National Society of Film Critics Chooses "The Rider"
Saturday, January 5, 2019 at 10:23PM by Nathaniel R
The televised awards shows are about to take over but before they do, the NSFC has had their say. They're always the last major critics group to chime in, and unlike the other two members of the critical trinity (LAFCA & NYFCC) they have not chosen Roma. Instead that honor went to Chloe Zhao's rodeo injuries drama The Rider. I recently caught up with this arthouse sleeper hit and though I found it gorgeous and moving, it struck me as a bit modest in its artistic goals, or at least a touch repetitive about achieving them. So to each their own as far as "very best" goes but it's the kind of film that deserves to find ardent fans so it's wonderful that critics have gone to bat for it here and there. It's had such a long run; the film was actually an Indie Spirit nominee in 2017 due to its festival premieres so it's been kicking around with awards for an entire year now!
The full list of NSFC winners and a few more comments after the jump...
Best Picture: The Rider
Runners-Up: Roma and Burning
Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Runners-up: Lee Chang-dong, Burning, and Chloé Zhao, The Rider
Cuarón won all of the big three critics prizes.
Best Actress: Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Runners-Up: Regina Hall, Support the Girls and Melissa McCarthy,Can You Ever Forgive Me?
I finally saw Support the Girls -now streaming on Hulu - so I get what the fuss is about. That said I still believe Regina wouldn't have been up for so many critics prizes given the tiny film and the deceptively "small" performance if NYFCC hadn't honored her at the beginning of the season. Why? Well, she's doing so much with the material but in very subtle ways in a film that never calls attention to its ACTING in the way most films that win acting prizes do. The point is that NYFCC remains influential and they used their platform for good :)
Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Runners-Up: Elizabeth Debicki, Widows and Emma Stone, The Favourite
Regina King, like Cuarón, won all three of the big critics prizes. Looove King in that movie but would it have killed one group to give Debicki a win? And why is the venerable NSFC supporting category fraud with clear lead Emma Stone? I cannot anymore with all these critics who dont realize how disrespectful this is to supporting actors. Critics are supposed to be using their critical thinking skills. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING! The Favourite has three leads but if you break down the plot Emma is basically the "leadiest" of the leads, haha!
Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Runners-Up: Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate, Ben Foster, Leave No Trace, and John C. Reilly for two films (The Sisters Brothers and Stan & Ollie)
Ethan Hawke won all three of the big critics prizes.
Best Supporting Actor: Steven Yeun, Burning
Runners-Up: Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Brian Tyree Henry for three films (If Beale Street Could Talk, Widows, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)
All four acting winners are great performances so that's nice. Hopefully Oscar will also go with four greats, even if it's not these four.
Best Foreign Language Film: Roma
Runners-up: Cold War, Burning, and Shoplifters
Interestingly enough all four of these films split the big three critics prizes (LAFCA had a tie)
Best Non-Fiction Film: Minding the Gap
Runners-Up: Shirkers, and Amazing Grace
Best Cinematography: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Runners-Up: James Laxton, If Beale Street Could Talk and Lukasz Zal, Cold War
I'm so so sad that no critics groups could bring themselves to go there and look beyond Roma all season for this prize. Obviously Roma's visuals are awe-inspiring but so are these other two films!
Best Screenplay: Armando Iannucci, David Schneider and Ian Martin, The Death of Stalin
Runners-Up: Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, The Favourite
This is the only category (other than foreign film) where the big three critics groups all went with something different.
Reader Comments (23)
I didn't love "The Rider," and am honestly fairly perplexed by all this acclaim. I found the scripted elements and the doc elements to not mix very seamlessly, resulting in many stilted scenes.
Also agree about the annoying "Roma" consensus for cinematography. So many worthy choices last year. "First Man" was my favorite - Sandgren upped his game since "La La Land," which he won an Oscar for!
I'm not terribly hyped on The Rider either. It's a bit reductive but my logline about it is that it's "just The Wrestler but with non-actors."
So so so so over the moon. The Rider is my favorite movie of the year, too. This helps dilute the aftertaste of the depressing PGA nominations. And Death of Stalin won Best Screenplay, also!
