Some comments about the Oscar nominations, released today, January 22, 2026. Bugonia is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It’s all about being different and has nothing worthy of any nomination. For a movie about Vampires, “Sinners”, to break the all-time Oscar nomination record by two, with 16 nominations, is as insane as the current trend of bad movies being honored by movie award shows. Sinners was at best an average Vampire movie.
Best Picture Bugonia F1 Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sentimental Value Sinners Train Dreams
Best Actor Timothee Chalamet, Marty Supreme Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon Michael B. Jordan, Sinners Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Best Actress Jessie Buckley, Hamnet Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value Emma Stone, Bugonia
Best Supporting Actor Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein Delroy Lindo, Sinners Sean Penn, One Battle After Another Stellan Skarsgard, Sentimental Value
Best Supporting Actress Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value Amy Madigan, Weapons Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Best Director Chloe Zhao, Hamnet Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Best Original Screenplay Blue Moon It Was Just an Accident Marty Supreme Sentimental Value Sinners
Best Adapted Screenplay Bugonia Frankenstein Hamnet One Battle After Another Train Dreams
Best Casting Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sinners
Best Original Song “Dear Me,” Diane Warren: Relentless “Golden,” KPop Demon Hunters “I Lied to You,” Sinners “Sweet Dreams of Joy,” Viva Verdi! “Train Dreams,” Train Dreams
Best Original Score Bugonia Frankenstein Hamnet One Battle After Another Sinners
The new movie “The Rip” is the first collaboration of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon since the outstanding film “Air”, released in 2023. This movie is a police drama that has the majority of its scenes inside a house with 5 police officers and detectives, and 20 million dollars of drug money, found in the walls.
The entire story after the discovery of the money, which was expected to be at most 300 thousand, are repeated attempts to fool the audience about what is really going on. Is Lieutenant Dane Dumars played by Matt Damon the real criminal trying to steal this money, or is it his long-term partner and friend Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne, played by Ben Affleck? Could it be Detective Mike Ro played by Steven Yeun, or is it the other DEA Detective Agent Mateo ‘Matty’ Nix played by Kyle Chandler?
The conclusion of this story is impossible to predict because of all the characters involved and all the attempts to fool the audience, even for the most experienced moviegoer. With this much story misdirection it comes off more like a run of the mill police B movie. While the acting is good, mostly between Affleck and Damon the overall story is not good enough to recommend.
The Rotten Tomatoes critics’ ratings of 82% are way off, with the audience recommendation more in line at 72%. My rating is 70% and a mild pass. I was surprised that this movie on Netflix was not much better, considering the people involved in making this film.
The new movie “Is This Thing On” does an outstanding job of deeply analyzing the reality of love, separation, reconciliation, and divorce. This film is inspired by the real-life story of a British stand-up comedian, John Bishop, who stumbled into the world of stand-up comedy to distract himself from his depression over his recent divorce.
Is This Thing On, stars Will Arnett as Alex Novak, who is recently divorced and now living in a bad apartment, and still has to make mortgage payments on a house he no longer lives in. He has two sons with his wife Tess Novak, played by Laura Dern. Early in this story, Alex drives around New York City to escape the despair and loneliness of his apartment and stumbles into the famous comedy venue in Grenich Village, “The Comedy Cellar.” Fortunately, Alex did not have the 15-dollar cover fee, and instead took the option of “writing his name in the call sheet” so he could be called up to do stand-up in front of the brutal, rude crowd inside a late-night comedy venue. This reminded me that sometimes extreme despair and anger can sometimes be a catalyst for courage that you never knew you had. Alex, of course, did not have any comedy material and instead just started to talk about how bad his life is, his divorce, and all that went wrong to end his 20-year marriage. Over time and numerous appearances on the comedy stages in New York City, Alex improved and became a successful stand-up comedy headliner.
I was amazed at the extremely dangerous and crowded environment of the Comedy Cellar, where it seemed hard to breathe, and any emergency would make it almost impossible for everybody to get out of the building without being trampled. This movie also has several other comedians performing, and it has been a long time since I have seen any movie with this many recorded live stand-up comedy performances, since “Punchline (1988)” starring Sally Field, John Goodman, and Tom Hanks.
This story shows in flashbacks and interactions with friends what went wrong with the marriage of Tess and Alex Novak. Most of the problems are the common ones, including lack of communication and ongoing misunderstandings that over time become blown out of proportion and grow in importance, which are absurd. One telltale moment is that when Alex and Tess seem to be getting back together, Tess becomes extremely angry about a photograph Alex has in his apartment showing Tess playing Volleyball. Her reaction was, “This is not who I am now”. Her anger was extremely out of proportion over an innocuous photograph on a wall. Another glaring example of why this couple is divorced – making a huge mountain over nothing. This one argument caused Alex to go on an angry rant during his comedy act that had nothing to do with comedy and everything to do with his frustration and extreme anger over so many challenging years.
Bradley Cooper has a small role in this movie, playing a friend of Alex and Tess, and has the strange name of “Balls” for reasons that are never explained. Cooper also co-wrote and directed this film. Other actors in this movie are Christine Ebersole, who does an excellent job as Alex’s mother, and always seems to say the exact wrong thing. Ciarán Hinds plays Alex’s father in several well-played scenes. Sean Hayes plays Stephen, one of Alex and Tess’s friends. Amy Sedaris plays one of the comedians at the Comedy Cellar and former NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning plays one of Tess’s friends, who is also getting a divorce and bonds with Tess at a meeting at a restaurant near the Comedy Cellar that results in one of the better scenes in the Comedy Cellar after their date.
This well-written screenplay reminds everybody what we already know: problems and conflict are the expected output of any relationship or marriage. When you are married, you are no longer 100% in control of your own life; it is reduced to half, and when things go south, you are going along for the ride both emotionally and financially.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this film are a correct 85%. I agree with this rating and strongly recommend this film.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 