Tag Archives: Presence

One Battle After Another Wins In New Jersey

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The New Jersey Film Critics Circle has announced its picks for best of 2025!  The winners are in bold!

Best Picture
Hamnet
It Was Just An Accident
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another (WINNER)
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners (RUNNER-UP)
Train Dreams
Weapons

Best Director
Chloé Zhao – Hamnet
Park Chan-wook – No Other Choice
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another (WINNER)
Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler – Sinners (RUNNER-UP)

Best Original Screenplay
It Was Just An Accident
Marty Supreme (RUNNER-UP)
Sentimental Value
Sinners (WINNER)
Weapons

Best Adapted Screenplay
Bugonia
Hamnet
No Other Choice (RUNNER-UP)
One Battle After Another (WINNER)
Train Dreams

Best Actor
Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme (WINNER)
Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
Joel Edgerton – Train Dreams
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners (RUNNER-UP)

Best Actress
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet (WINNER)
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (RUNNER-UP)
Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another
Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value
Emma Stone – Bugonia

Best Supporting Actor
Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another (RUNNER-UP)
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo – Sinners
Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value (WINNER)

Best Supporting Actress
Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value
Ariana Grande – Wicked: For Good
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value (RUNNER-UP)
Amy Madigan – Weapons (WINNER)
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another

Best Acting Ensemble
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another (WINNER)
Sentimental Value
Sinners (RUNNER-UP)
Weapons

Best Original Score
F1
Hamnet
Marty Supreme (RUNNER-UP)
One Battle After Another
Sinners (WINNER)

Best Original Song
“Drive” – F1
“Golden” – KPop Demon Hunters (WINNER)
“I Lied to You” – Sinners (RUNNER-UP)
“Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” – Sinners
“Train Dreams” – Train Dreams

Best Editing
F1 (RUNNER-UP)
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another (WINNER)
Sinners

Best Production Design
Frankenstein (WINNER)
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners (RUNNER-UP)
Wicked: For Good

Best Costume Design
Frankenstein (WINNER)
Hamnet
Hedda
Sinners
Wicked: For Good (RUNNER-UP)

Best Hair and Makeup
Frankenstein (WINNER)
Sinners
The Smashing Machine
Weapons (RUNNER-UP)
Wicked: For Good

Best Sound
F1 (RUNNER-UP)
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirāt
Warfare (WINNER)

Best Animated Feature
Arco (RUNNER-UP)
Elio
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
KPop Demon Hunters (WINNER)
Zootopia 2

Best International Feature
It Was Just An Accident
No Other Choice (WINNER)
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value (RUNNER-UP)
Sirāt

Best Documentary
2000 Meters to Andriivka
Come See Me in the Good Light (RUNNER-UP)
Orwell: 2+2=5
The Perfect Neighbor (WINNER)
Predators

Best Cinematography
Hamnet
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
Sinners (RUNNER-UP)
Train Dreams (WINNER)

Best Visual Effects
Avatar: Fire and Ash (WINNER)
F1
Frankenstein (RUNNER-UP)
Sinners
Superman

Best Stunts
F1 (RUNNER-UP)
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (WINNER)
One Battle After Another
The Running Man
Sinners

Best Directorial Debut
The Chronology of Water
Friendship
Pillion (RUNNER-UP)
Sorry, Baby (WINNER)
The Ugly Stepsister

Best Breakthrough Performance
Miles Caton – Sinners (RUNNER-UP)
Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another (WINNER)
Jacobi Jupe – Hamnet
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value
Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby

Best Animal in a Movie
Bing the Dog – The Friend
Googoo the Meerkat – Left-Handed Girl
Indy the Dog – Good Boy (WINNER)
Noochie the Cat – Sorry, Baby (RUNNER-UP)
Tonic the Cat – Caught Stealing

Best LGBTQIA+ Representation
Blue Moon
Hedda
Pillion (RUNNER-UP)
Plainclothes
Twinless (WINNER)

Best New Jersey Representation
The Housemaid
Marty Supreme (RUNNER-UP)
Ponyboi
Presence
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (WINNER)

Here Are The 2025 Nominations of the New Jersey Film Critics Circle!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here are the 2025 nominations of the New Jersey Film Critics Circle.

Best Picture
Hamnet
It Was Just An Accident
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams
Weapons

Best Director
Chloé Zhao – Hamnet
Park Chan-wook – No Other Choice
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler – Sinners

Best Original Screenplay
It Was Just An Accident
Marty Supreme
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Weapons

Best Adapted Screenplay
Bugonia
Hamnet
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
Train Dreams

Best Actor
Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
Joel Edgerton – Train Dreams
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners

Best Actress
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another
Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value
Emma Stone – Bugonia

Best Supporting Actor
Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo – Sinners
Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value

Best Supporting Actress
Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value
Ariana Grande – Wicked: For Good
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another

Best Acting Ensemble
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Weapons

Best Original Score
F1
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners

Best Original Song
“Drive” – F1
“Golden” – KPop Demon Hunters
“I Lied to You” – Sinners
“Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” – Sinners
“Train Dreams” – Train Dreams

