Critics Choice Awards Live Blog

8:01 Auspicious Beginnings - the sound is already out of sync on the intro!
8:02 Fixed. But Ooh the reaction shots are already rough. Anne Hathaway and Sally Field don't look so happy to be there. Jessica Chastain isn't even faking it well and she usually looks so cheerful. Or maybe I'm projecting since I'm bone tired from the Oscar Nom run up and early morning.
8:04 Sam Rubin, critic, is drooling on the IMPORTANT. FAMOUS. PEOPLE. 

8:05 For some reason Henry Cavill are presenting the first award. Because when you think of Superman you always think... Best Ensemble? 

Ensemble: Silver Linings Playbook
Young Actor/Actress: Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild (who reads her speech from an iPhone which is adorable)

8:18 Some awkward banter for Famke Jannsen where she's not supposed to know what famous action movie quotes are like "I'll be back". Um.... banter isn't supposed to make the star look bad. Do you think she's annoyed that she was a Bond girl before the currrent Bond hoopla? 

Jennifer, Jessica, Rebel and more after the jump

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The Perks of Being Logan Lerman: Son of "Noah"

"Wallflower" is probably not the right word to define Logan Lerman. Though he describes himself as "quiet" and makes more than a few self-deprecating comments, he isn't exactly a bundle of shy neurosis. Instead the twenty-year old actor has the kind of chill demeanor that comes from unfussy professional confidence. Once you stop to do the math, you realize he's already in his twelfth year of professional acting (his first screen role was one of Mel Gibson's kids in The Patriot , 2000).

Twelfth year!

Logan Lerman, photographed for Flaunt Magazine

So it's something of a perfect coincidence that his "senior year" in the public eye, if you will, would so perfectly coincide with a starring role in one of the best high school movies in ages. "Wallflower" doesn't describe him but The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the best illustration yet of his gifts as an actor. His soulful turn as the troubled young writer at the heart of the film won Lerman fine reviews and a well deserved nomination for "Best Young Actor" at the Critic's Choice Awards. 

This, you might say, is graduating with top honors. 

Interview after the jump...

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"Critics Choice" Nominations Full List

My last minute super-campaigning for Perks of a Wallflower's Logan Lerman in Young Actor (at least) appears to have paid off though my other pleas did not. Nicole Kidman's remarkable transformation in The Paperboy continues to be ignored in the rush to give all prizes to the same 12 movies so this is hardly a surprise though still disappointing. But the most gob-smacking, head-scratching utterly-embarrassing ommission has to be Michael Fassbender missing out on a nomination for  Prometheus as Actor in an Action Movie. It's the laziest star-fuckingest balloting ever by BFCA members -- none of whom should ever say a bad word about the Globes' tendency to do this in their columns ever again. They chose Bale as Batman and Downey Jr as Iron Man reheated do-overs of performance that were only great once or twice seven-ish years ago and they chose them while F***ing Fassbender was just off to the left mercilessly/scientifically wreaking havoc on humans while obsessing over Lawrence of Arabia. My fellow voters, I am sad to say, seem utterly without taste or at least are lost without the barometer of Oscar buzz to guide them; I don't know if you know this but The Academy Awards has no correlative Best Actor in an Action Movie category.

To cheer up myself up I'll just think about Annie and the 11 nominations for Les Miz.

She wore leg-bondage gear to the Les Miz premiere here in NYC! Speaking of Annie... I'd type up reactions to each Critics Choice race but for the fact that I'm due at a luncheon with the cast of Les Misérables right now. Obviously Anne & Hugh win the war of 'how should i spend my next couple of hours?' but more later today...

BFCA "CRITICS CHOICE" NOMINATIONS

Best Picture 
Argo  (7 nominations)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (3 nominations)
Django Unchained (2 nominations)
Life of Pi (9 nominations)
Lincoln (13 nominations)
The Master (7 nominations)
Les Miserables (11 nominations)
Moonrise Kingdom (5 nominations)
Silver Linings Playbook (10 nominations)
Zero Dark Thirty (5 nominations)

FULL LIST OF NOMINEES AFTER THE JUMP

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FYC BFCA

'Critics Choice' Ballots are due today at 3 PM EST and I challenge my BFCA brethren and sisters to squeeze in one more screener / screening before sending off their ballots. I'll unfortunately have to send mine off without having screened Django Unchained (which I'm seeing as ballots are due) but I did not choose to have the flu this last weekend of voting when it finally started screening.

FYC #1 - Nicole Kidman in The Paperboy. Nicole Kidman is 5'11" and wears massive heels but even seated, squatting or horizontal this performance towers over most of the Supporting Actress Field. 
FYC#2 - Michael Fassbender in Prometheus. He's not being talked up in the Best Supporting Actor race because Oscar taste in acting doesn't ever stretch to androids but you can vote for him in the Best Actor in an Action Movie acting race. FWIW he's on both of those ballots for me because I won't be constrained by Oscar buzz; I'm voting "best" not "most likely to be nominated". 
FYC #3 - Remember that the Young Actor (Under 21) prize has more viable contenders than just Hushpuppy from Beasts of the Southern Wild. Also age-relevant and therefor eligible: Logan Lerman & Ezra Miller from The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Tom Holland from The Impossible, Elle & Alice from Ginger & Rosa and the kids from Moonrise Kingdom. This has the potential to be an amazing category if voters don't get lazy. 
FYC #4 -Weep that they don't televise half the categories because that makes them essentially useless as critical causes go (unless you count fine print on fyc ads) but vote strong anyway: Holy Motors, Les Misérables and Lincoln for Best Makeup! 

Help Me With My "Critics Choice" Ballot

Voting has begun for the BFCA's 'Critics Choice' prize and I thought I'd ask for your input as a memory jog. Though I do keep track of my favorite achievements in film during the year I always forget about the categories that I don't have in my own FiLM BiTCH prizes so I definitely need help with those.

I already asked for help on Twitter but for those of you who don't follow me there (what's wrong with you?) Please sound off here about your suggestions in the following categories:

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS (under 21)
BEST ACTION MOVIE  

and the following are *new* categories this year

BEST ACTOR in a COMEDY
BEST ACTRESS in a COMEDY
BEST ACTOR in a ACTION FILM
BEST ACTRESS in an ACTION FILM 
BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE

Make your FYC cases in the comment! Limit yourself to 3 choices in each category - that's all we get to put on the ballot (so difficult)