Golden Globe Night. Surprises, Upsets, and then... Catastrophe

Monday, January 7, 2019 at 1:20AM
NATHANIEL R in Bohemian Rhapsody, Golden Globes, precursor awards

by Nathaniel R

It all started out so well. Beautiful stars were begowned bejewelled and even some of the men took fashion risks. Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg were quippy and fun without overdoing it (the magic of good but unobtrusive hosting). Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper were thrown at us early on to whet our appetite for big A Star is Born wins later on. Oh how young and naive we then were at 8 PM EST...

Idris Elba was charming as an obviously proud father to Miss Golden Globe. Ben Whishaw won for A Very British Scandal and highly praised Hugh Grant's wonderful performance (Hugh Grant has been doing his best work in years this decade but can't seem to win prizes or even be nominated for them all that often). Regina King, looking absolutely smashing in a tight blue gown, took Best Supporting Actress, ending the threat of Amy Adams steamrolling the televised shows for Vice. Reaction shots of Sandra Oh's parents always charmed throughout the show especially during her historic Best Actress in a Drama Series wins. The Globes even went way out of character in kind ways like honoring a final season instead of a debut season, or picking a seasoned actress instead of a pop star for once. 

Two career tributes to Jeff Bridges and Carol Burnett were wonderful examples of watching Hollywood honor its own and watching movie and tv stars be FANS as the legends took the stage. It reminded us painfully of what we lost when Oscar demoted their Honorary Awards to a non-televised tradition. 

So many highlights, really.

There were ill omens for the finale of this Golden Globes night early on, though, if we're being honest. Too many winners dully read lists of names (don't people realize that these shows are televised and the bulk of the audience doesn't know the names and doesn't care, unless you personalize it in some way. You will never ever ever make a clip reel of memorable acceptance speeches if what you're doing is reading names. Worst yet, nobody will even remember that you won!). Too few speeches felt personal or even political. Green Book won screenplay.

It was in the last half of the night that everything got a bit crazy, first with utter elation and then an awful mood crash. A hour or so into the show I was nursing a pounding tension headache from my chair, rolling a tennis ball underneath my neck to get a knot out. The headache suddenly went away and I honestly don't know if it was the tennis ball trick that cured me or Olivia Colman calling Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz "my bitches" to their obvious delight, and ours at home. The evening's joy peaked with a surprise win for Glenn Close in Best Actress. Generally pop stars acting is catnip to the Globes but they passed on Lady Gaga for the legendary thespian. (Surprise, the long coronation we kept hinting at can finally commence). If Close wins the Oscar, we'll all look back at Close's tearful inspiring  speech here as the moment that clinched it for her; no boring list of names, just passion, message, specificity, and gratitude -- what a concept for an acceptance speech! 

If we'd only known how bipolar the night would then become. 

To close out the show both Best Picture prizes went to divisive movies. Curiously both are film which have been accused of having their true stories of queer musicians diluted or significantly fictionalized by the people doing the telling (former bandmates in the case of Bohemian Rhapsody and the family of an employee in the case of Green Book). Stranger still, neither are runaway successes in the usual areas that win you Best Picture prizes. Green Book wasn't the box office sleeper success people (including me) predicted it would be in theaters which generally fuels awards campaigns for "crowd pleasers" and it was roundly attacked for being reductive about its take on race relations. Bohemian Rhapsody was a huge hit, which never hurts, but it had terrible reviews (which usually means you're dead in the water for winning prizes) and a troubled production history. It also had a director no one dared name in their thank you speeches, due to repeated allegations that he's a sexual predator. The industry in the room, many wearing Time's Up pins or bracelets, applauded and presumably hit the after parties. A strangely sour finale, that, at the end of what is typically the most "fun" night of the awards season. 

 

 

MORE GOLDEN GLOBE COVERAGE:

• How did Sandra Oh & Andy Samberg do?
• Globe-to-Oscar Stats
• Fashions Pt 1
• Fashions Pt 2
• Team Reactions: Fantasy Tables and Other Silliness
• The Presenters Ranked
• On Glenn Close's Acceptance Speech
• Dr Don Shirley vs Freddie Mercury
• Fun Globe Tweets

THE COMPLETE LIST OF WINNERS

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).