Posted on March 18, 2021 at 2:43 pm
It is always fun to talk to Arch Campbell and Jen Chaney on their At the Movies podcast. In this very special 80th episode, we talked about the Oscars and the problems at the Golden Globes, about the Grammy show and new releases “The Father” and “The Courier.” Hope to be back on again soon.
Posted on March 17, 2021 at 2:53 pm
The Golden Globes is known for three things: (1) A tiny, secret group of LA-based “foreign press” only known for giving out awards, (2) A big, glittery show with lots of awards to both TV and movies with double categories for comedy/musical and drama, improving the chances to people and productions to win, and (3) A history of secrecy and allegations of corruption and lack of diversity. This year that last category gained even more prominence with revelations that members are paid as much as $25,000 through NBC, which broadcasts the show and the nomination of “Emily in Paris,” following a cushy junket where HFPA members were put up in a $1200 a night hotel in Paris.
The publicists representing Hollywood’s top talent have demanded major changes:
“We call on the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. to swiftly manifest profound and lasting change to eradicate the longstanding exclusionary ethos and pervasive practice of discriminatory behavior, unprofessionalism, ethical impropriety and alleged financial corruption endemic to the HFPA, funded by Dick Clark Productions, MRC, NBCUniversal and Comcast,” the publicists wrote in a letter sent to the group Monday afternoon.
Posted on March 15, 2021 at 6:03 pm
I’m quoted in an NBC story about today’s Oscar nominations. While, as always, some of my favorites were overlooked, I am delighted by seeing so many deserving filmmakers recognized.
“I let out a little yelp when I saw the nominees,” said Nell Minow, a film critic and corporate governance expert, pointing to strong showings by low-key, thoughtful dramas such as Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” and Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland.”
“We’re seeing a lot more diversity partly because the normative, white male blockbusters had to step aside last year,” Minow said, referring to the various movies that were postponed amid the pandemic.
Posted on March 15, 2021 at 7:58 am
Sacha Baron Cohen (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”)
Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”)
Leslie Odom Jr. (“One Night in Miami”)
Paul Raci (“Sound of Metal”)
Lakeith Stanfield (“Judas and the Black Messiah”)
Maria Bakalova (‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”)
Glenn Close (“Hillbilly Elegy”)
Olivia Colman (“The Father”)
Amanda Seyfried (“Mank”)
Youn Yuh-jung (“Minari”)
Best Costume Design“Emma,” Alexandra Byrne
“Mank,” Trish Summerville
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Ann Roth
“Mulan,” Bina Daigeler
“Pinocchio”
“Da 5 Bloods,” Terence Blanchard
“Mank,” Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
“Minari,” Emile Mosseri
“News of the World,” James Newton Howard
“Soul,” Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste
“Burrow” (Disney Plus/Pixar)
“Genius Loci” (Kazak Productions)
“If Anything Happens I Love You” (Netflix)
“Opera” (Beasts and Natives Alike)
“Yes-People” (CAOZ hf. Hólamói)
“Feeling Through”
“The Letter Room”
“The Present”
“Two Distant Strangers”
“White Eye”
“Greyhound,” Odin Benitez, Jason King, Christian P. Minkler, Michael Minkler, Jeff Sawyer
“Mank,” Ren Klyce, Jeremy Molod, David Parker, Nathan Nance, Drew Kunin
“News of the World,” John Pritchett, Mike Prestwood Smith, William Miller, Oliver Tarney, Michael Fentum
“Soul,” Coya Elliott, Ren Klyce, David Parker, Vince Caro
“Sound of Metal,” Phillip Bladh, Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés, Carolina Santana
“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” Peter Baynham, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jena Friedman, Anthony Hines, Lee Kern, Dan Mazer, Nina Pedrad, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Swimer
“The Father,” Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller
“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao
“One Night in Miami,” Kemp Powers
“The White Tiger,” Ramin Bahrani
“Judas and the Black Messiah,” Will Berson, Shaka King, Keith Lucas, Kenneth Lucas
“Minari,” Lee Isaac Chung
“Promising Young Woman,” Emerald Fennell
“Sound of Metal,” Abraham Marder, Darius Marder, Derek Cianfrance
“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Aaron Sorkin
Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”)
Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”)
Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”)
Gary Oldman (“Mank”)
Steven Yeun (“Minari”)
Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”)
Andra Day (“The United States v. Billie Holiday”)
Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”)
Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”)
Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”)
“Onward” (Pixar)
“Over the Moon” (Netflix)
“Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon” (Netflix)
“Soul” (Pixar)
“Wolfwalkers” (Apple TV Plus/GKIDS)
“Judas and the Black Messiah,” Sean Bobbitt
“Mank,” Erik Messerschmidt
“News of the World,” Dariusz Wolski
“Nomadland,” Joshua James Richards
“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Phedon Papamichael
Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”)
David Fincher (“Mank”)
Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”)
Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”)
Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”)
“Collective” (Magnolia Pictures and Participant)
“Crip Camp” (Netflix)
“The Mole Agent” (Gravitas Ventures)
“My Octopus Teacher” (Netflix)
“Time” (Amazon Studios)
“Colette” (Time Travel Unlimited)
“A Concerto Is a Conversation” (Breakwater Studios)
“Do Not Split” (Field of Vision)
“Hunger Ward” (MTV Documentary Films)
“A Love Song for Latasha” (Netflix)
“The Father,” Yorgos Lamprinos
“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao
“Promising Young Woman,” Frédéric Thoraval
“Sound of Metal,” Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Alan Baumgarten
“Another Round” (Denmark)
“Better Days” (Hong Kong)
“Collective” (Romania)
“The Man Who Sold His Skin” (Tunisia)
“Quo Vadis, Aida?”(Bosnia and Herzegovina)
“Emma,” Marese Langan
“Hillbilly Elegy,” Eryn Krueger Mekash, Patricia Dehaney, Matthew Mungle
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Matiki Anoff, Mia Neal, Larry M. Cherry
“Mank,” Kimberley Spiteri, Gigi Williams
“Pinocchio,” Dalia Colli, Anna Kieber, Sebastian Lochmann, Stephen Murphy
“Fight for You,” (“Judas and the Black Messiah”)
“Hear My Voice,” (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”)
“Húsavík,” (“Eurovision Song Contest”)
“Io Si (Seen),” (“The Life Ahead”)
“Speak Now,” (“One Night in Miami”)
“The Father” (Sony Pictures Classics)
“Judas and the Black Messiah” (Warner Bros.)
