After a year of struggling to make my MoviePass pay off with a slim choice of quality films, more than a dozen Oscars-friendly films suddenly dropped into the most wonderfully busy time of year. There's no way to see them all, so I thought I'd point out a few favorites that are definitely ten buck worthy.
The Best Picture Front Runners
Black Panther, The Favourite, Green Book, Roma and A Star Is Born are the five films on every respected Oscars prediction list.
Roma opens in theaters on December 5, but moves to Netflix (TV) on December 21 so I'll eliminate that theater visit, followed by removing Black Panther which is available on Netflix now. I favor the bawdy The Favourite (opens November 30) over the pandering Green Book, but A Star Is Born has a magical touch that makes it a must see. Star will be eligible for almost every category and should tally a titanic-sized 13 or 14 nominations. Don't miss it on the big screen.
Recommendation 1: A Star Is Born
The Melodramas
Boy Erased, Beautiful Boy and Ben is Back are all quality, family dramas featuring a parent and child working through difficult situations, but boy, oh boy it will be a blue Christmas if you watch all three.
Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carrell's father/son story in Beautiful Boy and Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges' mother/son film Ben Is Back (opens December 8) will gather the most acting nominations, but we've all seen the alcoholism story before and know how it ends. If I had to choose just one of these tissue-necessary dramas, Nicole Kidman and Lucas Hedges' conversion therapy drama Boy Erased, the one of these that is the least likely to get acting nominations, offers a more unique and hopeful story for the holidays.
Recommendation 2: Boy Erased
The Best Picture Contenders
These films are vying for a slot in the Oscars Best Picture race: All Is True, BlacKKKlansman, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, First Man, Mary Queen of Scots, Mule and Vice.
I must confess I haven't seen All Is True, Mary or Vice, and while I respected the artsy gusto of First Man I think it has a Houston-sized problem with matching subject and tone.
That leaves BlacKKKlansman and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, two dramedies that I fully enjoyed. Melissa McCarthy creates one of the best film characters of the year and I'd hate for anyone to miss it.
Recommendation 3: Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Films You Can Stream Tonight
December is a busy time to hit the theater, but these Academy Award eligible films are available on your TV: Black Panther, BlacKKKlansman, Crazy Rich Asians, Eight Grade, A Quiet Place plus the documentaries RGB and Won't You Be My Neighbor. All great choices, but I'd pick the one that pairs best with wrapping presents.
Recommendation 4: Crazy Rich Asians
Music-Based Crowd Pleasers
Everyone should see the first hour of A Star Is Born and the last 20 minutes of Bohemian Rhapsody in the theater. Mary Poppins Returns should be a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious time at the theater as well.
I've already picked A Star Is Born, and Mary Poppins Returns won't be flying out of theaters until January, so I can narrow your December choice to the Freddie Mercury biopic because it will, it will rock you.
Recommendation 5: Bohemian Rhapsody
The Ten Buck Review: All worth ten bucks.
In a class of its own.
In early 18th century England, the family of Abigail Hill (Emma Stone) was reduced to poor circumstances, and she was forced to work as a servant. Lady Churchill (Rachel Weisz), Lady of the Bedchamber and close advisor to Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), took Abigail in. Years later, Queen Anne, named Abigail to be Keeper of the Privy Purse, reversing the fortunes of Lady (Sarah) Churchill.
It's a perfect setup for a Merchant Ivory production or pehaps a Shakespearan tragedy, yet The Favourite is a black comedy that plays more like Heathers and Reversal of Fortune collided with the bunny burner moments of Fatal Attraction.
Simply put, director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster) has created the comedy romp of the year, and assembled a trio of actors that sizzles onscreen.
The sharply angled camera pivots and extreme wild angle lenses physically prepare the audience for something never seen before on film, and that's half the fun. The contest for Queen Anne's affection is thrilling in the most peculiar way. Not to mention there is plenty of duck racing, tomato tossing and pineapple eating. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, I can assure you it is not. For everyone else, prepare yourself for a royally wicked time.
