Oscars 2019: 77th Golden Globe Awards
Okay, Golden Globes recap. Sort of. I’m basically typing half of this up as the show happens, just to get my immediate thoughts down and then am gonna translate it into English, so by the time you read it, you’ll get my immediate thoughts and the post mortem thoughts going into the five major sets of nominations coming today and tomorrow.
In terms of the show as a whole — I’m used to it without a host. They only started this hosting thing with Gervais a few years ago. And honestly he’s the only one, to me, who’s gotten it right. Everyone else has been either just fine or straight up unnecessary and not good at it. I’m guessing part of that is because they’ve been on NBC the past couple of years and had to hire their own stable of talent (which means Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers and Andy Samberg. Who I’m not the biggest fan of as hosts and think did a so-so job. They tried throwing Sandra Oh in there too, but she’s not a natural host/stand up, so it didn’t really work). But having Gervais back was nice. Especially because he did not care. And that’s the kind of energy a host of a show like this needs. It’s not the Oscars. You’re not shepherding an unwieldy show and giving a grounding presence. You’re there to make jokes and point out how dumb it all is. And he did a good job of that.
The Wild Hogs joke was nice. Loved the Two Popes pedophilia joke. Enjoyed him straight up calling HFPA racist. Enjoyed the In Memoriam list not being diverse enough. That was clever joke formatting, even though it could have came across as tone deaf (as some of his later jokes did). The Jeffrey Epstein joke was perfectly timed and delivered. Especially the tag, “I know he’s your friend, but I don’t care.” That was nice. Loved the obligatory ‘date too old for Leo’ joke. It didn’t feel as stale as it could have, given how often we’ll probably hear that joke over the next month. I also love his inability to get through the Judi Dench joke. It wasn’t that amazing a joke, but the way he delivered it (or couldn’t), made it work. I also loved his ending bit, about “thank your agent and your god and fuck off.” I know the wrong people are gonna read the wrong thing into the sentiment behind that, but in terms of a ‘you’re not that important and this is a jerkoff awards show’, I enjoyed it. (more…)
Oscars 2019: 77th Golden Globes Predictions
The Golden Globes are tonight. Unlike other years, I actually knew they were happening and didn’t wake up this morning and realize, “Oh shit, that’s tonight.” Usually I get texts or calls from other people and they remind me. But nope, I’m on top of my shit this year. That’s new.
I should warn you that these predictions are really only to remind me of what the categories are and prep me for what to watch out for. Namely, “Expect this film in this category, but if this one wins, it could mean that’s gonna win there, so then we look to see what wins SAG”… etc, etc. That’s really all this is for.
But hey, this is a big one. We’ll see what this means for who’s gonna start winning everything, which is fun, since WGA, DGA, PGA and BAFTA nominations are all coming in the next two days, and we’re not getting BFCA winners for another week. So for the next week, get ready for all the hot takes about what’s gonna win based solely on this.
For now, let’s see what kind of help we might get from this show tonight. (more…)
Oscars 2019: Golden Globe Nominations
Alright, folks. The Globes nominations have been announced, hot off the heels of yesterday’s BFCA nominations. Typically when I’m breaking down what’s gonna get nominated, I’m looking at the guilds, BAFTA, BFCA and the Globes. So that’s half the puzzle, even if the guilds is the biggest piece and involves a lot of smaller pieces for each category and this is, essentially, the latter half. But hey, we’ve got something to chew on for the next month until the real shit goes down.
I assume this is all gonna be in line with what happened yesterday, with one or two films HFPA liked more than BFCA did and some they liked less. It’s the same thing every year. Really the key with these two is to start spotting where the extraneous nominees are gonna be. Because there’s always someone who only hits BFCA and nothing else, and there are always people that hit BFCA and here, and then there’s those people that hit all this and SAG and still have no real chance at getting nominated. People fall for those traps every single year. Today’s not about making proclamations. It’s about seeing what trends are showing up and seeing which ones you actually have to pay attention to versus the ones that can be left alone.
But anyway, let’s just get into these nominations: (more…)
Oscars 2018: 76th Golden Globe Awards
Golden Globes recap.
The show wasn’t particularly entertaining. But I figured that would be the case, given the hosts. They just weren’t conducive choices to an interesting show around the categories. Which pretty much meant that all I was paying attention to was who won. And that Fosse/Verdon trailer they showed during the show (which looks dope).
