Director-producer Kathryn Bigelow Named Best Director
By Sandy Cohen, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker” and its director took top honors at the Critics’ Choice Awards, while Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” and James Cameron’s “Avatar” won the most awards.
Director-producer Kathryn Bigelow was named best director at Friday’s ceremony for “Locker,” winner of the best picture prize.
Accepting the best picture award, screenwriter-producer Mark Boal said the award belongs to Bigelow “for her singular vision, for her endless inspiration and for never taking no as an answer.”
Bigelow had thanked Boal when she accepted the director’s honor, saying, “I stand here really because of one man, and that’s Mark Boal.”
“It’s wonderful to have this honor,” she continued, “but the recognition should also go to the men and women who are in the field to this day.”
“Crazy Heart” was a double winner, with Jeff Bridges claiming the best actor prize for his turn as hard-drinking country singer Bad Blake. The film’s theme, “The Weary Kind,” won for best song.
“Up” won a pair of prizes, too: Best animated feature and best score.
“Nine,” which came into the contest tied with “Basterds” with a leading 10 nominations, ended up winless.
The “Basterds” cast was the critics’ pick for best ensemble. The film’s villain, Christoph Waltz, was named best supporting actor and Tarantino won for his original screenplay.
“There’s really only one group of people to thank,” Tarantino said, “and that’s the actors who actually took it from the printed page and put it up on the screen. My material is not easy. It’s hard. I cannot have dumb actors do my material.”
“Avatar” was named best action movie and it collected a heap of technical awards, including honors for cinematography, editing, art direction, sound and visual effects.
There were actually two winners in the actress category, with Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock tying for the honor.
Streep said she loved playing Julia Child in “Julie & Julia.”
“I’m really, really thrilled because I really love what I do,” she said. “I love to work, and I love food and I love sex. And so did Julia Child. So it wasn’t that much of a stretch.”
Bullock, who won for her performance in “The Blind Side,” said she hadn’t prepared a speech, but she used her time at the microphone to honor her fellow actresses and call for compassion for people who are suffering.
“We’re all so lucky to be here tonight when so many others are in pain,” she said. “I hope we can all send good love and thoughts and whatever we can.”
Jason Reitman, who won best adapted screenplay for “Up in the Air” with co-writer Sheldon Turner, thanked his father, filmmaker Ivan Reitman, calling him “one of the best storytellers I know and … the person who taught me everything.”
“I’m so proud I made this film with you, Dad,” he said.
Other honors went to Mo’Nique, who was named best supporting actress for her visceral portrayal of an abusive mother in “Precious”; Saoirse Ronan, who won best young actress for her work in “The Lovely Bones”; and “The Hangover,” which was voted best comedy.
“District 9” won for best makeup, “Grey Gardens” was best TV movie and “The Cove” was named best documentary.
Winners are chosen by members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the largest such group in North America comprising 200 TV, radio and online film critics.
AP Television Producer Mike Cidoni contributed to this report.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More