Presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Golden Globe Awards, honoring excellence in film and television, is considered one of the biggest awards shows leading up to the Oscars. They are also notorious including mediocre films and excluding noteworthy ones, and based on this year’s nominations, which were announced this Thursday, this year is no exception.
The nominations for Best Motion Picture—Drama are “The Descendants”, “The Help”, “Hugo”, “The Ides of March”, “Moneyball”, and “War Horse”. A fair list—“The Help” is questionable, but it’s still a good film. “The Ides of March”, which received a whopping four nominations, is a bit of a surprise. While it contains all the elements of an award-worthy film—a political drama with an all-star ensemble cast that is also directed by award season favorite George Clooney—it came and went without much buzz a couple months ago. Reception for the film was not outright negative, but not overwhelmingly positive either. But what about the less formulaic films like Terence Malick’s “The Tree of Life”? And even though it hasn’t received wide release yet, it’s interesting that “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” was not nominated either (although star Rooney Mara received a Best Actress nod).
The same goes for the category of Best Motion Picture—Comedy or Musical. The nominees are “50/50”, “The Artist”, “Bridesmaids”, “Midnight in Paris”, and “My Week with Marilyn”. Now really—“Bridesmaids”? It’s overlong and not particularly funny, with characters who are whiny and quite despicable. It’s disappointing to see it taking up space that another film—“The Muppets”, which surprisingly did not receive any nominations, comes to mind—might have occupied.
The nominations for Best Animated Feature also seem off. Granted, the mainstream animated movies this year have not been as strong as they have in years past. The nominations include “The Adventures of Tintin”, “Arthur Christmas”, “Cars 2”, “Puss in Boots”, and “Rango”. “Puss in Boots” is easily the weakest film in the group, and could just as easily be replace with Disney’s “Winnie the Pooh”, one of the year’s best animated movies that deserve recognition.
But while the film categories didn’t always hit the nail on the head, the acting categories did. Michelle Williams for “My Week with Marilyn”; George Clooney for “The Descendants”; Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill for “Moneyball” (which thankfully was not forgotten even though it has been a few months since it was released in theaters), and more of the best performances of the year are included in the nominations.
The Best Director category, on the other hand, is, like the film categories, somewhat questionable. Martin Scorsese, Alexander Payne, and Woody Allen all received deserved nominations, but “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is snubbed again as David Fincher, the director of that film, is not recognized.
“The Descendants” and “The Artist” tied for the most nominations with six apiece. In the end, this might not all matter; the Golden Globes are generally more of a party than the more serious Oscars, and the winner of the Golden Globe rarely goes on to win the Oscar. But it is interesting to consider any award show in which a raunchy comedy like “Bridesmaids” and a silent film like “The Artist” are represented in the same category.
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