The Oscars of the H

13 winners and one big loser to be named at Houston Film Critics Society Awards

Jeff Bridges in "True Grit"
Natalie Portman in "Black Swan"
"The Social Network"
"The King's Speech"
James Franco in "127 Hours"
"Black Swan"

Think of it as H-Town’s answer to the Academy Awards, or the Golden Globes. Only without the red carpet and all those annoying celebrities.

The Houston Film Critics Society will present its fourth annual year-end awards program this weekend at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — festivities begin at 4 p.m. Saturday — and the organization has proudly announced that special tributes to George Clooney (winner of the 2010 HFCS Humanitarian Award) and Texas native Sissy Spacek (winner of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award) will be part of the program. Mind you, neither Clooney nor Spacek actually will be present to accept their accolades, but they’ll be honored nonetheless.

On the other hand, two other honorees, winners of the HFCS Outstanding Achievement in Cinema awards, are expected to be on hand: Hector Luna, founder and editor of C-47 Houston magazine, and Charles Dove, director of the Rice University Media Center.

As for the competitive prizes, Members of the HFCS — an organization representing 22 Houston area film critics for print, broadcast and online outlets — will announce winners in 13 categories (and a loser in the 14th, Worst Picture) during the MFAH program. Once again, none of the winners are expected to be on hand to claim a prize. But, hey, admission to the awards program is free and open to the public, and organizers promise a plethora of film clips to delight all movie buffs in attendance. Better still, after the show there’ll be a free-admission reception where avid discussions and diligent networking will be actively encouraged.

And if you’re in the mood to handicap the various HFCS award races, note that Best Picture hopefuls True Grit, The Social Network and 127 Hours lead the pack this year with six nominations each. The full list of nominees follows:

BEST PICTURE:
 127 Hours
Black Swan
Inception
Kick Ass
The Kids are All Right
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

BEST DIRECTOR:
 Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
 Danny Boyle, 127 Hours
 Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit 
David Fincher, The Social Network
 Christopher Nolan, Inception

BEST ACTOR:
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
 Robert Duvall, Get Low
 Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network 
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
 James Franco, 127 Hours

BEST ACTRESS:
Annette Bening, The Kids are All Right 
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole 
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
 Natalie Portman, Black Swan 
Noomi Rapace, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: 
Christian Bale, The Fighter 
Andrew Garfield, The Social Network 
Bill Murray, Get Low
 Jeremy Renner, The Town 
Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech 
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
 Julianne Moore, The Kids are All Right
 Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit 
Jackie Weaver, Animal Kingdom

BEST SCREENPLAY:
The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
Winter’s Bone, Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini (based on the novel Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell)
Toy Story 3, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich (story) and Michael Arndt (screenplay)
Inception, Christopher Nolan
The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin (based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich)

BEST ANIMATED FILM:
 Despicable Me
How to Train Your Dragon
Tangled
Toy Story 3

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Roger Deakins, True Grit 
Matthew Libatique, Black Swan 
Anthony Dod Mantle & Enrique Chediak, 127 Hours 
Wally Pfister, Inception 
Eduardo Serra, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One

BEST DOCUMENTARY:
Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
Marwencol
Restrepo
The Tillman Story
Waiting for Superman

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Biutiful, Mexico
Carlos, France/Germany
Mother, South Korea
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Sweden
The Secret in their Eyes, Argentina

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:
Carter Burwell, True Grit 
John Powell, How to Train your Dragon
 A.R. Rahman, 127 Hours 
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, The Social Network 
Hans Zimmer, Inception

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:
“If I Rise,” from 127 Hours, music by A.R. Rahman and lyrics by Dido Armstrong & Rollo Armstrong
 “Shine,” from Waiting for Superman, music & lyrics by John Legend
 “The Clap,” from Get Him to the Greek, music & lyrics by Dan Bern & Mike Viola 
“We are Sex Bob-Omb!” from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, music & lyrics by Beck 
“You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me,” from Burlesque, music & lyrics by Diane Warren

WORST MOVIE OF THE YEAR:
 Furry Vengeance
Jonah Hex
Sex and the City 2
Splice
The Last Airbender

unspecified

Movie Review

Fun final act isn't enough to make Clayface DC's next great movie

Tom Rhys Harries and Naomi Ackie in Clayface

Photo by Parisa Taghizadeh

Tom Rhys Harries and Naomi Ackie are patient and doctor in Clayface.

The history of DC Comics in movies has been hit-and-miss, especially when it comes to anything not directly involving Batman or Superman. Over the years, films have been headlined by heroes like Catwoman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Shazam, the Flash, and more, and while some succeeded, none left a lasting mark on moviegoers’ imaginations.

Much like they did with Joker, the powers-that-be behind DC Studios productions are trying to entice viewers with a no-holds-barred story in Clayface. Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) is an A-list movie actor with both critical and commercial appeal. Unfortunately, a night of celebration for his recent Oscar nomination leads to him sleeping with Theresa (Ruby Sear), the girlfriend of Markos Szabo (David Dencik), a prominent mobster in Gotham City. Markos then enacts revenge by taking a razor to Matt’s face.

Desperate to find a way to look like his old self again, Matt seeks out Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), who’s conducting cutting-edge nanotechnology research that can heal any kind of damage. While the solution works on Matt, it also has the side effect of his body doing unintended things, even morphing into those with whom he comes into contact. After initially struggling with his new body, Matt decides to use his powers to enact revenge on those who’ve done him wrong.

Directed by James Watkins (Speak No Evil) and written by Mike Flanagan (The Life of Chuck) and Hossein Amini, the film is only intermittently entertaining as it tries to sell its ridiculous premise. Right from the start, it seems like the filmmakers have been given a limited budget, as everything from the sets to the CGI to the stilted dialogue feels cheap. For a film coming from a major studio, the whole thing comes off as schlocky and undercooked.

Watkins and his team try to make up for that shoddiness by delivering R-rated thrills like nudity and body horror, but those elements can only distract for so long. Much of the film is spent dealing with Matt’s trauma, and the downbeat nature of his body issues combined with very little action makes the movie not very fun to watch. The film also tries to make hay with more than a doctor-patient bond between Caitlyn — who has a boyfriend on the police force — and Matt, but like the most of the film, it never connects.

It’s not until the final third of the movie that the filmmakers land on the tone they should have been using the whole time. Matt’s ability to transform himself, while illogical and confounding, provides multiple over-the-top, funny moments and some legitimately creative kills. Instead of taking forever to set up Matt/Clayface’s origin story, Watkins and his team should have just cut to the chase and let him loose to see what the character could truly do.

This is the first big role for Welsh actor Harries, and while he’s not exactly magnetic, he proves himself worthy of the lead role. Ackie is also fine, but after several years of trying to advance up the Hollywood ladder, she may be running out of time to show she’s a star. The supporting cast has a couple of familiar faces, but it’s mostly lesser-known actors who do nothing to indicate they deserve bigger showcases.

It’s difficult to imagine any non-DC Comics fans having a strong attachment to the character of Clayface, and the film fails to make the case that he should be a continuing character. The poor quality of almost everything that appears on screen is indicative of the kind of effort and money that was put into the film, and sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

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Clayface opens in theaters on October 23.

movies film clayface

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Movie Review

Fun final act isn't enough to make Clayface DC's next great movie