Last night, Awards Season began with the Gotham Awards! One Battle After Another, which I really don’t want to have to sit through but I guess now I have no choice, won Best Feature. (Oddly enough, that was the only award that One Battle After Another won, suggesting that the award had more to do with the film’s politics than its quality.) Far more interesting is the fact that Iranian dissident (who is facing prison if he even returns to his native country) Jafar Panahi won Best Director and Best Screenplay for It Was Just An Accident. Will the Academy have the courage to also honor him?
The winners are listed in bold below.
Best Feature Bugonia
East of Wall
Hamnet
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Lurker One Battle After Another
Sorry, Baby
The Testament of Ann Lee
Train Dreams
Best Director Mary Bronstein – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Jafar Panahi – It Was Just an Accident
Kelly Reichardt – The Mastermind
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Oliver Laxe – Sirât
Outstanding Lead Performance Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
Lee Byung-hun – No Other Choice
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Sopé Dìrísù – My Father’s Shadow
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
Jennifer Lawrence – Die My Love
Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent
Josh O’Connor – The Mastermind
Amanda Seyfried – The Testament of Ann Lee
Tessa Thompson – Hedda
Outstanding Supporting Performance Benicio Del Toro – One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value
Indya Moore – Father Mother Sister Brother Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
Adam Sandler – Jay Kelly
Andrew Scott – Blue Moon
Alexander Skarsgård – Pillion
Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another
Best Original Screenplay If I Had Legs I’d Kick You It Was Just an Accident
The Secret Agent
Sorry, Baby
Sound of Falling
Best Adapted Screenplay No Other Choice
One Battle After Another Pillion
Preparation for the Next Life
Train Dreams
Best International Feature It Was Just an Accident
No Other Choice
Nouvelle Vague
Resurrection
Sound of Falling
Best Documentary Feature 2000 Meters to Andriivka
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
The Perfect Neighbor
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
Breakthrough Director Constance Tsang – Blue Sun Palace
Carson Lund – Eephus
Sarah Friedland – Familiar Touch Akinola Davies Jr. – My Father’s Shadow
Harris Dickinson – Urchin
Breakthrough Performer A$AP Rocky – Highest 2 Lowest
Sebiye Behtiyar – Preparation for the Next Life
Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another Abou Sangaré – Souleymane’s Story
Tonatiuh – Kiss of the Spider Woman
It’s the holiday season and Ashley (Kari Hawker-Diaz), who has spent almost her entire life alone, needs a job. She has a nice apartment and a cute dog but no job. Fortunately, her neighbor, Nick (Bruce Davison), needs an assistant. It turns out that Nick is a bit of a Secret Santa, anonymously helping people. Nick makes Ashley promise not to reveal who she works for….
(Wait, Nick — SAINT NICK! I just got that. Anyway….)
But when a travel writer (K.C. Clyde) meets Ashley and discovers the truth about Nick’s involvement, it looks like the holidays might be ruined for everyone. Can the holiday season be saved?
Okay, obviously this is not a film for cynical people. I like it, though. December is my month to be earnest. It’s a cute movie and there’s a lot of romance in the snow. Bruce Davison isn’t in as much of the film as you might expect but he’s still the perfect Secret Santa. If you’re in need some holiday cheer, you watch it below!
My friends, it is 29 degrees this morning in Dallas! My fingers are freezing just trying to type this. So, as I jump back under the covers and try to stop shivering, let’s turn things over to the great Dean Martin with today’s song of the day!
Oh, the weather outside is frightful, But the fire is so delightful, And since we’ve no place to go, Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
It doesn’t show signs of stopping, And I brought some corn for popping; The lights are turned way down low, Let it snow, let it snow.
When we finally kiss good night, How I’ll hate going out in the storm; But if you really hold me tight, All the way home I’ll be warm.
The fire is slowly dying, And, my dear, we’re still good-bye-ing, But as long as you love me so, Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
When we finally kiss good night, How I’ll hate going out in the storm; But if you really hold me tight, All the way home I’ll be warm.
Oh, the fire is slowly dying, And, my dear, we’re still good-bye-ing, But as long as you love me so, Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
4 Shots From 4 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 is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
4 Shots From 4 Holiday Films
Holiday Inn (1942, dir by Mark Sandrich)
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946, dir by Frank Capra)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947, dir by George Seaton)
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983. The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!
This week’s episode features a future Oscar nominee!
Episode 5.2 “Vagabonds”
(Dir by Bruce Kessler, originally aired on October 11th, 1981)
The saying goes that “everyone had to start somewhere,” and, for actor Ed Harris, somewhere included guest-starring on an episode of CHiPs.
The future Oscar nominee appears as Lonny Wilson, the scion of a family of a hillbilly con artists. He and his brother, Daws (Jesse Vint), purposefully cause auto accidents and con their victims out of their money in return for not calling the police or the insurance company. Lonny’s young son, Jamie (James Calvert), is looking forward to joining the family business until he actually is injured while taking part in one of the family’s cons. Lonny reconsiders his way of life and, by the end of the episode, he’s cooperating with the highway patrol.
Does Ed Harris come across as being a future star in this episode? Well, he definitely has charisma. He has screen presence. That said, this is also CHiPs, a show that was mostly about capturing potentially serious auto accidents in slow motion. No one came across as being a future star on ChiPs and that was actually a part of the show’s appeal. The stars on CHiPs were always the motorcycles, the cars flipping over on the freeway, and Ponch’s blinding smile. That said, Ed Harris gives a good performance. For that matter, so does Jesse Vint as his brother. This is a well-acted episode of CHiPs. Such things do exist.
