"Licorice Pizza" it is for NBR
Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 5:11PM by Nathaniel R
The National Board of Review has spoken naming Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza, the best of the year. The meandering 'California in the 70s' romantic comedy between a directionless 25 year old woman and a 15 year old child star/entrepeneur has delighted critics since it started screening and the NBR (though they're not a critics group) also felt the vibes. It's still shocking to me, personally that the internet isn't outraged about the plot alone (even though the film is careful about not really going there) while at the same time the internet loves to harass fully-grown adult stars with age differences. But... that's a distraction since social media outrage is a very different thing than awards organization proclivities.
The full list of winners, Oscar stats, and more NBR history including their 'recency bias' problems follow after the jump...
The NBR is the most secretive group this side of the HFPA in terms of their membership (all we ever hear is that it's a mix of academics, filmmakers, students, and film enthusiasts though I know of at least one professional critic who is a member) and inner workings but they always get a lot of press. They used to be "first" which helped them though each year now a different group tries to get that title.
For years the NBR's most questionable peculiarity was drooling on Clint Eastwood films. Even the rare ones the critics didn't like would show up on their top ten list but they've finally overcome that and didn't mention the quickly forgotten Cry Macho which opened in the two thousand years ago that was... September. Which brings us to the NBR's #1 bias, Recency Bias. Though they threw a surprise curveball last year by fully embracing Da 5 Bloods (a summer release) usually they pick a November or December title.
Only two of their winners this year hit theaters or streaming before November, and they're in the less high profile categories of Directorial Debut and Documentary. A few of the winners haven't opened yet and all three films of the 'last to screen' Oscar hopefuls of the season (Don't Look Up, West Side Story, Nightmare Alley) are in their top ten list.
Film: LICORICE PIZZA
The rest of their top ten is in alpha order (and release dates listed for fun)
- Belfast (Nov 12th)
- Don't Look Up (Dec 24th)
- Dune (Oct 22nd)
- King Richard (Nov 19th)
- The Last Duel (Oct 15th)
- Nightmare Alley (Dec 17th)
- Red Rocket (Dec 10th)
- Tragedy of Macbeth (Dec 25th)
- West Side Story (Dec 10th)
A top ten aggregrate list without Power of the Dog on it just feels kinda... dumb?
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, LICORICE PIZZA
I think this choice bears repeating / paraphrasing what we said last year when Spike Lee won and then suddenly everyone thought he was "a sure thing"...
The NBR almost never chooses someone who isn't firmly in the Oscar conversation for this prize. But, here's the catch and it's interesting: they often choose people for this category who seem like they're going to get an Oscar nomination and who we sometimes even remember as having been nominated, but actually weren't! Recently that's happened to Ridley Scott for The Martian, Clint Eastwood for American Sniper and Invictus, Bradley Cooper for A Star is Born, Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty, Ang Lee for Sense & Sensibility, Todd Field for In the Bedroom, Spike Lee for Da 5 Bloods... and so on. So if you're superstitious this might not be a great omen.
Only 15 of the last 31 winners have gone on to Oscar nominations which is the lowest Oscar correlation within the high profile categories.
Actor: Will Smith, KING RICHARD
The past 30 years have had a couple of NBR ties so the stats are a little confusing. It's a good omen to win here as you are usually nominated. But recently the winner haven't been repeating. Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea, 2016) is the last man to have won both the NBR and the Oscar in this category.
Actress: Rachel Zegler, WEST SIDE STORY
26 of the last 30 winners have gone on to an Oscar nomination. But it's worth noting that the four who missed were all in the quite recent past: Amy Adams (Arrival), Emma Thompson (Saving Mr Banks), Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) and Lesley Manville (Another Year).
Supporting Actor: Ciarán Hinds, BELFAST
27 of the last 31 winners have gone on to an Oscar nomination
Supporting Actress: Aunjanue Ellis, KING RICHARD
17 of the last 31 winners have gone on to an Oscar nomination. As with Best Director this is the category that doesn't have a particular high rate of Oscar correlation through the years but that's changing since the NBR is getting less and less daring in their choices in this particular category and going with presumed Oscar nominees for the past ten years. The last time somebody missed after winning the NBR was Jessica Chastain in A Most Violent Year (2014).
Original Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi, A HERO
Adapted Screenplay: Joel Coen, THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
This feels like such a lazy choice given that Adapted Screenplay is where it's at this year in terms of really brilliant cinematic interpretations.
Breakthrough Performance: Alana Haim & Cooper Hoffman, LICORICE PIZZA
Directorial Debut: Michael Sarnoski, PIG
Animated Feature: ENCANTO
The NBR is super mainstream in this particular category so this isn't a surprise. They usually go with a bigger from Pixar or Disney or Dreamworks.
