March 7, 2025
Slight change to our previously scheduled programming. Originally I intended to share a brief Oscars recap this week, followed by a preview of my most anticipated films of 2025. Then a few things happened. First, my preview started getting a little frothy (in terms of word count) because I can be quite verbose. Then there were two events (one very sad, and one very joyful) that occupied the writing side of my brain for this week. So, the 2025 preview will be coming next week, but for now, we’re going to start with the coronation of queen Anora and the film’s director, writer, and editor, Sean Baker, who is this year’s king of Hollywood.
Oscars Recap
At the end of the day, we all over thought it. Back when Anora won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May of 2024, it was dubbed the frontrunner for Best Picture. Along the way, there were many challengers. Conclave looked like the “your parents would have loved this movie” kind of Oscar winner. I even got fooled after that film’s win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. The Brutalist received incredible reviews and a strong theatrical showing, despite its challenging (but rewarding) 3 ½ hour runtime. For a few weeks around the holidays, a narrative started to emerge that Wicked: Part One could be a populist Best Picture winner. Hell, some people even talked themselves into a win for Emilia Pérez, which had the most nominations, despite what seemed like more admiration than adoration for the crime-drama-musical set in Mexico, but made by a French filmmaker. Sadly there was no love for my favorite movie of 2024, Dune: Part Two, which won two technical awards, but had no shot at Best Picture this year.
All along, this was Anora’s prize to lose, and after the precursor awards in which Sean Baker won the WGA (for screenplay), the DGA (for directing) and PGA (for Best Picture), it was clear he was going to win at the Oscars. And I was thrilled to see history unfold on Sunday night as Baker was called up to the stage four times, becoming the first individual to win four awards for the same movie. Technically Walt Disney also won four awards in one ceremony, but they were for different films. And while Parasite won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best International Film in 2019, the last award actually goes to the country, not the director. So, technically Bong Joon-ho only won three awards himself that night. If you are looking for the face-palm emoji, you’d be right.
Anyway, bravo for Baker, who championed independent filmmakers, and the experience of going to the theater, in one of his acceptance speeches. I did a quiet fist pump in my living room when he implored directors to make their movies for the big screen and not televisions, and pleaded with distributors to leave their movies in theaters longer, so people actually have a chance to see them before they quickly go to home rental. Sure, it’s convenient to watch something from home, but you just can’t get the same experience of enjoying films like A Complete Unknown, Wicked, The Brutalist, The Substance, Dune: Part Two, or Anora at home, compared to a crowded theater. When I saw Anora at the Philadelphia Film Festival, it was a joy to laugh along with several hundred people at Baker’s hysterical comedy-drama. And one of the best movie-going experiences I had in 2024 was seeing The Substance with a crowded theater on opening day, hearing everyone squirming in their seats just like I did.
As for the other winners, I fully expected Demi Moore to win Best Actress and thought Timothée Chalamet would win Best Actor, especially after his win at the SAG awards, where he delivered an inspiring speech about how he wants to be one of the greats of his profession. Thankfully, I don’t gamble on these things, because my bank account would have taken a hit on Sunday night.
Alas, it was not meant to be for Moore, who may not get this close to an Oscar again, although you never know. As for Timmy, his day will come. He’s only 29. Unfortunately, he seems to be following in the steps of Leonardo DiCaprio (one of his acting role models), who didn’t win until his fifth nomination. That being said, I was still happy for Mikey Madison and Adrien Brody, who both delivered incredible performances in two of the best films of 2024. You can’t argue with either of these awards. As for the speeches, Madison gets an A+ and Brody gets an appointment with a speech editor, after delivering one of the longest (and most rambling) Oscar speeches of all-time. That’s ok – it’s a minor quibble.
The supporting acting awards went as advertised, to Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldaña. Not much to say there. I was thrilled to see Flow win Best Animated Film, as it was one of my favorites of 2024, right up there with The Wild Robot as a beautiful story that showcased how an animated film can touch you emotionally. Another mild upset was I’m Still Here winning Best International Film (for Brazil), over the favorite, Emilia Pérez. Did the late season Karla Sofia Gascón scandal tip the scales in voters’ minds? Or did enough people finally see I’m Still Here, an excellent and riveting drama that definitely deserved the award?
