After a two week hiatus from both my real job and my fake job, I’m back and ready for a new decade! Starting with the Golden Globes, which were held last night. After reacting to the nominations previously, I couldn’t miss this opportunity to react to the results! As usual, the Globes this year signifies the end of the 2019 TV awards but the beginning of the 2019 Movie awards. We’ll cap off the TV awards with final goodbyes and appreciation for 2019 favorites of Fleabag and Succession, with some love mixed in for The Crown. And we’re starting the Movie awards with little recognition for Marriage Story, The Irishman, and Little Women, and huge momentum bumps for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, 1917 and Joker. The night as a whole was largely unremarkable, with a final odd and inappropriate performance from host Ricky Gervais as he, the HFPA and the audience all seemed wholly annoyed that he was hosting again. But there was a promise that it would be the last time so hopefully that’s true! Unlike most years, this years awards season is actually extremely condensed. Voting for the Academy Awards started last night (!!) and is being hosted on February 9, 2020, just one month from now. Anyway, here are some of my reactions, outrage, and predictions moving forward for the rest of award season.
TV Reactions
Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy: Winner – FLEABAG
Best Television Series – Drama: Winner – SUCCESSION
We all know how I feel about these shows. And not only did the HFPA recognize the shows themselves, but Phoebe Waller-Bridge won for Best Actress and Brian Cox won for Best Actor (although I’m still salty about no Jeremy Strong recognition). I think this was an official anointing of Succession as the next Prestige TV and an acknowledgement that Fleabag was one of the most unique, special shows and performances of this century.
I feel like I don’t have much else to say on these TV awards as a lot of the content that was rewarded I have yet to watch. Chernobyl came away as a big winner winning Best Limited Series and Best Actor in a Limited Series (Stellan Skarsgard), however I have yet to see it. Other winners included people from The Crown, The Act, Ramy and Fosse/Verdon. None of which I have seen nor really intend on seeing. Except maybe The Crown… I do love Olivia Colman.
Movies Reactions
The winners here were honestly baffling. This is when you see how big of a difference it makes for those who are willing to schmooze the HFPA and those who are not. I’ll explain a little further here…
WTF?
- There is simply no explanation for Taron Egerton winning for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for Rocketman, other than the fact that he and the Rocketman team were aggressively campaigning. People had been speculating they were going to reward Rocketman in just Best Original Song (which they did) even though they also nominated Taylor Swift and Beyonce to wrangle in the big names for the evening. Giving Rocketman Best Original Song is understandable. But Best Actor? Don’t get me wrong. I love Taron Egerton – the Kingsman movies are amazing and he’s my favorite part of those movies. And I liked Rocketman, but didn’t love it. I certainly didn’t think he’d win over Leonardo DiCaprio or Eddie Murphy. I don’t think this has any implications for the Oscars though. I would be surprised to see Egerton among the list of nominees even after this win (I might be eating my words on that one…)
- Renee Zellweger won for Judy. We all knew this was going to happen. It’s essentially been so since the first reviews came out about the movie. The only thing I can’t seem to get my mind around is why… It feels wholly unnecessary to reward Renee Zellweger for this movie. I personally don’t know anyone who has seen it. Plus, Zellweger has already won an Academy Award and Golden Globe, so it’s not like we need to give this to her as some kind of lifetime achievement award, which the awards shows are known to do from time to time. I’m very much not having this. I really hope the Academy does what happened last year when Glenn Close was predicted to win for The Wife, a performance for a movie that barely anyone saw. Close won the Globe but not the Academy Award, which was given to Olivia Colman for The Favourite instead. I sincerely hope this goes to Saoirse Ronan for her work in Little Women, a truly brilliant movie filled with wonderful performances that is already not getting the credit it deserves this awards season (cc: no nomination for Greta Gerwig for Best Director).
- Did not see Missing Link beating Frozen 2 and Toy Story 4 for Best Animated movie. Congrats to that team.
Exciting!
- Awkwafina wins Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for The Farewell!!! I loved this movie and am thrilled she won. This wasn’t the strongest of categories here so I’m glad the HFPA decided to take a risk and reward her. She had such an endearing speech and if you’ve been following her career, it’s amazing to see how far she’s come.
- Best moment of the night was undeniably Brad Pitt winning Best Supporting Actor for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. His speech was so bro-ish saying both the phrases “the man, the myth, the legend” and “partner in crime” but it was still just amazing because even post-50, he’s so handsome and charming. In possibly the coolest moment ever, he compliments Leonardo DiCaprio by calling him “LDC” and then making a Titanic joke. It was epic and I will be relishing this speech and win for a while. Let us pray he wins at the Oscars as well and gives an equally swoon-worthy speech.
Looking Forward…
- While the Globes don’t always predict the winners at the Oscars (for example as I stated above, I don’t think Egerton’s win means he’ll win at the Oscars), they often do give movies a boost and inherently do the opposite as well. 1917 winning for both Best Picture – Drama and Best Director gives it a gigantic push forward. Many thought the Globes were going to spread the love around to Marriage Story, Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, and 1917. But instead, to my distaste, they rewarded Joker. Yes, I’m happy that Laura Dern won for her work in Marriage Story, but having Joaquin Phoenix win Best Actor over Adam Driver and Quentin Tarantino win for Best Screenplay over Noah Baumbach does not seem positive for Marriage Story at the Oscars.
- After its performance last night, I think the Jojo Rabbit Oscar campaign might be officially over. Same with Knives Out. While those are two lower stakes films, another film potentially in trouble after it’s performance last night is The Irishman, which came away with zero awards. I think this is a result of a lack of schmoozing with the HFPA.
- Parasite won for Best Foreign Language film because it’s incredible. I’m curious as to where this puts it in the Oscar race moving forward. Parasite also was nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Director but did not win either of these. I’m just not sure what that means for Bong’s chances for Best Director at other awards.
It was a pretty lopsided Globes with Fleabag, Succession, Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, and 1917 coming away with the most big wins. Yes there were a few good surprises (hi Awkwafina) and some good speeches (hi Brad Pitt and Michelle WIlliams), but otherwise, I think it was fairly boring night. More than anything, I’m nervous that it’s now going to be a lopsided Academy Awards. I so badly want Marriage Story and Little Women to get recognized however if these awards were any indication, it doesn’t look good for me. Awards season is always fun and while I’m not inspired by these Globes, I’m still looking forward to the Oscars and still had fun watching. Oscars nominations are announced January 13th, so see you then, folks!
