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Movie Review: ‘Ije: The Journey’

The search for greener pastures beyond the Nigerian shores will always be a relevant theme in our stories. But the great thing about stories is that they can make room for numerous themes, and the quality of thematic execution is dependent on the director’s ability to present the story in a way that makes it transcend its themes. Chineze Anyaene’s 2010 film, Ije: The Journey , follows precarious themes, from rape, rape stigma, immigration and sisterhood. It juxtaposes an idyllic world of childhood tainted with the dark nature of human conflict. The theme that shines through in Ije , more than others,  is sisterly love. The test of the movie is how this love perseveres against the backdrop of sinister discoveries. 

    Anyanwu Opara Michino (Omotola Jalade Ekeinde) has been arrested and charged with the murder of her husband, Michael Michino (Jon Morgan Woodward) and two of his associates (Pele Kizy and J. Kristopher). Anyanwu insists she was defending herself, that she didn’t murder her husband. She writes a letter to her estranged sister, Chioma (Genevieve Nnaji), in Nigeria, who promptly comes to her aid. Once in America, Chioma fires Anyanwu’s lawyer, Patricia Barone (Ann D. Carey) and hires the young Jalen Turner (Ulrich Que) who, predictably, she eventually becomes romantically involved with. As the movie proceeds, darker truths are revealed, and Anyanwu’s freedom will rest on their unfettered disclosure.

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    Omotola Jalade and Genevieve Nnaji deliver remarkable performances but Genevieve easily steals the show. It is quickly obvious that she is more fluent in Igbo than her counterpart and this adds some nuance to her deliveries, making them seem spontaneous when they are anything but. They do well to carry the movie and they share their responsibility with Ulrich Que, who is convincing as the young, novice lawyer with the do-or-die case. However, Omotola’s final monologue could have been paced better than the long, slow rhythm she went with. Her general performance has a lethargy to it, although it isn’t utterly damning. Beyond the aforementioned and Don Deccio (Jeff Swarthout), no actor appears exceptional, which reinforces the running joke that when Nigerian directors direct a diasporic film, they go to pick foreign actors from the bottom shelf. The actors who play the rappers are atrocious to watch. 

    The theme of rape is a rather precarious one. Chineze Anyaene is concerned about the stigma and quiet that comes with the act. It is the sad reality that women everywhere live with, and the mentality of shame is so persistent that when within a working system that could bring them justice, victims still refuse to speak. In some cases, it is fear, and in others, like Anyanwu, it is precaution bred from “what will people say”. Little has changed since Ije’s release. However, the happy-ending need feels heavy-handed. Let us assume that by a jolt of adrenaline, Anyanwu did murder three men and the need to preserve her honour has made her keep the secret of her assault from her sister whom she summoned all the way from Nigeria; made her keep that secret from her lawyer; but she told a random, fellow inmate just because: let us assume all of that went down accordingly, and Anyanwu reveals this in court belatedly, the fact remains that Anyanwu killed three men and, realistically, her sentence would have been longer. The odds are unfairly stacked against her favour, too unfairly for the outcome of that verdict. But it is important that narratives like this, where the victim speaks up and actually gets justice and leaves with their honour, are upheld. At least to encourage more victims to speak up. The only honour lost, always, is that of the perpetrator.

Rating : 6/10

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Side Musings

• Anyanwu, so fluent and generous with Igbo as a child, almost never speaks a word of it with her sister as an adult. Yes, she has been in America for a while, yes she has undergone a western transformation, but still, there are far too little Igbo exchanges between her and her sister. 
• Clem Ohameze barely has anything to do in the film other than beat his first daughter. They probably just said, “sir, come and act but it is only beating you will be doing.” Grossly underused. See The Last Buria l for vintage Clem Ohameze.

Ije: The Journey is currently streaming on Netflix.

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A Nigerian Finds Hard Truths — And Hope — In Netflix Series On Nigeria

Ifeanyi Nsofor

The street where I grew up in Kano, northwest Nigeria, is called Independence Road. Each day, it reminded me of Nigeria's independence and sovereignty from Great Britain on Oct. 1, 1960.

