Golden Globe reactions

For the films of 2018
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

Post by Big Magilla »

Mister Tee wrote:I don't know if you guys ever look in on the Awards Watch threads, but if you had tonight, you'd have seen them at their bi-polar best. After Olivia Colman's win and speech, they had her waltzing to an Oscar victory. Then, when Close won, they turned on a dime, announcing SHE was now the clear Oscar winner. "They gave her a standing ovation, that means she'll win the Oscar" -- apparently forgetting Sylvester Stallone got the same treatment three years ago. OF COURSE Glenn Close will get a standing ovation if she wins, as any long-time veteran would. (Dick van Dyke showed the power of years-long affection.) That doesn't mean people will vote for her.
I only occasionally look at the Awards Watch blog for news, but never the threads.

I thought Colman's speech was silly. Why anyone would think she'd win because of that is beyond me. Close, on the other hand, looked genuinely surprised and moved, kissed her Fatal Attraction co-star on the way ot the podium and brought the audience to their feet twice. The first ovation may have been out of respect, but the second was in appreciation of that speech. The 14-year struggle to get the film made. Her moving tribute to her mother. At this point, they'd vote for her just to hear repeat some of that at the Oscars.
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

Post by The Original BJ »

Mister Tee wrote:Almost forgot: the Green Book producer's speech couldn't have better distilled the essence of what some of us viscerally dislike about the film. An older white guy telling us we just all need to be nice and racism will go away.
Everyone watching at my place felt the exact same thing -- "all we need to do is talk to each other and find our shared humanity" as a way to eradicate white supremacy is a total misread of this political moment, albeit totally fitting when summing up a movie whose thesis seems to be "not only can white racists be redeemed, but they can even teach people of color something too!"
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

Post by Mister Tee »

And another after-thought: that Star is Born decision to compete under drama rather than comedy/musical doesn't seem so canny just now, does it?
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

Post by The Original BJ »

Glass half full: well, at least the Oscar narrative had some big curve balls thrown its way.

Glass half empty: YIKES. Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book have to be the worst pair of Globe winners since... what... The Goodbye Girl & The Turning Point? Maybe Avatar & The Hangover could be considered, though the former was at least a genuine technical marvel. (I guess the optimistic read is that both those years gave us pretty sterling Oscar winners in the end.)

The biggest story has to be the complete collapse of A Star is Born. It seemed like a genuine threat to win every one of its categories, so to end the night with only the guaranteed prize for "Shallow" has to be considered shocking, particularly for anyone who has bought into the idea of the film as some kind of unbeatable Oscar frontrunner. It still seems like nominations across the board are very likely, but I have no idea where it stands in the overall race at this point.

When Green Book won the Screenplay prize (UGH), I feared it would be a big night for the movie, so I guess Mortensen losing to Bale was sort of a silver lining (to say nothing of sparing us Director as well). I've generally been pretty lukewarm on the movie's chances of actually WINNING the Best Picture Oscar -- it's always felt to me like a place-filler bottom-half of the Best Picture list nominee -- but tonight is the first time I started to take it seriously. Still, I can't quite wrap my brain around an Academy that chose Moonlight two years ago turning to something like Green Book (which feels more like Best Picture 1968) in 2018.

But I don't even know WHAT to say about Bohemian Rhapsody -- a film sitting in the 40's on Metacritic! For as much as we all gripe about certain movies winning prizes that don't merit them, most of those films are at least genuinely considered to be GOOD by overall consensus. It's hard to remember a time when a film so widely considered to be this lousy was defying the odds in this way. (Honestly, when Nicole Kidman mouthed the "B" after opening the envelope, I thought Black Panther had won it.)

One thing we really don't know for sure -- how much voters liked Roma. The film was a gimme in Foreign Language Film, and of course Cuarón LOSING in Director would have shown soft support. But for all we know, it might have won Best Drama had it been eligible, which would have created a totally different narrative for the end of the evening. It's hard to know if we were denied another Roma steamroll just due to a technicality.

Re: Bradley Cooper in Best Actor, I'll just reiterate the point Mister Tee made a while back -- if he's to win the Oscar, it feels like he has to start winning SOMEWHERE, and this was clearly not a good sign for his chances.

If anyone went from you-might-win-the-Oscar to your-chances-are-basically-done in one evening, I'd say it's Lady Gaga in the Best Actress category. Most assumed that even if Close or Colman prevailed on Oscar night, Gaga (already a Globe-winning actress) was essentially a Globe bingo; at this point, it's hard for her to feel like anything other than a lame duck Best Actress nominee, certain to win in the Original Song category, giving voters clear options to vote elsewhere in Best Actress.

