"The Ugly Stepsister" Has Her Day

I'm so glad that body horror movies are coming back into vogue, and that we're getting some really interesting female body horror movies specifically.  "The Ugly Stepsister," the first film from Norwegian writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt, is everything I want from this kind of movie.  It's a subversion of a familiar fairy tale narrative that takes the opportunity to aim a few blows at terrible female beauty standards, toxic family dynamics, and false idols.  Also, the performances are very effective and the gore is really gross.  

"The Ugly Stepsisters" is built around one very good idea: "Cinderella" from the point of view of the stepsisters is a horror story.  Blichfeldt uses the original Brothers Grimm version of "Cinderella," with all the gruesome bits about how to get a foot to fit into a tiny glass shoe, as her starting point.  Plain Elvira (Lea Myren) is the older daughter of the ambitious Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp), who marries a man named Otto (Ralph Carlsson) for his money.  Alas, Otto drops dead almost immediately, leaving Rebekka with debts instead of riches, and a new stepdaughter, the beautiful Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss).  After learning that the local prince (Isac Calmroth) wants a bride, Elvira and Agnes become rivals for his attention.

Watching Elvira destroy herself in the pursuit of beauty and the false hope of a happy ending is like watching a magnificently orchestrated car crash.  The physical horrors of the barbaric beauty treatments that Rebekka pushes on her are bad enough, but the real damage is caused by Elvira's growing resentment toward the effortless physical perfection of Agnes and an increasingly anxious fixation on besting her.  While the original "Cinderella" story plays out it full over the course of the film, here it's on the margins of Elvira's miserable tale of endless suffering and disappointment.  Its perfect fairy-tale moments linger just out of her grasp as a half-hallucinatory ideal that she desperately wants to attain.  Instead, she has to contend with months of starving herself, a beautician that wields a chisel and hammer, and dancing instruction that doubles as ritual humiliation.  And the film makes it clear that through her choices, she brings much of her misfortune on herself.  

Some interesting shadings are also added to the other characters for some additional nuance.  Agnes is neither pure nor good - she doesn't love the prince and only wants him to get herself out of a bad situation.  She antagonizes Rebekka and Elvira as much as they antagonize her.  Elvira's younger sister Alma (Flo Fagerli) is too young for marriage, and she has no interest in the prince or her mother's machinations.  She's a lone voice of reason in the film that Elvira chooses to ignore.  Rebekka is the terrible stepmother we all expect, but more self-interested than malicious.  Her choices are few and she has to be pragmatic.  Then there's the prince, who Elvira has fallen in love with via a volume of his published poems.  A chance encounter with him early in the film reveals that he's a venal boor, but Elvira is so lovesick that this doesn't dissuade her at all.     

For lovers of body horror, there are several impressive sequences of squirm-inducing nastiness.  One involves self-mutilation.  Another involves tapeworms.  The worst for me, however, was a brutal cosmetic surgery procedure that went from zero to off the charts terrifying in seconds.  Due to the themes and the genre, there are some similarities to last year's "The Substance," but "The Ugly Stepsister" is playing with different tropes and ideas.  I found the production very impressive.  The film  was made on a modest budget, but it never feels like any corners are being cut due to skillful filmmaking.  The performers also deserve no small amount of credit.  Lea Myren does much of the heavy lifting in Elvira's transformations from unfortunate frump to rising ingenue to damaged monster.

I've always had a fondness for dark fairy tale films, and this is definitely one of the darkest and most satisfying.  It reminds me of something I might have stumbled across in the '80s, especially the way the gore is so stylized and achieved mostly with practical effects work.  They manage to make eyelashes in this movie sinister, and it's fantastic.  In short, horror fans, this is not one to miss.

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And What Didn't Make My Top Ten Episodes of 2024-2025

Minor spoilers ahead.

Last year's edition of this post got really out of hand, which is understandable considering that it was my first attempt.  This time around I'm going to focus on spotlighting some of the other highlights of my TV watching year instead of trying to be comprehensive.

Okay, so what were the most buzzed about episodes that didn't make the list?  "Through the Valley" was a major turning point for "The Last of Us," but it didn't strike me as a particularly strong episode in and of itself.  "The Price" was more interesting, giving Pedro Pascal a chance to go out on a high note, but not quite high enough to make the final list.  The third season of "The Bear" had several good installments, especially "Napkins" and "Ice Chips," but weren't as good as what I knew the series was capable of.  

The "Oner" episode of "The Studio" was impressive as a technical feat, but the show as a whole was too cringe-based for me to really enjoy, and I abandoned it after five episodes.  I've always had some trouble with comedies - I tracked down the "Pilot's Code" episode of "The Rehearsal" after seeing some of the rapturous response.  I never even cracked a smile, which tells you how out of whack my sense of humor is.  My favorite new comedy of the year was "Nobody Wants This," the Kristen Bell and Adam Brody rom-com.

So, let's move on to some genre shows.  Probably the best surprise I had last year was the latest Shondaland series, "The Residence," a whodunnit starring Uzo Aduba.  I couldn't single out any episode for praise, and the ending was too long, but this was exactly the kind of breezy, lighthearted, big ensemble burst of pure entertainment that I needed at exactly the right time.  Other new shows I really appreciated were "The Day of The Jackal" and "Black Doves," two spy series with very different approaches.  "Jackal" was the more polished, more action-oriented show that was fantastic whenever it was focused on Eddie Redmayne, but came apart whenever he wasn't on screen.  "Black Doves" was more about character, about feelings, and about vibes, with a great cast.  Tons of fun, but not remotely believable as any kind of espionage show.    

Returning shows offered some strong hours.  "House of the Dragon" had a very rough second season, but it still had some highlights, including "The Red Sowing" with the test for dragon riders.  My favorite "Black Mirror" installment of the excellent 2025 batch of episodes was "Common People," which saw the show target the horrors of profit-driven healthcare and subscription creep.  "Doctor Who," had a much stronger year than the last, with "Lux" and "Lucky Day" being my favorites.  The new companion, Belinda Chandra, is a great addition.  However, the most improved series was definitely "Rings of Power," as Sauron became a main character and a fantastic focal point for the show.  "Doomed to Die" and "Shadow and Flame" are both great, though the show is still leaning awfully hard on its audience's nostalgia for the movie trilogy.

