Critical Consensus: Boyhood or Birdman?

Birdman and Boyhood continue to split regional trophies. This round tips in Birdman's favor for a change though. I'm becoming more and more curious to see who SAG selects as "Outstanding Cast". Will they opt for the heartfelt dedication of 4 actors who spent a few weeks each year for over a decade making the same intimate masterpiece, or will they go with a very exciting movie that's about acting to a significant degree with the lively interactions of movie stars pretending to be theater stars who are actually acting together in frame in a way you rarely see in the movies but see all the time in theater where this is no camera and editing to distract you.

It's a tough predictive call though my vote goes to Birdman because there's far more acting with each other (and more consistency in the quality of each performance) something that is pure pleasure if you're a lover of the art of acting as interacting.

Results and commentary from Florida, Las Vegas, Utah and St Louis after the jump...

FLORIDA FILM CRITICS CIRCLE
Founded in 1996 when they named Fargo the best film. Only two of their winners haven't been Oscar Picture nominees (Magnolia & Amelie). They name their Breakthrough of the Year prize after Pauline Kael which I find so hilarious. Only because Kael was so damn cantankerous and opinionated that I'm sure she's hated most of the selections made in her name from her grave.

Picture Birdman
Director Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Actress Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Actor Michael Keaton, Birdman
Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Supporting Actor JK Simmons, Whiplash 
Original Screnplay Grand Budapest Hotel
Adapted Screenplay Gone Girl
Cinematography Interstellar
Art Direction Grand Budapest Hotel
Score Under the Skin
Visual Effects Interstellar
Animated Feature The LEGO Movie
Foreign Film The Raid 2
Documentary  Life Itself
Pauline Kael Breakout Award Damien Chazelle, Whiplash
Golden Orange - The Borsct Corporation
This last is a prize given to outstanding contributions to cinema in Florida. The Borscht Group is a non-profit helping filmmakers in South Florida

LAS VEGAS FILM CRITICS SOCIETY
They call their prize the "Sierra" awards and they've been at it since 1997 when Titanic sunk with 4 of their trophies. Aside from a two year run 2001-2002 with Memento and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (?) all of the Sierra winners have been Oscar favorites. This year they hold the strange honor of being the only critics groups to shut Boyhood out of prizes. 

Picture Birdman
Top Ten In Order

1. Birdman
2. Boyhood
3. Whiplash
4. Nightcrawler
5. Grand Budapest Hotel
6. Wild
7. Selma
8. The Imitation Game
9. Snowpiercer
10. Under the Skin 

Director Iñárritu, Birdman
Actress Reese Witherspoon, Wild
Actor Michael Keaton, Birdman
Supporting Actress Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer
Supporting Actor JK Simmons, Whiplash 
Screenplay Birdman
Cinematography Birdman
Art Direction Grand Budapest Hotel
Score Birdman
Song "I Love You All," Frank
Animated Feature The LEGO Movie
Foreign Film Ida
Documentary  Citizenfour
Action Film Guardians of the Galaxy
Comedy Top Five
Horror/Sci-Fi The Babadook 
Family Film The LEGO Movie
Ensemble Birdman
Youth in Film Jaeden Lieberher, St Vincent 
William Holden Lifetime Achievement Bill Murray 

St. Vincent, or What If We Remade As Good As it Gets But Literally Canonized the Asshole Protagonist and Threw In a Pregnant Russian Hooker?

— Matthew Eng (@Eng_Matthew) December 17, 2014

So not only is Bill Murray canonized in Toronto with a whole day to himself when St Vincent premiered but he's also canonized in the film and now he's also a lifetime achievement guy for Vegas. Good year for him. The film is a solid hit, too, even though it hasn't crossed over into Oscar conversation much. You know it was thisclose to a SAG Cast nomination, though. And because we're talking about St. Vincent it's worth noting that this is one of those organizations that lets you do category fraud whenever you'd like since Naomi Watts won "SUPPORTING" for Mulholland Dr. Remember when Universal's Oscar team tried that with her campaign? That was funny... and unfortunate since she shoulda won the Oscar for best actress that year.

(They don't give out their lifetime achievement award every year but it invariably goes to a man. The only female recipient was Thelma Schoonmaker, who is closely attached to their Scorsese fetish.) 

UTAH FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
Founded in 2005 so they're one of our later groups and might not make the cutoff I plan to do next year (still deciding on age of organizations to cover to make awards season more manageable.) I'm still trying to get a bead on their taste as an organization. But since I spent many years in Utah and I like one of their top critics Scott Renshaw a lot I'm always interested. 

I like their unexpected mention of Snowpiercer in Adapted Screenplay just because it's something most people haven't bothered to "consider..." despite a not-very-competitive field since most of the case of "arguably adapted" works this year are claiming to be Original for the sake of awardage.

Picture Birdman
Director Inarritu, Birdman
Actress Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Actor Michael Keaton, Birdman
Supporting Actress Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year
Supporting Actor JK Simmons, Whiplash 
Original Screnplay Birdman
Adapted Screenplay [TIE] Inherent Vice and Snowpiercer 
Cinematography Nightcrawler
Animated Feature The LEGO Movie
Foreign Film We are the Best (Sweden)
Documentary  Citizenfour

ST LOUIS GATEWAY FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
This organization, established in 2004, includes critics from St. Louis, larger Missouri, and Illinois. Very mainstream tastes, invariably awarding either the future Best Picture winner or one of the other Oscar nomination behemoths.

