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My Predictions For The 98th Academy Awards

14 March 202619 March 2026Jon The BlogcentricLeave a comment

The 2025 Academy Awards are taking place later on this year: March 15th. My assumption is the broadcast of the Winter Olympic Games is what is holding it up this year. It has been done before that the Oscars would move to a later time to make room for the Winter Olympics. Conan O’Brien is back as host. He did such a good job last year, they made him host again this year. Makes sense that they have a comedian or the host of a late night show do the hosting. They’re normally the best at working it.

So now I finally have my predictions for all the categories. This year, I was able to see enough films to make up 100 of this year’s nominations. Many times, I felt I could have seen more. Still an impressive lot. So without wasting any more time, here are my predictions to win and even a few Should Win picks:

BEST PICTURE

Once again, kudos to Olly Gibbs for delivering another excellent Best Picture nominees poster. He knows how to do it! This year, the ten Best Picture nominees have the biggest monopoly of the nominations I’ve seen in years. Eighty of the 125 nomination! That’s more than 60% right there! Sinners and their record-setting total of nominations has what averages out to be one of every eight nominations. Interestingly enough, the second-most nominated film One Battle After Another amassed thirteen nominations: one short of the old record! For acting nominations, Sinners, One Battle After Another and Sentimental Value combined have eleven of the twenty acting nominations and the rest is nine nominations among nine films! Despite all this dominating of nominations, they’re quite well-spread out. None of the Best Picture nominees has less than four nominations. For the Best Picture race, the year looks to be the race between the strong summer sleeper contender and the winter surprise hit, but that will be decided on the 15th. So here are my short reviews and my prediction for Best Picture:

Bugonia- It’s something that of the three films by Yorgos Lanthimos that have been nominated for Best Picture, Emma Stone has acted in all three! This film has less buzz than the other two: The Favourite and Poor Things. The other two were better as they mixed bizarre humor with the scenarios. This also mixes humor but having a present setting seems odd for a Lanthimos film. It’s lack of buzz is why I feel it won’t win.

F1- I don’t know if you feel the same way but I like seeing a summer movie get nominated for Best Picture. The story and the acting were way better than most summer movies. It’s not just any movie about auto racing. It’s a movie the auto racing federation fully endorsed and includes actual F1 racers including some of the best. As for a contender for Best Picture, its only other three nominations are in the technical categories. It’s chances of winning this category are slim to none.

Frankenstein- If there’s one director who you can trust to do an excellent new adaptation to the Frankenstein story, it’s Guillermo del Toro. It’s an excellent thriller to watch and you will get caught up in the drama. This film has enough qualities to deserve its Best Picture nomination but this year, the Academy is not up for thrillers such as these. On top of it, there have been other thrillers that can compete with this.

Hamnet- Is it possible to have a story about the death of a child have a happy ending? Hamnet proves it’s so. This is an excellent film and an excellent story of love, happiness, loss, tragedy and healing. The film is less a historical docudrama and more of a story of how one woman deals with the heartbreak of loss and how she finds healing in the play her husband creates. This film does have a lot of qualities worthy for it to win Best Picture, but this is a tough year for films like these to contend.

Marty Supreme- At first, you wouldn’t think a film about ping-pong in the 1950’s would make for a hit movie but Marty Supreme does it! A lot of it is the underdog story of a ping pong player who constantly gets himself into trouble and embarrassment to beat the odds. A lot of it is also Timothee Chalamet’s performance. The direction from Josh Safdie definitely helps a lot. It is a good contender for the Best Picture win but there are other films with bigger chances.

One Battle After Another- This year, there doesn’t seem to be as many political films. This film has to be the most political. A mixed-race girl whose white supremacist father wants her dead. A former renegade who’s trying to protect her in the name of her mother and his girlfriend. Definitely a dramatic comedy that will keep you intrigued. It’s the story and Paul Thomas Anderson’s know-how in working a story like this that I make it my Will Win pick.

