11th hour addition brings tally to 11 nominated films
The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) has announced that Star Wars: The Force Awakens has earned a Critics’ Choice Award nomination for Best Picture. The film was not screened for BFCA voters in time for the initial nominations balloting, but after members of the nation’s largest film critics group saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens last week it was decided to hold a special referendum yesterday to determine if it would have been nominated if the BFCA membership had been able to consider it.
The exception was made for only the Best Picture category and all other Critics’ Choice Award nominations remain as previously announced. Star Wars: The Force Awakens joins The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Carol, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, Room, Sicario and Spotlight as Critics’ Choice Award Best Picture nominees.
While making an amendment to the Critics’ Choice Awards nominations is highly unusual, having an 11th Best Picture nominee is not unprecedented. In 2000, Cast Away was similarly screened too late for normal consideration and the BFCA included it among 11 Best Picture nominees.
It is the purpose of the Critics’ Choice Awards to honor the finest in cinematic and television achievement. BFCA made this exception to its rules and included Star Wars: The Force Awakens to serve this purpose.
Winners will be revealed at the 21st annual Critics’ Choice Awards show on January 17th, televised live at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on A&E, Lifetime and LMN, and hosted by T.J. Miller.
The 21st Annual Critics’ Choice Awards” will be produced by Bob Bain Productions and Berlin Entertainment.
Review: Director-Writer Megan Park’s “My Old Ass”
They say tripping on psychedelic mushrooms triggers hallucinations, anxiety, paranoia and nervousness. In the case of Elliott, an 18-year-old restless Canadian, they prompt a visitor.
"Dude, I'm you," says the guest, as she nonchalantly burns a 'smores on a campfire next to a very high and stunned Elliott. "Well, I'm a 39-year-old you. What's up?"
What's up, indeed: Director-writer Megan Park has crafted a wistful coming-of-age tale using this comedic device for "My Old Ass" and the results are uneven even though she nails the landing.
After the older Elliott proves who she is — they share a particular scar, childhood memories and a smaller left boob — the time-travel advice begins: Be nice to your brothers and mom, and stay away from a guy named Chad.
"Can we hug?" asks the older Elliott. They do. "This is so weird," says the younger Elliott, who then makes things even weirder when she asks for a kiss — to know what it's like kissing yourself. The older Elliott soon puts her number into the younger's phone under the name "My Old Ass." Then they keep in touch, long after the effects of the 'shrooms have gone.
Part of the movie's problem that can't be ignored is that the two Elliotts look nothing alike. Maisy Stella plays the coltish young version and a wry Aubrey Plaza the older. Both turn in fine performances but the visuals are slowly grating.
The arrival of the older Elliott coincides with her younger self counting down the days until she can flee from her small town of 300 in the Muskoka Lakes region to college in Toronto, where "my life is about to start." She's sick of life on a cranberry farm.
Park's scenes and dialogue are unrushed and honest as Elliott takes her older self's advice and tries to repair... Read More