The Lost Bus found its way to the Toronto Film Festival prior to its September 19th limited theatrical release and October 3rd Apple TV streaming debut. The true life wildfire survival tale comes from Paul Greengrass (the Bourne franchise, United 93, Captain Phillips) with Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrara headlining. Yul Vazquez and Ashlie Atkinson costar.
The 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating is a little deceiving with the 66 on Metacritic more accurately reflecting the critical consensus. McConaughey (a 2013 Best Actor victor for Dallas Buyers Club) and Ferrera (a Supporting Actress nominee in 2023 for Barbie) are being appreciated for their performances, but not enough to anticipate their second tries at gold. Where Bus could be in sole contention is in Visual Effects. If it manages to make the shortlist, it might be a trendy pick for inclusion. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…
Come See Me in the Good Light premiered at Sundance back in January with Apple TV picking up distribution rights in the spring (a release date is yet TBD). Directed by Ryan White (best known for Good Night Oppy), Light focuses on the relationship between poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley after the former’s terminal cancer diagnosis. Gibson was in Park City for the unveiling of the documentary, but passed away two weeks ago.
Critical reaction has yielded 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Sara Beirelles is an executive producer and she sings the track “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet”. It is cowritten by Brandi Carlile (another exec producer). Tig Notaro is another well-known artist on the production team. I would anticipate Apple and the well-known contributors to mount campaigns in Documentary Feature and Original Song. The amount of exposure this receives should determine its success in both categories. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…
Julianne Moore is saddled with protecting her troubled daughter Sydney Sweeney in the crime thriller Echo Valley from director Michael Pearce. It begins showing on Apple TV+ tomorrow after a limited theatrical bow last weekend. Costars include Domhnall Gleeson, Kyle MacLachlan, and Fiona Shaw.
Critics are mostly not high on Valley with a 50% Rotten Tomatoes rating and 55 Metacritic. Despite the presence of five-time nominee and one-time Academy recipient Moore and the popular Ms. Sweeney, this is receiving scant buzz. Nevertheless it could do just fine via its streaming route, but this is not an awards pic. My Oscar Predictions posts will continue…
Bono: Stories of Surrender hits Apple TV on May 30th documenting the U2 frontman’s one-man NYC stage show in 2023. Those performances took their inspiration from the legendary singer and humanitarian’s memoir. He’s enlisted some heavy hitters to assist here including director Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Blonde) and Oscar-winning cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt (Mank).
These celeb centered docs rarely make their way to serious awards consideration. Surrender should fall into that classification with 75% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 58 Metacritic. That won’t get it done unless its streamer finds mysterious ways to entice voters. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…
Spike Lee’s crime thriller Highest 2 Lowest has premiered at Cannes prior to A24’s theatrical release in August and Apple TV streaming bow in September. Updating Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low from 1963, Denzel Washington plays a music mogul caught up in a ransom plot. Costars include Ilfenesh Hadera, Jeffrey Wright, ASAP Rocky, and Ice Spice.
Critics are certainly higher than lower for the French unveiling. The Rotten Tomatoes score is 94% with Metacritic at 77. According to reviews, it’s a successful genre exercise. That means, from an awards perspective, it might be a non-player like Spike and Denzel’s previous collaboration Inside Man from 2006 (this marks the fifth time they’ve teamed up).
However, I wouldn’t completely discount Denzel’s chances in Best Actor. If he could make the cut for 2017’s Roman J. Israel, Esq., he could do the same here and nab his 10th overall nom. 2017 was arguably a weak year in that category and we don’t know how the competition this time around will shake out. Mr. Washington likely came close to his 10th mention in supporting last year for Gladiator II. He might be in the arena once again. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…
Deaf President Now! is available for streaming this weekend as the documentary recounts a 1988 protest at Gallaudet University, the world’s sole college for Deaf people. The Apple TV product is co-directed by Nyle DiMarco, who gained fame as an activist for the community while winning reality shows America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars back to back. His copilot behind the camera is Davis Guggenheim, Oscar winner for 2006’s An Inconvenient Truth whose last effort was the acclaimed Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (also for Apple).
Now! is certified very fresh with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and 79 on Metacritic. The inspirational civil rights tale could factor into the Documentary Feature race if the distributor gives it a strong campaign. If this makes the shortlist months down the road, a spot in the eventual quintet is certainly achievable. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…
Spellbound is not a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic with Ingmar Bergman and Gregory Peck. It’s an animated musical fantasy from Vicky Jenson (who directed the first Best Animated Feature Oscar victor Shrek) that’s out on Netflix today. Rachel Zegler, John Lithgow, Jenifer Lewis, Titus Burgess, Nathan Lane, Javier Bardem, and Nicole Kidman lend their voices to the project.
