Catching up during awards season; Play It Again, Tim

Film critics have to scramble this time of year.

They have to keep up with the wave of holiday releases. At the same time, they try to catch up on all of the movies they might have missed from the past year that might qualify for their 10 best lists. And if they belong to a critics organization, they have to prepare for the group’s annual vote for the year’s best, another incentive to watch as many movies as possible.

(I know. A movie critic’s life is SO HARD.)

Studios, knowing the timing of these things, send “For Your Consideration” DVDs – or, now, more likely, screener links – to critics for their lists and awards. Sometimes stacks of DVDS arrive in the mailbox, or links for eight to 10 screeners will show up in one email.

There are so many movies to watch that there’s little, if any, time to write about them. And that’s frustrating. After all, for critics, the whole point of watching movies is to then write (or talk) about them.

So, consider this a catch-up column of sorts.

Boston critics pick ‘Anora’ as year’s best

I’m a proud member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, and on Dec. 8 we met to come up with our annual award winners. The meeting lasted six hours, from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., down from nine hours the year before. Most of the 26 members were able to attend, and coming up with a majority vote on different categories can take multiple ballots. Plus, we’re talking about critics, meaning people with strong opinions, which can lead to lively conversations.

It’s a lot of fun.

This year, “Anora” and “A Complete Unknown” were the big winners.

Here’s how the vote went:

Best film: “Anora.”

Best actor: Timothee Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown”

Best actress: Mikey Madison, “Anora.”

Best supporting actor: Edward Norton, “A Complete Unknown.”

Best supporting actress: Danielle Deadwyler, “The Piano Lesson.”

Best director: Sean Baker, “Anora.”

Best original screenplay: Sean Baker, “Anora.”

Best adapted screenplay: RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, “Nickel Boys.”

Best non-English language film (awarded in memory of Jay Carr): “Do Not Expect Too Much From the Edge of the World.”

Best documentary (awarded in memory of Lucia Small): “No Other Land.”

Best animated film: “Flow.”

Best cinematography: Lol Crawley, “The Brutalist.”

Best film editing (awarded in memory of Karen Schmeer): Marco Costa, “Challengers.”

Best new filmmaker (awarded in memory of David Brudnoy): Annie Baker, “Janet Planet.”

Best ensemble cast: “Sing Sing.”

Best original score: Daniel Blumberg, “The Brutalist.”

The meeting was dedicated to David Brudnoy, the longtime WBZ radio host and a founding member of the BSFC, who died 20 years ago. I didn’t know Brudnoy well, but he was very kind to me and was held in high esteem by many. Sean Burns, one of the best film critics in Boston, or anywhere else for that matter, did know Brudnoy well, and wrote a must-read tribute to his friend. Here’s the link (but try to return to this column after you read it, OK?): https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/12/09/wbz-radio-host-david-brudnoy-20-years-remembrance.

Short stuff:

Here are mini-reviews of five recent movies:

“A Real Pain” (R, 90 minutes, in theaters). Jesse Eisenberg wrote and directed this seriocomic buddy movie in which he and Kieran Culkin play American cousins who travel to Poland to see where their Holocaust survivor grandmother lived. While they navigate their differences – David (Eisenberg) is nervous, cautious; Benji (Culkin), spontaneous, demonstrative – the cousins deal with their perceptions of their family history, their own life choices, their uneasy yet close relationship, and so much more. It’s a rich film, well worth repeated viewings. **** (out of four)

“Wicked” (PG, 160 minutes, in theaters). Cynthia Erivo, as social outcast Elphaba, and Ariana Grande-Butera, as popular Galinda, are outstanding in director Jon M. Chu’s engaging adaptation of the blockbuster Broadway musical about young witches in training. Despite the occasional hollow production number, “Wicked” soars with lighthearted humor, beautiful singing and a sublime sequence in which Elphaba and Galinda finally experience a genuine connection, expressed in song and dance. With Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz. ***½

“Gladiator II” (R, 148 minutes, in theaters). Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington are wasted in director Ridley Scott’s hokey sword-and-sandal sequel to his overrated 2000 Oscar winner “Gladiator” – which was much better in 1960 when it was called “Spartacus.” Mescal plays the gladiator hero Lucius, forced to battle in the Colosseum for the amusement of two demented emperor brothers and the Roman masses. There’s an exciting fight to the death with giant baboons, and when one of the emperors names his pet monkey as consul, it might draw  smiles (or groans) from those who question recent Trump appointments. That’s right: These are the highlights. *½