This year, as the country marks its 60th anniversary, celebrations will be muted due to COVID-19-related restrictions. But as many Nigerians stay home to celebrate, I hope they will watch the Netflix documentary series Journey of an African Colony, The Making of Nigeria , produced and narrated by Olasupo Shasore, the former attorney general and commissioner for justice in Lagos State and a historian and writer. The series, which has its world premiere on Thursday on the streaming service, traces Nigeria's history of slave trade and colonial occupation — and then independence.

As a Nigerian living in Nigeria, I found the documentary a powerful reminder that to truly celebrate this country's independence, we must take stock of where we came from.

The series begins with clips of Great Britain handing over the reins of power to Nigeria on Sept. 30, 1960. I was happy that it opened with interviews with two women who witnessed Nigeria's first Independence Day celebrations. This is a departure from the usual focus on men for such interviews.

Both women described the joy and pride they felt witnessing such a momentous occasion at the Independence Day ceremony at Race Course (now called Tafawa Balewa Square) in Lagos on Sept. 30, 1960. "I can still remember I was watching that flag. It was the British flag I was watching coming down, coming down, and the Nigerian flag, going up, going up," said Francesca Emmanuel, a former federal permanent secretary, in the documentary. "When the Nigerian flag got to the top, the whole of the racecourse lit up and then they shouted — and then the fireworks! It was a memorable early morning." As a Nigerian, I could relate to these feelings.

Olasupo Shashore, an author and historian and former attorney general in Lagos State, produced and narrated the new Netflix documentary series Journey of an African Colony: The Making of Nigeria. He's shown above in Lagos, Nigeria. Quramo Productions hide caption

Olasupo Shashore, an author and historian and former attorney general in Lagos State, produced and narrated the new Netflix documentary series Journey of an African Colony: The Making of Nigeria. He's shown above in Lagos, Nigeria.

Shasore — whose books, A Platter of Gold: Making Nigeria and P ossessed: A History Of Law & Justice In The Crown Colony Of Lagos 1861-1906 , form the basis of the documentary — then takes viewers through the history of slavery. He says that "the transatlantic slave trade is the greatest human dispersal in history." He argues that Nigeria's role in slavery has not been properly acknowledged by historians. For example, slave merchants transported more than 4 million slaves from Nigeria to the west.

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This documentary reminds me of my visit to Ghana in 2005 as part of my international fellowship with the Ford Foundation. A cohort of fellows from Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal visited the famous Elmina Castle to learn about the slave trade. Built by the Portuguese in the late 1400s, it became an important stop on the route of the Atlantic slave trade. We saw the "door of no return" gate. Once a slave passed through, there was no going back but onward, in shackles, to foreign lands.

Shasore reminds viewers that the slave trade run by European countries would not have been successful without participation of locals — an idea that started becoming prominent among Nigerians a few years ago. I myself was not aware of this until Nigerian writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani wrote about it in The New Yorker in 2018. In the piece, she told of her great-grandfather's role as a slave trader : "Long before Europeans arrived, Igbos enslaved other Igbos as punishment for crimes, for the payment of debts, and as prisoners of war. The practice differed from slavery in the Americas: slaves were permitted to move freely in their communities and to own property, but they were also sometimes sacrificed in religious ceremonies or buried alive with their masters to serve them in the next life," she wrote.

Sometimes I wish I could speak to my great-grandparents to hear their stories about the slave trade. Maybe they were enslaved. Maybe other family members of friends were enslaved. Sadly, they died decades before I was born. However, both my uncle Victor Nsofor and Obidinma Onyemelukwe, a professor and a member of my hometown Nanka's leadership council in southeast Nigeria, confirmed to me that there was a slave market in one of our villages. Indeed, the slave trade was closer than I knew. The next time I go to my village, I will visit and explore the site of Eke Ntai slave market in Amako village. According to scholars, local slavery in southeast Nigeria continued until the 1950s.

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A recurring message in the documentary is the forceful removal of Black Africans from their communities to become slaves. Consequently, they lost connections to their roots. However, within the past two decades, DNA testing has helped Africans in the diaspora trace their roots back. For example, the late actor Chadwick Boseman was part Yoruba (Nigerian) and Limba (Sierra Leonian), pastor T.D. Jakes and actor Forrest Whitaker both have Igbo ancestries, and CNN journalist Don Lemon is part Nigerian, Ghanaian and Congolese.

