Don't Read This Blog

 I was watching a video that has been making the rounds on the interwebs in which a host of a show said that if people didn't like their show then they shouldn't watch.

This reminded me of an interview a few years ago when a writer on a comic book was asked about their very outspoken political views.  This person's response was "If you don't like my politics, don't buy my book."

My first reaction to this is that this is a horrible business model.  In a world of consumer-driven entertainment, there is a constant struggle for more people to experience and purchase your art.  There are not an unlimited number of customers.  I am not a businessman and do not have any business training.  But I do work at a private school where we depend on people spending their hard-earned money on a not-inexpensive education.  We are not merely a business.  We are dedicated to building up the kingdom of God with the students and parents in our community.  But I do my best to respond quickly to any parent question or concern because these are still my customers who pay my salary.  

But I think there is a deeper issue with rejecting an audience.  I believe it was one of the above people who also stated that they didn't want members of a particular political party in their audience.  This I find more disturbing, and not from a business perspective.

I am a writer.  In the grand internet eco-system, this is a very small pond.  But I write online because I want as many people as possible to read these words.  I expect that not everyone agrees with me and that is fine.  

I've mentioned in the past that, like the person mentioned earlier, I have very strong political convictions.  But if you notice, I almost never bring them up here.  The reason for that is because political divisions tend to create immediate walls to conversation.  Once someone talks about supporting Democrats or Republicans, it becomes incredibly easy to tune them out.  But I don't want that.  I want people to read what I have to say because I think it has value.

The only times where I delve into that mine-field are in places where my faith compels me.  I have written about controversial things here like abortion, euthanasia, and upholding the integrity of marriage.  These are hills that I will die on.  If I lose readers, so be it.

But though I am resolved to keep my religious convictions rather than readers, I still do not want to lose those readers.  Even if you disagree with me, I want you to read my work.  That is the entire purpose of dialogue.

There are many reasons why Plato was wise in writing his philosophical works in the form of dialogues.  One of the most important reasons is that it opens up the world of philosophy in a way that is dramatic and easy to understand.  But one of the other reasons is that he taught us through Socrates that real learning occurs through dialogue.  We grow when we encounter ideas that are not our own and we can engage with them and test them to see if they are true or false or somewhere in between.

I could not imagine saying something akin to "I don't want you to read my work unless you completely agree with me."  That would imply that I have so little confidence in my ideas that I don't think I can convince you to agree.  

Perhaps I am being uncharitable to the people mentioned above.  Perhaps they merely wish to be free of those that they perceive as harassing them.  But what better way to reduce the number of antagonists in your life than to open them to your ideas and change their minds.

One of the most amazing stories I have ever seen on the internet is the story of Daryl Davis.  He is a black blues musician who makes friends with members of the KKK.  Davis goes out of his way to encounter members of this white supremist hate group.  He would sit down with them one-on-one and ask them why they held their racist views.  Through dialogue and friendship, Davis rescued over 200 men from a life of racist hatemongering.  Could you imagine if Davis refused to engage, how many of these men would still be lost?

One of the things that bothers me too about telling people not to encounter your art is that it sounds almost like a purity test.  Unless someone meets your particular moral standards, then they are not worthy to experience the precious jewels of your creativity.  Again, I may be more than a little uncharitable in my interpretation, but this impression is sticking with me.  It would be incredibly arrogant of me to place myself above my audience and not see myself as either an equal in dialogue or even a servant, looking to make their lives better.  

As a theology teacher, I try my best to engage in open dialogue with my students.  There are places where I must take a firm stand on what the faith teaches, but I try to listen to where there are spiritually and respond to their needs.  I would never tell them: "If you don't like this teaching, then leave this school."

Closing the door on others to encounter your art only means closing the door to opening their minds and hearts.  Whenever you put yourself out there in an artistic or creative way, you are vulnerable to criticism and rancor.  That is part of the price of encounter other people in a fallen world.  But if we want to reach each other, we are going to have to be open to each other and invite others to hear us.

For that reason, I will never say to you: "Don't read this blog."

