The 2014 Awards Season Has Started!

Started by MacGuffin, November 26, 2013, 03:08:25 PM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

MacGuffin

'12 Years a Slave' Leads Spirit Nominations with 7; 'Nebraska' Takes 6
Awards to be presented March 1
Source: Variety
   
High-profile studios pics mingled with small-scale indies as Fox Searchlight's "12 Years a Slave" led nominations for the 29th Independent Spirit Awards with seven followed by Paramount Vantage's "Nebraska" with six.

In a year chock full of worth films, Film Indpendent voters spread the wealth among titles that are serious Oscar contenders as well as true indies with minimal budgets and a lack of marquee names.

"12 Years" was tapped for best feature, director for Steve McQueen, best actor for Chiwetel Ejiofer, supporting actress for Lupita Nyong'o, supporting actor for Michael Fassbender, cinematography for Sean Bobbit and screenplay by John Ridley. Nominated "12 Years" producers are Dede Gardner, Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Brad Pitt and Bill Pohlad.

"Nebraska" received noms for best feature, director Alexander Payne, best actor for Bruce Dern, supporting actress for June Squibb, supporting actor for Will Forte and best first screenplay for Bob Nelson. Producers are Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa.

Besides "12 Years" and "Nebraska," the best feature nominations went to "All Is Lost," "Frances Ha" and "Inside Llewyn Davis."

"All Is Lost" was also nominated for best director for J.C. Chandor, best actor for Robert Redford and best cinematography for Frank DeMarco for a total of four noms. "Blue Jasmine," "Fruitvale Station," "Inside Llewyn Davis" and "Short Term 12" each garnered three nominations.

Octavia Spencer and Paula Patton announced the nominations Tuesday morning at the W Hotel. The awards ceremonies will take place March 1 – the day before the Oscars – at the usual location in a massive white tent on Santa Monica beach.

Spencer, who starred in "Fruitvale Station," teared up for all three of its noms — best first feature for Ryan Coogler, best actor for Michael B. Jordan and Melonie Diaz for supporting actress.

Only films with budgets of $20 million or less are eligible for the Spirits. Focus Features' "Dallas Buyers Club" took two noms for Matthew McConaughey for best actor and Jared Leto for supporting actor.  McConaughey won the Spirit's supporting actor trophy in February for "Magic Mike."

McConaughey was overlooked for his lead role in "Mud," which snagged a nod for director Jeff Nichols. The drama also won the Robert Altman award — bestowed upon a director, cast and casting director.

Other films with two noms included"Before Midnight," "Computer Chess," "Crystal Fairy," "Enough Said," "Frances Ha," "The Specatacular Now," "Una Noche" and "Upstream Color."

David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" dominated the awards last February with trophies for best feature, actress for Jennifer Lawrence and director and screenplay for Russell.

2014 Film Independent Spirit Award Nominations:


BEST FEATURE
12 Years a Slave
All Is Lost
Frances Ha
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska

BEST DIRECTOR
Upstream Color, Shane Carruth
All is Lost, J.C. Chandor
12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen
Mud, Jeff Nichols
Nebraska, Alexander Payne

BEST SCREENPLAY
Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen
Before Midnight, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater
Enough Said, Nicole Holofcener
The Spectacular Now, Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
12 Years a Slave, John Ridley

BEST FIRST FEATURE
Blue Caprice
Concussion
Fruitvale Station
Una Noche
Wadjda

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
In A World, Lake Bell
Don Jon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Nebraska, Bob Nelson
Afternoon Delight, Jill Soloway
The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete, Michael Starrbury

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD – (Best Feature made for under $500,000)
Computer Chess
Crystal Fairy
Museum Hours
Pit Stop
This is Martin Bonner

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
Gaby Hoffmann, Crystal Fairy
Brie Larson, Short Term 12
Shailene Woodley, The Spectacular Now

BEST MALE LEAD
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis
Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Robert Redford, All Is Lost

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Melonie Diaz, Fruitvale Station
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
Yolonda Ross, Go For Sisters
June Squibb, Nebraska

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Will Forte, Nebraska
James Gandolfini, Enough Said
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Keith Stanfield, Short Term 12

