American Hustle Leads New York Film Critics Awards with 3 wins-Most Controversial Winner in Years!

Last year at this time the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) picked another film, which was seen by only limited critics/audiences, and that was Zero Dark Thirty.  History has repeated itself here, and this year's big winner was the David O. Russell film American Hustle.  Hustle (which I saw last night) won Best Film, Best Screenplay, and Jennifer Lawrence won Best Supporting Actress.  There are always some grumbles about who wins the big awards here, but I have never seen so many critics/pundits/bloggers deride a critics organization as much as this year.  I will go on record stating I liked American Hustle, one of the more entertaining films of the year, but not a Best Film of the year.  Lawrence was also miscast, and how she won this award with her terrible New York accent is beyond me, but many of these critics are elites who do not interact with people who talk like she does, so I guess I understand.

12 Years a Slave the early favorite only took home one trophy for Best Director, Steve McQueen. Cate Blanchett won Best Actress for Blue Jasmine, Jared Leto won Best Supporting Actor for Dallas Buyers Club, Robert Redford won Best Actor for All is Lost, and Inside Llewyn Davis won Best Cinematography. While Hustle took home 3 every other film just got one win, making this an interesting start to the award season, and shaking things up a bit.  See the full winners list down below.

2000s (source Wikipedia)

Year	Winner	Director(s)
2000	Traffic	Steven Soderbergh
2001	Mulholland Drive	David Lynch
2002	Far from Heaven	Todd Haynes
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King *	Peter Jackson
2004	Sideways	Alexander Payne
2005	Brokeback Mountain	Ang Lee
2006	United 93	Paul Greengrass
2007	No Country for Old Men *	Joel and Ethan Coen
2008	Milk	Gus Van Sant
2009	The Hurt Locker *	Kathryn Bigelow

2010s

Year	Winner	Director(s)
2010	The Social Network	David Fincher
2011	The Artist *	Michel Hazanavicius
2012	Zero Dark Thirty	Kathryn Bigelow
2013	American Hustle	David O. Russell

Over the last 13 years, the 2000s only 4 films have won this awards, and won Best Picture at the Oscar, they have * next to their names above.  The NYFCC pushed to be first award last year, and it may back fire on their winner in several ways.  Zero Dark Thirty was hit with tons of torture controversy.  American Hustle is being hit with the "it was great but not the best," which is accurate!  Ironically both of these films were produced by Meaghan Ellison.  How will Hustle fair?  Only time will tell.  As the first winner I think it has more of a mountain to climb.

This was a big boost for Robert Redford; he was flat lining a little bit, but this win puts him in good company. Only one man who won here in the 2000s and was not not nominated for Oscar, Paul Giamatti for Sideways.

Cate Blanchett has the nomination, but does she have the win?  Only three women have won at NYFCC and Oscar within the last 12 years:  Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line (2005)Helen Mirren in The Queen (2006), and Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady (2011).  Will Cate be a steam roller?

Steve McQueen has the most to cheer about, well statistically speaking. 7 of the last 12 winners in the Best Director category have won at Oscar, and impressive statistic.  Although 3 of those 12 missed out on a nomination.

As the first critics group of the season there is a long way to go, but today certainly got my blood going in many different directions, so let the excitement begin.

Full list of winners (will be updated with Runners-Up)

Best Picture: American Hustle
Best Actor: Robert Redford, All Is Lost
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Best Director: Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Best Foreign Language Film: Blue Is the Warmest Color
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Best Animated Film: The Wind Rises
Best Screenplay: American Hustle
Best Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis
Best First Film: Fruitvale Station
Best Documentary: Stories We Tell

12 Years a Slave is not the First Film about Slavery, but its the Most Realistic, and the Best

12 Years a Slave (5 out of 5 Stars)

Directed by: Steve McQueen (Hunger, Shame)

Written by: John Ridley (Three Kings, U Turn)

Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Lupita Nyong'o, Adepero Oduye, and Michael Fassbender 

No film has captured the American slavery as well as 12 Years a Slave.  Roots may be one of the few things that does a solid job (up until now) because it was in a mini-series format, but Solomon Northup's book, with which this is based on, allows one of the darkest chapters in American history to be fully explored on every level.

12 Years a Slave is based on the true events, which happened to Northup (Ejiofor) starting in 1841, .  Northup was a black man who lived in Saratoga, New York with his wife and two children.  Northup played the violin, went into stores, bought things for his family, and unlike most black people during this time. Northup was of course a free man.  One day he was approached by a white man in his town.  Northup was connected with two other gentlemen named Brown and Hamilton, the two offered to take him to Washington D.C. to play violin with a traveling circus of sorts.  Northup was then drugged and sold into slavery, where he lived between different plantations for the next 12 years of his life.

There are two men who will get most of the acclaim for this film, and that director Steve McQueen, and the star Chiwetel Ejiofor.  When people hear the name Steve McQueen, many often assume the "action" film star of the 1960s and 1970s.  This McQueen is now directing his third feature film, and his style, and focus in the director's seat has reached sheer perfection.  McQueen's second film Shame (2011), was one of my favorite films from that year.  McQueen's direction is purposeful, and focused he knows how to keep the camera on a moment, when the audience is ready for the moment to be over.  

