This is the thread where we discuss matters pertaining to the detrius that accompanies the "End of the Year in Cinema" -- 2023

and LA loved Huller

LAFCA:

Best Picture: “The Zone of Interest” (A24)

Runner-up: “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)

Best Director: Jonathan Glazer — “The Zone of Interest” (A24)

Runner-up: Yorgos Lanthimos — “Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)

Leading Performances: Sandra Hüller, “Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon) and “The Zone of Interest” (A24); Emma Stone, “Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)

Runners-up: Andrew Scott, “All of Us Strangers” (Searchlight Pictures); Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction” (MGM)

Supporting Performances: Rachel McAdams, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” (Lionsgate); Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers” (Focus Features)

Runners-up: Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures); Ryan Gosling, “Barbie” (Warner Bros.)

Best Screenplay: “All of Us Strangers” (Searchlight Pictures) — Andrew Haigh

Runner-up: “May December” (Netflix) — Samy Burch

Best Cinematography: “Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures) — Robbie Ryan

Runner-up: “Barbie” (Warner Bros.) and “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures) — Rodrigo Prieto

Best Editing: “Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon) — Laurent Sénéchal

Runner-up: “All of Us Strangers” (Searchlight Pictures) — Jonathan Alberts

Best Production Design: “Barbie” (Warner Bros.) — Sarah Greenwood

Runner-up: “Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures) — Shona Heath, James Price

Best Music Score: “The Zone of Interest” (A24) — Mica Levi (with special recognition of the contribution of sound designer Johnnie Burn)

Runner-up: “Barbie” (Warner Bros.) — Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt

Best Foreign Language: “Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon)

Runner-up: “Tótem”

Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film: “Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros” (Zipporah Films) — dir. Frederick Wiseman

Runner-up: “The Eternal Memory” (MTV Documentary Films)

Best Animation: “The Boy and the Heron” (GKids)

Runner-up: “Robot Dreams” (Neon)

New Generation Award: Celine Song for “Past Lives” (A24)

Douglas Edwards Experimental Film Prize: “Youth (Spring)” — Wang Bing

Career Achievement Award: Agnieszka Holland

I haven't seen any of these, but the LAFCA awards just look better than the NYFCC awards this year

I don't know - they mostly leaned on films that left me with very mixed feelings (i.e. none I'd call favorites). The Zone of Interest, Oppenheimer, Anatomy of a Fall...

Regardless, I thought it was a pretty solid year, if not spectacular.

It's a wonderful year! And my top twenty will likely only include Anatomy... in that list.

Glad the likes of J3ffr3y W and S4sh4 S will be mega triggered that only women won acting prizes from LA

And now the Golden Globes ... which, while usually the height of detrius, this year at least found room to nomninate Alma Pöysti in Fallen Leaves, which is really cool.

Best Motion Picture, Drama

“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)
“Maestro” (Netflix)
“Past Lives” (A24)
“The Zone of Interest” (A24)
“Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon)

Best Picture, Musical or Comedy

“Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
“American Fiction” (MGM)
“The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
“May December” (Netflix)
“Air” (Amazon MGM Studios)

Best Picture, Non-English Language

“Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon) — France
“Fallen Leaves” (Mubi) — Finland
“Io Capitano” (01 Distribution) — Italy
“Past Lives” (A24) — United States
“Society of the Snow” (Netflix) — Spain
“The Zone of Interest” (A24) — United Kingdom

Best Director, Motion Picture

Bradley Cooper — “Maestro”
Greta Gerwig — “Barbie”
Yorgos Lanthimos — “Poor Things”
Christopher Nolan — “Oppenheimer”
Martin Scorsese — “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Celine Song — “Past Lives”

Best Screenplay, Motion Picture

“Barbie” — Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach
“Poor Things” — Tony McNamara
“Oppenheimer” — Christopher Nolan
“Killers of the Flower Moon” — Eric Roth, Martin Scorsese
“Past Lives” — Celine Song
“Anatomy of a Fall” — Justine Triet, Arthur Harari

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama

Bradley Cooper — “Maestro”
Cillian Murphy — “Oppenheimer”
Leonardo DiCaprio — “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Colman Domingo — “Rustin”
Andrew Scott — “All of Us Strangers”
Barry Keoghan — “Saltburn”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama

Lily Gladstone — “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Carey Mulligan – “Maestro”
Sandra Hüller – “Anatomy of a Fall”
Annette Bening — “Nyad”
Greta Lee — “Past Lives”
Cailee Spaeny — “Priscilla”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