The Secret Agent- It’s something that this is the second straight year a Brazilian film is nominated for Best Picture! It’s deserving as it mixes humor with the story and keeps the drama without dropping the sincerity of the film’s ending. However for a foreign language film to win Best Picture, it has to really stand out in the competition and this film is missing that quality.

Sentimental Value- The increase in the number of foreign-language films nominated for Best Picture is easy to understand if you see the film. This film is excellent for its storytelling and its acting. It’s a drama of a theme many can relate to and mixes the theme of art in family conflict. It’s an excellent drama but for Best Picture, it is up against tougher competition.

Sinners- If there’s one film of 2025 that deserves to be called a masterpiece, this is it. A horror story that blends music, folk legends, the supernatural, demon spirits, and the theme of racism and Jim Crow laws. Definitely a story that’s unforgettable and grabs your attention from start to finish. That’s why I declare this film my Should Win pick and my pick for most likely to upset.

Train Dreams- The film feels like a nice piece of Americana. Just as much as the novel it’s based on feels like a piece of Americana. It does a great job of giving the audience the feel of the area it’s set in as it tells the story. As for its Best Picture chances, it doesn’t have a good shot as there is tougher competition.

BEST DIRECTOR

Should Win: Ryan Coogler – Sinners
Will Win: Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another

The Best Director category is one contest where it is too tough to call. Two great directors directing the two most lauded films of 2025. One is set in the past while another is an adapted story set to the present. Both of them mix politics into their stories. Both of them have something to say. It’s a tough call but I think Paul Thomas Anderson will take it. It’s a career of almost 30 years that started with his 1996 debut Hard Eight. He first caught the Academy’s eye with 1997’s Boogie Nights where he got his first Oscar nomination for screenplay. He got his first Best Director nomination for 2007’s There Will Be Blood. Further acclaim would grow with Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza. Many cinephiles look to One Battle After Another to finally be his time.

BEST ACTOR

Should Win and Will Win: Michael B. Jordan – Sinners

The Academy has some interesting factoids about how picky and choosy they are about awarding certain Oscars. One out of every three Best Actress Oscar wins have gone to actresses before their 30th birthday. The most recent, Mikey Madison, was last year. As of today, only one Best Actor Oscar win went to an actor before his 30th birthday. The most recent, Adrien Brody, is that actor but he won for The Pianist in 2003. Last year, Timothy Chalamet had a chance to break that record with A Complete Unknown. Although he can’t break that record as he just turned 30 in December, his performance is Marty Supreme looks poised to do that. The only thing is there was surprise at SAG’s Actor awards with Michael B. Jordan winning for Sinners.

Not only has Jordan’s win been seen as a big boost, but lately Chalamet’s talk has been making headlines for negative reasons. It wasn’t just his comments on ballet and opera. Some time ago, he said Hollywood stars should stop being pretentious. That can boost Jordan’s chances of winning. Even without the eyebrow-raising talk of Chalamet, Michael’s performance as two twin brothers of differing personalities and one being possessed by the spirit is excellent work deserving of the Oscar. Chalamet still remains as my pick for the one most likely to upset.

BEST ACTRESS

Should Win and Will Win: Jessie Buckley – Hamnet

I am going to make my write-up here short because I’m that confident about here win. She’s that clear of a favorite because this happens to be the best actress performance of the year. In a film about a play inspired by a tragedy to William Shakespeare, it’s the performance of the actress playing his wife is what makes the film. Jessie’s performance of Agnes Shakespeare is loaded with dimension and will touch you. Her performance sets the mood of the film and gives character to a famous playwright’s wife whom few know much of. Her performance of going from having the joy of life to hurting from tragedy to a triumph of healing at the end is just completely remarkable.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Should Win: Delroy Lindo – Sinners
Will Win: Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value

It’s often the case that one of the toughest categories to predict the winner is in the supporting acting categories. And understandably so. It’s a question of which supporting performance stole the show? Which performance qualifies as lead? Which performance brought the most during its short time? It’s hard to decide. This year’s contenders don’t make it any easier. Despite winning the SAG Actor award, I have a feeling Sean Penn won’t win. He’s won two Oscars before. I also feel his One Battle After Another co-star Benicio del Toro won’t win because he won back in 2000 for Traffic.

