and the award goes to...

Chadwick Boseman shines in Houston Film Critics Society's nominations for best in film

Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

The late Chadwick Boseman is a double nominee.

Photo by David Lee/Netflix

In all, 2020 was a very unusual year for movies. The pandemic forced a lot of highly anticipated movies to either postpone their release dates or premiere on a streaming service (or, in the case of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, hit the theaters anyway and die an embarrassing death at the box office).

Nevertheless, many smaller, independent films found their way out there on streaming platforms and on-demand services, and those films will be celebrated at this year’s 14th annual Houston Film Critics’ Awards, nominated and voted by the Houston Film Critics Society (HFCS).

High atop the list is Minari, director Lee Isaac Chung’s study of a family from Korea starting a farm in Arkansas. The film is nominated for seven honors, including the Best Picture of 2020.

In addition to Best Picture, Minari is nominated for Best Director, Best Actor (Steve Yeun), Best Supporting Actress (Youn Yuh-jung), Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and a Cinematic Achievement honor for seven-year-old actor Alan S. Kim.

Following the film in overall nominations is Sound of Metal with six nods, including Best Picture, while three films — Nomadland, One Night in Miami and The Trial of the Chicago 7 – received five nominations each, also including Best Picture. Other contenders for this top award are Da 5 Bloods, The Father, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Promising Young Woman, and Soul, which is also a nominee for Best Animated Feature.

“From a year that most of us would love to forget, comes an impressive collection of movies we will always remember,” HFCS president Doug Harris said in a statement. “For the film industry, 2020 will be recalled just as much for works which nourished our souls, as for the ways that world events changed movie habits. The impact of the artistic expression from this year’s nominees reminds us that the size of a screen, or where we view it, matters less than the quality of what we see.”

The late Chadwick Boseman is a double nominee for Leading Actor for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Best Supporting Actor for Da 5 Bloods. His performance in the lead category joins Yeun, Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal), Anthony Hopkins (The Father), and Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods). Sacha Baron Cohen (The Trial of the Chicago 7), Bill Murray (On the Rocks), Leslie Odom, Jr. (One Night in Miami), and Paul Raci (Sound of Metal) are also nominated for supporting honors.

Competing for the 2020 award for Leading Actress are Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Sidney Flanigan, Never Rarely Sometimes Always; Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman; Frances McDormand, Nomadland; and Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman. Along with Yuh-jung, nominees for the Supporting Actress honor are Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm; Ellen Burstyn, Pieces of a Woman; Olivia Colman, The Father; and Amanda Seyfried, Mank.

Three female filmmakers — Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), Regina King (One Night in Miami) and Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) – are also nominees for Best Director.

Some 18 categories of film excellence will be recognized by the prestigious body of film journalists and announced on January 18. The winning films, along with nominees and winners in the Society’s Texas Independent Film Awards, will be spotlighted in the Society’s first televised awards programming on January 31 at 4 pm on Houston’s KUBE-TV.

Houston Film Critics Society nominations

(Outstanding Cinematic Achievement, Best Movie Poster Art and the Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award winners are to be subsequently announced)

Best Picture

Da 5 Bloods

The Father

Minari

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Nomadland

One Night in Miami

Promising Young Woman

Soul

Sound of Metal

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Director

Lee Isaac Chung, Minari

Chloé Zhao, Nomadland

Regina King, One Night in Miami

Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

Darius Marder, Sound of Metal

Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal

Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Anthony Hopkins, The Father

Delroy Lindo, Da 5 Bloods

Steven Yeun, Minari

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Sidney Flanigan, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman

Frances McDormand, Nomadland

Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Chadwick Boseman, Da 5 Bloods

Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7

Bill Murray, On the Rocks

Leslie Odom Jr., One Night in Miami

Paul Raci, Sound of Metal

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Ellen Burstyn, Pieces of a Woman

