Movie Nation

“Molli and Max in the Future” is exactly what it set out to be, an instant “cult” film, a zippy, low-budget sci-fi rom-com riff on “When Harry Met Sally” designed to play as a “midnight movie” at your favorite art film cineplex.

The brainchild and debut feature of self-described absurdist Michael Lukk Litwak, “Future” doesn’t reinvent the future so much as comically re-imagine it in “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy/Futurama” fashion.

In characters, situations, structure and shot selection, it’s an overt homage to “When Harry Met Sally,” without the “I’ll have what she’s having” boffo laughs. But as it riffs through relationships, religion, right-wing populist politics, cyber-celebrity and futuresport, there’s a reasonably steady flow of chuckles even if it bogs down a bit before reaching for a bigger finish than it delivers.

They meet in an accident — not involving cars, but in deep-space coupes bouncing through the asteroid belt. Molli (Zosia Mamet, of “Girls,” daughter of you-know-her and you-know-who) is a bit of a flake — not exactly bubbly, but she’s out here “harvesting (magic) crystals,” a part of her religion. Max (Aristotle Athari, did a season of “Saturday Night Live”) is a realist, a tinkerer trying to avoid going into his father’s line of work.

She’s forced to give him a lift back to Megalopolis. But he’s actually from Oceanus.

“It’s really beautiful” she notes. “Really? You can’t spell ‘Oceanus’ without ‘anus.'”

Max hides the fact that he’s a genocide survivor, one of the fish people.

“You should be proud of your gills! They’re beautiful.”

“It’s like having two vaginas on your collarbone. NOT beautiful

Their fizzy, bantering on-and-off “relationship” traverses space and time in arbitrary chapters in which she joins a cult and has sex with the manipulative and tentacled cult leader Moebius (Okieriete Onaodowan).

“Are we in a cult?” Molli asks fellow cultist Walter (Arturo Castro). “Oh yeah,” he replies. “There was a documentary about us!”

Max invents his way into his favorite sport, exoskeleten robot brawling. Molli canvases for a hapless but humane and smart woman running for Galactic Emperor against a monstrously cruel, vulgar populist — Turboschmuck (Michael Chernus).

And every now and then, sometimes mid-relationship, sometimes between relationships, Molli reconnects with Max like Harry kept running into Sally.

The movie’s many sources for comedy are obvious, but subtly delivered. Cyber-dating and cyberspace notoriety, religious fads and sexual identity and technology — Max builds a “sentient robot” partner for himself (Erin Darke) at one point — all are subject to mockery.

The gender roles are reversed from “When Harry Met Sally,” as Molli is more pro-sex, and also impulsive and a little gullible. Max is cynical but a romantic at heart.

When this picture works, it skips by on a frothy jazz-scored tour of a lot of cool and we’re sure super inexpensive effects, models and sets, which have the soundstagey glow of “Barbarella” or the films of Canadian avant garde wit Guy Maddin (“The Saddest Music in the World”).

When “Molli and Max” doesn’t work, the reach for laughs is obvious and the satiric jabs feel strained.

But the players make it likeable and allow the jokes to whizz by. It’s also lovely-to-look-at and laughably weird enough to play, which is all we’ve ever wanted in a Midnight Movie.

Rating: unrated, profanity

Cast: Zosia Mamet, Aristotle Athari, Erin Darke, Okieriete Onaodowan, Arturo Castro, Paloma Garcia-Lee and Michael Chernus.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Michael Lukk Litwak. A Level 33 release.

Running time: 1:34

Generations of WWII movies have served up endless repeats of the same old songs from the era — “In the Mood,” “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” a little Glen Miller, a bit of Artie Shaw, a touch of “We’ll Meet Again, Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When.”

But this new Apple TV air war in Europe series, which I will be reviewing in a day or two (premieres Friday), scrounged up an oddity. And you know me and musical oddities.

This is not an anarchonism, let me hasten to add. I may wonder when the acronym “MIA” came into use, or the phrase “wheels up” came to be used as a military departure time. But Our Man Woody wrote this little anti fascist ditty right in the middle of all that fuss and bother.

It’s an odd song to have a young woman sing to the Yanks and Brits in a party “over there” in “The War.” She sings it almost as a lament.

The message? Timeless.

No?

Me either. And I watched a LOT of docs this year. But what is out there and available to be seen never or at least rarely correlates with the Academy’s docs branch.

An occasional exception proves the rule, but these folks are in a bubble all their own. All five docs this year are from overseas, which is not an issue in and of itself. The documentary boom that cheap cameras (even cell phones) and the rise of video podcasts and streaming platforms to show them has heralded wasn’t limited to North America.