Sunday Worst: Bizarro Awards 2021

  My good friend the Doctor said that I should do a parallel list to my Kal-El Awards that reflect to worst in pop culture from the year.  He suggested that I call them the "Lenny Luthors" after the horrible Jon Cryer character from Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.  The rational for choosing Lenny was that "he is terrible in every way that Superman is awesome."

I liked the idea, but I thought instead of Lenny Luthor we would name the awards after the true opposite of Superman:

Bizarro.

Bizarro is the anti-Superman, literally.  He even maintains speech patterns that are the opposite of what he means.  "Good-bye, me am not Bizarro.  Me like you!  Live!"  said by Bizarro actually means "Hello, I am Bizarro.  I hate you! Die!"

So since Superman is my mark of excellence.  Bizarro will be my mark of utter awfulness.   Unlike the Kal-El awards, these will be focused only on movies.  The reason is that serialized work like television and comics require a longer time commitment in order to understand the material.  You may have to watch a show or read a comic for several months before you discover if it is truly bad or good.  It took me a few episodes to understand the logic behind Vincent D'Onofrio's performance in Daredevil.  The investment of time and/or money also precludes a lot of unnecessary sampling, so my exposure to bad material is a bit less.

With a movie, you can have a complete understanding of the product after 90-180 minutes.  So I only have two TV categories:


-Worst TV Show I Stopped Watching
-Worst TV Show I Still Watch

In both of these cases I will be giving my critical condemnation of shows about which I have some significant experience and thus have a basis for calling them critical failures


So now, here are the Bizarro Awards for movies this past year.  (based on the movies I have seen).


WORST MOVIE

The Suicide Squad

This is a movie that swings for the fences and misses big time.  I know others who disagree, and I respect that.  But for me, I was horribly disappointed and disgusted by this film.

James Gunn is someone who has really horrible instincts.  His aesthetic and moral compass in movies is completely out of phase with mine.  His Guardians of the Galaxy is a truly incredible movie because he was restrained by the Marvel machine and forced to be creative.  Given a PG-13 rating, and given the overall vibe fo the MCU, Gunn had to use his powers as a writer/director to deliver something appropriate for most audiences.

When DC took the guard rails off, we got The Suicide Squad: a movie that is dark and disgusting and one those is intentionally ugly and nihilistic.  Don't get me wrong: there is a place for R-Rated, mature content comic book films.  Deadpool, Watchmen, and Logan have proved that.  But Gunn's movie revels in its grossness to the point where there is almost nothing likable or redeemable by anyone or anything in the story.  

This is the second year in a row that a Harley Quinn movie has won the dubious honor of worst film of the year.  Margot Robbie continues to have the unfortunate honor of being one of the best things in terrible movies.

TOP TEN WORST MOVIES
10. Fatherhood
9. Mortal Kombat
8. Coming 2 America
7. Army of the Dead
6. Trial of the Chicago 7

5. Tick, Tick, Boom
4. Gunpowder Milkshake
3. The Woman in the Window
2. The Dig
1. The Suicide Squad

WORST ACTOR

Taika Waititi - Free Guy

 

Everything Waititi does in this movie is terrible.  

He is a walking 1-dimensional sketch of a movie bad guy.  That in and of itself is forgivable.  But Waititi does it so badly that he literally sucks the enjoyment out of every scene he is in.  What makes it all the more frustrating is the apparent utter obliviousness of his own annoyingness.  This is summed up for me in a moment when someone says something he doesn't like and his response is "Whatchoo talkin' about, Willis?"  It is delivered so horribly that it makes every utterance of this catchphrase by the late Gary Coleman look like comedic genius.  

WORST ACTRESS

Leslie Jones - Coming 2 America

Jones was the best part of the 2016 Ghostbusters, where she was able to break through a lot of the milquetoast, cringe comedy with her bold performance.  Here, she gets completely lost in the shuffle.  Her performance typified everything that went wrong with this sequel: the characters did not become funnier, only louder.  Unlike the actor playing her son, Jones did not come off as anything like a real character, but, like I mentioned above with Waititi, only the sketch of a real person.

WORST DIRECTOR

Simon Stone - The Dig

The number one cinematic sin for me is simply this: boredom.