Fantasia Barrino – “The Color Purple”
Jennifer Lawrence – “No Hard Feelings”
Natalie Portman – “May December”
Alma Pöysti – “Fallen Leaves”
Margot Robbie – “Barbie”
Emma Stone – “Poor Things”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

Nicolas Cage — “Dream Scenario”
Timothée Chalamet — “Wonka”
Matt Damon — “Air”
Paul Giamatti — “The Holdovers”
Joaquin Phoenix — “Beau Is Afraid”
Jeffrey Wright — “American Fiction”

Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture

Willem Dafoe — “Poor Things”
Robert DeNiro — “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Robert Downey Jr. — “Oppenheimer”
Ryan Gosling — “Barbie”
Charles Melton — “May December”
Mark Ruffalo — “Poor Things”

Best Supporting Actress, Motion Picture

Emily Blunt — “Oppenheimer”
Danielle Brooks — “The Color Purple”
Jodie Foster — “Nyad”
Julianne Moore — “May December”
Rosamund Pike — “Saltburn”
Da’Vine Joy Randolph — “The Holdovers”

Best Original Score, Motion Picture

Ludwig Göransson — “Oppenheimer”
Jerskin Fendrix — “Poor Things”
Robbie Robertson — “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Mica Levi — “The Zone of Interest”
Daniel Pemberton — “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
Joe Hisaishi — “The Boy and the Heron”

Best Original Song, Motion Picture

“Barbie” — “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and Finneas
“Barbie” — “Dance the Night” by Caroline Ailin, Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt
“She Came to Me” — “Addicted to Romance” by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” — “Peaches” by Jack Black, Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Eric Osmond, and John Spiker
“Barbie” — “I’m Just Ken” by Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt
“Rustin” — “Road to Freedom” by Lenny Kravitz

Best Motion Picture, Animated

“The Boy and the Heron” (GKids)
“Elemental” (Disney)
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (Universal Pictures)
“Suzume” (Toho Co.)
“Wish” (Disney)

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement

“Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Disney)
“John Wick: Chapter 4” (Lionsgate Films)
“Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” (Paramount Pictures)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (Universal Pictures)
“Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” (AMC Theatres)

Seems like Past Lives benefited from the expansion from 5 to 6 nominees per category.

Not sure about that foreign language nomination, tho

That supporting actor lineup will just not be cracked. Sorry, Glenn Howerton

Air over The Color Purple in best musical/comedy doesn't bode well for the latter's Oscar chances, though I think that could change if TCP does well at the box office.

If box office is robust, all bets are off, but it doesn't seem like the sort of movie that's going to do Greatest Showman numbers.

I'm not getting my hopes unnecessarily up for a best actress Oscar lineup that is majority foreign-language/bilingual

I'm filling out my FFCC ballot as I type.

Glad to see Portman in comedy!

Here we go -- another year when certain tropes in casting Black supporting actresses never get vetoed.

I didn’t remember Wonka is also a musical … so two big splashy year-end musicals fail to make best picture in a category partially designed specifically for them, and Air somehow momentarily escapes its fate as a movie no one remembers three years from now

Here’s Amy Taubin’s yanked-from-Artforum top 10 list;

We're humbled to share Amy Taubin's (@AmyOrNot) Best Films of 2023 list, which was pulled from the December issue of Artforum in protest against the firing of the magazine’s great editor-in-chief David Velasco. https://t.co/AbXrh6pTJZ

— Screen Slate (@ScreenSlate) December 12, 2023

May December is a comedy now? ok

Its own producer called it a funny movie fwiw

Another Artforum cast-off

The decision to retract my list from Artforum and publish it myself wasn't an easy one, but it felt like the right thing to do. And if you ask Artforum about this, they will deny it just to save face

— Charles Bramesco (@intothecrevasse) December 12, 2023

May December is a comedy now? ok

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Tuesday, December 12, 2023 11:43 AM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yes. I laughed every few minutes

it is simultaneously fucking hilarious and deeply unsettling. just like all of my favorite novels

Yep, which is why I rank it right up there with Safe and Superstar as his best

From the BFI ballots, J.Ro’s top 10

Jonathan Rosenbaum
Critic, USA

Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany)
Barbie (Greta Gerwig, US)
The Daughters of Fire (Pedro Costa, Portugal)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, US)
Master Gardener (Paul Schrader, US)
No Bears (Jafar Panahi, Iran)
The Runner (1984) (Amir Naderi, Iran)
Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)
The Taking (Alexandre O. Philippe, US)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson, UK, US)

Alphabetical order. Although we tend to embrace the expedient fiction that all films are created equal, my inability to see the latest Radu Jude feature before the October deadline has to weighed against how much easier it was to get to the Anderson, Gerwig, Schrader, and Scorsese. Money talks – and, indeed, canonises.

