LA, Boston and New York Online All Go For 'Boyhood'

So much for my hopes for a non-sweep year. This was right down the line and I think clinches Boyhood as the pick for the vast majority of critics to come. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association is known for being quirky and purposely contrarian in their choices, and they rarely agree with New York, but that was not the case this year. Boyhood is simply too big of a filmmaking achievement (for the critics) to ignore. We'll see what happens with the industry and guild awards, but this could very well be the default winner of 2014.

LA FILM CRITICS

BEST PICTURE: Boyhood

BEST DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM: Ida
NEW GENERATION: Ava DuVernay, Selma
BEST SCREENPLAY: The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST ACTRESS: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
BEST DOCUMENTARY/NONFICTION FILM: Citizenfour
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Agata Kulesza, Ida
BEST MUSIC SCORE (tie): Inherent Vice and Under the Skin
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST EDITING: Boyhood

As you can see, their quirky no-chance-in-hell for an Oscar nom pick this year was Tom Hardy for Locke. What that really means is that Best Actor is a wide open race, with Michael Keaton not quite dominating the critics awards the way he was predicted to. And Patricia Arquette is not a lead for Boyhood, but they rewarded her there anyway.

BOSTON SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS

Animated Film: THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA
Runner up: LEGO MOVIE
Best Cinematography: BIRDMAN
Runner up: MR. TURNER
Best Editing: BOYHOOD
Runner up: AMERICAN SNIPER
Best Use of Music: INHERENT VICE
Runner up: WHIPLASH
Best New Filmmaker: DAN GILROY, NIGHTCRAWLER
Runner up: GILLIAN ROBESPIERRE, OBVIOUS CHILD
Best Documentary: CITIZENFOUR
Runer up: JORODOWSKY'S DUNE
Best Screenplay: BIRDMAN & BOYHOOD (TIE)
Runner up: MR. TURNER
Best Foreign Language Film: TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT
Runner up: IDA
Best Supporting Actress: EMMA STONE, BIRDMAN
Runner up: LAURA DERN, WILD
Best Supporting Actor: JK SIMMONS, WHIPLASH
Runner up: EDWARD NORTON, BIRDMAN
Best Actress: MARION COTILLARD, THE IMMIGRANT & TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT
Runner up: HILARY SWANK, THE HOMESMAN
Best Actor: MICHAEL KEATON, BIRDMAN
Runner up: TIMOTHY SPALL, MR. TURNER
Best Ensemble: BOYHOOD
Runner up: BIRDMAN

Best Director: RICHARD LINKLATER, BOYHOOD
Runner up: CLINT EASTWOOD, AMERICAN SNIPER
Best Film: BOYHOOD

Runner up: BIRDMAN

More Boyhood and Birdman love here (I don't know what that Emma Stone win is about though), and after what the NYCC did the other day, other critics seemed to want to jump on the bandwagon in resisting Julianne Moore, instead banding together to try an get Marion Cotillard nominated (still a long shot at best).

NEW YORK CRITICS ONLINE

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE: Jack O'Connell, Starred Up & Unbroken
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
BEST SCREENPLAY: Birdman
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Birdman
BEST USE OF MUSIC: Get On Up
BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR: Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler
BEST DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
BEST ACTRESS: Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
BEST ACTOR: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
BEST ENSEMBLE: Birdman
BEST PICTURE: Boyhood
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Two Days, One Night
BEST DOCUMENTARY: Life Itself
BEST ANIMATED FILM: The Lego Movie

Top 10:

Birdman
Boyhood
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Imitation Game
A Most Violent Year
Mr. Turner
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Under the Skin
Whiplash

These guys are a little more mainstream in their choices, but still Boyhood prevails. Linklater is starting to look to me like a shoo-in for the "directorial achievement" aspect of the movie alone. And if he's winning Director no contest, than the movie is likely going with it, although we'll what happens.

Boston Online Film Critics Choose 'Snowpiercer'

Over the next month there's going to be an awful lot of critics weighing in with their picks for the year, and most of them will be minor regional groups, of which this is the first. Nevertheless, their choices here are so outside the box and inspired that it makes me especially glad this doesn't seem to be a year in which one movie will sweep everything (although I'm sure Boyhood still has the edge- it seems to be making just about everyone's top ten list). But yay for Snowpiercer, one of my absolute favorite movies of the year!

