December
10
Milk Dominates New York Film Critics Vote
I'm not a big fan of live-blogging, but it does work occasionally, as NY Post critic-blogger Lou Lumenick demonstrates with his play-by-play reporting of the New York Film Critics's divisive voting this morning.
Thus, Rachel Getting Married led the first two ballots and Milk pulled ahead on the third, followed by Happy-Go-Lucky and Slumdog Millionaire; Milk star Sean Penn handily beat The Wrestler's Mickey Rourke; Milk's Josh Brolin beat out The Dark Knight's Heath Ledger; and documentary Oscar front-runner Man on Wire beat out Waltz with Bashir and Trouble the Water. Vicky Cristina Barcelona's Penelope Cruz easily defeated Viola Davis of Doubt; third place was a tie between Rachel Getting Married's Rosemary DeWitt and Debra Winger. Happy-Go-Lucky writer-director Mike Leigh narrowly edged out Slumdog Millionaire's Danny Boyle. Wall-E took best animated feature over Waltz with Bashir.
Here's Lumenick on how the best actress vote went down, which helps explain the ballot process:
Sally Hawkins of "Happy-Go-Lucky'' won the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Actress as voting got under way this morning at the Time-Life Building. Hawkins won on the second weighted ballot, receiving 39 points to 32 points for Melissa Leo of "Frozen River,'' with Kate Winslet ("Revolutionary Road'') and Anne Hathaway ("Rachel Getting Married'') with 22 apiece. In the NYFCC's convoluted voting system, the critics make one choice apiece n the first round. If nothing captures a majority, there follows one or more weighted ballots, each critic ranks choices with 3, 2, and 1 points; the winner also has to appear on the majority of ballots until the fouth ballot (if there is one) -- in Hawkins' case, 18 ballots.
OSCAR ANALYSIS
Finally, the critics voting solidifies my thinking re: the Oscar race. The Golden Globes may add some fuel tomorrow, but for now I see Milk as the front-runner for best picture, followed by Slumdog Millionaire and The Dark Knight, with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Doubt and Revolutionary Road fighting it out for last two slots. Penn may be the front-runner now, but the man he has to beat is Clint Eastwood, who gives a devastating performance in Gran Torino. The Academy will be moved to tears by him. Mickey Rourke looks solid for a nom. The Visitor's Richard Jenkins could have used more help here.
Thanks to critics, Sally Hawkins and Melissa Leo are moving into best actress contention, while I've Loved You So Long's Kristin Scott Thomas may not. Changeling's Angelina Jolie is fading fast. Milk's Josh Brolin and James Franco could both win supporting slots.
Revolutionary Road will be in the hunt for picture, director, adapted screenplay, actress, actor and supporting actor. But the grim, serious drama needs some love at this point, especially from critics. And may get it.
The Reader, which may have a shot for Kate Winslet in supporting and David Hare for adapted screenplay, has a long way to go. It got slammed by critics today, earning an initial 54 % on Metacritic. That is not good enough. It needs all the help it can get.
Doubt has the support of the dominant actors branch and likely the writers (if not directors); it will be vying for actress, supporting actress, supporting actor and adapted screenplay.
Much as I admire Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days, it strikes me as oddly perverse for the NYFCC to throw their foreign vote away on a movie that is only available on DVD at this point, rather than trying to boost the theatrical and Oscar fortunes of a new upcoming release. But it's a free country.
The full list of winners is on the jump:
The winners of the New York Film Critics Circle are:Film: "Milk"
Director: Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Actor: Sean Penn, "Milk"
Actress: Sally Hawkins, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, "Milk"
Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Screenplay: Jenny Lumet, "Rachel Getting Married"
First Film: Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"
Foreign Film: "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days"
Animated Film: "WALL-E
Documentary: "Man on Wire"
Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle, "Slumdog Millionaire"
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everybody's dumping on Lou because of the blog. no one's supposed to reveal what goes on at the meeting, and lou was direly opposed to letting online people in the group. it's great
Posted by: John Anderson | December 10, 2008 at 04:41 PM
I really want to see Milk. There is nothing like watching great actors like Sean Penn praticing their craft. Josh Brolin and Emile Hirsch are damn good too. I can't help but wonder where they all studied. A good acting school is worth it’s weight in gold. The key is to find one that caters to your individual needs. Not only do you need the basic tools for auditioning, scene study and the like, but you need a curriculum that works with whatever your schedule may be. Whether you work all day, go to high school or care for your kids, not everyone can study in the traditional way. Another acting program that works this way is Film Connection. http://www.film-connection.com/Acting.html The Film Connection’s acting program is affiliated with Joe Anthony studios and fetures valuable one-on-one mentoring. They are also available to anyone living in the United States and have financial aid assistance.
Posted by: Paul | December 10, 2008 at 08:26 PM
I take your point, but I don't really see the "perversity." 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS is certainly the best foreign language film to premiere theatrically in New York this year. Attention must be paid, after all.
Posted by: Griff | December 10, 2008 at 09:23 PM
Everyone calls the voting convoluted, but is it wrong? It’s consensus style: weighted, requiring a majority (present on a majority of ballots), until the forth ballot. The only thing better would be a weighted vote until a unanimous decision (present on every ballot), even if it took all year, which would eliminate blocking.
I don’t really know Lou’s motivation and I have no idea why Mike D’Angelo needed to "surreptitiously tap it out under the table" for his Twitter alter-ego, but I suspect it hurts the artists and makes critics and the process susceptible to manipulation, and it feeds, like mad, maybe even joins, the business of Oscar prognostication. So please stop live blogging voting like it’s some dirty secret process that needs exposing.
Posted by: T. Holly | December 11, 2008 at 02:36 PM
I've seen the movie "Milk" in a theater and i definitely agree, this movie is great. the awards they won deserves them. The storyline is nice, Sean Penn was amazing in this film, actually all the actors are great.
-peter
Posted by: Acting class Los Angeles | July 29, 2009 at 12:00 PM