When Georgia Hunt (Rachel Boston) was in high school, she was the queen of the school. She was a cheerleader, a member of the Glee Club, and a member of the Speech and Debate team. She was voted Most Likely To Succeed. Ten years later, Georgia is the unappreciated assistant to a haughty fashion designer and she feels like a failure. While visiting her mother (Marilu Henner), Georgia discovers that her class reunion is coming up. Georgia decides to go because she wants to win back her high school boyfriend, Craig (Jon Prescott).
I could tell that this movie was made back when Glee was still a big thing because there’s a whole subplot about the former members of the Glee Club getting back together and performing three numbers at the reunion. When Georgia wasn’t performing on stage, she was in the old practice hall and singing a song with her best friend from high school, Ben (Johnathan Bennett). The Glee Club stuff felt really tacked on but I was happy they went with the Glee stuff instead of having Georgia try to do something stupid and put on her old cheerleader uniform and lead everyone in a cheer. But then Georgia went ahead and did that anyways.
I had some issues with this movie. A major one was what school holds a class reunion a week before Christmas? What type of high school would still have ten year-old graffiti in its bathroom? Georgia somehow opens up her old locker and finds the key to the principal’s office that she hid in there during her senior year and we’re just supposed to accept that no one else has noticed that key in ten years time. (If I went to my former high school tonight and spent hours studying all the lockers, I would still never be able to remember which one used to be mine.) Also, there were a lot of flashback scenes to when everyone was supposed to be a teenager but there wasn’t much effort made to make anyone look younger. My biggest problem was that Craig treated Georgia like crap in high school and at the reunion but she still kept chasing after him even though Ben was obviously in love with her. I didn’t have much sympathy for Georgia. She just seemed pretty dumb about the whole thing.
Christmas Crush shows that you can’t go back to high school, no matter how much you might want to. It’s always better to live in the present.
It seems kind of strange in today’s world of non-stop streaming, but there was a time when you would purchase a blu-ray of a movie, and they’d give you a free “digital” copy of the movie. In 2009, I purchased the blu-ray for THE HANGOVER and added the digital copy of the movie to my laptop that I kept at my tax and accounting office. Every night during the 2010 tax season, I would go home around 5:00 for dinner, and then I’d go back to the office at 7:00 to continue my work. When I’d get back to the office, I would always play two copies of digital movies on my laptop… first, I’d play THE HANGOVER and next, I’d play ZOMBIELAND. When those two movies would end, usually by around 11:00, I’d head home. Needless to say, I got to know each of these movies very well and love them both.
In director Todd Phillips’ THE HANGOVER, the night before his wedding, groom-to-be Doug (Justin Bartha), his two best friends, Phil and Stu (Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms), and his soon-to-be brother-in-law Alan (Zach Galifianakis), head to Las Vegas for a wild and exciting bachelor party. After taking some Jagermeister shots on the roof of Caesar’s Palace, the movie screen goes black, and soon we see Phil, Stu and Alan wake up in their hotel room with absolutely no memory of what happened the previous night. The room is trashed, there’s a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, Alan doesn’t have on any pants, Stu is missing his lateral incisor, and Doug is nowhere to be found! With the wedding just hours away, the three friends follow any clues they can find in a frantic search for Doug. The search leads to the surprise discovery of a new stripper wife for Stu, the naked and dangerous Asian gangster Chow (Ken Jeong), who jumps out of the trunk of their car and attacks Phil with a crowbar, and Alan being tasered in the face by a kid visiting the Vegas police station. Hell, at one point Alan even gets punched out by Mike Tyson! More importantly, though, will they find Doug alive and have time to get him back to Los Angeles for his wedding?!!