I watched a lot of superhero media last year.  "Invincible" had a great third season, and "All I Can Say Is I'm Sorry" with the introduction of Powerplex stood out as an especially disturbing high point.  "Agatha All Along" is an MCU show, so it belongs in this category.  After a bumpy start, the second half of the series was all bangers, and the finale "Mother, Maiden, Crone" delivered a twist ending I didn't see coming.  "Penguin" got a lot of good press, but wasn't my kind of show.  However, I suspect that I have its success to thank for a "Daredevil: Born Again" that didn't pull its punches.  Ironically, the "Daredevil" episode I liked best was the bank heist - a remnant of a much lighter, kid friendlier version of the show.

The episode that came closest to making the list, but which I couldn't justify, was the "Night" episode of "The Acolyte."  As far as action goes, this is one of the best "Star Wars" TV offerings bar none.  However, "The Acolyte" is such a mess of a show when it comes to the writing and character dynamics.  I loved it and really wanted more of it, but I just had to let it go.

Speaking of cancellations, I'm bidding a fond farewell to "The Conners," "Star Trek: Lower Decks," "Arcane," "Wolf Hall," and "The Serpent Queen," which all delivered good endings.  "Kaos," "My Lady Jane," "Our Flag Means Death," "Laid," and "Time Bandits" were cancelled before their time, but I think they were worth the watch regardless.  "Interior: Chinatown" hasn't technically been cancelled, but feels more like a miniseries than an ongoing show to me.

Congratulations to John Mulaney for keeping "Everybody's Live With John Mulaney" as weird as it is.  And to Conan O'Brien for a thoroughly watchable Oscars telecast.  

And that's my 2024-2025 in television.

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My Top Ten Episodes of 2024-2025

This has been a very interesting year in television, with a lot of shows shortened or delayed due to the strikes.  A quick reminder before we start that I watch a lot of genre television, I'm notoriously bad with comedies, and I have a neverending "To Watch" list.  I use the Emmy rules for cutoff dates, which means that this list covers everything from the start of June, 2024 to the end of May, 2025.   Entries below are unranked, and I'm limiting myself to one episode per show or miniseries.

I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but please watch your step.

Interview With the Vampire, "Don't Be Afraid, Just Start the Tape" - Let's start with the flashback episode of "Interview" where Louis and Daniel finally compare notes on their last, incredibly messy encounter in 1970s San Francisco, and realize that Armand has been hiding a few things from both of them.  We get to see very different versions of the characters - Louis at a low point, and Daniel pre cynicism - and get new insights on everyone's behavior.  I love a good unreliable narrator story, and you can't be sure anybody's memories are accurate here.

The Diplomat, "Dreadnought" - It was really close between this episode and the immediately preceding one, "Our Lady of Immaculate Deception," because that's where we get Rory Kinnear finally losing his temper and resorting to violence, and more of the ensemble is involved.  However, Allison Janney as the evil vice-president is the undeniable highlight of this season.  Her geopolitics lecture makes for such good television.  Then there's the season ending cliffhanger ending, which is executed so perfectly, I wasn't even mad it was a cliffhanger.  

Adolescence, "Episode 3" - A psychologist played by Erin Doherty interviews a 13 year-old played by Owen Cooper in juvenile detention, and it's one of the most chilling hours of television I've ever seen.  Cooper's performance is riveting, as he shifts from people-pleasing to rageful and destructive, constantly testing, provoking, and finally threatening his interviewer.  Doherty's reactions, and the single-shot construction of the episode also do a lot to sell the intensity here.  The whole of "Adolescence" is excellent, but this episode will haunt me.

Say Nothing, "Do No Harm" - Covers the Price sisters' experiences while incarcerated, with special attention on their participation in hunger strikes in the 1980s.  Lola Petticrew and Hazel Doupe's performances are front and center the whole way through, as the harrowing particulars of their ordeal are dramatized with unflinching candidness.  There's never any doubt that the sisters deserve to be in prison for their crimes, but the struggle to be there on their own terms, and use their status to continue their fight is highly compelling.

Poker Face, "Sloppy Joseph" - This one made it in just under the wire, but I knew instantly the assassination of Joseph Gerbils had to be here.  Charlie Cale's latest job is being a lunch lady at a fancy prep school, and she finds herself up against the second pint-sized psycho on this list.  This one is eight years old and much funnier.  Eva Jade Halford's gold-star-obsessed Stephanie may be the most memorable villain the show's come up with so far, and I love that she's defeated by the very thing that makes her special - she doesn't think like a child. 

Paradise, "The Day" - Post-apocalyptic media doesn't usually show much of the apocalypse itself, as they tend to be very expensive to realize onscreen.  Well, "Paradise" gave us an excellent version of the end of the world, devoting a whole episode to showing the step-by-step progression of a major environmental disaster spinning out of control, from the POV of characters working at the White House.  And when the time comes to make the hard choices and the impossible calls, it's the performances rather than the CGI that leave an impression. 

The Pitt, "6:00 P.M." - I'm choosing the preparation for the mass casualty event rather than the more intense episodes dealing with it later in the timeline, because this episode is such a marvel of efficiency.  The triage rules are changed, a new patient categorization system is put in place, and the night shift starts work so half a dozen new characters are introduced on top of it all.  We get a ton of information very quickly, but it's all very clear and easy to follow, and it also does a great job of building anticipation for the oncoming storm.

Severance, "Cold Harbor" - It was wonderful to discover how conflicted my feelings were toward Innie and Outie Mark, as it became clear that these two were not going to get along.  The finale caper offers all kinds of excitement, from the appearance of the Choreography and Merriment department, to the fight with Milchick, to the nail-biting reunion sequences with Gemma.  I still don't know which Mark I want to win, but at this point I just need the Eagans to lose, and lose badly.  Extra points for the use of the Michel Legrande track in the closer.

Dark Matter, "Jupiter" - By now we've all seen plenty of multiverse media, but the nightmarish scenario that is presented in "Dark Matter" is one I haven't seen anyone try before, at least not in a live-action thriller series like this one.  That's what gave this episode that extra push to land a spot on this list over some other good genre stories.  Showing me something novel is going to get you higher marks, even if "Dark Matter" as a whole was very hit-or-miss.  The payoff was very much the wait for the payoff though, and pure sci-fi geekery.

Andor, "Who Are You?" - Finally, Syril and Dedra were my favorite part of the last season of "Andor," and the end of their relationship came in the midst of the show's biggest action episode to date - the Ghorman Massacre.  The action setpieces are plenty impressive on their own, but watching Syril finally come to some important realizations and make the choices that he was always going to make are absolutely riveting to see play out.  

Honorable Mention 

Conan O'Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor - I couldn't quite figure out how to include this, as it's great TV but not really an episode of anything, so I'm putting it here.  Conan's acceptance speech in particular cemented this for me as a worthy, timely, and much needed win.  

