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If the PGA and SAG Awards are any indication, Birdman will be the one to beat in this year’s competitive Best Picture category at the Oscars. The dark comedy took top prize at both ceremonies.

However, it was far from a clean sweep. Although Birdman won Best Ensemble at SAG (the guild’s closest equivalent to Best Picture), none of the three individual actors nominated for the film won their respective categories. Meanwhile, two of the winners from the PGA’s film categories — the animated feature The Lego Movie and the documentary Life Itself — weren’t even nominated in the equivalent category at the Oscars.

On the TV side, Breaking Bad picked up one last trophy at the PGA awards, Orange Is the New Black got showered with love from both guilds, and True Detective once again lost out. Get the full list of 2015 PGA and SAG winners after the jump.

21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

• Robert Duvall, The Judge
• Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
• Edward Norton, Birdman
• Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
• J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

• Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
• Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
• Emma Stone, Birdman
• Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
• Naomi Watts, St. Vincent

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture

• Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
• Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
• Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
• Michael Keaton, Birdman
• Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture

• Jennifer Aniston, Cake
• Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
• Julianne Moore, Still Alice
• Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
• Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Motion Picture

• Birdman
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• The Theory of Everything

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries

• Adrien Brody, Houdini
• Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock: His Last Vow
• Richard Jenkins, Olive Kitteridge
• Mark Ruffalo, The Normal Heart
• Billy Bob Thornton, Fargo

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries

• Ellen Burstyn, Flowers in the Attic
• Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Honorable Woman
• Frances McDormand, Olive Kitteridge
• Julia Roberts, The Normal Heart
• Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series

• Ty Burrell, Modern Family
• Louie C.K., Louie
• William H. Macy, Shameless
• Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
• Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series

• Uzo Aduba, Orange Is the New Black
• Julie Bowen, Modern Family
• Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie,
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
• Amy Poehler, Parks & Recreation

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

• The Big Bang Theory
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine
• Modern Family
• Orange Is the New Black
• Veep

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series

• Claire Danes, Homeland
• Viola Davis, How to Get Away With Murder
• Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
• Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black
• Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
• Robin Wright, House of Cards

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series

• Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
• Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
• Woody Harrelson, True Detective
• Matthew McConaughey, True Detective
• Kevin Spacey, House of Cards

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series

• Boardwalk Empire
• Downton Abbey
• Game of Thrones
• Homeland
• House of Cards

Lifetime Achievement Award

• Debbie Reynolds

26th Annual Producers Guild Awards

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures

• American Sniper (Warner Bros. Pictures), Producers: Bradley Cooper, p.g.a., Clint Eastwood, p.g.a., Andrew Lazar, p.g.a., Robert Lorenz, p.g.a., Peter Morgan, p.g.a.
• Birdman (Fox Searchlight Pictures), Producers: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
• Boyhood (IFC Films), Producers: Richard Linklater, p.g.a., Cathleen Sutherland, p.g.a.
• Foxcatcher (Sony Pictures Classics), Producers: Megan Ellison, p.g.a., Jon Kilik, p.g.a., Bennett Miller, p.g.a.
• Gone Girl (20th Century Fox), Producer: Ceán Chaffin, p.g.a.
• The Grand Budapest Hotel (Fox Searchlight Pictures), Producers: Wes Anderson & Scott Rudin, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales
• The Imitation Game (The Weinstein Company), Producers: Nora Grossman, p.g.a., Ido Ostrowsky, p.g.a., Teddy Schwarzman, p.g.a.
• Nightcrawler (Open Road Films), Producers: Jennifer Fox, Tony Gilroy
• The Theory of Everything (Focus Features), Producers: Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
• Whiplash (Sony Pictures Classics), Producers: Jason Blum, Helen Estabrook, David Lancaster

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

• Big Hero 6 (Walt Disney Animation Studios), Producer: Roy Conli, p.g.a.
• The Book of Life (20th Century Fox), Producers: Brad Booker, p.g.a., Guillermo del Toro, p.g.a.
• The Boxtrolls (Focus Features), Producers: David Bleiman Ichioka, p.g.a., Travis Knight, p.g.a.
• How To Train Your Dragon 2 (20th Century Fox), Producer: Bonnie Arnold, p.g.a.
• The LEGO Movie (Warner Bros. Pictures), Producer: Dan Lin

