WGA AWARDS GO AS PLANNED: SPOTLIGHT AND THE BIG SHORT WIN

Oh, look! The Writers Guild of America held its 2015 awards ceremony yesterday! You didn't notice? You didn't hear the awards season tectonic plates shifting? You didn't hear Hollywood's collective jaw dropping? Funny, that. Anyway, here were their nominations, and there are their awards:

Best Original Screenplay

Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Adam McKay and Charles Randolph - based on the book by Michael Lewis (The Big Short)

Best Documentary Screenplay

Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief)

REVIEW - SPOTLIGHT (TOM MCCARTHY)

Journalism falls under Tom McCarthy's Spotlight and rises up out of it, glorified for the power it possesses to shine its own light on truth and justice. It's a noble pursuit and a noble film, stoic and sober though not without lightness nor without passion - it's keenly aware of itself and the role it seeks to play, and McCarthy and Josh Singer's script skillfully avoids over-stressing its point. They're a smart pair, since their point is made so succinctly and so successfully as a result, yet perhaps at the expense of gravity - Spotlight is an intentionally slight film, stylistically plain, emotionally reserved, dedicated to an acute verisimilitude throughout, but the narrow breadth of its purview hinders it somewhat. The film is about a specific set of journalists at a specific time, but as interesting as the story it tells of them, the story that they're striving to tell is that bit more interesting, and Spotlight doesn't adequately acknowledge this. But what is to be gained in criticising a film for what it is not? What Spotlight is is deeply involving, that aforementioned verisimilitude achieved by calculated yet keen dialogue, the bread and butter of McCarthy's trade. He forms his film around words, be they written or spoken, and possesses a terrific understanding of their precise power. He constructs his film as a journalistic endeavour in itself, deploying patience and objectivity in uncovering one devastating detail after another. He takes shortcuts in his direction for negligible gains and sacrifices the sense of realism otherwise finely calibrated in his mise-en-scene - no bother, these are fleeting failures, themselves of negligible worth. This is an intelligent film made by intelligent people, and a noble one indeed.

SPOTLIGHT WINS FOUR AWARDS FROM DETROIT CRITICS

The Detroit Film Critics Society sure knew what they liked this year! After a three-way tie saw seven nominees for Best Film, voters most decidedly chose Spotlight as their film of 2015; it won three other awards too! And Alicia Vikander picked up two prizes: Supporting Actress and Breakthrough. Check out their nominees here, and their winners below:

Best Film

Spotlight

Best Director

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Actor

Michael Caine (Youth)

Best Actress

Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)

Best Supporting Actor

Liev Schreiber (Spotlight)

Best Supporting Actress

Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)

Best Screenplay

Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)

Best Ensemble

Spotlight

Best Documentary

Amy

Best Breakthrough

Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl / Ex Machina)

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD TAKES BEST PICTURE AT BOSTON ONLINE FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION

Following strong showings at awards from major groups the NBR and the NYFCC, Mad Max: Fury Road looks to be staking an early claim on the critics section of the current awards season. It wins both Best Picture and Best Director from the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and sweeps up the association's tech awards too, winning Best Cinematography, Editing and Original Score. All the info, including a Best Picture top ten and winners in other categories, is below:

Best Picture

1. Mad Max: Fury Road

2. Creed

3. Brooklyn

4. Carol

5. Spotlight

6. Clouds of Sils Maria

7. Bridge of Spies

8. The Martian

9. Anomalisa

10. Tangerine

Best Director

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Actor

Michael B. Jordan (Creed)

Best Actress

Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)

Best Supporting Actor

Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

Best Supporting Actress

Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria)

Best Screenplay

Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)

Best Cinematography

John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Editing

Margaret Sixel (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Original Score

Tom Holkenborg (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Ensemble

Spotlight

Best Animated Film

Inside Out

Best Documentary

Amy

Best Foreign Language Film

Son of Saul