Top Ten: Strange Golden Globe Musical Snubs

Glenn here with a tuesday top ten on a topic dear to my heart, and Nathaniel's too. We both have a strange fondness for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s annual Golden Globe Awards. Beyond the gif-ready celebrities-getting-drunk setting and the organisation’s occasional flurries of bonkers brilliance (too many to list), I think I like most of all that their splitting of films between drama and musical/comedy means so many very worthy films get big awards and nominations that they otherwise wouldn’t have. The general rule of thumb is that musicals have a much easier time getting a nomination because there are far fewer of them and, thus, stick out more. Sure, Burlesque, Across the Universe, Nine, and Mamma Mia are recent examples of none too acclaimed musicals landing big time best picture nominations.

Forgotten Awards Trivia: The Globes didn't consider "Dancer in the Dark" a musical (???) and Björk's awards show bird fetish didn't begin with the Oscar swan dress. Note that owl purse!

But what about those that didn’t? There’s more than you’d think!

11 with an Asterisk
Given the somewhat lax definition of “musical” by the HFPA – Ray? Coal Miner’s Daughter? Walk the Line? The Rose? – it’s a surprise that Robert Altman’s classic Nashville and Lars von Trier’s masterpiece Dancer in the Dark weren’t classified as such. The former because, well, it’s also pretty funny, right? The latter because it was a true, honest to god MUSICAL in the tradition sense. Altman’s ode to country garnered a whopping 11 nominations (including multiple for the now defunct “Best Acting Debut” category) and Dancer in the Dark snagged one for Bjork’s performance. Still, it’s about as dramatic as you can possibly get so we’ll let it slide.

TOP 10 MOST MYSTIFYING GOLDEN GLOBE MUSICAL SNUBS

10. Xanadu (1980)
Nominated instead: Airplane!, The Coal Miner’s Daughter (won), Fame, The Idolmaker, Melvin & Howard
Oh sure, laugh! Yes, this infamous movie was scorned upon release, but so was Burlesque and they had no trouble nominating that fabulosity twenty years later. Given the universal acclaim for, if nothing else, its soundtrack you’d think it could have at least gotten an original song citation for the title track. No, it’s not great art but who’s ever heard of Taylor Hackford’s The Idolmaker since?

Nine more increasingly acclaimed and tuneful snubbees after the jump

Click to read more ...

This & That: Oscar's Reunion, Hardy's Trapezius, Rudolph's Princess

So... before he starts filming the Tom Hooper directed film version of smash hit epic musical Les Miserables (more on that in a second) we're going to have to sit through one of the most ridiculous movies of all time (that's a guess) just to satiate our love of Mr. Jackman. The things we do for Hugh.

Here's the poster for Real Steel. 

I almost want to remove those arm bandages (tenderly!) and reapply them to the face mummy style, so as to save that wonderful movie star mug from B-film embarrasments. If you're going genre, go all out: wouldn't it awesome if a mummy was training boxing robots?

The Wrap In other Hugh Jackman news, we're getting our post Oscar 2009 ceremony wish: Anne Hathaway will probably be playing Fantine in the film version of Les Miserables. Ah, Hugh & Anne singing again. Together. Sort of. I can't recall if they have any songs together but I don't care. They're both finally doing a musical!
My New Plaid Pants Good Morning World, it's Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Twitch Film Josh Brolin confirmed to lead Spike Lee's remake of Oldboy. I am one of those rare souls that hates the original movie but they're still going to have a tough time surpassing its chutzpah, you know?
Just Jared Tom Hardy in the new issue of Dazed and Confused on this 'manpanion' trainer and more (I personally wish he'd lay off the bulk a little; his trapezius in Warrior is frighteningly over-sized...

poll by twiigs.com

Playbill Sadface. Looks like that Nicole Kidman / James Franco Broadway revival of Sweet Bird of Youth is off. I do think it's wise that Franco starts dropping projects from his ridiculously overbooked calendar (you have to have time to do things right, you know) but I hope Kidman still pursues it. Would love to see her take on that classic role.
Awards Daily I knew this would happen but it doesn't make it any less painful to see Ides of March trading in its excellent and interesting teaser poster -- the one with the magazine half faces -- for something so boring I already forgot what it looked like the second I started typing this sentence.
SplitSider a review of the porn parody of The Big Lebowski. Yes, really.

And I'm very happy to share this video of Maya Rudolph's Prince cover band Princess -- i didn't know there was such a thing (thx WoW) -- but I love them instantly. Here they are doing "Darling Nikki" once of Prince's most infamous numbers.

Come back Nikki! Come back!!! ♪

Finally, I have no idea why there's a sudden rush of Captain America postings but here ya go...
Austin Translation "Thor Loser"
Art of the Title Sequence on Captain America: The First Avenger
Comic Book Movie Curious. Joss Whedon will digitally resurrect the 40s actress Joan Leslie for The Avengers.