Los Angeles Film Critics Association

BEST FILM
Boyhood
runner-up: The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST DIRECTOR
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
runner-up: Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST ACTOR
Tom Hardy, Locke
runner-up: Michael Keaton, Birdman

BEST ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
runner-up: Julianne Moore, Still Alice

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
runner-up: Edward Norton, Birdman

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Agata Kulesza, Ida
runner-up: Rene Russo, Nightcrawler

BEST SCREENPLAY
The Grand Budapest Hotel- Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness
runner-up: Birdman- Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
runner-up: The LEGO Movie

BEST DOCUMENTARY
CitizenFour
runner-up: Life Itself

BEST FOREIGN FILM
Ida
runner-up: Winter Sleep

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Birdman- Emmanuel Lubezki
runner-up: Mr. Turner- Dick Pope

BEST FILM EDITING
Boyhood- Sandra Adair
runner-up: The Grand Budapest Hotel- Barney Piling

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel- Adam Stockhausen
runner-up: Snowpiercer- Ondrej Nekvasil


BEST SCORE
(tie) Inherent Vice- Jonny Greenwood; Under the Skin- Mica Levi

BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM
The David Whiting Story- Walter Reuben

NEW GENERATION AWARD
Ava DuVernay

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT
Gena Rowlands 



             

Locke

Taut and compactly-sized, Steven Knight's new film Locke stars Tom Hardy as a man whose life begins to unravel during a particularly stress-laden drive on a British highway.  The eighty-five minute morality play-- a one man show, nearly real-time affair-- sounds on the outset like a stage-driven chamber piece that may outstay its welcome a few miles in.  Certainly the idea of  someone yammering on his Bluetooth doesn't exactly lend itself for entertaining or particularly interesting drama.  Yet, thanks to inventive filming and a commanding lead turn, Locke is an invigorating and alert piece of filmmaking, one where the contrivances are certainly there and made aware, but quickly forgotten due to its human connection to real world stress and anxiety-- which to be fair, quite often takes place independently and behind the wheel of a car.

On one hand, Locke poses itself as a companion piece of sorts to recent ultra-confined one man (or woman) movies like Buried (2010), which saw Ryan Reynolds trapped in a coffin, Phone Booth (2003), which saw Colin Farrell trapped in a, well, duh, and Gravity (2013) where Sandra Bullock floated in deep space.  Yet, what separates Locke is that it's crafted and shaded with everyday human struggle.  No alien premise or absurd set of circumstances pivot Ivan Locke (Hardy) down this particularly dark British highway except for the small, but pivotal professional and personal choices of his own doing.