Oscar Phat: Nomination Season

PRIMATE

THRILLER

PLOT: Ben an adorable, lovable chimp gets rabies and becomes violent.

WHAT IS RIGHT:  The kills are very gruesome!

WHAT IS WRONG:  You have seen this story before.  The young people want to have a party and the monkey goes nuts.  Only in the movies when an animal infected by rabies they become smart!

You want the young people to survive but they do stupid things.

SHOULD YOU WATCH:  They kills are very good but should be ON DEMAND.

 

WUTHERING HEIGHTS

ROMANTIC DRAMA 

PLOT:  Another version of Emily Bronte’s book of the same name.  Heathcliff and Cathy have a passionate, toxic love.

WHAT IS RIGHT:  It is visually dazzling!  Vivid colors and lovely country sides.  Owen Cooper and Charlotte Mellington as young Heathcliff and Cathy are fantastic! Talented actors to look for in the future.

WHAT IS WRONG:  Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as the grown Cathy and Heathcliff are very attractive actors playing the most horrible people you can imagine!  It is hard to feel sympathy for them and what they do to other people.

SHOULD YOU WATCH: If you have never read the novel or seen the movies it might entertain you.  This movie is fan fiction for many things don’t happen in the novel.  Those who read the novel will be in shock!  If you can wait-WAIT!

ZOOTOPIA #2 2025

ANIMATION 

PLOT:  Judy Hoops, a bunny and Nick Wilde, a sly red fox are officially cops on a new dangerous case that involves snakes being abandoned by the city.

WHAT IS RIGHT:  The story is has EVERTHING, comedy romance and suspense and music.  It has talented stars that include Iris Elba, singer Shakira Roman Reigns and CM Punk!

WHAT IS WRONG:  NOTHING!!!

SHOULD YOU WATCH?  ABSOLUTELY!

 

AVATAR #3 FIRE AND ASH 2025

FANTASY/ ADVENTURE

PLOT:    Jake and his family are sadden by the death of their son but new threats are coming  that include Jake’s enemy.

WHAT IS GOOD:  The visual effects are AMAZING as always.  The evil commander Quartich (Stephen Lang) is GREAT and Varang(Oona Chaplin) is equally menacing as leader of her clan who will kill anyone in her quest for power.  The two are the Bonnie and Clyde of Avatar.  The action scenes are fantastic.

WHAT IS WRONG:  There are soap opera elements are there but it does help the story.

SHOULD YOU WATCH:  OH YES!  If you are a fan of this movie franchise you will enjoy it.

SPECIAL NOTE:  I wish director James Cameron would make a superhero movie for he knows how to make an epic, exciting film many people would watch.

 

HAMNET

DRAMA 

PLOT:  Based on the novel by Maggie O’ Farrell the writer William Shakespeare had a wife and three children and the son named Hamnet died and he wrote the play Hamlet.

WHAT IS RIGHT:  Paul Mescal (Gladiator 2) is Shakespeare and he is good but it is Jessie Buckley as Agnes, Shakespeare’s wife that is amazing.  Giving child birth alone or with help she shows the agony of it!  The film is slow and sober.  The ending is closure than a happy ending.

WHAT IS WRONG:    It is a novel so much might not be true but could be.  The film may add things that might not have happened.

SHOULD YOU WATCH:  YES!  It is a film about grief and how people deal with it even in olden times.

NOMINATED FOR:

BEST PICTURE

BEST ACTRESS

BEST DIRCTOR

 

FRANKENSTEIN

HORROR 

PLOT:  Another version of the novel of Mary Shelly’s novel of an obsessed doctor creating parts of deceased men to creature new life.

WHAT IS GOOD:  The acting of Oscar Isaac as Dr Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as the “creature”!  It is like a father and son relationship!  Frankenstein made something alive that is dead and he is not proud of it.  The “creature” is upset because he came into the world and is hated even by his creator.  It is creepy.  It is very elaborate.  It is a sad tale of man reaching for greatness at what cost!

WHAT IS WRONG:  How did Frankenstein become so strong from dead men?  The monster is not as great as the Boris Karloff version.  It should be better because of AI!

SHOULD YOU WATCH:   YES!  Especially if you like horror and great acting.

NOMININATED FOR:

BEST PICTURE

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

 

TRAIN DREAMS

PERIOD DRAMA 

PLOT:  Robert Grainier is an orphan who lived 80 years and took odd jobs while the world changed around him.

WHAT IS  GOOD:  Joel Edgerton!  He plays Robert in a low key manner.  He does his job, goes home to his wife and child.  That’s it!  He does what most people do.  He sees things doesn’t understand why but does his best in the world he lives in.  You root for him because that’s what most people do.  William H. Macy as Arn, an older explosive expert is comic relief and he does it well.

WHAT IS WRONG:  It is slow moving but that is the point-like life.  It is not exciting like an action movie.

SHOULD YOU WATCH:  YES!  It is a character study about a man with life, loss and change.

NOMINATIONS FOR:

BEST PICTURE

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

SECRET AGENT

DRAMA 

PLOT: A tech expert with a mysterious past return to his home town but there is more danger ahead in Brazil.

WHAT IS  GOOD:  Wagner Moura as the tech expert who wants a peaceful life.  He sees corruption with his sad eyes and wants to remain peaceful.

WHAT IS WRONG:  This is a foreign films and they are different than American films.  This one is no different.  It takes a long while to get going!  You also think with a title like this it is action packed, gadgets and pretty girls.  Not this movie.  It is slow and sober.

