For the month of December, my list of the ten best Christmas movies is posted in the December movie page, and now come complete with full trailers. It includes seasonal favorites like Home Alone, Elf, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street, and one of my favorite movies of all time, Meet Me in St. Louis (above), a Judy Garland classic you've got to promise to check out. Christmas movies are nearly always old-fashioned, sentimental and cheery, and I admit my favorites don't happen to include any subversive ones like Bad Santa or Nightmare Before Christmas (although those are great too and I did recommend them in the Movie of the Day series last year). So you'd better get to it, because you've only got 24 days to view them all, so head over to the Movies for Every Month page to read a more detailed December description and then click here for the full list of ten. Merry Christmas everybody!
Academy Reveals Documentary Shortlist for 2014
The official AMPAS shortlist for documentaries is here, which tells us the five nominees for Best Documentary at the Oscars will be coming from this list of 15 contenders.
Art and Craft
The Case against 8
Citizen Koch
CitizenFour
Finding Vivian Maier
The Internet’s Own Boy
Jodorowsky’s Dune
Keep On Keepin’ On
The Kill Team
Last Days in Vietnam
Life Itself
The Overnighters
The Salt of the Earth
Tales of the Grim Sleeper
Virunga
Most of the expected contenders made it in, except for the highly praised doc called Red Army, about hockey players during the Soviet Union. That's a major snub here. Documentaries aren't really my expertise, I only get to see a couple of them a year (if that), but if I had to guess from this list, I'd say two surefire nominees are the Edward Snowden film Citizenfour and the Roger Ebert doc Life Itself. Other than that, I know some very talked about selections are Keep On Keepin' On, The Last Days of Vietnam and Netflix's Virunga. Jorodowsky's Dune also seems to be doing well in early critics' awards, so perhaps that's a candidate as well.
National Board of Review Names 'A Most Violent Year' Best Film of 2014
Well, the NBR announced their top ten films and award winners this morning and they made some...interesting choices to say the least. The biggest thing they've done is boost the visibility of A Most Violent Year by naming it in the Best Film, Actor and Supporting Actress categories. Maybe that will help voters to actually see the tiny independent movie from a brand new studio (A24) that's not coming out until Dec 31st- but it's still an uphill battle on that one. Some of their other choices are pretty nutty as well.
Best Film: A Most Violent Year
Best Director: Clint Eastwood – American Sniper
Best Actor (TIE): Oscar Isaac – A Most Violent Year; Michael Keaton – Birdman
Best Actress: Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor: Edward Norton – Birdman
Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Best Original Screenplay: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller – The Lego Movie
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson – Inherent Vice
Best Animated Feature: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Breakthrough Performance: Jack O’Connell – Starred Up & Unbroken
Best Directorial Debut: Gillian Robespierre – Obvious Child
Best Foreign Language Film: Wild Tales
Best Documentary: Life Itself
William K. Everson Film History Award: Scott Eyman
Best Ensemble: Fury
Spotlight Award: Chris Rock for writing, directing, and starring in – Top Five
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Rosewater
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Selma
Lego Movie for best screenplay? Fury for ensemble? Clint Eastwood for Director for the tepidly received American Sniper? I'm actually glad that Boyhood doesn't look to be performing a sweep of the critics awards, but most of the NBR's choices look too out there to influence anything this year anyway. They also put out a list of the top ten films of the year besides their Picture winner, so here they are:
Top 10 Films of 2014
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
Fury
Gone Girl
The Imitation Game
Inherent Vice
The Lego Movie
Nightcrawler
Unbroken
What I will say about those choices is that it's interesting that Selma didn't make the cut. Most eventual Best Picture Oscar winners are at least named on NBR's Top Ten, so that doesn't bode all that well for those thinking it might have had a chance to go all the way. And how exactly does The Lego Movie win best original screenplay and make their top ten of the year, but not win animated film? Here are the rest of their lists for 2014:
Top Ten Independent Films
Blue Ruin
Locke
A Most Wanted Man
Mr. Turner
Obvious Child
The Skeleton Twins
Snowpiercer
Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
Starred Up
Still Alice
Top 5 Foreign Language Films
Force Majeure
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem
Leviathan
Two Days, One Night
We Are the Best!
Top 5 Documentaries
Art and Craft
Jorodowsky's Dune
Keep On Keepin' On
The Kill Team
Last Days in Vietnam
'Birdman' Wins Big at the Gotham Awards
The poor man's Independent Spirit awards were held tonight, where Birdman managed to pull off an upset over Boyhood to take the top prize, sweeping Michael Keaton along with it for his first Best Actor win of the season. I wouldn't say this win is as important as the NYCC earlier today though- like I said, these are kind of the poor man's Indie Spirits, and Inside Llewyn Davis won here last year, so it may not mean anything. But good for them all the same- we never like a season where the same movie sweeps everything in sight, it's too boring.
