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Cabaret (1970). It's The Reel: 2025 Oscars Edition!
Estimated reading time: 8m 43s.
The Oscars are two weeks from now, and all the chat surrounds the stupendous fall from grace for thirteen times nominated Emilia Perez. 😬
Not nearly enough chat about Conan O’Brien hosting for the first time, if you ask this blogger!
Hosting the Oscars has a prestige unique among award shows. It’s as superior to hosting the Golden Globes as is, well, winning an Oscar is to winning a Golden Globe.
But the intensely chaotic Globes are always more entertaining. Who remembers the trainwreck that was Jo Koy last year?
Or the five times Ricky Gervais hosted the Globes, via explicitly anti-Hollywood diatribe?
The last time the Oscars took a hosting risk resulted in the best opening number of the 21st century (maybe ever?) — your boy Hugh Jackman in 2009.
I’m a Conan stan, but if it begets another stale Oscars then bring back Wolverine!
Or Nikki Glaser!
Or Chris Rock B2B Will Smith!
Time for some reviews!
This week: Oscar hopefuls, dreadfuls, and everything in between.
♨️ Sex, lies and videotape.
Anora (2024), film, directed by Sean Baker.
Babygirl (2024), film, directed by Halina Reijn.
If I was deciding this year’s Oscars then:
There would be a category for Best Stunts (how this isn’t a thing is beyond me).
I’d host alongside Hugh Jackman and we would maybe kiss at some point, I don’t know I’m just spitballing.
Anora would win Best Picture.
This is a kinetic modern Cinderella story that, if I may cliché, stayed with me long after the credits rolled.
The outrageously good Mikey Madison plays a young dancer and sex worker in New York who falls for a Russian oligarch’s immature son. It’s both sexy and confronting, serious and slapstick.
It’s hard not see The Brutalist going home with the top gong, but Anora won our hearts. 🥲
Dial up the silliness while dialing down the humour and you’re close to Babygirl.
No Oscar noms might be a slight on the always brilliant Nicole Kidman and Halina Reijn’s unique direction, but in truth this was disappointing.
Kidman is a high-powered tech executive who enters into a dangerous dom/sub relationship with an intern in her company.
It’s an intriguing premise and executed well. Unfortunately the confusing atmosphere and unexpected climax meant no one goes home satisfied.
🤭
Look out for:
Relationships are about communication and these sexy situationships are no different: the language barrier in Anora leads to laughs, while the Babygirl scenes where they take their first, erm, baby steps in their agreement are the film’s highlight.
If you liked this:
For more sexual charge and secret arrangements watch Shiva Baby from 2020, starring the sublime Rachel Sennott and clocking in at an unheard of 78 minutes. 👏
Ratings: Anora ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐, Babygirl ⭐⭐⭐
🤢 The horror! The horror!
Red One (2024), film, directed by Jake Kasdan.
Wolfs (2024), film, directed by Jon Watts.
The Rock only makes bad movies!!
Say it once more for the people at the back!!
How is this man still getting the big bucks?!
But Red One is meant for children, I hear you cry? So are The Lion King, Calpol and picking your nose, and they all still just hit as hard when you’re over 18.
This film is a criminally bad, poorly acted, overblown waste of several hundred million dollars. That’s all there is to say.
But speaking of criminal…
At least Red One had some showy set pieces and the location scouts made an effort. The same cannot be said for Wolfs.
This must be the worst film of 2024, purely down to the ego involved. Brad Pitt and Georgio Cloon play two aging “fixers” that are hired for the same job. These men dress the same, talk the same, and are not pleased to be working together, mm-mm no sir!
This movie was tired before they started filming. What you might expect to be its redeeming factor is actually the worst part: Pitt and Clooney are completely stale and devoid of chemistry.
Therein lies the problem. These fellas think they can just put themselves in a room together and it will be electric — those days have long past.
They’d do well to remember that before signing up to the inevitable Ocean’s Over-65s.
Look out for:
Wolfs is directed by Jon Watts, who you may know from the insanely successful Tom Holland Spiderman trilogy. Pitt and Clooney won’t suffer from this complete failure, because Hollywood, but Watts’ blistering career has taken an unwelcome turn.
If you liked this:
Red One isn’t even The Rock’s first Netflix film with the title Red Something… Does anyone remember Red Notice, supposedly the most successful Netflix original movie ever? No? Exactly! This guy is stealing a living.
Rating: Red One ⭐, Wolfs ⭐
🧹 Something has changed within me.
Wicked (2024), film, directed by Jon M. Chu.
“What is this feeling so sudden and new?
I felt the moment I laid eyes on you.”
- my sentiment throughout the entirety of Wicked.
The last time I was in a cinema this full and with this much energy was Barbie in 2023. Wicked is a bold, brilliant, colorful musical romp that begs the question — how did it take this long to adapt it for the screen?
