FYCs, Ours and Yours
Tuesday, December 17, 2013 at 6:45PM I intended to write a couple of entries of my own "FYCs" this year for our team project but realized that's essentially what my annual FiLM BiTCH Awards double as. I'm almost ready to go ahead with those, which range from the traditional awards categories through to dozens of fun "extras". I'm fully aware that the last two years of TFE's own prizes have been a bit shaky in terms of speed and completion, but this year I shan't drag my feet since my circumstances here have changed. I need your help, though, with the "extra categories" and the music categories (I am always lost with Best Score) so don't let me forget any perfect gems. What should I consider in the fields of: Best Cameo, Line Reading, Action Sequence, Kiss, Sex Scene, Credit Sequence, Opening Scene, Ending, Musical Moment?
SUBMIT YOUR FYCs IN THE COMMENTS
In the meantime, in case you missed any our "Fringe" FYCs for traditional categories, which aimed to widen the conversation and give awards voters a bit more options to think through than the 15 films they keep hearing about, please click around: Cinematography Her | Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus | Make-up Evil Dead (no longer eligible for Oscar consideration) | Costume Design Blue Jasmine | Score Ain't Them Bodies Saints | Sound Editing The Conjuring | Actor Tye Sheridan | Film Editing Stories We Tell | Screenplay In a World... | Supporting Actor Keith Stanfield | Song The Great Gatsby | Score Nebraska (no longer eligible for Oscar consideration) | Costume Design Lawrence Anyways | Foreign Film Neighboring Sounds | Supporting Actress Cameron Diaz | Picture The Spectacular Now | Make-Up Warm Bodies (no longer eligible for Oscar consideration) | Sound Mixing World War Z | Director Edgar Wright | Production Design The Conjuring
And three earlier suggestions before we formally began... Best Young Performer (for BFCA voters... though they didn't listen) | Supporting Actor Ulysses the Cat (probably technically not eligible for Oscar consideration) | Make-Up Warm Bodies (no longer eligible for Oscar consideration).
Reader Comments (46)
FYC
Best Line Reading: Everything that comes out of Melissa McCarthy's mouth in The Heat...
Johanna's (Jena Malone) "Maybe we could do it again sometime" in Catching Fire.
Best Score: Dickon Hinchliffe for Out of the Furnace (for the whole movie, I thought it was Thomas Newman), Vincent Courtois for Ernest et Célestine, Christophe Beck for Frozen and Henry Jackman for Captain Phillips
Best line reading...
Evelyn (Nicole Kidman): "Personally speaking I can't wait to watch life tear you apart."
Celine (Julie Delpy): "You're so smart"
Best supporting actor: Woody Harrelson for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Easily the performance that blew me away most this year.
FYC: The Bling Ring in Best Actor (Israel Broussard), Best Actress (Katie Chang), and Best Supporting Actress (Emma Watson)
FYC: Spring Breakers in Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor
FYC: Frances Ha in Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Editing
FYC: Bastards in Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Score
FYC: Blue is the Warmest Color in Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress
FYC: The Past in Best Supporting Actor (Elyes Aguis)
FYC: Stories We Tell in Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Editing
FYC: The World's End in Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay
FYC: Laurence Anyways in Best Actor (Melvil Poupand), Best Actress (Suzanne Clement), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Costume Design
FYC: Drug War for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director
FYC: The Place Beyond the Pines for Best Cinematography (Preferable Sean Bobbitt)
FYC: Prince Avalanche for Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay
FYC: Best Line Reading. Emma Watson "Let's go to Paris'. I wanna rob"
Best Musical Moment has GOT to be the scene in 20 Feet From Stardom where the camera watches Merry Clayton and Mick Jagger listen to Clayton's isolated Gimme Shelter track. Best Line Reading: 'I wanna rob', obviously.
FYC Best Change of Expression
Greta Gerwig leaving her parents at the airport in Frances Ha
Julia Louis-Dreyfus reacts to being called a 'dyke in Enough Said
Please update the predictions chart and include all of the 14 or 15 Cate Blanchett critics wins to truly showcase the avalanche that is taking place, thank you.
