Last year, my biggest wish for the Academy Awards was for Ariana Grande to win Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Wicked.” When she did not prevail, and the Oscar went to Zoe Saldana for “Emilia Perez” instead, I held onto the hope that Grande could potentially get nominated and win for the second part of the film. After seeing “Wicked For Good,” I knew that the best part of the entire film was Grande’s performance. That is why when the reviews for the second part were not as strong as the first, I still felt Grande could not only get nominated but also win. She was so deserving. After all, she completed Glinda’s arc perfectly. We see Glinda finally stand up for what is right. I was so saddened when the Oscar nominations came out on Thursday and Grande’s name wasn't among the nominees. There is no doubt, though, that people will remember her performance for years to come. Some things are better than awards.  

There is no doubt that 2025 was a year of incredible international films. “Sentimental Value,” “Sirat,” “The Secret Agent” and the one that really deserved to get into Best Picture: “It Was Just An Accident.” The Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi truly made a masterpiece. “It Was Just An Accident” even won the prestigious Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. When the nominations for Best Picture were revealed, “Sentimental Value” and “The Secret Agent” were able to crack the top 10 but unfortunately, “It Was Just An Accident” had to settle for just an International Feature Film nod, along with Screenplay. This film highlights the oppression of the Iranian government and the role that everyday people play in it. The last frame of the film is etched into my memory forever. It is truly a mark of an excellent filmmaker. 

Joel Edgerton’s performance in “Train Dreams” is absolutely heartbreaking and devastating. He plays Robert Grainier, a very hardworking everyman living in the Pacific Northwest. Robert is a man of few words who has the same dreams most of us have - love, kids, a home and a job to provide for his family. Robert has to endure so much loss in his lifetime. Edgerton’s performance is quiet but devastating. Robert reminds me so much of my grandfather. The thing that really makes Edgerton's missing out sting worse is that “Train Dreams” got into Best Picture. The film could not have been nominated for Best Picture without Edgerton’s beautiful performance.  

​​One of the biggest snubs of the day was, no doubt, Chase Infiniti for Best Leading Actress. “One Battle After Another” received 13 Academy Award nominations. The film was very much on everyone’s radar and remains the favorite to win Best Picture of the Year. The only major nomination it missed was Infiniti's entry in Best Leading Actress. Chase Infiniti plays Leonardo DiCaprio’s daughter, Willow, who is kidnapped and has to fight and stand up for herself. The only thing I questioned about Warner Bros.’ Oscar strategy was the campaign for Infiniti in the Leading Actress category. She is only in 31 minutes of the 2 hours and 40 minutes of the movie. I think Warner Bros. just didn’t want her to have to compete with Teyana Taylor, but I think this is what hurt her chances the most. I still feel like she should have been included. Her performance is Oscar-worthy.  

“Weapons,” directed by Zach Cregger, is a film that many people told me to watch for months. I am just not someone who normally watches horror films. It did appear, though, from the trailer that it was mostly a thriller. I finally decided to give it a chance. The mystery surrounding “Weapons” is what happened to the kids from the same classroom who disappeared. Only one student is accounted for. The film is gripping and thrilling, leaving you on the edge of your seat. The film also introduces us to one of the most memorable characters of the 21st century: Aunt Gladys, played by Oscar nominee Amy Madigan. Madigan was rightfully nominated for Best Supporting Actress, but I wish the film had also been nominated for Best Picture and even Best Original Screenplay. Unfortunately, the Oscar nominations for this film vanished just as the children did. 

Director: Joe Carnahan
Starring: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck & Steven Yeun
Rated: R (language & violence)
Runtime: 1 hour & 53 minutes 

 
There are multiple types of “Netflix movies.” You have the prestige types – the ones Netflix hopes can compete for awards (i.e., “Roma,” “The Irishman,” “Train Dreams”). You have the blockbusters, except on Netflix, they’re almost always disappointing blockbusters (i.e., “The Electric State,” “Rebel Moon”). You have low-budget, made-for-TV-quality films (all starring Lindsay Lohan).

