Boston Critics Regain Their Mojo: Pierce 'Snow' and 'Skin'
Saturday, December 6, 2014 at 10:09AM CORRECTION & APOLOGY: I had originally stated these were the winners for the Boston Society of Film Critics, a group with a long fascinating history. Unfortunately, as is all too common these days these prizes are from an upstart critics group from the same city, the Boston Online Film Critics Association*.
The young BOFCA (now in its third year) seem to have issued some sort of challenge to the far more famous BSFC. The BSFC has had a place of honor in critics circles in that, for many years of their history, they seemed less interested in the Oscar race than actually offering an opinion on the best of a given film year which is, we unfortunately need reminding, the entire purpose of critical year-end prizes. In recent years their choices have seemed as Oscar driven as 90% of the critics groups that exist today. So perhaps the younger organization will remind them of their roots in iconoclastic choices?
The new group has taken the entire year into account, and given December the shrug but for two prizes for the Belgian film Two Days One Night (adding another feather in Marion Cotillard's cap after her NYFCC win).
PICTURE: Snowpiercer
DIRECTOR: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman
ACTRESS: Marion Cotillard, Two Days One Night
ACTOR: Brendan Gleeson, Calvary
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Edward Norton, Birdman
SCREENPLAY: John Michael McDonagh, Calvary
FOREIGN FILM: Two Days One Night
DOCUMENTARY: Life Itself
ANIMATED FILM: The LEGO Movie
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Birdman
EDITING: James Herbert & Laura Jennings, Edge of Tomorrow
ORIGINAL SCORE: Mica Levi, Under the Skin
THE BOSTON ONLINE FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION NAMES THEIR TEN BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR:
- SNOWPIERCER
- UNDER THE SKIN
- BOYHOOD
- ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE
- THE BABADOOK
- TWO DAYS ONE NIGHT
- BIRDMAN
- CALVARY
- INHERENT VICE
- SELMA
* P.S. Again my apologies. I would not have given this organization and entire post to themselves had I realized they were a new group. The fact remains that no matter how interesting your choices, each city does not need multiple competing critics groups. And the proliferation of so many new groups, correctly or incorrectly, suggests that they are formed by people who cannot get into the pre-existing group. I don't know if this is the case in Boston but with the walls having all but vanished between Print and Online there seems little point in "Online" organizations these days as all former print sources are now online.
Reader Comments (7)
All hail to the BSFC! No BS from them…
Congratulations to the deserving winners. It's such a relief to see Tilda being recognized for what I think is a brilliant creation. So much work was put into it. She is one for the ages. Both her and Cotillard will have the status they deserve (among the best actresses of all time) whether they receive another Oscar nomination or not, so I'm not worried about that. Too much focus on nominations and wins equaling importance or quality of work. Those things are NOT related.
Seeing Snowpiercer in first and Under the Skin in second made me have a vision. When Scarlett's skin is shed, BAM! Tilda is there. I know it would be too distracting and even comical, but right nonetheless.
Kudos for citing the haunting, atmospheric score of Under the Skin. What a perfect melding of aural and visual effects that propelled the film to its otherworldliness. Now if only the Academy could be as adventuresome in their nominations in technical categories . . . .
I'm not so sure about a Snowpiercer nod for Best Film and could have done without Brendan Gleeson, but otherwise these are *excellent* picks!
I second the awesome selection of the Under the Skin score, my favorite by a mile this year.
Love that the top five are in my top ten, (though not necessarily in that order...)
And that original score award... Perfection.
Yes! to Snowpiercer's triumph. We get it folks, it was simultaneously too weird and obvious to y'all. It was, however, my kind of sci-fi. Kudos to ScarJo and Evans for fronting risky projects that deserve to be remembered.
I adore Snowpierce, it made for such a sharp and exhilaring cinematic ride. Watching it receive that much love from BOFCA is really great. SOOOOO excited to watch the incomparable Marion Cotillard sweeping awards these days for her phenomenal turn in Two Days, One Night. I hope she won't be snubbed from The Oscars AGAIN, but even if she does, she's a really terrific actress and has built the status of a legend. That's what really matters for both her and Swinton. I really agree with Mr. Goodbar on that. Edward Norton is simply incredible in Birdman and it's nice to see he's acknowledged for his wonderful work there.
I really adore Snowpiercer and hope it has an outside shot at a picture nod. It really is a new tack on science fiction and the post apocalypse. I think the same movie had telegraphed wanted to be a BP contender (releasing in December and casting someone like Michael Fassbender as the lead), it would be, and its restraint is to the movie's credit.