In a nutshell: This is not a highbrow affair, but a dark comedy featuring a cynical set of characters you can't take your eyes off of. Not for the whole family. Not for Christmas week.
Award potential: Expect quite a tally. I predict Oscars nominations for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, two for Best Supporting Actress, plus technical awards such as Best Makeup and Hair and Best Costume.
It's a frontrunner for the SAG ensemble award. Colman (The Crown) should fall in line right behind Glenn Close and Lady Gaga for Golden Globes and other awards, and her chances may improve in time.
The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks. (Opens Friday, November 30)
Extra five cents: The posters for Lanthimos' films, like his work, are in a league of their own. I've included a few below:
Director Felix Van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy is beautiful.
The film takes place in cinematographer Ruben Impens’ vision of Northern California’s Marin County. If you’re not watching close enough, you may think you’ve stumbled upon a drug abuse episode of TV’s Big Little Lies. The story to be told is not as easy on the eyes.
Boy is another “based on a true story” addiction story, and there are only two ways these stories go. However, Beautiful Boy offers more welcome realism than Ben Is Back (in theaters December), and interesting characters that elevate it from melodrama familiarity.
The film is based on two memoirs. One by father David Sheff (Steve Carell) and another by son Nic Sheff (Timothée Chalamet), but the film is told mostly from the parental side. It’s a solid choice; this is where the uniqueness lies.
David, a journalist, approaches the crisis by gathering stats, expert facts, and first-hand stories. Eventually he realizes he’s not in control. Similar to Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges' Ben Is Back, it explores the powerless aspect of parenting at this level — and the power of unconditional love.
In a nutshell: An emotional roller coaster that adds up to a tender, powerful story. Stay through the credits.
Award potential: The film has too many melodrama qualities and unlikely to be recognized other than the acting and screenplay categories. Chalamet is a likely bet for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, a spot he held last year for his work in Call Me By Your Name.
Carrell is skilled with balancing comedy and drama, but some elements of this role are out of his range and he's in a competitive, high bar category. I’d call him a wild card for Best Actor. Maura Tierney and Amy Ryan are great, but not likely to be recognized for their limited roles.
The ten buck review: Worth ten bucks.
“I’m a better Dorothy Parker than Dorothy Parker.”
Melissa McCarthy’s new film Can You Ever Forgive Me? is not an actual plea to forget her criminally bad 2018 films, The HappyTime Murders and Life of the Party, but it does serve as one.
McCarthy is stellar as Lee Israel, a moderately successful writer who stumbles on a unique way to pay the rent — literary forgery. Israel finds herself uniquely qualified to create private letters of past literary figures such as Fanny Brice, Noël Coward and Dorothy Parke — and sign them as such.
I authentically enjoyed this compelling story that takes us inside the world of New York’s used bookstores, but it’s McCarthy’s portrayal of a fireball loner that makes it unforgettable. As a woman who wants to find her place, yet instinctually hates everyone she encounters, McCarthy creates of the most memorable characters on film this year.
Add Richard E. Grant, in one of his best roles as accomplice Jack Hock, and you have one of the most memorable duos on film this year.
In a nutshell: The surprise film of the year featuring a character you won't forget anytime soon.
Award potential: The film isn’t big or important enough to make the Oscar Best Picture list, but lock her up as a nominee for Best Actress and Lee for Best Supporting Actor. The true life Lee considers these letters “to be my best work,” and this is McCartney and Grant’s best work as well.
Strong potential at the Golden Globes in the comedy/musical categories.
The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.
Any reputable list of 2018 Oscar Best Picture front runners will contain these titles: A Star Is Born, The Favourite, Roma and Green Book. Green Book recently won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Is it one of the top four films of the year?
Green Book, named for a 1960's guide used by black motorists to help navigate road travel and lodging, works as both a crowd pleasing dramedy and as an odd couple road film, but not much more.
