Reactions to New York Film Critics Circle Awards

Zero Dark Thirty

The first Awards body of the season announced today. The New York Film Critics Circle.   Here is what they chose and my reactions :

FILM Zero Dark Thirty 

DIRECTOR Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty

Haven't seen it yet but happy for Bigelow. The Hurt Locker is the best war movie and can't wait for the follow up. Winning Best Pic 3 years ago was the only time my favorite movie of the year won.

ACTRESS Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea
Surprise, surprise. I like that this opens up the already very open Best Actress field. Weisz was excellent in The Deep Blue Sea, and judging from my twitter feed has many fans. But come on Emmanuelle Riva is the best thing at the movies this year bar none.

ACTOR Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln
Lets hope this is not the start of a sweep. It would be very boring if Day Lewis just keeps wining. Although it looks inevitable. He was great in Lincoln, and understated and funny and totally uncanny so I'm not complaining.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS Sally Field, Lincoln
Wowza. Another surprise although smaller. I was totally in the contingent that Anne Hathaway was going to sweep for Les Miserables. I like that they threw a wrench in that narrative. Sally was over the top I think in Lincoln. I get that she was playing crazy but I can't figure out if I like the performance or not. Her crazy to DDL's understatement I don't think entirely jelled. Obviously NYFCC doesn't agree with me.

SUPPORTING ACTOR Matthew McConaughey for Bernie and Magic Mike
My fave award. McConaughey deserves it for his landmark year and great turn in Magic Mike. Haven't seen Bernie. I hope this fires up his Oscar campaign and he gets noticed. I'm predicting him.

ANIMATED FILM Frankenweenie
Haven't seen it. Haven't seen any animated movies. I know.

DOCUMENTARY The Central Park Five
No comment, again haven't seen it. 

FOREIGN FILM Amour
I'm OK with Amour sweeping a la A Separation last year. It's fantastic. First Haneke movie that I love. I can't shake it 2 months after seeing it. Masterpiece.

FIRST FILM David France for How to Survive a Plague 

SCREENPLAY Tony Kushner, Lincoln
They liked Lincoln. They really liked Lincoln.

CINEMATOGRAPHY Greig Fraser for Zero Dark Thirty 
And they liked Zero Dark Thirty. 3 awards each.

A few thoughts on Lincoln

I attended the not so secret screening of "Lincoln"at the New York Film Festival tonight. I was hoping the secret film is Django Unchained or Zero Dark Thirty but I was pleasantly surprised with Lincoln. I expected it to be a fuddy duddy reverential history lesson and since it's Spielberg I thought it would be sappy.

The movie is a sorta thriller about the behind the scenes machinations of passing the 13th amendment and abolishing slavery. The players include Lincoln, his family, his cabinet, some congress me and other politicians and military men.

I was really surprised by the humor in the movie. Even though it is still a history lesson that felt too stiff and sedate for the most part, there was a lot of humor. It protrayed Lincoln not just as the great and savvy politician he is but also as a man prone to telling long stories. While the stories were long, there were also laughs. It took time to show his relationships with his family and the his staff at the White House.

Daniel Day Lewis is very good as Abe. I know there were complaints online about the voice but it works within the movie context. And I'm sure he did his research and that''s how Lincoln sounded. It's a quiet performance with no flash and no big scenes; in fact he is not in the most thrilling scene.

Sally Field aquits herself admirably as Mary Todd Lincoln and delivers the movie's biggest laugh in a scene with Tommy Lee Jones. She also gets a big screaming match with Day Lewis that was a wallop of a dramatic scene.

 Jones plays Thaddeus Stevens with a lot of wit and sarcasm. I would venture to say that his performance will be an awards magnet. Not just for the humor but because his character is the only only that has an emotional and personal connection to the historical events that all the others lack.

There is David Strathairn - as William Seward - who starts strong but fades away and off camera two thirds into the movie. Joseph Gordon Levitt felt too contemporary as Robert Todd Lincoln specially when he first appears. There are also roles for John Hawkes, James Spader (gets a lot of laughs), Jackie Earle Hailey, Walton Goggins, Jared Harris... lots of men in gray wigs and beards.

Below the line from cinematography to art direction to costumes are all first rate. And I applaud Spielberg and his screenwriter Tony Kushner for not going the full lifetime but rather concentrating on an smaller interesting story.

All in all entertaining historical story but not exactly a wow movie.