Category: Film Reviews

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (PG)

Get twice the princesses, twice the Bowsers, more sidekick-y characters, more video game beep-boops and big loud everything in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which is fine, cute even at times.

You get even more callbacks to Super Mario game play here but also a “kitchen sink cookie”-like jumble of beats that feels very Lego Movie and Star Wars and even a little Frozen. It feels a little more like one of those Oreo Reese’s candy mashups than a whole new thing unto itself.

Mario (voice of Chris Pratt) and Luigi (voice of Charlie Day) are now sort of interworld fix-it guys, which is how they meet Yoshi (voice of Donald Glover), one of the many “more characters, less time with any specific character” additions here. Meanwhile, Princess Peach (voice of Anya Taylor-Joy) is still curious about her origins. Elsewhere, a similar-looking Princess Rosalina (voice of Brie Larson), mother to a bunch of those star thingies similar to that gleefully nihilistic star in the first movie, has been kidnapped by Bowser Jr. (voice of Benny Safdie), who is looking to redeem the legacy of his father, Bowser (voice of Jack Black), who, as the movie begins, is still in his pet-turtle-sized tiny incarnation and is trying to “work on himself” and has also taken up painting.

The Bowser family is probably the most kooky-fun element of this movie even though it does fall into the “twice as much and somehow less” overall feel of the movie. The movie has a fun visual sensibility, between the color and the sort of winking malevolent cuteness of everything. It walks up to the line of that kind of cleverness overall but never quite manages the quirky zaniness of, say, a Lego Movie that would push it into the territory of a movie with all-ages appeal. It is an engaging candy mashup fully enjoyable for kids and mostly tolerable for their adults. C+ maybe even a B- if you were a Mario player or are a kid just looking to be entertained or are a parent looking to zone out during something loud and pleasant. In theaters now and slated for a VOD release May 19.

The Christophers (R)

Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel star in what plays out like a slow-motion art heist in The Christophers, a Steven Soderbergh-directed movie.

Sallie (Jessica Gunning) and Barnaby (James Corden) are the children of artistic great Julian Sklar (McKellen). Or at least he was a great, back in the day, but his talent and drive seem to have faded away and he hasn’t painted anything in decades. Deep in the attic of one of his London townhouses is a series of half-finished paintings that would be valued in the millions if they were sold as finished, never-seen-before works. Sallie attempts finishing one, resulting in a painting that resembles that church fresco that was “restored” and ended up looking more monkey than man. They turn instead to Lori Butler (Cole), a friend of Sallie’s from art school who has talent in her own right but who is also skilled at capturing the work of other painters. Lori is meant to work as Julian’s assistant, while also finding the missing “Christophers,” as the paintings are called, and finishing them to then return them to the attic for them to be “discovered” after Julian’s death. And clearly Sallie and Barnaby, who have a terrible relationship with their self-centered father, are hoping that end comes sooner rather than later. Their interest in “The Christophers” has, however, pushed the paintings into the front of Julian’s mind, and Julian would prefer to see them destroyed than sold. Lori, a one-time fan of Julian’s, seems conflicted about what the fate of the paintings should be.

Both Cole and McKellen can at times feel like they’re doing one-person shows that bump into each other, but wow is it fun to watch them work. Cole keeps Lori’s feelings close to the vest with silences and subtle facial expressions; McKellen hides how Julian really feels in long self-important monologues which of course he delivers with impeccable dry humor. Together they push against each other’s defenses, annoying each other and also drawing the other person out. You can at times forget that there is a forward-moving plot in all this, it’s easy just to enjoy two great actors doing great acting playing off each other. B+ In theaters and slated to come to VOD in May.

Normal (R)

Bob Odenkirk plays yet another regular-joe guy who finds himself needing to kick butt in Normal, a totally fine example of this genre.

It ranks, I think, between the two Mr. Nobodys — not quite as good as the first, better than the second.

