Golden Globes: Awards, Antics, and a Mixed Bag
The Golden globes set the agenda on Sunday wiht the first award of the night, which went to Teyana Taylor for “One Battle After Another” over what could be perceived as a more starry win by fellow nominees Emily Blunt or ariana Grande.
They stuck with it for the rest of the show, but ended the night with the distinct feeling that the Globes’ attempted makeover – which aims to be more judicious in what’s nominated and who wins – is confusing at best.Sure,it’s hard to argue with Paul Thomas Anderson’s ”One Battle” being the big winner, with Globes for Anderson’s direction and screenplay, taylor’s supporting performance and Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. And the same could be said for Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet” winning Best Motion Picture – Drama,a point underlined by the strong and moving speeches by Zhao and lead actress winner Jessie Buckley.
Those were entirely credible films to reward in this time of turmoil and trauma, emblematic of a roster of winners that stuck with the favorites almost all of the time and never seemed to be trying to award star power, the way the old-school Globes had been known to do.
But after new ownership dramatically overhauled the roster of voters in a desperate attempt to gain some of that credibility, you got the sense that the new Globes and the resulting telecast wanted to have its cake and eat it, too – to have the show be as loose, boozy and fun as it sometiems was when the voters were suspect and the stakes weren’t very high.
And it wasn’t that, except in its most forced and awkward moments.
Surrounding a good group of winners was the inconsequential, three-year-old Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award, a category that now seems to have become a consolation prize for big movies that aren’t going to win many other awards. (“Barbie” won it, then ”Wicked,” then “Sinners,” which was expected to do better than it did.) And a new podcast category that was introduced by a film clip that essentially said “movies are dying, so this is what we’ve gotta salute now.” And a standup comedy category that for two out of its three years has gone to Ricky Gervais, the guy who’s best known for savaging the Globes when he hosted them in the past. Also:
The Golden Globes have always been a bit of an oddity, and this year’s nominations reinforced that. They’re voted on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,a group of roughly 83 international journalists. But they’re international movie critics and journalists who don’t depend on L.A. junkets for their livelihood, so their votes often go to critics’ favorites instead of movies that will draw the biggest stars to the Beverly Hilton.
So in the Best Motion Picture – Drama category, an unprecedented three of the six nominees were non-English-language films, with “It Was Just an Accident” (Iranian) ”Sentimental Value” (Norwegian) and “the Secret Agent” (Brazilian) all making the cut; in Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, the South Korean ”No Other Choice” and the french-language “Nouvelle Vague” took two of the six slots.
Still,the Globes telecast could have some repercussions as Oscar voters get ready to cast their ballots this week. Jessie Buckley’s speech was warm and charming,making up for the fact that the show played Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” as she walked to the stage. (It’s a terrific song, of course, but while its title may be accurate, it’s also one of the least germane parts of her fierce, feral performance.)