What there hasn’t been enough of when it comes to Netflix original films are movies that are just good and fun, and made for adults, without aspiring to be anything more than a good time.

That’s where director/screenwriter Joe Carnahan’s “The Rip” comes in. “The Rip” is a good, old-fashioned crime drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat because for most of the nearly two-hour runtime, you can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys. It’s the kind of film that used to do well in cinemas before all moviegoers wanted to go to their local Cineplex for was I.P., sequels and prequels.

“The Rip,” based on a true story of Miami-Dade County Sheriff Chris Casiano, stars old pals Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as TNT (Tactical Narcotics Team) members Dane Dumars and JD Byrne, respectively, who recently lost their captain to murder, and the feds believe one of their crew may have been behind it. The remainder of the crew is Teyana Taylor’s Numa Baptiste, Catalina Sandino Moreno as Lolo Salazar and Steven Yeun as Mike Ro. At times during the film, it seems as if any or all of them may have been involved in the death of their captain, which speaks to the fun and intrigue of Carnahan’s script. Kyle Chandler, who deserves more and bigger film roles, also shows up as DEA Agent Matty Nix, who used to work with Dumars and Byrne.

When Damon’s Dumars gets a crime tip about a cash stash at a drug house, a game of cat and mouse ensues for both the law enforcement involved and the audience to figure out who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. And this, when done right – even if it may follow some cliches of the genre – is always a fun watch.

I’ve always loved movies that can keep your attention piqued, while not giving the audience numerous locations, and “The Rip” does a great job at doing that, while the TNT members are kept at the drug house, where they are forced to count their findings (which wind up being $20 million), while being threatened and hunted by what they assume to be the cartel.

The “whodunnit” aspect of “The Rip,” and at times in the film, I literally suspected every one of the main characters (except for Affleck’s Byrne) could’ve been involved in their captain’s murder, keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time, until it culminates in a fantastically tense scene in the back of an armored vehicle.

Director: Jafar Panahi
Starring: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari & Ebrahim Azizi
Rated: PG-13 (thematic elements, violence, strong language and smoking)
Runtime: 1 hour & 43 minutes

​Until recently, I was never one to watch foreign-language films. It made me feel disconnected from the movie, having to read what they were saying while the action was unfolding. However, back in 2019, director Bong Joon Ho released one of the best films of all time: the Best Picture Oscar winner “Parasite.” The movie was gripping, thrilling and unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was then and there that I decided that if a film was getting a lot of buzz and praise, I would not let the fact that it was in a foreign language stop me from watching it.  
 
This year, there have been some incredible international films. Norway’s “A Sentimental Value,” Brazil’s “The Secret Agent,” and the best one, Iran’s “It Was Just an Accident.” After watching “It Was Just An Accident,” it is not shocking to learn that it won the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Jafar Panahi, the film follows Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), a car mechanic who helps a man with a prosthetic leg (Ebrahim Azizi), repair his car after he accidentally hits and kills a dog. When the mysterious man calls his mother on the phone, Vahid becomes convinced that this man is Eghbal, his former tormentor when he was in an Iranian prison. Vahid follows him and kidnaps him, preparing to kill him. The man claims not to be Eghbal, and since Vahid was blindfolded during the imprisonment, he becomes unsure. Vahid seeks out help from other people who had been imprisoned by Eghbal: Shiva (Mariam Afshari), Goli (Hadis Pakbaten), Ali (Majid Panahi) and Hamid (Mohammad Ali Elyasmehr). The stakes keep rising as they try to figure out whether they have the right man.  
 
Panahi has been in hot water for the release of this film because it criticizes the Iranian government and highlights its unfair oppression of its citizens. The Iranian government claims the film is unfounded propaganda aimed at them, but over 150 artists signed a public statement applauding Panahi as an “outstanding and courageous Iranian filmmaker.” It took courage to make this film. Panahi not only highlighted the oppression of the Iranian government but also made one of the best films of the year in the process. 
 