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Sean Bobbitt, 12 Years a Slave
Benoit Debie, Spring Breakers
Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis
Frank G. DeMarco, All Is Lost
Matthias Grunsky, Computer Chess

BEST EDITING
Shane Carruth & David Lowery, Upstream Color
Jem Cohen & Marc Vives, Museum Hours
Jennifer Lame, Frances Ha
Cindy Lee, Una Noche
Nat Sanders, Short Term 12

BEST DOCUMENTARY
20 Feet From Stardom
After Tiller
Gideon's Army
The Act of Killing
The Square

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
A Touch of Sin (China)
Blue is the Warmest Color (France)
Gloria (Chile)
The Great Beauty (Italy)
The Hunt (Denmark)

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD – (Ensemble Cast)
Mud

17th ANNUAL PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Toby Halbrooks & James M. Johnston
Jacob Jaffke
Andrea Roa
Frederick Thornton

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
My Sister's Quinceañera, director Aaron Douglas Johnston
Newlyweeds, director Shaka King
The Foxy Merkins, director Madeline Olnek

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Kalyanee Mam, A River Changes Course
Jason Osder, Let the Fire Burn
Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez, Manakamana
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

jenkins

Quote from: MacGuffin on November 26, 2013, 03:08:25 PM
Pit Stop
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Yen Tan
WRITER: David Lowery
PRODUCERS: Jonathan Duffy, James M. Johnston,
Eric Steele, Kelly Williams
This is Martin Bonner
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Chad Hartigan
PRODUCER: Cherie Saulter

BEST EDITING
Shane Carruth & David Lowery
Upstream Color

\m/

may i ask the rather strange question about how it feels to be twice nominated for other things but not once nominated for your own movie? i feel ok asking this q because i would've nominated atbs

(edit)
Quote from: MacGuffin on November 26, 2013, 03:08:25 PM
17th ANNUAL PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Toby Halbrooks & James M. Johnston

oooh i wonder why <3

i didn't realize sebastián lelio's gloria would be a crowd pleaser, but it appears to have become that. awesome. i think samsong should be hopeful about the hunt because it was nominated here. i know the foreign language movies votes have occurred at the academy, i wonder when they'll announce

good to see manakamana nominated

Pubrick

Ain't them bodies didn't cost more than 20 mil, did it?

The noms lists in all these awards reminds me of the xaxie nom process. The voting contingency latch onto a few films and then just keep nominating them in every category regardless of their actual achievement in any distinct category. Leaves no room for variety.

Not sure if it's laziness or that no one at xixax (or anywhere else apparently) watches movies anymore, but most awards these days feel like a prepackaged advertisement for the few films they've decided to get behind.

Not sure where I was going with this but I'll be watching ain't them bodies this week (woo!) and I'm ready for it to sweep the xaxies noms due to this phenomenon. let's all just try to watch blue is the warmest colour and the act of killing so we have the two best movies of the year in competition as well.

Subtle campaigning over.
under the paving stones.

Ghostboy

Quote from: jenkins<3 on November 26, 2013, 03:18:14 PM

may i ask the rather strange question about how it feels to be twice nominated for other things but not once nominated for your own movie? i feel ok asking this q because i would've nominated atbs


Can't help but feel like it's a pointed reminder to stick to what I know I'm good at. Which I won't. : )

My feeling is that ATBS isn't sensational enough to demand attention, as UPSTREAM is, nor is it solid enough to get the more passive accolades that 12 YEARS A SLAVE or NEBRASKA get. It's not a movie that inspires, elicits or demands much passion.

polkablues

Quote from: Ghostboy on November 27, 2013, 02:42:24 AM
My feeling is that ATBS isn't sensational enough to demand attention, as UPSTREAM is, nor is it solid enough to get the more passive accolades that 12 YEARS A SLAVE or NEBRASKA get. It's not a movie that inspires, elicits or demands much passion.

