The Boston Society of Film Critics met on Sunday and voted on the following awards:

Winner (Runner-up)

Film: ?WALL-E? and ?Slumdog Millionaire? (?Milk?)
Director: Gus Van Sant ?Milk? and ?Paranoid Park? (Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan?Slumdog Millionaire?)
Foreign Language: ?Let the Right One In? (?Waltz with Bashir?)
Ensemble: ?Tropic Thunder? (?The Visitor?)
Actor: Mickey Rourke, ?The Wrestler? and Sean Penn in ?Milk? (Frank Langella in ?Frost/Nixon? and Richard Jenkins in ?The Visitor?)
Actress: Sally Hawkins in ?Happy-Go-Lucky? (Anne Hathaway in ?Rachel Getting Married?)
Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, ?The Dark Knight? (Robert Downey, ?Tropic Thunder?)
Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz in ?Vicky Cristina Barcelona? (Viola Davis ?Doubt?)
Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, ?Milk? (Mike Leigh ?Happy Go Lucky?)
First Film: Martin McDonagh ?In Bruges? (Courtney Hunt, ?Frozen River?; Lance Hammer, ?Ballast?)
Documentary: ?Man on Wire? (?Young@Heart?)
Cinematography: Christopher Doyle and Rain Kathy Li, ?Paranoid Park? (Anthony Dod Mantle, ?Slumdog Millionaire?)
Editing: Chris Dickens, ?Slumdog Millionaire? (Gus Van Sant, ?Paranoid Park?)
Animated Film: ?WALL-E? (?Waltz with Bashir?)

Best Movie Series of 2008
The Complete Joseph Losey (HFA)
Minnelli?s Melodramas (HFA)
No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action & 60s Japan (Brattle)
Return to the Grindhouse (Brattle)
Unseen Noir (HFA)

Best Revival of 2008
Taking Off (The Films of Milos Forman, MFA)
Noon Wine (Sam Peckinpah, Blood Poet, HFA)
The Exiles (MFA)
Underworld (Somerville Theatre)
Lola Montes (Coolidge Corner)

Special Awards
The BSFC would like to commend Bo Smith on the occasion of his departure as film curator of the Museum of Fine Arts. In his more than two decades at the helm of the film program, Bo brought a remarkable collection of film series and film artists to Boston and had a strong hand in making it one of the leading cities in the country to view non-mainstream and especially foreign film.

Stefanie Lubkowski, who has recently left the Museum of Fine Arts film program after several years there, catered tirelessly to our needs as Film & Concerts Press Coordinator, and, as Friends of Film Coordinator, brought that program online by encouraging and disseminating feedback about their special sneak previews.

Kelly Teer, manager of the Museum of Fine Arts' auditorium for film exhibition, put a welcoming human face on a cultural institution. Before relinquishing her post this past summer after an 8-year tenure, Ms. Teer never did less than make a difficult job look easy, always ensuring smooth operations, from the box-office straight on to your seat.

Joe Zina leaves the Boston film scene immensely richer than when he stepped into the post of Executive Director of the Coolidge Corner Theatre in 1998. With tireless energy and flair, he oversaw the theater?s physical upgrade, the launch of a $2.5 million capital campaign, the institution of the Coolidge Award, and the sustaining of the Coolidge as a beloved and necessary neighborhood cultural fixture.

To Paul Sherman, for researching, authoring, and self-distributing
an instantly indispensible, one-of-a-kind film history, ?Big Screen Boston: From Mystery Street to the Departed and Beyond.? For the fascinating story of Boston filmmaking, from imported blockbusters to tiny, heartfelt independents, Sherman's book is the place to look.

To the Harvard Film Archive?s Steve Livernash, the unofficial dean of Hub 35mm projectionists, for setting a sterling example of film projection as a serious, aesthetic calling, and for extending his job definition to include film preservation. Generations of filmmakers are indebted to Steve for taking time at work to patch and mend their prints, so that the films can be projected in the proper way.

