2020 Muriel Awards: Fond Farewells

Behold! The list of all Muriel Award winners, 2006 through 2020!

Golden Muriel Award for Best Film
Before Midnight (2013)
Boyhood (2014)
The Departed (2006)
First Cow (2020)
First Reformed (2018)
Holy Motors (2012)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
No Country For Old Men (2007)
Parasite (2019)
Paterson (2016)
Phantom Thread (2017)
The Social Network (2010)
The Tree of Life (2011)
WALL*E (2008)

Best Lead Performance [separate awards given by gender before 2017]
Casey Affleck - Manchester By The Sea (2016)
Sacha Baron Cohen - Borat (2006)
Juliette Binoche - Certified Copy (2011)
Daniel Day-Lewis - Phantom Thread (2017)
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood (2007)
Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network (2010)
Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave (2013)
Adèle Exarchopoulos - Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)
Ralph Fiennes - The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married (2008)
Ethan Hawke - First Reformed (2018)
Isabelle Huppert - Elle (2016)
Scarlett Johansson - Under the Skin (2014)
Michael B. Jordan - Creed (2015)
Denis Lavant - Holy Motors (2012)
Delroy Lindo - Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Rooney Mara - Carol (2015)
Helen Mirren - The Queen (2006)
Lupita Nyong'o - Us (2019)
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker (2009)
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler (2008)
Michael Shannon - Take Shelter (2011)
Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit (2010)
Tilda Swinton - Julia (2009) Carice van Houten - Black Book (2007)
Rachel Weisz - The Deep Blue Sea (2012)

Best Supporting Performance [separate awards given by gender before 2017]
Amy Adams - The Master (2012)
Mahershala Ali - Moonlight (2016)
Patricia Arquette - Boyhood (2014)
Maria Bakalova - Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020
Javier Bardem - No Country For Old Men (2007)
Adriana Barraza - Babel (2006)
Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There (2007)
Albert Brooks - Drive (2011)
Rosemarie DeWitt - Rachel Getting Married (2008)
Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air (2009)
James Franco - Spring Breakers (2013)
Greta Gerwig - Greenberg (2010)
Lily Gladstone - Certain Women (2016)
John Hawkes - Winter's Bone (2010)
Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master (2012)
Regina King - If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight (2008)
Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids (2011)
Laurie Metcalf - Lady Bird (2017)
Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave (2013)
Joe Pesci - The Irishman (2019)
J.K. Simmons - Whiplash (2014)
Sylvester Stallone - Creed (2015)
Kristen Stewart - Clouds of Sils Maria (2015)
Mark Wahlberg - The Departed (2006)
Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Best Direction
Paul Thomas Anderson - Phantom Thread (2017)
Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood (2007)
Bong Joon-ho - Parasite (2019)
Léos Carax - Holy Motors (2012)
Alfonso Cuarón - Children of Men (2006)
Alfonso Cuarón - Roma (2018)
Jonathan Demme - Rachel Getting Married (2008)
David Fincher - The Social Network (2010)
Jonathan Glazer - Under the Skin (2014)
Barry Jenkins - Moonlight (2016)
Terrence Malick - The Tree of Life (2011)
George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Kelly Reichardt - First Cow (2020)
Martin Scorsese - The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Best Documentary
The Act of Killing (2013)
Apollo 11 (2019)
Faces Places (2017)
Life Itself (2014)
The Look of Silence (2015)
Minding the Gap (2018)
O.J. Made in America (2016)
Time (2020)

Best Cinematic Moment
Atomic Blonde - stairwell fight (2017)
Children of Men - Battle of Bexhill (2006)
Goodbye to Language - double vision, take 1 (2014)
Holy Motors - intermission (2012)
Lovers Rock - "Silly Games" (2020)
Parasite - flood (2019)
Phoenix - "Speak Low" (2015)
A Star Is Born - Jack and Ally perform "Shallow" onstage (2018)
There Will Be Blood - Bowling for Eli (2007)
Toni Erdmann - "The Greatest Love of All" (2016)
Toy Story 3 - in the incinerator (2010)
The Tree of Life - creation sequence (2011)
Up - marriage montage (2009)
WALL*E - space dancing (2008)
The Wolf of Wall Street - Lemmon 714s

Best Screenplay
Before Midnight (2013)
Carol (2015)
The Departed (2006)
First Cow (2020)
First Reformed (2018)
Get Out (2017)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Manchester By The Sea (2016)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
No Country For Old Men (2007)
Parasite (2019)
A Separation (2011)
The Social Network (2010)
Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Best Ensemble Performance
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
The Departed (2006)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Lady Bird (2017)
Moonlight (2016)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
No Country For Old Men (2007)
Parasite (2019)
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
The Social Network (2010)
Support the Girls (2018)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Best Cinematography
Antichrist (2009)
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Carol (2015)
Children of Men (2006)
The Dark Knight (2008)
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
The Lighthouse (2019)
Lovers Rock (2020)
The Master (2012)
Moonlight (2016)
Roma (2018)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
The Tree of Life (2011)
True Grit (2010)
Under the Skin (2014)

Best Music
The Dark Knight (2008)
Drive (2011)
Fantastic Mr Fox (2009)
The Hateful Eight (2015)
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Jackie (2016)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Phantom Thread (2017)
The Social Network (2010)
Soul (2020)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Uncut Gems (2019)
Under the Skin (2014)

Best Editing
Boyhood (2014)
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Dunkirk (2017)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Moonlight (2016)
The Other Side of the Wind (2018)
Parasite (2019)
The Social Network (2010)
The Tree of Life (2011)
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Outstanding Body of Work
Josh Brolin (2007)
Marion Cotillard (2014)
Leonardo DiCaprio (2010)
Robert Downey Jr (2008)
Michael Fassbender (2011)
Brian Tyree Henry (2018)
Isabelle Huppert (2016)
Jennifer Jason Leigh (2015)
Matthew McConaughey (2012, 2013)
Steve McQueen (2020)
Florence Pugh (2019)
Steven Soderbergh (2009)
Michael Stuhlbarg (2017)

Outstanding Cinematic Breakthrough
Ben Affleck - Gone Baby Gone (2007)
Radha Blank - The 40-Year-Old Version (2020)
Jessica Chastain - The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, The Help, The Debt, Coriolanus, Texas Killing Fields (2011)
Adèle Exarchopoulos - Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls (2006)
Barry Jenkins - Moonlight (2016)
Rian Johnson - Brick (2006)
Jennifer Kent - The Babadook (2014)
Martin McDonagh - In Bruges (2008)
Jordan Peele - Get Out (2017)
Florence Pugh - Little Women, Midsommar, Fighting With My Family (2019)
Boots Riley - Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit (2010)
Alicia Vikander - Ex Machina, The Danish Girl, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
Quvenzhané Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Outstanding Youth Performance
Julia Butters - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Elsie Fisher - Eighth Grade (2018)
Brooklynn Prince - The Florida Project (2017)
Talia Ryder - Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)

Best DVD Release
Blade Runner: The Final Cut [Warner] (2007)
Dazed and Confused [Criterion] (2006)

Best Web-based Criticism
A.V. Club (2010)
The House Next Door (2008)
The Man Who Viewed Too Much (2011)
Some Came Running (2009)

10th Anniversary Award
Boogie Nights (2007/1997)
Children of Men (2016/2006)
Dogville (2013/2003)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2014/2004)
Eyes Wide Shut (2009/1999)
In the Mood for Love (2010/2000)
Mulholland Dr. (2011/2001)
The New World (2015/2005)
Punch-Drunk Love (2012/2002)
Rushmore (2008/1998)
A Serious Man (2019/2009)
The Social Network (2020/2020)
WALL*E (2018/2008)
Zodiac (2017/2007)

25th Anniversary Award
Blade Runner (2007/1982)
Blue Velvet (2011/1986)
Brazil (2010/1985)
Dazed and Confused (2018/1993)
Die Hard (2013/1988)
Do the Right Thing (2014/1989)
Full Metal Jacket (2012/1987)
GoodFellas (2015/1990)
Heat (2020/1995)
The King of Comedy (2008/1983)
Pulp Fiction (2019/1994)
The Silence of the Lambs (2016/1991)
This Is Spinal Tap (2009/1984)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (2017/1992)

50th Anniversary Award
2001: A Space Odyssey (2018/1968)
8 ½ (2013/1963)
The Conformist (2020/1970)
Dr. Strangelove (2014/1964)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (2016/1966)
Lawrence of Arabia (2012/1962)
North by Northwest (2009/1959)
Point Blank (2017/1967)
Psycho (2010/1960)
Repulsion (2015/1965)
The Seventh Seal (2007/1957)
Vertigo (2008/1958)
The Wild Bunch (2019/1969)
Yojimbo (2011/1961)

And that's the ballgame, folks. I'll update the site… eventually. Vaya con dios, Muriel friends. Now let's have David Byrne and pals take us outta here!

