Awards Roundup

For the curious, below are summaries of the winners of the various critics awards in the major categories. Spoiler alert: Boyhood has been cleaning up.

Best Film
13: Boyhood (New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics Online, Boston Society of Film Critics, Washington, Toronto, St Louis, San Francisco, Indiana, Dublin, Detroit, Chicago, Austin)

05: Birdman (Utah, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Florida, Dallas)

02: Gone Girl (Nevada, Kansas City)

02: The Grand Budapest Hotel (Southeastern, Online Film Critics)

02: Selma (Black Film Critics Circle, African American Film Critics Association)

01: A Most Violent Year (National Board of Review)

01: Nightcrawler (San Diego)

01: Snowpiercer (Boston Online Critics)

Review: The Imitation Game (2014)

* * *
Director: Morton Tyldum
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley

Genius. Outcast. Hero. Criminal. Morton Tyldum's The Imitation Game, adapted from Andrew Hodges' Alan Turing: The Enigma, casts its protagonist in many lights, and in turn casts society in an equal number. The story of a man who did some of his most important work in secrecy, and to the benefit of millions, only to end his life having been publicly tried and punished for his private life, The Imitation Game is a portrait of a man at once at the service of and the mercy of a society in which he never quite fit but which needed him desperately for survival. Though The Imitation Game is accurate more in the broad sense than it is in terms of the finer details, it's a solid and sometimes moving film, anchored by one of the year's best performances.

Review: The Trip to Italy (2014)

* * *
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon

Being on a trip with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon would probably be a bit of an endurance test, but watching them on a trip with each other is certainly a delight. While The Trip to Italy amounts to little more than two guys bantering, bickering, and doing impressions for just under two hours, stopping occasionally to eat some delicious looking food and take in some scenery, that's more than enough to keep the viewer's attention when the two guys are as funny as Coogan and Brydon. I never saw The Trip, but I'll definitely be catching up with it now that I've seen The Trip to Italy and I'm sure that if there's a third entry in the series (and I can't imagine that there won't be as one sequel never seems to be the end of the story anymore) I'll be seeing that, too.

Review: Life Partners (2014)

* * 1/2
Director: Susanna Fogel
Starring: Leighton Meester, Gillian Jacobs

Sometimes growing up means growing apart. Following in the footsteps of last year's great Frances Ha, Susanna Fogel's Life Partners is a film about a friendship between two women, once the central relationship in both of their lives but now undergoing a change as one of the women enters into a relationship. The twist in this story is that one of the women is gay and the other straight, though while this provides some different shadings to it, the ground it's covering ultimately remains familiar. While Life Partners never comes close to the heights of Frances Ha, it's a generally enjoyable and entertaining film, even if the narrative becomes increasingly shapeless as it moves into its third act.

Review: The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete (2013)

* * *
Director: George Tillman, Jr.
Starring: Skylan Brooks, Ethan Dizon

George Tillman, Jr.'s The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete occupies a space somewhere in between fairy tale and gritty reality. A story about two kids in dire circumstances, Mister and Pete is equally aware of the vulnerability and the durability of children and divides its time about equally between the two modes. It isn't always a successful film, particularly when it comes to its adult characters, but when it focuses on the two boys at its center, the film works wonderfully, moving easily between humor and tragedy, between triumph and desolation. Movies that rely so heavily on the performances of child actors can be a gamble, but Tillman struck gold with his stars Skylan Brooks and Ethan Dizon, who carry the story with ease and turn in deeply felt and deeply compelling performances.

Southeastern Film Critics Association Winners

Yep, there are still some critics groups handing out awards. Today is was the Southeastern Film Critics Association who went for The Grand Budapest Hotel, which has been a popular choice in Screenplay and Production Design categories but gets its first Best Picture here. The winners:

Best Picture: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Best Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Original Screenplay: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Adapted Screenplay: Gone Girl

Best Documentary: Life Itself

Best Foreign Language Film: Force Majeur

Best Animated Film: The Lego Movie

Best Ensemble: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Review: Foxcatcher (2014)

* * *
Director: Bennett Miller
Starring: Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo

Many "true crime" stories attempt to provide some sort of answer to the question of why the crime took place. Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher takes a different approach, merely observing that the crime took place without trying to make it part of a neat, clean narrative. Context does not make it any less senseless, which of course makes it all the more bizarre and intriguing. There are no easy answers in Foxcatcher, just a story of how a confluence of disparate issues - from how neither wealth nor success can necessarily prevent someone from becoming alienated from everyone around them, to how wealth can inspire society to indulge behavior that would otherwise be unacceptable, and how the easily commodifiable patriotism of international sport ends up leaving the actual athletes behind - created an atmosphere where tragedy seems almost inescapable.

Nevada Film Critics Society Winners

The Nevada Film Critics society announced their winners and went a different way from most critics groups, opting for Gone Girl over Boyhood or Birdman. Their winners:

Best Film: Gone Girl

Best Director: Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler

Best Actress: Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl

Best Actor: Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood and Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year

Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Animated Film: Big Hero 6

Best Documentary: Citizenfour

Best Ensemble: Guardians of the Galaxy

Best Youth Performance: Ellar Coltrane, Boyhood

Best Cinematography: Interstellar

Best Visual Effects: Interstellar

Review: Jodorowsky's Dune (2014)

* * *
Director: Frank Pavich

Alejandro Jodorowsky's adaptation of Dune is one of the most influential films never made. It exists in certain forms, such as in the mind of Jodorowsky and the memories of the people who were collaborating on the aborted project with him; in a massive book containing story boards, costume and set designs; and in the wealth of science fiction films that have been released in the decades since the plug got pulled on Jodorowsky's project; but his grand, slightly insane vision never made it to the big screen. Director Frank Pavich's documentary Jodorowsky's Dune does its best to rectify that, letting Jodorowsky talk about what he would have done and how he would have done it and bringing bits of it to life through animation. The result is a delightful film about the triumphs and heartbreaks of making art, the endurance of passion and ideas, and that oh so intriguing question: what if?

21st Century Essentials: A Christmas Tale (2008)

All eras have works of art that are fundamental to our understanding of not only the craft itself, but the culture from which it was created. The 21st century is still nascent, but it isn't too early to start creating a canon that demonstrates the heights to which film as an artform has reached since the year 2000. These are the essential films:


Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Jean-Paul Roussillon
Country: France

The title of Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale evokes a sentimental, fairytale-like feeling. It suggests a story in which all problems are brought to heel by the spirit of the holiday, sweeping away conflict and renewing old bonds. Desplechin’s film does not play out this way, but is instead a deep and complex family drama (occasionally a comedy) that offers little in the way of resolution. This is the kind of film where nothing “happens” because it is much more interested in examining its characters and the subtleties of their relationships with each other. A Christmas Tale is a story of a family haunted by loss, wounded by discord, but ultimately bound together by blood and history… whether they want to be or not.

Florida Film Critics Circle, Austin Film Critics Association & Dublin Film Critics Winners

Another day, another set of award winners. Below are the selections of the Florida Film Critics Circle, Austin Film Critics Association, and Dublin Film Critics:

Florida Film Critics Circle
Best Picture: Birdman

Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Actress: Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl

Best Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Adapted Screenplay: Gone Girl

Best Original Screenplay: The Grand Budapdest Hotel

Best Animated Film: The Lego Movie

Best Foreign Language Film: The Raid 2

Best Art Direction/Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Cinematography: Interstellar

Best Score: Under the Skin

Friday's Top 5... Most Intriguing Permanently Shelved Films

#5: Que Viva Mexico!
Just the description of Sergei Eisenstein's Que Viva Mexico makes it sound unfathomably unwieldy: an epic story encompassing Mexican culture and politics spanning the pre-Conquest era through to the Mexican Revolution, for which Eisenstein shot somewhere between 30 and 50 hours worth of footage. Before the film could be completed Eisenstein was recalled to the USSR, following which he was denied entry to the US to edit the footage and no agreement could be reached to send the footage to the USSR to be edited. A version of the film was released in 1979, 31 years after Eisenstein's death, but you can't help but wonder how it would have looked if the director had been able to put together his own final cut.

Las Vegas Film Critics Society & Utah Film Critics Association Winners

A big day for Birdman as it wins a bunch of awards from the critics out of Las Vegas and Utah. More exciting (to me at least) is that someone finally recognized the music from Frank, which has been stuck in my head for months now.

Las Vegas Film Critics Society
Best Picture: Birdman

Best Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Birdman

Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman

Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer

Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Screenplay: Birdman

Best Foreign Film: Ida

Best Documentary: Citizenfour

Best Animated Film: The Lego Movie

Best Costume Design: Guardians of the Galaxy

Best Editing: Edge of Tomorrow

Best Score: Birdman

Best Song: "I Love You All," Frank

Best Art Direction: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Cinematography: Birdman

Best Action Film: Guardians of the Galaxy

Best Comedy: Top Five

Best Horror/Sci-Fi Film: The Babadook

Best Family Film: The Lego Movie

Best Ensemble: Birdman

Breakout Filmmaker of the Year: Damien Chzelle, Whiplash

Partners in Crime: Cukor & Hepburn

In some ways, you might say that director George Cukor made Katharine Hepburn a movie star. There's an old anecdote regarding a screen test that Hepburn did for what would become her screen debut: when viewing the bulk of the test, neither producer David O. Selznick nor director George Cukor were particularly impressed. Selznick, in fact, hated Hepburn completely, while Cukor disliked the mannered style of her acting but saw something in her when she did something simple and unscripted that made him believe that she was something special and shouldn't be dismissed. Cukor was, of course, spot on, judging by Hepburn's 60 year screen career, her unmatched 4 Oscar wins, and the fact that she is second only to Meryl Streep in nominations. Together Cukor and Hepburn would make 8 feature films and 2 television films together (for the purposes of this, I'm only looking at the feature films), forming one of the all-time great director-actor relationships.

Ten Years Later... Spanglish (2004)

On this day in 2004


Director: James L. Brooks
Starring: Paz Vega, Adam Sandler, Tea Leoni

Though I didn't see it in 2004, I remember that before it came out Spanglish was a film that was being predicted as a sure-fire Oscar movie by those who predict such things. And why wouldn't it be? Aside from a misstep with 1994's I'll Do Anything, director James L. Brooks had a stellar track record going into Spanglish in the form of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good As It Gets. All three were nominated for Best Picture (with Terms winning) and between them they earned 25 Oscar nominations. While the presence of Adam Sandler might, at any other point in his career, have signaled doom, in 2004 he wasn't so far removed from the great reviews he received for 2002's Punch-Drunk Love. Yet even with all that it superficially seemed to have going for it, it was passed over by Oscar (except for a Best Original Score nomination it was even passed over by the Golden Globes - the Golden Globes! An organization which has historically existed to reward star quality before product quality and which that year nominated the atrocious 2004 version of The Phantom of the Opera for Best Picture, Musical or Comedy). How does that happen? Well, when the movie in question is as off-putting as this one, it's a lot easier to understand.

Toronto Film Critics Association & Chicago Film Critics Association Winners

The critics from Toronto and Chicago announced their winners today, giving a lot more love to the season's early favorite Boyhood. The winners:

Toronto Film Critics Association
Best Film: Boyhood

Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, The Immigrant

Best Actor: Tom Hardy, Locke

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Clarkson, Boyhood

Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Screenplay: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Animated Feature: The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Foreign Language Film: Force Majeur

Best Documentary Film: The Overnighters

Best First Feature: The Lunchbox

Detroit, San Diego, Indiana, Dallas-Fort Worth, St. Louis & Online Film Critics Society Winners

A whole bunch of critics groups handed out their awards today, giving love to a lot of the now usual suspects (Boyhood, J.K. Simmons, Patricia Arquette, Citizenfour, etc.) while also giving attention to some of the less rewarded (but no less deserving) names in this year's race. A whole lotta winners below:

Detroit Film Critics Society
Best Film: Boyhood

Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Actress: Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl

Best Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Screenplay: Boyhood

Best Ensemble: Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Guardians of the Galaxy

Breakthrough: Damien Chazelle, Whiplash

San Francisco Film Critics Circle Winners

The San Francisco Film Critics Circle also made their picks today. Their winners:

Best Picture: Boyhood

Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Best Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Best Supporting Actor: Edward Norton, Birdman

Best Original Screenplay: Birdman

Best Adapted Screenplay: Inherent Vice

Best Animated Feature: The Lego Movie

Best Foreign Language Picture: Ida

Best Documentary: Citizenfour

Best Cinematography: Ida

Best Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Editing: Boyhood

Netflix Recommends... X-Men: First Class (2011)

* * *
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon

Because I watched The A-Team, Total Recall and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Netflix decided that I might want to watch X-Men: First Class, even though X-Men has fairly little in common with any of those movies because even when Netflix provides some reasoning behind its recommendations, it's still basically random. Until seeing this movie, I'd never actually seen any X-Men film in its entirety (I've seen almost all of X-Men except for the last 15 or so minutes) and I know pretty much nothing about the X-Men mythology except for what I can recall from the animated series which aired when I was a kid, so I'm probably not the ideal viewer for this film, but nevertheless I did like it. It's a vibrant film with a good mix of action, drama, and humor, easily accessible to someone like me while containing elements which allow it to fit in as part of the film series which preceded it (which, as I understand it, sort of eschew the concept of continuity as something pesky and unimportant anyway, so I suppose that "fitting in" wouldn't be too difficult).

Kansas City Film Critics Circle Winners

The critics from Kansas City (the oldest of the many film critics organizations in the US) weighed in today, giving lots of love to Birdman. Their winners:

Best Picture: Birdman

Robert Altman Award for Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Actress: Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl

Best Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Best Supporting Actor: Edward Norton, Birdman

Best Adapted Screenplay: Obvious Child

Best Original Screenplay: Birdman

Best Documentary: Citizenfour

Best Animated Feature: The Lego Movie

Vince Koehler Award for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Film: The Babadook

Review: Closer (2004)

* *
Director: Mike Nichols
Starring: Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen

Love is a battlefield. The characters in Closer take that notion to heart, waging a winner take all brawl which leaves them all a little worse for wear by the end. The winner? Anyone and everyone who doesn't end up with any of these idiots. This is a story about four increasingly repulsive people who throw the word "love" around while openly embracing misery and making sure to spread it around to others. Closer is the sort of movie people describe as being about adults, yet it centers on characters whose emotional maturity seems to have peaked at approximately the age of 12. To be sure, the performances (particularly that of Clive Owen) are occasionally electrifying, but good lord is this story, with its seemingly endless back and forth and back again, tedious.

Friday's Top 5... Hollywood's Worst Ethnic Miscasting

#5: Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart
I realize that Mariane Pearl gave her blessing to being portrayed by Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart but still... c'mon. There aren't many good roles for women in Hollywood generally, but there are even fewer for women of color. Jolie got good reviews and netted nominations for various awards (including the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild), but that doesn't make it okay.

Golden Globe Nominees

The nominees are:

Best Motion Picture - Drama
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Into the Woods
Pride
St. Vincent

Golden Globe Nomination Predictions

Right on the heels of the Screen Actors Guild, the Hollywood Foreign Press will announce it's nominees tomorrow morning. My predictions:

Best Motion Picture - Drama
Boyhood
Gone Girl
The Imitation Game
Selma
Unbroken

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Into the Woods
Top Five

Screen Actors Guild Nominations

The nominees are:

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything

Screen Actors Guild Nomination Predictions

The Screen Actors Guild announces their nominees tomorrow morning, my predictions:

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Birdman
Boyhood
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Selma

Review: Serena (2014)

* * 1/2
Director: Susanne Bier
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper

I don't think that any film that has shown up at any of my local movie theaters this year has made my ears perk up quite as much as Serena. It's not so much that the film has good buzz - there only seem to be a few reviews online and they run the gamut from mixed to negative - but that there's such an air of mystery about it that watching it feels like going into uncharted territory. This is a movie that was made in early 2012 and is just emerging now (though it won't hit theaters in the US until 2015), despite starring two actors who have gone on to become two of the biggest stars working today, each of whom received Oscar nominations for both of their last two films together. Even if it was terrible, I don't understand how a movie like this could end up buried and then, essentially, abandoned - surely the curiosity factor alone could make it modestly viable as a commercial product. For the record, I do not think that Serena is a terrible film, though it's one that I would describe as "fascinating" more than "good." I went back and forth a lot when trying to decide on a rating for it because it is certainly deeply, deeply flawed in its present form but if it's a failure, at least it's an interesting one.

New York Film Critics Online Winners

Chalk another win up for Boyhood, as the New York Film Critics Online adds even more hardware to the film's already impressive tally of wins from critics groups. The full list of winners:

Best Picture: Boyhood

Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night

Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Screenplay: Birdman

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman

Best Foreign Film: Two Days, One Night

Best Documentary: Life Itself

Best Animated Film: The Lego Movie

Best Use of Music: Get on Up

Best Ensemble Cast: Birdman

Breakthrough Performance: Jack O'Connell, Starred Up and Unbroken

Debut Director: Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Winners

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association spent the day (literally, it took nearly 5 hours for them to announce all their winners) and went for Boyhood in a big way. The full list of winners, including a couple of very nice surprises in the acting categories:

Best Picture: Boyhood

Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Best Actor: Tom Hardy, Locke

Best Supporting Actress: Agata Kulesza, Ida

Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Screenplay: Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Foreign Language Film: Ida

Best Documentary: Citizenfour

Best Animated Film: The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman

Best Editing: Sandra Adair, Boyhood

Best Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Music Score: Jonny Greenwood, Inherent Vice and Mica Levi, Under the Skin

Boston Society of Film Critics Winners

Boyhood is the big winner from the Boston Society of Film Critics, picking up 5 awards including Picture and Director. The full list of winners:

Best Picture: Boyhood

Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, The Immigrant and Two Days, One Night

Best Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman

Best Supporting Actress: Emma Stone, Birdman

Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Screenplay: Birdman and Boyhood

Best Documentary: Citizenfour

Best Animated Film: The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman

Best Film Editing: Sandra Adair, Boyhood

Best Use of Music in a Film: Inherent Vice

Best New Filmmaker: Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler

Best Ensemble: Boyhood

Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

* * *
Director: Matt Reeves
Starring: Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke

Hollywood is a weird place. It won't invest significant sums of money in movies about women or people of color because of the perceived (though frequently disproved) notion that there's not a viable market for such films, yet it will pour $170 million into a film where, though a handful of white people have prominent roles, the story is told from the perspective of characters who aren't even human and who spend a large amount of their time on screen communicating via sign language. Hollywood can come out with a movie that features several apes who emerge as distinct and well-developed characters, yet can't imagine doing anything with female characters beyond making them someone's love interest or with people of color beyond making them sidekicks. That's not the fault of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, of course, which is a very good movie that successfully builds and expands on its predecessor; it's just something that occurred to me after the film finished. Like I said, Hollywood is weird.

Boston Online Film Critics Association Winners

The Boston Online Film Critics Association announced its winners this morning, making a few eccentric picks that will be sure to stand out as more critics groups announce their winners and a status quo inevitably sets in. Boston's picks:

Best Picture: Snowpiercer

Best Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Birdman

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night

Best Actor: Brendan Gleeson, Calvary

Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer

Best Supporting Actor: Edward Norton, Birdman

Best Screenplay: Calvary

Best Foreign Language Film: Two Days, One Night

Best Documentary: Life Itself

Best Animated Film: The Lego Movie

Best Cinematography: Birdman

Best Editing: Edge of Tomorrow

Best Original Score: Under the Skin

Best Ensemble: Birdman

21st Century Essentials: Silent Light (2007)

All eras have works of art that are fundamental to our understanding of not only the craft itself, but the culture from which it was created. The 21st century is still nascent, but it isn't too early to start creating a canon that demonstrates the heights to which film as an artform has reached since the year 2000. These are the essential films:


Director: Carlos Reygadas
Starring: Cornelio Wall
Country: Mexico/France/Netherlands/Germany

Carlos Reygadas’ Silent Light begins with a long, exquisite shot of the dawn breaking its way through the night’s sky, a shot which will be repeated in reverse at the close of the film, and one which sets the tone for the story that comes in between. This is a slow film, it requires patience, but it is so engrossing, so beautiful, and so achingly human that the reward is worth the investment. A story of romantic complications, religious and moral obligations, and forgiveness set in a Mennonite community in Mexico, Silent Light is a quiet but potent masterpiece.

National Board of Review Winners

The National Board of Review is second at bat, throwing down their picks for the year's best:

Best Film: A Most Violent Year

Best Director: Clint Eastwood, American Sniper

Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Best Actor: Oscar Isaac, A Most Violent Year and Michael Keaton, Birdman

Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year

Best Supporting Actor: Edward Norton, Birdman

Best Adapted Screenplay: Inherent Vice

Best Original Screenplay: The Lego Movie

Best Animated Feature: How to Train Your Dragon 2

Best Foreign Language Film: Wild Tales

Best Documentary: Life Itself

Best Ensemble: Fury

Breakthrough Performance: Jack O'Connell, Starred Up and Unbroken

Best Directorial Debut: Gillian Robespierre, Obvious Child

Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

* * *
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, Josh Hutcherson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson

There will come a time once The Hunger Games series finishes when I'll revisit all of the films and perhaps at that point I'll have a better appreciation for Mockingjay - Part 1. Right now I'm having a hard time finding an artistic justification for the series having joined the increasingly annoying trend of splitting the final story of a would-be trilogy into two films (the economic justification is, of course, obvious). Don't get me wrong, Mockingjay - Part 1 is a good movie and I liked it well enough, but there's no denying that it feels distinctly... padded. At 123 minutes it's the shortest film of the series by nearly half an hour, yet it lacks the sense of urgency of either of the predecessor films and the amount of table setting for the next film is much more obvious here than it was in either The Hunger Games or Catching Fire. If those films were representative of Katniss being the "girl on fire," Mockingjay - Part 1 is representative of Katniss being the "girl on a slow simmer."

New York Film Critics Circle Award Winners

The New York Film Critics Circle is the first critics group to weigh in on the best in film in 2014. Here are their picks:

Best Film: Boyhood

Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, The Immigrant and Two Days, One Night

Best Actor: Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Screenplay: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Cinematography: Darius Khondji, The Immigrant

Best Non-Fiction Film: Citizenfour

Best Foreign Language Film: Ida

Best Animated Film: The Lego Movie

Best First Film: Jennifer Kent, The Babadook

Hollywood Book Club: Accidental Genius: How John Cassavetes Invented the American Independent Film

I'm a lot more familiar with John Cassavetes the film legend than I am with his actual work, but having read Marshall Fine's 2006 book Accidental Genius - which strikes a nice balance between straight biography and an assessment of the filmmaker's work - I think I'm going to have to make a better effort to catch up with the films I haven't seen yet. A thorough behind-the-scenes accounting of Cassavetes' work both in front of and behind the camera (in addition to providing the same treatment for some of his stage work) and a just the facts accounting of his life (the book had Gena Rowlands' blessing but not her participation), Accidental Genius is a fascinating look at one of the most important American filmmakers of all time, a man who made a point of doing it his own way, even when doing so apparently meant getting in his own way.

Review: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)

* * * *
Director: Kim Ki-duk
Starring: Oh Yeong-su, Seo Jae-kyeong, Kim Young-min, Kim Jong-ho, Kim Ki-duk

Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is a film that grabs you immediately with the exquisite beauty of an image and then doesn't let you go. It is a wholly engrossing film which, despite its gentle and contemplative approach to its story, unfolds so quickly that you feel sad that it's ending so soon. Exploring the life of a Buddist monk by dropping in on him at key moments in each phase of his life (the seasons in the title refer to his childhood, late adolescence, adulthood, and maturity), the film is quiet and unassuming but deeply moving and evocative. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring has been on my list of movies to watch for quite some time and I wish I'd gotten to it sooner as it is such a unique and wonderful piece of work.

Review: Julia (1977)

* *
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Starring: Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robbards

I'm not sure what people saw in Julia in 1977. Enough, apparently, to give it 3 Oscars and 8 more nominations and the distinction of tying The Turning Point for the most nominated film of its year. I confess that I don't get it. Perhaps, when a film features so many names from Oscar glories past (director Fred Zinnemann already had 4 Oscars, while Jane Fonda, Jason Robbards, and Maximilian Schell each had 1, and Vanessa Redgrave had already been nominated 3 times), it just seems like it must be good. I don't know, but I know that Julia is not a particularly good movie. I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call it a "bad" movie, but it's definitely a muddle in which the good elements are lost in a story which doesn't seem to know its own purpose.

Friday's Top 5... Features That Started as Short Films

#5: Boogie Nights
10 years before Paul Thomas Anderson broke through with Boogie Nights he made a short film called The Dirk Diggler Story, a mockumentary inspired by This Is Spinal Tap. What's most impressive is that Anderson made the short when he was 17 and put it together and VCR to VCR editing system.

Series Review: Terminator

Directors: James Cameron, Jonathan Mostow, McG
Starring: Arnold Schwartzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Christian Bale, Edward Furlong, Nick Stahl, Sam Worthington

At the moment, the Terminator series is one that is evenly divided. Two of the films are really good, and two of them are really... not good. In July 2015 a fifth film will join the series and, at the risk of pre-judging a movie by its title, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Terminator: Genisys will tip the series into being predominantly made up of films that are terrible. I get why the studio wants to keep returning to this particular well. It's a premise and a mythology that should work across multiple films, but having recently marathoned all four movies, I've come to the following conclusions: Terminator doesn't work like it should without James Cameron, without Linda Hamilton, without younger Arnold Schwartzeneger, and the more it focuses on John Connor. John Connor is an effective mythology figure, but as a character he suuuuuuucks. In every incarnation. Good luck, Jason Clarke.

Review: The Theory of Everything (2014)

* * *
Director: James Marsh
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones

Looks can be deceiving. Going by advertising, James Marsh's The Theory of Everything would appear to be a film about Stephen Hawking's groundbreaking work as a theoretical physicist and cosmologist, accomplished even as a motor neuron disease began to ravage his body; a story, in other words, of a "great man" overcoming adversity. In actuality, Hawking's work is there to provide some context and color, but it's not really the story. This isn't a film about the science, or really the scientist. It's a film about a marriage, told with no small degree of conventionality, but also told with sensitivity and grace. While most films about important men in history relegate their female leads to the thankless position of "woman behind the man," Theory is as much (if not actually more) about Jane Wilde Hawking as it is about Stephen Hawking, and does more than just give glancing attention to the struggles, sacrifices, and private agonies of being the supportive spouse. It's sad that in 2014 that should seem so refreshing, but that should take nothing away from the film which, while flawed, is nevertheless a moving portrait of a man, a woman, and their union.

Netflix Recommends... Thanks for Sharing (2013)

* * *
Director: Stuart Blumberg
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Josh Gad, Gwyneth Paltrow

This Netflix recommendation came as a bit of a surprise to me. For one thing, I'd never heard of Thanks for Sharing previously (it premiered at TIFF in 2012 and then had a super limited release last fall), for another the recommendation is apparently entirely random on Netflix's part, and then finally, on reading a description of the plot (which is about sex addicts), I couldn't help but be reminded of Steve McQueen's Shame, which was a fine film but unrelentingly depressing, clinical, and joyless. Thanks for Sharing is sort of the opposite of that film, free of the burden of being a serious art film, yet capable of telling a serious, character-based story, and centering on the ongoing struggle of addiction and recovery, but always aware that there is happiness to be found in life. Thanks for Sharing isn't a "great" film by any stretch, but it's a good one and features really good turns by Mark Ruffalo and Tim Robbins.

Ten Years Later... Alexander (2004)

On this day in 2004


Director: Oliver Stone
Starring: Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson

Oliver Stone's Alexander may very well still be a work in progress. Earlier this year Stone released the 206 minute "Ultimate Cut" of the film, which makes for the fourth cut after the 175 minute theatrical version in 2004, the 167 minute "Director's Cut" in 2005, and the 214 minute "The Final: Unrated Cut" in 2007. How all versions stack up against each other is a question I cannot answer, but I can say this: the Director's Cut is a hulking behemoth of a film begging for a solid sense of purpose and repeatedly falling victim to the most typical problems with biopics, namely, telling the audience that a legendary figure is great instead of showing what made him so, and using its time to tick off historical events and names instead of forming a cogent narrative. Alexander is an ambitious film without question but, then again, most cinematic boondoggles are.

Review: Whiplash (2014)

* * * 1/2
Director: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons

When do the ends stop justifying the means? If you shape a young talent into a star, but crush his spirit in the process, is his ascension to that next plateau still a win? Damien Chezelle's Whiplash is the story of an abusive relationship, but it's also a story about the atmosphere and attitudes that foster that kind of abuse and enshrine the abuser in a position of institutional power. The result is a brutal duet played out between actors Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons and a story with madness at its core, the madness of men so driven towards the highest level of achievement that they're willing to destroy themselves and others to get there. It is a film of sometimes unbearable emotional intensity and so tightly coiled for so much of its running time that when it finally and fully explodes in its finale, it leaves you breathless.

21st Century Essentials: Blue Valentine (2010)

All eras have works of art that are fundamental to our understanding of not only the craft itself, but the culture from which it was created. The 21st century is still nascent, but it isn't too early to start creating a canon that demonstrates the heights to which film as an artform has reached since the year 2000. These are the essential films:


Director: Derek Cianfrance
Starring: Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling
Country: USA

Where does love go? Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine does not attempt to answer that question, but instead offers a frank, sometimes brutal, meditation on the vacuum created once affection spends itself. This is a portrait of a relationship on the precipice, of two people torn apart by their personal disappointments and struggling to keep their heads above water, to keep things together, to find some scrap of happiness that would make it all worthwhile. That description probably makes the film sound harsh and depressing, but while Blue Valentine is definitely a very serious piece, it’s also one that can be surprisingly funny, and one which contains two stellar performances from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. Beautifully crafted and executed, Blue Valentine is an affecting and dramatically rich film that resonates.

Friday's Top 5... 2014's Underseen Gems

Before the holiday movie season kicks into high gear, take some time to check out these underseen films from earlier in the year, now available on video and on demand

#5: Locke
Because Locke is basically just Tom Hardy driving around for 80 minutes, talking to various people on the phone, it's easy to understand why few people have taken a chance on it. It sounds... boring. But a description doesn't really do justice to how good the film is as a character driven drama (even if most of the characters only exist off-screen), and Hardy's performance is phenomenal.

Review: Birdman (2014)

* * * 1/2
Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Starring: Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Zack Galifianakis, Naomi Watts

Gimmicks are a double-edged sword. On the one hand a gimmick can bring attention to a film which, in a crowded marketplace, might otherwise get lost in the shuffle. On the other hand, a gimmick can dominate conversation in such a way that the movie itself gets lost even as people are talking about it. Designed to look like it is unfolding in one long, continuous take, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman has a gimmick that can't be ignored, but it is more than a mere exercise in form. A vital and exciting film as much for its technical wizardry as for the bravura performance as its center, Birdman is a singularly entertaining movie and an experience that shouldn't be missed.

Friday's Top 5... Behind the Music Movies

(fictional musicians edition)

#5: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
At the risk of engaging in hyperbole, Walk Hard is one of the funniest movies of the last decade. A satire of musical biopics that follows its title character through several decades and musical styles, and riffs on the personas of Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and Brian Wilson (just to name a few), Walk Hard is sharp and highly quotable. It's shocking how often the phrase "I'm cut in half pretty bad" comes in handy in real life.

Canadian Film Review: Maps to the Stars (2014)

* * * 1/2
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Julianne Moore, John Cusack

For me, Maps to the Stars is a bit of return to form for David Cronenberg, whose last two films - the decent, but kind of bloodless A Dangerous Method, and the ambitious but dull Cosmopolis - didn't really do much for me. A bit messy, tonally inconsistent, full of "unlikeable" characters, and centering on subject matter that can most generously be described as "uncomfortable," Maps is certain to have its detractors, but I enjoyed it for its dark comedy, its scathing view of celebrity, and its terrific performances. That said, after this film and Interstellar it will be some time before I need to see another film which finds it necessary to have its characters repeat one section of one poem over and over and over again.