HFCS Nominations

Best (and worst) movies of the year: Houston film critics' top nominees have strong Texas ties

Two films with close Houston ties trailed behind a big bird(man) in the Houston Film Critics Society nominations for the year's best — and worst — motion pictures in the organization's 8th annual awards.

Birdman — written, produced and directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu — leads the way with 10 nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Actor (Michael Keaton), Supporting Actor (Edward Norton), Supporting Actress (Emma Stone), Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score, Technical Achievement and Poster.

“Interestingly, both Boyhood and Budapest have Texas connections,” HFCS president Joshua Starnes said.

Austin native Richard Linklater's Boyhood — a coming-of-age drama shot intermittently over 12 years — followed with seven nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Ethan Hawke), Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette) and Screenplay, as well as for HFCS' Texas Independent Film Award. Key scenes in the film were shot in Houston.

A close third is Houston-born Wes Anderson's film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, receiving six nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score and Poster.

“Interestingly, both Boyhood and Budapest have Texas connections,” HFCS president Joshua Starnes said in a statement. “Linklater shot his film and makes Austin his home while Anderson is originally from Houston and a graduate of UT Austin.”

Other nominees for Best Picture include A Most Violent Year, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Imitation Game, Inherent Vice, Nightcrawler, Selma and Whiplash.

HFCS members, who are working film journalists on television, radio, online and in traditional print in the Houston area, also recognized five independent films made in the Lone Star State: Above All Else, Boyhood, Hellion, Joe, No No: A Dockumentary, and Stop The Pounding Heart.

To poke fun at some of the year's least appealing movies, the organization has also named the Worst Films of the Year. This year’s nominees are Blended, Dumb and Dumber To, Left Behind, The Identical and Transformers: Age of Extinction.

And they singled out five great film posters. The nominees in that category include Birdman; Godzilla (IMAX); The Grand Budapest Hotel; Guardians of the Galaxy (primary theatrical); and Inherent Vice.

HFCS' award winners will be announced on Jan. 10 at a ceremony at Sundance Cinemas.

2014 Houston Film Critics Society Nominations:

Best Picture
A Most Violent Year; Birdman; Boyhood; The Grand Budapest Hotel; Guardians of the Galaxy; The Imitation Game; Inherent Vice; Nightcrawler; Selma; Whiplash

Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice; Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel; Damien Chazelle, Whiplash; Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman; Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game; Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler; Tom Hardy, Locke; Michael Keaton, Birdman; Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Actress
Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night; Essie Davis, The Babadook; Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything; Julianne Moore, Still Alice; Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin, Inherent Vice; Ethan Hawke, Boyhood; Edward Norton, Birdman; Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher; Andy Serkis, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood; Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year; Keira Knightly, The Imitation Game; Emma Stone, Birdman; Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer

Best Screenplay
Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness, The Grand Budapest Hotel; Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., Armando Bo, Birdman; Damien Chazelle, Whiplash; Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler; Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Animated Film
Big Hero 6; The Book of Life; The Boxtrolls; How to Train Your Dragon 2; The Lego Movie

Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins, Unbroken; Robert Elswit, Inherent Vice; Hoyte van Hoytema, Interstellar; Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman; Robert Yeoman, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Original Score
Alexander Desplat, The Grand Budapest Hotel; Alexander Desplat, The Imitation Game; Johann Johannson, The Theory of Everything; Antonio Sanchez, Birdman; Hans Zimmer, Interstellar

Best Original Song
Big Eyes, Big Eyes; Everything is Awesome, The Lego Movie; Glory, Selma; I’m Not Going to Miss You, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me; Lost Stars, Begin Again

Best Foreign Language Film
Force Majeure; Ida; Levitathan; The Raid 2; Two Days, One Night

Best Documentary Feature
Citizenfour; Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me; Jodorowsky’s Dune; Life Itself; The Overnighters

Texas Independent Film Award
Above All Else; Boyhood; Hellion; Joe; No No: A Dockumentary; Stop the Pounding Heart

Technical Achievement
Birdman; Boyhood; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Best Poster
Birdman; Godzilla (IMAX); The Grand Budapest Hotel; Guardians of the Galaxy (primary theatrical); Inherent Vice

Worst Film of the Year
Blended; Dumb and Dumber To; Left Behind; The Identical; Transformers: Age of Extinction

The Adam Sandler film, Blended, is on the list of nominees for Worst Film of the Year.

