The Oscars are finally here, and so are the Logeys. This is year 12 of doing this — which just seems nuts. Let’s skip the intro and just roll right into what you came here to read, starting with the individual awards.
Individual Awards
Best Vocal Performance
Jack Black, The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Bill Burr, Leo
Bradley Cooper, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — Winner
Daniel Kaluuya, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Shameik Moore, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Someone needs to have the balls to tell Bradley Cooper that his final(?) appearance as everyone’s favorite intergalatic raccoon was his best performance of the year. That person, I guess, is me.
Best Young Actor/Actress
Mila Davis-Kent, Creed III
Ariana Greenblatt, Barbie
Abby Ryder Fortson, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. — WINNER
Calah Lane, Wonka
Milo Machado-Graner, Anatomy of a Fall
Madeleine Yuna Voyles, The Creator
Similar to Elsie Fisher in 2018’s Eighth Grade (Gucci!), Abby Ryder Fortson plays awkward pre-teen adolescence about as well as you could do. Her chemistry with both Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates is fantastic. A fantastic performance.
Breakthrough Performance
Halle Bailey, The Little Mermaid
Andrew Barth Feldman, No Hard Feelings
Xolo Mariduena, Blue Beetle
Vivian Oparah, Rye Lane
Sunny Sandler, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah
Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers — WINNER
Iman Vellani, The Marvels
Sessa, who had relatively no acting experience prior to this film, goes toe-to-toe with two other award-worthy performers and holds his own. Buy your stock in this kid now.
Best Supporting Actor
Dave Bautista, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
Robert Downey, Jr., Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling, Barbie — Winner
Glenn Howerton, BlackBerry
Charles Melton, May December
There’s obviously a lot of irony in Ryan Gosling being the best part of Barbie. You just can’t dismiss how much he committed to the bit. Some of his best work to date.
Best Supporting Actress
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
Viola Davis, Air
America Ferrera, Barbie
Rachel McAdams, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret — Winner
Kate McKinnon, Barbie
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Rachel McAdams is one of my favorite actresses. The pairing of her and Benny Safdie in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret might be my favorite set of on-screen parents since Easy A. Da’Vine Joy Randolph will win the Acaedmy Award, which she should, but McAdams’ performance was my favorite of the year.
Best Lead Actor
Jay Baruchel, BlackBerry
Zac Efron, The Iron Claw
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Barry Keoghan, Saltburn
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer — WINNER
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
It’s hard to go against the favorite here. Cillian Murphy, while he’s been around for a while and has been in dozens of excellent projects, is now a household name because of his performance in Oppenheimer.
Best Lead Actress
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Huller, Anatomy of a Fall
Jennifer Lawrence, No Hard Feelings
Greta Lee, Past Lives
Margot Robbie, Barbie
Emma Stone, Poor Things — WINNER
Emma Stone is doing A LOT in Poor Things. It’s a pretty divisive film but you can’t tell me that she wasn’t incredible in the role.
Best Director
Greta Gerwig, Barbie
James Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer — WINNER
Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Celine Song, Past Lives
Nolan has been doing incredible work for over a decade, but this is probably his best direction yet.
Film Awards
Best BOTS/Biopic: Oppenheimer
Best Comic Book/Superhero Movie: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Funniest Film: Barbie
Best Animated Film: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Best Musical: The Color Purple
OG American Idol fans already knew the talent that Fantasia Barrino possesses. I’m glad to see her back in the mainstream.
Best Sports Movie: The Iron Claw
An excellent sports film that will absolutely GUT you. A24 really botched it’s release though because it should have been seen by more people AND it should have been in more awards conversations.
Best Sci–Fi (Non-Comic Book Division): The Creator
A movie that deserved more eyeballs. Working on a small budget, Gareth Edwards gives us a really solid original sci-fi film that is just as beautiful as it is captivating.
Best Action: John Wick: Chapter 4
Taking the slight edge over Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, the fourth film in the John Wick franchise is probably it’s best. The film is essentially just four or five long action set pieces, a couple of which I will genuinely think about anytime this franchise is mentioned.
Most Surprising Film: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
I can’t say I had much interest in a film about Dungeons and Dragons, but man, this movie was a ton of fun. Just a great hang. While it certainly won’t break box office numbers, Paramount may have found a new franchise that could stick around for a while.
Most Disappointing: Next Goal Wins
For the record, I certainly did not HATE Next Goal Wins, the Taika Waititi film based on the true story of the American Samoa soccer team’s quest to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. I think that it was a totally fine sports film that had some heart. But coming off Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Jojo Rabbit (2019) (two of my favorite films of the past seven years), I was very excited about this film for quite some time. I even had it on my Top Ten most-anticipated films of the year for TWO YEARS IN A ROW. At the end of the day, the movie was ovely silly and it struggled to connect with any of it’s audience, myself included.
Film of the Year Nominees:
Air
Director: Ben Affleck
Where to Watch: Prime Video
Follows the history of sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro, and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan.
Good things tend to happen with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon get together to make a movie, which was again certainly the case this time around. However, as great as both of them were, it was actually Viola Davis that stole the whole thing. In a world full of movies about guys in a room talking about the marketeing of a popular product, Air has been one of my favorites.
American Fiction
Director: Cord Jefferson
Where to Watch: On demand, Prime Video (eventually)
A novelist who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from Black entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of the hypocrisy and madness he claims to disdain.
Fantastic piece of satire. Jeffery Wright needed this kind of role and I just can’t get enough of Sterling K. Brown. One of the best comedies of the year.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Director: Kelly Fremon Craig
Where to Watch: On demand, STARZ (if you have that)
When her family moves from the city to the suburbs, 11-year-old Margaret navigates new friends, feelings, and the beginning of adolescence.