Olivia Colman, The Father

Amanda Seyfried, Mank

Youn Yuhjung, Minari

Best Screenplay

Minari

Nomadland

One Night in Miami

Promising Young Woman

Sound of Metal

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Animated Feature

The Croods: A New Age

Onward

Over the Moon

Soul

Wolfwalkers

Best Cinematography

Mank

Minari

News of the World

Nomadland

Tenet

Best Documentary Feature

Boys State

Collective

Dick Johnson is Dead

My Octopus Teacher

Time

Best Foreign Language Feature

Another Round (Denmark)

Bacurau (Brazil/France)

Beanpole (Russia)

La Llorona (Guatemala)

A Sun (Taiwan)

Best Original Score

Mank

The Midnight Sky

News of the World

Soul

Tenet

Best Original Song

“Turntables” from All In: The Fight for Democracy

“Lo Si” from Life Ahead

“Speak Now” from One Night in Miami

“Rocket to the Moon” from Over the Moon

“Wear Your Crown” from The Prom

Best Visual Effects

Tenet

The Invisible Man

The Midnight Sky

Best Stunt Coordination Team

Birds of Prey

Mulan

The Old Guard

Tenet

Wonder Woman 1984

Texas Independent Film Award

Boys State

Miss Juneteenth

Ready or Not

The Vast of Night

Yellow Rose

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Movie Review

Offbeat drama Pillion features command performance by Alexander Skarsgård

Photo courtesy of A24

Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling in Pillion.

Describing the new movie Pillion is almost an act of futility. It contains a variety of seemingly disparate parts that coalesce into a whole to make it utterly fascinating. Few other recent films have been able to walk the line between filthy and wholesome in quite the way this one does, and that’s only because few other filmmakers would actually dare to try.

It centers on Colin (Harry Melling), a meek man in his mid-thirties who still lives at home with his parents, Pete (Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (Lesley Sharp), while working a dead-end job giving out parking tickets. While performing in a barbershop quartet at his local pub, Colin catches the eye of biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), who summons him for a clandestine hook-up the following day (which just so happens to be Christmas Day).

With barely a word exchanged between them, Ray establishes a dominance over Colin that quickly leads to them starting a relationship in which Colin does anything Ray asks. And that means more than just sex: Colin, whether desperate for any kind of affection or unlocking a side of himself he hadn’t known, readily agrees to cook, clean, shop, and basically do whatever else Ray wants him to do.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton, the film is astonishing in the way it’s able to mine humor from Colin and Ray’s atypical bond. To call Ray “unfeeling” might not be totally accurate, but the way he treats Colin borders on cruel. However, the way Lighton structures the film, it’s easy to understand why someone like Colin would be willing to go along with the situation. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking to see Colin debase himself in a variety of ways.

On the flip side is Colin’s heartfelt arc with his parents. It’s established right away that Peggy, who is sick with cancer, is a bit too involved with Colin’s love life, with the opening scene featuring her setting him up on a blind date. But their easy acceptance of his queerness and desire to see him find love is as heartwarming as it gets. The juxtaposition between the wholesomeness of their family and Colin’s new life is also the source of a good amount of comedy.

Lighton does not shy away from the sexual side of Colin and Ray’s relationship, and the scenes he depicts are as graphic as you are likely to see in an R-rated film. Some go up to and a little past what might be expected in a mainstream movie (including the use of a certain fake appendage). Other times they play out in a comical way to illustrate just how far Colin has progressed from the person he was when the film started.

Skarsgård, who stole the show in the Charli XCX movie The Moment, is the attraction in more ways than one in this film. The part calls for someone who’s not only impossibly handsome, but also a person who can stop dissent with just a glance, and he lives up to both qualities equally well. Melling, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies, also embodies his role perfectly. He plays Colin as weak enough to be run roughshod over by Ray, but not so hopeless as to not be worth rooting for.

Pillion (which is the name of the secondary seat on a motorcycle on which Colin rides multiple times in the film) operates at a storytelling level that is difficult to achieve. Many people will not fully understand the film’s central relationship, but the way it is showcased by Lighton makes it compelling, gut-wrenching, and sexy.

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Pillion is now playing in theaters.

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