My 2022 Hugo Awards Nomination Ballot for the Best Dramatic Presentation Long and Short Form Categories 

By Chris M. Barkley:

This year’s 80th World Science Fiction Convention, Chicon 8, will mark the twentieth presentation of the Best Dramatic Presentation Long and Short Form Hugo Award categories.

Last year around this time, I presented our loyal File 770 readers with a remarkable (and lengthy) plethora of choices for both awards. 

This year, on the day before the close of the nomination period, I have decided to change things up and offer readers a look at my BDP Long and Short Form nominees on my own ballot.

To be sure, I don’t think my roster of nominees is in any way definitive to anyone else except myself. Like many of you, I agonized over my choices because while I try to see (and in some cases, hear) the best of everything, my choices still barely scratch the surface of the number of Hugo Award worthy productions that saw the light of day last year.

This year’s list is divided into two; the first will cover eligible theatrical and streaming films that I feel should be firmly ensconced in the Long Form category, the second will cover choices from television or streaming series. 

(AND, as I do on an annual basis, IF an entire run of a mini-series or a season of a series is deserving of a nomination, I URGE you to do that, even at the expense of a slot for theatrical film. If that happens often enough, MAYBE the folks in the Business Meeting will seriously consider reformatting the BDP categories to primarily separate series from films, as I, and others, have advocated for in the past few years).

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form Nominations

• I’m Your Man – Netflix
• Zach Synder’s Justice League – Warner Brothers
• Foundation Season One – Apple +
• The Witcher Season 2 – Netflix
• The Matrix Resurrections – Village Roadshow/Warner Brothers

I went into the selection process thinking that I would not be nominating some of the heavy hitters in this category, namely Dune, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Don’t Look Up or The Suicide Squad. I would be incredibly surprised if one or more of those films didn‘t make the cut this year.

But my reasoning is this; some fans who take the time and effort to nominate seem to gravitate towards the large, tent pole franchise movies more often than not. In some years, I’m no different than anyone else but, I would say in the last decade or so, I tend to throw my support behind projects that rely more on excellent writing and acting than explosions and witticisms.

I’m Your Man

From the nominees listed above, if I’m Your Man (Written by Jan Schomburg and Maria Schrader, Directed by Maria Schrader) were nominated, I would have no problem whatsoever listing it as my first choice on the final ballot. 

Amanda Wakaruk and Olav Rokne over at the Hugo Book Club Blog reviewed I’m Your Man in their February 2nd post: “Please give the German android gigolo movie a Hugo nod”.

Alma (Maren Eggert), an archaeologist, is tasked with spending three weeks with an experimental android, Tom (Dan Stevens, speaking with a delightful German accent, IN GERMAN!) in order to beta test his interactions with other human beings. Tom has been programmed to be a perfect match with Alma, who, at the very outset of the film, is having second, third and fourth thoughts about the prospect of living with Tom for any amount of time.

I really can’t add anything else to the Hugo Book Club Blog’s stellar review except to say this: I’m Your Man is the sort of film the Hugo Awards should be honoring; a elegant, funny and dramatic story about the human, and android, hearts in conflict with themselves.

Justice League, Written by Chris Terrio, William Beall and  Zack Synder, Directed by Zack Synder.

The sheer will of millions of fans worldwide brought Zack Synder’s Justice League back from an early (and infamous) cinematic death. Clocking in at near four hours, this mammoth movie is the direct sequel to his previous film, 2016’s Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, as The Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) join forces to bring together Earth’s meta-humans to battle an alien menace. When they fail to do so, they desperately enact a very dangerous and unorthodox plan to revive their recently deceased colleague Superman (Henry Cavill), from the grave.

No one, least of all the executives at Warner Brothers, thought that the unfinished, grayscale version that only existed on Snyder’s personal harddrive would ever see the light of day. But, after a persistent and exhaustive campaign by many fans (myself included), the suits gave him $70 million to properly finish the film. The result was not only substantially different from the version substitute writer/director Joss Whedon delivered in 2017, it was vastly and infinitely superior as well. Bravo. 

Foundation, created by David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman.

Apple TV teased about its adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series for nearly a year before it premiered. I subscribed to Apple + specifically to see it. And I must say, I was not disappointed. 

Using Asimov’s story as a basic framework, writer/producer/director David S. Goyer (Dark City, Batman Begins, Terminator:Dark Fate) weaves a fascinating mosaic that shifts between the struggles of psycho-historian Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) and his persecuted followers as they try to stave off the total disintegration of the galactic empire and the various triads of cloned Emperors (Lee Pace, Terrence Mann and Cassian Bilton) who will stop at nothing to maintain their despotic grip on power.

Beyond these two white male leads, there is an astonishingly diverse cast, which includes two women of color, Lou Llobell as Gaal Dornick and Leah Harvey as Salvor Hardin, playing two of the main protagonists throughout the first season. 

The first season of Foundation is not only an excellent work of visual sf, it is also an outstanding work of television drama.

