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      ‘The Man in the Basement’ Review: The Occupation of Paris

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      This nebulous French thriller tracks the unraveling of a Jewish family that accidentally sells their storage cellar to an antisemitic conspiracy theorist.A Jewish family’s new neighbor is an antisemitic conspiracy theorist in “The Man in the Basement,” a nebulous thriller by the French director Philippe Le Guay.Not that their dingy storage cellar is fit for habitation — though like many Parisian sub-dwellings, it was once occupied by Jews in hiding during the war, as in François Truffaut’s “The Last Metro.”Simon (Jérémie Renier), the family’s affable patriarch, suspects nothing when he sells the space to the ex-history teacher Jacques Fonzic (François Cluzet). The older man claims to want to offload his dead mother’s things sooner rather than later, and Simon doesn’t think twice about handing over the keys and cashing the check.Turns out that’s enough to seal the deal under French law, so when Fonzic settles in to his underground abode, irritating the building’s other residents, Simon is powerless to evict the stranger even after he discovers the awful truth.That Fonzic at times appears perfectly pleasant, even sagacious when he, for instance, invokes certain revisionist versions of American history, is a testament to Cluzet’s charms. But the most malignant people are just that — innocuous, friendly-seeming — spreading their beliefs like an odorless poison.Simon grows desperate as his legal actions repeatedly fail, allowing Fonzic’s ongoing presence to corrupt his loved ones. His wife, Hélène (Bérénice Bejo), spirals, and his teenage daughter Nelly (Victoria Eber) — already a Krav Maga-practicing nonconformist who is in love with her cousin — finds herself drawn to the convincingly levelheaded Fonzic’s “freethinking” philosophy.Despite Cluzet’s disarming performance and the film’s provocative conceit, Le Guay’s ideas — about modern-day Jewish identity, ideologies of victimhood, the emboldening of right-wing extremists, and the sundry loopholes offered to them by our systems of justice — swirl chaotically around the plot-heavy film, underdeveloped. Somewhere in “The Man in the Basement” there is a smart psychodrama sharpened by political urgency, but what we get is a middling think piece that too quickly loses momentum — and peters out by the end.The Man in the BasementNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Shotgun Wedding’ Review: ‘Die Hard’ With Refreshments

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      A destination wedding becomes a high-stakes hostage situation in this action-heavy film.As a general rule, putting Jennifer Lopez in your romantic comedy automatically gets you halfway to a decent movie. The male lead hardly matters: while Lopez has had natural chemistry with George Clooney (“Out of Sight”) and Matthew McConaughey (“The Wedding Planner”), she’s had it just as easily with men of less distinction, like, say, Michael Vartan (“Monster in Law”) or Alex O’Loughlin (“The Back-Up Plan”).In the frothy action rom-com “Shotgun Wedding,” directed by Jason Moore, Lopez stars opposite Josh Duhamel: not exactly Clark Gable, but Lopez makes it work. She always does. As a couple whose destination wedding is interrupted by hostage-taking pirate-terrorists, the two bicker and banter with classic screwball brio, with a love-hate rapport that is both delightful and effortlessly convincing. Much of the dialogue feels canned and phony in the style of a badly written sitcom. But coming out of J. Lo’s mouth, I believed it.“Shotgun Wedding” combines two familiar subgenres in a fairly original way — the comedy of remarriage, in which an embittered couple rediscover their affection after having drifted apart, and the single-setting terrorist picture, in which an Everyman (or Everywoman) must rescue hostages from an elite squad of armed bad guys. “Die Hard” meets “The Awful Truth,” in essence, with a wedding in the Philippines as its sumptuous tropical setting. It’s an appealing setup, and as Lopez and Duhamel begin to take up machine guns and grenades against their foes, there’s some novel charm in seeing the tensions of the rom-com and the action thriller playfully juxtaposed. Less agreeable is the forced air of ingratiating humor. Cloying pop culture references and of-the-moment punch lines abound, including jokes about Etsy and gaslighting. It smacks of desperation to go viral — a fault jarringly at odds with the pleasing simplicity of the rest of the movie.Shotgun WeddingRated R for strong language, sexual innuendo and (surprisingly) graphic violence. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. Watch on Amazon Prime Video. More

