One Battle After Another, director Paul Thomas Anderson.
Sinners, director Ryan Coogler.
Hamnet, director Chloé Zhao.
No Other Choice, director Park Chan-wook.
Avatar: Fire and Ash, director James Cameron.
Q: Why do you feel that some genres like comedy, horror, and action really struggle to break into Best Picture?
A: I think there’s this stigma out there that these movies are seen as lesser.
He goes on to discuss Martin Scorsese, whom we can both agree is one of the greatest filmmakers, and remarks that comic book movies are roller coaster rides.
Scorsese has been a consistent critic of the genre, from his op-ed feature in The New York Times from 2019 entitled “Martin Scorsese: I said Marvel Movies Aren’t Cinema. Let Me Explain.”
William Howells believes that if the Academy were brave enough, it would nominate Liam Neeson for Best Actor.
If we look at horror, Sinners broke theatre records, and it should be nominated for Best Picture.
Our long shot for the category would be 28 Years Later, or Warfare.
With Warfare, it simply presents the situation of war; it starts in the war and it ends in the war. There is no real space for character development, because Warfare is 90 minutes of real-time war.
Best Actor
Dwayne The Rock Johnson, for The Smashing Machine.
Leonardo DiCaprio, for One Battle After Another.
Daniel Day-Lewis, for Anemone.
Paul Mescal, for Hamnet.
Best Supporting Actor
David Johnson, for The Long Walk.
Last year, the Oscars had The Substance, where an actor could come in and be like, “Yeah, I’ve done stupid movies, got the paycheque, but I can act.” This year, we may have Dwayne The Rock Johnson.
David Johnson should sweep the Best Supporting Actor awards this season with his magnetic and heartcrushingly raw performance in The Long Walk. His only downside may be the popularity of the Stephen King film and the Thriller/Horror genre. If it were possible for a full cast to earn Oscars, it should either go to Warfare or The Long Walk.
I, for one, would like to include Cooper Hoffman for Best Actor, but the competition this year may be too high; however, between The Long Walk and Liquorice Pizza, he has proven his father proud.
Best Actress
Ariana Grande, for Wicked: For Good.
Emily Blunt, for The Smashing Machine.
Emma Stone, for Bugonia.
Emma Stone is the Christphor Nolan for the Actress category, with two Oscars under her belt: La La Land in 2017 and Poor Things in 2024. The Best Actress category is always the hardest to predict. Male actors start their Oscar runs early; their performances have always been centred on the Oscars, and women can be pushed aside.
The most likely highest-grossing film, Wicked: For Good, with a leading female cast of Cynthia Erivoand Ariana Grande, may be dismissed in these categories for their previous nominations in Wicked.
Technical Categories
F1 for editing and sound.
Superman for visual effects and score.
But perhaps, the more interesting awards this film season are the BAFTAs. Leading with Warfare, with a full British cast and British filmmaker, Hamnet, starring Irish actor Paul Mescal, The Roses, starring Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch.
My personal “long shots”
The Materialists for Cinemateography, or directing.
Die, My Love for either Jennifer Lawrence or Robert Pattinson.
Attempting to repeat the success of It Ends with Us without the media spectacle, Regretting You doubles down with a leading cast starring McKenna Grace, Allison Williams, Dave Franco, and Mason Thames, and the director, Josh Boone, from The Fault in Our Stars.
But even great acting and directing cannot stop the car-crash writing in Colleen Hover’s plotlines. Morgan, played by Allison Williams, finds out she’s pregnant with Clara, played by McKenna Grace, and marries her high school boyfriend.
From the very start, it’s clear the direction of the plot, with the non-subtle characteristics of the introverts, Morgan and Jonah, played by Dave Franco, in their relationships compared to their other halves, Morgan’s sister being Jonah’s other half.
Dave Franco plays the pining, vulnerable best friend very well, and as subtly as the film allows, though it’s let down by lazy original writing.
Flash to the present: Clara has her own high school romance. Driving to her mother’s birthday, she spots Miller Adams, played by Mason Thames, and stops to give him a ride home.
The driving force of the plot occurs the next day, when Clara’s father and aunt get in a car accident.
To both the actors, Dave Franco and Allison Williams, and the director, Josh Boone, credit, the hospital scene may be the most heartbreaking of the entire film. Allison’s disorientation as she loses two of the most important people in her life, and then zones in on Dave Franco, on the hospital floor with his newborn son, who smiles at his father, not understanding the gravity of his father’s cries.
But, lest we forget, this is based on a Colleen Hoover novel.
The twist? The husband and her sister were having an affair. An affair that plots back further than her reunion with Jonah, a plot further than their newborn, Dave Franco plays the mixture of a father grieving both his girlfriend and the possibility of his newborn’s paternity. Morgan at first is unwilling to believe Jonah’s concerns.
Until they agree to return to her husband’s car, which is parked at a hotel, even worse, a hotel he used to take Morgan to. A stomach turn, as Jonah returns with their stuff left at the hotel, and pulls out a piece of lingerie.
Morgan runs straight to her husband’s car, smashing it and kicking it, all while Jonah watches. Only to take the vehicle back to their house.
The plot between the mother and Jonah feels more substantial, more human, and driven by years of yearning without action.
In comparison, the daughter Clara, understanding, is going through turmoil trying to navigate life without her father and aunt, and a classic from Colleen Hover, placing guilt on herself for texting her aunt before the accident. This alone would be a great film, but it falls flat when it adds her romantic interest, Miller Adams.
It causes unnecessary pain to the love interest, unnecessary plotlines that are resolved within the next scene, since they are high schoolers, and many harsh decisions that Miller ignores as she grieves.