The Witcher Season 2, created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich.

Before 2019, I had never heard nor read any of the works of Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, who created the complex medieval world of “The Continent”. Here, magic is the key to power and monsters, both human and otherwise, roam the lands.

Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) is a Witcher, a magically enhanced warrior who patrols the Continent to eradicate both the savage beasts and anyone who might be controlling them.

In the second season of The Witcher, Geralt and his ward Princess Ciri (Freya Allan) seek shelter from both the oncoming winter season and the ongoing war between the kingdoms of Cintra and Nilfgaard. They go to Kaer Morhen, the home base of the remaining witchers, where they find they are not as safe as they thought from old rivalries and new dangers within the castle walls.

In the meantime, Geralt’s former companion Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) the mage, has inexplicably lost her powers and comes under the thrall of Voleth Meir (the Deathless Mother) a demonic entity that promises to restore her powers if she can capture Ciri, so she can possess her human body and return to the Continent. 

The entertainment landscape is filled with fantasy series that have pretenses of being epic, but The Witcher is one of the rare television projects that actually delivers the goods. And while Henry Cavill may be billed as the lead of the show, all of the supporting cast can match his brooding and charismatic presence, scene for scene. 

I think that The Witcher is easily the most Hugo-worthy fantasy series since the early seasons of Game of Thrones. Let’s not wait for the third season to put them on the final ballot.

The Matrix Resurrections, written by David Mitchell, Aleksander Hemon and Lana Wachowski, Directed by Lana Wachowski.

For a long time, it seemed as though The Matrix Resurrections would never happen. For many years after The Matrix Revolutions (2003), the series creators, Lilly and Lana Wachowski, repeatedly insisted that the adventures of Neo (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Carrie Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) had come to an end. 

While the immersive world (and a few of the surviving characters) lived on through officially sanctioned video games like The Matrix Online, studio executives at Warner Brothers mulled over the possibility of another film without the Wachowski’s involvement. Finally, Lana Wachowski agreed to write and direct a new film, but without any creative input from her sister Lilly, who begged off for personal reasons.

Neo and Trinity are alive, well thriving in The Matrix; he as the chief game developer and she as a wife, mother of two and a part time motorcycle mechanic. But, as before, Neo begins to suspect that there is something else just beyond his perception of reality. And when he is visited by a hacker named Bugs (Jessica Hardwick) and a digital reincarnation of Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen), Neo once again accepts the Red Pill and is thrown headlong into a battle that will determine the ultimate destiny of both the real and digital worlds.

Lana Wachowcki and her screenwriting collaborators, novelist David Mitchell (who wrote 2004 masterpiece, Cloud Atlas) and Aleksander Hemon (the 2002 novel, Nowhere Man), took pains not to make Resurrections a routine reboot or a remake of the first Matrix film, although there are certainly some winks and nods to the original if you look hard enough.

What the story really concerns itself with is about loss, remorse, memory and ultimately, redemption. The director is very familiar with these themes; she has gone on the record several times stating that the making of Resurrections was a form of therapy in dealing with the 2019 deaths of her parents, Ron and Lynne Wachowski and of another close (and undisclosed) friend around the same time. 

Personally, I think it’s a fine testament from a loving daughter and a good friend.

BDP Long Form: Honorable Mentions:

• Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings (Marvel Studios)
• Black Widow (Marvel Studios) 
• The Eternals (Marvel Studios)
• Spider-Man: No Way Home (Marvel Studios)
• The Suicide Squad  (DC/Warner Brothers)
• Dune (Warner Brothers)
• Don’t Look Up (Netflix) 
• Swan Song (Apple +)
• Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Columbia/Sony Pictures)
• The Green Knight (A24 Films)

 Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form Nominations

• “Koybashi Maru”; Star Trek Discovery, Season 4, Episode 1.
• “Cowboy Gospel”; Cowboy Bebop, Season 1, Episode 1
• “True”; The Nevers, Season 1, Episode 6
• “For All Time. Always.”; Loki, Season 1, Episode 6
• “One Lucky Day”; Squid Game, Season 1, Episode 9

Star Trek Discovery, Season Four, Episode 1, “Kobayashi Maru”, Written by Michelle Paradise & Jenny Lumet & Alex Kurtzman, Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi)

Star Trek: Discovery has only a single BDP Hugo Award nomination in its previous three years of eligibility. I’m hoping that the first episode of their fourth season,”Kobayashi Maru” (Written by Michelle Paradise & Jenny Lumet & Alex Kurtzman, Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi) will nab one this year.

When Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the Discovery are sent to aid a deep space base in distress, she and the crew are confronted with tough choices and imminent peril as they try to rescue the survivors of the disaster. 

Meanwhile, her partner Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) is faced with a more dire situation; his homeworld of Kwejian is engulfed in a strange energy anomaly that ultimately destroys the planet and nearly kills him as well. 