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      Sundance, Once a Hotbed for Film Deals, Tries to Find Its Footing

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      The kind of independent movies that the festival showcases have struggled at the box office, spurring worries about what the market would be like this year.The past two years have been a time of major upheaval in the film business — and at the Sundance Film Festival.Between the diminishing audiences in movie theaters, the consolidation of studios and the shrinking amount being spent on content after the streaming giants had their wrists slapped by Wall Street, few were certain about what kind of market there would be for new films at the current Sundance — typically a hotbed of acquisitions for the brightest lights in the independent film world.Even the festival’s opening-night gala last Thursday, its first in person since 2020, felt tempered by the reality facing movies.“These last few years have brought extraordinary challenges for our industry, along with opportunities to respond to the needs of artists and reach audiences in new ways,” Sundance’s chief executive, Joana Vicente, told those assembled. “And as many of this year’s films illustrate, this is a moment when so much is at risk — the health of our planet, human rights, women’s rights, freedom of expression and democracy itself.”Not exactly a celebratory introduction.So on Monday, a collective sigh of relief rose through Utah’s Wasatch mountain range, where, within two hours, two high-profile films that had premiered at the festival found eager buyers. Netflix plunked down $20 million to take the worldwide rights to the thriller “Fair Play,” while Searchlight Pictures spent just under $8 million for the musical-theater-geek mockumentary “Theater Camp,” starring Ben Platt.A day later, Apple TV+ nabbed the musical drama “Flora & Son” for $20 million, and the indie distributor A24 bought the Australian horror film “Talk to Me” for a wide theatrical release this summer.Despite the deals, the state of movies and how audiences will watch them remained an underlying worry.The Race to Rule Streaming TVA Changing Medium: A decade of streaming has transformed storytelling and viewing habits. But we may be starting to hit that transformation’s limits.Netflix: Reed Hastings, one of the founders of Netflix, said that he was ceding his co-chief executive title and becoming the company’s executive chairman.Crime Shows: Just a few years ago, it looked as though old-fashioned police and court procedurals might not make the leap to the streaming future. Now, they aren’t just surviving, they are thriving.AMC’s Troubles: The company has struggled to earn enough from streaming to make up for losses from its traditional cable business. It is a widespread issue in the industry.“Everybody is wringing their hands about the industry,” said Vinay Singh, the chief executive of Archer Gray, a production company whose film “The Persian Version” was shown in competition at Sundance. “A lot of people have lost their jobs. There are cost-cutting measures happening on spending content. People are worried.”Indeed, no one seems to know any longer what kind of movie is worthy of theatrical release and what should be sent straight to a streaming service. Distribution and marketing executives have to figure out not only how to sell a movie to an increasingly fickle audience but also how to navigate the needs of corporate parents, often giant conglomerates whose business priorities are constantly in flux.Plus, there is always the fear of succumbing to “Sundance Fever”— making lightheaded decisions because of the high-altitude fervor of the audience. Over the decades, both streaming services and theatrical distributors have overpaid for films at the festival. Harvey Weinstein spent $10 million for “Happy, Texas” in 1999 only to see it flop at the box office. Focus Features paid $10 million for “Hamlet 2” in 2008, and in 2019, Amazon scooped up three movies for a combined $41 million while New Line paid $15 million for “Blinded by the Light,” only to have it gross $12 million. And that was when the industry was healthier.Now, with so much riding on every decision, a positive response to a film at Sundance is no longer enough to guarantee that it will attract a theatrical distribution deal.Netflix paid $20 million for “Fair Play,” starring Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor.Sundance Institute“I’d like to believe this movie could have done well in theaters,” said Ram Bergman, a producer of “Fair Play,” one of the festival’s most acclaimed and sought-after films. But despite the enthusiasm from the traditional studios, he said, there was little faith that the $5 million R-rated thriller, starring Phoebe Dynevor (“Bridgerton”) and Alden Ehrenreich (“Solo: A Star Wars Story”), could succeed opposite the superhero spectacles without a prohibitively expensive marketing budget.