It seems that Colleen Hoover’s primary goal was to brand this as a YA Romance novel, rather than crafting a compelling story. This singular focus on romance leaves other important themes unexplored, leading to a sense of disappointment.
With such a focus on pure romance, the widening gap between Clara and her mother remains unaddressed, and the film’s exploration of grief feels overshadowed by teenage angst and romantic plotlines.
It’s truly disappointing, especially considering the promising opening act that centred on the mother-daughter relationship. The film seemed to be building towards something significant, only to veer off into more conventional romantic plotlines, leaving a sense of missed opportunities and loss.
The writing wanted too much; it tried to gather every theme, a piece of every kind of cake, without taking the time to develop, bake, and ice it. Making, frankly, a mess that the actors and directors tried their best to save.
“Dave Franco cries more than an entire theatre watching the movie, but hey, whatever pay cheque you need to fuel the Dave Franco universe of horror” One and a half stars.
Emilia Pérez, the most nominated film for a non-English language in Oscar history and the most nominated film of the night, had thirteen Oscar nominations.
Two wins from the BAFTAs for Best Film Not in the English Language and Best Supporting Actress, Zoe Saldaña.
Three grabs from the Critics Choice, a noticeable pattern with Best Supporting Actress, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Song.
Zoe Saldaña continued her sweep into the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Thirteen Oscars nominations for a film described as:
“You’ve probably never seen a movie like Emilia Perez before – and whilst there is enough meat in the performances to make you somewhat glad you did, you might not want to again.” Said NME Reporter Sophie Butcher.
“Emilia Pérez implicitly promises a movie unlike anything you’ve ever seen, and technically, it delivers…” Said Paste Reporter Jesse Hassenger.
As expected, first-time nominee Zoe Saldaña beat out Isabella Rossellini for Conclave, Ariana Grande for Wicked, and Felicity Jones for The Brutalist.
As of last year, Saldaña has become the second highest-grossing female lead actor after Scarlett Johansson for her appearances in films such as Avatar and Avengers.
In her speech she said, “My grandmother came to this country in 1961. I am the proud child of immigrant parents with dreams and dignity and hard-working hands.”
While many can agree Saldaña is a brilliant actress, Emilia Perez has been in controversy after controversy for its portrayal of the Mexican cartel, transwomen, and the tweets from co-star Karla Sofía Gascón.
The film itself cannot be held upon Saldaña shoulders, but the French director Jacques Audiard.
Her comments after the Oscar win were received in mixed reception:
“I’m very, very sorry that you and so many Mexicans felt offended. That was never our intention… I don’t share your opinion. For me. the heart of this movie was not Mexico… these womne could have been Russia… Could have been from Israel. Could have been from Gaza.”
So now Zoe Saldaña says the heart and matter of Emilia Pérez was never Mexico. She has her Oscar now. Masks off. pic.twitter.com/8j4NM2u8wa
This has to be a joke,how do u make a film portraying another culture and country, the people from that country say they're offended….AND YOU SAY YOU DONT AGREE when you're not even from that country 😭😭😭 bye girl lol
The other Oscar Emilia Pérez took home was Best Original Song for “El Mal”.
In the other competition, Diane Warren, nominated for “The Journey” in The Six Triple Eight, lost the original song Oscar for the sixteenth time in her legacy.
However, Emilia Pérez lost out for International Feature to Brazilian drama I’m Still Here, which marks Brazi’s first win in this category.
The month of February has been buzzing with the awards season, leaving many to question who will take home the Oscar. Adrien Brody has taken home the BAFTAs and Critics Choice, all for his lead role in The Brutalist.
It seemed all neatly tied together for Brody to take home his second Oscar win until Timothée Chalamet won the SAG award, becoming the youngest male to win.
Chalamet’s possible Oscar win would set him as the youngest male actor to receive an Oscar in this category, and Adrien Brody would set a record of 100 per cent Oscar nominations to win if he takes home the Oscar.
A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold, has been in the works for almost six years, the same amount of time Brady Corbet has been working for free on The Brutalist.
Chalamet has absorbed himself into the character of Bob Dylan and encapsulated his singing voices.
Brody spent over a year learning Hungarian for a fictional architect, rebuilding his life post-World War Two.
The Brutalist has received backlash for using Generative AI to draw inspiration from Brutalism architecture and for using AI to enhance the Hungarian spoken by Adrian Body and Felicity Jones.
Film Editor, Dávid Jancsó defended the actors on Deadline: “Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own”.
The actors worked alongside a dialect coach, Tonera Marshall, to learn the language and perfect the accent as much as possible within one year.
Some audiences have suggested the film should not be nominated for the Oscars, as it not only allows for the use of AI but celebrates it.
It is standard practice within Hollywood and the Music Industry to clean up audio post-production, and it has never received backlash before.
Jancsó said, “We should have a very open discussion about what tools AI can provide us with.”
While the film has received academy awards from the BAFTAs, the SAG Awards, and ten nominations from the Oscars, it was not produced by Hollywood.
Corbet had a budget of ten million dollars for the film.
Jancsó and the rest of the production partnered with Respeecher, a Ukrainian software company which used AI software to save the film’s budget.
The AI did not change the actors’ performances; the software made minor sound changes to specific letters to make them sound like native speakers.
A film critic, William Howells, said: “I don’t agree with any AI used in any film, but in this case, it was not used to take away anybody’s job, so I am okay with it”.
The editor also confirmed that human illustrators were used to draw and create the architecture seen in the film.
When asking an AI bot a very simple and basic prompt, “Can you please draw illustrations of architecture based on the brutalism style that emerged in the 1950s among the reconstruction of the post-war era?” The brutalism style is known for its exposed concrete, monochrome colour palette, and angular geometric shape. THIS IS IMPORTANT.”
