2021 Screen Actors Guild Award Nominations

==FILM==

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

“Belfast” (Focus Features)  

“CODA” (Apple Original Films) 

“Don’t Look Up” (Netflix)  

“House of Gucci” (MGM/United Artists Releasing)  

“King Richard” (Warner Bros)  

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem (“Being the Ricardos”)  

Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”) 

Andrew Garfield (“Tick, Tick … Boom!”) 

Will Smith (“King Richard”)  

Denzel Washington (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”) 

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”)  

Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”)  

Lady Gaga (“House of Gucci”) 

Jennifer Hudson (“Respect”)  

Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”)  

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Ben Affleck (“The Tender Bar”)  

Bradley Cooper (“Licorice Pizza”)  

Troy Kotsur (“CODA”)  

Jared Leto (“House of Gucci”)  

Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Power of the Dog”)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

Caitríona Balfe (“Belfast”)  

Cate Blanchett (“Nightmare Alley”)  

Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”)

Kirsten Dunst (“The Power of the Dog”)  

Ruth Negga (“Passing) 

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

“Black Widow”

“Dune”

“The Matrix Resurrections”

“No Time to Die”

“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”

==TELEVISION==

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series

“The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu) 

“The Morning Show” (Apple TV Plus) 

“Squid Game” (Netflix) 

“Succession” (HBO) 

“Yellowstone” (Paramount Network) 

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

“The Great” (Hulu)  

“Hacks” (HBO Max)  

“The Kominsky Method” (Netflix)

“Only Murders in the Building” (Hulu)  

“Ted Lasso” (Apple TV Plus) 

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series

Brian Cox (“Succession”) 

Billy Crudup (“The Morning Show”) 

Kieran Culkin (“Succession”)  

Lee Jung-Jae (“Squid Game”)  

Jeremy Strong (“Succession”)  

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series

Jennifer Aniston (“The Morning Show”) 

Jung Ho-yeon (“Squid Game”)

Elizabeth Moss (“The Handmaid’s Tale”)  

Sarah Snook (“Succession”) 

Reese Witherspoon (“The Morning Show”) 

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series

Michael Douglas (“The Kominsky Method”)  

Brett Goldstein (“Ted Lasso”) 

Steve Martin (“Only Murders in the Building”)  

Martin Short (“Only Murders in the Building”)  

Jason Sudeikis (“Ted Lasso”)  

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series

Elle Fanning (“The Great”)

Sandra Oh (“The Chair”)

Jean Smart (“Hacks”

Juno Temple (“Ted Lasso”)

Hannah Waddingham (“Ted Lasso”)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series

Murray Bartlett (“The White Lotus”)  

Oscar Isaac (“Scenes From a Marriage”)  

Michael Keaton (“Dopesick”) 

Ewan McGregor (“Halston”)  

Evan Peters (“Mare of Easttown”) 

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series

Jennifer Coolidge (“The White Lotus”)  

Cynthia Erivo (“Genius: Aretha”)  

Margaret Qualley (“Maid”)  

Jean Smart (“Mare of Easttown”)  

Kate Winslet (“Mare of Easttown”)  

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series

“Cobra Kai”

“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”

“Loki”

“Mare of Easttown”

“Squid Game”

mother! - Movie Review

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer, Domhnall Gleeson, Brian Gleeson, Kristen Wiig and Stephen McHattie.
Written & Directed by Darren Aronofsky.

★★★★

This is a balls-to-the-wall tour-de-force by Darren Aronofsky. He had a vision and he dives right in.

We know something wild's going to happen because we see the movie start with a woman on fire. It zooms back to a burned house being restored, until everything is pristine, and then Jennifer Lawrence wakes from her bed to go make her husband (Javier Bardem) breakfast. Surely this will be a lovely day. Then strangers show up unannounced. Her husband just lets them in, lets them stay, and she's too polite a hostess to say anything, but why exactly are they here?