I feel the win will go to the Golden Globe winner, Stellan Skarsgård. Skarsgård could arguably qualify to make a running for lead actor. His performance as the father trying to make amends with his relationships with his daughters and his film work is both intense and touching. He really magnifies someone who’s both flawed and troubled, but seeks to make things right, despite his shortcomings. I feel he should win it.

Should Win and Will Win: Amy Madigan – Weapons

It’s interesting in this category. A mixed bag of winners throughout this season. Wunmi taking the BAFTA, Teyana taking the Golden Globe, and Amy taking the SAG and Critics Choice. I have to go with Amy. It’s easy to think that she, not Julia Garner, is the lead actress. She does a great job of playing a villain who’s both manipulative and threatening. She does a convincing job of playing a villain who knows how to instill fear in a child and mess with adults. Her performance has a lot to do with why Weapons is a box office hit.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Should Win and Will Win: Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another

I’m sure most of you have not read the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland. If you haven’t, it shouldn’t make much of a difference in terms of watching the film. Still worth reading. Nevertheless the theme of ‘fascist Nixonian repression’ that is present in the novel appears very similar to what the United States is going through now. It makes great sense for Paul Thomas Anderson to adapt the story into a scenario fit for the present and with themes of extremism between the left and the right and physical clashes between them that mirror what’s happening today. It also succeeds in adding comedic elements to the film. This is nothing short of an accomplishment.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Should Win and Will Win: Ryan Coogler – Sinners

I have to say the 2020’s is the decade the horror movie genre is finally getting its overdue respect. One film of this year to add to its respect is Sinners. It’s more than just vampires and evil spirits. It’s folk legends, music, vampirism and the theme of racism that’s mixed into this story that makes this film a masterpiece. Usually film companies save the films with the best Oscar chances for December. This past summer delivered one for this history books!

ADDITIONAL CATEGORIES:

This year, the favorites to win the Oscars appears to be more solid than most years. Also this year, it’s an even balance in both the major categories and the technical categories of solid favorites and potential upsetters. They’re still worth predicting. Once again, there will be only a few categories where you’ll see a Should Win prediction from me. Only if I feel confident enough.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Should Win and Will Win: KPop Demon Hunters

How about that? In a category Disney or Pixar win most of the time, they’ve only won once in the 2020’s. This decade has seen a lot of film studios deliver an Oscar-winning film. This year, it looks to be Sony Pictures Animation in cooperation with Netflix. A movie about a K-pop trio who has what it takes to slay demons is the most winning animated film this year. Its wins at this year’s Annie Awards was even ten-for-ten! Hard to see any rivalry in this category.

BEST CASTING

Should Win And Will Win: Francine Maisler – Sinners

This is the newest Oscar category. The Oscar gets awarded to the casting director and this award is boosted by having the Casting Director branch of the Academy that opened in 2013 and now totals 160 in 2026 and can now finally choose the nominees fort this category. With this being the debut year for this Oscar category, there are only a few awards shows that give out this award. There’s the Critics Choice, the BAFTAs, the Astras, there’s the SAG Award for Best Acting Ensemble which can have some impact and the profession’s guild, the Casting Society of America, has their Artios Awards. Maybe there will be more next year. Most of these awards have given the win to Sinners. It would not surprise me if Francine Maisler makes history in this category.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Will Win: Michael Bauman – One Battle After Another

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Will Win: Kate Hawley – Frankenstein

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Will Win: The Perfect Neighbor

BEST FILM EDITING

Will Win: Andy Jurgensen – One Battle After Another

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

Will Win: The Secret Agent (Brazil)

BEST MAKEUP and HAIRSTYLING

Will Win: Frankenstein

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Should Win and Will Win: Ludwig Goransson – Sinners

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Will Win: “Golden” – KPop Demon Hunters

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Will Win: Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau – Frankenstein

BEST SOUND

Will Win: F1: The Movie

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Will Win: Avatar: Fire and Ash

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Click here for reviews and predictions in this category.