But there were docs with genuine pop appeal this year, moving and well-made films with a domestic and international audience.

Instead, here are the nominees.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM

“Bobi Wine: The People’s President”

“The Eternal Memory”

“Four Daughters”

“To Kill a Tiger”

“20 Days in Mariupol”

A couple of them I’ve heard of. But none of the 100+ docs that I reviewed — all of them with distribution — made this list.

From “The Hollywood Reporter.”

” No Oscar category was more surprising this year than best documentary feature. The two films that most experts believed would stand the best shot of winning, if nominated by the documentary branch and offered up to the full Academy, were Matthew Heineman’s American Symphony and Davis Guggenheim’s Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, and neither made the final five. This sort of thing has happened so many times in recent years — with Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Jane, Life Itself, Three Identical Strangers, Apollo 11 and others — that it really needs to be addressed.“

The director of “Sound of Freedom” is behind the camera for this New York “Five Points” rathole 19th period piece.

John Lithgow and David Morse support Cristiana Dell’Anna in the title role, that of Francesca Cabrini.

Wonder if they’ll get into the fact that an infamous Chicago housing project, Cabrini-Green,” was named for her? Not that how it turned out is her fault.

March 8, we’ll find out.

Henry Golding, Lucy Liu, Jo Koy, Sherry Cola, Bowen Yang, Sandra Oh and Michelle Yeoh provide the voices for this one, which has impressive looking effects and kind of dated CGI human character renderings.

Could be cute.

Feb. 2.

Too many movies put one through a filmgoers’ version of Elizabeth Kübler Ross’s “Stages of Grief” while you’re watching them.

You go from “This might be good” to “This COULD be OK,” and then “It’s not half bad” to “It might rally at the end” and wind up at “What were they thinking?”

“Caged Wings,” which had the far more poetic title “Mi soledad tiene alas” in Spain (It’s in Spanish with English subtitles, not yet dubbed) — “My Loneliness Has Wings” — is such a film. It begins with promise, immerses us in a milieu, sets up possible romance, big dreams and ugly challenges, but staggers into potholes and stumbles into formulaic pandering on its way towards utter disappointment.

Actor turned director Mario Casas conceived his writing/directing debut as a star vehicle for younger brother Óscar Casas, who plays a graffiti artist with “The Next Banksy” street-art aspirations. The casting and the story kind of works up until things let you know this isn’t working out.

“Dan” lives with and dotes on his aged grandmother by day. But at night, he’s out “tagging,” almost always with his confederates, grocery cashier Vio, short for Violetta (Candela González) and vain, hotheaded hustler/playa Reno (Farid Bechara).

But this “Jules et Jim” trio has other after hours activities. They like clubbing, have a favorite Barcelona dance bar, and they finance it all with smash and grab robberies that involve car theft and motoring off with other people’s scooters in the bargain.

Vio may be sweet on Dan, but he’s an artist with dreams of joining a street-art commune in Berlin. When somebody asks, he refers to her as his “sister.” So that might be a non-starter.

But it all goes to hell in a hurry anyway, when Granny dies and Dan’s psychotic goon of a father (Farncisco Boira) gets out of prison. These kids are all from rough childhoods and learned their values honestly. But honestly, when Dan’s old man gets out and ransacks Granny’s apartment to steal Dan’s loot, Dan has no real option but fleeing.

“From now on, I’m in charge,” the hardened, tattoo-covered ex-con announces.

The three 20ish friends never use the phrase “one last job,” but that’s the vibe we get from this smash-and-grab they go for — just a way for Dan, maybe Vio as well, to finance their escape to Berlin. It doesn’t go as planned because in the movies, heists almost never do if the plot demands it.

The street-tough artist plot is a worn one, but the young audience for a film like this wouldn’t mind that. The execution — meandering middle acts, the predictable plot turns and naked pandering in the finale — should give anybody pause, no matter how young and cool and good-looking their anti-heroes seem to be.

Casas the director puts Casas the sibling/actor through a few looks. The inspired artiste is about as convincing as the shy, confused Romeo. The kid is handsome, without a lot of screen presence.

The cause-and-effect of Dan’s temperament is so obvious we don’t need Vio to react to his beating of a bodega owner who abuses his little boy by shouting “Do you see yourself” in the kid being beaten?

Yeah. He does.

And that’s not the worst of it.

But as I said, “Caged Wings” starts with promise, gives us a taste of Barcelona’s rough life — a tiny taste — before a wish fulfillment fantasy kicks in and we see glimpse the regret we know we’ll suffer after wasting our time with this.

