Guilty Pleasure No. 60: The Running Man (dir by Paul Michael Glaser)

Posted on January 7, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“Killian, here’s your Subzero… now plain zero!”

Uhm, excuse me, Mr. Schwarzenegger, but a man just died. He probably had a family who just watched you kill him on national television….

Oh well, it happens! In the role of Ben Richards, Arnold Schwarzenegger kills quite a few people over the course of the 1987 film, The Running Man, but they were all bad. In fact, when we first meet Ben Richards, he’s a cop who is trying to save lives. His superiors want him to open fire on a bunch of protestors who simply want enough food to eat. When Richards refuses to do it, he is framed for perpetrating “the Bakersfield Massacre” and is sent to prison. When he is recaptured after escaping, he is given a chance to compete on America’s number one game show, The Running Man! Hosted and produced by Damon Killian (Richard Dawson, oozing smarm in a performance that — in a fair world — would have received Oscar consideration), The Running Man is a show in which prisoners are given a chance to win prizes like a trial by jury or maybe even a pardon. While the audience cheers and puts down bets, the prisoners are stalked by professional killers like Buzzsaw (Gus Rethwisch), Dynamo (Erland Van Lidth), Fireball (Jim Brown), and Sub-Zero (Professor Toru Tanaka). Along with Killian, Captain Freedom (Jesse Ventura) provides commentary and analysis on how the game is going. Ben soon finds himself joined by Amber (Maria Conchita Alonso), who proves herself to be just as tough as he is.

Seen today, The Running Man feels more than a bit prophetic. Due to worldwide economic collapse, the poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer. The American government has become both increasingly corporate and increasingly authoritarian. The citizens are entertained and manipulated by “reality” programming. On camera, Killian is a charismatic host who delivers his lines with faux sincerity and who loves to meet and give away prizes to the public. (There’s something both undeniably creepy and also rather familiar about the way that Killian sniffs the hair, rubs the shoulders and holds the arms of the audience members to whom he’s speaking. It’s all very calculated and one gets the feeling that Killian washes his hands as soon as the camera are off of him.) Behind the scenes, he drinks, smokes, curses, and is full of contempt for everyone around him. He may not be happy when Ben outsmarts and kills the show’s stalkers but he definitely cheers up when he hears how good the ratings are. The film is set in 2017, which was 30 years in the future when The Running Man was first released. Seen today, The Running Man’s 2017 feels a lot like our 2017….

That said, The Running Man is also a big, flamboyant, and undeniably entertaining film. It’s also surprisingly funny, at times. Living in a dystopia ahs turned everyone into a quip machine. None of the bad guys die without Schwarzenegger making a joke about it. (“Buzzsaw? He had to split.” Yes, he did.) The show’s vapid studio audience, who go from cheering the prospect of witnessing a bloody death to crying when their favorite stalker is killed, is both disturbing and humorous. (Also memorable is the faux somber dance number that is performed while the show memorializes all the dead stalkers.) For all the costumed heroes and villains, the film is practically stolen by an older woman named Agnes who becomes Ben Richards’s favorite fan. The gaming “quads” may be dark and dangerous and full of angry people but they’re also full of advertisements for Cadre Cola. Dey Young of Rock and Roll High School and Strange Behavior fame has a cameo as Amy, who pays six dollars for a can of Cadre. (That may seem like a lot for a can of anything but Cadre is the official cola of The Running Man! Damon Killian endorses it! And, of course, when The Running Man was produced, the studio was owned by Coca-Cola so the jokes about Cadre’s corporate dominance also serve as a “take that” towards the corporation who put up money for the film. Either that or Cadre is stand-in for Pepsi.)

