Tuesday, July 22, 2025

I Got Suckered Into Watching Pete Davidson's The Home. Now It's Time to Vent About It

 


MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE HOME BELOW


Last night, I got cinematically bamboozled, there’s no other word for it. 

So, my local AMC held a Secret Horror Movie Screening on Monday, July 21. Nobody in the audience would know what the film was before those fateful opening logos appeared. I was convinced the screening was for 2025 Sundance sensation Together. After all, this showing's runtime matched Together’s perfectly. Plus, Neon and Bloody Disgusting were hosting word-of-mouth screenings for the film on July 21. Surely this was part of that. 

Nope! 

As the Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate logos filled the screen, it became clear I and the other moviegoers in that room were not in for Together. Instead, we were watching The Home, a fright-fest starring Pete Davidson from writer/director James DeMonaco (Adam Cantor also penned the script). It was unquestionably a chilling movie, just not remotely in any of its intended ways. At least it functioned as a vivid 95-minute reminder of how those Purge movies finally got good once series creator DeMonaco wasn't directing them.

The Home begins depicting lead character Max (Pete Davidson) just coasting through life as a troublemaker. As excessive, poorly-written flashbacks make clear, he’s still haunted by the loss of his foster brother Luke decades earlier. In the present, Max’s dad remarks “ever since Luke died…” like this happened a few months ago, not nearly two decades earlier. Anyway, Max has taken to being a real rascal. He's smoking weed, covered in tattoos, and spray painting environmentally conscious graffiti on buildings. What a rebel without a cause. After getting arrested for that graffiti, Max is sentenced to work at a local retirement home. This is his "last strike" after previous run-ins with the law.

At this domicile, Max is given lots of duties by boss Dr. Sabian (Bruce Altman) as well as a handful of strict requirements. One of those is to never venture onto the establishment's fourth floor. Once Max does that, he discovers a wing full of elderly souls confined to wheelchairs, howling in immense pain. This and other constant bizarre happenings at his new workplace lead him to believe that something terrible is going on. Now this guy's questioning authority once more and diving into the conspiracies of what's going on in this location.

It's borderline impressive how DeMonaco and Cantor's The Home script is so incompetent at building tension. For one thing, the duo immediately makes the retirement community a weird place where elderly ladies seductively flicker their tongues at Max, and people bleed out of their foreheads during pool aerobics. There's no sense of atmospheric pacing in The Home. What you see is exactly what you get in this project. Great horror movies like Society, both Suspiria's, or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre just get more and more unhinged as their stories progress. The Home, meanwhile, just exists as a horror cinema flat-line from the moment the studio logos end. 

Meanwhile, Max's tremendously easy ability to access that "forbidden" fourth floor further undermines internal anxiety. Granted, it's not as devastating to the production as truly wretched instances of ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement, dialogue recorded in post-production). Tahar Rahim's comically bad ADR in Madame Web would be proud of the awkward execution of various Home lines. Too often, security camera footage or other unnerving images are accompanied by an off-screen Pete Davidson either over-explaining what's happening or dropping superfluous observations like, "what the fuck are you doing, old man?" 

The Home doesn't trust its audience to understand the simplest visuals, which means the whole film is papered over in amateurishly incorporated ADR'd expository dialogue. It's a byproduct of what this feature's shoddily assembled status. Todd E. Miller's editing, for instance, is incredibly choppy, even when it comes to the most mundane, static conversations. At least his poor visual impulses create one or two instances of unintentionally hilarious comedy. Most notably, there's an ominous Home sequence that immediately cuts to a wide shot of Pete Davidson sullenly using a leaf-blower outside. Swerving right from Z-grade horror to an image of Davidson channeling the energy of an eight-year-old forced to do his chores had me chuckling.

