O Canada! Aftersun win in Toronto!

Posted on January 8, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Love you, Canada!

The Toronto Film Critics Association has named their picks for the best of 2023!

And here they are:

Best Film
Winner: AFTERSUN

Best Director
Winner: Charlotte Wells – AFTERSUN

Best Screenplay
Winner: THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

Best Actress
Winner: Cate Blanchett in TÁR

Best Actor
Winner: Paul Mescal in AFTERSUN

Best First Feature
Winner: AFTERSUN

Best Documentary
Winner: ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED

Best Foreign Language Film
Winner: SAINT OMER

Best Animated Feature
Winner: TURNING RED

Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Keke Palmer in NOPE

Best Supporting Actor
Winner: Ke Huy Quan in EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

Retro Television Reviews: Quarantined (dir by Leo Penn)

Posted on January 8, 2023 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 Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1970’s Quarantined! It can be viewed on YouTube!

The John C. Bedford Clinic sits atop a cliff overlooking the ocean. Though it may be a small hospital, it’s also widely respected. The clinic was started by John Bedford (John Dehner) and the majority of its employees are related to him. His three sons — Larry (Gary Collins), Bud (Gordon Pinset), and Tom (Dan Ferrone) — are all doctors and they all work at the clinic. Bud’s wife, Margaret (Susan Howard), is a psychologist and she also works at the clinic, encouraging the older patients not to give up hope in their twilight years. John Bedford is a stern taskmaster and his youngest son, Tom, resents always having his father and his older brothers staring over his shoulder. John and Larry explain that they are simply treating Tom the way that they would treat any new doctor. Tom isn’t so sure.

When the Bedfords aren’t hanging out in the tasteful ranch house that sits next to the clinic, they’re checking on their patients. As Quarantined opens, they’ve got quite a few to deal with. The most famous is Ginny Pepper (Sharon Farrell), a film star who has come to the clinic because she’s been suffering from back pain. Larry quickly diagnoses her as suffering from kidney failure and announces that she’s going to need to get an immediate transplant. Ginny is not happy to hear that and spends most of her time trying to make both Larry and Nurse Nelson (Virginia Gregg) miserable. Of course, it eventually turns out that Ginny’s not so bad.

Meanwhile, Margaret attempts to cheer up a dying old man named Mr. Berryman (Sam Jaffe) and an eccentric man named Wilbur Mott (Wally Cox) hangs out in the hospital hallway. Martha (Terry Moore) and Lloyd Atkinson (Madison Arnold) are at the hospital to visit their son, Jimmy (Mitch Vogel). Unfortunately, while in Jimmy’s hospital room, Lloyd suddenly collapses and subsequently dies. John takes one look at Lloyd and announces that Lloyd might have Cholera and, as a result, no one can leave or enter the hospital until the test results come back.

In other words, the John C. Bedford Clinic is …. QUARANTINED!

If you’re thinking this sounds a little bit dull …. well, you’re not wrong. Quarantined has a 73-minute running time and a large cast but it really does just feel like an episode of a not particularly interesting medical drama. It wouldn’t surprise me to discover that this movie was actually meant to serve as a pilot for a show that would have followed day-to-day life at the clinic. Each member of the Bedford family is given a hint of characterization, just enough to suggest what type of situations they would get involved in on a weekly basis. Larry was the straight shooter who was dedicated to saving lives. Bud was the well-meaning middle child while Margaret was the one who encouraged the men to talk about their feelings. Tom was the idealistic but impulsive youngest child. John was the wise patriarch. They’re all kind of boring.

The same can be said of Quarantined as a movie. As directed by Leo “Father of Sean” Penn, the movie promises a lot of drama but it never really delivers and there’s something rather annoying about how casually John announces that no one is allowed to leave the clinic. He even calls the police and has them set up road blocks around the clinic. On the one hand, John is doing the right thing. No one wants a cholera epidemic. On the other hand, everyone’s so quick to accept that idea of John being a benign dictator that …. well, one can only imagine what a pain in the ass the Bedfords would have been during the COVID era.

As far as I know, there was never a TV show about the Bedford family and their clinic on a cliff. Personally, I’m okay with that.

AMV Of The Day: Space Oddity (Cowboy Bebop)

Posted on January 8, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In memory of David Bowie, on what would have been his birthday, here’s an AMV of the Day.

