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Last-Minute Musing(s) on the 2025 Oscars

By Connie Wilson

On March 2, 2025

In Movies, Music, News, Pop Culture, Reviews, Television

It’s only a few hours from the Oscars. The ballots are out (you know who you are) and the Prognosticator trophy is at stake.

Since this is Oscar Sunday, I am going to (stream-of-consciousness) run through the nominees, in the hopes that some of you are doing the same thing right about now. The Red Carpet is about to start, and who is going to win? (The tension mounts.)

Our ballots are distributed to the Usual Suspects and the traveling trophy of Most Accurate Prognosticator sits proudly on the mantel—errr, glass table—near our TV set. In other years, I’d be giving out freebie movie tickets to students at my Sylvan Learning Center (only the winners, of course) but, this year, it’s just old Oscar (the trophy) and bragging rights. Pay no attention to my last post about the nominated films I, personally, liked the most because I have not “liked” the Best Picture winner in the past few years. So, you’re warned.

I’m going beyond the 5 main categories to discuss those that almost nobody sees, live-action shorts. I actually reviewed many of the “live action” shorts, and a Mindy Kahling produced film about India called “Anuja,” which I liked. However, I liked a different one better from China about fishing for corpses in the river, so… But how many of you have seen “A Lien,” “I’m Not A Robot,” “The Last Ranger,” or “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent?” Yeah. That’s what I thought.

Original Screenplay nominees are “Anora,”, “The Brutalist,” “A Real Pain,” “September 5,” “The Substance.” I have actually seen all of these. “A Real Pain” is the front-runner, supposedly, but I like nearly any other script better. I’m thinking that, if a sweep starts with either “Anora” or “The Brutalist,” it might garner a vote in this category, too. (Lots of talk about how “Anora,” the film about a U.S. strip tease dancer marrying the son of a Russian oligarch and the fall-out that represents is gaining on the previous front-runners.) We liked Mikey Madison’s performance in “Anora” but—after her Russian husband takes a powder—the film becomes a repetitive search film where they attempt to locate him. Mikey Madison was great in her part, and the somewhat open-ended interpretation we are left with at the end was a plus. I could see new-comers to the voting ranks giving Madison the BEST ACTRESS trophy, if they don’t decide to honor Demi Moore for her long career.

BEST DIRECTORS

Nominated directors for the Oscars, 2025

Nominated directors for the 2025 Oscars

Jacques Audliard (“Emilia Perez”); Sean Baker (“Anora”); Brady Corbet (“The Brutalist”); Coralie Fargeat (“The Substance”); James Mangold “A Complete Unknown”. The two in the lead are Sean Baker and Brady Corbet. I also would like to heartily endorse James Mangold, primarily because I loved “Ford vs. Ferrari.” I am sticking with “The Brutalist” because it was such an achievement on just a $10 million budget.

DEMI MOORE/ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY AWARDS

Why would Demi Moore NOT win? (1) “The Substance” was a horror movie and, historically, the Academy has not wanted to honor them with the top prize. (2) The ending may have turned some viewers off (3) The voter has to be willing to honor age and experience over the youthful new-on-the-scene Mikey Madison. It’s a close call with so many members of the Academy now voting being newcomers. Both women have been doing well at the other awards ceremonies that lead up to the Oscars. I can’t see the trans-gender lead (Karla Sofia Gascon) pulling this one out of the fire and Fernanda Torres’ “I’m Still Here” is probably the film least viewed of the 10 nominees (It’s the only one I missed).

So, take your pick between the old-timer and the new-comer or give your vote to Cynthia Erivo for “Wicked.” For me, I’ll go with the old-timer for the Best Actress award, and I’ll go with “The Brutalist” over “A Real Pain” for original screenplay. Jesse Eisenberg will continue writing scripts and I hope they continue to receive accolades. For me, the best script this year was for “Heretic” from (Scott) Beck and (Bryan) Woods, which didn’t make the cut at all.

James Mangold (“A Complete Unknown.”).

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Nominees are “Conclave,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Emilia Perez,” “Nickel Boys,” “Sing Sing.” Given its BAFTA showings, “Conclave” must move up on the list of potential winners. For me, it’s “A Complete Unknown,” but the experts are leaning towards “Conclave.”

ANIMATED FEATURE

Nominees are “Flow,” “Inside Out 2,” “Memoir of a Snail,” “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” “The Wild Robot”

There was a big push to have all the critics see “Memoir of a Snail.” I did. It was weird, but well-done, so I’ll go with that. I think that “Flow” is the favorite.

PRODUCTION DESIGN

“The Brutalist,” “Conclave,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Nosferatu,” “Wicked.”

For me, “The Brutalist” really delivered on the architect immigrant in America theme. “Wicked” and “Dune” are possible winners, but I was so impressed by the architecture in “The Brutalist” that I’ll stick with my favorite picture of those nominated this year.

COSTUME DESIGN

“Wicked”

“Wicked” co-stars.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

“The Brutalist.” A close second, for me, would be “Dune: Part Two,” but the almost picture-perfect moon over the water and the shots taking us down the railroad tracks and the unique look at the Statue of Liberty at the beginning all point me to “The Brutalist.”

EDITING

“Conclave,” in deference to the BAFTA nods.

MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

“Wicked,” although “The Substance” has a shot.

SOUND

The 2 musically inclined films are “A Complete Unknown” and “Wicked.” Take your pick. Mine is “Wicked.”

VISUAL EFFECTS

“Dune: Part Two”with “Wicked as a close second.

ORIGINAL SCORE

“The Brutalist”

Oscar predicting trophy

ORIGINAL SONG

Have you heard all 5 of the nominated songs? Well, I have. It took some sleuthing, but, after listening to all of them, I would say the battle is between honoring Elton John for “Never Too Late,” which has a typical Elton John sound and is possibly the finale entry from this talented songsmith. But I’ll vote for Dianne Warren’s 16th nomination for “The Journey” from “The Six Triple Eight.” When you hear the lyrics, you’ll see why. It’s become a hymn for the fire-ravaged Los Angeles community, and isn’t it about time that Diane Warren got the little gold guy?

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

I’m going with “Porcelain War,” even though it echoes last year’s Ukraine-themed winner. I realize that DJT doesn’t want us supporting Ukraine any more, since he’s all in for Russia, but I’m voting for it based on having seen it.

