Widows is a movie based on a British television series from 1983. Adapting a TV series to the big screen has proven difficult in the past but Academy Award winner Steve McQueen (winning for 12 Years a Slave as a producer) manages to pull off this heist thriller with the help of an incredible all-star cast. This film is currently the 13th addition to my “Potential Best Picture Nominees in 2018” list.

This might seem hard to believe but Widows is only Steve McQueen’s fourth feature length film after 2008’s Hunger, 2011’s Shame, and 2013’s Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave. This also happens to be his first one to not have Michael Fassbender in the cast. McQueen pulls double duty as co-screenwriter for this film as well, along with Gillian Flynn who previously penned the screenplay for 2014’s Gone Girl. This was actually the first McQueen film that I’ve seen so I had no clue what to expect from his direction. Now I will say that it does move a little slow at some parts but nothing too drastic like how movies directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer) or Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, The Beguiled) tend to be to me.

This film centers around the four widows of a group of criminals who were killed in a robbery gone wrong in Chicago. Also lost in this robbery was $2 million that belonged to local crime lord Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry) that was to be used for his campaign for Alderman of Chicago’s 18th Ward. Jamal then threatens Veronica Rawlings (Viola Davis), widow of Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson), that she has one month to come up with that money or else. Jamal’s brother, Jatemme (Daniel Kaluuya), will do whatever it takes to see to it that their money is returned.

The ensemble cast in Widows has Academy Awards pedigree all around it. Viola Davis (Fences) and Robert Duvall (Tender Mercies) are both Oscar-winning actors. Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), and Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom, Silver Linings Playbook) all have been nominated previously for their acting too. There are also strong performances by Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Erivo, Elizabeth Debicki, and Garret Dillahunt.

Rumors around Tinseltown have been suggesting that there could be Oscar nominations on the horizon for Davis, Debicki, and Kaluuya. If Erivo could pull off a nomination and win, she would be the 16th person to ever achieve the illustrious EGOT grand slam (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony), and also the youngest.

With all of these great actors in this cast, the standout is easily Daniel Kaluuya. He literally commands your attention with every scene that he’s in, even though he has minimal screen time. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen that killer stare of his that can see straight through your soul. Every Oscar-winning role has that powerful Oscar-defining moment that you’ll always remember. Kaluuya has two of these in Widows, one on a basketball court and one in a bowling alley. This is the only performance right now that could block Sam Elliott from winning Best Supporting Actor for A Star is Born. Do I still think Elliott should win? Yes, but I would not be disappointed at all to see Kaluuya take home that golden statuette.

Widows works well with its intertwining storylines, even adding a few plot twists throughout. I’m a fan of experiencing the shock of a twist along with the audience gasping at them, which has happened in the same spots both times I’ve seen Widows so far. If you like a good heist movie, along with some action and great acting, go see Widows. Just be forewarned that this female-driven heist thriller is nothing at all like the female-driven heist comedy from June of this year, Ocean’s 8.

I was invited to catch an advanced screening of Hunter Killer Wednesday night. Not your usual advanced screening though as it was just one day before paid showings premiered. The advanced screenings that I typically get to are for movies that come out in the next few weeks or even months. I’ve even been to screenings before for movies that weren’t released in theaters until over a year after it. A screening that close to an official release is usually done to get word of mouth out for a film. I’m here to say that good word of mouth for this film is absolutely worthy.

A movie mostly set in and around a submarine is a very specific genre. Most people will say that Das Boot is the best of this type of movie, but I have never seen that one. To me, the greatest submarine based movie is U-571. Yes, I believe it’s better than The Hunt for Red October. My initial reaction to Hunter Killer is that there’s a new top dog here. Hunter Killer completely exceeded my expectations!

A quality submarine movie will have a way of putting you inside the tin can underwater, which this movie does quite well. A great attention to minute details will always impress me in a movie and director Donovan Marsh showed me that on the first time they dove down underwater. I’m not one to give away much in a movie, but you’ll see what I mean for yourself if this review coerces you to watch it.

The basic gist of this film involves a sunken U.S. submarine in Russian waters that we have to investigate what happened, while avoiding a potential start to WWIII. To accomplish this while a potential coup d’etat is happening gives an extremely narrow margin of error.

Hunter Killer has a great assortment in their casting. The headliner is Gerard Butler as Captain Joe Glass, a first time submarine captain sent on this dangerous mission to Russian waters. Is this the best movie or even the most intense movie he’s been in? In a word, no. To me his best movie will always be the 2004 version of The Phantom of the Opera and his most intense is still Olympus Has Fallen, but this movie is definitely up there on both lists. Side note: I have yet to see 300, so that’s why that movie was not named as Butler’s best or most intense, in case you ask.