Cynthia Erivo plays Elphaba, a green-skinned witch who enrolls at the magical university of Shiz, years before she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz.
Like her character, Erivo is an awe-inspiring talent, and she’s ably supported by the surprisingly hilarious Ariana Grande as Glinda. You’ll laugh (I did a lot), you’ll cry (I did twice), you’ll wish that magic schools existed (I do all the time).
The split into two parts is a bit frustrating; the sequel is scheduled for November this year.
But it does allow for one hell of an ending song.
Look out for:
Call the police because there’s been a robbery, Johnathan Bailey is stealing all the scenes! I’d go see that man tie his shoelaces for two hours and then buy it on Blu-ray.
If you liked this:
Having never seen the stage show, my primary exposure to Wicked was this scene from New Girl — I can now properly appreciate Winston’s impeccable taste in musical theatre. Popu-lar. Lar. LAAAAAAA-
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
🗽 Brb, chasing the American Dream.
The Brutalist (2024), film, directed by Brady Corbert.
Brutal in name, brutal by nature.
Almost as famous for its length as it is for its content, The Brutalist is odds-on to scoop up the most awards at the Oscars — and it is deserving of such.
This is an epic, grueling tale of survival and creativity in post-war US. Adrien Brody stars as a Hungarian architect struggling to make a living as a refugee after WW2, until he meets and is employed by an eccentric American industrialist.
You can’t talk about The Brutalist without talking about how long it is (maybe that was intentional). It’s a brisk 3.5 hours, with a 15 minute intermission halfway through.
Brady Corbert takes his time — there are no quick cuts or flashy montages, and the bleak atmosphere and sparse scenery mean this could have been a turgid slog.
But it isn’t. We’re invested in the engrossing plot, the tense and loaded dialogue, and Brody is captivating as the battered, proud and increasingly unhinged László Tóth.
A triumph.
Look out for:
The opening credits, soaring score and aforementioned interval combine to give this the feel of a classic movie epic. But the interval means everyone goes to the bathroom at the same time — in our cinema that meant about 1.78M people in the queue. Food for thought, filmmakers!
If you liked this:
Check out J. C. Chandor’s underrated A Most Violent Year for another brutal pursuit of the American Dream. Chandor was once a feted upcoming American filmmaker like Corbert is now; his most recent film was Kraven the Hunter, so something went wrong along the way.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
⏩ Quickies
Short and snappy reviews for a short and snappy time:
Conclave (2024, film, dir. Edward Berger): ⭐⭐⭐
What goes on in that building when they vote for a new pope? The question that the entertaining but wildly implausible Conclave seeks to answer. At the end of the day, this is a lot of old Catholic men attempting to convince each other of their own importance. No one’s complaining that it takes place behind closed doors.
Emilia Perez (2024, film, dir. Jacques Audiard): ⭐⭐
Nothing signals an Academy out of touch like this deeply offensive, internationally derided “musical” becoming one of the most Oscar-nominated films of all time. Perhaps the most unforgivable transgression is the fact that Emilia Perez is actually just a bad movie. Please God it goes home empty-handed — Academy voters may not survive the embarrassment otherwise.
A Complete Unknown (2024, film, dir. James Mangold): ⭐⭐⭐⭐
It’s this blog’s opinion that biopics shouldn’t be released while their subject is still alive, and recently this seems particularly endemic with musicians (Straight Outta Compton, Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman, Better Man 🙄). Fortunate then that A Complete Unknown is one of the better ones. The times they are a-changin’..?
A Real Pain (2024, film, dir. Jesse Eisenberg): ⭐⭐⭐
A nice film that admittedly asks less of the viewer than it does even its actors (Jesse Eisenberg plays nerdy and neurotic, Kieran Culkin acerbic and immature? Unfathomable). An amiable way to spend some time, but overhyped.
📃 Quote of the Week(s)
Marcia: Last year my daughter married a very rich man.
Benji: Oh, fuck.
Marcia: And she's incapable of having a conversation with any depth anymore.
Benji: Well, yeah, of course. Money's like fucking heroin for boring people.
It has some good lines though! Kieran Culkin as Benji in A Real Pain.
✅ Th-th-that’s all, folks.
Thank you very much for reading! ❤️
If you enjoyed this edition, I would appreciate so much if you could share it:
Thank you v much again, and see you next time! 🙏🏻
Gogzibear
xxx
📅 Previous Reels:
🎬 Nov 28 - The Perfect Couple, Presumed Innocent, Kneecap.
🎬 Aug 1 - Furiosa, Inside Out 2, Challengers, Hit Man.
🎬 Jan 24 - Rebel Moon, Anatomy of a Fall, The Boy and the Heron.
📒 Catalogue:
You can find a list of all film review scores (and opening movie lines!) here.
🎙️ Podcast:
I’ve also published 10 episodes of a film review podcast Movies (And A Rap) — you can listen on Spotify here.