These two incidents set up a simmering, season-long clash between Michael and Booker, as she tries to find and contact the entities that created the anomaly, and he seeks to destroy it before it causes another calamity. 

Cowboy Bebop, Season 1, Episode 1, “Cowboy Gospel”, Written by Christopher Yost, Directed by Alex Garcia Lopez. 

Netflix’s live action adaptation of the popular Japanese anime series Cowboy Bebop was an eye popping surprise to me, since I was totally unacquainted with the story and characters. And that may have been a factor in why I like it because all of the criticisms I read about it after it dropped on Netflix, loudly complained about how unfaithful it was to the source material. 

Spike Spiegel (John Cho) and Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir) are rough and tumble interplanetary bounty hunters, but most of the time, they seem to be down on their luck as well. After botching a job that leaves a casino in shambles and them in more debt than ever, they try for a bigger, easier score, a fugitive couple on the run, to get them out of the hole. 

Needless to say, their quarry turns out to be more clever than they thought and unfortunately, for them, a rival bounty hunter, Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda), is also after them. And when all of the involved parties finally cross paths, Spike and Jet’s problems are just starting.

The pilot for Cowboy Bebop, “Cowboy Gospel” (Written by Christopher Yost and Directed by Alex Garcia Lopez), has EVERYTHING I want in a tv show; great acting, characters with hidden motives, snappy, snarky dialog and it’s all backed up with great action, a smashing good acid jazz score, vivid graphics and production design to kill for (literally). 

It’s too bad Netflix canceled it after one season, though I imagine that fans of the original series were hoisting their beverages of choice in the air when they heard the news. To hell with all of them; give Cowboy Bebop a Hugo nomination and the last laugh.

The Nevers, Episode 6, “True”, Written by Jane Espenson and Directed by Zetna Fuentes.

The Nevers, the very last project that disgraced creator/writer Joss Whedon has worked on, took me by surprise. Some may think that his well documented toxic behavior might automatically disqualify this particular work from consideration. And they’re all quite wrong! 

Whedon was fired during the latter portion of the production of the first six episodes and the project was turned over to veteran writer/producer Jane Espenson. She won Hugo Awards for her work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BDP Short Form,“Conversations With Dead People” 2003) and Game of Thrones (BDP Long Form, writing Episode 6, “A Golden Crown).

And look, I get it, many of you don’t want to give Joss Whedon another shot at a Hugo Award. Here’s an alternative course of action; nominate the last episode of the first half of season one, “True”.

On a smoggy London morning in 1896, a strange aircraft in distress is spotted overhead, dispensing a strange substance that gives those who are directly exposed to it extraordinary abilities.

After several years, “The Touched” (as they are called), are both reviled and viewed with suspicion by the public and the government as well. St. Romaulda’s Orphanage has been converted into an urban sanctuary for them, established by two “touched” compatriots, Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) and Pennace Adair (Ann Skelly). When the duo help a young woman escape a band of thugs from being kidnapped, it sets off a chain of events that soon reveal a deadly conspiracy that spans the full length of British society.

Written by Jane Espenson and directed by Zetna Fuentes, “True” reveals the true origins of Amalia True (not her real name), where she really came from (not from Leeds, to be sure) and what her real mission is (to save the WORLD, silly).

Since The Nevers is set in the Victorian Age, I was delighted to see that this series is fully and richly immersed in a steampunk ambiance, in its writing, acting and production design.

The production of Season One was suspended after the first six episodes were completed.

Naturally, I can’t wait for the next six episodes to drop. But I’ll have to, Damn it!

Loki, Episode 6, “For All Time. Always.”, Written by Michael Waldron & Eric Martin, Directed by Kate Herron.

Marvel’s Loki mini-series debuted in the summer of 2021, promising a new and mind blowing exploration into some of the undiscovered corners of the Marvel Universe that would change the course of all of the tales that soon follow.

Spoiler Alert: THEY WERE NOT KIDDING!

As many of you may know by now, a variant of the Asgardian god Loki (Tom Hiddleston), escaped the custody of the 2012 Avengers with the Space Stone during the 2024 Avengers time heist of the Infinity Stones in their attempt to reverse the universe shattering decimation caused Thanos. That part of the story eventually works out. But…

The amoral variant of Loki is easily captured by the Time Variance Authority because his escape has created an unauthorized timeline. The TVA usually disposes of the timeline and anything that may have been created from it. 

But Loki’s capture has come to the attention of TVA agent Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson), who is obsessed with the lives of Loki and his variants. Mobius arranges to spare Loki’s life in exchange for his help hunting down a dangerous variant who is eliminating TVA agents across all of the time lines.

As keen that he is to stay alive, Loki begins to question everything about his mission and the TVA itself when he finds out, to his dismay, that their quarry is another variant of himself (Sophia Di Martino). 

And then, things get really CRAZY!  