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

Will Win: All The Empty Rooms

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM

Click here for reviews and predictions in this category.

JUST ONE MORE – MOST LIKELY OSCAR UPSETTERS

This year looks like there will be some shockers but mostly clear favorites. Nevertheless it’s the way every year that the Oscars are not immune to upsets. For this section, I will only limit myself to five potential shockers for Sunday night

Sean Penn from One Battle After Another winning Best Supporting Actor.
Autumn Durald Arkapaw winning Best Cinematography for Sinners.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin winning Best Documentary.
Sentimental Value (Norway) winning Best International Feature Film (Also my Should Win pick).
“I Lied To You” from Sinners winning Best Original Song.

And there you have it. Those are my predictions for the 98th Academy Awards. It may have come late in the year, but it’s a good thing as you’ll have warmer weather for your Oscar parties.

Oscars 2025 Best Picture Reviews: Part Three

10 March 202627 February 2026Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

My next pair of Best Picture reviews is for two films that have two nominations in common: Best Actor and Best Director. They’re also both comedies. Usually the Academy isn’t too fond of comedies but these two films are among the most heralded and have a lot of buzz for big Oscar wins. One film is directed by one of the business’ top directors and features one of the biggest leading men in the past two decades. The other is by an emerging director featuring a young actor whom many tout to be the next great one. One is set in the present and features a very political topic. The other is less about politics and more about a person seen as a joke trying to shed his skin. Here’s my look at them.

Marty Supreme

It’s interesting how this film doesn’t simply focus on a table tennis player but also the times he was in. We should keep in mind that table tennis didn’t become an Olympic sport until 1988. The International Table Tennis Foundation was founded in 1926 and in the time set in the film, the early 1950’s, it was fine for a player to be paid in their sport, unlike those in Olympic sports at the time. Despite that, we should also know that table tennis players were not paid very much for their wins back then. You could understand how the federations were hoping to use many methods to try to popularise the sport at that time. So it should not be a surprise to see Marty try to use the money from his shoe salesman job to pay for his entries, trips, and equipment, and it still wouldn’t be enough. A New York table tennis player like Marty, he would have to hustle or swindle or even use his playing skills to win gambling money to get the money he needs. That’s how it was for Marty Reisman: the table tennis player Marty Mauser is loosely based on. In his 1974 memoir The Money Player, Reisman said top table tennis players back in the day had to be ‘gamblers and smugglers.’

I’m sure at first, you’ll wonder who would watch a film about a table tennis player from the 50’s, even with Timothee Chalamet starring in it? This story is not just about a table tennis player, but a player who had a bizarre year between a key tournament and the World Championships. Basically, Marty would be regarded commonly as a loser. He lost the British Open to a Japanese player and wants to be the World Champion. His only options to help pay for his training, equipment and tournament trips is selling shoes, making a novelty act of himself touring with the Harlem Globetrotters, have his gambling matches at the bowling alley or a lot of illegal hustling. Other options come along the way with a businessman striking a deal with ping pong balls in his name and having an affair with his movie star wife to get help. Very risky indeed. Adding to the risky moves of he reunites with an already-married childhood friend, having an affair with her and making her pregnant. Then damaging a mobster’s suite and he gives him a dog to look after, which eventually becomes the property of a trigger-happy farmer. You can see how this would catch the attention of many people. All the messes Marty gets in and he has a World Championship to compete in. A loser of a person who wants to be a winner in what he lives for, a woman he loves and a baby to be. That can make for a thrill ride of a story.