Regina King swept because she deserved it. Flat out. Critics group shouldn't feel compelled to "spread the wealth". Her likeliest competitors are either in movies that have lost buzz or category confusion. Even people like you who are less enamoured by Beale Street still like King's performance so it shouldn't be shocking that she was the common pick.
I loved The Rider.
I'm usually an advocate for spreading the wealth, but seeing how both Ethan Hawke and Regina King were snubbed by SAG, making their Oscar nominations somewhat shaky, I'm hoping that these sweeps lead to their nominations on January 22 (they both deserve them)...
Oooh I didn't now "Support the Girls" was on Hulu - last I looked it was purchase only, I'll be checking it out.
Brian Tyree Henry is already so impressive, can't wait to see what he gives us in the next few years.
Though I like both films, I'm honestly confused how anyone could watch both Roma and Cold War and think "oh Roma is definitely how you do black and white"
In terms of lighting and sophistication, Cuaron is nowhere near even the same realm as Lukasz Zal
Funny that best picture is the only surprise.
Goran -- Amen
Exactly what goran said.
Ditto goran. I recently COLD WAR again and was gobsmacked by the cinematography. It's handily the year's best for me.
Yes Cold War should be winning cinematography. That was exquisite.
After finally seeing The Favourite last night I agree that they are three leads but am surprised Colman is winning so many actress prizes because it’s such a small sized lead performance when people like Melissa McCarthy (the list goes on) are carrying so much more of their movies.
I loved the Rider, and am thrilled to see it win. But more than that I simply appreciate these organizations promoting smaller films so that they can find an audience. I don't know how many films I've watched and enjoyed and connected with that I wouldn't have if they hadn't been promoted by Nathaniel, Joe Reid, Nick Davis, etc., and, thankfully, sometimes the national publication critics too. It's great to see a critics organization promote and reward high-quality film making across the board as opposed to simply being a cog in the Oscars Industrial Complex.
What goran said.
Also, people keep saying that Academy members are going to be reluctant to give Gaga two Oscars, which may be right. But how many Oscars do they want to give Cuarón - who already has two?
Cuaron didn't win all 3 big awards, Debra Granik won LA, in an inspired win!
Look Nat, I love you and your hate of category fraud and everything but...The Favourite kinda splits its time between the three leads so I would argue that all 3 could be lead or all 3 could be supporting (imo Emma is the lead and the other two ladies are Supporting). Sometimes its ambiguous and you should give that credence. Sometimes its cut and dry like Mahershala with Green Book.
kris01: Sorry to barge in, but can't help myself on this category fraud topic. I take your point, but I think that screen time is just one factor in making a fair assessment of who is "lead" and who is "supporting" in a film. Take, for instance, Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs –– by screen time standards he should be deemed supporting (he's in only 15 minutes of the film). On the other hand, Lecter is a key element to the feelings and ideas of that movie and you can't imagine the film without him, hence why many voting groups back then promoted him to lead. I argue the same thing with the three ladies of The Favourite –– I can't imagine a synopsis of the movie that doesn't include all three women. Yes, Emma Stone is the "leadiest" of the three, but all three are crucial to the film and anchor it in interesting and important ways that influence our experience of the movie. Same goes for The Hours. Anyway, those are my two cents.
Nat do you agree with supporting roles being put in Lead i'm thinking of Hopkins in Silence,McDormand in Fargo,Kidman in The Hours,Stone in Casino and Samantha Morton for In America.
I will echo that I really loved The Rider, so I am glad it was recognized here. I am also happy for Olivia Colman, who is great and the only person in The Favourite who approximated a real human.
The Rider and The Death of Stalin? How beautiful.
Shoplifters made an impression on me and I feel it could climb my list (I was dead tired thru first half of the film).
Great choices. Great films.
markgordonuk -- None of those roles are supporting.
Hopkins is probably supporting in The Silence of the Lambs...
@BVR Thanks for your two cents homie and I fully agree which is why the point of what I was trying to say is that it gets AMBIGUOUS. You misunderstood the point of what I was trying to say. Leading the narrative and supporting the narrative can get hazey when there are more POV characters and thats just a fact. I just don’t blame anyone for having differing opinions on which category The Favourite ladies go into, y’know? That’s it. I don’t think it’s category fraud. More like category confusion.