Never Let Them Go. A Video Essay by Matt Zoller Seitz

Beautifully constructed video essay for L Magazine on 2010 cinema. Worth your ten minutes. I'd embed it here but it's one of those videos that starts immediately without pressing a button. Hate that!

Chicago Critics: Collegiate Men and Serious Little Girls Dominate.

The Chicago Film Critics are the latest critics association to announce their awards and they've gone, like virtually everyone else, with The Social Network.

 These 52 critics love Sorkin & Fincher's warring young entrepeneurs. They also like their actresses real young and their prizes spread out.

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Houston, St. Louis & Florida Name Their Favorites

I'm just going to keep using this one photo I concocted below until people stop with the Hailee Steinfeld is a supporting actress in True Grit meme. I've even seen her so labelled IN REVIEWS that have nothing to do with Oscars. Oscar culture has truly distorted all concepts of narrative in our modern society. I realize that I'm the lone ornery voice of dissent but, so what? I'm demonstrating my own true grit; Hailee would be proud of me... well, except for the part where I wouldn't nominate her.

But, the ageism and sexism of movie awards is really getting to me this year, sorry.

Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), the captain of True Grit's ship.

Fact: No teenage boy who was leading a picture like True Grit (just imagine the gender reversed) would ever win any awards beyond "breakthrough." Remember when Leonardo DiCaprio won all those statues for his wildly acclaimed "supporting" work in This Boy's Life (1993) and Jesse Bradford won all those awards for King of the Hill (1993)  and Christian Bale won those same prizes for his debut "supporting" work in Empire of the Sun (1987) and Max Records won them for supporting all of those Wild Things Whereever They Were last year and remember when...

No, neither do I.

Pretend Hailee was a boy and imagine her chances competing against Bale or Rush. HA! Like that would ever happen. People respect veteran actors too much to take their trophies away from them. But put a young girl up against a veteran actress and the veteran actresses are toast. They get no respect.

Anyway... if you wanna discuss what Texas, Missouri and Florida critics are honoring, keep on readin'.

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NYFCC's 2010 Wins: "The Social Kids That Are All Right Network"

The New York Film Critics Circle forms, together with LAFCA (Los Angeles Film Critics Association) and the NSFC* (National Society of Film Critics), the holy trinity** of critics awards. LA & NY combined can be a potent influential mix... not that they often agree. But this year they did, further underlining the dominance of The Social Network this awards season. The other big boost went to The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko's warmly funny family-at-crossroads film, which picked up three major wins (Actress, Supporting Actor, Screenplay)

Picture The Social Network
Director David Fincher for The Social Network
Actress Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right
Actor Colin Firth for The King's Speech

We already knew that Best Actress was shaping up to be a Bening vs. Portman showdown. But it was not confirmed in a neatly bi-coastal way since Portman did not take LAFCA yesterday. She wasn't even runner-up. Nevertheless, it's still firmly on track to turn out that way, a two-person battle, since they're the likely Globe winners in Comedy and Drama, respectively.


Supporting Actress Melissa Leo for The Fighter
Supporting Actor Mark Ruffalo for The Kids Are All Right
Screenplay Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg for The Kids Are All Right
Cinematography Matthew Libatique for Black Swan
Animated Film Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist
Documentary Inside Job
Foreign Film Carlos
First Feature David Michôd's Animal Kingdom
Special Prize is there one this year? I haven't seen one specified online and their site has not been updated.

Having been a big fan of Animal Kingdom all year, I am pleased for David Michôd's win, since the praise has usually reduced the film to the Jacki Weaver show. Weaver aside, the entire cast is strong and so is the film so good on NYFCC for noticing.

Animal Kingdom's cast: Frecheville, Stapleton, Ford, Weaver,
Joel Edgerton and Ben Mendelsohn

In other film critics org news today, The Southeastern Film Critics Association named The Social Network the years best and also hilariously named True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld the best "supporting" actress of the year. What she's supporting, other than her entire Coen Bros picture, we don't know. They used to call that "carrying" a film and that's only done by lead actors. What the Christ? She's even more of a lead than Frances McDormand was in Fargo! See also: BFCA Nominations for this year's most egregious Category Fraud party. Every year has one.

*in recent years it seems that the NSFC has been fading -- so perhaps the only powerful critics orgs are now LA & NY... at least in terms of media interest -- given NSFC's late voting and the ever expanding roster of film awards.

