Hi, everyone! Tonight, on twitter, I will be hosting one of my favorite films for #MondayMania! Join us for 2014’s A Wife’s Nightmare!
You can find the movie on Prime and then you can join us on twitter at 9 pm central time! (That’s 10 pm for you folks on the East Coast.) See you then!
Apparently, when Norman Greenbaum wrote today’s song of the day, he wasn’t quite writing a parody but, at the same time, he wasn’t being totally serious either. Greenbaum wrote the song after watching a gospel performance on television and thinking, “Yeah, I could do that.” By his own recollection, it took him 15 minutes to come up with the lyrics for Spirit In The Sky.
Originally, he was going to perform the song with a jug band. (Yikes!) He also tried to do a folk version. (Double yikes!) Fortunately, he ultimately went for the hard rock sound that made the song a legend.
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
On this date, 108 years ago, Freddie Francis was born. Though Francis may be best remembered as a cinematographer (who worked on three David Lynch films), he was also a director who did memorable work for both Hammer and Amicus in the 60s and 70s. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Freddie Francis Films
The Evil of Frankenstein (1963, dir by Freddie Francis, DP: John Wilcox)
The Skull (1965, dir by Freddie Francis, DP: John Wilcox)
Dracula Has Risen The Grave (1968, dir by Freddie Francis, DP: Arthur Grant)
The Creeping Flesh (1973, dir by Freddie Francis, DP: Norman Warwick)
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasionally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.
Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be 2012’s 12 Disasters of Christmas!
It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, find the movie on YouTube and hit play at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! The watch party community is a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
See you soon!
Here are the 2025 nominations of the Utah Film Critics Association!
Best Picture
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sorry, Baby
Train Dreams
Best Achievement in Directing
Chloé Zhao – Hamnet
Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby
Guillermo del Toro – Frankenstein
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler – Sinners
Best Lead Performance – Male
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
Joel Edgerton – Train Dreams
Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners
Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
Best Lead Performance – Female
Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another
Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Best Supporting Performance – Male
Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another
Delroy Lindo – Sinners
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
Jacobi Jupe – Hamnet
Paul Mescal – Hamnet
Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value
Best Supporting Performance – Female
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Ariana Grande – Wicked: For Good
Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another
Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
Best Ensemble
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Warfare
Vice/Martin Award for Performance in a Science-Fiction – Fantasy – or Horror Film
Alfie Williams – 28 Years Later
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Elle Fanning – Predator: Badlands
Indy the Dog – Good Boy
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
Best Screenplay
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sorry, Baby
Best Cinematography
F1
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Train Dreams
Best Score
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Best Film Editing
F1
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Warfare
Best Visual Effects
Avatar: Fire And Ash
Frankenstein
Predator: Badlands
Sinners
Superman
Best Sound
F1
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Warfare
Best Stunt Design
F1
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
Predator: Badlands
The Running Man
Best Documentary Feature
2000 Meters to Andriivka
The Alabama Solution
Come See Me in the Good Light
The Librarians
Orwell: 2+2=5
The Perfect Neighbor
Best Animated Feature
Arco
Elio
K-Pop Demon Hunters
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2
Best Non-English Language Feature
It Was Just an Accident
No Other Choice
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sirāt
The Women Film Critics Circle has announced its picks for the best of 2025. And here they are:
Best Movie About Women
Winner: If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Runners Up: Hamnet, Eleanor the Great & Sorry, Baby
Best Movie by a Woman
Winner: Chloé Zhao (Hamnet)
Runners Up: Eva Victor (Sorry, Baby), Lynne Ramsay (Die My Love) & Mary Bronstein If I Had Legs I’d Kick You)
Best Woman Storyteller (Screenwriting Award)
Winner: Chloé Zhao, Maggie O’Farrell (Hamnet)
Runners Up: Eva Victor (Sorry, Baby), Lynne Ramsay, Alice Birch (with Enda Walsh) (Die My Love) & Mary Bronstein (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You)
Best Actress
Winner: Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)
Runners Up: Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), Amanda Seyfried (The Testament of Ann Lee) & Jennifer Lawrence (Die My Love)
Best Actor
Winner: Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon)
Runners Up: Michael B. Jordan (Sinners), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another) & Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme)
Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Regina Hall (One Battle After Another)
Runners Up: Andrea Riseborough (Goodbye June), Odessa A’zion (Marty Supreme) & Samantha Morton (Anemone)
Best Foreign Film by or About Women
Winner (tie): Left-Handed Girl
Winner (tie): The Voice of Hind Rajab
Runners Up: All That’s Left of You & Belén
Best Documentary by or About Women
Winner: My Mom Jayne
Runners Up: The Perfect Neighbor, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk & The Librarians
Best Equality of the Sexes
Winner: Sinners
Runners Up: The Testament of Ann Lee, Lilly & Tatami
Best Animated Female
Winner: Rumi (K-Pop Demon Hunters)
Runners Up (tie): Amélie (Little Amélie or the Character of Rain) & Judy Hopps (Zootopia 2)
Runner Up: Scarlet (Scarlet)
Best Screen Couple
Winner: Wunmi Mosaku and Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)
Runners Up: Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal (Hamnet), Elizabeth Olsen and Miles Teller (Eternity) & Laura Dern and Will Arnett (Is This Thing On?)
