Best of the Year/Decade

For some crazy reason I spend a couple of hours compiling these lists.

Here’s my ranking of all the movies I saw last year, with the rating I gave them.

Best of 2019

1. Blinded by the Light – 10
2. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood – 9
3. Parasite - 9
4. Richard Jewell – 9
5. Wild Rose - 9
6. Bombshell - 9
7. Dark Waters – 9
8. Ford v Ferrari – 9
9. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood – 9
10. Her Smell – 9

Western Stars – 9

Terminator:  Dark Fate – 8

Black and Blue - 8

Long Shot - 8

Marriage Story – 8

Late Night – 8

Joker – 8

Eighth Grade - 8

Yesterday - 7

Rocketman - 7

Us – 7

The Irishman – 7

Ad Astra - 7

Knives Out – 7

Queen and Slim - 6

Uncut Gems - 6

Booksmart – 6

John Wick 3 – Parabellum – 1

Documentaries

Don’t F**k with Cats-10
Free Solo – 10
Leaving Neverland - 10
Hitsville:  The Making of Motown - 10
Linda Ronstadt:  The Sound of My Voice – 10
Inventor:  Theranos – 10
Apollo 11 - 10
The Soundtrack of Our Life:  Clive Davis – 10
The Many Lives of Nick Buoniconti - 10
Satan and Adam – 10
Bathtubs over Broadway – 10
Knock Down the House – 9
The Apollo – 8

The Ozzies

Best Picture – Blinded by the Light

Best Actor – Paul Walter Hauser in Richard Jewell

Best Actress – Charlize Theron in Bombshell

Best Supporting Actor – Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time …in Hollywood

Best Supporting Actress – Kathy Bates in Richard Jewell

Best Director – Quentin Tarantino – Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood

Best Documentary – Don’t F**k with Cats (Netflix)

The Lizzies

Best TV Show – The OA

Best Actor – Mahershala Ali in True Detective

Best Actress – Jodie Comer in Killing Eve

Best Supporting Actor – Tony Shaloub in the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Best Supporting Actress – Nina Arianda in Goliath

Bonus Feature

Here’s my friend David Jones’ 2019 favorites. 

He is the only one I know who loves this shit as much as I do:

1. Don’t F**k with Cats
2. Parasite
3. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
4. Marriage Story
5. Ford v. Ferrari
6. Toy Story 4
7. Gloria Bell
8. Uncut Gems
9. My Name is Dolemite 
10. Blinded by the Light

Which brings me to my purely personal best of the decade, in only approximate order.  These are the ones that stuck with me the most.  

The Best of the Decade

Movies:

1. Mad Max:  Fury Road
2. Mission Impossible:  Fallout
3. Arrival
4. The Social Network
5. I, Tonya
6. Inception
7. Blinded by the Light
8. Spotlight
9. The Imitation Game
10. Whiplash
11. The Wolf of Wall Street
12. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
13. The Dark Knight Rises
14. Get Out
15. Zero Dark Thirty

Bonus Feature – The David Jones Top 10

1. Gravity
2. The Social Network
3. Roma
4. Her
5. The Revenant
6. Don’t F**k with Cats
7. The Shape of Water
8. Winter’s Bone
9. Manchester By the Sea
10. Mad Max:  Fury Road

My Favorite Performances of the Decade:

Lead:

Leonardo Di Caprio in The Wolf of Wall Street

Amy Adams In Arrival

Supporting:

Paul Walter Hauser In I,Tonya

Rebecca Ferguson in 2 Mission Impossible’s.

Favorite Documentaries

1. Stories We Tell
2. Three Identical Strangers
3. Tim’s Vermeer
4. Hot Coffee
5. George Harrison – Living in the Material World
6. Mea Maxima Culpa – Silence in the House of God
7. Searching for Sugar Man
8. Requiem For the Dead:  American Spring 2014
9. Don’t F**k with Cats
10. Going Clear:  Scientology and the Prison of Belief
11. Free Solo

My top 20 Favorite TV Shows

1. Rectify
2. Fargo
3. The Good Wife
4. The OA
5. Catastrophe
6. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
7. True Detective
8. The Sinner
9. The Newsroom
10. Veep
11. Glee
12. Billions
13. The Good Place
14. Late Night with Seth Meyers
15. Silicon Valley
16. Real Time with Bill Maher
17. Treme
18. Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel
19. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
20. You're the Worst

My Favorite TV Performances:

Lead:

Jodie Comer in Killing Eve

Billy Bob Thornton in Fargo

Supporting:

Tony Shaloub in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Maggie Siff in Billions

As Gene and Roger used to say, “See you at the Movies.”

