Fresh out of a short hospital stint over the holidays from a broken hip, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar took to his newsletter this week to absolutely shred some of Hollywood’s most buzzy movies as the industry prepares for the Academy Awards.
In an article on his Substack, Abdul-Jabbar explained why critically adored films like Killers Of the Flower Moon and May December are actually undeserving of love.
“This year, because there are so many terrible but critically acclaimed films being hoisted on the shoulders of misguided critics, I’m doing a preemptive strike before the Oscar nominations are even announced,” he wrote. “Someone has to stop the madness.”
Here is a sampling of Abdul-Jabbar taking a hammer to some of the biggest movies of the year:
On Martin Scorcese’s Killers: “The biggest problem is that the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio is so dumb and venal that any time we spend with him is annoying.”
On indie favorite Past Lives: “The direction is very arty to make sure you know something important is happening.”
On tabloid satire May December: “I could craft a bunch of crap about the deep themes of the vagaries of identity, the damage of narcissism, and other pretentious mutterings. But I’d be fleshing out ideas the film never explores with any depth.”
Still, Abdul-Jabbar holds true to his promise to pump up some underrated favorites as well. And he is just as direct with his opinions on those movies as the ones he hates.
On the lesbian high school comedy Bottoms: “It does what so many of the more pretentious art films fail to do: entertain.”
On the animated Across the Spider-verse: “The all-too-human conflicts with his parents, his love interest, and the other versions of Spider-Man that he encounters give this movie a lot of heart.”
Many retired athletes, entertainers and politicians claim to have media careers. But those newsletters, columns or podcasts mostly all fizzle out. Abdul-Jabbar writes multiple times a week about politics, media and sports.
And his biggest enemy of all may be show business. Someone has to stop the madness!
