The San Francisco Film Critics Circle completed a major market circle by naming Boyhood the year’s Best Picture–a mantle earlier bestowed upon director/writer Richard Linklater’s film by both the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Circle.
Boyhood won a total of four awards from San Francisco Film Critics–the others being for Best Director (Linklater), Best Editing for Sandra Adair, and Best Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette.
Earning three wins was Birdman: Best Actor for Michael Keaton, Best Supporting Actor for Edward Norton, and Best Original Screenplay for the film’s director, Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo.
The S.F. Film Critics tabbed The Lego Movie as Best Animated Feature, Ida as Best Foreign Language Picture, and Citizenfour as Best Documentary.
Here are the winners of the 2014 film awards by the San Francisco Film Critics Circle.
Best Picture
Boyhood
Best Director
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Best Actor
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Best Actress
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor
Edward Norton, Birdman
Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Best Screenplay, Original
Birdman, Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu; Nicolas Giacobone; Alexander Dinelaris; Armando Bo
Best Screenplay, Adapted
Inherent Vice, Paul Thomas Anderson
Best Cinematography
Ida, Ryszard Lenczewski; Lukasz Zal
Best Production Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel, Adam Stockhausen
Best Editing
Boyhood, Sandra Adair
Best Animated Feature
The Lego Movie
Best Foreign Language Picture
Ida
Best Documentary
Citizenfour
Marlon Riggs Award for courage & vision in the Bay Area film community
Joel Shepard, film/video curator for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Special Citation for under-appreciated independent cinema
The One I Love
Review: Writer-Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood’s “Heretic”
"Heretic" opens with an unusual table setter: Two young missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are discussing condoms and why some are labeled as large even though they're all pretty much a standard size. "What else do we believe because of marketing?" one asks the other.
That line will echo through the movie, a stimulating discussion of religion that emerges from a horror movie wrapper. Despite a second-half slide and feeling unbalanced, this is the rare movie that combines lots of squirting blood and elevated discussion of the ancient Egyptian god Horus.
Our two church members — played fiercely by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East — are wandering around trying to covert souls when they knock on the door of a sweet-looking cottage. Its owner, Mr. Reed, offers a hearty "Good afternoon!" He welcomes them in, brings them drinks and promises a blueberry pie. He's also interested in learning more about the church. So far, so good.
Mr. Reed is, of course, if you've seen the poster, the baddie and he's played by Hugh Grant, who doesn't go the snarling, dead-eyed Hannibal Lecter route in "Heretic." Grant is the slightly bumbling, bashful and self-mocking character we fell in love with in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," but with a smear of menace. He gradually reveals that he actually knows quite a bit about the Mormon religion — and all religions.
"It's good to be religious," he says jauntily and promises his wife will join them soon, a requirement for the church. Homey touches in his home include a framed "Bless This Mess" needlepoint on a wall, but there are also oddities, like his lights are on a timer and there's metal in the walls and ceilings.
Writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood — who also... Read More