None of those are Exit Through the Gift Shop.
Eisenberg won best actor? Interesting. I recall reading an interview with him that he doesn’t actually go see films (it said something to the extent that he’s been in more films than he’s actually seen). I guess you don’t actually have to watch films in order to be considered a good actor.
Whatever…
According to indieWIRE, the complete awards list is as follows. It’s as interesting for what is left out (Black Swan, 127 Hours, The Kids Are All Right, to name a few) as for what is included. Indeed, some of the Top Eleven choices are pretty surprising.
On another note, I think it’s great that NBR presents a William K. Everson Film History Award. In the mid-1970s, I was privileged to have taken Everson’s classes when I was a grad student in the Cinema Studies department at NYU, in addition to attending his public screenings at the New School for Social Research. Everson was the proverbial walking encyclopedia when it came to American and British narrative cinema, and I remain forever grateful for all that I learned from him.
Best Film: The Social Network
Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network
Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Best Actress: Lesley Manville, Another Year
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Supporting Actress: Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Best Foreign Film: Of Gods and Men
Best Documentary: Waiting For “Superman”
Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Best Ensemble Cast: The Town
Breakthrough Performance: Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Spotlight Award for Best Directorial Debut: Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, Restrepo
Best Original Screenplay: Chris Sparling, Buried
Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Special Filmmaking Achievement Award: Sofia Coppola, for for writing, directing, and producing Somewhere
William K. Everson Film History Award: Leonard Maltin
NBR Freedom of Expression: Fair Game, Conviction, Howl
Top Eleven Films (In alphabetical order):
Another Year
The Fighter
Hereafter
Inception
The King’s Speech
Shutter Island
The Social Network
The Town
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
I still have no interest in seeing this.
Yeah, I wasn’t interested either, Strawdawg, and was quite skeptical but I finally got around to see it and The Social Network is a very good film (if not the best of all time!).
This whole thing is Scooby Dubious.
I just lost a buck. To myself.
Moderated
What strawdawg said, I have no intention of seeing this film
Leonard Maltin…lol
yawn to all this
Dimitris is a bastard from a basket.
Glad to see more people insult my privacy instead of my artistic preference. Good to see that all the moderators are doing their job properly.
Let’s get rid of all the Criterion fanboys-fangrils from this site.
Jackie Weaver is a nice surprise. She was great in the underrated Animal Kingdom. I do have to say, Toy Story 3, The Town and either Shutter Island or Hereafter should have been left out. With Black Swan, 127 Hours, The Kids Are All Right. Please Give, Get Low, or Animal Kingdom instead.
I will never understand why critics like David Fincher so much. Social Network is a good film, but it’s not better than all the other films it’s going to be winning all these awards ever.
And even if you do think Social Network is the best film of the year, why would you also give him Best Director? The main strength of that film is the script.
HERE BE FANGRILS!!!!!!!!
The top eleven list is the only really surprising thing about the announcement. “Hereafter” is one of the worst films Eastwood has put out in the last couple years, despite the fact that his recent output has been inconsistent at best. I was impressed, however, that they thought all the way back to May to cite “Shutter Island,” which I think was unfairly maligned. It works wonderfully as a transplant of Scorsese’s pet themes to the pulp thrillers of Sam Fuller, et al.
It was fairly obvious they’d heap on the Social Network praise, though Zodiac remains easily Fincher’s best film.
Has anyone actually seen HEREAFTER? The reviews were bad enough to make me think I’d like it.
-Has anyone actually seen HEREAFTER?-
Of course. You’re not an Eastwood guy, though, are you Ari?
Good question. I like him but usually not for the films people like. This decade – hated Million Dollar Baby, didn’t like Mystic River, and didn’t bother with Invictus but loved Gran Torino. I like his films best as dark comedies. Generally the more (unintentionally?) ridiculous they are, the more I like them. HEREAFTER seems to fit the bill.
