Oscar Nominations: 1
Animated feature
Where to Stream: Disney Plus
Set in Italy in the ’50s, Luca is modest to a fault, and feels generic. But it’s a visually beguiling small-town nostalgia trip, as well as a perfectly pleasant fish-out-of-water fable about a boy sea monster who longs to go ashore.
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Oscar Nominations: 1
Animated feature
Where to Stream: Netflix
Director Michael Rianda and writing partner Jeff Rowe are children of that pre-iPhone era, and together they’ve hatched a subversive delight that should appeal to Gen Y adults and tech-savvy kiddos alike. That’s because the tongue-in-cheek, ‘Terminator’-esque machine uprising isn’t really the hook here. Rianda and Rowe (also credited as co-director) based the characters on their own families, so the oh-so-relatable Mitchells are simultaneously universal and ultra-specific, but definitely not just some generic sitcom clan besieged by robots.”
Raya and the Last Dragon
Oscar Nominations: 1
Animated feature
Where to Stream: Disney Plus
The first major animated feature for a post-Trump era, ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ is as leftie a toon as Disney has ever made, though its core message of unity and come-togetherness should hardly seem political at all. Notably, it’s a movie with no villain, no love interest, no musical numbers and no talking animals — unless you count Awkwafina’s loquacious (and potentially world-saving) water dragon Sisu. Progressive as this formula-bending family movie may be, ‘Raya’ still feels every bit a Disney offering — one whose proactive princess ought to entertain and inspire kids to do more than passively await true love’s kiss.”
Cruella
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Oscar Nominations: 2
Costume
Makeup and hairstyling
Where to Stream: Disney Plus
Whereas Maleficent live-action Disney spinoff was an eyesore that risked tarnishing the appeal of the original, director Craig Gillespie’s ‘Cruella’ proves ingeniously creative in its reimagining of the underlying IP.
Cyrano
Oscar Nominations: 1
Costumed design
Where to Stream: Not available to stream. Opening in theaters Feb. 25
On those occasions when ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ is performed in English, it’s often stripped of its verse or played for laughter and farce, whereas Joe Wright’s splendid new adaptation presents ‘Cyrano’ as 21st-century MGM musical. By enlisting Bryce and Aaron Dessner of the National to compose the songs — lovely, wistful pop ballads for which Matt Berninger and Carin Besser supplied the lyrics — ‘Cyrano’ restores the show’s sense of poetry. At the same time, Wright, back on form and evidently reinvigorated by the pandemic, once again displays the kind of radical creativity that made early-career stunners ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Atonement’ so electrifying in their time.”
Four Good Days
Oscar Nominations: 1 Song
Where to Stream: Hulu
Four Good Days is based on a true story, and the way it plays out is both watchable and plausible.
When it comes to serious addiction, we’ve grown, as a society, far more sophisticated about the patterns of craving, narcissism, and deception that define the addict’s life.”
No Time to Die
Oscar Nominations: 3
Song
Sound
Visual effects
Where to Stream: Rent on Amazon or Apple
No Time to Die is an up-to-the-minute, down-to-the-wire James Bond thriller with a satisfying neoclassical edge. It’s an unabashedly conventional Bond film, made with finesse and the right touch of soul, as well as enough surprise.
Ascension
Oscar Nominations: Documentary
Where to Stream: Paramount Plus (or Prime Video with Paramount Plus)
“‘Ascension’ is Jessica Kingdon’s observational portrait of the economic growth of China, as well as the class divides that this expansion has exposed. The film debuted at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, where ‘Ascension’ debuted to rave reviews and awards for both best documentary and best new documentary filmmaker.
Attica
Oscar Nominations: 1
Documentary
Where to Stream: Showtime Anytime (or Hulu with Showtime)
Stanley Nelson’s stirring, scalding documentary about the 1971 Attica prison uprising, is an essential film that can now stand as a definitive vision of that epochal event. Drawing from a staggering array of footage that has never been seen before, Nelson puts the event together, moment by moment, day by day, with a clarifying view of its place in history and an empathy that extends to every person onscreen: prisoners and guards, officials and relatives, politicians and observers, the reporters who came and recorded it all. We see every point-of-view; the presentation isn’t so much ‘incendiary’ as novelistic.”
Summer of Soul
Oscar Nominations: 1
Documentary
Where to Stream: Hulu
Buried for 50 years, the spectacular filmed footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival reveals a musical moment — and a Black revolution — in full flower…It’s a music documentary like no other, because while it’s a joyful, cataclysmic, and soulfully seductive concert movie, what it’s really about is a key turning point in Black life in America.”
Writing With Fire
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Oscar Nominations: 1
Documentary
Where to Stream: Not streaming yet. Available to view on PBS beginning March 28
In some months’ time, cub reporter Shyamkali will solo pilot a story that brings an accused rapist to justice. But right now she is sitting in the shade of a tree with her boss Meera, who has spiked a story of hers because she didn’t like ‘the angle.’ The steep learning curve she will nimbly ascend is one of three tales of personal and professional persistence that directors Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh tell in their accessible, engaging debut doc ‘Writing With Fire,’ through which they’ll also tell the story of the Khabar Lahariya newspaper, and of India, in a time of seismic change. Thomas and Ghosh have found their angle, and it’s a powerful one.”
Lunana A Yak in the Classroom
Oscar Nominations: Documentary
Where to Stream: Rent on Amazon or Apple
The trusty old tale of a city slicker teacher being posted to a school in the sticks is given a fresh coat of paint in the delightful Bhutanese comic drama ‘Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom.’ Gloriously filmed on staggeringly beautiful locations around the most remote school on Earth and wonderfully performed by a cast comprised almost exclusively of first-time actors, this big-hearted crowd-pleaser marks a bright debut for writer-director Pawo Choyning Dorji.”
Coming 2 America
Oscar Nominations: Makeup and hairstyling
Where to Stream: Amazon Prime Video
House of Gucci
Oscar Nominations: 1
Makeup and hairstyling
Where to Stream: Buy on Amazon or Hulu
“‘House of Gucci’ has a transfixing backstabbing allure. It may be a drama about a crazy rich Euro chic Old World fashion dynasty, with a cast dominated by American actors scheming and emoting in gaudy Italian accents, but that doesn’t mean it’s some operatic piece of high camp.”
Free Guy
Oscar Nominations: Visual effects
Where to Stream: Disney Plus, Feb. 23
In ‘Free Guy’ — an inventive, much-better-than-you’d-expect 2020 summer tentpole that’s finally being released post-pandemic — Ryan Reynolds plays a video game character who doesn’t realize that his world isn’t real.”
Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Oscar Nominations: Visual effects
Where to Stream: Disney Plus
The most obscure Marvel Cinematic Universe character to get his own stand-alone movie to date, the comic book mega-company’s ‘Master of Kung Fu’ may not be a household name (not yet, at least), but you wouldn’t know that from ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,’ a flashy, Asian-led visual effects extravaganza that gives the second-tier hero the same over-the-top treatment that big-timers like Hulk and Thor typically get.”
Spider-Man: No Way Home
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Oscar Nominations: Visual effects
Where to Stream: Not streaming yet. Available to stream on Starz later this year. Playing in theaters.
Convoluted as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has gotten, Holland’s latest opus spins two decades and three iterations of the Spidey brand into a satisfying meta-adventure.”
