The Official Review Thread of 2023

[Reza]

From a top level, a Best Actor lineup that includes Pryce and Banderas isn't that solid. Phoenix, Driver, and DiCaprio were very good shots for nominations, but I think Domingo has easily a more Oscar-friendly role than either Pryce or Banderas.

You really underestimate Banderas. I think he was clearly heads above Driver, Pryce and DiCaprio - second only to the winner Phoenix.

[Sabin]

Mister Tee wrote
I don't think this could be put any more succinctly. The performance is dynamic, and is bound to be discussed in awards terms. But the film is an afterthought, and, in a year when even second-tier contenders are better than usual, that's going to be real handicap in holding onto voters' attention. (Though I challenge your going back to 2014 for the last time he'd miss. I say, 2019. Not to say he couldn't possibly have made it. But with DeNiro and Egerton already being boxed out, I don't see him as anything like a slam-dunk.)

Not to get too nerdy...

From a top level, a Best Actor lineup that includes Pryce and Banderas isn't that solid. Phoenix, Driver, and DiCaprio were very good shots for nominations, but I think Domingo has easily a more Oscar-friendly role than either Pryce or Banderas. I also think that De Niro's and Egerton's candidacies belies how voters actually felt about their performance. Egerton was in a movie they clearly didn't like. De Niro was in a movie they liked enough to nominate but his one Oscar-friendly scene came two-plus hours in and (although I don't know for sure) I'd imagine their frustration with his character has something to do with its eventual 0/10 showing.

Maybe not a slam-drunk but no way he misses a prediction list for me. I say this as someone who thought Adam Sandler probably gave the performance of the year but wouldn't fool myself into predicting him for a moment.

Mister Tee wrote
2) For all the film obviously led up to it, I didn't feel like the March itself got enough screen time. I was expecting the arrival of the crowds to approach the excitement of Amity Island/4th of July in Jaws, but all we got were a few shots of trains and buses, and suddenly the mall was teeming with a quarter million people. (It's probably unhelpful that most of the news coverage from the era was all black-and-white, and couldn't be easily edited into present-day footage.) Even King's speech, one of the most famous in American history, was cut down to a sound bite -- one the actor (who'd done well enough in the part, till then) threw off half-heartedly. When words are so ingrained in our minds that we automatically hear every cadence, it's inexcusable to miss recreation by so much.

It's pretty staggering. At first, I thought it was lack of confidence but the more I think about it, after the NAACP stands up for him on live television the film is over in terms of dramatic tension.

Mister Tee wrote
But, again: Colman Domingo is a live wire. If he makes it onto the best actor list, it's deserved. And if he misses, it's the film.

This is turning into a fun and suspenseful year for predictions.

[Mister Tee]

The reason to see the film is it's a solid history lesson and for Colman Domingo. He's terrific. If he doesn't get into the Best Actor lineup it's entirely due to the strength of his competition and the weakness of his film

I don't think this could be put any more succinctly. The performance is dynamic, and is bound to be discussed in awards terms. But the film is an afterthought, and, in a year when even second-tier contenders are better than usual, that's going to be real handicap in holding onto voters' attention. (Though I challenge your going back to 2014 for the last time he'd miss. I say, 2019. Not to say he couldn't possibly have made it. But with DeNiro and Egerton already being boxed out, I don't see him as anything like a slam-dunk.)

The best to be said for the movie is that it's not boring; it's way too fast-moving for that. But that quick pace works against the film, as well -- things never slow down long enough for us to register scenes/events as important; for them to stick to the ribs. If everything flies by, none of it matters enough.

Two specific problems I had: 1) Wolfe's stage background leads him to some inventive staging, but he overdoes it in a couple of spots. That scene where various March departments give their progress reports feels like the prelude to a musical number, and shatters the believability of the moment. 2) For all the film obviously led up to it, I didn't feel like the March itself got enough screen time. I was expecting the arrival of the crowds to approach the excitement of Amity Island/4th of July in Jaws, but all we got were a few shots of trains and buses, and suddenly the mall was teeming with a quarter million people. (It's probably unhelpful that most of the news coverage from the era was all black-and-white, and couldn't be easily edited into present-day footage.) Even King's speech, one of the most famous in American history, was cut down to a sound bite -- one the actor (who'd done well enough in the part, till then) threw off half-heartedly. When words are so ingrained in our minds that we automatically hear every cadence, it's inexcusable to miss recreation by so much.