A massive box office hit in the summer of 2009, THE HANGOVER became the highest grossing R-rated comedy up to that time, with a worldwide gross of $469 million against a budget of $35 million. One of the keys to the film’s success is its clever and unique premise, comprised of a mystery-driven plot line where we follow the detective-like adventures of Phil, Stu, and Alan and discover what the hell happened the night before at the same times that they do. This allows for a series of outrageous, raunchy, surprising, and hilarious comedic moments that escalate in absurdity over the course of the film’s 100-minute running time, culminating with an almost unbelievable roll of pictures on Stu’s camera that fill in the crazy events from their wild night in Vegas. Most movies, even comedies, don’t result in me laughing out loud. I laughed out loud frequently that first time I watched THE HANGOVER back in 2009, and I still do. It’s also a movie that, since that 2010 tax season, I have quoted endlessly in my personal life, whether it be “Classic,” to “Thanks a lot, Bin Laden,” and even “It’s not a purse, it’s called a satchel. Indiana Jones wears one.” I never know exactly when something will happen in my personal life that reminds me of THE HANGOVER, but if the time is right for an “in the face,” I’m always ready!
Of course, the comedy in THE HANGOVER would not work without the great direction from Todd Phillips, as well as the exceptional performances and chemistry between Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis. Phillips moves things along at a perfect pace, allowing for tons of laughs, while propelling the story forward to its conclusion. He also seems to capture the chaos and “what happens in” feeling of an out-of-control night in Vegas. And when I watched the film, I was reminded of people in my own life who share certain traits with some of the characters, especially those played by Cooper and Helms. As such, the interactions between the characters seems natural and familiar to me, which makes it even funnier. Luckily, I can’t think of any friends like Galifianakis’ eccentric character, but that’s probably a good thing for my real life. In the context of the movie, however, he steals the film with his deadpan delivery.
Ultimately, THE HANGOVER became a cultural phenomenon that launched a series of three films that grossed over $1.4 billion worldwide. It’s blend of clever writing, great casting and performances, and most importantly, great comedic moments, makes it one of my favorite comedies of the 21st century.
Lethal Weapon 2 is the kind of sequel that doesn’t really try to reinvent what worked the first time so much as crank the volume on everything: the action is bigger, the jokes come faster, and the chaos feels almost constant. Depending on what you loved about Lethal Weapon, that approach delivers more of the high-energy partnership in a flashier package. It’s a confident, very entertaining 80s action movie that knows it’s a sequel and leans into the spectacle that status allows.
Plot-wise, Lethal Weapon 2 wastes no time reminding you what this world feels like. It drops Riggs and Murtaugh into a wild car chase almost immediately, and from there the story locks onto a case involving South African diplomats hiding behind apartheid-era “diplomatic immunity” while running a massive drug and money-laundering operation. It’s a cleaner, more high-concept hook than the original’s murkier web of Vietnam vets and heroin smuggling, and the script makes the villains broad on purpose, almost cartoonishly arrogant, to give the audience someone very easy to hate. The trade-off is that the plot feels a bit more mechanical this time; you always know who the bad guys are and what the destination is, so the film’s real energy comes from the detours, jokes, and set-pieces rather than any mystery.
One of the big shifts from Lethal Weapon to Lethal Weapon 2 is tone. The first film balanced brutal violence and dark humor with a surprisingly heavy focus on Riggs’ suicidal grief and Murtaugh’s fear of getting too old for the job. The sequel keeps those elements in the background but leans harder into banter, slapstick timing, and outrageous gags like the now-famous exploding toilet sequence, with Richard Donner’s direction pushing the script toward action comedy. It’s still R-rated and not shy about blood or cruelty, but the emotional intensity is dialed down compared to the original’s raw edges.
Mel Gibson and Danny Glover remain the anchor, and their chemistry is as sharp as ever. Gibson’s Riggs is still reckless and unhinged, but there’s a looser, more playful side to him this time; he’s less haunted and more of a live-wire prankster until the story gives him something personal to latch onto. Glover’s Murtaugh continues to be the grounded center, constantly exasperated and always half a step away from just walking off the job, and the film has a lot of fun putting his straight-man persona through increasingly humiliating situations while still letting him be competent when it counts. Compared to the first film, where their partnership slowly thawed from suspicion to genuine trust, Lethal Weapon 2 starts from “these guys are already a team” and builds its best moments from how comfortably they now bounce off each other.