NYFCO (Prizes and Top Ten List)

Need one more critics group for the day? No? Well then don't open up this window.

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Critics Awards Cometh. Swan vs. Network?

Ballots were due today for the BFCA "Critics Choice Awards" so you can be sure I did my share of handwringing before I sent it in. My god, you think you know what you want to vote for and you stare at the ballot and it's just >gah< indecision! (It doesn't help that you can only vote for 3 items in each category, 5 for best picture). Those nominations will be announced on Monday.

Tomorrow we'll be hearing from the LAFCA (who will begin announcing at 12:30 PST) -- who have the Academy's ear by way of proximity and major representative outlets--  and the New York Film Critics Online (not to be confused with the the ancient NYFCC which votes on Monday) and then we're off. Neither the critics awards nor the top ten lists will let up thereafter for at least the next month. If you're curious about what I'm predicting you can check out Gold Derby's roundup of pundits here. Other than Best Picture (The Social Network -duh.), predicting critics awards can be a bit like throwing darts. We hope there are lots of fun surprises this year.

In the past decade critics prizes have become both more plentiful and repetitive, with one film always the obvious champ. Even in years where you'd think there'd be a battle royale (like 2007's No Country For Old Men vs. There Will Be Blood) it never really goes ten rounds before one film K.O.s the other. It's less about critical battles than it used to be and more about declaring your allegiance to the hivemind. Which, if you stop to think about it, is exactly what online movie culture is about, with off-consensus critics being (virtually) burned at the stake if they dare to dislike [insert popular movie here]. Which is all a long way of saying that you'll hear the title The Social Network over and over again this season. As often as you heard The Hurt Locker last year probably.

But both are great films so I don't mi---Oh no. I've been assimilated, too. Noooooooooooo

I'm guessing that if we see any challenge to Fincher's Networking this year it'll be Aronofsky & Team Swan (still all the rage at the specialty box office). But how much of a fight do those crazy ballerinas have in them?


Care to make any predictions?

Octogenarian Oscar Voters

I've heard about the Reel Geezers show on YouTube before, movie reviews by a pair of 80somethings Marcia & Lorenzo. But I hadn't known until watching their Oscar special that they're Academy members, too. I loved this two part episode because it gives you a peak into their voting thought process and both confirms suspicions we always hear about voting (making people wait for it til they're older, personal taste trumping critical thought, etcetera) and denies them (they don't seem to have a sentimental pull towards Holbrook or Dee and when it comes to voting without seeing the movies: Marcia is not going to do it)



People more inside than myself always say that attending the events and schmoozing with the voters is more crucial than anyone on the outside realizes when it comes to campaigning for the nominations and gold --people have told me this is why nothing happened for Joan Allen in The Upside of Anger in 2005, despite a weak year she just wasn't around, shaking hands for it --so I loved this tidbit on Julie Christie in Away From Her

Marcia: ...Julie Christie in Away From Her
Lorenzo: I think she gives a fantastic performance...and also so different from the way she used to be in -- this wonderful young thing...
Marcia: Darling
Lorenzo: Darling when she was Warren Beatty's girlfriend and all that stuff. I mean she has --she's run the gamut. And one thing I have something. A personal disclosure: Recently she was my dinner partner at a small dinner
Marcia: mm-hmm
Lorenzo: I was so awed by it that I drank too much wine and don't remember what I said.
Marcia: [giggles]
Lorenzo: And so I'm certainly very happy to vote for her.
Marcia: Very good.
Lorenzo: I find her absolutely...
Marcia: She'd be thrilled to know that....
Lorenzo: She'd be thrilled to know that.
Marcia: ...that you were that drunk that it made the difference for her.
Lorenzo: Exactly. She's something. Like a creature come down from heaven.
Marcia: [giggles]
Lorenzo: But anyway I'm going to vote for her [to camera] "Hi Julie!"
Marcia: Listen, I loved her performance. I thought it was great. I'd like to vote for everyone on this list.

It was also fascinating to note their devotion to Michael Clayton. They don't seem all that excited about No Country For Old Men or There Will Be Blood... and even after they both rave about Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There they say they're both voting for Tilda Swinton. Final note: Marcia is still upset that Diving Bell and Butterfly didn't get nominated. Watching this little show reminds us that Oscar voters are in some ways just like Oscar fans --they play favorites, they bitch about the snubs, they shake their heads at Oscar's past bungles. Twenty-eight years later, Marcia would like you to know that she's still pissed that Raging Bull lost Best Picture.