Anime: Cowboy Bebop

Song: Space Oddity (performed by David Bowie)

Creator: Gabriel Jimenez (please subscribe to this creator’s channel)

Past AMVs of the Day

Catching Up With The Films of 2022: She Said (dir by Maria Schrader)

Posted on January 8, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

To put it lightly, I had mixed feelings about She Said.

On the one hand, the downfall of Harvey Weinstein is an important story and it’s one that should never be forgotten. It wasn’t that long ago that Weinstein was one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. Many of the people who now regularly talk about how much they hated him had no problem working for him, taking his money, and thanking him whenever they won an award. She Said focuses on the work of the two New York Times reporters, Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan), who wrote the initial article that detailed the allegations against Weinstein. (Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker piece was published shortly afterwards.) The film is not only about the article but it’s also about women working together and supporting each other. Kazan and Mulligan both do a good job of portraying Jodi and Megan, bringing some nuance to a script that is full of dialogue that is occasionally a bit too on-the-nose.

On the other hand, it’s hard not to feel that She Said lets a lot of people off the hook. While Jodi does originally pitch her story as dealing with systemic sexism, there’s actually very little examination of how the system enabled a monster like Harvey Weinstein. Mention is made of Weinstein having powerful friends but few of those friends are called out by name and there’s very little discussion about how Weinstein used his money to become a player in Washington as well as Hollywood. It leads to some odd narrative choices. For instance, both Jodi and Megan are shocked to discover that Harvey is being represented by prominent feminist attorney Lisa Bloom, the daughter of Gloria Allred. Jodi later talks about an off-screen conversation that she had with Bloom, in which Bloom tried to use a number of personal, political, and professional appeals to convince Jodi to drop the story. It sounds like an interesting conversation but why don’t we get to see it? Would it have cast Bloom in too negative of a light? The film’s approach leaves it open to such accusations. Indeed, it’s hard not to be reminded of the way that Rose McGowan was shunned when she (correctly) pointed out that a lot of the people celebrating Weinstein’s downfall were the same people who spent years ignoring what was an open secret in Hollywood. The film tells us that Harvey Weinstein is a monster but we already know that. What the film does not tell us is how he came to power and why he was protected for decades.

Thematically, She Said attempts to be a celebration of journalism, in the style of recent films like The Post, Truth, and Spotlight. Like those films, it shares the same flat visual style. There’s nothing particularly cinematic about it which is unfortunate as, with everyone already knowing how the story ends, She Said could have used some stylistic flair. To a certain extent, I can understand the logic. The emphasis is supposed to be on the reporters doing the hard work of getting the story and all of the recent films about journalism take a straight-ahead, by-the-numbers approach. The problem with using this approach for She Said is that it leads to a lot of static, poorly framed shots of people talking on the phone, sitting at their desks, and staring at computer screens. It may be a realistic depiction of modern journalism but it’s not particularly compelling to watch. If anything, the film’s depiction of clean offices, supportive co-workers, and fair-minded editors makes the film feel like a testimonial about how The New York Times is the best workplace in America. As opposed to the reporters in Spotlight, one never feels that Jodi and Megan are in danger of losing their jobs. Unlike The Post or Shattered Glass, there’s no conversations about how the media establishment is often guilty of initially enabling the same behavior that it later condemns. The New York Times never feels alive in the way that The New Republic did in Shattered Glass. There’s not even a moment that’s as ludicrously over-the-top as the scene in Truth where Cate Blanchett argues that she shouldn’t be criticized for producing an obviously false story because it could have, in theory, been true. Instead, She Said is very respectable and very dignified and a little too safe. There’s not much going on beneath the surface.

The film drops a lot of famous names. Ashley Judd plays herself while Gwyneth Paltrow provides her voice for a scene in which she calls Jodi and says that Harvey has shown up at her house. (Again, this is a scene that would probably have been more effective if we had seen it happen as opposed to just hearing about it.) Lena Dunham is given a shout-out as someone who (off-screen) called and offered to help. Someone casually mentions that Martin Scorsese hates Harvey Weinstein. And yet, the film’s most powerful moments come when Jodi and Megan talk to the women who weren’t famous but who were still traumatized and victimized by Harvey Weinstein. Samantha Morton and Jennifer Ehle play two former Miramax employees, both of whom eventually tell their stories to Jodi and Megan. Morton and Ehle both give heart-felt performances and, during their scenes, She Said finds its reason for existing. The performances of Samantha Morton and Jennifer Ehle both capture the real-life damage caused by men like Harvey Weinstein and the systems that enable them.