After a career- and soul-shaking incident in his hometown where he was a longtime police officer, Ulysses Richardson (Odenkirk, also a co-writer according to IMDb) has become a traveling interim sheriff. He’s wound up in small town Normal, Minnesota, where he stays in a grimy motel and leaves his estranged wife long internal-monologue-ish messages. Normal is as advertised — with most of Ulysses’s work being pulling apart townsfolk fighting over something stupid. But generally, people are friendly and life seems to be going well, perhaps a little better than you’d expect for a small rural town here in the mid-2020s. And this small police department seems to have a weirdly well-stocked armory. Ulysses, policing in kind of a pleasant, semi-disinterested funk, is helpful to all, including to Lori (Reena Jolly), who turns out to be half of a duo, with Keith (Brendan Fletcher), of bank robbers. That the whole town freaks out when its local bank, which appears to have only a small wad of cash and a handful of coins, is robbed is one of many clues that all in Normal is not, well, normal. (The first clue is the movie’s opening scene featuring an unhappy Yakuza boss.)

I appreciate how this movie has a short story approach to its action, keeping us mostly in the here and now and mostly resisting the urge to load up on back stories or telling us how every single thing works out. Ulysses eventually gets a sort of sidekick in Alex (Jess McLeod), the grieving adult-kid of the previous, recently-deceased sheriff, and their partnership adds a nice plucky little element to the story. Normal is exactly what its trailer promises — a blend of low-volume humor and theatrical violence that makes for an enjoyable time. B In theaters now and slated to hit VOD in May, according to Forbes.com.

Featured photo: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

The Testament of Ann Lee (R)

I’d have given Amanda Seyfried an Oscar nomination for playing Shakers church founder Ann Lee in this sorta-musical biopic, which is now streaming on Hulu.

Seyfried presents a compelling performance as Lee, a woman who believes she is having visions guiding her religious convictions and pushing her beyond the mainstream Church of England of 18th-century Manchester, England. The musical aspect of the movie — singing and dancing often presented as a heightened form of worship — fits in nicely with the slightly-out-of-the-world nature of Ann Lee. She grows up in Manchester, working in a cotton mill and later as a cook in an asylum, but is also constantly active in her pursuit of a religious home. When she finds Jane and James Wardley, leaders of a Shaking Quakers church in the town, she seems to enjoy the ecstatic movements of their style of prayer, as well as the relatively egalitarian approach to gender. When visions lead her to become a preacher in her own right as Mother Ann Lee, she and the Wadleys decide she should set sail for America with a party that includes her brother William (Lewis Pullman), her longtime friend Mary (Thomasin McKenzie, who is also the movie’s narrator) and her somewhat reluctant husband Abraham (Christopher Abbott). Abraham is not thrilled that one of Ann’s revelations is that celibacy, even in marriage, is the only way to get closer to God — a fact that the movie puts in context of Ann’s four pregnancies that resulted in children who died before they were one year old. In the U.S., Ann and her followers slowly build a church community — one full of some truly lovely furniture — but also deal with the persecution of being a relatively fringe religion with a woman in charge.

In addition to the good work by Seyfried, the movie is lovely to look at — lit and framed like a live tableau of 18th-century paintings. The look of the movie conveys the emotion and helps put you in this world where religion plays this very un-21st-century role not only in society but also in the internal lives of the characters. B+ On Hulu and available for purchase.

Featured photo: The Testament of Ann Lee

Send Help (R)

Rachel McAdams is a kooky delight as an overlooked office worker who blossoms into her best, insane self when she is stranded on a tropical island in this fun, queasy-making thriller. (Eye stuff, puking, big oozy gashes — this movie has it all!)

Linda Liddle (McAdams) is passed over for promotion by her new nepo-hire boss, Bradley (Dylan O’Brien). Though smart and capable, Linda is also awkward and messy and covered in tuna fish sandwich flecks when Bradley is first reintroduced to her. He nevertheless brings her along for a business conference in Thailand — for work purposes because she can solve the problems his dumb college buddy (who got the job she wanted) can’t but maybe also to have someone to bully. One of the dudes in the bro-pack accompanying Bradley has found Linda’s Survivor audition video, which reinforces both how deeply uncool she is and also her wildlife knowledge bonafides. Chekhov’s fire-making skills do not have long to foreshadow as the plane goes down (gruesomely!) and Linda is soon set adrift in a stormy sea. When she washes up on the island, she finds that an injured Bradley has also survived and sets about making shelter and a fire and finding food for them both. After he makes a few stabs at telling her how to island, Linda reminds him that, as she says in the trailer, they’re not in the office anymore and the power balance is not as it was.

