Here Are The 2025 Actor Nominations!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The SAG Awards are now known as the Actor Awards for some reason.  I think that’s kind of dumb but whatever.  The important thing that the 2025 Actor nominations were announced this morning.  My main take away?  The Best Picture hopes of both Jay Kelly and Wicked: For Good are dead. If they couldn’t score an ensemble nod with this crowd, they’re not going to make it to the top ten.  (Wicked: For Good, at least, seems destined to get a nomination for Ariana Grande and some technical nods.  Jay Kelly seems destined to go for zero.)

Here are the Actor Nominations:

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue
Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another
Emma Stone – Bugonia

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners
Jesse Plemons – Bugonia

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Miles Caton – Sinners
Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
Paul Mescal – Hamnet
Sean Penn – One Battle After Another

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Odessa A’zion – Marty Supreme
Ariana Grande – Wicked: For Good
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another

OUTSTANDING STUNT ENSEMBLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
F1
Frankenstein
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning
One Battle After Another
Sinners

Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 3.9 “Cop In A Box”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Pacific Blue, a cop show that aired from 1996 to 2000 on the USA Network!  It’s currently streaming everywhere, though I’m watching it on Tubi.

Okay, we’re doing this again.

Episode 3.9 “Cop In A Box”

(Dir by Scott Lautanen, originally aired on November 2nd, 1997)

Oh, Pacific Blue.  How I have not missed you.

This episode features TC getting abducted by Harland Groves (Jeremy Roberts), a criminal who TC previously busted.  Harland traps TC in an underground beach bunker.  How Harland got his hands on an underground beach bunker is never explained.  Harland demands that TC’s rich family pay him 4 million dollars.  At the same time, he plans to use a chlorine gas bomb to kill TC.  Why he didn’t kill TC to begin with and then demand the money is never really explained.  It’s almost as if Harland secretly wanted his plan to fail.

I really didn’t have a problem with the idea of TC getting killed off.  Pacific Blue is one of the more boring of the shows that I review and killing TC would have livened things up.  At the very least, without TC around, I would no longer be forced to try to keep straight which member of Pacific Blue was TC and which member was Victor.  Unfortunately, TC manages to disarm the chlorine bomb.  When Harland attacks him in the bunker, it leads to a bunch of sand pouring in.  Harland is suffocated while TC escapes.

Oh well.

The cool thing about this episode is that Andy Buckley — who later played David Wallace on The Office — returned as TC’s brother.  The funny thing about this episode was the sight of grim-faced Palermo barking out orders while wearing his stupid bicycle shorts.  And the unfortunate thing is that TC survived so Pacific Blue will not be changing any time soon.

I Watched Perry Mason: The Case Of The Murdered Madam (1987, Dir. by Ron Satlof)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Former madam Suzanne Domenico (Ann Jillian) attempts to blackmail four rich men who are planning on embezzling money from a bank and is found dead by her husband, Tony, shortly afterwards.  Tony (Vincent Baggetta) is arrested and charged with murdering his wife.  Tony’s older brother used to run around with Della Street (Barbara Hale) and Della is able to get Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) to defend him in court.  Paul Drake, Jr. (William Katt) is brought in to do the investigative legwork.  Once again, Paul falls for a younger woman (Daphne Ashbrook) who will probably never be mentioned again in any of the other movies.

This movie was a little sad because it was obvious that Raymond Burr was not in good health.  He spends most of the movie sitting or moving with crutches.  In the movie, they say that Perry is using crutches because of a skiing accident but looking at Raymond Burr, there’s no way to imagine him skiing.  Burr is still as sharp as ever when asking questions in the courtroom but it’s still clear that he was in pain when he did this movie.  Perry being sidelined does mean that Barbara Hale and William Katt get to do more than usual.  After spending the last few movies constantly getting outrun and smacked around, Katt finally gets to beat someone up in the movie.

The mystery isn’t bad, even though I guessed who the murderer was long before the trial started.  The entire embezzlement scheme comes down to embezzling a few cents a day so that no one will notice.  That’s the same thing they tried to do in Office Space!  Luckily, no one got murdered that time.

Overall, this was a good entry in the Parry Mason movies, especially for those of us who like watching Paul Drake, Jr.  I’m starting to wonder if all of Perry and Della’s friends are going to end up getting accused of murder at some point.  My aunt and I always used to joke about how often Jessica Fletcher’s nephew was accused of murdering someone.  It might be just as dangerous to be a friend of Perry Mason’s!