Picture Boyhood
Director Alejandro Inarritu, Birdman
Actress Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Supporting Actor JK Simmons, Whiplash 
 Original Screnplay Birdman
Adapted Screenplay Gone Girl
Cinematography Birdman
Art Direction Grand Budapest Hotel
Score Birdman
Visual Effects Interstellar
Soundtrack Guardians of the Galaxy
Original Song "Everything is Awesome," The LEGO Movie
Animated Feature The LEGO Movie
 Art House Film Whiplash
Foreign Film Force Majeure
Documentary Citizen Four
Comedy Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Scene X-Men Days of Future Past - Quicksilver's Escape 

In Case You Missed Other Critics Awards Posts
Boston, LA, and NYFCO - All Boyhood, plus the early Marion Cotillard love-fest. 
LAFCA Podcast - talking to Justin Chang about the LAFCA voting process and results
NYFCC - the most venerable of film critic institutions, founded in 1935!, went for Boyhood
EFA & Washington DC - Ida overseas (EFA is not a film critic organization. I was just doubling up) and a controversial Captain America: Winter Soldier decision
Boston Online - Snowpiercer curveball for an upstart group
African American Film Critics (Plus Image Awards) - A lot of Selma and a little Gugu
OFCS, Dallas, Kansas City, San Francisco - some Birdman and Budapest
Austin, Detroit, Phoenix, San Diego - a lot more Boyhood, a little Nightcrawler

Comments

[BVR]

Nathaniel: although didn't Watts's subsequent work kind of made you want to take that trophy back? I didn't love her in another movie again until BIRDMAN this year.

[NATHANIEL R]

BVR -- a little bit, sure. But that's uncharitable and I dont retract my prizes. :)

[Lucky]

No Julianne at all!

[Henry]

I'm surprised Gone Girl didn't do better with St. Louis as it was filmed just to the south.

I also noticed a lot of love for Pike across the board.

I think SAG will (at this point) go for Birdman, but give Support Actress to Arquette. We have a lot of time to go before votes have to be in and much can happen.

I think Tilda could be another dark horse. She is in one of the biggies and Snowpiercer keeps cropping up in these award things. People have to be getting curious.

[mark]

Pike looks to be Moores competition.

[Volvagia]

Okay:

Actor: Pretty much.
Actress: Good that you realize Witherspoon isn't really iron clad anymore.
Supporting Actor: Agreed on Duvall. I think, to an extent, Duvall's nominations at Globe and SAG were less about Duvall than they were about getting RDJ on the carpet. Oscar could easily just ask him to present, tell their voters that they're getting RDJ to present and tell their membership to think about whether the nod is REALLY about Duvall.
Supporting Actress: Agree on the first two positions, but fifth to eighth are Chastain (Globe but not SAG means she's a dicier bet), Watts for Birdman (getting SAG cited for the other film means there's NO WAY she's at 12th place for this film, but not getting Globe cited for either means she's slightly lower than Chastain), Dern and Ejogo.

[San FranCinema]

""and might not make the cutoff I plan to do next year (still deciding on age of organizations to cover to make awards season more manageable.)""

For what it's worth, coverage of these critics groups is now everywhere on the webz, and not really what I turn to your site for.

Seems like you could cover the prizes in your Links post and put your energy into the stuff that you do best (like that great Five Armies post or the Missi Experience).

[th]

Wow, I'm so happy for Pike's late surge. I still hope Moore takes the Oscar, but I really wanted to see that love for Rosamund, since I think she needs the career boost much more.

[Carlos]

I really hope Julianne Moore finally wins her very well deserved and overdue Oscar. Pike is getting some love from some small critics groups, but I see her as Michelle Williams in the Year when Streep won her second Oscar: Michelle won most of critics groups, but when the Guilds and Globes started, It was Viola Davis Vs Meryl Streep. It’s Julianne Moore’s time. It’s unbelievable for me that Moore doesn’t have an Oscar yet, and other low profile and non so much talented actresses have. I think the Academy knows it’s Julie’s time, and also knows she wants it too much. How can a person who have worked with this wonderful actress through the years could vote against her? It’s nice to see Pike’s work recognized, but Moore has an entire body of work and “Still Alice” is one of her brillant performances for sure (I haven’t seen the film yet). It’s weird to think that Paltrow has an Oscar, but Moore doesn’t. Julianne’s time is now!

[Jonathan]

I would rank "Boyhood" fourth out of the SAG ensemble nominees, only ahead of "The Theory of Everything." I'm honestly not convinced it should even be there: yeah, Hawke and Arquette are great, Coltrane and daughter Linklater are precious and charming, but... who else is there? The abusive fathers? Not really stand-out work. A couple of Mason's friends do nice jobs, but I don't see that as being worthy of commendation. "Birdman" is head and shoulders above it, and I hope SAG gets it right rewarding it. Although I'd be perfectly content with "The Grand Budapest Hotel" or "The Imitation Game" winning.

[Peggy Sue]

Pike is following the steps of Michelle Williams a couple years ago. Julianne only needs the Globe and the SAG and she'll get them.

[BVR]

Nathaniel: I was just kidding about retracting the trophy. She was brilliant in it, just wish for more consistency. :)

[Bette Streep]

Boyhood will NOT win the Best Picture Oscar.

It's best bets are Director, Original Screenplay and Supporting Actress.

At almost 3 hours long - and no titanic or hobbit wars - it will not be seen by many voters.

I believe the Best Picture will go to either Birdman or Selma.

Just depends on whether the majority of voters want to reward a black comedy about Hollywood or honour another film about African Americans and civil rights.

Remember The Player - a black comedy about Hollywood - was virtually ignored 22 years ago. But are voters sick and tired of 'message' movies so soon after 12 years a slave???