Also generating inadvertent chuckles is the utterly stupid interior politics of The Home. Initially, DeMonaco and Cantor's script has constant references to global warming (including through an extended televised "debate" playing as background audio for one scene) and even features a temporary explanation for the retirement home's evil rooted in U.S. government experimentation. Then, the third act swerves to reveal that this whole story has been about elderly people kidnapping young folks. This way, folks like Dr. Sabian and Lou (John Glover) can extract "nectar" behind these youthful right eyes that keeps them eternally young. So it all devolves into imagining "what if QAnon-adjacent nonsense was real?". Where are all these contradictory political leanings going?

Nowhere! It's just sporadically amusing that The Home invokes the most surface-level versions imaginable of leftist and right-wing friendly talking points. This is such a stupid movie, right down to it only knowing political terms like "global warming" without having any thoughts or commentary to offer on them. It's infuriating that such idiotic cinema gets financing and major theatrical releases, but the staggering incompetence is certainly something to witness. Eventually, all those references to 2020s political matters dissipate for the only reason anyone will talk about The Home. For the film's final eight minutes, Max is restored to health through the youthful eye nectar of other fourth-floor patients. Then, he grabs an axe and hammer and proceeds to viciously slaughter all the evil retirement home employees and residents. 

Did you ever watch Oldboy's hallway fight scene and wish Choi Min-sik was played instead by Pete Davidson? For that one weirdo out there, The Home is your must-see movie. The sight of Chad from Saturday Night Live drenched head-to-toe in blood snapping elderly bones is certainly a commendably "WTF" sight. Unfortunately, even this set piece reflects The Home's failure as a movie. After all, there's just not much tension in whether or not Pete Davidson can beat up Lex Luthor's dad from Smallville. Opting for a tidy, happy ending, meanwhile, is just another cop-out in a film full of wasted potential. 

The antithesis to quality, frightening horror cinema, The Home will become infamous among scary film aficionados for being humorously bad (oh God, I didn't even bring up the exposition-laden "secret room" in Max's childhood home that contains a shrine to the Goddess of youth). Even in that regard, though, this is no Assassin 33 A.D. or Birdemic in the realm of constantly hysterical subpar genre fare. The Home turgidly vomits back up jump scares, plot points, and visuals (including  DeMonaco's love for kooky masks from The Purge) from infinitely superior chilling motion pictures. It's an insultingly bad enterprise that would've gotten on my nerves even if I hadn't had my hopes of seeing Together early dashed.

Monday, July 21, 2025

So How Did Superman Did In its Second Box Office Weekend?

 


It was clear earlier this week that something special was brewing with Superman's domestic box office run. After a strong $125 million start, this title kept having incredibly remarkable holds from one day to the next during the week. That included leaping 33% from Monday to Tuesday, a significantly better than usual hold across those two days for a July superhero movie. Good word-of-mouth was clearly working in Superman's favor...but would it hold on for its second North American frame? The answer turned out to be a resounding yes.

Superman grossed another $58.5 million this weekend, a great 53% drop from its opening. That's slightly better than the second-weekend declines than Deadpool & Wolverine and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. It's also way better than typical July superhero movie second weekend holds. Usually, these family-friendly titles burn off enough demand in the week that Spider-Man: Homecoming, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Ant-Man and the Wasp have 60-61% drops before stabilizing the following frame. Superman, meanwhile, held steady with a drop in the low 50s. 

Meanwhile, its second gross was noticeably bigger than the second frame of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, despite that 2016 feature having a $40 million bigger debut than Superman. What's going on with these holds and strong figures?

This is totally conjecture on my part, but one has to wonder if there was a segment of the population that was a bit dubious about a new Superman movie. Those individuals may have sat out last weekend, but then decided to give James Gunn's newest feature a go thanks to the positive word-of-mouth of this motion picture. Superman's certainly become a point of positive conversation online and in the real world. Just look at the affectionate memes sprouting up in the last week over things like David Corenswet's Superman grinning while lying down. With the feature taking off like this, initially hesitant moviegoers might've finally dived in just to join in on the chatter. Meanwhile, the bouncy, colorful, and upbeat atmosphere of Superman makes it prime for revisits, which could've also contributed to the smaller holds.

