It’s 2025. And while life has pretty much returned to normal as far as our entertainment habits, it’s obvious that our viewing habits have changed. The criteria for going to the movies for most is stricter now that we’ve spent years watching first run movies immediately to weeks later on our home screens. Virtually no one has returned to the movie theatres since we were banned, which somehow makes the Marco Awards for streaming movies in your home a little more relevant than the Oscars. Because it is two different experiences.
In honor of what began as merely a “what should I watch next?” inquiry that year we had all the time and opportunity to watch everything round the clock. It’s time for my 5th Annual Marco Awards, this week for Movies. An unbelievable 4 years later and all the major awards circuit making progressively bigger fools of themselves. In many ways, as I said, the Marcos are becoming more relevant than the Oscars. I guarantee you no one is getting bitch-slapped over a Marco . At least no one that doesn’t deserve it. (Will Smith will be a low mark that was condoned by the Academy, a stigma they will have to carry for a long time). Plus with the state of what we’ve been through in reality for the last five years, we as a society seem progressively less interested when rich people give other rich people awards. And act fools while doing so. I roll the Marcos out the week of March 14th, the day the world shut down five years ago, with a different category over the next three weeks.
So, again , here is is a list of my best movie recommendations from the past year, formatted into an awards show that makes sense. The rules have changed slightly last year because the Oscars screwed me over. I am still the nominating committee and the voting body. So if a movie appeared on its first in-home streaming run for free (because that is in the spirit of Covid year entertainment, when we as viewers mattered) between March 12th, 2024 and January 31st, 2025, and I saw it, it is eligible. This alone has made it different from the traditional Oscar slate, who mostly hold their release till Christmas day, meaning very few of the contenders are available to stream by the end of January. That is why huge names like Anora and Wicked don’t show up this year. And the 31st is a purely arbitrary date set by the nominating committee (me) giving the voting body (me) enough time to catch up and tabulate the results for release sometime around the anniversary of Covid shutdowns (now). I also lifted the ban on current year’s winners in each category for the Marco Awards because due to the eligibility dates, the slates are very different, and the fact that we’ve learned movies play differently in the theatres and in the home Also, keeping it a little fresher, each season’s nominees will be a little of this year’s Oscar contenders with last years that didn’t premiere in streaming form in time to qualify, leading to some interesting new pairings. So there will be some repeats between the Hollywood ceremony a week ago and my more comprehensive list of winners here. I also postponed the Marcos a week to leave a little distance between the Oscars and today.
So, with that, Welcome to the 5th annual Marco Awards for Excellence in Motion Pictures that appeared in your living room. Grab a drink. Slap yourself silly if you want. I’m your host, Mark Briner, and may the best pictures win (finally). The nominees are:
The 5th Annual MARCO AWARDS 2025: the MOVIES
BEST MOVIE
Challengers—The spicy sports drama where a tennis pro/coach is unsure whether the game is doubles or trios.
Mean Girls—The movie version of the stage musical adapted from the original film version suffers from comparison to the iconic film, but if taken on it’s own is a better-than-mosts adaptation of stage musicals.
A Real Pain—Jesse Eisenberg’s deep dramedy about two cousins who lost touch but reunite to take a pilgrimage to their late grandmother’s homeland. An intriguing character study in both inter- and intra-generational relations
Saturday Night—The chaotic real time comedy about the hectic 90 minutes of uncertainty before the premiere episode of NBC juggernaut Saturday Night Live (almost didn’t) air in October of 1975
Juror #2—Nicholas Hoult is riveting as a juror on a vehicular manslaughter who, as the trial unfolds, begins to question if the defendant is innocent because he in fact was the driver who may have hit the victim.
Conclave—The process of navigating the vote for a new pope is way more convoluted and absorbing than it would seem.
Joker: Folie a Deux—The sequel to the award winning movie finds Joaquin Phoenix in prison with one Harley Quinzel, who may be his missing soul mate. The movie received general criticism for it’s sudden transition into a musical, but I feel that was merely the chosen vehicle used to portray his mental illness.
WINNER: Saturday Night. I realize this is a controversial call considering it got zero love at the Oscars. This race boiled down to Conclave and Saturday Night, the former is a well made, well acted drama that should have done better at the Academy Awards. But I was the target audience for the latter and it not only nailed the culture of 1975, but the casting of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players couldn’t have been more spot on and appreciated by someone who was there. All the mania of the business and the show magnified backstage through the idealistic eyes of a young Lorne Michaels trying to create something that had never been done on TV before–a program developed by youth culture for youth culture. And timed with the 50th Anniversary of the program couldn’t have been better planned.
