The Brutalist premiered at the Venice Film Festival

The Brutalist Released: September 1, 2024 Studio: A24, UIP-Duna Film, Universal Pictures, Focus Features Genre: epic period drama Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 14.59 Worldwide: 31.31 Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: Brady Corbet Screenwriting: Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold Starring: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce Review: The Brutalist is an epic period drama directed and co-written by Brady Corbet. László Tóth (Brody) is a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor who immigrates to the United States. He ends up a heroin addict who shovels coal and lives in charity housing until a wealthy client, Harrison Lee Van Buren (Pearce), learns about Tóth’s past as “an accomplished architect in Europe” WK and commissions him toe build a community center in honor of Van Buren’s late mother. Felicity Jones is Erzsébet, Tóth’s wife. She is separated from her husband when they are in the concentration camp and Tóth does not know if she’s alive when he first comes to America. Van Buren helps expediate her immigration to America, but life isn’t all rosy as the couple endure bigotry. FlickFilosopher.com’s Mary Ann Johanson said the film is “Stark and unsentimental, as stubborn and as challenging as its protagonist, and as monumental as his works. Adrien Brody’s performance is extraordinary, full of flinty anger and palpable melancholy.” FF Corbet “has pulled out all the stops to remind us what cinema used to be and, one senses the desperate urgency of subliminal appeal, could be again.” FF The film premiered September 1, 2024, at the Venice Film Festival where Corbet won the award for Best Director. It was released in the United States on December 20, 2024. Sources: FF FlickFilosopher.com movie review by Mary Ann Johanson WK Wikipedia

Awards/Honors/Lists: Eras: Awards: Oscars: Wins: ? Nominations: 10: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Brody), Best Supporting Actress (Jones), Best Supporting Actor (Pearce), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Original Score First posted 3/2/2025.

The Power of the Dog released

The Power of the Dog Released: September 2, 2021 Studio: Netflix Genre: Western Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: -- Worldwide: 0.27 Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: Jane Campion Screenwriting: Jane Campion Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee Review: The Power of the Dog is a Western psychological drama based on Thomas Savage’s 1961 novel. Jane Campion adapted the screenplay and directed the movie. It was given a limited theatrical release before being streamed on Netflix. It “is a thought-provoking, deep study of (toxic) masculinity surrounded by exceptional performances and truly stunning cinematography.” MSB Brothers Phil (Cumberbatch) and George Burbank (Plemons) own a ranch in 1925 Montana. George “is a kind, decent, presentable man who treats women with the utmost respect,” MSB while Phil is “the epitome of a toxic male.” MSB They meet Rose Gordon (Dunst), an inn owner. George is taken with her and they marry but Phil dislikes her, certain she only wants his brother’s money. When her teenage son Peter (Smit-McPhee) “arrives at the ranch for the summer break that the story starts going through surprising developments with a clear, shocking outcome.” MSB Phil belittles him as effeminate in an effort to cover up his own homosexuality. “When their arcs cross paths, the movie offers some of the most captivating, tense moments of the entire runtime.” MSB “Campion takes the best out of her technical crew, using the award-worthy cinematography to pull the audience closer to the complex characters. The dark, cold interiors contrast with the broad, breathtaking landscapes in a remarkable fashion.” MSB Sources: MSB MSB Reviews WK Wikipedia

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Eras: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 1. Best Director Nominations: 12. Best Picture, Best Actor (Cumberbatch), Best Supporting Actor (Plemons), Best Supporting Actor (Smit-McPhee), Best Supporting Actress (Dunst), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound First posted 3/2/2025.

Nomadland, the eventual Best Picture Oscar winner, released

Nomadland Released: September 11, 2020 Studio: Highwayman, Hear/Say Productions, Cor Cordium Productions, Searchlight Pictures Genre: drama Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 3.70 Worldwide: 39.46 Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: Chloé Zhao Screenwriting: Chloé Zhao Starring: Frances McDormand Review: Frances McDormand stars “as a widow who leaves her life in Nevada to travel around the United States in her van as a nomad” WK in this “docu-fictional hybrid” GN based on Jessica Bruder’s 2017 non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century. The movie captures a sad “a new phenomenon: America’s 60- and 70-something generation whose economic future was shattered by the 2008 crash. They are grey-haired middle-class strivers reduced to poverty who can’t afford to retire but can’t afford to work while maintaining a home. So they have become nomads, a new American tribe roaming the country in camper vans in which they sleep, looking for seasonal work.” GN However, the movie also shows “that, along with the hardship and the heartache, there is also serenity in this way of life, even a kind of euphoria – without the burdens of a house and possessions you can have a glorious and very American freedom in the lost tradition of Emerson and Twain.” GN The movie was written, produced, directed, and edited by Chloé Zhao. She became only the second woman to win an Oscar for Best Director and the first Asian woman. She was also the first to be nominated in four categories in a single year. Sources: GN The Guardian movie review by Peter Bradshaw WK Wikipedia

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 3. Best Picture, Best Director (Chloé Zhao), Best Actress (McDormand) Nominations: 6. Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Cinematography First posted 3/1/2025.

Boyhood released

Boyhood Released: July 11, 2014 Studio: IFC Films Genre: coming-of-age drama Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 25.38 Worldwide: 48.17 Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: Richard Linklater Screenwriting: Richard Linklater Starring: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater Review: Boyhood was an ambitious coming-of-age film built on an idea that could easily have derailed. Director and writer Richard Linklater follows the life of Mason Evans, Jr. (Coltrane) from age six to eighteen. The story also follows his divorced parents (Arquette, Hawke) and his sister (Linklater). The challenge was that Linklater used the same actors throughout the more-than-decade long project, filming from 2002 through 2013. Because of the nature of the project, Linklater had only vague script ideas to guide the project and from year to year would incorporate changes into the script based on each actor. Along the journey, the family – and Mason in particular – is confronted with divorce, alcoholism, abuse, drug use, adolescence, and relationships. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called Boyhood “one of the great films of the decade.” GN He goes to far as to say that the movie “is so ambitious and passionate that I can’t imagine anyone cranking out another conventional ‘coming-of-age’ picture. That genre now looks to be obsolete.” GN “Boyhood ins touch with a simple, urgent truth: life is terrifying short. While our childhood in progress seems like an aeon, to our parents it flashes past in a dreamlike instant.” GN “The movie invites us to see Mason from an estranged-dad’s-eye-view…But the point is that all parents are estranged, continually and suddenly waking up to how their children are growing, progressively assuming the separateness and privacy of adulthood.” GN Sources: GN The Guardian review by Peter Bradshaw WK Wikipedia

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Eras: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 1: Best Supporting Actress (Arquette) Nominations: 6: Best Movie, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor (Hawke), Best Editing Hall of Fames: Lists: First posted 3/4/2/25.