It’s easy to compare The Running Man to The Hunger Games films but The Running Man is infinitely more fun, if just because it doesn’t make the mistake of taking itself as seriously as The Hunger Games did. (Add to that, The Running Man manages to wrap up its story in 90 minutes, whereas The Hunger Games needed four movies.) Like The Hunger Game, The Running Man is based on a book, in this case a very loose adaptation of one of the pulpy novels that Stephen King wrote under the name of Richard Bachman. While King said that he enjoyed the film, he also asked that his real name not be listed in the credits because the film had little in common with his book, which is fair enough. The Running Man may have been inspired by a Stephen King novel but it’s an Arnold Schwarzenegger production through-and-through.

Previous Guilty Pleasures

Live Tweet Alert: Watch Shock Waves with #ScarySocial

Posted on January 7, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Shock Waves (1977, dir by Ken Wiederhorn)

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, for #ScarySocial, I will be hosting 1977’s Shock Waves!

That’s right! It’s John Carradine, Peter Cushing, and Brooke Adams in the best underwater zombie film ever made!

If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! The film is available on Prime, YouTube, and a few other streaming sites. I’ll be there co-hosting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

This Saturday, join us at 9 pm et for the first #ScarySocial of 2023! Join us for SHOCK WAVES (1977)! The film is on Prime. #DontWatchAlone pic.twitter.com/mvyzN3BPKn
— Scary Social (@SocialScary) January 3, 2023

January Positivity: Gold Through The Fire (dir by Edward T. McDougal)

Posted on January 6, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Let’s just take a look at the poster for 1987’s Gold Through The Fire.

Wow, exciting poster, right? At the top of the poster, we’ve got the Kremlin and a sinister looking soldier firing a gun. One thing about Russia is that it doesn’t matter when the film was made or who was in charge of the country at the time, the Russian government always makes for a good villain.

The film’s tag line reads, “Peter’s American dream came true but the trial of his faith had just begun.” So, we now know that Peter (who we presume is the backpack wearing guy at the top of the poster) is probably going to escape Russia and come to America. And, just to make sure that there aren’t any doubts, there’s an American flag prominently displayed on the poster. There is also what appears to be a small town church and a few two-story houses. Peter’s heading to the heartland and good for him. Small town America comes under a lot of criticism but I’ve been to and lived in a few small towns and I usually had a pretty pleasant time. Despite their reputation, small towns are often more hospitable to newcomers than big cities.

Hey, so far, so good! The villains are Russian. The setting is small town America. Peter appears to be a totally decent teenager. This poster features a lot of reasons to be optimistic. Or, at least, it does until you look in the bottom left corner and you see that Peter appears to be playing soccer….

OH NO! IS THIS A SOCCER MOVIE!?

Well, fear not. Yes, the film does involve some soccer but, to be honest, the inclusion of soccer kind of makes sense. When Peter enrolls in his new American high school, he struggles to fit in. He can barely speak English. He is confused by most American customs. When someone asks him if he has any “records” from his previous school, he says that he enjoys music and this leads to the following comment from one of his classmates:

Poor Peter! As we saw at the start of the film, Peter has not had an easy life. He was born in Russia and when the communists discovered that his family was secretly Christian, Peter’s parents were shipped off to a reeducation camp and Peter was tossed into an orphanage. He eventually escaped, running all the way to Finland and then on to the American embassy. He defected and briefly became a celebrity. After being placed with a new American family, Peter enrolled at the local high school and discovered that American teenagers can be cruel.

But, we were talking about soccer, right?

Eventually, the few friends that Peter has made encourage him to try out for the team. Peter does start playing soccer and it turns out that he’s the best player in the school. And again, it makes sense as he’s the only student in the school who was born in a country where soccer is more popular than American football. (Of course, today, it seems strange that any high school would only have one student who wasn’t born in the U.S.) Unfortunately, since Peter insists on carrying his Bible around with him everywhere that he goes and trying to lead a prayer group on school ground, the school’s principal is not sure that Peter can be allowed to continue playing. The principal’s office is decorated with a print of Normal Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech, just in case you had any doubt that the school was being run by a Lefty version of Frasier Crane.