Best Musical Moment: Modern Love, Frances Ha
Best Line Reading: "I hate space," Sandra Bullock, Gravity, though I like James's as well
female cameo
Stoker . Jacki Weaver
Side Effects . Polly Draper
Before Midnight . Xenia Kalogeropoulou
Iron Man 3 . Dale Dickey
Nebraska . Missy Doty
male cameo
The Heat . Tony Hale
Iron Man 3 . Adam Pally
Lovelace . Wes Bentley
The Counselor . Toby Kebbell
Lee Daniels' The Butler . Nelsan Ellis
original soundtrack
The Place Beyond the Pines
Nebraska
Upstream Color
Neighbouring Sounds
Stoker
breakthrough performance
Blue Is the Warmest Color . Adèle Exarchopoulos
Upstream Color . Amy Seimetz
The Great Gatsby . Elizabeth Debicki
The Bling Ring . Katie Chung
Fruitvale Station . Melonie Diaz
Lore . Saskia Rosendahl
Mud . Tye Sheridan
Fruitvale Station . Michael B. Jordan
The Bling Ring . Israel Broussard
Drinking Buddies . Jake Johnson
Nebraska . Will Forte
FYC: The Bling Ring for Best Supporting Actress (Watson) and Best Actress in Limited Role (Leslie Mann)
FYC: Faust for Best Director and Best Cinematography
FYC: Gravity for Best Opening Scene
FYC: The Great Gatsby for Best Misc. Scene (Party at Gatsby's)
FYC: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug for Best Misc. Scene (Bilbo in Smaug's treasury)
FYC: Spring Breakers for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Title Sequence, Best Musical Scene (Everytime)
FYC: This is the End for Best Ensemble
FYC: To the Wonder for Best Cinematography and Best Mixed/Non-Original Score
FYC Best Action Sequence: Gravity "The Satellite Shower"
FYC Best Ending: This is the End
FYC Best Cinematography: Inside Llewyn Davis, Bruno Delbonnel
FYC Best Costume: Hunger Games, Trish Summerville
Best Actress: Paulina García, Gloria
Best Supporting Actress: Léa Seydoux, La vie d'Adèle
Best Cinematography: Benoît Debie, Spring Breakers
Best Film Editing: Douglas Crise, Spring Breakers
Best Production Design: Stefania Cella, La grande bellezza
Best Costume Design: Daniela Ciancio, La grande bellezza
Best Musical Moment: "Everytime", Spring Breakers*
*I would suggest a tie with I'm So Excited! but I don't dare after LAFCA
Best Line Reading- Anything and everything Emma Watson says in The Bling Ring, especially "Your butt looks awesome"
Upstream Color for editing. I never knew exactly what was going on, but I always kinda knew what was going on.
Picture - Dallas Buyers Club - this movie doesn't seem to be getting the traction in this category that it deservers.
Director - Lee Daniels - The Butler
Actor - Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Don Jon
Actress - Greta Gerwig - Frances Ha
Supporting Actor - Kevin Kline - Last Vegas
Supporting Actress - Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine
Screenplay - The Place Beyond the Pines
I watched Fruitvale Station last night. I didn't love the film, though I think the second half is really moving. But it probably has my favorite line reading of the year.
*SPOILER*
That "You shot me bro. I got a daughter" ripped me apart. Perfect line, perfect reading.
Xenia Kalogeropoulou in "Before Midnight" for Best Cameo
"Renoir" for Best Costume Design
"BEAT IT FROM 'EM." -Sarah Paulson in "12 Years a Slave" for Best Line Reading
"In the House" for Best Adapted Screenplay
For Best Musical Moment -- the 'Dance Yrself Clean' scene in "Simon Killer"; perfect song choice for an astonishing single take that serves as a perfect microcosm for the film itself and its preoccupations
(also seconding Mikadzuki and Peggy Sue on the 'Everytime' number in "Spring Breakers")
For Best Cameo -- Mindy Kaling & Michael Cera in "This Is The End"; I'm one of a (vocal) few who couldn't really stand this movie, but the first 15 minutes made think I was going to love it; Kaling's immediate confession of wanting to sex Michael Cera combined w/ Cera's comic douchebaggery had me in stitches
The absolute Best Sex Scene of the year goes to Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller in The Spectacular Now. Easily one the best scenes of the entire year as well.
FYC Line Reading: Emma Watson in The Bling Ring, "I wanna rob."
FYC Musical Moment: "Everytime" by Britney Spears in Spring Breakers.