Do not bore me.  I try to find something good in films that I find problematic, but if the movie is boring, I begin to completely disengage.  And this was the case with The Dig.  The film also had some odd moral issues, but I couldn't get worked up enough about it to care.  Director Stone leads the camera along these long, dreary shots that are supposed to have artistic value.  And while he does find the odd nugget of cinematic beauty, the overall effect is that we never really get into the story.  He does the annoying thing where he uses a voice over of a conversation while the main characters are sitting together silent.  All this serves to do is make us think that the conversation wasn't interesting enough to be shown.

WORST SCREENPLAY

James Gunn - The Suicide Squad

As I wrote in my review:

I remember when they first announced James Gunn to direct Guardians of the Galaxy.  I thought he was a terrible choice.  His previous movies of his that I had seen were gross and disturbing.  I did not think that he had the sensibilities for a super hero film.  Fortunately, I was proven wrong and Guardians became one of the best super hero films ever made.  But now I know the reason:

James Gunn was restrained.

One of the reasons that a lot of big name directors do not want to work with Marvel is because the studio had tight controls over their properties and the content of their films.  The franchise is accused of being bland because of this, but it also prevents a director from taking the series off the rails.  

Restraint can be the biggest help to creativity.  You need look no further than Jaws, where Steven Spielberg took a B-movie plot and turned it into a masterpiece because he was forced to be creative rather than explicit.  But when you remove these boundaries, you can get an indulgent mess.

And that is what we have with The Suicide Squad.

I was not a huge detractor of of David Ayer's original Suicide Squad the way many critics were.  It is not a bad movie, but it is a little bland (apparently Ayer's original version was cut up much the same way Snyder's Justice League was).  But one of the big critics of that film from others was that it did not embrace a full R-Rated vision for the characters.  And this new film goes to the extreme.

MOST ANTI-CHRISTIAN MOVIE

Coming 2 America

Unlike years past, this category is filled by a movie that is not explicitly anti-Christian.  I tended to avoid films this year that denigrated the faith.  The only reason this movie is here is because of the way it portrayed Reverend Brown.  I'm not even sure that scene is anti-Christian per se, since we cannot deny the presence of those who use religion for illicit gain.  But of all the films I have seen this year, this was the one that took the most explicit hit at religion.

MOST MORALLY OFFENSIVE

The Suicide Squad

From my review:

In once scene, members of the team are sent to retrieve Flagg, who has been taken by soldiers in the woods.  They are ordered to make sure there are no witnesses.  What follows is an action sequence here the squad proceed to sneak up and kill a number of soldiers until they reach Flagg.  But the twist is that Flagg is fine.  He isn't captured.  He has been taken in by the nation's freedom fighters.  This realization is a punchline to the scene, meant for laughs.  But I was instead filled with disgust.  Our protagonists just murdered several people over several minutes.  Not only do they not care, but these people's lives are treated as a joke.

Throughout the movie, squad members seem to hold a line against killing children.  All well and good, but any other innocent adult is fair game.  I realize our squad have to remain villains of some kind, but I lose any reason to vote for them.

And as I wrote in another post:

 So why did people like Deadpool and not The Suicide Squad?  Because Deadpool, with its meta comedy and fourth-wall-breaking style lets you know that you can wink at the comedy. And (this is important), Deadpool only kills bad guys.  True, non-villains do die horrifically for laughs (see X-Force).  But Deadpool doesn't kill them directly and he saves the nicest one in the post-credits scene.  The Suicide Squad plays for laughs the deaths of innocents and the heroes.  When one of the main characters gets killed as a punchline, the message is "Hey, we don't care about our characters." And neither will the audience.

WORST TV SHOW I STOPPED WATCHING

Hacks

From my review:

The reason I gave the show a chance was because of one scene in the trailer.  Ava is whining to Deborah about how good she is.  Deborah wheels around and says that being good is the bare minimum to have any future in this industry.

It reminded me of The Devil Wears Prada, where the older, prickly mentor helped the snobbish assistant get over herself and find her esteem in being competent at her job (at least that's how I understood the theme of that movie).  