Plus, hey, maybe something this hopeful is actually something people didn't know they desperately needed until the word-of-mouth on Superman took off. The biggest hit movies throughout history tend to satiate audience demands that nobody in Hollywood could've predicted before they debuted. Who thought, for instance, moviegoers would gravitate towards Avatar's classical and brightly-colored storytelling in an era of gritty reboots? Similarly, Superman turned out to be just the blockbuster palette cleanser folks were looking for when it came to the superhero movie realm. Even with The Fantastic Four: First Steps on the way, it's doubtful all this good word-of-mouth is about to vanish. Expect this title to keep on rocking and rolling for the rest of the summer.

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Fans of dogs, colorful costumes, and memorable Nicholas Hoult performances unite: Superman is an uplifting treat



A dozen Julys ago, Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim clobbered its way onto the big screen. This monster movie took the skeleton of classic Kaiju films but blew them up enormously in scale while maintaining a zippy tone and vibrant color scheme. The point wasn't to translate these older genre films into "grounded" modern contexts. It was to just give them a scope and budget that was never previously possible.

James Gunn's Superman has similar ambitions in mind. However, the screenwriter behind The Specials and The Belko Experiment is not interested in just making a $200+ million version of the George Reeves Superman TV show or the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. Instead, this is the most lavish spiritual and visual Spy Kids sequel one could imagine witnessing.

That's not a complaint either. Superman is a classical, kid-friendly movie to a tee, bursting with enough bright colors to fill up a Lisa Frank coloring book. It's also another indicator that Gunn (following the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and The Suicide Squad) has a gift for satisfying crowdpleaser blockbusters. "It just comes natural," as a wise George Strait once crooned.

Beginning in media res, Gunn's Superman picks up three years into Superman/Clark Kent's (David Corenswet) stint as a Metropolis crime-fighter. The kind-hearted Kryptonian is in hot water with certain souls after stepping into a foreign conflict. Specifically, he stopped Boravian (DC's equivalent to Russia or Israel) soldiers from invading the neighboring country of Jarhanpur (DC's equivalent to Ukraine or Palestine). 

Even while mired in controversy, Superman's opening scene shows that this friendly alien isn't stopping his quest to protect the innocent. When he isn't fighting robots or monsters, Superman takes on the alias of mild-mannered Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent. Also working at this institution are intrepid reporter Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) and dynamic journalist/Kent's love interest Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan).

Superman's juggling of these two halves of his identity becomes even more challenging thanks to Lex Luthor's (Nicholas Hoult) wicked machinations. This billionaire's seething hatred for this Kryptonian inspires a complicated evil plan that involves infiltrating Superman's Fortress of Solitude and getting the public to turn even more hostile towards the symbol of truth, justice, and DC Comics merchandise. "Who am I?" is the question Superman grapples with as Luthor's cruelty ramps up and threatens even more innocent lives. Also factoring into the proceedings are Justice Gang superheroes Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), and Guy Gardner/Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), as well Luthor's nefarious helpers like The Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría).

Call Superman a key line from Smash Mouth's All-Star because this thing "hits the ground running." Picking up right as Superman is in the middle of a battle with a mechanical adversary, this superhero film wisely eschews origin stories for its principal heroes and villains. Why build up the entire movie to Luthor's head finally getting shaved? Much like the animated Spider-Verse movies, Superman recognizes that its oversized, colorful characters are pretty self-explanatory. Nathan Fillion's immediate jerky swagger as Guy Gardner, for instance, says more about this character's interiority than any 100-minute origin story ever could. Why not, then, just hop right into the fun stuff instead of dragging everyone's feet through yards of lore?

