The Last Duel (2021)

Film: The Last Duel (2021)

Stars: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck, Harriet Walter

Director: Ridley Scott

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

24 years ago (prepare to feel old), Ben Affleck & Matt Damon won their first Oscars for Good Will Hunting.  This was not the first film that the two men had made together (they'd worked together on 1992's homoerotic School Ties, or at least it was homoerotic for me when I saw it on TBS as a closeted 11-year-old), but it was the breakout role for both.  The years that followed have been, let's say "unexpected" in the direction each men has taken.  Damon was celebrated as the better actor initially, which is correct though while he had movie star success in the past couple of decades, you could make an argument that his filmography is somewhat underwhelming.  There are cult classics, popcorn hits, and he's managed a couple of Oscar nominations, but when you think Matt Damon, don't you still kind of think "Good Will Hunting?"  This isn't the case for Ben Affleck, who became a tabloid sensation due to his romances with Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lopez & Jennifer Garner, then took a surprising left field turn into prestige director, won his second Oscar, had an ill-regarded turn as Batman, and is now back to tabloid sensation for dating Jennifer Lopez.  All of this is to say that when it comes to The Last Duel, I don't really know what to expect from these two as a pair anymore, and under the relatively successful guiding hand of Ridley Scott, this movie attempts to navigate that ambiguity.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is based on a true story about a longstanding rivalry between Sir Jean de Carrouges (Damon) and Jacques Le Gris (Driver) in late 14th Century France.  Carrouges in the film is a rather abrupt, callous man, depending on your viewpoint (more on that in a second) either a solemn man of honor or a dour figure getting into his own way.  Le Gris, on the other hand, is a handsome, charming sort who is also sycophantically kissing up to Count Pierre d'Alencon (Affleck), and in the process taking away much of Carrouges power & wealth for his own, including part of Carrouges' wife Marguerite's (Comer) dowry & the captaincy that Carrouges' father & grandfather had held, and which he assumed he would get.  The film reaches a turning point when Marguerite accuses Le Gris of rape, and as no one will back down, Carrouges & Le Gris wage what would become the last judicial duel, allowing God to decide who was just & who was lying to the king.

The film is notable specifically for its formatting.  We get to see the story, at least heading into the title sequence, from the (skewed) vantage points of Carrouges, Le Gris, & Marguerite, in that order.  This has an unusual effect on the film, in that we see certain scenes with all involved in better light within their own story.  One example of this happens at a party, where in the first story Carrouges offers an olive branch, in the second one Le Gris, and in Marguerite's story, the host of the party offers it with neither man willing to do so.  This has a fascinating effect on the film, as the audience becomes the judge-and-jury, trying to decipher what is truth & what isn't.  I kind of wish that Scott hadn't made an overt attempt to point out that he feels (and, to be fair, historians feel as well) that Marguerite's story was the accurate one (the word "the truth" hovers briefly after the rest of the text in "Marguerite's version of the truth" has left a title card announcing her version of the story, enough so the audience gets the picture that we're about to see what really happened); part of the complexity of the story, and the way that truth can have "versions" depending on your viewpoint (as well as a lie can also have versions)  is the best part of the film.

Well, one of the best parts-the other is Jodie Comer.  Comer, best-known to audiences for her work on the British spy drama Killing Eve (which won her an Emmy), is excellent in the lead role.  This is a tricky part to play, as she needs to play a subtler game in the other versions of the story than the men do, but she nails it.  There's a lot of great moments late-in-the-film where you don't know her motives anymore, and while you never doubt the veracity of her claims, other things about her remain a mystery (specifically her attitude toward her husband & their marriage, and what this duel will do to it).  That's a striking combination for a film to give a character, where she plays an honest, enigmatic central player, but Comer does well with the task.

So why only three stars?  Honestly, it's because The Last Duel is kind of silly.  The film doesn't feel its 140-minute runtime, and weirdly the screenplay handles the three viewpoints well without feeling repetitive.  But the accent work in the film is dreadful (forget the French accents the whole cast should have but doesn't...it feels like Affleck, Damon, & Driver stop in long sequences of the movie doing even the vague British accent they're doing in other scenes).  It's the sort of movie it's hard to take seriously because Damon & Affleck are such a bad fit for the roles.  Both are just such thoroughly American personas that them playing 14th Century French aristocrats...the audience in my theater literally started laughing at the ridiculousness of it in certain sequences.  But Scott delivers in the action, pacing, & Comer brings it well enough that I'm bummed this was a flop...even if I kind of get how that happened.

OVP: Supporting Actor (2018)

OVP: Best Supporting Actor (2018)

The Nominees Were...

Mahershala Ali, Green Book

Adam Driver, BlacKklansman

Sam Elliott, A Star is Born

Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Sam Rockwell, Vice

My Thoughts: 2018 is a weird year for Best Supporting Actor, and reflexive of something that I've come up with more & more in the past couple of years (2020 being another, 2021 (so far) being a third) where Oscar didn't come up with a necessarily bad list of nominees, but he came up with an uninspired list.  The problem for me is, even though I could've done better, like in 2020 I don't know that there were a lot of truly great performances lounging about in this category that got snubbed.  For whatever reason, most of the great male performances in the past few years have been from lead actors.  Even in 2019, when the Oscar lineup was quite good for this category, virtually all of those nominees are performances that bordered on category fraud (save for Joe Pesci), and so in terms of true supporting performances I'm at a bit of a loss in 2018 to come up with a significantly improved list.

That said, I could've had a better list simply by removing Sam Rockwell from contention.  Rockwell has never been an actor I've loved (his performances always feel too indulgent & over-the-top for my taste). He comes into Vice as George W. Bush, playing the former president as a cartoon, not someone who is aware of the evil in the titular character at all & mostly just moseying through life without a care.  It's pretty lazy character work from a script that doesn't demand a lot of introspection.  It's also an unusually small performance, which I have to applaud in some ways because it's nice not to have to use the words "category fraud" in every paragraph of this article, but it's also such an insignificant part of the plot that I worry this made it in solely as an afterglow nomination for the well-liked Rockwell.

