The full length animation category in the Academy Awards line-up often features a mix of smaller releases and major productions.
That was the case this year, with two widely released pictures from Pixar and DreamWorks, along with three that were released directly via streaming and/or made by smaller studios. In the lead-up to this year’s ceremony, having seen “The Wild Robot” and “Inside Out 2,” I caught up on the other three.
Nearly a month has passed since the end of 2024.
However, there were a number of films yours truly needed to watch before feeling entirely comfortable making a Top 10 list. Well, a few days into February and I can say that I’ve seen just about all I need to see for a fair assessment on last year’s cinematic slate.
To be completely honest, last year was a bit disappointing in comparison to 2023, which had a much stronger lineup. But there were still quite a few good flicks released that deserve recognition. Like most years, first up is the honorable mentions before the top 10.
For the third time in a decade, director Pablo Larraín has helmed a biographical film about a complex woman, and like the other two, it’s one of the year’s best.
Larraín previously directed 2016’s “Jackie” about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and 2021’s “Spencer” which centered on Princess Diana. His latest is about the opera singer Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie), though it takes place mainly after her illustrious career.
The movie focuses on the last week of the singer’s life, and explores how she was reflective of a career that she lost. Over time, her voice began to fail her, which caused her to leave her profession, and later her health began declining as well. The film is about the culmination of this, with her still at times trying to sing, while looking at the past and dealing with health issues.
Continue reading “REVIEW: Angelina Jolie is at her absolute best in ‘Maria’”
“Hard Truths” is a title that works for this movie. Others could have been “Mean Truths,” “Pessimistic Truths” or “Negative Truths.”
That’s because the main character in this film, Pansy Deacon (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), is dealing with depression, resentment and grief, which has manifested in aggression. Pansy is often in a state of frustration or anger, and it results in outbursts toward both family and strangers alike.
Much of this stems from conflicted feelings toward her late mother. This has caused a strain in her marriage to her husband Curtley (David Webber) and relationship with her son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett). The one person she still manages to confide in usually is her sister, Chantelle (Michele Austin).
Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Hard Truths’ has stirring drama but scope is limited”
The film may be named “Oh, Canada,” but a great deal of the drama in this takes place south of that nation’s border.
“Oh Canada,” from director Paul Schrader, centers on documentary filmmaker and professor Leo Fife (Richard Gere), an American who moved to Canada to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War. The film picks up with Leo, now a terminal cancer patient, being interviewed by a former student.
Now a documentary filmmaker himself, Malcolm (Michael Imperioli), is interviewing Leo for a movie about the man’s decision to avoid Vietnam and his award-winning film career. However, as Leo begins to reflect on his personal life as he is asked about various points in his past.
Continue reading “REVIEW: Gere lifts Schrader’s middling drama ‘Oh, Canada’”
As someone not familiar with the source material, I can’t say I at all expected a ghostly haunting in this period piece drama.
Based on a 1987 stage play with the same name, “The Piano Lesson” centers on the Charles family. John David Washington stars as Boy Willie Charles, a young man from Mississippi who’s traveled to Pittsburgh to pick up his family’s piano and sell it. His goal is to use the money to purchase the farm where his ancestors were enslaved and have his own land.
His sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler), though, is opposed to the sale, noting its importance to their family’s legacy and history. The two remain at odds through the film, and as tensions rise, eerie things start happening.
Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘The Piano Lesson’ is a well-acted but imperfect adaptation”
Director Halina Reijn certainly isn’t creating a good track record with me.
In 2024, Reijn followed up her 2022 flick “Bodies Bodies Bodies” with an erotic thriller, “Babygirl.” The movie stars Nicole Kidman as the CEO of a major company that she built herself who has a seemingly good life with a husband (Antonio Banderas) and two kids.
However, she is unsatisfied in her sex life, which has resulted in her marriage becoming stagnant. The movie picks up with her meeting a young man named Samuel (Harris Dickinson), an intern at her company who catches her eye. Eventually, through acts of seduction from Samuel, the two begin an affair.
Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Babygirl’ is Lifetime Channel fodder with a bigger budget”
Sometimes a film can have a lot of interesting things to say, but the way it says it be muddled.
“The Room Next Door” from director Pedro Almodovar is such a movie. It stars Julianne Moore as an author named Ingrid who reconnects with an estranged friend and former colleague. That individual is Martha (Tilda Swinton), who’s suffering from a terminal cancer.
As Ingrid visits Martha in the hospital and rebuilds their friendship, she learns that the woman wants to end her life on her own terms peacefully. Martha then asks Ingrid if she will keep her company in her final days at a vacation home, where Moore’s character can stay in the titular room next door.
Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Room Next Door’ is a mixed confrontation of mortality”
Maybe RaMell Ross films just aren’t my thing.
After helming the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” in 2018, Ross has directed a narrative feature. His latest film, “Nickel Boys,” is an adaptation of a book with the same name that itself was inspired by a real reform school.
Set in the 1960s, “Nickel Boys” centers on two black teen boys, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson). Both from different backgrounds, each boy finds themselves brought to a rough reform school called Nickel Academy. There the two become friends and try to make it through the system.
Continue reading “REVIEW: Filming method makes ‘Nickel Boys’ a let down”
Incarceration is meant to be rehabilitative, and stories of inmates finding resources to do just that are often compelling, as this film shows.
The movie is set at the real correctional facility Sing Sing in New York state, and centers on the prison’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts program. The RTA allows inmates to participate in a theater group where they’re able to put on various stage plays throughout the year.
John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo), is imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, but has dedicated himself to working in the program as both an actor and writer. The film picks up with him and other inmates preparing to take on something new in the form of a comedy play, rather than a drama.
Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Sing Sing’ mostly succeeds with authentic emotion”
Matthew Liedke on Film 