The biggest new ingredient is Joe Pesci as Leo Getz, a federal witness turned tagalong who basically functions as the franchise’s third stooge. Pesci leans into the motor-mouthed, paranoid, endlessly complaining energy that would become his signature, and his presence tips some scenes from gritty cop story into broad comedy. He undercuts tension at times, but he also gives the movie a different rhythm, especially in the quieter in-between beats where the first film might have lingered more on Riggs’ inner damage.
In terms of action, Donner clearly has more money and confidence to play with, and it shows. The chases are bigger, the shootouts are staged with a slicker sense of geography, and there’s a steady escalation in scale that makes the film feel like a genuine summer sequel rather than just another mid-budget cop movie. The original had a grimy, street-level intensity, with brutal fistfights and sudden bursts of violence; Lethal Weapon 2 is more interested in creative set-pieces, crowd-pleasing payoffs, and moments designed to make an audience cheer. It’s less intimate, but it is rarely dull.
Where the film lands in a more complicated space is its attempt to keep some emotional stakes alive while also going bigger and funnier. Riggs’ grief over the loss of his wife is still part of his character, and the story finds ways to poke at that wound again, including a new relationship that lets him imagine some kind of future beyond the constant death wish. Those beats are there to echo what worked so well in the first movie, but they have less room to breathe, often getting squeezed between an action scene and a joke instead of shaping the entire film’s tone. You can feel the push and pull between wanting to keep the darker emotional spine and delivering the kind of lighter, more easily marketable sequel a studio would understandably chase.
The villains themselves are effective in that pulpy 80s way: not nuanced, but very punchable. Arjen Rudd, with his smug talk of “diplomatic immunity,” is a villain designed to make audiences grind their teeth, and his main henchman adds a physically intimidating, quietly sadistic presence to the mix. Compared to the original’s more grounded ex-military antagonists, these guys feel one step closer to Bond territory, and that shift mirrors the film’s overall move toward heightened, almost comic-book stakes. What the sequel loses in plausibility, it gains in revenge-fantasy satisfaction.
When stacked directly against Lethal Weapon, the second film feels like a classic case of “if you liked hanging out with these characters once, here’s more time with them.” The original is tighter, more emotionally focused, and arguably more distinctive, with a stronger sense of danger and genuine unpredictability around Riggs’ mental state. Lethal Weapon 2 smooths some of those jagged edges and replaces them with quips, bigger set-pieces, and a more overtly crowd-pleasing structure, which makes it an easier, more consistently fun watch but also a slightly less resonant one. It is still a good film, but in many ways it is also the moment where the franchise shifts from a character-driven cop thriller with action to a full-on action-comedy machine.
As a fair, middle-of-the-road assessment, Lethal Weapon 2 works very well on its own terms and delivers exactly what most people want out of a late-80s buddy-cop sequel. The chemistry is intact, the action is energetic, and the film moves with the kind of confident pace that never really lets you get bored. At the same time, the tonal tilt toward broader humor and more cartoonish villains means it doesn’t quite have the same staying power or emotional punch as Lethal Weapon, especially if what hooked you the first time was how wounded and volatile it all felt. For fans of the original, it’s an enjoyable continuation—a louder, flashier second round that may not hit as hard, but still knows how to entertain.
Spielberg. Williams. Koepp. Kaminski. What the heck is Disclosure Day?
The teaser trailer for Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day hit my phone via Letterbox’d. This is connected to those weird X-Files looking posters I’ve been seeing as of late. It looks like another film with aliens, similar to Close Encounters of the Third Kind with a dash of Zemekis’ Contact or sprinkle of Villeneuve’s Arrival. The film stars Josh O’Connor (Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery), Emily Blunt (Jungle Cruise), Colin Firth (Kingsman), Coleman Domingo (The Running Man), Wyatt Russell (Marvel’s Thunderbolts), and Eve Newson (Robin Hood).