“Mank” (Netflix)
“Minari” (A24)
“Nomadland” (Searchlight Pictures)
“Promising Young Woman” (Focus Features)
“Sound of Metal” (Amazon Studios)
“The Trial of the Chicago 7” (Netflix)
“The Father,” Peter Francis, Cathy Featherstone
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Mark Ricker, Karen O’Hara, Diana Stoughton
“Mank,” Donald Graham Burt, Jan Pascale
“News of the World,” David Crank, Elizabeth Keenan
“Tenet,” Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas
“Love and Monsters”
“The Midnight Sky,” Matt Kasmir, Chris Lawrence, Dave Watkins, Max Solomon
“Mulan,” Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury, Steve Ingram
“The One and Only Ivan,” Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones, Santiago Colomo Martinez
“Tenet,” Andrew Jackson, Andrew Lockley, Scott R. Fisher, Mike Chambers
Posted on March 9, 2021 at 9:13 am
B +| Lowest Recommended Age: | High School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for some strong language, and thematic material |
| Profanity: | Some strong and crude language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Alcohol and medication |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Tense confrontations |
| Diversity Issues: | Disability issues |
| Date Released to Theaters: | March 10, 2021 |
The beginning of any story — a movie, a play, a book — is like a puzzle. We are hardly aware of all the information we are processing, all the clues we are parsing to let us know who the characters are, where they are, when they are, and what is going on between them. And so, in “The Father,” we quickly come to some conclusions about Anthony (pronounced “An-tony”), played by Sir Anthony Hopkins. His daughter Anne (Olivia Colman) visits him in his apartment to chide him about firing his latest caregiver, as he has her several predecessors, and tells him that he must find a way to get along with his next caregiver because she is leaving London to live with her new boyfriend in Paris.
And then the movie proceeds to undermine almost everything we think we have seen and we gradually realize that we are seeing the world subjectively, through Anthony’s eyes and ears and he is the most unreliable of story-tellers because he is struggling with dementia. Just as last year’s “The Sound of Metal” told us the story of a musician’s hearing loss by letting us hear what he heard, and not hear what he didn’t, “The Father” tells us the story of Anthony’s fading memory by filtering what we are seeing through his ability to process it, so we are as unsure and unsettled as he is.
Everything we bring to the film about forming judgments and drawing conclusions is constantly undermined. Anne is sometimes played by Colman, sometimes by Olivia Williams. Sometimes she is married, sometimes divorced. Sometimes it’s his apartment, sometimes he has moved in with Anne. Sometimes he stands in the hallway, disoriented and lost. Sometimes Anne’s husband barks angrily at him.
A new caregiver (Imogen Poots) comes for an interview and we see Anthony putting everything he has into being charming and capable. He tells her he was once a tap dancer. (He was not.) He offers her a drink and has one himself. He tells her she looks like his other daughter, the one he thinks is still alive (she is not).
Hopkins is made for this role. Only a man of his decades of experience and dedication to meticulously observed and fearlessly vulnerable performances could show us Anthony’s valiant efforts to stay himself, to stay in charge. That makes the final moments, when we are finally returned to our own safe space as objective observers, even more shattering.
Parents should know that this movie concerns dementia and he strain it puts on family as well as the person struggling with memory loss. It includes some strong language, alcohol, and medication.
Family discussion: Does this film make you think differently about what it is like to have memory loss? How are the people in your life helping those who are facing this issue and those who are caring for them?
If you like this, try: “Away from Her,” “Still Alice,” “Still Mine,” “Dick Johnson is Dead,” “The Roads Not Taken,” and “Supernova”
