They were last night and this year I wasn't particularly excited for the simple fact that I have scaled down how much TV I watch and I have gone to the movies sporadically. Therefore, I had not seen many of the nominated films, shows, or performances.Also, it's the Golden Globes, which are handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which is a bunch of journalists that write for foreign publications and enjoy a humongous amount of power over the industry (and the Oscars), simply thanks to the power they can wield with their pens.
A while back I had seen a documentary on this association that depicted them as a bunch of leeches bent on currying the stars' favors (including interviews and photo ops) in exchange for good reviews and perks (i.e. expensive gifts).
The punishment for a star or studio that dared snub them was bad reviews in the foreign press, which could lead to lower ticket sales abroad, therefore hurting the bottom line. Hollywood decided it was better off bowing to the HFPA, but it's now paying a dear price.
The HFPA is, after all, just a critics association, like the more respectable ones in New York or Los Angeles, the industry's hub cities par excellence, so why don't they carry the same weight?
Things seem to be starting to change, meaning that those critics' associations' awards are starting to gain traction as well, but the gap between them and the HFPA, with its world famous Golden Globes Awards show, will likely never be filled. The stars love a red carpet, the studios benefit as well, and a production like that is very costly to set up, a cost probably unsustainable by other associations.
Anyway, these are my impressions on last night's show.
Overall not bad, but the vast majority of winners were announced and there were no big surprises, except maybe for Ugly Betty for Best Comedy Show and its star, America Ferrera for Best Actress in a Comedy Show.
The win for Babel was announced, but it always rubs me the wrong way when the Best Picture and Best Director awards are split, since the movie didn't make itself, the director made it.
It's always the same story: This year Martin Scorsese (or whoever else) made a great movie that is his best shot at an Oscar. Let's give him the Globe, so at least he gets this, which might also send a few more votes his way, since he's long overdue for an Oscar. As for the director of the movie we think is the best one, oh well, we'll make amends the next time he's able to make a movie just as good and there's no one else who we have to give a push to.
Dreamgirls' win also was a given, as were those for Mirren, Whitaker, Streep, Baron Cohen, Murphy, Hudson, and Scorsese. The screenplay went, deservedly, to The Queen, and I was pleased to see that four out of the five Best Score nominations were for smaller productions, and not blockbusters, as is often the case.
Best Song went to Prince, who wasn't in the room when called on stage by the super-hot Justin Timberlake. Gracious and classy was Hugh Grant when he called on him to take his bow (and applause) when he finally arrived (he had gotten stuck in traffic). After all, how often does it happen to win one of these things?!
Letters from Iwo Jima took Foreign Language Film, I assume, given the pedigree, quite deservedly, and Cars the newest addition to the Globe awards, that for Best Animated Film, not to be outdone by the Academy, which introduced such a category a few years back.
Nothing struck me on the television side, while the big winner of the night was undoubtedly the fabulous Helen Mirren, who won for her royal portrayals of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth I also won for Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.
Multiple nominee Mirren, therefore, took home two of the three awards she was nominated for this year, Emily Blunt one of the two, while Leonardo DiCaprio, Toni Collette, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Annette Bening none. Would I call them losers? Unlikely. Hearing your name called more than once (especially in the same category, like in Leonardo's -and Helen's- cases) has to be a win in itself.
The thing I liked the most was the spreading of wealth among whites, blacks, latinos, and foreigners. Given that this is the foreign press, it comes as no surprise that winners aren't all from the US, but it was nice to see that minorities were winning as if it were the most natural thing, unlike what we see at the Academy, where something like this would be considered historical.
Of the top 8 movie awards (in acting, direction and writing), 3 went to foreigners and 3 to blacks. Latinos, as I mentioned earlier, took Best Actress and Best Comedy on the small screen side. So I'd say a nice spread.
The thing I liked the least is the HFPA's hypocrisy in wanting to hand out separate awards for dramas and comedies but not in all categories. Meanwhile, musicals get bunched up with comedies, why exactly? Not all musicals are happy affairs; I found Moulin Rouge to be quite dramatic and sad, so are Romeo and Juliet or The Phantom of the Opera.
It's almost like they want to make as many people happy as they can (to keep those nice perks coming, I'm sure), but they don't care enough to be fully balanced. Two awards are handed out to the two best films of the year, a drama and a comedy, but only one director and one writer are honored (and this year both winning films did not take directing or writing awards -- again with the let's make everyone happy philosophy). Awards are handed out for lead actors in dramas and comedies, no so for the supporting actors. They get to fight it out for just one Globe per gender.
This lopsided preferential treatment is even more evident in the television categories, where there are awards for lead actors and actresses in dramas, comedies and mini-series or made-for-TV movies, six categories in all, for a minimum of thirty nominations (the globes occasionally hand out more than the usual five nominations). But all the supporting actors are clumped into two categories, best supporting actor and actress. Ten nominations vs. thirty. Seems quite uneven to me, doesn't it?
It's almost like the voters can't be bothered or don't have the time to look beyond the lead performances. Let's just hope they never decide to go coed and cut those categories in half, 'cause you know that at that point women would all but be shut out of the race.
After all, women's categories are always called before men's (this in any award ceremony), not to be gentlemanly, but because the male categories are supposed to carry more weight and generate more suspense.
Which brings me to my other annoyance with the Globes. If you want to honor dramas and comedies separately, it must be because you think that comedies are just as deserving as dramas, and possibly also because they never get their due at other awards shows, especially the Oscars.
Why then treat the comedy categories as the crazy cousins, awarding them throughout the night (hell, Streep won her award halfway through, while Mirren had to wait until 10.45) or using them as fillers, instead of evenly alternating them with their corresponding categories for dramas? Wouldn't it be better to keep it more balanced?
Despicable was also cutting in on the Best Comedy/Musical Picture's acceptance speech because time was running out. This is the Best Picture award, dammit, cut the others, not the top one, or isn't this one of the two top ones? Problem is, when this was handed out, they still had to award Best Actor, Actress, and Picture Drama, so, Sorry, no time for you lower-tier folks...
Anyway, I'm done ranting. The winners' speeches. Alec Baldwin, Jeremy Irons, Clint Eastwood, and Hugh Laurie were funny. Kyra Sedgwick was completely stunned, while Jennifer Hudson, America Ferrera, and Forest Whitaker were adorable and touching because so emotional.
Helen Mirren was simple and gracious (both times), while Sacha Baron Cohen was grossly funny but took too long for his gig and when the music started playing he hadn't even started with his list of thank yous. If you plan on having a two minute gig on stage when you win, forget about the list. You're not the only one here.
Finally, the best moment of the night, Meryl Streep's acceptance speech: funny, poignant, and masterfully delivered. What a lady. What a thespian.
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