FYC Opening Sequence: The Bling Ring, The Place Beyond the Pines, Mud.
BEST SCORE:
***“Side Effects”, Thomas Newman***
- The opening track ‘Very Sick Girl’ is a genius, haunting guitar solo that evokes mood much in the way of that Rosemary’s Baby lullaby (and whose opening shot even feels inspired by the Polanski classic… the camera moving in on an urban apartment complex), the slightly ominous humming mixed in with atmospheric and cool electronics percussion. And I just love its dreamy quality… like being lost in a fog. And as one critic mentioned; “it mimics and subverts the soothing music of antidepressant sale pitches, composing lullabies that portend a sleep full of nightmares.”
BEST CAMEO
- Kyle Chandler, “The Spectacular Now”
- Paul Giamatti, “12 Years a Slave”
- Lior Ashkenazi, “Yossi”
- Rachel Griffiths, “Saving Mr. Banks”
- Rob Lowe & Debbie Reynolds, “Behind the Candelabra”
(*please telling me you’re counting it as theatrical release… which it was in Europe)
LINE READING:
- Lupita Nyong'o, “12 Years a Slave”; Patsey’s devastating “mercy kill” request of Solomon
KISS:
“BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR”
“EVIL DEAD”
(two now classic girl-on-girl smooches)
SEX SCENE:
“BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR”
(done, give it its gold film bitch metal now)
ACTION SEQUENCE:
“This Is the End”- Hollywood Armageddon
MUSICAL MOMENT
-“Spring Breakers”- Piano playing by ocean to Spears' “Everytime”
OPENING SCENE
-“Stoker” (although maybe this counts more as an opening credit sequence)
ENDING
“Captain Phillips” – Hank’s indelible catharsis
Opening scene: Bruce walking along the expressway, unswayed, determined, resolute, to his pot of gold.
Line reading: Chiwetel's last utterance.
A lot of my personal FYCs were actually mentioned in your series (ie, 'Nebraska' for Best Score, 'Spring Breakers' for Cinematography), but the one that I really liked that I'd like to get out there:
Anna Kendrick, 'Drinking Buddies' for Best Supporting Actress
I wasn't crazy about the movie but the performances were very good and she was the best by far (for me).
I feel like a FYC for Scarlett Johanson in Don Jon is in order. I detest the movie, but easily one of the most committed performances this year.
Best Line Reading: Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan in The Great Gatsby:
"It was the day I got my new English golf shoes".
Debicki is so perfect, moment after moment, line after line.
Best Action Sequence: Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel in the latest Hobbit installment. What a relief and pleasure to have a graceful, heroic, expert, good heroine take over the screen.
Most effective in a non-speaking role: Sean Mahon as Philomena's adult son in Philomena. Although he has no lines, Mahon comes across as interesting, thoughtful, and a worthwhile person to know. The film needs the son to be someone special, and you believe he is.
Best cameo:
Alfre Woodard - 12 years a slave
Angela McEwan - Nebraska
Jennifer Jason Leigh - Kill your Darlings
Kyle Chandler - Kill your Darlings
Debbie Reynolds - Behind the Candelabra
Jane Fonda - The Butler
F. Murray Abraham - Inside Lewyn Davis
Best Line Reading:
Chiewtel Ejiofor - I don't want to survive. I want to live.
Tom Hanks - whatever he says at the end of Captain Phillips
Sally Hawkins - "You never told me you were married"
Sally Hawkins - "She's not just broke. She's all screwed up"
Cate Blanchett - "I saw you Erica!"
Cate Blanchett - "Brooklyn! Can you imagine that?"
Cate Blanchett - "Anxiety, nightmares and a nervous breakdown, there's only so many traumas a person can withstand until they take to the streets and start screaming"
Scott-Thomas - "With Billy being the older brother and having a bigger cock..Julian's was never small, but Billy's was..oh, it was enormous"
Scott-Thomas - "I have just traveled 10,000 miles to see the corpse of my first-born son."