In the end, She Said is a film that I wanted to like more than I did. It tells a compelling story in the least compelling way possible and, unlike Kitty Green’s The Assistant, it lets far too many people off the hook.

Music Video of the Day: I’m Afraid of Americans by David Bowie (1997, dir by Dom & Nic)

Posted on January 8, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today would have been David Bowie’s 76th birthday so it only feels appropriate that our music video of the day should come from him. In I’m Afraid of Americans, Bowie is pursued through New York City by Trent Reznor.

This is a song that has been interpreted and re-interpreted several times through the years. Bowie himself indicated that the song wasn’t anti-American as much as it was about America’s cultural and commercial dominance over much of the world. Of course, more recently, other critics have insisted in finding a message about the current state of American politics in the song’s lyrics, despite the fact that Bowie died before the start of our current political era. Myself, when I watched the video, I immediately thought of the paranoia that many felt and some still feel about COVID, with Bowie representing the wealthy city dweller who finds himself fleeing from anyone who he fears might be unvaccinated or infected. Like all great songs and videos, I’m Afraid of Americans can mean a host of different things depending on when you watch or listen to it.

Enjoy!

January Positivity: Without Reservation (dir by Fred Carpenter)

Posted on January 7, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1989 film, Without Reservation, opens with a scene that should strike horror in the hearts of many viewers.

A high school basketball teams attempts to rap. Each member of the team takes a verse, introducing themselves and struggling to come up with an appropriate rhyme to go along with their name. I suppose that, as far as rapping goes, they’re about as skilled as you would expect any group of white, upper middle class suburban teenagers to be. This scene goes on forever and, oddly enough, it doesn’t really have much to do with anything else that happens in the film. One gets the feeling that it was only added to pad out the film’s 24-minute runtime. Perhaps it was added to let the viewers know that the filmmakers weren’t stodgy old men whose knowledge of music ended with Sinatra. No, the filmmakers were people who understood that sometimes teenagers enjoyed rap music. They were down with the youth.

(Actually, as much as I’m making fun of the scene, it may be one of the more realistic pats of Without Reservation. I went to an upper middle class high school in the suburbs. The majority of my classmates were dorky white kids who thought they could rap. Most of them were pretty bad but they were still better than the members of this film’s basketball team)

Anyway, once the rapping’s done, it’s time for six teenagers to climb into a car, drive too fast, and up getting hit by a truck. Four of the teens suddenly find themselves apparently floating in space in the remains of their car. They’re all dead and now, they’re waiting to find out where they’re going to go. Do they have a reservation in Heaven or not? Fortunately, there’s a man wearing a tuxedo (with a red bow-tie) who is working the heavenly registration desk. He has a big, bulky, old school computer. He asks for names and when he get them, he checks to see if they have a reservation. He ends up telling the majority of people to step to the left, which is a polite way of saying, “Welcome to eternal damnation.”

Needless to say no one in the car has a reservation. They all wish they could get one but it’s too late because they’re dead now. We watch as they’re told to step to the left. One of them ends up getting dragged over to a freight elevator and descends to the underworld. It’s actually an oddly effective image. If nothing else, the film does do a good job of creating an atmosphere of impending doom. And yet, it’s hard not to feel that, like so many similar films, the main goal here is to frighten people into compliance as opposed to making a case for one belief system or another. The emphasis is on punishment and pain and the film almost seems to encourage viewers to look down on those who don’t have reservations. Yes, the film seems to be saying, he may be able to rap but he’s still not in the system. Aren’t you glad that you’re not as dumb of Bill?

Anyway, Without Reservation is crudely effective, even if the ultimate message appears to be that the afterlife is a tacky resort with an out-dated computer system.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 1/1/23 — 1/7/23

Posted on January 7, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As the first week of January comes to a close, here’s some thoughts on what I watched!

Abbott Elementary (Wednesday Night, ABC)

Abbott Elementary returned this week with a sweet episode in which we got to see that Melissa actually is a really good teacher and that Jacob has no idea how to do a podcast. I have to admit that I cheered a little when, at the end of the episode, Melissa revealed that, due to the contest rules being poorly written, her “classroom” had indeed won the reading competition.

The Circle (Netflix)

The Circle was back with four more episodes on Wednesday. Marvin destroyed his game by trying to be a player while Billie-Jean and Shubham ended up getting eliminated. (Shubham did not help himself by losing his temper while answering a “savage question.”) I want to like Raven but the whole “everything about Raven is perfect” narrative makes it difficult. At this point, my favorites are Tom and Xanthi & Brett. I also have to say that I found Sam to be a lot more likable this week than I did last week.

