[I review these Golden Globe nominated films: "Wicked: For Good," "Bugonia" "It Was Just An Accident," and "Sentimental Value:]
Wicked: For Good (2025)
Bugonia (2025)
Two environmental conspiracy theorists kidnap the CEO of a pharmaceutical corporation, convinced that she is an alien bent on destroying the earth.
Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) worries about his bees. And he worries about his mother who is in a comatose state due to a clinical trial she participated in. Teddy blames Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of the pharmaceutical megacorporation Auxolith, whose drug messed up Teddy's mother. And Teddy also believes that Michelle is a member of an alien species known as the "Andromedans," who are killing honeybees and destroying humanity. So Teddy decides that he and his cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis), must kidnap Michelle before the upcoming lunar eclipse so they can meet with the Emperor of the Andromedans. And they are serious in their plan. They even go through a chemical castration in order to be able to concentrate on their plan and not be distracted by sexual urges. Oooo-kay.
Before Teddy and Don implement their plan, we see Michelle's life unfolding and she isn't a particularly nice woman. She is quite smug, entitled and out of touch, just the kind of person you wouldn't mind seeing getting her comeuppance.
So Teddy and Don kidnap Michelle and imprison her in their basement, shave her head (because they believe her hair can somehow communicate with her fellow Andromedans), and cover her body in antihistamine cream to prevent her from sending out a distress signal to other Andromedans. Teddy explains that she has four days to negotiate a meeting with the Andromedan emperor before an upcoming lunar eclipse, which will allow the Andromedan mothership to enter Earth's atmosphere undetected.
Michelle claims her innocence and works on Teddy which kind of works because in truth, Teddy isn't that smart. Teddy tortures Michelle with electroshocks and her resistance convinces Teddy that Michelle is not only an alien but a high ranking one so he unties her and lets her come upstairs. Big mistake. Have Teddy and Don bitten off more than they can chew?
This film, based on the Korean film "Save the Green Planet," adapted by Will Tracy and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (Stone also starred in his film "Poor Things" and "Kinds of Kindness"), feels a bit like "Misery" in reverse. It also highlights the evils of the Internet and what it does to those who go down the conspiracy rabbit holes as well as the evils of Big Pharma. The film is mostly Teddy and Michelle -Teddy trying to get Michelle to admit she is an alien and Michelle trying to out think Teddy, which isn't that difficult.
Emma Stone is always good and is deservedly nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. But for me, Jesse Plemons is the stand out. He has been around for awhile and was even nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2022 for "The Power of the Dog," but I would guess most people do not know his name. He is a face. But now, nominated for a Golden Globe for his leading man performance here, he is finally getting the respect he deserves. His performance was just amazing.
I really enjoyed this film and what I especially liked was the good old-fashioned storytelling, a linear narrative that we don't often find in films these days. If I have one complaint, the twist ending was a bit over the top.
Oh, and the title? Look up "bugonia."
The film has three Golden Globe nominations - Best Performance nominations for Emma and Jesse and the film has a Best Picture nomination and they are all nominated in the Musical or Comedy category! What??? Okay, but for me that's a stretch. To enjoy this film, I think you have to suspend disbelief and take it seriously but okay, a comedy, but a very, very dark one.
Anyway, will Emma or Jesse win? Will this film win?
Prediction: Emma and Jesse as well as the film are in my top two to win in their categories.
Rosy the Reviewer says...a very satisfying film experience. That's all I ever ask for. (streaming free on Peacock)
It Was Just An Accident (2025)
A man (Ebrahim Azizi) with a prosthetic leg is driving his car at night with his wife and daughter when he accidentally hits and kills a dog. When the man visits a nearby garage to get his car repaired. Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), an ethnic Azerbaijani auto mechanic, recognizes him from the sound his prosthetic leg makes when walking. The next day, Vahid follows the man, kidnaps him, and attempts to bury him in the desert. He tells him that he recognized his voice and walk as that of Eghbal (nicknamed "peg leg"), his former abuser in an Iranian prison. The man denies being Eghbal and begs Vahid not to kill him, telling him his leg was amputated recently.