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

“Emilia Perez” from France—which was supposed to win it all until recent tweets resurfaced.

ANIMATED SHORT

“Yuck”

Oscar Prognosticator Trophy

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

“The Only Girl in the Orchestra”

LIVE-ACTION SHORT

Since I saw “Anuja,” I’m voting for it, even though I’ve not read that it is favored. (“A Lien” got that honor from one predictor.)

There’s a tie-breaker on our competition. You have to make a pick in all categories and tell which film will win the most Oscars, and how many. For me, based on this stream-of-consciousness

Best of the 2025 Nominated Films

By Connie Wilson

On March 1, 2025

In Movies, News, Politics, Pop Culture, Reviews

BEST PICTURE

Here are my thoughts on this year’s Oscar nominees:

Full disclosure: I’ve only seen 9 of the 10 nominated films. I did not see “I’m Still Here.” But, still 90% is higher than the average viewer.

My personal favorite of the nominated films is “The Brutalist.” I was amazed at the fact that a film this polished could be made on a $10 million dollar budget. The sets, featuring the futuristic architecture of Laszlo Toth (Adrian Brody) were fantastic. The Vista-Vision resembled 35 mm film and was gorgeous on the big screen. The shots of a sun over water or a hill where the construction is happening are truly beautiful, not to mention the marble quarry in Italy.

If “The Brutalist” doesn’t win, I hope that “A Complete Unknown,” the Bob Dylan movie prevails. It was my second favorite of the other nominated films, which are: “Anora,” “Conclave,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Emilia Perez,” “Nickel Boys,” “The Substance” and “Wicked.”

BEST DIRECTOR

Put me down for Brady Corbet for “The Brutalist,” despite the fact that the BAFTA crowd likes “Conclave.” (Well, at least the story about the death of a Pope is timely, but so is the “Brutalist’s story of anti-Semitism. Again, if Corbet does not win, I’m cool with James Mangold for “A Complete Unknown.” Not really a prediction, but my own hopes.

BEST ACTOR

I’m torn here, again, between Adrian Brody and/or Timothee Chalamet. I’d be cool with either one carting off the trophy, and I think one of them will—probably Adrian Brody. But it was quite the achievement for Chalamet to both play the dramatic role and sing all the songs himself. Kudos!

BEST ACTRESS

I’m thinking Demi Moore, because the Emilia Perez lead (Karla Sofia Gascon) shot herself in the foot with her unwise Tweets. Demi has been coming on strong and she and Kieran Culkin promise to be interesting recipients of any award. For my money, the best two performances this year didn’t get nominated at all, and those would be Amy Adams in “Nightbitch” and Nicole Kidman in “Babygirl.”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Kieran Culkin in “A Real Pain” is supposed to have this sewed up. (I actually saw that one.) I would not mind seeing it go to either Edward Norton for “A Complete Unknown” or Guy Pearce in “The Brutalist.” This one could go a different way, since the others in the category are so worthy, also.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Zoe Saldana in “Emilia Perez” seems to have this one in the bag. No idea why anyone thought that Isabella Rossilini’s very small role in “Conclave” deserved a nod.

“Retirement Plan:” The 7-Minute Short That Tells the Truth

By Connie Wilson

On February 20, 2025

In Editorial, Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Movies, Music, Politics, Pop Culture, Reviews

“Retirement Plan Plan:” A 7-minute short from Screen Ireland featuring Domhnall Gleeson.

I recently had the pleasure of viewing a 7-minute short that is to screen at SXSW in March entitled “Retirement Plan.” From Fis Eireann/Screen Ireland. It was written by John Kelly and Tara Lawall and was an absolute delight. If you have the opportunity, don’t miss it. It is narrated by Domhnall Gleason (Bill Weasley in the “Harry Potter” franchise) and shows a man of retirement age musing about all the great things he is going to do in retirement. Meanwhile, in the background, John Carroll Kirby’s simple piano tunes tinkle pleasantly, with the song “Walking Through A House Where A Family Has Lived” giving you another idea about the light-hearted tone of the short piece.

My favorite exchanges were the narrator saying, “I will paraglide.”

In the next frame, he is shown with a walker and says, “I will NOT paraglide.”

The animated character that animators Marah Curran and Eamonn O’Neill present to us in the short muses on many things he will do in retirement: He will read 35 years of books that he has been putting off reading. He will clean his desktop. He will birdwatch. He will swim every morning. He will hike (“Camping is HORRIBLE!”) The camping line made me think of Woody Allen’s famous line about how his idea of “roughing it” was watching black-and-white TV. [Agreed.]

I’ve been retired for 22 years. I joined a gym with a pool in November. It is almost March. I have yet to swim even once. While I did swim (4 times) last year, the chlorine was so bad that I thought I was going to sink to the bottom of the pool, unnoticed, and drown. (Nobody else is swimming during a weekday afternoon; there is no lifeguard). I only learned on a Monday last year when they canceled the children’s swimming class that the chlorine ratio was totally screwed up. So much for, “No, Doc, I don’t know why I get dizzy and almost pass out while swimming. That never happened to me before I retired.” (It could be because L.A. Fitness didn’t bother to check their chlorine levels; some of the kiddies ALSO almost —or did?—pass out. THEN they fixed it!)

HOUSTON ART GALLERY

Lolita at the Houston Art Gallery.

I related to the cartoon character’s comment that he would go to an art gallery and “I will want to be there.”

I recently went on a 3-day trip to see Gauguin paintings at the Houston Art Museum. A really unpleasant woman within the Museum followed me for 4 rooms because I leaned against a wall in the first room. I was severely chastised for same. (There were no paintings nearby or on the wall). She finally cornered me in the fourth room, asking me if I “wanted to talk to her manager.”

My response was, “No. I don’t want to talk to your manager. And I don’t want to talk to you, either. I just want to get out of here. I have a bad knee and I felt dizzy. Which would you rather have had me do? Lean on the wall or pass out on the floor?”

Lolita and I were not destined to become buddies.

I enjoyed the trip, overall, but found myself (once again) trying out a retirement activity with a downside.

OTHER THINGS TO TRY IN RETIREMENT

What other relatable activities does our retired figure discuss?

