2017 New York Film Critics Circle Award Winners

Congratulations to this year's New York Film Critics Circle honorees!

Best Film

Lady Bird

Best Director

Sean Baker, The Florida Project

Best Actor

Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

Best Actress

Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird

Best Supporting Actor

Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project

Best Supporting Actress

Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip

Best Screenplay

Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread

Best Cinematography

Rachel Morrison, Mudbound

Best Animated Film

Coco

Best Documentary

Faces Places

Best Foreign Language Film

BPM (Beats Per Minute)

Best First Feature Film

Get Out

2017 National Board of Review Award Winners

Congratulations to this year's National Board of Review honorees!

Best Film: 

The Post

Best Director: 

Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird

Best Actor: 

Tom Hanks, The Post

Best Actress: 

Meryl Streep, The Post

Best Supporting Actor: 

Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project

Best Supporting Actress: 

Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird

Breakthrough Performance: 

Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

Best Original Screenplay: 

Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread

Best Adapted Screenplay: 

Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, The Disaster Artist

Best Animated Feature: 

Coco

Best Directorial Debut: 

Jordan Peele, Get Out

Best Foreign Language Film:  

Foxtrot

Best Documentary: 

Jane

Best Ensemble: 

Get Out

Review: "Mudbound"

Dee Rees, I bow down to you.

Rees, the remarkable filmmaker (and, if there's any justice in this world, 2017 Oscar nominee), who previously wowed us with Pariah and Bessie, is operating on a George Stevens/William Wyler-level with her latest effort, a film adaptation of the 2008 Hillary Jordan novel Mudbound. This is a true epic, grand visually and in its storytelling, and perhaps the year's best film.

The picture, an ensemble drama of the highest caliber, follows two Mississippi families, one white and one black, sharing delta farmland during and after World War II.

Laura McAllan (Carey Mulligan) comes from a well-off Tennessee family and isn't entirely at ease on the farmland. She has a halfhearted marriage to Henry (Jason Clarke), whose dreams of running a prosperous farm brought the couple down south, and really has more of a kinship with Henry's dashing brother Jamie (Garrett Hedlund), who is serving overseas as a flight captain. Laura and Henry have two daughters.

Hap Jackson (Rob Morgan) has for years worked the land as a tenant farmer and dreams of someday owning it. The Jacksons and McAllans are drawn together by several events, including Hap's wife Florence (Mary J. Blige) tending to the McAllans' daughters when they become ill and the Jacksons' need for some help when Hap sustains an injury. The Jackson's eldest son Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) is serving abroad as a sergeant.

Upon their returns home, Jamie and Ronsel form an bond that hardly rubs the town racists in the right way. Jamie is anguished by wartime memories, while Ronsel is quickly reminded of the lack of freedoms he has at home, vis a vis Europe. Pappy (Jonathan Banks), the widowed McAllan patriarch and a vicious racist, seems to be looking for any excuse to bring an end to this friendship.

Mudbound is an absorbing piece from start to finish, masterfully written by Rees and Virgil Williams, and sporting some of the finest, most unaffected acting you'll see all year. Mulligan has never been better and Blige, Hedlund, Mitchell and Morgan are revelations in their respective roles - all would be richly deserving of Oscar nominations. Kudos too to Rachel Morrison, whose cinematography here is downright breathtaking.

This is a picture that deserves to be placed among the likes of The Best Years of Our Lives and From Here to Eternity as one of the all-time great World War II dramas.

A+

2017 Independent Spirit Award Nominees

Congratulations to this year's Independent Spirit Award nominees!

Best Feature
“Call Me By Your Name”
“The Florida Project”
“Get Out”
“Lady Bird”
“The Rider”

Best Female Lead
Salma Hayek, “Beatriz at Dinner”
Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
Saiorse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
Shinobu Terajima, “Oh Lucy”
Regina Williams, “Life And Nothing”

Best Male Lead
Timothee Chalamet, “Call Me By Your Name”
Harris Dickinson, “Beach Rats”
James Franco, “The Disaster Artist”
Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
Robert Pattinson, “Good Time”

Best Supporting Female
Holly Hunter, “The Big Sick”
Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”
Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
Lois Smith, “Marjorie Prime”
Taliah Lennice Webster, “Good Time”

Best Supporting Male
Namdi Asomugha, “Crown Heights”
Armie Hammer, “Call Me By Your Name”
Barry Keoghan, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”
Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Bennie Safdie, “Good Time”

Best Director
Jonas Carpignano, “A Ciambra”
Luca Gudagnino, “Call Me By Your Name”
Jordan Peele, “Get Out”
Benny and Josh Safdie, “Good Time:
Chloé Zhao, “The Rider”

Best Screenplay
“Lady Bird”
“The Lovers”
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
“Get Out”
“Beatriz at Dinner”

Best First Feature
“Columbus”
“Ingrid Goes West”
"Manahse”
“Oh Lucy”
“Patti Cake$”

Best First Screenplay
“Donald Cried”
“The Big Sick”
“Woman Who Kill”
“Columbus”
“Ingrid Goes West”

Best Cinematography
“The Killing of a Sacred Deer”
“Columbus”
“Beach Rats”
“Call Me By Your Name”
“The Rider

Best Film Editing
“Good Time”
“Call Me By Your Name”
“The Rider”
“Get Out”
“I, Tonya”

Review: "Wonder"

If only Jacob Tremblay could narrate every film!

Tremblay, who was inexplicably robbed of an Oscar nomination (I would perhaps even argue the win) for Room two years back, again proves himself one of our finest child actors with his latest effort, director Stephen Chbosky's film adaptation of Wonder.

Based on R.J. Palacio's beloved 2012 novel, Wonder tells the story of August "Auggie" Pullman (Tremblay), a young boy with Treacher Collins syndrome, the genetic disorder characterized by facial deformities. Having to date been homeschooled by his mom (Julia Roberts), Auggie, with some initial anxiety and reluctance, makes the leap into attending an elementary school for the first time.

Auggie encounters no shortage of ignorance and cruelty from some of his classmates - fueled, as we come to find, by some parents who deserve a special place in hell - but, over time, comes across the right friendly faces and teaches even some of the nastier forces that he's really just an ordinary (and awesome) kid.

Auggie's story alone is an absorbing one but Wonder is in fact a great ensemble piece, shining a spotlight on his adoring parents (Owen Wilson portrays the father); the older sister (Izabela Vidovic) who's been there every step of the way through her brother's journeys in and out of hospitals and herself is struggling socially in school; and Auggie's friend Jack Will (Noah Jupe), torn between the new pal he loves and peer pressure to poke fun at him. Even Auggie's sister's estranged friend has her own little sequence!

Wonder isn't quite as ambitious a picture as say, this year's Wonderstruck, but it's still awfully irresistible, with Tremblay charming, funny and also heartbreaking as can be in the lead role. Roberts and Wilson are in warm, wonderful form and Vidovic is an absolute revelation as Auggie's sister, who finds surprising fulfillment through her school's drama group. Watch out for a terrific turn by Mandy Patinkin too, who plays the school principal.

Chbosky's The Perks of a Wallflower left me rather cold a few years back, so, despite my affection for Tremblay, I did not have terribly high expectations for this. Well, those modest expectations were exceeded by leaps and bounds and I would encourage all to check out this marvelous (and surprisingly not manipulative/saccharine) film.

A-