As for the ceremony, I thought Conan O’Brien did an excellent job as host, bringing the right amount of levity and some quality jokes to the telecast. The opening sequence of movie clips of Los Angeles, following the devastating fires in January, was a touching tribute to the strength and resilience of the City of Stars. This was followed by an outstanding performance of songs from The Wizard of Oz and Wicked by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo that delivered goosebumps to this viewer. A nice, brief way to open the show.
The same could not be said for the bizarre tribute to the James Bond films in the middle of the ceremony. It was advertised as a tribute to Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, who were just awarded honorary Oscars for their role as long-time producers of the Bond franchise. It was peculiar timing as they recently entered into an agreement with Amazon to relinquish creative rights of the Bond franchise to MGM Studios, which was acquired by the behemoth retailer three years ago. MGM owned the rights to the Bond franchise prior to being purchased, but the Broccoli family always had creative control over all of the films. With this new transaction, it looks like Broccoli and Wilson will be retiring, and we will likely get an avalanche of James Bond-related films and television series coming to Prime Video. It’s kind of sad, but it’s the reality of the entertainment industry these days – money talks.
One of the other segments of the Oscars ceremony that always gets a lot of scrutiny is the “In Memoriam” tribute to members of the film community who passed away over the past year. Inevitably, there is someone left out, but I think the producers do a pretty good job, even if this year’s song selection (from Mozart’s Requiem) was strange. We were able to see clips from some of the legends who we lost since last year, including Maggie Smith, James Earl Jones, and Donald Sutherland. The segment kicked off with a touching tribute from Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman, who talked about the loss of a dear friend and his co-star in Unforgiven, the magnificent Gene Hackman.
RIP to One of Hollywood’s Greats
After hearing the news of Hackman’s passing (and the tragic circumstances around his death, along with his wife of more than 30 years), I thought about devoting an entire blog post to his career, but when I started thinking about ranking my favorite Hackman performances, I started getting a headache. How could I numerically rank iconic films like The French Connection, Hoosiers, Bonnie and Clyde, a brilliant cameo in Young Frankenstein, his portrayal of Lex Luthor in Superman, his Oscar-winning performance in Unforgiven, not to mention his wonderful run in the 1990s in The Firm, Crimson Tide, and Enemy of the State? The list goes on and on. No, there’s no way I was going to try to rank them.
Hackman’s career was very interesting in that he didn’t really hit the big time until he was almost forty, with his Oscar-nominated performance in Bonnie and Clyde. A few years later he won the first of his two Oscars for playing New York detective Popeye Doyle in William Friedkin’s brilliant tale of cops trying to bust a drug ring, The French Connection. My biggest memories of Hackman’s career were those films of the 1980s and 1990s, like Hoosiers and No Way Out, a movie I watched countless times on cable television while growing up. I recently watched this one for the first time in many years and let me tell you, parts of it still work, thanks to a great performance from Hackman (when is he not great?) and Kevin Costner, in one of his breakout roles. But the storyline in that movie is batshit crazy – I guess 15 year-old me didn’t pay attention to things like that back in the 1980s.
I also rewatched one of Hackman’s last films, The Royal Tenenbaums, Wes Anderson’s brilliant tale of an eccentric family living in New York City. Hackman played the patriarch, lying his way through life, and trying to reconcile with his estranged adult children. This is probably my favorite Anderson movie, and it’s primarily because of Hackman’s performance. But, if I did have to rank Hackman’s films, I can guarantee that #1 would be 1974’s The Conversation, Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece. This movie was nominated for Best Picture, but lost to Coppola’s other film that year, a little movie called The Godfather Part II. I also revisited this one after Hackman’s death. He was not nominated for Best Actor (a travesty), but he was excellent as a quiet wiretapper who realizes he might have accidentally recorded a plot to commit a murder. I was fortunate to see a restored version of this film last year on the big screen and it was one of my best theatergoing experiences of 2024. Rest in peace Gene Hackman – we were extremely fortunate to live in a time when we could experience your brilliant acting talents.
