Chloe Zhao named Best Director for "Nomadland"; Chadwick Boseman Best Actor for "Ma Rainey,"Â Carey Mulligan Best Actress for "Promising Young Woman"
The virtual vote tally is in and Steve McQueen’s Amazon Prime anthology series Small Axe won the Best Picture honor from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association today (12/20).
Taking the Best Director honor was Chloe Zhao for Nomadland. Just a couple days earlier she earned the same distinction from the New York Film Critics Association Awards.
Time was named Best Documentary while Wolfwalkers was tabbed Best Animation picture.
Small Axe also earned Shabier Kirchner the Best Cinematography honor. Best Editing went to Yorgos Lamprinos for The Father. Taking the Best Music Score mantle were Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for Soul. And Donald Graham Burt won for Best Production Design for Mank.
Chadwick Boseman was named Best Actor for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom while Carey Mulligan won Best Actress for Promising Young Woman, a film which additionally landed its director Emerald Fennell the Best Screenplay honor.
Best Supporting Actor and Actress honors went, respectively, to Glynn Turman for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Youn Yuh-Jung for Minari.
Radha Blank won the New Generation Award for The Forty-Year-Old Version.
Here’s a full rundown of winners and runners up:
46TH ANNUAL LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARDS
2020
BEST PICTURE
“SMALL AXE”
RUNNER UP: “NOMADLAND”
BEST DIRECTOR
CHLOÉ ZHAO
“NOMADLAND”
RUNNER UP: STEVE MCQUEEN
“SMALL AXE”
BEST ACTOR
CHADWICK BOSEMAN
“MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM”
RUNNER UP: RIZ AHMED
“SOUND OF METAL”
BEST ACTRESS
CAREY MULLIGAN
“PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN”
RUNNER UP: VIOLA DAVIS
“MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
GLYNN TURMAN
“MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM”
RUNNER UP: PAUL RACI
“SOUND OF METAL”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
YOUN YUH-JUNG
“MINARI”
RUNNER UP: AMANDA SEYFRIED
“MANK”
BEST SCREENPLAY
EMERALD FENNELL
“PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN”
RUNNER UP: ELIZA HITTMAN
“NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
SHABIER KIRCHNER
“SMALL AXE”
RUNNER UP: JOSHUA JAMES RICHARDS
“NOMADLAND”
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
DONALD GRAHAM BURT
“MANK”
RUNNER UP: SERGEY IVANOV
“BEANPOLE”
BEST EDITING
YORGOS LAMPRINOS
“THE FATHER”
RUNNER UP: GABRIEL RHODES
“TIME”
BEST MUSIC SCORE
TRENT REZNOR, ATTICUS ROSS
“SOUL”
RUNNER UP: MICA LEVI
“LOVERS ROCK”
BEST DOCUMENTARY/NON-FICTION FILM
“TIME”
RUNNER UP: “COLLECTIVE”
BEST ANIMATION
“WOLFWALKERS”
RUNNER UP: “SOUL”
NEW GENERATION AWARD
RADHA BLANK
“THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VERSION”
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT
HARRY BELAFONTE
and
HOU HSIAO-HSIEN
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More