The Golden Globes – A Post-mortem
I stayed up until 4am watching the Golden Globes this year - and it was honestly a bit of a waste of time to stay up that late - but I need to talk about the consequences of the Globes on the rest of the awards season, and wider fields.If anyone is a regular reader of the section you might notice I’ve been hyping up La La Land to get a load of awards for months now, and here we are: the first film to win seven Golden Globes. This is an incredible feat, and while I haven’t seen the movie yet (it’s out on the 12th, so I will have seen it by the time you’re reading this) its distinct, purposely artistic style is a call back to Old Hollywood. The real question is, will La La Land do the sweep elsewhere? Looking at it, the Globes is a different beast to other ceremonies, as the “motion picture – comedy or musical” has the ability to nurture certain movies, and La La Land is the film to reap the greatest rewards from this consideration. I assume that when we get to the Academy Awards we will see a similar dominance, but its battle with other films will be much tougher due to a reduced opportunity for wins.The drama section of the awards, as usual, was swamped with immense quality this year, and I think that the biggest casualty of this crowd was Hacksaw Ridge. Mel Gibson’s so-called return to form was snubbed at the Globes, and makes you wonder where it can squeeze anything out going forward. Moonlight will pick up a greater amount of awards at the Oscars, starting with Mahershala Ali for Best Supporting Actor, because I don’t see Aaron Taylor Johnson holding both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award. Also, Casey Affleck has the Oscar locked down in my opinion, and Best Actress is a toss-up between Natalie Portman and Emma Stone.Now, Meryl Streep. I couldn’t talk about the awards ceremony without mentioning her, and - someone hold my drink, I’m going to get all political – I wasn’t a fan of the speech. Please hear me out before you sharpen your pitchforks, and please understand that this is just my opinion on something that happened in a room of celebrities. My biggest gripe with the speech was that, if you look at the acceptance speeches after this award, it reduced the time awarded to others - not enough time to deliver the message they deserved to give. I thought it was a disgrace that The Crown, which won Best TV Series for a drama (one of the highest accolades that the series could receive) was played off so quickly. I am of the opinion that, for someone winning a lifetime achievement award, they should be focused on thanking those who make art and have changed lives - including themselves - and then trying to inspire others (i.e. the audience at home who is watching you, that should be why it’s televised) to make art. She is undeniably a good actress, but to stand up and discuss a privileged white man, when she herself is a multi-millionaire actress who surely hasn’t felt the issues of the common person for years, in a room that has a majority of white males that all cheered and applauded? It just kind of felt weird. But, again, that’s all just my view on the speech, and no one can deny that Streep deserved a lifetime achievement award for her contribution to the industry.