Jury Duty (1990, directed by Michael Schultz)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Meek-looking accountant Sanford Lagelfost (Bronson Pinchot) is on trial for embezzlement.  It’s supposed to be a simple, up-and-shut case but when the beautiful star witness (Tracy Scoggins) testifies that Sanford is an amazing lover, it becomes a tabloid sensation and the jurors are sequestered in a hotel, where they have to deal with their own restlessness and several distractions, the majority of whom are also played by Bronson Pinchot.  Pinchot plays a total of four characters but it’s not like he’s Peter Sellers or even Eddie Murphy.  He looks and sounds like Bronson Pinchot in every role.

The jurors are played by a bunch of a familiar television actors.  Alan Thicke plays a yuppie named Phil and Lynn Redgrave plays a hippie named Abby and they end up getting married.  Stephen Baldwin is the waiter who falls for Heather Locklear, an actress who is a former call girl who is being threatened by her pimp.  Madchen Amick is the spoiled rich girl.  Television mainstays Mark Blankfield, Ilene Graf, William G. Schilling, Danny Pintauro, and Bill Kirchenbauer are all present and accounted for.  Adding to the overall sitcom feel of the movie is the presence of Reginald VelJohnson as the judge.  No one in the cast tries very hard, though I do think a case can be made that Madchen Amick was the most beautiful woman on television in 1990.

With the film failing to achieve either a consistent tone or a single laugh, the best thing that I can say about Jury Duty is that it didn’t feature Pauly Shore.  Instead it featured Alan Thicke driving a BMW with a license plate that read, “BMW4Phil.”  It’s hard to believe that this film was directed by Michael Schultz, who was responsible for movies like Car Wash, Cooley High, and Greased Lightning in the 70s and Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon in the 80s.

I wish I had watched The Last Dragon instead.

Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin (1937, directed by Sam Newfield)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

On the frontier, crooked lawyer Gabe Bowdre (Karl Hackett) is trying to secure all of the local water rights for himself and that means running off both the homesteaders and the ranchers.  Bowdre and his men try to start a range war between the ranching Stocktown family and the homesteading Dawsons.  Meanwhile, Dan Stockton (Bob Steele) has fallen in love with Gail Dawson (Louise Stanley) and marries her mere minutes before someone shoots his father in the back.

Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin has all the common elements that usually come with a B-western.  I have lost track of how many times I have watched Karl Hackett play a crooked businessman who tries to start a range war to win either the water rights or the property deeds.  Bob Steele spent a good deal of his career beating up Karl Hackett on screen.

What sets Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin apart is the Romeo and Juliet angle.  While it’s predictable, the love story between Dan and Gail still adds more emotional depth than is usually found in these movies.  The scene where all of the ranchers glare daggers at Dan’s new wife is powerful.

Bob Steele’s as good a hero as usual and Karl Hackett is a dastardly villain.  Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin runs a little less than an hour, making it a good western for an afternoon break.

Retro Television Review: Fantasy Island 7.21 “Bojangles and the Dancer/Deuces Wild”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1984.  The show is once again on Tubi!

It’s time for our second-to-last trip to the Island.

Episode 7.21 “Bojangles And The Dancer/Deuces Wild”

(Dir by Bob Sweeney, originally aired on May 12th, 1984)

Sisters Audrey and Judy Jennings (played, of course, by Audrey and Judy Landers) come to the Island because they’re sick of men only appreciating their bodies as opposed to their other talents.  They end up meeting a hotelier named Rex Reinhardt (Stuart Whitman) who, after some poorly-defined drama involving his duplicitous chief of security (John Ericson), ends up opening a resort with the two of them.  Fans of the James Bond franchise will be happy to see Walter Gotell, who played the head of the KGB opposite Roger Moore in several films, cast as a writer who romances one of the sisters.

It’s kind of a sad fantasy when you consider that this is the second-to-last episode of the original Fantasy Island and the best they could do for this story were the Landers sisters and Stuart Whitman.  Not only were the guest stars not particularly inspiring but the fantasy itself didn’t really make much sense.

As for the other fantasy, it does feature a big-name guest star.  Sammy Davis, Jr. plays the legendary dancer, Bojangles!  Now, admittedly, Sammy doesn’t look particularly healthy in this particular episode.  Reportedly, by the time the 80s rolled around, all of the smoking, drinking, and drug-taking had finally started to catch up with him.  But, even while obviously ill, Sammy Davis Jr. still had the undeniable charisma of a natural-born star.  The fantasy is nothing special.  Joe Wilson (Glynn Turman) goes into the past so that he can dance with Bojangles.  However, Sammy Davis Jr. lights up the story.  He shares a wonderfully-acted scene with Ricardo Montalban, two old showbiz pros sharing what may have been a final moment together.

So, this trip to the Island was a mixed bag. Neither fantasy was particularly compelling and Tattoo’s absence was very much felt.  (Lawrence, I’ve noticed, tends to be rather judgmental of the guests which is something Tattoo never was.)  But at least Sammy Davis Jr. was there to add some life to the proceedings.

Only one more episode to go.

Here Are The 2025 Nominations of the Chicago Indie Film Critics

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Chicago Indie Critics have announced their nominations for the best of 2025!  And here they are:

BEST INDEPENDENT FILM
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You – Producers: Sara Murphy, Ryan Zacarias, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Eli Bush, Conor Hannon, Richie Doyle
It Was Just an Accident – Producers: Jafar Panahi, Philippe Martin
The Life of Chuck – Producers: Trevor Macy, Mike Flanagan
Sorry, Baby – Producers: Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Barry Jenkins
Train Dreams – Producers: Marissa McMahon, Teddy Schwarzman, Will Janowitz, Ashley Schlaifer, Michael Heimler

BEST STUDIO FILM
Hamnet – Producers: Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Gonda, Sam Mendes, Steven Spielberg
Marty Supreme – Producers: Eli Bush, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Anthony Katagas, Timothée Chalamet
One Battle After Another – Producers: Adam Somner, Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson
Sinners – Producers: Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Ryan Coogler
28 Years Later – Producers: Andrew Macdonald, Peter Rice, Bernie Bellew, Danny Boyle, Alex Garland

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
It Was Just an Accident – Producers: Jafar Panahi, Philippe Martin
No Other Choice – Producers: Park Chan-wook, Back Jisun, Michèle Ray-Gavras, Alexandre Gavras
The Secret Agent – Producers: Emilie Lesclaux, Kleber Mendonça Filho
Sentimental Value – Producers: Maria Ekerhovd, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar
Sirât – Producers: Domingo Corral, Oliver Laxe, Xavi Font, Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar, Esther García, Oriol Maymó, Mani Mortazavi, Andrea Queralt

BEST DOCUMENTARY
John Candy: I Like Me – Producers: Colin Hanks, Johnny Pariseau, George Dewey, Shane Reid, Ryan Reynolds, Sean Stuart, Glen Zipper
Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5 – Producers: Raoul Peck, Alex Gibney, George Chignell, Nick Shumaker
The Perfect Neighbor – Producers: Alisa Payne, Geeta Gandbhir, Nikon Kwantu, Sam Bisbee
Secret Mall Apartment – Producers: Jeremy Workman, Jesse Eisenberg
Zodiac Killer Project – Producers: Charlie Shackleton, Anthony Ing, Catherine Bray

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Elio – Producers: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina, Mary Alice Drumm
KPop Demon Hunters – Producers: Maggie Kang, Chris Applehans, Michelle Wong
Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up – Producers: Peter Browngardt, Sam Register, Alex Kirwan
Predator: Killer of Killers – Producers: John Davis, Dan Trachtenberg, Marc Toberoff, Ben Rosenblatt
Zootopia 2 – Producers: Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler – Sinners
Guillermo del Toro – Frankenstein
Jafar Panahi – It Was Just an Accident
Chloé Zhao – Hamnet

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Eddington – Ari Aster
Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie
Sinners – Ryan Coogler
Sorry, Baby – Eva Victor
Weapons – Zach Cregger

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Bugonia – Will Tracy
Frankenstein – Guillermo del Toro
Hamnet – Chloé Zhao, Maggie O’Farrell
One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson
28 Years Later – Alex Garland

BEST ACTOR
Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners
Jesse Plemons – Bugonia

BEST ACTRESS
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Amanda Seyfried – The Testament of Ann Lee
Emma Stone – Bugonia
Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby

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
Odessa A’zion – Marty Supreme
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
Hailee Steinfeld – Sinners
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another

BEST ENSEMBLE (Casting Director Award)
Black Bag – Carmen Cuba
It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi
Marty Supreme – Jennifer Venditti
One Battle After Another – Cassandra Kulukundis
Sinners – Francine Maisler

BREAKOUT PERFORMER
Odessa A’zion
Miles Caton
Indy the Dog
Chase Infiniti
Jacobi Jupe

BREAKOUT BEHIND-THE-SCENES
Clint Bentley
Harris Dickinson
Scarlett Johansson
James Sweeney
Eva Victor

SIGHT UNSEEN PERFORMANCE
Jason Bateman – Zootopia 2
Oona Chaplin – Avatar: Fire and Ash
Nick Offerman – The Life of Chuck
Will Patton – Train Dreams
Alan Tudyk – Superman

