First Man was one of the most eagerly anticipated films of 2018, and by extension, one that was expected to do well with various year-end awards, yet by the time the Oscar nominations came out last week, it was only nominated for four minor awards, Best Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Production Design. It was not nominated for Best Picture, Directing, Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, Cinematography, or Score, categories it was expected to compete in early on. What happened?

The film about Neil Armstrong, the U.S. astronaut who was the first man to walk on the moon, was first shown at the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals in late August, followed by an equally prestigious showing at the Toronto Film Festival in early September. Reception was extremely positive even though the film had already received widespread criticism in the U.S. that it was unpatriotic because the moon landing scene did not include a shot of Armstrong and his partner Buzz Aldrin planting the American flag, which was a huge part of the TV coverage in real time in July of 1969.

Despite the controversy, the film was a finalist for the Best Film award at Venice and director Damien Chazelle won the People’s Choice Award at Toronto. It then played a few more film festivals around the world in late September and early October before having its U.S. theatrical release on October 12th. Although it opened to mostly positive reviews, it was an unexpected flop. Why?

I don’t think the controversy over the missing flag scene had all that much effect. Maybe it just didn’t appeal to a moviegoing public looking for the kind of breathtaking excitement they get from the comic book superheroes, sequels and prequels to proven hits, and remakes of past successes that fuel today’s box-office. This is not that kind of film.

Unlike previous films about the U.S. space program, this one doesn’t have the sweep of 1983’s The Right Stuff or 1995’s Apollo 13 or the female-centric narrative of 2016’s Hidden Figures. Contrary to the real-life landing on the moon, which most people remember as a joyful experience, the film is a somber affair in which death seems to be waiting to take someone at every turn. Astronauts die on the job. Armstrong’s young daughter dies. As good as he is at his job, Armstrong is closed off emotionally from his wife and sons. The film’s emotional climax is not the moon landing, it’s the night before when Armstrong’s wife compels him to talk to his young sons, to make them understand that he may not leave the moon alive. The film’s ending, like Chazelle’s previous films, Whiplash and La La Land, features two people looking at each other without speaking. In this case they are Armstrong and his wife.

The performances of Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy as the Armstrongs are unforgettable. Gosling has the tougher job of downplaying a real-life hero without any showy dramatic scenes and nails the part. I found him much more convincing here than in his Oscar-nominated performance in Chazelle’s La La Land, which was undermined by his weak singing voice. Foy, on the other hand, has several scenes that allow her to act up a storm as though she were still playing the queen in TV’s The Crown. How Oscar voters managed to overlook her performance is to me the most puzzling of all the film’s Oscar omissions.

First Man is available on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Also bowing at the Toronto Film Festival and going on to other festivals before its theatrical release in October, the film about race in today’s America, The Hate U Give, received a very rare A+ audience rating from CinemaScore. Although not as high profile as some of the year’s other films focusing on black lives such as Black Panther, BlackKklansman, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Green Book, the film is every bit as compelling.

The film is based on the 2017 novel by Angie Thomas who first wrote it as a short story while still a high school student in 2009. It was adapted for the screen by Audrey Wells (A Dog’s Purpose) who died of cancer the day before the film opened. Directed by George Tillman, Jr. (The Longest Ride), the film’s title is derived from rapper Tupac Shakur’s acronym of THUG LIFE (The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody), meaning the hate we inculcate in children eventually destroys us all.

Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games) stars as Starr Carter, the 16-year-old black girl who lives in a poor, mostly black neighborhood but attends school in a wealthy, mostly white neighborhood. The two worlds collide when she is being driven home by a childhood friend who is stopped by a white police officer who shoots and kills him as he reaches for a brush that the cop sees as a gun. Her school joins in the black-lives-matter protests that develop against the police, but Starr, struggling to keep her home life and her school life separate, is unable to divulge that she is the unnamed witness to the killing and shies away from participating in the protests.

The cast is first rate across the board with the excellent Stenberg receiving strong support from Regina Hall (Support the Girls) as her strong-willed mother, Roger Hornsby (Fences) as her reformed gangster father, Lamar Johnson as her supportive older half-brother, TJ Wright as her impressionable younger brother, Common as her police officer uncle, KJ Apa as the white boyfriend she has kept a secret from her father but not the rest of her family, and Anthony Mackie as the local drug kingpin.

The film comes to a devastating climax that leads to a well-earned happy ending that some might find a bit too idealistic, but it fits the film like a well-oiled glove. Stenberg and Hornsby received some well-earned awards recognition from several critics’ organizations.

The Hate U Give is available on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Now available on home video in the U.S., Tea with the Dames is not the kind of film that wins awards, but the documentary from director Roger Michell (Notting Hill) is as delightful a film about the four actresses it showcases as anything Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and Eileen Atkins have appeared in over the course of their lengthy careers.

Smith, Dench, and Atkins join the now-blind Plowright at her country estate to reminisce about their lives, careers and friendship. As one might expect, Smith comes up with the most hilarious stuff, but all four contribute to the fun.

Like its previous U.K. release, Tea with the Dames is available on standard DVD only.

This week’s new releases include Boy Erased and The Wife.