Day: December 10, 2023

Glazer Shock

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It seems to HE that LAFCA giving its top two trophies — Best Picture and Director — to The Zone of Interest and director-screenplay adapter Jonathan Glazer — was primarily a political-cultural gesture of support for Israel in its current Gaza conflict against Hamas.

And because of this timely symbolic stance three unmistakably superior or at least more exciting and inventive films, obviously lacking in terms of Zone’s moral astringence but (this is hardly a failing) with far more robust cinematic material, more sublime and emotionally abundant energy than can be found in Glazer’s necessarily grim and austere concentration-camp arthouse study…these three took the hit.

The Holdovers, Maestro and Poor Things, alas, were ceremoniously uncoupled from the main deck and allowed to fall into the sea — victims of an actual war and passed over for the same reason that Zone benefitted — Zone had the important symbolic echo factor and the other three didn’t.

C’mon…Glazer Over Cooper, Lanthimos and Payne?

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That’s perverse, man….not a fair, forthright, comprehensive call. Glazer’s The Zone of Interest obviously warrants respect for its chilling avoidist-strategy undercurrent, but it’s too dry, too minimalist, almost antiseptic.

LAFCA Best Director: Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest (A24).
Runner-up: Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things (Searchlight)

Gender-Neutral LAFCA Foodies Halt Gladstone Bandwagon

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4:15 pm eastern: All hail the Gods of Rome! Not only did Killers of the Flower Moon‘s Lily Gladstone fail to win the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Leading Performance Award, but she didn’t even place in runner-up status (although she did so qualify in the supporting category). For now at least, her identity campaign has been stopped in its tracks…screech! The award has been split between Anatomy of a Fall‘s Sandra Hüller, and Poor Things‘ Emma Stone.

The runner-ups are All of Us Strangers‘ Andrew Scott and American Fiction’s Jeffrey Wright,

LAFCA’s Best Supporting Performance awards have gone to Rachel McAdams, (Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret) and The Holdovers‘ Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Runners-up: Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Ryan Gosling, Barbie.

Earlier today: The Los Angeles Film Critics Association is widely regarded as perhaps the most fickle and eccentric awards-bestowing org on the planet. We all know this. Don’t argue.

Not only have they chopped the roster of eligible acting winners in half by dispensing with gender, but they’re known worldwide as the only major critics group that routinely takes a brunch break during voting….bagels and soft-spread cream cheese, lox and onions, potato salad, pickles, Ruffles chips, half-consumed jars of mayonnaise, etc. They’re dedicated to their eccentricity, and when they vote each year everyone says “okay, here come the virtue-signalling fruit loops.” Not that bagels, cream cheese, onions and wokeness necessarily go hand in hand.

Seven years ago (i.e., late ’16) LAFCA gave Lily Gladstone their Best Supporting Actress award for having stared longingly at Kristen Stewart while saying almost nothing in Kelly Reichardt‘s Certain Women — basically an attagirl identity award for Gladstone playing her own rural Native American self while conveying lesbian currents.

You just know they’re going to come roaring back and give her their Best Actress trophy for doing roughly the same thing in Killers of the Flower Moon, or for playing a hetero Native American woman staring daggers at Robert DeNiro and the other bad guys while saying almost nothing.

So far…

Best Screenplay: All of Us Strangers. Andrew Haigh.
Runner-up: May December, Samy Burch.

Best Cinematography: Poor Things (Searchlight) — Robbie Ryan
Runner-up: Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures) — Rodrigo Prieto

Best Production Design: Barbie (Warner Bros.) — Sarah Greenwood
Runner-up: Poor Things (Searchlight Pictures) — Shona Heath, James Price

Best Music Score: The Zone of Interest (A24) — Mica Levi, sound designer Johnnie Burn.
Runner-up: Barbie (Warner Bros.) — Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt.

Robertson Deserves The Oscar

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Did you know that the late Robbie Robertson, who composed the metronomically rythmic tom-tom score for Killers of the Flower Moon, waas born with Native Anerican blood? His mother, Rosemarie Dolly Chrysler, was a blend of Cayuga and Mohawk, and was raised on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve southwest of Toronto.

And did you know that Robertson’s score stands completely on its own, and that his ethnicity means very little if anything in terms of the final impact? His music understands what Killers is about more than this torn and confused film knows itself. The Best Score Oscar is Robertson’s to lose. The work, not the blood.