“Y2K” (R, 91 minutes, in theaters). Ex-“Saturday Night Live” regular Kyle Mooney makes his directorial debut with this intentionally absurd horror comedy in which the Y2K scare becomes a reality … and then some. It’s New Year’s 1999, and two unpopular teens (Jaeden Martell and Julian Dennison) go to a wild high school bash, where things turn ugly once the clock strikes midnight. Mooney, who also co-wrote the screenplay, has a lot of fun with ‘90s pop culture – Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst plays a key role, as himself – while delivering the bloody laughs. The funniest moment involves a decapitation. How many movies can boast that? ***

“Maria” (R, 124 minutes, in theaters and on Netflix). Chilean director Pablo Larrain’s biopics “Jackie,” starring Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and “Spencer,” with Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, were intense, somewhat surreal character studies that served primarily as showcases for their lead actresses. Now Larrain takes a similar approach with Angelina Jolie as opera legend Maria Callas in this portentous drama in which the singer reviews her tumultuous life while struggling with poor health and drug abuse. **

A brainy thriller … for a while, at least

How are religions like fast-food chains?

Board games?

Pop tunes by Radiohead and the Hollies?

Mr. Reed has his theories, and he’s eager to share them with two young Mormon women who come knocking on his door in “Heretic” (R, 111 minutes, in theaters), a surprisingly cerebral horror flick.

It’s a gloomy late winter afternoon when Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher of Showtime’s “Yellowjackets”) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East of “The Fablemans”), missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, arrive at the home of Reed (Hugh Grant), an odd, but seemingly amiable Englishman.

Reed welcomes them in from the cold, tells them his wife will join them in the front room with newly baked blueberry pie, and has them settle in for a nice chat. While the young women – sincere in their beliefs but awkward in their rehearsed presentation – make their pitch, Reed, ever smiling, starts to question several things about their religion and its history. Meanwhile, the wife hasn’t shown up … and what about that pie?

Sisters Barnes and Paxton get increasingly nervous – as they should be – as Reed presents his theories on fast food, board games, a Hollies-Radiohead connection and religion. Now all they want to do is escape, and their host says they can leave whenever they want.

But can they?

Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the team that wrote “A Quiet Place,” “Heretic” brilliantly builds suspense as Reed challenges the missionaries’ faith and beliefs. Grant is perfectly cast as the sadistic charmer, and Thatcher, as the more reserved, mature Barnes, and East, as the more naive Paxton, also are excellent. (That’s Thatcher singing a haunting Bob Dylan cover during the final credits.)

As the film shifts from thriller to horror and the stakes for the characters go up, it loses its grip on the moviegoer. Grant’s villain turns into more of a typical human monster, and the twists become increasingly far-fetched. Still, as the Barnes and Paxton characters reveal more about themselves – “We may not be a physical threat, but we can be an intellectual one,” Barnes tells her partner – they pick up much of the slack. ***

Scorsese celebrates celluloid heroes

I don’t know if anyone loves movies more than Martin Scorsese.

His passion is on full display in “Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger” (131 minutes, available for streaming).

Scorsese appears as the on-screen narrator of the documentary, which delves into the films and partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, known as “The Archers.” Their movies – which include such 1940s classics as “The Red Shoes,” “Black Narcissus,” “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” and “I Know Where I’m Going!” – are regarded as some of the most imaginative, hypnotic and beautiful ever to hit the screen. When you watch them, it’s as if you’re engulfed in a dreamscape; there’s no doubt that what you’re experiencing is cinema as art.

“Made in England” director David Hinton, aided in no small part by a haunting score by Adrian Johnston, proves the point by presenting shot after shot, scene after scene, in popping colors or black and white, from their otherworldly films as Scorsese goes through the duo’s history and filmography. While credited as co-directors, Powell, an Englishman, was the one in charge of filming on location, while Pressburger, a Hungarian, was more responsible for the story and its structure (both worked on the dialogue).

But the movie offers much more than a highlight reel of the two men and their movies. For Scorsese, the subject is personal – and not just because he became close friends with Powell toward the end of Powell’s life. (Powell, in fact, married Scorsese’s longtime editor, Thelma Schoonmaker.) Scorsese, born in 1942, talks about experiencing the duo’s movies while growing up as a young asthmatic boy in New York City, about watching their 1951 operatic “The Tales of Hoffmann” repeatedly on TV, about the strong influence their movies have had on his own as arguably America’s premier film director.

Scorsese goes into depth about what makes their various movies special, what they’re saying about and how they’re reflecting “what is deep and mysterious about our lives.” You can hear the emotion in his voice and see it on his face. Powell, Pressburger and their films have profoundly affected him, and it’s a gift to us that this movie allows him to show and tell us why. ****

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** Click here for  Tim Miller’s previous movie columns for Cape Cod Wave **

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Tim Miller is co-president of the Boston Society of Film Critics and a Tomatometer-approved critic. He teaches film and journalism at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable. You can contact Tim at [email protected] or follow him onTwitter @TimMillerCritic. Or you can ignore him completely.