At the Cinema - April/May 2019

Rocketman – 7

Three things had me really looking forward to this movie.  First, the fact that I’ve been an Elton John fan as long as he’s been around.  Secondly the success of Bohemian Rhapsody, the movie it will be inevitably compared to, produced by the same filmakers and director.  Third, the rapturous reviews the movie has gotten.  My thinking was that they did so well with the music of Queen, wait until they get a hold of the much thicker Elton John songbook.

Not so fast Rocketman.  Don’t shoot me, (I’m only the piano player) but if you’re doing a movie of a group with 10 strong songs, it’s pretty easy.  When an artist has 30 classics, fans are going to be disappointed at what’s left out.  That problem is enhanced when you decide to shoot a musical My Fair Lady-style where the production numbers come out of nowhere and folks are breaking into song and dance, sometimes an extremely lengthy song and dance.  Let’s just say I was surprised to find myself on Broadway, and I love Broadway.

Some of these are some good “musical” moments, but much better are the performance numbers.  Elton sitting down at the piano and putting Bernie Taupin’s words to “Your Song” to music is a great scene.  The first American show at The Troubadour in LA is a knockout.  Singing “Rocketman” underwater?  Well, the pool floor should have been rocks to complete the message (rock bottom - get it?) 

The drama part of the movie is the usual rock and roll star descent into sex, drugs, and alcohol, and the sex in this case is of the fairly graphic gay variety.  Taron Egerton is beyond spectacular as Elton, and there’s been a lot of coverage of Elton’s involvement and support of Taron.  And that may just be the problem here.  Maybe Elton was too involved as the executive producer.  He doesn’t sanitize it, but the narrative structure (an AA meeting) is just irritating and unnecessary.  No, I didn’t want a concert film, but some of the songs like “Candle in the Wind” left out?  How do you leave that out of this story?  And changing a key word in “Rocketman?” Inexcusable.  They appeared to modify the costumes, but I never really cared about what Elton was wearing.  I cared about what he was singing.  That would have stood on its own pretty well. That perfect rock biography still hasn't been made.

Long Shot – 8

This is a good movie that could have been great.  All that was needed was a believable leading man.  Charlize Theron can do anything, including playing a woman running for President so well, that by the end of the movie you’ll wish that she actually was running.  Her comedic timing is flawless, her scenes are riveting, and she happens to be gorgeous, in case you hadn’t noticed.

Then there’s Seth Rogen who’s the most unlikely leading man in the history of the movies.  Charlize is at one end of the charisma scale, and he’s at the opposite end.  Even though he’s actually improved somewhat as an actor, there’s not a moment in this movie that anyone could believe that she would find him attractive.  It’s about as believable as Olivia Newton-John calling me.  Or Charlize.

The storyline parallels the election plot of this year’s “Billions” in that the man (Rogen, Giamatti) has committed sexual taboos that it would be better not to have to explain to an electorate.  It’s a great script, well directed, and could’ve been a classic, ‘cept for that one thing.  As a matter of fact it even shares that “beauty and the beast” aspect with Billions.  Believe it, or don’t.  I didn’t.

Booksmart – 6

Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut does not include me in its target market.  I knew that going in.  But, the reviews were laudatory, so I fell for them.  There were a few laughs, and the two lead actresses are breezy and competent, but the movie never engaged for me.  This was supposed to the next great high school comedy, but much like last year’s “Edge of Seventeen,” it was not close.  From the opening scenes of the last day of high school, which only seemed to lack John Belushi shouting out “food fight,” to the party scenes, this movie was just disheartening. Is this really high school today?

The saddest part was probably during the party when the two friends have an argument, and the bystanders whip out their cell phones to film the altercation.  That’s what we’ve come to.  The movie gets better as it moves along, but still just not worth the investment.  Blech.

