Review: The Accountant (dir. by Gavin O’Connor)

Posted on December 7, 2025 by Arleigh

“What I do is not against the law. What I don’t do… is.” — Christian Wolff

The Accountant is a 2016 action thriller that mixes elements of character drama, crime mystery, and family dynamics into a unique storyline. The movie follows Christian Wolff, a man with autism and exceptional math and accounting skills, who works as a freelance accountant for criminal organizations. Raised by a strict military father who pushed him to develop precision and discipline, Christian has a rigid moral code that guides his actions. As Christian unravels financial fraud within a robotics company, he finds himself hunted by a Treasury agent. The film blends intellectual mystery with high-stakes action, presenting a different take on the typical thriller formula.

Ben Affleck leads as Christian Wolff, bringing a quiet intensity that captures the character’s inner complexities and unique worldview. Anna Kendrick plays Dana Cummings, the robotics company accountant whose discovery of financial irregularities kicks off the central conflict, offering a relatable and warm counterpoint. J.K. Simmons portrays Raymond King, the sharp Treasury agent on Christian’s trail, adding layers of tension and moral ambiguity. Jon Bernthal embodies Braxton Wolff, Christian’s estranged brother and a rugged former military operative, whose presence heightens the family drama. The brothers’ strict and demanding father is portrayed by Rob Treveiler, who appears mainly in flashbacks that showcase the rigorous military-style training and discipline shaping Christian’s development. These performances ground the film’s ambitious mix of genres, making the characters feel lived-in and believable.

Christian Wolff stands out as a well-rounded character whose autism shapes his personality without becoming a mere plot device. The film shows his struggles alongside his strengths, like sensory sensitivities, social awkwardness, and laser focus on details. He relies on strict routines and coping tools to handle his surroundings, mirroring real experiences on the autism spectrum. Affleck’s portrayal draws from this backstory—those intense father-son training montages with Treveiler—to explain Christian’s discipline and guarded emotions, giving audiences a clear window into what drives him.

At the movie’s core sits Christian’s personal moral compass. He might balance the books for shady clients, but he draws a hard line at true ethical breaches, stepping in with his own form of justice. This anti-hero vibe keeps things gray and intriguing. His bond with Dana, played by Kendrick, offers rare moments of connection amid the chaos, though it stays somewhat surface-level and misses chances for deeper emotional pull.

The plot tracks Christian’s dive into massive fraud at the robotics firm, all while dodging Simmons’ relentless agent. The accounting scenes impress with their detail—Christian pores over ledgers, spotting irregularities that expose embezzlement on a grand scale. This cerebral side contrasts sharply with the brutal action, like the raw fights between Affleck’s Christian and Bernthal’s Braxton, which mix physical showdowns with buried family pain. Those brotherly clashes tie back to their shared traumatic past, ramping up the stakes beyond just numbers and guns.

The Accountant handles autism with real care, steering clear of clichés. It spotlights Christian’s sensitivities, routine needs, and social hurdles while celebrating his smarts and toughness. Affleck makes these traits feel authentic, turning what could be quirky into profoundly human. This approach avoids stereotypes, letting viewers connect with Christian on a deeper level and appreciate how his mind works in high-pressure situations.

The film has room for refinement in a few spots. It crams in crime plots, sibling secrets, and shadowy ops, which can jumble the pace as it bounces from fights to feels to financial deep dives. Relationships like Christian and Dana’s, or the Wolff brothers’, might hit harder with extra screen time to build that emotional core and make the risks feel more intimate.

Tonally, The Accountant strikes a balance—serious stakes lightened by Christian’s offbeat interactions and fresh outlook. Autism never turns into a joke; instead, it builds empathy. The ethical murk in his world—cooking books for crooks one day, punishing them the next—flips hero tropes on their head, keeping you guessing.

