Happy Saturday from the Super Bowl

Happy Saturday, all. Before we jump in to this week’s movies, I wanted to give you a quick update on our LA wildfire fundraising. Yesterday, we sent $1,000 to the Entertainment Community Fund from the charity Table for One reviews our viewers have signed up to do with us. This longtime non-profit helps people who work in every aspect of the film and television industry, and they’re particularly focused these days on supporting those who’ve suffered losses in last month’s wildfires. So far, we’ve donated $2,000 total, and we plan to keep it going in the upcoming weeks. This is all thanks to our incredibly generous Breakfast All Day community. We truly appreciate you!

Thursday night was our LA Film Critics Association awards dinner, which we had to reschedule because of the wildfires. Some of our winners couldn’t make it because of the change — I had the honor of presenting one of our best lead performance awards to Mikey Madison for "Anora,” for example, but she couldn’t be there. But we were thrilled to have so many other talented, creative people join us, including Sean Baker, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Jesse Eisenberg, and our career achievement honoree, the legendary horror director John Carpenter. Nic was my date because Chris had to work, and I suspect that perhaps he didn’t totally hate dressing up for the occasion. And it’s always nice to get spiffy and hang out with my honey Alonso in person.

As for new movies, it is super February out there: a mix of terrific awards contenders and terrible throwaway stuff. Here’s what we discussed on our Breakfast All Day YouTube channel and podcast. Hope you’ll join us and maybe leave a brief review if you have a moment:

• LOVE HURTS. Yeah, it does. Recent Academy Award winners Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose are totally miscast and have zero connection with each other in this bland action comedy set in the Milwaukee suburbs. But hey, it’s got Marshawn Lynch and one of the Property Brothers. In theaters.

• I’M STILL HERE. We’ve gotten an incredible response to our review of this quietly riveting drama, mainly from Brazilians who are excited about its Oscar prospects. (Welcome to our many new subscribers!) Walter Salles’ film, based on a true story, is up for best picture, international feature and actress for the tremendous Fernanda Torres. It’s excellent, and I’d much rather see it win the international category over “Emilia Pérez.” In theaters.

• THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG. This is also excellent, and I’d also be totally happy to see it win best international feature, too. It’s actually a miracle this movie even exists: In depicting the turmoil within a family during Iran’s “Woman Life Freedom” uprising, writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof had to shoot entirely in secret. He’s been living in exile in Germany ever since, although he was gracious enough to attend our LA Film Critics dinner Thursday night to accept the best-director award. In theaters.

• NO OTHER LAND. It’s also a miracle that this movie exists. The nominee for best documentary feature comes from a collective of Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers, sharing what they saw when Israeli military forces occupied and destroyed the West Bank village of Masafer Yatta. It’s harrowing and artful, but at its core it’s about an unlikely friendship between an activist and a journalist on opposing sides. “No Other Land” still doesn’t have distribution but it’s trickling out to various cities, including Los Angeles this weekend. Check Fandango to see when it’s opening near you.

• MOVIE NEWS LIVE! Much to catch up on since we were away last week: the latest on awards season (including new “Emilia Pérez” madness), trailers for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” and yet another lawsuit in the ongoing Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni saga. It’s a lot! Join us here every Friday at Noon Pacific, and keep an eye out for details on our Oscar picks livestream on Feb. 25.

For Ebert this week, I reviewed the terrible new Amy Schumer comedy on Netflix, “Kinda Pregnant.” The high-concept premise is that she’s desperate to have a baby, so she straps on a foam belly bump and basks in the newfound kindness society offers her. The crucial element of this kind of screwball comedy is that we have to want the central character to get away with her crazy schemes. But the Brooklyn middle school teacher Schumer plays is such an obnoxious narcissist, it’s off-putting. Will Forte, Jillian Bell and Brianne Howey co-star. This is not even a fold-your-laundry movie. This may end up being one of the worst of the year.

OK so I’m not actually at the Super Bowl. I don’t really care who wins. And I probably won’t even end up watching the entire game. But I’ve got a couple of get-togethers to hit, and I’m always happy to hang out with friends, eat whatever hardcore football food they’ve cooked and share some non-alcoholic Athletic Brewing Co. beers. My ambassador code CHRISTYL20 gets you 20% off if you’d like to pick some up for yourself. Make sure you try their limited edition Soul Sour brew in honor of Black History Month, which is fruity and flavorful and raises money for a couple of great causes. I never thought I was a sour girl, but I’ve really been enjoying it.

Whatever you have planned, I hope it’s a great weekend. Feels like we could all use one of those. I’m taking Nic to a screening of “Paddington in Peru” on Saturday, then an anniversary showing of “Parasite” in IMAX on Sunday. That’s called range! Thanks for sharing some of your time with me, and if you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, I hope you’ll pass it along to the movie fans in your life. Have a terrific week, and I’ll see you back here next Saturday.