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<\/a>There should be an “s” at the end of this sign for this column!<\/p><\/div>\n
The SAGs are actually the reason I see so many films, most of which I definitely did not<\/em> want to see this year! But I feel it\u2019s just not right to vote unless you\u2019ve seen all the performances, (and stunts, in our case,) and all the tech categories for many of the other guilds and academies.<\/p>\n As a matter of fact, the nominating committees could not have possibly seen The Substance<\/em>\u00a0or else it would never have received any<\/em> nods, or in some cases already, wins for Demi Moore!<\/p>\n And let me not bury the lead\u2014Sing Sing<\/em> is by far the best film of this year! I had been invited to about fifteen screenings of it, but a prison film with an all-male cast did not call out to me, so I passed every time. But in the interest of fairness, once Colman Domingo was nominated for a SAG Award for his performance in it, I had to force myself to see it before I voted. I\u2019m glad I did because it is soooo powerful! The rest of my mini review is a few paragraphs down.<\/p>\n But here are my thoughts on this final batch before the SAGs this Sunday, once again in the order in which we watched them:<\/p>\n The Brutalist<\/em><\/strong>\u2014This was more than disappointing; I had such high hopes for it. Mr. X said, \u201cThe movie is as stupid as the credits\u201d which are sideways and crooked!!! There are soooo many holes.\u00a0And way too many different accents.<\/p>\n If it were a true<\/em>\u00a0story, that would be one thing.\u00a0 But it\u2019s a weird convoluted made-up tale, which is just tedious and confusing, and means nothing.<\/p>\n The Brutalist.<\/p><\/div>\n I was pretty shocked at just how meh it is.\u00a0 After the first three hours, (that\u2019s right\u2014it\u2019s way over three hours!,) I told Mr. X that I didn\u2019t find it special, thinking that he\u2019d tell me I missed the significance. But, to my surprise, he totally agreed, which made me feel better.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a fan of Adrien Brody, but he definitely does not deserve all the awards he\u2019s been getting this season for this performance. Just sayin\u2019. Even industry peeps are sheep, in this case fooled by the length of the film, I feel.<\/p>\n And by the way, even though this movie is<\/em> brutal, on several levels, the title refers to the type of architecture the main character is known for. You\u2019re welcome for clearing that up.<\/p>\n Deadpool and Wolverine<\/em><\/strong>\u2014I had no idea what was going on at all<\/em>\u00a0the entire time, but I always<\/em> love seeing Hugh Jackman, my last remaining celebrity crush. And let me tell you\u2014Hugh absolutely gives it his all! And in a means-nothing movie, to boot. (In the middle of one particularly emotional scene for him, Mr. X actually declared, \u201cWinner!,\u201d even though, of course, Hugh is not nominated for anything.)<\/p>\n Deadpool and Wolverine.<\/p><\/div>\n In addition to Hugh being so good, the movie is often amusing, mainly with fourth-wall-breaking lines. I\u2019ve always thought Ryan Reynolds is funny, but I just can\u2019t get behind him right now with all the name-calling and legal-haggling between his very creepy\u00a0wife, Blake Lively, and her recent director\/co-star, Justin Baldoni. All the drama is making Ryan look not very good.<\/p>\n A Complete Unknown<\/em><\/strong>\u2014This was more interesting than I had expected. I actually didn\u2019t know what<\/em> to expect. I\u2019ve never known much about Bob Dylan except that I once saw him in concert from the front row center, (because I took a close friend for her birthday, not because I<\/em>\u00a0wanted to see him,) his son lives not too far from me, he occasionally appeared on the Chabad Telethon when I<\/em>\u00a0did, and\u2026he once asked one of my best friends to marry him!!! And I once read that he liked his women to look a bit dirty. Eww.<\/p>\n Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet was shockingly good as Dylan. I soooo admire that he not only learned to sing like the music star, but to play guitar! That is soooo impressive. I thought that I was going to vote for him until I saw Colman Domingo in Sing Sing<\/em>.<\/p>\n Timothee Chalamet and Edward Norton in A Complete Unknown.<\/p><\/div>\n I\u2019m definitely voting for supporting actor Edward Norton. But why in the world was Monica Barbaro, who played Joan Baez, nominated for not just a SAG but an Oscar??? She did basically nothing but sing a bit! That is one of the most head-scratching nods in history. Knowing she was nominated for a few awards was actually distracting\u2014I kept waiting for her to have at least one moment that made me say, \u201cWow,\u201d but it never came. She didn\u2019t do anything wrong; it was just a nothing part to begin with.