The Oscars at Our House 2026
Hits and Misses, Snubs, DNFs, and the Catholic Church
For twenty-some years now, Mrs D and I have made it an annual quest to see all of the movies nominated for Best Picture by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The goal is to complete the quest before Oscar Night to better enjoy the festivities. This year, I saw all ten BP noms, while Mrs D saw approximately 8.25; the discrepancy is explained below.
So, that’s our tradition, and for more than ten years now I’ve written about it, with surprisingly few angry complaints. As I always say, I’m no film student or trained critic, just a regular dude who loves movies and likes the sound of his own voice (or the click-clack of his keyboard at least).
Anyway, here come the reviews, listed in the order I saw the films…
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER - DeCaprio is endearing as the bumbling ex-revolutionary. Tenaya Taylor is just plain hard to look away from. Visually, the film is beautiful with just the right amount of grit. But the story hits a comic-book level of implausibility, and Sean Penn’s character and portrayal is at times laughably over-the-top right down to the name, Stephen J. Lockjaw. I read that it’s supposed to be a “black comedy action-thriller,” and all I have to say to that is, make up your mind.
SINNERS - Thoroughly disappointing. First of all, I could hardly see most of the picture. It’s seemingly filmed in what is the trendy “natural lighting” technique popular these days. It may have been watchable in the theater, but on my smart 60-inch TV the lighting was so poor the characters’ emotions were essentially unintelligible most of the time. Even the white characters. To me that is just bad storytelling. And I’m not the only one who had this experience. It was easy to find various threads online where many other viewers expressed the same frustration. Secondly, it’s a vampire movie with lots of blood and gore. Plus it features some blues and some ‘bluesy’ show tunes. So, a vampire musical, definitely not my usual jam.
F1 - Old fashioned entertainment of the underdog/iconoclast against the system variety. Has the feel of a good old Paul Newman movie but with Brad Pitt filling in. Long on racing sequences but they’re so well done and so deeply woven into the emotional arc that it’s always engaging. This one will get a second watch down the line.
BUGONIA - Fortunately I already have a subscription to Peacock, so I didn’t have to pay extra to see this one. Billed as a “surreal dark comedy,” but only lived up to the surreal and dark part. The character Don was such an obvious and clumsy device, only in the movie so we could hear the lunacies of his cousin, and then cast off without clear story logic. The twist at the end was predictable and trope-y. I can only surmise that this movie got Oscar attention purely because of the stars involved, which wasn’t enough for me.
MARTY SUPREME - Fast moving and mostly entertaining. Timothy Chalamet is magnetic as hell, but his character Marty is infuriatingly selfish and self-involved and obsessed. He treats everyone around him terribly and without anything resembling remorse. My empathy for him ended when he left the injured dog behind. Also, among writers a popular maxim is that Story is transformation, and usually there are discernible steps or turns along the way; this is known as character arc, but Marty’s transformation is jarringly instantaneous. He’s a complete asshole until he gets what he wants, then he sees his newborn child, then BAM, he’s suddenly a loving partner and involved father and the movie’s over. I found that hard to buy into.
HAMNET- What a lovely, sad, intriguing, devastating film. Jessie Buckley is wonderful as Agnes, dare I say luminous. All the other players excel as well. Visually, it’s beautiful and enchanting in its evocation of Shakespeare’s time and place. And ultimately it’s a stirring tribute to the cathartic and restorative power of art, as well as a work of art itself.
THE SECRET AGENT is largely in Portuguese and German. A bit hard to follow even with subtitles unless you’re a fast reader. So, if you’re a bit dyslexic like Mrs D, you’re SOL. But it is an interesting film from a historical and political standpoint, a sort of ground-level glimpse into authoritarian repression in 1977 Brazil. Critics praise its visual style, which I agree was dynamic and artistic, somehow muted and grainy in a measured way that felt perfect for the geographical and historical setting. But the weird public sex scenes seemed implausible and gratuitous, not in any crucial way connected to the plot, atmospheric at best. I thought it ran a bit long, but I was mostly engaged throughout. Definitely worth a look.
SENTIMENTAL VALUE - Another foreign film that is essentially inaccessible for a dyslexic English-only speaker. This is a poignant, quietly dramatic, probing and realistic study of family dysfunction in the face of tragedy. And also a meditation on art imitating, and even intermingling with, real life. I did find it thought-provoking if somewhat depressing. It’s trying so hard to be profound and insightful that, to some extent, it forgets to entertain.
TRAIN DREAMS - I’m afraid not enough people will see this movie. It’s relatively quiet, patient and understated. There are no huge box-office idols in the cast. The two biggest names involved are usually revered as character actors, not leading men. The setting is the isolated Pacific Northwest in the early 20th Century, not traditionally considered an exciting place and time in history. It has more voice-over narration than any non-documentary film I can remember seeing. On the surface it would seem unmarketable given the current state of the film industry. And yet it’s absolutely amazing. A heart-rending examination of life through the drive and desire and wins and losses and simple pleasures and treasures and scars and consolations of one man’s journey in time. And the peace that must be made with the shortness and incompleteness of it all. The performances throughout are remarkable in their restraint rather than showmanship. The movie is based on a novella by the great writer Denis Johnson, and the great Will Patton brings us Johnson’s sparse but luminous words in the voice-over. The combined effect of the film is thought-provoking but, beyond that, it lingers deep in the heart. This gets my vote for Best Picture. Hope you all see it. (As a side note, the makers of Sinners should’ve watched this movie to see how to light nighttime, twilight and fireside scenes so the viewers aren’t cheated of the characters’ facial expressions.)
FRANKENSTEIN - The latest version of a classic, iconic story that taps into something so primal it won’t go away—there are literally hundreds of films tied to Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel. From feature films that are close adaptations, to pornographic shorts that are absurd parodies, and everything in between. This version takes some distinct liberties with the book I remember, but not to the point of disrespect for Ms Shelley’s work. And it’s a visually stunning film. The sets, the costume and makeup, and the special effects are all faithful enough to the original but imaginative enough to feel new and wondrous, and yet also recognizable as director Guillermo del Toro’s signature style. The acting struck me as over-the-top at times, but this is a gothic horror-si-fi movie, what do you expect? One thing I missed that I remember from the book is a broader and more explicit sense of warning about the inhumanity of runaway technological development. The book was written during the early years of the Industrial Revolution, when that was a major concern of philosophers, writers and other creatives. That may be implied in del Toro’s movie, but he has centered the main thread around a more personal meditation on obsession and megalomania. Still, it works! You can’t take your eyes off this movie.
SNUBBED. Song Sung Blue wasn’t nominated for Best Pic, but it was one of the most entertaining films of the year. As much as I loved Jessie Buckley in Hamnet, I would rather see Kate Hudson win Best Actress for her performance in Song Sung Blue. I’ve never been a huge fan of Neil Diamond, not a hater either, but not a huge fan, but this is a great movie in the old-time-make-me-laugh-cry-think-sing-out-loud vein. Could have easily replaced a couple of the movies above, IMO.
DNFs: A couple flicks we just couldn’t finish, mostly because the main characters were so annoying. In both cases, the actors portraying these characters were nominated for their performances, don’t ask me why. I mean, maybe these movies got better but not soon enough for us! Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You—OMG, put down the wine bottle and get a grip lady! Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon—totally insufferable the way his character droned on and on and on until you just wanted someone else in the movie to shut him up for more than ten seconds.
SOMETHING ELSE TO THINK ABOUT: In the 18th Century, the Catholic Church condemned and forbade the theatrical arts, and refused to marry or bury actors.
Now, butter the popcorn and turn down the lights. And Happy Damn Oscars!