This is the second project from Skydance Animation after 2022’s Luck. That feature (which premiered on AppleTV+) drew mixed reviews and attracted scant awards attention. With 62% on Rotten Tomatoes and 54 on Metacritic, the storyline should be the same for Spellbound. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…
Before becoming a SAG and Golden Globe winner for his heralded role on Apple TV’s Ted Lasso, Jason Sudeikis was part of one of SNL’s finest ensembles in the show’s first half century of existence. He earns the 47 spot in my top 50 cast members.
Sudeikis memorably played Mitt Romney and Joe Biden while also channeling The Devil in Update bits and appearing alongside Kristin Wiig as one half of the A-Holes. Sudeikis was occasionally overshadowed by costars who will appear higher on this list, but he was a glue guy in a top SNL era. #46 will be up soon!
Steve McQueen’s World War II drama Blitz opened the London Film Festival today and it’s one of the final major awards puzzle pieces to screen. Opening in limited fashion on November 1st before an Apple TV streaming rollout on November 22nd, the cast includes Saoirse Ronan, young newcomer Elliot Heffernan, Harris Dickinson, Benjamin Clementine, Kathy Burke, Paul Weller, Stephen Graham, Erin Kellyman, and Leigh Gill.
I’ve had Blitz placed in either the 1 or 2 slot in Best Picture in my predictions over the past several months. It’s easy to understand why. In 2013, McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave was a Best Picture winner. Before Blitz, there was only one feature film in between with 2018’s Widows. Despite solid reviews, Widows was not an Academy player. Yet the genre of Blitz seems ripe for consideration.
Following its festival bow, the Rotten Tomatoes meter is at 94% with 76 on Metacritic. That’s just fine, but it’s not that simple. A deeper dive into the critical reaction tells me that Blitz will no longer be placed in the 1 or 2 position for BP. In fact, it will likely drop from the top 5 of possibilities to somewhere between 6-10. In other words, I don’t see it as a threat to win.
As for the cast, not much has changed. Ronan will be campaigned for in Supporting Actress and she is probably the only performer that could (and I suspect will) make the cut. If so, she stands an excellent shot at being a double nominee coupled with her lead work in The Outrun. Such nods would mark her fifth and sixth tries at gold behind Atonement, Brooklyn, Lady Bird, and Little Women. As for Heffernan, he could be a shoo-in for a Best Young Performer nom at the Critics Choice Awards.
Original Screenplay is also possible, but I don’t think it’s automatic. Tech recognitions in Production Design (which seems especially plausible), Costume Design, Cinematography, Original Score, Sound, and maybe Visual Effects are feasible. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…
Despite their effortless chemistry, George Clooney and Brad Pitt have yet to find their winning vehicle. I know many of you are now saying what about Ocean’s Eleven?!? Or Thirteen?… though probably not that Jan Brady of a franchise entry Twelve. I found the whole trio a little disappointing actually. The finest Clooney/Pitt collaboration is easily Burn After Reading from the Coen Brothers. However, the duo share mere seconds onscreen together. They are violently hilarious ones.
Wolfs is not funny or action packed enough. It encounters chop simply attempting to coast on the charms of its headliners. They play roles that might only exist in the movies – fixers. Well at least there’s a lot more of them on the silver screen like hitmen. Clooney is known only as Margaret’s Man in the credits. Margaret (Amy Ryan) is running for district attorney when she picks up a much younger man known as Kid (Austin Abrams) at a hotel. Their planned one night stand folds when Kid collapses and is presumed dead. VIPs like Margaret get a special phone number to clean up these messes and Clooney is dispatched to fix it.
So is Pitt and he’s known as Pam’s Man. Pam (voiced by Frances McDormand) runs the hotel and Pitt is their in-house problem solver. Two men whose survival hinges on working solo is disrupted when they both report for duty. Margaret goes back to campaigning as Ryan’s participation is a glorified cameo. Kid, it turns out, is not DOA as the trio must deal with bricks of heroin, Albanian gangsters, safari themed hotel rooms and back problems.
Written and directed by Jon Watts (whose become best known for the three Tom Holland Spider-Man flicks), Wolfs is not afraid to point out that its hunky leads are getting up in years. We’ve certainly seen the aging criminal story before and this struggles to find any new angles.
There’s limited pleasures. The Kid flirts with being a delightfully bizarre character here and there. I did appreciate how you’re not sure for awhile whether he’s smarter than he lets on or truly as dumb as Clooney and Pitt suspect. Or for that matter, if he’s mortal. No one makes faces of befuddled bemusement better than Pitt.
The leading men, though, still haven’t made their Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or The Sting no matter how hard Ocean’s and Wolfs try. Finally, there’s the matter of cinematic “fixers”. My favorite is Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction. He basically showed up to tell Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta to clean up the car after the latter had accidentally blown Marvin’s head off. There was no real fixing needed and Quentin Tarantino seemed in on the joke. Clooney and Pitt’s rapport doesn’t need a fix, but Wolfs is ripe for plenty of improvement.
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