Overall, The Accountant shines by fusing brainpower and brawn in its lead and narrative, transcending standard shoot-’em-ups as a thoughtful character piece that honors its hero’s nuances. It probes unconventional strengths and ethics in a murky reality while illustrating thriving with distinct abilities and hurdles in a harsh landscape, all while clinging to personal principles—delivering thrills with substance on neurodiversity and payback. Fans of smart action will dig this blend of suspense, puzzles, and character depth, even if the threads tangle at times, making it a solid pick for thriller seekers wanting more than explosions.

#MondayMuggers presents THE ACCOUNTANT (2016) starring Ben Affleck!

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Bradley Crain

Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday April 21st, we celebrate the end of my tax season by watching THE ACCOUNTANT (2016) starring Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, John Lithgow, and Jean Smart.

Contrary to popular belief, THE ACCOUNTANT is not based on the life of Little Rock-based CPA Bradley Crain, although there are many obvious similarities. Rather, it’s the story of Christian Wolff, a math savant who often plies his trade for some of the world’s most dangerous criminal organizations. When he takes on a legitimate client and discovers discrepancies in the company’s books involving millions of dollars, a group of hitmen try to kill him and the company’s accountant Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick). Will they live long enough to discover the person behind the embezzlement, or will they just become another set of death statistics? I don’t want to give too much away, but I will go ahead and address the elephant in the room… THE ACCOUNTANT 2 opens on Friday night, April 25th.

So, join us tonight for #MondayMuggers and watch THE ACCOUNTANT! It’s on Amazon Prime. The trailer for THE ACCOUNTANT is included below:

Film Review: Boiler Room (dir by Ben Younger)

Posted on April 15, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Released in 2000, Boiler Room tells the story of Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi).

Seth is only 19 years old. He’s the son of a federal judge and he’s also a college dropout. Seth is making a pretty good living for himself, running a casino out of a house near the campus. One night, a handsome 20something named Greg Weinstein (Nicky Katt) stops by and tells Seth that he could be making an even better living for himself as a broker at J.T. Marlin.

Located somewhere in Long Island, J.T. Marlin is a brokerage firm that is dominated by loud and young men. Overseen by the ruthless Jim Young (Ben Affleck, doing the glorified cameo thing), J.T. Marlin is a place where everyone owns an expensive car, an expensive watch, and where everyone brags about how much money they’ve made. The insults and slurs fly from desk to desk, as they tend to do whenever a bunch of wealthy, highly competitive guys get together. J.T. is seduced by the atmosphere, even as he watches some broker breaks down due to the pressure. He becomes friends with Chris Varick (Vin Diesel) and falls for receptionist Abbie Halpert (Nia Long), who just happens to be Greg’s ex-girlfriend. Eventually, Seth gets good at his job. Unfortunately, it turns out that his job is centered around tricking people into investing in a pyramid scheme and eventually, one of Seth’s clients, Harry (Taylor Nichols), ends up broke and without his family. The guilt-stricken Seth realizes that he has a conscience.

Like a lot of these type of movies, Boiler Room is at its best when it starts, when it’s all about tough talk, rude jokes, and obsessive competition amongst a bunch of well-dressed good-looking guys. Nicky Katt and Vin Diesel are so much fun to listen to that it’s hard not to regret that the entire film wasn’t just about them. Things become significantly less interesting once the FBI shows up and Seth decides to become a snitch. For the most part, no one like a snitch, even if they’re motivated by the purest of intentions. To make a snitch likable, he has to be a truly compelling character, like Henry Hill in Goodfellas. For the most part, audiences prefer anti-heroes who go down with the ship as opposed to the rats who jump into the first lifeboat they see. In The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort agrees to wear a wire but then slips his business partner a note, warning him. That’s one of the reasons why The Wolf of Wall Street is still a classic while Boiler Room has been largely forgotten. As a character, Seth just isn’t compelling enough to pull off the snitch act. Nor does he really seem clever enough to pull off what he does at the end of the film.

