Coens Off at the Oscar Gun
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What started for the Coen brothers with a high-profile splash at this year’s Cannes Film Festival has in recent weeks grown into a critical tidal wave, as the duo’s latest thriller, “No Country for Old Men,” has enjoyed a year-end winning spree with many of the nation’s most prestigious critics groups. Still, as the awards season rounds its first bend, there’s little talk of a “Titanic”-style cakewalk to the Oscar podium. In fact, there seems to be virtually no consensus around the country as to what the year’s best films and performances are. Early yesterday, the New York Film Critics Circle became the latest body to lavish the film with awards. The Coens’ sparse story about a relentless bounty hunter roaming the arid deserts and seedy motels of West Texas in search of a missing $2 million was named the best picture of 2007, and was also bestowed with honors for best director and best screenplay (for Joel and Ethan Coen) and best supporting actor (Javier Bardem). The New York announcement solidifies what seems to be a bulletproof base of award support for the critical favorite, which was celebrated only a day earlier by the Boston Society of Film Critics and the Washington, D.C., Area Film Critics Association, and a week earlier by the National Board of Review. The last similarly singled out “No Country” as the top title on its annual list of the year’s 10 best films.
For an awards body comprising critics from daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, and magazines — quite a few of whom often disagree wildly — what was perhaps most stunning about Monday’s NYFCC announcement was the apparent consensus of the 31 voters. One has to go back to 2000 to find similar consent, when the Steven Soderbergh film “Traffic” took home honors for best picture, best director, and best supporting actor for Benicio Del Toro. “Traffic” went on to capture four Academy Awards.
Equally notable, however, was the stark contrast between the New York awards announced yesterday and those announced by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, which, less than a day earlier, distinguished itself as the only group to shun “No Country for Old Men.” Denying the Coen brothers a single award, the Los Angeles group instead showered Paul Thomas Anderson’s forthcoming period drama “There Will Be Blood” with prizes, honoring it with awards for best picture, best director, best actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), and best production design (Jack Fisk).
While several of the New York critics clearly respected Mr. Anderson’s film, bestowing “Blood” with awards for best actor and cinematography (for Robert Elswit), its omission from the categories of best screenplay, best direction, and best picture suggests that this will be the key contest to watch going forward, as the Golden Globes (nominations will be announced Thursday) and Academy Awards appear on the horizon: “No Country for Old Men,” the reliable favorite with a year of accolades under its belt, versus “There Will Be Blood,” the flashy, late-season contender.
Yesterday’s awards were also surprising for the relative omission of any late-season prestige projects from the major studios. As the awards were announced in Midtown, all but missing from the conversation were such heavyhitters as Joe Wright’s “Atonement,” Ridley Scott’s “American Gangster,” Tim Burton’s “Sweeney Todd,” and Marc Forster’s “The Kite Runner” — all of which will be dominating the nation’s movie theaters this holiday season, billed as the year’s big Oscar hopefuls. (Mr. Burton was named best director last week by the National Board of Review.)
Instead, the New York Film Critics Circle seemed to be more interested in celebrating personal visions released earlier in the year. The best actress award went to Julie Christie for her riveting performance as a woman succumbing to Alzheimer’s disease in “Away From Her” (which also snagged an award for “best first film” for director Sarah Polley). Amy Ryan, already a favorite of several critics groups, was named best supporting actress for her role in the Ben Affleck abduction drama “Gone Baby Gone.” The award for best foreign film looked back nearly a year to recognize “The Lives of Others,” which won the Oscar for best foreign film in February, but had not yet screened in New York to qualify for the NYFCC voting in 2006.
Ultimately, yesterday’s NYFCC awards may prove most influential in two categories: animated films and documentaries. After the National Board of Review sided with the computer-generated Pixar hit “Ratatouille” and the Los Angeles film critics finished in a tie, honoring both “Ratatouille” and the animated memoir “Persepolis,” the New York critics embraced the latter, going with the film that closed out this year’s New York Film Festival. Rounding out the ballot, the New Yorkers sided with the L.A. critics on best documentary, picking Charles Ferguson’s policy-oriented Iraq film “No End In Sight,” delivering, in the process, another defeat for Michael Moore, whose much-hyped “Sicko” has yet to win a major award.
The question on everyone’s mind now is how much the “No Country” landslide in New York and the “There Will Be Blood” victory in Los Angeles will influence the Oscar race. While the New York voters have proven more reliable indicators of which films will earn nominations, they have hardly gone out on a limb this time around. As the chorus of praise grows louder for “No Country,” with the festival excitement and the rave reviews merging into what seems like an awards consensus, the Coen brothers look every bit as unstoppable as the killer inhabiting the center of their film. Then again, all one has to do is recall the likes of “Saving Private Ryan” or “Brokeback Mountain” — both apparent sure things that went on to lose at the Oscars — to be reminded that nothing in the awards season is for certain. Indeed, that’s the idea on which Paramount Vantage, the studio pushing “There Will Be Blood,” is banking.
ssnyder@nysun.com