If you love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Loki is required watching because everything that came afterwards, from the recently released Spider-Man: No Way Home and the upcoming Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness and beyond, stems from the monumental final episode, “For All Time. Always”,which  brings both variants of Loki face to face with the founder of the TVA, Kang (Jonathan Majors), who presents them with a terrible set of choices that may decide the fate of all of the universes. 

Brilliantly written, staged and acted, I have no doubt that the Emmy Awards will honor this series (as they did with WandaVision) at their ceremonies later this year. We in sf fandom need not wait as long as they do.  

Squid Game Episode Nine, “One Lucky Day”. Written and Directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk.

When Netflix released the South Korean drama Squid Game last September, no one could have predicted what a stunning, worldwide success it would become. This dystopian nightmare touched a raw nerve with nearly everyone who saw it, including me. If my Long Form nomination dance card hadn’t been filled to the brim already, I would have nominated all nine episodes. 

Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) is an unemployed, divorced father who has been forced to live with his elderly mother. What’s worse is that he’s a compulsive gambler and is deeply indebted to some local loan sharks who are getting very impatient with his pathetic excuses for not paying.

A chance encounter with a stranger in a subway leads to a startling proposition; play a series of children’s games against 455 other anonymous players and he will win an enormous, life-changing sum of cash. 

After being drugged, kidnapped and taken to an undisclosed location, Gi-hun awakes to find out that he is now involved in a cruel and unusual survival contest, where if you lose any of the sadistic games, you will lose your life as well.

Some may argue that this sort of drama series has no place on the Hugo Awards ballot. I would certainly beg to differ; other cinematic dystopian works such as Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1972), Soylent Green (1973), A Boy and His Dog (1974), The Road Warrior (1982), WarGames (1984) and Brazil (1985) were all nominated for the Best Dramatic Presentation Award. And some will note that several of these productions won it as well.

To me, Squid Game clearly is a brutal and timely continuation of the examination of how, after a few unfortunate events, how easily people can easily be stripped of their empathy and humanity and how hard it is to regain any semblance of it after surviving such an ordeal.

I once wrote on Facebook recently that watching the best South Korean dramas is like having various organs removed from your body without anesthetic, and then having you watch helplessly as merciless gangsters sell your vital organs on the street to the highest bidder. 

And I have no doubt that some industrious South Korean production company is hard at work on this very scenario, right now…

BDP Short Form and Series: Honorable Mentions:

• WandaVision (Marvel Studios, 6 Episodes)
• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Marvel Studios, 6 Episodes)
• Loki (Marvel Studios, 5 Other Episodes)
• What If… (Marvel Studios, 9 Episodes)
• Hawkeye (Marvel Studios, 6 Episodes)
• Star Trek: Discovery (CBS, Paramount +, 6 Other Eligible Episodes)
• The Expanse (Amazon, 5 Eligible Episodes)
• Snowpiercer Season 2 (CJ Entertainment/TNT, 10 Episodes)
• The Book of Boba Fett (Lucasfilm/Disney +, 1 Eligible Episode)
• Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Lucasfilm/Disney, 16 Episodes)
• Midnight Mass (Netflix, 7 Episodes)
• Resident Alien Season 1 SyFy/Amblin, (10 Episodes)
• The Underground Railroad (Amazon, 10 Episodes)
• Y, The Last Man (Hulu/FX, 10 Episodes)
• Station Eleven (HBO MAX, 7 Eligible Episodes)
• Invasion (Apple +, 10 Episodes)

Top Recommendations for the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation,

Part Two – Stand Alone Films

By Chris M. Barkley:  Decisions, decisions, decisions…and time is running out.

In Part One of my Recommendations for the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, I listed a relatively INSANE number of television series that were eligible in our pandemic year of 2020.

While the Covid-19 pandemic may have been box office poison (literally) for theater owners, movie lovers who were mostly confined to their homes had plenty of options, thanks to the abundance of premium and streaming channels eager to serve (and collect cold hard cash from) a captive audience.

But theaters aren’t down for the count just yet; with several vaccines in circulation and the infection rates projected to drop precipitously by the end of the year, I have no doubt whatsoever that people (like myself) who are starving for a complete spectrum of theatrical experiences are definitely going out when it’s safe and that going to the movies will be at the top of nearly everyone’s to do list.

And thankfully, some of the highly-anticipated films postponed from last year will make their big screen debuts in 2021; Denis Villenueve’s adaptation of Dune, Marvel’s Black Widow, Morbius, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Shang-Chi, A Quiet Place Part II, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, DC’s Suicide Squad sequel and the fourth film in The Matrix series are on the schedule.

But, before I reveal my BDP Hugo Nomination Ballot choices, let’s contemplate these ten outstanding films from 2020.

The Invisible Man (Blumhouse Productions/Universal,124 minutes), with Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodger, Storm Reid, Harriet Dyer, Michael Dorman and. Written and Directed by Leigh Whannell based on H.G. Wells novel The Invisible Man.

One of the oldest storytelling tropes in the books is throwing an entirely innocent person into an impossible pit of problems and seeing if they can emerge from the ordeal relatively intact.

