lights, camera...party!

Houston's toughest critics invite movie fans and cinema snobs to fab film fête and awards show

Colin Farrell in The Banshees of Inisherin

The Banshees of Inisherin leads nominees for Best Picture.

Photo by Jonathan Hession / courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

Houston's film critics are set to hand out awards for the best movies of the year, and all local movie fans and film geeks are invited.

The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All at Once lead nominees for the Houston Film Critics Society’s 16th annual awards, to be held at 7 pm Saturday, February 18 at the Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston (MATCH). Tickets are available here and start at $10.

Both films are nominated for nine honors, including Best Picture. Other films competing for the top award are Elvis, The Fabelmans, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, RRR, Tár, Till, Top Gun: Maverick, and Women Talking.

“As the industry continues to debate how we should experience the magic of film, moviemakers continue to imagine creative stories about compelling people,” says Doug Harris, HFCS president. “This year, the films we honor showcase a community daring to rethink, refresh and reinvent.”

Nominated as the year’s Best Actors are Austin Butler (Elvis), Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick), Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin), Brendan Fraser (The Whale), and Jeremy Pope (The Inspection). Competing for Best Actress are Cate Blanchett (Tár), Viola Davis (The Woman King), Danielle Deadwyler (Till), Emma Thompson (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande), and Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once).

“The range of performances this year illustrate what actor and creator can deliver when they free themselves to imagine,” says Travis Leamons, HFCS secretary. “It’s difficult to remember a year where each performance could capture the final awards. The nominees are especially strong in 2022.”

An annual highlight of the ceremony will be the presentation of the Texas Independent Film Award, honoring the best of film made in the Lone Star State. This year’s nominees explore the choices of youth in Acid Test, a fascination with outer space in Apollo 10-1/2: A Space Age Childhood, the hopes of would-be parents in Conception, the natural beauty of the Lone Star State in Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story, and the extraordinary life of a legendary athlete in Facing Nolan.

Here is the official rundown of nominees:

Best Picture

The Banshees of Inisherin

Elvis

Everything Everywhere All at Once

The Fabelmans

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

RRR

Tár

Till

Top Gun: Maverick

Women Talking

Best Director

The Banshees of Inisherin, Martin McDonagh

Elvis, Baz Luhrmann

Everything Everywhere All at Once, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert

The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg

Tár, Todd Field

Women Talking, Sarah Polley

Best Actor – Leading Role

Austin Butler, Elvis

Tom Cruise, Top Gun: Maverick

Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin

Brendan Fraser, The Whale

Jeremy Pope, The Inspection

Best Actress – Leading Role

Cate Blanchett, Tár

Viola Davis, The Woman King

Danielle Deadwyler, Till

Emma Thompson, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Actor – Supporting Role

Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin

Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin

Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Mark Rylance, Bones and All

Ben Whishaw, Women Talking

Best Actress – Supporting Role

Jessie Buckley, Women Talking

Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin

Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Janelle Monáe, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Best Screenplay

The Banshees of Inisherin, Martin McDonagh

Everything Everywhere All at Once, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert

The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner

Tár, Todd Field

Women Talking, Sarah Polley and Miriam Toews

Best Animated Feature

Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Turning Red

Best Cinematography

Avatar: The Way of Water, Russell Carpenter

Babylon, Linus Sandgren

Nope, Hoyte Van Hoytema

The Fabelmans, Janusz Kamiński

Top Gun: Maverick, Claudio Miranda

Best Documentary

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Bad Axe

Fire of Love

Good Night Oppy

Navalny

Best Foreign Language Feature

All Quiet on the Western Front

Argentina, 1985

Close

Decision to Leave

RRR

Best Original Score

Babylon, Justin Hurwitz

The Banshees of Inisherin, Carter Burwell

Empire of Light, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

The Fabelmans, John Williams

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Alexandre Desplat

Women Talking, Hildur Guðnadóttir

Best Original Song

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, “Lift Me Up,” Ludwig Göransson, Tems, Rihanna

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, “Ciao Papa,” Alexandre Desplat, Guillermo del Toro, and Roeban Katz