2020 Muriel Awards: And the Golden Muriel for Best Picture Goes to...

 

“Kelly Reichardt movies always starts with absences, voids, unknowns. A woman without a home or a past to which we have access. A lawyer without stability, a young woman without a social life, a woman without the love of her family. A western caravan with no past and no future. These are the terms on which maybe America’s greatest director not named Martin Scorsese stakes her vision. Behind you? A tantalizing unknown made of impatient body language and the wrinkles under eyes staring too hard into the distance. In front of you? Graves and a fog you can’t see through. First Cow, her latest western, starts with an empty map on either side of its hero. All around John Magaro’s Cookie is civilization. He’ll hear about the great Asian cities, the Northeast of America, London, Paris, but all he knows is the thin and treacherous path in front of him and for all it winds and dips and takes him to places he’s never seen, it’s a straight line to his grave, the second sight the film has to offer.

“Knowing our hero dies doesn’t, however, make it any harder to become heavily invested in his journey from where he meet him, unmoored in his life and in space and time, to his final resting place. Reichardt has drawn one of her best characters here, a man so gentle he can’t help but turn away from violence when he encounters it, and cower from it passively and silently when he himself is threatened by it. He is, in other words, too good for this world. And that makes him perfect for her world, a place of bumbling dreamers stalked by intense disappointment lurking behind every corner like a fox peering into a henhouse window.

“He meets his match in a host of men ejected from all those fancy places he hears about. The great cities of Europe and Asia have spat out Toby Jones’ voluptuous Chief Factor and Orion Lee’s enterprising and ironically named King-Lu. A king in name only, a king deposed, a man with a thousand ideas about how to get his kingdom back, and no capital and no idea how to make his dreams real. He’s like Cookie in that regard, which of course makes them perfect friends. Two dreamers, one who knows what every corner of the map hides, and one who only knows that out beyond what he can see with his own eyes lies some unknown fortune and vastness. Reichardt, the poet of claustrophobic majesty, knows that vastness is yet all that he sees. Her natural world teems with it, and it keeps everyone from straying too far from what we in the audience can make sense of. The world is theoretically limitless in her cinema, and the horizon is forbiddingly beautiful and wide, but the truth is her heroes never make it that far.

“First Cow is maybe her most concise work, thematically. Two guys think they can beat the system and can’t, and their failure is a foregone conclusion. And yet, there are the most surprises here. There’s the unexpected tenderness of Cookie’s nocturnal dialogue with the cow who may be his and King-Lu’s ticket out of the Pacific Northwest. There’s the glee of two Native American women finally left alone to talk when their husbands leave the room. There’s the sight of Robert Altman’s one-time mascot Rene Auberjonois festooned with a crow like death himself. There’s the easy rapport between our heroes, which lazily spreads across days, time happily lost to a good vibe and the joy of friendship. First Cow is just one of those little miracles we’ll thankfully always have. That we had to live without it all this time seems unthinkable, but that’s what Reichardt’s cinema is all about. Filling in those absences with feelings and sights that moments before had no name and no shape.”

Scout Tafoya is an author, filmmaker, critic and video essayist, creator of “The Unloved” on RogerEbert.com, the longest running series of video essays on the web. He’s the author of Cinemaphagy: On the Psychedelic Classical Form of Tobe Hooper, the director of several dozen feature films and he’s written for The LA Review or Books, The Village Voice, Film Comment and Nylon Magazine among others. He publishes new writing and videos several times a week at Patreon.com/honorszombie/.

Best Film - Top 25:

1. First Cow [179.5/16]

2. Lovers Rock [142/13]

3. David Byrne's American Utopia [114/10]

4. I'm Thinking of Ending Things [96/9]

5. Sound of Metal [86/8]

6. City Hall [85.5/7]

7. (tie) Da 5 Bloods [80/9]

7. (tie) Never Rarely Sometimes Always [80/9]

9. Nomadland [75/7]

10. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom [72/8]

11. Fourteen [71/9]

12. The Invisible Man [68/7]

13. Possessor [64.5/6]

14. Collective [61.5/6]

15. Martin Eden [59.5/6]

16. The Assistant [57/6]

17. Vitalina Varela [53.5/7]

18. (tie) Bacurau [53.5/5]

18. (tie) Beanpole [53.5/5]

20. Minari [53/7]

21. The Grand Bizarre [48/5]

22. Time [45/6]

23. (tie) Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets [44.5/4]

23. (tie) To the Ends of the Earth [44.5/4]

25. Soul [41/5]

2020 Muriel Awards: Best Picture Countdown, #2

 

“Rooted in the social and the sensual, Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock got right to the heart of global unease with open arms and womblike bass, a liberating simmer for the pressure cooker of the newest Plague Year.

“The joy of human contact. The experience of a dance party where all the drama is in the streets outside, and in the yard, and in the socioeconomic structures looming above and behind everything. Where the scent of freshly-made curry mixes with Proustian dub and the smiles and sweat of your friends, loved ones, and strangers you’ve just met.

“Its premiere as the opening night film for the 2020 New York Film Festival was a perfect distillation of a moment: protests filled streets the world over, death rates were soaring, and the idea of joyful Black people gathering together was a subversive and inspirational one for everyone. Lovers Rock was a sensual riot of so many of the human experiences put on hold during the pandemic, understanding the liberation of simple and temporary pleasures. Because there’s always some external stress bearing down, elevating the stakes for every moment of happiness; menace always has a way of kicking at whichever leg you’re leaning on.

“The bass soothes, the walls sweat, and like the ostracized telepaths in Scanners, we find a moment of transcendent peace in the middle of the siege the outside world holds. It’s a perfect illustration of the specific becoming the universal to the open-minded viewer, and it captures perfectly the sorely missed magic of the communal gathering. ‘Silly Games’ and ‘Kunta Kinte Dub’ will find their way into your emotional playlists, with both songs attaining the kind of majestic sweep of liturgy, of ritual. Of all the films to emerge during the Covid era, none demands a post-vaccine theatrical screening like this one.”

Jason Shawhan has been writing about film since 1989, and professionally since 2000. Writer, painter, DJ, programmer, and media prophet, you can encourage his behavior at www.jasonshawhan.com and at The Nashville Scene, The AV Club, and on several podcasts.

2020 Muriel Awards: The Rest of the Winners

 

Alas, there wasn't time in a single weekend to announce all our 2020 awards with written pieces. Here are the remaining awards for this year.

Best Direction:
1. Kelly Reichardt - First Cow [80/12]
2. Steve McQueen - Lovers Rock [76/13]
3. Charlie Kaufman - I'm Thinking of Ending Things [48/7]
4. Chloé Zhao - Nomadland [46/7]
5. Pedro Costa - Vitalina Varela [38/6]

Best Screenplay:
1. I'm Thinking of Ending Things (screenplay by Charlie Kaufman, based on the novel by Iain Reid) [63/9]
2. First Cow (screenplay by Jonathan Raymond and Kelly Reichardt, based on the novel The Half Life) [55/8]
3. Fourteen (written by Dan Sallitt) [45/7]
4. Sound of Metal (story by Darius Marder and Derek Cianfrance; screenplay by Darius Marder and Abraham Marder) [44/7]
5. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (written by Eliza Hittman) [40/7]

Best Ensemble Performance:
1. Da 5 Bloods [83/15]
2. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom [70/10]
3. Mangrove [56/9]
4. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets [53/8]
5. I'm Thinking of Ending Things [43/6]

Best Cinematography:
1. Lovers Rock (Shabier Kirchner) [73/11]
2. Vitalina Varela (Leonardo Simões) [62/8]
3. First Cow (Christopher Blauvelt) [59/11]
4. Nomadland (Joshua James Richards) [55/9]
5. I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Łukasz Żal) [42/7]

Best Editing:
1. Da 5 Bloods (Adam Gough) [64/9]
2. Time (Gabriel Rhodes) [49/7]
3. Nomadland (Chloé Zhao) [47/7]
4. City Hall (Frederick Wiseman) [44/6]
5. Tenet (Jennifer Lame) [39/7]

