Rogerebert.com Round-Up of 2015’s Best Performances

Posted on December 30, 2015 at 8:00 am

A living legend. A lonely shopgirl. A scientist. A spy. Several assassins. The best performances of 2015 came from various corners of the world, from actors who we expect to see in features like this to ones we had never heard of before 2015. Watching a new crop of young actors rise in some of the year’s best films (and click here for our top ten) can be invigorating, and seeing performers who we thought may have given their last great performance deliver the best work of their career can be breathtaking.

I loved reading through the comments of the rogerebert.com critics on their favorite performances of the year, and I was especially glad to get a chance to write about mine: Teyonah Parris in “Chi-Raq.”

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Actors Critics

#Where’sRey — Why Do “Star Wars” Action Figure Sets Leave Out the Main Character?

Posted on December 29, 2015 at 11:21 am

Jen Yamato writes on The Daily Beast about the infuriating and inexplicable omission of Rey toys from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” sets.

The #WheresRey hashtag first trended over a month ago when Star Wars fans noticed a shocking lack of Daisy Ridley in Disney’s onslaught of The Force Awakens merchandising. The hashtag took aim at the glaring lack of Ridley’s Jakku scavenger heroine Rey from a Target exclusive toy six-pack that included her three new male co-stars John Boyega (as Finn), Oscar Isaac (as Poe Dameron), and Adam Driver (as the Sith junior lord Kylo Ren) alongside Chewbacca, an unnamed Storm Trooper, and an unnamed First Order pilot….As disappointing as it was to see Rey left out of the Target six-pack of The Force Awakens figures, it came as an even bigger shock when fans discovered Hasbro’s popular Star Wars: The Force Awakens Battle Action Millennium Falcon set (retail: $139.95) comes with a light-up Millennium Falcon, a BB-8, a Finn, a Chewbacca…and no Rey.

So, a character who does not even have a name rates a toy but the lead character who (spoiler alert) HAS THE FORCE and actually FLIES the Millennium Falcon does not?

Rey is a sensational hero for boys and girls and should be a part of any Star Wars play. Memo to Disney: these are the toys we’ve been looking for.

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Commentary Gender and Diversity

Chaz Ebert on the Need for Diverse Voices in Film Criticism

Posted on December 29, 2015 at 8:00 am

Chaz Ebert of rogerebert.com writes in The Daily Beast about the importance of more diverse voices in movie criticism — and in those who make movies, too.

Meryl Streep’s use of the word “infuriating” to describe the disproportionate ratio of male to female reviewers on the Rotten Tomatoes is apt.

But the need for diverse voices in film criticism does not suffice with gender. A wide spectrum of voices is critical in challenging the mainstream white male-dominated narrative that drives much of Hollywood and the popular media. Being introduced to diverse critical voices and opinions in the arts not only affects how we see the world but also has a profound influence on how we begin to heal it.

Chaz has been a leader in this effort, and has made particular progress in bringing great women writers to rogerebert.com, including my friends Sheila O’Malley, ReBecca Theodore-Vachon, Jana Monji, Susan Wloszczyna, Olivia Collette, Christy Lemire, and Anath White.

The Atlantic Monthly has an article on the falling percentage of women film critics. The discussion of how women were originally advantaged and then materially disadvantaged in this field is fascinating. Thelma Adams also writes about the problem of too few female movie critics for Variety.

According to the Gender at the Movies study of top critics on Rotten Tomatoes, men account for 91% of those writing for movie/entertainment magazines and websites such as Entertainment Weekly; 90% of those writing for trade publications and websites; 80% of critics writing for general interest magazines and sites such as Time and Salon; 72% of those writing for newspaper sites; and 70% of critics writing for radio outlets and sites such as NPR.

Alliance of Women Film Journalist Nominations 2015

Posted on December 28, 2015 at 5:54 pm

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists has announced its nominations for the best (and some of the worst) in film for 2015. I have already voted my ballot for the final awards and look forward to the winners.

Best Film

Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
Room
Spotlight

Best Director

Lenny Abramson – Room
Todd Haynes – Carol
Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu – The Revenant
Tom McCarthy – Spotlight
George Miller – Mad Max Fury Road
Ridley Scott – The Martian

Best Screenplay, Original

Ex Machina – Alex Garland
Inside Out – Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley
Spotlight – Josh Singer, Tom McCarthy

Best Screenplay, Adapted

The Big Short – Charles Randolph, Adam McKay
Carol – Phyllis Nagy
The Martian – Drew Goddard
Room – Emma Donoghue

Best Documentary

Amy – Asif Kapadia
Best of Enemies – Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville
Going Clear: Scientology and The Prison of Belief – Alex Gibney
The Hunting Ground – Kirby Dick
What Happened, Ms. Simone? – Liz Garbus

Best Animated Film

Anomalisa
Inside Out
Shaun The Sheep

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett – Carol
Brie Larson – Room
Charlotte Rampling – 45 Years

