Casey Affleck, Trevor Noah tackle reviewers, race relations at critics awards
Critics and actors are strange bedfellows.
One minute, they’re trashing your performances; the next, they’re buttering you up with prestigious awards and free-flowing booze. It’s a sometimes awkward dynamic that Casey Affleck lovingly prodded Tuesday night, accepting best actor for Manches
ter by the Sea at the New York Film Critics Circle awards.
“This really is an incredible honor, because I — believe it or not — really love to read film reviews,” Affleck said. “However, there are only a few people in this world that have liked everything that I’ve done, like my mom and my neighbor. ... The New York Film Critics Circle is not in that category of people who see things always and like them,” he cracked, earning big laughs as he read memorable pans of his past performances by some movie critics in the room, calling him “mumbly” and “annoying.”
“How does one survive such scathing and often accurate criticism?” Affleck continued. “Well, truth is, there’s never really been anything so horrible said about me that I haven’t either thought of or said to myself 10 times over.”
Affleck’s self-deprecating speech encapsulated the jovial atmosphere at the 82nd annual NYFCC awards, which were hosted at TAO Downtown and served as an unofficial kickoff to a bustling awards season. The starstudded affair attracted celebrities including Mark Ruffalo, Adam Driver and The Daily
Show’s Trevor Noah, who presented the award for best documentary to Ezra Edelman for ESPN’s O.J.: Made in America.
“For me, the best documentaries are a lot like sex: They excite you, and leave you thinking about yourself and the world you live in in a completely different way,” Noah joked. “O.J.: Made in Ameri
ca was no different for me. ... This epic story touches on so many themes: domestic abuse, police brutality, obsession with fame in America, race relations. Issues that, thankfully, no longer plague America.”
Modern musical La La Land continued its winning streak with the best picture award, while
Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins took home best director. Being back in New York felt like a sort of homecoming for the filmmaker, who remembers presenting the coming-of-age drama to a Manhattan audience in October.
“It was opening weekend and we were at the AMC Lincoln Square (theater),” Jenkins told USA TODAY on the red carpet. “I did a Q&A and expected there to be 30 people. (But) there were like 700 people waiting for me to come and speak about this film, about a very small neighborhood in Miami. When things like that happen, it humbles you.”
On the acting front, newcomer Mahershala Ali clinched another best supporting actor win for
Moonlight, and Michelle Williams earned best supporting actress for her dual roles in Manchester
by the Sea and Certain Women. The New York resident paid tribute to her city, as well as her 11year-old daughter, Matilda.
“You’re not afraid to tell me what you think of me when I’m winning and when I’m losing,” Williams said.
Acting icon Isabelle Huppert accepted one of the night’s final awards for best actress for French-language films Things to
Come and Elle, the latter of which is likely to earn her an Oscar nomination, many pundits predict.
“It’s amazing for me to be rewarded for both films,” Huppert told USA TODAY. They’re “such different films with some similarities, in the sense that they both revolve around a woman’s journey on a very large scale. I’m very grateful — I couldn’t dream of anything better.”