Was it The Young Pope? I meant to watch that.
Now, that was a great show.
That was something.
Angels & Demons also has a whole thing about the conclave.
ETA: THE BORGIAS!
Aha!
https://www.blankcheckpod.com/march-madness
I’m actually watching the Firm atm, but I vote and follow this bracket all month.
Flow. Wordless Latvian animated film about animals helping each other escape a flood. Some suspense, some heartwarming-ness, cool scenery: is it Cambodia? is it Venice? is there someplace where you can find lemurs, secretary birds and golden labs? Nice timeline cleanse for me.
1 Like
Loved it.
1 Like
With all the talk of Oscars and all the films discussed for awards, I’m furious that Conclave, The Brutalist, and Anora (and once upon a time Emilia Perez) have all been getting more attention than Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross, 2024). That film is gutting, yes, but stunning. Its approach to point of view is not a Lady in the Lake gimmick but rather a stunning way to reflect on what it is to look and to be perceived as a Black person in a white supremacist society. It is beautiful and painful, and a film that calls attention to the possibilities of the medium (especially as an adaptation of a book). I don’t get why it isn’t a front runner in light of its invention and the glorious performances (except that Oscars have never been about excellence so in fact I do get it). I’m imagining that if it’s nominated it could get best adapted screenplay but that misses so much of what this film has achieved. (I should really look at the nominations again.)
1 Like
In lights viewing entertainment, I recommend Grand Theft Hamlet (Sam Crane, Pinny Grylls, 2024) which is currently on MUBI. This documentary, filmed in game, follows two out of work actors who first pass the time during the third UK lockdown playing Grand Theft Auto before deciding to stage a version of Hamlet in this virtual world. It deals with the challenges of casting and rehearsals and the potential for invention as it also highlights the parallels between Hamlet and GTA (all violence, chaos, and death) and between the worlds of making these plays (political upheaval, plague).
Despite the bleak origins, it’s really good fun.
1 Like
The Oscar nominations are known to be head scratchers / lowest common denominator choices.
Yeah, I’m not naive about awards or anything, but I still get wound up when a truly brilliant film is being ignored in favour of basic fare. (Although I did enjoy Conclave for the performances. Emilia Perez was too problematic in its treatment of Mexico but I did find it intriguing in the way I find most cinematic messes to be. Anora I have described to others as a lap dance: It does what it does well, but it feels more like it’s delivering a performance of intimacy and of its world more so than actually engaging with it as Sean Baker has done with characters and worlds in his other films.)
I agree entirely on Anora.
1 Like
I didn’t know a movie was made ! Thank you for the heads up!
It’s available for streaming, if you are interested. We may just watch that tonight while recording the Oscar’s, which makes it much easier and faster to get through the endless speeches & musical numbers 
Thank you. It took several tries to finish the book, but it goes on my list.
1 Like
Night Siren, a strange Slovenian film with subtitles that had gotten reasonably good reviews. Supposedly a “horror” flick about witches and witchcraft, it seemed to be mostly an excuse to show a lot of bewbz and nekkid ladies. I lost interest about halfway through & kinda regretted not watching festively dressed bones aka the Oscar’s instead. Oh, well.
1 Like
Any Monday Morning Quarterbacking’ comments on the Oscars?
I didn’t disagree with any of the winners. Adrien Brody needs to check himself. My favorite acceptance speech was the very shy composer. And I was not expecting to hear two songs from The Wiz.
1 Like
Watched Flow this weekend. My hopes were high because I’m a big aficionado of animated films, but this one simply wasn’t for me. I would have warmed to this film more if it were shorter. The computer-generated animation style didn’t click for me either. That said, I heartily applaud that Flow didn’t come from a big studio and it just won an Oscar.
Other weekend viewing connected for me better: the documentary short The Only Girl in the Orchestra (Netflix). It’s the story of double bassist Orin O’Brien, who is the first woman to become a full-time member of the New York Philharmonic. I went into this one with low expectations—I wasn’t expecting such a relatable portrait of this person—so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this film.
Nice to have agreeable choices outside the mainstream in both cases.
2 Likes
