Critics Take Note

Good Morning on this December Monday.

CRITICS AND THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE ON SUNDAY

 A slew of critic's groups and the American Film Institute announced their choices yesterday and I have the full coverage here for you from the Boston Society of Film Critics, The Los Angeles Film Critic's Association, The San Francisco Film Critics Circle and the The New York Film Critic's Online as well as the announcement from the AFI of their Top Ten pictures of the year. 

The conventional wisdom among serious Oscar watchers is that the critic's groups have very little predictive power (and, of course, they're not designed to predict Oscar success) but that they can sometimes elevate a film with some well timed PR and they can also help nuke a film's chances.

With that as a caveat, I'll try to parse the results below...

FROM THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE:

AFI’s Ten Films of the year are: BRIDESMAIDS, THE DESCENDANTS, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, THE HELP, HUGO, J. EDGAR, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, MONEY BALL, THE TREE OF LIFE and WAR HORSE.

We have also given special awards to THE ARTIST and the entire “Harry Potter” film series.



FROM THE BOSTON SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS:

Best Picture - The Artist
Best Actor - Brad Pitt for Moneyball
Best Actress - Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn
Best Supporting Actor - Albert Brooks for Drive
Best Supporting Actress - Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids
Best Director - Martin Scorsese for Hugo
Best Screenplay - Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin for Moneyball
Best Cinematography - Emmanuel Lubezki for The Tree of Life
Best Documentary - Project Nim
Best Foreign-Language Film - Incendies (TFF #37-2010)
Best Animated Film - Rango
Best Film Editing (awarded in memory of Karen Schmeer) - Christian Marclay for The Clock
Best New Filmmaker (awarded in memory of David Brudnoy) - Sean Durkin for Martha Marcy May Marlene
Best Ensemble Cast - Carnage
Best Use of Music in a Film - Tie: Drive and The Artist




FROM THE NEW YORK FILM CRITICS ONLINE:

Film - The Artist
Actor - Michael Shannon (Take Shelter)
Actress - Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
Director - Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
Supporting Actor - Albert Brooks (Drive)
Supporting Actress - Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids)
Breakthrough Performer - Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life, The Debt, The Help, Take Shelter, Coriolanus, Texas Killing Fields)
Debut Director - Joe Cornish (Attack the Block)
Ensemble Cast - Bridesmaids
Screenplay - The Descendants (Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash) 

Documentary - Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Foreign Language - A Separation
Animated - The Adventures of Tintin
Cinematography - The Tree of Life (Emmanuel Lubezki)
Use of Music - The Artist (Ludovic Bource)


1 The Artist (The Weinstein Company)
2 The Descendants (Fox Searchlight)
3 Drive (FilmDistrict)
4 The Help (DreamWorks Pictures)
5 Hugo (Paramount)
6 Melancholia (Magnolia Pictures)
7 Midnight in Paris (Sony Pictures Classics)
8 Take Shelter (Sony Pictures Classics)
9 The Tree of Life (Fox Searchlight)
10 War Horse (DreamWorks Pictures)

SAN FRANCISCO FILM CRITICS CIRCLE:

Best Picture
“The Tree of Life”
Best Director
Terrence Malick for “The Tree of Life”
Best Original Screenplay
J.C. Chandor for “Margin Call”
Best Adapted Screenplay
Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Best Actor
Gary Oldman for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Best Actress
Tilda Swinton for “We Need to Talk About Kevin”
Best Supporting Actor
Albert Brooks for “Drive”
Best Supporting Actress
Vanessa Redgrave for “Coriolanus”
Best Animated Feature
“Rango”
Best Foreign Language Film
“Certified Copy”
Best Documentary
“Tabloid”
Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki for “The Tree of Life”

LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION:

Best Picture: The Descendants

Best Director: Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

Best actor: Michael Fassbender, for his work in "A Dangerous Method," "Jane Eyre," "Shame" and "X-Men: First Class."

Runner-Up: Michael Shannon, "Take Shelter."
Best Actress: Yun Jung-hee, in the South Korean film "Poetry."
Runner-up: Kirsten Dunst, "Melancholia."
Best Documentary/Nonfiction film: "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" by Werner Herzog.

Runner-Up: "The Arbor" by Clio Barnard.

Best screenplay: Asghar Farhadi, “A Separation.”

Runner-Up: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, “The Descendants.”

Best supporting actress: Jessica Chastain, who was recognized for her work in six films -- "Coriolanus," "The Debt," "The Help," "Take Shelter," "Texas Killing Fields" and "The Tree of Life."

Runner-up: Janet McTeer, "Albert Nobbs."
Best supporting actor: Christopher Plummer, "Beginners."
Runner-up: Patton Oswalt, "Young Adult."
Best cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, "The Tree of Life."
Runner-up: Cao Yu, "City of Life and Death."
Best music/score: The Chemical Brothers, "Hanna."
Runner-up: Cliff Martinez, "Drive."
Best production design: Dante Ferretti, "Hugo."
Runner-up: Maria Djurkovic, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy."
Best Independent, Experimental: "Spark of Being." Directed by Bill Morrison.

Comment:

"The Artist" has a big day.  You have to think that at this point the "critical" view would indicate "The Artist", "Hugo" and "The Descendants" are the films to beat (The LA critics win today was probably welcome news to "The Descendants" team).  I still think "War Horse" has a thing or two to say.  I also continue to believe "The Tree of Life" and Terrence Malick have a good shot to be among the Oscar nominees.  I continue to believe that we will NOT see both "The Help" and "Midnight in Paris" with Best Pic nominations (and right now I believe Midnight is on the outside looking in).

Other races...Best Actor...everyone but George Clooney and Jean Dujardin gets a little boost today.  Fassbender (#Occupy!), Oldman, Shannon and Pitt.

Best Actress:  Williams and Streep in good shape. Nice bump for Tilda Swinton.   Kind of in trouble: Glenn Close.

Supporting Actor: Good day for both Albert Brooks and Christopher Plummer.  This is already a two horse race...with maybe Max Von Sydow as a spoiler.

Supporting Actress: Chastain continues to get that "for multiple roles" thing which is all well and good, but she cancels herself out come Oscar time.  Otherwise, nice bump for McTeer (#Occupy!) and I may have to take Melissa McCarthy's chances seriously...

Director:  Malick, Scorsese and Hazanzvicius.

Other this and that: AFI...surprised at the inclusion of "Bridesmaids" and "J. Edgar".

"Rango"  the animated film to beat (but absolutely no talk of a straight up Best Picture nomination for it)

"A Separation" continues to pile up critical acclaim including a "Best Original Script" nod from the LAFCA (#Occupy!)

Critic's Choice nominations are out tomorrow, The Screen Actor's Guild announces on Wednesday and the Golden Globes will announce nominees on Thursday...Look for those here with special posts and analysis Thursday night.