Instead, every episode was simply Ava being a horrible person and expecting everyone to fall over themselves gushing about how wonderful she is.  At one point someone calls her out on this, saying that she always thinks she knows what's best for them, but doesn't have her own life figured out.  I've found this to be a trick that a lot of modern movies and shows are using: having someone point out the main character's biggest flaw so that the audience will excuse it.  But being aware of your vices is not the same as growing out of them.  Ava has an amazingly, narcissistic sense of her own worth as a comedian.

The worst part about it is that she isn't funny at all.

I know that humor is subjective, but everything she says is tinged with nastiness.  And throughout the episodes I've watched, her advice comes down to being even nastier and more stringent.  On top of this, the show constantly and inexplicably virtue signals with the strangest non-sequiturs.  At one point, Ava gets angry at Deborah and shouts at her "I hope you donate to Planned Parenthood."  It was such an odd, out of nowhere statement that assumes the virtue of helping kill unborn children.

WORST SHOW I STILL WATCH

Saturday Night Live

(Below are my comments from last two years, but they still apply to this year)

I still hold out hope that in 90 minutes of television there may still be at least 5 minutes of good humor.  But it takes a lot of endurance through horrible sketches to come across a gem like "Crucible Cast Party."

Every once in a while there is a sketch that is actually insightful and funny, like the Game Show "Republican or Democrat?"  But most of the time I watch the sketch for the first minute and a half until I find out what the gag is.  Most of the time it is a miss, rather than a hit.

Political comedy is tricky, unless you are only looking to find the funny.  Johnny Carson was the all-time king because he made fun of everyone and everyone from all sides of the aisle could laugh at their own political party.  But if you get a sense that one side is being mocked over another, a lot of that good will is lost.  And since SNL tends to lean heavily into its politics, this makes it a slog to watch.

New Evangelizers Post: Living in the Real World

               

 

I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.  

I recently saw a nice little movie called Ron’s Gone Wrong, which was a parable about how technology and social media have created a deeper sense of depression and alienation in children. For those of us who were raised before the dawn of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, TikTok and the like, it can be very difficult to grasp the power that these platforms have on young minds. For many, their main interaction with the world is virtually.

They look at what other people post on social media and they think that this gives them a real insight into who these people are. The interactions they have with people sometimes substitute the genuine affections that come from authentic human relationships.

Very often, those who do not live and die by social media will challenge those who do to unplug and to live “in the real world.” The echo chamber of Twitter and Facebook, along with its vitriol, are not how most human beings interact. The lifestyle projected by Instagram and TikTok are often carefully constructed facades. They are digital illusions. To be sure, you can learn a great deal about a person from what they post online. But there is too much digital interference to get to know them in a truly real way.

To live in the “real world” means to live in the world as it actually is and not as we simply perceive it to be. We try to look beyond the social media likes and connect to someone we actually like. We look beyond the facade that is projected to see the the person underneath. Instead of the short hand of texting and emojis, living in the real world means having human conversations where people actually say things to one another.

If I appear to be being overly negative on those who use social media, that is not my intent. I think it the internet can be a wonderful tool for evangelization. To deny its downsides, however, would be a serious mistake. To live in denial of the real world is a kind of insanity and it is one that should be avoided.

Unfortunately, that is how many of us are living.

And this time, I am not referring to social media.

Many of us live as if this world is all there is. Even those of us who are live lives of faith, we still act as if this material world is all there is.

But it is not.

As I am writing this, I am preparing to go back to teaching after Christmas vacation. One of my favorite parts about time off from school is that I get to spend almost all of my time with my wife. As this time is drawing to a close, I am filled with a sense of sadness. I know that time is ticking away and that I do not know how many days ahead we will have. One day, our time in this world will end. As a result I jealously desire more and more time with her and become quite melancholy when this time is over.

But that is because I am not living in the real world.

In the real world, the truly real world, our time on this earth is but a moment. It is a breath before the deep plunge of all eternity. If God is merciful to a sinner like me, then I do not have to worry about losing time with my wife. Any time we lose here will be found forever together in Heaven.

Jesus constantly called us to reorient out thinking to live in the real world. Like those who are trapped by social media, we have a tunnel vision when it comes to living in this world. Years ago when my family was going through financial hardship, I was gripped by horrible anxiety.