But, again: Colman Domingo is a live wire. If he makes it onto the best actor list, it's deserved. And if he misses, it's the film.

[danfrank]

I wasn’t expecting much from Rustin except another standard biopic. It was fine, as biopics go. Why are there so few biopics that go beyond the didactic and approach being art? I agree with most of what you wrote, Sabin, though I think the “thread” of the film was less about repairing his relationship with King and more about how hard it was for a queer man to be allowed to do what he’s clearly good at. Yes, Chris Rock was distractingly bad in this. The best of the supporting actors were Glynn Turman, Audra McDonald, and Jeffrey Wright. I didn’t think Da’vine Joy Randolph’s small part was “bizarre;” it was just a cameo. What was a poor choice was having Rustin listen to a record with the real Mahalia Jackson singing earlier in the film, and then later hearing Randolph singing as Mahalia with a very different voice.

Colman Domingo was terrific, and it will be a shame if he is left off the nomination list in favor of bigger-name actors like Leo. Cillian Murphy remains in my number one spot, though.

[Sabin]

Big Magilla wrote
Perhaps the screenplay could have done a better job of explaining why, but the reason for that was this, as noted in the film's IMDb. trivia page:

Fellow Civil Rights leader Julian Bond often quoted Bayard Rustin as joking that "Martin Luther King couldn't organize vampires to go to a bloodbath," meaning that despite King's enormous gifts as a leader and an orator, King needed Rustin's and others' help with the organizational aspects of the movement.

Let's see this movie.

Big Magilla wrote
She does a bit more than show up for one shot. She performs Mahalia Jackson's 1951 hit, "How I Got Over" which Jackson herself sang at the Freedom March.

Yes. I agree. But it's still bizarre.

[Big Magilla]

This movie doesn't need a tight thread but it could've used a tighter one than what we got, which is essentially: "Bayard Rustin needs to fix his relationship with Martin Luther King so together they could make the Freedom March a success."

Perhaps the screenplay could have done a better job of explaining why, but the reason for that was this, as noted in the film's IMDb. trivia page:

Fellow Civil Rights leader Julian Bond often quoted Bayard Rustin as joking that "Martin Luther King couldn't organize vampires to go to a bloodbath," meaning that despite King's enormous gifts as a leader and an orator, King needed Rustin's and others' help with the organizational aspects of the movement.

Was something cut from the third act? Da'Vine Joy Randolph shows up for, like, one shot as Mahalia Jackson.

She does a bit more than show up for one shot. She performs Mahalia Jackson's 1951 hit, "How I Got Over" which Jackson herself sang at the Freedom March.

[Sabin]

EDITED SLIGHTLY:

The last two movies I saw back to back were Nyad and Rustin and they're very much of a piece with each other but different in a few key areas. Nyad starts off with the story and the plot. Diana Nyad is going to achieve her dream of swimming from Cuba to Florida that she couldn't do years prior. It's a strong thread but it excludes other areas of human interest IMO, and I never quite latched onto her as a person. Rustin has the opposite issue. It wants to go after a lot. The Freedom March, conflict with the NAACP, his personal life, a lot. This movie doesn't need a tight thread but it could've used a tighter one than what we got, which is essentially: "Bayard Rustin needs to fix his relationship with Martin Luther King so together they could make the Freedom March a success." That's a squishy plot that has as much a stop-and-go momentum that you might ascertain from the logline. Dr. King is mentioned so much in the first act that he feels like an off-screen supporting character. I'm not going to brainstorm how to "fix" the movie (because it's fine enough) but it feels very wikipedia-ish, polite, and might have benefited from bringing us into a more personal urgency behind Bayard Rustin's drive like Dustin Lance Black did so well with Milk. We get a sense of political urgency but it feels very haloed. We get a scene where jilted lovers meet (a lousy scene), one of them yells at Rustin, and accuses him of loving too much or something. The third act climax involves the NAACP standing up for Bayard Rustin, which is moving unless, y'know, you think the third act of the film should involve the protagonist doing something. When it comes to these kinds of films, the checking of boxes can get in the way of the drama.

The reason to see the film is it's a solid history lesson and for Colman Domingo. He's terrific. If he doesn't get into the Best Actor lineup it's entirely due to the strength of his competition and the weakness of his film because he'd have no trouble getting a nomination or a win last year, the year before... (checks wikipedia)... Jesus, the last lineup I'm not sure he would make it in was 2014. Is this really the strongest possible lineup in nine years? That said, it's also possible he'll miss out because his performance is a lot at the start of the film, which is intentional. The film doesn't quite make enough out of this idea but Bayard Rustin comes across as more trouble than he's worth early on and they'd rather do the whole civil rights thing without him. That's I think where more of the drama is.