Even if one were to concede that, the fact that not one of your four main actors got nominated is an objective outrage.
My house, my rules, my coffee

jenkins

Sight & Sound

The Act of Killing
Gravity
Blue is the Warmest Color
The Great Beauty
Frances Ha
A Touch of Sin
Upstream Color
The Selfish Giant
Norte, the End of History
Stranger By the Lake

Cahiers Du Cinéma

Stranger By the Lake
Spring Breakers
Blue is the Warmest Color
Gravity
A Touch of Sin
Lincoln
La Jalousie
Nobody's Daughter Haewon
You and the Night
La bataille de Solférino

jenkins

New Yorker

1–2. "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "To the Wonder."
3. "Like Someone in Love."
4–5. "Computer Chess" and "Upstream Color."
6. "Night Across the Street."
7. "A Touch of Sin."
8. "Blue Is the Warmest Color."
9. "An Oversimplification of Her Beauty."
10–12. "Inside Llewyn Davis," "Sun Don't Shine," and "Ain't Them Bodies Saints."

glad to see the wolf of wall street is indeed firing off. and what's that mysterious movie at the end of the list

(edit)
should mention lowery co-edited sun don't shine and upstream color. he's gone so top shelf this year. he simply has (!)

awaumans

For an European the award season is really a shitty thing, a lot of films who are considered to be in the race aren't yet released here. So you just have to base your predictions on what the critics say and not on your own viewing experience and thoughts.

jenkins

i forget where the oscars thread is. there's an oscars thread, a golden globes thread, and a general awards thread? idk 'bout that

anyway. the oscars foreign shortlist:

Belgium, "The Broken Circle Breakdown," Felix van Groeningen, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, "An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker," Danis Tanovic, director;
Cambodia, "The Missing Picture," Rithy Panh, director;
Denmark, "The Hunt," Thomas Vinterberg, director;
Germany, "Two Lives," Georg Maas, director;
Hong Kong, "The Grandmaster," Wong Kar-wai, director;
Hungary, "The Notebook," Janos Szasz, director;
Italy, "The Great Beauty," Paolo Sorrentino, director;
Palestine, "Omar," Hany Abu-Assad, director.

broken circle breakdown was a blast hit. i missed it, frown. excited wkw was shortlisted, of course. there's the hunt. i like how the great beauty is being appreciated across the board. gloria where are you!?! the other movies are mysteries to me, not sure what they're about, i think foreign people are in them

Pubrick

Quote from: jenkins<3 on December 20, 2013, 12:13:31 PM
the other movies are mysteries to me, not sure what they're about, i think foreign people are in them

An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker is about someone that picks iron, the movie is an episode in their life.

The Missing Picture is about a picture that is missing.

Two Lives is about two people who are living, it is also about living twice.

The Notebook is about a book in which notes are kept.

Omar is about a fella who walks down the street collecting money but he doesn't announce himself, the only time it is known that he is approaching is when someone notices him and then they tell the neighbourhood that he is coming.
under the paving stones.

polkablues

The Notebook is a movie about an emotionally unstable obsessive who refuses to let Rachel McAdams move on with her life. I think Rockford is in it.
My house, my rules, my coffee

jenkins

^lol x2

my personal favorite la critic made his list. i mentioned him in the wolf thread. he didn't include wolf. related to what he's previously said, he tweeted "When I submitted that LAT top-10, I had not yet seen THE WOLF OF WALL STREET. Now I see it splattered like a paint ball over whole list."

spring breakers
upstream color
computer chess
frances ha
her
post tenebras lux
after tiller
the bling ring
ain't them bodies saints
a touch of sin

QuoteThe swooning romance of AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS, steeped in twilight Americana, touches the struggle & sacrifice of love at its purest.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-mark-olsen-best-films-2013-list,0,4127498.story#ixzz2o2xnnqsE

jenkins

the theater that's good at playing movies no one else is playing, cinefamily, made a list and they're showing the movies. bolded parts where i'm all "hell yeah"

1) CUTIE AND THE BOXER (or as I like to call it, LOVE AS A ROAR!!!).
Any talented and intelligent woman who's fallen for an older, more established male counterpart in the field of her interest -- and I suspect this might have happened more than a few times on this planet -- will likely be drawn to the story of talented artist Shinohara Noriko.   In her early twenties, Noriko married the much older, avant-garde, hard-drinking wildman Ushio Shinohara: a literally pugilistic painter who punched his canvasses with boxing gloves smeared in pigment, and soon found her life subsumed into his. After decades of  letting her own artistic ambitions fall to the wayside as she became his de facto assistant, the film tracks their relationship as she tries to restart her artistic career, and find a "room of her own" -- or, at least a gallery.  I'll let the feminists parse it out and pass judgements, but anyone interested in male-female relationships between strong personalities will likely find Noriko and her husband's story fascinating.
 