But Jesus says ” And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:28-31)

We live in the illusion that this material world is the end all be all in the same way that many today see social media as the end all be all. But Christ wants to give us light to see the big picture. If God really is in control, then we should not be afraid.

During that time, an image came to me in prayer. I imagined myself being dangled over a great abyss. God then asked me to choose how I should be held up. I could either choose the strongest chains forged by man or I could choose the slenderest thread held by God. In my meditation, I would tell the Lord that I would choose the slenderest thread because He was stronger than any human chain.

You can read the whole article here.

Sunday Best: Catholic Skywalker Awards: BEST IN MOVIES 2021

  With 2021 coming to a close, it is time for us to choose what the best entertainment of the year was.  And just as the Academy Awards have their "Oscars", so too the Catholic Skywalker Awards have their "Kal-El's"

 I have gone through as many movies as possible this year. There were several that I missed and so was unable to place.  Theaters still have not fully recovered and there were a number of films that made their debuts streaming rather than theatrically.  For that reason, as I did last year, I have included them in this list.

So of the movies  I've seen this year, here are the winners:

(My appreciation and judgment of a film should not be taken as a recommendation. Choosing to watch any of these films is the reader's responsibility)

Also:

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME BELOW.

The winners and their reasons for some of the awards below necessitate revealing things from Spider-Man: No Way Home that are not necessarily common knowledge and were not revealed in any of the advertisements.  so be fairly warned:

IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME AND DO NOT WANT IT TO BE SPOILED, STOP READING THIS ARTICLE NOW.

BEST PICTURE

Spider-Man: No Way Home

If you are surprised by this pick of mine for Best Movie, so am I.

Going into the theater, I thought Spider-Man: No Way Home would be a fun Marvel adventure.  On that front, I was not disappointed.  But the movie was much better than I had anticipated.

Martin Scorsese criticized super hero movies as something closer to theme park rides than cinema.  I understand what he is saying, but I think his point misses out on the magic of the ride.  When you are on a thrill-ride, you lose yourself for the briefest of moments and become engrossed in an overwhelming emotion.  This is not an easy thing to accomplish in a movie, but No Way Home did that.  There were times, even upon multiple viewings, that I was filled with a sense of excitement and happiness.

But it isn't just hollow spectacle.  The movie is actually trying to say something.  As I wrote in my review:  

Also from my review: "The movie also deals with the question of heroes and villains in a way I don't think I've seen handled well enough in most movies.  Peter is young and optimistic enough to believe that villains can be redeemed.  Is he right?

That is the question at the heart of this movie.  It reminds of the feeling I had when I first saw Return of the Jedi when I realized that Luke was a greater hero than I ever imagined because instead he chose redemption of Vader over revenge on Vader.  

There is something incredibly Christ-like at the center of that question.  Peter is told at one point that the deaths of these villains are a small price to pay for the greater good.  But Peter, being innocent and uncorrupted by cynicism, sees each of these villains as persons.  We are called by Christ to look at each person as made in the Image and Likeness of God.  This is a dangerous thing.  While amazing good can come from this, people can still make evil choices.  Christ was merciful and He was crucified for it.  Peter is merciful.  And there is a cost."

Usually at this point, most creators would take the heroic figure and try to deconstruct him (as they did with Luke Skywalker in the Sequel Trilogy).  But instead, the makers of No Way Home decided to multiply the heroism and push him even further.  While young in the MCU, the story shows that Peter is the hero among heroes.  There is a reason that Spider-Man is the THE flagship Marvel character.  This movie shows you why.

All of these themes are explored while engaging in a finely plotted film.  This is a coming of age story for the MCU.  The trappings of childhood from the earlier part of the trilogy are left behind as Peter grows into a man.

I will speak about the performances more later, but they also meet the level of ambition that this movie has.  Of all the Spider-Man films mad so far, this is best.  And it is also the best film of the year.