Best Editing
F1
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
Sinners

Best Production Design
Frankenstein
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Wicked: For Good

Best Costume Design
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Hedda
Sinners
Wicked: For Good

Best Hair and Makeup
Frankenstein
Sinners
The Smashing Machine
Weapons
Wicked: For Good

Best Sound
F1
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirāt
Warfare

Best Animated Feature
Arco
Elio
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
KPop Demon Hunters
Zootopia 2

Best International Feature
It Was Just An Accident
No Other Choice
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sirāt

Best Documentary
2000 Meters to Andriivka
Come See Me in the Good Light
Orwell: 2+2=5
The Perfect Neighbor
Predators

Best Cinematography
Hamnet
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Train Dreams

Best Visual Effects
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Frankenstein
Sinners
Superman

Best Stunts
F1
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
One Battle After Another
The Running Man
Sinners

Best Directorial Debut
The Chronology of Water
Friendship
Pillion
Sorry, Baby
The Ugly Stepsister

Best Breakthrough Performance
Miles Caton – Sinners
Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another
Jacobi Jupe – Hamnet
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value
Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby

Best Animal in a Movie
Bing the Dog – The Friend
Googoo the Meerkat – Left-Handed Girl
Indy the Dog – Good Boy
Noochie the Cat – Sorry, Baby
Tonic the Cat – Caught Stealing

Best LGBTQIA+ Representation
Blue Moon
Hedda
Pillion
Plainclothes
Twinless

Best New Jersey Representation*
The Housemaid
Marty Supreme
Ponyboi
Presence
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

The Films of 2025: Presence (dir by Steven Soderbergh)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Presence takes place in one very big house.  The Payne family — Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan) and their teenage children, Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang) — have moved into the house, little aware that it is already haunted by a poltergeist.  The entire film is seen through the eyes of the poltergeist, the Presence.

The Presence floats through the house, going from room to room and allowing us to hear snippets of conversation that help us to put the plot together.  The Paynes have moved to what they hope will be a better neighborhood and school district for their children.  Tyler is a swimmer and his new school will perhaps make it easier for him to get the attention of college scouts.  Chloe is still mourning the death of one of her friends.  Her friend died of a drug overdose and we hear enough conversations to learn that drugs were apparently a problem at Chloe’s old school.  More than one of Chloe’s classmates have died.  Chris keeps an eye on Chloe, looking for any signs of drug addiction.  Rebekah, meanwhile, is more concerned with the future of Tyler.  As for the Presence, it gets upset easily.  It’s not happy that Chloe seems to like Ryan (West Mulholland), a friend of Tyler’s who, at first, seems like almost a parody of sensitivity.  The Presence gets even more upset when Tyler circulates a nude photo of another student online.  What does the Presence want with the Paynes and will Rebekah and Chris’s already strained marriage survive the pressure of living with the mysterious spirit?

Written by David Koepp and directed by Steven Soderbergh, Presence is told with long takes and naturalistic lighting.  Following the film’s plot requires listening to snippets of conversations that sometimes drift in from a neighboring room.  It’s an interesting technique, or at least it is for the first half of the film.  Eventually, it becomes apparent that Soderbergh is more interested in the film as a technical experiment than as an actual story involving interesting characters or surprising twists.  At first, the long shots and the lack of close-ups seem to symbolize that the Presence is an outsider amongst the living family but eventually, they come to symbolize Soderbergh’s detachment from the story that he’s telling.  As with so many of Soderbergh’s genre exercises, it’s a film that’s easier to respect than enjoy.  Soderbergh sticks with his technique for the entire film, even when it would easier to abandon it.  I appreciate the dedication but sometimes, I wish Soderbergh could just make a genre film without continually trying to convince us that he’s actually too good for the material.

On the plus side, Soderbergh does get fairly effective performances from his cast.  There’s a twist involving Ryan’s character that isn’t really surprising but West Mulholland still does an excellent job selling it.  Callina Liang realistically portrays Chloe’s sadness and I could definitely relate to her need to rebel, as I would think anyone who has ever been a teenager would.  As so often happens with Soderbergh’s films, the extreme stylization gets in the way of the story but Liang still brings a bit humanity to Soderbergh’s chilly vision.

6 Things That I’m Looking Forward To In January

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s January!

Traditionally, as far as pop culture goes, January doesn’t get much respect.  If a studio has a film that they knew isn’t going to be a hit with critics or audiences, January is where they usually dump it with the full knowledge that, as bad as it is, everyone will have forgotten about it by the time summer rolls around.  The same can often be said of publishers.  With everyone busy getting caught up on what they missed during the last few months of the previous year, chances are that they won’t notice a few bombs dropped on the cultural landscape.  That’s the theory anyways.

But, you know me!  I’m an optimist.  And I remain convinced that, even in January, there are things to which we can look forward,  And here’s six of those things!

(Why six?  Because Lisa Marie doesn’t do odd numbers!)