That said, I do enjoy Boiler Room. It’s largely due to the cast. Nicky Katt, Vin Diesel, Scott Caan, Giovanni Ribisi, they were all young, energetic, and eager to show off what they could do. While their characters competed to see who could make the most money, the actors competed to see who could steal the most scenes. The film is ultimately only so-so but that cast is unforgettable.

Guilty Pleasure No. 78: Armageddon (dir by Michael Bay)

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Remember that time that Bruce Willis and a team of oil drillers saved all of humanity from a giant asteroid that was apparently the size of Texas?

Sure, you do! Everyone remembers Armageddon!

1998’s Armageddon is a film that doesn’t get a lot of respect but which everyone remembers. There’s been a lot of movies made about giant asteroids on a collision path with the Earth. Ever since scientists announced that a collision with a comet or an asteroid probably killed the dinosaurs, there’s been a somewhat irrational fear that the same thing could happen to us. Back in 1978, Sean Connery and Karl Malden tried to stop a Meteor (and failed). In 1998, the same year that Armageddon came out, Morgan Freeman, Robert Duvall, and Elijah Wood tried to stop an asteroid from causing a Deep Impact (and failed). Adam McKay made an entire film about everyone saying, “Don’t Look Up,” in an attempt to promote increased panic about climate change (and failed). (“I’m so scared!” Leonardo DiCaprio shouted and audiences responded, “Oh, calm down.”) And yet, it’s Armageddon — ridiculed by critics, endlessly parodied by other movies — that people use as their go-to source for commenting on the prospect of a mass extinction event. Mostly because, in Armageddon, humanity didn’t fail. Bruce Willis showed that asteroid who was boss!

Why do we love Armageddon? A lot of it has to do with the cast. Not only do you have Bruce Willis battling an asteroid but you’ve also got Steve Buscemi, Owen Wilson, Ben Affleck, Will Patton, Michael Clarke Duncan, Peter Stormare, William Fichtner, and a host of others working with him. You’ve got Billy Bob Thornton working ground control. You’ve got Liv Tyler, somehow managing to give a decent performance even while Ben Affleck attacks her with animal crackers. It’s not just the cast is full of familiar and likable actors. It’s that the members of the cast know exactly what type of film that they’re appearing in and they all give exactly the right type of performance for that film. They deliver their lines with conviction while not making the mistake of taking themselves too seriously. Bruce Willis announces that his crew will destroy that asteroid in return for never having to pay taxes again and he announces with just the slightest hint of a smirk, knowing that the audience is going to cheer that moment.

But really, the real reason why Armageddon has survived that test of time is because it’s just so utterly shameless. Director Michael Bay will never be accused of being a subtle director but Bay instinctively understood that Armageddon was not a film that demanded subtlety. Armageddon is a film that demands that constantly moving camera and all of those carefully composed scenes that were clearly made so they could be included in the trailer. It’s a film about big moments and big emotions. Unlike something like Deep Impact, it doesn’t get bogged down in trying to be better than it actually is. Unlike Don’t Look Now, it doesn’t degenerate into a bunch of histrionic speeches. Armageddon exists to make the audience cheer and it succeeds. It takes guts to include a slow motion scene of a bunch of kids celebrating in front of a faded Kennedy For President poster but Bay is exactly the type of director who can pull that off. Michael Bay’s style is not right for a lot of films. But it was perfect for Armageddon.

As I sit here typing this, there are some people panicking because there’s speculation that a meteor is going approach the Earth in the 2030s. It’ll probably miss us but who knows? But you know what? I’m not worried at all. I’ve seen Armageddon. So, on this International Earth Day, let’s remember the courageous men who saved this planet back in 1998.

Previous Guilty Pleasures

Trailer: The Accountant 2

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Arleigh

The Accountant, released in 2016, was an action-thriller that came out of nowhere and surprised a lot of people. The film had come out a two years since the release of John Wick and it would help usher in what I consider a new age of Western action films.