John Wick 3 Parabellum – 1

The most ridiculous part of action movies that has always bugged me is that the hero, from James Bond to John Wick is always in a suit.  No matter how bad the fight gets, no one takes their coat off to rumble.  The tie stays in place.  By the end of this film, Keanu Reeves should have been dead from dehydration in a soaked black suit.

Yet that’s the least of this movie’s many problems.  This is violence porn (I’m sure it’s a great video game)  and we wonder why people are shooting up schools.  The high production values and studio return on investment just make it sicker. 

Studios don’t walk away from money-makers, they just recycle them.

I’ve always taken great pride in American industry, but if this movie is any indication, we’ve really lost our edge.  Our professional assassins are apparently horrible at their jobs.  It’s an indictment of the whole assassin industry, which is made up of incompetents.  The body count of these bozos mounts as Wick kills them all.  Not one can take him out.  There are many instances when they could shoot him from 10 feet away, but hand to hand combat would be more fun.  The body count is allegedly 94 in this movie, down from 124 in John Wick 2 – The Slaughter.  And all 94 are inept assassins.  The first 2 movies weren’t that bad.  They had a little style, and a little wit.  This one is too busy being ridiculous to enjoy.  It ends up being a two hour set up to the next installment, so the studio can make more bank.  Banking bucks, and bodies.  It’s a formula.

Scanning the Satellite

I didn’t write anything on movies in April because we never set foot in a theater, a rarity for us.  But that doesn’t mean entertainment was lacking as we binged away..

The OA – 10

While this Netflix series is definitely not for everyone, the rapture of it came and took me away.  As I write this a guy has gone over the 2 million dollar mark in winnings on Jeopardy, and his ability to recall facts so quickly, combined with his strategy, has captured the attention of America.  Why?  I can’t speak for all of the American viewing public, but the gap between me and him is huge, and I used to be decent at Jeopardy.  He’s really smart.

The OA is even smarter.  I haven’t been so amazed and annoyed at a tv series since I was trying to figure out who killed Laura Palmer.  This is not the first story about inter-dimensional travel (it was just done on “Counterpart”) but its never been as enthralling.  “What just happened” kept coming out of my mouth.  I watched the first two seasons that are now on Netflix, and also watched video after video interviews of the star and her director, Brit Marling and Zal Batalmanij, who co-wrote this story.  It took them 3 years to conceive of the complete story and pitch it to Netflix, a process that preceeded House of Cards.  It appears Game of Thrones (which I didn’t watch yet – but I will someday) ran out of story and scripts.  They didn’t know how to end it.  Marling and company have a complete 40 hour story to tell, and I hope they get to tell it all.  I've had way worse 40 hour work weeks.  

One of the identifiers of a great experience for me is “pace.”  When I go to a great restaurant, much of it comes down to pace – are the courses on schedule?  TV is like that to me as well.  My favorite TV show of the last several years was Sundance’s “Rectify” which had this wonderful Southern pace to it.  They took their sweet time to develop the stories, and the characters.  This year, True Detective told a story in a nicely paced manner.  Maybe it’s the 8 installment format that makes it work so well.

The OA is like that.  The many characters are slowly developed and fleshed out.  We get to know them all, and they begin to weave together like a fine tapestry.

So what’s the story?  Well, it starts like this.  A blind girl named Prairie Johnson (Marling) has been missing for 7 years.  She suddenly shows up in her Michigan hometown, and she’s not blind anymore.  Where has she been for 7 years?  We thought she was dead.  Was she held captive?  Well, maybe she was both.  How did she escape?  So many questions, and the answers are so far from standard that it is us that can be blinded, by the brilliance of the story.  If you have the patience, let it unfold like a luxurious blanket.  The endings of each season are equally stunning, but wildly different.  This is amazing story-telling.  Mind-blowing doesn’t even begin to describe it. 

Goliath (Season One) – 8

There just isn’t a better actor than Billy Bob Thornton in the “down and out” milieu.  He’s terrific as the lawyer taking on the Goliath law firm in this Amazon series.  And nobody does law television like producer David E. Kelly.  His resume includes The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, and Boston Common to name a few.  His stories are great, and this story is populated by great actors, old and new.