BEST ACTOR
Ralph Fiennes (Conclave)—Fiennes is captivating as the candidate who must part with his aspirations to be pope to finesse the vote to the best candidate.
Jesse Eisenberg (A Real Pain)—Ax the successful cousin, Eisenberg is strong in his guilt of having the better life as he handles the frustration of dealing with his OCD cousin as best he can on the trip to their grandmother’s past
Mike Faist (Challengers)—Faist is solid as one third of a sexually ambiguous trio between his wife and a rival pro tennis player
Gabriel LaBelle (Saturday Night)—LaBelle is winsome as a young Lorne Michaels at his wits end as his late night show is falling apart in front of his eyes with 90 minutes to get to air. He’s a strong anchor to balance the absurdity around.
Joaquin Phoenix (Joker: Folie à Deux)—Reprising his Oscar winning role, Phoenix expands his story showing off some song and dance skills alongside costar Lady Gaga.
Nicholas Hoult (Juror #2)—The always strongHoult is always strong, but carries this movie as a solo case of possible survivor’s guilt. Was that an animal he hit on that dark rainy night a few months ago—or the victim of the trial he’s a juror for.
WINNER: Ralph Fiennes. The biggest success of Conclave was in the stellar cast’s performances, and Fiennes, who has never won an Oscar, was the perfect anchor to build the performances on
BEST ACTRESS
Andra Day (The Deliverance)—Day is perfect at the center of the first true haunted house story centered around a black family. As the single mother struggling with a son on the spectrum who tells tales about the spirits he sees, she also has to deal with her overbearing mother, the school, and work. If ever there was a case of “Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That”, Day makes it.
Lady Gaga (Joker: Folie à Deux)—Gaga gets to show off all her song and dance skills in the musical fantasies of fellow inmate (and idol) Arthur Fleck, becoming his parallel universe Harley Quinn
Zoe Saldana (Emilia Perez)—Saldana somehow comes out unscathed in the silliest movie concept of recent years. A French movie musical about a Mexican drug lord who asks lawyer Saldana to arrange his sex change in the middle east. The movie received unfathomable praise and some strange gift golden globes before the world dropped it for the wrong reason—because the trans actress playing the lead made a series of racist tweets. Somehow Saldana transcends the foolishness and gives a dignified performance at the midst of the trainwredk.
Renee Rapp (Mean Girls)—As the new era musical Regina George, Rapp (who took over the role on Broadway) was mediocre onstage but the screen is her medium and she burned the world her way here.
Zendaya (Challengers)—The former Disney kid who made good as an Emmy winning actor for the HBO spectacle Euphoria sinks her teeth into the prime role of a pro tennis instructor who incorporates a new protégée into her relationship with the declining pro she’s coaching and married to.
WINNER: Andra Day. Yes, the movie was just a cable staple horror film, but Oscar nominees Day and Close gave it the legitimacy to be considered. Day, who was amazing in The United States vs Billie Holliday, here as a frazzled single welfare mother dealing with her overbearing mother, disturbed children, and a demons quatting in her her new house walks a fine line and anchors both the flat out comedy of the first half with the Amityville terror of the second. Those looking for a good horror film of recent years, this is it.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Keiran Culkin (A Real Pain)—As the happy-go-lucky OCD cousin on the spectrum, Oscar /Emmy winner Culkin (the kid of nightmare parent Kit Culkin who didn’t self-destruct from the experience) lightens the mood of a depressing Polish holocaust tour with his uptight cousin.
Willem DaFoe (Saturday Night)—DeFoe is a perfect villain as the network heavy who stands in the way of young Lorne Michaels and his revolutionary new variety show. As the hand on the button who decides whether to air Michaels’ pilot or a rerun of Johnny Carson, DaFoe is a master heavy.
J.K. Simmons (Juror #2)—As a former cop who leads Hoult whose experience points to another driver, he teams with Hoult to out the real culprit, making him—and us—sweat.
Stanley Tucci (Conclave)—Tucci is one of the most dependable actors around, and he gives a great performance here as a pompous rival cardinal with lofty ambitions.
Dylan O’Brien (Saturday Night)—O’Brien risks stealing the show and the show within the show with a spot-on impersonation of OG Not Ready for Prime Time Player Dan Ayckroyd, especially as his sexually harassed short shorts wearing construction guy.
Cory Michael Smith (Saturday Night)—Smith seems to actually channel Chevy Chase, in all his pompous, cocky, arrogant glory, as well as his natural charm to hold an audience. Whether distracting the network brass or delivering the now classic final line of very cold opening, Smith is every inch the young, upstart, only partially condescending Chase.
