Golden Globes Wrapup

Since the Golden Globes were on Sunday, I thought I would do a kind of random talk about what surprises there were, good and bad, and what these wins can tells us (or not tell us) about the Oscars.

Let me start off by saying: I absolutely missed Ricky Gervais this year. Yes, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey did a good job, but they didn’t bring the crass kind of humor that I love from Gervais. The best joke of the night, in my opinion, was when they said "When it comes to torture, I trust the lady who was married to James Cameron for 3 years,” about Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow. Other than that, they were decent hosts. Nothing special. Two highlights of the night for me were: Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell presenting Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical and Robert Downey Jr. presenting the Cecille B. Demille Award to Jodie Foster.

Now about those awards. None of the winners really shocked me, as no award category had a clear winner in any of them (save for Best Actor in a Drama and Best Supporting Actress.) That being said, some of the winners were pleasant surprises.

Best Supporting Actor

This category is loaded with phenomenal performances, so it was really hard to predict who was going to win. Most people had Alan Arkin or Tommy Lee Jones down to win this one, but everyone was a viable candidate to win. I, personally, wanted to see Arkin or Waltz win, and lucky for me, I did! Waltz pulled out a win that most did not predict. This gives him huge momentum going into the Oscars, with a real chance to claim his second Best Supporting Actor statue.

Best Supporting Actress

Unlike Best Supporting Actor, this category was already locked for Anne Hathaway to win. If anyone else had won, it would have shocked everyone around the world. I’ve heard maybe one or two people say that Amy Adams could have won, but let’s be seriously for a second: the HFPA had a huge boner for Les Miserables (just like the Academy seems to have a huge boner for Silver Linings Playbook.) So, there was no way she was gonna lose.

Best Screenplay

Probably the biggest surprise of the night was the Best Screenplay award. A lot of people expected either Chris Terrio or Tony Kushner to take home the award for Argo and Lincoln, respectively. As someone who has always loved Tarantino and was a huge fan of the script for Django Unchained, I was pulling for a surprise win here. I fully expected Terrio to win, and wouldn’t have been upset if he had, but I was ecstatic when they announced Tarantino’s name. This was a well deserved win, and could mean an upset going into the Oscars. As everyone expects Mark Boal to take home his second statue for Zero Dark Thirty, I would much rather see Tarantino take his second ever Oscar. Sadly, I don’t think the Globes win will give him enough momentum, since there is so much controversy around the film.

Best Actress

I think both of these categories were near locks. Jessica Chastain has been raking in all of the awards this season, and looks like she is on her way to her first Oscar win. She was virtually “running unopposed” here. If anyone else had won, it would have been a HUGE injustice. And I’m saying this having loved Naomi Watts in The Impossible. I think that says a lot about how great Chastain really was.

Like Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence has a bunch of awards this year for Silver Linings Playbook. In fact, most of the awards she lost were to Chastain. Lawrence was up against absolutely no competition this year. I mean, Streep was only nominated because she is Meryl Streep. The rest were just...alright. Nothing near as amazing as Lawrence. And it definitely makes sense that she one, seeing as how she is the only one of the five nominated for an Oscar.

These two wins were absolutely expected, and tell us nothing about who is going to win the Oscar. If Watts had upset Chastain, I could say that means something. But no, all we know going into the Oscars is that these two are in a deadlock, and it’s impossible to predict who will win. It’s essentially a coin toss.

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis. I think that’s all I really need to say about the drama category. There was no way he was losing this year (as he has so many times at the Globes.) This was his year to shine, and he did. I fully expect him to take the Oscar too, just as everyone else does (except those few who think Joaquin Phoenix will upset him.)

The Comedy/Musical category, on the other hand, was a close call. Most people were split between Jackman and Cooper for Les Miserables and Silver Linings Playbook, respectively. I was a staunch supporter of Cooper, who gave a truly remarkable performance in this film. I really never expected to love him enough to say he deserved an award (yea, he’s funny in Wedding Crashers and The Hangover, but he’s never been anything special.) Now, I’m not saying Jackson wasn’t excellent. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved him and was so glad he got an Oscar nod, but I really didn’t think he was better than Cooper. Maybe that’s just me and I’m crazy. Whatever.

Best Director

This is my favorite category this year. Favorite because the right person won and got to give the metaphorical finger to the Academy for snubbing him. Yes, you heard me right, Ben Affleck deserved this honor. I was shocked at how many people were surprised at him winning. This definitely has implications, but not for the Oscars (obviously.) I think the win at the Globes, coupled with his win at the Critic’s Choice Awards means that Affleck is the frontrunner for the DGA Award. And if he wins, which is looking more and more likely, he will join Ron Howard as the only director to win the DGA Award and not be nominated for the Oscar.

Best Picture

Let’s start with drama, once again. This category was filled with worthy films. Any of them could have won and it wouldn’t have been that much of a surprise. Honestly, I would have been shocked if Life of Pi had won, but many people wouldn’t have been. I ruled out Django Unchained and Zero Dark Thirty as winner, purely based off of all the controversy around both films. Usually movies like that don’t do great during award season. In my eyes, that narrowed it down to Argo and Lincoln. Now, of those two, most people would say that Lincoln was the better film. Hell, it may have had a more effective cast (not to say Argo wasn’t well cast) but I wouldn’t consider it a better film (probably why Argo made number 3 on my top 20 over Lincoln which was at number 5.) I really wanted Argo to win, and even though it was a slight underdog, it pulled it off. I was so pleased, and I hope that win gives it the push it needed to win the Oscar for Best Picture. I think it was definitely good enough, and it would really stick it to the Academy for not nominating Affleck for the award that he deserved to win.

Best Comedy/Musical went to Les Miserables, and while I loved the movie, I really didn’t think it deserved the win. I can’t really complain about the script, since it was virtually a carbon copy of the musical, but I have a lot to complain about. First off: Russell Crowe. Need I go on? Fine. That man was absolutely abysmal. He butchered some of my favorite songs in the entire show. Sure, he can play the character of Javert well, but when that idiot opens his mouth, it is jarring. I wish he had tried talk-singing, like any sane person would have. Then he could have just been a badass, without making me bleed from the ears. Then there was Tom Hooper’s direction. Let me first say that I loved his direction in The King’s Speech. That being said, he fucking blew it here. He decided that the only way to show emotion in a scene is to do extreme close-ups of everyone’s face (I’m sorry, I know I’m repeating myself from another post.) If not for the phenomenal performances from Jackman and Hathaway, I think he could have ruined this movie. All on his own (oh, and maybe with Crowe’s help.) When you compare that with what David O. Russell made, it really should be a no brainer. Silver Linings Playbook had, no only an excellent script, but a perfect ensemble of actors, each better than the last. And David O. Russell’s direction in this film was spot on. Yes, there were a few issues with this movie, like pacing, and predictability. But it was fun and funny and just plain amazing. I expected it to come down to these two movies, but I really didn’t think Les Miserables should win. Sadly, it did. I guess I’ll just have to be happy knowing it won’t win many Oscars (other than Hathaway.)