Month: February 2026

My favorite season has arrived: award season. Get the carpet ready, because there’s an army of gold statues to hand out.

The Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, will be held March 15, available to watch on ABC, Hulu or YouTube TV. Who will win?

When Oscar nominations come out, I make it a goal to watch all the Best Picture nominees. Not because I am a film student with a Letterboxd account, but to predict what awards the movies will win at the Oscars.

Predictions

The Oscars have a lot of categories to comb through, but here are my predictions for the five major categories at the Oscars.

Best Screenplay — Ryan Coogler, “Sinners“

“Sinners” was the cinema event of last summer. There has been a drought of good, non-remake movies, and “Sinners” provided that. The vampires felt like a fully well-rounded part of the plot and conflict, and it covered the history of the Deep South beautifully and educationally.

Best Actor — Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another“

Justin Chang at NPR talks about DiCaprio’s performance in this movie, calling him “an underappreciated comic performer.” While DiCaprio’s performance is comedic, it did not leave me as impressed as other performances this season, as I thought the standout in this film was Chase Infiniti’s character. While it is not my top choice, “One Battle After Another” has been succeeding this award season, having already won 200 awards.

Best Actress — Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”

There is a reason why Buckley’s performance in this film is being talked about. Her role as Agnes is beautifully feminine, but at no point does she become a stereotypically weak and brittle female character.

Her ability to convey grief and motherhood has led to Buckley winning at the Golden Globes and the British Academy Film Awards, showcasing that she is very lucky to take home the big win in March.

Best Director — Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”

Coogler has had lots of box office success in the past with previous films like “Fruitvale Station” and “Black Panther.” “Sinners” is Coogler at his strongest, and he has strived to become better with each film he has made, which is a great quality in a director.

Best Picture —”One Battle After Another”

“One Battle After Another” is already a top taker of this award season. It has won in this category in the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, and it has been taking home wins in other categories as well. It’s safe to say they could be going home with the Best Picture win, and maybe sweep the most Oscar categories.

The other nominees 

“Marty Supreme” is my hot take — I left the theater massively disappointed when I saw it. It has been noticeable that in recent years, Timothée Chalamet is gunning for a Best Actor win. However, his role and performance in “Marty Supreme” is one of his weaker performances compared to his roles in the past.

“Train Dreams” is an underdog in this list for me. I watched it suspecting nothing, and when the credits rolled, I couldn’t stop thinking about the rawness of the story. The cinematography is breathtaking, and that, combined with the color grading, I think it can go home with the win in Cinematography.

“The Secret Agent” and “Sentimental Value” are the films not from the United States that are nominated for Best Picture this year, and have both won in International Film categories this season. I predict the film going home with the International Feature Film win will be “Sentimental Value.” This movie is complex, handling grief and family dynamics, and gives Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning moments to shine.

Movies like “F1” and “Frankenstein” are the weaker nominees this season. While both films are solid, I predict they will only get less publicized wins, like sound editing/sound design for “F1” and production design for “Frankenstein.”

They’re both great category wins, but these films do not seem like ones that are the big sweepers of the night, and have not been big sweepers at the Globes or BAFTAs. 

Naturally, whoever wins might receive hate online because of snub ideology. However, it is important to remember the Oscars are the best films going up against each other. It is an unfortunate reality that your favorite films and performances might not win.

What do you think?

If you love award season and want to watch more films, watch the nominees. A lot of the films this year are original or recent adaptations, not reboots or remakes, and cover great topics and themes. 

Watch as many as you can — see if you agree with my predictions.

After watching “Wuthering Heights,” I can confidently say I haven’t left a theater feeling that devastated in years — and nearly a week after watching, that heartbreak still hasn’t loosened its grip on me.

“Wuthering Heights” is inspired by the novel of the same name, written by Emily Brontë in 1847. There are obviously key differences between the two, but the film follows the romantic and doomed relationship between Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) and Cathy (Margot Robbie). When Cathy has accepted a marriage proposal, Heathcliff disappears for years, leading to his return to rekindle his relationship with Cathy. 

I’ve seen split reviews, with some people absolutely hating this film and others adoring it — many of whom haven’t even read the book. As someone who has read the novel and adored it, I loved that this adaptation dared to give Cathy and Heathcliff a real chance at romance — something that never becomes a physical relationship in the book — and honestly, I’ll take a love story any day.

What I liked

This was director Emerald Fennell’s vision and interpretation of “Wuthering Heights,” and I ate it up. She gave Heathcliff and Cathy the relationship that they deserved to have, and what many readers craved for them. 

This movie isn’t just about sex, and anyone who has actually read the novel understands the intensity and emotional build-up that defines these characters. The physicality in the film doesn’t come out of nowhere — it feels like a manifestation of everything that was always there, waiting to erupt.

Not only did Fennell give these two characters physical intimacy, but she kept the soul and emotion behind their love by including key quotes from the book. 

Lines said by Cathy like, “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same,” and “He’s more myself than I am,” showed the yearning.

Fennell also kept the emotion by showing how their love is intertwined with pain and longing, making their bond feel layered rather than simplified for the screen. She allows the two main characters to express anger and madness toward each other. We see Cathy’s pride when she says marrying Heathcliff would degrade her, and we see Heathcliff’s rebellion when he first leaves.

