Howe's World of Film and TV

Oscar Nomination Predictions

Everything ranked in order of what I currently think is most likely.

Most Predicted Nominations

Babylon – 11

Best Picture

The Fablemans

Everything Everywhere all at Once

The Banshees of Inisherin

Top Gun: Maverick

Women Talking

Babylon

TAR

The Whale

She Said

Aftersun

Major Surprise – Avatar: The Way of Water/Triangle of Sadness

Best Director

Steven Spielberg – The Fablemans

Daniels – Everything Everywhere all at Once

Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin

Sarah Polley – Women Talking

Damien Chazelle – Babylon

Major Surprise – Ruben Ostlund/Alejandro G. Inarritu

Best Actor

Brendan Fraser – The Whale

Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin

Austin Butler – Elvis

Bill Nighy – Living

Paul Mescal – Aftersun

Major Surprise – Hugh Jackman/Daniel Giménez Cacho

Best Actress

Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere all at Once

Cate Blanchett – TAR

Michelle Williams – The Fablemans

Margot Robbie – Babylon

Danielle Deadwyler – Till

Major Surprise – Naomi Ackie/Olivia Colman

Best Supporting Actor

Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere all at Once

Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees of Inisherin

Paul Dano – The Fablemans

Ben Whishaw – Women Talking

Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin

Major Surprise – Judd Hirsch/Mark Rylance

Best Supporting Actress

Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin

Jessie Buckley – Women Talking

Claire Foy – Women Talking

Hong Chau – The Whale

Carey Mulligan – She Said

Major Surprise – Jamie Lee Curtis/Dolly de Leon

Best Original Screenplay

The Banshees of Inisherin

Everything Everywhere all at Once

The Fablemans

Triangle of Sadness

Babylon

Major Surprise – Aftersun/TAR

Best Adapted Screenplay

Women Talking

The Whale

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story

She Said

Living

Major Surprise – White Noise/Bones & All

Best Animated Feature

Pinocchio

Turning Red

Strange World

My Father’s Dragon

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Major Surprise – Wendell and Wild/The Sea Monster

Best Documentary Feature

Navalny

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Fire of Love

The Territory

Descendant

Major Surprise – Good Night Oppy/Sr.

Best International Feature

Decision to Leave

All Quiet on the Western Front

Bardo

Holy Spider

Major Surprise – Saint Omer/EO

Best Cinematography

Babylon

The Fablemans

Avatar: The Way of Water

Bardo

Empire of Light

Major Surprise – All Quiet on the Western Front/Top Gun: Maverick

Best Film Editing

Everything Everywhere all at Once

Top Gun: Maverick

The Fablemans

The Banshees of Inisherin

Babylon

Major Surprise – Women Talking/Elvis

Best Production Design

Babylon

Elvis

The Fablemans

Avatar: The Way of Water

Pinocchio

Major Surprise – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever/Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Best Costume Design

Babylon

Elvis

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris

The Fablemans

Major Surprise – Everything Everywhere All at Once/The Woman King

Best Make-Up and Hairstyling

The Whale

Elvis

Babylon

The Batman

Everything Everywhere all at Once

Major Surprise – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever/X

Best Sound

Top Gun: Maverick

Avatar: The Way of Water

Babylon

Elvis

The Batman

Major Surprise – All Quiet on the Western Front/Everything Everywhere all at Once

Best Visual Effects

Avatar: The Way of Water

Top Gun: Maverick

Everything Everywhere all at Once

The Batman

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Major Surprise – Pinocchio/Nope

Best Original Score

Babylon

The Fablemans

Women Talking

The Banshees of Inisherin

Empire of Light

Major Surprise – Pinocchio/The Batman

Best Original Song

“Hold My Hand” – Top Gun: Maverick

“Lift Me Up” – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

“Ciao Papa” – Pinocchio

“Naatu Naatu” – RRR

“Carolina” – Where the Crawdads Sing

Major Surprise – “Nobody Like U” – Turning Red/” Applause” – Tell It Like a Woman

Aftersun – London Film Festival 2022 Review

Directed by Charlotte Wells. Starring Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio. 2022.