“You are dealing with a lot of the studios that have convinced themselves that these movies cannot really do well in theaters,” Mr. Bergman said. “It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. And if a streamer, let’s say Netflix, really wants to get behind it and treat it as one of, like, their high-priority movies, it’s hard to compete.”Therein lies the challenge. Most filmmakers come to Sundance with the expectation that their film will be shown on big screens across the country. The reality is that their movies are exactly the kinds that are performing poorly at the box office: small, inexpensive, complex and lacking movie stars.Add the fact that independent chains like ArcLight Cinemas and Landmark Theatres, which were the traditional supporters of indie fare, have closed and the calculus required to make these films successful becomes even more challenging.Searchlight is counting on fans of Mr. Platt (“Dear Evan Hansen”) and live theater in general to power “Theater Camp,” which celebrates all those who dream of hitting it big on Broadway. The thinking goes that if Mr. Platt can sell out Madison Square Garden, as he has with his one-man show, he can draw audiences to a movie theater. (However, Mr. Platt’s last film endeavor, the adaptation of “Dear Evan Hansen,” grossed only $15 million at the domestic box office.)“This is a crowd-pleasing movie, and it was designed with an audience in mind from inception,” said Erik Feig, chief executive of PictureStart, one of the producers of “Theater Camp.” “Yet we didn’t mitigate our risk with presales. We took a flier. We did our research into the market, but comparisons change like every 90 seconds, so you kind of build something for a business model that two weeks later is extinct.”Other buzzy projects did not generate the kind of sales that Sundance, which ends on Sunday, is normally known for. “Cat Person” pleased crowds at the festival, but the critics excoriated it, particularly for veering away from the viral New Yorker short story it was based on. “Magazine Dreams” features an Oscar-caliber performance by Jonathan Majors (“Lovecraft Country”), but he plays a character who spirals into madness and begins carrying a loaded gun — a particularly difficult film to buy in the wake of the two recent mass shootings in California.And the documentary “Justice,” which turns an investigative eye toward Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court appointment and was added to the festival’s lineup at the last minute with much fanfare, disappointed critics, too.“Magazine Dreams,” starring Jonathan Majors, proved to be a difficult sell because of its dark subject matter.Sundance InstituteThe “Justice” filmmakers say they have received new tips, since their film was announced, that they plan to follow up on. It’s just not clear that the film, which was self-funded by the director, Doug Liman, who is best known for glossy action movies, will find a distributor ready to back an incomplete project.Despite the challenges, people were thrilled to be back in person at Sundance.“I feel a deep sense of gratitude to be in this room watching a movie,” Davis Guggenheim said at the premiere of his documentary “Still,” about Michael J. Fox and his protracted battle with Parkinson’s disease.“Theater Camp” brought its actors onstage to perform. The documentary “Going Varsity in Mariachi” was supplemented by a live performance by Mariachi Juvenil de Utah, and the cast of “Flora & Son” rapped one of its songs. The screenings were often sold out, and a film’s reception could be judged on the spot by the number of standing ovations it received. Still, buyers were being much more selective.“I think it’s natural that we’re seeing things not happen overnight,” Mr. Singh of Archer Gray said. “I think that’s fine. I actually think it might be a sign of health, because there’s so much stuff in play.”Mr. Feig echoed that sentiment.“It’s definitely a challenging market,” he said. “For each of these movies that has landed buyers, there probably weren’t 25 different offers for each one of these. There may be more of a handful. You just have to kind of build them sensibly knowing what your potential options are.”He also noted the festival’s combination of established names and rising talent, adding with more than a dash of optimism: “This is why Sundance is so amazing — it’s a discovery of fresh new voices. You saw that with ‘Fair Play.’ You see it with ‘Talk to Me.’ You saw that with ‘Theater Camp.’ All brand-new filmmakers, with their very first movie, and they broke through, they made noise, and they found studio partners.” More