While some have detracted McQueen's "art-house visuals" I have always embraced them and feel as though he extends them within this, mixing the traditional narrative of Solomon's story.  McQueen's structure with his direction works even better within this film because of the superb connection with diary-like format of John Ridley's script.  Ridley and McQueen work hard to make you feel as though everything we see, and hear comes from vantage point of Solomon.  These two men are the first black men to direct and write a film about the experience of slavery.  

Together all the people behind the scenes create the perfect window into the evil world of slavery.  Sean Bobbit's brilliant cinematography can not be ignored; he has worked with McQueen on Shame, and Hunger.  This man knows how to create the perfect shot, within Shame there was the sequence where Michael Fassbender was running through New York City, and in this film its the sequence of shots where Solomon is almost hung from a tree.  These series camera of shots from 12 Years haunt me.  Joe Walker's editing cuts just the like whip within each lashing, there is this precise movement showing every pain.  These two men like McQueen, and Ridley are the creative minds who made this an incredibly real experience.

The man who plays Solomon Northup, Mr. Chiwetel Ejiofor is going to brace for the attention he is going to get for this film.  Ejiofor has been around in numerous films and television movies, but this performance is wrought with grief, his face tells the story so well.  As you watch Solomon deal with each intense moment you champion him and hope he can endure the harshness escape, and become free once again.  Solomon's inner strength shines through; he knows he is a free man, but has to endure to both the beatings, and the malignancy from the white people he encounters in the south.  Ejiofor is the glue that holds the film together on screen.

The ensemble within this film is one of the most cohesive, and powerful, this was Solomon's story, but as he interacts with his first master Ford (Cumberbatch), Eliza (Oduye), a young mother being sold into slavery with her children, his second master Edwin Epps (Fassbnder), his wife Mistress Epps (Sarah Paulson), Patsey (Nyong'o) the slave who was the object of Edwin Epps affection, and so many more characters.  Together this ensemble tells a story of brutality, and injustice.  Men of color at this time needed white men to speak for them even though Solomon was educated, and had a voice because of the color of his skin in the antebellum world he was seen as less than by most.  Even as he is going to fetch groceries for Mistress Epps, and looks to run away he runs into lynching.  There is no place to escape, no way to run away from the evils of slavery. The film never forgets the details of each slaves experience, treating their journey as a new story for Solomon to experience.

12 Years a Slave is not the first film about slavery, but its the most realistic, and the best ever made.  The brutal nature of this film proves that this story about a free man ripped from his own life is something people often never think about.  This film tackles the cruelty of slavery has never been handled before, and changes the game for film making, it's brilliant.

Shame is an Addicting Tale

Shame (4 out of 5 stars)
Directed by Steve McQueen
Written by Abi Morgan and Steve McQueen
Starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan



Shame received an honor few films get today, the film was rated NC-17.  Some will define this film by this rating.  In a way this makes sense, the films centers around an addiction to sex.  The film was rated NC-17 because of the amount of nudity and the representation of sex.  I think Shame could change the face of the NC-17 rating.  Most NC-17 films get the black ball, meanwhile Shame has a nice release progression.  I live in Boston and assumed that only the small independent theaters would house this film, and that the release would be staggered, not the case.  Shame is being played by a major theater company, the AMC Loews chain.  AMC has a branch called AMC independent which makes a commitment to bring independent films the mainstream public. Even with such graphic scenes I am proud of this major company for taking a risk on this film.

Shame opens on a crowded New York City subway and Brandon Sullivan (Michael Fassbender) starts to smiling at an unknown woman on the subway.  The film builds up this potential sexual tension glancing back and forth between the two participants.  The shot focuses on the woman's wedding rings as she gets up to leave and the train, and Brandon getting up to follow her.  Sounds romantic.  This moment is not about romance, nor is any aspect of this film.  Shame focuses on the the dark world of sexual addiction and effect it has on every aspects of a persons life ranging from work to family.  Brandon's sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan) comes to stay with him because she gets a job in New York, and this interrupts the flow of his daily sexual routine.

This film experience is primal.  McQueen's direction is precise and direct in its focus.  McQueen has moments where he loses grip on his own tale, but as the film drawers to a close it brings the story a realistic place.  Joe Walker's editing is spectacular, and constructs Brandon's sexual encounters spectacularly.  The circular motion of the opening sequence with Brandon's daily routine displays the focus of the film well.  Harry Escott composed the score for this film and the music builds an incredible climatic experience.  Escott leaves the audience feeling the raw emotional weight.

These three aspects would be nothing without Fassbender's performance.  Michael Fassbender has given four phenomenal performances this year, but this is his best.  Fassbender does a brilliant job using his facial expressions to convey both the bliss and agony of his sexual addiction.  Brandon has many moments that make him unlikeable, but as he interacts with a secretary at work (whom he seems to like) there is a moment where you get lost in the depth of this character.  This is one of my favorite performances of the year.  Mulligan is strong in the film as well playing Sissy who has never got her life together on the outside or inside; she is emotionally wrought.  While Brandon puts on a brave face to those around him, Sissy let's her personal baggage own her.  Mulligan's performance shows strength.  These two play off each other well and make each other give a better performance.

This film's realistic nature helps construct something very dark.  The film is a journey into the pain, agony, and pleasure of sexual addiction.  Shame take the concept of erotic intimacy and does what other films don't dare to do.  The film opens up wounds and strips the characters bare, and exposes all of their flaws.  Wonderful film.