After the slave trade ended came colonial occupation. At the Berlin Conference of 1884, European nations carved up the continent and shared the different nations among themselves. I believe it was all about human trafficking, which was sanctioned by the state, clergy and businesses. Great Britain's share were the nations that now make up present-day Nigeria.

The British colonialists ended up stitching together a country made of diverse cultures. Nigeria has more than 250 ethnicities and above 500 languages! These nations within Nigeria have been battling to live in peace with each other since Nigeria's independence. Some ethnic groups have called for secession. Between 1967 and 1970, Nigeria fought a brutal civil war, which led to deaths of at least 1 million Igbos . My only maternal uncle fought in the war and never returned. Although the Biafra-Nigeria civil war ended 50 years ago, the push for nation-building continues among all ethnic groups.

I am Igbo from the southeast part of Nigeria. I grew up in Kano state in northwest Nigeria, my wife is from Edo state, in southern Nigeria and my mother-in-law is from Lagos state in southwest Nigeria. Therefore, my two daughters have Igbo, Edo and Yoruba ancestries. My nuclear family is a microcosm of Nigeria, spanning formerly different nations. To me, Nigeria should not fail. It would be like my family failing.

I want Nigerians to live in peace. However, impacts of slave trade and colonialism continue to threaten our cohesion. Although on paper Nigeria is independent, it is not fully so given its overt dependence on foreign donors to fund social services despite the country's ability to pay for much of the services itself. For instance, Nigeria's total annual health expenditure is $10 billion . While $7.7 billion is spent by Nigerians as they pay for health services, the government and nonprofit organizations in Nigeria focus more on maintaining the $1.1 billion of total international donor support. Nigeria should instead put effort into finding creative ways to fund its health system by looking inward and rechanneling available resources.

Shasore's documentary made me realize that all the nations that make up Nigeria went through the trauma of slavery and colonialism. We need to constantly remind ourselves of our shared painful history so we can all heal together as a united Nigeria.

Dr. Ifeanyi Nsofor is the director of policy and advocacy at a health group called Nigeria Health Watch and Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

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Epic Yoruba Tale “Alagbede-The Blacksmith” Set to Forge Its Path into Cinemas on April 19

“Alagbede – The Blacksmith” prepares to grace the silver screen on April 19. With a stellar ensemble cast and a captivating storyline, this epic tale promises to captivate audiences with its blend of culture, drama, and ambition.

Set against the backdrop of a local blacksmith’s quest for success, the film delves into themes of perseverance, heritage, and the pursuit of dreams.

As viewers immerse themselves in the world of “Alagbede – The Blacksmith,” they will confront the pressures, fears, and hustles that shape the protagonist’s journey. With dialogue presented in b Yoruba, the film offers a dynamic exploration of language and culture, inviting audiences to embrace the richness of Nigeria’s storytelling tradition.

Starring esteemed actors Jaiye Kuti, Gabriel Afolayan, Kehinde Bankole, Olaiya Igwe, Femi Adebayo, Damilola Oni, Bimbo Oshi, and Jide Kosoko, “Alagbede – The Blacksmith” boasts a lineup of talent that guarantees a mesmerizing cinematic experience.

Directed by the visionary Usman “Blackky” Ogunlade, written by Adejonwo Fimisola and Executively produced by Jaiye Kuti, “Alagbede – The Blacksmith” promises to transport audiences to a realm where tradition intersects with ambition.

With its impending release, “Alagbede – The Blacksmith” signals a new addition to Nollywood Yoruba Epic Films.

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Going Down the Garfield Rabbit Hole

He hates Mondays, he’s No. 1 at the box office and he’s been the subject of a lot of weirdness over the last 40-plus years.

By Fred Bierman

Fred Bierman spent an embarrassing amount of time digging into Garfield lore, also hates Mondays and thinks lasagna is only OK.

You may have noticed that “ The Garfield Movie ” was the No. 1 movie in America last week, earning $14 million and taking over the top spot from the infinitely more hyped “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.” It has grossed $55 million in North America and $156 million globally in two weeks.