In this modern retelling of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) barely escapes from an abusive partner Adrian (Oliver Jackson- Cohen). And just when she thinks she’s quite safe, Cecilia is beset by the odd feeling she is being observed and other strange occurrences. And by the time figures out she’s being stalked by an invisible tormentor, her family, friends and most notably the police, think she has most definitely lost her mind.

This movie has everything going for it, a crackling script full of mayhem, murder and suspense, some impeccable direction and special effects and some superb acting from the lead actors, Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodger,  Harriet Dyer, Michael Dorman and Storm Reid. Somewhere, Alfred Hitchcock is smiling because this is precisely the sort of film he would make if he were around today. 

Tenet (Warner Brothers, 150 minutes), with John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Dibecki, Micael Caine and Kenneth Branagh. Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan.

After an extraction mission in Ukraine goes disastrously sideways, an unnamed CIA field operative (John David Washington) is recruited into a mysterious organization called TENET, which is (seemingly) dedicated to looking into strange anomalies. “The Protagonist’s” first case is to investigate who is receiving weapons being sent back through time from the future (through a process called “inverted entropy”). His “antagonist” is Andrei Sator, a ruthless Russian arms dealer, whose estranged wife Kat, (Elizabeth Dibecki) could hold the key to destroying his empire.

The plot description I outlined above is far, FAR more complex than I can possibly do justice to. What makes Tenet a fantastic film is that it is not only a “anti-James Bond” film, it is also essentially an “anti-time travel” tale as well, as it perfectly subverts genre tropes by setting a whole new set of cinematic rules. This high octane, mind bending thrill ride is certainly the equal of (or BETTER) than Inception, Christopher Nolan’s 2010 BDP Long Form Hugo winner.

YES, Christopher Nolan is screwing around with our heads again and I am LOVING every moment of it.

The Old Guard (Netflix, 125 Minutes) with Charlize Theron, Kiki Layne, Marwan Kenzari, Matthias Schoenaerts, Luca Marinelli, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Harry Melling. Written by Greg Rucka, based on The Old Guard by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernández, Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood.

“Forever Is Harder Than It Looks” is the promotional tagline of The Old Guard, and a brilliantly realized adaptation of  Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernándezo’s graphic novel.  If you think immortal beings have it easy, this film disabuses you of that notion from its bloody and brutal start..

Andromache of Scythia (Charlize Theron) and her crew of deadly mercenaries, Booker, Joe, and Nicky (Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli are quick healing immortals who live in the shadows. Their activities and remarkable regenerative powers come to the attention of Merrick (Harry Melling), the head of a pharmaceutical firm who wants to capture and experiment on them. Things become even more complicated when they have to take a newly emerged immortal Nile (Kiki Layne) under their protection while constantly on the run from Merrick’s forces.

What makes The Old Guard a cut above other entries in this genre is not the explosive action sequences (which it has aplenty), but an unusual amount of emotional heft (mostly delivered by the immortals in the cast) that other films are sadly lacking. This film demands that you sit up and pay attention to their plight and that is rare and noteworthy.

Wonder Woman 1984 (Warner Brothers, 151 Minutes) with Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright and Connie Neilsen. Written by Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham, based on Wonder Woman by William Moulton Marston. Directed by Patty Jenkins.

It distresses me no end when armchair film critics and film fans on social media go out of their way to lambast a popular film when they have no idea how films are actually made.

Wonder Woman may have been created by psychologist William Moulton Marston in 1941, but today this comic book icon is the sole intellectual property of DC Comics and Warner Brothers. They, and corporations like them, are actually run by lawyers, agents, accountants and marketing drones, not creative artists.

And since they value it as a very valuable commodity, it took decades for a theatrical Wonder Woman film to be developed and made. And by an incredible stroke of good luck, they chose a gifted director, Patty Jenkins, to bring Wonder Woman to the big screen and grossing over $820 million dollars at the box office.

But Jenkins did not have total creative control of the first film; late in the filming, executives did think very much of the more subtle (and decidedly non-violent) ending she and the screenwriters came up with. Instead, they forced her to film a more bombastic endgame, figuring that audiences would just love a Die Hard-like finish.

Segue to filming the sequel; when Jenkins presented the new screenplay, co-written with Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham, the lengthy opening sequence featured a young Diana being taught an important lesson by her mother Hippolyta (Connie Neilsen) and aunt Antiope (Robin Wright). When the studio executives gave her notes indicating that that the sequence was unnecessary, Jenkins, having been burned once before, drew a line in the sand and said that the sequence was going to be done or she wouldn’t be doing this project. The executives, fearing a fan backlash and no 2020 summer tentpole film to present backed down.

