Of all the critics’ awards, the National Board of Review is probably the most prestigious. I would put the LA Film Critics Association right below the NBR, then the NYFCC. As we discussed yesterday, ‘tis the season for the Oscar campaigning to go full blast, and so far, there really are no frontrunners. The NYCC annointed Boyhood their Best Picture. The Gotham Awards declared Birdman their Best Picture. And now the NBR says that A Most Violent Year is their Best Picture. What the what, you guys? Here are the big awards from the NBR:
Best Film: “A Most Violent Year”
Best Director: Clint Eastwood (“American Sniper”)
Best Actor (TIE): Oscar Isaac (“A Most Violent Year”) and Michael Keaton (“Birdman”)
Best Actress: Julianne Moore (“Still Alice”)
Best Supporting Actor: Edward Norton (“Birdman”)
Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain (“A Most Violent Year”)
Breakthrough Performance: Jack O’Connell – Starred Up & Unbroken
Best Ensemble: “Fury”
Spotlight Award: Chris Rock for writing, directing, and starring in “Top Five”
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: “Rosewater”
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: “Selma”Top 10 Films
“American Sniper”
“Birdman”
“Boyhood”
“Fury”
“Gone Girl”
“The Imitation Game”
“Inherent Vice”
“The Lego Movie”
“Nightcrawler”
“Unbroken”
Well, well, well. Unbroken AND Fury made it to the top ten? Well, hello Brangelina! Plus, Angelina will want to come to support Jack O’Connell. She might even be the one to give a speech about him. And it really does seem like it’s all coming together for Julianne Moore, doesn’t it? Yay! Michael Keaton is riding pretty high too – he also won a Gotham Award, but he was overlooked for the NYCC. And it’s nice to see that Oscar Isaac isn’t going to leave this awards season completely empty-handed, although I think the shenanigans with the publicity tours for A Most Violent Year will probably mean that the film gets very few Oscar nominations.
You know what’s sort of shocking to me as well? Two months ago, everyone was saying that Foxcatcher was the film to beat, for Best Picture and for some of the major acting awards. But Foxcatcher has been shut out completely this week! It didn’t even make the NBR’s Top Ten!
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.
You are wrong, they are knows for they wacky choices and always giving Eastwood the best director award even though he doesn’t want. Unbroken has mixed to bad reviews but keep ignoring it.
I’m sorry to disagree with you Unbrosken HASN’T had any bad reviews as you put it, it has good and mixed reviews. Most Critics were peeved off as due to the embargo and already had their own clear favourites, so was it any wonder the knives were out for Unbroken and Angelina in particular. But saying that, its still garnered good reviews. We should support fellow women and their acheivemnts , instead of throwing shade, just saying.
I’m looking at the reviews now on Metacritic and the mixed reviews (which outnumber the good reviews) are leaning towards more bad than good. One of the words that keeps coming up to describe the film is “unexceptional” which doesn’t bode well since Zamperini’s story is quite exceptional. Even the good reviews are not effusive with praise. I’m not seeing anything that says this film is on the level of Birdman or Boyhood. It’s definitely a more muted response.
All I have to say is that Jack O’Connell is honestly the ONLY male actor in my age range that I find talented and hot. I still can’t believe he’s only 24! He is insanely hot.
He needs to come find me 😉
And God–how many awards shows are there really? Now I understand when some actors say they are over it. Did anyone read that PEOPLE magazine is going to have an awards show/red carpet thingy? And ACTUAL celebrities are going to it? And by that I mean celebrities that actually make movies/tv shows, and not celebs that are tied to reality tv. God.
To the second part, yes, I feel left behind. These award shows are multiplying and I can’t keep up. I noticed the same thing with country music recently, where once these award shows start, they never seem to end.
The People awards is all the actors with big PR managements that are coming its going to be lame and who ever pays the most to get face time the most.
I would say the reviews for unbroken are mixed to good rather than mixed to bad. Have not yet seen a review totally trashing it.
How I wish that more than one film, actor, actress, director, etc. would be selected as The Best.. Too many to select only one as the Winner. Just wishful thinking.
So every time either film is nominated for an award it’s to get BP and AJ to show up? Maybe the movies are just deserving. And Unbroken hasn’t had any bad reviews, just nitpicky, fussy reviews.
