Well,
the awards season is in full swing. And
I, as always, am behind schedule. As I
am currently in Europe and am now suffering from the usual delayed release
dates, I will not be able to do my Best of 2012 List as soon as I would like,
as there are way too many of the critically acclaimed films I have not yet
seen. I only just saw Beasts of the
Southern Wild, and have also not had the chance to see Amour, Paranorman, Django,
Zero Dark Thirty, Les Mis, or Argo. Thankfully,
Django Unchained and Zero Dark Thirty are coming out in Germany later this
month, so even if I don’t get to see all of the above films, I will try to get
my Top 10 list done by early February. I
am also working on a much belated reaction to the Oscar nominations (along with my picks for each award), which I
will finish once this post is up.
Now
that the news is out of the way, let’s talk Globes!
All in
all, I thought it was a fun night. Tina
Fey and Amy Poehler killed (as to be expected), and there was a decent variety
to who won what. At least as far as the
movie awards were concerned. Since I
really don’t watch TV, I just zoned out for those. Although I must say, for once I’m glad
Downton Abbey didn’t win anything, because I’m afraid any more accolades at
this point would only encourage Julian Fellows to continue the bad trends that
started popping up in Season 2. Well, aside from Maggie Smith winning for being, well....Maggie Smith. But more
on that in another post.
There
really weren’t any particular recipients that bothered me, outside of a
few. Brave winning Best Animated Feature
I just found confusing. Yes, I liked it
a lot, and it took a lot of admirable risks, but never managed to effectively
keep all the balls it tried to juggle in the air. Wreck-It-Ralph, on the other hand, benefited
from a lot of great ideas that it managed to successfully balance with solid,
strong characters and storytelling. But
oh well. At least Paranorman got an
Oscar nod.
It was
no surprise that Anne Hathaway took the Globe for Best Supporting Actress
(although it’s strange that they divide the Supporting roles between
Comedy/Musical and Drama, but not the Leading Roles). Her performance of “I Dreamed A Dream” is one of THE
talked-about things in film right now. I
do not have my own opinion yet, as Les Mis doesn’t come out here until February. However, as great as I’m sure she is, my vote
for the Oscar is still with Sally Fields, and I hope the Academy has immuned
themselves to the tide of popular opinion (although there’s usually no reason
them not to be). Mrs. Lincoln is a
figure hardly explored in popular culture, as opposed to her historical titan
of a husband, and Field’s performance was singularly haunting, giving face to
all the emotional anguish felt by Lincolns during their marriage.
The only
award that really bothered me was Les Mis taking Best Comedy or Musical over
Moonrise Kingdom. Again, I have not yet
seen Les Mis, but I HAVE seen The King’s Speech and the John Adams miniseries,
both directed by the same man as Les Mis (Tom Hooper). And, if those are anything to go off of, Tom
Hooper has yet to attain the level of off-the-cuff creativity that made
Moonrise Kingdom both one of the most fun movie experiences I had this year AND
one of the most emotionally resonant.
Les Mis is big music that goes for big, over-the-top emotions, which
honestly isn’t as difficult a task as going for small and smart, like
Moonrise. Call it a personal bias I
guess.
The big
surprise, for most people it seemed, was that the “top 2” awards (Best Picture
and Director) went to Argo, which has already gotten a distinct lack of love
from the Academy (no Director or Actor nod for Affleck). It’s already pretty much guaranteed that Argo
will get no love whatsoever on Oscar Day, so personally, although it will be
awhile before I see the film, I’m glad to see it get at least a little
attention from the awards people.
And
that’s……really all I have to say about the Golden Globes. No one film really swept the awards, there
were no HUGE snubs in the nominees (and the categories they give awards for are
extremely limited anyway), and no one horribly undeserving got any of the major
awards, so I really don’t have any complaints.
Now the OSCARS, on the other hand…..we’ll get to that later this
week. Until then!
-Judge Richard
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