Winner of the documentary directing award at Sundance last year, Cutie and the Boxer lacked a "fit in the palm of your hand" synopsis that would easily sell it to arthouse audiences (just look at me struggle in the above paragraph)...and surprise, surprise, it didn't really sell.  Who is cutie? What kind of boxer?   The little cigar-chomping, carny-barking movie mogul I carry inside me wanted to rename it, to help capture the kind of complicated, antagonistic, tough view of the love/marriage between two artists that I think are the heart of the film's universal appeal.

My new name?  Well, at one point -- perhaps in my favorite scene in the movie -- unbeknownst to her husband, she has renamed his art book from the simpler, punchier "ROAR!!!" to "LOVE IS A ROAR!!!"  She has a great explanation: "Why? Because I think so: Love is a roar. I found out by experience in my life. Love is a roar."  Now you want to see it?  Then you should come tomorrow afternoon, for not only will filmmaker Zach Heinzerling be there, but the Shinoharas will be there IN PERSON as well!

2) GIMME THE LOOT
I'm not knocking your Drinking Buddies and Short Term 12s (I liked both), but if you're gonna take a taste of just one little, itty-bitty, low-budget, relationship-based, SXSW-style, naturalistic New York indie flick, I think Gimme The Loot is the crowd-pleaser for you.  With a wisp of a heist-like Macguffin to keep your classic narrative needs occupied, you'll be charmed, amused, and maybe moved, as our endearing and scrappy teen protagonists bop around the five boroughs, have various picaresque and romantic misadventures, and maybe find out a little about their own feelings -- all while planning to graffiti-bomb the Mets' famous "apple" . I can't picture anyone finishing this movie without a smile on their face, unless their paralyzed face muscles have been over-Botoxed...by LIFE.
 
3) COMPUTER CHESS
Returning from Sundance one year ago, Computer Chess was certainly the film we most wanted to talk about.  With its nerdcore aesthetics par excellence in place -- complete with a perfectly recreated '70s B&W PortaPak video look, and gaggles of perfectly-cast-and-costumed, four-eyed computer jockeys that were downright Tumblr-iffic in their consistently pleasing, unified look -- it had some pop appeal.  But it's the laid-back, off-the-cuff surrealism, and the Altman-like diagonal wanderlust that make Computer Chess the oddball artfilm film we thought would connect with a younger arthouse audience -- if only they got their eyeballs on it.  No film released in 2013 comes even close to its wholly unique balance between playful emotional resonance and keen aesthetics - and no other indie film in recent memory evokes the warm feelings of a bygone era with such empathetic zeal.   

4) THE ANGELS' SHARE
OK, look, it's absolutely a minor Ken Loach film -- understood. But Ken Loach is great! I think I might just put his whole career on my "underrated and overlooked" list for all time.  To me, it's weird fate he hasn't achieved the kind of pathological pantheon status that keeps foolios giving rave reviews to every Godard flick that comes out -- even if Godard shoots it on his iPhone and perversely withholds the subtitles ('cause he doesn't give a shit about you.)   
 
If you fall for Loach, you'll find his formal approach is as consistent in its own way as Ozu's or Bresson's, for, like a lot of stubborn stylists, it's 'cause he's slowly trying to climb the Mt. Everest of perfection.   Unfortunately, it's the kind of perfection easiest to overlook -- just one right choice after another.  The guy's almost 80, and he still cranks out small miracles from the working class realism factory almost every year -- all with a range of emotion and humanity that produces laughs and tears in equal measure, with nary a cheat. Even in a "warmhearted" comedy mode, Loach here tosses off a detailed, realistic courtroom confrontation between a thug and his former victim, on that has the emotional wallop of a therapeutic breakthrough -- and that's just to set up a backstory for our protagonist.