After more than 45 years of daily strips ( that still get made every day ), three feature films, 76 books, three animated series, dozens of video games and a literal boatload of merchandise, we may ask, how did we get here?

In an attempt to answer that question, we took a trip down the Garfield rabbit hole.

So Much Merchandise

The first thing you come across is the merchandise. There are T-shirts, phones , watches , furniture , clocks , slippers , tents , wallets, trading cards, eye shadow and roller skates with Garfield’s leering image.

There was even a Garfield toilet seat cover. “It turned out to be a great product. It was real colorful,” Garfield’s creator, Jim Davis, told The New York Times in 2019 . (There are, in fact, numerous Garfield toilet seat covers .)

This is no accident. Davis released the three-panel newspaper comic strip in 1978 with an eye toward selling his creation.

“I’d like to say it was some sort of a divine inspiration that created the strip,” Davis told The Washington Post in 1982 . “In fact, it wasn’t so much that as a conscious effort to come up with a good, marketable character.”

First came the books. Davis grouped the strips into collections and they were a hit. In November 1982, The New York Times Trade Paperback Best Sellers list featured seven Garfield books among its top 15 titles.

Davis’s creation was so inescapable that for 30 years a beach in western France reported that pieces of Garfield phones were mysteriously washing up on shore. In 2019, The New York Times reported on the phenomenon, which turned out to be caused by “a long-lost shipping container, nestled in a rocky sea cave.”

Cohen vs. Coen

From there you get to the cartoons and movies. The animated “Garfield and Friends” ran for seven seasons from 1988 to 1994. There was “Garfield: The Movie” in 2004, of which A.O. Scott wrote in The Times , “you are likely to leave this one feeling as grouchy and put-upon as the title character.” Audiences didn’t seem to mind. The film grossed $203 million globally.

The biggest surprise of “Garfield: The Movie” was Bill Murray agreeing to voice Garfield. According to Murray, however, it was a misunderstanding that led him to do the movie in the first place. In a 2010 interview with GQ, Murray joked about taking the role.

“I looked at the script, and it said, “So-and-so and Joel Coen.” And I thought: Christ, well, I love those Coens! They’re funny. So I sorta read a few pages of it and thought, Yeah, I’d like to do that.”

It was Joel Cohen , whose credits include “ Cheaper by the Dozen ,” not Joel Coen, the Oscar winner, who was one of the script’s writers. Still, that didn’t stop Murray from returning for the sequel, “Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties.”

‘Garfield Minus Garfield’

In digging a little deeper, things begin to get weirder.

In 2008, Dan Walsh, a 33-year-old technology manager in Dublin, created “Garfield Minus Garfield,” where he erased Garfield and all the other characters from the strips, leaving only his owner, Jon Arbuckle.

That year, The Times reported on the phenomenon :

Mr. Walsh does nothing to the panels except strip away Garfield and other characters like Odie the dog and Nermal the kitten to create a new, even lonelier atmosphere for Jon Arbuckle, the main human. Without the cutesy thought-bubbles of his lasagna-loving cat, Jon’s observations seem to teeter between existential crisis and deep despair.

Davis took the opportunity to license a “Garfield Minus Garfield” book .

That seemed to open the floodgates for Garfield content that embraced odd humor native to the internet. Other remixes followed. There was “Pipe Garfield,” where the last panel is replaced with a panel of Garfield smoking a pipe.

“Garfield Thrown Out the Window” replaces the third panel with Garfield getting thrown out of a window.

“Garfield Censored” is a strip that replaces one panel with one that reads: “The cartoonist has elected not to show this panel due to its graphic nature.”

Live Action Garfield

This is the point in your journey where you might come across something called “Lasagna Cat.”

Fatal Farm (the duo of Zachary Johnson and Jeffrey Max) are known for creating and directing surreal advertisements for Old Spice and Skittles and for their work on episodes of “I Think You Should Leave” and “Key and Peele.”

They also made “Lasagna Cat,” a web series with two seasons made nine years apart. In 2008 they released 27 short videos on YouTube that were live recreations of Garfield strips followed by a music video and often ending with photo of Davis.

Almost 10 years later, Fatal Farm released another 13 episodes, featuring longer videos with higher production values and even more bizarre content. For example, in “10/20/1984,” a live re-enactment of a strip is followed by a re-creation of the “Miami Vice” episode featuring the Phil Collins classic “In the Air Tonight.”