“I will take better care of myself.” Right. I spend one day a week visiting doctors. (Today: bloodwork; tomorrow, the endocrinologist). This is my Most Normal Retirement Activity: visiting doctors’ offices. Oncologist. Endocrinologist. Heptologist. Dentist. Oral Surgeon. Podiatrist. Dermatologist. Primary Care Physician. I read an article recently that said that this is common in we “mature” individuals and doctors make no effort to help you consolidate the MANY appointments. Today, I was told that an A1C would cost me, personally, $84, because “you’ve had too many tests and your insurance won’t cover it.” [No kidding. I thought I was simply in training to become a human pin cushion.]

Elise Wilson in action. (This is how I envisioned my volleyball playing would appear. It did not.)

“I will finally find my sport.” That’s not gonna’ happen, either. While playing volleyball in a co-ed league, a demented stork-like 6′ 5″ person (male) on the other side of the net spiked it down, hard, on 5′ 2″ me. My left elbow dislocated as I turned a backwards somersault. A nice nurse in the gym ran over and said, “I think you just broke your arm.” We went to the emergency room where I was injected with intravenous valium and X-rayed to see if I HAD broken my arm. (No, but I still have bone chips in my left elbow and it aches when it rains.) I spent 6 months in a sling, invested many dollars in front-closing bras and capes, and had to go to physical therapy to address the torn ligaments and tendons. Not fun for me. The insertion of the elbow back into the socket was not fun for the 2 men attempting that task, nor for me. (The spouse waited in the hall). The little blonde diving in the clip above is my 16-year-old granddaughter, Elise. This is how I envision my volleyball playing looked. Sadly, it did not.

“I will completely nail my final words.”Probably not happening, either. I always liked the guy that wrote, on his tombstone, “I can’t be dead. I still have checks.” That retort has not aged well. There’s always W.C. Fields’ “All in all, I’d rather be in Philadelphia” for a final greeting from the grave.

BEST LINES

From the 7-minute short “Retirement Plan” from Screen Ireland.

In addition to the line “CAMPING IS HORRIBLE” and “I will not paraglide,” I laughed the hardest at the vow to “haunt the absolute shit” out of an enemy. As the author of “Ghostly Tales of Route 66” I hope this option is open to me in the after-life. I have a couple of “friends” (I use the term loosely) and relatives who, after 35 to 60 years of faithful friendship and loyalty on MY part, backstabbed me into wanting to come back as one of the ghosts of Route 66 and give them a little taste of the misery they’ve visited upon me since 2005 (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!)

CONCLUSION

I honestly have not laughed so hard at a 7-minute bit in a long time. I would like to thank Fis Eireann/Screen Ireland for this truly delightful (and accurate) presentation on retirement. As someone who loved her job and didn’t really want to retire in 2003, [but did], I salute you.

Retirement sucks, basically.

It means you have to actively seek out things to do and “travel more” and “birdwatching” and “gong to plays” (“I will find out if I like plays”) isn’t cutting it. (I have learned I prefer movies to plays. Hell, I prefer shorts like this one to most plays.)

Retirement was the worst idea I have had—if it was even MY idea. I seem to remember my spouse of 57 years suggesting we would travel more, blah, blah, blah, but that went out the window when he began playing golf locally in multiple golf leagues with his old high school, elementary school, and work colleagues. The last time we traveled anywhere was before the pandemic. (I’m not counting the time shares bought in the nineties, because we go to those every year as our “home away from home.”) Me? I did not grow up in his home town and, post-work, it’s been unfun and dull. I hear that the Governor of Iowa has just declared all of Iowa a disaster area because of the bird flu, and we’re very close to Iowa. I would really like to leave any disaster area before disaster strikes (and they closed the only theater on the Illinois side of the Mississippi for over a year!)

VACATIONS?

The previous owners of Royal Resorts properties in Cancun (we owned at the Sands and the Islander) dumped it into the Holiday Inn Vacation Club All Inclusive world recently. That is a special kind of backstabbing. They built a kiddies’ pool right outside of our first floor digs. Now I get to listen to screaming kiddies knocking themselves out on the water slide at the crack of dawn. I can hardly wait. Does that sound like fun in retirement? [Just shoot me now.]

From the short “Retirement Plan”(Fis Eireann/Screen Ireland).

If I were to be asked what I would recommend people do in retirement, I would recommend that they watch this 7-minute film, because it has summed up my own reaction(s) perfectly, including the line “I will find out what a pension is.” I have. It’s not great. Between the taking of half of my Social Security moneys because I had been a teacher and we had a state pension system (I spent more time in the private sector, but Social Security still took half) and the potential insolvency of the Illinois TRS (Teachers’ Retirement System), who knows? I may be back at work before long.

Don’t give up your day job, but do try to see this wonderfully honest and creative short 7-mnute film. After all, if you’re retired, that still means that for that retirement day, instead of having 1,440 minutes to fill with useless activities, many of which you won’t enjoy, you will only have 1,433 minutes to fill.

Writing: The Art of Creative Invention

By Connie Wilson

On February 18, 2025

In Books, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture

Based on a true story – The art of creative invention to tell a complete story

By Lisa Montalto

Titanic

As we all know, an autobiography or memoir is based on a true story, but there are also other forms of writing where the story happened. When a novel is written based on a true story, it can be written in first person by the person who experienced it, but often it’s written by a third party.

When a novel is based on a true story but written by a third party, there is a lot of research involved. And even with the most intense detective work, not all of the story is known. The little nuances and gaps need to be filled in and that’s where the writer uses their imagination to do the filling-in.

Where do you find a writer? Ghostwriters Central, Inc., is one great source. They have many skilled writers under contract, including me, thoroughly vetted, and ready to assist clients worldwide with books, screenplays, speeches, or whatever else they may need. The company was founded in 2002. If you need their help, click the link. Your first consultation is free. What follows are some examples of fiction based on fact.

TITANIC

Let’s begin with the story of the Titanic. There have been several books written and movies made about the days leading up to and the day the Titanic sank. So, what are the facts and what part of the story is fiction?

Fact: The RMS Titanic hit an iceberg off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia on April 14, 1912.

Fact: It sank two hours and forty minutes later.

Fact: 1,510 people lost their lives out of 2,240 souls on board.

Fact: First Officer Murdoch, on the bridge, was alerted the by a man in the crow’s nest at 11:40 pm about the iceberg.

