll spend eternity with. I think I'll stay home and binge The Good Place instead.

Avatar: Fire and Ash, the latest installment in that series, which I have never watched and do not feel compelled to start.

The Sponge Bob Movie: Search for SquarePants: Sponge Bob gets taken to the underworld for some reason, and it's up to his Bikini Bottom friends to rescue him.  While I don't plan on seeing it, I'd happily see it over most of the movies that were previewed.

Anaconda, a comedy reset of the franchise launched by the 1997 J Lo/Ice Cube original, which apparently has several sequels?  I did see the original and kind of liked it, surprisingly as horror isn't my thing. This is squarely in the Lake Placid mode of horror comedy, which is also not my thing, but for different reasons.

Wuthering Heights, the bodice-ripping adaptation of the Emily Bronte novel by Emerald Fennell. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi star as Catherine and Heathcliff, which has caused consternation in fans of the book as they're both seen as too old for the roles. There's also some talk that Elordi is too white for the role, given the descriptions of Heathcliff that suggest mixed parentage. Can't say I'm interested, and the wife is firmly in the camp angered over miscasting.

Reminders of Him, based on a Colleen Hoover novel where the protagonist tries to work her way back into the life of her son, from whom she was separated due to a tragic event. Someone's book club will love this.

Project Hail Mary, based on the Andy Weir novel of the same name, which sees a high school science teacher shot into space to find a solution to the pending death of the Sun. I enjoyed the book quite a bit, and would absolutely see this. Ryan Gosling plays the teacher/astronaut, if that helps.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, where Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach have to foil an attempt by Bowser Jr. to save his old man, who has been shrunken and imprisoned by the plumbing pair. Rosalina - who may or may not be a princess? - features prominently in the trailer. I suppose animated video game movies are preferable to live action video game movies, but I'm not really interested in any video game movies.

Kidz Bop Live: The Concert Movie: this is apparently a limited event movie rather than general release, coming to theaters in early January (just when parents need something to fill the time between the holidays and back to school). Even when they were small the kids would not have been interested in this.

Howl You Know: not an actual trailer, but an ad for Milk Bones, but worth a shout out (in my estimation) for its story of a girl finding the relationship she needs with a cute dachshund. I would never pass up a movie starring a wiener dog.

UPDATE: I actually forgot about a couple of previews.

Song Sung Blue, a feature film based on a documentary of the same name about a husband and wife Neil Diamond tribute band and the various challenges they faced during their career. I'm not a huge Neil Diamond fan to begin with, so the idea of seeing a movie about a Diamond-adjacent band does not inspire.

I am even less inspired by the idea of a live action Moana, though I've not been inspired to see any of Disney's live action remakes of their animated films. 

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Oscar Predicions 2025

Seeing the Oscar nominations prompted me to check back on last year to see how I did.  I got 7 out of 10, which is pretty consistent with years past. Let's see if I can do any better!

This has been a banner year for seeing Oscar-nominated films, as I've actually seen three - Conclave, Wicked, and A Complete Unknown. This is the first year in a while where I've not actually seen any of the best animated feature nominees. Yes, the kids are getting older.

I don't have too many comments about the other categories this time around, but I do have a couple:

* I'm already unofficial 0 for 1, as Conclave did not pick up the cinematography nod I mentioned in my post about that film. 

* Sticking with Conclave, I expect Edward Berger not getting nominated for director will be one of the more notable snubs. He's the only DGA Award nominee not nominated, with The Substance's Coralie Fargeat replacing him. Other snubs apparently include Pamela Anderson for The Last Showgirl and Trent Reznor for score and song for Challengers, the tennis movie I only know about because parts of it were filmed in the Boston area.

Finally, my usual disclaimer. While I've seen an unprecedented number of nominees (for me), you should not rely on these picks for your Oscar pool. Or anything else, for that matter.

On to the predictions!