The biggest name in the supporting cast is easily last year’s Academy Award winner for Best Actor, Gary Oldman, as Charles Donnegan, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Oldman plays this role with the perfect amount of fire and intensity that would be required if he actually were the CJCS in this situation. Other impressive supporting roles in this film were played by Common (who is becoming one hell of a great actor lately), Linda Cardellini, Toby Stephens (who played a similar character in 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi), and the late Michael Nyqvist in his last film role.

If you’re looking for an escape movie, one that will keep your chest pounding, make sure to go see Hunter Killer. Although this movie actually uses real life scenarios that are possible as to how this situation could play out, so in that sense, it may not be as much of an escape from our current world as you’d like.

It was recently announced that the expected Oscar juggernaut A Star is Born only submitted 3 entries for contention to be nominated for Best Original Song. At first, I was disappointed when hearing this, as I felt there were 8 different songs (“Maybe It’s Time”, “Shallow”, “Music To My Eyes”, “Always Remember Us This Way”, “Look What I Found”, “I Don’t Know What Love Is”, “Is That Alright?”, and “I’ll Never Love Again”) in the movie that could have been considered, some obviously more worthy than others. The issue is that since 2008, a film has only been allowed to have a maximum of two songs nominated in this category, a fact that I was unaware of. That limits the possibilities tremendously.

The 3 songs that were submitted were “Shallow”, “Always Remember Us This Way”, and “I’ll Never Love Again”. Do I agree with these being the 3 to submit? Yes, these are definitely the best 3 from the soundtrack, especially with what they mean to the film. The problem then lies in which one is left out. “Shallow” is a lock to be nominated. This is the song that literally drives the movie. “Shallow” not being nominated would be an even bigger Oscar snub than when Jake Gyllenhaal wasn’t nominated for Nightcrawler. That brings us to the other two, “Always Remember Us This Way” and “I’ll Never Love Again”.

To be honest, the better song is probably “Always Remember Us This Way”, but the most memorable one is “I’ll Never Love Again”. I’ve managed to talk quite a few people into seeing this movie from my review of it, and all of them remember that song more. It’s an incredibly important song to the tone of the movie where it’s placed and don’t miss out on how this song ends on screen!

Is “Always Remember This Way” worthy of an Oscar nomination? Absolutely, but I’d rather see “Shallow” and “I’ll Never Love Again” be up. I still stand by my review that the latter should win this category, even though it would be more blasphemous if “Shallow” was left out. I’ve also stated previously that I felt “This Is Me” should have won last year without question, only to eventually lose to “Remember Me”, so I’m not the best judge in this category.

If you haven’t yet, get out and see this masterpiece from first time director Bradley Cooper. Mr. Cooper might even be nominated for 4 Oscars (Best Picture as a producer, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay as a screenwriter). This was his baby from the beginning and he is proving that he has many more talents than just acting.

I wanted to write an impressive full review for another incredible movie I got to see on Friday, The Hate U Give, but I just can’t. As amazing as this movie was (it’s the 10th film on my “Potential Best Picture Nominees for 2018” list), I can’t rightfully give a proper review for it based on the subject matter.

This film is told through the eyes of Starr Carter, powerfully played by Amandla Stenberg. She’s been an up-and-coming actress for a few years now. You have probably seen her as Rue in The Hunger Games, Maddy in Everything, Everything, or maybe even Ruby Daly in The Darkest Minds from earlier this year.

As seen in the trailer, Starr is the passenger in a vehicle that gets pulled over late at night by a cop, more specifically, a white cop. Now both teenagers in the car are African American, and being pulled over by a white cop is something that is seen way too often lately in our country. Starr’s friend Khalil is the driver who ends up outside of the car waiting for “115”, the officer’s badge number, to return from his vehicle with his license. Khalil reaches into the car to grab his brush and is holding it in his hand when “115” mistakes the brush as a gun and shoots Khalil, which ends up being fatally. Starr witnesses the whole thing and ends up staying by Khalil’s side until after his final breath.

Now I’m not a fan of giving anything away when I review a movie, as I want every other person to experience a film the same way I would. So I won’t get into very much detail after what I’ve already said, but just know that when Starr “finds her voice”….wow! Her character development and build up to this point is truly astounding as well.

This film also had incredible performances from the supporting cast. Regina Hall plays Starr’s mother, Lisa. You know her most recently from last year’s Girls Trip. Russell Hornsby plays her father Maverick, an ex-convict. Anthony Mackie gives a very strong performance as King. He’s most known for his roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Sam Wilson/Falcon, The Night Before, and 2009 Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker. A very wide array of genres shows how versatile he is as an actor. Academy Award winner Common plays Uncle Carlos, a detective on the force, but is also very real as to how these situations play out.

