Here Are The 2024 Nominations of the Minnesota Film Critics Association!

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Minnesota Film Critics Association has announced its nominees for the best of 2024. The winners will be announced on January 10th.

Best Picture
The Brutalist
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
The Substance

Best Director
Sean Baker – Anora
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
Luca Guadagnino – Challengers
Denis Villeneuve – Dune: Part Two

Best Actor
Adrien Brody as László Tóth – The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan – A Complete Unknown
Daniel Craig as William Lee – Queer
Colman Domingo as John “Divine G” Whitfield – Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes as Thomas Cardinal Lawrence – Conclave

Best Actress
Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp – Wicked
Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Pansy – Hard Truths
Mikey Madison as Anora “Ani” Mikheeva – Anora
Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle – The Substance
Zendaya as Tashi Duncan – Challengers

Best Supporting Actor
Yura Borisov as Igor – Anora
Kieran Culkin as Benji Kaplan – A Real Pain
Clarence Maclin as Himself – Sing Sing
Edward Norton as Pete Seeger – A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce as Harrison Lee Van Buren – The Brutalist

Best Supporting Actress
Ariana Grande as Galinda Upland – Wicked
Felicity Jones as Erzsébet Tóth – The Brutalist
Margaret Qualley as Sue – The Substance
Isabella Rossellini as Sister Agnes – Conclave
Zoe Saldaña as Rita Mora Castro – Emilia Pérez

Best Ensemble
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Saturday Night
Sing Sing

Best Adapted Screenplay
Conclave – Peter Straughan
Dune: Part Two – Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts
Nickel Boys – RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes
Sing Sing – Clint Bently, Greg Kwedar
Wicked – Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox

Best Original Screenplay
Anora – Sean Baker
The Brutalist – Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold
Challengers – Justin Kurtizkes
A Real Pain – Jesse Eisenberg
The Substance – Coralie Fargeat

Best Film Editing
The Brutalist
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Best Cinematography
The Brutalist
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu

Best Music
The Brutalist
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Wicked

Best Costume Design
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Nosferatu
Wicked

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
A Different Man
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked

Best Production Design
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Nosferatu
Wicked

Best Sound
Challengers
A Complete Unknown
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
The Substance

Best Special Effects
Alien: Romulus
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes
The Substance

Best Stunt Choreography
Deadpool & Wolverine
Dune: Part Two
The Fall Guy
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Gladiator II

Best International Feature
The Beast – France, Canada
Emilia Pérez – France
Evil Does Not Exist – Japan
Flow – Belgium, France, Latvia
The Seed Of The Sacred Fig – Iran, Germany, France

Best Animated Feature
Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir Of A Snail
Transformers One
The Wild Robot

Here Are The 2024 Nominations of the Music City Film Critics Association!

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Music City Film Critics Association (that’s Nashville) has announced its nominees for the best of of 2024! The winners will be announced on January 10th.

BEST PICTURE
Anora
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nickel Boys
Nosferatu
Sing Sing
The Brutalist
The Substance
Wicked

THE JIM RIDLEY AWARD
Close Your Eyes
Eno
Hundreds of Beavers
The People’s Joker
The Substance

BEST DIRECTOR
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
Denis Villeneuve – Dune: Part Two
RaMell Ross – Nickel Boys
Robert Eggers – Nosferatu

BEST ACTRESS
Cynthia Erivo – Wicked
Demi Moore – The Substance
Lily Rose-Depp – Nosferatu
Mikey Madison – Anora
Nicole Kidman – Babygirl

BEST ACTOR
Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Sebastian Stan – A Different Man
Timothee Chalamet – A Complete Unknown

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Ariana Grande – Wicked
Katy O Brian – Love Lies Bleeding
Margaret Qualley – The Substance
Monica Barbaro – A Complete Unknown
Zoe Saldana – Emilia Pérez

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Clarence Maclin – Sing Sing
Denzel Washington – Gladiator II
Guy Pearce – The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong – The Apprentice
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain

YOUNG ACTRESS
Alisha Weir – Abigail
Alyla Brown – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Ariel Donoghue – Trap
Beatrice Schneider – The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Maisy Stella – My Old Ass