The story is a unique timepiece that it takes Marty Mauser from one situation or another. It takes him into his sports world, it takes him into his world at home, it takes him into his world of opportunities made and opportunities lost, and it takes him into his world of constant troubles. The story is more about Marty trying to win for once instead of constantly being seen as a loser. It’s about a man trying to get his way out of troubles that he constantly gets himself into. It’s about the women in his life and how being the man they have an affair with will cause a lot of problems. Especially the businessman Rockwell who knows of the affair and loves seeing him humiliated publicly. The story also provides a unique filmmaking element where it’s set in a specific time period but often features music from another time period. I did not expect a film set in the 1950’s have songs from the 1980’s included in many of the scenes. That is something that is becoming more common in films. It works in this film as well.

This film is an achievement for director Josh Safdie. Almost ten years ago, the Safdie brothers, Josh and Benny, were seen as rising talents in film making with films like Good Time, Uncut Gems andFunny Pages. Back in 2024, the two brothers split to pursue their own film making directions. This film is Josh’s first film as a solo director. The story he directs and co-wrote with Ronald Bronstein takes the audience back to a time when things were both glamorous and shady and a man who can be both a hero and an anti-hero. He succeeds not only in presenting the story in a creative way, but also in an entertaining way. He succeeds in making a ping pong hustler fascinate the audience and his misdoings and potential troubles keep us intrigued. It’s an excellent accomplishment.

Making the film most come alive is actor Timothee Chalamet. Ten years ago, he was seen as yet another young rising face in the film world. The last few years, we’ve seen Chalamet become a top box office draw and deliver in challenging acting roles. This film is the latest film where he shows his acting maturity. He does a great job of making a troubled young man look comical and at the same time, get us to see him as a 3D person who just wants to be taken seriously and try to get his dignity back. Chalamet does a great job in making us root for Marty.

Of the supporting performances, Odessa A’Zion stands out as the girlfriend who is just as troubling as Marty. She will make you hate Rachel but also hope for the best for her. Also great is Kevin O’Leary as Rockwell. We may remember him from the television show Shark Tank. This is his first film role and he succeeds in making his character both likeable and hateable. You could easily see why Marty would want to get even with him. Gwyneth Paltrow is also great as the movie star Kay Stone. She succeeds in replicating the charm of a movie star of the time. Tyler Okonma, most commonly known as Tyler The Creator, does a great job in playing Wally the cab driver. With Marty having so many people he shouldn’t trust, Tyler succeeds in making Wally look like a person Marty can trust.

This film also has a lot of great technical achievements as well. Safdie and Bronstein also did the editing for the film and they deliver the right moves. Cinematographer Darius Khondji delivers a lot of great scene shots. The costuming from Miyako Bellizzi and the set designers succeed very well in physically setting the film back to the past. Composer Daniel Lopatin delivers a fitting score for the film that blends in with the songs used in the film.

Marty Supreme succeeds in being a film about a ping pong player that makes you want to see it. It also succeeds in making a hero out of a man whom you wouldn’t want to make a hero of any kind. It will make you like it.

One Battle After Another

Usually around Oscar time, one can expect to have a film that’s very political as one of the top contenders. This year, there aren’t as many political films among the Best Picture contenders and those that are aren’t that heavy into the politics. This film is not only very political but it seems to come out at the right time. We see all that’s going on right now in the United States. We have a right-wing government whom many fear will threaten people’s civil liberties and their democratic system. We have the anti-immigration force ICE brutally abducting people and treating both the people they arrest and bystanders like garbage. With all this, it’s easy to understand why a film like this would come out.

In this film, it starts out as a left-wing militia rivalling the powers that be at the time and a right-wing militia. In the middle of it is a player in the left-wing group who uses sex to entice and manipulate her enemies. She bares the daughter of the white supremacist and her husband agrees to take care of her as she flees for refuge. Sixteen years later, secrets unravel, the daughter is grown, the father needs to sober up and join his group again to protect his wife’s child and the white supremacist father is trying to hunt the daughter down. When you watch all that unfolds and you learn of the scenarios, you can sense that this film has a lot to tell. Some say one can see far-left militias like the French 75 happening. We know of far-right militias. It should come as no surprise if one on the far-left arises with what’s going on now. And to have a child who’s the daughter of the racist colonel and the black revolutionary getting exposed to what happened around the time of her birth and learning she’s a target, it’s possible something like that could happen in real life. It’s a possibility Americans can’t avoid.