Spielberg and Koepp have a good track record together with the Jurassic Park films, and it’a always good to see a pairing with John Williams. Still, this all looks really weird. Either way, we’ll find out when the film is released next June.
The Kansas City Film Critics Circle have announced their nominations for the best of 2025! And here they are:
BEST FILM Frankenstein Hamnet It Was Just an Accident Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sentimental Value Sinners Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Weapons
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another Ari Aster – Eddington Ryan Coogler – Sinners Rian Johnson – Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Guillermo del Toro – Frankenstein Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value
BEST ACTOR Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another Michael B. Jordan – Sinners Joel Edgerton – Train Dreams Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
BEST ACTRESS Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Jessie Buckley – Hamnet Jennifer Lawrence – Die My Love Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value Emma Stone – Bugonia
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Benicio Del Toro – One Battle After Another Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein Delroy Lindo – Sinners Josh O’Connor – Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Glenn Close – Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value Amy Madigan – Weapons Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Marty Supreme Sentimental Value Sinners Sorry, Baby Weapons
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Frankenstein Hamnet The Life of Chuck One Battle After Another Train Dreams
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY F1 The Movie Frankenstein Hamnet One Battle After Another Sinners
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE The Fantastic Four: First Steps Frankenstein One Battle After Another Sinners Tron: Ares
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Arco The Bad Guys 2 KPop Demon Hunters Predator: Killer of Killers Zootopia 2
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Arco It Was Just an Accident No Other Choice The Secret Agent Sentimental Value
BEST DOCUMENTARY My Mom Jayne Orwell: 2+2=5 The Perfect Neighbor Secret Mall Apartment We Best the Dream Team
VINCE KOEHLER AWARD FOR BEST SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY/HORROR 28 Years Later Frankenstein Sinners Superman Weapons
TOM POE AWARD FOR BEST LGBTQ FILM Hedda The History of Sound Twinless Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery The Wedding Banquet
BUSTER KEATON AWARD FOR THE BEST STUNT ENSEMBLE FILM F1 The Movie Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Nobody 2 The Running Man Warfare
Here are the 2025 nominations of the Las Vegas Film Critics Society.
BEST PICTURE Frankenstein Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners Train Dreams
BEST ACTOR Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another Joel Edgerton – Train Dreams Michael B. Jordan – Sinners Jesse Plemons – Bugonia
BEST ACTRESS Jessie Buckley – Hamnet Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value Amanda Seyfried – The Testament of Ann Lee Emma Stone – Bugonia
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein Delroy Lindo – Sinners Sean Penn – One Battle After Another Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Emily Blunt – The Smashing Machine Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value Ariana Grande – Wicked: For Good Amy Madigan – Weapons Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another
BEST DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro – Frankenstein Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another Ryan Coogler – Sinners Clint Bentley – Train Dreams
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Marty Supreme Sentimental Value Sinners Sorry, Baby Weapons
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Bugonia Frankenstein No Other Choice One Battle After Another Train Dreams
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY F1: The Movie Frankenstein One Battle After Another Sinners Train Dreams