Sam Elliott is a good example of someone who had a small role and did make an impression in his picture, but not the one that you'd hope for.  In the smallest role of this bunch, he lands a lot of intriguing character work in his scenes with Bradley Cooper, playing his older brother both as a man who has put up with Cooper's Jackson for decades, and studying the complicated relationship between an older sibling and a more successful younger one, who clearly got some of their success operating in the shadow of (and mimicking) their older sibling.  The problem is that there's not enough there to make Elliott's later scenes with Lady Gaga work-it comes across as phoned in, the movie needed 1-2 more scenes rather than just coasting off of Elliott's easy delivery & movie star presence.

Richard E. Grant knows what he has in Can You Ever Forgive Me? and runs hog-wild with the performance.  What could've been a dismissible or cliched foil to McCarthy instead becomes something all-together more intriguing.  Grant's Jack is not a saint, in fact he might be just as opportunistic as McCarthy's Lee Israel when a golden goose comes across.  But he's also been beaten up more by the world & taken it more personally.  Unlike Lee, he's open to the possibility of love & happiness but the world won't let him have it in his current form.  Grant gives us vulnerability without letting it make his character too sympathetic, and I loved it (plus, he's endlessly quotable).

Adam Driver is one of our finest working actors, and so his first Oscar nomination (of already two, and surely more to come), feels somehow welcome & overdue all at once even if he hasn't waited remotely as long as Grant or Elliott have.  His Flip Zimmerman is a man who has tried his best to avoid prejudice his whole life (despite being Jewish in the South), and we get some subtle moments of clarity that he can do this while his partner cannot without having to indulge a tonal shift in the character that feels out-of-place.  He makes Flip look like an easy creation when other actors would've needed to be more bombastic to really iron home that their character was changing.

The final nomination is Mahershala Ali.  Two years after getting in for a small part in Moonlight, he goes fully lead with Green Book, and gets an Oscar I suspect he didn't really want.  It isn't Ali's fault that his Don Shirley comes across as a stereotype (it's the script's fault more than anything), but Ali didn't have to say yes to this, and fails in finding ways to make Don feel beyond what the script is demanding of him.  Particularly the horrifically bad "screaming in the rain sequence" and the problematic way they try to sneak Don's sexuality in as a reveal (that they quickly need to punish)...it's bad.  Ali would've been better-served just sticking to one well-deserved Oscar.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes went with virtually the same lineup as Oscar, only substituting out Elliott in favor of Timothee Chalamet (Beautiful Boy), with Ali winning.  SAG also gave the trophy to Ali, but here it was Rockwell who had to be skipped so that Chalamet could get his afterglow citation.  BAFTA made it a clean sweep for Ali, and once again it was Elliott getting skipped for Chalamet...making the sixth place finish just as predictable and tired as the actual lineup.

Performances I Would Have Nominated: In an era where Joaquin Phoenix & Maria Bakalova can get in for truly atypical films, it would've been fun to see Oscar stretch his wings a bit with Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther), who brought the best Marvel villain we've seen so far & was in a Best Picture race...particularly considering Jordan has somehow never gotten an Oscar nomination despite deserving three at this point.

Oscar’s Choice: It would've been easier to stomach Ali's win if he hadn't just won.  As it is, this was such sheer sloth from Oscar, particularly since this could've been a great moment to honor someone like Grant or Elliott, consummate longtime character actors who rarely get a chance to shine.  This is not only a bad win, but it's also baffling-second Oscars should have a steeper bar when you've got people who haven't won yet in the lineup, and Ali doesn't clear that.

My Choice: I'm going with Grant, in a slide nod over Driver.  Elliott is third, Ali fourth, & Rockwell fifth, but I stand behind that-I wouldn't have said a darn word against Elliott if he'd won here after such an impressive career, but a second trophy for Ali is silly.

Those are my thoughts-what are yours?  Are you with the collective lovefest around Ali, or are you willing to join me on Team Grant?  Which of the Sam's was more vulnerable to Timmy this year?  And why did Ali stampede for a lackluster performance when there were some clearly better narratives awards voters could've latched onto?  Share your thoughts below in the comments!

Also in 2018: Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2018

Past Best Supporting Actor Contests: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019 

OVP: Actor (2019)

OVP: Best Actor (2019)

The Nominees Were...

Antonio Banderas, Pain & Glory

    Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Adam Driver, Marriage Story

Joaquin Phoenix, Joker

Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes

My Thoughts: We move into the lead categories this week, and our Best Actor field.  Toward the end of these series I sometimes run out of things to say about the movies in question, and to a degree we're entering that mode with the 2019 contenders.  Oscar was so unoriginal in what he was pulling off here-the films that are in contention here have all been mentioned, and with one exception, we're already discussed them more than once at this point.  But weirdly we have spent very little time discussing most of these lead performances as we've gone through the movie's technical elements, and as a result there are still some chapters left to analyze in this lineup.

Specifically, I don't know that I've actually mentioned Leonardo DiCaprio during all of these write-ups (and it's not because I don't like him, as Leo is a frequent favorite of mine).  This is weird because in my notes on this performance, Leo gave a solid bit of acting.  I always appreciate him better in lighter roles (which this is), and his chemistry with child actor Julia Butters is one of the better parts of the movie.  This isn't a standout performance in his career, but it is well-grounded (he plays this as a man who came close to stardom but couldn't quite reach the echelons), though one wonders if this nomination was necessary-there were better performers in 2019, and he had just won.  Usually Oscar makes the actors wait a little bit longer, so perhaps they want him to get a second after his long drought?

It's harder to begrudge Jonathan Pryce his nomination, as he is a "long-working character actor getting his due" but I felt somewhat similar about his work here.  Pryce's Pope Francis doesn't have the internal drive & "awards clips" that Hopkins' performance elicits, and while I'm not shy about enjoying less bait-y work (and indeed, the chemistry between the two actors is a both-sided situation), this is a bit routine from Pryce, and you leave not knowing enough about Francis in the way that you do about Benedict by the film's end.  Still, as I've said multiple times this is a better (and lighter) film than one would expect considering the biopic subjects.

Joaquin Phoenix would of course win this trophy, becoming the second actor to take the Oscar for playing the Joker onscreen.  If you'll recall I gave this trophy to Ledger when we profiled his performance in 2008, but Phoenix's work is not going to repeat that feat.  There's an intense physicality  to this performance that I have to respect, as his actions & body need great control to pull off some of the consistent ticks & swerves of this character, but I'm not as impressed by physical changes as the Academy is.  And once you take that away, there's not much there-Phoenix, a truly great actor, gives his Arthur little depth or dimension, instead making him some sort of bizarre creation without a driving soul.  Gone is some of the care he's put into better work like The Master or Her, and instead we're given a performance that feels (for me) quite flat.