When Vahid examines the man's leg and it looks like a recent wound, now Vahid isn't so sure so he puts the man into his van and goes to see Salar (George Hashemzadeh) another ex-prisoner. Finding out that Vahid has the man tied up in his van, Salar doesn't want anything to do with it, but tells him to contact Shiva (Mariam Afshari), a photographer who Vahid finds taking wedding photos of Goli (Hadis Pakbaten) and Ali (Majid Panahi) who are getting married the next day. Goli reveals that she too had been tortured by Eghbal and, though both she and Shiva, think this man could be Eghbal, they aren't sure. So next they find Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr), Shiva's partner, who insists it is Eghbal. So now we have Vahid, Shiva, Goli, Ali and Hamid, all together in a tight space, trying to figure out if this is the tormenter, Eghbal or not. What to do? Believe it or not, there are some funny moments.
The film, written and directed by Jafar Panahi, is very one note - is this guy Peg Leg or isn't he? But there is insight into dictatorships and murderous regimes and the lasting traumas that political prisoners must live with, which is very timely in our world now and the film ends on an intriguing cliffhanger. And just, think, if that guy had not hit that dog, none of this would have happened.
The film, a co-production between Iran, France, and Luxembourg, is a very personal film for Panahi, who himself was imprisoned in 2010 in Iran for opposing the government and was abused while in prison. It won the 2025 Palme d'or Award at the Cannes Film Festival and it is nominated for four Golden Globes: "Best Motion Picture-Drama," "Best Motion Picture-Non-English Language" as well as "Best Screenplay" and "Best Director" nominations for writer/director Panahi.
Will it win?
Not sure why a "non-English" film gets nominated in both the "non-English" category and the "Best Motion Picture-Drama" category.
Prediction: "Best Motion Picture-Drama?" No. Too much competition in that category. "Best Motion Picture- Non-English Language?" I am guessing no, as it didn't win the Critics' Choice Award for "Best Foreign Language Film."
Rosy the Reviewer says...billed as a thriller, not many thrills but the film is tense and the last half hour is worth the wait. (In Persian and Azerbaijani with English subtitles - available for rent on Amazon Prime).
Sentimental Value (2025)
This movie is all about a house...and the family in it.
Sisters Nora and Agnes grow up in their Oslo family home raised by their psychotherapist mother, Sissel, after their father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgard), a film director, leaves the family. Later, Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) marries and works as a historian while Nora (Renate Reinsve) becomes an actress, an actress with crippling stage fright.
When Sissel dies, Gustav returns to Norway to reclaim the house. He hasn't seen his daughters for some time, and though Agnes is sympathetic towards him, Nora resents him for his drinking and long absences.
In the meantime, Gustav's career has been on the decline. He can't get financing for his projects. He has a film he wants to make about his mother, Karin, who had been a member of the Norwegian resistance movement against the Nazis in WWII. She had committed suicide in the family home and Gustav wants to make the film in that house and asks Nora to play Karin. Nora isn't interested so Gustav hires Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), an American actress, whose presence in the film convinces Netflix to finance the project.
All kinds of trouble ensues during the making of the film - Rachel can't speak Norwegian, Nora loses interest in her work, Agnes argues with Gustav after he casts her son in his movie without her permission and Gustav gets drunk - but then the daughters come to understand the generational trauma that Gustav suffered because of his mother's suicide and the regret he has felt over his broken relationships - the healing power of art.
Written by Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier and directed by Trier, this Norwegian film won the Grand Prix Prize this last year at the Cannes Film Festival and felt like the kind of psychological family dramas Bergman used to do with its beautiful cinematography and long, lingering shots of faces. It was also a slow, moving lingering film. Trier directed "The Worst Person in the World" in 2021 which also starred Reinsve. I didn't get that film. I liked this one better, despite feeling it went on too long. But the acting is first-rate, always a pleasure to see Skarsgard, though not sure how Elle Fanning ended up in the movie. But it must have worked because she is nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance along with Skarsgard, Lilleaas and Reinsve. Speaking of Reinsve, her scene of Nora's stage fright is tense and breathtaking. The film is also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture in both the Drama category and the "Non-English" category and Trier for Best Director and Screenplay.
Will the actors win? Will the film win? Will Trier win?
Prediction: Though this film did not win Best Foreign Language Film at the recent Critics' Choice Awards, I think it has a chance to win a Golden Globe in the "Non-English" category. I don't think the actors or Trier will win.
Rosy the Reviewer says...if you like family dramas and some insight into filmmaking, you might like this. (in Norwegian, Swedish and English with English subtitles - available for rent on Amazon Prime)
