It’s that time again!
The Matt, Ian, and Blake (or MIB) Awards have returned. Not be confused with the secret organization dedicated to monitoring extraterrestrial activity on Earth. Truth to be told, we weren’t sure we’d we back. But in the end, we couldn’t bring ourselves to disappoint Matt’s dad, Ian’s wife, and Morgan Johnson.
Since it’s been so long, a reminder of our mission here at the MIB Awards:
The awards never go to the right person, because there is no right person. This is important to remember as we approach the 94th Academy Awards (which for some god forsaken reason are scheduled to air the final Sunday of March). There is no mathematical equation to determine the “correct” winners. Voters cast their votes based on their own personal taste. So what is the point of predicting the winners? You’re just guessing which opinion the majority will hold. Instead, I’ve teamed up with two other close friends and cinephiles — aspiring actor and entertainer Ian Goldsmith and former Warner Bros. Studio tour guide Matt Bauerly — to name winners of our own.
Best Documentary
Blake: There is a seven-minute scene in Navalny in which Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and chief rival to Russian president Vladimir Putin, calls up the men believed to have been responsible for his poisoning in 2020. Navalvny is calling them under the guise of a government bureaucrat, and one of them takes his call. He then begins answering Navalny’s questions, casually revealing intimate details of the assassination attempt. It’s one of the most incredible scenes I’ve ever seen in a documentary. Go watch Navalny.
Ian: Sometimes I remember certain things in this world exist — the types of things I totally take for granted that actually exist in this world. Lava is one of those things. So if nothing else, watch Fire of Love to remember how freaking cool lava is. However, underneath all that stunning lava footage is a tender and poetic tale of love equally worth your attention.
Matt: I hope to someday cross paths with actor Jonah Hill, and thank him for sharing Stutz with the world. In a series of candid conversations, Hill documents his experience with his well-known psychiatrist, Phil Stutz. The conversation about mental health could not be louder right now, and these type of Netflix documentaries creates a common conversation about talk therapy. I’m all for it. This documentary is literally free therapy. Drink it up.
Best Popcorn Film
Blake: I’ll admit, I was not among those clamoring for a sequel to Avatar. But in hindsight, it was a mistake to doubt James Cameron. No one understands blockbuster filmmaking better than Cameron, and Avatar: The Way of Water provides ample evidence to support that. The Way of Water does clock in at just over three hours, but the final hour is well worth the wait, featuring one breathtaking action sequence after another. And it was worth seeing in 3-D.
Ian: Plenty of discourse has proclaimed how “theaters are back” and “cinema is saved.” With blockbuster triumphs such as the sequels to Top Gun and Avatar, it’s not hard to understand the sentiment. Personally, my favorite theatergoing experience this year came in the form of Nope. Jordan Peele delivers a modern-day classic blockbuster — a movie that simultaneously centers around the concept of “spectacle,” while producing actual jaw-dropping spectacles. Many of the sights and sounds of Nope are still seared into my brain months after that initial viewing.
Matt: You know that one movie you saw in theaters? Maybe even went twice because it was such a refreshing moviegoing experience? Yeah, that movie was Top Gun: Maverick. You may see this movie mentioned elsewhere in this year’s MIB Awards, but let me be the honest one. Tom Cruise does indeed creep me out with everything going on with Scientology, but man does Miles Teller wear a mustache well and is just nice to look at. They nailed it with the storyline. As entertaining as it gets for a movie.
Best Sequel, Remake, or Reboot
Blake: I can’t say I was waiting with anticipation for Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel more than 30 years in the making. I’ve never actually been much of a fan of the original. But Maverick is Tom Cruise delivering old school thrills in a way only he can, featuring some of the most exhilarating action sequences ever put to film. It surpasses the original Top Gun in every way.
Ian: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. If Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig are reading this, please know: I will pay you upfront right now for my theater tickets to watch at least 20 more Benoit Blanc mysteries.
Matt: My expectations in regard to the Batman universe will always be high. I am also 100% not interested in the MCU. Not sorry. The Dark Knight is an all-timer and my time at Warner Bros. Studios was during the period when The Dark Knight Rises came out in theaters and I thought I was the coolest cat in town getting to see an employee screening of the movie before the rest of the world got to see it. However, The Batman was an interesting take and Robert Pattinson didn’t make me cringe. I’ll take it. Plus, Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman… c’mon!