Wonder Woman 1984 finds Diana Price (Gal Gadot) still mourning for her lost love, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) who sacrificed himself during the climactic battle of the first film. A chance encounter with an ancient artifact seemingly revives Trevor from the dead and attracts the attention of a fellow scientist Roberta Minerva (Kristen Wiig) and a power mad businessman Max Lord (Pedro Pascal) whose plans may bring on an apocalyptic event…

While the film itself received decidedly mixed reviews from film critics, a large number of fans were calling it a complete and utter failure. (As of this writing, WW1984 is rated  5.4/10 on IMDb, 59% on Rotten Tomatoes, 60% on MetaCritic and 67% on Google.com)

As for myself, I loved it and think it is quite as Hugo worthy as its predecessor. And yes, I plan on buying the Blu-Ray edition when it comes out at the end of the month. Enough said.

Palm Springs (Limelight Productions, 90 Minutes) with Christin Miloti, Andy Samberg, J.K. Simmons, Peter Gallagher, Tyler Hoechlin and Meredith Hagner. Written by Andy Siaraand Max Barbakow, Directed by Max Barbakow.

When I first heard about the buzz being generated by time loop comedy Palm Springs at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020, I admit I rolled my eyes a little at the prospect. Because these tales of repeated time travel paradox have become its own sub-genre since 1993’s Groundhog’s Day and I can only account for a handful which are of any merit (Looper, The Edge of Tomorrow, Interstellar and Source Code being my primary choices on the subject.)

I also admit that I am not really a fan of Andy Samberg’s work as an actor, at least until I saw Palm Springs. Samberg plays Nyles, a wedding guest who became trapped in a time loop. When he starts flirting with the bride’s troubled sister, Sarah (Christin Miloti), she returns his interest. But their romantic interlude is interrupted when a mysterious stranger named Roy (J. K. Simmons) suddenly and savagely attacks Myles and Sarah finds herself trapped in the loop as well.

Besides being an outstanding comedy, Palm Springs is also an introspective character study of three people trapped in a circumstance that is seeming out of their control and mediation on love, relationships and drinking WAY too much alcohol at weddings. And seeing that it clocks in at ninety minutes, it’s one of the rare feature films these days that can safely be nominated in the Short Form category.

Soul (Pixar/Walt Disney, 101 Minutes) with Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Angela Bassett, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Questlove, Alice Braga and Phylicia Rashad. Music by Trent Reznor, Atticus Finch and Jon Batiste. Written by Pete Docter, Mike Jones and Kemp Powers, Directed by Pete Docter.

Just when you think the geniuses at Pixar cannot possibly outdo themselves, they damned well do it AGAIN.

Joe Gardner (Jamir Foxx) a middle aged, middle grade music teacher in New York
City is still dreaming of scoring his big break as a jazz musician. When his friend Lamont (Questlove) gets him an audition to play with the great contemporary jazz player Dorothea Williams, he impresses her with his piano prowess and gets a gig playing in her band. Unfortunately for Joe, he’s so excited that falls down a manhole and finds himself struggling to escape “the Great Beyond”, where all souls migrate to after death. With the help of 22 (Tina Fey), a pesky proto-soul trying to figure out her path in the universe, Joe just may make it back to Earth in time for his gig…

If I were going to introduce a child to a film that might instill a love of music, especially an enduring art form like jazz, I would definitely make sure they saw Soul (SORRY, Not Sorry, La La Land!). The ambient score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Finch combined with the original songs by jazz composer Jon Batiste are perfectly bound together. I can say without any hesitation at all that Soul is probably the front runner to be nominated and win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.  

And the voice casting is spot on and the plot is light, airy, and not terribly scary, which makes it perfectly suitable for kids and the Hugo Awards final ballot as well.     

The Midnight Sky (Netflix/Smokehouse Pictures, 118 Minutes), with George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo , Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir, Tiffany Boone and Caoilinn Springall. Screenplay by Mark L. Smith, Directed by George Clooney.

The Midnight Sky was yet another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic, having a limited theatrical release last December followed by a quick turnaround to Netflix shortly thereafter. Almost immediately the word spread pretty quickly that it was either too slow, too episodic or too depressing. Of course, being the contrarian I am, I say nonsense.

George Clooney plays Augustine Lofthouse, a seriously ill scientist who is on his own after an Arctic research station is abandoned in the wake of an unnamed ecological calamity sweeping the Earth. He has given himself the task of making contact and warning off the Aether, a manned spacecraft with a crew returning from a successful mission from Jupiter. His task is complicated when he finds himself caring for a little girl who was supposed to have been evacuated earlier.

Meanwhile, aboard the Aether, the crew (Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo , Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir and Tiffany Boone) are facing their own set of problems; despite their best efforts they have lost contact with Earth and have an unexpected course correction that takes their ship into an dangerous and uncharted section of the solar system. 

Eventually, the story of these characters come together towards the end of this beautiful and poignant film which, through no fault of its own,had the bad timing to come out during a worldwide pandemic. Eventually, I hope The Midnight Sky will eventually find an audience that will appreciate it for what it is, a soulful parable about the endurance of the human spirit under crushing circumstances.

