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

Hellion, which was partially filmed in the Houston area, is on the list of nominees for Best Texas Independent Film.

Photo by Lauren Logan

Hellion, which was partially filmed in the Houston area, is on the list of nominees for Best Texas Independent Film.

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Movie Review

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck square off in Netflix crime thriller The Rip

Photo by Claire Folger/Netflix

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in The Rip.

For as closely tied together as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are, it might come as a surprise how few times they’ve led a movie together. They’ve appeared alongside each other in Good Will Hunting, The Last Duel, and Air, but the only time they were on equal footing in a story was Kevin Smith’s Dogma. So the fact that they are the two true stars of the new Netflix movie The Rip makes it a rare opportunity for the longtime friends to square off against each other.

Damon and Affleck play Lt. Dane Dumars and Detective Sgt. J.D Byrne, respectively, the two highest ranking members of a Miami police department squad that specializes in drug and drug money raids. A tragedy to begin the film already has the team — which includes Detectives Mike Ro (Steven Yeun), Numa Baptiste (Teyana Taylor), and Lolo Salazar (Catalina Sandina Moreno) — on edge, with the FBI and DEA breathing down their neck.

Going off a tip, Dumars gathers the team to raid a house in nearby Hialeah that is supposed to have a stash of a relatively small amount of money. But when they get to the house occupied only by Desiree Molina (Sasha Calle), they discover close to $20 million. The team, required by law to count the money on site, must not only fight the urge to skim a little off the top for themselves, but also worry about the Cartel and other agencies that might want a slice of the pie.

Written and directed by Joe Carnahan, the film is a surprisingly effective crime thriller made even better by its high-quality cast, which also includes Kyle Chandler as a DEA agent. The story is designed for the audience to not know who’s trustworthy until the last possible second, and the various twists and turns it takes are well done, with barely a hint of narrative cheating.

Taking place entirely at night, the mood is set right from the start, with the only surprise being that Carnahan didn’t add in rain for extra effect. He keeps things tense with a number of subtle elements, including having the house located in a seemingly deserted cul-de-sac. This allows for the characters to remain on high alert at all times, with anything out of the ordinary — an unexpected noise, a flashing light, etc. — adding to the stress of the situation.

The only element that could have used a bit more of a punch-up is the characterization. The story is set up to cast suspicion on almost everybody, making it tougher to understand exactly what type of person each of them is. As the two leads, more time is spent with Dumars and Byrne, leaving everyone else with slightly underwhelming arcs. It’s to the credit of the actors that everyone else below Damon and Affleck is still compelling.

Damon and Affleck play their sometimes friendly, sometimes adversarial roles well, showing an ease together that’s a result of their friendship and the acting skills they’ve honed over 30+ years. Taylor, an Oscar hopeful for One Battle After Another, and Oscar nominee/Emmy winner Yeun have a pedigree that elevates their supporting roles. Chandler, Moreno, and Calle each get just enough to demonstrate why they were cast in their respective roles.

Damon and Affleck have had their individual ups and downs throughout their careers, but when they choose to work together, the results are usually good-to-great, as they are in The Rip. It’s a different take on a crime thriller that features a story that will keep viewers guessing until the very end.

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The Rip is now streaming on Netflix.

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