Or, there’s “07/27/1978,” where a live re-enactment of the strip featuring Garfield smoking a pipe is followed by an hourlong lecture, voiced by the actor John Blyth Barrymore, dissecting every aspect of the strip while talking about art, the cosmos and corruption in the tobacco industry. It has been viewed 3.9 million times on YouTube.

The final video in the 2017 season is almost five hours long and is titled “Sex Survey Results.” It is the only video without a date as a title and the only one that does not feature a re-creation of a strip. It is also one of the strangest videos on the internet. It almost defies description. Watch at your own risk.

‘I’m Sorry Jon’

Now the journey goes from strange to dark.

There is plenty of wholesome Garfield fan art out there (like Garfemon , which imagines Garfield as Pokemon), but there is also a very bizarre and very dark Garfield fan art subculture.

In 2013, the artists Sam and Toby Alden posted a web comic in which Jon Arbuckle awakes to find himself inside of Garfield, and Garfield tells him, “I’m Sorry Jon. I was so hungry.”

This was followed by Garfold , Gramfel and a series of Instagram posts by Catherine Burke , all of whom took the character of Garfield and turned him into a hideous monster terrifying his owner.

This genre of art became so popular that it spawned a section of Reddit known as r/imsorryjon , with over 800,000 users, that is dedicated to dark Garfield fan art. This phenomenon is also known as “Gorefield” or “Creepy Garfield” and it’s very, very weird.

‘Don’t Look in the Basement’

After taking a deep breath, we went back to Garfield strips (again, new ones appear every day) and books to see where this dark side of Garfield might be coming from.

If you look hard enough, there are glimpses of it in some original Garfield content. “Garfield: His Nine Lives” was a surprisingly unsettling 1984 book that features nine Garfield stories, most drawn by artists other than Davis. One of the stories ends with a primal version of Garfield attacking a grandmother .

In early Garfield comics, Jon had a roommate, Lyman, who suddenly stopped appearing in the strips. When asked where Lyman had gone, Davis jokingly wrote, “Don’t look in the basement.”

A 2002 online video game called Garfield’s Scary Scavenger Hunt featured Lyman chained to the basement wall of a haunted house.

There was a series of Halloween strips in 1989 (known as “ Garfield Alone ”) that read like something out of “The Twilight Zone” and spawned strange theories that the entire strip has always taken place in Garfield’s imagination.

The panel ends with Garfield going through what seems like an existential crisis and beginning to question reality. After taking a deep (maybe too deep?) dive into Garfield lore and fandom, we know the feeling.

Inside the World of Comedy

After he hit superstar status for his 2021 musical comedy, “Inside,” Bo Burnham has been conspicuously quiet. But he's managed to turn his supposed absence into a performance .

Netflix is giving comedy the live treatment . Sometimes that’s a good thing, as with John Mulaney’s variety show “Everybody’s in L.A.” But the Katt Williams special and Tom Brady roast were more uneven.

The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner has occasionally featured some great stand-up comedy. Colin Jost’s set will not join that list .

The pandemic dealt a major blow to improv in New York, but a new energy can be seen in performances throughout the city .

Comedians, no strangers to tackling difficult and taboo subjects with humor, are increasingly turning their attention to the climate crisis .

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‘the acolyte’ review: amandla stenberg in a disney+ ‘star wars’ spinoff that shakes up the formula.

Set decades before the events of the films, the dramatic thriller follows a Jedi knight and his former Padawan as they search for a mysterious Force user who's killing off Jedi one by one.

By Angie Han

Television Critic

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It would certainly be unfair to say that all Star Wars stories have the same plot. Andor is not The Last Jedi and The Last Jedi is not The Phantom Menace , and each is more interesting for the new paths they cut across familiar territory. In broad strokes, though, a whole lot of them seem to come down to the same trusty formula: heroic Jedi freedom fighters versus dark-side imperialists, on and on across the galaxy for decades.

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While the opening text indicates a time of peace and prosperity, the premiere, directed by creator Leslye Headland , makes clear that those blessings are not shared equally by all.