5) PASSION
With a four-week theatrical release grossing just under $100k, Passion may be the worst received film of Brian De Palma's career -- he's clearly not a player in the American cinematic landscape anymore.  And there was certainly was no buzz for the film; at the packed screening I attended at Toronto, the only audience sound to be heard was the quiet shuffling of attendees towards the exits, as one onscreen absurdity compounded upon another as witnessed by humorless stone faces.  But I thought it was a hoot.  It's for any De Palma fan that misses the kind of cartoonish fever dreams of sex and violence he concocted back in the '80s and '90s (think Raising Cain and Body Double), films with complicated plots that don't weave together seamlessly, but rather melt together into sticky thematic messes -- with characters that are morasses of madness and Freudian freakouts, and with cinematic setpieces that erupt with all the subtlety of money shots.

I'm not saying Passion's as winning as those vintage De Palma fever dreams.  There's a general out-of-touchness that would be touching if De Palma wasn't such a misanthrope. and there's a lack of concern for the actors' performances -- the kind that always somewhat ran throughout his career, but here has reached near-catastrophic proportion. But for those of us who loved all those crazy flicks, and waited/waded through Redacted and Black Dahlia, it's nice to see our favorite movie maniac back in action -- and it's certainly a pretty good time at the movies.

6) PAIN & GAIN
Bret sez:  "Yes, we hear your cries.  This most recent entry in the Michael Bay canon does sit askew from the rest of the films in our year-end roundup -- for how could the man who's THE very representation of the modern Hollywood machine be considered overlooked?  That's it exactly, though: the surface fact that he's made enough gargantuan CGI spectacles in a row to last a lifetime was the reason why a lot of movieheads still haven't seen Pain & Gain -- and in the process, they've missed out on a film that has as many laughs as Hot Fuzz, and as much rad, explosive razzmatazz as any old-school actioner like Speed or Lethal Weapon. 

No robots or Carl's Jr. tie-ins here -- just 'roided-out, dumb hulks saying a rapid-fire stream of very funny things, and getting themselves tied up in an insane, barely-based-on-a-true-story plot of murder, extortion and other frothy stuff.  Plus, the chemistry between co-stars Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg, and Anthony Mackie is impeccable.  It says something about the age we're in that what might've been considered twenty years ago as "massive" and "stupid" comes off today as a relatively grounded character study -- but make no mistake, this overheated blockbuster tastes not of Mountain Dew-flavored Doritos, but rather of the finest In 'N Out Burger, Animal-style."

7) LAURENCE ANYWAYS
We all worked together on this list -- but this one is the only one I haven't seen -- so here's Bret again:

"There are enfants terribles -- and then there are infants.  Quebecois actor/director Xavier Dolon has, at the incredibly young age of 24, helmed four feature films (with a fifth reportedly already underway) equally hyper-stylish, deeply emotional, packed with impeccable music choices, and displaying a shocking maturity.  Quickly becoming one of Canada's most prominent filmmakers ever, Dolon is refreshing, as he builds an alternate universe that feels hermetically sealed and fully realized.  Across the near-three-hour running time of his third feature Laurence Anyways, Dolon shows off a keen sense of epic storytelling: we witness fifteen years in the romantic life of a schoolteacher taken over by his emerging transsexualism, and the girlfriend who can't ever quite deal with the emotional upheaval.  Told in sweeping, novelistic strokes, this is Fassbinder and Cassavetes pressure-cooked into a dense, meaty stock. 

On top of hitting a plethora of affecting notes, never have we seen such dedication to Nineties period detail.  Every haircut, every car, every sweater, and every scarf is all correctly in place, but Dolon smartly never crams it down our eyeholes, instead leaving it to the attentive viewer to spot how well all these items color the background -- or, indeed, the foreground, during one particularly vibrant fantasy sequence when a wintery sky rains a department store's worth of womens' garments upon a smalltown highway.

For all the hype, articles written about Dolon and goodwill built up amongst his growing fanbase, pretty much no one at all saw Laurence Anyways in a theater here in America.  Was it a marketing failure, the running time, the queer content, all of the above?   Whatever the case, the film came and went with zero fanfare, and even less residual effect on the American arthouse public.  This kind of ambitious, playful moviemaking deserves to be rewarded, though, and marks the beginning of our love affair with this major talent."

