Oscar Film Journal: Alibi (1929)

Back with another super old-school Best Picture nominee to talk about in this installment of the Oscar Film Journal....

Yup, I'm still toiling in the Roarin' 20s, with a second-year nominee from 1929, Roland West's gangster film Alibi, starring Chester Morris and Mae Busch.  This very clunky early talkie centers around a mobster named Chick Williams, who's just been released from prison and elopes with his sweetheart Joan.  Joan's father and suitor are both high-ranking cops hell-bent on taking Chick down.  One night a robbery takes place at a warehouse during which a policeman gets shot, and Joan's father Pete and her jealous would-be fiancé detective Tommy Glennon decide to do whatever it takes to pin the crime on Chick, despite Chick's seemingly airtight alibi.  The film plays with our sympathies as the story unfolds, presenting the police as immoral and crooked, and willing to intimidate or even torture a witness to get a confession, but later we realize the charismatic Chick Williams perhaps isn't the police harassment victim we were led to believe he is.  And poor Joan is caught in the middle of all these weak, angry men and their schemes.

Movie Review: Dune: Part Two (2024)

Click here for my review of Dune: Part One.

After nearly two and a half years it's finally here - the long-awaited conclusion (or is it?) to Denis Villeneuve's Dune saga.  Dune: Part Two is an even more masterful and satisfying effort than its predecessor; Part One set up the pieces on the chess board, this one not only shows us the riveting endgame but raises further questions and leaves a few threads open for an (hopefully) inevitable third film.

The story picks up more or less where it left off in Part One; the Harkonnens, on orders from Emperor Shaddam IV (a frail, melancholy Christopher Walken) have carried out their sneak attack to forcibly retake control of Arrakis, killing everyone in House Atreides, or so they think.  Paul and his mother Jessica have escaped into the desert and forged an uneasy alliance with the Fremen (Paul was forced to prove himself by dueling one of their warriors to the death).  Baron Harkonnen's older nephew Rabban has been placed in charge of spice production but Paul and the Fremen begin sabotaging their equipment through targeted raids, thus embarrassing the oafish Rabban.  Meanwhile the Fremen are divided about whether the sudden appearance of Paul and his mother are a sign that the messiah they've awaited for centuries is finally here.  Fremen leader Stilgar (a surprisingly amusing Javier Bardem) believes, and Jessica makes a choice to convert the skeptics (mostly so Paul, Jessica and her unborn daughter will forever be protected), but some of the younger Fremen like Chani (a splendid Zendaya) think the prophecy was invented so the Bene Gesserit sisterhood could control them.

Oscar Film Journal: The Racket (1928)

The Oscars may be over for this year, but that doesn't mean the Oscar Film Journal has to stop....

Today I'm once again headed back to the inaugural slate of Best Picture nominees to review the third and final one, Lewis Milestone's The Racket, starring Thomas Meighan and Louis Wolheim.  Produced by Howard Hughes and based on a stage play of the same name, The Racket is a silent gangster film taking place in Prohibition Era Chicago, pitting an idealistic but seasoned police officer against a hardened mob boss.  Backed by the city's corrupt political machine, the gangster Nick Scarsi seems to enjoy complete immunity from legal action, even when his crimes are flagrant and out in the open.  Police Captain James McQuigg is nonetheless determined to bring him down, and in his desperation is even willing to resort to extralegal means to fight fire with fire.  

96th Academy Awards Preview & Predictions

It's Oscar time, folks!  And that means that for the ninth time my colleague Mike Drinan and I will regale you with our predictions for who wins what awards!