Best Under-The-Radar Film
Blake: Deadstream is a horror comedy about a “canceled” YouTuber who attempts to win back his following by live-streaming a night in a haunted house. It is now streaming on Shudder, but I had the opportunity to see Deadstream with a crowd as part of a one-night-only screening at the Music Box Theatre. It was one of my favorite moviegoing experiences of last year, as it completely pulled in the audience and people were alternately laughing and screaming. Just one of the funnest movies of last year and I hope you seek it out.
Ian: Only this movie could get me to watch something on the Roku Channel. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a biopic about the king of parodies while perfectly parodying other biopics. Starring Danielle Radcliffe as the titular Yankovic, 20% is based on Weird Al’s real life, while 80% is a side-splitting fever dream that somehow culminates in a shootout between Madonna and Pablo Escobar (spoiler?). Honorable Mention: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
Matt: The classic night of laying on the couch and checking out the Hulu app on Apple TV to see if anything grabs your attention. This kind of night lad to watching the film Fresh this past year. Had zero expectations and was really impressed by the performances from the film’s stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan. It’s a horror thriller that kept me engaged throughout. Certainly seeing Sebastian Stan a lot more often these days, and rightfully so. Check this one out.
Best Screenplay
Blake: The Menu is one of two movies last year to mention my hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, and the film’s ending even skewers my favorite snack: S’mores. I felt like Seth Reiss and Will Tracy wrote this movie specifically for me, because it is also a brutally efficient and darkly comic satire that takes aim at the way fine dining has become a feeding ground for status-obsessed elites. I love everything about The Menu, but the screenplay most of all.
Ian: Tár is the first film written and directed by Todd Field in 16 years, which would make sense given that this feels like his magnum opus. That is, until you realize it’s impossible to have been written over the past decade-and-a-half, because its subject matter is so current and relevant. Unpacking the dangers and casualties from the cult of personality, Field somehow finds humor within a wholly unfunny subject, finds nuance within a wholly black-and-white issue, and finds humanity within a wholly detestable monster.
Matt: The buzz in the movie world a year ago was all about Everything Everywhere All At Once. What a wild ride that was in the theaters! I was left feeling all kinds of emotions, and at the same time I wasn’t quite sure what I just saw or if I liked the film. The second viewing won me over as I was able to pay attention to different aspects of the film and enjoy it more. The performances are outstanding, as you’ll see many of them accept Oscars on Sunday.
Best Supporting Actress
Blake: Hong Chau for The Menu. One word: Tortillas.
Ian: I thought I was going to be clever picking Hong Chau for The Menu, but Blake beat me to the punch. Luckily for me there was a plethora of marvelous performances in this category to choose from, including Kerry Condon in The Banshees of Inisherin and Stephanie Hsu or Jamie Lee Curtis in Everything Everywhere All At Once. I ultimately landed on Lashana Lynch in The Woman King. While Viola Davis was predictably outstanding in the title role and Thuso Mbedu impressed me as the emotional core of the film, it was Lynch who lit up the screen for me. In the role of Izogi, Lynch elegantly balances being a playful older-sister figure and a fierce battle commander (the fingernails!!).
Matt: Boy did I want to select Hong Chau for her performance in The Menu, but of course Blake got his selection in before myself and Ian. Then I considered selecting Hong Chau again for her role in The Whale, but I discuss my love for this film in the Best Male Director category and we just can’t have duplicates in the MIB Awards. Goes against our principles. My selection is Janelle Monae for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. She was the lone bright spot in a rather dud of a movie, in my opinion.
Best Supporting Actor
Blake: Hands down the most heartwarming story out of Hollywood last year was the return of Ke Huy Quan. The child star of Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom and The Goonies spent nearly 40 years wondering if his best career achievements were behind him, until the Daniels approached him for Everything Everywhere All At Once. Michelle Yeoh is the star of the movie, but Quan is its heart and soul. One moment he is bringing the action as he dispatches a group of security guards with nothing more than a fanny pack, and the next he is pulling at your heartstrings with a monologue about how he sees kindness as an antidote for cruelty.
Ian: There’s a good reason why Ke Huy Quan has essentially won every Best Supporting Actor award this year for Everything Everywhere All At Once. So many aspects of this film have to work in exactly the right way for it to elevate beyond a mismatch of rubbish, and the tenderness of Quan’s approach to the character Waymond is near the top of that list. I still tear up every time I hear the line “In another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.”