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures

• The Green Prince (Music Box Films), Producers: John Battsek, Simon Chinn, Nadav Schirman
• Life Itself (Magnolia Pictures), Producers: Garrett Basch, Steve James, Zak Piper
• Merchants of Doubt (Sony Pictures Classics), Producers: Robert Kenner, Melissa Robledo
• Particle Fever (Abramorama/BOND 360), Producers: David E. Kaplan, Mark A. Levinson, Andrea Miller, Carla Solomon
• Virunga (Netflix), Producers: Joanna Natasegara, Orlando von Einsiedel

The David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television

• American Horror Story: Freak Show (FX), Producers: Brad Buecker, Dante Di Loreto, Brad Falchuk, Joseph Incaprera, Alexis Martin Woodall, Tim Minear, Ryan Murphy, Jennifer Salt, James Wong
• Fargo (FX), Producers: Adam Bernstein, John Cameron, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Michael Frislev, Noah Hawley, Warren Littlefield, Chad Oakes, Kim Todd
• The Normal Heart (HBO), Producers: Jason Blum, Dante Di Loreto, Scott Ferguson, Dede Gardner, Alexis Martin Woodall, Ryan Murphy, Brad Pitt, Mark Ruffalo
• The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (PBS), Producers: To Be Determined
• Sherlock (PBS), Producers: Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, Beryl Vertue, Sue Vertue

The Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama

• Breaking Bad (AMC), Producers: Melissa Bernstein, Sam Catlin, Bryan Cranston, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Mark Johnson, Stewart Lyons, Michelle MacLaren, George Mastras, Diane Mercer, Thomas Schnauz, Moira Walley-Beckett
• Downton Abbey (PBS), Producers: Julian Fellowes, Nigel Marchant, Gareth Neame, Liz Trubridge
• Game Of Thrones (HBO), Producers: David Benioff, Bernadette Caulfield, Frank Doelger, Chris Newman, Greg Spence, Carolyn Strauss, D.B. Weiss
• House Of Cards (Netflix), Producers: Dana Brunetti, Joshua Donen, David Fincher, David Manson, Iain Paterson, Eric Roth, Kevin Spacey, Beau Willimon
• True Detective (HBO), Producers: Richard Brown, Carol Cuddy, Steve Golin, Woody Harrelson, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Matthew McConaughey, Nic Pizzolatto, Scott Stephens

The Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy

• The Big Bang Theory (CBS), Producers: Faye Oshima Belyeu, Chuck Lorre, Steve Molaro, Bill Prady
• Louie (FX), Producers: Pamela Adlon, Dave Becky, M. Blair Breard, Louis C.K., Vernon Chatman, Adam Escott, Steven Wright
• Modern Family (ABC), Producers: Paul Corrigan, Megan Ganz, Abraham Higginbotham, Ben Karlin, Elaine Ko, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Morton, Dan O’Shannon, Jeffrey Richman, Chris Smirnoff, Brad Walsh, Bill Wrubel, Sally Young, Danny Zuker
• Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Producers: Mark A. Burley, Sara Hess, Jenji Kohan, Gary Lennon, Neri Tannenbaum, Michael Trim, Lisa I. Vinnecour
• Veep (HBO), Producers: Chris Addison, Simon Blackwell, Christopher Godsick, Armando Iannucci, Stephanie Laing, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Frank Rich, Tony Roche

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television

• 30 For 30 (ESPN), Producers: Andy Billman, John Dahl, Erin Leyden, Connor Schell, Bill Simmons
• American Masters (PBS), Producers: Susan Lacy, Julie Sacks, Junko Tsunashima
• Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (CNN), Producers: Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Collins, Lydia Tenaglia, Sandra Zweig
• COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey (FOX/NatGeo), Producers: Brannon Braga, Mitchell Cannold, Jason Clark, Ann Druyan, Livia Hanich, Steve Holtzman, Seth MacFarlane
• Shark Tank (ABC), Producers: Becky Blitz, Mark Burnett, Bill Gaudsmith, Phil Gurin, Yun Lingner, Clay Newbill, Jim Roush, Laura Roush, Max Swedlow

