Frankenstein (2025)

I did see almost all of the Oscar nominees before the awards but have lagged in putting fingers to keyboard. That said, Jack and I were impressed with this powerful and technically complex story of the scientist and the creature he brings to life. Jacob Elordi was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor for playing The Creature, with terrific performances by Oscar Isaac as the scientist Victor Frankenstein, Christoph Waltz as a merchant named Harlander, and Mia Goth in dual roles as Frankenstein's mother and Harlander's niece.

Guillermo del Toro directs from the script he adapted from the original 1818 Mary Shelley novel and was Oscar-nominated for Adapted Screenplay. Wikipedia says that since 1915 there are 480 feature films, 243 short films, 103 TV series, and 413 TV episodes based on that book.

Streaming Alexandre Desplat's Oscar nominated original score on Apple Music is bringing back the mood, since we watched this over seven weeks ago.

Among the movie's overall 89 wins are the Best Makeup Oscar by Mike Hill (there were frequently ten-hour makeup sessions for Elordi), the Production Design Oscar by Tamara Deverell, and the Costume Design Oscar by Kate Hawley. Its 260 other nominations, besides the three named above, include Oscars for Best Picture, Best Cinematography by Dan Lausten, and sound.

I did make a note at the time about realistic wolf puppets. Watch for them! Imdb has a long list of trivia items for those with the time and fascination to read it.

Elordi was last blogged for Priscilla, Isaac for Dune, Waltz for Downsizing, Goth for Emma., Del Toro and Deverell for Nightmare Alley, Desplat for The Piano Lesson, and Lausten for The Color Purple

Both Hill and Hawley have won their first Oscars for this and are making their first appearance in these pages. Hill has done makeup and prosthetics for del Toro's pictures at least twice before, on The Shape of Water and Nightmare Alley. Hawley's nine other features include The Edge of Tomorrow.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics, with an 85% average, aren't quite as animated as their audience's 94. We streamed it on Netflix on March 10.

Blue Moon (2025)

As a lifelong fan of Rodgers and Hart's music (see below), I was predisposed to like this story of lyricist Lorenz Hart on one of the last nights of his life. Jack and I both did. Ethan Hawke was Oscar-nominated for playing Hart and is ably supported by Margaret Qualley as his young friend Elizabeth Weiland, Bobby Cannavale as the bartender, and Andrew Scott as Richard Rodgers.

Richard Linklater directs from the script by Robert Kaplow, who was in turn inspired by the letters of Hart and Weiland. The sparkling dialogue is worth the price of admission (your Netflix subscription and a scant hour and 40 minutes). If you know any of Hart's lyrics, you will understand why the dialogue had to be clever to make it believable. The movie takes place on March 31, 1943--the opening night of the Broadway musical Oklahoma, which Hart's former partner Rodgers composed with his new lyricist Oscar Hammerstein.

Graham Reynolds' score on Apple Music includes many piano solos of Hart's tunes. To elaborate on my fandom, I have in my possession two hardcover Rodgers and Hart songbooks. The first was given to me when I was in elementary school so I could play the chords and sing along to songs from our family's oft-played album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Songbook. The second was in my stepmother's belongings when she died in 1979, and is autographed by Rodgers. You, too, can buy one from this link, with a dust cover that I don't remember ever having.

The movie earned 17 wins and 74 other nominations, including the two above. You'll notice that Hawke remains seated throughout most of the movie. That's because Hart was "barely five feet tall."

Hawke was last blogged for Raymond & Ray, Qualley for The Substance, Cannavale for Ezra, Scott for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Linklater for Nouvelle Vague, and Reynolds for Hit Man. I briefly mentioned Kaplow for the source material for Me and Orson Welles, his only other imdb credit.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are full with an 89% average, while its critics are waning slightly at 76. We streamed it on Netflix on March 11.

Song Sung Blue (2025)

Yes, there are some sad and dramatic parts, but overall this is a feel good movie about a real life Neil Diamond impersonator and his partner. Jack and I liked it a lot. Kate Hudson earned seven of the movie's 13 nominations as Claire AKA Thunder (including a Best Actress Oscar nod). Of course Hugh Jackman as Mike AKA Lightning is fabulous. And Michael Imperioli as a Buddy Holly impersonator and Mustafa Shakir as a James Brown one are wonderful as well. Ella Anderson plays Claire's daughter Rachel and King Princess is Mike's daughter Angelina.

Craig Brewer directs and wrote the script based on Greg Kohs' 2008 documentary of the same name. Brewer apparently took poetic license and there are a number of inaccuracies. But this one is not a documentary.

Scott Bomar is credited as the composer, however, the Apple Music soundtrack is almost all covers of songs by Diamond and others, played and/or sung by the cast.

Hudson was last blogged for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Jackman for Deadpool & Wolverine, Anderson for The Glass Castle, and Brewer and Bomar for Dolemite Is My Name. Best known for 86 episodes of The Sopranos (1999-2007), Imperioli has a long resumé, including eleven episodes of Californication (2014), seven of The White Lotus (2022), and the movie One Night in Miami..., though I didn't mention him in these pages. Shakir is new to me. I liked Princess in her eight episodes of Nine Perfect Strangers (2025) and Kohs has made four more feature documentaries since his Song Sung Blue.

Rotten Tomatoes aren't quite feeling cherry with a 77% average, but its audiences are so good, so good, so good at 97. We rented it on March 16 and now it's also available on Peacock.