Best Music:
1. Soul (original music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, jazz compositions and arrangements by Jon Batiste) [102/15]
2. Lovers Rock (music supervisors Ed Bailie and Abi Leland) [92/14]
3. Tenet (original music by Ludwig Göransson) [46/8]
4. Mank (original music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) [34/6]
5. (tie) David Byrne's American Utopia (original music by David Byrne) [29/5]
5. (tie) Minari (original music by Emile Mosseri) [29/5]

Outstanding Cinematic Breakthrough:
1. Radha Blank (actor/director/writer/producer - The 40-Year-Old Version) [72/12]
2. Andrew Patterson (director - The Vast of Night) [52/9]
3. Maria Bakalova (actor - Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) [47/7]
4. Sidney Flanigan (actor - Never Rarely Sometimes Always) [41/7]
5. Cooper Raiff (actor/director/writer/producer/editor - Shithouse) [28/4]

Outstanding Body of Work:
1. Steve McQueen (director/screenwriter - Small Axe) [137/19]
2. Chadwick Boseman (actor - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Da 5 Bloods) [118/20]
3. Spike Lee (director - David Byrne's American Utopia, Da 5 Bloods) [105/16]
4. (tie) Sacha Baron Cohen (actor - The Trial of the Chicago 7, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) [49/9]
4. (tie) Elisabeth Moss (actor - The Invisible Man, Shirley) [49/9]

Best Youth Performance:
1. Talia Ryder - Never Rarely Sometimes Always [42/9]
2. Alan Kim - Minari [41/10]
3. Kenyah Sandy - Education [23/6]
4. (tie) Lucas Jaye - Driveways [14/3]
4. (tie) Sophia Lillis - Gretel & Hansel [14/3]

2020 Muriel Awards: Best Picture Countdown, #3

 

“When, on Saturday, November 7, 2020, all of the major news networks finally called the presidential election in favor of now-President Joe Biden, it was easy, in the moment, to celebrate what felt like the impending end of a terrible era: a presidency that had trafficked in fear-mongering, racism, and nationalism to lay bare America's long-standing social inequities and divide the country even further than it already was. But of course, Donald Trump wasn't about to go down without a fight, thus paving the way for the riot in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, when a large crowd of his supporters stormed the Capitol in a last-ditch attempt to overturn free and fair election results that were in the process of being certified that day. If his recent appearance at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference is any indication, we're all going to be dealing with the fallout from Trump's disastrous presidency for much longer than many of us would prefer.

“So while it's perhaps now easy, maybe even desirable, to dismiss David Byrne's American Utopia—Spike Lee's filmed version of David Byrne's hit Broadway concert—as an instant relic of a particularly tormented period in American history, as long as the social and political forces that allowed a Trump presidency to flourish in the first place remain, David Byrne's idiosyncratic yet wonderfully inclusive vision will continue to resonate. Certainly, nothing will bring back Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many other black lives lost to police violence, as Lee highlights during Byrne & company's stirring rendition of Janelle Monáe's ‘Hell You Talmbout.’ And as many majority-Republican states continue to try introduce ‘election reforms’ that are basically just fancy attempts at voter suppression, even Byrne's awkward interstitial lecture about America's right to vote will remain relevant.

“And of course, David Byrne's American Utopia will always be just a fireball of joy. Surely that is an experience that will never grow old, whatever period in history we're all in.”

Kenji Fujishima is a writer and editor based in New York City. He has previously written about film for publications including Village Voice, Slant Magazine, and Paste, and about theater for TheaterMania.

2020 Muriel Awards: Best Picture Countdown, #4

 

“Charlie Kaufman makes movies about death and the ways we try (and usually fail) to make our own meaning. While his screenplay for I’m Thinking of Ending Things is largely faithful, story-wise, to Ian Reid’s book, it’s also a perfect vehicle for his preoccupation with how we use art and pop culture to try to give our own lives context. Adaptation and Synecdoche, New York are about artists struggling to realize their (ultimately unfinished) vision, but I’m Thinking of Ending Things is a sadder variation on this theme. What starts as a story about a woman going to meet her boyfriend’s parents gradually reveals itself to be about a protagonist who never became the person they hoped to be, who can now only understand their own life through the language of songs from old musicals, overwrought movie monologues and other pop cultural ephemera that has lodged in their brain. As the character played by Jessie Buckley (quoting Wilde) puts it, ‘Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.’

“As downbeat a subject as this is for a movie, I find that Kaufman – like Bradbury, or Vonnegut – hits a bittersweet spot for me. Though I don't have a lot in common with Buckley's or Jesse Plemons' characters, seeing these anxieties and morbid ruminations realized is paradoxically comforting, even if only because it means I’m a little less alone. After this one, I’m not sure Kaufman would want me to feel this way; oh well. And though the movie’s bleak, there’s also joy in its creation. There’s the playfulness of Kaufman’s writing (where a character can suddenly transform into Pauline Kael), how much the cast is clearly enjoying the freedom the material allows (Buckley, in particular, is a revelation and, along with Delroy Lindo, one of my favorite performances this year), and the possibility that, though the movie’s world is dark, a ballet could and will happen. That the movie has been divisive makes it feel more like it belongs to me, especially in a year where it resonated in ways Kaufman couldn’t have anticipated, when it often feels like we’re stuck in a car in the middle of nowhere, en route to an unknown, possibly sinister destination.”

Andrew Bemis is an actor and filmmaker. His most recent movie, Most Likely, premiered at the Boston LGBTQ film festival (more info at bang-films.com). He lives in New Hampshire with his family.

2020 Muriel Awards: Best Picture Countdown, #5

 

“The acute realization of hearing loss is wrought with shocking consternation as one sits in a booth where perfunctory queries are made to a patient reduced to guesswork. Hearing loss is largely an inevitable consequence of age and genetics but it could also be brought on by bad living choices or a profession that increases the odds of long-term or as in the case of Sound of Metal an all-too-speedy sensory breakdown negotiated by aural bombast. In the surprisingly unsentimental film, directed by Darius Marder and written by Marder (and his brother Abraham) a punk-metal drummer recovering from drug addiction lives in a time and age where there are some promising options. Initially Ruben defies the advice of an ear doctor who sensibly warns against further exposure to loud noises by staying the course on the performing circuit. His girlfriend and band-mate Lou who travels with him in a recreational trailer is fearful his newfound disability may reverse his sobriety so she helps to arrange a move to a remote rural shelter for recovering addicts who have also lost their hearing. The commune is run by recovering alcoholic Joe whose own ability to negotiate sound-waves was destroyed during the Vietnam War. At first Ruben refuses to come to terms with their edict that Lou cannot live there with him and that ultimately all he is seeking are cochlear implants which are not covered by insurance but are reachable after he later sells his possessions including the trailer. Lou persists in convincing Ruben to return to the shelter while she puts their relationship on hold by moving to her father's residence in Europe.

“Ruben readily becomes acclimated to his new group home and learns sign language. Joe encourages him to write and to be comfortable with silence, and Ruben administers drumming lessons to the young members. After Joe reveals that Ruben's tenure at the home was sponsored by a local church, he offers the brooding tenant a degree of permanence by taking on a job, but restless to his core Ruben is more interested in what Lou is doing and learns online she is experimenting with her own music. While awaiting the activation of his implants, made possible by the aforementioned pawning of his holdings, Ruben asks Joe for a loan so he can re-but his vehicle, but is denied by Joe who then asks that Ruben leave the home on the philosophy that deafness is not and should not be considered a handicap. The activation of the implants brings mixed results, though in view of the drummer's professional pedigree even less, since severe distortion connected with the end result of the procedure can never be satisfying. He flies to Belgium to move in with Lou and it greeted by the father who tells him he has had an about face in his feelings about his daughter's boyfriend since the bottom line is that he made Lou happy. Further realizations that hearing distortion will never allow him a real measure of sensory appreciation coax Ruben into leaving Lou, and some visualized meditative uncertainty.

“Sound of Metal contains some magisterial performances, especially from Riz Ahmed, whose raw, soulful and inward portrayal as the drummer who recalls ‘Ludwig Van’ will surely garner him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. His work here is sedately electrifying and fully disavows the Oscar bait cloying tendencies associated with portrayals that almost petition for sympathy from the viewer. Ahmed defiantly sustains the realism while triumphs over a final stretch of melodrama, accentuating a character who understandably holds to the false notion that eventually he he will regain all that he has lost. Of the film's other impressive turns, Paul Raci -who may also be named as a nominee for Supporting Actor- has received much-deserved critical praise as the group home's forlorn proprietor, a man whose experience with life's bad turns have given him a more accepting perspective, yet one who is steadfast in his commitment to the commune's purpose. Raci leaves a powerful impression as one who has gone through so much and won't buckle to psychologically debilitating perceptions. The film's sound design, fully in tune with its theme and title is extraordinarily impressive and the guarded writing really fits the material and the tone of the subject. Sound of Metal is one of the best and most emotionally resonating films of the year.”