Anyway, Domingo is the reason to see the film and Bayard Rustin should have a film.

Couple of of stray observations:
-I don't even blame Chris Rock for how bad he is in the film. He is distracting in a way that someone should have figured out and corrected much earlier. This is as much of a "takes you out of the movie completely" performance as I've seen in a long time.
-Was something cut from the third act? Da'Vine Joy Randolph shows up for, like, one shot as Mahalia Jackson. There's actually a lot of this in the film. They did a reasonably good job of casting people in small roles and not doing much with them. Why cast CCH Pounder to check a box?
-This movie has some lousy green-screen for 2023 and it's efforts to mix archival footage with real footage is really awkward.
-Bad score.

[anonymous1980]

RUSTIN
Cast: Colman Domingo, Chris Rock, Glynn Turman, Aml Ameen, Jeffrey Wright, Audra McDonald, Gus Halper, Johnny Ramey, CCH Pounder, Michael Potts, Da'Vine Joy Randolph.
Dir: George C. Wolfe.

This is the biopic of Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King's friend and right-hand man who pretty conceived and organized the March in Washington but despite this, is pretty much unknown to mainstream history possibly due to the fact he was an openly gay man during a time when that is scandalous at best, criminal at worst. As I was watching this on Netflix, I thought that it reminded me of those HBO made-for-cable films that would sweep the Emmys every year. The structure and aesthetic pretty much follows that formula. Nothing wrong with it but it doesn't break new ground. The one doing most of the heavy lifting is Colman Domingo who is truly outstanding. He is quite compelling as the title character. He pretty much makes the movie and even though he's supported by the good supporting cast, he's pretty much the only start the show. He is the number one reason to check this one out on Netflix.

Oscar Prospects: It's Colman Domingo or bust. Maybe Best Original Song for the Lenny Kravitz track.

Grade: B.

[Big Magilla]

RUSTIN
Cast: Colman Domingo, Chris Rock, Glynn Turman, Gus Halper, Jeffrey Wright, Johnny Ramey, CCH Pounder, Audra McDonald, Adrienne Warren, Da'Vine Joy Randolph.
Director: George C. Wolfe

This is much better than early reviews have suggested. Colman Domingo absolutely deserves a Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of Bayard Rustin who starts off as a pain in the ass, but by the end will move you to tears. Wolfe (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) gets amazing performances out of Domingo and his Ma Rainey partner Glynn Turman, of course, but the entire cast is used effectively, most of them playing against type. A subdued Chris Rock is a marvelous Roy Wilkins. Chameleon Jeffrey Wright is almost unrecognizable as an obnoxious Adam Clayton Powell. Tony winning divas Audra McDonald and Adrienne Warren (Tina) don't sing, but Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Mahalia Jackson certainly does.

Netflix seems to have buried this one. No big advertising blurbs. Even though it debuted at midnight last night, you still have to search for it beyond the big promos for The Crown, Season 6 and The Killer.

Oscar prospects: Best Actor, Song most likely. Less certain, Best Picture and Original Screenplay but Jeffrey Wright is a strong possibility for
American Fiction and Da'Vine Joy Randolph is a certain Best Supporting Actress nominee for The Holdovers. With several of his The Color Purple co-stars also strong contenders, Colman Domingo could see several of his co-stars this year also in the running.

[anonymous1980]

THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES
Cast: Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andres Rivera, Fionnula Flanagan, Burn Gorman.
Dir: Francis Lawrence.

This is the prequel to the Hunger Games series and it focuses on a young Coriolanus Snow (the character played by Donald Sutherland for those of you who have forgotten already) and tells the story of how he came to be. I would not call myself a Hunger Games fan. I've never read the books but I have seen and really enjoyed the movies. This prequel is easily the weakest film of the bunch. Yes, the performances are very good. It was fun to see Viola Davis chew scenery as Snow's evil mentor. Yes, the production values are still slick. But this film which was divided into three chapters, pretty much loses its momentum after the second chapter and the film drags its way to its last hour to complete the already expected arc of its lead character. However, if you're a fan of the book series, there's still plenty to love and who am I to prevent you from watching it?