YOUNG ACTOR
Elliott Heffernam – Blitz
Ethan Herisse – Nickel Boys
Griffin Kramer – The People’s Joker
Ian Foreman – I Saw the TV Glow
Izaac Wang – Didi

BEST ENSEMBLE
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Saturday Night
Sing Sing
Wicked

BEST MUSIC FILM
A Complete Unknown
Emilia Pérez
Kneecap
Piece by Piece
Wicked

ANIMATED FILM
Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot

DOCUMENTARY
Daughters
No Other Land
Sugarcane
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Will & Harper

INTERNATIONAL FILM
Emilia Pérez
Flow
I’m Still Here
Red Rooms
The Seed of the Sacred Fig

SCREENPLAY
A Real Pain
Anora
Challengers
The Brutalist
The Substance

ORIGINAL SONG
Claw Machine – I Saw the TV Glow
Compress/Repress – Challengers
El Mal – Emilia Pérez
Kiss the Sky – The Wild Robot
Like a Bird – Sing Sing

SCORE
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nickel Boys
The Brutalist

SOUND
Civil War
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nickel Boys
Nosferatu
The Brutalist

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Hundreds of Beavers
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
The Brutalist
Wicked

EDITING
Anora
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
The Brutalist

STUNT WORK
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Gladiator II
Hundreds of Beavers
The Fall Guy

COMEDY
Deadpool & Wolverine
Hundreds of Beavers
My Old Ass
Saturday Night
Thelma

HORROR
Heretic
Late Night with the Devil
Nosferatu
Smile 2
The Substance

ACTION
Deadpool & Wolverine
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Kill
The Fall Guy

Song of the Day: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly — Main Theme (composed by Ennio Morricone)

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In honor of Sergio Leone’s birthday, today’s song of the day is the main theme from Leone’s best-known film, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Ennio Morricone’s score is as much of a character in this film as the ones played by Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, and Lee Van Cleef. It perfectly sets the moods, telling us that we’re about to see something that is truly epic. The opening notes, which have so often been parodied but which have never lost their power, truly capture the feel of Sergio Leone’s mythical vision of the old west.

Moments #16: Walking In The Fog

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Dazzling Erin

I woke up and saw that a thick fog had descended over the neighborhood. I know better than to let a good mist go to waste so I grabbed my camera and I went for a walk.

Previous Moments:

Lifetime Movie Review: The Wrong Life Coach (dir by David DeCoteau)

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2024’s The Wrong Life Coach, Morgan Bradley stars as Jordan Roberts, whose popularity as a high school cheerleader did little to prepare her for the pressures of adult life. Her career is going nowhere. Her boss (Vivica A. Fox) does not respect her. Her boyfriend (Hector David, Jr.) is bored with her and their vanilla sex life. Her mother (Tracy Nelson) is living with her and trying to control her life. Jordan needs someone to help her get her life together. She needs a life coach!

(Personally, I’ve never gotten the whole life coach thing but whatever. Apparently, it works for some people.)

A chance meeting with Liz Kimble (Allison McAtee) changes Jordan’s life. Though Jordan doesn’t really remember her, she and Liz went to high school together. And it turns out that Liz is now a life coach! Soon, Liz is encouraging Jordan to take sexy pictures, demand more from her career, and to stand up to her domineering mother!

At first, it all seems perfect. Except …. Liz is not a certified life coach! She’s just repeating a bunch of stuff that she heard from her own life coach, Rhonda (Meredith Thomas). It may sound like the start of a hilarious comedy but it turns out that Liz is a little bit crazy. Liz has never gotten over losing her spot on the cheerleading squad to Jordan and now, she’s determined to get revenge,

In quick order, Jordan loses her job, her relationship with her mother, and nearly her boyfriend as well! Plus, her best friend has gone missing! After Jordan tells Liz to get lost, Liz begins to obsessively stalk Jordan. What Jordan doesn’t know is that Liz has placed hidden cameras all over her house and she’s even hacked into Jordan’s email. Jordan thinks that she’s had a good job interview with Mr. Gordon. (Hey, it’s Eric Roberts!) But remember those lingerie-clad photos that Liz encouraged Jordan to send to her boyfriend? Well, those pictures end up getting sent to Mr. Gordon as well.