This film is based on a book from 1990 called Vineland where radicals from the 1960’s deal with the complexities in Ronald Reagan’s 1980’s. This film modernises the story and makes it more reflective of what is happening in our contemporary political landscape. The film will remind us of how many feared of what would happen during the Reagan Era was nothing compared to what is happening during the Trump Era. The film is also a mirror to our current society as we have all learned about extremist militias and about governments stimulating hate and racism. We’ve all seen in the recent ten years how racist groups have become more emboldened. The film creates the scenario of what would happen if a militant racist had a mixed-race child with ‘the enemy?’ How will it end up? The film makes for a drama that will have you at the edge of your seat as one hopes for the safety of Willa. The film also delivers comedy as we see Ghetto Pat become a fail of a person and try to get his life together and the racist Lockjaw face the music of what he did in surprising ways. To make such a film that’s both a drama and a comedy, that is no easy task, but it succeeds in doing it.

This film is another achievement for director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson. Hard to believe it was almost thirty years ago when he first made a name for himself with 1997’s Boogie Nights. He’s had many an acclaimed film since and this film gives him his fourth Best Director nomination. Anderson succeeds in modernising the story and making it reflective of what could happen in present-day United States. He also succeeds in making what should be an intense drama a comedy with shocker after shocker happening. It would be very difficult to make an intense story like this to be a comedy, but Anderson succeeds in achieving it.

Leading the film is Leonardo di Caprio. Delivering a character like Ghetto Pat who’s become an irresponsible father but the best father for Willa was no easy achievement. He succeeds in delivering the dramatic parts and the comedic parts in a good balance. Creating good chemistry with di Caprio is Chase Infiniti as Willa. This being her film debut performance, she shines greatly and makes the film as much a story about Willa, if not more, as it is about Ghetto Pat. Of the supporting performances, Teyana Taylor shines most as Perfidia Beverly Hills. Her performance as a modern-day Mata Hari-like soldier who knows how to take command of men steals the show and makes her character still felt long after she’s gone. Benicio del Toro is also great as Sergio in his duty to protect both Pat and Willa. Sean Penn is also great as a corrupt racist who faces a shocking truth and feels his only solution is killing Willa.

The film also features a lot of great technical achievements. Michael Bauman pulls the right moves in cinematography to deliver the best shots for telling the story. The film editing of Andy Jurgensen and the sound editing from the sound team give the right mix and the right placings to make it all work for the story for it to deliver well. The production design team does a great job in creating places like the militia hideouts and plotting scenes such as the convents. Composer Jonny Greenwood meets again for another Anderson film and delivers a score that’s fitting mixed in with popular songs from decades back.

One Battle After Another is a film that’s both a mirror to our society and an ironic comedy. It’s a story we can see happening, now but also be shocked with all that happens in the story. Not everyone will like it but it will please its crowd.

And that completes my third pair of reviews of the Best Picture nominees. Glad to see many of them are still in theatres and many of them are doing quite well this year.

DVD Review: Loving

9 August 20179 August 2017Jon The BlogcentricLeave a comment

DISCLAIMER: In the next while, you will see a lot of film reviews that have been delayed for the longest time. I’m passing them off as DVD reviews.

“Can’t you just go and speak to Judge Bazile? We ain’t hurting anybody.”

Loving was actually the very first film I saw in 2017. Pardon the delay of the review. It’s still worth reviewing as it is a unique film, and not just because of its subject matter.

Richard and Mildred Loving want to marry. It’s the right time; they’ve been dating for a long time she’s having a baby. Problem is Mildred is black and Richard is white and they live in Virginia where interracial marriage is forbidden by law. They travel to Washington, D.C. to marry, but it causes problems as the couple are raided by the police and told their marriage certificate is not valid.