Adam Driver, on the other hand, is an "of the moment" actor who completely lands this characterization.  Driver's work kind of makes-or-breaks the film, as it is ultimately his arch (the big Sondheim number where he realizes what he lost & what he must let go of) that will land the film.  Driver creates his Charlie as someone who had ambitions, and is sometimes obtuse to the feelings of a partner that he clearly loves on some level, but dislikes for not being the person he wanted her to be.  Playing characters of this ilk, where they're meant to be unlikable but human, is hard because the cartoonish angles or crutches are there if the actor wants to partake, but Driver is so committed to us feeling Charlie's journey (even if we aren't "siding" with him) that he doesn't take them.

Banderas' nomination is in some ways similar to Jonathan Pryce's-a longtime trouper getting his moment in the sun with the Academy-but while Pryce has been a character actor at the edges, Banderas is that rarer breed of proper movie star who finally gets recognized for his talent.  This is another Oscar trope, and sometimes it's even better than the character actor because it gives us a career-defining role that made us rethink what we thought about a matinee idol.  Banderas has always been good, but this ranks up there as some of his best work as a director working through his inner-demons, frequently frustrated by his inability to move beyond a long-ago success story, and also giving us a tender love story (not just for himself & a past lover, but also with his complicated relationship with his mother).  Banderas creates his own soul, but uses his decades of work with Pedro Almodovar to blend in personal elements of the director's life & personality into the characterization to give us a fully-realized performance.

Other Precursor Contenders: As we've said a few times here, the precursors didn't bring many new names into the Oscar conversation, and uniformity was the theme.  The Globes gave their Drama trophy, therefore, to Joaquin Phoenix over Driver, Pryce, Banderas, & Christian Bale (Ford vs. Ferrari), while the Comedy/Musical went to Taron Egerton (Rocketman) over DiCaprio, Daniel Craig (Knives Out), Roman Griffin Davis (Jojo Rabbit), & Eddie Murphy (Dolemite is My Name).  SAG went with Phoenix as their winner, besting Bale, DiCaprio, Driver, & Egerton, while BAFTA also favored Phoenix over DiCaprio, Pryce, Driver, & Egerton.  Throw in Robert de Niro (The Irishman), who was probably on some ballots considering his longtime perch at the Academy, and this is a really sturdy lineup...I would have to believe that Egerton was in sixth place and surely would've been nominated were it not for the stench of the Bohemian Rhapsody wins a year earlier.

Actors I Would Have Nominated: Even with a slate that's not terrible, I'd upend almost the entire lineup personally.  I'd include Brad Pitt, who was considerably better in Ad Astra than he was for Hollywood (which you'll remember I did enjoy), and would've kept de Niro, who brings an empty soul quality that I liked to The Irishman.  Jimmie Fails (Last Black Man in San Francisco) announced himself as a talent with his sensitive portrayal of disappointment & hope in that movie, while Franz Rogowski gave a star-making performance (if anyone bothered to watch) in the beautiful Transit.

Oscar’s Choice: Phoenix skated through easily in a role that twenty years ago would've struggled to get a nomination-honestly not sure even who was second it was such a foregone conclusion (maybe Banderas?).

My Choice: Driver-he brings the most to his work, and creates the best (if not always as famous) characterization.  Banderas, DiCaprio, Pryce, & Phoenix follow him in that order.

Those are my thoughts-what are yours?  Are you with me siding with Driver, or am I a little mad for not picking Phoenix?  Is this the end of the line for Banderas or Pryce, or can they come back like Gary Oldman did & win a trophy?  And did Rami Malek cost Taron Egerton his first Oscar nomination?  Share your thoughts below!

Also in 2019: Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, International Feature Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Animated Short, Live Action Short, Previously in 2019

Past Best Actor Contests: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

Losing the EGOT

Occasionally I find myself sorting through particularly random trivia (this happened a few days ago in a conversation with a friend), and one of my favorite bits of trivia surrounds the younger of the acting Redgrave sisters.  While Vanessa was the great actor of her generation, Lynn had something else special about her.  Lynn managed to be the only person in the history of entertainment to receive nominations for an Emmy, Oscar, Grammy, and Tony award...and not win any.

This is of course both a huge compliment and an enormous disappointment.  Redgrave managed to get nominated for three Tonys, two Emmys, two Oscars, and a Grammy in her career, something almost every actor would kill for, but you have to assume that she wishes she could have taken the stage just once to accept one of those major awards (to her credit, she did pick up a pair of Golden Globe Awards).

We took a look at Redgrave's record six years ago, but I was curious after the conversation with my friend if there had been any new additions to this list, if any people who had been on the list had migrated off of it, and most importantly, if someone had tied Redgrave's record.  Below you'll find that her record is still intact, though there's still room for some performers to go after it, and a few more have been added to the challenge since six years ago.  I've listed below every living performer I could find that has been nominated for (and lost) three of the four of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, & Tony.  If you have a name I don't have on the list, please bring it to the comments (particularly for the Grammys, this is hard to research), and I'll update accordingly!

(Note: All of these are listed alphabetically)

Lauren Ambrose

Nomination She's Missing: Oscar

Emmys Lost: 2002 & 2003-Lead Actress in a Drama (Six Feet Under)

Grammys Lost: 2019-Best Musical Theater Album (My Fair Lady)

Tonys Lost: 2018-Best Actress in a Musical (My Fair Lady)

She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: She won two SAG Awards for her work on Six Feet Under.

Can She Seal the Deal?: I would assume not.  Ambrose getting the lead in My Fair Lady is surprising in retrospect (her career had been relatively mixed since her breakout role in Six Feet Under ended, and I suppose this was a case of the "play" selling tickets more than any of the stars).  Currently she is on Servant for AppleTV, but hasn't done a film role in almost a decade, so an Oscar nomination would be a surprise.