Charlotte Wells makes her directorial debut with a staggering achievement of a film, one that leaves the audience shaken by its quiet beauty and tragedy.

It stars Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio as our leads, a father and daughter enjoying a holiday to Turkey together, as they both go through formative moments in their life.

Mescal, fresh off his star making turn as Connell in Normal People, makes another enormous impression here as a vulnerable and stoic character, but one who is very different to Connell.

He plays Callum, a loving father who on the surface is a fun and happy man, but behind close doors is struggling deeply with his mental health, and we see that play out achingly in this film. In a devastating and beautifully underplayed scene, he mentions how he “never saw himself at 30” and this is an ominous dread that hangs over the rest of the film.

The sun soaked background wonderfully contradicts with the dark inner turmoil Callum is trying to keep from the surface, and in a few haunting scenes, is unable to.

The ending and the characters fate is left ambiguous, for the audience to decide what happened and take from it what they will. Everyone will bring their own experiences to this too, and from a very personal level, as someone who lost their father at a young age, this film brilliantly captured the yearning feeling of looking back at experiences with them and realising they were protecting us so much and we never even knew it.

Charlotte Wells is telling the story of her life and her relationship with her father, and at the same time she is telling a universal story of fatherhood and mental health.

Aftersun achieves many things, it is a funny and heartwarming tale of a father and daughter on holiday, it is a exploration of parenthood and mental health, it is a coming of age film, and it is a time capsule of a directors memories.

It is the film of the festival.

The Banshees of Inisherin – London Film Festival 2022 Review

Directed by Martin McDonagh. Starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. 2022

There are very few films that can make an audience cry tears of laughter and sadness within minutes of each other, but Martin McDonagh manages it with apparent ease here. Banshees is his most mature and emotionally complex film yet.

Some of the shots and interiors look like they were taken straight from a Vermeer painting, capturing everyday life in its mundane beauty, a real distinct choice that makes the film feel so lived in and unique. Everything is so quiet and unassuming that you see on screen, and because of that it has a real beauty and also a underlying sadness, which is then reflected back in many of the lives of the characters.

Colm is a man struggling with his mental health and also battling the fear of not having a legacy to leave once he has died, scared he has wasted his life on “pointless chat” and makes drastic decisions because of this. This is something Banshees really explores with all its characters, the idea of being a good person in the moment v a long lasting legacy or art to leave behind, and being happy and content in your little life v searching out something bigger and brighter for yourself. In a wonderful scene where Colm argues that “no one remembers nice”, Padraic argues that his sister is nice and he will “remember her, always”. It is a very simple but devastating and compelling scene, that really reflects the wonderful and nuanced work that McDonagh does here.

It is very rare that in one film you can have four performances so fleshed out and impactful as we get here; Farrell, Gleeson, Keoghan and Condon all truly shine.

Farrell leads the cast with a deeply effecting and underplayed performance. He is a truly kind man, troubled by the sudden dislike his friend has for him and questioning his place on the island, as life becomes increasingly lonely for him.

Gleeson, full on silent fury and sadness here, turns what could have been a very one note villain role (not that McDonagh would ever write that), into something much more complex and harrowing.

Keoghan is one of our brightest rising stars and he is absolutely devastating here, and Kerry Condon is arguably the star of the show. A performance full of fire and heart and years of suffering. She is remarkable and will surely be a contender for awards later in the year.

Overall, Banshees is truly a unique and special film. Both hilarious and heartbreaking. Something that will stick with the viewer long after the lights have gone up.

Most Anticipated Films of 2022 – Blockbuster

The blockbuster genre now seems almost entirely taken up by comic book movies, and that is sad at times and is reflected in this list too. However, some of the films here do seem to be taking some real artistic risks, and should be fascinating to see unfold.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One (dir. Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin Thompson)

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (dir. Sam Raimi)

The Batman (dir. Matt Reeves)

Scream (dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gilett) – Already released!