Brie Larson - "I am on the floor every day with those kids and last night that girl sat next to me and she cried and she tried to tell me the only way that she knew how"
Everything that comes out of Louis-Dreyfuss's mouth in Enough Said
Action Sequence:
Zombies climbing the wall in World War Z
First Scene of Gravity
Kiss
Amy Adams and Cooper in the stall
Amy Adams and Lawrence in the bathroom
Scott-Thomas and Gosling
Sex scene
The Spectacular Now
Opening Scene:
Short Term 12
Place beyond the pines
Fruitvale station
Computer chess
The Square
Ending:
The Act of Killing
Short Term 12
Like Someone in Love
Stories we tell
The Hunt
Captain Phillips
12 Years a Slave
Musical moment
Frances Ha - Modern Love (best moment of the movie...until I realized it was being copied, that is)
American Hustle - I feel love
Inside Lewyn Davis - audition
Short Term 12 - rap
The act of Killing - giant fish choreo and waterfall scene
20 feet from stardom - rolling stones concert
Pussy Riot - Church scene
I'd like to see some love for the supporting actors in "Blue Jasmine." Alec, Peter, CK, Andrew, Michael and especially Bobby Cannavale, who is my second choice for Supporting Actor of the year. Michael Fassbender of course, is my first choice; he deserves it (again).
Best Female Cameo- Alfre Woodard, 12 Years a Slave. AMAZING
Best Line Reading- Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club "Are you disappointed in me? Cause I couldn't tell." That came through SO perfectly, summing up Rayon's relationship with their father and chilled me to think of how often Rayon has felt a disappointment, but also the defiance/indifference to daddy's dislike.
Best Cameo: Xenia Kalogeropoulou, Before Midnight
Line Reading: Hugh Jackman, Prisoners: "It's your fault." (to Jake Gyllenhaal)
Action Sequence: World War Z (the plane-crash or escaping the apartment complex)
Kiss: The Spectacular Now, Sutter and Aimee's first kiss
Sex Scene: Don Jon, Scarlett Johansson grinding against JGL's crotch before she enters her apartment (that was more arousing than any actual sex scene)
Credit Sequence: (don't know)
Opening Scene: Place Beyond the Pines (Gosling! Motorcycle! Cage! Continuous shot!)
Ending: Captain Phillips (duh!)
Also, I figure you are less flexible about external suggestions regarding the ordinary categories, but I'll FYC four performances that I didn't see in your long-lists but that I think definitely deserve a second look.
Actor: Isaiah Washington, "Blue Caprice" (those hints of Washington-a-la-Training-Day. Yowza!!)
Actress: Shailene Woodley, "The Spectacular Now" (not only is her Aimee not surprisingly cliched but she's also quite subtle and wholesome in her acting)
Supporting Actor: Ben Mendelssohn, "The Place Beyond the Pines" (he treats that forsaken, lower-class hermit with zero condescension, and adds so much sensitivity with compassionate looks and quite, but powerful line readings)
Supporting Actress: Julianne Moore, "Don Jon" (not just "something she could do in her sleep" as I heard so many say...she's doing A LOT with that character. So moving in it!)
I loved Jacki Weaver in Stoker but don't think she really fits in anywhere. She makes one expression looking at her room in the motel that is EVERYTHING.
Stoker deserves FYC in costume, set design, score, song and Nicole freakin' Kidman.
FYC Best Supporting Actress - Scarlett Johansson, DON JON
and i second...
Best Sex Scene - THE SPECTACULAR NOW
Best Score - SIDE EFFECTS
Best Line Reading - Leto, DALLAS BUYERS CLUB "Disappointed..."
Best Line Reading - Blanchett, BLUE JASMINE "I saw you Erica!"
fyc best cameo alfre woodard 12 years a slave
fyc suppoeting actor ray mckinnon in mud.
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Quinn, "The Lords of Salem"
Best Supporting Actor: David Oyelowo, "The Butler"
Line reading: Either "I don't really do it" in Frances Ha" or McCarthy's "I don't know what to say to that. Now I just feel bad for you." in The Heat. Well that or about 5 other McCarthy lines in The Heat.
Opening scene: Place Beyond the Pines. I liked the film less and less as it went on, but I was entranced by that opening.
Ending: Stoker.
Musical moment: The Gatsby party scene. Wasn't that really why that film was made with that director? Not a fan of the film at all, but I thought that scene was a perfect fit of filmmaker, music, and material.
Supporting Actress: Emma Watson for The Bling Ring.
Screenplay: Wentworth Miller for Stoker, or Baumbach & Gerwig for Frances Ha.
If you do a breathrough award: Michael Zegen or Israel Broussard (who could also be up for Younger Performer?).