Antonio Banderas

Nomination He's Missing: Grammy

Emmys Lost: 2004-Best Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie (And Starring Pancho Villas Himself), 2018-Best Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie (Genius)

Oscars Lost: 2019-Best Actor (Pain and Glory)

Tonys Lost: 2003-Best Actor in a Musical (Nine)

He Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: Banderas won a Drama Desk for Nine, and finally pulled off a Goya earlier this year for his work in Pain and Glory

Can He Seal the Deal?: Of all of the people on this list, Banderas has the most grounds to be mad, as under current awards rules he would have tied Lynn Redgrave for this award.  Banderas was a key vocalist on the cast recording on Nine, and that was nominated in 2004 for Best Musical Theater Album (but lost to the Bernadette Peters revival of Gypsy).  Today Banderas would've been nominated for a Grammy for the award as a principle vocalist, but at the time he wasn't because it was only the producers of the album that got nominated.  I don't know if Banderas has it in him to do another play (he hasn't gone back to either musicals or the theater in recent years), and so I kind of wonder if this is a trivia answer that will never be, but was very close to becoming reality.

Gabriel Byrne

Nomination He's Missing: Oscar
Emmys Lost: 2008 & 2009-Lead Actor in a Drama (In Treatment)
Grammys Lost: 1998-Spoken Word Album (The Nightingale and the Rose)
Tonys Lost: 2000-Lead Actor in a Play (A Moon for the Misbegotten), 2016-Lead Actor in a Play (Long Day's Journey Into Night)
He Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: He did win a Golden Globe for his work on In Treatment

Can He Seal the Deal?: The trick to "pulling a Lynn Redgrave" (patent-pending) is to be able to make positions second through fifth, but not manage to grab first.  I think that Byrne could well nab an Oscar nomination, considering he is a multi-hyphenate entertainer (he not only acts, but also writes, directs, and produces), and doesn't seem too likely to win any of the other awards anytime soon.  He rarely does Broadway and his television show isn't on anymore.

Adam Driver

Nomination He's Missing: Grammy

Emmys Lost: 2013, 2014, & 2015-Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Girls), 2020-Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series (Saturday Night Live)

Oscars Lost: 2018-Supporting Actor (BlacKkKlansman), 2019-Actor (Marriage Story)

Tonys Lost: 2019-Lead Actor in a Play (Burn This)

He Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: Driver has failed to secure any major entertainment award in his career, so there should be some sympathy for him, but it feels doubtful he's going to end his career empty-handed considering its current trajectory, so don't worry if you're a fan.

Can He Seal the Deal?: I would assume that Adam Driver is the type that might randomly get a Spoken Word Album nomination at some point (not for a memoir, but more so for a table read recording of The Crucible or something similar).  But Driver's career trajectory (he has been nominated for three of these awards in the past two years alone) indicates that a win is more likely to stop him from reaching Redgrave's record than a missing Grammy nomination.  He seems certain to win one (probably the Oscar or Tony) in the next few years.

James Franco

Nomination He's Mising: Tony
Emmys Lost: 2002-Lead Actor in a Miniseries (James Dean), 2011-Outstanding Special Class Programs (The 83rd Academy Awards...yes, James Franco was nominated for an Emmy for his comically bad hosting of the Oscars...let that sink in for a second), 2016-Outstanding Short Form Variety Series (Making a Scene)
Oscars Lost: 2010-Best Actor (127 Hours)
Grammys Lost: 2014-Spoken Word Album (Actors Anonymous)
He Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: Franco missed the Emmy but picked up the Golden Globe for his work in James Dean, and he missed the Oscar but pulled off another Globe for The Disaster Artist.

Can He Seal the Deal? I'm starting to think no.  Franco has done stage work (he did a turn in Of Mice and Men six years ago), but he wasn't nominated for a Tony Award (instead they went for his costar Chris O'Dowd).  Franco's sexual misconduct allegations have hurt his career; after his surprise Oscar snub in 2017 for The Disaster Artist, he has made direct-to-video & unreleased films, and his only more mainstream work was a cameo in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and The Deuce, which was a middling success at best for HBO.  Winning an Emmy at this point seems more probable than a Tony nomination.

Ed Harris

Nomination He's Missing: Grammy
Emmys Lost: 2005-Lead Actor in a Miniseries (Empire Falls), 2012-Supporting Actor in a Miniseries (Game Change), 2018-Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Westworld)
Oscars Lost: 1995-Supporting Actor (Apollo 13), 1998-Supporting Actor (The Truman Show), 2000-Lead Actor (Pollock), 2002-Supporting Actor (The Hours)
Tonys Lost: 1986-Actor in a Play (Precious Sons)
He Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: He has two Golden Globe awards, for The Truman Show and Game Change

Can He Seal the Deal?: For a long time there, it seemed like Ed Harris would surely win an Oscar.  He received a staggering four nominations in the span of seven years, and one could make a pretty convincing argument that he was in second in two, if not three of those years (Amy Adams-take note).  Harris has since fallen on hard times with the Academy and has had no more luck with Emmy (not even his grand return to TV with Westworld has gotten him a trophy so far).  This of course could happen, as the Spoken Word Album category can slip someone in at almost any time, and Harris is famous enough that he could make it for some reading of Shakespeare or Arthur Miller.  However, he's never been a particularly "awards-seeking" performer (otherwise he would have beaten James Coburn in 1998), and I don't see this happening.

Marsha Mason

Nomination She's Missing: Tony
Emmys Lost: 1997-Guest Actress in a Comedy (Frasier)
Oscars Lost: 1973-Best Actress (Cinderella Liberty), 1977-Best Actress (The Goodbye Girl), 1979-Best Actress (Cinderella Liberty), and 1981-Best Actress (Only When I Laugh)
Grammys Lost: 2000-Best Comedy Album (The Prisoner of Second Avenue)
She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: Mason won Golden Globes for both Cinderella Liberty and The Goodbye Girl

Can She Seal the Deal? The better question has to be how has she not?  Marsha Mason is one of my minor obsessions (she's been nominated for four Oscars, is still living, and yet somehow she disappeared off the face of the public sphere after her divorce to Neil Simon), and the real question was how was she ever going to get a Grammy nomination considering how minor her celebrity is.  With the Comedy Album citation, though, she's actually most well-known these days for her work on Broadway, as she's done six different productions in her career and is constantly working in the New York stage.  Make it happen Marcie!