In terms of the show, the opening monologue wasn’t great. The only joke I thought was good was about Vice invading the wrong category based on bad information, but they pretty much rolled over that and into the next joke immediately, either because they had a mandate to speed up the show or because none of the jokes were landing because everyone was drunk. That’s really the key with this show — either have a host that can grab the attention of the drunk people, or no host at all.
The gags they did didn’t work, the flu shots or whatever. The crowd was openly talking over them at some points, which tells you just how little they mattered as hosts. They tried to put a serious monologue at the end of their jokes, and people started laughing thinking it was gonna turn into a bit. Not great planning on their part. Otherwise, the Jeff Bridges and Carol Burnett tributes were nice. Bridges gave an awesome speech. Also, Dick Van Dyke. And Bill fucking Murray.
The rest of the show — I can’t say I’m openly shocked at how things turned out, but there are some interesting decisions to chew on, and we’ll see if they carry weight throughout the rest of the season, or if this is just the Globes being the Globes. (more…)
Oscars 2018: 76th Golden Globes Predictions
The Golden Globes are tonight. Completely forgot that was happening. But also that has to do with the fact that I was otherwise engaged the past few weeks. Still, a nice surprise to get home and realize, “Oh yeah, I’ve got something to watch tonight.”
I never put any effort into these predictions, so I’ll just write them up now before the show. It’ll be interesting to see if they wait until the football game is over or straight up just switch over. Probably not the worst situation to be in, if you’re NBC.
Anyway, let’s see what we’ve got here. The results shouldn’t matter so much, but they will kick off Oscar season proper, being our first precursors out there before BFCA next weekend. And then it’ll just be guild nominations galore the next ten days. Can’t wait.
Anyway, this is my reminder of what the hell is nominated tonight and what I’m pulling out of my ass as to what I think will win. (more…)
Oscars 2018: Golden Globe Nominations
And it’s Golden Globes time. This is the official kick-off to Oscar season.
They announced these at 5am, and I’m sure a lot of people were awake and ready to hear them or were expecting me to have done the same, but I think we’ve long since established how little I care about the Golden Globes as anything more than a good start to the actual important stuff that’s gonna happen later. This is the bread they put down on the table at the restaurant. Occasionally I’ll take a piece to sop up some of the sauce on the plate later, but for the most part, it’s just a starter.
The good news is, because I didn’t wake up that early, I’m finding this all out as I go, so you’ll get my unvarnished opinions as I read the nominees. Though I’ll be honest, I had several long conversations with people last night (people who seem to care about these nominations significantly more than I do) where I said a bunch of stuff I expected to see, owing to them basically wanting to have certain people there and them being complete and utter starfuckers. So honestly, the big surprise to me is gonna be if they don’t nominate people.
Off the top of my head — Star Is Born will be across the board. Gaga won Best Actress yesterday. They’ll nominate Mary Poppins, Black Panther, Crazy Rich Asians. Because then they get the entire casts. Bohemian Rhapsody should get love more than people expect. Nicole Kidman gets minimum one nomination. The Favourite gets two acting nominations (because, as I said, you nominate Rachel Weisz, you get Daniel Craig to show up too). Emily Blunt gets nominated easily, because then you get John Krasinski, which allows them to not really nominate his movie and still get him to show up. They might nominate Widows just to get that cast. Vice will get nominations for that cast. Mary Queen of Scots double nomination seems promising too, because then you get those two there. I’m curious to see if they care about BlacKkKlansman or not. Going back to Mary Poppins for a second, I’m sure Lin-Manuel wrote a song there, so I’d expect that. Also, as I say to everyone — you gotta watch out for Meryl. Any excuse to nominate her, they’ll take it. She has 31 Globe nominations. 31! And I think only two are for TV.
But yeah, that was all stuff I expected just riffing with people last night. They read all the prognostications, and I did not. So I honestly have no clue where this is going, and I will tell you know I’m putting less stock into this than everyone else is. It’s SAG that I start to look at things as serious contenders.
So without further ado, here are your Globe nominees for this year: (more…)
Oscars 2017: 75th Golden Globe Awards
So the Golden Globes were last night. Sometimes I live blog them. This is not one of those times. I just didn’t have the energy or the desire (or the sobriety) to do it.
The show was way less fun than it’s been in previous years (though maybe it’s only been fun for me because of the drinking during it). They went long early and just kind of sped through categories to get stuff over with. Which kinda defeats the purpose of an awards show.
But yeah. The first piece of our Oscar puzzle is now in place. Two more big ones coming on Thursday with DGA and BFCA. But until then, I really only have one question — why do the Globes keep putting that microphone back into the ground during commercials only to raise it back up like, a minute later? (more…)