<\/p>\n Sing Sing<\/strong><\/em>\u2014There is no comparison\u2014this is hands-down the best film of the year! With the best cast. My mind is blown.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the tale of a prison acting program. As it went along, I told Mr. X this must be a real story, or else they would have made it a fictional<\/em> prison, not the most famous<\/em> one, Sing Sing. And it turns-out that it is all true.<\/p>\n Even though the \u201cactors\u201d were all perfect, I said that, outside of the star, Colman Domingo, they must be the real guys because I had never seen any of them before. But how can so many amateur actors be that good??? That real-life program must be some great teacher. I once auditioned for a TV show to play\u2026myself! No kidding\u2014it had my name on the breakdown! But guess what? I did not<\/em> get the part. To play myself<\/em>!!! So I know how hard it is to do so, especially for non-pros.<\/p>\n The cast of Sing Sing.<\/p><\/div>\n As far as Mr. Domingo goes, he is really brilliant in this one. It can\u2019t be easy to work with mostly non-professional actors, especially all the emotional scenes with Clarence Maclin, playing his then-incarcerated self. It\u2019s all mind-boggling.<\/p>\n There\u2019s so much to say about this story, but since these are mini reviews, I heavily suggest you research the movie a bit for yourselves, whether you even see this movie or not. You will be amazed. Let me just say, the real John “Divine G” Whitfield, (who co-wrote and co-produced this film,) spent more than twenty-four years in prison for a murder he did not commit! I\u2019m sick over it. I hope all this success now helps him heal more than a bit.<\/p>\n The Piano Lesson<\/strong><\/em>\u2014There is no weak link in this one. Every member of the cast is excellent. And interesting. I\u2019m thrilled that Danielle Deadwyler is nominated for a SAG Award, while disgusted that she didn\u2019t get an Oscar nod.<\/p>\n And John David Washington was outstanding! He talked faster than I<\/em> do the whole time, which is impressive in itself, but he did it all in a spot-on Southern accent! The interesting thing to me is that I didn\u2019t know the actor\u2019s name as the film was going along, but I was really enjoying his performance. I was wondering where they found such a good unfamiliar actor. And then, in just one short sentence of his, I thought he sounded like Denzel Washington a bit. And I immediately realized that he\u2019s\u2026Denzel\u2019s son! And his other son directed, while Denzel and one of his daughters were on the producing team. What a creative family affair.<\/p>\n The cast of The Piano Lesson, around the controversial piano.<\/p><\/div>\n Meanwhile, The Piano Lesson<\/em> is the movie version of a very famous 1987 August Wilson play. Not a fun story, but an interesting one.<\/p>\n The one funny thing for Mr. X and me is that we saw a couple of Wilson\u2019s plays many years ago, and we got this<\/em> one confused with his Two Trains Running<\/em>, so the entire time we watched the movie, we kept waiting for a character to say, \u201cI want my ham!\u201d Samuel L. Jackson\u2019s character mentioned being a ham early on in the narrative, and one of the guys in it seemed a tad slow, as the ham-wanter we remembered is, so we assumed we had the correct play. I can\u2019t believe we were disappointed to not hear a line we\u2019ve been talking about for a few decades now!<\/p>\n Wicked<\/em><\/strong>\u2014First let me say that I\u2019m not a fan of the stage<\/em> musical of Wicked<\/em>. It\u2019s not bad, but I\u2019ve seen it three times, (two here in LA, once on Broadway,) and just don\u2019t love it like so many people do. So I saved this film for last. [Note: If I had seen it any time earlier<\/em>, I would have done a full<\/em> review of it on its own\u2014there\u2019s so much more to say about it that I can in a mini<\/em> review!]<\/p>\n I totally recognize the gargantuan effort that went into making it. But when I asked Mr. X how it could not be winning every Best Picture, (or any<\/em> actually,) he said, “It lacks magic.” But then he loved Jeff Goldblum, (about whom I’ll tell you my fun personal story in a minute,) but that was just a minute or so of his dancing. So he was not loving the movie.<\/p>\n My main annoyance is not about the movie itself, but this<\/em> discrepancy: how can Ariana Grande, (who\u2019s using her full<\/em> birth last name, Grande-Butera, in the credits,) be nominated as the Supporting<\/em> Actress, when Cynthia Erivo gets the nods as Best Actress??? They could not be more equal! They even have that “Favored Nations” billing. It’s insane. I want to know who put her in this category!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>