Kate Nelligan

Nomination She's Missing: Grammy
Emmys Lost: 1989-Actress in a Drama Series (Road to Avonlea)
Oscars Lost: 1991-Supporting Actress (The Prince of Tides)
Tonys Lost: 1983-Actress in a Play (Plenty), 1984-Actress in a Play (A Moon for the Misbegotten), 1988-Featured Actress in a Play (Serious Money), 1989-Actress in a Play (Spoils of War)
She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: She did win a BAFTA for Frankie and Johnny

Can She Seal the Deal?: The longtime Canadian stage actress enjoyed most of her awards-success at the Tonys, where in the 1980's she was a frequent contender but always missed (it can't feel too bad losing to the likes of Jessica Tandy and Glenn Close, though).  Her one-and-done nomination in 1991 at the Oscars makes her the person who has been on this list the longest, and as a whole she rarely acts anymore (on the stage or otherwise), so unless she has a particular penchant to get involved with an album and score a truly random nomination, this seems like the least likely of the list to happen.  It is interesting, though, how such a comparatively obscure (certainly the least well-known of these performers) actress could so quickly score 3/4 of an EGOT loss.

Kathleen Turner

Nomination She's Missing: Emmy
Grammys Lost: 2001-Spoken Word Album (The Complete Shakespeare Sonnets)
Oscars Lost: 1986-Lead Actress (Peggy Sue Got Married)
Tonys Lost: 1990-Actress in a Play (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), 2005-Actress in a Play (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: She has two Golden Globes for Romancing the Stone and Prizzi's Honor.

Can She Seal the Deal?: Of the people on this list, I think this is probably the most shocking person on the list, considering that she almost certainly was close to getting nominated at the Emmys for playing Chandler's mother on Friends.  I would suspect, therefore, that she's also the most likely person to pull the Lynn Redgrave of anyone listed here.  She just needs a solid guest spot on a cable television series (probably not too hard considering their penchant for going for former headliners of a certain age for guest roles), and to not win the Tony Award (she probably would have won in 2005, but no one was going to take out Cherry Jones in Doubt).  I think that's manageable, and that she's probably going to make it thanks to the bizarre dozens-of-people-nominated Shakespeare Sonnets nomination she got in 2001.

Vanessa Williams

Nominations She's Missing: Oscar
Emmys Lost: 2007, 2008, and 2009-Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Ugly Betty), 2009-Performer in an Animated Program (Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies)
Grammys Lost: 1989-New Artist and Female R and B Performance ("The Right Stuff"), 1990-Female R and B Performance ("Dreamin"), 1992-Female R and B Performance ("Runnin' Back to You"), 1993-Record of the Year ("Save the Best for Last"), Female Pop Vocal Performance ("Save the Best for Last"), Female R and B Vocal Performance ("The Comfort Zone"), & Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals ("Love Is"), 1995-Female Pop Vocal Performance ("Colors of the Wind") & Female R and B Performance ("The Way That You Love"), 1997-Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album (Star Bright)
Tonys Lost: 2002-Actress in a Musical (Into the Woods)
She Shouldn't Feel Too Sad: She was Miss America, but umm, yeah, maybe she should get a little pity here.

Can She Seal the Deal?: Yeah, that list of Grammy losses is massive.  Williams is one of the most nominated women in the Recording Academy to never win.  Despite her seventeen year absence, I think her best shot would be to pick up one of the below-the-line Grammy Awards rather than take an Oscar nomination.  Williams did sing an Oscar-winning song, of course (1995's "Color of the Wind"), but she's not very much of a songwriter, and the movies have oddly never taken to her like music, television, and the theater.  So my gut says no, she can't quite get there (prove me wrong, casting directors), but may well win one of the other three awards before all is said and done.

And those are the ten!  Like I said, I researched pretty thoroughly, but if you trivia sleuths have an eleventh person let me know!

OVP: Star Wars: The Revenge of Skywalker (2019)

Film: Star Wars: The Revenge of Skywalker (2019)
Stars: Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams
Director: JJ Abrams
Oscar History: 3 nominations (Best Score, Visual Effects, Sound Editing)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

In recent years, it has become clearer and clearer why I prefer film to television.  In a supposed "Golden Age," TV frequently repeats itself, and seems incapable of telling just one, comprehensive story.  The medium takes complete narratives such as the first seasons of The Handmaid's Tale and Big Little Lies, stretching them despite perfect endings after just one season.  Film is complete-it gives you proper endings with actual stakes, as has been illustrated continually with this excellent cinematic annum.  The question becomes at what point do franchises struggle with the same question-when do they risk the pitfalls of television?  We saw that earlier this year with Spider-Man: Far From Home, when it became apparent after 22 films that Marvel doesn't really have anything left in its arsenal but retreads and lesser characters with the same plot lines (it doesn't seem like a mistake that they're going back-to-the-past for their next entry of Black Widow).  Here we have what some will claim to be the "final" chapter in the Skywalker fantasy, but one with a lot of dangling storylines and myriad characters to get back into in an "Episode X" if these actors don't make it in as proper movie stars (not everyone gets to be Harrison Ford).  But if this is the end of the series (and wouldn't it be amazing if it was and they actually respected the tale without trying to bilk it for more cash?), what kind of ending do we have for arguably the most important series in modern cinema?

(Spoilers Ahead) The film focuses on the final battle between, initially, Kylo Ren (Driver) and Rey (Ridley), who is fully immersed in her Jedi training with Leia (Fisher) as her mentor.  She is hoping to find Emperor Palpatine (McDiarmid), who is apparently not dead (as we'd assumed from Return of the Jedi), but instead the mastermind behind Snoke and has been guiding Kylo Ren this whole time.  It also turns out, as we continue, that Rey is not "the child of no one," but instead Palpatine's granddaughter.  Rey struggles with this, as her fight with the dark side takes on a similar path to that of Luke Skywalker in, again, Return of the Jedi, but she ultimately chooses to side with the good guys, winning over Kylo Ren before he dies (with the help of Harrison Ford in a cameo as Han Solo, almost certainly his final appearance in the series), and helping to take down her grandfather in an epic battle.

There are a lot of problems with Rise of Skywalker, so let's get the good out first-it looks great.  The special effects here are top drawer, some of the best of the year.  Standouts include Rey literally riding gigantic waves, and the entire water-soaked battle with Kylo Ren, as well as the final battle between the Empire and the Rebels.  It's become something we just expect from this franchise that the visual effects are top-drawer, but 2019 hosted visual effects that felt kind of lazy or appreciated a bit too generously; this is classic, impressively-designed special effects work, which shouldn't be dismissed as it becomes a rarity.  Also, in a year where we were expected to suspend belief with less-than-impressive "de-aging" in The Irishman, Captain Marvel, and Gemini Man, for a brief moment I was stunned at how good the de-aging work was for Carrie Fisher, until I realized that they used unused footage from past films to put together her scenes; this was the correct choice.