There was instant talk of a sequel after the success of the first film, but with Ben Affleck busy doing his Batman and Justice League bit over at DC Films the sequel had been put on the back-burner. Well, with the crash and burn of the DCEU it looked like Affleck had some time on his hands now and this meant the sequel to The Accountant was back to cooking.

On April 25, 2025, we will see just what Gavin O’Connor, Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal have cooked up as a follow-up to the first film with The Accountant 2.

Jen, Ben and Matt get into the studio for their Dunkin Superbowl Commercial!

Posted on February 11, 2024 by Leonard Wilson

This may be my favorite for the Superbowl evening so far. Sometimes, a person can ask a lot of a friendship. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s friendship gets pushed to the limit in this Dunkin Donuts commercial. Like Wonder Woman once said, “Children. I work with Children.” Jennifer Lopez puts up with a lot. 🙂

https://youtu.be/0MiapbMqFWE?si=5iQeEvQz6ZvROq_b

Here Are The 2023 Astra Nominations!

Posted on December 7, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Astra Awards used to known as the HCA Awards but the name was changed this year for reasons unknown. At first, I thought they had named the awards after the dog from The Thin Man but then I remembered that dog was actually named Asta.

(Seriously, folks, don’t rename stuff. It’s confusing! I’m still getting used to twitter being called X.)

Anyway, here are the 2023 Astra nominees. There’s a lot of them, which I like. (They give out a lot of awards that the Academy does not.) While these awards, whether you call the HCA Awards or the Astra Awards, are not exactly the best Oscar precursors in the world, every bit helps when it comes to building momentum for Academy recognition.

Best Picture
“Air” (Amazon MGM Studios)
“American Fiction” (Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios)
“Barbie” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
“The Color Purple” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
“The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films)
“Maestro” (Netflix)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
“Past Lives” (A24)
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)

Best Director
Alexander Payne – “The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
Ben Affleck – “Air” (Amazon MGM Studios)
Bradley Cooper – “Maestro” (Netflix)
Celine Song – “Past Lives” (A24)
Christopher Nolan – “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Cord Jefferson – “American Fiction” (Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios)
Emerald Fennell – “Saltburn” (Amazon MGM Studios)
Greta Gerwig – “Barbie” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Martin Scorsese – “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films)
Yorgos Lanthimos – “Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)

Best Actress
Carey Mulligan – “Maestro” (Netflix)
Emma Stone – “Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Fantasia Barrino – “The Color Purple” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Greta Lee – “Past Lives” (A24)
Lily Gladstone – “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films)
Margot Robbie – “Barbie” (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Best Actor
Barry Keoghan – “Saltburn” (Amazon MGM Studios)
Bradley Cooper – “Maestro” (Netflix)
Cillian Murphy – “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Colman Domingo – “Rustin” (Netflix)
Jeffrey Wright – “American Fiction” (Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios)
Paul Giamatti – “The Holdovers” (Focus Features)

Best Supporting Actress
America Ferrera – “Barbie” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Danielle Brooks – “The Color Purple” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph – “The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
Julianne Moore – “May December” (Netflix)
Rachel McAdams – “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” (Lionsgate)
Viola Davis – “Air” (Amazon MGM Studios)

Best Supporting Actor
Charles Melton – “May December” (Netflix)
Colman Domingo – “The Color Purple” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Dominic Sessa – “The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
Glenn Howerton – “BlackBerry” (IFC Films)
Robert Downey Jr. – “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Ryan Gosling – “Barbie” (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Best Cast Ensemble
“Air” (Amazon MGM Studios)
“Barbie” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
“The Color Purple” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
“The Holdovers” (Focus Features)

Best International Feature
“Anatomy of a Fall” (France)
“Concrete Utopia” (South Korea)
“Fallen Leaves” (Finland)
“Jawan” (India)
“Perfect Days” (Japan)
“Radical” (Mexico)
“Society of the Snow” (Spain)
“The Taste of Things” (France)
“The Teacher’s Lounge” (Germany)
“The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom)