I have to say the reaction in the room to Glenn Close's victory -- as well as her obviously heartfelt speech -- made it feel like the beginning of a serious run for the big prize. On merit this year, I'd prefer Colman (perhaps my happiest win of the night), but it's tough to begrudge Close on career points, and I suspect the race will be tight between the two until the final envelope.

It's hard to know if Mahershala Ali emerges as the frontrunner in his category, or if this is a case of Globe voters making it up to him for the Moonlight loss, which Oscar won't feel the need to do. Sometimes the various groups do feel like they take their own histories into consideration -- witness Crowe winning Globe/SAG for A Beautiful Mind after losing for Gladiator, but not repeating at the Oscars, and then by extension, Washington winning the SAG for Fences after passing on him for Training Day. (Also, it struck me as laughable that the intro to this category was a joke about how supporting players get such little to do, before awarding an actor who appears in virtually his entire film.)

The SAG hiccup of course means Regina King can't sweep through the season completely unopposed, but it feels like she's got the Oscar at this point. She also gave a great speech, too.

The presentations to Bridges and Burnett made me realize how much I've missed those tributes on the Oscars -- they were both such moving moments, and tied so many decades of Hollywood history together, I continue to feel regret that the Honorary Oscars have been ghettoized to another ceremony completely.

I like Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh, but I agree with Aceisgreat -- the writing of their material was seriously unfunny.

One last thought to ponder: could this be a year when we REALLY see if the changes to the Academy membership are having a significant effect? Because the kinds of voters who have been added -- certainly in the Director and Writing branches -- do not seem to me like the kind of voters who are backing Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book. I certainly hope we'll see more evidence of a more exciting membership come Oscar time.
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

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Almost forgot: the Green Book producer's speech couldn't have better distilled the essence of what some of us viscerally dislike about the film. An older white guy telling us we just all need to be nice and racism will go away.

Spike Lee must think it's his karmic fate to always be on scene when that sort of movie floats up.
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

Post by Sabin »

Saw this on Mike D'Angelo's twitter:

"Okay wait. I didn’t watch the ceremony. Assumed GREEN BOOK won Drama and BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY won Musical/Comedy. It was the other way around?!"
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

Post by ThePianist »

Sorry for not being here to predict with ya'll. Been too caught up in my personal life, taking care of myself, etc. - for more than a month now.

And my freaking sides. What a terrible show this was. Holy hot garbage.
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

Post by HarryGoldfarb »

Mister Tee wrote:So, the best movie of 2018 is either Bohemian Rhapsody or Green Book.

A dram of hemlock, please?
I guess this only helps Roma (the Gandhi foreshadowing).
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

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Well, it wasn't predictable. And, for the moment, it feels like it scrambles the race -- unless the Broadcasters copy all their wins. And they couldn't conceivably pick Bohemian Rhapsody or Green Book, could they?

I've been as tolerant/it's-not-as-horrible-as-all-that of Bohemian Rhapsody as anyone here, but even I find this appalling. The Globes have pitched some mediocrities at us over the years, but this is a joke. Luckily, as I noted in my predictions, their rate of predicting best picture winners has been quite low in the past decade, so I'm confident something other than their two big winners will be taking home the best picture Oscar.

On the other hand, between this and PGA, we now have to seriously deal with Bohemian Rhapsody as a best picture nominee, and, as disappointing as I think the year has been, I never thought it would sink that low.

And how must Bradley Cooper feel? This seemed like his film's ideal venue to rack up prizes (hell, the despised Streisand version won five Globes). If the Broadcasters don't come through for his film, its best picture chances will have taken a huge hit. And his seemingly in-the-bag best actor award is now very much in doubt.

As to that last item: I've been a great fan of Rami Malek on Mr, Robot, and like him well enough in Bohemian, but I honestly thought an Oscar nomination was as high as he could aspire this year. The enthusiasm for him is way stronger than I anticipated. You can scoff, well, it's just those 100 or so Globe voters, but, as I noted, they've been almost infallible Oscar predictors of late.

Of course, there were TWO lead actor awards tonight, and maybe those of you who were dismissing my touting of Christian Bale a few days ago might look at him now as the best hope to stave off a Malek win. Certainly his speech did him some good; by far the most memorable in the first two hours of the show. (I'm judging without having seen Vice yet -- planning on it tomorrow -- but it has always struck me there's more enthusiasm for his performance than people are willing to admit.)