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Late Night in Peril

I'm writing this post at the end of July, 2025, a few days after the announcement that CBS has decided to cancel "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert."  I don't know when or even if this is going to be posted to the blog.  I try not to post too immediately about big events in the entertainment world, because stories tend to evolve over time as we get more information, and I don't feel comfortable speculating when so much is up in the air.  However, I feel I have to say something.  

No matter how you frame it, this is bad.  Stephen Colbert will be fine, but "The Late Show" will not be going on without him, and the entire late night television ecosystem appears to be in imminent peril.  If you believe what CBS claims (I don't) and "The Late Show" is being canned for purely economic reasons, it means that all of the late night shows aren't making enough money.  Colbert has consistently had the highest late night talk show ratings since 2017.  There were a few signs that this decision was coming, however.  A few months ago CBS also canceled "After Midnight" with Taylor Tomlinson, opting to no longer program the 12:30AM slot.  It's been widely speculated that Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" is next on the chopping block despite Jon Stewart's return bringing their highest ratings in years.  It's been clear that the economics for late night television - really, all network television - haven't been good in a while, and I've been hearing persistent gossip that all the major players are considering similar moves to downsize their schedules.

However, the timing here is clearly being influenced by outside forces.  CBS and Comedy Central are both owned by Paramount Global.  And so we come to the proposed  Paramount Global and Skydance Media merger, an estimated $8 billion deal, which needed federal approval in order to go through.  After multiple delays, it finally got that approval by the FCC six days after "The Late Show" was cancelled.  Paramount has had to stay on the right side of the Trump administration, which has proven to be very vindictive and litigious toward the legacy media companies, pulling funding from NPR and PBS, and bullying ABC into ponying up $15 million over a bogus defamation lawsuit.  Paramount has also paid $16 million over supposedly misleading editing in a "60 Minutes" piece, and forced out executive producer Bill Owens.  Stephen Colbert called this a "big fat bribe" on "The Late Show," three days before the cancellation of his show was announced.  The Trump administration has since decided to sue Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal for libel.    

Stephen Colbert leaving the airwaves - at least temporarily - seems to be a big win for Donald Trump at first glance.  Nearly all of the late night show hosts have been vocally critical of the Trump administration, and haven't been shy about using their platforms to shine a light on their wrongdoings.  While the traditional news media has been depressingly quick to play nice with Trump, and back down from any confrontations, Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, and Jon Stewart have not hesitated to call Trump out at every step.  While their television audiences have shrunk, all of these shows have Youtube channels with millions of subscribers.  Colbert averages two million viewers a night on CBS, and two million more watch his monologue on Youtube.  And from the reaction from the industry and the viewers so far, nobody is happy with this decision.  And Colbert's fellow late show hosts aren't rattled.  They're mad.  And Colbert's former Comedy Central compadres over at "South Park"?  Really mad.                      

There's already speculation about where Stephen Colbert is going to go after "The Late Show."  Will Netflix or Apple TV+ offer him a deal?  Will he start a podcast or his own Youtube channel?  Will he retire the way that his "Late Show" predecessor David Letterman did?  Would he consider a political career?  Because of the impending cancellation, Colbert is getting more attention and goodwill than ever, and the ratings for his final shows are going to be through the roof.  He's got ten months left on the air, and I for one do not intend to stop watching now.    

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"Mountainhead" and "Predator: Killer of Killers"

The new Apple TV+ feature "Mountainhead" is about how tech billionaires have become the villains of modern society.  We've had plenty of films about how the rich are awful and disconnected from the rest of humanity, but "Mountainhead" is specifically about the behavior of those reprobates on the very, very top.  Randall (Steve Carell), Souper (Jason Schwartzman), Ven (Cory Michael Smith), and Jeff (Ramy Yousef) are four ultra-wealthy tech CEOs who have convened at the newly finished mountain retreat of Souper, dubbed Mountainhead, for a weekend of playing poker and manly bonding.  This happens right as Ven's social media platform is sparking social unrest around the world due to its new AI tools being used to generate large volumes of misinformation.     

The four CEOs are not based on specific people, but you can definitely tell who's supposed to be the Elon Musk and the Warren Buffet and the rising star and the low man on the totem pole.  As the apocalypse looms large, the four of them are revealed to be selfish, self-absorbed, and toxic in the extreme.  They're obsessed with status, which they measure by net worth, and fixated on how to make deals and save their own skins to the detriment of everyone else.  They have absolutely no regard for other people, and discuss the unfolding global disaster in the most callous terms possible.  The first half of the film where we watch them as they watch the world catch fire is marked by creeping dread and moments of pitch black humor.  The second half of the film is less successful because the scope narrows and the tone shifts to much broader, absurdist, and slapstick comedy.  It didn't really work for me, though there were some good individual moments.  

"Mountainhead" was written and directed by Jesse Armstrong, the showrunner of "Succession."  I'm generally not a fan of shows about terrible people doing terrible things, but two hours is usually fine.  I found the "Mountainhead" quartet well-observed in their immature frat-boy preoccupations, and I'm glad that there were references to topics like accelerationism and transhumanism that the Silicon Valley set get all worked up about.  However, as a comedy I wanted the plot to get more extreme, more cringey, more absurd, or more anything.  The first half was a great setup, but then it felt like Armstrong got preoccupied with undercutting his characters' egos, and showing how they really were a pack of ineffectual twits in a real crisis, and wound up removing the possibility of anything too dark or too politically incendiary.  Recent events have shown that tech gurus can do some real damage, and the last thing I want in a satire about tech gurus right now is something that plays it too safe. 

Now for something completely different.  Animated movies based on primarily live-action IP have a very mixed track record, and for every "Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse" there's been a "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim."  The new "Predator: Killer of Killers" anthology feature, however, is one of the good ones.  Dan Trachtenberg, the director of "Prey," returns for a collection of very violent animated tales of alien Predators doing battle with different human warriors throughout history.  The first features a Viking warrior named Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy) and her son Anders (Damien Haas) tracking down a rival clan leader, Zoran (Andrew Morgado).  The second is about two brothers, Kenji and Kiyoshi (Louis Ozawa), and their rivalry in feudal Japan.  The third is about a WWII airplane mechanic, Torres (Rick Gonzalez), who tries to warn his squadron of a Predator attack over the Atlantic.    

