NBR takes Fury Road... but to where?
Tuesday, December 1, 2015 at 4:23PM The National Board of Review used to be the unofficial kick off to awards season / best of year honors but though it's still early, the race for "first" got so ridiculous that we've crept into November of late. They lost that distinction but they're still doing their thing super early in December. The first day of it. Welcome to month twelve!
THEY LOOKED AT ME. THEY LOOKED AT ME.
This year they named George Miller's feminist action epic Mad Max Fury Road as the year's best and we salute them since we love it so and it's peak spectacle filmmaking. But Furiosa will be pissed to hear that they mostly ignored the other big female driven films this year.
Let's investigate after the jump...
Best Film: Mad Max: Fury Road
Top Films (aka the rest of their top ten)
Bridge of Spies
Creed
The Hateful Eight
Inside Out
Spotlight
The Martian
Room
Sicario
Straight Outta Compton
Since those aren't alphabetized, one has to wonder if that's a ranking though they don't specify on their site or in press release. UPDATE: but it must be a mistake since Spotlight is the only one that's out of sequence.
Jennifer Jason Leigh is the prisoner in "Hateful Eight"
Best Director: Ridley Scott – The Martian
Best Actor: Matt Damon – The Martian
Best Actress: Brie Larson – Room
Best Supporting Actor: Sylvester Stallone – Creed
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight
Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino – The Hateful Eight
Best Adapted Screenplay: Drew Goddard – The Martian
Best Animated Feature: Inside Out
Breakthrough Performance: Abraham Attah – Beasts of No Nation & Jacob Tremblay – Room
Best Directorial Debut: Jonas Carpignano – Mediterranea
Best Foreign Language Film: Son of Saul
Top 5 Foreign Language Films (aka the runners up)
Goodnight Mommy
Mediterranea
Phoenix
The Second Mother
The Tribe
Best Documentary: Amy
Top 5 Documentaries (aka the runners up)
Best of Enemies
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
The Diplomat
Listen to Me Marlon
The Look of Silence
William K. Everson Film History Award: Cecilia De Mille Presley
Best Ensemble: The Big Short
Spotlight Award: Sicario, for Outstanding Collaborative Vision
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Beasts of No Nation & Mustang
I thought everyone had forgotten about '71 -- but it sure is thrilling
Top 10 Independent Films
’71
45 Years
Cop Car
Ex Machina
Grandma
It Follows
James White
Mississippi Grind
Welcome to Me
While We’re Young
There is rarely much to glean from them awards wise because their patterns -- apart from things that don't apply this year like "always bet on Clint Eastwood, no matter how blah the reception of his latest movie was" -- are patterns until they're not. Take their Best Film prize... that almost always becomes a Best Picture nominee (which would be very good news since they chose so well this year) but last year they went with J.C. Chandor's A Most Violent Year... a terrific film that Oscar passed over in every category, even the one where it should've been a slam dunk (Best Supporting Actress, Jessica Chastain).
The 'Losers': What to make of them completely ignoring three of the four major female-driven films presumed to be in the Oscar race? Carol, Brooklyn, and Joy
The Martian didn't really need this help for its upcoming Oscar harvest
The Winners: Since the NBR comes early, they make the most impact if and when they go for an underdog. Since they mostly went for expected Oscar nominees this year in their acting categories, even two arguable frontrunners in Stallone and Larson, the only true boosts today beyond the top honor for Mad Max Fury Road and the total outpouring of love for The Martian (it feels like a tie essentially with so many prizes) are for the films that received multiple honors: two each for Beasts of No Nation, Sicario, and Creed (the last of which only truly entered the conversation when people realized how good it was*), and three honors for Hateful Eight. The latter proves once again that with NBR it's good to arrive last. They nearly always give big honors to basically the last film screened before voting.
* as should always be the case come to think of it.
Reader Comments (38)
Considering NBR has a poor track record with Best Supporting Actress, let's hope Jennifer Jason Leigh is done. She is not a good actress.
The lists in the various categories are alphabetical, although for some reason Spotlight creeps up from its position between Sicario and Straight Outta Compton in the press release (?) you got, Nat.
Man, Best Actor must be really weak this year if Damon turns out to be a frontrunner...or even a nominee at all. Although I haven't seen enough films yet to know who should be in the top five instead of him.
Happy to see Goodnight Mommy made the list!
COP CAR? First I have heard of it.
Meh. The Mad Max Best Film win would be much more exciting/laudable if the NBR didn’t have its tongue jammed deep up WB’s ass every single year.
How can anyone take NBR seriously when no one knows who their members are? (I say this as I am half-amused by The Revenant shut-out, even.)
Love the Mad Max recognition. This is what awarding bodies should be doing.
