Everything Everywhere All at Once, eventual Best Picture Oscar winner, released

Everything Everywhere All at Once Released: March 11, 2022 Studio: IAC Films, Gozie AGBO, Year of the Rat, Ley Line Entertainment Genre: drama/absurdist comedy Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 77.19 Worldwide: 143.40 Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert Screenwriting: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis Review: Evelyn Quan Wang (Yeoh) delivers “a stellar performance” LB as a Chinese-American immigrant who runs a laundromat with her husband, Waymond (Quan). Amidst the stress of enduring an IRS audit and her husband trying to serve her divorce papers, Evelyn “discovers that she must connect with parallel versions of herself to prevent a powerful being from destroying the multiverse.” WK “She carries an incredibly complex story without missing a beat.” LB It is “a carefully crafted film, with one of the tightest screenplays you will ever encounter…Nothing you see is a throwaway line, or visual gag.” LB It is “a beautiful story of finding purpose and overcoming intergenerational trauma.” LB In addition to Wang, “amazing work is also done by the rest of the cast, especially Ke Huy Quan as Waymond Wang…and Stephanie Hsu as Joy Wang (Evelyn’s daughter).” LB The movie “explores philosophical themes such as existentialism, nihilism, surrealism, and absurdism, as well as themes such as neurodivergence, depression, generational trauma, and Asian American identity.” WK Wikipedia.org says the film incorporates elements from multiple genres, including “surreal comedy, science fiction, fantasy, martial arts films, immigrant narrative, and animation.” WK It was also inspired by several sources, including the video game Everything, the children’s book Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, and contemporary scholars such as philosopher Mary-Jane Rubenstein. WK Sources: LB LayeredButter.com review by Rodrigo Cokting WK Wikipedia.org

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 7: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Yeoh), Best Supporting Actor (Quan), Best Supporting Actress (Curtis), Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing Nominations: 11: Best Supporting Actress (Hsu), Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Costume Design First posted 2/26/2025.

Parasite, the eventual winner for the Best Picture Oscar, released

Parasite (Gisaengchung) Released: May 21, 2019 Studio: CJ Entertainment Genre: foreign/thriller Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 53.40 Worldwide: 258.70 Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: Bong Joon-ho Screenwriting: Bong Joon-ho Starring: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin Review: The South Korean black comedy Parasite tells the story of the Kims, a poor family who scheme and hide their true identities to land jobs with the wealthy Parks family. When the Parks are away on a trip, the Kims “revel in the luxuries of the house” WK and discover a secret bunker unknown even to the Parks family. It’s all part of an intricate story that takes unexpected twists and turns while offering “tense and unnerving commentary on social class and the disparity between the rich and the poor.” CM Director Bong Joon-ho co-wrote the script with Han Jin-won. Bong previously wrote a script for a play in 2013 based on his experience as a tutor for a wealthy family in Seoul. WK Bong cited The Housemaid, a 1960 Korean film about a middle-class family being disrupted by household help, as an influence. WK He also cited the story of Christine and Léa Papin, WK two French sisters who worked as live-in maids that murdered their employer’s wife and daughter in 1933. Bong explained the title of the film, saying, “Because the story is about the poor family infiltrating and creeping into the rich house, it seems very obvious that Parasite refers to the poor family…But if you look at it the other way, you can say that rich family, they’re also parasites in terms of labor. They can’t even wash dishes, they can’t drive themselves, so they leech off the poor family’s labor. So both are parasites.” WK “Bong Joon-ho’s masterpiece takes the viewer on a visceral rollercoaster full of twists and genuinely shocking developments throughout its suspenseful narrative. The amazing direction coupled with extremely empathetic performances helped make this film.” CM It is notable that this was the first foreign language film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Sources: CM The Crescent Magazine (11/14/2019). “Parasite (2019): Movie Review” by Reece Feldman WK Wikipedia

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Eras: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 4: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature Film Nominations: 6: Best Film Editing, Best Production Design Lists: First posted 2/26/2025; last updated 3/4/2025.