In the end, the film does their love justice, providing Heathcliff and Cathy with closure — no matter how heartbreaking that ending feels.

And who doesn’t love the 6-foot-5, dark-haired Jacob Elordi? I wish I had recorded the theater’s reaction when Heathcliff returns to Cathy — all the gasping, clapping and cheering was SO LOUD, and rightfully so. That man is HOT.

What I didn’t like

Call me a hater, but the Charli xcx soundtrack album was NOT the move. The opening scene of the movie featured the viral song on TikTok that says, “I think I’m gonna die in this house,” and it actually made me laugh — I couldn’t take the Charli songs seriously. Plus, it was a complete missed opportunity to use “Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush. 

While Cathy and Heathcliff’s physical intimacy is all warranted and granted, Fennell does have a unique, oversexualized directing style. There are some weird erotic things that have nothing to do with the plot, like Cathy sticking her finger into a dead fish’s mouth or her skin room. I understand that’s Fennell’s directing style, but she includes some really weird and unnecessary scenes that have nothing to do with Heathcliff and Cathy. 

When Cathy eventually stops her physical relationship with Heathcliff, his version of rebellion is marrying Cathy’s sister-in-law, Isabella, and proceeding to openly abuse her physically, verbally and psychologically. This is true to the book, but in the film, it’s portrayed that Isabella is content with Heathcliff’s treatment, almost like she enjoys it.

I don’t think that was the best direction for Fennell to portray that relationship, because in the book, Isabella actually escapes Heathcliff. I don’t like the romanticizing of domestic violence in this film, and Fennell should’ve kept that aspect true to its original text. 

The verdict 

While I didn’t like the weird, erotic and unnecessary scenes, the fact that Heathcliff and Cathy were able to have an intimate relationship felt deserving after their long-suffering love. It gave their story depth and closeness that the novel never explored.

I’m rating “Wuthering Heights” a 3.5 out of five stars. You don’t want to miss the intensity of Heathcliff and Cathy’s love — or the devastating ending that lingers with you long after the credits roll.

Outrage has become entertainment, and we’re rewarding it with every scroll.

When the term rage bait first gained popularity on social media, it was more humorous than harmful. It was often used ironically — creators would exaggerate minor opinions or make obviously unserious takes just to spark playful reactions. For example, people would send funny stickers or quotes to each other when having a conversation to spark a reaction, but not in a hurtful way.

It may have still been rage-baiting, but the audience understood the joke.

While it is still being used for content, it’s being used in a way that makes fun of someone for who they are as a person. From the way someone dresses to the way they speak, people are throwing around the word rage bait instead of just calling it bullying. 

It’s making the internet less enjoyable to be on. You open TikTok expecting to see the kind of content you’re used to, and instead, you see someone labeling a post as rage bait just to justify saying something offensive or rude. I’ve recently seen videos saying slurs are OK, or videos where people attack someone’s identity.

The term has become a barrier for these creators. If people get upset, the creator can brush it off as “it was just rage bait,” even though the content was clearly meant to mock or provoke.

Instead of clever exaggeration, it can turn into mean-spirited commentary disguised as a joke. And when that kind of content keeps getting pushed to the top of your feed, it shifts the tone of the entire platform, making scrolling feel more exhausting than entertaining.

It’s not just the videos that are the issue — it’s the comment sections too. I find myself getting rage baited just by reading the comments, and before I know it, I have to put my phone away because the commenters got the exact reaction they were looking for.

Rage-baiting taps into something called “negativity bias,” the psychological tendency for people to pay more attention to negative experiences than positive ones. Because of this bias, people are more likely to engage with content that triggers moral outrage.

That outrage drives comments, shares and long watch times. Algorithms interpret that high engagement as a sign that the content is valuable or interesting, so they push it to even more users. As a result, rage-inducing posts get amplified, rewarded and repeated, creating a self-sustaining cycle of outrage-driven content.

That is why this kind of content continues to thrive. People are deeply attached to their beliefs and identities, and when something feels like an attack on either, it creates a strong urge to respond and defend themselves.

Rage bait creators understand this. When a post challenges someone’s values, appearance, religion, politics or culture, it does not just feel like disagreement. It feels personal. That emotional reaction drives comments, arguments and shares, which only fuels the algorithm further and keeps the cycle going.

While we should speak out on the issues of this term, creating more content talking about it does more harm than good. That’s because people don’t take it seriously; they will still find a way to call you “soft” rather than acknowledge the fact that this is an issue. 

These platforms aren’t going to step up to these issues, and that’s because this kind of content is giving them money. If it’s giving them money, they couldn’t care less about the repercussions.  

Throughout the number of times I’ve reported something or left a comment asking for it to be taken down, I’m told there’s no sign of bullying.

If we continue to act like this on social media, then the media will be a place people want to ignore, rather than it being a time where it was an escape from reality. Now, I find myself with a lower screen time.

There isn’t an easy fix for this kind of content, but another type that consistently performs well is content that highlights positivity. The videos that prove it’s not that hard to be kind to someone. A creator on TikTok, for example, goes around and gives compliments to strangers. Before doing so, he makes them believe they are going to be rage baited, but tells them something kind instead.

It may feel overwhelming, but we can take it as an opportunity to be more intentional about what we engage with. Spend time interacting with positive accounts, because they deserve a platform more than someone profiting off people’s anger.

Be the change. Change the algorithm.