The Films of 2013. The 14th annual FiLM BiTCH Awards
PICTURE | TRADITION ACTING CATEGORIES | VISUALS | SOUND
Best Actor in a Cameo or Limited Role
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F Murray Abraham
"Bud Grossman" INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS |
Kyle Chandler
"Tommy" THE SPECTACULAR NOW |
David Dastmalchian
"Bob Taylor" PRISONERS |
Jean Dujardin
"Jean Jacques Saurel" WOLF OF WALL STREET |
Matthew McConaughey
"Mark Hanna" WOLF OF WALL STREET |
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A triumph of casting, yes. You need his gravitas. But Abraham nails a line the whole movie can't avoid
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Nice to see an actor so skilled at righteous authentic good man nobility piss that out in a casual loser about face. |
So moving, "off", and weirdly sympathetic as a key suspect that I wish his role was larger.
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A triumph of casting, yes. But what great use of his sophisticated charm that can tilt to self-satisfied smarm.
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In the year of the McConaissance this may well be your rosetta stone: all of this stars onanastic, multi-tasking and newly eccentric starpower
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Finalists: Toby Huss brings just the amount of remove and familiarity to the ex-husband in Enough Said, Spike Jonze the perfect multi-hyphenate to teach us about penny stocks (his work always adds up) in Wolf of Wall Street |
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Best Actress in a Cameo or Limited Role
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Hillary Baack
"Eve" THE EAST |
Robin Bartlett
"Lillian Gorfein" INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS |
Polly Draper
"Emily's Boss" SIDE EFFECTS |
Kaitlyn Olson
"Tatiana" THE HEAT |
Alfre Woodard
"Mistress Shaw" 12 YEARS A SLAVE |
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A subtle curious note of fragility in the hardened ensemble but not so fragile that you don't worry she's still a danger
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The Gorfeins loom so large in what there is of a plot that it's easy to forget we only see them twice. Robin is always memorable.
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This is how you do it! Somehow she makes the somewhat stock 'tough boss' role and adds texture and specificity
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So tetchy, entitled and crude that even McCarthy can't wrestle the scene from her. Formidably memorable and funny
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Handed the film's trickiest scene she finds the perfect dichotomousness notes of hospitality and fury; an obsequious mask dropped
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Finalist: Orly Silbersatz Banai gives good layered subtext as a self-deluding mom in Yossi, Angela McEwan is one of Nebraska's loveliest humanizing notes as a newspaper woman, Joanna Lumlay has a rich funny cameo in Wolf of Wall Street ...and special shout outs to Jacki Weaver in Stoker and Elisabeth Röhm in American Hustle but I figured their roles are just a smidge too large. The cameo/limited role is an inexact science! Apologies |
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Breakthrough |
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Israel Broussard |
Elizabeth Debicki
THE GREAT GATSBY |
Kaitlyn Dever
SHORT TERM 12 (and THE SPECTACULAR NOW) |
Adèle Excarchopoulus
BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (and I USED TO BE DARKER) |
Tye Sheridan
MUD |
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This 19 year old was perfect at the kind of glacial pop intuition and mood osmosis that a Coppola demands. More filmmakers should line up!
Next up:
a thriller called H8RZ Haters with Jeremy Sisto & Cary Elwes |
This willowy 23 year-old from Australia was a total standout in The Great Gatsby, not buried by the party but the life of it. We want more!
Next up:
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the Macbeth with Fassbender |
Raw and angry but totally sympathetic in Short Term 12 and just as adept at lighter supporting gigs as in The Spectacular Now. Also a TV regular so this is one busy 17 year old
Next up:
Jason Reitman's next Men, Women and Children and Grass Stains with Tye Sheridan (also featured here) |
The 20 year Palme D'Or winning sensation from the erotic drama Blue is the Warmest Color was all primal feeling. Can she repeat it elsewhere?? (...not the character but the potency)
Next up:
Two French films Qui Vivre and Carré blanc with Sami Bouajila |
The 17 year old actor, first spotted in The Tree of Life, really excelled and broke out with his engaging authentic star turn in Mud.
Next up:
Four movies on the way! Grass Stains, The Forger with John Travolta, Dark Places with Charlize Theron, and Last Days in the Desert with Ewan McGregor |
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Finalist: Barkhad Abdi- Captain Phillips If a performer is nominated for a regular acting category they are ineligible here (see Lupita Nyongo and Keith Stanfield in supporting categories). I know that a lot of critics organizations were going for Michael B Jordan (Fruitvale Station) for breakthrough honors but he's far too familiar to me to consider him a breakthrough having loved his work for years now on Friday Night Lights and Parenthood |
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Best Ensemble |
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12 YEARS A SLAVE
The story is horrific but the acting is transcendent... Especially between its unimproveable central quartet (Ejiofor, Fassbender, Paulson, & Nyong'o) |
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AMERICAN HUSTLE
It's rare to get so many top actors assembled that all seem to be peaking. You expect nothing less than fireworks and they give 'em to you. pow pow pow |
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FRANCES HA
People think of this as a showcase for Greta (and it is that) but it's so much more than a mere "star vehicle" with a rich and funny swirl of support |
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PRISONERS
Never more alone than when they're together, each trapped in their own personal grief and grievances, and terror of what they themselves and any of their friends are capable of. |
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SHORT TERM 12
Gorgeously observed group dynamics, individual baggage, and eggshell empathy. I love all these characters so much. |
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Finalists: the lumpy folksy irritable denizens of Nebraska and the committed bacchanalia of Wolf of Wall Street |
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Best Casting |
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Nicole Daniels & Courtney Sheinin
THE BLING RING |
Douglas Aibel
FRANCES HA |
Stéphanie Doncker, Elsa Pharaon, Camille Tillier
THE PAST |
Rich Delia
SHORT TERM 12 |
Ellen Lewis
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET |
| an impressively cohesive collection of famous and new actors all with the right style and stylistic aptitude | a beautiful mix of stage / film /tv actors, all in synch or out of synch, chemistry-wise to humorous effect. | some of the most believable family units I've ever seen onscreen. bonus points for the leading lady's "type" | surely a difficult / rewarding gig. so many young actors for tough parts, none bankable, so cast for the right person! | A cast of hundreds, real bodied hookers, bland everyman jerks, and multiple ingeniously cast stars - Lumley! Dujardin! McConaughey! |
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Finalists: The East an interesting and surprising assembly by Ronna Kress with recognizable stars getting a bit of wiggle room from their usual typecasting | Alexander Payne & John Jackson's fascination with non-actors is hit and miss but Nebraska mostly hits | Russell just reuses his favorites but they're all firecrackers in American Hustle with casting by Lindsay Graham & Mary Vernieu Semi-Finalists: The Spectacular Now, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Blue is the Warmest Color |
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