David Remnick is joined by Alexandra Schwartz, the co-host of the podcast Critics at Large, and The New Yorker’s august film critic Richard Brody. They talk about the past year in film and predict the victors of the Academy Awards. Brody dismisses “The Brutalist”—a film that merely uses the Holocaust “as metaphor”—and tells Remnick that “Wicked” might win Best Picture. “I think there’s a huge desire for cinematic comfort food that makes a billion dollars.” Continuing the Radio Hour’s annual tradition, Brody discusses nominees and selects the winners of the coveted award that we call The Brody.
Chapter 1: Who are the key critics discussing the film awards?
From the online spectacle around Leo XIV's election to our favorite on-screen cardinals. This week on Critics at Large, we're talking all things Pope.
The Catholic Church was made for this moment. I think 2,000 years ago, the Catholic Church basically anticipated TikTok, Instagram, X. You don't have those little Swiss guard outfits and think they're not being photographed. Oil painting is not enough.
I'm Vincent Cunningham. Join me and my co-hosts for an episode on what can only be described as Pope Week. New episodes of Critics at Large drop every Thursday. Find us wherever you get your podcasts.
This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick, and it is that time of year again. It's awards season, and I'm joined by two of the New Yorker's critics, Alexandra Schwartz, co-host of our podcast, Critics at Large, and film critic Richard Brody. We're going to talk about the past year at the movies and the prospects for the Academy Awards.
But much more importantly, Richard Brody will pick the winners of the award we call the Brody. The Brodies are far more exclusive and more coveted than the Oscars, of course, though they don't have the little statue guy to go with it. This is an annual tradition here at the New Yorker Radio Hour. Richard, how many years have we been doing the Brodies? Seven, eight. Seven or eight years? My God.
We're getting close to a decade. It's true.
Now, first, let's talk about the other award show, the Oscars. So let's have Alex talk to The Brutalist. Why would The Brutalist be a favorite? Because you've written about it quite wonderfully for The New Yorker.
Yes, I profiled the director, Brady Corbett. I mean, it's a small movie comparatively. It was on a $10 million budget, but it is a huge movie, both thematically and in its form. It is close to four hours when you include its 15-minute intermission. And rather than scare away audiences, this seems to have enticed people. You know, it's an immigration story.
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Chapter 2: What films are being considered for the Brody Awards?
Dune Part 2 shocked me because I think it's a terrible movie. I think it's a sludgy movie. Dune Part 1 at least had an impressive sandworm. This one is an extreme close-up of a vacuum cleaner hose.
pacing of it is literally get that at home the pacing is lugubrious the dialogue you know it's like written to fit into cartoon bubbles okay we'll come back to some of the oscar favors but let's get into the main event here the presentation of the brody awards our first category is best actor alex who was nominated
The nominees for the Brody Award for Best Actor are Adam Driver for Megalopolis, Ethan Harisi for Nickel Boys, James Maddio for The Featherweight, Glenn Powell for Hitman, and Jason Schwartzman for Between the Temples. And, Richard, the winner is?
The winner is Adam Driver for Megalopolis. Adam Driver is the actor of his generation. He's almost like John Wayne or Cary Grant. He is... inevitably, always himself. And that, to me, is an enormous virtue, especially in a movie like Megalopolis, where he's playing such an extravagantly composite character, essentially a Leonardo da Vinci of urbanism.
And yet, he brings a real physicality, a real command to this role, and takes this $120 million and essentially puts it on his back with the sheer force of his personality.
I have this sneaking suspicion... Timothy Chalamet is going to win for his Bob Dylan. And you're upset about it, aren't you, David? Look, he's a perfectly good actor, but he's too sweet. He's a sweetie pie. Bob Dylan is many things, but he's not a sweetie pie.
See, I actually thought that Adrian Brody had it kind of locked up for the Oscars until this recent controversy around generative AI being used to help perfect the Hungarian accents. of Adrian Brody and Felicity Jones, who played the main couple in The Brutalist.
Wait a minute. If we went back in time and we inspected, I don't know, the Polish accent in Sophie's Choice of Meryl Streep, would we get perfect, beautiful Polish?
The problem that people are having is that it's not about the perfection or the imperfection, the fact that it was perfected using AI. Some people say, well, it's just using, you know, using a tool to augment the work of an actor not to replace the work of an actor and other people are coming in and saying it's not fully his performance he can't get the oscar
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Chapter 3: Why is 'The Brutalist' a controversial favorite?
Okay. Essentially, in this category, it's the brutalist versus the cutilist. I think the cutilist is going to win.
Yeah, I think the cutilist has a very good chance. If I have to hear one more time how in five years he learned how to play four chords, it's enough already.
I thought he was pretty good, but, you know. Grump, grump, grump.
I'm talking about the year in movies with Richard Brody and Alex Schwartz. We'll continue in a moment.
A fringe group of Afrikaners went to Capitol Hill to advocate for white farmers in South Africa. They didn't bargain for what would happen next.
They were trying to get attention. They were even trying to get sanctions. They were never trying to get refugee status. And now that they have it, that domestically is a really big problem for them.
Don't miss this week's On the Media from WNYC.