Three of those are 2022 releases going with the U.S. theatrical release - maybe there was a belated U.K. release?

(The three being No Bears, the belated theatrical distribution of The Runner, and Saint Omer. All great FWIW.)

Chicago gets right into the middle(brow) of it all:

Best Picture: Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Director: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Best Actor: Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Best Actress: Emma Stone, Poor Things
Best Supporting Actor: Charles Melton, May December
Best Supporting Actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Best Original Screenplay: Samy Burch, May December
Best Adapted Screenplay: Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Animated Feature: The Boy and the Heron
Best Documentary: Kokomo City
Best Foreign Language Film: The Zone of Interest

We have spoken!

http://www.floridafilmcritics.com/2023/12/13/oppenheimer-killers-of-the-flower-moon-past-lives-lead-pack-with-most-nominations/

I only got a few of mine in, guess which

exp It's strange how Chicago really put middlebrow criticism on the map with Siskel & Ebert and yet it was also the home base to some of the very best alternative weekly critics of the past 50 years (maybe even the two best).

That's new - autocorrect turning xxp into exp

Rogowski, McAdams, and Weaver?

Were you among those holding Barbie off at the pass?

it was also the home base to some of the very best alternative weekly critics of the past 50 years (maybe even the two best).

Rosenbaum and ... Kehr?

Dave Kehr, correct - though it's kind of weird he did a stint at the Chicago Tribune while Siskel was still there. Per an interview he did decades later (after Siskel had long passed), I think he said the Trib had a falling out with Siskel over something to do with his TV show and hired Kehr to replace him, only to realize soon after that it was stupid to fire a critic who got the paper priceless advertising/publicity via a popular weekly TV show, so they hired him back as a "columnist" with Kehr in Siskel's old position.

Rogowski, McAdams, and Weaver?

Were you among those holding Barbie off at the pass?

― stephen miller is not your friend (Eric H.)

Barbie wasn't even a factor.

Yes, no, yes.

Critics Choice noms:
https://variety.com/2023/film/awards/critics-choice-nominations-2024-full-list-barbie-1235835620/

Nothing too surprising, other than maybe Saltburn as a best picture nominee.

Saltburn refuses to just die

Those Chicago picks aren't middlebrow.

I like some of those honorees (the ones I've seen at least), but they are absolutely middlebrow. Most big Oscar contenders are.

If Oppenheimer and The Holdovers aren't middlebrow, nothing is

Inspired me to order Dwight MacDonald's Essays Against the American Grain.

Yeah, I think "middlebrow" is sometimes misunderstood as simply middle-of-the-road or bland. But as I undestand it, it's art that appeals to a certain kind of aspirational educated person because it presents itself with a veneer of cultural prestige, even though it is not actually challenging or profound in the way that highbrow art is. It flatters the audience's perception of itself as intelligent and refined. It's often used as a pejorative by critics like MacDonald, but I think it can be useful as a descriptive category regardless of any judgment of quality.

From Classic Hollywood, probably defined by William Wyler and Fred Zinnemann (at its best), or Stanley Kramer (at its not-best).

and today Alexander Payne is the embodiment of it.

Nolan most definitely too, when he leaves genre behind

I didn't think it was a good movie, but I did appreciate Payne's ambition on Downsized - it was just too lacking in nuance, falling back on a lot of stereotypes and betraying a shallow grasp of the various issues it tried to tackle. I really wish he pulled it off. The new one is clearly within his comfort zone - not a bad film at all, to be fair.

Presenting Film Comment's Top 20 Released Films of 2023

Read full film blurbs from FC contributors, critics, and more: https://t.co/IMsZB36vGt pic.twitter.com/H30LivoEnI

— Film Comment Magazine (@FilmComment) December 15, 2023

I don’t agree that Payne is thee most middlebrow director alive but OTOH I’m in no rush to see The Holdovers because I’m averse to most stories about middle-aged academics.

I will check out Barbie on HBO Max during my vacation and report here on whether it’s middlebrow.