Best International Filmmaker
Hayao Miyazaki – “The Boy and The Heron” (GKids)
J.A Bayona – “Society of the Snow” (Netflix)
Jonathan Glazer – “The Zone of Interest” (A24)
Justine Triet – “Anatomy of a Fall” (NEON)
Trần Anh Hùng – “The Taste of Things” (IFC Films)
Wim Wenders – “Perfect Days” (NEON)

Best International Actress
Alma Pöysti – “Fallen Leaves” (MUBI)
Juliette Binoche – “The Taste of Things” (IFC Films)
Layla Mohammadi – “The Persian Version” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Leonie Benesch – “The Teacher’s Lounge” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Sandra Hüller – “Anatomy of a Fall” (NEON)
Roberta Colindrez – “Cassandro” (Amazon MGM Studios)

Best International Actor
Christian Friedel – “The Zone of Interest” (A24)
Enzo Vogrincic – “Society of the Snow” (Netflix)
Eugenio Derbez – “Radical” (Pantelion Films)
Gael García Bernal – “Cassandro” (Amazon MGM Studios)
Koji Yakusho – “Perfect Days” (NEON)
Mads Mikkelsen – “The Promised Land” (Magnolia Pictures)

Best First Feature
A.V. Rockwell – “A Thousand and One” (Focus Features)
Adele Lim – “Joy Ride” (Lionsgate)
Celine Song – “Past Lives” (A24)
Chloe Domont – “Fair Play” (Netflix)
Cord Jefferson – “American Fiction” (Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios)
Michael B. Jordan – “Creed III” (Amazon MGM Studios)

Best Animated Feature
“The Boy and The Heron” (GKids)
“Elemental” (Disney/Pixar)
“Nimona” (Netflix)
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)
“Suzume” (Sony Pictures/Crunchyroll)
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” (Paramount Pictures)

Best Documentary Feature
“20 Days in Mariupol” (PBS Distribution)
“American Symphony” (Netflix)
“Beyond Utopia” (Roadside Attractions)
“Little Richard: I Am Everything” (Magnolia Pictures)
“Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” (Apple Original Films)
“Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” (AMC Theatres Distribution)

Best Action Feature
“Creed III” (Amazon/MGM Studios)
“Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (Paramount Pictures)
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Disney/Marvel)
“John Wick: Chapter 4” (Lionsgate)
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” (Paramount Pictures)
“The Killer” (Netflix)

Best Comedy Feature
“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” (Lionsgate)
“BlackBerry” (IFC Films)
“Bottoms” (Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios)
“Joy Ride” (Lionsgate)
“No Hard Feelings” (20th Century Fox)
“Theater Camp” (Searchlight Pictures)

Best Horror Feature
“Evil Dead Rise” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
“Knock at the Cabin” (Universal Pictures)
“M3GAN” (Universal Pictures)
“No One Will Save You” (20th Century Studios / Hulu)
“Scream VI” (Paramount Pictures)
“Talk To Me” (A24)

Best Short Film
“The ABCs of Book Banning” (MTV Documentary Films)
“The After” (Netflix)
“The Last Repair Shop” (Searchlight Pictures)
“Once Upon A Studio” (Disney)
“Strange Way of Life” (Sony Pictures Classics)
“The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” (Netflix)

Best Voice-Over Performance
Ariana DeBose – “Wish” (Walt Disney Studios)
Bradley Cooper – “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Disney/Marvel)
Daniel Kaluuya – “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)
Hailee Steinfeld – “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)
Jack Black – “The Super Mario Bros Movie” (Universal Pictures)
Shameik Moore – “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)

Best Original Screenplay
“Air” – Written by Alex Convery (Amazon MGM Studios)
“Anatomy of a Fall” – Written by Justine Triet & Arthur Harari (NEON)
“Barbie” – Written by Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach (Warner Bros. Pictures)
“Past Lives” – Written by Celine Song (A24)
“Saltburn” – Written by Emerald Fennell (Amazon/MGM Studios)
“The Holdovers” – Written by David Hemingson (Focus Features)

