Forget any negativity you may have heard, The Fabelmans, currently available for home viewing via pay-for-view, is one of Steven Spielberg’s very best films, a real movie-movie. My only issue with the film is a technical one. In 1952, the standard TV was a console with a 17″ screen, not those tiny early TVs as shown in the film.

The story flows along at a steady pace despite an occasional slow spot. The acting is first-rate across the board with Paul Dano and Judd Hirsch the standouts despite the near universal acclaim for Michelle Williams in a somewhat showier role.

Williams, being promoted for numerous Best Actress awards, may have slightly more screen time than Dano as the showy mother, but Dano, as the quieter father, has almost as much. Either they’re both leads or both supporting players. To call one a lead and the other a supporting player doesn’t seem right to me.

Gabriel LaBelle as the 16-year-old future filmmaker shows real presence. The cameos by Judd Hirsch as Williams’ minor show biz player uncle and David Lynch as the legendary John Ford toward the end of his career are both superb. Hirsch’s performance is so spot-on I can’t imagine him missing out on either a SAG nomination or an Oscar nod despite his failure to stand out in most of this year’s early awards.

The screenplay by Spielberg and Tony Kushner is excellent. Spielberg’s direction is first-rate as is the second unit direction of Josh McLaglen, son of veteran director Andrew McLaglen and actress Veda Ann Borg, and grandson of Ford favorite Victor McLaglen.

Oscar prospects: Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay, Actress (Williams), Supporting Actor (Dano, Hirsch), Cinematography, Film Editing, Production Design, Sound, and Original Score.

The Banshees of Inisherin, now streaming on HBO Max, is the most consistent awards grabber of the year and is a must-see film. It’s a dark comedy that you have to rewind in your head if not immediately rewatch to get the significance of everything that happens. Several characters say they don’t lie but that’s not true, they all lie, mostly to themselves. Even the title, which seems not to have much significance, is said to be a lie by one of them, but it isn’t. There are banshees in Inisherin. One is obvious, the other not so much.

I was a big fan of McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which I thought was the best film of 2017. If this one is not one of this year’s best, it’s certainly a smarter film than currently presumed Oscar frontrunner Everything Everywhere All at Once, which, as I’ve said, only works if you see it as the story of a woman going mad, not as the story of a woman caught up in an ever-increasingly wild adventure.

Banshees takes place during the “Troubles” in 1923 Ireland on an island off the coast of the mainland where its inhabitants are removed from the day-to-day fighting but not immune to it. Like all films set during that time in Ireland, sadness permeates the narrative even if it isn’t centermost in the story. You get shades of everything from Juno and the Paycock to Ryan’s Daughter with more than a little Au Hasard Balthazar thrown in for good measure.

The acting is first rate down to the smallest part with the four main actors all deserving of the many awards they are receiving. Colin Farrell has never been better. Brendan Gleeson has seldom been better. Barry Koeghan lives up to his early promise and no one will ever ask “who is that” again when Kerry Condon shows up in something.

Oscar prospects: Oscar Prospects: Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay, Actor (Farrell), Supporting Actor (Gleeson, Koeghan), Supporting Actress (Condon), Cinematography, Film Editing, and Production Design.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, now streaming on Netflix, is the director’s take on Carlo Collodi’s 1883 classic tale of a wooden boy that comes to life. Filmed numerous times, most memorably in Disney’s 1940 animated version, del Toro’s animated version moves the action forward to the 20th Century and covers both World Wars I and II.

It begins with the sudden death of woodcarver Geppetto’s 10-year-old son Carlo in the accidental aerial bombing of a church after which he goes into deep despair, eventually re-emerging to create a boy out of wood that he wishes would come alive as a replacement for Carlo. His wish is granted, but the boy called Pinocchio has a mind of his own, he is not Carlo’s replica by any stretch of the imagination. With latter scenes set in Mussolini’s fascist Italy, this is far and away the most captivating version of the story, even outclassing Disney’s immortal version.

The voicework is phenomenal, especially that of Ewan McGregor as Cricket, David Bradley as Geppetto, Gabriel Mann as both Geppetto’s son Carlo and Pinocchio, and Tilda Swinton as Wood Sprite and her sister, Death.

Oscar Prospects: Best Picture, Animated Feature, Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Visual Effects, Original Score, and Song “Ciao Papa”.

On the collection front, Shout! Scream has released a 4K upgrade of Brian De Palma’s 1976 classic horror film Carrie, starring Sissy Spacek, John Travolta, Piper Laurie, William Katt, and Amy Irving.

Sony has released a 4K upgrade of P.J. Hogan’s 1997 film My Best Friend’s Wedding for its 25th Anniversary.

The film is second only to 1990’s Pretty Woman in Julia Roberts’ comedy repertoire. Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, and Rupert Everett star in the constantly surprising charmer. Extras imported from a previous standard Blu-ray release include deleted scenes, an alternate ending, an on the set documentary, and an “I Say a Little Prayer” sing-along.

For those who can’t get enough of Roberts, Studio Distribution Services has released a Blu-ray of Ol Parker’s mildly entertaining 2022 film Ticket to Paradise, starring Roberts and George Clooney as the estranged parents of a recent law graduate (Kaitlyn Dever) who has decided to drop her aspirations and marry a Balinese seaweed farmer she meets while on a post-graduate vacation. Unfortunately, aside from lending their star wattage to the film, neither Roberts nor Clooney does anything remotely interesting in the film, which is a standard rom com, albeit one featuring two generations of romantics.