The drawback to this plot approach, though, is that the more grounded human character in Gunn's Superman script often struggles to get heard. Big costumed crime-fighters and expository dialogue about "pocket dimensions" and Luthor's wicked plans are the storytelling priorities. Players like the Daily Planet crew, meanwhile, vanish for long stretches of screentime. Granted, I'm biased in craving more of Mikela Hoover's adorably-realized Cat Grant. Still, a third act where these journalists are immensely disconnected from the action encapsulates how Superman's crowded script can't give everyone the room they need. Even Lois Lane sometimes feels like an afterthought in these spectacle-driven proceedings.

Luckily, what Gunn's script excels at is comic book mayhem and pathos. Happily, the former element involves plenty of bright colors, including Mister Terrific's use of vivid red hues in his drones or the various complexions populating an ominous river Superman briefly gets trapped in. Much like how Gunn previously made no bones about bringing characters like Rocket Raccoon and Starro to live-action, so too do the likes of Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) or Krypto leap to the silver screen with transfixing visual conviction. All these qualities inform a slew of fun action sequences (such as squabbling superheroes fighting a monster with everything from robots to massive oven mitts) brimming with excitement. The third act especially delivers a cornucopia of awesome crowdpleaser moments destined to send audiences everywhere (and a certain bimbo lady film critic) into fits of gleeful clapping.

In addition to just being a lot of fun to watch, Superman also demonstrates how much Gunn has grown as a screenwriter in terms of pathos. Gunn's earliest days featured a borderline nihilist streak in his non-Scooby-Doo work (an inevitable byproduct of his Troma upbringing). In 2000s The Specials, every ramshackle superhero had seething contempt for each other while the "normal" people were mostly idiots. 2006's Slither, meanwhile, saw Gunn viewing rural America as being full of "yokels" whose only value was in getting monstrously transformed by slug aliens.

Since then, Gunn has used his superheroes to grow as a writer and exhibit a more nuanced approach to the human race. The guy who previously used his characters as just punching bags for sometimes amusing dark comedy now crafts films where King Shark longingly gazes out at the "ordinary people" he wishes he could be. Much like with the most heightened Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad moments, Superman exhibits tremendous affection for its silliest concepts and characters.  Some comic book movies make "yellow spandex" jokes about their source material's most outlandish qualities. Superman continues the welcome James Gunn trend of not just embracing comic book silliness, but uncovering the rich pathos within conceptually ludicrous material. 

Laser vision and ice breath are not Superman's greatest superpowers. Instead, it's those quiet, affecting moments (devoid of any self-conscious, intrusive quips) that are this feature's greatest strength. "You see everyone as...beautiful," Lois Lane tells Superman at one point. Gunn's script also sees beauty in everyone who inhabits this world. From everyday Kansas residents like Ma (Neva Howell) and Pa Kent (Pruitt Taylor Vance) to folks selling falafel on the street to robots with no consciousness to Lex Luthor's girlfriend Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio). 

Modern misguided attempts at "old-school" comic book movies like Wonder Woman 1984 failed partially because they didn't seem to love their characters. Superman, meanwhile, wants to give even its most fleeting inhabitants a hug. Gunn's camera lovingly lingers on the little bits of life in this universe, like Krypto playing with cows or ordinary citizens looking out for one another when disasters strike Metropolis. Best of all, there's an outstanding sequence where Pa Kent comforts a dejected Clark with words of wisdom like "parents aren't good at letting their kids discover themselves...we give them the tools to make fools of themselves." Who knew the man behind the sometimes wearily edgelord dialogue of The Specials would one day write such intimate poignant dialogue.

That's another great virtue of this latest reimagining of Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster's lastingly influential creation. Every cast member gets to leave a positive impression, a happy byproduct of Superman's default heightened acting style. That includes David Corenswet, an extraordinary discovery as the film's main superhero. There's nary even a hint of irony in his delivery of Superman lines like "dang it!" or "what they hey, dude?" He just feels like he walked right out of a classic Superman comic (or All-Star Superman, the more modern publication that heavily influenced this 2025 film). 