RUNNERS UP

CODA

Dune

Zach Snyder's Justice League

Those Who Wish Me Dead

BEST DIRECTOR

Denis Villeneuve - Dune

I have had my eye on Villeneuve ever since I was blown away by Arrival.  This was a director who knew how to handle high concept science fiction in a way that did not feel cheap or dumbed-down.  Dune shows that Villeneuve knows the importance of visual spectacle, but in a way that makes the world of Dune feel more real and not less real.  In my original review, I compared him to Peter Jackson on The Lord of the Rings and I stand by that.  Jackson grounded Middle-Earth in such a concrete reality that the emotional realism came ringing through the fantastic elements.  The same is true for Villeneuve's Dune.  His ships, costumes, creatures, and cultures are all things that I have never seen before but carry something eerily familiar, the way all good fantasy should feel.

All the while, Villeneuve uses all of this to tell a complex and engaging story with rich performances.  Dune is a notoriously difficult book to adapt, but Villeneuve made something quite beautiful .

RUNNERS UP

John Krasinski - A Quiet Place Part II

Zack Snyder - Zack Snyder's Justice League

Sian Heder - CODA

Jon Watts - Spider-Man: No Way Home

BEST ACTOR

Tom Holland - Spider-Man: No Way Home

 

I really think that this will be one of the most overlooked performances of the year.  Holland's youth play against him as well has his ability to play decency and goodness the way he does.  Recognition tends to go to dark and villainous actor portrayals.  There is an innocence to his Peter Parker that can be mistaken a naiveté.  But Holland takes you on a complete emotional journey.  The first half of the film shows us pretty much the same Peter we've known and loved for the last few years.  But in the second half, Holland shows us what he's made of.

He not only has to show you his heroic resolution, but he has to show you this while covering it in a veil of youth and inexperience.  When he finally has to stand up to Dr. Strange, Holland shows you the internal agony without being too showy.

And when the time comes for overwhelming emotion, Holland knows when to show restraint and when to let go.  The look of shock in his eyes has he stands hopeless in the rain is stunning.  But when he finds safety with his best friends, he lets himself be a broken child.

In the last few minutes of the movie, Holland stands differently than before.  He his still has his youthfulness, but there is a quiet maturity present in his performance that so difficult to capture.  

Holland had to hold the emotional center of this epic and he did so amazingly.

RUNNERS UP

Timothee Chalamet - Dune

Bob Odenkirk - Nobody

Denzel Washington - The Little Things

Will Smith - King Richard

BEST ACTRESS

Emelia Jones - CODA

From my review of CODA:

Emilia Jones is utterly fantastic.  As emotional as it is, she knows how to pull her feelings in reserve.  She feels like the average teenager going through deep internal struggles.  You always get the sense that she can never be truly herself either at home or in public and that she always has to play a part.  Normally if a movie has a conflict between a teenagers artistic dreams and responsibilities to the family, I am very critical of the teenager (see my review of Blinded by the Light).  But Jones makes me feel her frustration and the need to break away. 

Jones allows for the emotional build up of her character to come forward at just the right time.  And all the while she lets us see the wonderful contradictions of her feelings towards all of the different characters.  When interacting with her parents, she feels a million different things at once, from pride to embarrassment, from love to frustration, and everything in between.  And all the while she is trying to hold all of her emotions in check so that she can be the door to the outside world for the family she loves.  This is a fantastic performance from a young actress that should hopefully get more recognition in the years to come.

RUNNERS UP

Kristen Bell - Queenpins

Emily Blunt - A Quiet Place Part II

Angelina Jolie - Those Who Wish Me Dead

Kaitlyn Dever - Dear Evan Hansen

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Andrew Garfield - Spider-Man: No Way Home

Of the many unexpected things from Spider-Man: No Way Home, I did not expect the impact that Andrew Garfield would have on the story and the emotion of the film.  Sharing 30 minutes of screen time with Tobey Maguire, Garfield used every second to stick the landing on his version of the character.

Garfield's Peter sets himself in complete distinction from the other two with his overly emotional take on the character.  His Peter feels things more deeply and is more open about his emotions in a way that the other two are not.  He performs the role that a supporting actor should: he enlivens the whole movie while highlighting everything great about the main character.

At the same time, Garfield uses every ounce of his charm and humor to win us over.  When he gets hit in the chest with some bread, the way he tilts his head and shrugs his shoulders endears you to him completely.  It makes complete sense that of the three Peters, he would blurt out "I love you guys!" at the most seemingly inappropriate time.  