Oscar Prospects: None of the other films got any Oscar attention. This one will be no different apart from MAYBE an outside chance for Original Song.

Grade: C+

[Eric]

Oscar Prospects: Probably none, but never bet against Kathy Bates or Maggie Smith, either or both of whom could pull off another surprise nomination somewhere.

You know you are going to get trounced here for bringing up dear Maggie into yet another Oscar race

Every year, another Tea with Mussolini.

[Big Magilla]

You know you are going to get trounced here for bringing up dear Maggie into yet another Oscar race

She's unlikely to be nominated for an Oscar but she will probably be considered for an AARP Movies for Grownups award, as are Linney and Bates. She and Bates might also show up in the Globe and Satellite awards where comedies are a separate category. It is supposed to be a comedy although I would classify it as a drama with comedic moments most of which are shown in the trailer.

[Reza]

THE MIRACLE CLUB
Cast: Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith, Agnes O'Casey, Mark O' Halloran, Eric Smith, Stephen Rea.

Don't be put off by the title. It's not selling religion. It's The Wizard of Oz for old people. Set in 1967 Dublin, it's about a trip to Lourdes in search of miracle cures by Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith, Agnes O'Casey and Eric Smith as O'Casey's little boy who is unable to speak, with Laura Linney as the interloper along for the ride. Mark O'Halloran and Stephen Rea play Bates and O'Casey's husbands, neither of whom want their wives to go on the trip, O'Halloran even telling O'Casey if she goes, not to come back.

None of the participants find what they're looking for at Lourdes, but secrets, some of them twenty years old, are revealed, and the principals all find redemption of sorts. O'Casey, O'Halloran, and Eric Smith are real finds, but Rea is pretty much wasted as Bates' doofus husband.

The film's three stars are, of course, terrific. Kathy Bates sings for the first time since her debut in Taking Off and her singing voice is even stronger than it was then. Maggie Smith's character evokes her performance in The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne more than anything else. At 88, she still continues to amaze.

Oscar Prospects: Probably none, but never bet against Kathy Bates or Maggie Smith, either or both of whom could pull off another surprise nomination somewhere.

You know you are going to get trounced here for bringing up dear Maggie into yet another Oscar race

[Big Magilla]

THE MIRACLE CLUB
Cast: Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith, Agnes O'Casey, Mark O' Halloran, Eric Smith, Stephen Rea.

Don't be put off by the title. It's not selling religion. It's The Wizard of Oz for old people. Set in 1967 Dublin, it's about a trip to Lourdes in search of miracle cures by Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith, Agnes O'Casey and Eric Smith as O'Casey's little boy who is unable to speak, with Laura Linney as the interloper along for the ride. Mark O'Halloran and Stephen Rea play Bates and O'Casey's husbands, neither of whom want their wives to go on the trip, O'Halloran even telling O'Casey if she goes, not to come back.

None of the participants find what they're looking for at Lourdes, but secrets, some of them twenty years old, are revealed, and the principals all find redemption of sorts. O'Casey, O'Halloran, and Eric Smith are real finds, but Rea is pretty much wasted as Bates' doofus husband.

The film's three stars are, of course, terrific. Kathy Bates sings for the first time since her debut in Taking Off and her singing voice is even stronger than it was then. Maggie Smith's character evokes her performance in The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne more than anything else. At 88, she still continues to amaze.

Oscar Prospects: Probably none, but never bet against Kathy Bates or Maggie Smith, either or both of whom could pull off another surprise nomination somewhere.

[Big Magilla]

danfrank wrote
What I got from Nyad is that it IS fundamentally about a narcissist and the codependent who fuels her. The film doesn’t show you much else about these characters except the possibility that Nyad’s narcissism was an outgrowth of her abuse. Foster’s character seems like an actual human because codependents are, you know, usually pretty nice. Bening’s character is a machine who tolerates people only to the extent that they can assist her in achieving the status of a god.

I think Sabin is right in that fleshing out these characters could have made for a more interesting movie. Showing them with such limited dimensions against the backdrop of a pretty standard sports accomplishment story does not make for a very engaging film. Bening and Foster both have acting chops and certainly might get nominated. Better material would have made them slam dunks.

That's really all I'm saying, although the ending makes it clear it's a "going the distance" story which... y'know... I guess I didn't really care if she went the distance.

That's kind of what I meant by overthinking it. The film doesn't have a lot of meat on its bones, but what's there is choice or at least I thought so.