Early Sunday evening I attended a KCET-sponsored ceremony at the Sherman Oaks Arclight on behalf of Black or White producer-star Kevin Costner. Former Disney chairman and Legendary Pictures honcho Dick Cook handed his former colleague and collaborator a KCET Lumiere Award (previous recipients include Gary Oldman, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen), and then Costner sat for a q & a with KCET Film Series host Pete Hammond. The legendary director-actor decided to self-produce Black and White, he said, because of the intrigue and complexity of his alcoholic attorney character, Elliot, and particularly because of an eloquent third-act courtroom scene, for which he thanked director-writer Mike Binder. Costner is a decent fellow — easy to hang with, settled, a skilled charmer. (As all successful actors are.) He shared a few good stories — he stood up and half-performed a couple of them, Elmer Gantry-style — and generally made the audience feel appreciated and relaxed. I wanted to hear him talk about the racial arguments that have been kicking around since the Ferguson incident (as he did in a recent Variety Sirius chat) but there wasn’t a lot of time. It was over before you knew it.
Today the Los Angeles Film Critics Association did a fine if startling thing by giving Tom Hardy their Best Actor trophy for two excellent 2014 performances — in Locke, a solo turn about Hardy’s urban contractor dealing with personal problems as he drives along a British highway in the wee hours, and The Drop, in which Hardy plays a low-key, New York-area bartender. I’ve posted riffs two or three times about Hardy being one of the most deserving actors in this 2014 awards race, but the idea didn’t have a great deal of traction until today. Cheers, back-pats and high-fives to Hardy, who’s now shooting The Revenant with Alejandro G. Inarritu and costar Leonardo DiCaprio.
Two Days, One Night‘s Marion Cotillard won the New York Online Film Critics award today for Best Actress — her third triumph in the wake of the Boston Film Critics Society and the New York Film Critics Circle having decided the same thing within the last few hours/days. The three trophies also acknowledged her work in The Immigrant, but what are the odds that the Weinstein Co., distributor of that James Gray film, will launch a campaign for Cotillard at this late stage? Slim to none.
Established award-season analysts are going to pooh-pooh the Cotillard surge but the fact is that all along the chummy, entrenched know-it-alls (myself included) have been saying “Julianne Moore is due, Julianne Moore is due, Julianne Moore is due” and she definitely is, but now we have three major critics groups saying “Marion Cotillard, Marion Cotillard, Marion Cotillard” and a fourth, the Los Angeles Films critics Association, saying “Patricia Arquette” with Moore as runnner-up.
At the very least we’re seeing a significant disconnect between industry sentiments and the passions of Los Angeles, New York and Boston-based critics. Reality is knocking on your door, awards analysts and conventions-wisdom spouters. What say ye?
After voting and deliberating for two hours or so and with film fanatics the world over waiting to see what their final choices will be, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association decided to take a lunch break. This is the one of the wimpiest, laziest, flabbiest, most myopic and corrupt decisions ever made by a reputable film organization, and I’m sorry but LAFCA will never live this one down. This is the lunch break heard ’round the world. You lazy fucks. Do the job and then enjoy lunch…Jesus.
As expected, this morning’s voting among members of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Boston Film Critics Society has boiled down to a Birdman vs. Boyhood battle with Boyhood coming out on top. The Grand Budapest Hotel and Citizenfour batted cleanup and a little J.K. Simmons Best Supporting Actor action kicked in on the side (i.e., no joy in Edward Nortonville). And Boston has given the under-promoted Marion Cotillardher second Best Actress prize (following last Monday’s NYFCC win) for her Two Days, One Night performance along with her work in James Gray‘s The Immigrant. Forget Selma, Unbroken, Imitation game, The Theory of Everything…as far as I can gather these films aren’t even being pondered, much less debated. And presumed fait accompli Best Actress Oscar winner Julianne Moore isn’t kicking it much. (Among LAFCA voters she placed second behind Boyhood‘s Patricia Arquette.) You know why? Because Still Alice is more or less a Lifetime movie, and as much as critics admire Moore they’re choking on that.
Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards: Boyhood for Best Picture, and Richard Linklater for Best Director. Boyhood‘s Patricia Arquette for Best Actress (Runner-Up: Still Alice‘s Julianne Moore). Whiplash‘s J.K. Simmons for Best Supporting Actor (Runner-up: Birdman‘s Edward Norton). Best Foreign Language Film: Ida, and Ida‘s Agata Kulesza was named Best Supporting Actress (Runner-up: Rene Russo for Nightcrawler). Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hoptel for Best Screenplay. (Runner-up: Alejandro González Inárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. and Armando Bo‘s Birdman screenplay.) Boyhood‘s Sandra Adair for Best Editing (Runner-up: Barney Pilling, The Grand Budapest Hotel). Grand Budapest Hotel‘s Adam Stockhausen for Best Production Design. The Tale of Princess Kaguya for Best Animated Film (Runner-Up: The Lego Movie).
Boston Society of Film Critics awards: Boyhood has edged out Birdman for Best Picture, and Boyhood‘s Richard Linklater has won for Best Director. Birdman‘s Michael Keaton for Best Actor. Two Days, One Night and The Immigrant‘s Marion Cotillard for Best Actress (same award bestowed by the New York Film Critics Circle). Whiplash‘s J.K. Simmons for Best Supporting Actor…there goes Edward Norton‘s nascent momentum. Birdman‘s Emma Stone for Best Supporting Actress….yes! (Thank you, Beantown!) Citizenfour wins Best Documentary for a total of four awards so far — NYFCC, Gotham Awards, NBR and IDA. A tie between Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo for Birdman & Richard Linklater for Boyhood for Best Screenplay.Birdman‘s Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki for Best Cinematography. Nightcrawler‘s Dan Gilroy for Best New Filmmaker. Boyhood‘s Sandra Adair for Best Film Editing. The Tale of The Princess Kaguya for Best Animated Film…who cares?
SNL guests James Franco and Seth Rogen performed a routine last night about the Sony hack, but didn’t even allude to the still-possible, not-definitively-ruled-out assistance of North Korea. (Yesterday a North Korean spokesperson was quoted saying that the hacking of Sony’s computers and information “might be a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathizers” of North Korea who are joining its efforts to “put an end to US imperialism.” Is that any way to deny involvement?) Franco-Rogen didn’t even mention the possibility that their film might have inspired a hostile country to seek revenge. They could have gone all over the place with that notion. A bit wimpy in you ask me.
It meant something that Exorcist, French Connection and Sorcerer director William Friedkin hauled himself down to the Vista past his bedtime last night to introduce a midnight showing of Jennifer Kent‘s The Babadook. Friedkin doesn’t know Kent, has no relationship with IFC Midnight, came on his own dime. The Babadook is “one of those restrained, character-driven, less-is-much-more horror films that pop up once in a blue moon — a mix of Roman Polanski’s Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby plus Juan Antonio Bayona‘s The Orphanage plus a dab or two of F.W. Murnau‘s Nosferatu,” I wrote five weeks ago. ‘Almost everything in-camera, super-meticulous design, no cheap jolts, no conventional gore to speak of…but scary as hell.”
