Golden Globes Nominations Like 'Belfast,' 'West Side Story,' 'Dune'

Despite all the various controversies surrounding the Golden Globes this year, the HFPA is still putting on a ceremony that will be live-streamed but not telecast on NBC as per usual. And they claim to have expanded their membership now to include black members, but who knows if people are going to show up and accept anything. To be honest, their list seems typical Golden Globes to me, even somewhat better than the awful Critics Choice nominations that came out today (an organization that to me, has always had even LESS credibility than the HFPA, if such a thing is possible).

2021 GOLDEN GLOBE FILM NOMINATIONS

Best Motion Picture – Drama

Belfast
CODA
Dune
King Richard
The Power of the Dog

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Cyrano
Don't Look Up
Licorice Pizza
Tick, Tick... Boom!
West Side Story

Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language

Compartment No. 6 (Finland, Russia, Germany)
Drive My Car (Japan)
The Hand of God (Italy)
A Hero (France, Iran)
Parallel Mothers (Spain)

Best Director – Motion Picture

Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
Steven Spielberg, West Side Story
Denis Villeneuve, Dune

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture

Licorice Pizza
Belfast
The Power of the Dog
Don't Look Up
Being the Ricardos

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos
Lady Gaga, House of Gucci
Kristen Stewart, Spencer

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

Mahershala Ali, Swan Song
Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Will Smith, King Richard
Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Marion Cotillard, Annette
Alain Haim, Licorice Pizza
Jennifer Lawrence, Don't Look Up
Emma Stone, Cruella
Rachel Zegler, West Side Story

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Leonardo DiCaprio, Don't Look Up
Peter Dinklage, Cyrano
Andrew Garfield, Tick, Tick... Boom!
Cooper Hoffman, Licorice Pizza
Anthony Ramos, In the Heights

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture

Caitríona Balfe, Belfast
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog
Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard
Ruth Negga, Passing

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture

Ben Affleck, The Tender Bar
Jamie Dornan, Belfast
Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog

Best Motion Picture – Animated

Encanto
Flee
Luca
My Sunny Maad
Raya and the Last Dragon

Best Original Score – Motion Picture

The French Dispatch
Encanto
The Power of the Dog
Parallel Mothers
Dune

Best Original Song – Motion Picture

King Richard
Encanto
Belfast
Respect
No Time to Die

The Globes recognized Ruth Negga’s performance in Passing while the so-called “critics” in the inaccurately named Critics Choice awards did not- which group are we supposed to hate again?

AFI's Top 10 Films of 2021

The American Film Institute's list of the ten best of the year is here, and it’s always fun to see how this may or may not match the Oscar Best Picture lineup. This year, Oscar has a flat ten so it could match exactly, but I don’t think it will. The most vulnerable to me look like Tick, Tick…Boom! and Nightmare Alley. Possibly Don’t Look Up, which is getting some pretty bad reviews, although that hasn’t stopped the Academy in the past (and they tend to really love Adam McKay). I know that Belfast replaces ones of these for sure (and AFI even gave it a special award since it wasn’t eligible as an American production). But this is probably the majority of what shows up in Best Picture.

AFI TOP TEN OF 2021

CODA
DON'T LOOK UP
DUNE
KING RICHARD
LICORICE PIZZA
NIGHTMARE ALLEY
THE POWER OF THE DOG
TICK, TICK... BOOM!
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
WEST SIDE STORY

AFI SPECIAL AWARD

BELFAST
SQUID GAME
SUMMER OF SOUL (...OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED)

Neo & Trinity Love Story Resurrected in New 'Matrix Resurrections' Trailer

I can’t tell if this is going to be terrible or not. If we’re talking The Matrix the likelihood is more yes than no to that question, but people are still excited to see what Lana Wachowski may or may not have up her sleeve for this. On the other hand, it’s up against Spider-Man in theaters and it’s going to be on HBO Max the same day, so is it possible this may just get overshadowed altogether?

NYFCC Anoint 'Drive My Car' as Best of the Year; Award Lady Gaga Best Actress

Well, that’s a very “critics” type of movie, don’t you think? Ever heard of Drive My Car? It was a Japanese film that got quite a lot of praise at Cannes, but I don’t know if it even has a US release scheduled. The NY critics also liked Power of the Dog a lot, giving it Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, but the laugh line is Lady Gaga in Best Actress. Really, NY critics? I guess I’ll have to check out House of Gucci eventually.

2021 NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE WINNERS

• BEST PICTURE: “Drive My Car”

• BEST FIRST FILM: “The Lost Daughter”

• BEST DIRECTOR: Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog”

• BEST ACTRESS: Lady Gaga, “House of Gucci”

• BEST ACTOR: Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog”

• BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Kathryn Hunter, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”

• BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog”

• BEST SCREENPLAY: “Licorice Pizza”

• BEST ANIMATED FILM: “The Mitchells vs. the Machines”

• BEST NONFICTION FILM: “Flee”

• BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: “The Worst Person in the World”

• BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: “West Side Story”
  

NBR Chooses 'Licorice Pizza' As Best Movie of 2021

The critics awards are starting! The National Board of Review is first up, and will be followed by the New York Film Critics tomorrow morning. NBR is a a group comprised of not exactly all critics, but it’s still considered the start of the critics awards. They loved Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza and Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, as well as Asgar Farhadi’s A Hero, but we’ll have to wait and see if other critics decide to veer away from those purposely or join in. The total snub for The Power of the Dog is interesting, but I wouldn’t expect that to hold for the rest of the critics awards.