Fact: There wasn’t enough time to avoid the iceberg.

Fact: The ship was sailing at full speed.

Fact: The band continued to play as the ship sank.

That book or movie would be relatively short if not for an author filling in the gaps, creating backstories for passengers who didn’t exist, and adding drama to the plot.

SCHINDLER’S LIST

This is how a book is written when based on a true story. Let’s take the movie Schindler’s List. It was written as a novel called Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally about Oskar Schindler. Its genre is historical fiction because, while the facts surrounding the story are true, the rest are fictionalized.

Oskar Schindler became a hero when he saved 1,200 Polish Jews from the gas chambers. Keneally wrote the story based on factual names and events, but he needed to fill in the gaps about things he couldn’t possibly know, such as private conversations and actions that only the long-deceased Schindler would know.

Novelist Thomas Keneally happened to be in the right place at the right time when he entered Poldek Pfeffferberg’s shop in Beverly Hills, looking for a briefcase. Pfefferberg was a Holocaust survivor who worked for Oskar Schindler. He had been trying to gain the attention of publishers and moviemakers to tell the story of Schindler’s heroic efforts to no avail. When he found out Keneally was an author, he presented his story idea. Pfefferberg had extensive files on Schindler from working with him and it didn’t take long for him to convince the author to write the story.

In the United States, the book and subsequent film became named Schindler’s List, a number-one bestseller and blockbuster movie.

UNITED 93

To be a great non-fiction author you have to be able to fill in the blanks using research to validate what you’re presenting. When writing dialogue, it has to be believable that the real-life figure would say this or that. You must be able to use their voice to speak for them in ways that are most likely to have been true.

In the case of the 9/11 movie, United 93. We couldn’t possibly know everything that was said on that plane. We have a great idea based on phone calls from the plane and can piece it together, but the writer had to do their research. They had to imagine being there and what the passengers and terrorists would say. They had to research the people through interviews with family and friends to hone in on their personalities and how they would react. All of this leads to a more complete and credible story.

Writing fiction and non-fiction requires their own special skill sets. A fiction writer can most likely write non-fiction because they have the skills to embellish and take on the voices of their characters. However, a non-fiction writer might have a hard time with fiction if they’ve only ever written factual-based true stories from interviews with the story’s subject. However, if you’re a good writer, you’re a good writer. If you’re not, contact Ghostwriters Central, Inc., at ghostwords.com.

“Sorry, Baby” at Sundance 2025

By Connie Wilson

On February 13, 2025

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Eva Victor appears in Sorry, Baby by Eva Victor, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Mia Cioffi Henry.

One of the films that “sold” at Sundance 2025 (to A24) was the 103 minute comedy/drama feature “Sorry, Baby,” which went for $8 million. Shot in Massachusetts, it was also one of the films I had been looking forward to the most, because Lucas Hedges (Oscar-nominated for his role as Patrick Chandler in 2016’s “Manchester by the Sea” at 20 years of age) was cast as Gavin. The film was written, directed and starred Eva Victor as Agnes.

THE BAD

Eva Victor wrote an extremely small part for Lucas Hedges and totally wasted his presence for 2/3 of the film, preferring, instead, to focus on herself as the lead actress. Yes, it was a film about Agnes’ sexual experience with a married professor and her extreme (and belated) bad reaction to same, but when the talented now 29-year-old Hedges was onscreen, his part consisted primarily of an bathtub scene where his lines included, “I’m embarrassed and I was hiding my dick.” In fact, when he first appeared onscreen as Gavin, he almost immediately disappeared and it was not clear if he was going to return at all!

Ms. Victor responds to the awkward nude bathtub badinage with, “It’s okay. I was covering my breasts. Oh, wait. Can I look at it? I have never seen one that soft. They’re better like this.”

Probably not a scripted exchange that is going to garner Lucas Hedges his second Oscar nomination.

The scene that featured Ms. Victor with a baby was also weird.

I’m guessing that Eva Victor has no children, but, whether she does or not, the conversation she wrote for herself to have with a friend’s infant she is babysitting was strange. She talks about how the infant can tell her anything and says, “I’m sorry that bad things are going to happen to you. If I can ever stop bad things from happening, just let me know. I feel bad for you, in a way, but you’re alive and you don’t know that yet. But I can still listen and not be scared. So that’s good. Or that’s something at least.”

Again, probably not scripted dialogue that is going to win Ms. Victor Oscar nods.

I have two kids. I guarantee that this is not “normal” banter with an infant. If it had been comedic (see “Nightbitch”) I might feel differently, but it just struck me as reaching and unlikely and not normal in the world I inhabit.

The film was punctuated with sub-titles. “The Year with the Bad Thing” or “The Year with the Good Sandwich” onscreen as subtitled portions of the main story did not seem like a great idea. Some of the sub-titles were barely related to what we then saw onscreen.

The delayed PTSD concerning Agnes’ (Ms. Victor’s) interaction with her college professor seemed over-wrought and not very true-to-life (besides barely being depicted, since we just see her rush from the house.)

As a young college student, Ms. Victor’s character went to her married male professor’s house to discuss a paper. He made sexual advances, which are not described as that aggressive. In fact, the entire escapade was not very clearly depicted or described. Did Agnes actually feel she had been raped or…? Had she simply been a very bad judge of character in agreeing to visit the married professor’s house while his wife and family were out of town? Did he truly force himself upon her? Could she have said “no” more forcefully? She is shown pursuing the issue somewhat at the college offices on campus, but learns that the misbehaving professor (previously her favorite) has apparently already resigned and left town. (Quick work there!)

You’ll have to see the film when A24 streams it to answer the questions above for yourselves. Upsetting, yes.

To have a full-blown breakdown while behind the wheel of a car, years later? Seemed contrived. It did lead to a nice character turn from John Carroll Lynch as Pete, however,— (the genesis of “The Year of the Bad Sandwich” bad sub-title.) I thought back to Emerald Fennell’s master class in scripting the results of such an encounter in the 2020 film “Promising Young Woman” with Carrie Mulligan. A different premise, yes, and not meant to be humorous at any point, but at least what, exactly, had happened to that girl was clearly spelled out, rather than the muddied version here. At times, the episode seems to have severely and seriously impacted Agnes. At other times, she seems to have moved past the trauma fairly quickly—until a triggering incident while driving.