ChatGPT:
Gemini:
FLUX-1:
AI bots can be used as a starting point to draw inspiration, not design the entire architecture in a film.
The Brutalist represents the combination of new and old that should no longer be feared or dismissed.
It was filmed on a 35mm VistaVision that has been previously used in films such as Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock and has been almost obsolete since the 1960s.
The film also brought back the cinema experience by having a fifteen-minute intermission.
AI was a building tool in the film project to save money and time when both were restricted.
The arts are an expensive career path and usually unrewarding to film directors.
If the Academy considers AI not a tool but a reason not to reward the film, it is cementing the economics that underlay Hollywood.
On Sunday, Adrien Brody won the Oscar in the Best Actor category.
During his speech, he said, “I pray for a healthier, happier, and more inclusive world. “
The Brutalist won a key category in Best Cinematography, and British Score Writer Daniel Blumberg won for Best Original Score.
Blumberg won the BAFTA last month for the score.
The Brutalist mixes piano, saxophone, brass, and percussion to convey Adrien Brody’s character’s inner torment.
With no wins for the young actor Timothee Chalamet, one can only hope next year will be his season, even after great films like A Complete Unknown and Dune: Part Two.
Justin Baldoni has filed a $250 million libel suit against The New York Times for the Blake Lively story “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Campaign”.
The suit claims The New York Times failed to meet standards of journalistic integrity.
A spokesperson for The New York Times said they plan to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
Blake Lively’s attorneys filed a federal complaint on Tuesday, which reiterates the sexual harassment complaint but with the addition of “severe emotional distress and pain” seeking damages.
Actress and producer of It Ends With Us, Lively, took legal action against Justin Baldoni, the director and lead actor, and Jamey Heath, the lead producer, for sexual harassment in December.
Lively filed a complaint on November 9 2023, claiming Baldoni discussed his sex life – including his porn addiction and encounters where he may not have received consent – and improvised physical intimacy on set, including biting her lip.
They had a meeting at which Wayfarer Studios agreed to comply with Lively’s requests, including having a full-time intimacy coordinator on January 4 2024.
Heath signed a contract not to retaliate against her.
Attorney for Baldoni and representatives, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement: “due to multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening not to promote the film… if her demands were not met.”
One of her demands was for neither Baldoni nor Heath to come into her dressing room whilst she was naked and for Baldoni to stop mentioning her recently deceased father.
On December 21, 2024, The New York Times posted a 4,000-word feature containing several text messages from the PR crisis team and the document filings.
The lawsuit states, “The article’s central thesis [is] encapsulated in a defamatory headline designed to immediately mislead the reader.”
The headline comes from a text message Melissa Nathan sent, obtained through a subpoena.
Nathan is a public relations expert best known for her previous client, Johnny Depp.
She founded her company, TAG PR, with Scooter Braun, a majority stakeholder on June 20 2024.
Freedman filed the lawsuit on behalf of ten plaintiffs, including Baldoni and Heath, Wayfarer Studios, and Nathan and Jennifer Abel from TAG PR.
Wayfarer Studios was the production company for It Ends With Us, with Sony as the film distributor.
Baldoni co-founded the production company in 2019.
Lively’s attorneys said in a statement: “Nothing in the lawsuit changes anything” about Lively’s claims.
Since then, The New York Times has posted Freedman’s statement and a response story by Megan Twohey and Mike McIntire.
Before shooting resumed on January 5 2024 after the SAGA writer’s strike, Lively objected to several sex scenes that did not appear in Colleen Hoover’s original novel.
The alleged changes by Baldoni were a scene for Lively to orgasm on-camera and the younger actress, Isabela Ferrer, to have a detailed scene of the character losing her virginity.
In the complaint filed by Lively, after shooting the sex scene with young Lily he said: “I know I’m not supposed to say this, but that was hot”.
Another cast member lodged a sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni.
Many cast members unfollowed Balondi before the film’s release and informed Sony they would not appear in marketing or on the red carpet alongside him.
Ryan Reynolds, Lively’s husband, blocked Baldoni on Instagram and was present on set following the January meeting as Lively’s representative.
Many media outlets reported this as creative differences before the social media campaign around Lively’s behaviour.
Sara Nathan, sister of Melissa Nathan, wrote an article called “Blake Lively approved final cut of ‘It Ends with Us’ amid feud with co-star director Justin Baldoni” for Page Six.
A message from the subpoena by one of the employees from TAG PR wrote: “We’ve started to see a shift on social due largely to Jed and his team’s efforts to shift the narrative.”
Attorney for Baldoni and representatives, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement: “The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity.”
As all three sides prepare for further legal proceedings, the case underscores the complexities of media reporting and the powerful narrative against women in Hollywood.
A narrative that Baldoni has spent his career pushing against.
In 2017, he presented a TED Talk titled “Why I’m Done Trying to be ‘Man Enough’ “and created a podcast titled “Man Enough.”
This story contains descriptions of sexual harrassment that readers may find upsetting.
Blake Lively has taken legal action against Justin Baldoni, the director and lead actor, and Jamey Heath, the lead producer of the film ‘It Ends with Us’.
The men hired public relations expert Melissa Nathan, most known for her previous client Johnny Depp, in a similar social media smear campaign against Amber Heard.
Scooter Braun, owner of Taylor Swift’s masters and alleged participant in the edited phone call between Kanye and Swift, is the majority stakeholder in the TAG PR company run by Melissa Nathan.
“He wants to feel that she can be buried,” a publicist working with Mr. Baldoni wrote in an August 2nd message to Ms. Nathan.
“You know we can bury anyone,” Ms Nathan wrote.