In the words of Sam A. Juliano - “Creator and editor of "Wonders in the Dark" (wondersinthedark.wordpress.com) an arts site that debuted in 2007 and is now entering its 14th year of sustained activity. I have written hundreds of films, opera, theater and book reviews for the site and pandemic-constrictions aside I normally see in the neighborhood of 250 newly-released films a year. I own over 6,000 films and televisions shows in my home on DVD or blu ray and host an annual Oscar party that attracts about 50 to 60 people annually since 1977. I am a veteran 36 year teacher for English literature, creative writing and children's literature in my New Jersey hometown. I was the lead actor in two short films that were chosen to screen in the New York Film Festival, the BAM Brooklyn Academy of Music Festival, the Nighthawk Festival and the Montvale Film Festival the past two years. The films are "The Thing That Kills Me the Most" and "Best Picture." The latter is about our most recent Oscar party.

2020 Muriel Awards: Best Picture Countdown, #6

 

“2020 seemed to be a year even more than usually crowded with high-profile documentaries (Collective! Time! Boys State! Dick Johnson Is Dead!), each one practically sweating with desperation to be seen as more innovative and relevant than the last. Leave it to the nonagenarian Frederick Wiseman to deliver—handily and modestly, with no fanfare—a film that makes the lot of them feel like mere pretenders. In its scope City Hall is both modest (it regards, with Wiseman’s characteristic air of clinical detachment, nothing more or less than the daily operations by which the city of Boston runs itself) and vast (it clocks in at four-and-a-half hours). It is the work of a master filmmaker who has perfected a rigorous documentary technique he first pioneered more than fifty years ago, in 1967’s Titicut Follies.

“Nothing very remarkable seems to happen in City Hall. We spend a lot of time following Mayor Marty Walsh and his administrative team as they hold meetings, talk with local stakeholders, and strategize about policy. But, as in all of Wiseman’s films, the banal and the mundane are peppered with carefully observed touches of humor, humanity, quirk: a Thanksgiving dinner for the city’s homeless population (Walsh himself pours the gravy), a meeting of community members with the small business owners hoping to open a cannabis shop in their neighborhood, a Veteran’s Day gathering that becomes an opportunity to swap war stories. A veterinarian examines a canine patient, a road crew works on cleaning the street, and in the office of the Parking Clerk violators appeal their fines. (One explains that he was running late for a date; another was on his way to the hospital after his wife had gone into labor. Both tickets are dismissed.)

“There are a million stories in City Hall, stories of people getting married, struggling to recover from drug addiction, dealing with rodent infestations. And for every one of these stories there is a second story, that of a person doing a job: a justice of the peace, an exterminator, a traffic controller, a police officer, a tree surgeon. By the end of the film, in which we hear a performance of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Symphony Hall, we may be surprised to find that tears have come to our eyes—surprised, perhaps, because ‘tear-jerking’ is the last word that would ever be used to describe a filmmaker as unsentimental as Wiseman. City Hall doesn’t stoop to cheap sentiment to affect us, nor should it be taken as a piece of superficial America-First patriotism. (A native of Boston, Wiseman now resides in Paris.) Rather, it is profound and moving in its insistence that American democracy is only as strong as the untold numbers of individual people who labor to make their community a better place to live.

“Such a notion feels especially resonant at the end of a year in which democracy, community, and social services were tested to the point of breaking. But this is a film that would have been just as powerful no matter when it was released. The ideas that Wiseman explores in City Hall aren’t ‘timely.’ They’re timeless.”

Ian Scott Todd, PhD. is a graduate of Tufts University. He currently lives in Boston, where he teaches courses in film studies, literature, and writing. His blog can be found at www.primalscenes.blogspot.com.

2020 Muriel Awards: Best Picture Countdown, #7 (tie)

 

“In Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, the director makes the boldest homages of his career. In every one of his joints, Lee wears his cinematic influences on his sleeve, from the nods to Minnelli and The Band Wagon in Malcolm X to the evocation of NYC crime dramas like Dog Day Afternoon in Inside Man. These elements are never hidden; Lee knows you know what he’s doing and it frees him to graft his points onto these references. Here, Lee commandeers John Huston’s classic parable of greed, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to tell the story of four Black Vietnam vets who return to Vietnam to retrieve a buried treasure of gold left there during the war. Unlike Humphrey Bogart and Huston’s Dad, Walter, Da Bloods crew of Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis) and Paul (Delroy Lindo) not only know where the gold is, but their motivations extend far past avarice. They also want to exhume the body of their platoon leader Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman), so they can bring him home and give him a proper burial. They are joined by the much younger David (Jonathan Majors), Paul’s son who has unfinished business with his emotionally distant father. Lee’s penchant for giving his characters funny names seems muted here, until one realizes Da 5 Bloods are named after the original members of The Temptations [Editor's note: I can't believe I didn't notice that].

“Da 5 Bloods is a Vietnam film that gives a shout-out to Apocalypse Now by having its protagonists do the Soul Train line dance under a huge sign emblazoned with the film’s title logo. The film also serves as a corrective to other ‘Nam films by making the veterans look like the majority of the men sent to this war. There are more Black veterans in this one film than in the entirety of the 80’s-era war films Da Bloods namecheck in the dialogue. Lee and his co-screenwriters Kevin Wilmott, and Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo also give a voice to Vietnamese characters and their feelings about ‘the American War.’ They are just as haunted by the past as Paul and his crew. Paul in particular is deeply entrenched in post-traumatic stress disorder, tormented by visions of Norman while drowning in survivor’s guilt.

“When not flashing back to the violent past of a war movie, Da 5 Bloods throws these men into an equally violent heist movie. Lee is aided and abetted by Newton Thomas Siegel’s clever cinematography, Terrence Blanchard’s complex score, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Goin’ On album and actors who are game for anything. Standing at the forefront is Delroy Lindo, who gives the second best performance Lee has ever directed. Paul is more than just a troll for MAGA’s, he’s a complicated, scared and scarred man. Lindo is unafraid to go to the heart of darkness within his character, showing his fearlessness in a terrifying tour-de-force scene where he addresses Lee’s unflinching camera. His scenes with Boseman, so perfectly cast as a specter of Black Power, haunt the viewer long after the credits roll. Before they do, Lee alternates his dramatic fiction with scenes of real people and events, from Muhammad Ali to Dr. King to the famous pictures of war carnage that were beamed into televisions every night on the news. This overstuffed pastiche shouldn’t hold together as brilliantly as it does, but Lee’s a master juggler who keeps all his pins up in the air.”

Odie Henderson is a regular contributor at RogerEbert.com. Much of his previous work can be found at Big Media Vandalism.

2020 Muriel Awards: Best Picture Countdown, #7 (tie)

 

“Eliza Hittman’s films exist in some parallel place. She creates universes that feel familiar but are also totally singular: the time period is indeterminate, the film grain leaves a textured plane one wants to reach out to touch like a thick, inviting sculpture, the characters feel like the person next door but also massive symbols well beyond human form. The film is stylistically otherworldly but also hyperreal as an audience travels with her characters on a low-key hero’s journey through regular life.

“Things happen in Never Rarely Sometimes Always but it just kind of rolls forward, living on its own anxious momentum following the two main characters, Skylar (Talia Ryder) and Autumn (Sidney Flanigan), teens in a washed up coal town in Pennsylvania who travel to NYC for medical attention. When it was over I honestly was like ‘No, no, it can’t be time to leave now, we all just started to get to know each other, I want to know you will be okay,’ it is this feeling that makes the film special. The film asserts a quiet bond between people, reminding that everyone has needs and experiences — however loud or silent. The film reminds that compassion is a truly heroic feat in the face of so many intense unknowns.

“Some dismiss the film as ‘an abortion film,’ something that a recent Academy member criticized the director for in a scathing e-mail about his refusal to watch it for awards consideration, but it is much more than that. Never Rarely deals with the spaces and judgements in society that leave people vulnerable but also asserts the power in agency, and the power in caring, that can change these systems. Whether it is making choices about one’s own body or making a film to amplify the cause, Never Rarely is a stark reminder that humanity is a vastly complex web of chaos and we all should be here to get one another through it with understanding, humility and grace.”