Bullet Train (dir. David Leitch)

Thor: Love and Thunder (dir. Taika Waititi)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (dir. Ryan Coogler)

Jurassic World: Dominion (dir. Colin Trevorrow)

Creed III (dir. Michael B. Jordan)

Avatar 2 (dir. James Cameron)

Most Anticipated Films of 2022 – Comedy

Many of the films listed here aren’t the traditional broad comedies in the ‘Adam Sandler’ mould, but those sorts of films don’t get made much anymore. Instead, we have much more dramedy and comedies that also tackle other genres.

Realistically, the answer to top the list is of course is Knives Out 2, there’s nothing else that even comes close.

Untitled Knives Out Sequel (dir. Rian Johnson)

Disappointment Blvd (dir. Ari Aster)

Asteroid City (dir. Wes Anderson)

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (dir. Tom Gormican)

Next Goal Wins (dir. Taika Waititi)

Ticket to Paradise (dir. Ol Parker)

Jackass Forever (dir. Jeff Tremaine)

The Bubble (dir. Judd Apatow)

The Lost City (dir. Aaron Nee, Adam Nee)

The Man From Toronto (dir. Patrick Hughes)

Most Anticipated Films of 2022 – Horror/Thriller

Thrillers and horrors can overlap as a genre a lot, and also can be very different, so grouping them wasn’t ideal but it is the best way I could find to do this list.

Looking at the films to come, it is a remarkable list of directors that have films coming in this genre, some of the finest people working today.

The Killer (dir. David Fincher)

Don’t Worry Darling (dir. Olivia Wilde)

Crimes of the Future (dir. David Cronenberg)

Poor Things (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)

Nope (dir. Jordan Peele)

Bones & All (dir. Luca Guadagnino)

Decision to Leave (dir. Park Chan-wook)

Men (dir. Alex Garland)

Infinity Pool (dir. Brandon Cronenberg)

X (dir. Ti West)

Final Oscar Nomination Predictions

With the Oscar nominations officially announced tomorrow, these are my final nomination predictions, before attention turns to what will win. Here I predict what I think the nominations will be (these are not my personal picks for what should be nominated) and I will confuse to evolve this as the season develops. So many categories are tough to call, with best actress in particular being an absolute minefield. Lets see how close I get…

Picture

The Power of the Dog
Belfast
West Side Story
Dune
Licorice Pizza
Don’t Look Up
King Richard
Coda
Being the Ricardos
Drive My Car

Alternate – Tick, Tick… Boom

Director

Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog
Denis Villeneuve – Dune
Paul Thomas Anderson – Licorice Pizza
Steven Spielberg – West Side Story
Kenneth Branagh – Belfast

Alternate – Ryusuke Hamaguchi – Drive My Car

Actor

Benedict Cumberbatch – The Power of the Dog
Will Smith – King Richard
Andrew Garfield – Tick, Tick… Boom
Denzel Washington – The Tragedy of Macbeth
Leonardo DiCaprio – Don’t Look Up

Alternate – Javier Bardem – Being the Ricardos

Actress

Nicole Kidman – Being the Ricardos
Lady Gaga – House of Gucci
Olivia Colman – The Lost Daughter
Alana Haim – Licorice Pizza
Jessica Chastain – The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Alternate – Renate Reinsve – The Worst Person in the World

Supporting Actor

Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Power of the Dog
Troy Kotsur – CODA
Ciaran Hinds – Belfast
Bradley Cooper – Licorice Pizza
Jared Leto – House of Gucci

Alternate – Mike Faist – West Side Story

Supporting Actress

Ariana DeBose – West Side Story
Caitriona Balfe – Belfast
Kirsten Dunst – The Power of the Dog
Aunjanue Ellis – King Richard
Ruth Negga – Passing

Alternate – Cate Blanchett – Nightmare Alley

Original Screenplay

Belfast
Licorice Pizza
Don’t Look Up
King Richard
Being the Ricardos

Alternate – Parallel Mothers

Adapted Screenplay

The Power of the Dog
CODA
The Lost Daughter
West Side Story
Drive My Car

Alternate – Dune

Animated Feature

Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchell’s vs. the Machines
Raya and the Last Dragon

