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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

Action-packed Kraven the Hunter showcases gritty Marvel antihero

Photo by Jay Maidment

Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Kraven the Hunter.

One of the oddest things about the blockbuster era we live in is that while Disney owns the rights to the majority of Marvel comic book characters, Sony Pictures owns the rights to Spider-Man and any affiliated characters. Since they’re sharing Spider-Man himself with Disney, Sony has been trying to capitalize on those rights by making stand-alone films using niche characters that only comic book fanatics would know.

Having exhausted Venom and whiffed on attempts with Morbius and Madame Web, they’re trying again with Kraven the Hunter. Also known as Sergei Kravinoff, Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a self-styled vigilante who, as the film tells it, travels the world exacting vengeance on the truly bad people of the world. He’s the son of Nikolai (Russell Crowe), a hard-edged Russian oligarch, and brother to Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), who is relatively weak compared to the rest of his family.

The origin story has Kraven gaining his animal-like powers - including super-strength, speed, and jumping abilities - as a teenager from a mysterious serum given to him by a girl named Calypso (played as an adult by Ariana DeBose) after he was mauled by a lion. The two maintain a tenuous partnership as adults, with Calypso helping him hunt down other villains like Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola) and The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott).

Directed by J.C. Chandor and written by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, the film looks and feels enormously lazy, something made merely to hold on to potentially valuable intellectual property. Other than the tense family dynamic between the Kravinovs, little makes sense in the story. Kraven has an indecipherable moral code that has him going after poachers - because he’s part lion? - in addition to other high-powered criminals, with no clear goal except to … get back at his father?

The laziness extends to the action scenes, which feature Kraven being mostly impervious to any damage, whether it’s hand-to-hand combat, knives, or guns. The CGI-heavy scenes don’t even allow moviegoers to enjoy an R-rated bloody free-for-all, as all of the blood splatter is computer-generated, too. Since apparently one Spider-Man villain is not enough, three others make appearances with abilities that are under-explained and CGI that is poorly done.

That’s not even counting Calypso, another Spider-Man villain whose purpose in this film is nebulous at best. Her early connection with Kraven is so coincidental as to be laughable, and her continued reasons for helping him as an adult strain credulity as well. The only saving grace of her presence is that the filmmakers don’t try to shoehorn romance into the plot; perhaps they’re saving that for the (inevitable?) sequel.

Taylor-Johnson has had one of the most prolific-yet-anonymous careers in modern Hollywood, with appearances in big films like The Fall Guy, Bullet Train, and Tenet that have made very little impact. Even as the star here, he fails to hold your attention, with the story and visuals doing him no favors. DeBose has followed up her Oscar win for West Side Story with schlock like I.S.S., Argylle, and this, which doesn’t bode well for her career. At least Crowe gets to chew the scenery.

With a contractual inability to mention the name “Spider-Man,” movies like Kraven the Hunter exist in a weird area that forces filmmakers to make up stories for characters to which most people have no attachment. And just like Sony’s previous efforts, it is a very poor way to spend two hours in a movie theater; avoid at all costs.

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Kraven the Hunter opens in theaters on December 13.

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