the Boston Society of Film Critics honored Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car”, Japan’s entry into the international Oscar category, with four awards, including Best Picture and Director at its 42nd Annual Meeting, held virtually Sunday.
Hamaguchi’s intimate three-hour epic tells a story of grief and loss through the eyes of a widowed actor played by Hidetoshi Nishijima, who won the Best Actor award for his performance. The film also won the award for best screenplay.
“Drive My Car” opens in Boston on January 4th.
Actress-turned-director Maggie Gyllenhaal was named Best New Director for her psychological drama “The Lost Girl,” starring Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley as the older, younger version of a mother struggling with regrets. Buckley beat Ruth Negga (“Who passed”) for the award for best actress in a supporting role. “The Lost Daughter” hits theaters on December 17th and premieres on Netflix on December 31st.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s coming-of-age story “Licorice Pizza,” about a teenage con artist and the 20-year-old girl he’s fallen for, also won two awards, including that of the best ensemble cast, composed of Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman (son of Phillip Seymour Hoffman), Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn, Benny Safdie, Maya Rudolph and John C. Reilly. Haim, of the Haim sisters group, won the fourth Best Actress ballot, ahead of Olivia Colman. “Licorice Pizza” is playing in theaters in Boston and the South Shore.
The award for Best Supporting Actor went to Troy Kotsur, the veteran deaf actor who starred as Gloucester’s father and fisherman in the movie “CODA” shot in Massachusetts, available to stream on Apple TV +
Ari Wegner was named Best Director of Photography for Jane Campion’s Netflix Western “The Power of the Dog”. The film also won the Best English Film Award, a category, according to the group’s statutes, which is only in play when a non-English language film wins Best Picture. The last time this happened was in 1985 when Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran” won Best Picture, and Best English Film went to John Huston’s “Prizzi’s Honor”.
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The critics’ group divided its honors into other categories. Jonny Greenwood won the Best Score for “Spencer”, Affonso Gonçalves and Adam Kurnitz won the Editing Prize for “The Velvet Underground”. Best Animated Feature went to documentary “Flee” and Questlove’s cultural milestone, “Summer of Soul (or… When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” won Best Documentary.
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The Boston Society of Film Critics is made up of 29 local critics, including writers from The Patriot Ledger, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, and The Arts Fuse.
THE WINNERS 2021
Better picture: “Drive my car”
Best Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, “Drive my car”
Best Actress: Alana Haim, “Licorice Pizza”
Best actor: Hidetoshi Nishijima, “Drive my car”
Best Supporting Actor: Troy Kotsur, “CODA”
Best Supporting Actress: Jessie Buckley, “The Lost Girl”
Best Director: Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, “Drive my car”
Best screenplay: Ryūsuke Hamaguchi & Takamasa Oe, “Drive my car”
Best Cinematography: Ari Wegner, “The Power of the Dog”
Best Documentary: “Summer of Soul (or… When the Revolution couldn’t be televised)”
Best Film in English: “The power of the dog”
Best Animated Feature: “To flee”
Best Film Editing: Affonso Gonçalves and Adam Kurnitz, “Le Velvet Underground”
Best New Filmmaker: Maggie Gyllenhaal, “The Lost Girl”
Better overall distribution: “Licorice Pizza”
Best Original Score: Jonny Greenwood, “Spencer”
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Contact Dana Barbuto at dbarbuto@patriotledger.com.