But the greatest moment is when Garfield's Peter is able to have his redemption moment.  He has only seconds to convey all of the feelings he has and he is able to do it a completely believable way.

If this is end of Garfield's time as Spider-Man, he will be remembered fondly for the way he stuck the landing.

RUNNERS UP
Vince Vaughn - Queenpins

Jon Bernthal - Those Who Wish Me Dead

Oscar Isaac - Dune

JK Simmons - The Tomorrow War

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Rebecca Ferguson - Dune

The character of Lady Jessica is incredibly difficult to play.  She is a woman torn between several worlds and there are thousands of ways for her to react to any given situation that could be the best.  Ferguson chooses the best path, which is to show you both the outer strength of the character and her internal vulnerability.  

Jessica has to be strong for her son and husband, but her divided loyalties to the Bene Gesserit are constantly at war with her heart.  This causes her intense fear that Ferguson constantly shows us Jessica controlling.  Rather than play her as an unfeeling robot, Ferguson's Jessica is woman who uses ever ounce of her will power to hold her fear in check in order to giver her family a fighting chance.  All the while, she carries a regal, noble posture in her body language in an incredibly effective way.

RUNNERS UP

Amy Adams - Dear Evan Hansen

Marlee Matlin - CODA

Millicent Simmons - A Quiet Place Part II

Marisa Tomei - Spider-Man: No Way Home

BEST SCREENPLAY

Sian Heder – CODA

While this movie is an adaptation of a foreign film, Heder does an excellent job of adapting to an American audience.  I like the fact that she knows when to give and withhold the sentiment.  Her Mr. Villalobos could have come off as too strict or too saintly.  But he has just the right balance of believability.  She also handles the antagonistic forces in Ruby's life in a very balanced way.  With the exception of some "mean girls" at school, all of the main obstacles that Ruby has to deal with are also sources of love and affection.  She writes Ruby as a girl drowning because she is attached to anchors that love her.  This gives her story so much more humanity than many movies out there today.

RUNNERS UP

Dune

Spider-Man: No Way home

Those Who Wish Me Dead

Nobody

BEST MAKEUP

Dune

Unlike the original version from the 1980's the makeup here is not done to distract, but instead to enhance the reality of this fantastical world.  

RUNNERS-UP

Spider-Man: No Way Home

The Suicide Squad

BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS

Dune

There were a lot of movies with amazing special effects this year.  But the movie that used them the best was Dune.  The effects brought a concrete reality to a world an alien and fantastic world and thus made it easier to emotionally invest in the story.

RUNNERS-UP

Spider-Man: No Way Home

The Suicide Squad

BEST SCORE

Hans Zimmer - Dune

I loved the haunting score that Zimmer composed for this movie that made something set in the far future feel ancient and timeless.

RUNNERS-UP

Spider-Man: No Way home

CODA

BEST COSTUMES

Dune

There are a lot of things that could look silly in Dune, which did look silly in the original version.  But the costumes here feel very lived-in and authentic to each culture that you encounter.

RUNNERS-UP

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Free Guy

BEST SONG

"You Will Be Found" - Dear Evan Hansen

This song is the emotional heart of the movie.  It is sad and powerful and uplifting.  This is the moment that Evan "goes viral," and you could understand why.  My wife said that she wished the movie had ended here on a positive high-note.  It is a real show-stopper.

Below are the list of all the films of 2021 that I have seen, ranked in order of excellence:

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Dune

Zack Snyder's Justice League

Coda

Those Who Wish Me Dead

Dear Evan Hansen

Nobody

Ghostbusters Afterlife

A Quiet Place Part II

The Tomorrow War

8-Bit Christmas

American Underdog

King richard

A Week Away

Queenpins

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Black Widow

Free Guy

Red Notice

Luca

Godzilla vs. Kong

No Time to Die

The Little Things

The Starling

Fatherhood

Mortal Kombat

Coming 2 America

Army of the Dead

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Tick, Tick, Boom

Gunpowder Milkshake

The Woman in the Window

The Dig

The Suicide Squad

So that is my list and the conclusion of this year's Catholic Skywalker Awards.  

Thoughts?