Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, AAFCA, Phoenix, and Kansas Pick Their Winners

Little Women  was a hot commodity in the latest round of critics awards. The esteemed Boston Society of Film Critics and the relatively famous Chicago Film Critics Association and the actually very old Kansas City Film Critics have recently announced as have St Louis, Phoenix, and the AAFCA (African American Film Critics Association). Most of those groups found something to love in Greta Gerwig's period piece. Naturally the other usual suspects are accounted for again though The Irishman (which led with Parasite in early critics announcements) isn't particular beloved by today's roundup of associations and circles and societies winning no new Picture or Director prizes.

The winners and a few comments are after the jump...

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Fosse/Verdon - Finale!

by Eric Blume

Michelle & Sam as Gwen & Bobby

Fosse/Verdon wrapped its 8-episode run this Tuesday, and here’s a quick recap on the final three episodes, and some overall thoughts on this captivating mini-series.

Episode Six, “All I Care About is Love” 
Episode six concerned Fosse’s heart attack during the editing of Lenny (1974) editing and rehearsals for Chicago on Broadway.  It was one of the weaker episodes of the series, especially coming off the previous episode, the almost-staged-play episode with the characters locked in a Hamptons house, arguably the show’s high-water mark.  That episode gave director Thomas Kail (who went from Hamilton to TV with graceful ease) the opportunity to put in the nails early on and keep screwing tightly, with all the actors laser-focused on their objectives and obstacles.  Episode Six, on the other hand, contained some material handled directly in All That Jazz, and it felt more like a transitional episode for the final narrative haul of the show...

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Happy 50th to Renée Zellweger

by Eric Blume

It seems crazy, but today marks the 50th birthday of Oscar-winning actress Renée Zellweger.  Zellweger is a bit of a divisive actor (even within this site!), but I loved her the second I first saw her onscreen, loved her through her big decade of success, and will proudly love her forever.

I fell for Zellweger for the first time the way most of America did:  as assistant Dorothy Boyd opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire in 1996.  Even though that film features Cruise’s best performance (he should have beat Geoffrey Rush for the Oscar), I walked away from Jerry Maguire thinking, who the hell is Renée Zellweger?  It takes major presence and considerable skill to not be blown off the screen by a star like Cruise at his most commanding.  Not only did Zellweger hold her own, she brought out new things in him: a comic warmth, a quality of genuineness, something softer and more open.  He listened to her and didn’t anticipate everything, because she was off-center...

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Oscar Trivia: How often do three films dominate the acting categories?

Bradley & Gaga at the beginning of their run for "A Star is Born"by Nathaniel R

With the 20 acting nominations this year coming from only 11 films this year we got to wondering how frequently that happens. The Favourite, Vice, and A Star is Born all received 3 acting nods each. Green Book and Roma received doubles, though of course doubles happen frequently. But how often do three acting noms from three separate films happen in a single year? And is this anything like a record? This was somewhat tough to investigate but investigate we did.

MOST NOMINATIONS EVER FOR ACTING FROM A SINGLE FILM

Before we get to individual years which had a small pool of films dominating the acting prizes, let's look at the films that hold the record for nominations:  It's an nine-way tie for the record with the following films receiving 5 acting nominations each...

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Toni Collette, Ethan Hawke, and "Roma" Conquer Chicago

The Chicago Film Critics Association held their annual dinner Saturday evening and named Roma Best Film of the year and handed it four other prizes to underline the point.  The Favourite, First Reformed, and If Beale Street Could Talk each picked up two prizes. The complete list of winners is after the jump...

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