Bradley of course deserves every gross thing that happens to him. The movie nicely never lets him learn and grow; he is an unlikeable wienie throughout. But the movie doesn’t just paint Linda as a poor wronged nerd who never learned to dress for success. She has weird, potentially violent, layers and her time on the island awakens not just confidence but a gleeful enjoyment of her power over a former tormentor.

And sure, this could all come off as nasty in a way that would be less enjoyable to watch. But McAdams is having so much fun here — reveling in the darkness of Linda as much as the earnestness. For me, the fun is what makes Send Help such a solid good time, with its winky needle drops and its dark comedy sensibilities. B+ Available for rent or purchase.

Featured photo: Send Help

International Oscar

A look at more Oscar nominees before the big night

Happy Oscar day to all who celebrate!

The 98th Academy Awards will air Sunday, March 15, at 7 p.m. on ABC. There are some true gems on the list of nominees — I’ll be rooting for Sinners in the 15 categories where it’s nominated and for all of the nominees in the best lead actress category — let’s go, five-way tie! But to wrap up the Oscar season, I took a look at the nominees for International Feature Film, which this year include two movies — The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value — that have a strong presence in other categories as well.

Sirāt, the entry from Spain, is the one movie of the five not yet available (as of March 8) for home viewing. The four I did watch, while varying in tone and style, all had a thread running through them about a country in crisis — what it’s like for the people living in it and how the trauma can echo through the decades.

The Voice of Hind Rajab (rent or purchase), the entry from Tunisia, is based on a true story of operators at the Palestine Red Crescent Society’s 911-like center and their attempts to save 5-year-old Hind Rajab in early 2024. Operators take a call about a car trapped on a street in Gaza, being hit by shells and gunfire. Eventually, Hind is the only survivor in the car and ends up on the phone with the operators, crying for someone to come get her. The movie takes place within the phone center, while the operators attempt to comfort Hind and work on finding a way to get an ambulance to her. Getting an ambulance into the war zone requires a slow-moving this-official-calls-that-official process to find a route where the Israeli military is not. The office head (Amer Hlehel) is desperate not to lose any more ambulance drivers and medics while the two operators (Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees) talking to Hind are desperate to get the scared young girl help now. It’s a harrowing story that mixes the actors and their voices with the voices of the real operators and uses Hind’s real voice throughout, according to media reports. In the way that it is very tightly focused on one child a group of professionals are trying to save, the movie reminded me a bit of the TV show The Pitt, with dedicated people offering competence and compassion in the face of tragedy.

It Was Only An Accident (Hulu, rent or purchase), a French entry that is, according to Wikipedia, a “co-production between Iran, France and Luxembourg,” has a dark comedy veneer with a bleak psychological-drama interior. Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) is absolutely, completely positive that the man (Ebrahim Azizi) who happens to visit the auto repair shop where he works is the man who once tortured him when Vahid was held prisoner by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Absolutely, completely, probably positive, after he kidnaps the man, ties him up and puts him in the back of his van. He considers burying the man alive, but maybe he’s only like 90 percent certain he has the right guy? Looking for confirmation, Vahid contacts another prisoner who was tortured by the man, another person who is also only mostly certain the blindfolded man in Vahid’s van is her former tormentor. Eventually, photographer Shiva (Mariam Afshari); Goli (Hadis Pakbaten), the wedding-dress-wearing bride-to-be Shiva was photographing, and Hamid (Mohammad Ali Elyasmehr), the most certain that Vahid’s hostage is the torturer, are driving around in Vahid’s van, attempting to stay undetected by officialdom and trying to figure out what to do with this blindfolded, sometimes unconscious, possibly very dangerous man. There are a few darkly funny moments but the movie’s core is the trauma these people carry around from what they experienced, a trauma that is never far from the surface.