Lively filed a complaint in November 2023, claiming Baldoni improvised physical intimacy and discussions of his sex life, including encounters in which he may not have received consent, and claiming Heath showed a video of his wife naked to Lively. Both entered her trailer uninvited while she was undressed or breastfeeding.
Before shooting, she objected to sex scenes he wanted to add since she considered them gratuitous; the alleged changes were a scene for Lively to orgasm on-camera and a detailed scene of the younger actress losing her virginity.
Neither scene appeared in the original novel by Colleen Hoover.
After her complaint, the following January, they had a meeting between Lively, Baldoni, the producers, and Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds.
Wayfarer Studios agreed to have a full-time intimacy coordinator.
It was noticed by social media accounts Reynolds had blocked Baldoni on Instagram.
Upon the film’s release, the cast, including Lively and author Hoover, informed Sony and Wayfarer they would not appear alongside Baldoni.
The media presented this as a disruption over Baldoni’s and Lively’s creative differences. The film distributor Sony supported Lively in hiring editors to create a different cut of the film, for which she received producer credit.
Sony had an official promotion plan instructing the cast to focus on the hopeful and uplifting aspects of the film instead of the domestic violence and focus on the floral film.
Lively faced backlash for her insensitivity; in return, Balodni’s PR team decided to highlight the survivors of Domestic Violence to help his interests.
Baldoni received an award this month for being an ally to women.
Following the complaint filed with the California Civil Rights Department against him, WME has since dropped Baldoni.
Lively continues to be represented by WME.
Melissa Nathan wrote in a message to Ms Abel: “and socials are really really ramping up. In his favour, she must be furious. It’s actually sad because it just shows you have people really want to hate on women.”
Nathan’s proposal to hire contractors, such as Jed Wallace, to lead a digital strategy to change the narrative. The hatred of Lively increased on TikTok with mass support to Baldoni.
It is impossible to determine the extent to which social media accounts or reporters were involved.
Kjersti Flaa, a reporter, posted clips with Johnny Depp with #JusticeForJohnnyDepp in 2022 amongst the Amber Heard smear campaign.
Flaa also re-uploaded a clip from a 2016 interview with Lively, who snapped back after her baby bump comment, which further branded Lively as a mean girl.
A document claimed to read the team planted stories about the weaponism of feminism, like women such as Taylor Swift, who have been accused of utilising these tactics to bully others into getting what they want.
Taylor Swift is friends with Lively and her husband, Reynolds.
Swift has been named Person of the Year by Times Magazine twice, once in 2016 during her sexual assault trial against former DJ David Muller and in 2023, following her successful Eras Tour re-claiming her stolen music by Scooter Braun.
Swift became the first mass-cancelled celebrity on Twitter following Kanye’s leaked phone call, found to be edited years later, and the Famous music video in which he made a naked waxwork used to humiliate and harass Swift.
A social media post featuring Braun (a stakeholder in Ms Nathan’s PR Company), Kanye West, and Justin Bieber increased the cancellation.
It was impossible to escape the Kanye Swift feud in 2016; Swift went into hiding until she released her return album, Reputation.
Amber Heard escaped the Johnny Depp trial by moving to Spain with her daughter.
However, in 2022, TikTok feeds were clogged with content over the trial bashing Amber Heard and acting out scenes from their marriage.
A dystopian theatre production.
Lively, Heard, and Swift suffered through a similar smear campaign created through social media manipulation due to their inability to find the model of a perfect victim.
Even upon releasing the complaint, social media remains siding with Baldoni due to Lively’s past actions.
Mass disinformation campaigns are not subjected to politics; the tipping point of the far-right is to build a narrative of manipulative women, to attack reproductive rights, and to undermine the court system of sexual assault and harassment.
A society that already does not believe in women, a society built to hate them even more.
Before agreeing instantly with a social media post, consider researching the issue. Effective disinformation relies on information overload and an effective social media plan.
In a statement, Ms Lively said, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
The wind swells, the ocean breeze circles in salt rust around you, men in half-deserted streets roll up their car windows, the dimming sun hidden behind darkening clouds, the light of the cinema glows within, drawing you inside, and destiny awaits. The click of the machine, the blink of electricity, the drip of the rain outside, the ticket leading you to the screen with Twisters marked above it.
The original Twister, directed by Jan de Bont, has left an indelible mark on my life, and Lee Isaac Chung continues his legacy. Like many children who deeply connected with The Lion King or Toy Story, I had a similar love affair with Twister. This film’s portrayal of the power and unpredictability of nature inspired me to pursue Geography A Level and Environmental Science. It’s a testament to the film’s influence on my career choices and my fascination with the darker side of nature.
The newest film directed by Lee Isaac Chung Twisters stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos as the protagonists. The film was shot in various locations, including Oklahoma City and Cashion, Okarche, El Reno and Chickasha, to capture the story’s essence and the tornadoes’ power.
The Plot and Characters:
Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a PhD student interested in cloud microphysics. Javi (Antony Ramos) is responsible for data collection, and three of their close friends are also involved. They need the perfect storm, the perfect conditions, the perfect tornado. However, these conditions make a tornado align too well to create an EF-5 tornado instead of the EF-1 tornado they were searching for to test their theory. The science group’s hypostasis uses sodium polymer to remove the critical element of moisture to ‘disturb a tornado’. Theoretically, it should work, but the technology to understand a tornado has not evolved yet, and there is not enough polymer for an EF-5 tornado.
The lighthearted innocence of five PhD students in the field, highlighted by the use of video cams, and the passionate excitement for a tornado turned on their heads as the thing they loved became the thing that killed them.
