by Nathaniel R
We don't cover every film critics organization at TFE now that there are around 40 of them and half of those are now doing nominations to go along with their winners (exhausting!) but given that your host here originally hails from the Motor City we feel a certain amount of affection. This year the 21 Detroit area or Detroit-connected critics went all in for the adorable summer sleeper hit Eighth Grade and the forthcoming political comedy Vice. Their winners were...
Film Eighth Grade
Director Adam McKay, Vice
Actress Toni Collette, Hereditary
Actor Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Thrilled with those but for McKay. Don't get it.
Supporting Actress Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Supporting Actor Josh Hamilton, Eighth Grade
Regina King and Ethan Hawke are definitely digging in as the "critical darling" pet causes of the year. Toni Collette might get there but we'll see. One side note: In another embarrassing case of critics rubber stamping category fraud -- even though they don't benefit from it at all and aren't beholden to studios or publicity tactics -- the DFCS actually have Thomasin McKenzie nominated as supporting for Leave No Trace even though she's the protagonist / inarguable center of the story. It's like nominating Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade as a "supporting" actress. Tee hee but also groan. If you love her that much just nominate her in Best Actress, you know? This will forever be my pet peeve. If someone is not strong enough to compete in lead, they have no business being shoved into supporting just so you can nominate them. (FTR I think McKenzie is very good in Leave No Trace, but she is NOT a supporting actress by any stretch of the imagination)
Ensemble Vice
In truth we'd be far more comfortable with Vice winning Ensemble prizes than winning individual acting prizes. The film was wise to release last minute because it's exciting to watch in the moment but has a glib aftertaste and is arguably too scattershot. But when you don't have a lot of time to digest something, exciting-to-watch can really help.
Three Identical Strangers
Screenplay [TIE] Green Book and Vice
Documentary Film Three Identical Strangers
Animated Film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Breakthrough Writer/Director Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade
Use of Music A Star is Born
The Detroit Film Critics Society has fairly mainstream tastes as their nominees for Animated Feature, Documentary, and Best Use of Music and whatnot skewed extremely box office/studio friendly. (In fact among their nominees for Best Documentary they chose the #1, #2, #3, #4, and #7 highest grossing documentaries of the year.) Another example of their mainstream slant: they are one of the few critics groups that don't even give out a foreign film award! But of course I used to live in Detroit and it isn't super arthouse friendly.