Battle Dominates Early Film Awards

Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another,
Best Picture winner for the NYFCC, NBR
and Gotham Awards.

Film award season is upon us and One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson's action epic of a former radical (Leonardo DiCaprio) rescuing his daughter from a right-wing nut job (Sean Penn), is dominating the field, winning Best Picture and several other awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review and the Gotham Awards. Benicio Del Toro who plays a martial arts instructor and underground activist who aides DiCaprio's character, was named Best Supporting Actor by both the NYFCC and NBR. Rose Byrne won Best Actress from both of those groups for If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (which is also my choice for Best Title of the Decade.) 

The Gotham Awards were announced Mon., the NYFCC on Tues. and the the NBR on Wed. I have not been as excited about the movie awards this year as in past seasons. I used to obsessively keep track of all the eligible films I'd seen and where I'd seen them. Maybe I'll do that this year, but it's looking like Battle is the top film and I wasn't crazy about it. The direction was excellent, Anderson keeps the suspense tight and the action sequences were skillfully edited and shot, but the theme left me cold. Anderson appears to be condemning political extremism of all kinds. DiCaprio plays a former resistance fighter whose daughter is kidnapped by racist Army officer Sean Penn. DiCaprio's character appears to be an innocent caught between two extremes. The left-wing radical underground army he was allied with resorts to extreme violence to achieve its ends. His lover, played by Teyana Taylor, is a horrible person, abandoning their daughter and the cause when she is caught. Penn's forces are equally heinous, representing not only the current cruel immigration policies of the Trump administration, but also a cultish, deep-state powerful network of bigots called the Christmas Adventurers. 

I didn't sympathize with any of the characters except Del Toro's activist who is the only one who doesn't resort to violence to help his community. Having said that, I didn't find his performance exciting enough to warrant all these Supporting Actor prizes. I didn't really get the point of the film, except to film people getting shot and chasing each other across the desert.

Hamnet is the only other film getting major award buzz and it's not even been mentioned by these early accolade dispensers. (Still haven't seen it, but I plan to.) I did catch Wicked: For Good yesterday in 3-D and 4-DX at the Union Square theater. The seats moved while Cynthia Erivo was flying her broom, so that was fun and we were sprinkled with water during the cyclone scenes. It will probably garner a few Golden Globe nods. 

A breakdown of the winners follows:

Wicked Casts a Spell on NBR

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in Wicked,
winner of Best Picture from NBR

Wicked (which I just saw yesterday in IMAX), the film adaptation of the first act of the hit Broadway musical about the witches of Oz, casts a spell on the National Board of Review, winning Best Picture, Best Director (Jon M. Chu) and the NBR Spotlight Award to stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande for their creative collaboration. The National Board of Review announced its winners on Tues. Dec. 4. The awards will be presented on Jan. 7 at Ciprani 42nd Street in a gala hosted by Willie Geist on MSNBC's Morning Joe (is anyone still watching that show?) and NBC's Sunday Today. 

Founded in 1909, the NBR is composed of film enthusiasts, filmmakers, professionals, academics and students. The group's winners did not overlap much with those of the New York Film Critics Circle, announced yesterday. Only Kieran Culkin of A Real Pain won both a NYFCC and NBR award in his category, Best Supporting Actor. The NBR thespian champs are Best Actor Daniel Craig (Queer), Best Actress Nicole Kidman (Babygirl) and Best Supporting Actress Elle Fanning (A Complete Unknown). NYFCC's choice for Best Picture, The Brutalist, was totally ignored by the NBR.

This win increases Wicked's chances for Oscar gold. But it's a long way to the noms for Hollywood's top prize on Jan. 17

"Wicked represents the pure magic that movies can bring to audiences. Every detail is beautifully crafted and designed, the actors are all exceptional and the music is second-to-none - together it adds up to a transporting experience like no other. The NBR is proud to honor director Jon M. Chu and his remarkable cinematic vision,” said NBR President Annie Schulhof.

NBR Awards Killers Best Picture

Killers of the Flower Moon with
Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio
was named Best Picture by the NYFCCC and the NBR.

Killers of the Flower Moon continues to slay the competition, winning its second Best Picture Award from a major pre-Oscar group. The historical film based on the murder of Osage Native Americans for their oil rights was the top pick of the National Board of Review after winning the same accolade from the New York Film Critics Circle last week. In addition, Killers won for Best Actress (Lily Gladstone, also a NYFCC winner) and Best Director (Martin Scorsese). Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto won for his work on the film as well as for Barbie which was also named one of the year's top films. 

'Zero Dark Thirty' Wins NBR

Zero Dark Thirty continues its winning ways with a Best Picture and Director win from the National Board of Review, two days after taking those categories from the New York Film Critics Circle. Jessica Chastain who plays the intelligence agent who coordinates the hunt for Osama bin Laden also won Best Actress (she's currently starring on Broadway in The Heiress and won a bunch of supporting actress awards and nominations last year for the zillion movies she did in 2011.) Bradley Cooper was named Best Actor for Silver Linings Playbook. Leonardo DiCaprio took Best Supporting Actor for Django Unchained and Ann Dowd won Supporting Actress for Compliance. Huh? What's Compliance? I saw Ann Dowd in The Seagull on Broadway, but I can't remember her in too much else.According to The Hollywood Reporter,  Compliance was at Sundance and concerns an accusation of theft at a convenience store.
The NBR usually makes different picks than the Oscars and sometimes their off-beat winners don't even get nominations.

Let's keep a tally of the film award resuls before the Oscars come out. So far Zero looks like the frontrunner
Picture: Zero Dark Thirty (NBR, NYFCC)
Actor: Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook (NBR); Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln (NYFCC)
Actress: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty (NBR); Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea (NYFCC)
Supp. Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained (NBR); Matthew Maconaughey, Bernie and Magic Mike (NYFCC)
Supp. Actress: Ann Dowd, Compliance (NBR); Sally Field, Lincoln (NYFCC)
Director: Katheryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty (NBR, NYFCC)

NBR=National Board of Review; NYFCC=New York Film Critics Circle