BEST FILM EDITING F1: The Movie Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners Train Dreams
BEST SCORE F1: The Movie Frankenstein One Battle After Another Sinners Tron: Ares
BEST SONG Clothed by the Sun – The Testament of Ann Lee Drive – F1: The Movie Golden – KPop Demon Hunters I Lied to You – Sinners Train Dreams – Train Dreams
BEST DOCUMENTARY The Alabama Solution Come See Me in the Good Light Cover Up John Candy: I Like Me The Perfect Neighbor
BEST ANIMATED FILM Arco Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba The Movie: Infinity Castle In Your Dreams KPop Demon Hunters Zootopia 2
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM It Was Just an Accident Left-Handed Girl No Other Choice Sentimental Value The Secret Agent
BEST COSTUME DESIGN Frankenstein Hamnet Kiss of the Spider Woman Sinners Wicked: For Good
BEST ART DIRECTION Avatar: Fire and Ash Frankenstein Marty Supreme Sinners Wicked: For Good
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS Avatar: Fire and Ash F1: The Movie Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Superman The Fantastic Four: First Steps
BEST ACTION FILM From the World of John Wick: Ballerina Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Predator: Badlands Superman The Running Man
BEST COMEDY Eternity Friendship The Ballad of Wallis Island The Naked Gun One of Them Days
BEST HORROR / SCI-FI 28 Years Later Bring Her Back Frankenstein Sinners The Long Walk
BEST FAMILY FILM How to Train Your Dragon KPop Demon Hunters Lilo & Stitch The Legend of Ochi Zootopia 2
BEST ANIMAL PERFORMANCE Bing, the Great Dane – The Friend Hercules, the Dog – Marty Supreme Indy – Good Boy Olga, the Cat – Sorry, Baby Richard and Baba – The Penguin Lessons
BEST ENSEMBLE Jay Kelly Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sentimental Value Sinners
BREAKOUT FILMMAKER Clint Bentley – Train Dreams Drew Hancock – Companion Emilie Blichfeldt – The Ugly Stepsister Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby James Sweeney – Twinless
BEST STUNTS F1: The Movie From the World of John Wick: Ballerina Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Predator: Badlands The Running Man
YOUTH MALE PERFORMANCE (UNDER 21) Christian Convery – Frankenstein / The Monkey Jacobi Jupe – Hamnet John Wren Phillips – Bring Her Back Mason Thames – How to Train Your Dragon Miles Canton – Sinners
FEMALE YOUTH PERFORMANCE (UNDER 21) Helena Zengel – The Legend of Ochi Maia Kealoha – Lilo & Stitch Nina Ye – Left-Handed Girl Shannon Mahina Gorman – Rental Family Sora Wong – Bring Her Back
WILLIAM HOLDEN LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Kathryn Bigelow Barbara Broccoli Kathleen Kennedy Delroy Lindo Sigourney Weaver
Here are the quirky nominations of the Florida Film Critics Circle! Love you, Florida!
BEST PICTURE Grand Tour The Mastermind No Other Choice One Battle After Another Sinners
ACTOR Lee Byung-hun (No Other Choice) Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme) Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another) Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent) Josh O’Connor (The Mastermind)
ACTRESS Crista Alfaiate (Grand Tour) Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You) Jennifer Lawrence (Die My Love) Renée Zellweger (Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS Rita Cortese (Most People Die on Sundays) Amy Madigan (Weapons) Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another) Mia Threapleton (The Phoenician Scheme)
SUPPORTING ACTOR Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another) Jacques Develay (Misericordia) David Jonsson (The Long Walk) Delroy Lindo (Sinners) Sean Penn (One Battle After Another)
ENSEMBLE Eephus One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sentimental Value Sinners
DIRECTOR Ryan Coogler (Sinners) Bi Gan (Resurrection) Kelly Reichardt (The Mastermind) Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another) Park Chan-wook (No Other Choice)
