It's Not a Race... It's a Mess

Three more critics groups announced their movie winners for 2012 today, and while "Zero Dark Thirty" is dominating the Best Picture race so far, the acting races are wide open.

Announcing today were the Boston Society of Film Critics, The New York Film Critics Online and The Los Angeles Film Critics Association.  Boston and New York named "Zero Dark Thirty" its Best Picture, giving it a record of 5-for-5 in the critics awards given, as of earlier today.  That's an early winning streak which practically dared the other critics groups to pick another film as Best Picture.  But then, the last group of the day, Los Angeles, took that dare and picked "Amour" for Best Picture, breaking "Zero Dark Thirty"'s win streak, and placing it firmly in the hunt for Oscar gold.

But while the Osama Bin Laden flick is dominating the Best Picture prizes, the acting races are another matter. Daniel Day-Lewis picked up two more Best Actor wins today for "Lincoln", and Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master", won his first Best Actor nod from the Los Angeles critics, but the other three races are all over the place.

(dwight henry in "beasts of the southern wild")

For Best Actress today, 85 year-old Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour", took all three wins, although L.A. also went for Jennifer Lawrence in "Silver Linings Playbook", giving her a tie with Riva.

In the Best Supporting Actor contest, L.A. chose Dwight Henry, "The Beasts of the Southern Wild", New York went for Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln", and Boston named one of our favorites, Ezra Miller in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower".  More about Ezra Miller in a minute.

For Best Supporting Actress, L.A. selected Amy Adams, in her first win for "The Master", Boston liked Sally Field in "Lincoln" and New York picked Anne Hathaway in "Les Miserables".

We first saw Ezra Miller in "We Need to Talk about Kevin", and after we got over being freaked out by him, we realized this young actor might just be the most exciting talent to come along in a long, long time.  He's a little quirky, well... strange, in his personal life, but if he can survive the pitfalls of being a true eccentric in a straight-laced world, we think could be really fun to watch in the next few years.  Note to Kevin:  we love you, kid, so keep it together, don't let your crazy overtake you, and for god's sakes, don't go anywhere near Lindsey Lohan.

(ezra miller in "the perks of being a wallflower")




Here's where the awards race stands as of today:

Best Picture:
Zero Dark Thirty (6 wins), Moonrise Kingdom (1 win)

Best Actor:
Daniel Day-Lewis (4), Joaquin Phoenix, Bradley Cooper (1)

Best Actress:
Emmanuelle Riva (3), Jessica Chastain (2), Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Lawrence (1)

Best Supporting Actor:
Tommy Lee Jones (2), Leonardo DiCaprio, Ezra Miller, Dwight Henry, Matthew McConaughey (1)

Best Supporting Actress:
Sally Field, Anne Hathaway (2), Anne Dowd, Amy Adams (1)