Our protagonist is Osha ( Amandla Stenberg ), a former Padawan who washed out of the academy before reaching full-fledged Jedi status. Now she works as a “meknik,” doing outer-ship repairs for wealthy clients who don’t care that the job has been deemed too dangerous for anyone but R2 droids. (That her name happens to be the acronym for the agency that regulates workplace safety in our own reality seems a sardonic joke.) But when Mae (also Stenberg), the twin she believed died 16 years earlier, resurfaces as a killer of Jedi, Osha reluctantly teams with her old master ( Lee Jung-jae ) to find her sister and bring her to justice.

While Mae’s spree has political implications for the Jedi, The Acolyte concerns itself with its more personal impact, with uneven results. Stenberg makes restraint her weapon as Osha; the more she turns her rage inward, the more we feel for the anguish bottled up inside her. Lee does similarly subtle work as Sol, conveying more tenderness with a single facial expression than could be explained in any clunky speech. (Though he’s very smooth at delivering necessary chunks of exposition, too.)

As Osha slowly pieces together the truth about her and Mae’s shared history, The Acolyte takes on the grim momentum of a conspiracy thriller: every answer seems to raise more unsettling questions, until it feels impossible to know whom to trust. The Jedi’s role in the sisters’ childhood starts to look less benevolent than Osha had always assumed it to be, though perhaps also less malicious than Mae had.

“This is not about good or bad. It’s about power and who gets to wield it,” their mother (a regal Jodie Turner-Smith) says in a flashback — and indeed, the closer the series stares at the line between the two sides, the blurrier it becomes.

A standout third episode, directed by Kogonada ( Columbus , After Yang ), embeds itself with a coven persecuted for their “unnatural” use of the Force. Yet what we see of their ways hardly seems sinister; they seem like women who want only to be left alone to practice their traditions in peace.

From their perspective, the Jedi are the persecutors who barge in where they’re not wanted, imposing their traditions on others with the full might of their institutional power. “Thank you for your cooperation,” the Jedi add after their most unreasonable demand, a fig leaf of courtesy to reframe their intervention as a civil exchange.

But in its willingness to challenge our assumptions, The Acolyte finds its own place. It’s one deep in the gray, between the poles of light and dark that have defined so much of its galaxy.

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EXCLUSIVE: Farida Jalal FIRST interview on journey, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Karan Johar, YRF

Veteran actor Farida Jalal, who is best known for her roles in Aradhana, Bobby, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, recently returned to the mainstream with ‘Heeramandi’. In a candid and rare interview with India Today’s Bhavna Agarwal, Farida Jalal spoke about her journey and playing supporting character roles. She recalled how she got slotted as an actor but got to show her versatility in projects by Satyajit Ray, Raj Kapoor, and Shyam Benegal. She also praised her bond with YRF and Yash Chopra and why she was hurt by him. Farida, who last appeared in ‘Student of the Year’ in a Dharma film, is also upset with Karan Johar. Not just that, her lack of presence on social media and why TV gave her better opportunities, Farida Ji is all hearts. Lastly, she also spoke about losing touch with SRK, Salman Khan and why her attempts to reach them go in vain. Don’t miss.

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Does ‘Furiosa' have the same Oscar potential as ‘Mad Max: Fury Road'?

George Miller ‘s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Story” has been on quite a journey, which started by premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received a glorious standing ovation and similarly gushing reviews . For all intents and purposes, it looked like it would be another commercial win for the Oscar-winning Australian filmmaker.

The movie then opened in theaters over Memorial Day weekend, and though it finished at number-one, its launch numbers were considerably lower than Miller’s prior film, “Mad Max: Fury Road,” in 2015. In fact, it grossed just $50.9 million domestically in 12 days, compared to the $45.4 million made by “Fury Road” in its opening three days.

The opening for “Fury Road” was actually considered disappointing for the time, since it was opening at a time when franchise sequels were racking up $70 million, $80 million and much more in their debut weekends. And yet, the popularity of “Fury Road” among those who did see it led to it receiving 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and a first-ever directing nom for Miller. It won six Oscars, all in below-the-line categories.