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY The Astronaut Lovers (Marco Berger) If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein) It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi) Rent Free (Fernando Andrés & Tyler Rugh) Sentimental Value (Eskil Vogt & Joachim Trier) Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Bugonia (Will Tracy) Hamnet (Chloé Zhao & Maggie O’Farrell) Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (Liane-Cho Han, Aude Py, Maïlys Vallade & Eddine Noël) No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, Lee Ja-hye) One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
CINEMATOGRAPHY Grand Tour (Gui Liang, Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Rui Poças) One Battle After Another (Michael Bauman & Paul Thomas Anderson) Resurrection (Dong Jingsong) Sinners (Autumn Durald Arkapaw) Sirāt (Mauro Herce)
VISUAL EFFECTS Avatar: Fire and Ash Frankenstein No Other Choice Resurrection Sinners
EDITING Die My Love (Toni Froschhammer) No Other Choice (Kim Sang-bum & Kim Ho-bin) Marty Supreme (Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie) One Battle After Another (Andy Jurgensen) Sinners (Michael P. Shawver)
PRODUCTION DESIGN & ART DIRECTION Frankenstein The Phoenician Scheme Resurrection The Secret Agent Sinners
ORIGINAL SCORE The Mastermind (Rob Mazurek) One Battle After Another (Jonny Greenwood) Sinners (Ludwig Göransson) Sirāt (Kangding Ray) Resurrection (M83)
DOCUMENTARY BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
The Perfect Neighbor Predators River of Grass Sabbath Queen
INTERNATIONAL FILM Grand Tour It Was Just an Accident No Other Choice Resurrection The Secret Agent Sirāt
ANIMATED FEATURE 100 Meters Arco KPop Demon Hunters Little Amélie or the Character of Rain Zootopia 2
FIRST FILM BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions Eephus Lurker Sorry, Baby The Ugly Stepsister
BREAKOUT AWARD Miles Caton (Sinners) Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another) Jacobi Jupe (Hamnet) Théodore Pellerin (Lurker) Eva Victor (Sorry, Baby)
GOLDEN ORANGE River of Grass – Sasha Wortzel No Sleep Till – Alexandra Simpson
Yesterday, the Indiana Film Journalists Association announced its picks for the best of 2025. The winners are listed in bold.
BEST FILM 28 Years Later Black Bag Bob Trevino Likes It Bugonia Frankenstein Friendship Hamnet Jay Kelly The Life of Chuck Marty Supreme No Other Choice One Battle After Another (RUNNER-UP) The Phoenician Scheme The Plague Sinners (WINNER) Splitsville Superman Train Dreams Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Weapons
Other Best Film Finalists / Top 10 Films: (listed alphabetically)
Bob Trevino Likes It
Hamnet
The Life of Chuck
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
Train Dreams
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Weapons
BEST ANIMATED FILM In Your Dreams KPop Demon Hunters (WINNER) The Legend of Hei 2 (RUNNER-UP) Little Amélie Or The Character Of Rain Ne Zha 2 Predator: Killer of Killers Zootopia 2
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Cloud It Was Just an Accident Left-Handed Girl No Other Choice (WINNER) Reflection In A Dead Diamond Rental Family The Secret Agent Sentimental Value (RUNNER-UP) Universal Language The Voice of Hind Rajab
BEST DOCUMENTARY Are We Good? Deaf President Now! Disposable Humanity Grand Theft Hamlet Hacking at Leaves Orwell: 2+2=5 (RUNNER-UP) Pavements The Perfect Neighbor The Tenderness Tour (WINNER)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Noah Baumbach and Emily Mortimer – Jay Kelly Mary Bronstein – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme (RUNNER-UP) Ryan Coogler – Sinners (WINNER) Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin – Splitsville Zach Cregger – Weapons David Koepp – Black Bag Tracie Laymon – Bob Trevino Likes It Jafar Panahi – It Was Just an Accident Charlie Polinger – The Plague
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another (WINNER) Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar – Train Dreams Guillermo del Toro – Frankenstein Mike Flanagan – The Life of Chuck (RUNNER-UP) Alex Garland – 28 Years Later Dan Gregor, Doug Mand, and Akiva Schaffer – The Naked Gun James Gunn – Superman Rian Johnson – Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar and Lee Ja-hye – No Other Choice Will Tracy – Bugonia