What you’ll think of the film probably depends on whether:
1. can you accept (for the purposes of the film) the idea of an afterlife, and that Matt Damon’s character can get in touch with it, and,
2. you can accept a plot resolution that’s based on a couple of very elaborate coincidences.
@Ari
Hated Million Dollar Baby? I had problems with it, but I found it entertaining (and just really didn’t think it of it as a serious treatment of euthanasia.).
@ Ben
spelled with two lls: fan grills
A couple of years late on awarding Fincher. He’s only made one truly great film (‘Zodiac’) and a couple of very good ones. ‘Social Network’, unfortunately is neither. It’s perfectly alright, but there is absolutely nothing that stays with me for even a second after leaving it. I can’t remember the last time a so called “great film” (even the ones that I didn’t care for) faded from my mind so quickly. Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue doesn’t work. The characters are boring. Everyone talks the same. The dialogue is interchangeable between the characters. Only Timberlake stands out, and it’s not because it’s necessarily a great performance. Instead, his Sean Parker is a breather from the droning monotony of the characters surrounding him. And Eisenberg winning best actor? Seriously?!?! What range does he have here? What has he shown us here that we haven’t seen before in numerous performances that were completely (and rightly) ignored? Oh, he’s an asshole? So he plays an asshole the same way he plays everything else… (I did like him in ‘Adventureland’, but that’s about it). This is yet another example of an awards body getting too caught up in the moment (either a film is timely in terms of what’s currently relevant in the news – here , or it serves as a significant boost for a career – Dances With Wolves -, or it captures a nation’s political sentiments – Forrest Gump -)… Now, I know that there are those (“cough,” Dimitris, “cough”) that feel American Awards bodies aren’t open enough in what they recognize, and they do have a point. But, even out of the standard awards fodder we see year in and year out, do they seriously feel this is the best?
@Johnny Dubiel- You pretty much hit the nail on the head. Although I would argue listening to Sorkin’s uneven dialogue is more interesting than most of the films released this year. Hereafter was a decent couple of hours but not award worthy in anyway. The Town was Ben Affleck repeating what he did in Gone Baby Gone but with a few action set pieces. Shutter Island was enjoyable the first go round but I had a hard time sitting through its 2 1/2 hour running time a second time for some reason.
I can’t wait to see The King’s Speech and True Grit. Another Year looks interesting but Mike Leigh consistently delivers so I have hope.
“But, even out of the standard awards fodder we see year in and year out, do they seriously feel this is the best?”
Actually Johnny, I won’t mind if we are to discuss the embodiment of the Academy’s philosophy in its own level of thought. To popularize this conversation would the first mistake though since it would end up in an homogenization of perceptions about those awards being numero uno amidst the cine-community. If we take it by its own terms though, yes…indeed, are these the best of the best and are those criteria the only ones left to choose films? By audience reaction, morality choices and “ambiguous” endings?
DIMITRIS: Godard is making far more interesting films than Eastwood nowadays though, so no, he shouldn’t just die ;-)
JAZZ: Million Dollar Baby was ‘entertaining’? really? it was a pretty downbeat movie from memory.
overall i think that when Eastwood tries to make a point, or a few points, in his films, he tends to mess it up, and even if he doesn’t, as in the case of ‘White Hunter Black Heart’, for example, he tends to miss the bigger picture.
I like W.H.B.H a lot, but i’m not sure if most of what i got from the film was intentional.
The Eastwood bashing is out of hand. Personally, I think he has made some of the finest American films of our time. If he were not American and his films were subtitled you’d all think he was a genius. Bunch of snobs.
Yes, maybe 20 years ago, but not these days…
oldfilmsflicker
It also won Best Actor for Jesse Eisenberg, Best Director for Fincher and Best Adapted Screenplay.
You can see all the winners here: http://cinema-fanatic.com/2010/12/02/jesse-eisenberg-named-best-actor-of-the-year-by-the-national-board-of-review/