There are similarities in tone between It Was Only An Accident and The Secret Agent (Hulu, rent or purchase), a movie that also deals with people trying to live a normal life in a country that is broken. In this case, that country is Brazil in the late 1970s, when, as the movie tells us, lots of “mischief” happened, from the dead body left for days in a parking lot because no police can be bothered to come get it to the government persecution that requires people to go into hiding. Armando (Wagner Moura) is hiding in plain sight as Marcelo, living in an apartment full of people using different names in an attempt to stay alive, as he tries to figure out what happened to his long-gone mother and find a way to get himself and his young son out of the country. Armando’s problems seem to stem from the politically-connected head of the country’s power company defunding Armando’s university work and Armando’s objections to that action. When rich dudes and their idiot sons hold government-backed, extra-legal power, their personal prejudices and power-seeking whims can destroy lives — is how Armando’s problems can be boiled down. The movie does an excellent job with the world building with lots of engrossing moments and details about the people trying to maneuver through this fraught society.

Sentimental Value (rent or purchase) from Norway received nine Oscar nominations, including International Feature Film and, along with The Secret Agent, a spot on the Best Picture list. This movie has an episodic feel, like you’re binging a family dramady TV series. After the death of their mother, sisters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) must deal with the reappearance of their father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), a famous filmmaker who has been largely absent from the family since the parents’ divorce decades earlier. The family house still belongs to Gustav, the latest in a long line of his family to inhabit it, who is now considering using it to film his new movie, a semi-biographical story about his mother. He’d like stage actress Nora to star in his movie but their relationship is so spikey she won’t even read the script. Agnes, married mother of a young son, is sort of the family peacemaker, but you can tell she’s dragging around baggage too — some of it, as she learns when she investigates Gustav’s mother’s imprisonment for anti-Nazi resistance during World War II, possibly inherited. The sudden appearance of American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) as a possible Nora replacement in the movie does not help with family dynamics. All four of these core performers are nominated and they all turn in nuanced performances that let us see character arcs and growth.

New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival
The 18th annual New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival kicks off Sunday, March 15, with an opening reception at the Singer Center for the Arts (77 Amherst St. in Manchester) at 5 p.m. followed by the festival’s the first in-person screening, Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire at the Rex Theatre in Manchester, at 7 p.m., according to a press release. In-person and virtual screenings continue through Sunday, March 29, and the festival will feature 13 feature films and four short films, the release said. Screenings will take place in Manchester, Concord, Portsmouth, Hanover and Keene, according to the nhjewishfilmfestival.com, where individual tickets and ticket packages are available for purchase. Local in-person screenings include The Road Between Us on Thursday, March 19, at 7 p.m. at Chunky’s in Manchester; Ethan Bloom on Tuesday, March 24, at 7 p.m. at O’Neil Cinemas in Londonderry; The Stronghold on Thursday, March 26, at 7 p.m. at Red River Theatres in Concord; Hidden: The Kati Preston Story with special guest Kati Preston for a post-film discussion on Sunday, March 29, at 1 p.m. at Red River Theatres; 13: The Musical on Sunday, March 29, at 1:30 p.m. at Red River Theatres, and The Ring on Sunday, March 29, at 3:30 p.m. followed by a festival wrap party at 5:30 p.m. at Red River Theatres. See the festival website for the full schedule and for tickets and trailers.

Featured photo: It Was Only an Accident

Family movie night

A look at the Oscar-nominated animated features

This year’s Oscar-nominated animated features are all fairly kid-friendly — though the fact that your family can watch these movies together won’t necessarily mean the whole family will want to.

“This is a great movie,” deadpanned my most sarcastic child about 20-ish minutes into Arco (rent or purchase), a French animated movie that in its English dub features the voices of Mark Ruffalo, Natalie Portman, Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg, Flea, America Ferrera and more. Arco is a boy living about 1,000 years in the future and eager to go back in time, as his parents and older sister frequently do, to see dinosaurs. He steals a time-traveling flying suit and zooms off, only to land in the 2070s in a world of robot nannies and suburban homes existing in bubbles meant to protect them from rainstorms and wildfires. Arco is found by Iris, a girl around his age, and the two work on trying to get him back to his time, while dodging a trio of goofballs who have stumbled on the diamond Arco needs to power his suit. While I don’t exactly agree with my kids — the bored one who stayed to complain about the movie, the even more bored one who lasted about five minutes during the most action-packed sequence before deeming it too boring — Arco does have a chilliness and a calm that counteracts the adventure of its premise. It is, however, lovely to look at and there is real emotion behind the relationships, including between Iris and Mikki, her robot nanny.