Best TV Series
Winner: Hacks (Season 4)
Runners Up: Dying for Sex, The Girlfriend & The White Lotus (Season 3)
Adrienne Shelly Award*
For a film that most passionately opposes violence against women
Winner: Sorry, Baby
Runners Up: Christy, Companion & Lilly
Josephine Baker Award*
For best expressing the woman of color experience in America
Winner: Sinners
Runners Up: Hedda, Rosemead & Wicked: For Good
Karen Morley Award*
For best exemplifying a woman’s place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity
Winner: Eleanor the Great
Runners Up (tie): Die My Love & The Testament of Ann Lee
Runner Up: Familiar Touch
Acting and Activism Award
America Ferrera
Lifetime Achievement Award
Diane Keaton
The Kansas City Film Critics Circle have announced their picks for the best of 2025. The winners are listed in bold.
BEST FILM
Frankenstein
Hamnet
It Was Just an Accident
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Weapons
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Ari Aster – Eddington
Ryan Coogler – Sinners
Rian Johnson – Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Guillermo del Toro – Frankenstein
Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value
BEST ACTOR
Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners
Joel Edgerton – Train Dreams
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
BEST ACTRESS
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
Jennifer Lawrence – Die My Love
Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value
Emma Stone – Bugonia
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Benicio Del Toro – One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo – Sinners
Josh O’Connor – Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Glenn Close – Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Marty Supreme
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Sorry, Baby
Weapons
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Frankenstein
Hamnet
The Life of Chuck
One Battle After Another
Train Dreams
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
F1 The Movie
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Sinners
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Frankenstein
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Tron: Ares
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Arco
The Bad Guys 2
KPop Demon Hunters
Predator: Killer of Killers
Zootopia 2
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Arco
It Was Just an Accident
No Other Choice
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
BEST DOCUMENTARY
My Mom Jayne
Orwell: 2+2=5
The Perfect Neighbor
Secret Mall Apartment
We Best the Dream Team
VINCE KOEHLER AWARD FOR BEST SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY/HORROR
28 Years Later
Frankenstein
Sinners
Superman
Weapons
TOM POE AWARD FOR BEST LGBTQ FILM
Hedda
The History of Sound
Twinless
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
The Wedding Banquet
BUSTER KEATON AWARD FOR THE BEST STUNT ENSEMBLE FILM
F1 The Movie
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Nobody 2
The Running Man
Warfare
Oh no! Santa Claus has amnesia!
That’s the premise behind this 2000 Christmas movie, which features Leslie Nielsen as the amnesiac Santa. Having fallen out of his sleigh, Santa finds himself in Los Angeles. When a reporter (Steven Eckholdt) comes across Santa, he does a story about him. Santa becomes a mini-celebrity and gets a job as a department store version of himself. While his elves search for him, Santa struggles to recover his memory.
It’s a cute little made-for-TV movie. Leslie Nielsen as Santa? Who could resist that?
Eraserhead (1977, dir by David Lynch)
Today would have been the 82nd birthday of Jack Nance, the talented but troubled actor who was a favorite of David Lynch’s and who died under mysterious circumstances in 1996. Born in Massachusetts but raised in Texas, Nance first won acclaim as a star of the stage show, Tom Paine. The director of Tom Paine later received a fellowship to the American Film Institute where he met a young director named David Lynch and recommended that Lynch cast Nance as the lead character in his film, Eraserhead. Lynch and Nance were kindred spirits, two all-American eccentrics with their own unique view of the world. Lynch went to use Nance in almost every film that he made up until Nance’s death. Nance would also appear in small roles in films from other directors, usually cast as quirky and obsessive characters. Outside of his role in Eraserhead, Nance is probably best known for playing Pete Martell on Twin Peaks. Pete’s discovery of Laura Palmer’s body launched the entire saga.
Twin Peaks 1.1 — The Pilot (dir by David Lynch)
In honor of Jack’s talent and legacy, here is today’s song of the day!
From David Lynch’s 1977 film, Eraserhead, here’s a reminder that, “In Heaven, everything is fine.”
And Heaven is apparently behind Jack Nance’s radiator.
Through the Shattered Lens 