  1. The Oscars

Yes, it’s that time of year!  The Oscar nominations are going to be announced on January 17th!  That’s two and a half weeks from now!  Obviously, I’ve got quite a bit that I still need to watch.  Wish me luck!

2. Sundance Film Festival

The first big film festival of the year opens on January 23rd.  Which films will emerge as Oscar contenders from this year’s festival?  It’s also possible that this year’s Sundance could be the last to be held in the snowy mountains of Utah.  If Sundance does move to either Boulder or Cincinnati, this year’s festival will indeed be the end of an era.  (Quite frankly, it’s hard for me to imagine a Sundance Film Festival without snow.)

3. Wolf Man

Directed by Leigh Whannell, the latest version of the Wolf Man will be released on January 17th.  Will this Wolf Man be as full of self-pity as Lon Chaney Jr’s version was?  We’ll find out!

4, Presence

As a filmmaker, Steven Soderbergh can be hit-or-miss.  He’s directed some truly brilliant films.  He’s also directed some rather pretentious dreck.  His latest film, Presence, appears to be a horror film but, knowing Soderbergh, there will probably be some twist that will annoy me to no end.  That said, the film stars Lucy Liu and she’s someone who definitely deserves to make a comeback.  The film is due to be released on the 24th and I’m hoping for the best!

5. Screamboat

This is apparently a horror version of Steamboat Willie.  This movie is probably going to suck but I’m just curious to see whether it’s going to be merely forgettable or a full-on disaster.  Screamboat is destined to ruin some childhood memories on January 24th.  Normally, I’d assign Case to check this out for us but I don’t think he’s forgiven me for making him watch Escape From Tomorrow.

6. Back In Action

Cameron Diaz came out of retirement to star in this action comedy.  The script must have been really amazing, right?  Uhmm….right?  We’ll find out when the film is released on January 17th.

What are you looking forward to in January?  Let us know in the comments!

Here’s The Trailer For Presence

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here’s the trailer for Presence, another horror film that could have taken advantage of the scary season but which is instead being released later next year.  Add to that, this is a Steven Soderbergh film.  When Soderbergh’s good, he’s great.  When he’s bad, he’s painfully self-indulgent.

Lucy Liu is cool, though.

 

TV News and reviews: Presence has a lead, Emerald City is Back , The Walking Dead and more!

Posted on by paddiesthoughts

ABC has signed on to Oscar award winning (12 Years a Slave) John Ridley’s drama “Presence” which will focus on an Army counter insurgency operative who finds herself navigating Los Angeles as an unlicensed private investigator.

“Presence” should premier sometime in the 2016-2017 season. No casting news is available at this time. Ridley is also in talks with ABC about an unnamed Marvel project. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/john-ridley-sells-detective-drama-802451)

“Emerald City” is back alive at NBC and has its new star. According to The Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/nbcs-emerald-city-casts-true-802634), Adria Arjona (Person of Interest) will play a 20-something-year-old named Dorothy. She and her K9 dog will be transported to a magical land to fight for supremacy.

The once, twice, thrice dead show is back alive and set to premier mid-season. David Schulner (The Event, Dracula) will write, executive produce and be show runner for the 10 episode series. “Emerald City” is based on L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz books.

Starz has picked up Neil Gaiman’s adaptation of “American Gods” HBO passed on the series earlier. Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) and Michael Green (Heroes, Everwood) will serve as showrunners and executive producers

Casting news:

Winona Ryder is coming to TV, according to TVLine (http://tvline.com/2015/06/15/winona-ryder-montauk-cast-netflix-series/ ) She will be the lead in the Netflix yet-to-be-named super natural thriller. Ryder will play the mother of a missing two year old who uses her unknown powers to find him.

The series was originally titled “Montauk“. David Harbour (State of Affairs) will co-star with Ross and Matt Duffner (Wayward Pines, Hidden) writing and directing eight episodes.

Giancarlo Esposito is coming back to TV! According to The Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/giancarlo-esposito-joins-baz-luhrmanns-803463) , Esposito (Breaking Bad, Once Upon a Time and Revolution) has joined on to Netflix’s ‘The Get Down”

Esposito will play the the fiery Pastor Ramon Cruz. “The Get Down” also stars Jimmy Smits.

Renewals and cancellations:

A&E has canceled Carelton Cuse’s drama “The Returned“. However, his “Bates Motel” has been renewed for season four, according to Zap2It (http://www.zap2it.com/blogs/2014-15_canceled_tv_shows_list-2014-11 )

Speculation news:

Jessica Lange might be returning to “American Horror Story” According to The Wrap (http://www.thewrap.com/jessica-lange-says-shes-open-to-american-horror-story-return/), she does not object to the idea, if her and Ryan Murphy can work something out.  Please Jessica! (sorry, just said that to my TV.)

And in Holy Frakking news!

AMC has released the trailer for “Fear The Dead“, the spin off of “The Walking Dead“, You can watch it here! http://www.amc.com/shows/fear-the-walking-dead/video-extras/trailer-nicks-escape-fear-the-walking-dead-series-premiere

That will be my TV news round up for this week. Hope to see you all back next week!