Best Picture: Snowpiercer
Director: Alejandro G. Inarritu, Birdman
Actor: Brendan Gleeson, Calvary
Actress: Marion Cotillard, Two Days One Night
S. Actor: Edward Norton, Birdman
S. Actress: Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer

Screenplay: Calvary
Foreign Film: Two Days, One Night
Documentary: Life Itself
Animated: The Lego Movie
Cinematography: Birdman
Editing: Edge of Tomorrow
Score: Under the Skin
Ensemble: Birdman

THE TEN BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR:
1. SNOWPIERCER
2. UNDER THE SKIN
3. BOYHOOD
4. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE
5. THE BABADOOK
6. TWO DAYS ONE NIGHT
7. BIRDMAN
8. CALVARY
9. INHERENT VICE
10. SELMA

AMPAS Unveils Visual Effects Contenders

Ten films have qualified for the Academy Award for visual effects, and the five nominees will come from this list:

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
• Godzilla
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
• Interstellar
• Maleficent
• Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
• Transformers: Age of Extinction
• X-Men: Days of Future Past

Well, Maleficent's inclusion on this list makes me want to vomit. Fingers crossed it won't actually get into the nominees, but couldn't they have snubbed it like they did Man of Steel last year? I think the five will be Dawn of the Apes, Godzilla, The Hobbit, Interstellar, and maybe Guardians? Transformers has also been nodded before. Honestly, I'll take anything as long as Maleficent doesn't get included- and it's not because I hate the movie, the visual effects were genuinely atrocious.

REVIEW: "Still Alice" (2014) Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart. Dir. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland

Still Alice is meant to be a devastating portrait of a woman whose entire life comes crashing down when she realizes she's suffering from early onset Alzheimer's disease. Unfortunately, what it feels like is a made for TV movie only slightly elevated by Julianne Moore's naturalistic performance in the title role.

Alice is a fifty-something college professor of linguistics with three grown children, a supportive husband, and seemingly relative wealth and comfort, when she suddenly starts to experience troubling memory loss and fleeting incoherence. She starts seeing a neurologist, then confides in her husband, is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, and must tell her kids the truth, which includes the devastating fact that at least one of them probably possesses the gene for the disease that she inherited from her late father. Alice then goes into further and further deterioration over the course of a year, as her kids and husband attempt to deal with her increasing mental failings.

All of this plays out exactly how it sounds, with no embellishments, drama or character arc for anyone in the movie. It's almost as if the film was made as an acting showcase for Moore, which it is to some extent, but without much depth to her character (a former intellectual who must deal now with her debilitating intellect is as far as it goes) she can only elevate this movie so much. Alice goes from bad to worse, and that's about all that happens. Yes, it's sad to watch, but everything feels surface level, which pushes the experience of the audience to simply being an observer of someone trying to act like they have Alzheimer's. The fact that the filmmakers tried to keep events from going too over the top might be a realistic approach, but tends to make the film feel a bit monotonous as it goes on.

The supporting cast is mostly fine, which includes Alec Baldwin as the husband, Kate Bosworth as the oldest daughter, and Kristen Stewart as the youngest- but I can't help but be distracted by Stewart's utter lack of talent and inability to change her facial expressions and physical mannerisms in every movie she appears in. How does this girl keep getting work? Still Alice is a glossy, unmemorable film that would have played more at home on the Hallmark Channel than in a theater.

* *

TRAILER + POSTER: "Terminator Genisys"

I have to confess I nearly forgot this was happening. The latest attempt to reboot the Terminator franchise stars Jason Clarke and Danaerys from Game of Thrones (Emilia Clarke) in what looks like another version of the original Terminator but with the genders switched. Oh, and Arnold is back again too. I don't know- the fact that the only other movie director Alan Taylor's made was Thor: The Dark World does not leave optimistic. It's coming out July 1st of next year.

Poster:

TRAILER: "While We're Young"

Noah Baumbach's latest film reunites him with Ben Stiller after Greenberg, and seems to be a semi-autobiographical look at his own life versus those of the younger kids he sees around him. The movie got some pretty positive reception at Toronto and is coming out on March 27th- I kinda love Adam Driver in everything he's in, so I'll probably see it.

RED BAND TRAILER: "Top Five"

Chris Rock's new comedy is coming out on December 12th, and is said to be a sharp take on Hollywood and fame, largely from his own perspective (he wrote and directed). It got great reviews back at Toronto, so keep a an eye out for it:

Hollywood Reporter Actors Roundtable

One of the more recent Oscar campaign traditions is the roundtable, the annual Hollywood Reporter conversation with various awards candidates. This year they managed to get Michael Keaton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne, Timothy Spall, Channing Tatum and Ethan Hawke together for a 50 minute panel. Funnily enough, Timothy Spall seems to be the one cracking everybody up here:

Christmas Movies for December

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).