Sunday, December 14, 2008

Bostonians Can't Make Up Their Minds

Aren't there any tie breaking procedures over in Beantown? The Boston Society of Film Critics (or BSFC) have spoken their mind(s) and given out the following prizes

Picture (tie) Wall•E & Slumdog Millionaire
Director Gus Van Sant for Milk & Paranoid Park
Actor (tie) Sean Penn for Milk and Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler
Actress Sally Hawkins Happy-Go-Lucky
Supporting Actor Heath Ledger The Dark Knight
Supporting Actress Penélope Cruz Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Animated Film Wall•E
Documentary Man on Wire
Foreign Language Film Let the Right One In (cool choice)
Editing Slumdog Millionaire
Cinematography Paranoid Park (Boston is winning even more hip factor points)
Screenplay Milk
New Filmmaker: Martin McDonaugh In Bruges (yes!)
Ensemble: Tropic Thunder

45 comments:

Bernardo said...

I love Paranoid Park for Cinematography...loved that movie! I'm also loving the extreme praise for WALL·E that's appearing everywhere... in a perfect world it would be the cute little robot and not the guy in the weird bat suit getting a BP nomination.

Sally Hawkins is this year's critics dalring... Who would have expected it? Certainly not Kristin Scott Thomas who needed the critics.

Anonymous said...

I think that the perfect world would be the one where TDK and Wall-E get both nominated. It would be great i think !

Anonymous said...

Hmmm…

I’m a bit annoyed to see they named both the (way) overrated SLUMDOG and (slightly) overrated WALL*E Best Picture.

But they redeemed themselves by giving MILK some much deserved/needed love. I also applaud their picks for Best Actor (Penn & Rourke!), Actress (Hawkins!!!) and Supp. Actor (Ledger!!!!!!!).

Aside from the Best Picture tie, I’m quite proud of Boston!

P.S. As previously stated, I’m lovin the pics! This one in particular really had me smiling. :)

adam k. said...

Does anyone think this (second) Best Pic award for WALL•E is getting making it an actual, plausible contender for a best pic nomination? So far, it's been getting more love than The Dark Knight.

I could definitely see it getting a PGA nod at this rate. And what about its chances in screenplay? That category's pretty up-in-the-air besides Rachel and Milk. Following the normal rules about Pixar hits and screenplay nods, WALL•E would be in. And it's been doing better in the precursors than most Pixar films. If it can't get into best pic, I'd settle for it tying what I think is a nomination record by Beauty and the Beast: 6 nods for an animated film.

Anonymous said...

Oh, come one. Animation had its turn back in 1991.

It’s time to honor the superhero genre!

Anonymous said...

Let them honor both!

Glenn said...

A week or so ago when I listed some things I would like the critics groups to do during their awards was, if they are giving their Best Director prize to Milk then also considering sharing it with Paranoid Park and... well... Boston can now join LA as one of my favourite critics groups.

Anonymous said...

OFF TOPIC: Nathaniel, where did you get that Changeling FYC on your Best Actress predix??

John T said...

The AFI announced there's as well:

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
THE DARK KNIGHT
FROST/NIXON
FROZEN RIVER
GRAN TORINO
IRON MAN
MILK
WALL*E
WENDY AND LUCY
THE WRESTLER

Ibad said...

Slumdog and WALL-E are easily the two best films of the year, in my opinion, and I myself am having trouble choosing between them. Every single award handed out here was absolute perfection and I could not be more pleased.

NicksFlickPicks said...

Almost always my favorite of the critics groups; they almost never fail to go out on one limb or another. Liking these picks, but does anyone have the runner-up info? That's where you can really see Boston's distinctiveness, most of the time.

Anonymous said...

I have just checked and there are no runner ups or at least they are not posted in the Boston Critics webpage. They put the same list that is in the blog main page...

Jorge Rodrigues said...

Well well well... If it isn't the cute robot who's regaining all its BP buzz... Wouldn't it be great to have Wall-E, Slumdog, Milk, The Dark Knight and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as our top 5 pictures this year? The most beloved films of the year, with a kind of diversity that can please every type of viewer?