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
F1 – Claudio Miranda
Frankenstein – Dan Laustsen
One Battle After Another – Michael Bauman
Sinners – Autumn Durald Arkapaw
Train Dreams – Adolpho Veloso

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Fantastic Four: First Steps – Kasra Farahani, Jille Azis
Frankenstein – Tamara Deverell
Sinners – Hannah Beachler, Monique Champagne
28 Years Later – Carson McColl, Gareth Pugh
Wicked: For Good – Nathan Crowley, Lee Sandales

BEST EDITING
F1 – Stephen Mirrione
Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie
One Battle After Another – Andy Jurgensen
Sinners – Michael P. Shawver
Weapons – Joe Murphy

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Fantastic Four: First Steps – Alexandra Byrne
Frankenstein – Kate Hawley
Hedda – Lindsay Pugh
Sinners – Ruth E. Carter
Wicked: For Good – Paul Tazewell

BEST MAKEUP
Frankenstein – Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, Cliona Furey
Sinners – Mike Fontaine, Ken Diaz, Shunika Terry
The Smashing Machine – Kazu Hiro, Felix Fox, Mia Neal
28 Years Later – Flora Moody, John Nolan
Weapons – Leo Satkovich, Melizah Wheat, Jason Collins

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Avatar: Fire and Ash – Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, Daniel Barrett
F1 – Ryan Tudhope, Keith Alfred Dawson, Nicholas Chevallier, Robert Harrington
Frankenstein – Dennis Berardi
Sinners – Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl, Guido Wolter, Donnie Dean
Superman – Stephane Ceretti, Enrico Damm, Stephane Naze, Guy Williams

BEST STUNTS
Ballerina – Jackson Spidell, Stephen Dunlevy
F1 – Gary Powell, Luciano Bacheta
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – Wade Eastwood
One Battle After Another – Brian Machleit
Superman – Wayne Dalglish

BEST SOUND
Avatar: Fire and Ash – Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Brent Burge, Gary Summers, Michael Hedges, Alexis Feodoroff, Julian Howarth
F1 – Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo, Juan Peralta, Gareth John
Sinners – Chris Welcker, Benny Burtt, Brandon Proctor, Steve Boeddeker, Felipe Pacheco
28 Years Later – Johnnie Burn
Warfare – Mitch Low, Glenn Freemantle, Ben Barker, Howard Bargroff, Richard Spooner

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Frankenstein – Alexandre Desplat
Hamnet – Max Richter
Marty Supreme – Daniel Lopatin
One Battle After Another – Jonny Greenwood
Sinners – Ludwig Göransson

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Clothed by the Sun” – The Testament of Ann Lee (Written by Daniel Blumberg, Mona Fastvold; Performed by David Cale, Lewis Pullman, Matthew Beard)
“Golden” – KPop Demon Hunters (Written by EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, IDO, 24, Teddy; Performed by EJAE, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami)
“Highest 2 Lowest” – Highest 2 Lowest (Written and Performed by Aiyana-Lee)
“I Lied to You” – Sinners (Written by Raphael Saadiq, Ludwig Göransson; Performed by Miles Caton)
“Pale, Pale Moon” – Sinners (Written by Brittany Howard, Ludwig Göransson; Performed by Jayme Lawson)

THE IMPACT AWARD
Elizabeth Arnott – Programmer of “Sapphopalooza”
Tyler Michael Baletine – Programmer of “Life Within the Lens: Juneteenth Edition”
Matthew C. Hoffman – Programmer and Host at the Pickwick Theatre
Anna Pattinson – Editor-in-Chief of Cinema Femme
Michael Phillips – Former Film Critic of The Chicago Tribune

Song of the Day: “Battle Theme” from Metaphor: ReFantazio (by Shoji Meguro)

Posted on by Arleigh

Metaphor: ReFantazio‘s “Battle Theme” erupts with thunderous brass and pounding drums, turning routine turn-based scraps into pulse-racing spectacles that pull you right into the fray. Shoji Meguro amps the drama by weaving in rhythmic chanting from Myōhō–ji temple’s chief priest, Keisuke Honryo, sung in the international language of Esperanto for that timeless, cross-cultural resonance which makes every Archetype clash feel profoundly ritualistic.​

The rhythmic Esperanto vocals loop hypnotically over surging strings and synth pulses, cresting with victorious horns that time perfectly to weakness chains and squad synthesis attacks, mirroring the combat’s strategic highs. This primal chant roots the fantasy battles in spiritual depth, evolving Atlus’s sound beyond synth-pop into something hauntingly primal that lingers post-fight.​

It anchors the award-lauded OST’s standout moments, those monk-delivered Esperanto lines lending legendary weight to even basic encounters—though their fervor can overshadow subtler scenes.