Corenswet also had dynamite chemistry with Rachel Brosnahan, whose spunky Lois Lane is an endless delight. Nicholas Hoult, meanwhile, is a deliciously wicked treat as Lex Luthor. Hoult's performance absolutely radiates ceaseless malice just in his insufferable facial expressions. It's a delightful turn, especially following up his wildly varied (yet consistently impressive) work in late 2024 features like The Order and Nosferatu.

Among supporting players, Gathegi is the MVP as Mister Terrific, particularly in how he's able to maintain a consistent stoic expression while demonstrating outstanding comic timing. Gisonodo is also a hoot, I'm so glad Gunn's screenplay features a mid-movie digression where his Jimmy Olsen basically goes on his own mini-adventure. Superman's great discovery, though, is Sara Sampaio channeling big Chrissy Chlapecka energy as Eve Teschmacher. Right from this movie's first post-title card scene, Sampaio's physicality portraying Teschmacher snapping selfies had me rolling. There's also such love in Sampai's performance, though, that makes the character extra transfixing. This performer isn't realizing Lex Luthor's girlfriend as a caricature but with real affection and humanity (all while scoring big laughs).

Superman's flaws (like certain sets or colors not looking as sharp as they could've been if captured on film) are unmistakable, particularly when it comes to an exceedingly crowded plot. However, it's hard to care that much when the feature nails the poignancy, performances, and fun with so much flair. Channeling Spy Kids vibes turn out to be a good look for Superman, especially since it means James Gunn unabashedly embraces sentimentality and heightened spectacle. With such confidence, no wonder Superman produces so much showmanship and excitement.

It took Hollywood 44 years, but this superhero finally got another sublime movie. If you're looking for an energetic summer blockbuster that'll make you cheer, well, to paraphrase a pair of tunes from the 1966 Broadway musical It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman*, Superman has  "got what [you] need" since it's "super nice".


* = Hey, I actually saw this show during its summer 2010 Dallas Theater Center run. I had no idea it was at the time "reviled" and odd to do a revival of the show. 14-year-old Lisa Laman just assumed, since Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark was in the news at the time, that every comic book superhero eventually got a Broadway musical. I also remember being very confused why Superman was facing off against generic scientists and bank robber baddies instead of contending with Lex Luthor or Brainiac.


Thursday, January 23, 2025

Lisa Laman's 97th Academy Awards Nominations Thoughts OR How Do We Challenge Living in Hell?

In the middle of the Conan/Leno Tonight Show fiasco of early 2010, David Letterman had to weigh in. After all, he and Leno had a similar skirmish almost 20 years prior. According to Letterman, "every day I have people come up to me and ask me about this Tonight Show thing." Initially, Letterman planned to stay out of the whole debacle. "I don't have a dog in this fight...Lord knows I've got my own problems," Letterman remarked before taking a pause. Then a wicked grin flashes on his face before he says a few little words: "But I just can't help myself."

Similarly, I really shouldn't even talk about the egregious oversights in this year's Academy Awards nominations. I was talking about award season's hideous exclusion of movies from marginalized perspectives a little over five years ago, after all, and little in the film industry informing those practices has changed. Way smarter people than me have been talking about #OscarsSoWhite for over a decade now. In a week where America's oligarchical fascism is more apparent than ever, when people prepare for ICE raids, as my fellow trans folks advocate for their rights, there are infinitely more important things to do than talk about what did and didn't get Oscar nominations.

But call me Letterman folks, because, well, "I just can't help myself."

The nominations began with the heads of the Academy announcing that this year's Oscars would feature special tributes to first responders, Los Angeles, and the film industry in response to the devastating wildfires. Then, Bowen Yang and Rachell Sennott showed up to announce the nominations proper. Right away, things got off to a horrible start with Clarence Maclin in Sing Sing getting snubbed for Jeremy Strong in The Apprentice. A Different Man getting a Best Makeup and Hairstyling nomination shortly after was cool, but Challengers getting no Best Original Score is insane!!! What the fuck, guys?