Panahi’s direction deserves the Oscar for Best Director (though Paul Thomas Anderson is likely the front-runner for “One Battle After Another.” His vision in all the elements of telling this story is near perfection. Our hearts are racing as our protagonist tries his best to uncover the truth. The man could very well be innocent, and all of this could be a big misunderstanding. The uncertainty of his identity keeps us enthralled. Panahi has us going back and forth on what we believe the truth to be. The screenplay is absolutely brilliant. There are so many additional complications in the story that leave us glued to the screen until the final scene. The final shot of this film will stay with me forever. That is truly the mark of a remarkable director: making those choices that make their film stand out as something original and unlike anything we have ever seen. 

One thing that truly shocked me was learning that only the main actor, Vahid Mobasseri, is a professional actor. All of the other cast members are not formally trained in the field, but this also allows for the performances to feel more grounded in reality. The fact that Panahi gets these amazing performances from non-professional actors is remarkable. Panahi helps these newly hired actors find their characters' voices, turning them into people we genuinely care about. I would have never suspected that most of the cast was not formally trained.

If you are someone who wants to see a truly thrilling and gripping movie, it would be no accident for you to choose “It Was Just an Accident.”  

Director: Joachim Trier
Starring: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard & Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas 
Rated: R (language & brief nudity)
Runtime: 2 hours & 13 minutes

​In this year’s Oscar race, you will notice that there are a lot of international films getting a lot of attention. “The Secret Agent” from Brazil, “It Was Just An Accident” from France, “Sirat” from Spain and “No Other Choice” from South Korea have been nominated in award show categories that are not just limited to the Foreign Language Film category. There are many movie lovers who do not give foreign-language films a chance because they have to read subtitles to understand what is going on. This is the year in cinema to start going out of your comfort zone if this applies to you. If you are going to give foreign language films a chance, I suggest you start with Norway’s “Sentimental Value.”  

“Sentimental Value” is directed by Joachim Trier, who co-wrote it with Eskil Vogt. The story follows two daughters, Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), as they navigate a difficult and complex relationship with their father, film director Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgard, who just won the Golden Globe for his performance). When Nora and Agnes were little, their parents divorced, and Gustav left his wife to raise the two girls while he pursued his career as a film director. Upon the death of their mother, Sissel, Gustav returns to Norway and offers Nora a role in his new film. Nora is an actress with modest success, but she turns him down without even reading the script. She does not want any involvement with him at all. When she passes, Gustav offers the role to American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning). The daughters are rattled to see how much better he treats Rachel than he treats them.  

Trier and Vogt’s script is brilliant. This is such a brutally honest look at how two people can be raised by the same person, have the same feelings towards them, but can turn out way different. Agnes is a historian with a husband and child, and she seems to be able to hold it together when it comes to their dad. On the other hand, Nora is an actress who suffers from severe stage fright, is having an affair with a married man and spirals very easily with any adversity. The script would be fantastic even if we stopped there, but the film goes even deeper. We get to see how Gustav loves his daughters, but in a way most of us are not accustomed to. He has his own baggage, and that carried over into the lives of his children for better or for worse. It really teaches us that when we have parents who are not the best, we can choose to be better and do better, or we can let it break us for the rest of our lives. While it could be easy for the film to judge Gustav, it simply lays everything out as it is and lets us draw our own conclusions. There are no black-and-white areas in life. It is all grey. 

Besides the amazing script, this film is full of performances destined for Academy Award nominations. Reinsve, who previously worked with Trier in 2021’s “The Worst Person in the World,” plays Nora to perfection. She is such an emotionally complex character and could have been played very one-note by an actress of lesser caliber. Reinsve delivers and truly makes us feel connected to all of those complicated emotions Nora is going through. Lilleaas is equally as good. The line she has to play is a difficult one. Agnes is more accepting of Gustav, but not fully. She wants to keep the peace but also wants people to be held accountable. It was truly a difficult role to hit all of those notes, and she does it flawlessly. Skarsgard truly plays this complex father magnificently. He is able to balance being charming, mysterious and infuriating at the same time. Fanning’s portrayal of American actress Rachel Kemp is also refreshing. Rachel is truly an artist who wants the film to be made right, even if it doesn’t include her. That is truly something that is probably rare for Hollywood, where people most likely take what they can get.