Their relationship is very similar to one between the main character and her caregiver in Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (rent or purchase). As a baby, Amélie is decreed a “vegetable” by her doctor, but when she’s about 2 years old, an earthquake and a few squares of white chocolate wake her up to the world — specifically, her world in mid-20th-century Japan where her Belgian diplomat father and concert pianist mother are living with Amélie’s two older siblings. When the kind and thoughtful Nishio-san comes to work for the family, Amélie bonds with her, learning how to be in the world and to process experiences of grief and joy. Their relationship is very sweet and the movie is rendered in a kind of picture-book brightness that I enjoyed but could be too gentle for kids looking for, say, demons and sword fights.

KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix) on the other hand delivers when it comes to action and was a movie that I think my kids watched on repeat for about a month after its June release. The trio Huntrix is a hugely popular KPop girl band who are also secret demon fighters, the latest in a long line of fighters throughout history whose voices create a protective shield between our world and the demon world and who have the ability to spot and battle any demons that sneak through. With its pop music soundtrack (including original song nominee “Golden”) that to me sounds like the music you hear at a workout class and its stretches of tinny earnestness, this one is very much not for me, though I do appreciate the elements of the movie reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (“into every generation,” etc.) and Jem and the Holograms (secret identities and a “totally outrageous” stage presence). And the movie has its moments of goofy fun, particularly as Huntrix is faced with battling demons taking the form of a floppy-haired boy band.

My kids enjoyed KPop Demon Hunters and they liked, well enough, Zootopia 2(rent or purchase), a movie whose most “adults friendly” quality is that I, the parent, could let myself snooze through the movie knowing my kids would be reasonably entertained and kept in a Disney safe space. As with its previous outing, Zootopia 2 features a fox (Nick Wilde, voiced by Jason Bateman) and bunny (Judy Hopps, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) working together to fight injustice. This time both Judy, the cop trying to prove herself, and Nick, a former guy on the make, are police officers. They attempt to overcome big-animal privilege and prove their own abilities in the investigation of some sneaky goings on that may have links to the founding of Zootopia and the longtime mammal/reptile divide. As with the first movie, it is jarring when the movie attempts to map people-world racism and classism onto animals. There are several instances of “wait, what?” with the whole Movie Saying Something vibe here. But it also features lots of quick moments of animal goofiness, usually involving one of the mile-long list of big-name voice actors — Idris Elba again, Andy Samberg, Ke Huy Quan, Patrick Warburton, Quinta Brunson, to barely name a few.

But the winner of this year’s nominees in terms of “won’t hurt the parents, won’t bore the kids” is, in my opinion, Elio (Disney+, rent or purchase). (Winner for me but probably not for Oscar. Gold Derby and my kids agree that, as one kid said “oh, KPop Demon Hunter is going to win, 100 percent.”) Released to absolute “meh” reactions in June, Eliois a Pixar movie, and while not one of Pixar’s best it is a solid tale of a kid trying to find his place in the world. Or really, in the universe, as Elio (voice of Yonas Kibreab), a boy who longs to be abducted by aliens, feels he doesn’t fit in to this world, especially after the death of his parents. He fears his aunt Olga (voice of Zoe Saldaña), an Air Force officer, resents having to care for him as it means she’s had to give up on entering the astronaut program. However, her position at an Air Force base does mean he’s nearby when they receive what seems to be a message from deep space. Elio manages to send a message back to the aliens, lending them to think he is the leader of Earth. He is whisked to space and finds himself involved in interplanetary politics — and, for the first time in a long time, making a friend. Where the movie really gets me is in its use of sound clips of Carl Sagan, which bring a hopefulness to this sweet tale that still manages to pack in lots of alien capers and physical comedy laughs.

Featured photo: Little Amélie or the Character of Rain

Actors and actresses

Catching up on Oscar nominated (and not) performances

In catching up on the Oscar-nominated actor and actress performances, I also checked out some of the performances of non-nominated recent actress-spotlighting movies. Which is to say I made an excuse to go see “Wuthering Heights”(in theaters), a 2026 release that has a good shot at production and costume design nods in next year’s awards season. This Emerald Fennell-directed (she also adapted the screenplay) version feels as much like an adaptation of the Kate Bush song “Wuthering Heights” as it does of Emily Bronte’s book — we mostly get main characters and vibes but only a loose riff on plot from the original text.