Alternate – Belle

Documentary Feature

Flee
The Rescue
Summer of Soul
Procession
The First Wave

Alternate – Ascension

International Feature

Drive My Car
The Worst Person in the World
Flee
A Hero
The Hand of God

Alternate – I’m Your Man

Cinematography

Dune
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
Belfast
West Side Story

Alternate – Nightmare Alley

Costume Design

Dune
Cruella
West Side Story
House of Gucci
Nightmare Alley

Alternate – Cyrano

Film Editing

Dune
The Power of the Dog
Belfast
Don’t Look Up
Licorice Pizza

Alternate – West Side Story

Make-Up & Hairstyling

Dune
House of Gucci
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Cruella
Cyrano

Alternate – Coming 2 America

Original Score

The Power of the Dog
Dune
The French Dispatch
Don’t Look Up
Encanto

Alternate – Parallel Mothers

Original Song

“No Time to Die” – No Time to Die
“Dos Oruguitas” – Encanto
“Be Alive” – King Richard
“Just Look Up” – Don’t Look Up
“Down to Joy” – Belfast

Alternate – “Beyond the Shore” – CODA

Production Design

Dune
Nightmare Alley
West Side Story
The French Dispatch
The Tragedy of Macbeth

Alternate – Belfast

Sound

Dune
West Side Story
Belfast
No Time to Die
A Quiet Place Part II

Alternate – The Power of the Dog

Visual Effects

Dune
No Time to Die
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
The Matrix Resurrections
Spider-Man: No Way Home

Alternate – Godzilla vs. Kong

Most Anticipated Films of 2022 – Drama

There are so many incredible films in the drama genre due out in 2022, especially from a raft of our greatest filmmakers, and a mix of the old guard and the new guard at that.

There will of course be films we don’t even know about yet that end up stealing the show in 2022, but right now, this is a list of my most anticipated films in this genre, due out in 2022.

Babylon (dir. Damien Chazelle)

Blonde (die. Andrew Dominik)

Killers of the Flower Moon (dir. Martin Scorsese)

The Northman (dir. Robert Eggers)

The Fablemans (dir. Steven Spielberg

Armageddon Time (dir. James Gray)

White Noise (dir. Noah Baumbach)

Untitled ‘David O’Russell’ Film (dir. David O’Russell)

The Whale (dir. Darren Aronofsky)

Women Talking (dir. Sarah Polley)

The Son (dir. Florian Zeller)

Oscar Nomination Predictions

With the Oscar nominations just round the corner, this is the start of my coverage of this years awards season. Here I predict what I think the nominations will be (these are not my personal picks for what should be nominated) and I will confuse to evolve this as the season develops.

Picture

– The Power of the Dog

– Belfast

– West Side Story

– Dune

– King Richard

– Don’t Look Up

– Coda

– Licorice Pizza

– Drive My Car

– Being the Ricardos

Alternate – Tick, Tick… Boom!

Director

– Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog

– Kenneth Branagh – Belfast

– Steven Spielberg – West Side Story

– Denis Villeneuve – Dune

– Ryusuke Hamaguchi – Drive My Car

Alternate – Paul Thomas Anderson – Licorice Pizza

Actor

– Will Smith – King Richard

– Andrew Garfield – Tick, Tick… Boom

– Benedict Cumberbatch – The Power of the Dog

– Denzel Washington – The Tragedy of Macbeth

– Javier Bardem – Being the Ricardo’s

Alternate – Peter Dinklage – Cyrano

Actress

– Nicole Kidman – Being the Ricardo’s

– Olivia Colman – The Lost Daughter

– Lady Gaga – House of Gucci

– Kristen Stewart – Spencer

– Jessica Chastain – The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Alternate – Penelope Cruz – Parallel Mothers