Rating: TV-MA, violence, drug use, sex, profanity

Cast: Óscar Casas, Candela González, Farid Bechara and Francisco Boira

Credits: Directed by Mario Casas, scripted by Mario Casas and Déborah François. A Warner Brothers/Netflix release.

Running time: 1:42

“The Zone of Interest,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “The Creator,” America Ferrara in “Barbie” and Colman Domingo’s turn in “Rustin” were among the surprises that turned up when nominations to the 96th Academy Awards were announced by Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid in Beverly Hills this morning.

America Ferrara was a surprise nominee for best supporting actress in the beloved blockbuster “Barbie,” and Ryan Gosling — as expected — landed a best supporting actor nomination. But Margot Robbie wasn’t nominated for best actress in the title role, nor was her director, Greta Gerwig.

Bradley Cooper was nominated for best actor and best original screenplay in “Maestro,”which was also nominated in the ten-film field for best picture this year. But Cooper wasn’t nominated as best director.

The Best Picture nominees are “American Fiction,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” the favorite — “Oppenheimer,” “Past Lives,” “Poor Things,” and the Holocaust chiller “The Zone of Interest.”

Ricky Gervais probably has a joke about that last one.

For those keeping score at home, “Oppenheimer” leads the field with 13 nominations, “Poor Things” garnered 11, “Killers of the Flower Moon” grabbed 10 and “Barbie” landed eight.

The full list of nominees can be found here.

It’s a pretty diverse selection of nominees, driven in part — as Academy President Janet Yang suggested — by their enlarged 11,000 voting members in 93 countries. While there may not be another “#Oscarsowhite” protest, the lack of Asian representation stands out.

The Best Actress nominees are “Nyad” star Annette Bening, “Killers of the Flower Moon” newcomer Lily Gladstone, Sandra Hüller of “Anatomy of a Fall,” Oscar winner Emma Stone for laying it all out there in “Poor Things” and Carey Mulligan’s lovely, long-suffering wife turn in “Maestro” was honored with a nomination.

The Best Actor nominations are led by Domingo’s terrific performance as a forgotten gay Civil Rights icon and March on Washington organizer, “Rustin,” Cooper’s turn as Bernstein in “Maestro,” Golden Globe winner Paul Giamatti’s work in “The Holdovers,” Cillian Murphy as “Oppenheimer” and Jeffrey Wright‘s droll dance through “American Fiction.”

Domingo’s had quite a year, and Murphy, Giamatti and Wright have had great careers. Somebody worthy will win this one. A Cooper win might make up for the sting of not earning a Best Director nomination.

Netflix still scored big, as “Maestro” was joined by “Nyad,” which landed nominations for co-stars Jodie Foster and Bening, in the title role, Domingo’s “Rustin” turn, the Best Animated Feature nominee “Nimona” and “Society of the Snow” earned a Best Hair and Makeup nomination.

Snubs, those left out of possible, in some cases expected nominations? Julianne Moore (“May December”), Willem Dafoe (“Poor Things”), Claire Foy (“All of Us Strangers”), Taraji P. Henson (“The Color Purple”), Andrew Scott (“All of Us Strangers”) and Greta Lee (“Past Lives”) had earned buzz as contenders. There was talk of Leonardo DiCaprio meriting a nomination (“Killers of the Flower Moon”). Not from me, mind you.

Directors Alexander Payne (“The Holdovers”), Cooper (“Maestro”) and How-do-you-explain-this? Greta Gerwig for “Barbie” were left out.

I thought her fellow directors, who nominated her for the DGA award, loved Greta G?

Blitz Bazawule for “The Color Purple” and Todd Haynes for “May December” also could have been in the best director mix.

The Best Director field — Justine Triet (“Anatomy of a Fall,” not a fan), Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”), Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”) and Christopher Nolan for “Oppenheimer.”

When you give a nomination to Scorese for his slack, downbeat and most pedestrian looking picture in ages, somebody good is going to miss out on a little “life and career changing” recognition.

The Best Animated Feature Oscar might belong to Hiyao Miyazaki’s latest “farewell,” “The Boy and the Heron,” but he’ll have to wrestle it away from “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse,” Netflix’s “Nimona,” Pixar’s “Elemental” and “Robot Dreams.”

They forgot the striking “TMNT: Mutant Mayhem,” didn’t they?

Sound and visual effects threw love at “Mission: Impossible — Dead Recking, Part 1” and “The Creator,” which turned up in no other categories. “Godzilla Minus One” also got a Best Visual Effects nomination. “Napoleon” managed nominations for Best Costume and Best Visual Effects.

Best supporting actress will pit Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”) against Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple”), Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”), and past Oscar winner Jodie Foster, nominated for the coach/manager who sticks with Diana “Nyad.”