Donna K. works coast-to-coast while rooted in the Midwest. She acted as Media Curator at True/False Film Fest and was Head of Programming at both the Citizen Jane Film Festival and Oxford Film Festival. Her annual “Ten Best Films Directed By Women” can be found online at Filmmaker Magazine.

2020 Muriel Awards: Best Picture Countdown, #9

 

"’Dedicated to the ones who had to depart. See you down the road.’

“These words appear on a title card at the end of Chloé Zhao's hypnotic and humane Nomadland, an adaptation of Jessica Bruber's acclaimed non-fiction book about the fall-out of the 2008 Great Recession and the lives of financially struggling United States citizens living like nomads in their RVs. Zhao's masterfully directed film, which she also edited, wrote and co-produced, follows a fictionalized composite transient character named Fern (played with delicate, haunting grace by the great Frances McDormand) for a little over a year. The film has received well-deserved accolades for many reasons. The pacing, Joshua James Richards' striking cinematography, the way Zhao deftly has a well-known film star interacting with several non-professionals who share real stories from their lives. Most of all though, Nomadland emerges as one of the most powerful films about grief ever made.

“We learn early on that not only has Fern's husband has died, but her whole town (Empire, Nevada) has as well, due to a devastating 2011 factory shutdown. The town's zip code is discontinued. When we first see Fern, she is putting her belongings in a storage facility. She holds a jacket that belonged to her husband and quietly cries. This loss hangs over Fern as she travels from place to place, accepting seasonal and menial jobs and roughing it during cold nights in her van. Many scenes show her alone, looking pensive and shaken. And yet what keeps Nomadland from becoming too maudlin or too much of a downer is the way Fern finds happy moments with those living in the RV community.

“The film's most indelible moments have Fern talking with and listening to people such as Linda May, one of the real-life subjects of Bruber's book, and, most unforgettably, a woman dying of cancer named Swankie. We learn why some of these folks now live on the road, from a PTSD sufferer who needs serenity to another person who longs to connect with nature. Zhao directs Fern's fleeting yet meaningful connections with them with warmth and welcome compassion. These interactions help Fern discover an inner-peace and invite her to connect with her natural surroundings. She rejects an invitation from a possible love interest (played by a solid David Strathairn, the only other real recognizable name in the cast) to return to traditional domestic living. While visiting him, she sneaks out at night to sleep in her nearby van. The nomad life calls.

“The film does not sugarcoat or romanticize Fern's nomadic existence, but it does not pour on the misery either. As with her terrific previous film The Rider (another offering with a docudrama feel and non-professional actors), Zhao finds the dignity and humanity in each resilient person on screen. The movie walks the impressive tightrope of being a rich character study that gives one of the best film actresses ever a remarkable star turn, and a naturalistic documentary-style look at real people living the nomadic way of life. Ultimately though, Nomadland is about a woman finding the strength to keep moving down the road and living and surviving on her own terms.”

Brian E. Wilson lives in Chicago and has written about film and pop culture for the blog Wonders in the Dark. He works as a librarian and has served on the Caldecott Committee and writes about picture books on his blog Mr. Brian's Picture Book Picks. He reviews audiobooks for Booklist magazine.

2020 Muriel Awards: Best Picture Countdown, #10

“As August Wilson recalled in the play script of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, he discovered “the Mother of the Blues” and her contemporaries in a Salvation Army as a young man just starting to write. ‘Suffice it to say that it is music that breathes and touches,’ he wrote. ‘That connects. That is in itself a way of being, separate and distinct from any other. The music is called the blues.’

“The film adaptation of his 1984 play, shepherded to the screen by the carefully selected team of producer Denzel Washington, writer Ruben Santiago-Hudson and director George C. Wolfe, does right by both Wilson and the music that inspired him.

“A literally larger than life Viola Davis opens the film, her Ma Rainey captivating audiences from the Southern tent shows to the Chicago music halls of 1927. Off stage to record an album for her white manager and a white label owner, adorned with velvet, fur, and thick makeup melting in the summer heat, she’s as sharp as a tack, honed by too much experience negotiating her value as an artist and the privilege that comes with it. She’s a diva who’d welcome the title and a fighter who refuses to accept excuses for why there’s no cold Coke for her, or for her manager’s wish to work in a new arrangement by her ambitious cornettist, Levee.

“Chadwick Boseman has a quick smile and charm to burn as Levee but the character’s bristling anger, informed by trauma and innovative talent as yet unrecognized, is never far from the surface. It’s constantly visible as a glimmer in the actor’s eyes before it finally rises up to consume him. His wildly intense performances has been mourned as a sign of what could have been were Boseman still with us, but he wouldn’t shine as brightly without the veterans who form the rest of Ma’s backup band: Colman Domingo as Cutler, Michael Potts as Slow Drag, and Glynn Turman as piano player Toledo.

“The phenomenal ensemble transforms Santiago-Hudson and Wilson’s words into something like a song that wraps you in a rhythm as it unleashes the pain and rage that gave birth to the blues.”

Melissa Starker is currently Creative Content & PR manager at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Prior to joining the Wex, Melissa wrote about the arts and film as an editor for Columbus Alive and as a freelancer for the Columbus Dispatch, among other publications. As a film programmer, she cofounded the Short North Civic Association's annual Screen on the Green outdoor movie series and she's helped produce events at venues such as the Drexel Theatre, 400 West Rich, and the Vanderelli Room. Melissa's professional experience also includes 20 years in independent film exhibition at venues such as Columbus' Studio 35 Cinema and Boston's Coolidge Corner Theatre.

2020 Muriel Awards: Best Cinematic Moment(s)

Before we start counting down the top ten films of 2020, let's salute some of our ten favorite scenes of the past year…

1. Lovers Rock - "Silly Games" [183/14]

Sadly, I was unable to find a decent video version of this scene. Here's the song:



"Mercury Sound!"

2. Never Rarely Sometimes Always - intake questionnaire [113.5/12]



3. The Assistant - a visit to HR [92/8] (link)

https://www.facebook.com/TheAssistantFilm/videos/162973985007167/

4. Another Round - Martin dances [90/10] (link)

https://www.facebook.com/colorinfilm/videos/832777784202893/

5. Lovers Rock - "Kunta Kinte Dub" [67.5/7] (couldn't find this either)



6. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - Levee's monologue about his mother [62/6]



7. Da 5 Bloods - Paul's last monologue to camera [55.5/6]

Da 5 Bloods - Delroy Lindo Monologue from flix.gr on Vimeo.

8. I'm Thinking of Ending Things - dinner with parents [55/6]



9. The Invisible Man - scene from a Chinese restaurant [53/5]



10. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm - Giuliani time [48.5/5]



Oh what the hell … let's do a few more.

Tenet - why are you hitting yourself? (Take 2)



One Night in Miami… - "Chain Gang"



Eurovision Song Contest - Song Along

2020 Muriel Awards: A Tribute to Chadwick Boseman (1976-2020)

 “I still remember the Friday night when the news hit: Chadwick Boseman, rising movie star, died of stage III colon cancer at age 43.

“It was an astounding shock to the system. There were rumblings that the man might be sick ever since he dropped that damn Instagram post looking quite slim. But it didn’t seem like he’d be going anywhere anytime soon. But, one night, it happened, and a lot of us haven’t gotten over it.

Perhaps what’s more surprising about his death is how he continued to churn out performances — great performances, mind you — after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2016. Before his diagnosis, he already received praise for starring in the biopics 42 and Get On Up, giving confident, complicated turns as Black icons Jackie Robinson and James Brown, respectively. But he became a megastar when he headlined the global Marvel blockbuster Black Panther in 2017, making the entire planet realize how powerful and wonderful the sight of a Black superhero can be.

When he wasn’t fulfilling his contractual duties in other MCU films, he once again played an African-American legend — Thurgood Marshall — in the 2018 courtroom drama Marshall and even went the cop-on-the-edge route as a detective chasing cop killers unraveling a conspiracy in the 2019 action thriller 21 Bridges.

In the last two movies he appeared in, Spike Lee’s thought-provoking action-adventure Da 5 Bloods and George C. Wolfe’s adaptation of the August Wilson play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (both films released last year by Netflix), Boseman played men who were basically bubbling cauldrons of Black rage, rage that was obviously stewed from years of racism and oppression. In Bloods, he was ‘Stormin’ Norman’ Holloway, the wise leader of a squad of African-American soldiers fighting in Vietnam. He convinces them to bury a locker of gold bars from a CIA airplane crash so they can come back and collect the loot, but greed is not his motivation. For him and his boys, this is long-overdue reparations.