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      ‘Zeros and Ones,’ ‘Juliet, Naked’ and More Streaming Gems

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      Looking for something different to stream? We have options for you.A new year is upon us and your subscription streaming services have added plenty of new movies — though, at first glance, not much outside of the usual churn-and-turn of titles. But we’ve plucked out a few notable exceptions, an eclectic mixture of action thrillers, romantic comedies, thought-provoking documentaries, and much more.‘Zeros and Ones’ (2021)Stream it on Hulu.Distressingly few major filmmakers took the opportunity to dramatize the particulars of daily life in the Covid-19 pandemic. Abel Ferrara was a notable exception, crafting this lean, mean (less than 90 minutes) story of an American soldier-for-hire (Ethan Hawke) attempting to foil a plot to blow up the Vatican in a locked-down Rome. It sounds like a formula thriller, but Ferrara doesn’t work with formulas; he works with vibes, and the thick sense of paranoia and pandemic-era solitude are palpable and powerful. Plus, Hawke is at the top of his game, portraying not only the leading role but that character’s revolutionary brother, a dual performance that allows the actor to play two types he does especially well: the unhinged wild man and the austere, tightly wound professional.‘Juliet, Naked’ (2018)Stream it on Amazon.If you like your Hawke a little bit lighter, take a look at this charming romantic comedy, adapted from the author Nick Hornby’s 2009 novel. Hornby is best known for “High Fidelity,” a peerless portrait of how a certain type of young man uses pop music to both idealize women, and carefully cultivate an emotional distance from them. “Juliet” plays like what it is: an older, wiser man’s return to those themes, as a longtime fan (Chris O’Dowd) drives his girlfriend (Rose Byrne) into the arms of the musician (Hawke) he idolizes.‘The Homesman’ (2014)Stream it on HBO Max.There’s no questioning Tommy Lee Jones’s place as one of our last, great grizzled leading men, bringing a sense of gruff gravitas and no-nonsense authority to his acting work. Less noted, but just as worthy of acclaim, are his too-occasional forays into filmmaking, most recently with this masterfully assembled adaptation of Glendon Swarthout’s Western novel. Jones knows the genre down in his bones, which is perhaps how he pulls off the miraculous balancing act of both serving and subverting its tropes; what appears, at first, to be a “Rooster Cogburn”-style tale of an old coot and a prim lady’s journey through the Wild West reveals itself to be something quite a bit more eccentric, complicated and (gasp) feminist than that.‘The Raid 2’ (2014)Stream it on Netflix.If you’re looking for breathless, relentless action, you can’t do much better than Gareth Evans’s sequel to his 2012 cops-and-crooks extravaganza “The Raid: Redemption.” That film isn’t on Netflix, but narrative continuity isn’t exactly front of mind anyway; Evans is a master of the bone-crunching set piece, the more participants and unlikely the location, the better. The highlight is hard to pin down, but this viewer’s vote goes to the extended subway confrontation between our hero, a man with a baseball bat and a woman with two furiously-flying hammers.‘Gemini’ (2018)Stream it on HBO Max.The writer and director Aaron Katz was best known, in the late 2000s, as one of the primary practitioners of the so-called “mumblecore” movement, but there’s nary a trace of that aesthetic in this sleek, sharp-edged mixture of neo-noir thriller and Hollywood satire. Lola Kirke is endlessly charismatic and empathetic as Jill, the best friend and personal assistant to Heather, a white-hot young actress (Zoë Kravitz, well on her way to embodying the role herself). But when Heather turns up dead and Jill looks like the best suspect, she has to clear her own name — and, in the process, discovers there was much more to Heather than she ever knew.‘Appropriate Behavior’ (2015)Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.Desiree Akhavan writes, directs and stars in this devastatingly funny, breathtakingly candid and unexpectedly sexy comedy-drama, which caused something of a sensation at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. It’s easy to see why; Akhavan is a singular comic voice, and since she’s playing a variation on herself (a bisexual Brooklynite filmmaker, daughter of immigrants), the picture boasts an offhand candor and casual approach to ethnicity, class and identity that makes it distinctive even among the indie set. She followed it up with the 2018 Sundance winner “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” and remains a filmmaker to keep an eye on.‘Three Minutes: A Lengthening’ (2022)Stream it on Hulu.The footage plays out in its entirety right at the beginning: a three-plus minute home movie, shot in 1938 by David Kurtz, in the streets of a pleasant-looking Polish village. Seventy-one years later, Kurtz’s grandson Glenn discovered that badly-decomposing film, and became obsessed with unlocking it. It’s a detective story, attempting to piece together the particulars of who and what we see, solely from what’s in the frame; Bianca Stigter’s documentary sticks to those confines, playing and replaying the film, sped up and slowed down, zoomed in, chopped up and reassembled. But this gives way, as it must, to the horrifying details of what happened in this, one of many Jewish communities wiped out by the Holocaust, and ‘Three Minutes’ is ultimately, chillingly haunted by the terrible gulf between the cheerful people in those images, and what became of them in the years that followed.‘Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool’ (2019)Stream it on Netflix.Stanley Nelson’s snapshot of the jazz icon checks all the expected bio-doc boxes: career highlights, archival footage, insights aplenty both from contemporaries and successors. But “Birth of the Cool” gets an extra kick from the words of Davis himself, with the actor Carl Lumbly voicing juicy (and often expletive-laden) quotes from Davis’s autobiography. And though the dates and names are fully accounted for, Nelson devotes particular energy to pinpointing the power of Davis’s music, and what made it so special; in those sections, he carves out a niche somewhere between screen biography and music criticism. More