I'm not a big fan of the Unreal Engine-produced animation, which resembles the style of Netflix's "Arcane" and the recent "Flow" animated feature.  The characters aren't very expressive, and the visuals tend to look murky and unfinished.  However, it's a good style for action scenes, and "Killer of Killers" is pretty much wall to wall action sequences.  There are elements that just look better in animation than live action, including over-the-top violence, crazy science-fiction weaponry, and plenty of stylized blood and gore, with all kinds of creative kills on display.  The three main characters are never given much depth, but there's actually more of a cohesive story here than I was expecting, and everything ties together in a satisfying way.  "Killer of Killers" is easily better than three of the five live action "Predator" movies, just on a script level.  Based on pure action, it might even be the best one.          

Trachtenberg has another "Predator" movie coming out in a few months, the live action theatrical feature "Predator: Badlands."  There's been no indication that its story is tied into "Killer of Killers" in any meaningful way, but I expect that it won't be entirely  standalone either.  And based on Trachtenberg's work with this series so far, I'm looking forward to it.  

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A Peek "Inside No. 9"

I watched the first two series of "Inside No. 9," the British anthology series written by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, members of "The League of Gentlemen" comedy troupe.  I haven't seen any of their prior work that I'm aware of.  I plan to keep watching, but wanted to take the time to put down some initial impressions while I'm still early in the show's run.  "Inside No. 9" is a rarity, a long-running anthology program of thirty minute episodes where none of the stories have anything to do with each other except taking place in a location marked as "No. 9" in some way.  Shearsmith and Pemberton, both comedians, usually have roles in every episode, which range from the dramatic to the farcical.  Most of the stories are some type of black comedy with a twist at the end.  

I was a little tripped up by the first episode, "Sardines," which involves a group of partygoers playing a game of Sardines and revealing all sorts of lurid secrets in the process.  The dialogue is dense, the plot unfolds very quickly, and I had to rewatch the ending twice to untangle one of the big reveals.  Then, in the next episode, "A Quiet Night In," there is no dialogue at all.  This installment is a slapstick comedy about two hapless burglars trying to steal a painting from the home of a feuding couple.  Other episodes take place in a train car, a theater dressing room, and a 17th century barn, but the action is always kept fairly small scale.  This is wonderful for the more intimate dramatic episodes, but neither of the two horror episodes worked for me at all.  It could be a cultural thing.

It took a few episodes for me to get used to the format and the style of the humor, but I like "Inside No. 9" for its sense of scrappiness and unpredictability.  Budgets are obviously low, but there's a lot of creative ingenuity on display, and a taste for experimentation with the format.  The episodes I've enjoyed the most so far are the ones that have managed to surprise me, like "Cold Comfort," which takes place in a crisis hotline call center and is primarily filmed with stationary security cameras, and "The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge," which is the funniest take on a witch trial I've ever seen.  It's often not clear which genre an episode belongs in until it plays out completely, so part of the fun is trying to guess what the turn is going to be.  Will the domestic dramedy end in an ironic murder, a poignant reveal that the main character has been dead the whole time, or a wry subversion after someone finally admits a lie or deceit?  

So far the casts have been very good.  Shearsmith and Pemberton have turned in some strong performances, and have been joined by familiar British talent like Gemma Arterton, Jessica Gunning, and Jack Whitehall.  These episodes are old enough that I was happy to find a few departed stars like Helen McCrory and David Warner gamely playing ridiculous characters.  However, "Inside No. 9" also makes room for unexpectedly touching episodes like "The 12 Days of Christine," featuring Sheridan Smith as a woman who seems to be unstuck in time.  By the time the final reveal rolled around, I'd completely forgotten I was watching an "Inside No. 9" episode.

So far the ratio of good and middling-to-bad episodes isn't great, but I'm heartened by the fact that "Inside No. 9" has improved over the two series I've seen, with the stories getting more complex and ambitious.  Or maybe I'm just getting used to Shearsmith and Pemberton's writing.  The highs have been very high, and I like that there seems to be a determination to parody or pay homage to so many different kinds of British media, from Shakespeare troupe hijinks to "Witchfinder General."

I'm glad to have seven more series to look forward to, and will do my best not to binge them too quickly.  However, I can already tell I'm going to have a heck of a time writing up the Top Ten episodes list when I'm done.  

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"A Nice Indian Boy" and "The Wedding Banquet"

It's that time of year when I try to cover a romance movie or two, and the only decent ones lately seem to be Asian LGBT romances.  So let's get to it.

"A Nice Indian Boy" is my first Roshan Sethi film.  It's a sweet, very modest little romantic comedy about an Indian-American doctor named Naveen (Karan Soni) whose romance with a photographer, Jay (Jonathan Groff), is hampered by his anxieties over how his traditional parents, Megha (Zarna Garg) and Archit (Harish Patel) will react.  There are also tensions with his sister Arundhati (Sunita Mani), who recently got married, and is upset that Naveen gets more freedom with his life choices than she does.   

Even if you aren't at all familiar with any of the Indian customs or traditions in this film, "A Nice Indian Boy" follows the template of a typical cross-cultural romantic comedy so exactly, I can't imagine anyone will be confused for a moment.  The immigrant family dynamic is instantly relatable.  The communication and trust issues in Naveen and Jay's relationship are instantly recognizable.  Jay is clearly an impossible ideal boyfriend - a white American guy who was raised by Indian foster parents, so he not only speaks Hindi, but is in many ways more Indian than Naveen is.  Sure, he has just enough minor negative traits to put Naveen's parents on the defensive at first, but is there any question that they'll eventually accept him with open arms?

"A Nice Indian Boy" is very predictable and follows the template of a typical heterosexual screen romance awfully closely, but I feel pretty lenient towards it because framing an Indian LGBT relationship in these terms to help normalize it is surely part of the point.  Also, it's very apparent that the budget was tiny, and this was a personal passion project.  The aim here is to present a pleasant fantasy romance where Jonathan Groff sings "Tujhe Dehka To Yeh Jana Sanam" to Karan Soni, and everything ends with a big Indian wedding.  Sure, I could ask uncomfortable questions like why nobody questions why Arundhati keeps showing up to family dinners and events without her husband, but in the end it doesn't matter.  The performances are good, with  Zarna Garg and Harish Patel getting some especially lovely moments together as the deeply concerned parents, who get to affirm their own love story in the process of sorting out their messy relationships with their children.  It's very broad, very inviting, and very approachable for everybody.

