Oscar Nomination Thoughts, Praising a Singing Chimp and Visiting a Haunted House
Plus new reviews of Presence and Star Trek: Section 31.
Doing a weekend grab bag here with some quick-ish thoughts on this week’s Oscar nominations, a couple of new weekend releases, and that wacky financial flop movie where the British pop star is played by a CGI chimpanzee.
Oscar Nominations
There were so many excellent horror movies in 2025, but we all knew there was never a real chance the Academy would actually recognize the likes of The First Omen or Smile 2 or the standout performances in them - and even a legit push for Hugh Grant’s terrific work in Heretic didn’t lead to a nomination. So that being said, how awesome is it to see The Substance receive five nominations, including for Best Picture?! It’s amazingly rare for a horror movie to sneak into the main categories, much less one filled with graphic body horror, but entirely well deserved here. And it adds an even cooler layer to Coralie Fargeat being nominated for Best Director - amongst the maddening statistic that this is only the 10th time a woman has been nominated in that category.
As for the rest of the nominations, I didn’t hate Emilia Pérez like some, but I sure didn’t think it was great either and am baffled, like many, that this oh-so messy movie received 13 nominations. I know many think/fear it’ll Green Book its way to victory, but I hope not, given it’s easily the weakest, by far, of the films up for Best Picture.
Most vexing to me among the movies that failed to get a nomination (and actually had a shot with Academy members) was the complete absence of Challengers - but most especially for Original Score. That movie played like an opera, with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ fantastic music propelling it along start to finish, and it seems bizarre it didn’t get a nomination.
Better Man, Better Musical
It was funny to have Emilia Pérez receive all those Oscar nominations just a couple days after I saw the mega-bomb Better Man, because wow is Better Man the superior movie musical. I vaguely know who Robbie Williams is but couldn’t name any of his songs (though I did recognize a couple hearing them in the movie) and completely agree with the sentiment that it’s just weird/funny to have this high concept, big budget studio biopic released about a guy who never became that famous in the US. But a good movie is a good movie and Better Man is damn good.
Director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) makes this a propulsive, involving story. And the gimmick of having the “un-evolved” Williams portrayed by a CG chimpanzee works both because of Gracey’s heightened yet empathetic approach and the excellent special effects from Wētā, who brought Better Man its one Oscar nomination.
The musical numbers are great, filled with wonderful choreography and dynamic cinematography - just look at the “Rock DJ” number above. And the movie is legitimately emotional. It doesn’t matter that I barely knew anything about Williams going in and had never heard of his ex-fiancée, Nicole Appleton (and her own successful pop career), because the storytelling made their doomed relationship heartbreaking. It overcomes the sameness (and Walk Hard parody shadow) of so many musician biopics both thanks to its offbeat approach and for the way it focuses on elements like Robbie’s relationships as focal points.
The complete box office failure of Better Man means that it’s already basically gone from theaters but when it hits digital on February 11 (and Paramount+ after that), I suspect it will begin to build the cult audience it deserves.
New Reviews (and a Haunted House Visit)
You can check out my reviews of a couple of new movies below - the theatrical release Presence and the Paramount+ original Star Trek: Section 31.
The screening of Presence I attended was a fun event one via Beyond Fest, held at a “real” haunted house, L.A.’s Carondelet House. It was hard to feel too creeped out when you’re at an event with a bunch of other people around you at all times, but I appreciated both the house’s natural, 100-year old spooky old place vibe and the ambiance added for the event, candle-lined staircases included.
I also enjoyed having my aura read. It seems I have a violet aura and that I’ve got a lot of great ideas that haven’t come to fruition yet!
As for my thoughts on Steven Soderbergh’s first foray into the supernatural, check out my review of Presence.
And then there’s Star Trek: Section 31 and, well… Sigh. You can see me elaborate below on the unfortunate outcome of a Star Trek: Discovery spinoff announced years ago.