Just left me feeling that the behind-the-wheel PTSD scene was overblown and belonged in a different movie.

THE GOOD

Eva Victor, director of Sorry, Baby, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Lee Dubin.

There is a courtroom scene that was quite amusing. I hoped for more like that one—scenes that would seem natural and normal and life-like and realistic. It was well done. There were good lines here and there, such as, “I did not think I would end up looking like a yam with a mouth on it.” And it was nice to see more female directors/writers coming up through the ranks,.

Director of Photography Mia Cioffi Henry acquitted herself nobly and the music by Lia Quyang Rusli was good.

Here’s what “Ioncinema” said about “Sorry, Baby:” “We imagine it’ll be extra champagne uncorking for some of the A24 folks who landed the film for a cool 8 million dollars – today’s IndieWire poll of the Best of Sundance (as voted on by 176 critics) further confirms that the breakout film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Sorry, Baby – which placed highest not only in the Best Film category but also topped the Best Performance, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best First Film lists. Eva Victor‘s debut did not claim the Grand Jury Prize but did manage to win the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and had several distributors on the chase to land the rights.”

That is heady praise and means I am out of step with the mainstream reaction. I have a theory that the reason it was praised so highly is that almost ALL of the rest of the Sundance offerings were about death, dying, illness, or other such catastrophes. It was hard to find a comedy—although “Andre Is An Idiot” would qualify, except for the fact that it’s about a terminally ill man cataloguing his last months on the planet.

CONCLUSION

For me, there was promise in the courtroom scene for a Funny Film of the Future. Just looking at the credits, it seemed that the writer/director/star highlighted herself overmuch, which ended up hurting the film. Wasting Lucas Hedges in his role as Gavin was but one example.

It was not a “bad” film, but I’m still scratching my head over the over-emphasis on Agnes and the timing of Agnes’ trauma, etc.. For me, the emphasis on Agnes’ trauma was inconsistent with a “comedy” and her breakdown was overdone. And, then, too, there was the waste of other talented cast members, like Naomi Ackie as best friend Lydie and Kelly McCormack as Natasha.

(And don’t get me started on the complete waste of the uber talented Lucas Hedges.)

America, We Have A Problem. WAKE UP!

By Connie Wilson

On February 4, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics, Pop Culture

“Why Musk’s Nazi Salute Matters” –from Zach Beauchamp of “Vox”

“Elon Musk doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt,” said Zack Beauchamp. While speaking at President Trump’s inauguration, Musk twice thrust his arm out in a Nazi salute—there’s “no other plausible interpretation of his gesture.”

Some tried to dismiss it as merely an awkward moment, but context matters, and Musk has an “extensive track record of extreme right policies, flirtations with antisemitism, and juvenile trolling.”

Elon Musk

Musk responded to the uproar not with an apology, but by mocking critics with snide Nazi-themed puns, including “Bet you did nazi that coming.” Not surprisingly, neo-Nazis were giddy about Musk’s salute; the fact that it occurred at a presidential inauguration signals “a deeper rot.”

The tech oligarch is promoting Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party, urging party members to move “past guilt” over Nazism’s horrors, and he personally restored neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes’ account on “X”. It’s all part of “the Trump era ‘vile shift,” in which there’s no accountability for extremist rhetoric and performative cruelty. As we descend this slippery slope, it’s vital that decent people “assert that there are real moral standards” and that Nazi play-acting violates them. Those standards may be our only bulwarks against the return of “honest-to-goodness Nazism.”

“Omaha” Is A Film For Our Times from Debut Feature Film Director Cole Webley

By Connie Wilson

On February 3, 2025

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Molly Belle Wright appears in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

“Omaha” is the first feature film from working cinematographer Cole Webley, who has numerous IMDB credits for shorts and commercial work. He told Kate Erland of “IndieWire:” When you’re in this business, when a script comes along that everybody knows just needs to be made into a film, the writing’s on the wall.”

That script, written by Robert Machoian (2020’s “The Killing of Two Lovers”) is a parable for our time(s). It came to Webley’s attention as he was setting about directing his first feature film, which premiered at Sundance on Opening Night. It’s a touching film. If “Sorry, Baby” was bought for $8 million by A24, (only the third film so far to nail down a deal), this one is worth three times that. (Never waste an Oscar-nominated actor like Lucas Hedges in a tiny part!)

FILM OPENING

A father is shown waking his two children and loading them into the car for a cross-country road trip from Utah to Omaha, Nebraska. (He tells the older child to take what she’d take if the house were on fire.) I had not read extensively about the film. The devastating plot is concealed so long that I had to talk my spouse into sticking with it. I pointed out the superior cinematography (Paul Meyers), where even a random shot on the highway was primo, and the acting, which is top-notch.

His response was, “Yeah, but what’s going on?” So, I found out, told him by revealing the key plot point early, and he got to see one of my two favorite Sundance 2025 feature films this year, The other was “Train Dreams,” which sold in the high teens to Netflix.

The key plot point is hidden from the audience’s view until you’ve devoted almost an hour to the 83-minute movie. In today’s period of short attention spans and ADD/ADHD, maybe the audience could have been let in on the sub-text a bit sooner? (I taught for MANY years, so bear with me on that slight criticism.)

HIDDEN PLOT POINT

(*Do not read this if you want to be “surprised” by the plot’s key point.)

In July of 2008 Nebraska became one of several states that passed a Safe Haven law that allowed unharmed infants to be dropped off at a hospital without penalty where they would immediately become a ward of the state. The Nebraska law failed to specify an age for the children being abandoned. Before the Nebraska legislature fixed the loophole, thirty-five children had been abandoned—none of them infants and five of them from out-of-state.

Screenwriter Machoian heard about the last woman from Davis, California who managed to be the last parent to make the trip to Omaha out of desperation to take advantage of the loophole. The law was clarified to mean infants younger than 30 days. Miachoian described the genesis of the script during the Q&A: “For me, I had just finished grad school, we had 6 kids, and we were super poor. I was aware that if something happened to my wife (as it does to the wife in “Omaha”) I would be overwhelmed.”

Director Webley told Filmmaker magazine: “The idea that you can just poo-pooh something because you’ve never been in that situation, or you can’t see or feel it, it really scares me as a society—that insular feeling that we don’t have to think about that because we’re not going through it.”