Best International Feature Film - my usual rule of picking the movie that's also been nominated for Best Picture has hit a snag. Two films in this category are also nominated for the big prize (Emelia Perez and the Brazilian film I'm Still Here. A third film, Flow, is nominated for best animated feature. 

I'm not going to try to logic this out and will go with the buzz and pick Emelia Perez. If I had to explain it, I'm thinking Flow will win in the animated category and I'm Still Here doesn't have Netflix to throw its weight around.

Best Animated Feature - So based on my previous comments I'm going to go with Flow here, though it would not surprise me if The Wild Robot won (it did pick up the Critics' Choice Award, while both picked up Annie Awards). The Pixar losing streak continues.

Best Original Screenplay - I'm going with The Substance here, on my (often incorrect) theory that a film nominated for Best Picture that is unlikely to win will get rewarded here. My theory gets a chance to double down as a potential reward for Coralie Fargeat not winning the directing prize. This theory does not explain why it would not apply to The Brutalist or Anora, both written (or co-written) by their directors.

Best Adapted Screenplay - I'm going to jettison the theory used above and go with Conclave, mostly based on how much I liked the book. Which, honestly, makes no sense.

Acting in rapid fire as always:

Best Actor - Adrien Brody in The Brutalist

Best Actress - Demi Moore, The Substance

Best Supporting Actor - Guy Pearce, The Brutalist

Best Supporting Actress - Zoe Saldana, Emelia Perez

This year seems a little more wide open than previous years, with only Demi Moore feeling like a prohibitive favorite. Three of these won a Golden Globe for their performance, though Moore won for lead in a comedy/musical. I opted to go with Pearce over Golden Globe winner Kieran Culkin as if there's any year to win an Oscar for playing a rich white asshole, it's this one.

The most likely second place for each of these, I think, would be Timothee Chalamet for A Complete Unknown, Fernanda Torres for I'm Still Here, Culkin for A Real Pain, and Isabella Rossellini for Conclave (fulfilling the semi-regular supporting award WTF moment).

Best Director - If you can put together a 3.5 hour movie nominally about architecture and screen it with a planned intermission, and still get abundant praise and 10 Oscar nominations, I think you're likely to win this. So I'm going with Brady Corbet for The Brutalist.

Best Film - Early on it looked like Emelia Perez was going to walk away with this, but there's been some predictable backlash (it's a musical, not in English, and may be a bit too odd) and some less so (star Karla Sofia Gascon getting busted for some highly bigoted tweets). This opens up just enough of a hole for an Important Movie like The Brutalist.

Rather than add updates to each category, I've put them all into one spreadsheet, which I think helps demonstrate how things are going more clearly:

The guilds have thrown a bit of a wrench into things, with Anora and Timothee Chalamet the main recipients. SAG further muddied the waters by giving Conclave the outstanding cast award. It's not particularly predictive of who will win the Best Picture Oscar (the same film wins both awards about half the time), but the last three winners (and four of the last five) won both. 

For what it's worth the Independent Spirit Awards were the night before the SAG Award, and Anora won best picture, Sean Baker best director, and Mikey Madison best actor (the ISAs no longer separate acting awards by gender). Hard to say what this means for all of their chances at the Oscars, given that most of the nominees there weren't eligible for ISAs.

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An Unknown Unknown

There's a point early in A Complete Unknown where Sylvie (played by Elle Fanning), the girlfriend of Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet), is preparing to leave for a semester in Rome, and she says that she doesn't want to think about how much she'll miss him, but that she also doesn't really know anything about him. Which I think speaks for the movie as well.

We do get a story, told in entertaining fashion, of Dylan's arrival in New York, his introduction to the folk scene with the help of Pete Seeger (Ed Norton), his on and off again relationship with Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), and his eventual turn towards rock music (the film is based on the book Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald).  The only real insight on Dylan that we get is in response to Sylvie's comment that I mentioned above, where Dylan more or less says that the past doesn't matter, that moving forward is what's important. 