In all fairness, I should also note that, when this episode aired, Harris had already starred in George Romero’s Knightriders so, while Harris may not have been a household name, it’s probably still debatable whether or not this was really at the start of his career. Ultimately, the important thing is that, two years after appearing this episode, Ed Harris would play John Glenn in 1983’s The Right Stuff and firmly established himself as one of our best character actors.
As for this episode, it also features the Highway Patrol taking part in a “supercycle” race, which is a race featuring bicycles that you lie down on as you peddle. I don’t know why anyone would want to do that but whatever. Jon Baker wins. Yay, Highway Patrol!
On that note of victory, Retro Television Reviews is going on a holiday break so that I can focus on the Oscar precursor awards and reviewing Christmas movies so this will be last CHiPs review of 2025! CHiPs will return on January 5th, 2026!
Whatever else one may want to say about it, 1996’s Jingle All The Way is a cute film.
It’s necessary to point that out because Jingle All The Way has a terrible reputation and, if we’re going to be honest, it deserves a lot of the criticism that it has gotten over the years. In many ways, it epitomizes the way a Hollywood studio can take an interesting idea and then produce a film that seems to have no understanding of what made that idea so interesting in the first place. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Howard Langston, an overworked mattress store manager who waits until Christmas Eve to try to buy his son a Turbo Man action figure. (In the film, they call it a “doll,” which is one of the film’s false moments.) The only problem is that the Turbo Man action figure is the most popular gift of the year and everyone is looking for one. What starts out at as a satire of commercialism ultimately becomes a celebration of the same thing as Howard ends up dressed up as Turbo Man and taking part in his town’s Christmas parade. The film becomes a comedy without any sharp edges.
That said, it’s a cute film. It’s not cute enough to really be good but it is cute enough that it won’t leave you filled with rage. Arnold Schwarzenegger is in True Lies mode here, playing a seemingly boring and suburban guy who is secretly a badass. (In True Lies, Schwarzenegger was secretly a spy who had killed man people, though all of them were bad. In Jingle All The Way, he’s just a parent who has waited too long to go Christmas shopping.) Schwarzenegger’s main strength as an action star — even beyond his physique — was that he always seemed to have a genuine sense of humor and he’s the best thing about Jingle All The Way. This film finds him acting opposite actual comedic actors like Jim Belushi and Phil Hartman and holding his own. (The film also features Sinbad as another dad trying to get the Turbo Man action figure but Sinbad comes across as being more of a stand-up comedian doing bits from his routine than an actual character.) The film’s set pieces grow increasingly bizarre and surreal as Howard searches for his Turbo Man and the film actually becomes less effective the stranger that it gets. A scene of Howard fighting a crowd in a toy store works far better than a later scene where Howard battles a bunch of men dressed as Santa Claus and his elves. (It doesn’t help that, after an intelligent and well-edited opening thirty minutes, the film seems to lose all concept of comedic timing.) But there’s a sincerity to Schwarzenegger’s performance that keeps you watching.
Of course, today, Jingle All The Way feels like a relic from a different age. All the kids want a Turbo Man and you’re so busy at work that the stores are closed by the time you get home? Fine. Hop on Amazon at three in the morning and order one. Christmas shopping is a lot easier nowadays.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show can be purchased on Prime!
This week, Switek takes center stage!
Episode 5.8 “Hard Knocks”
(Dir by Vern Gillum, originally aired on January 20th, 1989)
Stan Switek has a gambling problem!
That’s right. The lovable Stan Switek, played by Michael Talbott, finally gets to be the center of another episode and it’s a pretty dark one. It’s not as dark as the one where Stan discovered that his partner and best friend had been given a heroin overdose but it’s still pretty depressing.
There are a lot of things that lead to Switek becoming both an alcoholic and a gambling addict. The death of Larry Zito still haunts him. The job haunts him. The fact that he’s continually stuck in “the black box,” and doing surveillance on terrible people haunts him. At the start of the episode, he learns that he’s been turned down for a promotion and it will be another two years before he can apply again. Castillo says it’s about money. The Miami PD doesn’t have the money to pay Switek a sergeant’s salary. “You’re the best at what you do,” Castillo tells Switek. That’s of little help.
Switek is best friends with Mac Mulhern (Jordan Clarke), the father of a hotshot college quarterback named Kevin Mulhern (Richard Joseph Paul). When Switek’s former bookie (Ismael “East” Carlo) is murdered by Goodman (Richard Jenkins, who apparently always looked like he was in his late 50s, even 40 years ago), Goodman orders Switek to tell Kevin to throw his upcoming game. In order to make sure that it happens, Goodman kidnaps Mac and threatens to kill him.
Switek snaps. Switek sets out to get his own justice against Goodman and to rescue Mac. Fortunately, Crockett and Tubbs realize what’s happening and they show up in time to help Switek out. Once Goodman is dead and Mac is free, Kevin is able to win the game.
Later, Crockett confronts Switek. He says that Switek’s name is all over Goodman’s books. What’s Crockett going to do? Given that Crockett spent months as Miami’s biggest drug lord, I’m not sure that Crockett is in a position to judge anyone. Fortunately, Crockett seems to understand that as well. Crockett hands the evidence over to Switek and promises to keep quiet. Switek — who has spent almost the entire series as comedic relief — breaks down and starts to cry.
That’s one dark episode! It’s also a very well-done episode. Michael Talbott gave an excellent performance as Switek, revealing the character’s dark side while still remaining true to who Switek has been since the series began. Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas didn’t do much in this episode but the final scene between Switek and Crockett was wonderfully acted by both Talbott and Johnson.
This was a good episode but I’m worried about Switek now. I hope everything works out because there’s only a few episodes left!
Speaking of which, Retro Television Review will be going on break for the holidays at the end of this week. Miami Vice will return on January 5th!
Through the Shattered Lens 