But the rest of Rise of Skywalker is kind of a disaster.  The latest episodes have always struggled with defining their new characters outside of the shadows of their previous iterations, giving the best moments of the new series to Fisher, Ford, and Mark Hamill.  Without that nostalgic pull (since Ford & Hamill's characters have died, and Fisher died in real life), this film needs its new characters to do the heavy-lifting, and that's not really something they've built a foundation toward.  Finn & Poe are both ancillary characters, at best-suddenly Poe is a horn-dog and Finn is just sort of there, promising information to Rey but never actually delivering it.  Kelly Marie Tran's Rose is so sidelined in this movie you basically wonder why the series even introduced her.  The film has nostalgic moments, involving Fisher & Ford, but they don't ring as meaningful as they did in the past films, the Fisher one obviously not being the franchise's fault (it's clear she had a different role in this film than they intended before her real-life death), but the writers never found a proper solution to handle her death.  The only time that felt similar to some of the high points of the previous film on this front was the first appearance of Lando (Williams)...who promptly disappears from the story, an indication that he was more a tag-on to the story because of Fisher's death (suddenly depriving the studio of a major link to the initial franchise) rather than because it suited the plot.

Rey has been drawn better than pretty much any other new character, and as a result was the best chance this film had to distinguish itself in a way similar to The Last Jedi standing apart from traditional Star Wars action-adventures, but the decision to make her a Palpatine falls flat.  This feels like a direct reaction to the fans hating on The Last Jedi, but it's a good indication that giving fans everything they want is a TERRIBLE idea.  JJ Abrams likely shouldn't have taken back over the franchise here-he had a vision that was completely disparate from Rian Johnson, and basically ignores the intriguing directions that Johnson took the characters in Episode VIII.  As a result, this is a jumbled mess, full of expository plots & repetitive action scenes.  The emotional stakes aren't strong (the only hero character to die is Leia, which pretty much anyone would have assumed would have to happen considering real-life implications), and by bringing back a bad guy who had already died, they showed they never really had faith in the new universe they crafted, just in its links to the older series.  It's hard for me to hate any Star Wars movie, but this one definitely is met with a gigantic eye roll, and my wish that they retire the Skywalker saga going forward if they are going to invest in a galaxy far, far away.

OVP: Marriage Story (2019)

Film: Marriage Story (2019)
Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta
Director: Noah Baumbach
Oscar History: 6 nominations/1 win (Best Picture, Actor-Adam Driver, Actress, Scarlett Johansson, Supporting Actress-Laura Dern*, Score, Original Screenplay)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

In a different era, Marriage Story would have been a bigger deal.  In the 1970's through the late 1990's, films like Marriage Story, ones about complicated adults going through a real-life chapter, would have been a box office gold mine, not just a movie that seems intent on winning Oscars.  While I saw this film about two weeks ago, I wanted to let this simmer for a while, and perhaps that was a bad idea (in the cynical age of social media, everything, including something as hard-to-watch as Marriage Story, is rife for meme-ification).  But this is a complicated movie, one that's worth investigating even if it's not the cultural touchstone that it could've been, and might be the first time I saw Netflix get a "prestige" picture that could well have gotten lost in the cinematic shuffle, rather than just calling "dibs" on an Oscar contender that would have made it with AMPAS anyway (like Roma or The Irishman).

(Spoilers Ahead) The film centers on the crumbling marriage of Charlie (Driver) and Nicole (Johansson).  The film opens with the two making a list about the things they like about one another, but Nicole doesn't want to read it & Charlie does.  This is a projection of where we're headed in the movie.  Charlie has been fine in their relationship for a year, focusing on his physical and emotional wants above Nicole (even having a brief affair), while Nicole has been trying to dampen her own passions, her own ambitions & career successes, to put her husband and son above her own dreams.

The film then shows what a divorce between two people who clearly loved each other at one point looks like.  It's filled with hate, and envy, and pettiness, but also it's filled with broken hearts over losing someone you clearly once loved.  Marriage Story is hard to watch, because it doesn't shy away from how tough it is to admit defeat after taking a vow of "forever."  There are scenes where Nicole has the upper-hand, and then later where Charlie does, using the confidences they had for each other, the trust they had in each other, against one another.  The film's most famous scene is the fight they have in Charlie's new apartment, where they start screaming their hatreds at each other, eventually trying to hurt one another in the biggest way possible, and perhaps yelling more at themselves & the fact that they hate that they still feel for each other because it would make this entire process easier.  It's a fascinating movie, and one that feels personal & universal, something difficult for such a subject.

The acting in the movie is uniformly good, though the two leads steal the show.  Dern, Alda, & Liotta all get showy parts, but they're playing hilarious caricatures more than they are flesh-and-blood human beings; Dern is the best of the three (I could totally see her winning the Oscar for this), but they are inconsequential to the emotional crux of the film.  It's Driver & Johansson's show, and two of my generation's best actors get full-range to explore Charlie & Nicole, giving us imperfect, real, genuine human creations for the screen.  Driver singing "Being Alive" and realizing that this chapter of his life is over, or Johansson's quiet realization of what she signed up for when Charlie doesn't get equal custody-it's breathtaking acting, and a true showcase for both performers.

The Report (2019)

Film: The Report (2019)
Stars: Adam Driver, Annette Bening, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Morrison, Matthew Rhys, Maura Tierney
Director: Scott Z. Burns
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Every year, I try and try and to see as many movies during this time frame as I can, and I always fail.  The Oscar season is a cruel mistress, with so many films attempting to come to light from Halloween through Christmas, and especially after Thanksgiving.  This process doesn't just leave me at-a-loss-it also causes a lot of movies that I might otherwise have caught in July to be missed or put onto my endless Netflix queue.  A film like The Report, with a stellar cast and a serious subject, is a film that walks a fine line by releasing itself in November-it could either become a major Oscar contender, a film that expands its core audience of devoted cinephiles and politically-minded theatergoers, or could just stay within that niche audience.  Considering I literally caught this movie on the last night it was out (it only played in one theater in my area, a major metropolitan market for movies), and I nearly missed it as a result, I suspect it will stay a niche picture, one that will be a struggle to name-check even by February.  The question for today is-is that the fate this picture deserved?

