Boston Crix Name "Holdovers" Best of 2023

And other thoughts on the uselessness of movie awards.

Dec 12, 2023

I’ve been making movie best-of lists for four decades now, and I’ve never stopped asking myself why. The answer I usually give myself is that it’s an act of professional altruism, a way of letting both the hardened cinephile and casual moviegoer know about films that may have flown beneath their radar. A yearly pointing out of worth in an industry and a popular culture that primarily values return on investment. Which is, honestly, a fatuous stance to take. I’ve generally been paid to do my ranking, for one thing, so forget about the altruism part. And the hard truth is that any critic lucky enough to be employed is part of a cultural sifting process that can’t be separated from the commercial imperatives of the people who make the movies. To one degree or another, I’m just another cog in a machine that prints green.

On the other hand… lists are fun! Who Will Win is an imperative that is hammered onto our genetic code and finds voice in our games and politics, casinos and churches of celebrity worship. It doesn’t matter that comparing one movie to another is like comparing a teacup to a battleship. The Oscars come around every year, and a lot of us still watch, and not just for the gowns. We may be rooting for someone or something, or hoping to see an unscripted pratfall or a slap – anything to break through the waxen ceremoniousness of the occasion. And we like to see someone win. Which means we also like to see someone lose.

As I’ve said, I’m a part of this process, albeit a minnow in an ocean of hype. I belong to two professional organizations, the Boston Society of Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics. Each group meets once a year to vote on awards in the field of movies. The Boston group met this past Sunday; the Nats meet in early January. On top of that, each critic in both groups is presumably making a Ten-Best list to be published in his or her respective newspaper, magazine, or newsletter.

It means that the weeks after Thanksgiving are a scramble to catch up with the films you haven’t, ticking titles off a list that grows longer by the day, as each new bulletin in the email threads devoted to the various categories praises a movie you must see or a performance you can’t miss. The studios pushing their awards-season wares send the critics DVDs (less frequently now) or internet links (more frequently), and it all adds up to just about the worst way to partake in the medium you have devoted your career writing about.

Still. Would you have heard of, say, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” if a number of critics’ groups hadn’t voted it high-profile awards in late 2021, which caused the trade press and Oscar-season bookies to take it more seriously, which possibly/probably resulted in the film being nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture, and winning Best International Feature? Will you be more inclined now to see an under-the-radar prospect like the BSFC’s choice for Best Documentary, “Geographies of Solitude”? Maybe yes, maybe no. But the critics do have their place in this combination ecosystem/brothel. Often it’s to confirm the conventional wisdom in the annual march to the Academy Awards. Just as often it’s to upend it or set out a fresh narrative. That the two movies that got the most votes from the Boston critics were both set in the past – “The Holdovers,” a gentle comedy-drama about a failed 1970s prep school teacher, and “The Zone of Interest,” about a German family living hard by the walls of Auschwitz – says much about how we do or don’t confront our blind spots and complicities and how necessary kindness may be in a desperately unkind world. Or perhaps they say nothing at all.

At the very least, our votes throw a spotlight on work or craft or performance that almost always deserves the attention. Do you hear Mica Levi’s music in “The Zone of Interest” differently once you’ve been made aware of it? Do you appreciate what Da’Vine Joy Randolph (below) brings to “The Holdovers” more because we gave her an award? Or is it just enough that naming her pushes one or two more people over the line into seeing the movie?

Of course, such concerns feel more like trivialities this year than ever. Yesterday there was a global strike for a cease-fire in Gaza, one that was ignored by most Western media in favor of the outrage over badly-coached Ivy League presidents on Capitol Hill and the nominees for the Golden Globes. I only knew about it because my grown children told me, and they’re part of a generation that has less and less use for movie awards and more and more concern for the world they’re hurtling toward inheriting. They know far better than I do how close to the wall we’re already living.

The sooner they inherit, I think, the better for all of us. Until then, here are the winners of this year’s Boston Society of Film Critics awards, with runners-up noted because it’s not so much who won as who was in the mix. They’re part of the culture we’re passing forward, too.

Boston Society of Film Critics: 2023 Awards

Best Film – “The Holdovers” (Runner-up: “The Zone of Interest”)

Best Non-English Language Film (awarded in memory of Jay Carr) – “The Zone of Interest” (Runner-up: “The Taste of Things”)

Best Director – Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest” (Runners-up: Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer” and Todd Haynes, “May December”)

Best Actor – Paul Giamatti, “The Holdovers” (Runner-up: Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”)

Best Actress – Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Runners-up: Emma Stone, "Poor Things"; Sandra Hüller, "Anatomy of a Fall"; Natalie Portman, "May December")

Best Supporting Actor – Ryan Gosling, “Barbie“ (Runner-up: Charles Melton, “May December”)

Best Supporting Actress – Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers” (Runners-up: No one, really. It was a rout.)

Best Original Screenplay – David Hemingson, “The Holdovers” (Runners-up: Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik, “May December”)

Best Adapted Screenplay – Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest” (Runner-up: Kelly Fremon Craig, "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret")

Best Cinematography – Jonathan Ricquebourg, “The Taste of Things” (Runners-up: Robert Yeoman, "Asteroid City" and Robbie Ryan, "Poor Things"

Best Documentary (awarded in memory of Lucia Small) – “Geographies of Solitude” (Runners-up: "The Disappearance of Shere Hite," "20 Days in Mariupol," "Kokomo City")

Best Animated Film – “The Boy and the Heron” (Distant runners-up: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," "Robot Dreams," "Peasants”)

Best Film Editing (awarded in memory of Karen Schmeer) – Thelma Schoonmaker, “Killers of the Flower Moon”

Best New Filmmaker (awarded in memory of David Brudnoy) – Celine Song, “Past Lives” (Runner-up: Cord Jefferson, “American Fiction”)

Best Ensemble Cast – “Oppenheimer” (Runners-up: “Asteroid City,” “The Iron Claw”)

Best Original Score – Robbie Robertson, “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Runner-up: Mica Levi, “The Zone of Interest”)

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