Best Picture

American Fiction

Anatomy of a Fall

Barbie

The Holdovers

Killers of the Flower Moon

Maestro

Oppenheimer

Past Lives

Poor Things

The Zone of Interest

Justin: This year is special for me, as for the first time in my life thus far, I've actually seen every Best Picture nominee ahead of time.  Holy jeez, I feel so accomplished.  Anyway I enjoyed all ten films on some level.  Barbie is a lot of fun and has a good message, Maestro is a compellingly intimate look at an esteemed but troubled artist, Past Lives deals with the issue of childhood romance vs. mature relationships, Killers of the Flower Moon is an epic look at the atrocities committed against the Osage nation, The Zone of Interest is a tiny-scope look at the atrocities of the Holocaust, Anatomy of a Fall is a fascinating procedural that tackles gender inequality in the legal system, American Fiction is a quietly hilarious satire on race in art, The Holdovers is a funny and often touching coming-of-age story, Poor Things is a demented but brilliantly crafted feminist parable, and Oppenheimer is a massive cinematic achievement and a reinvention of the biopic.  For once my favorite nominee is also the odds-on favorite.

Pick: Oppenheimer

Mike: I’ve only seen four of the nominees this year which is pretty pathetic considering how many really good films came out this year. Really looking forward to sitting down with Poor Things and The Zone of Interest, also heard great things about Anatomy of a Fall. I really enjoyed Killers of the Flower Moon with its harsh look at the crimes committed against the Osage and loved Jason Isbell’s acting as well, definitely a highlight for me. The Holdovers was great simply because Paul Giamatti is a frigging acting giant. I feel like Barbie is getting shorted in the discussion of nominees. The spin that film presented was a stroke of genius. I know we cringe when we agree, but it’s hard to deny Oppenheimer. It was not only a brilliant biopic, but it checks off all the boxes for the Oscars.

Pick: Oppenheimer

Oscar Film Journal: Poor Things (2023)

Welcome to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  Well, I did it, I actually managed to see all ten Best Picture nominees before the awards, for the first time ever.  WOO HOO!

And I picked a helluva movie to finish up with.  Yorgos Lanthimos's latest bizzaro cinematic feast is called Poor Things and stars Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe.  Based on a 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray, the film is part Frankenstein adaptation, part feminist hero's journey.  It's also demented, grotesque, often hilariously funny, and one of the best and most original films of the year.  

Dafoe, buried under hideous scar makeup, plays Dr. Godwin Baxter, a surgeon who conducts insane and illegal experiments, the latest of which involves reanimating the body of a pregnant woman who threw herself off a bridge, by putting the unborn baby's brain in the woman's head.  Thus is the origin story of the film's protagonist Bella, who when we first meet her is just learning crude motor skills and speech patterns.  Baxter brings in a medical student, Max, to essentially help raise this child-woman, and he unexpectedly falls in love with her.  Max asks to marry her and Godwin agrees, but insists that Bella never be allowed to leave the Baxter home, as he doesn't think she could survive in the outside world.  But Bella begins experiencing an intellectual and sexual awakening and decides to run off with Godwin's lawyer Duncan, and the pair travel around Europe, an adventure which opens Bella to all sorts of life experiences as her brain matures.

Oscar Film Journal: 7th Heaven (1927)

And another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Going waaaaay back almost a century to the first trio of films nominated for the prestigious Best Picture award, today I'll be talking about one of the two runners-up that year, 7th Heaven, a silent era romantic drama/war picture directed by Frank Borzage and starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell.  Based on a stage play and set in France at the start of World War I, 7th Heaven starts by introducing Chico (Farrell), a lowly sewer worker who dreams of being a street cleaner and getting to toil all day in the sunlight as opposed to underground.  At the same time we meet Diane (Gaynor), a prostitute with a heart of gold, who lives in squalor with her abusive sister.  When their rich uncle offers to take them away to live with him as long as Diane can promise they've been wholesome young women, Diane can't bring herself to lie to him, and he rescinds.  Diane's sister chases her into the street and proceeds to beat her, when Chico comes to the rescue.  A policeman threatens to arrest Diane, but Chico lies and says she's his wife.  To keep up the pretense, Chico must let Diane live with him in his seventh-floor walk-up until the police can schedule a follow-up to confirm her residence.  Of course the pair inevitably fall in love, but just as they decide to get married, war breaks out and Chico must go off to fight.