Supporting Actor

– Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Power of the Dog

– Troy Kotsur – Coda

– Ciaran Hinds – Belfast

– Bradley Cooper – Licorice Pizza

– Jared Leto – House of Gucci

Alternate – Jamie Dornan – Belfast

Supporting Actress

– Ariana DeBose – West Side Story

– Kirsten Dunst – The Power of the Dog

– Caitriona Balfe – Belfast

– Cate Blanchett – Nightmare Alley

– Aunjanue Ellis – King Richard

Alternate – Ruth Negga – Passing

Adapted Screenplay

– The Power of the Dog

– The Lost Daughter

– West Side Story

– Dune

– Drive My Car

Alternate – Passing

Original Screenplay

– Belfast

– Licorice Pizza

– Being the Ricardo’s

– Don’t Look Up

– C’mon C’mon

Alternate – King Richard

Animated Feature

– Encanto

– The Mitchells vs. the Machines

– Flee

– Luca

– Raya and the Last Dragon

Alternate – Sing 2

Documentary Feature

– Summer of Soul

– Flee

– Ascension

– The Rescue

– The Velvet Underground

Alternate – Attica

International Feature

– Drive My Car

– The Worst Person in the World

– The Hand of God

– A Hero

– Flee

Alternate – Great Freedom

Cinematography

– Dune

– The Power of the Dog

– West Side Story

– Belfast

– The Tragedy of Macbeth

Alternate – No Time to Die

Costume Design

– West Side Story

– Dune

– Cruella

– The French Dispatch

– Nightmare Alley

Alternate – Licorice Pizza

Film Editing

– Dune

– West Side Story

– Belfast

– The Power of the Dog

– No Time to Die

Alternate – Summer of Soul

Make-Up & Hairstyling

– Dune

– West Side Story

– Cruella

– The Eyes of Tammy Faye

– House of Gucci

Alternate – No Time to Die

Original Score

– Dune

– The Power of the Dog

– The French Dispatch

– Don’t Look Up

– Encanto

Alternate – King Richard

Original Song

– “No Time to Die” – No Time to Die

– “Be Alive” – King Richard

– “Guns Go Bang” – The Harder They Fall

– “Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” – Respect

– “So May We Start” – Annette

Alternate – “Just Look Up” – Don’t Look Up

Production Design

– Dune

– West Side Story

– Belfast

– The French Dispatch

– Nightmare Alley

Alternate – The Power of the Dog

Sound

– West Side Story

– Dune

– No Time to Die

– Belfast

– The Power of the Dog

Alternate – Tick, Tick… Boom

Visual Effects

– Dune

– No Time to Die

– The Matrix Resurrections

– Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

– Spider-Man: No Way Home

Alternate – Godzilla vs. Kong

The Beta Test (2021) – Review

Following on the back of two acclaimed films on the indie circuit with Thunder Road and The Wolf of Snow Hollow, director Jim Cummings returns again with The Beta Test (this time co-written and directed by his co-star PJ McCabe).

Experiencing The Beta Test in the best way is to go in knowing as little as possible, so I will ensure in this review that their are no spoilers.

Jordan (Jim Cummings) is a Hollywood agent who is soon to be married, but he begins to quickly fall apart when he is drawn into a conspiracy and a threat to him due to his own greed and arrogance. He begins to act irrationally and take it out on everyone around him, constantly lying and manipulating people to try and save his skin as his life falls apart.

This film is not just a clear take on toxic masculinity, but more specifically on Hollywood and how it is ripping itself apart, especially in the last few years as those in power try to cling on to the ‘old ways’ and the things they used to be able to get away with.

Cummings appears in almost every scene of the film and is giving a truly go for broke performance, which will definitely not work for everyone but you really have to respect. He is frenzied, aggressive, incredibly unlikable and all round unpredictable.

It may sound like an odd comparison, but Cummings’ work brings to mind Tom Hardy in Venom, where an actor is giving such an over the top performance that’s so different to everyone else in the film that they feel like they are almost in a separate film altogether, and yet it somehow works.

The film is at its best when it is an absurd satire of Hollywood, but when it tries to be a mystery thriller or also be a take on the digital world and data manipulation, it really starts to fall apart. The film is just not able to handle the tonal shifts or ever able to be a compelling mystery.

With all that said, ‘The Beta Test’ is a go for broke satire of the toxicity in Hollywood, with a strong performance from its leading man. It definitely doesn’t all work and at times goes off the tracks, but when it hits, it really hits. Will leave you shaken when you finish, for good or bad.

Rating = 3/5