Regional Critics Groups Round 1: Belfast, Cyrano, Dune

by Nathaniel R

First three regional critics groups to announce follow. Washington DC, Detroit, and some California critics have now had their say with Belfast, Cyrano, and Dune picking up Best Film prizes. Since NBR went with Licorice Pizza and NYFCC with Drive My Car we're off to a wild start with no repeats for the top prize. This is the way we always hope it will be since there's no point in multiple orgs and associations if they all agree. The full list of winners from three groups after the jump...

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How Had I Never Seen, 1987 Special: ROBOCOP

By Lynn Lee (with special guest Jeff Chen)

Until recently, I’d never seen RoboCop, Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 sci-fi classic about a viciously murdered cop who’s resurrected as a cyborg supercop.  I was too young to see it when it first came out and didn’t get around to it when I was older, partly because I’d heard it was gruesomely violent.  However, I learned it had passionate fans that included some very astute critics.  Among them is Jeff Chen, former writer for ReelTalk Movie Reviews and a fellow alum of the dearly departed online critics’ group Cinemarati (through which I met both him and TFE’s very own Nathaniel), who ranks RoboCop as his favorite movie.  As part of TFE’s 1987 retrospective, I finally saw RoboCop and invited Jeff to discuss my reactions as a first-time viewer and how the movie has remained in our cultural consciousness for over 30 years.

JEFF: RoboCop is indeed my favorite movie.  A lot of that has to do with timing.  I was already an avid movie watcher as a teenager, but I’d been mostly watching PG or (the new, at the time) PG-13 movies.  I was 15 when I went to my best friend’s house and he put on a VHS copy of RoboCop.  And I was traumatized and exhilarated...

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More Critics Prizes: Detroit & San Diego

It's apparently Florence Pugh day with critics though you'll have to read on to know why.

DFCS (Detroit Film Critics Society)
Detroit gave four prizes to Marriage Story but it couldn't crack Picture or Director...

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Detroit Film Critics Relive "Eighth Grade" and Indulge in "Vice"

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...

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Showbiz History: Monty Dies, Amy Debuts, Detroit Divides...

10 random things that happened on this day (July 23rd) in showbiz history.

1884 Emil Jannings born in Switzerland. In 1928 he will become the first man to ever win the Best Actor Oscar. He won for his roles in the silent films The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. He was the only man to ever win for a silent film until Jean DuJardin took the Oscar for The Artist (2011)

Montgomery Clift, Amy Adams, Woody Harrelson, Vanessa Williams and more after the jump...

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