SHOULD YOU WATCH:  It is good but you must have patience!

NOMINATIONS FOR:

BEST PICTURE

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

 

SONG SUNG BLUE

MUSICAL DRAMA 

PLOT:   Cover singers Mike Sardina (Lighting) and his wife Claire Stengi(Thunder love to sing Neil Diamond songs at various clubs.  The duo is very close to stardom but tragedy gets in the way.   It is based on a true story.

WHAT IS  RIGHT:  Hugh Jackman is great as Mike who once was a soldier and an alcoholic and it is music that saved him. He is charismatic but hurting. He is not nominated for BEST ACTOR but he should have been.  Kate Hudson as Claire is nominated and she is wonderful as well.  She was a fun-loving woman then something bad happens.

WHAT IS WRONG:  Their story is so fantastic you think it was fiction but it is not!

SHOULD YOU WATCH:  YES! If you like Neil Diamond songs-some I never heard of and the good pairing of Jackman and Hudson is worth the watch.

NOMINATIONED FOR:

BEST ACTRESS

 

BUGONIA

THRILLER/SCI-FI 

PLOT:  Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) is CEO of a drug company and Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons), a conspiracy theorist and beekeeper and his autistic cousin Don(Aiden Debis) kidnap her thinking she is an alien.

NOTE:  The title means ancient Greeks folk tale that bees would generate from a dead cow.  If you watch the film .  It might make sense, might not.

WHAT IS RIGHT:  Emma Stone is fantastic as the CEO Michelle Fuller.  She is driven, aggressive and scheming.  You don’t know how far she will go to escape.  Jesse Plemons  is intense as Teddy obsessed that she is really an alien.  Don, his cousin doesn’t believe him but goes along because it is his cousin and he admires him.

WHAT IS WRONG:  The director Yorgos Lathimos is a talented and twisted director!  His films are bizarre to say the least!  Watch the movies, The Favorite 2018 and Poor Things 2023.  This film is very violent and strange.

SHOULD YOU WATCH:  The ideas are good and Emma Stone is very good but it is a outrageous film but to me better than Poor Things.

F1

SPORTS DRAMA 

PLOT:  Aging race car driver Sonny Hayes gets to drive again and train a new comer Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) and has a romance with an attractive, smart technical director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon).

WHAT IS RIGHT:  The race car driving scenes!  You feel you’re inside the car with them taking the risk!  Javier Bardem who is the APXGP owner who needs Sonny’s help is good and dresses very well. Damon Idris as Joshua who is very confident younger race car driver.  Sarah Miles is great as Bernadette Joshua’s smart, protective mom.

WHAT IS WRONG:  You know the experience older driver helping the cocky newcomer yet it NEVER gets old.

SHOULD YOU WATCH:  YES!  If you like race car driving, Brad Pitt along with a good cast you will enjoy this movie.

NOMINATED FOR:

BEST PICTURE

 

MARTY SUPREME

SPORTS COMEDY DRAMA

PLOT:   Marty (Timothee Chalamet) in the 50s is a chiasmic, determined young man who works at a shoe store but wants to go to Japan to become a table tennis champion.

WHAT IS RIGHT:  The actor Timothee Charlamet who does whatever it takes to achieve his goal no matter what the cost.  He is no hero to cheer for but you watch to see if he is successful.  Odessa A’zion is very good as a married woman who is having an affair with Marty.  Gwyneth Paltrow is Kay Stone an actress married to a very rich man who is horny as hell! 

WHAT IS WRONG:  When they do biography movies many things don’t really happen just to intensify  the film.  You if are interested you read more about the person.  The film could have been cut a slightly.

SHOULD YOU WATCH:  If you like Charlamet and the rest of the cast-YES.

NOMINATED FOR:

BEST ACTOR

 

IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU

COMEDY DRAMA 

PLOT:  Linda (Rose Byrne) is a working mother with a sick child and she is a hot mess!

WHAT IS RIGHT:  Actress Rose Byrne is a therapist but she has more problems than her patients! Her emotions are anger, stress, drinking and drugging!  Byrne is great as woman who has too much on her plate.  Stunt casting the comic, late night host Conan O’ Brien is her therapist!  She funny and frightening at the same time. 

WHAT IS WRONG:  The director, Mary Bronstein tells the story in a strange way.  You may not understand it in the beginning but it is explained.

SHOULD YOU WATCH:  YES!!!  If you want to see GREAT acting!

NOMINATED FOR:

BEST ACTRESS

 

BLUE MOON

BIOGRAPHY/DRAMA 

PLOT:  This is a movie about the great songwriter Lorenz Hart who wrote songs like Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan and Blue Moon.  His partner Richard Rogers who team up later with Oscar Hammerstein to create more outstanding songs.

WHAT IS RIGHT:  Ethan Hawk is fantastic as Lorenz Hart!  He is talented but he drank too much, erratic and could be gay.  The setting is in Sadri’s Restaurant which was popular in the 40s after Hart watch Oklahoma.  He is a sad, creative person.  He wants to be better but his bad habits get in the way.  Bobby Cannavale as Eddie, the bartender is very funny.  He is a supporting character in films but he shines in this one.

WHAT IS WRONG:  It is not wrong but the film is like classic Hollywood.  You find out much about the character through dialogue.  It is like a play on film.

SHOULD YOU WATCH:  YES!  If you like Lorenz Hart, his songs and Hawke’s performance a MUST SEE!

NOMINATED FOR:

BEST ACTOR

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY