One Battle After Another Wins In Columbus!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Columbus Film Critics Association has announced its picks for the best of 2025. The winners are listed in bold.

Best Film
1. One Battle After Another
2. No Other Choice
3. Sinners
4. It Was Just an Accident
5. Bugonia
6. Wake Up Dead Man
7. Sentimental Value
8. Train Dreams
9. Weapons
10. Marty Supreme
11. Frankenstein

Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another (WINNER)
Ryan Coogler, Sinners (RUNNER-UP)
Rian Johnson, Wake Up Dead Man
Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident
Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme

Best Lead Performance
Jessie Buckley, Hamnet (RUNNER-UP)
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Joel Edgerton, Train Dreams
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon (WINNER)
Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Jesse Plemons, Bugonia
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
Emma Stone, Bugonia

Best Supporting Performance
Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another (WINNER)
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Delroy Lindo, Sinners
Amy Madigan, Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another (RUNNER-UP)
Adam Sandler, Jay Kelly
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another

Best Ensemble
It Was Just an Accident
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another (WINNER)
Sinners (RUNNER-UP)
Wake Up Dead Man

Actor of the Year (For an Exemplary Body of Work)
Josh Brolin, The Running Man, Wake Up Dead Man, and Weapons
Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another and The Phoenician Scheme (RUNNER-UP)
Josh O’Connor, The History of Sound, The Mastermind, Rebuilding, and Wake Up Dead Man (WINNER)
Amanda Seyfried, The Housemaid and The Testament of Ann Lee
Emma Stone, Bugonia and Eddington

Breakthrough Film Artist
Odessa A’zion, Marty Supreme (Acting)
Miles Caton, Sinners (Acting)
Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another (Acting) (WINNER)
Carson Lund, Eephus (Directing and Screenwriting)
Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby (Acting, Directing, and Screenwriting) (RUNNER-UP)

Best Cinematography
Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Sinners (WINNER)
Michael Bauman, One Battle After Another (RUNNER-UP)
Dan Laustsen, Frankenstein
Claudio Miranda, F1
Adolpho Veloso, Train Dreams
Łukasz Żal, Hamnet

Best Film Editing
Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Andy Jurgensen, One Battle After Another (WINNER)
Stephen Mirrione, F1 (RUNNER-UP)
Joe Murphy, Weapons
Michael P. Shawver, Sinners

Best Adapted Screenplay
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another (WINNER)
Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar, Train Dreams
Guillermo Del Toro, Frankenstein
Park Chan-Wook, Lee Kyoung-Mi, Don McKellar, and Jahye Lee, No Other Choice (RUNNER-UP)
Will Tracy, Bugonia
Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet

Best Original Screenplay
Ryan Coogler, Sinners (WINNER)
Zach Cregger, Weapons
Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident (RUNNER-UP)
Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein, Marty Supreme
Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value

Best Score
Alexandre Desplat, Frankenstein
Ludwig Göransson, Sinners (WINNER)
Jonny Greenwood, One Battle After Another (RUNNER-UP)
Daniel Lopatin, Marty Supreme
Max Richter, Hamnet

Best Documentary
Cover-Up (RUNNER-UP)
Orwell: 2+2=5
The Perfect Neighbor
Predators (WINNER)
Seeds

Best Foreign Language Film
It Was Just an Accident (WINNER)
No Other Choice (RUNNER-UP)
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sirât

Best Animated Film
Arco
The Bad Guys 2
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters (RUNNER-UP)
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (WINNER)
Predator: Killer of Killers
Zootopia 2

Frank Gabrenya Award for Best Comedy
The Baltimorons (RUNNER-UP)
Friendship
The Naked Gun
One of Them Days (WINNER)
Splitsville

Best Overlooked Film
The Ballad of Wallis Island
The Baltimorons
The Mastermind (RUNNER-UP)
Peter Hujar’s Day
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
Warfare (WINNER)

Here Are The 2025 Nominations of the American Society of Cinematographers!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The American Society Of Cinematographers have announced their nominations for the best of 2025.  And here they are:

Theatrical Feature Film (Sponsored by Keslow Camera)
Autumn Durald Arkapaw, ASC for “Sinners”
Michael Bauman for “One Battle After Another”
Darius Khondji, ASC, AFC for “Marty Supreme”
Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF for “Frankenstein”
Adolpho Veloso, ABC, AIP for “Train Dreams”

Spotlight Award (Sponsored by Panavision)
Steven Breckon for “The Plague”
Mátyás Erdély, ASC, HSC for “Orphan”
Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK for “Amrum”

Documentary Award (Sponsored by Canon U.S.A.)
Mstyslav Chernov and Alex Babenko for “2000 Meters from Andriivka”
Brandon Somerhalder for “Come See Me in the Good Light”
Lars Erlend Tubaas Øymo and Tor Edvin Eliassen for “Folktales”

Here Are The 2025 DGA Nominations

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Directors Guild of America has announced its nominees for the best directors of 2025.  And here they are:

FEATURE FILM
Paul Thomas Anderson – “One Battle After Another” (Warner Bros.)
Ryan Coogler – “Sinners” (Warner Bros.)
Guillermo Del Toro – “Frankenstein” (Netflix)
Josh Safdie – “Marty Supreme” (A24)
Chloe Zhao – “Hamnet” (Focus Features)

FIRST-TIME THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM
Hasan Hadi – “The President’s Cake” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Harry Lighton – “Pillion” (A24)
Alex Russell – “Lurker” (Mubi)
Charlie Polinger – “The Plague” (IFC)
Eva Victor – “Sorry, Baby” (A24)

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 2.8 “Easy Come Easy Go”

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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.

Time to get back to 1st & Ten.  To be honest, with all the excitement of the holiday season, I totally forgot that I was reviewing this show.

Episode 2.8 “Easy Come, Easy Go”

(Dir by Burt Brinckerhoff, originally aired on January 6th, 1987)

This is yet another episode of 1st & Ten that felt as if it was put together almost at random.

Mad Dog (Tony Longo) has a one night stand with a lawyer named Molly (June Chadwick) and he ends up becoming obsessed with her.  He shows up at a fancy cocktail party being hosted by Molly’s law firm.  “This man is stalking me!” Molly yells.  All of the men at the party are like, “Mad Dog!  You’re my favorite player!”  Now, I will say that this is a realistic portrayal of how most men act whenever they see a professional athlete but it still felt a bit icky to watch.

Jethro takes a blood test and discovers that little Tommy is not his son.  But he still wants to be a part of the kid’s life.

Yinessa sees a tabloid newspaper headline about his “nude pictures” and starts yelling at a supermarket manager for selling the paper.

Waldren is in financial trouble because he’s been tossing money around.  A group of gamblers approach him and offer to pay to shave points.  OJ Simpson (in the role of offensive coordinator T.D. Parker) tells Waldren, “I’m keeping my eye on you.”  Oh no!  LOOK OUT, WALDREN!

However, Waldren does not shave points.  Instead, he catches the ball that seals the Bulls victory in their first playoff game.  Woo hoo!  Go, Waldren!

A lot happened but, in typical 1st & Ten fashion, none of it added up to much.  It could be because the streaming episodes were edited for syndication but this is just a weird show.  Every episode feels as if their huge chunks of plot missing.

Here Are The 2025 Nominations of the Art Directors Guild

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Art Directors Guild has announced its nominees for the best of 2025!  And here they are….

BEST PERIOD FEATURE FILM
Frankenstein — Production Designer: Tamara Deverell
Hamnet — Production Designer: Fiona Crombie
Marty Supreme — Production Designer: Jack Fisk
The Phoenician Scheme — Production Designer: Adam Stockhausen
Sinners — Production Designer: Hannah Beachler

BEST FANTASY FEATURE FILM
Avatar: Fire and Ash — Production Designers: Dylan Cole, Ben Procter
The Fantastic Four: First Steps — Production Designer: Kasra Farahani
Mickey 17 — Production Designer: Fiona Crombie
Superman — Production Designer: Beth Mickle
Wicked: For Good — Production Designer: Nathan Crowley