The problem here, and it’s a minor one, is that the story drags a little.  Found myself several times thinking, “let’s go, pick up the pace already.”  Well worth watching for the story telling, but it’s about 6 hour’s worth of story, spread over 8 hours.  Still, 8 hours of Billy Bob is nothing to sneeze at.

Knock Down the House – 9

Netflix got lucky.  They commissioned a documentary about four long-shot women candidates trying to “primary” incumbents in the 2018 elections.  Their luck was that one of them was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and this is a fascinating look behind the scenes of her campaign.  I know, I know, you hate her.  Don’t let that hold you back, because by the time this is over you will have learned a lot about how elections are won and lost.  AOC’s verbal brilliance and persistence on the campaign trail stunned even her supporters, who started by just wanting to shake up the establishment.  The other three candidates lose, but to everyone’s surprise, including hers, she catches fire and it reminded me of the Robert Redford movie “The Candidate” where he pulls off the upset, and then says “now what?”

Luther:  Season One – 9

I thought Idris Elba would always be Stringer Bell to me.  But if Season 1 of his BBC drama was any indication, that may change.  As detective John Luther, Elba is a brilliant detective, in and out of trouble, ending season one having to clear himself of a murder charge.  Maybe the British are unafraid of unhappiness, but this show pulls not a single push.  It is brutal but terrific.  I’m even coming around to Elba as the next James Bond.   

Killing Eve – 9

The second season just couldn’t recreate the stunnery (new word) of the first season, but the anchor of the series continues to be the mesmerizing Jodie Comer as the assassin Villanelle.  There are many potential great Emmy nominations coming soon, but it is Comer who will be the one I want to see rewarded for her work.

Fosse/Verdon – 9

If you are a “show person” don’t miss this FX series.  It is the behind the scenes story of the creative and domestic partnership of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon.  Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams are nothing but brilliant as the pair, and I can’t see anyone else as their Emmy competition.  Williams even nails the voice of Gwen Verdon, whom I met once at a performance of Damn Yankees in Pittsburgh, an encounter that the producers strangely omitted from the script.  It was the behind the scenes choreography sequences that were the most interesting.  Fosse’s infidelities were well documented by himself in his semi-autobiographical and brilliant movie “All That Jazz” which I can’t wait to watch again.

At the Cinema - January 2019 (and year-end wrap up for 2018)

Green Book – 10

Finally, a simple, elegant movie.  Maybe elegant is the wrong word for a movie with some violence, but for some reason that’s the word that I think best describes this one.  Viggo Mortenson plays Tony Lip, a Copacabana bouncer in 1962.  He is an Italian American tough guy from the Bronx with a loving wife and two kids.  When the Copa closes for a two-month renovation, Tony takes a job as the driver for Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a pianist about to go on tour.  But, not just any tour.  They are going to tour the south.  And Dr. Shirley is black.  Welcome to Mississippi.

The best movies transport you to a different time and place, in this case the racially charged times of the early 60’s.  Another welcome characteristic is that the movie just cruises along in chronological order, telling the story with wit and wisdom.  Director Peter Farrelly has a firm grasp of the period.  Much like Bohemian Rhapsody, there has been controversy about the accuracy of the portrayals.  Nevertheless, it’s a nicely relevant story, anchored by two great performances.  Both are up for Oscars, and Ali will probably win his second as a supporting actor.  He is rightfully one of the hottest actors in Hollywood right not, and seems to be everywhere, including HBO’s True Detective currently airing.  As Tony and Don travel through the south they form what will be a life-long bond.  It’s a road movie, it’s a buddy movie, but mostly it’s an old-fashioned feel-good movie.  We don’t get enough of them.

Tully – 9

Charlize Theron is terrific as Marlo, the new mother trying to keep it together taking care of her second baby.  She’s cracking under the strain and getting no help from her video geek husband (Ron Livingston.) Her brother suggests she get a night nanny to help with the baby.  Enter Tully, portrayed to perfection by Mackenzie Davis.  She is almost too good to be true as she seems to have a sixth sense as to what Marlo needs and when she needs it. 

Director Ivan Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody making their third collaboration, weave a simple story of the difficulties of child rearing and the daily pressures and problems.  Cool movie that went under the radar, but has enough surprises to make it memorable.