 

On to the remake of "The Wedding Banquet," which immediately distinguishes itself as more progressive and more directly targeting the LGBT audience than the 1993 original directed by Ang Lee.  Instead of a gay man marrying a straight woman in a sham marriage, this time both of the participants in the sham marriage are LGBT.  Seattle based Chris (Bowen Yang) and Min (Han Gi-Chan) live in the garage apartment of a house occupied by Chris's best friend Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and her partner Lee (Lily Gladstone), who are trying to get pregnant by IVF.  Min, the estranged grandchild of a rich Korean industrialist, is called home by his grandmother Ja Young (Young Yuh-jung) to join the family company.  Min wants to stay in Seattle and proposes to Chris, but Chris isn't ready to commit.  So, Min decides to wed Angela in a sham marriage and pay for the IVF treatments in return.

James Schamus returns to co-write the new version with director Andrew Ahn, which makes the case that even with all the gains that the LGBT community has made over the past thirty years, romantic and parent-child relationships can still be very difficult.  Angela has trouble connecting to her mother May (Joan Chen), who has made her whole identity about being a supportive PFLAG mom.  She's also not sure about becoming a mother herself, which causes friction with Lee.  Meanwhile, in a nice subversion, it turns out that Ja-Young is not only aware that Min is gay, she ends up helping with the ruse for his sake.  Young Yuh-jung's performance is the best thing about the movie.  After a meandering first act, everything snaps into focus when Ja Young shows up, immediately figures out what is going on, and calls out all of these youngsters for being a pack of idiots.  I adore every second she is onscreen.

The 2025 "Wedding Banquet" is generally messier and more sprawling than the 1993 version, juggling more characters and storylines and issues.  It's not as cohesive, and definitely not as funny, but there are some good farcical moments, and a few memorable zingers.  I like that we get a Korean wedding this time around, instead of a Chinese one.  And in the end, the movie's also got plenty of heart, which is what matters most.   

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"Invincible" Year Three

Minor spoilers ahead.

Well, "Invincible" is back with a vengeance.  Having spent its previous season mostly on Mark Grayson's angsty personal life and setting up a new status quo, "Invincible" is putting Mark through the wringer again as a superhero.  In the early part of the season, we find Mark still recovering from his confrontation with Angstrom, and trying to strike out on his own away from Cecil's influence.  Episodes are devoted to his relationships with a new girlfriend and his family members.  Younger brother Oliver (Christian Convery) is now old enough to be a budding superhero himself, though one who needs a lot of guidance from Mark and his mother.  

However, most of the season is spent on Mark discovering that he's woefully unprepared for the threats he has to face as the most powerful superhero on Earth.  There's a sense of foreboding that carries through the whole season.  As the danger keeps escalating, Mark is confronted with more difficult moral questions.  In one episode, he ends up on a dystopian future Earth where the only way to save everyone is to do something unthinkable.  In another, he's faced with a sympathetic new enemy that hates Invincible to the point of self-destruction.  We have some excellent guest stars, including Aaron Paul as the superpowered Powerplex, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a Viltrumite named Conquest.    

The pacing this year is much better, with no midseason hiatus and far more momentum driving the bigger storylines.  Supporting characters like Debbie are still very much in the picture - she's got a new love interest named Paul (Cliff Curtis) this season - but they're far less prominent than they've been in the past.  Mark is at the center of almost every single episode, and it's to the show's benefit.  The time we do spend with secondary characters like Eve and Rex (Jason Mantzoukas) feels less like filler and more like necessary character building.  It's nice to see these characters grow and change in "Invincible," some for the better and some for the worse.  There are still the occasional check-ins with Nolan and Allen the Alien (Seth Rogan) in outer space that don't seem to be going anywhere, but we have plenty more going.

I feel like many "Invincible" fans are really interested in the show for its carnage-filled action scenes, and this season does not disappoint.  The action is more brutal than ever, with most of the animation budget saved for the last two episodes of the season, where it's almost wall-to-wall superhero beat-downs and wide scale destruction.  There are several points where the creators are really pushing at the limits of what's acceptable to show, so those who are sensitive to gore may want to steer clear.  Also, we get a love scene at last, not quite a sex scene, but probably as close as we're going to get in an American-made superhero production.  It's clumsy stuff, but I appreciate the attempt.  

I prefer the episodes that aren't so reliant on shock value.  The introduction of PowerPlex was the highlight of the year for me, representing the kind of ethically troubling conflict that most superhero media is keen to ignore.  "Invincible" is doing a far better job at exploring the more morally gray parts of the superhero mythos than shows like "The Boys," and taking advantage of the animated medium to dramatize situations that would be prohibitively expensive in live action - or just too gruesome.  It's also incredibly indulgent, of course, but the darker material is never played for laughs, and there's a certain grim, but refreshing candidness to the way that "Invincible" shows the amount of physical damage that would realistically result from a superhero brawl.  

After four years and twenty-five episodes, I am sorely tempted to go read the comic books, because I'm sure it'll be a long wait for future seasons.  However, it's comforting to know that the adaptation is in good hands, with "Invincible" creator Robert Kirkman still heavily involved, and Amazon Prime committed to finishing the series.   

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My Favorite Charles Burnett Film

Charles Burnett is an African-American independent filmmaker who gained prominence in the 1980s.  Most of his films are obscure, and he never had a mainstream hit.  However, he has remained dedicated to exploring the African-American experience through film, from his groundbreaking early features depicting working class communities in Los Angeles, to his later documentaries and television films examining different facets of African-American history, for well over fifty years.  My favorite of his films was made in 1999 and played a few festivals, but wasn't released in any format until 2024.  It's a little out of Burnett's usual milieu, as it's less about race and class than it is about aging, love, and dealing with invisible demons.

"The Annihilation of Fish" is not the best or most important Charles Burnett film, clearly.  The production values are very modest, and I initially assumed that the film was adapting a stage play, as the action rarely leaves the interiors of a single building.  There's not much to the story beyond three elderly people getting to know one another.  However, the cast and performances are unbeatable.  James Earl Jones is one of my favorite actors, and here he has a late career leading role as the title character.  Fish is a Jamaican man, newly released from a mental institution, having been deemed incurable of his delusion that a pugilistic demon named Hank keeps following him around.  Fish is wonderfully polite, sincere, and charming.  However, he also insists on regularly wrestling his invisible demon, greatly alarming his new boarding house neighbor Poinsettia, played by Lynn Redgrave.  She's a tipsy widow who has just gotten out of a dramatic romantic relationship with the long-expired classical Italian composer, Giacomo Puccini.  She deals with the breakup by singing opera and drinking heavily.       

