|
March 20, 2026 
|
|
|
Hi, movie fans!
Whew, we made it! After an extra-long awards season (the Olympics meant a later Oscars ceremony date), the academy brought it all to a close with what seemed to me to be a pretty good show that spread the bounty around. “One Battle After Another” took six Oscars (including best picture), “Sinners” received four, “Frankenstein” three and “KPop Demon Hunters” two. (Here’s the complete winners list.) The host Conan O’Brien’s opening “Weapons” spoof was fun, and the In Memoriam segment wasn’t terrible. Our critics Manohla Dargis and Alissa Wilkinson agreed.
My own reaction comes with an asterisk: We on the film desk are working on reports and updates at a furious pace as the ceremony is playing out and can only watch the show sporadically — an acceptance speech here, a reaction shot there. Still, I think we captured it pretty well in our roundup of the best and worst moments of the night.
Like an election, the day-after coverage is just as important with the Oscars, and that included looking at how the suspenseful best actor race played out. Kyle Buchanan talked with voters at the after-parties and came away with the understanding that Michael B. Jordan won the Oscar on his first try thanks to a smoothly run campaign on behalf of a movie that the academy members loved. Buchanan also explained what happened to Timothée Chalamet, who was long seen as the front-runner in that category.
Now that another edition of the Oscars is over, we’re turning to the spring lineup of movies, starting with “Project Hail Mary,” which you could describe as “E.T.” meets “Gravity.” The film received a largely positive review from Dargis, who wrote that “the directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller appreciate the terrors of space, but they also get the allure of space and its seemingly infinite potential for beauty, for mystery and especially for play.”
Speaking of Lord and Miller, my colleague Esther Zuckerman has an interview with the directors. They may be best known for animated hits like “The Lego Movie” (and for producing the “Spider-Verse” films). But they were also fired from “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” They say they took lessons from that experience into “Project Hail Mary.”
What else is in theaters? “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” the sequel to the deranged 2019 original, returns for another eat-the rich tale, and Wilkinson approves, writing in her review that “it’s still unpredictable and hilariously bizarre.”
Whatever you decide to watch, enjoy the movies!