Margot Robbie is the Cathy and Jacob Elordi is the gruff Heathcliff, an idea the movie sells mostly by making him look like 2 feet taller than her and eventually giving him a gold tooth. In Bronte-era England, child Heathcliff is “adopted” by Cathy’s drunken father (Martin Clunes) and the two grow up together, forming a deep attachment that turns all heaving chests and longing looks as they get older. But as Cathy’s dad has gambled away the family fortune, Cathy feels compelled to marry wealthy neighbor Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) to secure her future. Angry Heathcliff runs away for a few years and comes back with money of his own but still as angry and heaving as ever. Everybody here seems more comically unhinged than in the book with Edgar’s ward, Isabella (Alison Oliver), whom Heathcliff marries out of revenge, being the kookiest. Perhaps the movie’s most compelling character is Nelly (Hong Chau), presented here not as a servant who grows up with the main characters but as Cathy’s hired companion who is the child of a titled father and mother who is unmentioned (but it’s implied was not married to him) and is stuck by classism and racism in a lonely existence. There are problems with story and character construction but while not good exactly the movie is an enjoyable watch with Cathy’s enormous red dresses, the windy cliffsides and its “let’s do a silly one” approach to the material. For actresses, this movie probably gives more interesting stuff to do to Chau and even Oliver (she wins the “understands the assignment” award with the delivery of a wink) than Robbie, though she does get some great costumes.

Speaking of unhinged fun, I also checked out The Housemaid (rent or purchase), an adaptation of the book by Freida McFadden, directed by Paul Feig and starring Amanda Seyfried having the most fun. She plays Nina Winchester, wife of extremely rich Andrew Winchester (Brandon Sklenar) and mother of sullen child Cece (Indiana Elle). She hires Millie (Sydney Sweeney) as a live-in housemaid — which is a relief for Millie, who is out on parole and in desperate need of a job and a place to live to keep from going back to prison. I haven’t read the book so I had the fun of spending the first chunk of the movie trying to figure out who — the perfect wife, the doting husband, the eager housemaid — will go bananas. The movie then takes you on a fun rollercoaster ride, in which all performers acquit themselves quite well but Seyfried is the standout. This is a truly fun movie night watch.

I also wanted to see what all the fuss (i.e. gleeful derision) was about Ella McCay (Hulu, rent or purchase), a James L. Brooks movie starring Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis and Albert Brooks, among others. This strange dramady with its 1990s vibes (but set for no particular reason in the late aughts) feels very much “what if a tween girl became governor.” The movie writes Ella, an adult woman in her mid 30s, as if she was 13 Going on 30-ed from a middle school student government meeting to the lieutenant governor’s office of some pretend state. Here, this patronizingly drawn character gets the top spot when the previous governor is appointed as a U.S. Secretary of something. Ella is supposed to be hyper-competent and love government and public policy but the character acts as though she’s never paid attention to politics at all, even during an election (including her own). This disconnect does fit with the rest of the movie in that nothing about the characters really makes sense. Everybody — Ella’s beloved aunt played by Curtis, Ella’s estranged father played by Woody Harrelson, Ella’s bodyguard played by Kumail Nanjiani — seems like they are in their own separate movie, with tones and plot focuses entirely different from each other. It’s so thoroughly weird and sexist in a very specific mid 1990s way that I almost recommend it as an oddity that needs to be seen to be believed. Almost.

Back to the Oscars and the lead actress nominations. I enjoyed Jessie Buckley’s performance as Agnes, aka Mrs. Shakespeare, in Hamnet (available for rent or purchase). It really is her movie as she plays a mother dealing with grief and a wife dealing with an artistic husband who needs London — and a life largely away from Agnes and her children — to succeed. She does good work making us feel the weight of all this.

Song Sung Blue (Peacock, rent or purchase) gives Kate Hudson her Oscar nomination for playing Thunder, the stage name for Claire, wife of Lightning or Mike (Hugh Jackman), a journeyman musician playing rock medleys at fairs and the like. When he meets Claire he is both instantly smitten and inspired by her to create a Neil Diamond Experience act, which he names Lightning and Thunder, giving Claire a nickname that she finds delightfully empowering. Hudson is truly the movie’s center, turning in a strong performance of someone who has to fight her way through considerable life hurdles while trying to keep optimistic about what she can accomplish. She’s able to show us all of of that, and a sense of humor, in small gestures and expressions. I am fully team this-era Kate Hudson. I also liked what Ella Anderson and the musician King Princess do here, playing Claire’s and Mike’s, respectively, teenage daughters from previous marriages. This is a movie tells a straightforward story but truly sings because of its performances. Plus some extremely fun music, including, of course, “Sweet Caroline” — bum bum BUM.