AEW Revolution 2024 Review: An All-Timer

For the third straight year AEW has delivered a Revolution PPV that is unlikely to be topped the rest of this calendar year.  After the second match I said to my wife "Bryan Danielson just shit out another classic."  And that ended up the third-best match on the show.  No one does PPV like AEW does PPV....

Revolution was of course built around the retirement of 64-year-old legend Sting, and while his match delivered about as well as anyone could ever want, there were so many great bouts on this show it was actually an embarrassment of riches.  The 16,000+ fans were molten for most of the PPV, the only real lull being the Women's Title match, which still kept them interested.  Think about how rock-solid a lineup needs to be for anyone to follow Ospreay-Takeshita for example and still have the crowd eating out of the wrestlers' hands.  I don't ever want to hear anyone say a wrestling show needs buffer matches or long gaps between bouts to let the crowd catch their breath; this show was wall-to-wall wrestling and the crowd ate it up.

The main show kicked off with Christian Cage vs. Daniel Garcia for the TNT Title and the crowd was very much behind the idea of Garcia taking the title off him.  Garcia outwrestled Cage early, but Cage took over after faking a knee injury.  Garcia would target Cage's ankle to soften him up for the anklelock.  Nick Wayne tried to interfere but Garcia sent him over the barricade.  Killswitch hit a chokeslam behind the referee's back, but Daddy Magic ran down and fought him up the ramp.  Cage went for a spear but his ankle buckled and Garcia hit a piledriver for a nearfall.  Shayna Wayne distracted the ref long enough for Nick to run in with a cutter, and Cage hit the Killswitch to finish Garcia off.  Damn good opener.  ****

Oscar Film Journal: Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Turning another page in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Another film I missed from 2022, today's nominee is the pitch-black satirical comedy (a word I use loosely for this film) Triangle of Sadness, from Swedish director Ruben Östlund.  How to describe the plot....  It's basically the story of a luxury cruise involving a group of vapid, obscenely wealthy passengers, that goes horribly wrong.  Spoiler alert, by the way.

The film is split into three acts, the first of which focuses on a young couple, Carl and Yaya, both professional models, who date more for the social media engagement than for love.  Or at least that's how Yaya feels.  She's a very successful model and influencer, he's on his way up but earns a fraction of her salary.  And they get into a heated argument after dinner at an upscale restaurant, when the check comes and she ignores it.  Carl reminds her that she promised to pay for the meal but Yaya insists she didn't notice the check had arrived, having been fixated on her phone at the time.  The spat continues in the cab and all the way back to their hotel room, where Carl tells her he actually loves her and promises she'll come to love him back.

Oscar Film Journal: Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Backing up to the 2016 slate of Best Pic nominees and one I never got around to seeing at the time, today's subject is Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson and starring Andrew Garfield and Vince Vaughn.  The film tells the kinda sorta true story of Desmond Doss, a World War II medic who earned a Medal of Honor for saving 75 of his fellow troops at the Battle of Okinawa.  A conscientious objector and Seventh-day Adventist Christian, Doss refused to carry a rifle and fought hard during training to be allowed to stay in the military as a pacifist medic, at one point facing a court martial for insubordination.

The film is split into two halves, the first covering Doss's troubled upbringing and first experiences with violence; his father was a World War I vet with PSTD and a violent alcoholic (played pretty superbly by Hugo Weaving).  We learn that as a child he nearly killed his brother while rough housing, and his regret stemming from that incident remained throughout his life.  A later confrontation with his father involving a gun left him with a severe aversion to firearms, hence his refusal to use one while in the military.  This half of the film uses a lot of familiar movie tropes - the awkward budding romance, the forceful drill instructor (Vaughn, whose status as a goofball comedian makes him less than intimidating here), the goofy misfit bullied by his unit.  None of this material is particularly profound, but Garfield's performance makes most of it work, at least on a Hollywood level.