RRR, “Naatu Naatu,” Kala Bhairava, M. M. Keeravani, and Rahul Sipligunj

Till, “Stand Up,” Jazmine Sullivan and Dermset “D’Mile” Emile II

Top Gun: Maverick, “Hold My Hand,” Lady Gaga, BloodPop, and Benjamin Rice

Best Visual Effects

Avatar: The Way of Water

The Batman

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

RRR

Top Gun: Maverick

Best Stunt Coordination Team

The Batman

Everything Everywhere All at Once

RRR

Top Gun: Maverick

The Woman King

Best Ensemble Cast

The Banshees of Inisherin

Everything Everywhere All at Once

The Fabelmans

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Women Talking

Texas Independent Film Award

Acid Test

Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood

Conception

Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story

Facing Nolan

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(Full disclosure: Craig D. Lindsey is a member of the Houston Film Critics Society.)

Movie review

Messy Frankenstein movie The Bride! stitches camp and confusion

Photo by Niko Tavernise

Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley in The Bride!.

The story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster is now over 200 years old, with Mary Shelley’s book having been adapted or referenced in close to 500 films. Less common is the character of The Bride of Frankenstein, which existed in the original text but has more often than not been excised in adaptations. Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal has tried to rectify that by giving the character a big showcase in her new film, The Bride!.

Gyllenhaal has reimagined the story as one in which a woman named Ida (Jessie Buckley) becomes possessed by the spirit of Shelley (also Buckley). At the same time, the already-existing Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale) approaches Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening), who specializes in reanimation, with the request to make him a wife. When Ida falls to her death in an “accident” involving her boyfriend (John Magaro), the ideal corpse becomes available.

After Ida’s resurrection, she and the monster become restless being studied by Dr. Euphronius and decide to break out to experience the world. The world, naturally, is not exactly welcoming to them, and soon the couple are on the run for causing mayhem, including a few murders. In hot pursuit are detective Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and his assistant, Myrna Mallow (Penélope Cruz), as well as other authorities.

It’s clear that Gyllenhaal wanted to merge the Frankenstein story with Bonnie & Clyde, especially since she sets the film in the mid-1930s. And that wouldn’t have been a bad idea if having the monster and The Bride going on a crime spree was truly the focus of the movie. But most of the time there’s less intentionality in their misdeeds and more confusion, leading to a muddled plot with no clear direction or end goal in mind.

One of the biggest problems is that Gyllenhaal starts the energy of the film at an 11, giving her and everyone else nowhere to go but down. She dabbles in multiple different tones, at times going the straight drama route and other times making what seems like full-on camp. At one point, she even has the monster and the Bride in a dance sequence set to “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” which would be hilarious as an homage to Young Frankenstein if the film weren’t so disjointed.

Most baffling of all is what Gyllenhaal wants from The Bride character. She morphs multiple times over the course of the film, from close to unintelligible at the beginning to rough-and-tumble at the end. There are hints at the lack of control she has over her autonomy, including Shelley’s possession of her and the monster lying to her about her past, but any commentary that Gyllenhaal might be trying to make gets lost amid the oddity of the film as a whole.

Both Buckley and Bale are all-in for their performances, which definitely fall in the “love it or hate it” dichotomy. Each scene is pitched so high that there’s little nuance to either of them, and neither is on par with their previous Oscar-caliber roles. The high-powered supporting cast of Bening, Sarsgaard, Cruz, and Jake Gyllenhaal is watchable based on previous roles, but none of them elevate this particular movie.

Whatever intentions Maggie Gyllenhaal had in making The Bride! are only halfway legible in a film that can never find its tonal footing. There has rarely been subtlety in movies featuring Frankenstein’s monster and related characters, but this one makes all the others seem like stuffy dramas in comparison.

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The Bride! is now playing in theaters.

lights, camera...party!

Houston's toughest critics invite movie fans and cinema snobs to fab film fête and awards show

Movie review

Messy Frankenstein movie The Bride! stitches camp and confusion

Texas' new, 4,871-acre state park is now open to the public

Western-inspired, family-friendly restaurant now open near the Heights

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