Best Adapted Screenplay
“American Fiction” – Screenplay by Cord Jefferson (Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios)
“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” – Screenplay by Kelly Fremon Craig (Lionsgate)
“Killers of the Flower Moon” – Screenplay by Eric Roth & Martin Scorsese (Apple Original Films)
“Oppenheimer” – Screenplay by Christopher Nolan (Universal Pictures)
“Poor Things” – Screenplay by Tony McNamara (Searchlight Pictures)
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” – Screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Dave Callaham (Sony Pictures)

Best Casting
Mary Vernieu & Lindsay Graham Ahanonu – “Air” (Amazon/MGM Studios)
Jennifer Euston – “American Fiction” (Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios)
Allison Jones & Lucy Bevan – “Barbie” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
John Papsidera – “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Bernard Telsey, Tiffany Little Canfield, and Destiny Lilly – “The Color Purple” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Susan Shopmaker – “The Holdovers” (Focus Features)

Best Cinematography
Dan Laustsen – “John Wick: Chapter 4” (Lionsgate)
Rodrigo Prieto – “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films)
Matthew Libatique – “Maestro” (Netflix)
Hoyte van Hoytema – “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Robbie Ryan – “Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Linus Sandgren – “Saltburn” (Amazon MGM Studios)

Best Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran – “Barbie” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Oliver García – “Chevalier” (Searchlight Pictures)
Judianna Makovsky – “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Disney/Marvel)
Jacqueline West – “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films)
Holly Waddington – “Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Francine Jamison-Tanchuck – “The Color Purple” (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Best Editing
Laurent Sénéchal – “Anatomy of a Fall” (NEON)
Nathan Orloff – “John Wick: Chapter 4” (Lionsgate)
Thelma Schoonmaker – “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films)
Jennifer Lame – “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Michael Andrews – “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)
Kevin Tent – “The Holdovers” (Focus Features)

Best Hair and Make-Up
Nick Houy – “Barbie” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Ryo Murakawa – “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (Paramount Pictures)
Cassie Russek and Alexei Dmitriew – “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Disney/Marvel)
Kazu Hiro, Sian Grigg, Kay Georgiou, and Lori McCoy-Bell – “Maestro” (Netflix)
Nadia Stacey – “Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Carol Rasheed, Saisha Beecham, Lawrence Davis, and Tym Wallace – “The Color Purple” (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Best Original Song
“Camp Isn’t Home” from “Theater Camp” – Written by Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, and Mark Sonnenblick – Performed by Ben Platt, Molly Gordon, Noah Galvin, Alexander Bello, Bailee Bonick, Donovan Colan, Jack Sobolewski, Kyndra Sanchez, Luke Islam, Madisen Lora and Quinn Titcomb (Searchlight Pictures)
“Dance the Night” from “Barbie” – Written by Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt, Dua Lipa, and Caroline Ailin – Performed By Dua Lipa (Warner Bros. Pictures)
“I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie” – Written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt – Performed by Ryan Gosling (Warner Bros. Pictures)
“Peaches” from “The Super Mario Bros Movie” – Written by Jack Black, Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Eric Osmond, and John Spiker – Performed by Jack Black (Universal Pictures)
“This Wish” from “Wish” – Written by Julia Michaels, Benjamin Rice, and JP Saxe – Performed by Ariana DeBose (Disney)
“What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie” – Written By Billie Eilish O’Connell and Finneas O’Connell – Performed by Billie Eilish (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Best Production Design
Adam Stockhausen – “Asteroid City” (Focus Features)
Sarah Greenwood & Katie Spencer – “Barbie” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Jack Fisk & Adam Willis – “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films)
Ruth De Jong – “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
James Price & Shona Heath – “Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
Suzie Davies & Charlotte Dirickx – “Saltburn” (Amazon MGM Studios)