Best Supporting Actor features no Willem Dafoe (“Poor Things”) or Colman Domingo (“The Color Purple”), but does have sentimental favorite Robert Downey, Jr. (“Oppenheimer”), Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”), the much-Oscar-honored Robert DeNiro (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Mark Ruffalo, terrific in “Poor Things,” and my favorite, Sterling K. Brown in support of “brother” Wright in “American Fiction.”

I reviewed a lot of documentaries this year, figuring a couple would turn up as nominees. Naah. That corner of the Academy paddles its own canoe.

“The Color Purple” stands out as one of the bigger losers this Oscar season, and the holiday blockbuster “Wonka” managed to prance through the winter without a single technical, makeup, production design or whatever nomination. That’s a snub.

Best Original Screenplay features almost all serious-minded material. “Maestro,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Past Lives,” “The Holdovers” (OK, that’s comic enough) and “May December” are the contenders.

I’m most happy for Wright, a longtime favorite, and Bening, who is obnoxious and thrilling as an egomaniac jock/TV sports reporter not going gently into that good night. But I’m bummed for Dafoe, a great actor who never catches a break, and Tariji and Greta G., for not getting their due.

The 96th annual Academy Awards will be handed out on ABC-TV and online — Also on Youtube? — the evening of March 10.

Tom Ripley was a fictional creation of the Golden Age of the Homocidal Homosexual in literature and film (“Compulsion,” etc) and he remains Patricia Highsmith’s most famous creation.

Even though she herself — a lesbian — denied he was gay in the years after the publication of her 1955 novel. He was just murderously and sexually opportunistic, she said, the ultimate “imposter.” Readers and critics did not buy that. Well, the “imposter” label certainly rings true in any interpretation of the character.

Ripley was featured in the French classic “Purple Noon,” revived for “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “Ripley’s Game” and “Ripley Underground.” And now Andrew Scott (“Spectre,” “All of Us Strangers”) brings him to life for a Netflix mini-series.

Dakota Fanning and John Malkvovich, who starred in “Ripley’s Game” over 20 years ago, also star.

April 4, this new, extended version of life with the self-inventing loner and killer premieres on Netflix.

For the 96th time, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is about to announce the field for their upcoming Academy Awards. We’ll learn about them online, on Youtube, or via the old-fashioned ABC “Good Morning America” way (That’s still on?), and then the hand-wringing will begin.

Who’s in? Who’s out? What is the overall tone and “message” of the 2024 Academy Awards to be, thanks to the sorts of films and performances this elite group honors?

It’s not the old white boy’s club it used to be, and “sentimental favorites” don’t hold the weight that they did for much of the history of this honor.

The favorites have been established by some earlier awards — the Producers, Directors, Screen Writers, Actors and so on down the line Guilds. But the impact of the Golden Globes has been muted and the Critics Choice Awards may not have wholly supplanted that in terms of “predictors.” The real role of all these “earlier” awards handed-out is narrowing the field.

You figure “Oppenheimer” and “Poor Things,” “Maestro” and “Past Lives” and “Barbie” and “The Holdovers” are set up as favorites, with a lot of movies — from “Killers of the Flower Moon” to “American Fiction” and “Rustin” and “May December” and “The Color Purple” and “Anatomy of a Fall” and “Saltburn” (Seriously?) facing the possibility of delivering “snubs.”

We ponder the possible “sleepers” over morning cocoa — “Nyad” and “Origin” and “All of Us Strangers,” “The Book of Clarence,” “The Zone of Interest,” Nicolas Cage in “Dream Scenario,” Annette Bening in “Nyad,” Greta Lee in “Past Lives.”

Movies like “Anatomy of a Fall,” which wasn’t even France’s pick as Best International Feature” nominee, are harder to handicap because the cast is mostly unfamiliar to North Americans audiences.

Speaking of “Best International Feature,” I’d love to see Egypt FINALLY get a nomination (“Voy! Voy! Voy!”), but Germany’s “The Teachers Lounge” shouldn’t be left out, nor should Hungary’s “Four Souls of the Coyote.” Ukraine’s “Photophobia” and Greece’s “Behind the Haystacks” send Hollywood-endorsed messages. Denmark’s “The Promised Land” is more old-fashioned, but quite worthy, too.

That may be the one Oscar category that I pay the most attention to, because a lot of these worthies won’t even merit a North American release if they don’t score a nomination. Mads Mikkelen’s presence in “Promised Land” ensures that one will come out in February, regardless. But the rest?

Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”) and Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”) and Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) appear to be locks for nominations. Was Emily Blunt’s part in “Oppenheimer” big enough?