Hell’s Kitchen (Thursday Night, FOX)

Hell’s Kitchen returned and we have finally reached my favorite part of the season, when Chef Ramsay starts to show his softer and more encouraging side and the remaining chefs finally get a chance to show how good (or bad) they can be. Abe got sent home but he also get some words of encouragement. That was nice. I actually like all of the remaining chefs but it’s hard not to feel like its pretty obvious that Alex is going to win.

Law & Order (Thursday Night, NBC)

Law & Order returned with a new episode and this week and — yeesh! After several episodes that were generally intelligent, well-done, and not too heavy-handed, this week’s episode felt like a parody of Law & Order. This week’s murder victim was a undocumented immigrant who had been sent to New York City from Texas so, of course, we had to spend a lot of time listening to the cops talk about how heartless the governor of Texas was. It always amuses me how this show always features a bunch of blue collar cops suddenly talking like MSNBC analysts. I wonder if the show will do a future episode about the Democratic governor of Colorado sending people to New York? I kind of doubt it.

Anyway, it turned out the murderer was a real estate mogul who was obviously meant to be a stand-in for one of the Trump kids. In order to convict him, the prosecutors had to get testimony from a woman who worked in his office but — are you ready for this? — the woman was also an undocumented immigrant! As soon as she testified, she was deported back to Lebanon. After 20+ episodes, Sam was finally allowed to get upset about something and show a hint of personality. Whatever else you might say about this episode, it’s nice that Sam finally got some hint of a backstory. Up until last night, she was one of the most underwritten characters in the history of this show.

The show certainly tried to tug at the heart strings with this episode but it was so just so heavy-handed and clumsily written that it had the opposite effect.

Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street (Netflix)

This is Joe Berlinger’s latest Netflix true crime docuseries. Over the course of four episodes, Berlinger explores the story of Bernie Madoff. When I started watching, I was skeptical because I really didn’t feel that there was much left to be said about Bernie Madoff but both Berlinger and the show did a good job of explaining not only what Madoff did but also how he was able to get away with it for so long. Along with taking a look at Madoff’s life, the film also examined the people that he hurt (including his two sons, both of whom emerge as tragic figures).

One thing that I did learn is that, while Madoff did handle accounts for a lot of famous and rich people, the majority of his clients were just normal people who were looking for someone to handle their retirement funds. These people were victimized twice, both by Madoff and then by the government regulators. Despite the fact that none of these people knew about Madoff’s crimes, many of them lost their homes and were driven into bankruptcy when they were ordered to help pay back the money that Madoff had stolen.

The film features a lot of footage of the now-deceased Madoff being interviewed in prison. Even imprisoned and shunned by his family, Madoff still didn’t seem to feel that he had done anything wrong. This is probably the first Madoff documentary that has really convinced me that Bernie Madoff really was as evil as everyone says.

Night Flight (Night Flight+)

On Friday night and Saturday morning, I watched the Parts 3 and 4 of Night Flight’s 1983 New Year celebration. The music was good. The stand-up comedians were bad. A surprisingly coherent Ozzy Osbourne was interviewed about whether or not he had actually bitten the head off of a bat. He said it was an accident and assured the interviewer that the rabies shots were not fun.

Tough as Nails (Wednesday Night, CBS)

The blue collar reality show is back. To be honest, this show would be more interesting if it was office workers and executives being forced to do things like build buildings and unclog drains. But whatever. I like Phil Keoghan as the host. Just as with The Amazing Race, he seems to genuinely care about the people competing.

The Twilight Zone (Sunday and Monday, SyFy)

On New Year’s Day, SyFy had their annual Twilight Zone marathon! I watched a few episodes, in between watching movies and doing other things. I caught the Monsters Are Due On Maple Street and the one where Burgess Meredith breaks his reading glasses and realizes that he’ll never be able to read another book. Unfortunately, I did not catch the one with William Shatner and the Gremlin on the wing.

I watched a few more episodes on Monday. Again, I missed the Gremlin on the wing but I did see the one with the guy who was dreaming about being on death row. That’s personal favorite of mine.

Everything Wins In Florida

Posted on January 7, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, the Critics Association of Central Florida announced their picks for the best of 2023!

And here they are!

