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Houston Film Critics Society name 'Hurt Locker' best movie of 2009 and honor Clooney and Mulligan for acting
The group also named George Clooney best actor for his work in Up In the Air and Carey Mulligan best actress for her performance in An Education.
Bailey, a veteran character actor who appears on television's The Closer, joked that he first thought the award was late recognition for his work in the Police Academy movies, but he teared up while accepting his award and discussing the foundation's work.
The Sunshine Kids was founded in 1982 to improve the quality of life for children with cancer by involving them in activities and travel. Bailey did volunteer work for the foundation for years and has served as executive director since 2001.
The Museum of Fine Arts hosted the film clip-filled awards presentation.
I can't say I agreed with all of our picks, but I've got no complaint at all about the three awards we gave to The Hurt Locker.
In addition to winning the best picture prize, it was honored for its cinematography, and its director, Kathryn Bigalow, was named the year's best director.
Up In the Air also won three awards — apart from Clooney, Anna Kendrick won for best supporting actress and Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner were given the award for best screenplay.
Other awards went to The Cove
Other winners included Christoph Waltz as best supporting actor award for his work as a sadistic Nazi in Inglourious Basterds, and Up
The other music award went to by Jarvis Cocker, Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach for composing the year’s best song, Petey’s Song from Fantastic Mr. Fox.
The society handed out one other special award – an outstanding achievement award to Margaret Stratton, a veteran Houston film publicist who retired this year.
Right now is when I ordinarily would refer you to the official site now for more information, but let's just say that improving the society's website is on the to-do list for 2010.
Kudos to society member Joshua Starnes and to el presidente Nick Nickolson for directing and orchestrating the program and everything that comes with it.
Here's the list:
2009 BestPicture - The Hurt Locker
2009 BestDirector - Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
2009 BestActor - George Clooney, Up in the Air
2009 BestActress - Carey Mulligan, An Education
2009 BestSupporting Actor - Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
2009 BestSupporting Actress - Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
2009 BestScreenplay - Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Upin the Air
2009 BestAnimated Film - Up
2009 BestCinematography - Barry Ackroyd, The Hurt Locker
2009 BestDocumentary - The Cove
2009 BestForeign Film - Sin Nombre
2009 BestOriginal Score - Michael Giacchino, Up
2009 BestOriginal Song - Petey's Song by Jarvis Cocker, WesAnderson &
Noah Baumbach, The Fantastic Mr. Fox
2009Outstanding Achievement Award - Margaret Stratton
2009Humanitarian of the Year Award - G.W. Bailey
Categories: awards
Tags: carey mulligan george clooney the hurt locker mfah houston film critics the education best film 2009 awards
Dear Mr. Harrison--
Just saw "Up in the Air" as it was highly regarded by the Houston Film Critics. A very powerful and moving film; I was touched by Clooney's performance. Also, I saw "Avatar" yesterday; I think that movie was just phenomenal. Your thoughts about "Avatar"?
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Thanks for writing, James (and I'm Eric, by the way). I really enjoyed Avatar and think it marks the start of wide mainstream acceptance for 3D technology (that's how it will be remembered anyway). I've usually admired the way James Cameron roots his big-budget, high-tech action films with basic but profound human emotion and relationships. That's one reason they appeal to such a wide audience and that surely is why women are responding very well to Avatar.
What keeps it from being a great film in my opinion is his inability (or unwillingness) to imagine other worlds except through old movie formulas. So he's given us an American Western set on a distant moon -- Dances With Wolves in outer space -- with mostly nonwhite actors playing the nature-loving primitives taking a last stand against the advancing white civilization. We all know this story, it resonates with us, and Cameron knew all the ways it would push our buttons. It's a smart move commercially, but the lack of daring causes me to rank the movie a notch or two below greatness. But given the high cost of making the film, it's probably as close to great as it could get -- the high cost puts a cap on how daring and creative a filmmaker can be with the story.
Up in the Air, I had problems with. There is much that I admire about it, but I felt the movie had two themes that don't really relate well to each other. The resolution of the story satisfies one theme (the personal one) but not the other one, and it's the unresolved theme (the social theme, having to do with today's economy and the morality of what Clooney did for a living) that makes the movie seem to ride the zeitgeist and gives the movie the patina of greatness. So basically, I think the script has problems. Also, while I think Clooney is very good in the role, I keep wondering how the movie would've been different had his character been played by an actor like Dustin Hoffman or Jack Nicholson.
Up In the Air has a lot of similarities to Hoffman's Last Chance Harvey, and it reminds me in some ways of Nicholson's About Schmidt. I can't help but think that both Hoffman and Nicholson would've played the presentation scenes (where Clooney speaks to groups about the backpack) without Clooney's smugness and self possession. Played differently, I think those scenes (and a couple of others I can think of) might've revealed more layers to the character.
So, in short, while I liked the movie, I think the script was one draft short of complete and that Clooney didn't quite take the character deep enough to win all the accolades his performance is getting.
Whew. Sorry for the long-winded response, but since I only wrote one-paragraph capsule "reviews" of these movies this is the first time I've fully set down my thoughts on them, so I went on longer than I otherwise might have.
Thanks again for writing.
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