Best Publicity Campaign
“Barbie” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
“John Wick: Chapter 4” (Lionsgate)
“M3GAN” (Universal Pictures)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
“The Super Mario Bros Movie” (Universal Pictures)
“Wonka” (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Best Score
“Elemental” – Thomas Newman (Disney/Pixar)
“Killers of the Flower Moon” – Robbie Robertson (Apple Original Films)
“Oppenheimer” – Ludwig Göransson (Universal Pictures)
“Poor Things” – Jerskin Fendrix (Searchlight Pictures)
“Saltburn” – Anthony Willis (Amazon MGM Studios)
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” – Daniel Pemberton (Sony Pictures)

Best Sound
“Ferrari” (NEON)
“John Wick: Chapter 4” (Lionsgate)
“Maestro” (Netflix)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)
“The Killer” (Netflix)

Best Stunts
“Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (Paramount Pictures)
“Fast X” (Universal Pictures)
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Disney/Marvel)
“John Wick: Chapter 4” (Lionsgate)
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” (Paramount Pictures)
“Polite Society” (Focus Features)

Best Visual Effects
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Disney/Marvel)
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” (Paramount Pictures)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)
“The Creator” (20th Century Studios)

Film Review: Air (dir by Ben Affleck)

Posted on May 12, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Air opens with a montage of the 80s. Ronald Reagan is President. MTV is actually playing music. Wall Street is full of millionaires. Sylvester Stallone is singing with Dolly Parton for some reason. Because the specific year is 1984, people are nervously giving George Orwell’s book the side-eye. Everyone wants an expensive car. Everyone wants a big house. Everyone wants the world to know how rich and successful and special they are.

What no one wants is a pair of Nike basketball shoes. All of the major players are wearing Adidas and Converse while Nike is viewed as being primarily a company that makes running shoes. CEO Phil Knight (played by Ben Affleck) is considering closing down the basketball shoe division. Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), however, has a plan that he thinks will save the division. Instead of recruiting three or four low-tier players to wear and endorse Nike shoes, Sonny wants to spend the entire division’s budget on just one player. Sonny is convinced that a young Michael Jordan is destined to become one of the best players in the history of basketball and he wants to make a shoe that will be specifically designed for Jordan.

The problem is that Michael Jordan doesn’t want to have anything to do with Nike because Nike is not viewed as being a cool brand. Jordan wants to sign with Adidas, though he’s considering other offers as well. He also wants a new Mercedes. Even though everyone tells Sonny that he’s wasting his time and that he’ll be responsible for a lot of people losing their jobs if he fails, Sonny travels to North Carolina to make his pitch personally to Jordan’s mother (Viola Davis).

For it’s first 50 minutes or so, Air feels like a typical guy film, albeit a well-directed and well-acted one. Almost all of the characters are former jocks and the dialogue is full of the type of good-natured insults that one would expect to hear while listening to a bunch of longtime friends hanging out together. For all the pressure that Sonny is under, the underlying message seems to be one of wish fulfilment. “Isn’t it great,” the film seems to be saying, “that these guys get to hang out and talk about sports all day?” When Sonny runs afoul Michael Jordan’s agent, David Falk (Chris Messina), one is reminded of the stories of temperamental film executives who spent all day yelling at each other on the telephone. The efforts to sign Jordan feel a lot like the effort to get a major star to agree to do a movie and it’s easy to see what attracted Damon and Affleck to the material. Even though the majority of the film takes place in the Nike corporate offices, it deals with a culture that Damon and Affleck undoubtedly know well.