Such diversity. Drama and excitement from TDK, lovely and compelling storytelling from Wall-E, joyful cheerful emotional Slumdog Millionaire, true and interesting biopic (Milk) and a fantastic epic with a lot of special effects (Benjamin Button)?

Amazing.... But it's only a dream...

The Academy members will be wondering by now: Wall-E or TDK? Or none? My bet is TDK for BP nom and Wall-E for Best Animated Feature win...

Anonymous said...

I've just thought: will AMPAS be in the mood to honor not one, but TWO biopics? In 2005 I was sure that both "Capote" and "Walk the line" will make it but "Walk the Line" despite three GG wins didn't.
I think they've heard enough about how pathetic their choice for best picture in 2001 was to resist voting for Howard's picture.
These five look just fine to me:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, Wall•E

Anonymous said...

I'm just glad that my current top 4 films of the year (Slumdog, Milk, Wall-E, and The Dark Knight) have been getting lots of love. It's so rare for this to happen.

Anonymous said...

the one thing about sally compared to streep,winslet,blanchett,hathaway,leo,beckinsale,knightley,williams,jolie & scott thomas is that she is happy and upbeat its a performance we havent seen this yr or in previous years and i am now wondering with streep and winslet underwhelming whether she can win!!!

John T said...

Best Actress, I think that the person who can interrupt the Streep vs. Winslet run will be Hathaway, not Hawkins. Hathaway deglams somewhat for the role, is a hot-young-princess in Hollywood, and could well sneak into a trophy fight.

Anonymous said...

The reason they can't pick a clear winner is because boston sucks.

Jorge Rodrigues said...

Hmm... About the Best Actress race...

I think that the Streep vs Winslet fight will lead nowhere because none of the performances were THAT good - they'll be nominated because they are, as Nat calls them, «default nominees» and very talented ladies... but Streep's Doubt role is just as good as Streep's Devil Wears Prada role. And Winslet has yet to top her performance in The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I believe the Academy members will want to put a stamp on Anne Hathaway. It's her year. She kills in that character, she fits PERFECTLY!

I didn't like Kristin Scott Thomas either (I'm from Portugal and I've seen «Il y a longtemps que je t'aime») and I didn't like her. I think her performance is very overrated.

Hawkins is awesome. So the battle for me is Hawkins vs Hathaway. This is a «feel good» year for Americans I think. AMPAS won't want drama and crying this year. Or at least that's my opinion. :)

Unknown said...

Quick Note:Nathaniel.
You've written in your new predictions Cate Blanchett as never being nominated . Big lol

Kurtis O said...

I'm loving the more-than-expected amount of attention that "In Bruges" is receiving. I LOVED that movie and its been one of my tops of the year since February.

Meanwhile, I'm coming down with a serious case of "Slumdog" fatigue. It was a great film, but I'm never one to fully embrace the crtically championed crowd pleasers (The memories of "Juno" are more ingratiating with each passing day).

Oh, and I think I'm one of the few people who did not love "Paranoid Park." Van Sant's 'art films' of late, however beautiful, are incredibly patience-trying. If I wanted to walk through hallways for two hours, I'd visit my hephew at school.

Kurtis O said...

*Nephew

Jorge Rodrigues said...

Oh I agree with Kurtis O.

I haven't seen «Slumdog» yet and I am getting really tired of hearing about it...

We know, SLUMDOG IS GOOD! But critics elsewhere could award other movies since that one is practically nominated by now :D geesh...

Carl Joseph Papa said...

I really think that Wall-E could find it's way being nominated in Best Picture. Revolutionary Road is dying after all

NATHANIEL R said...

michael oopseydaisey or in this case Oops "Daisy"! is fixed.

i do too much copy/paste obviously ;)

Anonymous said...

If WALL-E gets in the PGA
I'm going to one consider it a lock for a nom...

gabrieloak said...

I have nothing against ties. Not when there are so many good movies out there.

Will someone please award another actress besides Penelope Cruz?

gabrieloak said...

I really hope Wall-E does not receive a Best Picture nomination. There are more than enough good films to nominate in that category. Ratatouille was a much better animated film than Wall-E and it was never considered for a Best Picture award.

Anonymous said...

Sally Hawkins and Penelope Cruz are rockin' it this season! That's so awesome. Take it all the way to the Oscars girls!

Bernardo said...

But without a doubt Best Actor is the most interesting category this year (after like 80 yrs of not interesting me). There are 7 perfectly plausible nominees and...5!! Plausible winners.

Jenkins, DiCaprio, Eastwood, Rourke, Pitt, Langella and Penn all have a fine chance of getting nominated and all of these seem plausible:

"And the Oscar goes to...Clint Eastwood!" (he's Clint in his acting farewell...supposedly)

"And the Oscar goes to...Mickey Rourke!" (critics love him)

"And the Oscar goes to...Leonardo DiCaprio!" (leo deserves it and we all want Jack and Rose to win the same night :))

"And the Oscar goes to...Sean Penn!" (very plausible)

"And the Oscar goes to...Frank Langella!" (i have a feeling a lot of awards will start going his way. it's less probable than the others, but if F/N scores big he'll manage)

Glendon said...

Am I the only one who didn't like Wall-E once the humans entered the picture? Nominate the first 40 minutes for Best Picture.

NATHANIEL R said...

I think the 40 minutes are the best too, sure --but that doesn't mean you have to stop loving later on ;)

Glenn said...

In regards to Revolutionary Road "dying". This is exactly what people were saying about Atonement last year after it failed it get any major critics awards and then it ended up with a Best Picture nomination. Voila.

Anonymous said...

So does it mean Cruz would get her deferred Oscar for sure from Volver? I would love to see her win.....with better material. Also, I think if Kate Winslet join in the competition, she might win the category if she loses out in the Best Actress.

adam k. said...

Looks like a double-nominated Winslet is all that could derail Penélope's oscar at this point.

NicksFlickPicks said...

I still think Wall•E has an Oscar win within its cute, graspy, mechanical reach.

Anonymous said...

can i say i hope langella doesn't knock out jenkins his perf seemed off to me.

seeing milk and gran torino this week so supp actors almost done with haaz sleiman in the lead.

Anonymous said...

I think that voters would have no problem in nominating Kate Winslet twice this year and still deny her a win. If they can snub Peter O'Toole eight times, don't think they can't do something similar to her, especially considering that there's in theory more "time" down the road to vote for her. I think it was a big tactical error to release both of her films in December so close to one another, and without the critics backing at least one of these performances, she could see herself the odd one out again losing out to the more pre-cursored favorite (which has happened to her in all of her prior nominations, except maybe her first one). Mira Sorvino, ugh.

Anonymous said...

I felt Hathaway did a very good job in "Rachel.." However, it really felt like a totally ensemble movie with a number of standout performances .. I wish she had a BSA nomination instead of lead....

adam k. said...

I do think it's rather likely that Winslet could lose to both Streep and Cruz this year.

She HAS always lost to the more precursor'ed favorite, even the first time. Yes, Mira Sorvino actually won the lion's share of the precursors that year. Kate rallied at the end with BAFTA and SAG, but it wasn't enough to overcome the momentum Sorvino had built up throughout the season.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I figured about Mira Sorvino. I was trying to block it out of my head.

Glenn said...

Well if Cruz beats Winslet to the win then that'll mean she's lost to two Woody Allen ladies.

Glenn said...

er, what I meant to add to that was "maybe she should have a supporting role in a Woody Allen movie. Surely they couldn't deny her then!"

adam k. said...

Well, she WAS originally gonna play Johansson's part in Match Point. That coulda been her oscar right there. Unless of course she'd lost to Rachel Weisz (who won that year). But oh wait, Weisz's part was originally Winslet's, too!

Sigh. So many great parts that got away...

Anonymous said...

And then they Bostonians ) still get it wrong ).