1st Annual Boston Online Film Critics Association Awards

The Boston Online Film Critics Association (BOFCA) announced their awards today, on December 8th, 2012, with giving away the Best Picture award to rather obvious Kathryn Bigelow’s direction and co-production, ZERO DARK THIRTY.

Interesting thing to notice here is that the Best Foreign Language Film award went to Norwegian drama film Oslo, August 31st instead of French drama film and winner of 84th National Board of Review Awards and 78th New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Amour. Amour has found itself in competition with other movies now. Another interesting thing and quite great one is that Roger Deakins won the award for Best Cinematography for his amazing camera work in 23rd James Bond film Skyfall. Deakins really deserves a nomination as well as a real win in the Academy Awards. Jonny Greenwood won the award for Best Original Score for the film The Master. Let’s see how far he goes in this season.

Here is the complete list of winners:

BEST PICTURE: ZERO DARK THIRTY

BEST DIRECTOR: Kathryn Bigelow (ZERO DARK THIRTY)

BEST ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis (LINCOLN)

BEST ACTRESS: Jessica Chastain (ZERO DARK THIRTY)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Tommy Lee Jones (LINCOLN)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Anne Hathaway (LES MISÉRABLES)

BEST SCREENPLAY: Tony Kushner (LINCOLN)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: OSLO, AUGUST 31ST

BEST DOCUMENTARY: HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE

BEST ANIMATED FILM: PARANORMAN

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Roger Deakins (SKYFALL)

BEST EDITING: William Goldenberg & Dylan Tichenor (ZERO DARK THIRTY)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Jonny Greenwood (THE MASTER)

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST: MOONRISE KINGDOM

THE TEN BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR:

1. ZERO DARK THIRTY


2. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD


3. LINCOLN


4. MOONRISE KINGDOM


5. DJANGO UNCHAINED


6. OSLO, AUGUST 31ST


7. HOLY MOTORS


8. THE MASTER


9. ARGO


10. CLOUD ATLAS

CLOUD ATLAS was announced as the TOP WORST MOVIE of 2012 by TIME Magazine, considering that it is a pretty bold move by BOFCA to include it in their top 10 films of the year.

LIFE OF PI still haven’t won anything but as we know that the best is yet to come, so let’s hope for the best!

84th Annual National Board of Review Awards

84th National Board of Review (NBR) Awards took place yesterday, December 5th, 2012 with giving away the BEST FILM prize to Kathryn Bigelow’s ZERO DARK THIRTY, obviously. My predictions were that either Ben Affleck’s ARGO, Tom Hooper’s LES MISÉRABLES or Steven Spielberg’s LINCOLN would win the BEST FILM award but NBR gave it away to Zero Dark Thirty. I’m still not disappointed by their decision because I’m pretty sure Kathryn Bigelow has done a wonderful job just like she did with THE HURT LOCKER.

Here is the complete list of winners:

Best Film:  ZERO DARK THIRTY

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (ZERO DARK THIRTY)

Best Actor: Bradley Cooper (SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK)

Now, this is a bit surprising. I wasn’t hoping to see that Cooper would win this award with so many strong contenders with their strong and powerful performances. But I’m quite happy that Cooper won the award, he is a talent actor and can perform really well, either it is comedy or drama.

Best Actress: Jessica Chastain (ZERO DARK THIRTY)

Best Supporting Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (DJANGO UNCHAINED)

If it means something then it means that DiCaprio is getting a nomination in the 85th Academy Awards, for sure. And maybe, he’d win it as well.

Best Supporting Actress: Ann Dowd (COMPLIANCE)

Best Original Screenplay: Rian Johnson (LOOPER)

I cannot explain how happy I am to see Looper winning an award for Original Screenplay. Would it be too much if I hope to see Looper in Academy Awards and Golden Globes nomination for the Original Screenplay? I don’t think so.

Best Adapted Screenplay: David O. Russell (SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK)

Best Animated Feature: WRECK-IT RALPH

Special Achievement in Filmmaking: Ben Affleck (ARGO)

My wish has come true, I wanted Affleck to win a Special Achievement award in NBR and he finally won!

Breakthrough Actor: Tom Holland (THE IMPOSSIBLE)

Breakthrough Actress: Quvenzhané Wallis (BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD)

Best Directorial Debut: Benh Zeitlin (BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD)

Mr. Zeitlin deserves all the appreciation for directing such a beautiful film.

Best Foreign Language Film: AMOUR

Best Documentary: SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN

William K. Everson Film History Award: 50 YEARS OF BOND FILMS

Best Ensemble: LES MISÉRABLES (very obvious)

Spotlight Award: John Goodman (ARGO, FLIGHT, PARANORMAN, TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE)

NBR Freedom of Expression Award: THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE

NBR Freedom of Expression Award: PROMISED LAND

These two Freedom of Expression awards are given to the deserving films. Promised Land discusses the topic of fracking while The Central Park Five is an outstanding documentary about a girl who was raped by five black and Latino teenagers in 1989.