So we have two aging kooks, with their genial landlady played by Margot Kidder sometimes joining them as a third, figuring out how to make friends with one another, and eventually, bumpily and haphazardly, find their way toward romance.  Along the way we learn bits and pieces about their pasts and their afflictions, and the important part is that we learn it all on their terms.  The early parts of the film show Fish and Poinsettia attempting to get along among the neurotypicals, and having a hard time of it.  Ultimately both of them are outsiders, separated from whatever communities they may have been a part of previously, and not equipped to seek fellowship through the usual channels.  But given the opportunity for a new start, and without being biased by the opinions of others, they're able to take each other at face value and provide mutual support.  Jones and Redgraves are weird and funny and utterly unencumbered in their oddity, and it's wonderful to see.  Jones in particular makes a full meal of the Jamaican accent and the pantomimed wrestling sequences.  

I know that I was so taken with the film in part because I was so happy to see these forgotten Jones and Redgrave performances from twenty-five years ago emerge from obscurity at last.  Also, "The Annihilation of Fish" is the kind of slow, intimate, meandering indie film that we don't see often enough anymore.  It's a hard film to categorize, because it defies the usual conventions of comedies, cross-cultural romances, and films about the mentally ill and dispossessed.  As with all of Charles Burnett's films, Fish's status as a black man plays a great part in his struggle for self-determination. However, this is a love story, and Fish's dilemma is framed in the terms of an obstacle to romantic fulfillment.  For Fish, the idea of being in a relationship with a white woman is unthinkable, and it's hinted that this may be tied to older traumas.  Poinsettia, after an initial show of distaste and paranoia, fixates on the chance for love, and will not be dissuaded.  The resulting courtship is messy, farcical, heartfelt, poignant, and completely unique.

Charles Burnett has one of the more interesting filmographies of the directors I've featured recently, because his work is so consistently dedicated to stories of the black diaspora, and has taken so many diverse forms.  Most of his work has been in television since the mid-90s, but whether it's a feature about police corruption, or a Disney Channel film on the Civil Rights movement, or a documentary short on blues music, or an Oprah-produced miniseries on colorism, Burnett's work is uncompromising and I expect it will remain enduring.  

What I've Seen - Charles Burnett

Killer of Sheep (1978)

My Brother's Wedding (1983)

To Sleep with Anger (1990)

The Glass Shield (1994)

Nightjohn (1996)

The Wedding (1998)

Selma, Lord, Selma (1999)

The Annihilation of Fish (1999)

Finding Buck McHenry (2000)

Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property (2003)

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Two "The Count of Monte Cristo" Adaptations

Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo" is one of my favorite novels, and we haven't had a major screen adaptation in at least twenty years.  This is because the plot is notoriously long and complex, with the unedited versions of the novel often exceeding 1200 pages.  In 2024, however, two new adaptations were released.  One is the French "The Count of Monte Cristo" film, written and directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, and starring Pierre Niney.  The other is an English language miniseries starring Sam Claflin and directed by Bille August.  It's a French and Italian co-production with a very international cast and crew.  I can't say which adaptation is better, but it's still fun to compare and contrast.

Both of the 2024 versions of "The Count of Monte Cristo" are fairly similar through the early parts of the story.  Thanks to the actions of three terrible men, young sailor Edmond Dantès is wrongly accused of espionage, separated from his beloved fiancée Mercédès, and sent to the Château d'If prison for fifteen years.  He escapes with the help of the wise Abbé Faria, a fellow prisoner who teaches Dantès everything he knows.  After securing a secret treasure hoard, Dantès reinvents himself as the Count of Monte Cristo and goes to Paris to seek his revenge against his enemies.  And it's with the manner of this revenge that the adaptations diverge considerably.  

The film version is designed to be an action-adventure blockbuster, with lots of action scenes, dynamic camerawork, and invented spectacle.  A new character, Angèle (Adèle Simphal) is added to help streamline the plot, and the Count also teams up with a younger pair of collaborators seeking revenge - the rescued slave Haydée (Anamaria Vartolomei) and the secret son of one of the Count's enemies, Andrea (Julien de Saint Jean).  Every character has been simplified to the basics, their motives and personalities often replaced completely.  And for the purposes of an action-adventure film, it all works fine.  There are duels, fights, chases, betrayals, unexpected deaths, and Niney gets to ham it up in disguise as a terrible Brit named Lord Halifax.  The film is three hours long, but moves so fast that the running time flies by.  The performances are strong, and Pierre Niney is a fun Edmond Dantès.  I also prefer this version of Mercédès (Anaïs Demoustier), who is much more self-assured than most versions I've seen.  

Turning to the miniseries, if you want something that's closer to the Dumas novel, even with the international cast, you might like this version.  It doesn't adapt every subplot, because the series would have to be about twice the length for that, but all the major characters and relationships are well-represented at least.  Claflin is joined by Jeremy Irons as Abbé Faria and Ana Girardot as  Mercédès - practically the only French actor in the cast.  With Italy's RAI as a co-producer, The Count's earlier adventures with the smuggler Jacopo (Michele Riondino) and the bandit Luigi Vampa (Lino Guanciale) get their share of airtime.  The revenge unfolds at a much more reasonable pace, and there's more time with secondary protagonists Albert De Morcerf (Nicolas Maupas) and Valentine de Villiers (Amaryllis August), the children of the Count's enemies.  Sam Claflin as Dantès is fine, but not as dangerous as I'd like. There's not nearly as much action as in the film, but the Count's machinations have more time to really make an impact.  My biggest issue is with the abrupt ending, which cuts short a few of the final reveals and resolutions.          

However, no adaptation of "The Count of Monte Cristo" is going to be perfect.  The original source material simply doesn't fit the usual constraints of a modern feature film or television serial.   And there's still plenty of debate over which version of the book should be considered the definitive one.  In the end, I liked both of the 2024 adaptations on their own terms, as they serve different audiences and have very different goals.  Both have high production values and plenty of talented people involved.  I'm still looking for a version that I like as much as the novel, however, and I'm afraid I haven't found it yet.     

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"The Bear," Year Four

Spoilers for the first two-ish seasons ahead.

Well, "The Bear" is back.  I binged it across two days, took copious notes, and sometimes paused to Google characters I'd forgotten or restaurant terms that nobody bothers to explain (and the word is "stages," not "stawges" or "stodges.")  I have no regrets, because the show is as good as it's ever been.

I'm not going to advocate skipping the third season of "The Bear," because there were some great episodes, especially "Napkins" and "Ice Chips."  However, everyone who was disappointed with the third season can be reassured that the fourth is back on track.  The momentum has returned in a big way, with Cicero and The Computer literally installing a countdown clock in the restaurant to show how long Carmy and his crew have to turn The Bear around before the money runs out.  Rest assured that the two big cliffhanger items from last season, the restaurant review and Sydney's partnership agreement, are both resolved this year.