If Beale Street Could Talk – 7

Director Barry Jenkins makes slow deliberate movies.  With its lingering closeups and lethargic pace, this is a one hour movie spread over two hours.  It’s a story of an interrupted love story of two young people, Tish and Fonny (Kiki Layne and Stephan James) who are separated by a false accusation.  The best part of the movie is how the parents of the couple react to their relationship.  Regina King is an Supporting Actress Oscar Favorite for her turn as Tish’s mother.  Beyond the love story and the crime ramifications, there is a sadness to this story that makes it hard to stick with.  I’m all for great character stories, but the pacing of the story was just too slow for me. 

Eighth Grade – 8

In case you weren’t feeling distant enough from young people, here’s a portrait of an eighth grader who is wrapping up her school year and about to head to high school.  She’s insecure in person, but lively on social media.  Her English is a foreign language, at least to me, but the problems of a teenager are the same as they’ve always been, starting with relating to the opposite sex.  Of course her language is peppered with “likes” and that’s been going on awhile, so that reduces the language barrier. 

This is the third collaboration between Director Jason Reitman and Screenwriter Diablo Cody.  They are in comfortable sync as usual, and there’s just a realistic feel to the movie.  But, I’m still glad I’m not a teenager today.

Roma – 8

Alfonso Cuaron’s latest is a unique movie beautifully filmed in black and white.  It’s showing in theaters, but it was concurrently released on Netlix who produced the movie.  Since the movie is in Spanish, it is subtitled, and that’s a major problem in watching the movie on the small screen.  It is hard to match up the dialogue that is being documented on the screen with who is saying it.  I love great foreign movies, but this one is really hard to follow.  If each line of dialogue was preceeded by the name of the person speaking it on the screen, like this:  John:  “Where’s the dog?” this movie would have been easier to understand.  But, there are so many long shots where several people are saying important things, but we can’t tell who is saying what, it’s very hard to follow.

The movie has been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and best foreign language film.  It could be the first to capture both, and is the darling of the critics, thus a heavy favorite. 

The first half of the movie is tedious.  The visuals open the story of a maid caring for a small family in Mexico.  The father bops in and out, and the focus is on the maid and the mother as they deal with the children.  The maid, apparently based on the director’s family maid, is played by Yalitza Aparicio, who got a surprise best actress nominee.  When the second half of the movie kicks in, the story picks up the pace with some tragedy, and some good fortune.  The intensity and emotion around a couple of events bring the movie home.

Cuaron, who is writer, director, and cinematographer, is the darling of Hollywood, and could win several Oscars, as he is currently called “the best living director.”  Not sure about all that, as I’ve had a hard time with each of his movies, but one can’t deny that this movie finishes strongly after a languid first half.

Mary Poppins Returns – 8

Emily Blunt capably grabs a hold of the mythical character of Mary Poppins.  Julie Andrews famously won an Oscar for her turn as Mary Poppins in 1965.  I remember clearly that with Sound of Music still ahead of her, Julie was passed over for the role of Eliza Dolittle in the movie version of My Fair Lady.  That role went to Audrey Hepburn, who was great, but had to have her singing dubbed by the amazing Marni Nixon.  It was widely thought that Andrews won to recognize that she had been jilted.  Anyway, My Fair Lady got the 1965 Oscar for Best Picture and The Sound of Music won in 1966.  I’ve always wished I could see Julie Andrews in Camelot and My Fair Lady, as the Broadway recordings played constantly in our house growing up.  Julie’s place in musical history is secure. 

Emily Blunt is a joy, and Lin Manuel-Miranda has parlayed his Hamilton fame into the second banana part here.  Wish he’d tackled the music, which is the weakest part of the movie.  Maybe kids will be singing these songs for the next 50 years, the way we have sung Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious, Chim Chim Chiree, and A Spoonful of Sugar, but I doubt it.  Nevertheless, take those children and grandchildren.

Aquaman – 4

There’s ridiculous, there’s beyond ridiculous, and then there’s Aquaman.  This movie had to have been filmed entirely in front of a green screen with the special effects, mostly underwater, thrown in later.  Maybe that’s how all movies are filmed now, but this one is made particularly ridiculous by the number of underwater conversations that take place with not so much as a bubble.  Not that the visuals aren’t arresting.  They are as impressive as any video game, I’m sure.  I’m a Galaga guy living in a Fortnight world.  (All I know about Fortnight is the name, and I worry that the youth of America is just sitting there instead of experiencing real life.)

