This year’s Academy Award nominations were announced on Jan. 22. Following, in alphabetical order, are capsule reviews of the 10 films contending for Best Picture. The Oscars ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 15.
“Bugonia”
Convinced that a high-powered pharmaceutical company CEO (Emma Stone) is an alien participating in a global conspiracy against mankind, a paranoid working-class loner (Jesse Plemons) and his mentally challenged cousin (Aidan Delbis) kidnap her and try to compel her to take them to her spaceship so they can negotiate an end to the extraterrestrials’ plot. Director Yorgos Lanthimos’s black comedy, the remake of a 2003 South Korean film, is highly creative and compellingly performed but also sour-spirited, ultimately conveying an anti-humanist environmental message. While they pass quickly, moreover, the scenes of gory mayhem it includes are too grisly for a broad audience. Brief but extreme bloody violence, a suicide, torture, rear male and partial nudity, mature references, including to child sexual abuse, a few profanities, pervasive rough and considerable crude langauge. The OSV News classification is L – limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating is R – restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
“F1 the Movie”
Slick but shallow sports drama centers on a once-promising Formula One driver (Brad Pitt) who left the Grand Prix circuit behind after a traumatic accident in the 1990s and has led a sketchy existence ever since. Invited back into competition by a former teammate-turned-owner (Javier Bardem), he finds himself in an uneasy partnership with a talented yet callow rookie (Damson Idris) with the outfit’s pioneering female technical designer (Kerry Condon) eventually serving as both peacemaker and love interest. Director Joseph Kosinski brings visual flair to the racing scenes and Ehren Kruger’s script promotes teamwork. But the protagonist’s machismo ultimately veers into recklessness while both the screenplay’s treatment of sexuality and its inclusion of salty dialogue suggest parents should give kids the red light. Offscreen but romanticized premarital sexual activity, a few uses each of profanity and crass language, about a half-dozen milder oaths, at least one rough term, frequent crude talk, an obscene gesture. The OSV News classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
“Frankenstein” (Netflix)
Sophisticated screen version of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel charts the relationship between the destructively willful scientist of the title (Oscar Isaac) and the composite creature (Jacob Elordi) he revivifies using the body parts of different corpses. Philosophically probing and ultimately deeply poignant, writer-director Guillermo del Toro’s gothic science fiction drama is told, in sequence, from the perspectives of the two principals and highlights the former’s vanity, folly and frustration-driven cruelty as well as the latter’s search for human connectedness both with the blind elderly farmer (David Bradley) who befriends and educates him and with the warm-hearted fiancee (Mia Goth) of his progenitor’s beloved brother (Felix Kammerer). Some very harsh gory violence, gruesome images, rear nudity, a scene of urination, mature themes, including venereal disease, a couple of mild oaths. The OSV News classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is R – restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
“Hamnet” (Focus)
Lyrical but emotionally wrenching drama traces the romance between William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his future wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley), their marriage and their relationship with their three children leading up to the untimely death of the young son from whose name the film takes its title (Jacobi Jupe). In the wake of this tragedy, which sets the bereaved couple at odds, the great playwright infuses his intense grief into the writing of his masterpiece, “Hamlet.” Director Chloé Zhao, who co-wrote the screenplay with Maggie O’Farrell, from whose 2020 novel the film is adapted, has crafted a deeply moving affirmation of the power of creativity and of human sympathy. Yet viewers committed to Christian values will be unsettled by the depiction of Agnes as a practitioner of white magic who denies that her dead child has gone to heaven and identifies herself as a dissenter from the faith, at least in its state-sponsored Anglican form. Well-catechized grown-ups should have no difficulty in assessing such material, though the film is unsuitable for youngsters. Occult practices, semi-graphic premarital sexual activity with partial nudity. The OSV News classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
“Marty Supreme” (A24)
Artistically accomplished but morally unsettling profile of a gifted table tennis player (Timothée Chalamet at full throttle) in 1950s New York who is willing to adopt any means necessary to rise to the top. Spurning his home life with his domineering mother (Fran Drescher) and his humdrum work as a shoe salesman, he enters into an uneasy alliance with a pen manufacturing mogul and potential patron (Kevin O’Leary) with whose wife (Gwyneth Paltrow), a glamorous retired actress, he’s carrying on an affair. While angling for a rematch with the innovative Japanese champion (Koto Kawaguchi) who decisively defeated him in a high-profile showdown, he tries to keep his distance from the married childhood friend (Odessa A’zion) who has also been cheating with him and is now pregnant as a result. Although director and co-writer Josh Safdie’s loosely fact-based mix of drama and comedy sees its protagonist ultimately experience something of a conversion, at least one of his breaches of the Sixth Commandment is shown as having no negative consequences. Skewed values, multiple scenes of semi-graphic adultery, some of it romanticized, aberrant acts, rear male and partial nudity, mostly stylized violence, brief gory sights, fleeting pornographic imagery, a few uses of profanity, several milder oaths, pervasive rough and crude language, occasional crass dialogue. The OSV News classification is O – morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R – restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
“One Battle After Another” (Warner Bros.)