The crazy thing about good films are that they can impact you and find ways to draw you in, even if the movie isn’t “for you”. This is something that Greta Gerwig has done VERY well with her films and now it’s Kelly Fremon Craig that found a way to do it. The terrific casting here certainly helps but Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is easily one of my favorite films of the year.
Barbie
Director: Greta Gerwig
Where to Watch: Max
Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans.
Come on, Barbie. Let’s go party!
I imagine that nearly everyone that reads this will have already seen Barbie and while I know that there have been some differentiating opinions on the subject, I’m here to say that I had a fantastic time with it. The script that Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach put together paired with the world-class performances from it’s cast make this one of the year’s best films. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling were PERFECT casting choices and they both really committed to the roles.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Director: James Gunn
Where to Watch: Disney+
Still reeling from the loss of Gamora, Peter Quill rallies his team to defend the universe and one of their own — a mission that could mean the end of the Guardians if not successful.
It wasn’t a very good year for comic book movies. Hell, it was a pretty terrible year for Marvel Studios. But amidst all of the controversy about the studio and their decisions, we got what is probably their best film since Avengers: Endgame in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. It was an absolute perfect sendoff (perhaps?) for these characters and I’m really glad James Gunn got the chance to make it happen.
The Holdovers
Director: Alexander Payne
Where to Watch: Peacock
A cranky history teacher at a remote prep school is forced to remain on campus over the holidays with a grieving cook and a troubled student who has no place to go.
Three different actors with three very different kinds of careers come together to lead this wonderful story of love, loss, and inherited family. Paul Giamatti shines, Da’Vine Joy Randolph will earn an Oscar, and Dominic Sessa, who hadn’t acted professionally for a day in his life, are an incredible trio that carry this film from beginning to end.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Director: Martin Scorsese
Where to Watch: AppleTV+
When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one — until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery.
A hauntingly true story brought to the screen by the legendary Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon is another fantastic collaboration between Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert De Niro. As great as both Leo and Bobby are though, the film’s real star is Lily Gladstone, who gives an Oscar-worthy performance of her own. The film is a little lengthy but it is certainly one of the best of the year.
Oppenheimer
Director: Christopher Nolan
Where to Watch: Peacock
The story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.
I’m not sure what else I can add to the already lenghy discourse surrounding Oppenheimer, but I’ll give it a shot. As a technical achievement, it is a masterpiece. Christopher Nolan continues to up his game with every crack he takes and he continues to amaze me. The film’s large cast never feels too bloated and the runtime never feels (too) long. Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey, Jr. give award-worthy performances, Emily Blunt has moments to shine, and my boy JOSH PECK got to press the button!
The thing that will forever impress me the most about this movie, however, is how a three hour-long, historical biopic based around the atomic bomb, shown largely in black and white, managed to make nearly one billion dollars at the box office. Simply amazing.
Past Lives
Director: Celine Song
Where to Watch: Paramount+
Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrested apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Twenty years later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront notions of love and destiny.
Past Lives is, I don’t say this lightly, one of the best-told stories I’ve seen all year. In what is a very simple story told trough the eyes of it’s lead, director Celine Song manages to captivate the audience through her actors and the screenplay. If you’re looking for a low-stakes, romantic story, I couldn’t recommend this movie more. Greta Lee and Teo Yoo are magic on screen together.
Poor Things
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Where to Watch: Hulu
The incredible tale about the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter.
Arguably one of the year’s most bizarre film, Poor Things pairs director Yorgos Lanthimos back up with Emma Stone (after working together on The Favourite) and it leads to a wonderfully-weird result. In what is a strange twist on a Frankenstein story, Poor Things has a lot to say and Emma Stone gives it all she’s got. Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe are also fantastic in their respective roles.
And the Logey Film of the Year goes to….
Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse
Directors: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
Where to Watch: Netflix
Miles Morales catapults across the multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. When the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles must redefine what it means to be a hero.
I debated whether or not I wanted to leave this at the top of my list after it sat there for months. At the end of the day, I just simply couldn’t deny how incredible Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse actually was. The film’s predecessor (Into the Spider-Verse) was considered to be a fantastic film and a technical achievement in it’s own right, but is it possible that Across was an even better film? To me, the answer is yes. While Across may not be as genre-altering as Into was, it was the way they built on the story and the characters that puts this movie so high for me. This movie was doing A TON and while it does run a little long, it still works so well.
Superhero movies have certainly start to run their course for a lot of people, and I totally get it. But take my word for it, both of these Miles Morales-led, animated Spider-Verse movies are absolutely worth your time. They are probably the best things to come from the ENTIRE superhero (and maybe even the animated) genre in many years. I very much look forward to the third.
And lastly, since I know people like to come here looking for recommendations on things to watch, here are a few more movies that didn’t get a mention (or received minimal mention) that are worth your time:
BlackBerry
The true-life story about the invention of the device. Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton are both tremendous. This just hit Hulu recently.
Rye Lane
A quiet, British film that, in my opinion, was easily the best romcom of the year. It’s been on Hulu for a while.
Elemental
This movie finally picked up steam after a few weeks in theaters and I think people are checking it out on Disney+ too, but if you haven’t, you really should. Pixar hasn’t been at the top of their game for a few years, but this isn’t one that deserves to be skipped.
Theater Camp
Probably not a movie for everyone but this is a really good rockumentary comedy about a, well, a theater camp. It’s also available on Hulu.
They Cloned Tyrone
A fun sci-fi, comedy, mystery film on Netflix. It’s a good time.