However, what's most important is that it feels like everyone is moving forward, and Carmy in particular is finally confronting a lot of his emotional baggage.  Where the third season was very internal, with everyone often stuck inside their own heads, the fourth season is all about the characters finally talking to each other and trying to bridge the gaps.  This takes longer for some of them than others.  One pivotal episode is essentially a single long conversation between Carmy and Sydney that eventually involves Richie and Sugar.  Other episodes cover a Berzatto family wedding where we finally meet the Faks' notorious sister Francine, Sydney babysitting for a cousin while considering a new job offer, and Carmy having a visit with his mother that he's put off for too long.  This means a lot of big confrontations finally happen, many tears are shed, and emotional catharsis is abundant.  Occasionally, we also get a few laughs.

There are a few new faces in the cast, and some very big names dropping in for an episode or two, but most of these are returning ones.  The wedding features a lot of cameos, and is a great semi-sequel to the flashback Christmas episode from season two.  Meanwhile, Jessica (Sarah Ramos) and some of the crew from "Forks" are hired on at the Bear to help fix service bumps, while Sugar starts slashing the budget, and Ebraheim retains the services of a consultant, Albert Schnur (Rob Reiner), to help raise the profitability of the sandwich side of the business.  The world keeps expanding, this time focusing less on the restaurant world and more on the lives of the core cast.  We meet a few more members of everybody's families.  A lot of minor characters keep popping up with life updates, from Marcus's roommate Chester (Carmen Christopher) becoming a real estate agent, to Ted Fak (Ricky Staffieri) getting a girlfriend.

I like the way that the show is still experimenting, subverting expectations, and keeping it real.  I love how this season has so many scenes that are just people talking to each other.  There's a great interaction where Carmy is trying to visit Claire, but has to get through a few well-meaning gatekeepers first.  The finale is incredibly intense, but doesn't rely on any of the familiar tricks - no pulse-pounding guitar music on the soundtrack, and not a montage in sight.  It's clear why so many big guest stars say yes to the show, because the acting is phenomenal and the actors get to do so much of it.  They get to argue and make up and cry and demand and become elated or devastated or furious.  They get to drop one liners, miss connections, give meaningful looks, and be kind to each other when you don't expect it.

One thing that the fourth season doesn't give us is a clean and tidy endpoint, which some of the previous ones have.  Big decisions are made and there are clear indications that ongoing problems can be solved, but we don't see events play out.  I don't know if there will be a fifth season of "The Bear" at the time of writing.  There's certainly the material for one, but all the leads have gotten so much busier over the years with other projects that I don't know if the scheduling is feasible for the foreseeable future.  It would be a shame if this were the last we ever saw of Carmy and Sydney and Richie and all the rest, but I don't think it's a bad way to go out either.        

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Another Look Back in Anticipation

A few years ago I took a look at all the movies on my "Most Anticipated" lists from 2012 to 2017, and evaluated how successful I was at actually picking good movies in this post, Look Back in Anticipation.  It's been long enough that I think we're due for the next installment, and I think it's important to do this kind of exercise regularly to keep myself honest.  I'm limiting the picks to my movie lists for now.  Please note that there were no lists created for 2021 due to COVID.

2018 Part I and Part II

"Ready Player One," "The Incredibles 2," "Solo: A Star Wars Story," "Deadpool 2,""Ocean's 8," "Crazy Rich Asians," "Bad Times At The El Royale," "First Man," "Widows," and "Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2"

"You Were Never Really Here," "The Little Stranger," "Psychokinesis," "Fahrenheit 451," "Peterloo," "The House That Jack Built," "Burning," "The Nightingale," "Suspiria," and "The Favourite."

Good grief, this was bad.  I did have some of my favorite films of the year in my sights, like "You Were Never Really Here," "Widows," "Burning," and "The Favourite," but a lot of these movies were stinkers or completely disposable.  The more commercial films in particular had so many disappointing sequels and spinoffs.  "Suspiria," "Crazy Rich Asians" and "Ready Player One" were very imperfect, but stand out from the crowd for at least not being total misfires like Rahmin Barani's "Fahrenheit 451." 

2019 Part I and Part II  

"Us," "Shazam!" "Aladdin," "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," "It: Chapter Two," "Zombieland: Double Tap," "Knives Out," "Little Women," "The Irishman"

"Jojo Rabbit," "The Laundromat," "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile," "La Vérité," "Untitled Noah Baumbach Project," "Guava Island," "The French Dispatch," "Harriet," "The Last Thing He Wanted," "The Personal History of David Copperfield."

The Baumbach movie is "Marriage Story."  A few dud sequels aside, the mainstream movies were generally good.  I even enjoyed the iffier ones like "Aladdin" and the "Godzilla" movie.  The smaller movies were a mixed bag, with some real misses like Steven Soderbergh's "The Laundromat," and Hirokazu Koreeda's "La Vérité," but I'm happy that I pegged "Jojo Rabbit" and "The French Dispatch" so early.  Others like "Harriet" and "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile," are underseen titles liked, and I admit I skipped "The Last Thing He Wanted" when the reviews came back universally bad.

2020 Part I and Part II  

"No Time To Die," "The Woman in the Window," "Soul," "Free Guy," "Tenet," "Bill and Ted Face the Music," "The Trial of the Chicago 7," "BiOS," "The Witches," and "Dune"

"The Eyes of Tammy Faye," The Glorias," "Annette," "Mank," "Wendy," "Nightmare Alley," "Last Night in SoHo," "I'm Thinking of Ending Things," "Kajillionaire," and "How Do You Live?"

Thanks to COVID the releases were all over the place.  "How Do You Live?" was renamed "The Boy and the Heron" internationally, in 2023.  "BiOS" eventually became the Apple TV+ film "Finch."  Qualitywise, there weren't too many disappointments.  I think Robert Zemeckis's take on "The Witches" was probably the worst, Joe Wright's "The Woman in the Window" was unintentionally hilarious, and Julie Taymor's last film to date, "The Glorias," was just kinda there.  I disagreed with critics on several of these - I'm a defender of "Wendy" and didn't care much for "Mank" or "The Trial of the Chicago 7," but it felt like a good batch of movies overall with Charlie Kaufman, Guillermo Del Toro, Denis Villeneuve, and Edgar Wright all turning in good work.   