But then Jason Bateman delivers a great monologue and the entire film starts to change. Despite his reluctance to sign with Nike, Michael Jordan and his family have agreed to visit the corporate headquarters. Sonny has a weekend to oversee the creation of the shoe that will hopefully convince Jordan to sign. When Sonny shows up for work, he’s excited. But then he has a conversation with Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), the head of marketing. Strasser talks about his divorce and how he only sees his daughter on the weekends. Every weekend, Rob brings his daughter the latest free Nike stuff. His daughter now his 60 pairs of Nike shoes. Rob admits that, even if he loses his job, he’ll probably still continue to buy Nike shoes because that’s now what his daughter expects whenever she sees him. Rob compares Sonny’s plan to the Bruce Springsteen song Born in the USA, in that the tune sounds hopeful but the lyrics are much darker. If the plan succeeds, Nike will make a lot of money. If it fails, Rob and everyone in the basketball division will be out of a job and that’s going to effect every aspect of their lives. Rob points out that Sonny made his decision to pursue only Michael Jordan without thinking about what could happen to everyone else. Sonny says that success requires risk. Rob replies that Sonny’s words are spoken, “like a man who doesn’t have a daughter.”

It’s an honest moment and it made all the more powerful by Bateman’s calm but weary delivery of the lines. It’s the moment when the film’s stakes finally start to feel real, even though everyone knows how the story eventually turned out. As well, it’s in this moment that the film acknowledges that the Air Jordan legacy is a complicated one. Rob talks about how the shoes are manufactured in overseas sweatshops. Later, when discussing whether or not Michael Jordan should get a percentage of the sales, Jordan’s mother acknowledges that the shoes aren’t going to be cheap to purchase. They’re going to be a status symbol, just as surely as the Mercedes that Jordan expects for signing with the company. Air becomes much like that Springsteen song. On the surface, it’s a likable film about a major cultural moment, full of dialogue that is quippy and sharply delivered without ever falling into the pompous self-importance of one of Aaron Sorkin’s corporate daydreams. But, under the surface, it’s a film about how one cultural moment changed things forever, in some ways for the better and in some ways for the worse.

It’s an intelligent film, one the creates a specific moment in time without ever falling victim to cheap nostalgia. Matt Damon gets a brilliant monologue of his own, in which he discusses how America’s celebrity culture will always attempt to tear down anyone that it has previously built up. Ben Affleck plays Nike’s CEO as being an enigmatic grump, alternatively supportive and annoyed with whole thing. As for Michael Jordan, he is mostly present in only archival footage. An actor named Damian Delano Young plays him when he and his parents visit Nike’s corporate headquarters but, significantly, his face is rarely show and we only hear him speak once. In one of the film’s best moments, he shrugs his shoulders in boredom while watching a recruitment film that Nike has produced to entice him and, because it’s the first reaction he’s shown during the entire visit, the audience immediately understands the panic of every executive in the room.

Air is a surprisingly good film. It’s currently streaming on Prime.

Here’s The Super Bowl Spot For Air!

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Ben Affleck directs and Matt Damon stars in this upcoming film about the effort to get Michael Jordan to wear a pair of shoes. Here’s the Super Bowl spot!

A Blast From The Past: Ben Affleck For Diet Coke

Posted on September 22, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the year 2001, Ben Affleck wasn’t only Matt Damon’s best friend. He was also a commercial spokesman!

For instance, he narrated this creepy commercial for Diet Coke. Oddly enough, he doesn’t say anything about Diet Coke but he does say a lot about his wife’s underwear and then, eventually, the underwear that he saw in “the hamper as a kid.” Wait, what? Weirdo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0b-QijtHo8

I actually get what this commercial is attempting. Diet Coke is a soft drink for real people and real people get married and eventually stop having sex. But do real people tell complete strangers about it? Of course, they do now but this commercial was before social media.

This is from the same ad campaign that featured Renee Zellweger watching her neighbor take a shower and sing. (I shared that commercial last week.) Since we didn’t see Renee’s face in that previous commercial and since we don’t see Ben’s face in this one, I like to think that this commercial is a sequel to the previous one. Renee eventually married the guy across the street and then started wearing cotton underwear. And I assume that the guy stopped singing.

Wow, this was a depressing world that Diet Coke created.