Foreign Language Film: A HERO
They also release a top 5, alphabetically, so essentially a top six. The others are:
- Benedetta (France)
- Lamb (Iceland)
- Lingui, The Sacred Bonds (Chad)
- Titane (France)
- Worst Person in the World (Norway)
The NBR will occassionally throw in non-Oscar correlative choices here and Benedetta takes that spot this year since it's not eligible for Best International Feature Film. The rest are of course Oscar submissions
Documentary: SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED)
Same thing with a top six. The others are:
- Ascension
- Attica
- Flee
- The Rescue
- Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain
Acting by an Ensemble: THE HARDER THEY FALL
Copying the Gotham Awards here. And because we are required by our very nature to ask this when anyone names something "best ensemble" in whichever year--- did you actually think was the very best ensemble acting of the year or did you just like seeing all those famous stars in the same movie?
Does this award have any correlation to SAG's eventual nominees for Outstanding Cast? Why yes it does... though less thatn you'd perhaps think. 11 of the past 20 winners were SAG nominated but they usually don't win both prizes.
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel, THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: FLEE
Top Ten Independent Films
(Alpha Order)
- Card Counter
- C'mon C'mon
- CODA
- Green Knight
- Holler
- Jockey
- Old Henry
- Pig
- Shiva Baby
- The Souvenir Part II
The NBR's list in this category is always so head-scratching since if they really like something "indie" they just put it in the top ten (see Red Rocket's placement this year). So this doesn't actually suggest to us that they relaly loved any of these.
Licorice Pizza, NBR, Oscars (21), precursor awards
Reader Comments (16)
You know PTA is one of those auteurs deemed untouchable by the internet (and I'm a fan!). If the same movie were made by someone else, there'd be plenty of outrage to go around.
Ignoring The Power of the Dog is certainly a choice. As is omitting tick, tick... boom! and In the Heights. I know everyone has unfairly written off the latter, but the former certainly should have been here. Recency bias isn't even the issue there!
This is going to be a VERY political awards season. Every ethnic group will be recognized.
No one wants to go "against the grain"... Too bad... some of the really deserved
performances will lose out.
A whole bunch of movies I'm excited about, and very few that I've seen.
My question, dear person-who-has-seen-WSS, is Zegler a decent pick?
While dismayed by the snubs of The Power of the Dog, Being the Ricardos, tick, tick … BOOM! and Mass, I am pleasantly surprised to see a nod to Old Henry. I greatly enjoyed the rare lead performance by character actor Tim Blake Nelson. The film is a suspenseful Western with a few clever twists.
Hopefully we can get to a day where people stop saying how political critics groups/award shows are. It’s nonsense for someone to think it can be apolitical. They will inherently be political because film is that itself. And that goes for all and every film, regardless if certain people don’t realize it.
Mike -- I think Zegler is quite good in WEST SIDE STORY but she wouldn't make my top ten for best actress. Just too much great stuff this year for really good to make it!
Guy... Wake up, man.... Golden Globes, the new Oscar rules???
@rdf. Guy's right. It's always been political. It's just that in the past it was political in a white, America First, center-right or center-left way sort of way (depending on the decade). Thinking that the Oscars voting for PARASITE and Daniel Kaluuya in recent years is "political" but voting for CASABLANCA and BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES in the 40s or ON THE WATERFRONT and BEN-HUR in the 50s was not ALSO political is nonsense. There were a lot of people of color who "deserved Oscars" in the past and were snubbed, like Toshiro Mifune for RASHOMON (who should have won the year that... checks notes... Gary Cooper won for HIGH NOON) and that, too was political.
There really should be a rule where you can't be awarded best anything if you've only been out for a week or less. Like come on now.
The rule should be that these groups should wait until January 5th to vote on anything. A year has TWELVE months. December is one of them.
This.
You always fucking hate their choices so I don't know why I even bother reading.
Happy for Licorice Pizza. Sounds fun and unpretentious.
Pleased for Ellis,she is my current pick,thought Dowd would make an impression here
I had hoped Garfield would take Best Actor,
I can't say i'm excited for WWS but if Zegler is a contender i'll have to see it but Natalie Wood is Natalie Wood so Zegler has shoes to fill though WWS isn't Wood at her strongest.
Does Smith begin his steamrolling of Best Actor after this.
Ciaran Hinds seems to be our first lock in Supporting Actor.
I have this gut feeling that West Side Story will lead the Oscar nominations with somewhere between 8 and 11 but Spielberg will be left out of Best Director like what happened with The Color Purple back in ‘85. Plus the Academy has a history of overlooking the director’s role in musicals (see: Baz Luhrmann missing Best Director despite Moulin Rouge getting in for Best Picture, and Chicago winning the following year while Rob Marshall wasn’t part of its mini sweep).
Licorice Pizza is playing in...4 theatres? The backlash will come when people actually get to see it - so...January?
Rachel Zegler is a nice shake-up. She could absolutely go nowhere else, but this puts her in the conversation and that's exciting. It really is interesting and rather old fashioned how hyped in advance she's been as the next big thing. Blockbuster film roles, forbes 30 under 30, a NBR award and hardly anyone has seen her in a film yet.
Best Adapted Screenplay for The Tragedy of Macbeth? How much come you rewrite Shakespeare?