Ja’Quel Spivey (Mean Girls)—Spivey puts his own modern spin on “too gay to function” best gay friend Damien.
WINNER: Keiran Culkin. This is the tightest category of the year. I so much wanted to give this to Smith for his hilarious, dead-on portrayal of season 1 breakout Chevy Chase, or Tucci or Simmons doing their usual top class work, but I have to agree that with Oscar that this was Culkin’s year. Perfectly cast, Eisenberg generously allowed him to walk off with his movie.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Auli’i Cravalho (Mean Girls)—As goth goddess Janis, best friend behind the scheme to infiltrate the Plastics, Cravalho gets some of the best songs of the show and nails them
Glenn Close (The Deliverance)—As Audra Day’s white trash mother, Close takes the Oscar nominated performance of J.D. Vance’s Meemaw and runs for the border. Whens he delivers the dirties line of the show (possessed by the devil, of course) Close may never be topped.
Toni Collette (Juror #2)—As the prosecuting lawyer that is not too far behind Hoult’s suspicions, Collette is her usually reliably chameleon performance
Isabella Rossillini (Conclave)—The only woman in the cast. Sr. Agnes who harbors the dirty secrets of the forerunner, Rossillini has some of the most important scenes of the movie.
WINNER: Glenn Close. Completely unfathomable how this brilliant actress has never won an Academy Award. Did no one see that rabbit boiling psycho in Fatal Attraction? Watching esteemed actress Lizzie Caplan take a swing at the role in the 2022 TV reboot and fall way short of Close’s shadow should make you appreciate her performance even more. Hell I’d have given her one for her deliciously devilish portrayal as Disney villainess extraordinaire Cruella de Vil. But here, as Day’s mouthy, overbearing, white trash mother–Close throws vanity and class to the wind as an almost unrecognizable nemesis that the devil would love to get a hold on. Even if she wasn’t fantastic throughout, I’d give it to her for delivering that line as a conjuring of the demon tormenting Day. Glenn Close, the Oscars may not recognize your career of fascinating characters, but the Marcos do.
BEST DIRECTOR
Edward Berger (Conclave)–Berger makes a story that could be told in one sentence–they elect a new pope–play like Game of Thrones
Lee Daniels (The Deliverance)–Daniels walks the fine line between comedy and horror and transitions well, getting great performances out of Andra Day and the best in recent years out of a very inspired use of Glenn Close.
Jesse Eisenberg (A Real Pain)–Eisenberg tackles his own screenplay while starring in the film, a total triple threat accomplishment
Todd Phillips (Joker: Folie à Deux)–Mixing the drama, the acting, and the musical segments in the eerie manner he did is an underappreciated accomplishment
Jason Reitman (Saturday Night)–Reitman keeps up the frenetic pace of the final realtime 90 minutes before the first 90 minute Saturday Night Live aired, and the lunacy feels true. His casting is also dead-on for a movie aimed and landing squarely for a particular generation.
WINNER: Jesse Eisenberg. Reitman gave us a thrilling, real time adventure story and the best movie of the year, but Eisenberg crafts a heartwarming screenplay then selflessly features his costar Culkin to an Oscar winning performance at his own expense. What he generously hands over as an actor he earns multiplied as a director.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Bouleavard! A Hollywood Story—Talk about truth being stranger than fiction! 40 years before Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber came up with the idea to turn Sunset Boulevard into a musical, original star Miss Gloria Swanson had the same idea. She hired a couple of palm springs composer friends to write it and the entire fiasco quickly becomes a situation of life imitating art imitating life. Billy Wilder’s iconic screenplay and characters took it a step further when he cast every role with an actor who was that role. (At the time , Swanson was a washed-up silent film star. Erich von Stroheim was a successful retired silent film director. Hell Cecil B.DeMille and Hedda Hopper actually played themselves.) When, during the process, she fell in love with her gay composer, and wiht no producers interested, Miss Swanson was living out Norma Desmond’s curse of a man and a career she can’t have. For any fan of the movie, this insane second act is a must see.
Demon House—In an overlap, this documentary about the real life possessed house in Gary, Indiana, that inspired the Andra Day/Glenn Close horror-comedy The Deliverence. But there’s no laughs in this story. This demon means business and has wrecked everyone who came in contact with it, including, allegedly, the entire crew and creative staff of this documentary.