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      ‘Geographies of Solitude’ Review: Exploring a Wild Island

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      Part nature film, part biographical portrait, this experimental documentary takes its cues from its setting, an island off mainland Nova Scotia.The closing credits of “Geographies of Solitude” say the film was made in collaboration with its subject, the naturalist Zoe Lucas. But the director, Jacquelyn Mills, might equally have called this experimental documentary — part nature film, part biographical portrait — a collaboration with the setting. Shot on Sable Island, a narrow, wild land strip 100 miles off mainland Nova Scotia, the film takes its cues from the scenery in unusually direct ways.“Geographies of Solitude” is as concerned with the elements of the medium as it is with natural elements. Mills, who also served as the cinematographer and editor, incorporates vignettes that resemble the work of the avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage. We see film exposed in starlight and developed in seaweed, or hear music generated, with the help of electrodes, by the island’s Calosoma beetle.Lucas, who first came to Sable Island in 1971, has spent decades thoroughly cataloging its horses, seals, birds and insects. She is heard in a voice-over clip talking about finding overlooked species. The island’s location also enables her to aid in tracking pollution in the Northwest Atlantic. Alarmingly, she says you can tell what holiday it is by the kinds of balloons that wash up.Seemingly the island’s only human inhabitant, Lucas introduces Mills to the area’s life cycles, lifting part of a horse carcass to show insects feeding off it or explaining how even a small amount of litter can start the growth of a dune. Yet it is to the great credit of “Geographies of Solitude” that it never feels expository: It turns an ecology lesson, and an account of a noble, steadfast, single-minded pursuit, into art.Geographies of SolitudeNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘RRR’ Picks Up Oscar Nomination for Best Song