The film’s opening scene, where Daisy Edgar-Jones’ character screams in agony as the tornado claims her two best friends and her boyfriend, is a powerful emotional punch. The beauty of the shot, the chaos unleashed by the tornado, and the raw pain in the scream all cut to a serene white scene, almost like heavenly imagery, and then back to Daisy, covered in blood and dirt, walking through the tornado’s aftermath. This scene, with its emotional intensity, draws you in and sets the tone for the rest of the film, making you feel deeply engaged and connected to the characters. The contrast between the white eeriness and the filth conveys Kate’s loss of innocence, her love for a tornado wiped out and replaced by fear. The grey that haunts her, the grass destroyed in the path of the tornado, her heart destroyed in the path of the tornado, her ‘childish belief that’ she ‘could make a difference’ killed in the path of the tornado.
The film is a rollercoaster of non-stop action. There’s never a dull moment as it moves from one heart-pounding action sequence to another, punctuated by gut-wrenching emotional moments that keep you on the edge of your seat. The constant thrill and excitement of the film’s action sequences will keep you engaged and thrilled, making you feel each moment’s adrenaline rush and the suspense.
Five years later, Javi returns to Kate’s life with a mission and an idea to help analyse tornados. Kate has a natural gift that none of the other characters can even grace against, and that’s the feel, the presence, the essence of a tornado. The film begins.
(I would like to officially get this out the way: I would like to apologise to Glen Powell. I have only watched him Set It Up, which I hated, and I take it back, the man can act).
The echoes of Jeb throughout the film land a gut punch to my soul. They are so hidden in the movie that once you start noticing the trail left behind by you, you can not help but have glisten form in their eyes and trail water droplets down their cheeks. As Kate contemplates staying in New York or helping Javi, she is comforted by a ghost, Jeb, holding her the way he held onto her during the tornado. It is the first essence of warm tones since the accident, and as quickly as it appears, it is wiped away by a cut through the loud train tracks and her awakening in her cool-tone apartment. One can only imagine this is a regular occurrence in her life. The moment Jeb is echoing through her is during the Toronado with Owens. The mother repeats the words Jeb did, and if you listen so closely, you hear the actor also echo those words. Love truly is the knife turning inside me. Jeb is there saving Kate over and over, and his actions are reincarnated as Javi uses the physics of levers to help Kate get Owens from under a truck. Kate finally lets go of Jeb as she looks to the sky, which she once begged to; she smiles, knowing she completed their science project and has done right by him.
My director and film-critic friend, Billy Howells, wrote: ‘Let’s face it: a sequel to Twister released 28 years after the original seems like a pure cash grab, but Chung gives this movie a reason to exist artistically. It absolutely has the “tornados destroying shit” you expect from the original, and that is very well done, but his handling of the characters is what makes this movie special.
Through these characters, the audience experiences loss and what to do when their dreams conflict with their moral values. These themes and how they are structured around the characters, especially Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Kate, make it not just a fun watch but an emotionally invested one. For those reasons, Twisters feels like a true summer blockbuster and not just a product made from a machine.’
During my casual scoop on the Internet, I saw an opinion that Kate and Owen should have completed the enemies-to-lovers trope with a final kiss. The enemies-to-lovers trope a popular narrative device in romantic films and novels, was hinted at in ‘Twisters’ and was the driving force behind the original Twister but not fully realised. I agree with the Executive Producer, Steven Spielberg, that it is better without a kiss. The intensity of their love does not require the physical notion of a kiss; there is something better about the undercurrent of waiting and waiting for confirmation. It is what made Jurassic Park’s couple, directed by the Executive Producer, sizzle and live longer in film history.
Cinematography and Directing:
One can always spot an indie director by their use of camerawork inside a car. The camerawork matched the panic and chaos; it captured the fear on everyone’s faces and the haunting use of reflection. The switch from careful, smooth camerawork during the calm to the handheld whiplash camera during the storms was captivating. I only hold one note: the scene in which Owens and Kate are hiding in a pool from the tornado. I wish the camera was tilted further down upon Kate; you just about saw Owens, and I felt that it almost ruined such a beautiful moment about Jeb and Kate with Owens slightly in the shot. I still cried my eyes out, nonetheless. There was also precisely one shot where they had the rainwater go on the camera, and it’s one of my favourite B-roll shots.
My director and film-critic friend, Billy Howells, wrote: ‘When it comes to big-budget blockbusters, studios tend to have a habit of hiring indie filmmakers. Said indie filmmakers will have only previously made movies where the entire budget is the catering budget for a blockbuster.
On the surface, studios do this to intrigue people, but they actually do it to take creative control away from the filmmaker and shape the movie into a guaranteed money-maker.
In the case of Twisters, director Lee Isaac Chung previously made Minari, which had a budget of $2 million and was nominated for several Oscars. His hiring for Twisters made me very worried due to everything I just mentioned, but this truly feels like a Lee Isaac Chung movie.
I remember watching ‘The Idea of You’ and all these new films surrounding teenagers worried that I had started to see the future of filmmaking through the spine-enduring, cringe-worthy way they used social media, hashtags and cinematography. So when Boone (Brandon Perea) brought out the iPhone with the vlogging equipment, my heart dropped for the original Twister; however, I backtracked, and they did an incredible job. The use of YouTube, vlogging, and live streaming flowed the way video camera footage rolled throughout the film. It is one of the first times I have witnessed this used effectively, leaving me pleasantly surprised and intrigued by the film’s innovative approach. I appreciate that they still had the video cam footage involved; my heart will always love them and believe they should be in every film ever. It adds a level of charm that nostalgia cannot survive without.
Soundtrack:
I can assure you with my hand on my heart that as soon as my paycheck comes in, I will give my money to the employee to buy a Twisters vinyl. This film’s soundtrack, filled with classic country tunes, has become a significant part of its identity. It’s a good day to love country music, and it’s a great day to celebrate the impact that music can have in a film. Personally, the soundtrack is the first thing I notice and the first thing I will scroll onto my phone whilst leaving the cinema (even before writing a Letterboxd review). It sets the film’s tone, makes or breaks the dramatic scenes, and combines emotion.