“While Holloway was a cool supporting character in Bloods, he went all out for his lead performance in Bottom. As cocky, early-20th century trumpet player/aspiring songwriter Levee Green, he was at his swaggerific finest. But under all that preening arrogance is a man wounded and scarred, trying to make it the same white man’s world that has already broken him, bruised him and kicked him to the curb. Boseman posthumously received the Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama Golden Globe for his harrowing, heartbreaking performance. And, in all likelihood, he will get the Best Actor Oscar he was recently nominated for.

“The fact that he turned out all this great work while battling cancer shows that Boseman was just as strong and defiant a warrior as the Wakandan superhero he played in those Marvel movies. The man absolutely refused to let an illness make him half-ass a performance. Whether he was in the lead or in the background, he always gave us his all — and then some.

“Although we’ll never see what Chadwick Boseman had planned in the future, we should no doubt be happy that he gave us his badass, Black-as-hell best when he was here with us.”

Craig D. Lindsey is a critic and journalist whose work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, Nashville Scene, and Culturemap Houston. Craig is awesome.

Tomorrow morning: We begin the day at 9 AM with our favorite cinematic moments of 2020, then count down our top 10 films every hour, ending at 8 PM with our top movie of the past year!

2020 Muriel Awards: Best Lead Performance

 

“Delroy Lindo’s entrance in Da 5 Bloods feels off. Typically, his characters’ first appearance commands attention, his large frame and wide eyes attracting our gaze. In Bloods he is first seen walking through a lobby towards two friends, and next to another. He’s slightly hunched and appears hesitant. In that moment, he could almost be an extra, walking by. His fellow Vietnam Vets (Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis and Isiah Whilock Jr.) are all wearing colorful shirts with freshly shaved faces suggesting vacationing businessmen. Lindo’s Paul, however, covers his head with an old Vietnam Vets hat, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses and his face covered with a few weeks’ stubble. Under his black leather vest is a t-shirt of a Punisher Skull, filled in with the US flag. Though not as confrontational as the MAGA hat he will later wear, there’s a visual tension in his costuming and posture that sets apart from the rest of the Bloods.

“In most films Lindo is an immediately striking presence, a hint of violence may be simmering but he mostly broadcasts confidence, charm and authority. When he tells you not to eat his sesame cake, you listen. With Paul there is a barely veiled insecurity under his seething anger. A recurring motif of snakes underlines his status quo: coiled and ready to bite. He’s a Trump supporter who identifies with the ethos of Rambo sequels: we left Vietnam too early and need to go back and win the war. Paul retains an open prejudice towards all Vietnamese people, perceiving them as foreigners in their own land. Whenever a Vietnamese character comes close to him, he tenses up. The more vulnerable Paul feels, the more violently he reacts. Yet Lindo roots every violent xenophobic outburst and selfish proclamation in the character’s pain and anguish. ‘When you’ve been cheated in life as much as I have,’ Lindo growls, ‘you learn to spot the signs of all the dirty rat bastards out there.’

“Towards the end he comes to see everyone as a rat bastard, from the other Bloods to his own son. Feeling betrayed, he turns away from his community one last time. As he disappears into the jungle, back to camera in a long-shot, Lindo howls in torment and weeps as he begins reciting Psalm 23:4 (‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…’). After this Lee cuts to a close up of Lindo in a direct address. This speech seems like the place for Lee’s double dolly shot - a character at a moment of transition floating towards destiny - but instead the monologue is delivered to an unsteady, hand-held camera.

“Staring into the camera Lindo recounts his life’s most egregious cheats, Agent Orange poisoning his blood, his child’s birth leading to his wife’s death. His fierce gaze, clenched rage, and desperate eyes showing the depths of pain he felt and his growing awareness of the depth of pain he’s caused. The cognitive dissonance he lives with daily is punctuated at the end of the monologue as he raises a black power fist over his MAGA hat. An image that speaks louder than irony because Lindo has grounded the character’s contradictions in such humanity. If he hadn’t fused the anguish with the anger, the final moment of redemption may have felt forced, rather than earned. It’s a performance that will live on beyond Awards season hype. So I hope Lindo takes the advice God once gave Paul: ‘Fuck them motherfuckers. Keep on keeping on’.”

Kevin Cecil lives in Brooklyn, NY, and is the co-host of Movie Trivia Nite, formerly at their Prospect Park location and currently online via Zoom every Tuesday.

Best Lead Performance - Top 25:
1. Delroy Lindo - Da 5 Bloods [234/23]
2. Chadwick Boseman - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom [203/17]
3. Rid Ahmed - Sound of Metal [200/17]
4. Viola Davis - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom [112/11]
5. Elisabeth Moss - The Invisible Man [110.5/11]
6. Jessie Buckley - I'm Thinking of Ending Things [104.5/10]
7. Sidney Flanigan - Never Rarely Sometimes Always [97.5/11]
8. Tallie Medel - Fourteen [97/9]
9. Frances McDormand - Nomadland [94/9]
10. Julia Garner - The Assistant [87.5/8]
11. Carey Mulligan - Promising Young Woman [71.5/10]
12. Mads Mikkelsen - Another Round [70.5/7]
13. Shaun Parkes - Mangrove [69/6]
14. John Boyega - Red, White and Blue [64/7]
15. Vitalina Varela - Vitalina Varela [62.5/6]
16. Luca Marinelli - Martin Eden [54/5]
17. John Magaro - First Cow [48/5]
18. Atsuko Maeda - To the Ends of the Earth [46.5/4]
19. Carrie Coon - The Nest [44/4]
20. Elisabeth Moss - Shirley [39/5]
21. Christopher Abbott - Possessor [37.5/4]
22. (tie) Willem Dafoe - Tommaso [36/4]
22. (tie) Viktoria Miroshnichenko - Beanpole [36/4]
24. Hugh Jackman - Bad Education [35/3]
25. Steven Yeun - Minari [34/4]

Coming at 9 PM: A tribute to one another of 2020’s greatest performers, gone far too soon.

2020 Muriel Awards: 10th Anniversary Award

 

“It's more than a little tempting to dismiss The Social Network. David Fincher is a director who would always rather be clever than insightful; Aaron Sorkin a screenwriter who thinks of himself as insightful but who has barely had a new insight in decades, mostly recycling a handful of old ones (and the associated bon mots) instead. How could a collaboration between the two, and especially one about a new medium like Facebook, be anything but insufferable?

“And yet. Rewatching the film, ten years on, it's still relentlessly entertaining and sharp, from the Rooney Mara opening scene (everyone remembers the final line, but ‘Dating you is like dating a Stairmaster’ is a zinger, too) to the final shot of Jesse Eisenberg, his face lit only by a laptop. Even Sorkin's disregard for the truth doesn't bother me here*: Eisenberg's Zuck is a better cinematic villain than the blandly blinkered 'real' Zuckerberg could ever be. Looking at footage of Zuckerberg now, it's difficult not to see Eisenberg's face glitching on top, like a Tyler Durden appearance in that other Fincher film about the potential destructiveness of male self-actualization.

“The rest of the casting is fantastic, too. Armie Hammer's slightly (and seeing it today: very) sinister sheen of privilege is perfect for the Winklevii. No other movie has ever weaponized Justin Timberlake's inherent smarminess and self-aggrandizing quite as well. And then of course there's the pulsating Trent Reznor score, propelling everyone along - and following the trajectory set out here, the various consequences of Facebook's every increasing influence seem almost inevitable. It's difficult to make a movie about recent history. It's even harder to make one that, with the benefit of ten years of hindsight, looks even more like it had its finger on the pulse.”

*whereas the final scene of The Trial of the Chicago Seven set my teeth on edge even before I realize it was wholly fabricated

"Hedwig van Driel only occasionally writes about film nowadays - but every time she does, it reminds her that she should really do it more. It's been a year since her last cinema visit, and she misses the big screen dearly. In the meantime, she's revisiting old favorites, and trying to convince others of the value of looking back at film history."

10th Anniversary Award - Best Films of 2010:
1. The Social Network (dir. David Fincher, USA) [116/17]
2. Certified Copy (dir. Abbas Kiarostami, Iran) [107/15]
3. Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky, USA) [73/12]
4. Toy Story 3 (dir. Lee Unkrich, USA) [62/10]
5. Meek's Cutoff (dir. Kelly Reichardt, USA) [60/10]
6. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand) [46/8]
7. Exit Through the Gift Shop (dir. Banksy, UK) [45/7]
8. (tie) Carlos (dir. Olivier Assayas, France) [37/6]
8. (tie) Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan, USA) [37/6]
10. Another Year (dir. Mike Leigh, UK) [35/6]

Coming at 8 PM: Our favorite lead performance of 2020!