Not only does Peter have to deal with the school and its rules but the KGB is also after him. And his foster brother has lost his faith! Peter has a lot to deal with. Fortunately, his new foster family has a station wagon that he can drive around town while he’s thinking.

The best part of Gold Through The Fire is the beginning of the film, when Peter is trying to escape from Russia. That part of the film moves at a steady pace and, even more importantly, it captures the feel of living in a situation where you’re not allowed to think or speak for yourself. It perfectly captures the drabness of dictatorship. Unfortunately, once Peter gets to America, the action starts to drag, the actors are a bit less convincing in their roles, and the film gets bogged down in trying to convince us that America is just one step away from turning into Russia. There are also few too many awkward pop cultural references, as if the filmmakers were desperate to convince us that they understood what high school students were into despite not being in high school themselves. Today, the film works best as a time capsule. Everything about it, from the cars to the clothes to the hair to dialogue, simply screams 80s. Watching this film is like stepping into a time machine.

And hey, the soccer stuff isn’t actually that bad. That said, it’s hard for me to watch anything featuring soccer without being reminded of this:

Live Tweet Alert: Join #FridayNightFlix for The Running Man!

Posted on January 6, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight, at 10 pm et, I will be hosting the first #FridayNightFlix of 2022! The movie? 1987’s The Running Man!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

The Running Man is available on Prime and Paramount! See you there!

Here’s The Trailer for Emily

Posted on January 6, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Everyone gets an origin story!

Right now, on Netflix, you can see the origin story Edgar Allan Poe in the film, The Pale Blue Eye.

And, on February 17th, you can go to theaters and watch the origin story of Emily Bronte in Emily.

Here’s the trailer:

January Positivity: The Gathering (dir by Daniel Carrales)

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1998 film, The Gathering, is about people who keep having visions.

Michael Carey (Daniel Kruse), for instance, is a successful advertising executive who suddenly sees a portal forming high in the sky and people turning into globes of light as they are transported upward.

His wife is at the playground, talking to her best friend about what a drag her husband has become ever since he got on the whole religious kick when suddenly, she has a vision in which all of the children have vanished.

Michael’s mother-in-law gets the worst of it. She’s a professor at the local college and she’s introduced explaining to a student that the only way to pass her class is to be an atheist. (The student needs to call a lawyer, to be honest.) Suddenly, the professor is having all sorts of visions, that majority of which involve her betraying people to a shadowy government organization. She betrays her best friend and colleague. She betrays her own daughter. She betrays everyone.

While his wife and his mother-in-law shrug off the visions and claim that there must be a normal explanation for why they’re all visualizing a similar future, Michael turns into an evangelist and starts telling everyone about what he’s seeing. He is especially upset when he discovers that one of his clients is going to be at the forefront of encouraging everyone to get a microchip inserted under their skin. (We already know from the professor’s visions that people who don’t have the chip will be hunted down and killed in the streets.) People start to feel a bit uncomfortable around Michael. He loses his job and his family but still, when the portal appears in the sky, he’s among those who vanish. His wife and his mother-in-law are not lucky, which sounds like the start of a really sexist joke. (“Those seven years between the rapture and the second coming were the first peace and quiet I got during my entire marriage!”)

Clocking in at 57 minutes, The Gathering was produced and released at a time when the Left Behind books were climbing the best seller charts. It pretty much follows the same formula as those books, with the emphasis less on being a Christian and more on imagining the misery that awaits everyone who isn’t. In this film, if you’re not a believer, you’re going to be stuck in a world where all of the color has been desaturated and everyone has to wear really ugly, communist-style clothes. It’s a world where the government monitors everyone’s actions and where questioning those in charge can lead to you being either executed or sent to reeducation camp. When viewed today, the film feels more like a political tract than a religious one, with the smug but bland and process-obsessed villains serving as a perfect representation of what almost everyone hates about dealing with the bureaucratic state.

