Hollywood is handing out the 97th Academy Awards tonight, so it’s time for the 13th Danny Awards! This year, the Academy’s 10 Best Picture nominees had an average runtime of 148 minutes. Watching all of them helped me appreciate brevity. So, let’s get right to it!
Best Picture: The top Danny goes to The Wild Robot, a beautifully crafted animated film that sadly was not on the Academy’s Best Picture radar. The story follows ROZZUM Unit 7134, who survives a crash and washes up on an island inhabited by only wildlife. She accidentally destroys a goose nest while being chased by a bear and becomes responsible for caring for the surviving young gosling. The film explores themes of responsibility and motherhood in a way that appeals to both children and adults. The animation is stunning, and Lupita Nyong’o provides a heartfelt voice-over performance as the title character. It’s currently streaming for free on Peacock, but worth the $6 to view it elsewhere.
Best Picture Runner-Up: My second favorite of the year is September 5, a unique take on the terror that unfolded during the 1972 Munich Olympics. ABC’s Wide World of Sports was one of the first TV shows I connected with as a kid. This film follows the people who produced that show as they broadcast the horrific events in real-time. It’s sadly easy to become numb to the horror being played out on our screens these days, but the ABC crew had to figure out how to show it for the first time. Even though we know how the tragedy will unfold, the film’s focus on the television broadcast amplifies the tension. You can check this out on Paramount+.
Best Supporting Actor & Original Screenplay: Kieran Culkin gives the best performance of the year in A Real Pain. Directed & written by and co-starring Jessie Eisenberg, the film follows two cousins who reconnect as they take a Holocaust-themed tour through Poland to commemorate their recently deceased Grandmother, a survivor of Auschwitz. Culkin is phenomenal as a mercurial free spirit navigating the pain of that loss. His performance captures the essence of a lost soul oddly comfortable in his skin. In contrast, Eisenberg’s character is responsible, settled, and almost always uneasy. The screenplay captures how family can sometimes bring both love and disappointment at the same time. This one is free on Hulu.
Best Director: I’ve awarded this honor twice to Denis Villeneuve, but that won’t stop me from doing it again. Dune Part Two builds on the spectacle of the first installment while adding a more personal element as Paul Atreides learns to accept who he is. I can’t even imagine how challenging it must be for a director to take on such a monumental story. Villeneuve’s exceptional skills make him the perfect person for the task. This one is all over streaming, so you probably won’t need a 2nd mortgage to subscribe to a new service to find it.
Best Actress: I wanted to like Anora more than I did. I found it a good, not great, film that fluctuates unevenly between comedy and drama. But Mikey Madison’s performance as the title character – a sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch and faces the eventual consequences – is outstanding. She effectively portrays the unlikely combination of world-weary experience and naivete that makes the improbable story believable. Her cathartic breakdown at the end of the film is genuinely heart-wrenching. Sorry, streaming fans, this isn’t free anywhere right now.
Best Actor & Supporting Actress: I liked A Complete Unknown much more than I expected. While it may seem trivial today, the film creates real tension around Dylan’s break from folk music. It also speaks directly to the heart of what it means to be an artist. Timothée Chalamet brings Bob Dylan to life in a way that makes him feel like a real person rather than a carbon copy of an iconic figure. Monica Barbaro delivers an equally compelling performance as Joan Baez, one of the few musicians who could hold their own with Dylan while keeping him honest about who and what he is. A quick shout out to Edward Norton for his gentle turn as folk singer Pete Seeger as well. Sorry, this isn’t streaming for free right now.
Best Adapted Screenplay: Sitting through two hours about electing a new Pope doesn’t sound like riveting viewing. However, the novel Conclave by Robert Harris was a great read, and the film adaptation written by Peter Straughan captures the drama nicely. The story features more twists and turns than your average presidential election. Ralph Fiennes is excellent as always, playing the Cardinal in charge of the process. Without giving too much away, the ending is a shocker that divided the critics; those who didn’t like it were wrong. This one is on Peacock.
Best Animated Film Runner-Up: It was a fantastic year for animation. My second favorite is Flow, a visually stunning movie about an intrepid black cat navigating a world prone to massive floods. Along the way, the little explorer meets many other animals who are both friends and enemies. The Latvian filmmakers used open-source software to animate this film way outside the Hollywood mainstream. The film is dialogue-free but completely holds your attention. It’s an outstanding achievement from Director Gints Zilbalodis, currently on Max.
Best Scene: Alex Garland’s Civil War shows an America at war with itself in the near future. Filtered through the unusual point of view of the reporters covering the events, it doesn’t focus on the why nearly as much as the what. And that “what” is full of horror. This is especially true when soldiers on one side of the conflict capture the journalists. Jesse Plemmons has a one-scene walk-on as a leader of the faction. He first asks the reporters if they are Americans and then, more importantly to him, “What kind of Americans are you?” Given the current state of our nation, it’s a chilling glimpse at where things could go. Streaming on Max.
Most Underrated Film: I really enjoyed Saturday Night, which follows Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live, as he tries to keep things together in the chaos leading up to the show’s first broadcast in 1975. The film takes place in real-time, a fast-paced 90 minutes filled with a whirlwind of disasters, egos, laughs, threats, and insecurity. It’s a great nostalgia trip for those who remember the original “Not Ready for Primetime Players” and will be an entertaining introduction for those who don’t. You can find it on Netflix.
Best Foreign Film: Okay, it’s the only foreign language film I saw this year, but I’m Still Here is a riveting true story about a family broken apart by political terror in 1970 Brazil. Fernanda Torres gives a powerfully resolute performance as the mother trying to keep things together when her husband is “disappeared.” You’ll have to go to the theater like I did to see this one.
Best Costume Design & Art Direction: Wicked Part One is a candy-colored confection worthy of the material. No free streaming yet, as Universal keeps raking in the box office.
Biggest Butt Numb & Best Cinematography: The Brutalist is a decent but loooooong film that spends a lengthy 215 minutes following a Hungarian Holocaust survivor and architect trying to survive in post-war America. A great performance from Adrian Brody and sumptuous cinematography by Lol Crawley help compensate for losing feeling in your rear from sitting for so long.
WTF Award: The Substance is an imaginative body horror film that, for me, eventually strains itself too far into the outrageous.
Best Makeup: A better body horror flick last year was A Different Man, featuring Adam Pearson, an actor who actually suffers from disfiguring neurofibromatosis, and Sebastian Stan, who is made up to look like he does so. This one is free on Max.
The Mr. Burns Award: On a classic episode of The Simpsons, Mr. Burns remarked on Marge’s painting of him in the nude that, “I know what I hate, and I don’t hate this.” I feel the same way about Emilia Perez, Netflix’s bizarre movie about a Mexican drug cartel leader who undergoes a sex change and the lawyer who helps her try to become a better person. Did I mention it’s a musical?
Third Best Animated Film: Inside Out 2 is another wonderful sequel from Pixar. I still wish they would take a risk with more original material, but this movie would have been the best animated film in most years.
Here are a few other flicks I enjoyed this year:
Deadpool & Wolverine – Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman obviously had a blast making this one, and that spirit made the film a winner.
Gladiator II – Nowhere near as good as the original, but still enjoyable, particularly due to the excellent performance (as usual) from Denzel Washington.
Juror #2 – An old-fashioned entertainment from Clint Eastwood, who keeps going strong at 94.
My Old Ass – A fun coming-of-age story about a girl whose mushroom trip leads to her older self providing advice, both helpful and otherwise, as she readies to leave for college.
As always, winners can stop by my house in Tampa to pick up their awards whenever they want. Thanks for reading!
