Posts Tagged ‘winners’

I didn’t bother watching the Golden Globes on Sunday, generally because I don’t watch the Golden Globes ever. I remember tuning in a few years ago and thinking that it was one of the most boring award shows I’ve watched (then again, I generally only watch the Oscars). That being said, I was actually planning on watching the Golden Globes this year, but then it donned on me:

1. For some insane reason, the Golden Globes were not being shown live on the west coast – why watch when I can just get the results online before the show even starts?
2. 24 started at the same time. And yes, I do have DVR.

So, now that everyone else has written about the Golden Globes, I figured I’d finally get around to commenting on them. After all, I like to be fashionably late. Here are my random thoughts:

•  Slumdog Millionaire won Best Drama. Even though I liked The Curious Case of Benjamin Button more, Slumdog Millionaire is the most ambitious of the nominated pictures and perhaps most deserving. Still, the movie is a bit overrated and in other years would be considered an outside chance at best. If you look at the nominees for Best Picture, it’s a rather sorry bunch: all good, but none amazing.
• Kate Winslet won acting awards for both The Reader and Revolutionary Road. Good for her. She’s a great actress and deserving of recognition. Still, I’d probably say Anne Hathaway had a more breakout role in Rachel Getting Married and Meryl Streep was more commanding in Doubt, but Winslet was probably most overdue.
• Mickey Rourke won for Best Actor in a Drama. Good for him, and what a comeback. I’m still 50/50 between Rourke and Penn, and generally lean toward Penn – but then again, we expect greatness from Penn. I must note that having watched Revolutionary Road, Leonardo DiCaprio has once again turned in an amazing performance.
• Vicky Cristina Barcelona won for Best Comedy/Musical. This once again shows the prestige that Woody Allen still carries among foreign critics and Hollywood in general. I just received the film on DVD and have yet to see it, but I’ve heard very mixed things about it. Then again, Allen should be awarded just for getting Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz to make out. In Bruges is by far the best comedy on the list, though I never expected that one to win.
• Sally Hawkins won for Happy Go-Lucky. I haven’t seen it, so I can’t comment. All that I can say is that there should only be one acting category – not separate ones for drama and comedy. Whereas I understand the reason to split comedies and dramas into two awards, a good performance is a good performance, regardless of the genre. It’s good to see Colin Farrell actually win for something.
• Heath Ledger won for The Dark Knight. Of course. Would the venue had been burned down if he hadn’t won, and would the winner have had the balls to go on stage?
• Wall-E won for Best Animated Picture. Of course.
• Despite my reservations for Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle deservedly won for Best Director. I still don’t understand why Ron Howard was nominated in this category.
• I won’t comment on the TV awards as much, other than that I am currently watching John Adams (HBO) and can understand why it raked in the dough. The series isn’t perfect, but for a TV mini-series it is quite impressive. The actors who won certainly deserved it (though I haven’t seen many of the competing shows).

The Oscars are over, and it was a pretty good show. No Country for Old Men was the clear victor, taking Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Motion Picture. I would have liked to see things spread around a bit more as the competition was fierce (and, thanks to the lack of an ending for the Coen Brothers’ film, better, more deserving films), but am not surprised.

Javier Bardem deserved his Oscar, as did Marion Cotillard for her amazing performance in La Vie En Rose. Not only was she most deserving of her award, but she was also a bit of a surprise victory, and the most emotional winner. Surprisingly, the winners that the audience connected with the most were Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, the lead actors and singers of the Oscar-winning song “Falling Slowly”, from Once. There actually would have been a riot had this movie not won for Best Original Song, and the Oscar crew recognized this to the point where they actually let Irglova back onto the stage after a commercial break to allow her to finish her acceptance speech. Classy.

Daniel Day-Lewis, of course, won for Best Actor. Has anyone else noticed that on screen, he always look so tough and powerful, yet off screen, he always looks like he’s on the verge of death? Anyway, I was happy to see him win, and seriously would have murdered my neighbors if someone stole Oscar gold from him.

Thank God Atonement won for Best Original Score. Any film that can incorporate a typewriter into its score deserves an award… Why wasn’t There Will Be Blood nominated in this category, though?

There were only two awards that really shocked me:

• Tilda Swinton, for Best Supporting Actress. She was great, but I was almost certain Cate Blanchett would win for I’m Not There. That was a career-best performance for the actress, and I have to wonder whether her dual nominations split her own votes. Still, I was disappointed to see her not fully recognized for such a groundbreaking performance.
• The Golden Compass, for Best Visual Effects. Are you kidding me? This was the weakest film of the three, and Transformers should have won handily. I was disappointed that 300 wasn’t nominated in the category; I’m even more disappointed that The Golden Compass somehow won. I didn’t even know enough people even saw that film.

So, overall, it was a great, streamlined presentation. Jon Stewart didn’t have a great opening, but he threw in enough quality jokes to get by. The joke about Jack getting more women pregnant before the end of the night was a good one. The montages were also quite good and not time killers, and the production only ran 20 minutes overboard. The binoculars montage was probably the highlight of the evening.