John Magaro, Molly Belle Wright, and Wyatt Solis appear in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Amplifying the timeliness of the film, Webley added: “I would guarantee you that this guy probably didn’t vote blue. He seems like a blue collar dude. He probably was raised in a conservative environment. Who knows how he voted? But I can tell you that, for me, as someone who definitely isn’t aligned with what’s happening in the country right now, I see this man as a human being who’s struggling and has trauma. Compassion should rule the day, not punishment.”

Webley continued, “And if I wanted this movie to do anything without being didactic, it would be that it places humanity upon the people on the edges and the fringes of our society. We’re so ready to forget them because we don’t know them or see them every day. We’re so ready to judge them, ready to say, ‘deport them.’ But these are people who are trying. And if they’re not trying, they probably need help and a system that is going to provide options rather than punishment.”

ACTING

John Magaro, Molly Belle Wright, and Wyatt Solis appear in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

The lead (Dad), John Magaro does a great job of showing us a caring father pushed to the brink. But the accolades went to the two young actors playing Ella and Charlie, his 9 and 6-year-old children. Molly Belle Wright, in particular, who played Ella was a real find. Wyatt Solis played the younger brother, Charlie. Said Director Webley, “Molly’s like a professional actress. She was 9 at the time and she’s incredible. I can’t wait to see her blossom. It was like working with two adults when she was in the room.”

During the Q&A, he expanded on working with such young actors: “But when we got into the car (all real, no green screen), it just became really clear that Wyatt (age 6) was not going to do the same thing twice.” Webley described Wyatt as “the tip of the spear” and Magaro—who only met the kids three days before filming was to start—said during the Q&A, “Wyatt’s like Brando. He does what he wants.” (Laughter) Child labor laws dictated that Wyatt could only be filmed three hours a day and Molly for four. Only Rex, the golden retriever, had to be recast, but he is “alive and well in Utah,” where most of the film was shot, (with some footage in Wyoming and Nebraska.)

DIRECTOR

Cole Webley, director of Omaha, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Webley told Filmmaker magazine, “I see my job directing as mostly guide rails. I don’t like to talk a lot about back story. I want my actors to take their role and their job is to go and find that person. And John came prepared. And I was making sure I had given John every opportunity within the scene to nail who this man was.”

The children came off as totally natural. Their dancing and clowning around, which was captured over the 27-day shoot, was perfect for setting the tone of the film family. It was clear from talk about camera lenses and the beautifully framed shots (as they leave town and as they arrive in Omaha) that Webley is an accomplished cinematographer with a real eye for what he is shooting. He echoed another Director I spoke with in Nashville recently, Jason Reitman of “Saturday Night,” who said that 90% of a film’s success is in the casting of a (good) script.

MUSIC, EDITING

The Christopher Bear music was good. The scene in the car where the three rock out to “Mony Mony” by Tommy James and the Shondells was great. (Check out Wyatt in the back seat going ballistic!) Jai Shukla did a great job editing the beautifully-shot footage.

CONCLUSION

I watched A LOT of films over the course of Sundance 2025. At least 25% of them focused on death and dying. This one was about life and living. It was about how hard it can be when society’s safety nets are removed and disinformation and lack of compassion rule the day. This is a gut-wrenching film; a “happy ending” is not in the cards. But it is well worth watching and trying to feel for the people involved on a human level.

As a former teacher from a long line of educators, I felt for the children in this story. First, the kids lose their Mom. Then, they lose their home. Then they lose their dog. Ultimately, they lose their Dad? It is hard to get behind that decision, but the film helps to dramatize the plight of many struggling working class families. Those in power may put down anyone with compassion as a tree-hugging liberal, but the truth is that humanity requires us to empathize with those going through rough times, not to penalize and ostracize them.

“Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” at Sundance 2025

By Connie Wilson

On January 30, 2025

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

(Deaf actress Marlee Matlin appears at Sundance 2025. (Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute).

Deaf actress and activist Marlee Matlin was born 58 years ago in Morton Grove, Illinois. When asked to do a PBS Masters biography of her life, she requested a deaf director. Shoshanna Stern became the guiding force behind this autobiographical recounting of Matlin’s life and career.

She lost her hearing at 18 months of age for reasons never completely determined. As she shares, her parents never got over the guilt. She describes a childhood feeling of being cut off, dismissed and ignored, saying, “That’s just how it was as the deaf girl.”

Although she had always loved to perform, she was often not allowed to audition because of her handicap.

MARLEE & WILLIAM HURT

However, when the play “Children of a Lesser God” was being made into a movie, the search for a deaf actress to play the lead led to casting the then 19-year-old Matlin in the part, opposite William Hurt, who was then 35. Sparks flew. The two became a couple for a brief period, which led to charges of abuse on Matlin’s part and denials on Hurt’s. She has said, “Bill Hurt was threatened by my youth and the sudden change in my success from just one movie.” Her autobiographical recounting of their romance in “I’ll Scream Later,” written in 2009, also described sexual molestation at ages 11 and 15.

Matlin’s impassioned performance in “Children of a Lesser God” won her the Oscar as Best Actress of the Year in 1987, but also contributed to the break-up of her romance with the much older Hurt. One thing that Marlee has acknowledged that was a positive from her time with Hurt was that he convinced her to get clean from a dependence on drugs and alcohol and to go to rehab, as he had done. She checked into the Betty Ford Center. She remains married to her husband Kevin Grandalski after four children and 32 years, which may be as major an accomplishment as being the youngest woman (and only deaf actress) to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.

MARLEE & HENRY WINKLER

When Marlee was twelve years old, a chance meeting with Henry Winkler in Chicago—then riding high as the Fonz on “Happy Days”—led to a lifetime friendship with the actor and his wife. In fact, Marlee lived with the Winklers for two years and was married to her current husband, a Burbank police officer, in the Winklers’ back yard in 1993.

ACTIVISM

Marlee has leaned into activism on behalf of the deaf, although she claims, in the documentary, to have been uninformed about deaf issues when she achieved prominence for her Oscar win in 1987. As she said, “I was thrust into it, but nobody explained it to me.” One of her projects, (undertaken with the help of Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who had a deaf brother) was to make all television sets captioning capable, to aid with language deprivation that the deaf encounter.