The most noticeable songs in the soundtrack are ‘Aint No Love in Oklahoma’ by Luke Combs and ‘Out of Oklahoma’ by Lainey Wilson. Luke Combs is used to introduce Owen; it is soulful and driven, and it plays on the truck speakers as he drives in. It reminds Kate of the country, further emphasised by her nickname of city girl; it is the masculinity of America, the epitome of the cowboy, the rough and rugged man unafraid of tornados. He is an extension of nature himself.
The two songs mirror each other in a reflection of the characters. ‘Out of Oklahoma’ is the ghost of the country life as Kate returns home to her mother; she cannot outrun her hopes, her dreams, and her fears as she almost dies in another tornado alongside Owen. She hasn’t returned home in the entire five years. Reflecting Kate, it is a slower, more melancholy country song; it is a long sequence compared to the fast-paced film as she returns and finally breathes. But the film needs it.
Wardrobe and Makeup:
The wardrobe and makeup department brought this film together. I am so sick of recent careless makeup mistakes in cinema or the need to be airbrushed while they are in the middle of a natural disaster or a horror film. The makeup of this film exceeded my expectations, and I noticed it even more on the second rewatch the next day. It made the chaos and panic ever so more natural, the sweat dripping off Glen Powell and the dust combined in Daisy Edgar-Jones’s hair. It created the illusion that they got swept up near a tornado and fought against the odds. The film’s technical aspects, particularly the wardrobe and makeup, are truly impressive and will leave you appreciative of the attention to detail, making you feel impressed and immersed in Daisy Edgar-Jones’s world.
An example of both Kate’s character development and the wardrobe department, she begins in cool-tone colours, the whites, the blues. One could represent the figure of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, who famously wore blue and white, hence the colours of Storm Par. Alternatively, the film depicts the clean slate she wants after the accident, while Owens wears warm tones and browns to showcase his rustic side, unafraid of nature’s dark side. Another essential detail is the side-by-side of Kate and Javi in New York, both in shirts, but Kate’s is tight, restrictive, and buttoned up. In their first tornado chase, she continues this in a turtle neck and a shirt. At the same time, Javi wears shirts throughout, but buttons show his professionalism and relaxed nature despite the military training. The military background, while not quite dived into, was an interesting character point showcasing his trauma to the incident without so drastically pointing it out in writing. Another wardrode example is the change in Kate’s hair from painfully pin straight in New York to the wavy blonde mess in Oklahoma, showing her return to her roots and finally accepting the chaos, not trying to control everything due to her behaviour towards losing her boyfriend. Referring back to the cool and warm tones, she starts to wear warmer tones as she slowly begins mixing with Owens. The climax of her wardrobe coincides with the film’s climax, as she wears a red vest top and loose brown trousers to chase the last tornado. This shows she has let go of her past traumas, and the influence of Owens has brought back warmth and purpose in her life.
In conclusion, I spent my week watching this film in cinemas three times, and I cried every time. It never lost its sparkle on rewatch, and I feel a gravitational pull to it. In my books, it’s a classic.
First Published via HUB Magazine when I was Editor-in-Chief.
Date Published: 20th October 2023.
The cinema industry has always been a rather fragile income, the boom of the industry came back during the Marvel releases taking the world by storm, however, this came crashing down as quickly as it began. COVID-19 meant the shutdown of cinemas everywhere, the closure of film sets, the holdings of productions and scripts. The question lingered if cinema could ever return to the state, it was before, income Barbenheimer.
Whether it stems from the day of two brilliant directors, Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig, or the memes surrounding the day. Barbie grossed over one billion pounds with Oppenheimer slowly behind with nine hundred million pounds. Cinemas were packed with people going to see both films in the space of one weekend or even one day. Personally, I saw Barbie on Friday morning with a quick lunch break before watching Oppenheimer. While some may say this was a bizarre ordering, I respond with a question of I knew the likelihood of enjoying a Greta Gerwig film was much higher for me than Christopher Nolan. This does not discredit Nolan, moreover, I believe I need more time to process and think of Nolan’s film. I can openly admit that I am not quite sure what happened in Tenet. In comparison, I watched Oppenheimer three times during its cinema release and Barbie twice.
Barbie by Greta Gerwig
A beautiful story about motherhood, young girls growing up in a harsh world full of criticism, and what it truly means to be human.
Compared to Oppenheimer I avoided Barbie trailers as much as possible, I wanted to fully experience the film for the first time in cinema. Barbie defined part of my childhood whether that was the animated Barbie films or playing with dolls. Whenever I felt sad, Barbie was something I could lean on even in private. There came a moment during my GCSEs when I and a friend needed something to lean on, the nostalgia of playing with Barbie dolls helped us whilst we studied for our exams. There is an interesting aspect of the film that girls grow up much quicker than boys, in this society we are expected to be more mature and take the high ground more often than boys. For a brief moment when I was in the cinema, I could finally relive a part of my girlhood that I had forgotten about and avoided.
The protagonists exemplify that femininity is not a weakness and it encapsulates the beautiful nature of women’s friendships.
Like Oppenheimer, Barbie separates worlds by cinematography techniques. In Barbieland, the lightning is always behind the Barbies and the Kens who are always centred shot. Whereas, in the real world, there is a range of shots and Barbie is no longer centred. This indicates the beauty of the Barbies and the harsh world that Barbie is adventuring into.