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Competition Television

• The Amazing Race (CBS), Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Elise Doganieri, Jonathan Littman, Bertram van Munster, Mark Vertullo
• Dancing With The Stars (ABC), Producers: Ashley Edens Shaffer, Conrad Green, Joe Sungkur
• Project Runway (Lifetime), Producers: Jane Cha Cutler, Desiree Gruber, Tim Gunn, Heidi Klum, Jonathan Murray, Sara Rea, Teri Weideman
• Top Chef (Bravo), Producers: Doneen Arquines, Daniel Cutforth, Casey Kriley, Jane Lipsitz, Hillary Olsen, Erica Ross, Tara Siener, Shealan Spencer
• The Voice (NBC), Producers: Stijn Bakkers, Mark Burnett, John De Mol, Chad Hines, Lee Metzger, Audrey Morrissey, Jim Roush, Kyra Thompson, Mike Yurchuk, Amanda Zucker

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment & Talk Television

• The Colbert Report (Comedy Central), Producers: Meredith Bennett, Tanya Michnevich Bracco, Stephen Colbert, Richard Dahm, Paul Dinello, Barry Julien, Matt Lappin, Emily Lazar, Tom Purcell, Jon Stewart
• Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC), Producers: David Craig, Ken Crosby, Doug DeLuca, Gary Greenberg, Erin Irwin, Jimmy Kimmel, Jill Leiderman, Molly McNearney, Tony Romero, Jason Schrift, Jennifer Sharron, Seth Weidner, Josh Weintraub
• Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO), Producers: Tim Carvell, John Oliver, Liz Stanton
• Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO), Producers: Scott Carter, Sheila Griffiths, Marc Gurvitz, Dean Johnsen, Bill Maher, Billy Martin, Matt Wood
• The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC), Producers: Rob Crabbe, Jamie Granet Bederman, Katie Hockmeyer, Jim Juvonen, Josh Lieb, Brian McDonald, Lorne Michaels, Gavin Purcell

The post 2015 PGA and SAG Winners Announced; ‘Birdman’ Takes Top Prizes appeared first on /Film.

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Cop Car has the brutal elegance of old-school crime fiction. Two young kids find a seemingly abandoned sheriff’s cruiser in a stand of trees. One thing leads to another, and soon they’re off on a joyride through the countryside. But the sheriff wants his car back, and there’s another wild card factor, too, which draws a noose around all their necks.

Few deeds go unpunished in this daylight noir. Yet even through the increasingly grim action an innocence is maintained that sets Cop Car apart from recent companion films such as Cold in July, The Guest, and Blue Ruin. Getting reductive for a moment, Cop Car is like an Amblin film filtered through the twisted vision of the Coen Brothers. It’s a midnight movie blast.

Travis and Harrison (newcomers James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford) are wandering fields on the edge of their Colorado town. They needle and dare one another as they playact whatever concept slips into their heads from moment to moment. The slender Travis has a burgeoning aggressive streak; Harrison, mop-headed in lumpy, stained clothes, is secretive and reluctant.

Their imaginary games take a turn when they find the car; the sheriff’s cruiser beckons as a mysterious artifact. First they throw rocks, then rush to touch it. Soon they’re rolling across fields and dirt roads, ecstatic at their good luck, barely able to see over the dash as they work the pedals. Freedson-Jackson and Wellford have great presence and an instantly familiar chemistry. Their genuine surprise, caution and delight at each new discovery carries us along on their adventure.

Enter the sheriff, who is on strange errands of his own. Kevin Bacon, sporting a gunslinger mustache and viciously pointed crew cut, swaggers into frame as the confident lawman. But it doesn’t take much to transform his bluster into desperation, and the loss of his car represents a serious problem. Watching Bacon play the transformation — primarily without dialogue, as he’s the only performer in many of his scenes — is a delight.

The middle third of Cop Car might benefit from tightening up. After opening with scenes of the kids wandering through the back pastures that spread out from the outskirts of their town, the film rarely steps up the pace to more than a fast trot. At times that works to good effect, as director Jon Watts lets the audience churn, clearly indicating that things for the characters are going to get a lot worse before they get better. But some sequences linger without building much. A scene where Bacon attempts to unlock a car, for example, must be meant to be far more suspenseful than it actually plays out.

Once all the pieces are in place, however, Cop Car becomes relentless, building to a final sequence that is based on such elemental real-world horror I wanted to dive under the seat to escape it. Watts isn’t a sadist; very bad things do happen to these characters, but not in a way designed to punish the audience. He’s building a hard-boiled take on the loss of innocence, and the film’s grim business is surprisingly effective.

/Film score: 8 out of 10

The post ‘Cop Car’ Is a Wild Blend of Amblin Innocence and Coen Brothers Violence [Sundance 2015] appeared first on /Film.

