Well, no, actually it’s not. It’s a very serious film that has a few comedic moments. Matt Damon makes a few jokes but that’s largely because he’s trying not to lose his mind and commit suicide. However, The Martian was submitted to the Golden Globes as a comedy. Why? Probably because the producers realized that it would be easier for them to win if their film was the only big-budget drama nominated in the comedy category. It’s dishonest, it’s unethical, and it totally worked. This morning, when the Golden Globe nominations were announced, The Martian was nominated for Best Picture, Comedy or Musical.
I was not a particularly huge fan of The Martian to begin with. The fact that it has now been nominated for Best Comedy while Inside Out was not does not help matters.
Anyway, as for the rest of the Golden Globe nominations … actually, I like a lot of them. Mad Max: Fury Road was nominated for Best Picture, Drama and that should help it regain whatever momentum it may have lost after not being nominated by the SAG. The Big Short was also nominated for Best Picture, Comedy so I guess I really will have to see it, despite having no desire to do so. Trumbo was not nominated for Best Picture but it did pick up nominations for Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren. Spotlight was naturally nominated for best picture but received no acting nominations, which means that either all the actors are splitting the votes among themselves or maybe Spotlight, while remaining the front-runner, is not as universally loved as some are thinking. It’s impossible for me to say because I haven’t seen Spotlight yet but I have noticed that a lot of critics seem to be more respectful than enthusiastic about it.
(At the same time, my friend, the sportswriter Jason Tarwater, was quite enthusiastic after seeing Spotlight and I usually trust his opinion on these things.)
Anyway, here are the Golden Globe Film nominations!
The nominees for the SAG Awards were announced earlier today! The SAG Awards are usually one of the more accurate of the various Oscar precursors. Because so many members of the Academy are also members of the Screen Actors Guild, the SAG Awards are usually a pretty good indication of what films are on the Academy’s radar and which ones aren’t. Occasionally, an actor will be nominated by SAG and then snubbed by the Academy. Last year, for instance, SAG nominated Jake Gyllenhall for Nightcrawler, Jennifer Aniston for Cake, and Naomi Watts for St. Vincent. None of those three received any love from the Academy. But, for the most part, SAG is one of the most reliable precursors out there.
And that’s why so many of us are in shock today! The SAG Awards in no way resembled what many of us were expecting. Other than Spotlight, none of the film’s that many of us expected to be nominated for best ensemble (the SAG’s equivalent of the Academy’s best picture) were nominated (and even Spotlight only received one other nomination, for Rachel McAdams who, up to this point, hasn’t really figured into the Oscar discussion). The Martian was not nominated for best ensemble or anything else for that matter. Creed was totally snubbed. Brooklyn was nominated for actress but not ensemble. Mad Mad: Fury Roadwas nominated for its stunt work and nothing else. Helen Mirren received two nominations, for films that hardly anyone (outside of the SAG, obviously) was really paying any attention to. Sarah Silverman received a best actress nomination for I Smile Back, which I hadn’t even heard of until about a week ago. It’s an unexpected and strange group of nominees.
Keep in mind, it’s not necessarily a bad thing that the nominees are unexpected. Beasts of No Nation and Straight Outta Compton will both receive deserved boosts in their hunt for Oscar gold. At the same time, I have to admit that I wasn’t happy to see either The Big Short or Trumbo nominated for best ensemble because I know I’m going to feel obligated to see them and they both look so freaking tedious and blandly political! But consider this: if The Big Short and Trumbo are both huge Oscar contenders, we may face a situation where both Jay Roach and Adam McKay are nominated for best director in the same year. I think that’s one of the signs of the apocalypse and, at this point, I’m kind of ready to welcome the end of the world.
Anyway, here are the SAG nominations! Look them over and, after the Golden Globe nominations are announced tomorrow, update your Oscar predictions accordingly.
Best Performance by a Cast Ensemble in a Motion Picture
The Washington D.C. Area Film Critics announced their picks for the best of 2015 today. In a move that many are predicting may be imitated by the Academy, they named Spotlight best film while giving director to Mad Max Fury Road‘s George Miller.
I love the Online Film Critics Society, I really do. Every year, when they announce the nominees for their end-of-the-year awards, they always seem to honor the films that truly deserve to be honored. For instance, this year, they found room to not only nominate the Academy front runners — like Spotlight, The Martian, Carol, Brooklyn, and Mad Max — but they also gave nominations to Ex Machina, Sicario, and Inside Out. Ex Machina, Sicario, and Inside Out all deserve to be in the Oscar conversation and hopefully, these nominations will help them stay there.
Here are the nominations from the Online Film Critics Society!
Best Supporting Actress:
Rooney Mara (Carol)
Cynthia Nixon (James White)
Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria)
Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)
Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)
Best Original Screenplay: Ex Machina (Alex Garland) Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley)
Mistress America (Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach) Sicario (Taylor Sheridan) Spotlight (Josh Singer, Tom McCarthy)
Boston and New York were not the only critics to vote today! The Los Angeles Film Critics Association announced their picks for the best of 2015 as well! Mad Max: Fury Road won best director but Spotlight won best picture with Fury Road as the runner-up. In other words, the LAFCA liked Fury Road but decided to play it safe. Let’s not forget that this is the same group of people who once named The Descendantsbest picture with The Tree of Lifeas the runner-up.
(Dear award-giving groups: Just so you know, playing it safe is really freaking boring.)
With three major groups of critics scheduled to announce their picks for the best of 2015, today is a big day for those of us who love Awards Season. First off, here are the picks of the Boston Society of Film Critics! While the awards are nicely spread around, it’s not surprising that the Boston Society of Film Critics picked a Boston film for best picture.