No one is ever given a name in this movie. In the credits she is referred to as "mother" and Bardem as "Him." The movie drops several clues where it's going, and I just watched with a giant grin when the action amps up to its psychotic, Biblical, uncompromising conclusion.

I'd say more than half the people in our audience hated it. When I started explaining to some people, I could tell their enjoyment increased. (Except for one guy, who tried to argue Appeal to Authority to me because he works in TV.) I think it's best an experience knowing as little as possible, and it's one I love debating and discussing with people.

**

**SPOILER SECTION**

**

This is what I believe the movie meant.

It reimagines God as a selfish male deity who creates life for his own ego. The beginning shows the ending of a cycle. The female deity/Gaia/Mother Earth destroys herself, and when all is renewed, she comes back with no memory and in the form of Jennifer Lawrence.

She serves him, and he is a poet, an artist who can't think of what next to create. Then the man (Ed Harris) shows up. He has nowhere to go. He has a rib injury. He's Adam. He goes to see Bardem's den, his place for creation. He shows him a molten rock that he keeps on display, the soul surviving item from the previous fire. It is forbidden fruit that Adam may not touch. Then the man's wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) shows up. She wants to see the rock more than Adam does. She finally touches it and accidentally breaks it. Bardem banishes them from the den and boards it up so no one may re-enter. (Cherubim and a flaming sword.)

Later the couple's two sons show up, arguing over a will. They fight, and the older brother kills the younger one. Cain and Abel. The older one even winds up with a mark on his forehead after the fight. Then dozens of people show up to mourn with the grieving parents. Bardem just lets them all in, and naturally, since they all seem to be familiar with his poetry and sing his praises. The more people that come, the ruder and more entitled they get. They also keep sitting on a sink until it bursts from the wall and floods the kitchen. This gives Lawrence the courage to yell "Get out!" and all of the people leave. Noah's flood. The humans are gone. She can now repair the damage done.

They fight and then have sex. She wakes up in the morning and knows she's pregnant. She's delighted. This inspires Him to write. He writes something beautiful. Scripture. People come from far and wide to hear and read his words. They come too quickly. They come with zealotry. He eats up the praise. She can't believe he keeps letting all of these people in. They start destroying the house. She goes into labor, and with each labor pang, the whole house shakes. The house is Earth, and she is tied to the Earth in ways He is not.

The baby is Jesus, and he wants to show the baby to the world, but she does not. She refuses to let Him hold the baby. She tries staying awake, but as soon as she nods off, her baby is gone. The houseguests carry the baby like a rock star over the crowd but someone accidentally kills him. Jesus is dead. Then they rip the baby apart and eat of his flesh. This is the sacrament of communion. The people start putting ashes on their foreheads to mark their devotion.

The movie speeds ahead until we finally get to the Book of Revelation. The apocalypse. She cleanses the earth with fire, killing everyone. In the end, only He and she remain. She's given everything. He wants the last drop of love in her. In the end, she's Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. She gives the last part of her existence to him. Her heart. He pulls it from her ribcage. It looks exactly like the molten rock we saw at the beginning. We gets all of the opening imagery again. The burning woman. The rock on a pedestal. The house being renewed. A different young woman waking up in bed. The cycle has started over.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - Movie Review

Starring Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Geoffrey Rush, Brendon Thwaites, Kaya Scodelario, Kevin R. McNally, David Wenham, Stephen Graham, Golshifteh Farahani and Orlando Bloom.
Written by Jeff Nathanson & Terry Rossio.
Directed by Joachim Ronning & Espen Sandberg.

★★½

Johnny Depp's mincing Captain Jack Sparrow is a constant. He never seems to grow or learn, regardless of what's thrown at him. Even death left him unchanged. Maybe that's part of the charm.

This fifth movie has Sparrow facing an old rival, Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), a Spanish soldier who'd tried to rid the sea of priates, only to be cursed for decades in the Devil's Triangle, tricked into there by a young Jack. When a destitute Jack gives away his magic compass, the spell that kept Salazar trapped is broken, and now he is free to seek revenge.