We do get some interesting tidbits that fill out the biography, such as Dylan's friendship with Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook) and how he met his long-time road manager, Bob Neuwirth (Will Harrison). The culminating scene at the 1965 Newport Folk Fest, and the reaction to his electric set, is very well done.

For the lack of insight into Dylan, I think the film does a good job giving insight into Seeger, whose devotion to folk music and his peaceful nature are severely tested as Dylan becomes more famous and less interested in folk. I really liked Ed Norton's performance, and was glad to see him get an Oscar nomination for it.

In the end I did like this movie, though I did feel like there was a bit of a hole at the center due to Dylan's basic unknowability (even if that was more of a feature of the movie than a bug).

We got six previews before the movie, some of which seemed more appropriate than others given who you'd expect would turn up for an Oscar-nominated movie about folk music:

Becoming Led Zeppelin was the most appropriate, being a film about a music group that got its start in the 1960s. It's a documentary, the first one about the band made with cooperation of its members. Having the band involved piqued my interest.

Perhaps the least appropriate was Until Dawn, based on the video game of the same name. A group of teens, led by a girl investigating the disappearance of her sister, are murdered, only to be brought back to life a la Groundhog Day to be murdered again by someone (or something) else. The only way to break the cycle is apparently to survive until dawn.

Two other movies focused on the more youthful segment of the audience were Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts, both part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Where I have literally only seen about 80 percent of one MCU film (the original Iron Man) I'll pass judgement.

The more artsy counterpart to Until Dawn is Presence, Steven Soderbergh's film told from the point of view of the poltergeist that haunts the house the Payne family just moved into. I like the idea of this movie, but am not really interested in seeing it.

I had the opposite reaction to The Alto Nights, about mob bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. Both roles are played by Robert DeNiro, which is a little too stunt casty for me. I was surprised to see Barry Levinson as the director, as between the casting and subject matter I assumed it was another Martin Scorsese film. 

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Pro-Clave

Our family closed a three movie Thanksgiving weekend (the second movie being Wicked, which my wife loved and the boys tolerated) with Conclave, the story of a papal election focusing primarily on the dean of the College of Cardinals, Thomas Lawrence, played by Ralph Fiennes. He's more or less in charge of the proceedings, and has to promote the candidacy of his friend and American cardinal Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci) against those who want the church to return to a more conservative and traditional orientation, whose leading candidate is Venetian cardinal Goffredo Todesco (Sergio Castellitto).  All without overt politicking, which is expressly forbidden.

On top of that, Lawrence has to manage various intrigues involving other cardinals, such as a Nigerian cardinal (Lucian Msamati) with a mysterious relationship to a nun, a Canadian cardinal (John Lithgow) who is angling to get himself elected, and a mysterious Mexican cardinal assigned secretly to Kabul (Carlos Diehz) who arrives just before the conclave starts. He's assisted in handling these issues by the nun in charge of the domestic arrangements, played by Isabella Rossellini, whose appearance brings to mind the brief, show stopping role Judi Dench played in Shakespeare in Love.

The movie is directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), and he does a great job of getting as much emotional mileage possible out of what could be a fairly dull subject, palace intrigue notwithstanding. It's also beautifully shot, I expect a nod for cinematography once the Oscar nominations come out.

All of which complements the acting, which is at a very high level. Fiennes stands out as the conflicted cardinal, and has picked up a few award nominations so far. Rossellini's role may be too slight to grab an Oscar nod, though she's been nominated elsewhere. I was also impressed with John Lithgow, who showed just the right balance of ambition and (false?) piety, while playing down his usual instinct to make a meal of his role.

There is a surprise at the ending, which is the same as it was in Robert Harris's book (which I also recommend). I think it was done reasonably well, enough so that it elicited an audible gasp from my wife.