Barbie is presented as a comedy, on average about fifty per cent of the jokes land, however, I can understand that not all the jokes are for my demographic but for the little girls that have the privilege to grow up in a world that has Barbie. While it is easier to praise Ryan Gosling for his role in Barbie as he plays a comedic relief, one must not overlook the acting skills demonstrated by Margo Robbie and America Ferrera.
Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan
I would label Oppenheimer as my favourite Christopher Nolan film, yes above The Dark Knight. Oppenheimer is a story about the struggle of furthering science and winning the war while addressing and evaluating the consequences of the atomic bomb. ‘They won’t fear it until they understand it. And they won’t understand it until they’ve used it’ which perfectly encapsulates the reasoning behind dropping the atomic bomb.
I knew this would become one of my all-time favourite films when the soundtrack by Ludwig Göransson ‘Can you hear the music’ started while Oppenheimer was studying at Cambridge. This is during the first act, the colour grading for this part of the film is very interesting with the enhanced blue cold tones which highly contrasted to the browns and red tones in the final act. I cannot discuss the colour grading without mentioning the use of black and white during Robert Downey Jr parts. This is not the first time Nolan has used this technique to divide the narrative, he used this in Memento (2000) to show two sequences. One sequence follows Downey Jr closely in the cabinet, however, not used during the investigation of Oppenheimer. The black and white sequence shows the narrative the public had during the time of the nuclear bomb, while the colour sequence is Oppenheimer’s narrative and therefore has extreme bias.
Cillian Murphy plays the role of Oppenheimer so extremely well that I can read every single microexpression and all the words that are left unsaid. Every single actor in this film brought everything they could into this.
The film also holds my favourite cinematography sequence, the trial scene of dropping the atomic bomb, I felt my entire body and mind torn in half. The deafening silence during the sequence met with a loud explosion left goosebumps covering my body.
Bibliography-
Gerwig, Greta. Barbie. Heyday Films, 2023.
Hughes, Mark. ‘Can ‘Oppenheimer’ Top $1 Billion Box Office? The Clock Is Ticking.’ Forbes, 2023.
Murray, Tom. ‘Mattel’s earnings from Barbie movie revealed to be ‘more than double’ Margot Robbie’s’. The Independent, 2023.
First Published via HUB Magazine when I was Culture Editor.
Date Published: 24th March 2023.
From the director who simultaneously directed both the best Spider-Man and the worst Spider-Man film comes the rom-com of the decade, Marc Webb’s (500) Days of Summer. The film is non-chronological, so the audience watches the love story knowing it ends badly and cuts in between the present and the past. Hopeless Romantic Tom (Joseph Gordan-Levitt) meets non-commitment, manic pixie dream girl Summer (Zooey Deschanel) and believes she is The One he has been searching for.
(500) Days of Summer is a cautionary tale about the idea of finding the one. The whole concept is a selfish way of thinking, and it can only lead to disappointment. While the film implies that it is Summer’s fault the relationship didn’t work, it is the intense pressure Tom puts upon himself and Summer to be the one.
As no result of her own, Summer falls into the category of a manic pixie girl. She is seen in many films with a male protagonist. Examples include Scott Pilgrim vs the World (Edgar Wright), Her (Spike Jonze) and Paper Towns (Jake Schreier). The manic pixie girl is a reductive delusion created by the male fantasy of childlike playfulness, somewhat tomboyish but hot. If he likes cars, she is Megan Fox in Transformers. If he is uptight, she’s Jennifer Aniston in Along Came Polly, and if he wants The Smiths, she’s Zooey Deschanel.
The choice of The Smith songs is interesting, using both ‘Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I want’ and ‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’. The use of these songs sets up Tom as a hopeless, yet very needy romantic. It always mirrors the way Tom feels about Summer. Even though she clearly states she does not want a relationship, he doesn’t care, and he has placed her on a pedestal that she is now his home and reason for living.
The film’s colour palette also symbolises the failing relationship between Tom and Summer. In most of Tom’s scenes, he wears brown, which blends with his surroundings, whereas Summer predominately wears blue throughout, whether in a full skirt or just blue accessories.
Furthermore, 32 minutes after they have slept together, Tom has a dance number, and almost all the background dancers have some variation of blue. This could suggest Tom is both in Summer’s world, but as he still wears brown and beige, he does not belong in her world. This colour palette difference is most apparent at 47 minutes when they struggle to sleep. The warm tones of Tom clash with the cool blue tones of Summer. The expectations vs reality scene also uses the colour palette, and the expectations have more reds and browns in the background, as it is Tom’s fantasy.
The most phenomenal scene from this entire film is at 1:07:53 when ‘Hero’ by Regina Spektor begins playing, and the screen is split between expectations and reality shots. Using the song ‘Hero’ shows Tom believes he is the hero of this story, and that Summer is the villain by being engaged. Though the audience already knows that Tom is a hopeless romantic, this scene brings it hard to understand how much he has shaped Summer into being someone she isn’t, from small details of the expectations of an intimate dinner with red wine to the reality of a rooftop party with beer to the different people at the party. This infers that he doesn’t know all of Summer’s friends, as that doesn’t matter in his fantasy, and the red wine connotes a romantic side to Summer he has made up. Even the tiniest details in 1:09:32, the expectations have a shot of blurred lilies in the forefront, and the reality has roses. The moment the shot moves from expectations vs reality is when Tom sees the engagement ring. Marc Webb beautifully panels the camera from his face to circle around to his back to show Summer showing off her ring.
Similar to the expectations vs reality scene, there is a parallel at 13:45 and 57:46 where everything he loves about Summer turns into everything he hates about Summer. This implies Tom can easily change how he views things. Therefore, how he sees everything that happened with Summer is unreliable.