“I couldn’t hire you if I wanted to,” Mr. Gordon says. When even Eric Roberts refuses to work with you, you know you’ve asked the wrong person for advice!

“Girl, you listened the wrong life coach.”

She sure did!

I love the Lifetime “Wrong” films. The Wrong Life Coach is a tremendous amount of fun, from Allison McAtee’s over-the-top performance as Liz to the side-eye that Vivica A. Fox gives Jordan every time she makes a mistake. As always, with the “Wrong” films, director David DeCoteau fully embraces the melodrama and creates a film that’s so ludicrous that you can’t help but love it. Any director could make a film about a crazy life coach. But only David DeCoteau has the courage to have that life coach make her diabolical plans while wearing her old high school cheerleader uniform.

Watching this film reminded me of how much I love Lifetime and its demented films. I look forward to reviewing a lot more of them in 2025!

Hopefully, more than a few of them will feature Eric Roberts!

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

What did Director Sergio Leone think about working with Charles Bronson?

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Bradley Crain

On what would have been his 96th birthday, I want to take a moment and thank the great director Sergio Leone for sticking with my movie hero Charles Bronson throughout the 60’s. Leone had wanted to work with Bronson on FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, and THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY. Each time, Bronson turned him down for one reason or another. Finally, Bronson took him up on his offer to be one of the stars of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, a cast that included Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, and Jason Robards. Sergio Leone proceeded to make one of the great westerns and turn Charles Bronson into an international superstar. Reportedly, the director would go on to say after filming the movie that Bronson was the “greatest actor I ever worked with.” That’s indeed very high praise from a master filmmaker, and a testament to Charles Bronson’s talent.

And it’s even cooler that Sergio Leone and my son share the same birthday. I was today years old when I realized that awesome piece of information!

Live Tweet Alert: Join #FridayNightFlix For Money Plane!

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on Twitter and Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, at 10 pm et, #FridayNightFlix presents the greatest film ever, Money Plane!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

Money Plane is available on Prime! See you there!

Scenes That I Love: The Final Moments of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In America

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(SPOILERS BELOW)

The final moments of Sergio Leone’s epic 1984 gangster film, Once Upon A Time in America, are filed with questions and mysteries.

Who did Noodles (played by Robert De Niro) see standing outside of Max’s mansion? When the garbage truck pulled up, did the mysterious man get in the truck or was he thrown in by some unseen force?

Why, in 1968, did Noodles see a car from the 1920s, one that was full of people who appeared to be celebrating the end of prohibition? Was the car really there or was it an element of Noodles’s past as a gangster suddenly popping into his mind?

Once Upon A Time In America was Sergio Leone’s final film. It’s one that he spent decades trying to get made and, once it was finally produced, it was butchered and re-edited by a studio hacks who demanded that the film tell its story in a linear style. Leone was reportedly heart-broken by how his film was treated. Some have speculated that his disappointment may have even contributed to the heart attack that eventually killed him. It was only after Leone passed that his version of Once Upon A Time In America became widely available in the U.S. This enigmatic epic continues to spark debate. One thing that can’t be denied is that it’s a brilliant film.

As today is Leone’s birthday, it only seems appropriate to share a scene that I love, the final moments of Once Upon A Time In America.

The Substance Wins In Columbus

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Columbus Film Critics Association has named The Substance the best film of 2024!

