Best Picture is all but locked up

And overworked Marvel VFX pros speak out

What to know

• Everything Everywhere All at Once emerges as Best Picture favorite after winning the top PGA and SAG award… Everything’s turning up Everything. The runaway A24 hit not only took the PGA and SAG’s best ensemble, but Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan, and Michelle Yeoh also won individual SAG awards. Adding those to the Daniels’ DGA win, and you’ve got a safe Best Picture bet. The only question is whether the Academy’s growing international voting bloc will go for BAFTA winner All Quiet on the Western Front instead. By the way, the SAG Awards were so fun. Curtis, Quan, Yeoh, and Brendan Fraser all gave incredible speeches (A24 swept all the film categories!). Quan and Yeoh became the first Asian actors to ever win in their categories! And Jenna Ortega and Aubrey Plaza stole the night with this hilarious presenting bit. 🏆

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• Marvel VFX workers speak out: “Honestly, I equate it to human greed”… Vulture spoke to three visual effects specialists who worked on Ant-Man 3 to find out what went wrong and what the state of Marvel moviemaking is right now. It’s not pretty. The employees talk about being overworked and pulling 80-hour weeks just to get the movie in on time, as budgets were slashed and corners were cut. They call Disney and Marvel greedy for trying to “squeeze blood out of stones” all the expense of real, hardworking people. This is sad and frustrating because in addition to the human cost, Marvel is shooting itself in the foot here. If the studio thinks fans and moviegoers aren’t noticing the hack job, they’re wrong. 😡

• Box office: Cocaine Bear sniffs out $23M, Ant-Man 3 sees sharp fall… Horror wins the day again as the bear who did cocaine beats expectations and ensures a profit on its $35M budget. Meanwhile, Quantumania fell off 69%, but industry analysts didn’t find it to be much of an anomaly and aren’t too worried about it. Now if the next Marvel movies falter, then we might have a problem. 🧸

• Tom Hiddleston returning for season two of The Night Manager… Do you remember this BBC/AMC show from… *checks notes*… 2016? It was apparently quite good and is now coming back for more on Amazon. Seven years isn’t too long to wait between first and second seasons, I guess. 😮

• James Bond books being edited to remove racist references… This a fascinating and thorny issue. I wonder if the publishers should, rather then edit old books, do what Disney+ does and put a warning about insensitive portrayals at the beginning? It seems to work for the Mouse. 🤔

• David Byrne, Stephanie Hsu, and Son Lux to perform nominated Everything Everywhere song at the Oscars… Sounds like most of the nominated songs will be performed, as per usual. 🥯

• Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, David Cross join 4th season of The Umbrella Academy… I quit this show long ago, but this is cool. ☂️

• Marvel reportedly wants a Dakota Johnson-type to play Sue Storm in Fantastic Four… Here’s an idea, why not just ask Dakota Johnson?

• HBO acquires Sydney Sweeney’s Reality docudrama about whistleblower Reality Winner… HBO loves Sydney Sweeney right now. 📃

• Rian Johnson calls out “horrifying” practice of streamers purging their libraries… Get em! 👏

• Peep the full trailer for Ted Lasso season 3… The show comes back March 15. ⚽️

• Triangle of Sadness hits Hulu on Friday… Bring a bucket. 🛳

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What’s new

• Wreck — Mar 1 | Hulu horror comedy series | 🍅 50%

• Daisy Jones & the Six — Mar 3 | Amazon musical drama series | 🍅

• Creed III — Mar 3 | Sports drama in theaters | 🍅 90%

• Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre — Mar 3 | Action film in theaters | 🍅 65%

• Chris Rock: Selective Outrage — Mar 4 | Netflix live comedy special | 🍅

• Film Independent Spirit Awards — Mar 4 | Award show on YouTube

• Returning: The Mandalorian s3, Sex/Life s2

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What to watch

Once upon a time there was a bear who did cocaine. A number of humans got in her way and threatened her cubs. So the bear did what she had to do to protect her family — and have a good time. The end. If you view Elizabeth Banks’ new horror comedy, Cocaine Bear, from the perspective of the bear, you’ll have a great time. Indeed, the movie is at its best when it leans into the absurdity. For the most part, Banks and the cast knew what movie they were making and achieved their goal. It’s gory, and wacky, and heart-racing, and very funny at times. They made a movie called Cocaine Bear and delivered. If you like having some over-the-top fun at the movies, this will work for you. It’s when Banks and writer Jimmy Warden try to layer in messages about the war on drugs that things get a little muddled. You can tell they wanted to make a statement about the war on drugs being problematic, but also that drugs are bad, but aren’t drugs silly, and also don’t mess with nature, especially when it’s high on cocaine. As a result the movie fails at being anything more than “COCAINE BEAR,” but damn, if it isn’t the best “COCAINE BEAR” that it could be. Go with a group, you’ll have a lot to talk about afterward.

For all past ‘what to watch’ recommendations, see the full list here!