(I'm not issuing a spoiler alert because you should've paid attention when this was happening, and if you didn't that's why things like this go unnoticed) The movie follows the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation into torture tactics that took place in the Bush administration in the years following 9/11.  The film centers on Dan Jones (Driver), a handsome, smart, driven man who works for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Bening) on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and is investigating the "enhanced interrogation tactics" of the Bush administration.  Dan becomes a man driven by desire to uncover the truth and bring it to light, to the point where at times it feels like his lack of confidence in Feinstein to be able to get past both the Republicans and the Bush & Obama White Houses (both of whom do not want this to see the light of day in the film) might drive him to break the law.  In real life both administrations were critical of the findings of the report, calling them partisan and inaccurate.  The movie flashes back to the torture that was chronicled in the report, as well as Feinstein & Jones' struggle to have the report see the light of day, which eventually it does, just days before Feinstein loses her position as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The film is shocking even if you followed this report's release in 2014 and what had already been released about the behavior of the CIA in regard to torturing suspects, many of whom should not have warranted capture.  The film picks-and-chooses when it uses real-life figures like Feinstein or Jon Hamm's Denis McDonough, and when they fictionalize what are obviously real-life people for legal reasons (Maura Tierney is clearly meant to be playing Gina Haspel), but it's more-or-less accurate in what happened.  It's hard to watch, particularly for those Democrats who have turned a blind eye to the failings of the Obama administration (especially in the wake of the more egregious sins of the Trump administration), but it's fair to say that while the Obama administration stopped enhanced interrogation basically the moment they took office, people like McDonough and John Brennan warred publicly & privately with people like Feinstein, as well as other figures such as Mark Udall & Sheldon Whitehouse (both featured in this film), and the bravery that resulted in these few senators standing up to their own party in the White House to get this report into the public eye.

All of this sounds great, and if The Report simply serves as a reminder of how senators can hold their own party in the White House accountable until they do the right thing (HINT HINT) it'd be worth as many people seeing this movie as possible.  However, from a cinematic perspective this film isn't very good, even from a political nerd such as myself.  The torture sequences, and particularly the torturers being portrayed, fall flat and don't have enough connection to the rest of the story other than to have us look on in horror.  Driver finds a determination in the boy scout dealings of Dan Jones, but he offers little insight into this man, and I feel like it's a cop-out to say that someone as intelligent and driven as Jones wouldn't have more of a personality (or at least a sex life).  He's better than Jon Hamm, who seems to be playing the same version of a handsome, line-reading figure of authority in every movie of the past five years.  For all of the criticism of January Jones post-Mad Men, has Hamm done literally anything approaching how good he was as Don Draper, and why is it that Jones gets critically-maligned while he keeps getting chances after under-performing pretty every filmic role he's had (I know why-that was rhetorical)?

Bening is the best part of the movie.  While she doesn't try to imitate Feinstein's distinctive speaking cadences (Feinstein has been in public life the whole time I've followed politics, so I know her voice anywhere, and Bening isn't trying here), she gets her mannerisms down and I loved the thoughtfulness she brings to key scenes.  Feinstein is a senator noted for her caution, someone who frustrates both Democrats & Republicans, but is a serious politician pretty much everyone attributes integrity toward.  The scenes where she tells off McDonough (they give Bening two Oscar moments) are obviously a joy for fans of the actress, but she puts such care even into throwaway lines to Jones that it feels like Bening did her homework.  She's created a woman who has had her comments scrutinized for decades, to the point where she can't say anything without mentally checking how it will be used against her.  If the rest of the film had shown the same level of detail to their character, The Report would have been a worthwhile cinematic affair rather than just an honorable attempt to remind people of how Congress can do the right thing even when it's not politically convenient.

OVP: BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Film: BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Stars: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Herrier, Topher Grace, Jasper Paakkonen
Director: Spike Lee
Oscar History: 6 nominations/1 win (Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor-Adam Driver, Film Editing, Score, Adapted Screenplay*)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

As I continue to wind down the Oscar-nominated films of 2018, we now come to the final Best Picture nominee I still had outstanding, and I think the only reason I didn't get to it initially was that it was the sort of film that feels surprising that it took the Best Picture nomination.  The films of Spike Lee are not what you'd anticipate as being "Oscar-friendly" even when they occasionally are (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and 4 Little Girls all received some sort of Oscar blessing).  It remains to be seen after finally being welcomed into the Best Director club this year and winning his first competitive Oscar whether or not he'll become a mainstay (ala David O. Russell) or whether this was a one-and-done situation where he won't show up again for another decade (like, say, Terrence Malick).  Either way, BlacKkKlansman is a good movie, one that probably is made better because it brought recognition to a singular filmmaker who has had this praise coming for a while.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is at least loosely based on the life of Ron Stallworth (Washington), a cop hired by the Colorado Springs Police Department (the first black man to serve on the force).  He is put undercover first to investigate civil rights leader Kwame Ture, and there meets a student activist named Patrice Dumas (Harrier), and is drawn into her politics, even though she stands against the police force, of which he is a member.  Stallworth eventually joins the intelligence division, and starts to investigate the KKK, pretending to be a white man on the phone named Walter Breachway, and has his partner Flip Zimmerman (Driver), a Jewish man, stand in as Breachway so that they can bring down the Klan, who are purportedly planning some sort of attack.  All the while Stallworth, under the guise of his voiced Breachway, is having conversations with Grand Wizard David Duke (Grace), who is completely duped by Stallworth, who feeds him racist pablum to fuel his ego.  Eventually a bombing, perpetrated by the wife of one of the Klan members Connie (New York theater staple Ashlie Atkinson, who does a fantastic job with a small role in this picture), is thwarted by Stallworth & Zimmerman's investigation, and they save the day (with Stallworth getting to tell off David Duke over the phone).  Of course, as this is a Spike Lee joint, a proper happy ending is not in the cards, and we get both the police trying to cover up the investigation, as well as a look at the continued racism that Stallworth and Dumas must endure (the Klan lights a white cross near their home at the end of the movie).  The film ends with footage from the 2017 Charlottesville rallies, dedicating the picture to Heather Heyer who was murdered during the rallies by a white nationalist, and interspersing speeches of Duke alongside those of Donald Trump.