Best Film
Anora
The Brutalist
Challengers
Civil War
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Love Lies Bleeding
Nickel Boys
Nosferatu
Sing Sing
The Substance

Best Director
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Robert Eggers – Nosferatu
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
RaMell Ross – Nickel Boys
Denis Villeneuve – Dune: Part Two

Best Lead Performance
Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown
Lily-Rose Depp – Nosferatu
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Cynthia Erivo – Wicked: Part I
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Hard Truths
Mikey Madison – Anora
Demi Moore – The Substance
Sebastian Stan – A Different Man

Best Supporting Performance
Yura Borisov – Anora
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain
Danielle Deadwyler – The Piano Lesson
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor – Nickel Boys
Ariana Grande-Butera – Wicked: Part I
Felicity Jones – The Brutalist
Clarence Maclin – Sing Sing
Edward Norton – A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce – The Brutalist
Margaret Qualley – The Substance
Zoe Saldana – Emilia Pérez
Bill Skarsgård – Nosferatu
Stanley Tucci – Conclave
Denzel Washington – Gladiator II

Best Ensemble
Anora
Challengers
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
The Piano Lesson
Sing Sing
Wicked: Part I

Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work)
Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown and Dune: Part Two
Nicholas Hoult – The Garfield Movie, Juror #2, Nosferatu, and The Order
Cailee Spaeny – Alien: Romulus and Civil War
Sebastian Stan – The Apprentice and A Different Man
Zendaya – Challengers and Dune: Part Two

Breakthrough Film Artist
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist – (for directing and screenwriting)
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance – (for directing, film editing, and screenwriting)
Clarence Maclin – Sing Sing – (for acting)
Mikey Madison – Anora – (for acting)
Dev Patel – Monkey Man – (for acting, directing, producing, and screenwriting)

Best Cinematography
Jarin Blaschke – Nosferatu
Lol Crawley – The Brutalist
Greig Fraser – Dune: Part Two
Jomo Fray – Nickel Boys
Benjamin Kracun – The Substance

Best Film Editing
Sean Baker – Anora
Marco Costa – Challengers
Jerome Eltabet, Coralie Fargeat, and Valentin Féron – The Substance
Nick Emerson – Conclave
Dávid Jancsó – The Brutalist
Nicholas Monsour – Nickel Boys

Best Adapted Screenplay
Robert Eggers – Nosferatu
RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes – Nickel Boys
Chris Sanders – The Wild Robot
Peter Straughan – Conclave
Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts – Dune: Part Two

Best Original Screenplay
Sean Baker – Anora
Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold – The Brutalist
Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
Justin Kuritzkes – Challengers

Best Score
Volker Bertelmann – Conclave
Daniel Blumberg – The Brutalist
Kris Bowers – The Wild Robot
Robin Carolan – Nosferatu
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – Challengers
Hans Zimmer – Dune: Part Two

Best Documentary
Daughters
No Other Land
Sugarcane
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Will & Harper

Best Foreign Language Film
All We Imagine as Light
Emilia Pérez
Evil Does Not Exist
Kneecap
The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Best Animated Film
Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot

Frank Gabrenya Award for Best Comedy
Babes
Hit Man
My Old Ass
A Real Pain
Saturday Night
Thelma

Best Overlooked Film
Didi
His Three Daughters
Hundreds of Beavers
The Last Stop in Yuma County
Snack Shack
Thelma

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Sergio Leone Edition

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Sergio Leone (1929 — 1989)

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

96 years ago today, Sergio Leone was born in Rome, Italy. The son of actor/screenwriter Vincenzo Leone and silent actress Edvige Valcarenghi, Sergio was born into the Italian film industry. He began his career in the post-war rebuilding period, working as an assistant to Vittorio De Sica and, as an assistant director, for American films that were shot in Italy. (Albeit uncredited, he worked on two Oscar-nominated Biblical epics, Quo Vadis and Ben-Hur.)

After making his directorial debut with The Colossus of Rhodes, Leone went on to direct the films that would change the face of international cinema. Though he was hardly the first director of Spaghetti westerns, he was was the first to achieve far-reaching acclaim. With the Dollars Trilogy, he made Clint Eastwood a star and Eastwood has often said that the majority of what he knows about directing, he learned from working with Leone and later Don Siegel. Leone went on to direct the brilliant Once Upon A Time In The West and Once Upon A Time in America, two epic visions of American history that, sadly, were not initially treated well by their distributors.

Though Leone is only credited with directing eight films, his influence cannot be underestimated. As both a visual artist and a cultural and political commentator, his films continue to influence directors to this day.

For that reason, it’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Sergio Leone Films