Faye—A thoroughly enthralling sit down discussion of the fascinating career of Oscar Winner Faye Dunaway where nothing is off limits—her family, her love life, her costars, the disappointment of what she thought would be her second Academy Award for Mommie Dearest, and her bouts with mental illness. Helped through some sections by the memories of her devoted son, what could have been a freakshow in less respectful hands turned into an engrossing and respectful look at the life of one of the last centuries’ quintessential and unique artists.
Scout’s Honor—As we’ve seen with the Catholic church, the elite world of children’s television, and #MeToo, what we knew would eventually happen—an expose on the sexual abuse that goes on behind the tents at the annual all-American jamborees.
Menudo + Menendez—With all the focus on the sexual abuse of the Menendez Brothers dominating the news and setting their long stalled legal case back on the dockets, this side story to support their evidence deals with a young singer for Puerto Rican group Menudo who also was molested in the family’s home by Jose Menendez, and was instrumental in securing their getting signed to his RCA record label. The man was a true monster.
WINNER: Faye. While Boulevard! was by far the best entertainment, Faye turned a new spotlight on the often maligned actress and her many demons as well as her accomplishments. (Bonnie & Clyde is still one of my top 10 movies of all time.) It was nice to see an unbiased salute to her artistry, her personal life, and acknowledging her bouts with mental illness to give us the greater understanding Miss Dunaway deserves.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Inside Out 2—Disney/Pixar’s only real competitive movie, it was a successful sequel to the breakout original, this time entering the more complex emotions of our now teenaged host Riley as she enters puberty and all the hormonally induced drama involved.
Wish—Remember a generation ago when this category was a lock for Disney and an honor for anyone else just to be nominated? Me too. But here agian, just like the absolutely soulless Soul, Disney spent all their promotional budget on another unremarkable movie that was more agenda than art. Allegedly a “salute to 100 years of Disney magic”, the story about a young girl who makes a wish upon a star who gets more than she counted on when the star comes to earth and causes trouble for her family and her town. Any classic film that Disney gave a half-assed nod to was 100 times better than this lukewarm C- movie that sits somewhere between Robin Hood and The Black Cauldron in the archives of Disney “magic”.
The Wild Robot—When a shipwrecked robot becomes a surrogate mother for an orphaned gosling, it’s like a modern day, high tech take on Dr. Seuss’ Are You My Mother?, with just as much heart. Based on an award winning book and billed as “DreamWorks’ best animated movie ever”, I’d have to agree.
Flow—When a cat, a dog, and some fish and fellow animals are stranded on a boat during a massive flood, this heartwarming tale of natural enemies becoming a society of their own making to survive results.
WINNER: The Wild Robot—Flow won the Oscar, but the computer animation looked a bit primitive in a mid-90s, early Toy Story flat way. Robot was the movie that did it all right, which pains me, since DreamWorks animation is the result of Disney letting Jeffrey Katzenberg get away rather than honor him when he championed the department back to the top of the class in The Little Mermaid to Lion King years. So in hindsight, all the successes of DreamWorks, from Shrek to this, has been exactly what Disney has failed to accomplish ever since he left. And let’s be honest, not one president of Disney since Frank Wells died has been worth a dime, let alone the multi hundred million golden umbrella bonuses they rake in when they don’t work out/lose interest. In retrospect, Katzenberg has proven himself to be the best curator of Disney magic since, just sadly now under competitors’ labels. Massive Fail, Michael Eisner.
BEST SONG
Again, a lame category this year. I had so much expectations after the production number realness of last year’s “I’m Just Ken”. Where are the great Disney themes like ‘Colors of the Wind”, “A Whole New World” or “Under the Sea”, or the classic radio play like “Up Where We Belong”, “Flashdance”, “9 to 5”, or “Last Dance”. Come on studios, do better. The only original musical this year was a dumpster fire (and don’t defend it on “cultural differences”). The only song worth singing is Elton John’s “Never Too Late” from the documentary about his touring career, and even that is lesser Elton John than we’re spoiled by but we’ll give it the award just to keep the category alive.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT RECOGNITIONS
This year I started an attempt to fill in missing films in my viewing repertoire. and, part of a writing exercise, I visited the only Universal Monster movie I’ve never seen, Boris Karloff’s stellar follow-up to the Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein classics, The Mummy. While not as memorable, credit Karloff with making it work. The backstory of the Egyptian King and his lost love reincarnated plays as well as all the reincarnated workings of the trope, from all the modern Dracula reboots to Barnabas Collins’ Josette in the TV Dark Shadows I revisited. And my missing noire entry, Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, while not the best, has so many classic actors playing so many classic character types, it’s a must-see for the superb banter and the continuous plot twists. Plus Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre playing the characters they defined are worth the time.
