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 Grand Budapest Hotel, from Houston-born director Wes Anderson, garnered six nominations, including Best Picture.

Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures

The Grand Budapest Hotel, from Houston-born director Wes Anderson, garnered six nominations, including Best Picture.

unspecified

Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

---

Queer is now playing in theaters.

movies film

HFCS Nominations

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

The Grand Budapest Hotel, from Houston-born director Wes Anderson, garnered six nominations, including Best Picture.

Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

CultureMap Emails Are AwesomeGet Houston intel delivered daily.

We will not share or sell your email address.

CultureMap Emails Are Awesome
Get Houston intel delivered daily.