BEST CONTEMPORARY FEATURE FILM
Bugonia — Production Designer: James Price
F1 — Production Designers: Ben Munro, Mark Tildesley
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning — Production Designer: Gary Freeman
One Battle After Another — Production Designer: Florencia Martin
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery — Production Designer: Rick Heinrichs

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
The Bad Guys 2 — Production Designer: Luc Desmarchelier
Elio — Production Designer: Harley Jessup
KPop Demon Hunters — Production Designers: Mingjue Helen Chen, Dave Bleich
The Spongebob Movie: Search for Squarepants — Production Designer: Sean Haworth; Animation Production Designer: Pablo R. Mayer
Zootopia 2 — Production Designer: Cory Loftis

I Watched Perry Mason: The Case of the Scandalous Scoundrel (1987, Dir. by Christian I. Nyby II)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Sleazy magazine publisher Harlan Wade (Robert Guillaume) has made a lot of enemies through his scandal sheet.  He just published a story suggesting that Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) and Della Street (Barbara Hale) are more than just friends.  Well, duh!  Everyone knows Perry and Della are in love!  Perry still wants to sue him but then Harlan turns up dead in his swimming pool.  It would have been interesting if Perry had been a suspect but instead the police arrest Michelle Benti (Susan Wilder), a reporter who was recently fired by Wade.  Because Michelle is the ex-girlfriend of Paul Drake, Jr. (William Katt), Perry defends her in court.

This is another case of someone close to the Mason crew being accused of murder.  The D.A. should know better than to arrest anyone who knows Perry, Della, or Paul.  Michelle first appeared in The Case of the Shooting Star but she was played by a different actress.  It’s still good that, for once, the series actually acknowledged one of Paul’s ex-girlfriends.  I worry about Paul and the way he falls in and out of love.

This one had a good mystery and a really memorable supporting cast.  Morgan Brittany, Yaphet Kotto, Wings Hauser, and George Grizzard all played potential suspects.  I liked that this was one of those mysteries where the victim went to a party before he died and everyone there threatened to kill him at some point.  This movie also featured one of the better courtroom confessions.  Raymond Burr uses a cane in this episode and is usually filmed either sitting down or leaning against something for support.  Even though Burr obviously wasn’t feeling well, it’s nice to see him and Barbara Hale share some sweet scenes together.

Who sent Della flowers, champagne, and perfume?  Watch to find out!

Camouflage (2000, directed by James Keach)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

It’s strange to hear Leslie Nielsen drop an F bomb.

That was my main though I watched Camouflage.  Leslie Nielsen plays a hard-boiled private detective named Jack Potter who reluctantly takes on an apprentice named Matty McKenzie (Lochlyn Munro).  Mostly to get Matty, a failed stage actor, out of his hair, Jack sends him to handle a minor case in the small town of Beaver Ridge.  The minor case becomes a major case when it becomes clear that a murder is being planned.

Camouflage starts out like a typical Leslie Nielsen mockbuster, with Nielsen providing a ridiculous, Frank Drebin-style narration.  But the film itself develops into a dark comedy where Matty finds himself in a small town where everyone’s got secret.  Nielsen gives an almost-serious performance as Potter, playing him as a cynic with a tragic backstory and little patience for his protegee.  There’s a tonal imbalance between the moments of broad comedy and the more serious moments and the film doesn’t work as a result but it is interesting to see a post-Airplane! Leslie Nielsen playing things relatively straight.

One interesting thing about Camouflage is that it was written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson but, in the final cut, the screenplay is credited to Reginald Perry.  (The small town setting is one that Thornton used frequently in his scripts and it’s easy to imagine him playing the role of Jack Potter in alternate version of this film.)  Camouflage reportedly sat on the shelf for quite a while before it was finally given a release and Nielsen’s narration often feels like it was something that was added in post-production to try to both bring the disjointed film together and to draw in the Naked Gun fans.  I have a feeling the story behind this film is probably more interesting than the film itself.