2020 Muriel Awards: Best Documentary

 

“It’s all there in the title - Time. This is what it looks like when life continues on without you, as your toddlers grow into men, your apple-cheeked young bride transformed into a firebrand activist and pillar of the community and there’s a you-sized hole in the middle of it all (here personified by an actual life-size cutout of Robert hung up at the house). Bradley has the remarkable good fortune to have access to years’ worth of home video footage shot by Sybil (who subsequently goes by the name Fox Rich), often framed as video diaries where she can express her hopes and frustrations with the whole film playing almost like a feature-length version of the scene in Interstellar where McConaughey watches his life passing before his eyes. Switching back and forth between lo-res home movies (converted to black and white) and gorgeous black and white HD, the film is constantly blurring the line between past and present with youth giving way to maturity and one milestone after another passing with the patriarch absent, all while Fox narrates events, both quotidian and monumental, for the benefit of a husband she may never hold again.

“But mostly the film is a tribute to Fox, who we watch evolve before our eyes, dedicating her life to reforming the inequities in the justice system, raising something like half a dozen boys (not trying to be glib, the number and ages of his her children feels muddied here, including at least one child seemingly conceived a decade into Robert’s prison sentence) into remarkable young men all while constantly lobbying judges and parole boards to try and reunite her family. The most revealing scene film arrives late in the film, after being politely rebuffed by the secretary of a judge who she’s been chasing over the phone for weeks we watch her genteel mask fall away in an aside to the camera, finally giving into the sadness and anger she’s spent years constructively channeling, motherfucking a civil servant who couldn’t be bothered to do their job. It’s heartbreaking and a little funny in the way she taps into a pool of rage with a sweet southern lilt only to then straighten herself out after a moment and gets back to business. It’s a remarkable portrait of someone left behind who won’t even contemplate moving on.

Note: This essay was originally posted on Letterboxd. Reprinted with permission of the author.

Andrew Dignan is a video licensing professional based out of Los Angeles. If you've ever complained that MTV no longer plays music videos and only airs constant episodes of "Ridiculousness" you have him (partially) to blame. You can read his writing about every film he watches on Letterboxd or his general thoughts on Twitter, now with less political griping.

Best Documentary:
1. Time [106/18]
2. Dick Johnson Is Dead [99/16]
3. David Byrne's American Utopia [92/14]
4. City Hall [81/12]
5. Collective [73/11]

Coming at 7 PM: Our pick for the Best Film of 2010.

2020 Muriel Awards: 25th Anniversary Award

 

“At this point, the question of *the* canonical film for Michael Mann almost seems like a moot point. Few directors have had an oeuvre as stylistically diverse yet as inextricably linked as Mann’s, who began his career at the beginning of the post-New Hollywood era before moving through discrete, cutting-edge phases: the crime films fixated on professionalism, the dynamic historical pictures, and now his blurred and groundbreaking work with digital in the 21st century. Of course, roots of each can be found within the other, and as such the task of nailing down one film to represent the summit of Mann’s achievement is nigh-impossible: is it the pristine perfection of Manhunter? The hazy digital of Miami Vice? The sublime technological exploration of Blackhat?

“Such a debate can and will go on endlessly, but it’s a testament to the monumental weight of Heat that it can even come close to being the Mann consensus favorite. Made squarely in the middle of Mann’s career, between the relative prestige of The Last of the Mohicans and The Insider, it acts as both something of a middle-ground between the two halves of his career and as a foray into a mode that he would never quite strive for again: the nigh-novelistic examination of a city, bouncing both between both sides of the law and from person to person. The legendary cat and mouse chase between Robert De Niro and Al Pacino is the spine, but the gravity of their collaboration is matched by the stellar work of one of the most remarkable ensemble casts assembled in recent memory.

“And of course, there is the director himself. In a way, the sprawl of Heat acts as both a synecdoche for Los Angeles and for Mann’s career as a whole, replete as it is with scenes that exist on a wide-ranging continuum between propulsive action scenes and quiet domestic conversations, lowdown procedural sequences and near-mythic gestures. Everything is a stray or ill-fitting element and nothing is; Mann understands that a city such as LA can only be represented in terms of contradiction, in how a nondescript street can be the setting of one of the greatest film gunfights ever, or in how the lights at the airport can be the most beautiful thing in the world.”

Ryan Swen is a Los Angeles-based freelance film critic and a cinema and media studies Master of Arts at the University of Southern California. He hosts and produces the Catalyst and Witness podcast, and has written for Reverse Shot, The Film Stage, Seattle Screen Scene, MUBI Notebook, Hyperallergic, and the BFI.

25th Anniversary Award - Best Films of 1995:
1. Heat (dir. Michael Mann, USA) [116/17]
2. Safe (dir. Todd Haynes, USA) [94/15]
3. Before Sunrise (dir. Richard Linklater, USA) [88/14]
4. Dead Man (dir. Jim Jarmusch, USA) [74/11]
5. Se7en (dir. David Fincher, USA) [67/11]
6. Babe (dir. Chris Noonan, Australia) [54/8]
7. Casino (dir. Martin Scorsese, USA) [48/8]
8. (tie) 12 Monkeys (dir. Terry Gilliam, USA) [37/7]
8. (tie) Showgirls (dir. Paul Verhoeven, USA) [37/7]
10. (tie) La Cérémonie (dir. Claude Chabrol, France) [31/5]
10. (tie) Fallen Angels (dir. Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong) [31/5]
10. (tie) Toy Story (dir. John Lasseter, USA) [31/5]

Tomorrow at 6 PM: The Muriel Award for Best Documentary.

2020 Muriel Awards: Best Supporting Performance

 

“Imagine gatecrashing a party where you know nobody, introduce yourself under a completely false identity, and then proceed to mock, gross out, and savagely roast everybody in attendance. While it's likely that you'd be hauled out onto the curb within the hour, the same cannot be said for Maria Bakalova; the introduction of Borat's daughter Tutar in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm turned out to be one of the best debuts for a rising comedic talent in years.

“It's hard to overstate how great of an impression Bakalova made with the Borat sequel, in part because she managed to genuinely steal the show from its own creator. Where Sacha Baron Cohen uses the unfiltered shamelessness of his Borat character as both a channel and a mirror to the barely concealed ills of polite Western society–the likes of which have become even more unmoored since his first film's release–Bakalova brilliantly manages to solicit equally revealing responses through uninhibited sincerity.

“Whether she's bragging about the 'baby' her dad gave her as 'a treat' in a Pregnancy Crisis Center, or unabashedly flaunting her 'moon blood' dance routine at a debutante ball, Tutar beams with child-like pride at simply being included. Maria Bakalova wields this disarming sweetness the way Bond girls wield miniskirts–even when Tutar's blatantly spouting anti-Semitic statements to a plastic surgeon or preaching the benefits of masturbation to a scandalized Republican women's group, her earnestness contagiously invokes an extraordinary kindness in her unassuming victims. Where Borat gives others permission to say out loud what's been lurking in the back of their minds, and is typically met with threats when he overstays his welcome, Tutar's insanity conversely draws out the misplaced best in those around her.

“Capitalizing on the patience and pity afforded to her, Bakalova cleverly mines these gendered expectations to their most ridiculous and uncomfortable heights. In the end, the most memorable part of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm isn't Rudy Guliani making an ass of himself, it's the genuinely sweet and sad scene of Tutar's babysitter Jeanise feeling compelled to teach her to love herself as she already is.

“Also the scene where Jeanise informs Tutar that vaginas don't have teeth. Are we sure about that one though? I mean, Tutar's got a pretty legit looking book to back that one up. It's got pictures and everything..”

Jenna Ipcar is a Brooklyn-based film critic who loves all things surreal and satirical. Published in The Female Gaze by Alicia Malone and in Bright Wall/Dark Room, she also co-founded Back Row, a film site dedicated to the unsung and alternative, and Cinema60, a podcast that celebrates and reevaluates 1960s cinema. Follow her on Letterboxd and Twitter.