I do recommend seeing this, especially if you're someone who like to see all of the Oscar nominated movies. I expect this will be among the 10 Best Picture nods, though I'd be surprised if it won.

We saw this at a local independent theater, so only four previews:

Pan's Labyrinth, which was being shown as part of a late-night screening series

A Complete Unknown, as mentioned previously

Nosferatu, the Robert Eggers version of the classic vampire story. My wife was strangely interested in seeing it (she's not normally a horror person). Can't say it did much for me, but I'm also not much of a horror person.

Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning, which I am unlikely to see since I don't think I've seen any of these movies since the second one. 

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Pastor, Plotter, Prayer, Guy

We took a family trip to the movies on this Black Friday, but didn't take in any of the big-budget pictures (the wife and kids will be seeing Wicked tomorrow, I'm passing). We instead saw Bonhoeffer, the story of an anti-Nazi German minister and theologian. 

The film is distributed through Angel Studios, which focuses on Christian-themed films and may be best known for its highly dubious child trafficking movie Sound of Freedom. The connection made me leery, but reviews were reasonably positive so I was OK giving it a shot.

In the end, I think it did an OK job of giving an overview of Bonhoeffer's life and resistance to the Nazis, but could have been much better.  The story is told in flashback during Bonhoeffer's last few days of life before being executed, and it's not always clear to tell at what point during Nazi rule events take place. 

There were also a couple of places where the story was embellished that didn't work for me.  During Bonhoeffer's time in the US studying theology he goes to a jazz club, and while he says he hasn't played in a long time, he proves to be a dab hand at improvising with the house band. This scene, and one where Bonhoeffer is assaulted by a racist hotel manager, were apparently added to emphasize his empathy for the plight of Blacks in America. 

The film also plays up how involved Bonhoeffer was in an assassination attempt on Hitler, which in reality he may have known about but was not actively involved. In both cases, the departure from fact made me wonder about the overall accuracy of the film. Bonhoeffer's story should be interesting enough to tell without making stuff up, though a more factual film may have been too theological.

The film ends with a reminder of the death toll of the Holocaust, a warning about the increase in anti-Semitic activity, and a call to never allow this sort of thing to happen again.  While I don't think it was intentional, the ending can also be interpreted as promoting resistance to whatever the incoming administration has planned. 

There were seven previews prior to the film, some more in line with the film being screened than others:

Den of Thieves 2, a sequel to Den of Thieves, a 2019 heist film that pitted LA County sheriffs against thieves who used to be special forces Marines. I expect the fast cars and fancy boats dominate to make up for a lack of plot.

Kraven the Hunter, which is apparently part of the Spider-Man universe. There are a lot of faux Russian accents and apparent daddy issues between Kraven and his father, played by Russell Crowe. Pass.

Dog Man, based on the book series by Dav Pikey. If this had come out five years ago I can guarantee that we would have seen this, as both boys were fans of the books. For all I know we may still wind up seeing it.

Homestead, one of two Angel films previewed. This one takes place during (or after) a war where a compound in the mountains becomes a flashpoint between its inhabitants and the people who are locked out. I expect there will be tension between loving thy neighbor and killing everyone for God to sort out.

Brave the Dark was the other Angel film, based on a true story about a teacher in 1980s Pennsylvania who takes in a troubled homeless teen. Jared Harris plays the teacher, which surprised me until I read the film is directed by his brother Damian. 

September 5, which tells the story of the Munich Olympic hostage crisis from the viewpoint of the ABC Sports crew that had a front row seat to the tragedy and covered it for the network. There is a fair amount of ethical wrangling about whether or not the coverage may be putting the hostages at risk. I may want to see this, but feel like I should see Munich first.

A Complete Unknown, which is kind of a biopic of the early 1960s New York City folk scene, told through the lens of a young Bob Dylan (played by Timothee Chalamet). It's probably the film on this list that I'm most likely to see, as the older boy said he was interested.

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