Following are the lists of TOP films selected by the National Board of Review:

Top Films (In Alphabetical Order):
ARGO
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
DJANGO UNCHAINED
LES MISÉRABLES
LINCOLN
LOOPER
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
PROMISED LAND
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

(TOTALLY SATISFIED WITH THEIR TOP FILMS SELECTION FOR 2012)

Top 5 Foreign Language Films (In Alphabetical Order):
BARBARA
THE INTOUCHABLES
THE KID WITH A BIKE
NO
WAR WITCH

Top 5 Documentaries (In Alphabetical Order):
AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY
DETROPIA
THE GATEKEEPERS
THE INVISIBLE WAR
ONLY THE YOUNG

Top 10 Independent Films (In Alphabetical Order):
ARBITRAGE
BERNIE
COMPLIANCE
END OF WATCH
HELLO I MUST BE GOING
LITTLE BIRDS
MOONRISE KINGDOM
ON THE ROAD
QUARTET
SLEEPWALK WITH ME

(REALLY HAPPY TO SEE ARBITRAGE, END OF WATCH, BERNIE AND MOONRISE KINGDOM IN TOP 10 INDEPENDENT FILMS)

As it is now clear that Zero Dark Thirty is the strongest contender this year, followed by Lincoln and maybe Les Misérables. Another interesting point is that LIFE OF PI haven’t won anything yet, either they are saving the film for the BIG win or they’re just not impressed with the work of Ang Lee. Well, let’s see what happens in upcoming awards.

78th Annual New York Film Critics Circle Awards

78th New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) took a good start on December 3rd, 2012 with giving away the BEST FILM award to much anticipated film, co-produced and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, ZERO DARK THIRTY. It was a little obvious to me that Zero Dark Thirty would win the Best Film title because of the topic of the film and for the reason that Kathryn Bigelow’s THE HURT LOCKER also won the Best Film award in NYFCC in 2009. Bigelow won almost everything that year, she is going to repeat the history this year as well.

Here is the complete list of 78th New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) Awards winners:

Best Film: ZERO DARK THIRTY

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (ZERO DARK THIRTY)

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (LINCOLN)

Best Actress: Rachel Weisz (THE DEEP BLUE SEA)

Best Supporting Actor: Matthew McConaughey (BERNIE, MAGIC MIKE)

Best Supporting Actress: Sally Field (LINCOLN)

Best Animated Feature: FRANKENWEENIE

Best First Film: HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE

Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary): THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE

Best Foreign Language Film: AMOUR (This film is going to do really well in awards season)

Best Cinematography: Greig Fraser (ZERO DARK THIRTY)

Best Screenplay: Tony Kushner (LINCOLN)

Special Award: Milestone Films

Film Review: Premium Rush (2012)

My rating: ★★★★

RIDE LIKE HELL.

Seems like majority of people didn’t like this movie that much. Written and directed by David Koepp, Premium Rush is a fast-paced and a thrilling movie which incorporates the busy streets of New York City as the bicycle messengers ride around all day to make the deliveries on time. What’s good about this movie is that it is made out of a simple concept and a typical storyline but it still feels so different and a bit fresh. I don’t remember watching a bicycle movie and liking it as much as I like Premium Rush. Maybe because the techniques employed in this movie are way better and they work the exactly way they should be working.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Wilee, a bicycle messenger) seems to shine in his role and is supported by other cast members such as Michael Shannon (Bobby Monday, a corrupt cop), Dania Ramirez (Vanessa, Wilee’s ex-girlfriend), Wolé Parks (Manny, Wilee’s rival). Michael Shannon’s character, Bobby Monday is a corrupt and a negative person but his performance is funny, keeps making you laugh because he keeps getting pissed at everything around him and he acts hilariously. This film may not offer much depth into the characterization but you got to look even deeper to get to the bottom like Wilee doesn’t want to do the office jobs wearing suits and sitting in one place but instead he rides around all day and feel free and independent.

Crazy cinematography, more than a dozen stuntmen, efficient CGIs and the slight humor make a huge contribution towards this film. I must say that Koepp is a intelligent guy, he knows how to make a good movie out of a typical plot and a simple concept that revolves around the movie just like the movie begins with an accident and the narration explains everything gradually and it becomes clear that the main plot is more like a mission to make things happen. The execution and direction are superb, which can be justified by the fact that I didn’t get bored, not even for a bit, mainly because of the fast pace and the thrilling bicycle action whcih works perfectly with much imagination, complications and energy. This movie totally worked for me just like I was hoping for.