Breaking News: Two Idiots Extend a Ridiculous Streak
We’ll wrap up this blog installment with the tale of two friends (and self-diagnosed idiots) who just hit an impressive milestone. Well, impressive to us. If you are a long-time reader of this blog, or know me well, then you have inevitably heard about our “golf streak.” We don’t remember when, but it was probably 7 or 8 years ago when my friend Doug and I got out for golf during the winter and realized that we had probably played golf for many months in a row. We looked back at our golf app (where we track our rounds played) and learned that in fact, we hadn’t missed a month of golf since April 2015. From that day forward, “the streak” was a thing.
Now, most normal people do not golf year-round in New England. Once the weather turns cold in November or December, golfers put their clubs away until the spring. Not these two idiots. At least not when we learned we had a streak. At the beginning of each month, we set out to get our round in to extend the streak. When the weather was freezing, we didn’t care how we played or what our score was. Extend the streak – that’s all that mattered. We had a few rules that we came up with over the years. The round had to be played in Connecticut. You couldn’t go down to Florida to play just because it was cold here. And you had to play at least nine holes. Oh, and it had to be real golf. Simulator golf inside a bar doesn’t count. You have to respect the streak.
The dicey months were always December – February. We would always get out the first day that we could during each of those months. So, yes, I have played on New Year’s Day the last several years. You can’t risk a freak snowstorm on January 2nd ruining your chances to extend the streak. How can you golf when it’s freezing out? Easy – you bundle up. Did you know that Footjoy makes winter golf gloves? Well, you do now. Need a little help getting your tee into a frozen tee box? Golf with a friend who keeps a cordless drill in his golf bag during the winter. Need a little help to get some more distance off the tee? Hit the ball onto a frozen fairway and watch it bounce forever. But, be careful with your approach shots – if you hit it onto a frozen green, it’s sure to bounce over it, just like a superball. These are the things you learn when you golf all year-round in New England. What do you do when the water in your water bottle starts to turn into ice chips because it’s so cold outside? Or when it starts snowing during your round five days before Christmas and you find yourself needing a shovel to clear your path on the putting green? Well, you laugh at the situation and remind yourself that you are a self-diagnosed golf idiot.
Over the years, we had a few close calls, one of which I wrote about five years ago. We were coming up to the end of February, when my friend Doug found a course open on the Connecticut shore. Sure, it took us an hour to get there, but they were open and we could extend the streak. Coincidentally, we got paired up with two other people who were extending their own streak. It’s good to learn you aren’t the only golf idiots in the world.
This year was looking tough for February. The courses around us were not open at the beginning of the month, but that same course on the Connecticut shore was open. Slight problem. Doug went down to Virginia to visit his son and I went to New York for an exceptional evening at Carnegie Hall. A screening of La La Land (have I mentioned that it is one of my all-time favorites?) with a live orchestra performing the score in sync with the film. Justin Hurwitz, who won an Oscar for writing the score, conducted the orchestra. This was an all-time cool experience that I got to share with my sister, my son, and his girlfriend. Anyway, by the time Doug and I were back in town, more snow and ice hit the region and we were SOL. The days on the calendar ticked by. My wife and I went down to Grand Cayman for a week and I spent an irrational amount of time obsessing about the weather back in Connecticut while sitting on the beach. When we got back, we anxiously watched for rain and warmer temps to melt just enough snow off of the course for them to open.
And then they did. There was only one day during the last week of February that both of us could drive down there, and with three days to spare, we completed our February round. Neither one of us played great, but that didn’t matter. We extended the streak to 119 months. Now, for those of you not so quick with math, that means that our March round would be 120 months, or ten years. And last Saturday (March 1st), we drove back down to the same course to play again. We probably didn’t need to play this early in the month, but you can’t risk a freak snowstorm in March in New England. You never know. This time, we both played great and Doug beat me by three strokes, helped by his two birdies. We had an absolute blast and I lost count how many times we kept saying, “Ten years. Can you believe it?” to each other. At the end of the round as we headed to the bar for a celebratory beer, we said the same thing we say at the end of every winter round, “Thanks for being crazy enough to get out and play.” And so, the streak continues….
That’s all for this week. Next week, I’ll be back with my 2025 movie preview. No, really, I will this time. Thanks for reading and if you’d like to be notified of future posts, you can subscribe below.
This was a great blog Steve. I did laugh with the golf comments!!!
Thanks MB!