The first movie is still the best in the series, but it's arguable which one is the best sequel. I think this one ranks ahead of 3 & 4 and is about on par with 2. The knives were out for this one but it's actually enjoyable in many parts.

First, Bardem's Salazar is a great villain. A Javert who's been cursed to be the living dead, trapped in the Devil's Triangle. Second, the chemistry between the young love interests (Brendon Thwaites, Kaya Scodelario) is better than those two from 4, and maybe better than Bloom & Knightley. If anything, what used to be the best part of these movies is now its weakest. There's a lot of humor around Jack Sparrow that falls flat.

Oh, and after the credits, we get a stinger that signifies where Pirates 6 is going.

To the Wonder - DVD Review

Starring Olga Kurylenko, Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, and Rachel McAdams.  Directed by Terrence Malick.

★★

Malick is one of the most frustrating artists for me. I loved Badlands. I found The Thin Red Line to be tremendously overrated.  The New World was okay.  I was disappointed by Tree of Life.

But 21st century Malick is more concerned with images, impressions, moments that linger in the memory, disconnected.  He's not telling a story; he's pre-jumbling your memory of the movie for you.  We have shots or scenes that might stay in the head for a few days, even as most of it vanishes.

His movies are undeniably beautiful, but you can only watch an artist chase butterflies for so long. He films hours and hours of footage, and he doesn't use most of it, and the "most" part tends to include plot elements that would make the whole affair more comprehensible.  Jessica Chastain, Rachel Weisz, Michael Sheen, Barry Pepper and Amanda Peet were all in this movie at one point too, but he cut them entirely out of the picture. (Why as an actor would you want to be in a Malick film when you know how good the odds are your part will be whittled down to nothing, or almost nothing?)

Ben Affleck, I get the feeling, had a character and dialogue, but almost all of his lines are cut. I think he gets six lines of spoken word in the whole movie.  Olga Kurlyenko gets the most screen time.  She narrates her thoughts in French while she twirls in flowing skirts in fields of wheat.  Rachel McAdams shows up as an old flame that Affleck reconnects with, and then there's Javier Bardem as a priest.

About 70% of the words we hear are narrated, most by the wife but some by the priest (in Spanish), and most of those times it doesn't appear connected to what we're seeing on screen. I think this is a reflection on how our heads are often elsewhere from what our bodies are doing.  There are times it's jarring when the camera focusses on a person's face and they actually speak some dialogue. I can almost feel the frustration coming out of Affleck. "Let me speak! Some words!"

So while I love his eye, I wish he'd rewatch Badlands and see how it's okay to have a narrative attached to his images.  We can have both cinematography and a story!

Skyfall - Movie Review

Starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Ben Whishaw and Albert Finney.
Directed by Sam Mendes.

★★★½

I've seen every Bond film, and I can say this one makes my top five.  While there have been decent directors of the franchise, Sam Mendes adds that extra artistry that makes this more than a mindless action movie.  It also has more emotional depth than most, as well as a restored sense of humor now that 007 has been grounded in a more "realistic" fashion.

I use realistic in the loosest sense of the word, since there are no invisible cars.

The traditional tropes are there.  A secret mission, exotic locations, beautiful women, a colorful villain, nods to Bond past, and I'm thrilled they finally brought back Q.  This time he's young Ben Whishaw (Cloud Atlas), so I imagine he can try to break Desmond Llewelyn's record if he so desired.

M (Judi Dench) is more entangled in the plot this time, as someone has hacked into MI6's system and stolen vital information, then releasing it a little at a time to specifically embarrass her.  The villain is eventually revealed to be a Mr. Silva (Javier Bardem), and it helps to have an Academy-Award winner as the villain.  Bardem's Silva is one of the creepier entries into Bond's rogue gallery, with a strong, personal motive.

Bring on the next one!