2021 NBR AWARD WINNERS

Best Film: LICORICE PIZZA
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, LICORICE PIZZA
Best Actor: Will Smith, KING RICHARD
Best Actress: Rachel Zegler, WEST SIDE STORY
Best Supporting Actor: Ciarán Hinds, BELFAST
Best Supporting Actress: Aunjanue Ellis, KING RICHARD
Best Original Screenplay: A HERO
Best Adapted Screenplay: THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
Breakthrough Performance: Alana Haim & Cooper Hoffman, LICORICE PIZZA
Best Directorial Debut: Michael Sarnoski, PIG
Best Animated Feature: ENCANTO
Best Foreign Language Film: A HERO
Best Documentary: SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED)
Best Ensemble: THE HARDER THEY FALL
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography: THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: FLEE

Top Films (in alphabetical order)
Belfast
Don’t Look Up
Dune
King Richard
The Last Duel
Nightmare Alley
Red Rocket
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story

Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order)
Benedetta
Lamb
Lingui, The Sacred Bonds
Titane
The Worst Person in the World

Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order)
Ascension
Attica
Flee
The Rescue
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain

Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order)
The Card Counter
C’mon C’mon
CODA
The Green Knight
Holler
Jockey
Old Henry
Pig
Shiva Baby
The Souvenir Part II

'The Lost Daughter' Sweeps the Gotham Awards

Ahead of the start of the critics awards, the Gothams chimed in, falling all over themselves for The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut that drops on Netflix New Year’s Eve. The Gothams are for indies only and have no real influence on the coming awards, but I guess they do kind of count as being “first.”

2021 GOTHAM AWARD WINNERS

• Best Feature: The Lost Daughter

• Best Documentary: Flee

• Best International Feature: Drive My Car

• Breakthrough Director Award: Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter

• Best Screenplay: The Lost Daughter

• Outstanding Lead Performance: Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter & Frankie Felson, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain (tie)

• Outstanding Supporting Performance: Troy Kotsur, CODA

• Breakthrough Performer: Emilia Jones, CODA

Final Trailer for Guillermo del Toro's 'Nightmare Alley'

The final trailer for Nightmare Alley is here and it looks like a stylish noir-esque type of film, but not much (in my opinion) like the original 1947 movie, though del Toro claims to be a big fan. I suppose it really could be a different adaption of the novel more than anything else, but I had assumed it would be a lot like the 40’s movie, given del Toro’s fandom. I’m still looking forward to it. It comes out December 17th.

Spider-Man Faces All the Old Villains in New 'No Way Home' Trailer

This movie is one of the most insanely hyped I’ve seen in a long time. And this new trailer gives the fans most of what they want, with appearances from Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Sandman, Electro, etc. But no other Spider-Men yet! Come on, guys, quit hiding it. We all saw the leaked still. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are clearly in this movie (as if you couldn’t figure out that was going to be the solution to this judging by the plot), but no sign of them. Yet.

Leo Dicaprio and Jennifer Lawrence Try to Save the World in 'Don't Look Up' Trailer

The full trailer for Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up is finally here and it looks…like an Adam McKay movie. The satire is barely satire now though, with casual defiance of certain death and science denial hitting too close to home at this point. It comes out on Christmas Eve on Netflix, but we’ll hear the first reactions to it after it screens this week.

Paolo Sorrentino's 'Hand of God' Gets a New Trailer

Paolo Sorrentino won the Best Foreign Film Oscar for 2013’s The Great Beauty, and some think he’s the frontrunner for the same award with this coming of age film that’s dropping on Netflix Dec 15th. It has good early reviews so far on Metacritic, after debuting at Venice a couple months ago.

Keira Knightley and Matthew Goode Star in Christmas Black Comedy 'Silent Night'

This looks…interesting. The strange thing about this movie is that it was made before the pandemic but several critics who saw it at Toronto say it plays like an anti-vaxxer endorsement film, which is pretty unfortunate. I also don’t love seeing Lily-Rose Depp in this trailer. Ugh. It comes out on Dec 3rd, and will be streaming on AMC + (which is a service I did not know existed until this moment).

New 'Being the Ricardos' Trailer Shows Nicole Kidman's Lucy

Well, here she is. What do you think? She’s trying to do a voice and I think they put some kind of makeup on her, but I’m not sure what exactly. This trailer suddenly makes the movie look like it has a completely different tone than that teaser did, don’t know what that’s about. I don’t know- I’m still very skeptical about this one. We’ll find how it is in December.