As mentioned in my year-end look at films, I lovedRose Byrne as a mom clinging to sanity in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You(HBO Max and for rent and purchase). I saw Bugonia(Peacock, rent and purchase), which got Emma Stone a nomination, a while back and generally did not enjoy it or her performance, which felt like a faded copy of a role she’s played a lot recently, including in 2023’s Poor Things.

In the supporting actress category, I feel like there are no bad options of the three performances I’ve seen: Amy Madigan in Weapons(HBO Max, rent or purchase); Wunmi Mosaku forSinners (HBO Max, rent or purchase) and Teyana Taylor for One Battle After Another (HBO Max, rent or purchase).

I’m setting aside for a moment the two actress nominations for Sentimental Value, which I’ll catch up with when I see the movies nominated for International Feature Film. The movie also earned a supporting actor role. And, in the leading actor category, The Secret Agent, another international film nominee, got a nod.

Diving into the rest of lead actor nominations, I finally caught up with Richard Linklater’sBlue Moon (Netflix, rent or purchase), which received a nomination for Ethan Hawke’s performance as Lorenz Hart. I found Blue Moon thoroughly charming even though (or maybe because) it is self-consciously talky. Hawke is great as suffering chatterbox Hart, living through the nightmare that is longtime professional partner Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) getting raves on the opening night of Oklahoma!, his first production with Oscar Hammerstein II (Simon Delaney). Hart praises the musical, derides the musical, snobbily bemoans its popular aspects and begs Rodgers to do another brand new production with him. Through it all he bounces clever anecdotes off the bartender (Bobby Cannavale), the piano player (Jonah Lees) and fellow patron E.B. White (Patrick Kennedy). Hart is at Sardi’s, right where he shouldn’t be to endure all this but also maybe right where he can’t help but be. Among his disappointments is Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), a 20-year-old Yale student attending the party who Hart is in love with? Or fascinated by? Or some other kind of tragic situation, that he seems to realize is doomed and yet still has a “but maybe?” hope about it. Hawke turns in a good performance bringing humanity to a character who could have been written off as a passive aggressive blowhard.

Speaking of aggressive aggressive blowhards, let’s talk Marty Supreme(rent or purchase). Directed and co-written by Josh Safdie, this movie has that Safdie brothers sweaty desperate energy that made Uncut Gems such a — not pleasure, exactly. Engaging cinematic panic attack, maybe? Here, while my gut “ugh, with this guy” reaction to Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Mouser, wanna-be table tennis star in the 1950s, didn’t really change throughout the movie I did warm to how good Chalamet was at being a jerk on the come up, whose single-minded graspiness has just enough of a spark of charm. He is a good table tennis player and he is horrible at everything else, including basic “being a human” things. He is a guy whose whole vibe is asking for money he will definitely never pay back. It shouldn’t shock Odessa A’zion’s Rachel, Marty’s sometimes situationship, when his immediate reaction to her pregnancy is something like “it’s not mine.”

Solid performances are also to be had from Fran Drescher as Marty’s mother, from Tyler the Creator and Luke Manley as Marty’s friends, from Gwyneth Paltrow as a 1930s film star trying to organize a theatrical comeback and even from, I guess, Kevin O’Leary, Mr. Wonderful himself, as Paltrow’s husband demonstrating a different kind of jerkishness from Marty’s.

Of the movies I’ve seen before, One Battle After Another also got nominations for Leonardo DiCaprio in lead (shrug, sure), and Benicio Del Toro (yay!) and Sean Penn (boo for this cartoon character) in supporting. I would be delighted to watch Michael B. Jordan win for his double performance in Sinners and Delroy Lindo win supporting for his role in that movie. And I didn’t dislike Frankenstein(Netflix) as much as many critics — it’s so pretty! — but c’mon with that Jacob Elordi supporting nomination (for the role of the Creature).

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