I don't know if you guys ever look in on the Awards Watch threads, but if you had tonight, you'd have seen them at their bi-polar best. After Olivia Colman's win and speech, they had her waltzing to an Oscar victory. Then, when Close won, they turned on a dime, announcing SHE was now the clear Oscar winner. "They gave her a standing ovation, that means she'll win the Oscar" -- apparently forgetting Sylvester Stallone got the same treatment three years ago. OF COURSE Glenn Close will get a standing ovation if she wins, as any long-time veteran would. (Dick van Dyke showed the power of years-long affection.) That doesn't mean people will vote for her. I think she and Colman will likely both stay in the running all the way -- with Colman very likely to win BAFTA, and Close positioned (but not assured) to win SAG and the Broadcasters. We'll know better after those last two are presented whether Close is a one-night victor, or if the narrative has truly sprung to life. Put another way: this is not Julianne Moore, whose Globe win made her a certainty. All this does is put Close into the race. (But at least we can now say it wasn't entirely a blogger wet dream.)

I'd say both supporting races remain open, as well, pending future outcomes. Many of us fully expected Ali would win here, having failed to take the prize in his Moonlight run. But other match-ups might go differently. Richard E. Grant seems almost sure to take BAFTA, doesn't he? (Especially given BAFTA's shall-we-call-it-reluctance to honor black American actors.) And Regina King has the clear problem of not even being nominated at SAG (plus that BAFTA issue I just noted), which could put other names on the board. (Maybe Amy Adams, maybe one of The Favourite ladies -- especially at BAFTA, since it wouldn't surprise me if The Favourite managed best picture there.) Both Ali and King COULD win at the Oscars -- I'm even inclined to root for King. But at this moment things remain open.

The Cuaron directing win indicates some genuine enthusiasm for Roma. I still have my doubts about a carryover at AMPAS, but this was a promising sign.

Mark Harris, who'd been basically ignoring the Globes, tweeted at one point "For SCREENWRITING??? I'm out". I'm sure a number of us felt the same when Green Book disgracefully took that prize. The Globes' screenplay winners have, in fact, a decent record of carrying over to the Oscars, but it's not an infallible stat, and we'll have to hope this is one of the off years.

When Justin Hurwitz won and they played part of the First Man score, I was reminded of something I would have mentioned had I ever written a review of the movie: that snatch of music (from the final portion of the film) seems MAJORLY similar to the primary theme in La La Land. Did anyone else note this?

I don't really recall much about the TV winners, except I'm happy to see Patricia Clarkson win something at last.

Carol Burnett and Jeff Bridges were very winning, but their presentations went very long in a show that was clearly headed for serious overtime. (I can't recall a Globes show running that far past its alloted slot.) It seemed a lot of speeches were allowed to ramble on further than usual.

I like Sandra Oh and Andy Sanberg, but I thought their opening duologue was painful.
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

Post by HarryGoldfarb »

anonymous1980 wrote:
Aceisgreat wrote:And did anyone else think the Golden Globes themselves looked clunky and cheap?
They look weird this year, like dildos spray-painted gold.
Noticed.

The Los Angeles Time published an article about the trophy makeover. Here’s an excerpt:

The winners at the 2019 Golden Globes on Sunday will be handed trophies that are bigger, heavier and more ergonomically sound than those from last year.
This year’s trophy has done away with the blocky marble base. The new cylindrical base, according to an announcement by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. on Friday, was designed “to ensure that winners do not obstruct the golden globe when holding the award.”
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

Post by Sabin »

Singer got too caught up in his Boyhymenian Rhapsody.
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

Post by MaxWilder »

I'm aghast.
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

Post by Okri »

Stolen from Twitter: "It's the songs, not the Singer"
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

Post by anonymous1980 »

Aceisgreat wrote:And did anyone else think the Golden Globes themselves looked clunky and cheap?
They look weird this year, like dildos spray-painted gold.
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Re: Golden Globe reactions

Post by Sabin »

RE: Glenn Close
Shutting up now.

RE: Bohemian Rhapsody & Green Book
The HFP declared that the best films of 2018 had RT scores of 81% and 62%. Welcome to 2018.

Can we still accuse the HFP of being starfuckers when they had to chance to honor basically Starfuckers: The Movie... and didn't?
Last edited by Sabin on Sun Jan 06, 2019 11:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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