The directorial style reminds me of Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2014) in using old Hollywood film reel shots, two parallel shots, and characters breaking the fourth wall with a particular use of black and white film shots. This directorial style can symbolise Tom’s mindset of hopeless romanticism due to romance and old films. The repeated shots at 1:10:00 are also very Wes Anderson style. Obviously, this film came before this mentioned Wes Anderson film.
The question the audience asks at the end when the Autumn count begins is whether Tom learnt his lesson. My theory is based on the first two minutes of the film. The narrator mentions Tom misread the ending of The Graduate by Mike Nichols (1967) and that he will also misread the ending with Summer. Instead of seeing his mistake of trying to find the one through shared interests, he sees it as misplacing the wrong girl as the wrong. If you haven’t seen The Graduate, in the last scene, Ben (Dustin Hoffman) and Elaine (Katharine Ross) escape Elaine’s wedding and are on the bus. Their facial expressions quickly change from happiness to melancholy as the doubts settle in.
In conclusion, (500) Days of Summer is a must-watch for all rom-com fans and hopeless romantics to rebalance themselves.
References-
Anderson, Wes. The Grand Budapest Hotel. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2014.
Bay, Michael. Transformers. DreamWorks Pictures, 2007.
Hamburg, John. Along Came Polly. Jersey Films, 2004.
Jonze, Spike. Her. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2013.
Schreier, Jake. Paper Towns. Fox 2000 Pictures, 2015.
Nichols, Mike. The Graduate. Lawrence Turman Films, 1967.
Webb, Marc. (500) Days of Summer. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2009.
Webb, Marc. The Amazing Spider-Man. Columbia Pictures, 2012.
Webb, Marc. The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Columbia Pictures, 2014.
Wright, Edgar. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Universal Pictures, 2010.
First Published via HUB Magazine when I was Culture Editor.
Date Published: 6th March 2023.
While one may compare Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans (2022) to Damien Chazelle’s Babylon (2023), I suggest viewing it in the same light as Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society (1989).
Steven Spielberg’s latest film, The Fabelmans, follows a young boy who dreams of becoming a director and explores filmmaking’s beauty. The film also beautifully showcases the divide in the family between those who are logical, like the father, and those who are artistic, like the mother. While the mother is demonised throughout the film due to her affair with the father’s best friend and shows signs of mental illness, it is still clear that her love of music keeps her going through life.
Like Dead Poets Society, the father wishes his son to end this phase of art and find a real career. Unfortunately, both sons continue their love of art despite their father’s wishes, slowly destroying both relationships. Both films show that the artistic son looks to his mother for support and hopes to defend himself from his father.
Dead Poets Society follows a group of boys in a boarding school as they gain a new English Literature teacher that shows them the beauty of poetry: “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute, we read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion”. When he went to the boarding school, this teacher was part of the Dead Poets Society. In following his footsteps, the boys decide to recreate this society. Each boy is presented with his lifeline of art.
Though it is clear from the first fifteen minutes that Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard) wants more from life, he wants to continue with the newspaper, but his father refuses to do this as he should do something more meaningful. As the film continues with the influence of Professor Keating (Robin Williams) to follow his passion, he auditions for the drama production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream. When his father finds out, he takes him out of boarding school and informs his son that he will go to military school, as the behaviour is unacceptable. Neil Perry sees no other way out. In tragic symbolism, he places the forest crown from the play on his head and goes into his father’s office to shoot himself in the head. One may also infer that art could symbolise homosexuality, as the film closely follows his relationship with Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke).
Todd Anderson is presented as a shy kid, similar to Sam Fabelman (Gabriel BaBelle), who finds his voice through poetry. However, where his father discourages Sam in his pursuit of filmmaking, Todd’s parents seem absent from the film, only to arrive after Neil Perry’s death.
Both films also present art as a group-oriented activity between boys. While Sam is in Texas, his scout’s group joins in with his filmmaking. There is this beautiful moment Sam is directing a war-inspired film in the desert of Texas, where Sam gives a story to one of the lead boys. The scene is used to create emotion in the audience. As he ends the scene walking through the pretend dead bodies of the soldiers, the lead boy begins crying. Though this raw emotion of crying is not in Sam’s camera shot, only the audience of The Fabelmans sees this vulnerability. This could suggest how the patriarchy tells men how to behave and keep emotions down as they are viewed as feminine.
While The Fabelmans is generally a serious film with moments of beauty and humour taken from family interactions, Steven Spielberg breaks the fourth wall in the last scene. As Sam Fabelman is being interviewed and questioned by the same director that inspired him to make films, there is a lesson learnt about where the sun should be in shots. The director asks Sam to point out where the sun and light are coming from in the paintings in his office. It is observed that the sun should always be either at the top of the shot or from the bottom to make it interesting. As Sam Fabelman leaves the office, the wide shot of the street has the sun in the middle of the shot. There is this moment of hesitation and an undeniable movement to change where the sun is in the shot.
The Fabelmans ends on an uncertain note of whether Sam ever makes it as a director or not. The film takes place throughout his childhood to college years, whereas the Dead Poets Society only occurs at that time of year. Dead Poets Society begins with a ceremony for the new year and ends with the funeral of Neil Perry. As an audience, we do not know what happens to the boys after this life-changing year. However, in the most tear-jerking scene ever written, Professor Keating has been fired due to Neil Perry’s death. As he leaves, Todd Anderson stands on top of the desk and yells, “O, Captain. My Captain”. Slowly, the other boys begin standing at their desks to say goodbye to Professor Keating. This shows Professor Keating has done his job writing to make these boys think for themselves and express themselves through art.
References-
Chazelle, Damien. Babylon. Paramount, 2022.
Spielberg, Steven. The Fabelmans. Universal Pictures, 2022.
Weir, Peter. Dead Poets Society. Touchstone Pictures, 1989.
Skye Collacott Williamson 