I am on award season burnout already.
This…I have to agree. After reading a lot of the reviews, I came away unclear as to what they found so terrible about this movie. I cannot fathom how you can call a director accomplished, yet in the same breath say the movie is lacking. SMH (I am by no means an expert, hoping someone can comment on this.)
It looks like critics are saying it hits certain marks while missing others. Strangely, the criticism seems to be about not baring the subject’s soul quite enough, while the trailer appeared to present the opposite, IMO. So far, it has 60% fresh critic ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, although some of the ‘fresh votes’ also find elements lacking. I thought the critiques were kind of all over the place. But I think the cinematography pleased most of them.
Yeah, I found the reviews to be…odd. Like the movie is too ‘polite’ and ‘tame’. Yet it’s full of torture p0rn. There isn’t enough to be said about the two other supporting (Gleeson and Courtney), but they were great….and the movie isn’t about them. And a bunch of other stuff.
@amcn
Yes–that too. Like I said above with Gleeson and Courtney’s performances….critics loved them, but said that they didn’t know anything about them i.e. their character development was lacking. Which I don’t understand–because it’s not like we’re seeing THEIR backstories…it’s Louis. And (SPOILER SPOILER) i THINK 1-2 of them died on the raft. So I don’t get what character development we’re supposed to see.
they seem to be very divided. Which, I suppose is good…for critics to be torn, than for a movie to be critically panned. Most I got out of it was that the storyline was sometimes too disjointed?? Or something.
I am also confused by all the raves about Jack O’s performance and then saying the character had no depth. The reviews are very unclear and they’ve all been very reticent about praising it or trashing it. Anyway, there are still a lot of reviews to come out and then we can see for ourselves.
@Kiddo…yes, I agree with your take, and if indeed she failed to show Louis’ transformation and inner journey then the film would be lacking. THR had a cinematographers Round Table discussion and all agreed that if the critics found only their work worthy of mention in a film that was not a great omen. I also read that some critics felt that she had perhaps idealized Louis as well. Still, I am intrigued , and can’t wait to see it.
Well, you know, Louis’ generation was one where stories were passed on, but inner feelings were often omitted, and it was not the social more of the day to share deep emotions, especially for men. It’s possible that because she was very close to him, she didn’t want to betray his version of events and impart creative license to the narrative, in examining this transformation.
I think this might be a film that I’ll wait to see after it has left theaters.
i had a Deakins binge today, loads of videos and interviews with him yesterday.
in Hitflix he subtly hit back at the critics saying the raft scene is too Jaws/Lost at Sea/Life of Pi/Perfect Storm, i.e. too samey with all past films. he was like: duh. it’s the sea. it’s a whole ocean of sameness. “i’ve sailed around the world. they’re all the same”.
speaking of taking jabs at critics, Jack O’Connell was also poking at the critics. can’t remember which interview because i’ve seen a lot and they are colliding with one another now. re: all the cast are handsome “have you seen the pictures in the book? they are ALL handsome, old hollywood leading men handsome”.
and about running scene looks artificial without one hair out of place “believe me i studied the footage of those days. and their hair stayed the same way throughout. maybe they use Brylcreem. maybe it’s called Brilliant Cream…”
one thing i discovered, these panel interview things began very nervously, but they soon hit the stride and started showing bromances to rival the X-Men cast. i love how after a long explanation, Jack turned to Miyavi and asked whether he understood what he said. “Not really. Email me later.”
another peeve when reading one particular review: “i wish we get more story about Pete or Phil, like split narratives to cover them”
but how is that even possible? like there’s not even enough hours to cover Louis’s story; plus they have to do a separate research on Pete, and what happened to Phil after he got put in the separate Officer’s Prison.
anyhow. back to Deakins. i think most critics agree that if Deakins don’t get that Oscar for this one, “someone’s tyres are going to get slashed”, as one social media critic wrote.
