Happy Awards Season Saturday!

Hello again! As you’re reading this weekend’s newsletter, I’m somewhere in the process of getting ready for tonight’s LA Film Critics awards dinner. This is the one night a year my fellow critics and I actually get dressed up and look nice. The winners already know they’ve won, and the ceremony isn’t broadcast or livestreamed, so it’s very loose and everyone’s in a good mood. In years past, I’ve had the honor of presenting awards to Jessica Chastain, Cate Blanchett, J.K. Simmons, Jennifer Lawrence, “Mad Max: Fury Road” cinematographer John Seale and many others. The one that made me legitimately nervous beforehand was Jennifer Lopez, who won our supporting actress award for “Hustlers” in 2020, but hopefully I held my own as you’ll see in the photo below.

This year, I’m giving one of our supporting acting prizes to Rachel McAdams for her beautifully subtle work in “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” Sadly, she won’t be at the dinner to accept her plaque in person, but it should be a fun night nonetheless. Here’s a full list of winners in case you’re interested.

Turning to new movies, we’ve got a bunch of reviews for you on Breakfast All Day. If you haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channel yet, we’d love to have you join us! It’s a thoughtful and engaged community we’re building over there. Here’s what we have to offer this week:

• MEAN GIRLS. It’s the movie version of the musical version of the endlessly quotable 2004 movie, which was itself based on a non-fiction book. The novelty gets lost along the way, and the songs aren’t terribly memorable, but the cast is game, particularly Reneé Rapp as Regina George and Auli’i Cravalho as Janis. If you’re a “Mean Girls” superfan, you’ll probably have fun dressing in pink and reciting all the famous lines. In theaters.

• THE BOOK OF CLARENCE. LaKeith Stanfield stars in this satirical biblical epic from Jeymes Samuel, whose Netflix feature debut, “The Harder They Fall,” we really liked a couple of years ago. This is another ambitious genre mash-up with a great cast (David Oyelowo, Alfre Woodard, Omar Sy, Teyana Taylor), but it doesn’t always work. In theaters.

• LIFT. Kevin Hart leads a seasoned team of high-tech thieves to steal a half-billion dollars’ worth of gold from a plane flying from London to Zurich. This is another one of those glossy, empty action movies Netflix just keeps pumping out, but it’s not as obnoxious as “Red Notice.” Streaming. Here’s my RogerEbert.com review if that interests you.

• ALL OF US STRANGERS Spoiler Chat. We’ve longed to discuss Andrew Haigh’s gorgeous and heartbreaking film in detail for a while, but wanted to give folks time to see it. What’s really happening here? Lots of smart theories in the comment section — feel free to share yours!

If you’d rather enjoy our reviews and conversations on the go in podcast form, you can find us here on Apple or wherever you find your finer podcasts.

Did you watch the Golden Globes last weekend? I wasn’t going to, because I perceived them as being still kind of a joke, but was curious to see what a revamped ceremony would look like. Whatever they did in terms of diversifying their membership seemed to work, because the choices they made were all unimpeachable. “Oppenheimer” was the big winner of the night with five awards, including best motion picture drama and director for Christopher Nolan. But Jo Koy as host was deadly.

He seems to know it, too, based on this LA Times interview. Sounds like it was an impossible assignment without much time to prepare, but Koy is also candid about some of the mistakes he made that night. It’s an interesting read. What did you think of his performance?

There’s going to be a Mandalorian and Grogu movie, titled, appropriately, “The Mandalorian & Grogu.” But hopefully that’s just a placeholder, because that is a terrible name. Series creator Jon Favreau is directing the film, which begins production this year and will come out in actual theaters eventually. We’ve been recapping “The Mandalorian” and all those Disney+ “Star Wars” shows over on our Breakfast All Day Patreon, and while we’re always fans of Pedro Pascal and Baby Yoda, we didn’t quite love this most recent season as much. Are you excited for a Mando movie? I’d love to know.

If you’re curious to know how last weekend’s “Poor Things” Q&A went, it was awesome! If you read my previous newsletter, you know I was feeling a little amped up about interviewing Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef and director Yorgos Lanthimos before a packed audience full of Academy and SAG voters on the Fox lot. But they were all really lovely, and they have such a genuine, playful rapport with each other, it made the whole experience super easy and fun. I love moderating Q&As, so hopefully I’ll have plenty more to report to you about throughout awards season.

And if you love film, you’re probably also a fan of photography. If so, check out Andy Adams’ newsletter, where he highlights the best work of the many talented artists he follows. Andy is the founder, curator and director of FlakPhoto Projects. He has a great eye and always offers thoughtful insights on the images he shares. He’s also active on social media as @flakphoto. Check him out for a calming drop of beauty in your inbox. And if you’d like me to mention your newsletter here, send a reply with a link and the details! Have a great week and I’ll see you again next Saturday.