Moonlight wins Oscar for Best Picture...But Not Before an Awkward Mix-Up

Moonlight Released: Ocober 21, 2016 Studio: A24 Genre: romantic drama Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 27.85 Worldwide: 65.17 Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: Barry Jenkins Screenwriting: Barry Jenkins Starring: Trevante Rhodes, Mahershala Ali, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris, Alex R. Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, Jaden Piner Review: Moonlight is a coming-of-age romantic drama written and directed by Barry Jenkins. It was based on the unpublished, semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell Alvin McCraney. The movie looks at the struggles Chiron faces as a black homosexual man and the abuse he endured growing up by looking at his childhood (Hibbert), adolescence (Sanders), and adulthood (Rhodes). The story follows his relationship with Kevin, who is also depicted during childhood (Piner), adolescence (Jerome), and adulthood (Holland). However, Richard Brody of the New Yorker says, “the subject of Moonlight isn’t blackness or gayness; it’s one man whose many qualities include being black and being gay – and whose own keen awareness of his place in the world, and of its implications, is the high-pressure, high-heat forge of his densely solid, relentlessly opaque, yet terrifyingly vulnerable and fragile character.” NY This was “the first LGBTQ-themed-mass-marketed feature film with an all-black cast.” WK Mahershala Ali, who portrayed Juan, a drug dealer and father figure to Chiron, was the first Muslim to win an Oscar for acting. Moonlight’s win for Best Picture was the source of one of the most awkward moments in Oscar history. Presenter Warren Beatty was given the wrong card and incorrectly read that La La Land had won. During the acceptance speeches, the La La Land crew found out they hadn’t actually won and the mistake was corrected. Sources: NY NewYorker.com review by Richard Brody WK Wikipedia

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Eras: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 3: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Ali) Nominations: 8: Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Harris), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score Lists: First posted 3/4/2025.

Spotlight wins the Oscar for Best Picture

Spotlight Released: November 6, 2015 Studio: Open Road Films Genre: drama Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 45.06 Worldwide: 98.69 Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: Tom McCarthy Screenwriting: Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Live Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci Review: This 2015 movie is based on a series of stories reported by the investigative journalist unit (known as the “Spotlight” team) of The Boston Globe that earned a Pulitzer Prize in 2003. The movie focuses on the team investigating a decades-long coverup of widespread sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. Screenplay writers McCarthy and Singer display “an investigative reporter’s flair for seeing beyond the headlines and getting the story behind the story.” GN The “Spotlight” team, led by Walter “Robby” Robinson (Keaton), delves into an old story about accusations of child abuse against retired priest John Geoghan at the behest of Marty Baron (Schreiber), the new out-of-town editor. In regards to the rest of the cast, Ruffalo, as Michael Rezendes, is “the closest thing this ensemble cast has to a star turn, a long-suppressed outburst of emotion providing one of the film’s few grandstanding showstoppers.” GN As Sacha Pfeiffer, McAdams “has one of the very best scenes in the movie, a moment that balances a distant crisis of faith with the real and present courage of conviction.” GN “The journalists soon find themselves locking heads with both the religious and legal institutions at the heart of a wide-ranging, systemic cover-up.” GN Spotlight explores “how an entire community may become complicit in an unspoken crime.” GN In addition, the newspaper “must face up to its own shortcomings in failing to follow up a story that should have been front-page news several years ago.” GN Sources: GN The Guardian movie vewi by Mark Kermode WK Wikipedia

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Eras: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 2: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay Nominations: 6: Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Ruffalo), Best Supporting Actress (McAdams), Best Film Editing Lists: First posted 3/4/2025.

50 years ago: My Fair Lady, one of Broadway and Hollywood's most successful musicals

My Fair Lady Released: December 25, 1964 Studio: Warner Bros. Genre: musical/romance/comedy Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 72.00 Worldwide: ? Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: 589.27 Worldwide: 1015.95

Directing: George Cukor Screenwriting: Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe Starring: Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Gladys Cooper, Theodore Bikel Review: Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe crafted one of Broadway’s most successful musicals of all time out of George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion and then adapted the screenplay to be one of Hollywood’s most successful films of all time. Rex Harrison repeated his Tony Award-winning Broadway performance of Henry Higgins, an arrogant linguistics professor, for the screen and was awarded again, this time with an Oscar for Best Actor. He bets he can transform Eliza Doolittle (Hepburn), “a lowly, unrefined flower girl into a sophisticated, elite woman,” VD “just by teaching her to speak properly.” A98 Higgins ends up falling for his street-urchin-pupil-turned-proper-lady by the end. The ”lushly produced” VD is marked by “terrific tunes” VD including “I Could Have Danced All Night,” and “Wouldn’t It Be Lovely,” and “The Rain in Spain.” Sources: A98 American Film Institute (1998). “AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Movies” A07 American Film Institute (2007). “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition” VD Video Detective (1997). “Top 100 Films of All Time”

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists: Box Office: Oscars: Wins: 8 – including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Harrison), Best Color Cinematography, Best Color Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound, Best Score, Best Color Costume Design Nominations: 12 – including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Holloway), Best Supporting Actress (Cooper), Best Film Editing Other Awards: Other Lists/Honors: First posted 5/29/2023.