8) SIGHTSEERS
One more from Bret: "Specializing in weirdos, whackos, wiccans and hatchet men, Britain's Ben Wheatley has, much like Laurence Anyways's Xavier Dolon, become a truly vibrant film artist to watch in just a handful of years.  His movies are a mad buffet of the murderous and the mundane, and none better illustrate this then Sightseers, the outrageous serial-killing satire released stateside this year.  Paired perfectly, co-stars/co-writers Alice Lowe and Steve Oram are a daft shut-in and a rage-filled bloke on holiday in the English countryside.  In this uproarious vision of literal suburban hell, they dispatch a gruesome demise first to any annoying posh yuppies in their overly souped-up RVs, then to pretty much anyone who crosses their path at the slightest provocation.  Working as a gigglefest cross between Withnail & I and Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer, Sightseers constantly rides the daring knife-edge of stark violence in contrast to its astute observational humor, giving it an unpredictable flavor so desperately lacking in a lot of today's big-screen comedies."

9) THIS IS MARTIN BONNER
Aww -- Martin Bonner.  It's movies like these that make round-ups like this worthwhile. It took not one, but two Kickstarter campaigns to get this tribute to sad dads everywhere onto the screen, and it's told with a steadfast restraint and minimalism that belies its genuine emotionality.  It's set in Reno, NV, and the town's limbo-like qualities are perfectly captured as a backdrop for two fathers, each completely isolated from their kids.  One's a newly-minted ex-con, and the other's an exiled church official who, after a divorce highly unliked by his congregation, must start over as a job counselor for recently released offenders.  It's a tearjerker, really, and a good one, but one that doesn't shed a lot of tears for itself; director Chad Hartigan knows it's a lot more powerful to see people who try not to cry, and let the audience do it for them.  We're having the director out for this screening.

10) AFTERNOON DELIGHT
I won't deny my eye was caught when this modest festival dramedy graced Tarantino's "top 10" list of 2013 -- though with Frances Ha, Swanberg's Drinking Buddies and Blue Jasmine on there as well, I think QT's taste may now be running far more to the mature, relationship-oriented side of the spectrum than any of us would think.   Well, here was someone else's list working like a charm, 'cause after checking out Afternoon Delight, I was more than charmed by the steady wit and humanity of filmmaker Jill Soloway (whose background includes exec-producing Six Feet Under, among many other projects).

Afternoon Delight is a kind of re-gendered reworking of Love in the Afternoon, Eric Rohmer's beautiful examination of a married man's sexual midlife crisis (and a film that inspired Drinking Buddies as well, clearly), but here it's lead actress Kathryn Hahn who needs to fill her joyless afternoons with something -- more.  Also toying with the housewife/whore relationship, Hahn becomes fascinated, and drawn into the life of a stripper she meets and befriends, played by latest ubiquitous indie-stalwart Juno Temple.

And if there's any single reason to do so, I fell in love with Afternoon Delight (which has many fine qualities) through Juno Temple's miracle of a performance -- there's a truism that great dumb blondes are always played by the smartest women (Judy Holliday had a 150 IQ or something, Lisa Kudrow's medical degree background, etc.), and there's something so incredibly precise and well-observed about every one of Temple's line-readings that I found myself laughing at nearly everything word that came out of her mouth.

I noticed the reviews of Afternoon Delight weren't all as strong as I would have thought, and I detected a certain ad hominem quality to the negative ones; people seemed upset at merely the portrayal of a relatively wealthy, L.A. Jewish woman's emotional life that wasn't grossly satirical.  But I thought its emotions were real and earned, as were the laughs; I've already found myself recommending this to a gaggle of friends who missed it -- and now you.

[gimme the loot trailer:]

N

I like your list Jenkins, I got my eyes on Computer Chess almost instantly after finding the thread and I absolutely loved it.
However it's the only movie on the list that I've seen besides Laurence Anyways, I'll start with Martin Bonner tonight.

Cloudy

Making these lists reaffirms how we need a really good comedy soon (cough). Soon. A really good one.