The love for The Martian almost annoys me - it's a very well-made, typical Hollywood film and nothing beyond that, same with Bridge of Spies. I'd like to see a Sci-Fi film exploring the concepts of Dark Matter/Energy, Visible Universe and what's beyond, Multiverse, water on Enceladus and Europa, Titan's methane oceans win awards. Not an enjoyable guy flick about a man who makes it (who happens to be on Mars).
The extraordinary should be explored, recognized, and rewarded more frequently. Mad Max is far more extraordinary than The Martian despite the fact that it does not involve science and space.
Travis C -- it barely got a release but it was the movie that got another white man with a tiny sundance film a big hollywood job for his next project -- the kind of boys club promotion that people have been grousing about so much this year in articles about female directors. The director's next film is SPIDER-MAN (2017)
jake -- good point. i hadn't thought of that. they gotta sell those tables!
Yes, it is hard not to be flummoxed by the way "The Martian" has been received by critics. When was the last time a film this anodyne, this soft and unadventurous, was not only given such a pass, but was majorly championed? I enjoyed many things about the movie, but an awards-worthy piece of filmmaking it is most definitely not.
Travis C: The director is their choice to helm the next Spider-Man franchise, so the reasoning behind that selection would probably amount to "We love the MCU but we don't want to say that in an obvious way. Sorry Tangerine and Ant-Man. You've both drawn the short end of the stick this year."
I'm surprised Carol was left out of the indie list. I know it's all subjective, but the effort, craftsmanship, performances, etc. behind Carol are objectively more notable than While We're Young..right..? Can I make that claim?
Sometimes these awards bodies make no sense. The Martian for Best Director?? Whaa...?? Entertaining, yes. Best directorial work in an interesting, diverse year? Dubious.
I am continued to be amazed that with such large names, an international director, and Fox Searchlight, that Youth continues to be overlooked and ignored.
Even with the placement of NBR's tongue being where it is, this is still super exciting. I've long dismissed the predictions for Mad Max: Fury Road in Best Picture sort of as a defense mechanism. I liked it so much, but I never thought they would go for something like this. And they still might, but now I'm more optimistic about it.
I've also suspected (worried?) for some time that Matt Damon was a bigger threat for a Blind Side style win. I know that we go through this every year where the announcement of each award, regardless of how prestigious or not it is makes people think that's what's happening now. But, in a year where Best Actor feels kind of diffuse, I wouldn't be surprised to see Matt Damon winl
Didn't NBR ignore Black Swan/Kids Are All Right in 2010? They don't have a good track record with women at all.
So, maybe helps Fury Road and Creed A LITTLE, but their pro-WB bias should still be accounted for. But this is a huge boon to non-WB films The Hateful Eight, Sicario and Straight Outta Compton and a huge blow to Brooklyn, Carol, Joy and (thank goodness) The Revenant.
Picture:
Five: The Martian, Spotlight, Room, Inside Out, Creed
Six To Eight: Sicario, Straight Outta Compton, The Hateful Eight
Nine or Ten: Mad Max: Fury Road, Chi-Raq (even the "Rotten" reviews are more mixed than hating it and most of the positive reviews love it. Spike Lee is exactly the kind of filmmaker benefited by a six-ten system when he knocks it out of the park.)
Why is their membership so secretive? I place them in the same category as the people who give out the Satellites. One wonders if they even saw Carol, The Revenant, Brooklyn and who knows what else.
Suzanne -- i know two members of the NBR personally, one a critic and one who works in the film industry, so i'm not sure if that's representative of the type of member they have but if it is i wonder why the membership is so secretive.
AR -- good point. they also ignored Tangerine this year i just noticed.
I second the befuddlement around The Martian. I thought Interstellar was conceptually more interesting and much more well-crafted (and I didn't particularly like that movie either). I don't see it becoming a consensus pick though. I fully expect films like Carol, Brooklyn, and 45 Years to figure more prominently at the NYFCC awards tomorrow. I also am predicting (perhaps rather foolishly) that they make a play and give Kristen Stewart best supporting actress for Clouds of Sils Maria. The NBR list was perhaps the most populist I've ever seen and I don't really know how I feel about that.
Yeah, I missed on Bridge of Spies, but it also seems like exactly the kind of movie where buzz falls and it won't show up as much.
So happy that Mad Max took the big prize, but it seems like The Martian's multiple victories are stealing Max's spotlight. They should have given George Miller best director too.
Looks like a bunch of frat boys have taken over and voted at this year NBR. Gonna check out that fratmen site again to be sure :)
The good thing is that Mad Max is a really great movie. The Martian is great but not that great. I just cannot comprehend this bizarre but at the same time refreshing list
I know for sure that the other critic groups will not copy and paste this list.
Im glad that Beasts of No Nation got another boost! Is Sly getting his Oscar??