Best Supporting Performance - Top 25:
1. Maria Bakalova - Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan [219/19]
2. Paul Raci - Sound of Metal [159/14]
3. Youn Yuh-jung - Minari [157/15]
4. Glynn Turman - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom [88.5/9]
5. Chadwick Boseman - Da 5 Bloods [82/8]
6. Amanda Seyfried - Mank [78/9]
7. Norma Kuhling - Fourteen [75/7]
8. Bill Murray - On the Rocks [70.5/9]
9. Orion Lee - First Cow [58.5/7]
10. Talia Ryder - Never Rarely Sometimes Always [57.5/6]
11. Brian Dennehy - Driveways [56/5]
12. Candice Bergen - Let Them All Talk [53/5]
13. Leslie Odom Jr - One Night in Miami… [49.5/5]
14. Dianne Wiest - Let Them All Talk [42.5/4]
15. Gina Rodriguez - Kajillionaire [42/4]
16. Matthew Macfadyen - The Assistant [40/4]
17. Olivia Cooke - Sound of Metal [38.5/4]
18. Jane Adams - She Dies Tomorrow [37/3]
19. Clarke Peters - Da 5 Bloods [36/3]
20. Swankie - Nomadland [34.5/4]
21. Dylan Gelula - Shithouse [34/3]
22. Malachi Kirby - Mangrove [33/4]
23. Toni Collette - I'm Thinking of Ending Things [32/4]
24. Andrea Riseborough - Possessor [32/3]
25. David Thewlis - I'm Thinking of Ending Things [31/4]

Tonight at 9 PM: The 25th Anniversary Award!

2020 Muriel Awards: 50th Anniversary Award

“The Conformist is Bernardo Bertolucci’s most acclaimed picture for good reason. It’s a tragic tale of a tortured soul, an Italian fascist with whom most of us wouldn’t particularly want to sympathize. Yet the story is fascinating because his human frailties are ours. It is about Marcello Clerici, a casually cruel man in his mid-30s who is enlisted by the Italian fascist government to assassinate his former teacher, Professor Quadri, an anti-fascist activist in 1938 France. Haunted by a childhood trauma, Marcello seeks normalcy in his marriage to Giulia, whose ordinariness is what he seeks yet also disdains. Then he falls in love with Quadri’s wife, Anna.

“On an initial viewing, The Conformist can be challenging as it jumps around in time, often with no warning and no context provided. This method though captures the chaos in Marcello’s fragile psyche and the many clashing experiences that contributed to it. Despite being dubbed into Italian, French Jean-Louis Trintignant gives one of his best performances as Marcello. His handsomeness helps to hide his character’s nervousness. Marcello is guarded and closed off, but Trintignant veers between inscrutable to painfully vulnerable. Dominique Sanda also displays great screen presence as Anna, and Stefania Sandrelli is perfect as the guileless Giulia.

“In the running for most beautifully shot film of all time, The Conformist is as much Vittorio Storaro’s baby as Bertolucci’s. Storaro’s images are at different times or even at the same time rich, elegant, and harsh. He gives us the stunning blue gloom in the shots around the Musee d’Orsay and the Eiffel Tower, the blinds in Giulia’s home resulting in strips of light everywhere, and the beautiful yet cold fogged forest of the assassination attempt. One of the most striking moments in the movie is the Plato’s cave conversation that starts with Marcello closing the shutters in Professor Quadri’s office, suddenly casting Marcello into darkness while the light from the only uncovered window streams outward from Quadri who stands in front of it. The film’s look and subtly ominous vibe clearly influenced Francis Ford Coppola in the making of his

Godfather films.

“The Conformist may also be Bertolucci’s most poetic movie as we get moments like the boys chasing young Marcello in his chauffeured car right after having tortured him; Marcello posing with his newly furnished gun, briefly aiming it at his own head, and the scenes of brutalist architecture that overwhelms the small human bodies in its midst. It all vibrantly resonates in a story about a man who blinds himself with amorality, striving for normalcy even when it initially doesn’t bother him that it involves murder to get it.”

Living in New York City ever since attending NYU’s graduate film program, George Wu has on average watched 1 movie every other day since his late teens and that’s while averaging only 1 movie a week the last few years, revealing the magnitude of this disorder earlier in life.

50th Anniversary Award - Best Films of 1970:
1. The Conformist (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy) [111/15]
2. M*A*S*H (dir. Robert Altman, USA) [71/11]
3. Five Easy Pieces (dir. Bob Rafelson, USA) [69/10]
4. Le Cercle Rouge (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville, France) [63/10]
5. Claire's Knee (dir. Éric Rohmer, France) [51/9]
6. Husbands (dir. John Cassavetes, USA) [48/8]
7. Gimme Shelter (dir. David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, USA) [47/8]
8. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (dir. Russ Meyer, USA) [40/6]
9. Woodstock (dir. Michael Wadleigh, USA) [28/5]
10. Cotton Comes to Harlem (dir. Ossie Davis, USA) [27/5]

Coming at 8 PM: Best Supporting Performance.

2020 Muriel Awards - Introduction and Announcements!

Welcome, one and all, to the final edition of the Muriel Awards!

Yes, you read that right. I’ve made the decision to end the Muriels after this year’s awards. Why, you ask? Because it just felt like time. We’ve been doing this for fifteen years, and a lot has changed since then. I’m no longer in a place where I feel like I have the time or energy to do the Muriels justice. I suppose I could pare them down to something more easily manageable, but then they wouldn’t feel like the Muriels anymore. And who wants that?

Before we begin this year’s announcements, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who has supported the Muriels for the past fifteen years. That goes for anyone who voted, who contributed writing, or who simply followed us throughout the years. It has been my honor to be at the helm, but it wouldn’t have meant a thing without all of you.

In particular, I would like to recognize Steven Carlson, who was my co-pilot at the beginning (wayyyy back in 2006) and even took the wheel for several years while I was pursuing some other interests in my life. Steve hasn’t been as involved in the last few years, but he has always been a spirited follower of the Muriels, and that’s more than I could have hoped for.

Additionally, I would like to show some love to three voters who have been with us every year of our existence, and who have been some of the most valuable contributors to the Muriels cause. A special thank you to Andrew Bemis, Dennis Cozzalio, and James Frazier for sticking with us through thick and thin. I wish there was more I could do to show you how grateful I am for being part of this for so long.

Finally, I want to give a shout-out to all of our voters since the beginning. Here they are, in alphabetical order, with asterisks denoting those who voted this year:

Simon Abrams

*Jason Alley

Ali Arikan

Danny Baldwin

Kent M. Beeson

*Josh Bell

*Andrew Bemis

*Christianne Benedict

*Scott W. Black

Chuck Bowen

*Danny Bowes

Sean Burns

Donald G. Carder

Steven Carlson

*Kevin Cecil

*Paul Clark

Alexander Coleman

*Dennis Cozzalio

Ari Dassa

Evan Derrick

Chris Devlin

*Andrew Dignan

*Kevin Dufresne

Greg Dunlap

Phil Dyess-Nugent

Jim Emerson

Alex Engquist

*Steve Erickson

*Molly Faust

Shayana Filmore

*James Frazier

*Kenji Fujishima

Caden Mark Gardner

Daniel Getahun

*Sean Gilman

*Luke Gorham

*Jaime Grijalba

*Russell Hainline

*Glenn Heath Jr.

Rob Heller

Eric Henderson

*Odie Henderson

Andy Horbal

Darren Hughes

*Jenna Ipcar

Daniel Cook Johnson

Stacia Kissick Jones

*Sam Juliano

Craig Kennedy

*Donna Kozloskie

Peter Labuza

Adam Lemke

Michael Lieberman

Benjamin Lim

*Craig D. Lindsey

Trevor Link

Matthew Lotti

*Matt Lynch

Charles Lyons

Sam C. Mac

Willow Catelyn Maclay

Wendy Mays

Martin McClellan

*Jeff McMahon

Lucas McNelly

Patrick J. Miller

Marya Murphy

*Matt Noller

Sheila O’Malley

Jason Overbeck

Rob Patrick

Mark Pfeiffer

Marcus Pinn

Matt Riviera

Nathaniel Rogers

Adam Ross

Cole Roulain

Bill Ryan

Jenny Sekwa

*Jason Shawhan

Justine Smith

*Melissa Starker

Catherine Stebbins

R. Presley Stephens

Alice Stoehr

*Ryan Swen

*Scout Tafoya

*Melissa Tamminga

Philip Tatler IV

Bridgett Taylor

*Ian Scott Todd

*Hedwig van Driel

Vern

Scott von Doviak

*Clayton Walter

*Bryan T. Whitefield

Patrick Williamson

Alison Willmore

*Brian Wilson

Bryce Wilson

*George Wu

Thanks to all of you! Come back at 7 PM for our first Muriel Award of the year!