Somebody in a list that includes Blunt, Sterling K. Brown (“American Fiction”), Claire Foy and Andrew Scott (“All of Us Strangers”), Willem Dafoe (“Poor Things”), Taraji P. Henson (“The Color Purple”), Margot Robbie (“Barbie”), Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple”), Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”) or Colman Domingo (“The Color Purple,” “Rustin”) and Mark Ruffalo (“Poor Things” is going to be on the outside looking in.

Has Bradley Cooper talked or been elbowed out of one of his potential nominations for “Maestro?” A lot of the coverage of him has been pushback — starting with the controversy over him donning a fake nose to play Leonard Bernstein. Will that hurt Carey Mulligan’s chances?

Everybody has somebody they’ve “talked up” in an effort to will a personal favorite into the mix. I’d love to see Dafoe get recognized. Not nominating Domingo for his two dazzling end-of-years turns would be almost unforgivable. David Oyelowo has zero buzz for playing St. John the Baptist in “Book of Clarence,” even though he hilariously steals that movie, which has zero buzz in ANY category.

I love Martin Scorsese, but I don’t think “Killers of the Flower Moon” is one of his best. It’s high minded, but so are “Origin” and “The Book of Clarence” and “American Fiction.” Nominations for the venerated Scorsese, the much-honored DeNiro in his best role in years, and especially Oscar winner DiCaprio in a broad, antiheroic turn seem “wasted” and should go to somebody less famous but better in a better picture, and perhaps somebody who’s just “due.”

“Best directors direct best pictures,” the old adage goes. And a lot of directors will be left standing in the cold, their “best picture” contenders nominated as they are not. It won’t be Christopher Nolan or Greta Gerwig or probably Alexander Payne. Is anybody else that much of a sure thing? I found
Blitz Bazawule’s direction of “The Color Purple” musical dazzling.

Of course, one of the things online readers flock to by 9am today is a list of “Who got snubbed?” So that’s the purpose of laundry-listing everyone most everybody figures has at least a shot. Those who miss out at least have the consolation that “snubs” for nominations won’t be remembered forever, any more that Oscar “losers” will be so-labeled for more than a few days after the Jimmy Kimmel (ugh) hosted ceremony on the evening of March 10.

One of the most versatile filmmakers who ever lived, a director at home with hot-button subjects (“In the Heat of the Night,” “A Soldier’s Story”), musicals (“Fiddler on the Roof,” “Jesus Christ Superstar”), intimate dramas (“The Cincinnati Kid,” “Agnes of God”) and comedies big (“The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming”) and small (“Moonstruck,” “Send Me No Flowers”) has died.

Norman Jewison also made the cool Steven McQueen caper romance “The Thomas Crown Affair,” the scandalous “And Justice for All…” and the silly but biting “Other People’s Money.”

A Hollywood icon and “actor’s director” who brought Canadian wit, warmth and tolerance to many a movie, Jewison was 97.

Jewison’s film were famous for showcasing characters’ humanity — a Black Philly police detective stuck on a case in the segregated Deep South, Cold War Russian submariners accidentally aground off Massachusetts, a boxer framed by the cops for murder (“The Hurricane”), or a bunch of Italian Americans trying to make a love match marriage (“Moonstruck”) but running up against their fears and their families.

He turned many a hit play into a hit movie – “Agnes of God,” “Fiddler,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “A Soldier’s Story.” And he earned seven Oscar nominations — no wins — to show for it. But actors got nominations and Oscar wins acting for Jewison — Cher and Steiger and Dukakis.

This year’s Oscar telecast owes him a lot more than a mere “In Memorium” mention. He was honored with the Irving Thalberg Humanitarian Award by the Acat in 1998.

I remember chuckling when Spike Lee threw a fit that Jewison, one of the cinema’s great humanists, was prepping a Malcolm X screen biography. Lee nagged and shamed Jewison off the film that Lee eventually made, a near masterpiece. Judging from his stellar track record in films about race in America, Jewison wouldn’t have embarassed himself, either.

I think Jewison would appreciate the fact that his Associated press obit, linked above, was mostly written by the long gone entertainment reporter Bob Thomas. News organizations archive obituaries of the famous and infamous, and Jewison outlived pretty much anybody that wrote one, in advance, for him. That’s the best revenge. That, and his long, decorated resume.

Back when I collected film posters, a couple of Jewison ones were the first I got my hands on. The man made TV before he transitioned to movies and TV movies, and he only garnered 30 credits, coming along as he did after the studio “system” passed from the screen. But that resume stands up with anybody’s.

RIP, and well done.