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      Pop quiz: What are the three R’s?They aren’t reduce, reuse, recycle — this awards season, one of the hottest topics of conversation has quickly become the Telugu-language Indian action spectacular “RRR,” or “Rise, Roar, Revolt,” which picked up an Oscar nomination for best song on Tuesday.The movie, which stars two of India’s most popular actors — Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr. — is set in Delhi during the early 1920s and follows two patriotic but philosophically opposed men who team up to rescue a kidnapped girl (Twinkle Sharma) from British colonial officials (Alison Doody and Ray Stevenson).The film was already a worldwide box office success when it was released in March — it was directed by one of India’s most successful filmmakers, S.S. Rajamouli, with a whopping $72 million budget — and grossed $65 million during its opening weekend.But now, it has become the rare Indian hit to catch on with American viewers outside the Indian diaspora, thanks to word-of-mouth social media buzz and an unusual theatrical rerelease strategy.After the film, originally distributed by Sarigama Cinemas, initially played at 1,200 screens across the country in March — and began streaming on Netflix in late May — Dylan Marchetti, the president of the distributor Variance Films, saw its potential crossover appeal when he watched it repeatedly with enthusiastic audiences.So Variance got in touch with Sarigama, and they took the rare step of relaunching the film — sold to moviegoers as an “encoRRRe” — which led to its breakthrough in the United States.Speaking to The Times in August, Cristina Cacioppo, who programmed “RRR” at the Nitehawk Prospect Park in Brooklyn, said it drew moviegoers in the 20-to-30 age range, most from outside the Indian diaspora.“There was an overall wave of joy throughout,” Cacioppo told The Times. “You could feel the room smiling, the jaws dropping.” (More than three hours of Charan and Rao wrestling tigers; pulling off a daring bridge rescue involving a motorcycle, a horse and a flaming train car; and schooling British partygoers as they dance in perfect synchronization in matching suspenders will do that.)Josh Hurtado, a consultant at the independently run Potentate Films who collaborated with Sarigama and Marchetti on a one-night-only theatrical revival of “RRR” in June, told The Times that many attendees praised the film for the same reasons that had previously discouraged them from watching new Indian movies: “long run times, song and dance numbers, and ridiculous action” he said. “People come out saying they wish that this three-hour movie were longer.”The film also gained a robust afterlife on TikTok, with its earwormy syncopated dance number “Naatu Naatu” (Telugu for “Native Native”), becoming a viral hit thanks to Charan and Rama Rao’s playful syncopated dance moves and infectious singing. (The lyrics are by Chandrabose, while M.M. Keeravani composed the music.)After winning a Golden Globe for best original song earlier this month, as well as a Critics Choice Award for best foreign language film and a New York Film Critics Circle award for best director for Rajamouli, the film has its sights squarely trained on the big one: a best song Oscar for Charan and NTR Jr.’s joyous extravaganza of shoulder rolls, arm pumps and hook steps. More

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      Ke Huy Quan Says His Oscar Nomination Is ‘So Unbelievably Surreal’