There is Hollywood buzz word that has come about in the last few years, and while ‘reboot’ and its kin ‘re-start’ have been used quite nicely to put new life into various franchises, it’s starting to show signs of overkill. Overkill. What a word to kick off a review of Punisher: Warzone which is *not* a sequel to the 2004 film, but rather, yes, a ‘re-start’, which is suggesting that something went wrong in the previous film and now here is the correct intended vision from another director. Sadly, what worked for last summer’s Incredible Hulk, does not bode well for Marvel Comic’s one mat hit squad vigilante, The Punisher. If anyone thought John Travolta was over the top and camped up in the previous film, they haven’t seen anything yet. (more…)

While I myself believe in the theory of intellegent design, and also find Darwinian’s evolution theory flawed, it would be easy for me to say, ‘Go get those humanists Ben Stein! Attack!” It also would be easy for others to say that Expelled appeals to those who already believe in, or favor the concepts of intelligent design/creationism, and thus, appeals to me. Fair enough. But show me a non-historical documentary that doesn’t give a point of view that focuses on one side or another. It’s next to impossible. The goal set should be to convince ‘the other side’ or to raise questions and debate regarding both sides of an issue. I can say Expelled is a good documentary because it does do what it sets out to do. Sadly, it also strays off it’s own subject. (more…)

Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Obits

I'm sorry to post that the LA Times has reported that Bettie Page passed away Thursday night at the age of 85. The news comes after the pinup icon had spent a few weeks on life support following her heart attack earlier this month. In her memory, I thought I'd whip up a rewind for the film based on her life -- The Notorious Bettie Page, which starred Gretchen Mol as the lady with the black bangs.

In the clip below, Page gets introduced to the world of modeling and pin-up girls, and soon finds her smiling face gracing a myriad of magazines. While the film only received moderate buzz, most seem in agreement -- Mol did a heck of a job as Page, and carried the film right into a number of decent reviews.

Rest in peace, Bettie. You'll be missed.


Warning: Not entirely safe for work -- brief nudity.

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(Gort shows Keanu Reeves a thing or two about acting in the original 1951 "The Day the Earth Stood Still")

The biggies this weekend are "Doubt" and "Frost/Nixon". Both are entertaining enough Oscar-bait, mostly on the strength of the performances: Frank Langella's Richard Milhous Nixon in "F/N" is a fabulously watchable conceit and beholding Meryl Streep at her most enjoyably eeevil and Philip Seymour Hoffman at his most likeable (and therefore highly suspect) is like getting a double serving of ham for the holidays. (Viola Davis, who'll get Oscar nominated on the strength of her one scene, is the mustard.)

Both of these movies are essentially theatrical two-handers transposed to the screen, and both are rather more shallow than they first appear. But that's okay: Serious drama can be fun, and when Streep and Langella are cooking, you know they know that. Just don't go to "Frost/Nixon" expecting the facts of the matter or to "Doubt" expecting subtlety.

"Nothing Like the Holidays" is everything like a home-for-the-holidays movie, with salsa. But the cast --especially Elizabeth Pena -- makes it go down easy. "How About You" is an adaptation of a Maeve Binchy story that gives Vanessa Redgrave an excuse to do things with turbans. Let that stand as either recommendation or warning.

"The Day the Earth Stood Still" -- Gort, Klaatu barada not-go.

The Harvard Film Archive's Nagisa Oshima retrospective continues; what I said last week in this space still holds. Do try to see the aching, absurdly powerful "Boy" on Saturday night. It's one of Derek Malcolm's very favorite movies. One of mine, too,

The Brattle is going Indy rather than indie this weekend, with the airing out of all four of Spieberg's Indiana Jones movies. Yes, even the much-abused "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which I still say fell victim to the youthful nostalgic delusions of much of its audience (in other words: it's a lot more like the other three than you probably want to admit). Just to gussy things up and give the series a patina of class, the excellently-named Dr. Jason Ur from Harvard's Anthropology Department will introduce the 7:00 and 9:30 shows tonight. (Does this guy really exist or will it turn out to be Brattle director Ned Hinkle in a pith helmet? Nope, he exists.)

The eerie "Manufactured Landscapes," one of my top picks from last year, has a return engagement at the Museum of Fine Arts as part of the ongoing "Photography on Film" series. With barely a word, this documentary about Edward Burtynsky's eco-photography makes a far more cogent case for man's predations than anything in "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

The Coolidge is showing "Gremlins" Sunday at 9:30, all you 80's tater-tots. Just pray that the screening doesn't go after midnight... and that it doesn't rain...