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Rooney Mara – Carol
Kristin Stewart – Clouds of Sils Maria
Alicia Vikander – Ex Machina
Kate Winslett – Steve Jobs

Best Actor

Matt Damon – The Martian
Leonardo Di Caprio – The Revenant
Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne – The Danish Girl

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Paul Dano – Love & Mercy
Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies
Michael Shannon – 99 Homes
Sylvester Stallone – Creed

Best Ensemble Cast

The Big Short
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton

Best Editing

The Big Short
Mad Max: Fury Road – Margaret Sixel
Spotlight – Tom McArdle

Best Cinematography

Carol – Edward Lachman
Mad Max: Fury Road – John Seale
The Revenant – Emmanuel Lubezki

Best Film Music Or Score

Carol – Carter Burwell
The Hateful Eight – Ennio Morricone
Mad Max: Fury Road – Junkie XL
Youth – David Lang

Best Non-English-Language Film

Mustang – Deniz Gamze Eguven
Phoenix – Christian Petzold
Son of Saul – Lazlo Nemes

EDA FEMALE FOCUS AWARDS

These awards honor WOMEN only.

Best Woman Director

Isabel Coixet – Learning to Drive
Maya Forbes – Infinitely Polar Bear
Sarah Gavron – Suffragette
Marielle Heller – Diary of a Teenage Girl
Celine Sciamma – Girlhood

Best Woman Screenwriter

Emma Donoghue – Room
Marielle Heller – Diary of a Teenage Girl
Phyllis Nagy – Carol
Amy Schumer – Trainwreck

Best Female Action Star

Emily Blunt – Sicario
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games Mocking Jay 2
Daisy Ridley – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Charleze Theron – Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Breakthrough Performance

Brie Larson – Room
Bel Powley – Diary of a Teenage Girl
Daily Ridley – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Alica Vikander – Ex Machina, Testament of Youth, The Danish Girl

Female Icon of the Year Award (a woman whose work in film and/or in life made a difference)

Chantal Ackerman – In Memoriam For being a great filmmaker and sinpiration.
Maria Geise – Activist filmmaker who is spearheading the movement for parity for women directors.
Donna Langley – Chair(wo)man, Universal Pictures, who has brought the studio to unprecedented profits.
Jennifer Lawrence – For breaking the silence about discriminatory practices and unequal pay for actresses.
Charlotte Rampling – Because she’s Charlotte Rampling and is iconic.

EDA SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS

Best Depiction Of Nudity, Sexuality, or Seduction

Anomalisa
Carol
Diary of a Teenage Girl

Actress Defying Age and Ageism

Helen Mirren
Charlotte Rampling
Lily Tomlin

Most Egregious Age Difference Between The Lead and The Love Interest Award

Danny Collins – Al Pacino and Katarina Cas
Freeheld – Julianne Moore and Ellen Page
Irrational Man – Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone
Spectre – Daniel Craig and Lea Seydoux

Actress Most in Need Of A New Agent

Bryce Dallas Howard – Jurassic World
Dakota Johnson – 50 Shades of Gray
Emma Stone – Aloha

Movie You Wanted To Love, But Just Couldn’t

Aloha
The Danish Girl
The Hateful Eight
Sisters

EDA Award winners will be announced on January 12, 2016.

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Awards

Ann Hornaday on Watching Ultra-Violence

Posted on December 28, 2015 at 3:58 pm

Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday has a thoughtful piece about the violence in two end-of-the-year western-style frontier stories, “The Revenant,” from the director of last year’s Best Picture “Birdman,” Alejandro González Iñárritu and Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.”

Both “The Hateful Eight” and “The Revenant,” which arrive in theaters over the next two weeks, make promiscuous use of bodies in pain. Directed by Quentin Tarantino and Alejandro González Iñárritu, respectively, both films are set against the pitiless, snowy backdrop of the 19th-century American West. And both traffic in lingering wide-screen images of savage brutality and mortification, as their protagonists claw, fight, shoot and stab their way to preserving their lives… oth films are set against the pitiless, snowy backdrop of the 19th-century American West. And both traffic in lingering wide-screen images of savage brutality and mortification, as their protagonists claw, fight, shoot and stab their way to preserving their lives.

These are both films with some artistic aspirations. But Hornaday questions whether the ultra-violence in both is in aid of or a distraction from their stories and their messages.

It’s possible to appreciate both films, even admire them, for their sheer ambition and near-flawless execution. But the virtuosity on display also produces its share of deep misgivings. Whether by way of Tarantino’s ironic distance or Iñárritu’s artily masochistic extremes, it’s genuine empathy and self-reflection that get short-circuited, swamped by surface values of aesthetics, technical achievement and shocking, vicarious jolts.

She compares the films to others released this year that engaged with serious, real-life atrocities like “Son of Saul,” “Room,” and “Spotlight” without making them as confrontational, explicit, even cartoonish. These films, she says, “call on each viewer’s memory, conscience and moral imagination to complete the picture and create its deepest meaning.” Individual responses to violence on film vary widely. For me, the question is: does it make you feel more or feel less?