Not surprisingly, the film’s budget is low. There are a few effective shots. I liked the way that the clouds would “speed up” whenever anyone was starting to have a vision but then the extremely cheap-looking portal appeared in the sky and ruined the illusion. The film is quickly paced and its portrayal of life under a dictatorship feels believable. At the same time, a lot of the acting is amateurish and the film itself seems to be more about scaring people than making a case for its beliefs. It really does seem like the intended audience for this film were people who just wanted to imagine their atheist neighbors having to dress like Trotsky. But, hey, at least it’s less than an hour long.

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists Honors Banshees

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here are the 2022 picks for the best (and, in some cases, worst) of 2022 from The Alliance of Women Film Journalists!

Best Film
The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
TÁR
The Woman King
Women Talking

Best Director
Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Gina Prince-Bythewood, The Woman King
Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Charlotte Wells, Aftersun

Best Actor
Austin Butler, Elvis
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Paul Mescal, Aftersun
Bill Nighy, Living
Jeremy Pope, The Inspection

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, TÁR
Viola Davis, The Woman King
Danielle Deadwyler, Till
Vicki Krieps, Corsage
Emma Thompson, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Supporting Actor
Brendon Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway
Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
Eddie Redmayne, The Good Nurse
Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Ben Whishaw, Women Talking

Best Supporting Actress
Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Jessie Buckley, Women Talking
Hong Chau, The Whale
Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin (TIE)
Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once (TIE)
Janelle Monáe, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Best Original Screenplay
Charlotte Wells, Aftersun
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner, The Fabelmans
Todd Field, TÁR
Dana Stevens & Maria Bello, The Woman King

Best Adapted Screenplay
Edward Berger, Lesley Patterson, & Ian Stokell, All Quiet on the Western Front
Rian Johnson, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Rebecca Lenkiewicz, She Said
Samuel D. Hunter, The Whale
Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Alice Birch, Emma Donoghue, & Sebastian Lelio, The Wonder

Best Animated Film
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Guiilermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson)
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Dean Fleischer-Camp)
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado)
The Sea Beast (Chris Williams)
Turning Red (Domee Shi)
Wendell & Wild (Henry Selick)

Best Documentary
All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen)
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)
Descendant (Margaret Brown)
Fire of Love (Sara Dosa)
Good Night Oppy (Ryan White)
The Janes (Tia Lessen and Emma Pildes)

Best Non-English-Language Film
All Quiet on the Western Front
Bardo
Decision to Leave (TIE)
Happening
RRR (TIE)
Saint Omer

Best Ensemble Cast (Casting Director)
The Banshees of Inisherin (Louise Kiely)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Sarah Finn)
Triangle of Sadness (Pauline Hansson)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Sarah Finn)
The Woman King (Aisha Coley)
Women Talking (John Buchan & Jason Knight)

Best Cinematography
Ben Davis, The Banshees of Inisherin
Roger Deakins, Empire of Light
Larkin Seiple, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Janusz Kamiński, The Fabelmans
Claudio Miranda, Top Gun: Maverick (TIE)
Polly Morgan, The Woman King (TIE)

Best Editing
Jonathan Redmond & Matt Villa, Elvis
Paul Rogers, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Monika Willis, TÁR
Eddie Hamilton, Top Gun: Maverick
Terilyn A. Shropshire, The Woman King
Roslyn Kalloo & Chris Donaldson, Women Talking

EDA FEMALE FOCUS AWARDS
These awards honor WOMEN only.