GOTHAM AWARD WINNERS
Breakthrough Actor: Tessa Thompson, Dear White People
Breakthrough Director: Ana Lily Amirpour, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Ensemble: Foxcatcher
Audience Award: Boyhood
Documentary: Citizenfour
Best Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Best Feature: Birdman
Interestingly, it does look like Citizenfour might be on its way to a virtual sweep of the critics awards this year, and Julianne Moore may have started what's expected to be a pretty dominant run in the Best Actress category (which is more due to her lack of competition and a desire to give her a "career" award than anything else).
'Birdman' and 'Imitation Game' Lead the Golden Satellite Nominations
I hesitate to post these nominations, but hey, the International Press Academy is another group that does awards and they often match 6 or 7 with Oscar, so why not. The IPA is a kind of like the Hollywood Film Awards though- a mysteriously random organization that seems to go out of their way to nominate literally everything that comes out in a given year. They're actually not quite as embarrassing this year as last, but why do they not have a limit on their nominees? There's about a hundred documentaries nominated for Documentary, for pete's sake. Anyway, Birdman and Imitation Game led the charge here, with 10 and 8 nods apiece:
Best Picture
Whiplash
The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything
Mr. Turner
Selma
Gone Girl
Birdman
Love is Strange
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Director
Alejandro G. Inarritu, Birdman
Damien Chazelle, Whiplash
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
David Fincher, Gone Girl
Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game
Ava DuVernay, Selma
Best Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Miles Teller, Whiplash
Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
David Oyelowo, Selma
Best Actress
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Anne Dorval, Mommy
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Belle
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Reese Witherspoon, Wild
Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
Best Supporting Actor
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Edward Norton, Birdman
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
Robert Duvall, The Judge
Andy Serkis, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Best Supporting Actress
Emma Stone, Birdman
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Laura Dern, Wild
Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Katherine Waterston, Inherent Vice
Art Direction & Production Design
Fury
Noah
Maleficent
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Cinematography
Interstellar
Mr. Turner
Birdman
Inherent Vice
The Theory of Everything
Gone Girl
Costume Design
Belle
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Into the Woods
Maleficent
Noah
Saint Laurent
Film Editing
Boyhood
American Sniper
Birdman
The Imitation Game
Fury
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Animated Feature
Big Hero 6
Song of the Sea
The Boxtrolls
The Lego Movie
Wrinkles
The Book of Life
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Documentary
Red Army
Afternoon of a Faun
Art and Craft
Citizenfour
Finding Vivian Maier
Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me
Jorodowsky's Dune
Keep on Keepin' On
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles
Virunga
Best Foreign Film
Little England
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
Ida
Force Majeure
Leviathan
Mommy
Tangerine
Timbuktu
Wild Tales
Two Days, One Night
Original Score
Birdman
The Imitation Game
The Judge
Fury
Interstellar
Gone Girl
Original Song
"Everything is Awesome," The Lego Movie
"I'm Not Gonna Miss You," Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me
"Split the Difference," Boyhood
"We Will Not Go," Virunga
"I'll Get What You Want," Muppets Most Wanted
"What is Love," Rio 2
Adapted Screenplay
Inherent Vice
The Imitation Game
Gone Girl
The Theory of Everything
American Sniper
Wild
Original Screenplay
Selma
Birdman
Boyhood
Love is Strange
NIghtcrawler
The Lego Movie
Sound Editing & Mixing
Noah
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Snowpiercer
Whiplash
Into the Woods
Gone Girl
Visual Effects
Snowpiercer
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
Noah
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
'Boxtrolls' Leads the Annie Award Nominations
Somewhat surprisingly, The Boxtrolls leads this year's Annie Award nominees with 12 nods, while How to Train Your Dragon 2 follows with 10 and Big Hero 6 with 7. The Boxtrolls was not the best reviewed movie of this year's animated features, but the technical achievement seemed to be highly appreciated by the animation community. The Annie Awards are announced on January 31st (my prediction here is How to Train Your Dragon 2 for the win). There are a lot of technical categories for these awards, so here are the nominees for the big feature prize:
Best Animated Feature:
- Big Hero 6
- Cheatin'
- How to Train Your Dragon 2
- Song of the Sea
- The Book of Life
- The Boxtrolls
- The Lego Movie
- The Tale of Princess Kaguya
New York Film Critics Crown 'Boyhood' Best of 2014
Well, the sweep starts here people. The first of the four biggest critics groups anointed Boyhood today with Picture, Director and Supporting Actress, as was widely expected to happen. The remaining three critics groups that tend to have any impact at all on the Oscar race are the LA Film Critics (voting on Sunday), the National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review (voting tomorrow). I do expect Boyhood to just about sweep the critics groups this year though- they gave it universal acclaim back when it was released in the summer. It's also a major Oscar contender. For the record, I also believe those two supporting wins are very likely to be the Oscar frontrunners as well, and it looks like the train starts here for them.