Manuel: If so? Good for him. I just hope critics and/or the Academy rally to get John Cusack a nom for Chi-Raq. The justification is in his Oscar history (un-nominated cinema legend) and the role he's playing (Fiery! Activist! Priest! Need I say more?).
I know that most love Spotlight and Room but for me that's the big beef this awards season. Although my favorites from what I've seen are Carol and Brooklyn , I wouldn't be upset if they were ignored. But to see Spotlight and Room on every awards body list t is going to be hard as, for me, they aren't anything else than just two very good HBO-like movies. Not that I don't like HBO, but cinema is supposed to be something different.
I'm weirdly pleased by Sylvester Stallone's win. Has he officially reached elder statesman status now?
I hope Ridley Scott finally gets Oscar recognition
I'm wondering if the whole "announce the awards super-early thing finally got the better of the NBR this year. It can't be a coincidence that every one of the movies on the top ten aside from Hateful Eight has already more or less opened nationwide, maybe they didn't get the screenings they usually get early enough and that might explain the absence of Joy, The Revenant, and maybe even Carol.
I skipped The Martian.
I'm so not in the mood for The Hateful Eight despited my usual love for JJ Leigh.
Its interestin to note that NBR really doesn't dig Cate. Two yrs ago, while she won all the critics prizes for Blue Jasmine, they chosen to award best actress to Emma Thompson instead, who was wonderful but was sadly snubbed at the Oscar.
NBR is not really an accurate precursor on Oscar nominee, but The Martian's momentum is unstoppable. Damon sure is gonna cruise towards a Golden Globe win & a Oscar nom. Best actor looks like a 3-way race between him, Leo & Fassbinder
MJS -- well they vote here from NYC and i know they saw Joy & The Revenant since i know a couple of them.
If anything NBR seems lately like it's especially inaccurate with actress choices, though their picks this time seem to suggest otherwise. With Anomolisia and Hateful Eight doing so well for her it must be great to be Jennifer Jason Leigh right now. Hopefully this positive recognition will keep coming for her, and Mad Max, which is maybe my favorite thing from NBR. And Sicario. Actually aside from Carol being M.I.A. and The Martian getting so much love (I think each one makes sense and I don't mind that much, but all three together?) this was a pretty nice and very wide spread of winners, lots of nice surprises. At least to me.
And does anyone know what time the NYFCC choices will be announced tomorrow? I can't find anything about it.
VERY interesting that JJL won for the Hateful Eight. Tarantino almost always gets at least one phenomenal performance.
Think about it this way, how many Tarantino films did not have at LEAST one performance that was top three within your personnel categories.
Django Unchained --> Samuel L Jackson (some would say Christoph Waltz too, I don't)
Inglorious Basterds --> Christoph Waltz & Diane Kruger (some would say Melanie Laurent too, I don't)
Death Proof --> NO ONE- the rare exception
Kill Bill films --> Uma fucking Thurman, Daryl Hannah & David Carradine
Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction & Reservoir Dogs--> Too many to count
I also think the Stallone win is great for his chances. I wasn't really taking him that seriously as a candidate for a nomination much less for a win but now I'm starting to see it.
NICK T -- they start around 9 or 10 AM but it tends to last for hours and hours. a slow reveal
An article with insight into NBR's affiliation with WB and A24, should be taken with a grain of salt though: http://www.showbiz411.com/2015/01/06/national-board-of-review-how-best-pic-most-violent-year-may-have-had-insiders-advantage
Haven't seen enough movies yet this year ( i'm living in iran and unfortunately i have to wait to watch them online)
i'm so happy for mad max But matt damon winning best actor surprised me! He's just good in martian nothing more
"Mad Max: Fury Road"? "The Martian"? Seriously???! While both were quite entertaining, neither of these films are going to have a long shelf life after this award season.
I wouldn't be surprised if any of the following occur;-
1. Creed is nominated for Best Pic and Supporting Actor (for Stallone)
2. The Spotlight campaign panics and places Keaton in Best Actor
3. Mad Max Fury Road gets snubbed for Best Pic which will result in another 'Oscars snub another popular sci-fi action film' series of articles
4. Blanchett gets snubbed for Carol cos the conservative Academy members have had enough of the bloody LGBT films
Mad Max: Fury Road getting their top honors is beyond awesome.
Major side-eye at Inside Out not easily winning Original Screenplay. What else compares to that truly fantastic script this year?
Lol The Martian. Sure... go with it, I guess.
Stallone happening would be nuts but I can see him winning the Globe now ugh.
I suspect Son of Saul and Amy will be the critical faves in their respective categories for the next few groups but am hard-pressed to think The Academy will full embrace both.
No Carol? I don't like this game.
One thing is clear... if Keaton goes supporting he will have to fight against Stallone, but if he goes lead, he might actually win... and without Keaton, I'd be surprised if Stallone doesn't pick SAG, Globe and Oscar in a row.