If we were shrugging in a somewhat disgruntled manner when the New York Film Critics Circle announced their winners on Tuesday, the National Board of Review managed to inject a bit of personality into this race. How so? Well I don't think people were quite on board with "Hugo"s Best Picture chances until just now. With Scorsese and his film taking the top prizes from NBR, which was highly expected to go to "The Artist" and Michel Hazanavicius, it feels like there's new blood in there. What gets me even further buzzed is that Tilda Swinton took the Best Actress prize for her amazing performance in "We Need to Talk About Kevin". Fingers crossed that at least this one sticks.
The wins for "The Descendants" and "Beginners", on the other hand, were pretty predictable and within the grain of what we expected. The wins for "50/50" and "Margin Call", on the other hand, are just plain silly. Their top ten are considerably more interesting than I had originally diagnosed this season, but I don't imagine this bunch will all make it to the film list, least of which "Drive", "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", and for entirely different reasons, "J. Edgar" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2".
BEST FILM: "Hugo"
BEST DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese ("Hugo")
BEST ACTOR: George Clooney ("The Descendants")
BEST ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton ("We Need to Talk About Kevin")
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christopher Plummer ("Beginners")
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Shailene Woodley ("The Descendants")
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Will Reiser ("50/50")
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash ("The Descendants")
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: "Rango"
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE: Felicity Jones ("Like Crazy")/ Rooney Mara ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo")
DEBUT DIRECTOR: J.C. Chandor ("Margin Call")
BEST ENSEMBLE: "The Help"
SPOTLIGHT AWARD: Michael Fassbender ("A Dangerous Method", "Shame", "Jane Eyre", "X-Men: First Class")
NBR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: "Crime After Crime" and "Pariah"
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: "A Separation"
BEST DOCUMENTARY: "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory"
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN FILMMAKING: The "Harry Potter" Franchise
TOP TEN FILMS:
"The Artist"
"The Descendants"
"Drive"
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2"
"The Ides of March"
"J. Edgar"
"The Tree of Life"
"War Horse"
TOP FIVE FOREIGN FILMS
"13 Assassins"
"Elite Squad: The Enemy Within"
"Footnote"
"Le Havre"
"Point Blank"
TOP 5 DOCUMENTARIES
"Born to be Wild"
"Buck"
"George Harrison: Living in the Material World"
"Project Nim"
"Senna"
TOP 10 INDEPENDENT FILMS
"50/50"
"Another Earth"
"Beginners"
"A Better Life"
"Cedar Rapids"
"Margin Call"
"Shame"
"Take Shelter"
"We Need to Talk About Kevin"
"Win Win"
Have you reviewed Margin Call? I tried searching for it here but I couldn't find, am curious why you're so against it. And since I saw and loved 50.50, I'm glad that it won screenplay and was listed as one of the top 10 indies, especially since that's probably the only time the film will be recognized.
ReplyDeleteand I too hope that Swinton stays on, to me she's a better pick than Close and Streep. And I agree on Drive and the other films you mentioned not getting the cut for Best Picture, although I wonder if that whiny fan base support from the internet will somehow help Harry Potter get in.
I've seen the trailer for "Margin Call", and it honestly didn't look worth my time in the slightest. And I just recently watched "50/50", and I can't say it lived up to the hype around it. It honestly felt it played rather predictably and banally a story that demanded closer emotional attention. I did not for a second believe the direness of his situation.
ReplyDeleteI imagine Warner Bros. is going to try to get a campaign off the ground for "Deathly Hallows: Part 2", but I don't imagine anything will come of it other than some decently placed craft nods.