LA LA LAND WINS HAWAII FILM CRITICS SOCIETY'S SECOND AWARDS

The Hawaii Film Critics Society is pretty new on the critics group block, featuring only four members, so it's understandable that I missed their nominations for the year, and would have missed their award winners were I not graciously prompted on Twitter. La La Land wins very big, and 10 Cloverfield Lane, Hell or High Water and Nocturnal Animals fare decently too; not a single prize for Moonlight however, which is naturally extremely disappointing. This is the first group to give their Best Actress prize to Viola Davis, also. Their full slate is below, whose nominations appear to be in ranked order...

Best Film

La La Land

Moonlight

Nocturnal Animals

Hell or High Water

Silence

Best Director

Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Tom Ford (Nocturnal Animals)

Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)

Denis Villeneuve (Nocturnal Animals)

Martin Scorsese (Silence)

Best Actress

Viola Davis (Fences)

Natalie Portman (Jackie)

Amy Adams (Arrival)

Emma Stone (La La Land)

Amy Adams (Nocturnal Animals)

Best Actor

Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)

Denzel Washington (Fences)

Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge)

Ryan Gosling (La La Land)

Chris Pine (Hell or High Water)

Best Supporting Actress

Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea)

Naomie Harris (Moonlight)

Lupita Nyong'o (Queen of Katwe)

Nicole Kidman (Lion)

Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures)

Best Supporting Actor

Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water)

Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals)

Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nocturnal Animals)

Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)

Dev Patel (Lion)

Best Original Screenplay

Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water)

La La Land

20th Century Women

Manchester by the Sea

The Nice Guys

Best Adapted Screenplay

Tom Ford, based on the novel by Austin Wright (Nocturnal Animals)

Fences

Moonlight

Arrival

Silence

Best Cinematography

Linus Sandgren (La La Land)

Nocturnal Animals

Arrival

Knight of Cups

The Neon Demon

Best Editing

Tom Cross (La La Land)

Hacksaw Ridge

Arrival

Moonlight

Hell or High Water

Best Art Direction

Austin Gorg (La La Land)

Jackie

Arrival

Nocturnal Animals

The Handmaiden

Best Costume Design

Madeline Fontaine (Jackie)

La La Land

The Neon Demon

Hail, Caesar!

Alice Through the Looking Glass

Best Visual Effects

Arrival

Doctor Strange

La La Land

Kubo and the Two Strings

The Jungle Book

Best Make-Up

Bill Corso (Deadpool)

Silence

Star Trek Beyond

The Neon Demon

X-Men: Apocalypse

Best Original Score

Justin Hurwitz (La La Land)

Moonlight

Jackie

The Neon Demon

20th Century Women

Best Song

Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul - 'Audition (The Fools Who Dream)' (La La Land)

Lin-Manuel Miranda - 'How Far I'll Go' (Moana)

'Can't Stop The Feeling' (Trolls)

'City Of Stars' (La La Land)

'Drive It Like You Stole It' (Sing Street)

Best Stunts

The Magnificent Seven

Hacksaw Ridge

Deadpool

Captain America: Civil War

Deepwater Horizon

Best Animated Film

Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight)

Zootopia (Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Rich Moore)

Moana

The Little Prince

Trolls

Best Documentary

O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman)

de Palma

Amanda Knox

Life, Animated

13th

Best Foreign Language Film

The Handmaiden (Park Chan Wook)

Neruda (Pablo Larrain)

The Wave

Seasons

Elle

Best Sci-Fi / Horror Film

Arrival (Denis Villeneuve)

Ouija: Origin of Evil

10 Cloverfield Lane

Rogue One

The Witch

Best First Film

10 Cloverfield Lane (Dan Trachtenberg)

Indignation

The Witch

The Eyes of My Mother

The Edge of Seventeen

Best Hawaii Film

Moana (Ron Clements, Don Hall, John Musker and Chris Williams)

Shorebreak - The Clark Little Story

Best Overlooked Film

Hell or High Water (David MacKenzie)

Jane Got a Gun

Little Men

Everybody Wants Some!!

The Nice Guys

Best New Filmmaker

Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane)

Robert Eggers (The Witch)

James Schamus (Indignation)

Nicolas Pesce (The Eyes of My Mother)

Kelly Fremon Craig (The Edge of Seventeen)

Best Vocal / Motion Capture Performance

Charlize Theron (Kubo and the Two Strings)

Dwayne Johnson (Moana)

Liam Neeson (A Monster Calls)

Rachel McAdams (The Little Prince)

Jeff Bridges (The Little Prince)

Worst Film

Fifty Shades of Black

Zoolander 2

Suicide Squad

Mother's Day

How to Be Single

THE UTAH FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION WEIGHS IN WITH ITS 2016 AWARDS

Well, here's what you've all been waiting for, right? The Utah Film Critics Association's 2016 awards! In the midst of a mightily busy patch of this awards season, they've rung in with their choices, which actually aren't all that bad, in fairness. Sure, they love La La Land and I most certainly do not, but I've gotten used to this kind of result by now, and there are some smart picks here, including a Best Supporting Actor win for John Goodman in 10 Cloverfield Lane! All the details below.

Best Picture

1. La La Land

2. Moonlight

Best Directing

1. Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)

2. Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Best Actress

1. Emma Stone (La La Land)

2. Ruth Negga (Loving)

Best Actor

1. Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)

2. Joel Edgerton (Loving)

Best Supporting Actress

1. Viola Davis (Fences)

2. Naomie Harris (Moonlight)

=  Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea)

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)

John Goodman (10 Cloverfield Lane)

Best Original Screenplay

1. Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water)

2. Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)

Best Adapted Screenplay

1. Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight)

2. Eric Heisserer (Arrival)

Best Cinematography

1. Linus Sandgren (La La Land)

2. Bradford Young (Arrival)

Best Original Score

1. Justin Hurwitz (La La Land)

2. Johann Johannsson (Arrival)

Best Animated Feature

1. Kubo and the Two Strings

2. Moana

=  Zootopia

Best Documentary Feature

1. Cameraperson

2. Weiner

Best Non-English Language Film

1. The Handmaiden

2. Elle

=  Toni Erdmann

REVIEW - 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE (DAN TRACHTENBERG)

The marketing for 10 Cloverfield Lane was designed with the express intention of manipulating the audience's expectations, based upon their perceptions of this film's predecessor, 2008's Cloverfield. That's all very well until the lights go down and the eyes go up on this new beast, but were your expectations that it'd operate in much the same way as the marketing, only on its own terms? 10 Cloverfield Lane is a most manipulative film, but in a fun and, crucially rewarding manner, and its manipulations are largely self-contained, for the first two acts or so. It posits suggestions that may or may not harbour meanings, asks questions that may or may not go answered, floats ideas which it sees to fruition, though of what nature is consistently uncertain. With smart, incisive character building from both actors and screenwriters, 10 Cloverfield Lane convinces you to care about the route it takes to dissipating the tension - a route that necessitates an inevitable escalation of that tension. Director Dan Trachtenberg toys with sound effects and focus ranges for intensification, but the premier source of atmosphere comes from the basic premise of these three figures, varyingly volatile, trustworthy and mysterious, inhabiting the same sealed space. Yes, there's mystery to this film, in spite of its aforementioned predecessor - it's resolved to keep you guessing about so much, to turn the tables at a moment's notice, or to leave them unturned just as you thought you'd worked it out, that you can't help but wonder where its eventual destination will be. It's easy to malign the film's final act, then, so indebted to common conventions, but it's the only logical conclusion to this franchise's story, and to this film's.