Best Picture
Winner: Everything Everywhere All At Once
Runner-up: Top Gun: Maverick

Best Director
Winner: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – Everything Everywhere All At Once
Runner-up: Steven Speilberg – The Fabelmans

Best Actor
Winner: Brendan Fraser – The Whale
Runner-up: Austin Butler – Elvis

Best Actress
Winner: Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All At Once
Runner-up: Cate Blanchett – TÀR

Best Supporting Actor
Winner: Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All At Once
Runner-up: Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees Of Inisherin

Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Angle Bassett – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Runner-up: Stephanie Hsu – Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Cast
Winner: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Runner-up: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Screenplay
Winner: Everything Everywhere All At Once
Runner-up: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Best International Film
Winner: RRR
Runner-up: Decision To Leave

Best Documentary
Winner: All The Beauty And The Bloodshed
Runner-up: Good Night Oppy

Best Animated Film
Winner: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Runner-up: Marcel The Shell With Shoes On

Best Cinematography
Winner: Top Gun: Maverick
Runner-up: Avatar: The Way Of Water

Special Honor – Golden Paw For Best Animal Performance Winner
The Horses of Nope / The Donkeys of EO (TIE)

Best Production Design
Winner: Babylon
Runner-up: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Makeup And Hairstyling
Winner: The Whale
Runner-up: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Costume Design
Winner: Elvis
Runner-up: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Special Honor – Best First Feature
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On

Best Visual Effects
Winner: Avatar: The Way Of Water
Runner-up: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Stunt Coordiantion
Winner: Top Gun: Maverick
Runner-up: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Special Honor – Best Choreography
RRR

Best Score
Winner: The Batman
Runner-up: Babylon

Best Original Song
Winner: “Hold My Hand” – Top Gun: Maverick
Runner-up: “Naatu Naatu”- RRR

Best Central Florida Film
Winner: Calendar Girls

Best Achievement in Diversity
Winner: Nope

Here Are the 2022 Nominations of the San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle!

Posted on January 7, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The winners will be announced on January 8th …. which is tomorrow! So, the suspense won’t last that long.

Here are the nominees:

Best Picture
“Everything Everywhere All at Once”
“TÁR”
“The Banshees of Inisherin”
“The Fabelmans”
“Women Talking”

Best Director
Charlotte Wells, “Aftersun”
Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Sarah Polley, “Women Talking”
Steven Spielberg, “The Fabelmans”
Todd Field, “TÁR”

Best Original Screenplay
Charlotte Wells, “Aftersun”
Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Todd Field, “TÁR”
Tony Kushner, Steven Spielberg, “The Fabelmans”

Best Adapted Screenplay
Kazuo Ishiguro, “Living”
Rebecca Lenkiewicz, “She Said”
Rian Johnson, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”
Samuel D. Hunter, “The Whale”
Sarah Polley, “Women Talking”

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

Best Actress
Aubrey Plaza, “Emily the Criminal”
Cate Blanchett, “TÁR”
Danielle Deadwyler, “Till”
Emma Thompson, “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”
Mia Goth, “Pearl”
Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Best Supporting Actor
Anthony Hopkins, “Armageddon Time”
Barry Keoghan, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Ben Whishaw, “Women Talking”
Brendan Gleeson, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Tom Hanks, “Elvis”

Best Supporting Actress
Angela Bassett, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
Claire Foy, “Women Talking”
Dolly De Leon, “Triangle of Sadness”
Jamie Lee Curtis, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Kerry Condon, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Nina Hoss, “TÁR”

Best Animated Feature
“Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood”
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”
“Marcel the Shell With Shoes On”
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”
“Turning Red”

Best International Feature Film
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
“Argentina, 1985”
“Close”
“Decision to Leave”
“EO”

Best Documentary Feature
“All That Breathes”
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”
“Bad Axe”
“Fire of Love”
“Good Night Oppy”
“Navalny”

Best Cinematography
Ben Davis, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Claudio Miranda, “Top Gun: Maverick”
Florian Hoffmeister, “TÁR”
Janusz Kaminski, “The Fabelmans”
Kim Ji-yong, “Decision to Leave”
Linus Sandgren, “Babylon”

Best Production Design
Florencia Martin (production designer), Anthony Carlino (set decorator), “Babylon”
Hannah Beachler (production designer), Lisa K. Sessions (set decorator), “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
Jason Isvarday (production designer), Kelsi Ephraim (set decorator), “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Mark Tildesley (production designer), Michael Standish (set decorator), “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Rick Heinrichs (production designer), Elli Griff (set decorator), “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”

Best Film Editing
Blair McClendon, “Aftersun”
Eddie Hamilton, “Top Gun: Maverick”
Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Monika Willi, “TÁR”
Paul Rogers, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Tom Cross, “Babylon”

Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”
Carter Burwell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Hildur Guðnadóttir, “Women Talking”
John Williams, “The Fabelmans”
Justin Hurwitz, “Babylon”

Special Citation for Independent Cinema
“Emergency”
“Servants”
“Topside”

Here Are The 2022 Nominations of the Hawaii Film Critics Society!