Matt: Buckle up for Ke Huy Quan’s speech at the Oscars, he’s going to get the award for this category. My counterparts in the MIB Awards like to stick to chalk in some categories, but I understand their chalk selection here. I however am the oddball here, so I have a responsibility to entertain the very few who actually ready my portion of the MIB Awards. (Thanks, Dad!) My selection is Eddie Redmayne in The Good Nurse. He plays the absolute psychopath of a nurse in a film the wonderful Jessica Chastain marvels in. I know the movie was just okay, calm down. Also, Eddie Redmayne reminds me of a younger Benedict Cumberbatch. Isn’t that name fun to say, ‘Benedict Cumberbatch’ — don’t lie, you smiled.
Best Actress
Blake: I support criminal charges being brought against the Academy if the Best Actress Oscar is not awarded to Michelle Yeoh for Everything Everywhere All At Once, but here I have to make up for the Academy’s tradition of turning up its nose at actors who deign to give brilliant performances within the horror genre. Mia Goth is the latest victim, who delivered not one but three head-turning performances across two films this year, X and Pearl. In director Ti West, Goth seems to have found a creative partner who understands how to wield her talent.
Ian: I’ll be genuinely delighted if Michelle Yeoh hoists the Oscar for this category on Sunday, but amidst all the phenomenal performances from 2022, admittedly none quite stuck with me the way Cate Blanchett’s did as the titular Lydia Tár in Tár. I’ve seen people compare Blanchet’s performance to everything from J.K. Simmons in Whiplash, to Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood, to “the Joker for lesbians.” While those are fine examples of similarly power-hungry people I’d be terrified to double-cross, I think Blanchett adds a level of tangibility to her performance that makes me believe Lydia Tár could actually be conducting overseas somewhere at this exact moment.
Matt: I did not have much interest in renting The Fabelmans. However, when I saw that Steven Spielberg’s parents were played by Paul Dano and Michelle Williams, I had to click play. There really is just something in Michelle Williams that seems to captivate me each time I watch her on screen. This performance is what you have come to expect from her, and it’s always exceptional. Also, Michelle, call me.
Best Actor
Blake: Did you know Tom Cruise has never won an Oscar? He has been nominated three times but has never taken home the hardware. Well I’ll do him one better and give him an MIB Award for his performance in Top Gun: Maverick. Cruise is one of Hollywood’s last genuine movie stars and Maverick celebrates him as one of the last vestiges of a bygone era. As invincible as Maverick may seem, I can’t remember the last time Cruise was this vulnerable.
Ian: “Big” acting gets a lot of attention around awards season. My favorite piece of Big Acting™ this year was Austin Butler as Elvis, which is surprising considering 1) Baz Luhrmann’s directing is an acquired taste that I’ve never acquired, 2) it must’ve been so difficult to perform as the most impersonated human of all time, and 3) Butler has a punchable face (sorry, Austin, you seem like a nice enough guy).
But while Big Acting gets the attention, I think Small Acting™ is more difficult to pull off at an exceptional level, and no one was more exceptional at Small Acting than Paul Mescal in Aftersun. Mescal plays Callum, a soon-to-be 31-year-old father buckling under the weight of his responsibilities and aging, all while putting on a happy face for his 11-year-old daughter on vacation. Mescal made me feel Callum’s depression in my own chest, telling so much through so little.
Matt: How lucky are we that we live in the era of sir Nicolas Cage. I mean, c’mon! Just a one of a kind man and one of a kind movie in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. This movie was made for me as someone who really enjoys a dumb movie to laugh at. Don’t worry, you don’t need to tell me you didn’t enjoy it if you actually watched it. It’s Nic Cage acting as the legend Nic Cage and I will sign up for that 100 times out of a 100.
Best Female Director
Blake: Women Talking is essentially a stage play. It takes place almost entirely in a hayloft over the course of one night, as the women of a Mennonite colony debate the best course of action after it is discovered that men in the colony have been drugging and raping the women. A film like Women Talking needs a very talented director who understands how to keep the audience engaged through what is essentially an hour and 40 minutes of conversation. Sarah Polley is that director. Not only does Women Talking demonstrate her skills as a visual storyteller, it also shows a masterful hand at guiding the performances of her ensemble cast.