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      On Tuesday morning, Ke Huy Quan, Michelle Yeoh and their “Everything Everywhere All at Once” co-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert met on a video call to watch the announcement of the Oscar nominations together, and as the sci-fi hit racked up each of its stunning 11 nominations, the group would toast, gasp, cheer and yell.“It was so loud, we could barely hear what anyone was saying,” said a laughing Quan, who received his first Oscar nomination Tuesday for playing Waymond Wang, the sweet-natured husband to Yeoh’s multiverse-saving laundromat owner. How did he react when his name was read?“I was jumping up and down, screaming at the top of my voice, exactly the same way that I did when I got the phone call from my agent that the Daniels wanted me to play Waymond,” Quan said during a phone interview conducted a half hour after the announcement. He described Tuesday as one of the happiest days of his life. “It’s so surreal. I am ecstatic.”“Everything Everywhere” represents a major career comeback for Quan, who rose to fame as a child actor in films like “The Goonies” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” but quit acting for decades when he found roles for an Asian actor hard to come by. While watching “Crazy Rich Asians” in 2018, Quan began to mull a return, and two weeks after asking an agent friend to represent him, he was sent “Everything Everywhere” and went out on his first audition in years.Now, he’s Oscar-nominated for it, and alongside Yeoh, his co-star Stephanie Hsu, and “The Whale” actress Hong Chau, history has been made: There have never been so many actors of Asian descent nominated in the same year.Interviews With the Oscar NomineesMichelle Yeoh: The “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star, nominated for best actress, said she was “bursting with joy” but “a little sad” that previous Asian actresses hadn’t been recognized.Angela Bassett: The actress nearly missed the announcement because of troubles with her TV. She tuned in just in time to find out that she was nominated for her supporting role in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”Ke Huy Quan: A former childhood star, the “Everything Everywhere All at Once” actor said the news of his best supporting actor nomination was surreal.Austin Butler: In discussing his best actor nomination, the “Elvis” star said that he wished Lisa Marie Presley, who died on Jan. 12, had been able to celebrate the moment with him.“I’ve been watching the Oscars for more than 30 years now, and every single year, I would imagine myself being on the red carpet, being in that room with everybody,” Quan said. “Of course, as the years went by, the chance of it ever becoming true slowly dissipated. And when I stepped away from acting for so long, I didn’t think that dream would ever come back. So to be here today, to hear the announcement, it is so unbelievably surreal. It’s crazy, and I’m speechless.”Opposite Michelle Yeoh in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Quan planned to spend the day celebrating with family: “For so many years, they were so worried about me. To see how happy they are means the world to me.Allyson Riggs/A24, via Associated PressLike the “CODA” star Troy Kotsur last year, Quan has cruised through the season picking up every supporting-actor trophy in sight, from the Gothams to the Golden Globes to the Critics Choice Awards. It’s an outcome he never could have foreseen when he wrapped the film in early 2020 and then, over the pandemic, failed to book even a single follow-up role.“That year and a half was horrible because every tape we would send in, we would get no response back,” he said. “I was so afraid I was going to lose my health insurance. I called my agent, saying, ‘Get me anything, it doesn’t matter what, I need to make the minimum to get health insurance.’”But Quan’s taped auditions still came to naught, and he lost his insurance just a few months before “Everything Everywhere” came out in March 2021. “I was so dispirited,” he said, remembering a desperate call he placed to “Everything Everywhere” producer Jonathan Wang: “I said, ‘You’ve seen the movie. Can you please tell me, am I any good in it?’ He said, ‘Ke, why are you asking such a stupid question?’ And I said, ‘Because nobody wants to hire me.’ And Jonathan says, ‘Well, you just wait. Just wait until the movie comes out.’”Since then, Quan said, it’s been a sea change in how he’s been perceived. People who used to stop him on the street and ask, “Are you the kid from ‘Indiana Jones’?” now recognize him as Waymond from “Everything Everywhere,” and he will soon be seen in Season 2 of “Loki” and the forthcoming series “American Born Chinese.”“It’s been the greatest, wildest ride,” said Quan, who was eager to celebrate the day’s success with his wife, Echo — “We didn’t think a day like this would ever, ever happen” — and to call family members who had stuck by him and sent proud texts all through awards season.“For so many years, they were so worried about me,” he said. “To see how happy they are means the world to me, so I just want to spend the day with my family.”As I brought our call to a close, something new dawned on Quan, and he began to talk … well, all at once.“Kyle! From this day forward, I will always be ‘Oscar-nominated actor Ke Huy Quan’!” he said. “How great is that? Oh my gosh, I see it all the time when I go watch trailers, when people talk about actors — ‘Oscar-nominated actor Leonardo DiCaprio.’ It sounds so nice. And now, my name is going to sound like that, too.”He laughed in disbelief. “Awesome!” Quan said. More

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      Here are the nominees for best director.

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      Todd Field, “Tár” Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Ruben Ostlund, “Triangle of Sadness” Steven Spielberg, “The Fabelmans” More