Now, Alex, moving on to the next category for the Brodies, the nominees for Best Actress are... Yes, they are Joanna Arnault for That Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, Maria Dizia for Christmas Eve in Miller's Point, Lea Drucker for Last Summer, Carla Sofia Gascon for Amelia Perez, and Carol Kane for Between the Temples. And the Brody goes to...
It goes to Maria de Zia for Christmas Eve in Miller's Point, a film that relatively few people have seen and almost everyone who's seen loves it.
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Chapter 4: What makes Adam Driver a standout performance this year?
One actress who made the Oscars list but didn't make yours is Demi Moore, who's back with The Substance. She won the Golden Globe. It seems like she's a strong contender for Best Actress at the Oscars. What do you think about her Oscar nomination, and why is she not on the Brody's list?
I think Demi Moore is a wonderful actress. And I think part of the problem in the acting categories is that pretty much everybody is a wonderful actor or actress. The technical level of acting now is extremely high, that they simply have a level of training that makes them virtuosi. And I think that Demi Moore is in a special category. I think she is a
essentially sort of like the Joan Crawford of her generation. She really excels in melodrama. I've felt that way ever since seeing her in St. Elmo's Fire in the 1980s. The problem is she came of professional age in an era that made very few melodramas, and so the best years of her life, of her professional life, were spent in something like a wilderness.
When she went up to collect the Golden Globes, Demi Moore, she was not only overcome, but she said that she had been told... that she was essentially not a serious actress. I forget the phrase that she used for it. Popcorn actress. Popcorn, that's it.
So she had been diminished in some way, and then given the chance to have a quote-unquote serious role, she embodied it, she fulfilled it, and she won the award. What do you think of that narrative, Richard?
I think it's a correct assessment of the industry's complete misuse of her talent over the last 30 years. The Substance is not a popcorn movie, but I don't think it's a movie that really shows the range of her art.
Now, Alex, the next award.
Okay, we're getting to the big ones. It's our third category. Richard, who are your nominees for Best Director of the Brodies?
Zia Anger for My First Film, Francis Ford Coppola for Megalopolis, Rommel Ross for Nickel Boys, Paul Schrader for O Canada, and Tyler Taormina for Christmas Eve in Miller's Point. And the Brody goes to? Goes to Rommel Ross for Nickel Boys.
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Chapter 5: Which actress won the Brody Award for Best Actress?
But, you know, I just feel I loved Anora. I don't think it's going to get any Academy love. And as we know, that's OK. We do not need the Academy to validate our feelings, critical and otherwise. But still, you know, it hurts me a little to see it come up totally short. But that's what I'll say about that.
One of the great enigmatic closing scenes of any film I've seen in recent years...
Yeah, I'd agree with that. And one actor who's key to that scene is Yuri Barsov, who is nominated as a Best Supporting Actor. I'm rooting for him. I think he has a shot.
Forget it.
But not a big one.
Richard, you're a mens amens on Anora, if I remember right.
Yeah, I mean, I found Anora fairly superficially entertaining, but indeed superficially entertaining. That's what people say of me all the time. It's a relatively incurious film. In other words, it's a film about a sex worker that has very little to say about her life as a sex worker.
It's a film about a descendant of a Russian immigrant family that has nothing to say about her life as a Russian immigrant. In other words, I don't think it's a bad setup for a movie. I think that it's done for entertainment value rather than for actual curiosity about the conflicts faced by its protagonist. Can I say something about The Brutalist?
Oh, yes, Richard. Slaughter it here on Mike. LAUGHTER
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Chapter 6: How does Demi Moore's nomination compare to the Brody's picks?
So The Brutalist is a contender at the Oscars maybe, but not at the Brodies. Let's get back to the nominees for the big prize of the day, the Brody Award for Best Picture.
Okay, the nominees for Best Picture are Between the Temples, Blitz, Christmas Eve in Miller's Point, The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, It's Not Me, Juror No. 2, Megalopolis, My First Film, Nickel Boys, and O Canada. And the Brody goes to...
unsurprisingly, to Nickel Boys. Nickel Boys was really head and shoulders above the competition. It's a film that I think will, you know, mark the year in history. Alex, you agree?
I love Nickel Boys. I think it's a terrific movie and I wish more people had seen it. I understand maybe why they didn't. I think there's an expectation that you're going into a movie about pain and about black pain specifically, and it might be preferable to hold off on that. It has been nominated for Best Picture. It has no chance at the Oscars.
I would love to see it nominated for Best Director also, but mainly I just hope people see it. What's going to win? Ooh, good question. I think the Brutalist has a shot. The Brutalist or Wicked? Oh. Shut up. Shut up!
The wicked might win? Wicked might win. I think there's a huge desire for cinematic... Well, I'm holding space for that. Cinematic comfort food that makes a billion dollars.
Ah, there's that. There's that. Alex Schwartz, Richard Brody, as always, it's a great pleasure. Thank you so much. You can find Richard Brody's column on film, The Front Row, and Alex's writing, all at newyorker.com. And you can hear her hosting the New Yorker podcast, Critics at Large. That's the New Yorker Radio Hour for today.
And speaking of awards, not to brag, but documentary short films produced by the New Yorker have been nominated for two Academy Awards this year. Not bad. You can watch those films at newyorker.com. I'm David Remnick, and that's our program for today. Hope you'll join us next week.
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Our theme music was composed and performed by Meryl Garbus of Tune Yards, with additional music by Louis Mitchell.
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