Ian: With Aftersun, writer-director Charlotte Wells presents her feature film debut with the confidence of a well-established auteur. At first, this story seems thinner than than my hairline (pauses for audience laughter and/or for me to stop crying), but our lens becomes clearer through Wells’ ability to show instead of tell. Interspliced with occasional camcorder recordings and dreamlike rave sequences, this movie plays out like a memory, the scenes somehow feeling so real yet ephemeral, culminating in a devastating final shot that confirms the context of the film without being too heavy-handed. That said, Wells doesn’t let artsy-ness cloud her ability to draw out that performance from Paul Mescal (see my “Best Actor” above☝🏻) and a dazzling standout debut performance from 12-year-old Frankie Corio.
Matt: The behind-the-scenes journey of witnessing journalists do their jobs to break the news on history’s massive stories will always be interesting to me. That is the case in She Said, directed by Maria Schrader, as you follow the two reporters that broke the Harvey Weinstein story. Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan provide great performances in this well-made film that exposes a side of Hollywood that was long overdue.
Best Male Director
Blake: It should be clear by now how much I admire Jordan Peele, who walked away with the MIB Awards for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay five years ago. Nope might be his most impressive work yet. It certainly is his most ambitious film, as he and cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema have produced some of the most stunning day-for-night shots I’ve ever seen. I don’t think I saw a more disturbing set piece last year than the Star Lasso Experience scene, and that is only scratching the surface of the stunning sequences on display here. Peele continues to challenge himself with each new film and I can’t wait to see what he does next.
Ian: Jordan Peele doing his best Steven Spielberg homage (see my “Best Popcorn Movie” above☝🏻) led me to start appreciating Spielberg in a new way this year. Being “King of the Blockbuster” alone qualifies him as one of the greatest directors of all time, but only recently have I truly admired both the breadth and consistency of Spielberg’s filmography. The Fabelmans — not-so-loosely based on Spielberg’s own childhood — utilizes many Spielbergian hallmarks from his 34-feature-films-in-50-years career, proving that he can make families just as interesting as monsters and aliens.
Matt: It should be noted that Brendan Fraser deserves his due in this year’s MIB Awards for his incredible performance in The Whale, directed by Darren Aronofsky. But this year was Nic Cage’s year. See above. Anyway, let’s talk about the film The Whale. I loved it, I really did. The simple story of a morbidly obsess dad, whose days are clearly numbered, trying to reconnect with his daughter. Beautifully directed as I highly you encourage you watch this film. It’ll make you feel something.
Best Picture
Blake: You used to be able to count on the Academy to fall head over heels for whatever film could be described as “a love letter to cinema,” with 2011’s The Artist as perhaps the most egregious example. But that no longer seems to be the case. So I’m going to do what the Academy won’t and award Best Picture to Babylon, Damien Chazelle’s polarizing film chronicling the transition from silent to sound pictures in late 1920’s Hollywood. It may be a love letter to cinema but it also serves as a hate letter to Hollywood, depicting it as a machine that wrings dry the very people who keep the lights on, before casting them aside.
Ian: On June 3, 1987, while playing for the minor league Denver Zephyrs, a guy named Joey Meyer hit a home run 582 feet — a record that still stands today in professional baseball. I wonder how many things had to go right for Joey to hit a ball that far: the speed of the pitch, the point of contact, the angle of the swing.
Everything Everywhere All At Once is a once-in-a-blue-moon film that swings as hard as it can and connects for a home run. There’s no insightful commentary I can offer that hasn’t already been said, let alone do this bizarre, hilarious, thrilling, emotional, saccharine film justice. All I know is that of all the paths my life could’ve taken, I’m glad I’m living in the one where this film exists. (And thankful for the thousands of you who read this blog every year!)
Matt: Alright, folks, you’ve made it to the end of the MIB Awards. That in itself is quite the accomplishment. Morgan Johnson, it’s great to see you here. Thanks as always for being a loyal reader of the MIB Awards. Dad, I doubt you actually read these but if you did, know I love ya. To the rest who are actually reading this part, we appreciate you! Anyway, my favorite film of the year is of course Mini Movie: Players Recount Super Bowl LVII Championship Season, which you can find on the Kansas City Chiefs YouTube channel. As a lifelong Chiefs fan, I’m still in disbelief I’ve witnessed my favorite football team win the Super Bowl, twice! Ok, my Best Picture Hollywood pick is Jerry & Marge Go Large streaming now on Paramount +. Good night, folks! See ya at the movies.