The Hate U Give derives it’s title from Tupac Shakur. His famous saying “The Hate U Give Little Infants F**** Everybody” is what he felt T-H-U-G-L-I-F-E stands for. “What society gives us as youth, it bites them in the a** when we wild out, get it?” is a direct quote from the movie, also the novel it was adapted from, written by Angie Thomas. Basically, we teach young kids hate and stereotypes at a very early age, which they carry throughout life. The novel was started as a short story by Thomas in college following the real life shooting of Oscar Grant III in 2009.

Like I mentioned earlier, I don’t feel like I can give this film a proper review, because I’m a white male. Unfortunately, things that happen in this movie do happen every day in our country. The Hate U Give puts every viewer in the situations that occur in the movie and really makes you feel anger towards society. I strongly urge everyone to get out to see this film, which doesn’t open as a wide release until 10/19. Fox Searchlight decided to roll it out on 36 screens as a limited release this past weekend, bringing in $500K for an impressive per-screen average of $13,889. Word of mouth is very strong with this film, as it very well should be, and will help it grow into the public statement it was meant to be.

Anybody can tell that I’m a fan of movies. Anybody who really knows me, knows that I’ve been anticipating A Star is Born to be released since the first trailer for it debuted back on June 6th of this year. The more I saw the trailer (which played before a lot of movies that I’ve seen), the more I wanted to see it. This was actually probably one of the most anticipated movies for me in a long time, even though I’ve never seen any of the other versions of this film (1937 with Janet Gaynor, 1954 with Judy Garland, or 1976 with Barbra Streisand).

Now, with great anticipation comes great expectations, especially since the talk around the movie industry is calling for Oscar nominations all around (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song, just to name a few). A movie with all of these expectations can only end up disappointing in the long run, right? A Star is Born absolutely exceeded them!

Bradley Cooper gives an astounding directorial debut, to the point that he’s already being compared to Academy Award winning director Clint Eastwood. This is quite ironic since this film was originally supposed to be directed by Eastwood and star Beyoncé. Cooper also pulls double duty in this film as the male lead, Jackson Maine, giving another performance worthy of at least a nomination at the upcoming Oscars. I can honestly say that Cooper is better in this than at least two of his three previous acting nominations (Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle). I can’t vouch for his performance in American Sniper as I’ve never seen it, and don’t intend to, but that’s due to personal reasons.

Lady Gaga deserves all of the hype she has been getting for her role as Ally. We’ve seen Lady Gaga in a few movies before, most notably Machete Kills and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, but none of those really let her show off her acting ability. Yes, she has won a Golden Globe for playing The Countess in season 5 of American Horror Story, but acting in a movie and acting in a TV show are very different. You have less time to develop your character in the time span of a feature length film. This is why some thespians stick almost strictly to TV and others do the same with movies. She manages to steal literally every scene she is in and is proving herself to be an actress to be reckoned with going forward. With all due respect to Charlize Theron (Tully), Toni Collette (Hereditary), and Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade), this has quickly turned into a Best Actress Oscar that Lady Gaga is destined to win.

The supporting cast in this movie was extremely well cast. Sam Elliott, easily one of the most underrated actors out there, adds another powerful, commanding performance to his resume as Jackson’s older brother, Bobby. The talk around Tinseltown is that he’s a shoo-in for a Best Supporting Actor nomination (something that he has somehow never had before), and you can’t argue with that. Andrew “Dice” Clay (yes, the Diceman himself) plays Ally’s father in a way that you would expect a more seasoned actor to do than him. The film has many other recognizable actors sprinkled throughout in supporting roles (Dave Chappelle, Greg Gunberg, and even Eddie Griffin, just to name a few).

A musical like this is virtually a lock to be nominated for Best Original Song. I know it wouldn’t happen, but this movie has the potential to sweep all 5 nominations in this category. Consensus has been that “Shallow” is the frontrunner to win this category. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve heard the song. It’s an incredible song that drives the movie. With that being said, it shouldn’t win. The best song from the movie, with the best placement in the story and the most powerful performance (especially the way the performance ends on screen) is “I’ll Never Love Again”. Granted, I felt that “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman should have easily won last year in this category, only to lose to “Remember Me” from Coco, so I may not be the best judge here.

All in all, a movie with incredibly high expectations that manages to completely exceed them is hard to find. There’s a major reason behind all of the hype: it’s just that good! Being released in October can be a little risky, when most horror films get released for Halloween. October is also slightly early for awards season films, which generally runs the last 6 weeks of the year, to stay fresh in voters’ minds. This film should have the staying power to overcome these slight obstacles. Don’t be surprised to see double digit nominations for A Star is Born when they’re announced in January.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton