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.