MOVIES OVERLOOKED BY THE ACADEMY

The Academy announced their nominations on Tuesday, January 23, and a few movies were left off the list completely! It was such a strong year at the movies, but here are five films I believe the Academy overlooked that deserve your attention. Don’t let these movies slip by, just because other films may have gotten nominations. Here are five picks in alphabetical order.

AIR (Prime Video)

Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Ben Affleck, Marlon Wayans, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker

From Good Will Hunting to movies with Kevin Smith and Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are a dream team together. Their new film Air takes you back to the creation of the Air Jordan shoe. Damon leads the ensemble film as Sonny Vaccara, an NBA scout who works for Nike. Their basketball division needs to score big to keep up with the competition at Adidas and Converse. Sonny works under Rob Strasser (Bateman) and their team is looking at young, hotshot basketball players to be the face of their shoes. Sonny knows up and coming basketball player Michael Jordan is the perfect choice for Nike, but he’s far more expensive than co-founder Phil Knight is willing spend as the face of their new campaign. Ben Affleck also stars in the film as Phil Knight. Sonny goes all-in fighting every step of the way to get Jordan going so far as to dealing with Jordan’s parents Deloris and James, played by real-life couple Viola Davis and Julius Tennon.

ALL OF US STRANGERS (in theaters)

Director: Andrew Haigh
Starring: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy

Sometimes the best movies are the ones that sneak up on you. You don’t know what to expect and then it hits you in unexpected ways and sits with you for days afterwards. That movie was All of Us Strangers. Director Andrew Haigh also wrote the movie basing it on Taichi Yamada’s novel. It stars Andrew Scott as Adam, a struggling screenwriter facing incredible loneliness. One night he meets Harry (Mescal) who also lives in his building. It’s a quiet night as if no one else lives in this London apartment building except the two of them. It becomes a drunken sexual proposition between them that feels all too real for many who have been in this situation before. These two lonely strangers start to fall for each other with Adam opening up in ways he hasn’t before. At the same time, he finds himself going back to his hometown to his childhood home where he’s confronted with his parents who seemingly died thirty years prior. The film stars Jamie Bell and Claire Foy has his parents who he sees at the age they were when they passed away.

THE IRON CLAW (in theaters)

Director: Sean Durkin
Starring: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Stanley Simon, Holt McCallany, Maura Tierney

You don’t have to be a wrestling fan to be engrossed in the story of the Von Erich family. Their tragic story is told in the new film, The Iron Claw, which absolutely floored me. The Von Erich name first became known in the wrestling community when Fritz Von Erich (McCallany) entered the ring with his signature move, The Iron Claw. His goal was to be a worldwide heavyweight champion, but with his wife Doris (Tierney) and his growing family of boys, he knew he had to stop at nothing to become a champion in order to provide for his family. Rumors started to fly that the family was cursed. They would go on to have six boys, five of which are featured in the film. Their firstborn was tragically killed at a young age. Their next born, Kevin (Efron), followed in his father’s footsteps and became known as a heavyweight wrester. Harris Dickinson plays David who joined in on the family legacy after Kevin. Brother Kerry took on wrestling after an attempt at the Olympics fell short. Lastly, Mike (Simons) wanted to take up a career in music but was forced into wrestling despite his wishes. Their story feels stranger than fiction as the family curse seems to strike a blow to their family unit time after time after time.

ORIGIN (in theaters)

Director: Ava DuVernay
Starring: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, Victoria Pedretti, Myles Frost, Finn Wittrock, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Isha Blaaker, Emily Yancy, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Connie Nielsen, Blair Underwood, Nick Offerman, Stephanie March, Donna Mills

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor gives a performance for the ages in Origin which should not be missed. Writer/director Ava DuVernay has frequently tackled the subjects of racism, politics, and the systems at play with films and series like Selma, 13th, and When They See Us. Now she’s tackling the life of Pulitzer Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson whose played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. DuVernay sets her film in the backdrop of the murder of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. Isabel is approached to write about the murder, but she feels conflicted as its not where she feels her career is at after writing her first book, “The Warmth of Other Suns.” She wants to have the answers and feel a part of the story instead of asking the questions. Within a short time, she is faced with unimaginable grief after the death of two loved ones. It’s a time when she feels like she has no one left in life and pours her grief into her work. She starts to probe into the differences between racism and caste and the connection she finds between Jim Crow laws and Nazi Germany.

SALTBURN (Prime Video)

Director: Emerald Fennell
Starring: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Archie Madekwe

Writer/director Emerald Fennell won an Oscar for her film Promising Young Woman. Her new film, Saltburn, has the same bite and is a wild ride. Barry Keoghan stars as Oliver, a new transplant to Oxford University who is quickly made to feel like an outcast. That is until he meets the handsome and charming Felix who everyone seems to have a crush on. He’s played by Jacob Elordi. They strike up an unlikely friendship, and after Oliver receives some bad family news, Felix invites him to his family estate, Saltburn, for summer break. It’s a summer that Felix, Oliver, and the family will never forget.

These are just five titles, but don’t forget to also check out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Wish, Priscilla, and Ferrari