Matlin’s involvement with the 2022 film “Coda” is included, which won three Oscars for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Troy Kotsure, who said, “What kept me inspired was Marlee Matlin.”

Matlin’s words at that time were “Let’s move forward. Let there be other firsts.”

Matlin is shown in her car with Billy Joel’s song “My Life” playing, mouthing the words, “I never said I was the victim of circumstances.”

CONCLUSION

The look at Matlin’s career was interesting. I know from my 20 years of teaching next door to the hearing impaired room at the junior high school level (as well as from having deaf students in my classrooms) that a deaf student who is doing well in school is often a truly brilliant individual. The hurdles for deaf students who are often “left alone to solve it on their own” are huge. She admits in the documentary that, “I have no idea how I survived.”

Matlin has a production company and has several projects in the works, including a desire to work again with Director Shoshanna Stern.

“Sally” & “Marlee Matlin” Screen at Sundance, 2025

By Connie Wilson

On January 29, 2025

In Movies, News, Pop Culture, Reviews, Science and Medicine

Sally Ride, first American female astronaut in space

Sally Ride appears in SALLY by Cristina Costantini, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by NASA.

The first two Sundance 2025 offerings I watched turned out to have very similar themes, although focused on two very different people.

“Sally,” was a 103 minute documentary helmed by Cristina Costa, which screened at the Ray Theatre in Park City at Sundance 2025 on January 28^th, 2025.

The second 97-minute documentary, directed by deaf director Shoshanna Stern, “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,” helped open the Sundance Festival and profiled Marlee Matlin, the first deaf actress to win an Academy Award and the youngest at 21 to win in the Best Actress category. [My review of her story will follow “Sally.”]

While the films seemed, on the surface, as though they would have little in common, they both highlighted extremely dedicated individuals rising to the top of their respective fields despite the hurdles of culture, society and, in Matlin’s case, biology. Matlin’s two tattoos that read “Perseverance” and “Warrior” seemed relevant to each.

Both documentaries were helmed by talented female directors and each was at the height of their fame as U.S. cultural icons 35 years ago, in 1986-1987.

“SALLY”

Sally Ride appears in SALLY by Cristina Costantini, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by NASA.

“Sally” is the story of a woman who spent 27 years hiding the fact that, although she was briefly married to fellow astronaut Steve Hawley and had sexual relationships with other men, she spent 27 years of her life concealing her relationship with another woman. Her love for Tam O’Shaughnessy, a fellow tennis player she met at age 13 when Tam was 12, was something that Sally Ride didn’t come to accept about herself until later in her life.

MALE CHAUVINIST PIG

When women were first being allowed to become NASA astronauts, a fellow astronaut, Mike Mullane, a West Point graduate who served in Viet Nam, is heard articulating the same point-of-view of the newly-confirmed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Mullane says on camera that he was a product of his upbringing and the times and that when women were being introduced to the space program, he thought, “I just couldn’t see what they were going to be bringing to the table.” By the end of the documentary, the very same Mike Mullane writes the most heartfelt sympathy note to Sally’s life partner Tam, apologizing for his earlier views and extolling Sally’s expertise and excellence as a role model for his granddaughters.

Describing his earlier self as “a male sexist pig” Mike Mullane said he hoped that Sally’s life example would give his own granddaughters “a future in which women won’t be constrained from pursuing their own dreams.” “They can do the job as well as anyone else.” (One hopes that someone passes that message on to Pete Hegsoeth, who has articulated the exact opposite attitude towards women in the military.)

Billy Jean King, a gay icon who lost everything when her sexuality became public knowledge, was a good friend of Sally’s. She felt that what happened to her when she was “outed” served as an object lesson to Sally Ride. She lost everything and had to start over. As for Sally Ride’s competence in her job, Billy Jean says, on camera, “I think it’s time that women in this country realized that they can do any job that they want to do.. Sally proved it. Done.”

SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS in the 50a, 60s, 70s, 80s

As the documentary emphasizes through Tam’s words, “I just feel bad that someone the world respected and admired felt they had to hide themselves from the world.”

RIDE’S FAMILY OF ORIGIN

Astronaut Sally Ride (Photo from Wikipedia.org).

When the documentary dives into early influences on Ride, some clues can be gleaned from the brief interview with Sally’s biological mother, a Norwegian woman who spent time as a volunteer prison counselor. She seemed very uncommunicative, very self-contained, very icy as a personality. My own mother was a first-generation Norwegian/Dutch child of immigrants. This stereotype is based on truth. Tam says, “Sally couldn’t share with the people closest to her, even her sister Bear. Sally never talked about it. I didn’t understand why Sally couldn’t or wouldn’t talk to her sister about being gay…“Sally was afraid about how her colleagues and friends felt about her, and how it would affect her work…The fear factor of being gay, of being who you are affected our work and our company. The world is not always kind.”

TAM O’SHAUGHNESSY

Tam, said, “I wanted the relationship validated. It took more of a toll on me than it did on Sally. It just ate at me.” She was gratified to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor from President Obama on Sally’s behalf, posthumously after Sally died of pancreatic cancer in 2012 at the age of 61. The two had filed and became certified domestic partners shortly before Ride’s death in 2012.

Said O’Shaughnessy, “Sally just couldn’t or wouldn’t talk about emotions, even with her sister, Bear, who also left a traditional marital relationship to live with a woman. Bear and her female partner both lost their jobs as Presbyterian ministers when they came out… “I just realized that I loved Sally and we had to find a way to work this out. We couldn’t change the way the world saw us, but we loved each other so much and we wanted to be together, come hell or high water.”

Following Sally’s death, Tam acknowledged their longstanding relationship in her obituary: “I’m just sick of hiding, I’m an honest person and Sally was an honest person. If somebody doesn’t like it, tough.” After Sally’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, the two shared 17 months during which “Every week she’d lose something…the ability to go up and down the stairs…In one second our lives totally changed. We were like zombies. It was such a shock.” Sally got the diagnosis one day after delivering a speech at the National Science Teachers Association Conference on March 11, 2011.