If you’re one of the people who decided to skip “Furiosa” in theaters or have been living under a very heavy rock, it’s a prequel to “Fury Road,” starring Emmy nominee Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Queen’s Gambit”) as the title character, who was played by Charlize Theron in the 2015 film. It also stars Chris Hemsworth as the primary baddie.

Even though reviews have been great, and Miller is working with some of the same craftspeople who won Oscars for “Fury Road,” the discourse about the film being a flop seems to have overpowered any and all adoration for Miller’s latest offering in terms of its quality . One wonders if that might hurt “Furiosa’s” chances of replicating “Fury Road’s” Oscar success, but let’s explore.

There are people in the industry who have shared their praise for Miller’s latest venture, but to the public at large, and that includes a number of academy members too, it’s going to be seen as a bigger money-losing flop than “Fury Road,” and that could overshadow what’s on the actual screen in the eyes of some.

But we now get 10 Best Picture nominations every year, so might “Furiosa” be one of them, over any of the movies already released and those still to come? We should consider that this is a prequel to an Oscar-nominated film, which could be seen as a hindrance as voters might feel they’ve already been there and done that, keeping Miller from getting into the directing race again. It’s doubtful that Taylor-Joy or Hemsworth will get acting noms; Taylor-Joy doesn’t actually appear as the title character until an hour into the movie. Best Adapted Screenplay also seems doubtful, since “Fury Road” didn’t even get a writing nomination.

That leaves the below-the-line categories. (Note that “Fury Road” won both Sound Editing and Sound Mixing when they were two categories; now there’s just one race for Best Sound.) The production design by Colin Gibson , who won the Oscar in that category for “Fury Road,” seems to be the most logical craft to nominate, as well as the editing by Oscar winner Margaret Sixel and Eliot Knapman .

Miller hired cinematographer Simon Duggan to shoot this one, rather than John Seale , who was nominated for “Fury Road.” Three-time Oscar-winning costume designer Jenny Beavan is so beloved in the costume designers branch of the academy that she could get her 11th nomination as well, but she might have more competition this year, as will Tom Holkenborg ‘s score.

It may be too early to tell whether “Furiosa” will have the kind of legs and support needed to get to Oscar night, especially since Warner Bros. also has Denis Villeneuve ‘s sci-fi sequel “ Dune: Part Two ” in the mix. Even so, there’s enough quality on screen and Miller has enough of a talented crew with previous academy support that it’s doubtful to go without at least a few nominations when they’re announced in January.

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs . Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

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Phantom Fury

Description

Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison is back in this highly interactive mix of first person action and road movie adventure. Embark on an adrenaline-fueled journey around the USA. Use an enormous arsenal of weapons and skills to battle treacherous soldiers and vile mutants, all while trying to save mankind. Taking place many years after her fight against Jadus Heskel, Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison awakes in a new world, pulled out of a coma at the behest of an old colleague, with a new bionic arm. Tasked with securing a highly dangerous artifact, the legendary Demon Core, Shelly embarks on an intense journey around the US, as she tries to overcome her own past to save mankind’s future. Key Features ・An intense mixture of bombastic action and road movie Fight through seedy hotels in Albuquerque, explore abandoned facilities in Los Alamos, secure the streets of Chicago, and so much more! ・An insanely interactive world An incredible amount of interactivity brings the environments to life. Fully usable computers, helicopter flights, playable arcade machines are only a few examples of what you can expect. ・A vast array of weapons Over 20 unique weapons are at your disposal! Fan favorites like the Bowling Bombs are joined by brand-new equipment such as armor-piercing shotguns and electrified foam shooting devices. Unlockable weapon upgrades and mods with completely new fire functions will give you the necessary control needed to overcome any fight the way you want! ・A wide range of unlockable skills and upgrades Weapons aren’t the only way to overcome the many challenges waiting along the way. Upgrade your bionic arm and suit with powerful new abilities, such as a punch attack or an electric shield. ・A terrifying number of enemies Encounter vicious cyborgs, menacing soldiers and disgusting mutations, each with their own special skills. Push your skills to the limit in exhilarating boss battles.

Published by

Developed by, release date, playable on.

• Xbox Series X|S

Capabilities

• 4K Ultra HD
• Single player
• Spatial Sound
• Optimized for Xbox Series X|S
• Xbox achievements
• Xbox cloud saves

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