Sputnik (Vodorod Pictures/Sony Pictures/Hulu, 113 Minutes), with Oksana Akinshina, Pyotr Fyodorov, Fyodor Bondarchuk and Anton Vasiliev. Written by Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev, Directed by Egor Abramenko.

While I have nothing but scorn and contempt for the political situation in Russia, I can easily and eagerly praise one of their horror films, which is one of the best genre films released in 2020.

Set in 1983, a Soviet space mission ends tragically when one cosmonaut is killed and another, Konstantin (Pyotr Fyodorov), suffers a traumatic injury. Quarantined at a remote military base, he is examined at length by Tatyana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina), a controversial neurophysiologist brought in by the base commander, Colonel Semiradov (Fyodor Bondarchuk).

Klimova soon finds out her true mission is to study and eventually find a way to control an alien creature inhabiting Konstantin’s body so the military can deploy it as a biological weapon. But Konstantin, and the creature, have other plans…

I haven’t watched very many foreign sf films until this past year and I more or less picked Sputnik out of the cornucopia of genre films made available on various streaming services. And I was quite surprised at how tightly scripted, well acted and directed Sputnik is. And on top of that, the production design, practical and visual effects are the equal of any other film made today. Sputnik deserves your attention as a potential Hugo nominee this year.

Possessor (Elevation Pictures, 104 Minutes) with Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Rossif Sutherland, Tuppence Middleton, Sean Bean and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Written and Directed by Brandon Cronenberg.

One of the last movies I came across that really intrigued me was Possessor, which turned up on the Thrilllist.com and the Film School Rejects websites as highly recommended.

The setup is perfectly twisted; Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) may seem like a divorced woman who still has some feelings for her ex-husband Michael (Rossif Sutherland) and her adorable son Ira (Gage Graham-Arbuthnot), but you would be dead wrong, in every sense of the word.

Vos is a cold blooded assassin who employs a high tech trick; she has her personality electronically inserted into a person who has access to the intended target who then kills and conviently commits suicide or is killed by the police. And Vos is pretty good at her job until she gradually starts losing control of her latest host, Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott), the fiance of Ava Parse (Tuppence Middleton). Vos is possessing him in order to kill Ava and her father John (Sean Bean) in a murderous power grab by their board of directors.

As Vos spirals out of control, she finds herself in a constant battle against her increasingly fragmented memories and personality versus Tate’s traumatized and confused persona.

Possessor is the second feature film of Brandon Cronenberg, the son of the acclaimed Canadian director (and occasional actor) David Cronenberg. And from the looks of this film, we can see that the creative apple of this family fell VERY close to the trunk of the tree. If anything, the younger Cronenberg has taken his father’s themes of body horror, self loathing, sexuality and questions of personal identity to the Nth degree. I am not very fond of horror movies on the whole but I must say that I will be very, VERY interested in seeing his next film project.

Hamilton (5000 Broadway Productions/Walt Disney, 160 Minutes) with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom, Jr., Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Daveed Diggs, Christopher Jackson, Jonathan Groff, Anthony Ramos Okieriete Onaodowan and Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy. Written and Composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Directed by Thomas Kail.

And finally, we have Hamilton.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s extraordinary musical dramatizing the life and times of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton is an incredible marriage of song, story and history.

I am not here to sell you on how brilliant the melding of hip hop, rap and traditional Broadway into the score is. Or how great the costuming, lighting, choreography and production design are. Nor am I going to tell you what this rendition of historical events is even more potent and heart rending as Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards classic 1776. 

(But, C’MON MAN; Daveed Digg’s electrifying performance in the double role of the Marquis de Lafayette AND Thomas Jefferson alone is worth a Hugo nomination. But, I digress…)

But what I am telling you is that when a cast made of mostly people of color portray some of the most famous figures in American history not only gives a new perspective on how troubled America’s origins (and its subsequent action since then) are, it also is an infectious and energetic retelling that will inspire theater goers AND film fans for generations to come.

And through that particular lens I proclaim that this production of Hamilton most DEFINITELY qualifies as a tale of alternative history.

I am nominating Hamilton for a Hugo Award in the Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form category.

Anyone want to duel about it?

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Stand Alone Films: Honorable Mentions

• The Vast of Night
• Bird of Prey OR the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn

Other Eligible 2020 Films of Note

• Mulan (Walt Disney/Good Fear Productions)
• Freaky (Universal/Blumhouse)
• Onward ( Pixar/Walt Disney)
• The Witches (HBO Max/Warner Brothers)
• Vivarium (XYZ Films/Fantastic Films)
• Time To Hunt (Netflix)
• Archive (Vertical Entertainment)
• Synchronic (XYZ Films)
• Love and Monsters (Paramount)
• Bill and Ted Face the Music (Orion/United Artists)
• Save Yourselves (Bleecker Street)
• Spontaneous (Paramount)
• Sea Fever (Signature Entertainment)

After months of watching and research, filling in the ten slots on my Hugo Nomination Ballot was hard. In fact, the selection process was so tough, I’m not quite sure I’ve made my final choices. But, as of Sunday evening, I chose these productions as my nominees in the Best Dramatic Presentation categories:

Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form Nominees

1. Dark – Season Three
2. Lovecraft Country
3. Tenet
4. The Midnight Sun
5. Hamilton

Best Dramatic Presentation – Short Form

1. Palm Springs
2. Star Trek Discovery – Terra Firma Parts 1 & 2
3. The Mandalorian – “Chapter 15: The Believer” with “Chapter 16: The Rescue”
4. Soul
5. Star Trek: Picard – Episodes 9 & 10 (“Broken Pieces”and “Et in Arcadia Ego”).

