Cinerant

Globe Reactions One

First, trying to process the Golden Globe nominations when I’ve been awake for all of fifteen minutes!  Curses to this time difference!

Anyway, reactions—the Globes always like to kiss butt—this year no more than usual.  Actually, maybe a little more than usual, but whatever.  

The largest surprise in the Best Drama category is the lack of Munich.  Most of the critical notices for this have been good so far, but there are some who are objecting to the lack of sentimentality Spielberg apparently shows, so they’re giving him flack for it.  Considering the “foreign” nature of their organization, it could explain why the film wasn’t nominated.  Nevertheless, they still want to suck up enough to nominate Spielberg.  They still didn’t nominate Eric Bana or any of his co-stars, though they did nominate Tony Kushner for Screenplay.  (Somebody explain to me how it’s one of the best directing and writing jobs of the year, but it’s not one of the best pictures of the year?)

It was wonderful to see The Constant Gardener included, but no Ralph Fiennes—sight.  At least Rachel Weisz got nominated.  

Brokeback continues its domination.  Williams and Ledger picked up the nominations they very richly deserve.  

As for the comedies, it does seem a bit surprising to see The Squid and the Whale included (Golden Globes don’t usually go for indies), while Casanova was excluded.  (Casanova has gotten decent notices and is the kind of film the Globes usually go for.  Disney must’ve not done the appropriate junket or sucked up to the right number of people.)

A lot of George Clooney love.  He gets nominated for acting, writing, directing, and Good Night, and Good Luck got nominated for Best Picture.  (Remember what I said about the suck-up thing).  

As for acting nods--Yeah for Paltrow getting the nomination she so greatly deserved!  Besides her nomination and Huffman’s, that category just looks so incredibly weak!  In fact, Maria Bello got nominated in the lead category, even though she was a supporting role.  Why that happens, I don’t know.  Ziyi Zhang (as her Hollywood name has been transposed) was the only significant nomination for Memoirs of a Geisha (an Oscar vine that’s quickly dying).  

As for the actors, while Crowe was a worthy performance, look at the Clooney paragraph for an answer.  It was impressive to see Terrence Howard and Cillian Murphy nominated for Best Actor for Hustle & Flow and Breakfast on Pluto, but considering the kind of year both these actors have had, it would almost have been a slap in the face at HFPA’s attempt at legitimacy not to.  Pierce Brosnan and Johnny Depp’s nominations for The Matador and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory seem a little suspect, but whatever.  It also doesn’t make a lot of sense that Sarah Jessica Parker would get nominated for The Family Stone (though we know the HFPA loves her after Sex & the City), but the film, the screenplay, nor Diane Keaton get nominated either—and they’re the ones that have all the Oscar heat.  

For the Supporting categories—how can any organization that nominates Will Ferrell for an award expect to be taken seriously?  The Supporting Actor nominations are all over the board—whereas critics so far have cited William Hurt, Kevin Costner, and Jake Gyllenhaal, they’re nowhere to be seen here.  Instead, we get William Hurt and George Clooney.  Still, bravo for not ignoring Giamatti.  And then, while the HFPA was showering The Producers with love, they seemed to forget that Uma Thurman was the only one that had a chance at an Oscar nomination.  Well, not really now.  That’s kind of dead in the water.  Poor thing.  There was a great joke there somewhere—Ula meet Uma.  

Obvious omissions—Joan Allen (sob), Kevin Costner, Heath Ledger for Casanova, Eric Bana, Gong Li, William Hurt, Ralph Fiennes, Frank Langella—that gets the list started.  

More thoughts on the TV stuff later.   That will take longer to make any sense of.

posted by cinegod @ 8:06 AM