Adam Sandler and Bella Thorne in Blended

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

The Adam Sandler film, Blended, is on the list of nominees for Worst Film of the Year.

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Movie review

Will Arnett shines in Bradley Cooper’s divorce drama Is This Thing On?

Photo by Searchlight Pictures/Jason McDonald

Will Arnett in Is This Thing On?.

With 12 Oscar nominations in the past 12 years in multiple categories, Bradley Cooper has turned into not only an acclaimed actor, but also a touted filmmaker. Given that pedigree, it might be difficult to remember that he first gained recognition as a comedy star in movies like Wedding Crashers, Yes Man, and The Hangover series. For his latest directorial effort, he has married comedy with drama in Is This Thing On?.

Unlike the previous two films he directed, Cooper only has a supporting role, ceding the lead to Will Arnett. He plays Alex Novak, who, as the film begins, is starting the process of divorce from his wife of 20 years, Tess (Laura Dern). Forced to move to a depressing apartment in New York City and only getting limited time with his two kids, Alex finds the unexpected outlet of stand up comedy when he signs up for open mic night at the famous Comedy Cellar.

The film follows Alex as he continues to pursue comedy while still having to see Tess on a regular basis, thanks to a shared custody agreement and get-togethers with friends like Balls and Christine (Cooper and Andra Day) and Stephen and Geoffrey (real life couple Sean Hayes and Scott Icenogle). While the comedy serves as a form of counseling for Alex, truly moving on proves more difficult than expected.

The film, co-written by Cooper with Arnett and Mark Chappell, is loosely based on the real-life story of British comedian John Bishop, so one of the biggest things they needed to get right was the comedy itself. Alex’s marital situation lends his comedy more of a confessional style than actual jokes, and his evolution in that space is done well. Shooting in the actual Comedy Cellar and populating the club with real comedians like Amy Sedaris, Jordan Jensen, Reggie Conquest, and more gives those scenes an extra dose of realism.

As if to underscore the personal and emotional nature of the story, Cooper and cinematographer Matthew Libatique make liberal use of closeups with handheld cameras. The camera is constantly moving around and often seems to be right in the actors’ faces, something that is most noticeable when Alex is performing. As if the stories Alex was telling weren’t intimate enough, having Arnett's entire face fill the frame forces the audience to pay attention to what his character is saying.

If there is something to knock about the film, it’s a lack of dramatic stakes. While there’s natural tension between Alex and Tess due to the divorce, it’s way less than in a movie like, say, Marriage Story. There’s also a sneaking suspicion that Cooper was just looking to have fun with the film, casting himself as the comic sidekick and working with good friends like Arnett and Hayes. If ever there was a good hang divorce movie, this is it.

Arnett rarely gets to be in movies, much less as the lead, but he ably embodies this somewhat dramatic part. It helps that he’s given a great scene partner like Dern, who knows when to dial her acting up or down for a particular situation. Cooper and Day are also good despite their story being slightly superfluous, and Christine Ebersole and Ciarán Hinds as Alex’s parents lend the film some extra gravitas.

Is This Thing On? is a much different type of film from Cooper’s first two directorial efforts, A Star is Born and Maestro, and it’s nice to see the filmmaker offer something new. It has a relatable story for anyone who has ever been married while offering an element of uniqueness with someone discovering an undiscovered skill late in life.

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Is This Thing On? opens wide in theaters on January 9.