Three more groups have announced and so the usual suspects play the game of musical chairs. The most interesting note right off the bat is that the Women Film Critics Circle have bestowed an award on Black Swan that isn't a flattering one. They've given it "Worst Female Images in a Movie".I understand the impulse behind this sort of "tsk-tsk"ing having been burned over the years with the often problematic depiction of gay characters but I think it's wrong-headed to a degree.Black Swan is about a very specific drumtight world and a very specific tightly strung character completely encased in that world. In other words, this is not a portrait of Woman in the broader sense. What's more one can even argue that just about every person in the film is presented in an u! nreliable way, the whole picture being influenced by Nina's own psyche. Furthermore, the film screws around with genres (horror and psychological thrillers) which could easily be undone by positive portrayals. Nina is no positive role model (for ballerinas, for artists, for bisexual or gay women, for anyone); she has a lot of issues. But this "award" seems to miss the point of what the movie is.Identity politics isn't always the best way to judge art. I've made the same mistake myself but if you're too focused on it the dark side is that you're in danger of promoting vanilla-flavored art or pedantic work that's better suited to generic uplift or sermonizing than deeper artistic merit. Even so I'm always interested in what they have to say and some different films get prizes here. Yes!
Mother Bening (and random Child)Wome! n Film Critics CircleBest Movie About Women Mother & C! hildBest Movie By A Woman Debra Granik's Winter's BoneBest Woman Storyteller [Screenplay] Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All RightBest Actor Colin Firth, The King's SpeechBest Actress Annette Bening in The Kids Are All RightBest Young Actress Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's BoneBest Comedic Actress Annette Bening in The Kids Are All RightBest Foreign Film by or About Women (tie) Mother (South Korea) and Women Without Men (Iran)Best Female Images in a Movie ConvictionWorst Female Images in a Movie Black SwanBest Male Images in a Movie (tie) Another Year and The King's SpeechWorst Male Images in a Movie Jackass 3DBest Theatrically Undistributed Movie Temple GrandinBest Equality of the Sexes (tie) Another Year and Fair GameBest Animated Females Despicable MeBest Family Film Toy Story 3Lifetime Achievement Helen MirrenActing & Activism Award Lena HorneAdrienne Shelley Award (Films Opposing Violence Against Women) Winter's BoneJosephine Baker Award (W! omen of Color Experience Award) For Colored GirlsKaren Morley Award (Women's History) Fair GameCourage in Acting Helen Mirren in The TempestInvisible Woman Award (Ignored Performance) Q'Orianka Kilcher in The Princess KaluhaniBest Documentary by a Woman A Film UnfinishedBest Ensemble Mother & ChildBest Screen Couple Tom & Gerri (Jim Broadbent & Ruth Sheen)
- It's nice to see Another Year (to which that does not apply) get some kudos... and though I have a couple of very minor concerns about the movie I do love the central portrait of Tom & Gerri quite a whole lot. They're a wonderful happily married screen couple and you sure don't see many portraits of that on screen.
- A lot of love for Winter's Bone here. It seems safe for a Best Picture nod given how well it's done in the precursors... but we've st! ill got the problem of 11 or 12 films doing well and only 10 s! lots.
- Can someone explain to me how Helen Mirren is being courageous by starring in The Tempest? Is this because Julie Taymor is so dangerous to actors. (Sorry, couldn't help it.)
- I h! ave nothing to say.
- You'd think Oklahoma and Austin were Twin Cities proximate given how closely their opinions align. In fact, looking over top ten lists from numerous critics groups and looking at pundit predictions for Oscar's Best Picture's it seems like we're heading for an exact consensus match (or close enough). It's like nobody loves anything other than about 12 movies. Either that or the decimation of critical jobs has resulted in critics organizations full of people who maybe don't have as diverse or adventurous of taste as they used to...? Or are critical taste shifting ever more toward Oscar's middlebrow tastes... Or are Oscar's middlebrow tastes shifting towards critical consensus? ...Or are both moving inexorably towards the center where we'll share one brain. I'm asking this in a silly way but it is a little disturbing. I guess this is why Armond White seems more famous than he used to be. Being a contrarian is no longer a common critical position ;)
- Super happy to see Friday Night Lights honored. Aren't you?
Great classic films, best all time movies
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