One good thing about Mad Max: Fury Road doing so well during award seasion is that it gives me an excuse to say that “So-and-so Is Mad About Max!” Thank you, film critics, for making my job a lot easier.
Anyway, yesterday, the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics announced their nominees for the best of 2015! And, once again, a lot of love was shown to Fury Road. However, I am even happier to see that they also gave some attention to one of my favorite films of the year, Ex Machina.
Best Original Screenplay:
Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen (Bridge of Spies)
Alex Garland (Ex Machina)
Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley (Original Story by Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen) (Inside Out)
Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)
Amy Schumer (Trainwreck)
If I seem a little bit excited, that’s because I am. I’ve been excited about seeing Brooklyn ever since it was first acclaimed at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. I was excited before I watched the film, I was excited while I watched it, and now I’m excited about the prospect of you seeing it.
The thing is, it’s a little bit hard to explain just what makes Brooklyn such a wonderful film. I will admit that, in my case, it probably helps that it’s a deliriously romantic (yet realistic) portrait of a young woman who immigrates from Ireland to Brooklyn in the 1950s. Since I’m an incurable romantic of Irish descent, I suppose it was somewhat predestined that I would love Brooklyn. But, ultimately, you don’t have to be Irish to love Brooklyn. The story that Brooklyn tells is a universal one.
When we first meet Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan), she is a quiet and meek girl living in a small Irish town. She spends her weekends working in a shop owned by the spiteful Ms. Kelly (Brid Brennan) and looks up to her older sister, Rose (Fiona Glascott). It is Rose who contacts Father Flood (Jim Broadbent) in Brooklyn and who arranges, with him, for Eilis to come to America.
After a nightmarish crossing that is marked by a Hellish case of seasickness, Eilis finds herself in Brooklyn and living in a boarding house, under the watchful and protective eye of Miss Kehoe (Julie Walters). At first, Eilis is homesick and struggles to adjust to her new surroundings. It’s only after Father Flood arranges for Eilis to take a night class in bookkeeping that Eilis starts to discover her confidence. (Somewhat poignantly, Rose is also a bookkeeper. Even separated by an ocean, Eilis is still trying to impress her big sister.)
Eventually, Eilis meets and starts to date a sweet-natured plumber named Tony (Emory Cohen). Now, in the past, I’ve actually been pretty critical of Emory Cohen as an actor. On twitter, I made some unkind comments about the performance that he gave in the TV series Smash. (He played Debra Messing’s son.) Though I didn’t make a point of mentioning it in my review, I also thought he was the weakest link in the otherwise excellent ensemble of The Place Beyond The Pines. So, when I first heard that he gave an excellent performance in Brooklyn, I was a little bit skeptical. But then I saw the movie and believe it or not, Emory Cohen gives an excellent performance. As Tony, he is sweet and tough and funny and truly the ideal boyfriend. He also flashes the sweetest smile imaginable, which is one thing that he was not allowed to do in either Smash or The Place Beyond The Pines.
Brooklyn handles Eilis and Tony’s relationship with a commendable honesty. This is a wonderfully romantic movie but, at the same time, it retains a realistic edge. As characters, Eilis and Tony are never idealized. When Tony tells Eilis that he loves her, we’re just as torn as she is because we’ve gotten to know both of them. We know that Tony is a good man but we also know and understand Eilis’s struggle to establish a life and an identity of her own in America. We know how important her independence is to her and it’s equally important to us.
As a result of unforseen circumstances, Eilis eventually finds herself returning to Ireland. Though Eilis insists that she’s only going to stay for a few months, she soon finds herself torn. Should she return to her old home, where she is now viewed as being a bit of a glamorous celebrity and is romantically pursued by the handsome and charming Jim Farrell (Domhnall Gleeson)? Or should she go back to Brooklyn, to Tony and an unpredictable future?
Brooklyn is a deceptively low-key film. Eilis changes from being a shy and insecure girl to being a strong and confident woman so gradually that both she and the viewer are initially taken by surprise when the new Eilis emerges from her shell. This is a film that both demands and rewards your patience. At the same time, it’s also a film about universal desires and experiences to which we can all relate. At some point in our life and in some way, we have all been Eilis Lacey.
Saoirse Ronan — oh my God, what can I say about Saoirse Ronan? How can I possibly describe what a wonderful performance she gives? Ever since she first came to the public’s attention in Atonement, Saoirse Ronan has been one of the best and most underrated actresses around. In Brooklyn, she gives her best performance yet. She deserved an Oscar for Hanna and she’ll hopefully win one for Brooklyn.
(Incidentally, Brooklyn was written by Nick Hornby, who also wrote another one of my favorite films, An Education. Hopefully, Brooklyn will do for Saoirse Ronan what An Education did for Carey Mulligan.)
The Boston Online Film Critics announced their picks for the best of 2015 earlier today and once again, my expectations have been defied! I figured that since Spotlight is a Boston-story, it would be an easy pick for the Boston critics.
But no! The Boston Online Critics went for … MAD MAX: FURY ROAD! According to Awards Circuit, Creed was the runner-up. (Though, to be clear, the Boston Online Critics definitely did like Spotlight, naming it the 5th best film of 2015 and giving it awards for screenplay and ensemble.) Now again, that doesn’t mean that either Fury Road or Creed is going to be Oscar-nominated. But, every bit helps. With each victory, the idea of a Fury Road best picture nomination becomes just a little more plausible.
Here’s my question — one month ago, would you have believed that the early critics awards would be dominated by Mad Max, Sylvester Stallone, and Kristen Stewart?
Through the Shattered Lens 