THE CHALLENGER EXPLOSION & INVESTIGATION

One of the areas in the film that was somewhat glossed over was the key role that Sally Ride played in discovering what had caused the Challenger to explode on January 28, 1986. Wikipedia has this explanation of the Rogers Commission findings: “After her death in 2012, Major General Donald J. Kutyna revealed that she had discreetly provided him with key information about O-rings, namely that they become stiff at low temperatures. This led to discovery of the cause of the explosion. The temperature at the time of the launch was 36. O-Rings were not safe below 50. To protect her source, this information was fed to Richard Feynman. Ride was even more disturbed by revelations of NASA dysfunctional management decision-making and risk-assessment processes. According to Roger Boisjoly, who was one of the engineers that warned of the technical problems that led to the Challenger disaster, after the entire work force of Morton-Thiokol shunned him, Ride was the only public figure to show support for him when he went public with his pre-disaster warnings. Ride hugged him publicly to show her support for his efforts.”

The Rogers Commission submitted the report on June 6, 1986. I remember how a good friend of ours who was roommates with “Smitty” (the Challenger commander, Michael Smith) at the United States Naval Academy, was shocked and saddened to learn of his good friend’s death, especially when it was preventable. I was then working for Performance Learning Systems, Inc. of Emerson, N.J., one of the nation’s largest teacher-training firms, and I had been assigned to interview Christa McAuliff, the teacher in space, upon her return. I had just spoken to her husband the night before the launch to confirm the various procedures I was to follow to send her the interview questions. I still remember coming out of the college class I was teaching at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, and turning on the radio to learn of the deaths of McAuliff and all seven of the crew members.

Sally Ride quit NASA in 1987, saying, “I am not ready to fly again now. I think there are very few astronauts who are ready to fly again now.” She commented on how astronauts have to have a real trust in NASA.

CONCLUSION: SIMILARITIES

Interestingly enough, Marlee Matlin (whose documentary I will review next) won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1987 for the 1986 film “Children of a Lesser God.” This is the same timeline, the same backdrop of historical events then affecting Sally Ride’s life, including her work with the Rogers Commission investigating the Challenger explosion. That investigation triggered Ride’s resignation from NASA and she spent the latter part of her life as a Professor of Physics at the University of California in San Diego, when Stanford snubbed her. (Sidney Drell, who had recruited her to come to Stanford, resigned from CISAC in protest when no department at Stanford was willing to offer Sally Ride a position.) Sally also remained a director of Cal Space until 1996, retiring as a Professor Emeritus from San Diego in 2007. Ride and O’Shaughnessy formed a company to encourage young girls to enter careers in math and science.

Another interesting 35-year-old fact is that the director of Marlee Matlin’s Oscar-winning performance in 1986-1987 was Rainda Haines. Haines was the first female director to have her film (“Children of a Lesser God”) nominated for Best Picture at the 1987 Oscars.

“Inkwo for When the Starving Return” at Sundance, 2025

By Connie Wilson

On January 29, 2025

In Best Paranormal Stories Online to Read | Paranormal Podcast, Pop Culture, Reviews, Scary stories

“Inkwo for When the Starving Return” at Sundance (Photo courtesy of Sundance Film Festival).

“INKWO FOR WHEN THE STARVING RETURN” debuted January 24^th at Sundance in the Animated Shorts Film Program with three additional in-person screenings to follow. The film will also screen online across North America January 29^th, 7:00 AM PST through February 3^rd, 3:55 AM PST. The series is in development. It is being coproduced by Spotted Fawn Productions (SFP) and by the National Film Board of Canada. Spotted Fawn Productions (SFP) is an Indigenous-led and community-oriented Vancouver-based studio founded in 2010, which focuses on visionary illustration, stop motion, 2D, 3D and virtual reality animations.

“Inkwo for When the Starving Returns” is a story set two lifetimes in the future (Denendeh), when the world hangs in the balance. Sadly, that seems very much like the world today. On tonight’s news they announced that the world clock predicting the end of the world has been reset at 87 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been. (Hardly encouraging, but a good preface to this piece).

The animated story focuses on a young, enigmatic gender-shifting warrior named Dove. “Inkwo” means medicine; it is used to defend against an army of hungry, ferocious monsters that re-emerge to feed upon humans. The flesh-consuming creatures become stronger with each body and soul they devour.

Amanda Strong, director of Inkwo for When the Starving Return, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

The animation, sound, and voice acting are top-notch. The creatures are appropriately horrific and threatening. Amanda Strong, showrunner for the production, is a Sundance Native Lab Fellowship recipient (the first Canadian Indigenous Fellow), a Red River Métis artist, writer, producer, director, and mother. A Canadian Screen Award and Emmy-nominated director, Amanda is the owner, director and executive producer of Spotted Fawn Productions. Her collaborative creations amplify Indigenous storytelling.

The story is adapted from the collection of published and unpublished short stories and graphic novels “Wheetago War,” written by award-winning storyteller Richard Van Camp. It features voice talents Tantoo Cardinal (“Legend of the Fall,” “Killers of the Flower Moon”) and Paulina Alexis (“Reservation Dogs”) and Art Napoleon (“Moosemeat & Marmalade”).

“Inkwo for When the Starving Return” at Sundance. (Photo courtesy of Sundance Film Festival.)

The series articulates truths like this: “When people forgot their connection to the land, they lost themselves as well.” That sort of truth isn’t confined to just a futuristic animated series about monsters. The fading family farm, our pollution of the very food we consume, the escalating climate changes globally being largely ignored by U.S. leadership—all bear testimony to the truth of that observation.

Another scripted moment, between the frog that Dove saves (who promises strong medicine—-“Inkwo”) is a call to action to fight and protect against the forces of greed around us. There seems to be a surplus of greed in the U.S. in 2025, so, hopefully the “inkwo” will help those who disagree with the way things seem to be going in the United States. Another insightful line: “We are all born hunted.”

Certainly feels that way more and more, especially if you are an immigrant in the U.S.

I applaud the goal of the series, which is: “Taking a stand to defend the remaining humans and animals left on the Earth.”

In the United States in January, 2025, all of us need to take a stand to defend the remaining humans and animals left on Earth. Perhaps we could start by rejoining the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization and not re-creating the sort of camps the United States government established in WWII. As concerned citizens, we must urge elected representatives to do what they know is best for democracy in the United States. Endorsing and embracing a kakistocracy is counter-productive to safeguarding peace and prosperity.

CREDITS

DIRECTOR