Women Talking (2022)

I almost skipped this Best Picture nominee because of the rape theme. Then it won Best Adapted Screenplay. Besides, I had mostly liked Promising Young Woman, so maybe this would be similarly watchable. Now I might as well tell you up front: While there's no on-screen depiction or even audio of the crimes, it's not for the faint of heart.

Netflix's DVD jacket doesn't even adequately describe the first minute; the one-sentence summary on the Netflix webpage is better for that. The setting is in 2010, but you could be forgiven for initially thinking it's much earlier because of the low-color Mennonite community, called only "the colony." In its isolation, it has become worse than the Republic of Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale in some ways: All post-infancy girls and women have been repeatedly gas-sedated and awakened with telltale signs of rape. Men tell them it's the work of ghosts or demons, lies, or imagination run wild (even when pregnancy results?), until one man gets caught breaking in and then spills on several others, who all get arrested. Alas, most other men in the colony leave town to contribute to the bail, tho that mercifully keeps them away for a couple days. Most of the movie takes place in that interim as women consider three options: stay and try to forgive everyone, fight a revolution, or run off to start their own colony.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Never has a title done more to both intrigue and repel me...at once. I feared that the movie would be either overdone or oversold. Maybe some of each. But it's popular enough that I predicted its Best Picture win, so I opted to see it in a theater.

Somewhere in the modern U.S., Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is already overwhelmed at the start of the picture. She's planning a big Chinese New Year party; the family laundromat business is struggling; a droll IRS auditor (Jamie Lee Curtis) is giving them an ultimatum; husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) can't get her attention long enough to serve divorce papers; her elderly father (James Hong), who doesn't speak English, is a handful; and she doesn't want to break it to him that her young adult daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), is dating a White woman (Tallie Medel). But in private, Waymond suddenly shifts to a different personality, as signaled by removing his glasses, and tells her she'll have to shelve all these concerns. This personality eventually reveals that he is an alternate Waymond from "the Alphaverse," where people have developed technology to "verse-jump," taking over their alternate universe counterparts' bodies temporarily without said counterparts' knowledge or consent. They can also borrow counterparts' memories in order to use their skills in another universe. The problem is that an alternate Joy, by verse-jumping pretty much to the point of experiencing the title, has become nihilistic and powerful enough to threaten every universe. (No wonder she changed her name.) Based on comparison with other Evelyn Wangs, Alpha-Waymond believes that this ironically underachieving Evelyn is the best hope for stopping her.

Nightmare Alley (2021)

I had already heard of a 1947 film noir of the same title. This Guillermo del Toro project isn't a remake so much as a second adaptation of the novel. Alas, the original is more highly rated across sites yet much harder to find. Anyway, this is the only version that was nominated for Best Picture.

In 1939, shortly after covering up a murder, Stan (Bradley Cooper) finds work that will have no one inquiring into his background: a traveling carnival's barker. There he learns how to fake being a psychic, and he and stunt-performing girlfriend Molly (Rooney Mara) eventually leave for a classier venue. He then takes an unfaithful interest in a distinguished audience member, psychologist Lilith (Cate Blanchett), and asks her for confidential information that can help him fool a rich, widowed, somewhat unhinged ex-client of hers, Ezra (Richard Jenkins). Stan does not care about Molly's discomfort with his endeavors, nor does he heed the warning of his mentors (Toni Collette and David Strathairn) that moving from mind reading to seances is dangerous -- or Lilith's warning that Ezra is.

Belfast (2021)

No, I really didn't have St. Patrick's Day in mind when I put this right after The Banshees of Inisherin in my queue. I just happened to choose them from among recent Academy Best Picture nominees I hadn't seen yet.

In 1969, nine-year-old Buddy (Jude Hill) has been mostly enjoying his life. He does pretty well in school and has a mutual crush on a classmate. Alas, The Troubles are beginning. His Protestant family has mostly Catholic neighbors who don't give them trouble, but Buddy, his older brother (Lewis McAskie), and their pa (Jamie Dornan) are all under pressure, especially from one thug (Colin Morgan), to join the worsening Protestant riots lest they be targeted with the Catholics. Buddy's ma (Caitríona Balfe) and pa alternately entertain the idea of moving out of Northern Ireland for safety, but Buddy would hate to leave his friends and ailing grandparents (Oscar nominees Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds).

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

I had liked the 2011 Puss in Boots better than anything else associated with Shrek, so I was a little disappointed at its reception. The Netflix series, which has the same IMDb rating at the moment, didn't sustain my interest for long. When TLW came later than any other DreamWorks sequel, I had to wonder why it was so much more popular. So I finally got the gumption to go to a theater again.

When the Zorro-like feline bandit (Antonio Banderas) loses his eighth life, he finally starts to fear death -- which, indeed, approaches him in the form of a red-eyed, sickle-wielding wolf (Wagner Moura). He decides to live like a normal cat for a crazy cat lady (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), until Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the Three Bears (Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman, and Samson Kayo) come hoping to enlist his help in swiping a magic map to the legendary Wishing Star in the dreaded Dark Forest. Rather than join them, he sets out to claim the one wish for himself so he can gain extra lives. But the Bear crime family aren't his only rivals. Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault) returns, still sore at him for jilting her. And then there's insatiably greedy magnate Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney), who has no special abilities of his own but has hired a Baker's Dozen of minions he regards as expendable and purchased an impressive array of fairy tale accessories.

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

I might as well tell you up front how to pronounce the last word of the title: "in-uh-SHARE-in." I won't provide similar guidance for the character names, because you're not likely to say them until after you've watched.

On a tiny ficitious isle in 1923, Pádraic (Colin Farrell) suddenly finds that his drinking buddy Colm (Brendan Gleeson) wants nothing more to do with him. Colm eventually explains that he'd rather pursue a legacy as a composer for the fiddle than listen to Pádraic's unenriching blabber. Pádraic won't give up on him that easily, thinking he's just going through a depressive phase. Colm threatens self-mutilation if Pádraic won't stop talking to him. Things get uglier from there.

King Richard (2021)

Yep, the movie that enabled the slap heard 'round the world. Now I would see whether Will Smith even deserved his Oscar in the first place. OK, that didn't cross my mind when I selected the film; I remembered only that it was one of the more esteemed Academy Best Picture nominees I hadn't seen yet.

In the early '90s, Compton father Richard Williams (Smith) starts looking for a renowned tennis coach for preteen-to-teen daughters Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton) despite lack of funds. He finally persuades Paul Cohen (Tony Goldwyn) and later Rick Macci (Jon Bernthal) to take on Venus, while Serena has to settle for practice with mother Brandy (Aunjanue Ellis). You probably already know that both go on to huge success. But as the title implies, Richard is awfully domineering, which gets him locking horns with just about everyone.

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

The 1930 adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque novel was my favorite Academy Best Picture of the decade. How could a remake live up to it? Well, for one thing, the visual quality hasn't aged well. Also, its "Germans" make no attempt not to sound like Americans, whereas this version was German-made.

In 1917, four teenage friends, the most focal being Paul (Felix Kammerer), are moved to join the German army. They soon find themselves in a northern French trench with the more seasoned "Kat" (Albrecht Schuch), who helps steal food for them. About a year passes in total. As for the rest, all I really need to tell you is that the source material is antiwar....