Globes Goin' Up...On A Tuesday

They’re Back: With apparently enough progress on key initiatives related to diversity in their membership, the silly Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the silly awards are back on NBC. Likely due to the recently-created Week 18 of the NFL (Go Birds!), the College Football Championship, and maybe a little humbling from NBC, the Golden Globes aired on Tuesday night, without a doubt the worst of all the nights. I’m still not sure how I feel about the HFPA, whose members have been outed in the last few years as being “bribable” for nominations at best, and potentially criminal at worst. The nominations this year do reflect a *bit* more of an interesting taste than the Globes of years past but may also reflect a changing movie landscape. Solid, star-driven, adult dramas were at far more of a premium this year than in years past, and it feels like the most notable ones were recognized. Whatever the cause, the result is a slate of nominees that have significant overlap with the nominees and winners of the various critics’ groups; consensus favorites are beginning to build.

For better and likely worse, the Globes mark the beginning of my earnest Awards Season tracking – let’s see how the night turned out.

Best Supporting Actor – Any Motion Picture

• Winner: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once

• Do I Agree? Personally, I preferred Brendan Gleeson in Banshees, but Quan turns in a pretty great performance.

• Does It Mean Anything? Mean anything? Sure. Change Anything? Not Really. Quan has been steamrolling his way through critic’s groups all season, and even if this is just another feather in his cap, it’s the first that’s been televised as we close in on Oscars voting.

Best Supporting Actress – Any Motion Picture

• Winner: Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

• Do I Agree? I skipped this one – time to change that! My favorite here was Kerry Condon in Banshees; it’s remarkable how great the performances in that film are.

• Does It Mean Anything? I think this is the first acting win for a Marvel movie, which is significant after 15 years of box office and cultural dominance. As far as this awards season goes, this category is still anyone’s game, but Bassett’s contention is for real.

Best Actor – Musical/Comedy

• Winner: Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin

• Do I Agree? 100%.

• Does It Mean Anything? As one of the favorites to win it all, every award along the way matters to Farrell collecting some well-deserved hardware. Go get ‘em champ.

Best Actress – Musical/Comedy

• Winner: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

• Do I Agree? Sure, she’s great! She deserves this for both her work in this film and a wonderful career.

• Does It Mean Anything? See also Ke Huy Quan – she feels like one of the top two favorites to win it all in March, and while winning this awards was a bit of a layup for her, you gotta make the layups if you want to win the championship.

Best Actor - Drama

• Winner: Austin Butler, Elvis

• Do I Agree? Haven’t been able to catch the other nominees yet, but Butler really kills.

• Does It Mean Anything? The *I believe* unironic love for Elvis out there may be real, but we’ll see how the rest of the night and this season progresses.

Best Actress - Drama

• Winner: Cate Blanchette, Tár

• Do I Agree? It’s on the top of my watchlist because her performance is being described as nothing short of titanic.

• Does It Mean Anything? I think it solidifies two-way race to the Oscar between Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchette.

Best Screenplay – Any Motion Picture

• Winner: Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin

• Do I Agree? Yes I do! This film is funny, beautiful, sad, touching, and plenty weird.

• Does It Mean Anything? It most certainly does; this category is low-key loaded this year, and there’s no clear favorite to win the Oscar yet.

Best Director – Any Motion Picture

• Winner: Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans

• Do I Agree? Who can really be upset when Papa Steve wins something? After all, this is only win #3 in one of, perhaps the, most successful filmmaking careers of all time. My few criticisms of The Fabelmans have nothing to do with the physical filmmaking, which is beautiful and masterful in this movie – seek it out!

• Does It Mean Anything? I really think so, since this category is up for grabs, there’s plenty of people out there who think he could/should have won for West Side Story, and Oscar voting starts in a couple of days. You got one more in you, Steve?

*Insert an inordinate amount of TV awards, and my creeping realization that we would NOT be finishing on time*

Best Picture – Musical/Comedy

• Winner: The Banshees of Inisherin

• Do I Agree? For sure! Although comedy is probably a misnomer for such a beautiful and sad movie.

• Does It Mean Anything? Feckin’ right it does since Everything Everywhere All at Once was in this category too and had been in the driver’s seat until now. It still might be, but this race is far from over.

Best Picture - Drama

• Winner: The Fabelmans

• Do I Agree? I’m not entirely sure! But it is exciting!

• Does It Mean Anything? It might? Tár seemed like this film’s biggest competition critically, and Top Gun and Avatar were far bigger mainstream box office competition, and Elvis has been picking up inexplicable steam out there in the ether, but I think The Fabelmans struck a real blow, making this season more interesting as we begin turning our weary eyes to March 12th.