The chemistry and dialogue between bouncer and driver Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) and musician and employer Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) is spot on. The film, written and directed by Peter Farrelly (Dumb and Dumber, Something About Mary), is witty and gorgeous to look at. It winningly invites the audience to follow the two (real life) characters driving their way through north and southeast America in 1962.
This film has heart and it tugs at yours as Hollywood does best. Unfortunately, a sentimental, feel good story set so squarely in the racial politics of the 1960's was inappropriate enough to keep me from fully enjoying this well crafted film. A difficult call, but I can't recommend this one.
In a nutshell: It's an enjoyable road film with two compelling actors and many feel good movie moments. However, it's difficult to not see this as the white savior, feel-good movie of award season.
Award potential: Expect nominations anyway for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Score and a host of other slots including a Best Costume nomination for designer Betsy Heimann.
Ten Buck Review: Not worth ten bucks.
You'll find none of the magic of the Harry Potter stories. Nor will you find a story.
Wizard Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmanye) returns with his magical suitcase and a mixed bag of storytelling in this new installment in the J.K. Rowling universe.
You’ll also meet Grindelwald (Johnny Depp),Albus (Jude Law), Leta (Zoe Kravitz), Theseus, Tina, Torquil, Arnold, Credence, Nagini, Queeni, Abernathy, Seraphina, Pottermore, Nifflers, Pickett, Titus, Finn, Poppy, Marlow and dozens of other characters and creatures stuffed into this movie that threads together too many characters and thoughts without a true draw for the casual film watcher.
I’m sure Potterfiles will enjoy the flashbacks, flash forwards, franchise fluff and surprise revelations, but there’s nothing here for other moviegoers. There are some surprises at the end that don’t really complete your film watching experience, they just set up the next installment.
It doesn’t help that this movie starts and ends with literal and figurative darkness. Even Depp’s role takes a grimmer turn as a flour-dusted, Trumpian leader who shows his 1920’s devoted followers (and the audience) how the inferior race of humans, er, muggles, will soon bring earth the Holocaust and atomic bombs. Oh what fun for the holidays!
Like too many movies of this decade, Fantastic Beasts aspires to be a popular franchise and marketable universe, never a full film. I prefer my serials on TV.
In a nutshell: Bloodless, but too bleak for kids. Adults will only enjoy this rambling film if they are Rowling fanatics.
Award potential: It’s a mess, but visually a stunning one. Potential nominations for Best Visual FX, Costume, Hair and Makeup and Production Design.
The Ten Buck Review: Not worth ten bucks.
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Like the band Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody is for the fans. Unlike the band, the film is quite conventional. That lack of edge is somewhat disappointing (I wonder what a deeper or more inventive film could have been) and somewhat liberating (it’s a lot of fun on a weekend to see the band’s story play out in such a lighthearted way).
Freddie (Rami Malek from Mr. Robot) and the band members were cast as crowd-pleasing lookalikes, and they lip-synched the songs to Queen recordings. These choices, and a brisk screenplay that covers Freddie’s full life, take the film to a paint-by-the-numbers format that delivers more like a TV movie than the recent A Star Is Born experience.
That is, until the bravura closing Live Aid sequence, which makes this film worth ten bucks after all. The ending has a kind of magic that forgives all the flaws before. You'll leave the theater with a strut in your step.
In a nutshell: BoRhap has all the problems of a too-brisk, overly sanitized biopic and you'll see all of the rock biopic cliches play out, but by the end it will, it will, rock you.
Award potential: Malik, an inch shorter than Mercury, captures much of his larger than life persona, especially in the music numbers. He’s a front-runner for a Best Actor (Music/Comedy) Golden Globe win and should be in the running for a Oscar Best Actor nomination. The film could score nods for Best Costume and Best Makeup and Hair as well.
The Ten Buck Review: Eventually, it's worth ten bucks.