2022 Part I and Part II

"The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent," "Knives Out 2," "Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio," "The Northman," "Nope," "Tár," "The Fabelmans," "The Woman King," "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One)," "Killers of the Flower Moon"

"Everything Everywhere All at Once," "The Whale," "Dual," "Next Goal Wins," "White Noise," "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On," "Bones & All," "Infinity Pool," "The Son," "The Imaginary."

All the mainstream films are good!  Very good, even, in the cast of "The Fablemans," "Nope," and "Glass Onion."  Most of the smaller films are not good.  "Everything Everywhere All at Once," had a historic run, of course, but even the better indies like "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On," "Bones & All," and "Infinity Pool," are fairly middling, while the bad ones are epic bombs.  I deeply disliked "The Whale," and Florian Zeller has yet to recover from "The Son."  

2023 Part I and Part II  

"Renfield," "Asteroid City," "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar," "Oppenhiemer," "Barbie," "Nimona," "Maestro," "Dune Part 2," "Wonka," "The Killer."

"To Close One’s Eyes," "Nightbitch," "Poor Things,"  "El Conde," "Hitman," "Blitz," "Eileen," "Afire," "MMXX."

This is probably my best year yet.  I didn't care much for "Nightbitch" or "Eileen," and lost track of Cristi Puiu's COVID film "MMXX," but all the other movies on both lists are good to great.  I even liked "Renfield" for Nicholas Cage's Dracula.  I suspect, however, that it was easier to get a sense of the good films at this point in time because there was so much tumult going on in the industry and we were getting fewer new releases.   Victor Erice's "To Close One's Eyes" was titled "Close Your Eyes" for international release.  

2024 Part I and Part II  

"Deadpool & Wolverine," "The Fall Guy," "IF," "Furiosa," "Beetlejuice 2," "Joker: Folie à Deux," "Wicked," "Coyote vs. Acme"

"Challengers," "Civil War," "Death of a Unicorn," "The Beast," "The Life of Chuck," "Love Me," "The End,"  "Nosferatu," "Late Night With the Devil," "Kinds of Kindness" 

Finally, I did better with the bigger films than the smaller ones again.  "Coyote vs. Acme" is coming next year, of course, but I also liked "IF" and "Joker: Folie à Deux" better than most.  Those two  weren't very good, but not as awful as advertised either.  I didn't do too badly with the indies though - okay, "Love Me" and "Death of a Unicorn" were flops, but "Challengers" and "Kinds of Kindness" were great, and "Life of Chuck" might be an all timer.

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My Top Ten Best Documentary Oscar Winners

So… this list is going to require a lot of caveats.  The films that have won the Best Documentary Academy Awards are an eclectic bunch, but tend to fall into a few major categories, and I wanted all of them represented - music films, nature films, biographies, histories, war films, exposes, and current events.  Of course, there's a lot of crossover.  

I also have significant biases regarding some of the subject matter, despite my doing my best to be objective about the quality of the films below.  Frankly, though many of these films are vital and important, they can be difficult to watch.  If this were a list of my favorite Best Documentary winners, it would be a list of all the music documentaries and a few biographies of artists and performers.  The list below is unranked, and ordered by release date.     

 

The Sea Around Us (1952) - Based on the book by biologist and environmentalist Rachel Carson, Irwin Allen's ocean documentary offers stunning views of marine life, coastal habitats, and fragile ecosystems.  The format of the film is old fashioned and education oriented, as most documentaries were in this era, but the content remains engrossing.  I was especially struck by the way it closed on a warning about climate change - already a concern in 1952.  

The War Game (1966) - A game-changer at the time of its release, "The War Game" is better described as a partially fictional film made in the documentary style.  Sections of it are made up of accounts of a hypothetical nuclear war and the consequences of it faced by everyday British citizens.  However, many of the dramatizations are based on real governmental positions and policies.  A whole genre of nuclear war fiction can be traced back to this film.  

Woodstock (1970) - "Woodstock" is here to represent all the music films and films about musicians.  The legendary concert film was a box office smash, and nominated for Best Editing and Best Sound along with winning Best Documentary.  It played a huge part in popularizing and adding to the mythology of Woodstock as a major event in American culture.  You simply can't beat the lineup, or the sight of Jimi Hendrix becoming an icon in the finale.

Hearts and Minds (1974) - A sobering accounting of American involvement in the Vietnam War, that some have called propaganda.  However, plenty of propaganda has won awards in this category, and it seems fair that an anti-war film that doesn't paint the United States military in the best light should also have its say.  Everything about "Hearts and Minds" was incredibly controversial in its day, so my kudos to the Academy for their guts in giving it the statuette. 

Harlan County, USA (1976) - It was very difficult to choose between this film and Barbara Kopple's other documentary about a labor strike, "American Dream."  I ultimately went with "Harlan County" because of its historical importance and influence.  The film captures a miners' strike from all angles, and in the process captures the spirit of the affected communities as they existed in this era.  Nobody could dream up some of the characters we meet in this film.

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989) - This one took me by surprise, as it's a very simple, low-key film that simply seeks to humanize AIDS patients through a series of memorials by their loved ones.  Director and activist Rob Epstein had previously won for "The Times of Harvey Milk," and here covers the history of the AIDS crisis and the NAMES Project in very personal and empathetic terms.  Also, I want to highlight the excellent score by Bobby McFerrin.   

When We Were Kings (1996) - I only knew Muhammad Ali by reputation, having been born well after his heyday, and it was so gratifying to get an up-close and personal look at the boxer in his prime.  The subject of the documentary is the 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" match between Ali and George Foreman, but Ali is the star attraction.  It's made very clear why the man had such an outsized influence on American culture, and the film offers plenty of him.

Bowling for Columbine (2002) - Whatever you think about Michael Moore, his politics, or his methods, he made a fantastic film about American gun violence, with the Columbine high school shooting as a focal point.  The film says less about the killers and their motives than it does about the dangers of American gun culture, and that's exactly as it should be.  Moore's interviews with Charlton Heston and Marilyn Manson remain especially indelible.  

Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) - I should disclose that current events definitely influenced this pick.  Alex Gibney's wrenching deep dive into the use of torture on Afghan detainees and others during the War on Terror is one of the most upsetting, but most important films about the modern American military.  Of all the lessons that it imparts, the most important one is this - the guards and the lowest level wrongdoers were the only ones who ever saw consequences.

O.J.: Made in America (2016) - Finally, of all the biographies and sports films in this category, the one that went above and beyond was Ezra Edelman's massive four hour examination of O.J. Simpson.  It offers so much context for the public's fascination with his criminal case, from charting his rise as a black sports hero, to the racial upheaval in Los Angeles at the time of his arrest.  I lived through the events, but didn't really understand them until this film.

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