I shouldn’t be going to these comic book movies.  This sure isn’t the Aquaman I remember from 50 years ago.  I just keep falling for the buzz and every now and then I see a Deadpool or a Black Panther, but those are the exception.  Aquaman is the rule, and if this is what passes for entertainment we are just going to drown in special effects.

Rampage – 4

Speaking of green screens, let’s acknowledge the King – the Rock.  Dwayne Johnson has got to be the best at green screen acting.  He’s made so many movies with buildings falling down around him, and, in this case, huge genetically altered animals chasing him, that he should get a special award for what he does.  Of course, this movie doesn’t have a believable moment in it, but that’s ok. It’s basically a video game, and if this is what you want, here’s another one.

Scanning the Satellite

Killing Eve – 9

We binged this BBC series starring Sandra Oh, who has been winning “best actress in a drama” awards for her Eve, but it’s Jodie Comer as the assassin Eve is chasing, who powers this series.  Her charisma and believability rock this thing.  I wouldn’t want to have her chasing me.

Jeff Beck:  Still on the Run – 9

Terrific Showtime documentary on the life of Jeff Beck.  A lot I didn’t know, and I now have more appreciation of his abilities

Breslin and Hamill:  Deadline Artists – 9

If you have any interest in journalism, you will love this HBO documentary about two of the greats and their career with New York papers.

Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel

HBO has had this on for 25 years, and I’ve always loved it.  But this month’s feature on Adam Schefter’s professional and personal life is truly haunting.  Both he and the interviewer Jon Frankel, are married to 9/11 widows and it’s raw and compelling TV.

2018 Wrap Up, ranking and awards:

It’s time for my 2018 summary and I thought Mission Impossible:  Fallout was easily the best movie I saw last year.  It was incredibly well plotted and executed and is simply the best action movie ever made – for now.  Like Mad Max: Fury Road it will go largely unrewarded because it’s hard for the industry to recognize it as art.  AND – Tom Cruise is better at the acting that he does, stunts and all, than Oscar nominees are at what they do.  The most compelling documentary I saw all year, and I’ve watched it 3 times because I still don’t believe it, was Three Identical Strangers.  I can’t explain why I found it so interesting, because that would give it away, but it’s now running on CNN. 

RANK OF 2018 MOVIES:

Mission Impossible:  Fallout – 10

A Quiet Place – 10
Green Book - 10
BlackkKlansman 10

Hearts Beat Loud – 10

Black Panther - 9

Bohemian Rhapsody – 9

A Star is Born – 9

Game Night – 9

Tully - 9

Red Sparrow – 9

On the Basis of Sex – 9

Creed II - 8

Chappaquiddick – 8

Roma - 8

Mama Mia – Here we go Again – 8                                                    

Mary Poppins Returns - 8

The Mule - 8

The Girl in the Spider’s Web – 8

Eighth Grade- 8

Widows – 7

Crazy Rich Asians – 7

Vice – 7

If Beale Street Could Talk - 7

First Man – 6

The Favourite - 5

The Old Man and the Gun – 5

Peppermint – 5

Aquaman – 4

Rampage – 4
The Commuter - 4

Ocean’s Eight – 4

Documentaries:

Three Identical Strangers – 10

Fahrenheit 9/11 – 9

RBG – 9

Jane Fonda in Three Acts – 9

Eric Clapton:  Life in 12 Bars – 9

Jeff Beck:  Still on the Run - 9

Love, Gilda - 8

The Ozzies:

Best Picture:  Mission Impossible:  Fallout

Best Actor:  Rami Malik in Bohemian Rhapsody

Best Actress:  Emily Blunt in A Quiet Place

Best Supporting Actor:  Sam Elliott in A Star is Born

Best Supporting Actress:  Tess Thompson in Creed 2

Best Director:  John Krasinski, A Quiet Place

The Lizzies (for TV):

Best Show:  The Good Place

Best Actor:  Bill Pullam, The Sinner

Best Actress:  Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Best Supporting Actor:  Tony Shaloub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Best Supporting Actress:  Jodie Comer, Killing Eve