The new film “You, Me & Tuscany” is what I would call a light romantic comedy, a mostly run-of-the-mill, forgettable two hours.
The upside of this mostly average story and movie are the locations and vistas of Tuscany, Italy, which has been the location of other movies in the past, the most memorable is the Diane Lane film “Under the Tuscan Sun”, released in 2003.
This story has been told many times before: two people, each carrying their own emotional baggage, find themselves in Tuscany under unexpected circumstances. In this case, the main character, Anna, played by Halle Bailey, finds herself in Tuscany, after a small fling with a man she meets at a restaurant, even though she has almost no money, and only because she saw that this man, she met Marco Calvani, is wealthy and his house in Tuscany is empty. Then Anna meets and is attracted to Marco’s brother Micheal, played by Regé-Jean Page, setting the stage for some insane drama at the end of this story.
The Rotten Tomatoes are a correct and predictable 69%, because there is nothing new here, just another run of the mill romatic comedy story. I agree with this rating and do not recommend this movie.
Conan O’Brien once again did a very good job hosting the Oscars for the second year in a row. His opening act, dressed up like the evil Witch in “Weapons” being chased by children – that happened at the end of the movie was as funny and brilliant as any opening segment that Billy Crystal used to perform when he hosted the Oscars. O’Brien just might host next year’s show as well.
Both of the top two most nominated movies this year, One Battle After Another and Sinners, were more strange than good, with Sinners winning the a record number of nominations at sixteen, but only winning four Oscars, which makes sense, as Sinners degraded into a Zombie/Vampire movie.
Michael B Jordan won for best actor, which he deserved because I did not think that Timothée Chalamet’s performance was deserving enough for Best Actor this year, especially because of the humiliating scene that he did with Kevin O’Leary, which was made fun of by Conan O’Brien. Jordan has paid major dues as an actor, especially due to his impressive athletic performances in the three Creed movies.
This year, there was a tie for best Live Action Short Film. One of those Films is called: “Two People Exchanging Saliva” – which is hard to believe is even a movie title.
In the Memoriam segment, Eric Dane, Brigitte Bardot,and James Van DerBeek were all omitted, which is a major mistake on this year’s Oscar telecast.
As predicted, Jessie Buckley was the runaway favorite winner for Best Actress for “Hamnet”.
Diane Warren lost her sixteenth Oscar nomination in a row for best original song. This record is more cruel than idiotic.
“One Battle After Another” won six Oscars, including best picture and best supporting actor Sean Penn, who did not attend the ceremony. This was Penn’s third Oscar. Only eight actors have won three or more Oscars:
Daniel Day-Lewis — 3 Best Actor
Meryl Streep — 2 Best Actress + 1 Supporting
Ingrid Bergman — 2 Best Actress + 1 Supporting
Jack Nicholson — 2 Best Actor + 1 Supporting
Walter Brennan — 3 Supporting Actor
Frances McDormand — 3 Best Actress
Sean Penn — 2 Best Actor + 1 Supporting
Katherine Hepburn — 4 Best Actress
Bugonia F1 Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sentimental Value Sinners Train Dreams
Best Actor in a Leading Role Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon Michael B. Jordan, Sinners Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Best Actress in a Leading Role 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 Actor in a Supporting Role Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein Delroy Lindo, Sinners Sean Penn, One Battle After Another Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
Best Actress in a Supporting Role Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value Amy Madigan, Weapons Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Best Directing Chloe Zhao, Hamnet Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Best Writing (Original Screenplay) Blue Moon It Was Just an Accident Marty Supreme Sentimental Value Sinners, Ryan Coogler
Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) Bugonia Frankenstein Hamnet One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson Train Dreams
Best Casting Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sinners
Best Music (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 Music (Original Score) Bugonia Frankenstein Hamnet One Battle After Another Sinners
Best Editing F1 Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sentimental Value Sinners
Best Costume Design Avatar: Fire and Ash Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme Sinners
Best Makeup and Hairstyling Frankenstein Kokuho Sinner The Smashing Machine The Ugly Stepsister
Best Cinematography Frankenstein Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners Train Dreams
Best Visual Effects Avatar: Fire and Ash F1 Jurassic World Rebirth The Lost Bus Sinners
Best Sound F1 Frankenstein One Battle After Another Sinners Sirât
Best Production Design Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners
Best Animated Feature Film Arco Elio KPop Demon Hunters Little Amelie or the Character of Rain Zootopia 2
Best Animated Short Film Butterfly Forevergreen The Girl Who Cried Pearls Retirement Plan The Three Sisters
Best Live Action Short Film Butcher’s Stain A Friend of Dorothy Jane Austen’s Period Drama The Singers (Tie) Two People Exchanging Saliva (Tie)
Best Documentary Feature Film The Alabama Solution Come See Me in the Good Light Cutting Through Rocks Mr. Nobody Against Putin The Perfect Neighbor
Best Documentary Short Film All the Empty Rooms Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud Children No More: Were and Are Gone The Devil Is Busy Perfectly a Strangeness
Best International Feature Film The Secret Agent, Brazil It Was Just an Accident, France Sentimental Value, Norway Sirât, Spain The Voice of Hind Rajab, Tunisia
The new movie “Highest 2 Lowest” is the latest Spike Lee-directed movie. His last film was five years ago, “Da 5 Bloods”, released in 2020 on Netflix. This is the 5th collaboration between Spike Lee and Denzel Washington who stars in this film as a music mogul in New York City named David King, who is a major risk taker and has built a music empire that is either doing well or about to collapse from bankruptcy.
There are several speeches in this film about risk, success, and failure that are very well written, all ultimately about what is most important in life: how hard it is to succeed, and how easy it can be to lose everything are some of the best parts of this story.
There is a huge deal that David King is trying to make with this company that surprisingly turns into a kidnapping of David’s son, Trey, played by Aubrey Joseph, and a mistake by the kidnappers that adds many story twists and impossible decisions, making this movie a standout kidnapping story.
The acting is outstanding, including David King’s best friend, Paul Christopher, played by Jeffrey Wright, and his wife, Pam King, played by Ilfenesh Hadera. Former NBA player Rick Fox plays himself as a high school basketball coach, and there are several references to his time in the NBA and especially the great playoff matchups with the Boston Celtics.
The twists towards the end of this story and the ending are very well done and never predictable, with my only negative comment involving the too-long music montage fillers at certain parts of this film.
The rap star A$AP Rocky is great in his role as Yung Felon, with some of his arguments and speeches with Denzel Washington at the end of this movie performed very impressively. The singer Sunni Valentine plays an aspiring singer Julie Tucker, with her only appearance at the end of this film, with a great performance of her song “Highest to Lowest”, trying to convince David King to sign her to a music contract.
The Rotten Tomatoes consensus of 90% is correct this time. I agree with this rating and highly recommend this film.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 