To those of you who have read both of these columns, I hope you have found the information and opinions I have presented here helpful and informative. I urge everyone to nominate and submit their favorite books, stories, non-fiction works, films, tv shows and other dramatic works by the upcoming deadline, which is 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (PDT) on Thursday, March 19, 2021.

Good Luck choosing!

Top Recommendations for the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Part One

By Chris M. Barkley: The end of January marked the beginning of the nomination period for the 2021 Hugo Awards, which will remain open until March 19th at Midnight (Pacific Daylight Time).

We all continue to slog through and survive the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021 (so far) by wearing a mask in public, practicing social distancing, staying out of theaters and mostly sheltering in place. 

And the thing that REALLY helped us all from going mad in confinement was the incredible cornucopia of films, streaming series and special events that could have easily filled a dozen Best Dramatic Presentation Long and Short Form ballots this year.

In a perfect world, all of these nominees would be on the ballot. But, alas, we are limited by the number of slots available to fill in.

My criteria for a work being “Hugo Worthy” is obviously going to differ from yours. Also, I fully recognize that what I might consider the cream of the crop does not even begin to scratch the surface of other dramatic works; the plays, short videos and music albums that first saw the light of day in 2020. 

At this point, I’d like to climb up on my soapbox and complain, LOUDLY, about the inequities of the Best Dramatic Presentation split, which, ironically, I and several others originally proposed at the Aussiecon 3 World Science Fiction Society Business Meeting in 1999 and helped along to its inauguration at Torcon III in 2003. 

Here is the current wording of the Best Dramatic Presentation in the WSFS Constitution:

3.3.8: Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. Any theatrical feature or other production, with a complete running time of more than 90 minutes, in any medium of dramatized science fiction, fantasy or related subjects that has been publicly presented for the first time in its present dramatic form during the previous calendar year. 

3.3.9: Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. Any television program or other production, with a complete running time of 90 minutes or less, in any medium of dramatized science fiction, fantasy or related subjects that has been publicly presented for the first time in its present dramatic form during the previous calendar year.   

To the casual observer, this seems like an excellent division that could neatly separate most theatrical movies from television episodes, which for the most part it did during the first decade of its existence.

But the number of fantasy, horror and sf projects in every medium has grown exponentially over the past two decades. Although several ideas about amending the BDP Hugo categories have been explored and proposed in the past few years, my good friend and (legendary) UK fan, Vincent Docherty, came up with what we thought was a serviceable solution several years ago. After consulting with Mr. Docherty, I made a few slight changes in the original proposal and offer them here publicly for the first time:

Best Dramatic Presentation – Feature Film:  Any theatrical, feature length film for screening, television, the internet or any other source, in any medium of dramatized science fiction, fantasy or related subjects that has been publicly presented for the first time in its present dramatic form during the previous calendar year. 

Best Dramatic Presentation – Episodic Series: Any continuing television series, presented on television, the internet or any other source, in any medium of dramatized science fiction, fantasy or related subjects that has been publicly presented for the first time in its present dramatic form during the previous calendar year. 

Best Dramatic Presentation –  Other Forms: Any visual program OR any other media production, which is neither a stand alone feature film or a television series, in any medium of dramatized science fiction, fantasy or related subjects that has been publicly presented for the first time in its present dramatic form during the previous calendar year. 

I think this proposal easily separates movies, television series and individual episodes of anthology series, plays, music albums and practically any other qualifying works. Whether or not this, or anything like it, will ever be implemented will be up to the members of the WSFS Business Meeting. 

One of the continuing pet peeves I have had with Hugo voters over the past few years is that they still tend to nominate individual episodes of a miniseries or a continuing series instead of nominating the whole work. I was especially disappointed when HBO’s Watchmen and The Mandalorian, which were both obviously serial stories, had individual episodes nominated and were not nominated on the whole as a series as they should have been. As a result, neither project won Hugo Awards.

In the capsule reviews I am offering below, I have separated the feature films (which will be presented in Part Two of this column) from the ongoing series. And while I will offer some suggested episodes for individual honors, I also heartily opine that each should be nominated in the Long Form category, too.  (Happily climbs off the soapbox…)

So, let’s move on to this year’s prospective nominees…

[Capsule reviews begin after the jump.]

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