Really, the first half of the Oscar nominations were a travesty, a weird reflection of an excellent recent Los Angeles Times piece called "How Hollywood Lost The Culture War." Films about working-class people from around the world (like Hard Truths or All We Imagine as Light) got excluded from Best Original Screenplay, while Emilia Perez (about rich people), A Complete Unknown (about famous musicians), and September 5 (about people occupying a sector of the entertainment industry*) got in. Of course Hollywood lost the culture war if it's lavishing praise on films so out of step with ordinary life. The Seed of the Sacred Fig, I'm Still Here, Hard Truths, All We Imagine as Light, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, these films got excluded. Thank God Nickel Boys, Sing Sing, and Anora got into screenplay at least.

Best Documentary Feature nominations I didn't have a problem with, though I have to catch up on Porcelain War. The other four nominees rock, though. Disappointed Kneecap got shut out from Best International Feature and Best Original Song (yay more working-class people got excluded), but at least Sacred Fig and I'm Still Here got in. As the nominations went on, though, it was so frustrating how the same movies just kept getting nominated constantly over and over again. Emilia Perez in Best Sound?? What?? Over titles like Nickel Boys, which made the sound of a marble falling down the stairs incredibly idiosyncratic???

Alien: Romulus and its terrible visual effects (remember that Ian Holm deep-fake) getting into Best Visual Effects is hysterical but yay for Better Man! You will always be famous CG monkey Robbie Williams. Had to laugh at Maria suddenly reviving from the award season grave for Best Cinematography. They just love Pablo Larrain movies in this category! Handing Perez and Maria Best Cinematography nominations over Nickel Boys, though, is an egregious crime worthy of being charged at The Hague. Guys, what the hell? That movie's first-person POV camerawork is integral to the film and groundbreaking in the history of cinema.

Heartbreakingly, All We Imagine as Light got snubbed from the ceremony entirely, another frustrating demonstration of the Oscars excluding cinema from India (remember when RRR, 2022's cultural phenomenon, only got one Oscar nod two years ago?) Light filmmaker Kapadia and Sacred Fig director Mohammad Rasoulof getting snubbed in Best Director in favor of James Mangold for A Complete Unknown and Jacques Audiard for Emilia Perez is so staggeringly miscalculated I can't even comprehend it. Rasoulof had to shoot several Sacred Fig sequences away from his actors in a car just so he could evade getting caught by the authorities, yet he still delivered a pulse-pounding thriller I still can't get out of my brain. If only he'd remembered to fill the movie with musicians Western baby boomers recognize or had a "PENIS TO VAGINA" song.

Ten years ago (God, time goes by too fast), I remember reading an "anonymous" Oscar voter's thoughts on that year's nominations films in The Hollywood Reporter. This person found it impossible to sympathize or grapple the life of Patricia Arquette in Boyhood because she was a working-class ordinary woman in Texas who didn't always do the right thing. Moral complexity, especially in women, confounded this woman. I was thinking of that this morning when Marianne Jean-Baptise's unforgettably captivating Hard Truths work got snubbed in Best Actress. 11 of this year's 20 acting nominees were playing either pre-existing characters (either historical figures or Wizard of Oz figures) and/or people in period pieces. A distinctly original modern-day role like Jean-Baptise's (and one that *GASP* asked audiences to identify with an "unpleasant" woman) just wasn't up to the Academy's tastes this year.

Then we got to the Best Picture nominees, which were bonkers, absolutely bonkers. A Real Pain, All We Imagine as LightSeptember 5, and Sing Sing got left out of the nomination pool. Instead, the ten nominees were:

Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
I’m Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked

Emilia Perez brought its Oscar nominations total to a whopping 13 with a Best Picture nod. Per this Collider piece, that makes it only the 15th movie in history to get 13 or more Oscar nominations. Fun fact: that's four more nominations than the country of Mexico has ever received in the Best International Feature category. Meanwhile, Nickel Boys joined a rare category of films this morning. It's now among the few post-2008 (when the Best Picture category ballooned past five nominees) films to score only one Oscar nomination outside Best Picture. The Blind Side, A Serious Man, Selma, Past Lives, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, and The Post are the only other examples of this phenomenon (that I can find right now) post-2008.

