2011 Online Film Critics Society Award Nominees

by Tony Dayoub

From the Online Film Critics Society (of which I am a proud member):

The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick's exploration of suburban family life in the 1950's, received seven nominations for the 15th Annual Online Film Critics Society awards. The film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Malick), Best Supporting Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actress (Jessica Chastain), Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Cinematography.

Joining The Tree of Life in Best Picture are Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, Alexander Payne's The Descendants, Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive and Martin Scorsese's Hugo. Malick, Hazanavicius, Refn and Scorsese were joined in the Best Director race by Melancholia director Lars von Trier.

Drive was the second most nominated film picking up six mentions including the aforementioned Picture and Director as well as Best Supporting Actor (Albert Brooks), Best Adapted Screenplay, Editing and Cinematography. Brooks was nominated alongside John Hawkes in Martha Marcy May Marlene, Nick Nolte in Warrior, Pitt and Christopher Plummer in Beginners. In Best Supporting Actress, the nominees were Chastain, Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids, Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs, Carey Mulligan for Shame and Shailene Woodley for The Descendants.

Woodley and Mulligan's co-stars shared nominations in the Best Actor slate, George Clooney and Michael Fassbender respectively, who were nominated alongside Jean Dujardin in The Artist, Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Michael Shannon in Take Shelter. The Best Actress category features Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia, Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene, Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin and Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn.

Each year, the OFCS also submits nominations for Special Achievement Awards, granted only by a majority vote of the membership. This year, the Online Film Critics have selected two individuals, Jessica Chastain and Martin Scorsese, to receive special citations.

Chastain's tremendous and quality-filled output this year has brought her instant acclaim and recognition marking one of the most stellar debuts in recent memory.

Scorsese has long been a champion of film preservation and with his love letter to the cinema this year, Hugo, he continues to show his admiration for film history and the many pursuits to keeping those records alive.

The full list of nominees for the 15th Annual Online Film Critics Society Awards:

Movie Review: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close vs. We Bought a Zoo

by Tony Dayoub

Remember a few weeks ago when Sott Rudin, producer of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, made a lot of noise over film critic David Denby breaking a press embargo with his review (a positive one at that) of that film? Well, not that you care, but if you do, I have a theory. Rudin wasn't really annoyed with Denby. Over positive press Denby was giving what even the harshest of critics have deemed an adequate serial killer thriller? No, Rudin was actually staking out his position, disturbed at the thought that a similar incident would affect the Christmas Day opening of his problematic 9/11 tearjerker, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I've been biting my tongue to hold myself back from tearing into this awful, tone-deaf movie, fearful of breaking the media gag order in place since I first saw the film on December 8th. So, at least with me, Rudin's hissy-fit must have worked. Now that opening weekend has arrived I feel liberated, though, free to warn you, patient viewer, away from this irritating ham-handed exploitation of a horrific tragedy.

At the Multiplex 2011

by Tony Dayoub

More capsule reviews, this time on some of the wider releases of the last few months.

Movie Review: Beginners (2011)

by Tony Dayoub

Oliver (Ewan McGregor) is a lonely graphic artist whose father has just died from cancer. He catalogues biographical events in still images, using references to history and popular culture as signposts demarcating one phase of his life from another. While he narrates Beginners, montages of these stills flash onscreen from time to time. It’s quite telling, though, that the catalytic event in the film — a conversation between Oliver and his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer), in which dad comes out of the closet — is presented as an unreliable flashback in which Hal wears a purple sweater. Oliver admits his dad probably wore a robe instead.