Posted on January 7, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Woo hoo! I love Hawaii!

Here are the nominations!

BEST PICTURE
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Top Gun: Maverick
The Menu
Tár
Babylon

BEST DIRECTOR
The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All At Once
Todd Field, Tár
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Damien Chazelle, Babylon
Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans

BEST ACTOR
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Austin Butler, Elvis
Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Ralph Fiennes, The Menu
Tom Cruise, Top Gun: Maverick

BEST ACTRESS
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once
Cate Blanchett, Tár
Margo Robbie, Babylon
Anya Taylor-Joy, The Menu
Mia Goth, Pearl

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once
Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brad Pitt, Babylon
Colin Farrell, The Batman

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All At Once
Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All At Once
Jean Smart, Babylon

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Everything Everywhere All At Once
The Banshees of Inisherin
The Menu
Tár
The Fabelmans

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Women Talking
Top Gun: Maverick
She Said
The Whale
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

BEST ART DIRECTION
Babylon
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All At Once
RRR
Avatar: The Way of Water

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Babylon
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
The Fabelmans

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Babylon
Top Gun: Maverick
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Tár
Avatar: The Way of Water

BEST EDITING
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Top Gun: Maverick
Babylon
Elvis
Avatar: The Way of Water

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
The Bad Guys
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
Turning Red

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Sr.
Good Night Oppy
Fire of Love
Three Minutes: A Lengthening
All The Beauty and the Bloodshed

BEST MAKE-UP
The Batman
The Whale
Elvis
Babylon
Everything Everywhere All At Once

BEST SOUND
Top Gun: Maverick
Avatar: The Way of Water
Elvis
RRR
The Fabelmans

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Babylon
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
The Banshees of Inisherin
Women Talking

BEST SONG
“Lift Me Up” (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
“Ciao Papa” (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio)
“Naatu Naatu (Telugu)” (RRR)
“Hold My Hand” (Top Gun: Maverick)
“This Is A Life” (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Avatar: The Way of Water
RRR
Top Gun: Maverick
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Everything Everywhere All At Once

BEST STUNT WORK
Top Gun: Maverick
RRR
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Avatar: The Way of Water
Everything Everywhere All At Once

BEST NEW FILMMAKER
John Patton Ford, Emily the Criminal
Charlotte Wells, Aftersun
Elegance Bratton, The Inspection
Lee Jung-jae, Hunt
Carlota Pereda, Piggy

BEST FIRST FILM
Aftersun
Turning Red
Hunt
The Bad Guys
The Bobs Burgers Movie

BEST OVERLOOKED FILM
After Yang
The Unbearable Weight of Immeasurable Talent
The Outfit
Emily the Criminal
Zero Fucks Given

BEST VOCAL/MOTION CAPTURE PERFORMANCE
Sigourney Weaver, Avatar: The Way of Water
Ewan McGregor, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Antonio Banderas, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Zazie Beetz, The Bad Guys
Rosalie Chiang, Turning Red

BEST HORROR FILM
Pearl
The Black Phone
Barbarian
Smile
Terrifier 2

BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
The Batman
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness
Black Adam
DC League of Super Pets

BEST SCI-FI FILM
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Nope
Prey
Lightyear
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
RRR (India)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
Decision To Leave (South Korea)
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Mexico)
Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)

BEST HAWAIIAN FILM
The Wind and the Reckoning (dir. David L. Cunningham) (Hawaii)
Waterman (dir. Isaac Halasima) (Oahu)
Cane Fire (dir. Anthony Banua-Simon) (Kauai)
Ala Moana Boys (dir. Keli’i Grace) (Oahu)
Last Hawaiian Sugar (dir. Deja Bernhardt) (Maui)

WORST FILM OF 2022
Blonde
Morbius
Firestarter
The 355
Thor: Love and Thunder