Considerable acting and filmmaking talent is put to questionable use in this off-kilter action feature from writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson. An aging and drug-addled former revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) finds his past catching up with him when, after a hiatus of a decade-and-a-half, the Army officer (Sean Penn) who succeeded in neutralizing his equally radical live-in girlfriend (Teyana Taylor) resumes the hunt for the activist, endangering the couple’s now teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti). The artistic flair and humor with which Anderson approaches his tale are blunted by the script’s distorted politics, which involve winking at violent left-wing extremism while grossly caricaturing the far-right conspirators with whom Penn’s character longs to hobnob. Although some gripping suspense as well as humane family values partly compensate for this imbalance, gritty sexual content raises yet another barrier for casual viewers. Skewed values, much stylized mayhem with brief gore, aberrant sexual behavior, narcotics use, several profanities, about a half-dozen milder oaths, pervasive rough and crude language, obscene gestures. The OSV News classification is L – limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating is R – restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
“The Secret Agent” (Neon)
Challenging historical drama, set in 1977, examines Brazilian society under the military dictatorship that ruled the country for two decades, beginning in 1964. Having run afoul of a powerful and corrupt businessman (Luciano Chirolli), a widowed professor and political dissident (Wagner Moura) travels to the city of Recife where his young son (Enzo Nunes) has been living with his father-in-law (Carlos Francisco). There he finds refuge, together with others on the run, under the protection of a left-wing matriarchal figure (Tania Maria) as he makes plans to escape abroad. But the tension of his situation increases when he learns that the mogul he offended has dispatched two hitmen (Roney Villela and Gabriel Leone) to eliminate him. Writer-director Kleber Mendonca Filho effectively evokes the chaos and moral rot of the era, and viewers will sympathize with the mild-mannered protagonist, especially in his role as a loving father. Yet the film includes graphically presented images of mayhem and degraded behavior that make it a gritty experience. Much bloody violence, grisly visuals, aberrant acts, semi-graphic nonmarital sexual activity, upper female and rear nudity, a same-sex kiss, a few uses of profanity, a couple of milder oaths, frequent rough language, about a dozen crude expressions, occasional crass talk. In Portuguese. English subtitles. The OSV News classification is L – limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating is R – restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
“Sentimental Value” (Neon)
As helmed by co-writer Joachim Trier, this low-key drama examines the fraught relationship between a celebrated Norwegian film director (Stellan Skarsgard) and his two semi-estranged adult daughters. One (Renate Reinsve), a professionally successful but psychologically fragile actress, consistently confronts or avoids him, the other (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), a historian and homemaker, shows more tolerance for his shortcomings. When the former refuses the starring part in dad’s latest project, a movie based on the tumultuous events of his childhood, he casts an American TV star (Elle Fanning) in her stead. Using the longtime family home dad left when he divorced mom as a symbol of the clan’s complex heritage, Trier and his script collaborator Eskil Vogt muse on miscommunication, missed opportunities and human isolation. In Norwegian. English subtitles. Mature themes, including suicide and adultery, brief partial nudity, a same-sex kiss, a few uses of profanity, about a half-dozen instances each of milder swearing and rough language, a handful of crude and crass terms, an obscene gesture. The OSV News classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is R – restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
“Sinners” (Warner Bros.)
An opening scene hints that what begins as a straightforward drama, set in 1930s Mississippi, is going to take on the characteristics of a horror film. And so it does as the newly established juke joint bankrolled by a pair of gangster twin brothers (both played by Michael B. Jordan), recently returned home from Chicago, initially becomes the venue for their callow young cousin (Miles Caton), a minister’s son and aspiring musician, to show off his skills on the guitar but is later targeted for attack by a horde of vampires (led by Jack O’Connell). While writer-director Ryan Coogler crafts a powerful piece of cinema and manages the genre-mashing with considerable success, an overly-casual treatment of human sexuality and other Gospel-discordant messages, including visceral racial wish-fulfillment and an exalting of music over religion, preclude endorsement for viewers of any age. Misguided moral and religious values, much gory violence, numerous gruesome images, semi-graphic depictions of sexual activity, some of it aberrant, and of marital lovemaking, several uses of profanity, about a dozen milder oaths, brief coarse sexual references, constant rough and crude language. The OSV News classification is O – morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R – restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
“Train Dreams” (Netflix)
Director and co-writer Clint Bentley uses striking visual imagery and understated dialogue to recount the fictional biography of a World War I-era logger (Joel Edgerton) in the Pacific Northwest whose happy family life, shared with his wife (Felicity Jones) and toddler daughter, is first interrupted by his need to travel long distances to his seasonal work and then blighted by tragedy. Before this event he witnesses a crime that comes to haunt him and befriends a wise co-worker (William H. Macy) while after it he forms a tentative bond with a forestry services official (Kerry Condon). Will Patton provides homespun narration for this adaptation of Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella which ponders the meaning of an obscure individual’s life and finds it in a purely secular acceptance of the vicissitudes of fortune. Some stylized violence, brief semi-graphic marital lovemaking, a couple of instances each of mild swearing and vaguely sexual talk, at least one crude term. The OSV News classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
