The movie critics awards have been coming fast and furious over the last 24 hours, with no fewer than five groups announcing their winners. Far and away the big winner has been No Country for Old Men, which followed last week’s National Board of Review victory with Best Picture honors from three more associations: the New York, Boston, and Washington D.C. societies. The only dissenting voice was the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, which named There Will Be Blood Best Picture, and the New York Film Critics Online, which split its prize between Blood and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
In the lead-acting races, Blood’s Daniel Day-Lewis scooped up three Best Actor awards (from New York, L.A., and New York Online), while Away From Her’s Julie Christie added three more Best Actress prizes to her arsenal. And the supporting categories now have two bona fide frontrunners, as No Country’s Javier Bardem (pictured) and Gone Baby Gone’s Amy Ryan each won four of the five just-announced awards. Including her NBR win last week, Ryan has now won five Best Supporting Actress honors, losing only the New York Online prize to I’m Not There’s Cate Blanchett.
Speaking of I’m Not There, Todd Haynes’ take on Bob Dylan is one critical fave that seems to be underperforming in the early awards lists, landing only on the New York Online top 10. And both American Gangster and Charlie Wilson’s War have been virtually MIA from all the awards action so far. The next few days bring nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Golden Globes: Those two big-ticket films will need to pick up multiple nods to stay in the Oscar race.
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I’m not surprised American Gangster and Charlie Wilson’s War haven’t made the lists. Leave it to the Golden Globes to slobber their celeb-loving nominations all over them, though. I doubt it will help either movie’s Oscar chances. I do hope Jennifer Garner will pick up some steam for Juno. I know Amy Ryan (or possibly Cate) is probably going to win everything from here on out, but a nomination for Jen would still be nice to see. Kelly McDonald too.
I’m not getting too excited about this year’s awards period. Last year I was excited, but this year — lack of “color” in the critics groups: no Asians, no Blacks, one Hispanic…and how they overlook Ruby Dee as best supporting is a crime!
Anybody see Keri Russell in Waitress? What a performance!
What an ignorant comment, Sally. What person of “color,” as you put it would you like to have won, aside from Ruby Dee in American Gangster (and I didn’t think that her performance was that awe-inducing)? I would be curious if you saw “Gone Baby Gone” and Amy Adams’s performance before proclaiming it a “crime.” Your beef is with Hollywood, anyway, because if you look at the supposed top films of the year only six of them could be characterized as containing people of “color” – American Gangster, Gone Baby Gone (Morgan Freeman), Lust, Caution, The Kite Runner (which was honored as a top-10 film by the NBR), I’m Not There (one African-American Dylan), and The Bucket List (Freeman, again). And, from the buzz I am hearing, these aren’t necessarily the top pictures of the year, just quality pictures.
When the lights went up, indicating “No Country For Old Men” was finally over, most of that audience audably voiced the opinion that we all wasted our time. Sure the acting of Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Javiar Bardem was terrific. The story was just terrible; it was disheartening and had no socially redeeming factors.
In my review for our community newsletter I noted there would be some Academy Award possibilities. I also recommended that my friends and neighbors skip this picture.
Critics’ Choice nominations: http://bfca.org/nomineesWinners.asp
Every year this group more closely predicts the Oscars than any other, including the Hollywood Foreign Press (Golden Globes).
INTO THE WILD received seven nominations, so perhaps it will also get lots of love from the Academy next month.
There are some (more or less) surprising omissions:
Best Picture:
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
3:10 TO YUMA
Best Director:
Paul Thomas Anderson, THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Best Actor:
Tommy Lee Jones, IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH
Denzel Washington, AMERICAN GANGSTER
Philip Seymour Hoffman, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
Josh Brolin, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Best Actress:
Nicole Kidman, MARGOT AT THE WEDDING
Laura Linney, THE SAVAGES
Keira Knightley, ATONEMENT
Best Supporting Actor:
Paul Dano, THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Philip Bosco, THE SAVAGES
Max von Sydow, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
Best Supporting Actress:
Jennifer Jason Leigh, MARGOT AT THE WEDDING
Ruby Dee, AMERICAN GANGSTER
Considering “No Country…” falls apart at the end, I’m surprised at the honors. And Javier Bardem’s one-note performance and ever changing accent/cadence was not consistant. It seems, therefore, that we’re without a truly “great” film this year, although most of us have yet to see “There Will Be Blood”.
Trends are emerging in most, if not all, major categories for the Academy Awards:
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Best Picture and Best Director: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is now the clear front-runner for Oscars in both categories.
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Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis is the favorite, and his main competitors are George Clooney and Johnny Depp.
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Best Actress: Julie Christie may be a sentimental favorite, but her main competitors will be Marion Cotillard and Amy Adams (ENCHANTED).
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Supporting Actor: An Oscar for Javier Bardem is likely if the sweep for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN materializes.
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Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan is sweeping everything, so she probably will win an Oscar for GONE BABY GONE.
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In addition, note that the San Francisco Film Critics’ group awarded Best Picture to THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD. Is this surprising? Perhaps not. Last year, this critics’ group awarded Best Picture to LITTLE CHILDREN, another deserving but unconventional choice.
sorry, but “No Country For Old Men” easily deserves to win BECAUSE of the ending. Tommy Lee Jones narration throughout the movie explains in a nutshell what the movie was about. The symbolism and story-telling were just incredible. I’m glad they didn’t dumb it down for todays movie audiences and deserve all the accolades they are getting for staying true to the book, and even turning it into something more. One of the best movies I’ve ever seen.
“No Country” will also win best adapted screenplay. “Into The Wild” should get nothing. Though it was adapted from a very stirring book by Jon Krakauer, the film failed to deliver the pounds-per-square-inch punch that the book did. “No Country” did that in spades and the Coen brothers should be rewarded for the effort to stick to the bare bones of Cormac McCarthy’s scathing look at desolation and violence on both physical and emotional fronts.
The reason “American Gangster” and “3:10 to Yuma” were left off the list(s) is because they were fairly good, but not great pictures. No one involved did their most remarkable work and for that reason alone, other pictures deserve the recognition.
I agree with Jason that No Country should be applauded for not dumbing down its content to cater to the LCD of our country. A waste of time? No “socially redeeming factors”? “The story was just terrible”? (!?!) All I can say is, I’m glad I don’t live wherever that “community letter” is distributed.
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