Monday, January 7, 2008
National Society of Film Critics says: “There Will Be Honors”
... although about a third of the membership of the nation's top movie cognoscenti couldn't be bothered to participate.
Meeting as usual at Sardi's Restaurant, 41 of the 61 members of the National Society of Film Critics cast their votes on Sat. (Jan. 5) for the best film achievements of 2007. (The other 20 hot-shot critics apparently didn't give a damn.) They should have invited me - I would have showed up and cast my votes over cannelloni au gratin.
Members of the National Society of Film Critics are considered the highbrow cream of the critical crop, centered mostly in New York but including writers based in SoCal. (No mention of Texas critics amongst the elite... go figure.)
Regardless of their snotty exclusionist leanings, here, in a nutshell, are the results of their annual award declarations: There Will Be Blood wins big.
We're talking best picture, best director (Paul Thomas Anderson) and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis. The film also won for best cinematography.
Also coming away with top honors from the nation's most respected critics (a third of whom couldn't be bothered to participate) were Julie Christie for best actress (for the movie Away From Her); Casey Affleck got best supporting actor for his performance in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; and Cate Blanchett won best supporting actress for her uncanny Bob Dylan impression in I'm Not There.
In related and less-spectacular news, last night (Sunday, Jan. 6 at 11:59 p.m.) was the deadline for submission of "best of" picks for the North Texas Film Critics Association, of which this scribbler is a member. It should come as no surprise to anyone who's been following my reviews carefully that my best picture vote went to No Country for Old Men.
Stay tuned for the results of the NTFCA balloting, which will be announced later in January following our gala evening get-together in an as-yet undetermined location. (We like to fly by the seats of our pants.)