Best Woman Director
Chinoye Chukwu, Till
Marie Kreutzer, Corsage
Gina Prince-Bythewood, The Woman King
Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Maria Schrader, She Said
Charlotte Wells, Aftersun

Best Woman Screenwriter
Alice Birch, The Wonder & Mothering Sunday
Rebecca Lenkiewicz, She Said
Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Domee Shi, Turning Red
Dana Stevens and Maria Bello, The Woman King
Charlotte Wells, Aftersun

Best Animated Female
Connie – Isabella Rossellni (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On)
Izzy – Keke Palmer (Lightyear)
Kat – Lyric Ross (Wendell & Wild)
Kitty Softpaws – Salma Hayek (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish)
Mei – Rosalyn Chiang (Turning Red)
Ming – Sandra Oh (Turning Red)

Best Woman’s Breakthrough Performance
Frankie Corio, Aftersun
Danielle Deadwyler, Till
Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Thuso Mbedu, The Woman King
Amber Midthunder, Prey
Sadie Sink, The Whale

Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Film Industry
* Viola Davis for getting “The Woman King” made as her lifetime passion project and creating opportunities for other women creatives.
* Nina Menkes and Maria Giese for making “Brainwashed,” analyzing and illustrating the misogynistic representation of women in Hollywood movies.
* Domee Shi for being the first woman to direct a film for Pixar and for becoming Pixar’s VP of Creative
* Jacqueline Stewart for ongoing advocacy of the underrepresented and becoming president of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
* Michelle Yeoh – lifetime achievement award.

EDA SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS

Grand Dame Award for defying ageism.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Viola Davis
Emma Thompson
Michelle Yeoh

Most Egregious Lovers’ Age Difference Award
Confess Fletch – Jon Hamm (born 1971) and Lorenza Izzo (born 1989)
Crimes of the Future – Viggo Mortensen (born 1958) and Lea Sedoux (born 1985)
Deep Water – Ben Affleck (born 1972) and Ana de Armas (born 1988)
Eiffel – Romain Duris (born 1974) and Emma Mackey (born 1996)

She Deserves A New Agent Award
(AWFK note: This is not a put down. On the contrary, it suggests that the actor is better than the role she’s been given.)
Ana de Armas, Blonde
Bryce Dallas Howard, Jurassic World: Dominion
Margot Robbie, Babylon
Rebel Wilson, Senior Year

Most Daring Performance
Cate Blanchett, TÁR
Viola Davis, The Woman King
Danielle Deadwyler, Till
Emma Thompson, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Time Waster Remake or Sequel Award
Firestarter
Halloween Ends
Jurassic World: Dominion
Pinocchio (Disney’s)

AWFJ Hall of Shame Award (Women and men are eligible)
* Alec Baldwin and the crew of “Rust” for continuing to deny responsibility for the on set shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The situation is still messy. A wrongful death lawsuit was settled, but the criminal investigation continues. In November, Baldwin sued crew members for giving him the loaded prop gun that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. News reports say Baldwin also texted Hutchins’s husband, Matthew, saying that the gun was never meant to be fired at a particular camera angle.
* “Blonde” and Andrew Dominik
* Will Smith for his behavior at the Oscars and in the aftermath.
* Harvey Weinstein for everything and forever.

Here Are the 2022 Nominees Of The Set Decorators Society of America!

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

With all the attention to the various critics groups that have been announcing their picks for the best of 2022, it really is the Guilds that give us the best indication of what films are truly in the hunt for Oscar glory. With that in mind, here are the 2022 nominations of the Set Decorators Society of America! The winners will be announced on February 14th.

Contemporary Film
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
Bullet Train
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
TÁR
Top Gun: Maverick

Period Film
Amsterdam
Babylon
Elvis
The Fabelmans
White Noise

Fantasy/Science Fiction Film
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Don’t Worry Darling
Everything Everywhere All at Once

Musical/Comedy Film
Bros
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical
Spirited
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

The Columbus Film Critics Association Name Banshees The Best of 2022!

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Columbus Film Critics Association has announced their picks for the best of 2022!