The couple were tried in the court of law in Virginia and they plead guilty. They received a suspended sentence, but decided to move to Washington, D.C. Life in Washington doesn’t work out for them as the oldest of their three children was hit by a car. The child survives, but Mildred decides she prefers the calm life of the country and wants to move back to Virginia. Especially since their families are there. In addition, Mildred writes to Robert F. Kennedy of her situation. Kennedy sends her letter to the ACLU. Bernard Cohen, a lawyer associated with the ACLU, agrees to contest the marriage ruling in the state of Virginia, but is slapped by disapproval in the court based on Virginia’s constitutional law.

Mildred then has Cohen take the case to the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1967, the US Supreme Court overturned their convictions and ruled that the criminalizing of interracial marriages violates the Fourteenth Amendment. The Lovings could now live in Virginia without fear of threat and love each other peacefully.

This film is of a relevant topic. Interracial marriage is a topic that still develops some heated discussion in the United States today. Many countries like Canada, the UK and even France don’t see interracial love as much of a problem. However there are still a significant number of people in the United States that look down upon it. Even seeing how Richard’s mother was disapproving of the marriage and even telling Richard he ‘did a wrong thing’ really gets one thinking at first how someone, including many millions around the world, can think loving a person of a different race is ‘wrong.’ Even hearing how the courts of Virginia ruled that: “God created the continents to keep the races separate and that they don’t mix.” I thought that was bizarre that they thought that but the courts in the Commonwealth Of Virginia considered that to be the truth. Me, I’d demand they pull out the Bible and show me where marrying someone of another race is a sin. Which of the Ten Commandments did that violate?

I was anticipating the subject of race to be included in the film. I know the prime topic of interracial love would be the prime topic but I figured the topic of race would be present too,, especially since this is in Virginia. The topic of race was not focused too heavily. However there were some moments when the subject of race was present. Like the case when Richard was going for a beer with his brothers-in-law from Mildred’s side of the family. I remember one of them questioning “You think you’re black?’ That too had me thinking about the racial divide in the US that still hits today.

The most surprising thing about Loving is that it wasn’t as dramatic as one would expect it to be. In fact the film appeared less focused on the events and more focused on the people Richard and Mildred Loving. It focused on the two as a couple, but mostly on both Richard Loving and Mildred Loving as individuals. Richard was seen of having the personality of a man who’s both hard and sensitive at the same time, but fearful of what would happen. Possibly because he’s white and he knows about a lot of racism that he could be subject to hate and even violence for. Mildred, whose actually half-black and half-Native American, was seen as a person who was soft and smart, but always optimistic. She had that look on her like she had nothing to lose and whatever else to gain.

It first seems like an odd choice to be more focused on the people instead of the events. I often wondered too about why it was done so. Over time, I saw it as something that made sense. We should not forget that it was the Lovings’ love for each other that made this happen. Sure, history will record Richard and Mildred for making history for their interracial marriage, but they made history because of their love for each other. The feelings for each other are made very obvious to us as are their feelings towards the events in their lives. This angle of focus was a very good choice in making such a film. We more of a look at the couple that made history rather than the history they made.

I admire writer/director Jeff Nichols for using that angle in creating the story of the Lovings. It is a unique angle and keeps their story from coming off as a made-for-TV movie. The portrayals of the Lovings by Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga were excellent and very telling of Richard and Mildred both as individuals and as a couple. The other actors in the film didn’t have such well-developed roles, but they did own the scenes when they had them, like Sharon Blackwood as Richard’s disapproving mother and Nick Kroll as Bernie Cohen the lawyer. The score from David Wingo didn’t occupy too much of the film, but its presence helped with the storytelling.

Loving is an excellent film that shows a focus to a story many know, but a focus overlooked. It’s also a film relevant now as interracial marriage is still a hot topic to many today.