Opinions. We Got 'Em

At the 2006 Oscars, the crappy, cringe-filled movie Crash won Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain, reportedly because old, out-of-touch actors who had clearly never met Rock Hudson (or James Dean or Montgomery Clift) feigned disgust at the idea of gay cowboys. It's a win that is now infamous, one that pretty much everyone in the world agrees was a mistake.

It may become secondly infamous if Emilia Perez triumphs over... well any other nominee at this year's Oscars. Mind you, I have only watched 10 minutes of this movie, and it's possible that if I return to it, it will redeem itself after a bit. But I am confident that anything with Selena Gomez in it should not beat out Nickel Boys. (I said it!) The fact that it is a musical about drug wars in Mexico and that the movie's star sounds like a grade-A asshole do not help its case. It's taking up a nominations slot that rightly belongs to Sing Sing. I have said my piece.

🎥 Nickel Boys (in theaters)
It took me a couple weeks to get over this book when I read it in 2020, so I did not intend to see the movie. It's wonderfully written, but covers the very rough subject of Southern reform schools in the 1960s. Enough people raved about the movie, though, that I changed my mind. I'm so glad I did. It's shot entirely in first-person perspective, making the story so much more personal for the viewer. You are living in their skins, for better and worse. It put me in a trance that didn't break until long after I left the theater. If this doesn't win best picture, I'm going to... be real mad.

📖 Long Island Compromise
This is fun! Written by the author of Fleishman is in Trouble, it's the saga of a wealthy American Jewish family and their recovery (and lack of recovery) from a kidnapping. It's funny and sad and shocking and even has a fun twist at the end. Her paragraphs go on a little long at times, but I'm being nitty. You'll enjoy yourself reading this.

*Special guest review, from the movie list I made Allyson for 2025*
🎥 Casablanca (Max)
Yes, the film is gorgeous. The dialogue is fantastic, especially given the script wasn’t even finished when they started filming. And I wish modern offerings could take a page from Casablanca on pacing - there was no point where I thought “wow we could do without this”. 

Watching Casablanca in January 2025 is…really quite something. It makes one wonder what the equivalencies are in the age of surveillance and technology. Ugarte would’ve been nabbed from his apartment within moments of opening his email attachments. Lazlo’s whereabouts and plans would be instantaneously sent to every major security institution and wouldn’t have made it to Rick’s.

Recently I saw a TikTok about resistance in the height of the AIDS crisis and how they would bury their friends in the morning, protest in the afternoon, and dance all night - the dancing kept them in the fight. I don’t care whether Ilsa really loved either man, or if Rick’s self-imposed exoskeleton was dissolved out of love or duty. They all did what they had to do - or wanted - in any given moment. The circumstances change at break neck speed and they flowed like water. We find ourselves in a similar situation now, it’s time to drink all the champagne so the Nazis can’t have any.