London 2009: Gemma Arterton, Warwick Thornton, Eddie Marsan

Martin Compston, Producer Adrian Sturges, Gemma Arterton, Director J Blakeson, and Eddie Marsan arrive for the premiere of The Disappearance of Alice Creed, a psychological thriller in which Compston and Marsan are apparent kidnappers and Arterton their apparent victim, during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Vue West End on October 24. (Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

Director Warwick Thornton arrives for the premiere of the drama Samson & Delilah, the tale of two Aboriginal lovers in Central Australia that has been just nominated for the Australian Film Institute’s best film award, during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Vue West End on October 24. (Photo by Samir [...]

National Society of Film Critics Awards 2009

2009 National Society of Film Critics Awards
2009 National Society of Film Critics award winners: January 3, 2009
 

Waltz with Bashir by Ari Folman

 
BEST PICTURE
1. Waltz with Bashir, directed by Ari Folman (26)
2. Happy-Go-Lucky (20)
3. WALL-E (20)
BEST NON-FICTION FILM
1. Man on Wire, directed by James Marsh (55)
2. Trouble the Water (34)
3. Encounters at the End of the World (26)
BEST DIRECTOR
1. Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky (36)
2. Gus Van Sant, Milk & Paranoid Park (20)
3. Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire (16)
BEST ACTOR
1. Sean Penn, Milk (87)
2. Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler (40)
3. Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino (38)
BEST ACTRESS
1. Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky (65)
2. Melissa Leo, Frozen River (33)
3. Michelle Williams, Wendy [...]

VERA DRAKE II – Imelda Staunton

VERA DRAKE Review: Part I
Elsewhere, the director imbues Vera Drake with a somewhat artificial flavor. True, the film’s 1950s working-class environment looks real — cramped homes and ugly clothes — but Leigh, as usual, overdoes the unattractiveness of his characters. His laborers have bad teeth and funny faces, and several of them look like they might belong in a mental institution. (Alex Kelly’s Ethel, Vera’s pathologically shy daughter, is a typical inhabitant of Mike Leigh’s Mondo Labor.) Worse yet, Leigh treats them like children — sympathetically, of course, but with a not inconsiderable degree of condescension.
Despite the meticulous preparations and rehearsals that go into Leigh’s projects — or perhaps because of them — several performances feel much too carefully calculated. [...]