The film is entertaining, provocative, and challenging, while still being more popcorn than the Lee films that rose the director to prominence in the late 1980's and early 90's.  The film unfolds very much like an adult summer cop film, except one that is informed by reality and with a heavy dose of very uncomfortable laughter.  The movie plays figures in the Klan (like Duke) occasionally for laughs, but never shies away from the real damage that the racist organization does through its hate speech.  The movie is also not shy about showing the racism that is all-too-real in police forces across America.  Lee shows a patrolman who gropes Patrice because she is black and female early in the film, and while he eventually has him be caught by Stallworth, it's heavily implied that this sort of thing happens all-the-time and most of the time abuse-of-privilege remains unchecked.  Considering the events that happened in Phoenix just this past week, this is a conversation that may take place in the 1970's, but is pertinent to our national conversation today.

The movie isn't perfect.  Occasionally Lee's indulgences as a director are ill-served, with him going for easy sight gags and persistent visuals that toe-the-line between underscoring his point and just being repetitive.  Washington in the lead is fine, though it's hard not to make comparisons to his father (he's the son of Oscar Winner Denzel Washington), particularly since he's not as good at the dramatic bits of the film as he is some of the lighter or more charismatic moments for Ron; his missing out on an Oscar nomination (he had to be very close) is not a big loss, and he probably got all he needed by launching his career here.  Adam Driver who did get an Oscar nomination, is best-in-show of the cast, playing Zimmerman as a man who has tried his best to avoid prejudice (despite being Jewish), hiding his identity when he can (in a way that Ron cannot), and plays him as someone who doesn't view himself as racist, but has definitely taken advantage of privilege when he can.  The subtle evolution of such a man is hard to play onscreen, but Driver, possibly the most reliable presence in movies today, does it with ease and it's good to finally have "Oscar nominee" next to his name, even if he's been better.  The same can obviously be said for Spike Lee, who finally took that competitive Oscar here, even if it feels more like a career win than for this film in particular.

OVP: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

Film: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Stars: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Laura Dern
Director: Rian Johnson
Oscar History: 4 nominations (Best Score, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

In recent years, we have seen an influx in long-delayed sequels to movies.  Franchises such as Rocky, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, and Blade Runner have emerged from a long dormancy, all the while coming back with an updated storyline and a continuation of a tale we know so well.  Perhaps no film series has done this in as big and splashy of a way as Star Wars, which this month brought its eighth (or ninth, depending on how we count Rogue One) entry into the series.  These sequels, though, have something very much in common: the intense need for nostalgia to sell their stories.  It is impossible to look at The Last Jedi separate from the nostalgia that it feeds from, but that's a problem for a franchise that is so central to American cinema in the new millennium.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film itself is largely known to most of us, not least of which because it's already made a fortune ($600 million at the global box office and counting), but also because it's very familiar to previous tales of the Star Wars saga.  The movie is the second chapter of a new trilogy, so it's going to be dark, and indeed, we see conflicts with our leading characters such as Rey (Ridley), Kylo Ren (Driver), and to a lesser extent Poe (Isaac).  All-the-while we see the expansion of the world that George Lucas created decades ago, alien planets and epic battle scenes, and the smaller moments like those between Luke and Leia, as Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher have returned for another entry in the series.

It is in this latter attribute that The Last Jedi gleans most of its power.  What made The Force Awakens so fun was not its plot or the updated effects, but the sheer movie magic of watching some of the most iconic characters of all-time be revisited decades after they were retired.  Harrison Ford as Han Solo boarding the Millennium Falcon literally made me clutch my fist in the air the first time I saw it.  I'm not even a Star Wars nerd, exactly (though I've gotten closer through the years, at least in terms of appreciating it for its place in movie lore), but there's a joy in watching Luke Skywalker clutch a blue lightsaber again or catching Carrie Fisher's trademark sardonic spunk infiltrate Princess Leia.  It's the same thing with catching a weathered Sylvester Stallone as Rocky one last time in Creed or Andy Serkis fighting with himself again in The Hobbit.  It's not the intensity of the original, but these are such storied part of our cinematic universe that watching someone try to recapture this magic gives me goosebumps.  The best moments of The Last Jedi rest with Hamill and Fisher, particularly a shared kiss on the forehead late in the film, as we understand that Luke Skywalker is soon for the ether, and tragically Fisher's work here is her final portrayal of the princess-turned-general.  It's in these moments that, in the same way a series finale gets the easy tears, you forget you're watching a movie and suddenly are a younger version of yourself, seeing your heroes battle once again onscreen.

The problem here isn't that these moments aren't effective, it's that they're perhaps the only truly effective things happening in The Last Jedi.  While some of the visuals are interesting (I adored the red sand battle, a spectacular visual), and I thought finally introducing sex into a galaxy far, far away (Kylo Ren wasn't shirtless for nothing here) was a nice touch, nothing in the movie comes close to being as special as Leia meeting Luke again, or really much of anything that the first two films in the original trilogy achieved.  It's hard to invest in characters who are so obviously carbon copies of the original characters.  Luke's a girl now, Leia's black and male, and Han's Latino, but well-intentioned diversity isn't going to change the fact that we've already watched this trilogy before, and the formula is so intensely similar between A New Hope/Empire and Force Awakens/Last Jedi that it's hard not to think of this more as a remake than a sequel.

And that's bad for the crown jewel of our franchise-heavy cinematic universe, particularly one so celebrated by Disney, because the characters are dying off a wee bit too quickly.  Though obviously fate played a cruel trick on Episode IX (it's obvious Fisher was going to be a centerpiece of the final film in this trilogy), with Hamill and Ford's characters both dead, the nostalgia will be in short supply in our next iteration.  Sure, we will see the robots and Chewbacca, but it's just not the same without Luke, Leia, or Han (if Disney knows what's good for them, they've already sent a blank check to Billy Dee Williams to reprise Lando in Episode IX).  And without that, we're going to have a problem as Rey, Poe, and Finn just aren't distinctive enough to root for without the help of the originals.  It's not a fault of the actors (there is no universe where Oscar Isaac isn't a better thespian than Mark Hamill), but the writing doesn't allow for us to know them, instead smartly focusing on the characters we already have a proven track record with.  This shouldn't affect my score of Episode VIII too much (it's getting three stars as its own entity), but when a movie basically ends on a cliffhanger (which this one does), what comes after should directly affect its score, and it's very hard to see the next movie getting past the gargantuan mountain of not having Han/Leia/Luke to fall back upon, and getting us to root for characters who are just too unknown for anyone to care about without tricking ourselves into accepting a facsimile.