22nd Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards

The Independent Feature Project (IFP) announced their 22nd Annual Gotham Awards on November 26th, 2012. Here is complete the list of winners:

Best Feature: Moonrise Kingdom

Best Ensemble Performance: Your Sister’s Sister

Best Breakthrough Actor/Actress: Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle of Nowhere)

Best Breakthrough Director: Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

Best Documentary: How to Survive a Plague

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You: An Oversimplification of Her Beauty

Tribute Award: Marion Cotillard

Audience Choice Award: Artifact

Film Review: Argo (2012)

My rating: ★★★★★

The movie was fake. The mission was real.

The movie worked. The mission accomplished.

As we all know that majority of the films that are inspired by true events do not work properly, they don’t deliver that charm the audience hopes for. But this isn’t the case here. Directed by Ben Affleck and co-produced by Affleck, George Clooneyand Grant Heslov (known for producing the Academy Award nominated movie Good Night, and Good Luck), Argo is an excellent thriller and maybe one of the best films of 2012. Inspired by true events of 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis and the superb job done by Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) to exfiltrate 6 escaped hostages hiding in Canadian ambassador’s house, this plot incorporates the inclusion of Hollywood to help accomplish the mission suggested by Mendez as they call it in the film their best bad idea. Not highlighting the extreme violence or the use of guns and grenades as we see in the thrillers mostly, this film maybe the prime example given to us that a thriller can be made without the incorporation of extreme violence. I really hope Ben Affleck gets an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, he has done the job quite well this time and has proved that not only he is a great actor, he is also an outstanding director (he previously directed Gone Baby Gone (2007) and The Town (2010), both of them were outstanding movies).

Supporting cast includes Bryan Cranston as Jack O’Donnell (Mendez’s supervisor at the CIA), Alan Arkin as Lester Siegel (A film producer) and John Chambers as John Goodman (A Hollywood make-up artist) and Victor Garber as Ken Taylor (Canadian ambassador), all of them deliver great performances especially Chambers and Arkin, their scenes have that slight incorporation of humor which keeps the plot on the right track and prevents it from losing audiences’ interest in the film which obviously means that the screenplay (by Chris Terrio) is well-written and kept to the point to avoid causing any boredom and increasing the running time of the movie.

What’s good about this film is that how it stays at same pace throughout and goes in the right direction. We all know what is going to be the outcome of the entire storyline but Affleck’s direction still keeps us interested in the movie, especially in the climax which is shot at the airport as Mendez tries to catch the flight to get those 6 hostages out of Iran, and the intense moments caused by Iranian militants, which is worth watching.

Despite the historical inaccuracies, this movie is well-crafted and deserves appreciation because of being not-so-typical thriller. One thing that kept me wondering throughout the film was why did the Iranians not think that the arrival of film producer in the time of crisis is not linked to the hostage crisis itself? Well, maybe nobody did!

Film Review: End of Watch (2012)

My rating: ★★★★½

End of Watch is a thrilling action drama film incorporating the elements of hand-held footage. What’s great about this movie is that Jake Gyllenhaal (Source Code, Prince of Persia, Brothers, Zodiac, Brokeback Mountain, The Day After Tomorrow) and Michael Peña (30 Minutes or Less, Everything Must Go, Observe and Report, Shooter, World Trade Center) give amazing performances along with the rest of the cast such as Janet (Anna Kendrick, known for her portrayal as Jessica Stanley in Twilight film franchise), Gabby (Natalie Martinez), Van Houser (David Harbour) , Sarge (Frank Grillo) and Orozco (America Ferrera). This film is another turning point for Gyllenhaal, he’s an Academy Award nominee (for Brokeback Mountain in 2005) and I think he might get nominated this season as well, such an outstanding performance he delivers in this film as he has never done something like this before and that’s why it’s so brilliant.

Written and directed by David Ayer, who previously worked on films such as Street Kings (2008), Harsh Times (2005), Training Day (2001), End of Watch proves to be the best work of Ayer so far. Screenplay seems so real at certain points, you can really imagine how hard it gets for the cops to deal with all the stuff in the streets. All the credits go to Ayer for giving us something so close to reality. Ayer’s Training Day won Denzel Washington an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2001. And I think it’s a sign that Gyllenhaal might at least get a nomination in Best Actor considering the fact that so many brilliant films were released in 2012 and are yet to be released.

Best thing about this film is that it is not what it seems. Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) are not just funny cops, their relationship and the storyline of the film go much deeper than that. This film reveals that cops have emotions, too. They’re willing to risk their lives for the members of general public and they don’t seem to care about themselves. Taylor and Zavala have been partners for years and they are so close and treat each other like a family which becomes pretty clear in the magical ending of the movie, sometimes even a sentence is enough to express your emotions. The film depicts how the cops live their lives and how much crap they have to deal with out there in the field and how they manage all that. You can feel a connection in between all of the cast members whether positive or negative but it’s just there. Overall, End of Watch is an outstanding action drama film with the strong acting and superb direction one should not miss.