Animated Film: The Lego Movie
Foreign Film: Ida
Non-Fiction Film: Citizenfour
Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Screenplay: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Cinematography: The Immigrant
Actor: Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner
Actress: Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night and The Immigrant
First Film: The Babadook
Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Picture: Boyhood
The surprises they threw into this mix this year were Timothy Spall for Mr. Turner and Marion Cotillard for her two films- both are on the edge of Oscar nominations, so this was clearly an attempt to help them out, but we'll see if either of them can make the final cut for films not as widely seen as others. Also surprising was the shutout of Birdman, the other critical favorite, but obviously Boyhood was unstoppable today. Tune in tomorrow to see if the NBR will continue the love for Linklater's indie hit or choose to crown something else.
BOX OFFICE 11/28-11/30: 'Mockingjay' Tops Again; 'Imitation Game' Huge in Limited
The long Thanksgiving weekend didn't provide much of a boost to any of the movies in release this year. The Hunger Games easily came out on top with $56 million over the three day weekend and $80 million since Wednesday, bringing its total to $225 million. That's a big haul to be sure, but it's not holding on as well as Catching Fire, which means Guardians of the Galaxy will probably retain its crown as box office champ of the year. Meanwhile, the new release Penguins of Madagascar grossed $25 million over the weekend and $36 million total since Thanksgiving- Big Hero 6 is still hanging on well and likely cut into its grosses this week, as its own total grew to a mighty $167 million.
Horrible Bosses 2, the other new release, didn't do as well as the first, bringing in just $15 million when the first one did $28 million two years ago. Interstellar rounded out the top five while Gone Girl finally fell out of the top five after its seventh week in release, ending at about $160 million for a staggeringly successful run.
Top 5:
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1- $56.9 million
- Penguins of Madagascar- $25.8 million
- Big Hero 6- $18.8 million
- Interstellar- $15.8 millon
- Horrible Bosses 2- $15.7 million
In limited release, the big story was the monster opening of The Imitation Game, as it debuted on 4 screens to a $122k PTA, for a total of $487k over the weekend. It flew past the other limited releases this year (right behind Grand Budapest for second biggest per screen average of the year) and earned the rare "A+" Cinemascore from audiences. This one looks to do great business going forward, in line with The Weinstein Co.'s previous Oscar-friendly biopic The King's Speech, back in 2010. Next week it will be the limited releases of more Oscar hopefuls in Wild and Still Alice, each boasting Best Actress contenders in Reese Witherspoon and Julianne Moore, so tune in as Oscar season rolls on.
TEASER: "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"
Here we go guys, it's the much anticipated, long awaited teaser for the new JJ Abrams directed, Star Wars movie! Is it mean to say that this teaser is better than anything from any of the prequels? That's a pretty low bar, I admit- I'm not exactly blown away by the quick shots we get in this teaser, but I think most people will probably be excited just to hear the music again. Frankly, it's a bit of a nostalgia trip.
Movie of the Day: "Home For the Holidays" (1995)
Holly Hunter is a woman who goes home for Thanksgiving (Baltimore, which doesn't technically count as New England, making it our only non-New England set movie this week), and has to deal with her constantly arguing and dysfunctional family. Jodie Foster directed this film, and before Robert Downey Jr. was the big star that he is today, his turn here as Hunter's gay brother was actually one of his best performances. Charles Durning and Anne Bancroft play the parents of the clan, making this another star-studded cast with some great acting on display. It's a comedy drama, with a little more comedy to it than our last couple of movies, and it's entirely set around Thanksgiving, so I'd say it's the most appropriate choice for the day itself. Have fun with this one, and Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
FINAL TRAILER: "The Interview"
The final trailer for The Interview still makes it look pretty funny to me. I hope it's good but it's hard to tell with comedies (although I did love This is the End, which was the last Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg movie). It's coming out on Christmas, and let's just hope the rumor that the movie underwent edits after the freak out response from North Korea isn't true. Would undermine the whole thing, wouldn't it?
TRAILER: "Cake"
Jennifer Aniston takes on a dramatic role here- very dramatic, as a woman with drug addiction and depression. The movie hasn't gotten great reviews yet, but she herself has been out there promoting it like crazy, campaigning for an Oscar nomination, even. Frankly, after spending the last ten years in the tabloids and in bad movies, it's a little tough to buy Jennifer Aniston of all people as such a seriously troubled person. I bought it once in 2002's The Good Girl, but her image since then has been a very specific thing, and the awful comedies haven't helped.