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Tom Hanks had Philadelpha, Jim Carrey had The Truman Show and now Jason Segel has The End of the Tour. It’s a powerhouse movie announcing to the world that this comedic actor is a dramatic force too. But that’s just one of the many, many good things that can be said about director James Ponsoldt’s fourth feature film.  Below, continue our End of the Tour review.

Written by Donald Marguiles, The End of the Tour is based on the true story of David Lipsky, a Rolling Stone reporter who interviewed legendary author David Foster Wallace for five days in 1996. Lipsky catches up with the author as he’s about to hit the final stop on the book tour for the release of Infinite Jest, then and now considered one of the great novels written in our lifetimes. Over the course of the next few days, the reporter develops a complicated relationship with the icon.

Jesse Eisenberg plays the reporter, Segal the subject and for 100 minutes, the men become friends, enemies, philosophical equals, sexual rivals, artistic counterparts and much, much more. The End of the Tour premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and will be distributed by A24 later this year.

As The End of the Tour begins, David Foster Wallace has died. We’re with Lipsky – whose actual novel telling these events was the basis for the film – as he finds out the news. We then see how he first heard about Wallace from some incredible reviews he received for his novel. Reviews Lipsky is insanely jealous of.

So Lipsky sets out to interview Wallace and the author is not what you’d expect from a man of his fame. He’s lives in rural Illinois, alone, except for a few dogs. He’s quiet, pensive, a bit of a slob but unfathomably smart and insightful. Once the pair begin the interview, you never know where the conversation may go. Sex, drugs, love, McDonalds, Die Hard, Marguiles uses lots of the actual taped conversations for his dialogue. Yet in the capable mouths of Eisenberg and Segel, there’s never a question as to how natural it all sounds.

Really, that’s the number one key to the movie working so well. Both actors, working off the screenplay and under the eye of Ponsoldt’s direction, become these people. They’re so normal, down to early and believable and it makes you forget you’re watching a movie. You revel in the thoughts being discussed. The ideas become the stars as The End of the Tour implores you to consider what’s being said more than how it’s being said or even who is saying it. Even still, how and who tell a story too. That dichotomy is in large part because Ponsoldt very rarely gets involved. A lesser director might have tried to spice the film up a bit but The End of the Tour isn’t flashy. It’s muted and simple. For the most part Ponsoldt lets his two actors act, the screenplay sing, and the audience enjoy.

This is probably a good time to reveal that I’ve never read Infinite Jest, nor did I really know much about David Foster Wallace outside of the basics. But that’s insignificant because The End of the Tour is a universal story about a great many things. The screenplay, and in particular the dialogue, is absolutely stunning (thanks in large part to the actual people but still), both Eisenberg but especially Segel are magnificent in their roles, and Ponsoldt exhibits some real maturity in his direction.

There are dozens upon dozens of conversations to be had after watching The End of the Tour, but all of them end with the fact this is a great movie.

/Film rating 8.5 out of 10

The post Jason Segel’s Big Dramatic Debut Is One Of Many Great Things In ‘The End of the Tour’ [Sundance 2015] appeared first on /Film.

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Noah Baumbach’s movies have never been easy to describe. Each one blends so many different tones, sensibilities and genres that simply describing his movies as one thing doesn’t work. Calling The Squid and the Whale a family drama doesn’t seem right. Frances Ha isn’t just a coming of age story and Greenberg isn’t just a movie about self-discovery.

That lack of easy categorization is probably the only thing Baumbach’s latest film, Mistress America, shares with the director’s other films. Well, that and his co-writer and star Greta Gerwig. Mistress America is by far Baumbach’s funniest film, anchored by a completely new sort of performance from Gerwig, and blessed with a script so smart and sharp, many of the film’s jokes don’t land for a few seconds because A) you’ve never heard anyone say anything like that and B) it’s just so damn intelligent.

Mistress America had its world premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and you can read the rest of our Mistress America review below.

Mistress America starts not with Gerwig but with Tracy, played by relative newcomer Lola Kirke. Tracy is a college freshman in New York City, which is a very lonely thing to be. She tries to make friends but eventually cold calls her soon-to be-step sister, Brooke.

