Embarrassment and/or trainwreck just about sum up the past evening's Golden Globes telecast, which generally unraveled like a slightly more lubricated version of The People's Choice Awards. Every once in a while the Hollywood Foreign Press surprises with a noteworthy, maybe unexpected winner, like Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky or Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, but tonight again placed the Globes at the punchline of an easy joke I never mind hearing. While Michael Haneke's win in the Foreign category for The White Ribbon was certainly well-deserved, the description of the rest of the ceremony as a "popularity contest" is pretty dead-on, with the top film honors bestowed upon James Cameron, his Avatar and Todd Phillips' The Hangover (both the highest domestic gross-ers of their respective categories). Toss Sandra Bullock (over Helen Mirren, mind you), Sherlock Holmes, Julie & Julia (though Ms. Streep's speech was expectedly lovely) and Mo'Nique, and you've got yourself one lame-ass awards show. Aside from Christoph Waltz and Jeff Bridges (I haven't seen Crazy Heart), I'd be plenty happy to not have to hear any of the Globe winners' names read when the Oscars nominations are announced on 2 February. At least it won't take much for the Oscars to not grate as hard (as they usually do) this year.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Thanx, HFP
Embarrassment and/or trainwreck just about sum up the past evening's Golden Globes telecast, which generally unraveled like a slightly more lubricated version of The People's Choice Awards. Every once in a while the Hollywood Foreign Press surprises with a noteworthy, maybe unexpected winner, like Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky or Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, but tonight again placed the Globes at the punchline of an easy joke I never mind hearing. While Michael Haneke's win in the Foreign category for The White Ribbon was certainly well-deserved, the description of the rest of the ceremony as a "popularity contest" is pretty dead-on, with the top film honors bestowed upon James Cameron, his Avatar and Todd Phillips' The Hangover (both the highest domestic gross-ers of their respective categories). Toss Sandra Bullock (over Helen Mirren, mind you), Sherlock Holmes, Julie & Julia (though Ms. Streep's speech was expectedly lovely) and Mo'Nique, and you've got yourself one lame-ass awards show. Aside from Christoph Waltz and Jeff Bridges (I haven't seen Crazy Heart), I'd be plenty happy to not have to hear any of the Globe winners' names read when the Oscars nominations are announced on 2 February. At least it won't take much for the Oscars to not grate as hard (as they usually do) this year.