@Kiddo
That’s what I noticed with my neighbor. Whenever I try to talk to him about WWII, he generally tells the same story–but doesn’t really go into the emotional aspect of it. Like the story is that a few days after he got into Italy (he was an engineer and he would find/destroy landmines left behind from the Germans, as well as rebuild the roads and bridges destroyed), he found out that his best friend and neighbor (who was part of a mountain division) had been killed in action. What was worse was that he hadn’t even known that he was there. And he told me that, and that was it–not his reaction, or anything like that. Just the bare bones of the story. And he doesn’t really talk much about it, beyond that one story–except to tell me his job.
Funny how whenever Angelina gets nominated for something it’s because that body wants her and Brad to attend their ceremony not because of the work but if she is not nominated then she is snubbed. Girl can’t win for losing.
Go Brangelina!! I am glad both their movies are chosen. I still need to watch Birdman and Nightcrawler, not my kind of movies usually but I will try.
I’m so happy for Chastain. She’s a good actrees and she and her movie deserve some awards
The reviews for Unbroken have been mixed to good, and that doesn’t rule out anything. Several movies get nominated for Oscars despite less than spectacular reviews. For instance, Unbroken isn’t getting much worse reviews than Les Miserables did.
There is a reason it took 40 or 50 years for Louis’ story to be told on film.I admire Angie for taking on this challenging job for her second film.If the film is simply nominated for a major award is an accomplishment.
I’m going to say it: could this be the reason Aniston was campaigning for an Oscar?
@Funcakes, who wrote: “I’m going to say it: could this be the reason Aniston was campaigning for an Oscar?”
Well … I believe Jennifer Aniston might be getting the sense that the tie binding her to Mr. and Mrs. Pitt is fast unwinding? What do I mean? For at least the past 7 years the playing field with the three has been fairly equal in that they were all actors with a shared history/connection. But in the past 2 – 3 years the Jolie-Pitts have been moving steadily away from that status and public opinion about them has (thank goodness) begun to change. In other words, both Angie and Brad are proving to be more than just the sum of their parts and the stuff of gossip. But Jennifer is still talking about her hair.
Angie is very deeply involved in Humanitarian causes, has now directed two films and has written/is directing a third, is now nearly recognized more for her ‘none’ acting abilities, and has been knighted by the Queen of England … Hello! Meanwhile, Brad Pitt has taken a stronger role in ‘producing’ films rather than strictly acting in them.
On the other hand, Jennifer Aniston is still primarily an actress of the same caliber she was when it all began. There’s nothing wrong with that, but she’s on the same level as all three were 10-years ago, and the Jolie-Pitts have move on and up. I think she feels the growing gap between herself and the Jolie-Pitts quite keenly … and I think I’ve just answered your question.
Speaking of Foxcatcher…the same thing is happening to The Imitation Game, that seemed like such a huge frontrunner back in September (it even won top honours at TIFF) and yet, it seems to be getting shut out too. Only time will tell win the bigger awards like the Golden Globes, SAGs and BAFTAs happen.
Gone girl? That was horrible! The dialog was laughable. Affleck’s acting was awful. I feel like the only one who disliked this movie. I did love Affleck in Hollywood land. He did an excellent job of conveying Reeves frustration of being type cast and wanting more of a career as an actor.
Oh wow funcakes, I loved Affleck in Hollywoodland! I think that’s his best performance on film, hands down. Didn’t love him in Gone Girl though, nor did I love the movie as much as others did. I did like that women were well represented in the film, and they all gave strong performances: Rosamund Pike (wife), Carrie Coon (sister) and Kim Dickens (detective). So I could really appreciate that. My problem with Gone Girl was the story. It had me up to a certain point, and then it didn’t. The direction the story took was a big disappointment for me.
Regarding Angie’s Unbroken — good to mixed reviews is not bad considering the embargo was only lifted on Monday. I think the film will do well at the box office and I’m sure Universal will be pleased for that. But it remains to be seen how Unbroken will fare during awards season. If Angie and/or Jack receive director and/or actor noms and the film receives multiple nominations, great! If not, there will always be other films. She’s just wrapped her latest writing/directing project with Brad in Malta (By the Sea) and has already secured another directing gig on the life of Dr. Richard Leakey (Africa). So clearly, there’s no shortage of directing projects for her. Her career as a director is only just beginning. So I’m going to enjoy watching to see the stories she champions and the visual style that evolves.