And here they are:

Best Film
1. The Banshees of Inisherin
2. Everything Everywhere All at Once
3. Tár
4. Aftersun
5. Women Talking
6. Glass Onion
7. The Fabelmans
8. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
9. The Menu
10. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Best Director
Todd Field, Tár (RUNNER UP)
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once (WINNER)
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans

Best Lead Performance
Cate Blanchett, Tár (WINNER)
Olivia Colman, Empire of Light
Danielle Deadwyler, Till
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Ralph Fiennes, The Menu
Brendan Fraser, The Whale (RUNNER UP)
Mia Goth, Pearl
Paul Mescal, Aftersun
Margot Robbie, Babylon
Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Supporting Performance
Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin (RUNNER UP)
Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Paul Dano, The Fabelmans
Dolly De Leon, Triangle of Sadness
Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin (WINNER)
Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
Janelle Monáe, Glass Onion
Keke Palmer, Nope
Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Ensemble
The Banshees of Inisherin (WINNER)
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion (RUNNER UP)
Women Talking

Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work)
Hong Chau, The Menu and The Whale (RUNNER UP)
Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once and Halloween Ends
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Batman, and Thirteen Lives (WINNER)
Mia Goth, Pearl and X
Tilda Swinton, The Eternal Daughter, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, and Three Thousand Years of Longing
Anya Taylor-Joy, Amsterdam, The Menu, and The Northman

Breakthrough Film Artist
Austin Butler, Elvis – (for acting) (RUNNER UP)
Hong Chau, The Menu and The Whale – (for acting)
Zach Cregger, Barbarian – (for directing, screenwriting, and acting)
Gabriel LaBelle, The Fabelmans – (for acting)
Charlotte Wells, Aftersun – (for directing and screenwriting) (WINNER)

Best Cinematography
Russell Carpenter, Avatar: The Way of Water
Ben Davis, The Banshees of Inisherin
Claudio Miranda, Top Gun: Maverick (WINNER)
Linus Sandgren, Babylon
Hoyte Van Hoytema, Nope (RUNNER UP)

Best Film Editing
Sarah Broshar and Michael Kahn, The Fabelmans
Bob Ducsay, Glass Onion
Eddie Hamilton, Top Gun: Maverick (RUNNER UP)
A. Sreekar Prasad, RRR
Paul Rogers, Everything Everywhere All at Once (WINNER)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Guillermo del Toro and Patrick McHale, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Dean Fleischer-Camp, Jenny Slate, and Nick Paley, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Samuel D. Hunter, The Whale
Rian Johnson, Glass Onion (RUNNER UP)
Rebecca Lenkiewicz, She Said
Sarah Polley and Miriam Toews, Women Talking (WINNER)

Best Original Screenplay
Todd Field, Tár
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once (WINNER)
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin (RUNNER UP)
Jordan Peele, Nope
Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, The Menu
Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, The Fabelmans

Best Score
Michael Abels, Nope
Carter Burwell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Alexandre Desplat, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (WINNER)
Justin Hurwitz, Babylon (RUNNER UP)
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Bones and All
John Williams, The Fabelmans

Best Documentary
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (WINNER)
Fire of Love (RUNNER UP)
Good Night Oppy
Moonage Daydream
Navalny
Sr.

Best Foreign Language Film
All Quiet on the Western Front (RUNNER UP)
Decision to Leave (WINNER)
RRR
Saint Omer

Best Animated Film
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (RUNNER UP)
Mad God
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (WINNER)
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Turning Red

Best Comedy
The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once (RUNNER UP)
Glass Onion (WINNER)
The Menu
Triangle of Sadness
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Best Overlooked Film
After Yang (WINNER)
Confess, Fletch
God’s Country
Men
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (RUNNER UP)

Here’s The Trailer for Renfield

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The trailer for Renfield has been getting a lot of attention today. Due to be released on April 14th, Renfield stars Nicholas Hoult as the title character, who was Dracula’s unfortunate servant. However, most of the attention generated by the trailer has been directed towards Nicolas Cage playing the role that many feel he was born to play.

Check out the trailer:

This could be good, despite the fact that I usually have my doubts about films that come out in April. I like Nicholas Hoult. I love Nic Cage. So, we’ll see hop for the best and we shall see what happens!