“It’s basically the story of how George Clooney would rather float away into space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age.” Tina Fey’s one-line jab at Gravity’s leading actor was one of the highlights of 71st Golden Globes on January 12, 2014, a night of full of surprises and unforgettable moments.
It’s the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler duo’s second year hosting the Globes, and they did not disappoint. The show ran for a little more than three hours with some little bumps along the way, but the hosts made sure the audience, in the room and at home, were entertained throughout. Highlights of their jokes included Poehler showing up dressed as Randy Mr. Golden Globes in a tuxedo and asking both Idris Elba and Harvey Weinstein if either were his father, Tina Fey’s Michael Bay impersonation of his abrupt “can’t do this” walk-out on stage blaming a teleprompter error at an event weeks earlier, and a lewd joke on supermodels and Leonardo DiCaprio that somehow had squeezed past the censors acting as an introduction for the actor.
The first shocking (or not so shocking, given the Globes’ organizer, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s favor for stars over critics’ darlings) win of the night was Jennifer Lawrence, the public’s favourite, taking home the Best Supporting Actress Award in Drama, for her role as American Hustle’s erratic housewife Rosalyn Rosenfeld. Many, myself included, argued that newcomer Lupita Nyong’o, though fresh out of acting school, had given a powerful performance as 12 Years a Slave’s tortured Patsey, a dutiful, hardworking slave who suffered at the hands of her brutal owners, and was far more deserving of this award. To Nyong’o’s and the public’s shock, however, she received the Best Supporting Actress award at Critics’ Choice Movie Awards this past Thursday, January 16, 2014. There’s no sure bets for the Oscars yet.
The show hit a rut when Jacqueline Bisset celebrated her win for Best Supporting Actress in a series, miniseries, or TV movie for her role as Lady Cremone in Dancing on the Edge, with a rambling, messy speech. The other awkward moments in the show resulted from the bizarre seating chart, which prolonged the times this year’s winners, mostly seated in the back of the hall, took to reach the stage. By the time the cast of Breaking Bad had reached the stage to accept their well-deserved award for Best Drama, someone joked on Twitter that an episode of Breaking Bad had finished airing. Following the series’ win, it was no less surprising, of course, when Bryan Cranston won his last Breaking Bad Golden Globe in Best Leading Actor in Drama for portraying the series’ lead as chemistry teacher turned meth dealer Walter White. Robin Wright won the counterpart award in Drama for her role as Claire Underwood in House of Cards, leaving many fans disappointed that the Orphan Black talent, Tatiana Maslany, who had portrayed multiple clones on the show, each with a different personality and looks, should at least have a chance.
The true highlights of the night were the unexpected winners. The actor stepping up to receive his Best Leading Actor in a Comedy/Musical award was none other than Leonardo DiCaprio, the public’s and Hollywood’s long mocked “always the bridesmaid, never the bride.” DiCaprio, who had up until that point, often been nominated but had never won an award, received his first Globe for his role as Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street. With a huge grin, pointing out the absurdity of the films categorized as Musical/Comedy in this year’s Globes, DiCaprio thanked his fellow “comedians,” Christian Bale (American Hustle), Bruce Dern (Nebraska), Oscar Issac (Inside Llewyn Davis), and Joaquin Phoenix (her) in his speech. The films featuring those actors, though some could be called a musical, at most loosely fit into the definition of “Comedy.” Backstage, DiCaprio praised his Wolf director, Martin Scorsese, proud that he is “still this punk rock…at 71 years old…there’s no one like him.” Amy Adams, DiCaprio’s female counterpart, the four time Oscar-nominated actress, received her first Globe that night for her role as Christian Bale’s con partner, Sydney Prosser, in American Hustle, in a race against Oscar favorite, Meryl Streep (August: Osage County) and first time-nominee Julie Delpy (Before Midnight). Adams ended her tearful acceptance speech with a determined “You cannot play me out for talking about my daughter,” taking time to pay tribute to her young daughter, Aviana. Amy Poehler, the host herself, won a Best Actress in a Comedy award for her role as Parks and Recreation’s Leslie Knope, to the public’s glee, since she had never won before. To her win, Tina Fey replied, “I love you! There’s a special place in hell for you!” in a not-so-subtle reference to the Taylor Swift-related drama they were both involved in at last year’s Golden Globes.
The expected winners followed. Dallas Buyers’ Club’s Matthew McConaughey announced his comeback, loud and clear, with “All right, all right, all right,” harking back to his days as a stoner in Dazed and Confused, as he received his Best Leading Actor award in Drama. His year of playing characters in a series of dark, dramatic films from Mud, Killer Joe, to Dallas Buyers’ Club, rather than his usual streak of muscle flexing, romantic comedy heroes, had finally paid off. From the same film was Jared Leto, lead singer of the rock band 30 Seconds to Mars and occasional actor. Leto’s been absent from films for six years when the script for Dallas Buyers’ Club’s transsexual AIDS patient, Rayon, came his way. He thanked “the Rayons of the world,” for inspiration before he left the stage, his Globe in hand. A similarly guaranteed win was Cate Blanchett’s Best Leading Actress in a Drama award for her role as the modernized Blanche DuBois, a la Streetcar Named Desire, in Woody Allen’s enjoyable Blue Jasmine. Blanchett turned in a spectacular performance, and it was unimaginable that the Globe should go to anyone else. Spike Jonze won a much deserving Best Screenplay award for his heart-wrenching, all-too-real her, a film about what it means to fall in love, about human relationships and disconnectedness in our digitized time and age. Alfonso Cuaron received an undisputed Best Director nod for his work in the space epic, Gravity.
While American Hustle, a tangled, flashy web of flatly written characters playing each other in a storyline based on the Abscam scandal, received Best Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical, it was 12 Years a Slave that took home the last award of the night, Best Motion Picture – Drama. The film, a moving account of slavery in antebellum United States, told its story through moments and scenes that haunt the audience’s minds even after the credits roll.
This year’s Golden Globes was best summed up in Tina Fey’s closing words, “a beautiful mess we hoped it would be.”
Oscar nominations, released this past Thursday, January 16, 2014, indicated that it is going to be an American Hustle vs. Gravity vs. 12 Years a Slave kind of race. An honorable mention, a personal favorite of mine, a film snubbed by the Academy in all categories but two (Cinematography and Sound Mixing), is Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen Brothers’ musical story of a struggling folk singer, Llewyn Davis, starring the soulful Oscar Isaac in the titular role. Set in a 1960’s Greenwich Village scene with eccentric characters and one stand-out performance of the year by a cat, this is the one film you shouldn’t miss, Oscar-nominated or not.
The awards season is just beginning. Come March, we’ll see if the unexpected triumphs over the expected at its finale, the Oscars.
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