Tag: Julianne Nicholson

Oscar Predictions: Janet Planet

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Annie Baker enters the cinematic realm penning and directing Janet Planet. The coming-of-age drama doesn’t hit screens until June 21st, but it debuted at Telluride last fall and a trailer is now up. Julianne Nicholson, newcomer Zoe Ziegler, Elias Koteas, Sophie Okonedo, and Will Patton are among the cast members.

Reviews range from raves to just so-so write-ups with a RT score at 83%. Variety, for example, lovingly compares it to the acclaimed Eighth Grade (another A24 project). Praise for Nicholson and Ziegler is particularly strong. The former is one of those actresses who may not be far away from their Oscar play. An Emmy winner for Mare of Easttown, Nicholson has shown up recently in Blonde and Dream Scenario and draws positive notices everywhere she turns up.

I’m not confident Janet Planet is that project. A24 would need to mount a serious campaign and they might be preoccupied elsewhere. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…

Oscar Predictions: Dream Scenario

Kristoffer Borgli’s dark comedy Dream Scenario premiered at the Toronto Film Festival prior to its November 10th theatrical release. The A24 effort casts Nicolas Cage as a nerdy professor who inexplicably starts showing up in people’s dreams. Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula, and Dylan Baker costar.

The Dream reviews are mostly on the plus side with an 84% Rotten Tomatoes rating. There’s really only two categories where I see Oscar possibilities. Mr. Cage is being praised for his work. He could be in line for a third Best Actor nod behind 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas (for which he won) and 2002’s Adaptation. He likely came close to his third nod for 2021’s Pig. Yet as I’ve already discussed on this blog, there’s a quintet of contenders who already look strong in the race. That would be Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), Leonardo DiCaprio (Killers of the Flower Moon), Bradley Cooper (Maestro), Colman Domingo (Rustin), and Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers). It almost seems too easy, right? That’s why I figure at least one of those gentlemen get snubbed. Cage could fill the gap, but there’s other hopefuls in the mix. I think his chances to be named in the Musical/Comedy competition at the Golden Globes is stronger.

Original Screenplay is feasible and perhaps even more so if A24 campaigns hard for it. Nominations in those two derbies are the dream scenario with the Academy. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Review

There is an ultrahigh funny consistency in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story before the hilarity frequency is turned down a notch as it plays on. Focused on pop’s most famous parody artist, it’s appropriate that the film is a sendup of the musical biopic genre. Director Eric Appel and Yankovic himself penned the screenplay which cheekily casts Daniel Radcliffe as the man with the accordion.

As a youngster, Al’s father (Toby Huss) would rather see his boy working in the factory (where they make mysterious “things”) than making songs. Mom (Julianne Nicholson) buys him the harmonious box organ behind Dad’s back. Soon a teenage Al is busted for experimenting with the instrument at a party (the accordion uproariously stands in for hard drugs) and he’s on his own. At college and with the encouragement of three roommates turned bandmates, he becomes the biggest pop star in the world with his spoof tracks.

Similar to Bohemian Rhapsody, we take a journey through the creation of “My Bologna”, “Another One Rides the Bus”, “Eat It”, and “Like a Surgeon”. These segments are more exaggerated (slightly) than those in Rhapsody. The latter tune is manifested through his whirlwind tryst with the ambitious and conniving Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood, doing a fine impersonation). As for his largest smash “Eat It”, the script cleverly insists it was Michael Jackson ripping off Al.

Radcliffe is a pleasure to watch (the real Al plays a music exec) as he makes the tragic rock star journey. There are cameos galore including Jack Black as a taunting Wolfman Jack and a noted late night host as Andy Warhol (pay attention). Rainn Wilson is Dr. Demento, the radio host who gave the Weird one his big break (no exaggeration).

When we reach a Hot Shots! level of silliness with Al going Rambo at Pablo Escobar’s birthday bash, it all begins to wear a bit thin. Most of the time this is as fun and irreverent as its subject’s creations. No bologna.

*** (out of four)

Oscar Predictions: Blonde

While she received two Golden Globe nominations in her short-lived career, the Oscars never recognized Marilyn Monroe. Could the Academy honor the performance of Ana de Armas in the biopic Blonde as the icon? Arriving in limited release on September 16th before its September 28th Netlix stream, Andrew Dominik’s pic comes with a rare NC-17 rating and a near three hour runtime. Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, and Julianne Nicholson costar in the adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’s 2000 novel.

This is Dominik’s first feature since 2012’s Killing Them Softly (his 2007 Western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is considered by many to be a modern day classic). It premiered at Venice and early buzz is that this is a dark and rather sleazy and often enthralling exploration of the price of fame. The Rotten Tomatoes meter is at 84%.

I’m dubious that the Academy will embrace this as a BP contender. The real question is whether de Armas can make the cut. Based on initial reaction, she certainly can but it’s no guarantee… unlike, say, Cate Blanchett (Tar) or Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once). Her potential inclusion is probably contingent on how competition for slots plays out in the next four months. My Oscar Predictions posts will continue…

I, Tonya Movie Review

I, Tonya, despite some faults, is an energetic and extremely well acted biopic of a notorious central figure who entered our lives at the onset of the tabloid world we live in. Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie), on one hand, defied incredible odds and utilized her figure skating talent and boundless drive to become of the sport’s best for a brief period. On the other, she allowed her not always charming demeanor to get in the way. The challenge of the screenplay from Steven Rogers is balancing a want to sympathize her while also acknowledging the subject’s own fault with events.

Harding grows up poor in Oregon with a real humdinger of an abusive mother played by Allison Janney, in a real humdinger of a scene stealing performance. Mother LaVona gives Tonya plenty of emotional issues, but also her severe and rather unhealthy competitive spirit. When the skating prodigy enters her teens, she falls for another abuser Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan). It doesn’t take much for Tonya to adore him after he seems to be the first person to say anything nice to her. That doesn’t last for long.

The picture is told with narration from the main players, reportedly with the actors simply repeating their real life counterparts words. Robbie’s work is impressive. She may not totally resemble the title character’s physical presence, but she embodies her often frustrating personality. Stan is memorable as the clueless but also monstrous husband. And a special shout out goes to Paul Walter Hauser as Jeff’s friend and Tonya’s “bodyguard” Shawn. Like Janney, he pulls heists on sequences he appears in.

I, Tonya seems to know that we’re waiting to get to the part we all know – the attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan and the bungled aftermath of it. As in the real life fury and frenzy when it was happening in 1994, Kerrigan is mostly seen and not heard. We do witness the criminal enterprise behind the kneecapping where the stupidity of the culprits would struggle to be believable in a fiction work.

The film succeeds in helping explain how Tonya became Tonya. How much you feel for her will likely vary by the viewer. One thing is abundantly clear – she doesn’t think anything that’s happened to her is her fault. This is essentially her mantra.

I, Tonya can feel too over directed by Craig Gillespie and too frenetically edited for its own good at times. Yet the actors and the deliciously improbable story that drew the nation’s fixation one winter make it a winner overall. The real Tonya Harding would certainly claim the credit for the movie’s high points. The parts that don’t completely succeed? Not her fault.

*** (out of four)