Director: Chan-wook Park or Sofia Coppola.
And it really feels like Kristin Scott Thomas should get something. Most deliciously wicked embodiment of evil?
scott c -- i don't have a 'younger performer' category but i do have a breakthrough so i appreciate the fyc.
One more musical moment that stood out to me:
Adele dancing to Lykke Li's 'I Follow Rivers' at her surprise birthday party in "Blue is the Warmest Color". The unselfconscious, youthful freedom of that moment contrasts so nicely with her later unsure restraint at the party for Emma and also with her more adult/complicated dance while out with her coworker. The moment is a wonderful snapshot of where Adele is the minute she turns 18 and starts to slide into adulthood at an even quicker pace.
Best Musical Moment - Stoker. Matthew Goode and Mia Wasikowska at the piano. One of the sadly-too-few moments when that film really came together.
Best Line Reading - Frances Ha "Tell me the story of us." Gerwig packs so much meaning and history into that one line that it took no more than that to sell me on Frances and Sophie as soul mates.
Also PLEASE don't forget Frances Ha's Mickey Summer in your Best Supporting Actress considerations!
Best Cameo: Jacki Weaver in Stoker. She has really one extended scene and she's fantastic in it. The film tries to reduce her to nothing more than a plot point and she's not having it.
Original Score: Only God Forgives. There's your gold medalist. Branch out to films like Frozen, Stoker (!), The Wind Rises, Trance (!), Short Term 12, Mud, The Call, Much Ado About Nothing (!), and The Place Beyond the Pines (!).
Musical Moment: the piano duet in Stoker. Scariest scene in the film. Probably the most important scene in the film and one of the best reasons to watch. It is the only moment in the entire film with the ambient sounds of the environment are not at the forefront. The piano is so loud, yet the world is so quiet. Meaning, the only time in the entire film that India is calm and focused like a normal person--not totally insane like a Poe narrator--is when she's playing piano with her darling uncle.
Joel Edgerton and Carey Mulligan from Gatsby for BSA and BSA.
Humbly FYC...
Cinematography: Kiko de la Rica "Blancanieves"
Chris Blauvelt and Harris Savides "The Bling Ring"
Original Score: Alfonso de Vilallonga "Blancanieves"
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Maribel Verdu "Blancanieves"
Best Cameo
This is the End - Michael Cera
Afternoon Delight - Jane Lynch
In A World - Eva Longoria
Line Reading
12 Years A Slave - Patsy’s speech on returning back to the plantation with soap
Fraces Ha - Frances: “We’re not doing that. It’s not court.”
Enough Said - Albert: “You broke my heart. And I’m too old for this sh-t”
Sex Scene
Simon Killer - A certain scene near the end of the film between Brady Corbet and Constance Rouseeau enters Last Tango in Paris territory.
Opening Scene
The bacchanalian opening montage of Spring Breakers with Skrillex’s “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites”
90s nostalgia in The To-Do List
Musical Moment
Spring Breakers - The Britney Spears’ “Everytime” sequence, in which the teen girls sway in a circle while holding machine girls like a subversion of Matisse’s dancers.
Laurence Anyways - Suzanne Clement’s stylized rebirth at the ball set to Visage’s “Fade to Grey”
12 Years A Slave - Chiwetel achingly joins his fellow slaves in singing the “Roll, Jordan, Roll” funeral song
20 Feet From Stardom - Merry Clayton’s isolated vocals on “Gimme Shelter”
This Is The End - The Backstreet Boys finale in Heaven. It’s just so much fun.
Best Ending and Best Musical Moment: the ending to Gloria. I left the theater and immediately downloaded the song. I seriously wanted to dance all the way home. I can't imagine that anyone who's seen the film would feel otherwise.
Best Cameo: Xenia K from Before Midnight (I had forgotten about this gem until reading the comments here... Loved. It.) and Sandor Funtek from Blue is the Warmest Color.
Forgot one more: Best Line Reading- JLaw's "Thank God for me" at the end of the science oven scene. It encapsulates my entire feelings about her role in the film.
I'm probably late for this but for what it's worth please don't finalise your Best Actress ballot until you've seen Juliette Binoche in Camille Claudel 1915. And for your Best Picture/Director/Editing please do consider Museum Hours. It's deceptively sublime.