What Jeffrey Wells likes to call the National Alliance of Politically Correct Scolds and Admonishers (NAPCSA) will be very angry by today's announcement that Peter Farelly's "Green Book" has won won the National Board of Review best picture prize.
NBR has also decided to give its Best Actor award to Viggo Mortensen, despite his own bout with controversy earlier this month. There is no doubt deep disappointment within the SJW community and its well-appointed PC police squad, but the rest of us can rejoice that this group of cinephiles decided to say "fuck it" and weren't cowered down by the intense mob-mentality that inflicts today's social media.
There will still be those that believe that Peter Farrelly thought wrong in choosing to tell this story, which, according to many wokers, goes against the current grain of progressive thought, and, of course, I strongly disagree with this. We live in an outrage-filled zeitgeist in America, and abroad, but what the National Board of Review did today is damn-near courageous. Well-done. "Green Book" has stormed right back in the Best Picture race.
Top Films (in alphabetical order)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Black Panther
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Eighth Grade
First Reformed
If Beale Street Could Talk
Mary Poppins Returns
A Quiet Place
Roma
A Star Is Born
Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order)
Burning
Custody
The Guilty
Happy as Lazzaro
Shoplifters
Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order)
Crime + Punishment
Free Solo
Minding the Gap
Three Identical Strangers
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order)
The Death of Stalin
Lean on Pete
Leave No Trace
Mid90s
The Old Man & the Gun
The Rider
Searching
Sorry to Bother You
We the Animals
You Were Never Really Here
The other NBR awards:
Best Director — Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Best Actress — Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born
Best Supporting Actor — Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born
Best Supporting Actress — Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Best Original Screenplay — Paul Schrader, First Reformed (yes!)
Best Adapted Screenplay — Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk (really?)
Best Animated Feature: Incredibles 2 (give me a break!)
Breakthrough Performance: Thomasin McKenzie, Leave No Trace
Best Directorial Debut: Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade
Best Foreign Language Film: Cold War
Best Documentary: RBG
The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.