I'm Still Here, meanwhile, is only the second post-2008 foreign language Best Picture nominee financed and produced out of the U.S. (following All Quiet on the Western Front) to get a Best Picture nod but not a Best Director nomination. That's an interesting reversal of the long-standing norm (dating back to the 60s!) where the Academy nominates acclaimed foreign films for Best Director but not Best Picture. Post-2008, two examples of this trend are Cold War and Another Round.

The genuinely exciting sight of Nickel Boys and I'm Still Here making it to Best Picture diluted some of the sting of this ceremony, which was otherwise business as usual for the Academy in the worst ways possible. Two of my three favorite movies of last year (Nickel Boys and Anora) made it into Best Picture and it's surreal a movie with a climax reminiscent of Meet the Feebles like The Substance got into Best Picture. Recent studies have shown that Hollywood has made minimal progress in creating opportunities for marginalized artists over the last 16 years. Ten years since the #OscarsSoWhite campaign began, it also feels like barely anything has changed. Only four of the 20 acting nominees were actors of color. Across ten screenplay nominees, only three had women screenwriters. No women-directed films appeared in Best International Feature Film while women of color continue to get excluded from Best Director. 

Emilia Perez, meanwhile, got 13 Oscar nominations while a slew of films from trans directors in 2024 went unrecognized. This happened a year after D. Smith's masterful Kokomo City didn't even make the SHORTLIST for Best Documentary Feature at the 96th Academy Awards. A little over five years ago, Honey Boy helmer Alma Har'el said it best when the Golden Globes excluded women filmmakers:

 "They’re immersed in this perpetuated activity of basking in male excellence and overseeing this whole new world we’re trying to build with new voices of women and people of color being part of the conversation...they don’t pay attention to new voices or value them in the same way they value men they are familiar with...our perspectives are the future of cinema. Do not make politically and financially driven award shows be the endgame of your career. Stop looking for justice at award shows. Connect with audiences. Build communities. Take your power back.”

The Oscars have failed us and will continue to fail us as long as they're tied to the troubled film industry and capitalism. It's totally okay to feel crushed about that given how much influence this ceremony has on what gets released and financed globally. However, Har'el said it best, we must not look to the Oscars "for justice." A genuine congratulations to Karla Sofia Gascon for making history as the first openly trans-acting Oscar nominee, ditto the modern classics like Anora, Nickel Boys, and I'm Still Here that will represent genuinely challenging and sublime cinema at the Oscars. Also, I just had a good time watching Wicked, so I'm glad it was "popular" enough to score some love.

Right now, though, allow me to shout "THIS IS BULLSHIT" put positivity into the world and spotlight some trans-centric films that are actually interested in trans existence (only three of them are helmed by cis-filmmakers). Because these films don't cater to white cis-het sensibilities, they've been overlooked by the Oscars, so now you can discover them as amazing cinematic gems. Let's go spread and champion art that actually reflects the world and cinema's limitless possibilities.

The films I'm spotlighting today are:

Cowboys

Drunktown's Finest

Lingua Franca

Stress Positions

Tangerine

The People's Joker 

I Saw the TV Glow

So Long Suburbia

Joyland

By Hook or By Crook

Kokomo City

Two quick notes:

Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang did make me laugh constantly while announcing the nominations, they were so clearly running on caffeine and jitters and it was so endearing. Sennott's "Alt-comedy is like the comedy scene except for gay men and women" line was perfect, what an icon. 

* = No, not everyone in Hollywood is a rich person living in a mansion, obviously. 99% of the people making a living in Los Angeles are working-class people. However, the Oscars have a history of preferring films related to the entertainment industry in any way over folks from other walks of life.