Brooke (Gerwig) is 12 years older than Tracy and has a big, hustle-and-bustle New York life. She’s also extremely confidant, flighty, fast speaking and occasionally brilliant. Think one of Woody Allen’s characters from the Seventies, if he was a woman and came off as ditzy, but wasn’t. Brooke is one of those happy-go-lucky girls you can’t help but love, and Tracy immediately falls under her spell. The two become quick friends and both help each other in their lives.

Even at this point, it’s hard to categorize what Mistress America is trying to say. Gerwig is absolutely hilarious and wonderful as Brooke. We’ve never seen her this big and boisterous as a character. Kirke plays the lost little sister very well too. But really the film is just these two characters, being themselves. Which is kind of exactly what’s so great about Mistress America.

Yes, there ends up being a bit more of a plot involving Brooke trying to open a restaurant, but really it’s just an excuse for Gerwig and Baumbach to populate their scenes with fun characters and layers of jokes. The second half of Mistress America feels like a giant film chemistry set as the director and writer carefully drop in characters, crazy lines of dialogue, and weird scenarios, all just because they’ve set up this world where all we care about is Tracy and Brooke, no matter what. That’s not to say it’s excessive. In fact, the film is kind of minimal, but it has an electric pop and crackle feeling all throughout.

In fact, it almost feels like Mistress America was an excuse to write a movie with all a writer’s characters and dialogue that never fit anywhere else. In Brooke, the lovable, space cadet who may have everything figured out more than anyone else, you have a character that can say all those things and justify interactions with all those people.

Beyond that, Mistress America does have things to say about generation X, generation Y, New York City, the surrounding area, and more. But those things come in a distant second to the simple pleasure of laughing and enjoying the characters Baumbach and Gerwig have created.

/Film rating: 8 out of 10

The post ‘Mistress America’ Is Noah Baumbach’s Funniest and Most Accessible Film Yet [Sundance 2015] appeared first on /Film.

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When Eli Roth directs a movie, there’s a certain expectation from the film. Gore, disturbing imagery and sheer terror are associated with the director of Cabin Fever and Hostel. Roth knows that as well as anyone. With his latest film Knock Knock, he uses those expectations to his advantage to toy with the audience. The film slowly builds, but situations don’t get violent. You might question what the hell you’re watching. What is the point here? That might be frustrating in the hands of another filmmaker, but not from Roth. For almost half of Knock Knock, the film presents fresh, difficult and exceedingly awkward situations for the characters. And because you have no idea what’s going to happen, that’s scary and thrilling in its own unique way.

Knock Knock, which stars Keanu Reeves as a happy husband randomly thrust into an uncomfortable situation with two young girls, premiered this weekend at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Continue reading our Knock Knock review.

Evan (Reeves) seems like the perfect guy. He’s an architect, lives in a beautiful California home, has two kids and a lovely talented wife. One afternoon, the wife and kids go to the beach but Evan has to stay home and work. It’s raining, he’s alone, listening to music, and there’s a knock at the door. Two beautiful young girls, played by Ana De Armas and Lorenza Izzo, are standing in the cold. They’re drenched, lost and just want to come in to dry off and use the phone.

Trailers, images, interviews and more are sure to give you a better idea of what happens next but it’s probably best if you don’t know. Suffice to say, however wild your imagination can run with that scenario, the movie goes there and then keeps going, building a tension that’ll make you squeal in your seat to exhale the built-up emotions.

As Knock Knock begins, Reeves doesn’t feel quite right in this role. We aren’t used to seeing him as a dad and it feels off. But once the family leaves and he’s on his own? That’s a role he’s perfect for and when Knock Knock really gets cooking. Then you add De Armas and Izzo, two actresses with an amazing chemistry and energy. In a single shot, they can maneuver from innocent to scary, sexy and goofy. They’re a unique, frightening, modern horror duo. You can’t take your eyes off them, yet watching them never quite feels good.

The film does falter a bit as the motivations and plans are revealed. There’s a point to this whole scenario, of course, but as the stakes get higher and higher, the tension mounting and growing, what you’re seeing on screen can never live up to the “why” behind the actions. The whole movie is structured to keep you on your toes, but the plot itself never lives up to expectations set by the tension.

Nevertheless, Knock Knock is another strong example of Eli Roth doing what he does best: Building tension, asking questions, and making the audience uncomfortable. A few bumps aside, Knock Knock is an enjoyable, original ride.

/Film rating: 7 out of 10

The post Eli Roth Takes Keanu Reeves to Hell and Back in ‘Knock Knock’ [Sundance 2015] appeared first on /Film.

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