During Halloween, I revisited some standouts from previous decades. First off, as part of my Dark Shadows immersion, I visited both of Dan Curtis’ theatrical releases of the lore: the superior House of Dark Shadows, which reinvented the Barnabas Collins origin legacy as a pretty great representation of 70s horror film, with all the blood, gore, and sensuality he couldn’t show on daytime TV, and the lesser Night of Dark Shadows, a slapped together pastiche of actors and characters of the series left over when Jonathan Frid refused to play another version of Barnabas, fearing typecasting. The only saving grace is the film debut of Kate Jackson (playing ghost Daphne Harridge was her TV debut) but the vets David Selby, Lara Parker, and Grayson Hall fared less well as variations on their classic characters.
An American Werewolf in London turned out to be a fun revisit after 4 decades, most impressive for the amazing special effects that turned David Naughton from human to wolf with realtime effects and no CGI help, which has been the most disappointing thing to happened to horror since. A series of appliances that inflated upon cue to make him lupine are the best ever when you keep that in mind.
The Halloween season also brought the opportunity to see the Stanley Kubrick classic The Shining for the first time on a big screen at the old Senator Theatre, and at a time when the average movie I see in theatres has an audience of 10 or less, to see 80-100 people to gather to see this film the way it was intended was amazing. And. like Psycho, it’s even scarier in it’s intended environment. And Halloween wouldn’t be complete without my annual viewing of Gary Marshall’s classic Hocus Pocus. The movie still puts a spell on me.
Two other 80s megahits that have fallen to the wayside I was able to appreciate even more with the distance. Jessica Lange’s should-have-been Academy Award winning role in Frances is still frightening and breathtaking as early screen starlet that bucked the studio system to be a more serious actor. But when her controlling mother has her committed to a mental institution, instead of demonstrating a desire to work on her issues, lands her in a cycle of horrifying abuse and malpractice every time she angers her mother. Lange gives everything to this landmark performance, the best she’s ever been on film.
And Bob Fosse’s quasi-autobiographical musical All That Jazz when I saw it in theatres was just weird and excessive. Why is the ex-wife so weirdly involved in his career? Why does everyone tolerate his horrific, self-absorbed behavior? But after a lifetime of learning about Fosse himself–thanks mostly to the terrific TV miniseries Fosse/Verdon, I now understand that Leland Palmer was Gwen Verdon, and they did have that relationship. Anne Reinking was herself, and the daughter was Nicole Fosse. The hilarious parodies of his musical numbers were flawless in showing the sex and flash he brought to any work. And, having been in DC to see another musical the night he had is fatal heart attack down the street at the premiere of the Sweet Charity tour at the National Theatre, he even predicted his own demise years later in perhaps the only way he could have gone out. What in 1980 was a bizarre piece of performance art, in retrospect is a career masterpiece.
If you missed last weeks Marco Awards for Excellence in TV, you can check them here. Come back next week for the Marco Awards for Live and Streaming Theatre!.
PAST WINNERS
Best Movie
2021 The Trial of the Chicago 7
2022 Promising Young Woman
2023 Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
2024 Oppenheimer
Best Actor
2021 Taron Egerton (Rocketman)
2022 LaKeith Stanfield (Judas & the Black Messiah)
2023 Austin Butler (Elvis)
2024 Cilliam Murphy (Oppenheimer)
Best Actress
2021 Meryl Streep (The Prom)
2022 Carrie Mulligan (Promising Young Female)
2023 Michelle Yeoh (Everything, Everywhere, All at Once)
2024 Margot Robbie (Barbie)
Best Supporting Actor
2021 Sasha Baron Cohen (The Trial of the Chicago 7)
2022 J.K. Simmons (Being the Ricardos)
2023 Ke Huy Quan (Everything, Everywhere, All at Once)
2024 Charles Melton (May December)
Best Supporting Actress
2021 Viola Davis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)
2022 Nina Arianda (Being the Ricardos)
2023 Jamie Leigh Curtis (Everything, Everywhere, All at Once)
2024 Rosamunde Pike (Saltburn)
Best Director
2022 Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)
2023 Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything, Everywhere, All at Once)
2024 Christopher Nolan (Oppeheimer)
Best Documentary
2021 Family Band
2022 JFK:Though the Looking Glass
2023 Lucy & Desi
2024 The Greatest Night in Pop
Best Animated Film
2021 My Hero Acedamia: Heroes Rising
2022 Raya & the Last Dragon
2023 Pinocchio
2024 Turning Red
Best Song
2024 I’m Just Ken