BEST DIRECTOR Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another (WINNER) Clint Bentley – Train Dreams Ryan Coogler – Sinners (RUNNER-UP) Michael Angelo Covino – Splitsville Zach Cregger – Weapons James Gunn – Superman Park Chan-wook – No Other Choice Charlie Polinger – The Plague Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme Steven Soderbergh – Black Bag
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE Everett Blunck – The Plague Jessie Buckley – Hamnet (RUNNER-UP) Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme (WINNER) David Corenswet – Superman Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another Joel Edgerton – Train Dreams Michael Fassbender – Black Bag Barbie Ferreira – Bob Trevino Likes It Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon Michael B. Jordan – Sinners Liam Neeson – The Naked Gun Josh O’Connor – Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Jesse Plemons – Bugonia Emma Stone – Bugonia
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE Pamela Anderson – The Naked Gun Miles Caton – Sinners Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another (WINNER) Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein Nicholas Hoult – Superman Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another John Leguizamo – Bob Trevino Likes It Amy Madigan – Weapons (RUNNER-UP) Paul Mescal – Hamnet Sean Penn – One Battle After Another Adam Sandler – Jay Kelly Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value French Stewart – Bob Trevino Likes It Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another
BEST VOCAL / MOTION-CAPTURE PERFORMANCE Oona Chaplin – Avatar: Fire And Ash Ebon Moss-Bachrach – The Fantastic Four: First Steps (RUNNER-UP) Will Patton – Train Dreams (WINNER) Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi – Predator: Badlands Zhu Jing – The Legend of Hei 2
BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING Black Bag Bugonia The Life of Chuck Marty Supreme One Battle After Another (RUNNER-UP) The Plague Sinners (WINNER) Superman Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Weapons
BEST EDITING Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme Barry Alexander Brown and Allyson C. Johnson – Highest 2 Lowest Mike Flanagan – The Life of Chuck Jon Harris – 28 Years Later Andy Jurgensen – One Battle After Another (RUNNER-UP) Kim Sang-bum – No Other Choice Brian Scott Olds – The Naked Gun Sara Shaw – Splitsville Michael P. Shawver – Sinners (WINNER) Steven Soderbergh – Black Bag
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Autumn Durald Arkapaw – Sinners (WINNER) Michael Bauman – One Battle After Another (RUNNER-UP) Steven Breckon – The Plague Darius Khondji – Marty Supreme Dan Laustsen – Frankenstein Anthony Dod Mantle – 28 Years Later Larkin Seiple – Weapons Steven Soderbergh – Black Bag Fraser Taggart – Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Adolpho Veloso – Train Dreams
BEST MUSICAL SCORE Jerskin Fendrix – Bugonia Ludwig Göransson – Sinners (WINNER) Jonny Greenwood – One Battle After Another (RUNNER-UP) Ryan Holladay, Hays Holladay and Zach Cregger – Weapons David Holmes – Black Bag Johan Lenox – The Plague Daniel Lopatin – Marty Supreme John Murphy and David Fleming – Superman Nine Inch Nails – Tron: Ares Young Fathers – 28 Years Later
BEST STUNT / MOVEMENT CHOREOGRAPHY Wade Eastwood (second unit director / stunt coordinator) – Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (WINNER) Timothy Eulich (stunt coordinator) – Eddington Tyler Hall (stunt coordinator / stunt driver) and Dave McKeown (stunt coordinator) – Splitsville Brian Machleit (stunt coordinator) – One Battle After Another (RUNNER-UP) Mandy Moore (choreographer) – The Life of Chuck Alain Moussi (stunt coordinator), Brahim Chab (fight coordinator), László Kósa (stunt coordinator, Hungary) and Balázs Lengyel (fight coordinator, Hungary) – Fight or Flight Celia Rowlson-Hall (choreographer) – The Testament of Ann Lee Jacob Tomuri (stunt coordinator) – Predator: Badlands
BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS Dennis Berardi, Ayo Burgess and Ivan Busquets (VFX supervisors) and José Granell (miniatures / models supervisor) – Frankenstein (WINNER) Jeff Capogreco (VFX supervisor), Dave Funston (VFX supervisor, OPSIS), Ross McCabe (VFX supervisor, Image Engine), Abishek Nair (VFX supervisor, Industrial Light and Magic / VFX supervisor, second unit), Vincent Papaix (VFX supervisor, Industrial Light and Magic) and Cameron Waldbauer (SFX supervisor) – Tron: Ares Stephane Ceretti, Enrico Damm, Stéphane Nazé and Guy Williams (VFX supervisors) – Superman Olivier Dumont and Sheldon Stopsack (VFX supervisors, Wētā), Kathy Siegel (VFX producer / co-producer) and Karl Rapley (animation supervisor, Wētā) – Predator: Badlands Dan Glass, Chris McLaughlin and Stuart Penn (VFX supervisors) and Dominic Tuohy (SFX supervisor) – Mickey 17 Joe Letteri (senior VFX supervisor), Richard Baneham (VFX supervisor, Lightstorm / virtual second unit director), Eric Saindon (senior VFX supervisor, Wētā Digital) and Daniel Barrett (senior animation supervisor, Wētā Digital) – Avatar: Fire And Ash Charlie Noble (VFX supervisor), David Zaretti (VFX supervisor, ILM), Russell Bowen (VFX supervisor, beloFX) and Brandon K. McLaughlin (SFX coordinator) – The Lost Bus Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl and Guido Wolter (VFX supervisors) and Donnie Dean (SFX coordinator) – Sinners (RUNNER-UP) Scott Stokdyk (VFX supervisor, Marvel), Robert Allman (VFX supervisor, Framestore), Daniele Bigi (VFX supervisor, ILM), Theodore Bialek (VFX supervisor, SPI) and Alistair Williams (SFX supervisor) – The Fantastic Four: First Steps
BREAKOUT OF THE YEAR Clint Bentley (director / co-writer) – Train Dreams Everett Blunck (performer) – The Plague Miles Caton (performer) – Sinners (RUNNER-UP) Aidan Delbis (performer) – Bugonia Chase Infiniti (performer) – One Battle After Another (WINNER) Jacobi Jupe (performer) – Hamnet Tracie Laymon (director / writer) – Bob Trevino Likes It Charlie Polinger (director / writer) – The Plague Eva Victor (director / writer / performer) – Sorry, Baby Alfie Williams (performer) – 28 Years Later
ORIGINAL VISION Good Boy (WINNER) If I Had Legs I’d Kick You One Battle After Another The Plague Reflection In A Dead Diamond The Testament of Ann Lee (RUNNER-UP) Train Dreams
The Edward Johnson-Ott Hoosier Award
Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another
The members of the Phoenix Film Critics Circle challenge their rivals in the Phoenix Film Critics Society.
The other Phoenix film critics group — the Phoenix Film Critics Society — yesterday announced their picks for the best of 2025. And here they are:
PFCS 2025 TOP TEN (in alphabetical order) Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another (WINNER: Best Picture) Sinners Song Sung Blue Sorry, Baby The Life of Chuck The Long Walk Train Dreams
BEST PICTURE One Battle After Another
BEST DIRECTOR Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another
BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING Sinners
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Sinners
BEST SCREENPLAY ADAPTED FROM OTHER MATERIAL One Battle After Another
THE OVERLOOKED FILM OF THE YEAR The Life of Chuck
BEST ANIMATED FILM Zootopia 2
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM No Other Choice
BEST DOCUMENTARY The Perfect Neighbor
BEST ORIGINAL SONG I Lied to You – Sinners
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE Sinners
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Sinners
BEST FILM EDITING One Battle After Another
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN Frankenstein
BEST COSTUME DESIGN Sinners
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS Avatar: Fire and Ash
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another
Tis the season that hardworking New York reporters find themselves stranded in snowy middle America and end up falling in love while saving historic inns! In 2017’s Snowed Inn Christmas, the two reporters are played by Bethany Joy Lenz and Andrew W. Walker and the inn is located in Santa Claus, Indiana.
Yes, it’s predictable. Most of these films are. That’s actually a huge part of their appeal. They take place in a much more innocent world and they celebrate the holiday season without shame or snarkiness. The important thing is that Bethany Joy Lenz and Andrew W. Walker eventually make for a cute couple and the snowy scenery is really nice to look at.
Through the Shattered Lens 