Monday, January 9, 2017

La La Land and Meryl Streep Win at Golden Globes


The most important thing to happen tonight at the Golden Globes is Meryl Streep's speech accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement. She expertly vilified a certain unnamed president "elect," made an impassioned plea for more empathy, and paid tribute to her "dear departed Princess Leia." Like Streep's filmography, her speech had range, was mostly captivating, and certainly already iconic. Other awards were given, many to a certain Los Angeles-set musical and many more to British actors. Jimmy Fallon, with the exception of the fun opening number, stuck with his usual milquetoast bland schtick with almost anyone else going to the stage tonight displaying why they'd be a better host (Viola Davis, Sunny Pawar, Kristen Wiig/Steven Carrell were my personal favorites). Anyways, onwards...

Best Motion Picture, Drama: Moonlight
Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical: La La Land
Best Director: Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Best Actress, Drama: Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Best Actress, Comedy or Musical: Emma Stone, La La Land
Best Actor, Drama: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Best Actor, Comedy or Musical: Ryan Gosling, La La Land
Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Fences
Best Supporting Actor: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nocturnal Animals
Best Animated Film: Zootopia
Best Foreign Language Film: Elle
Best Screenplay: La La Land
Best Score: La La Land
Best Song: "City of Stars," La La Land


Awards season frontrunner La La Land dominated, picking up a record breaking 7 awards and winning every category it was nominated for, becoming the winningest film in Globes history. Their haul included Best Comedy/Musical and first Globes to director Damien Chazelle and leads Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. The film awards were bookended with surprise wins, the first to Aaron Taylor-Johnson winning Supporting Actor (many thought, myself included, he had no right of being nominated let alone win) and the last to Moonlight for Best Drama Picture (a delightful turn of events). Isabelle Huppert, Casey Affleck, and Davis won acting awards giving their Oscar chances a boost though only Huppert was the only one that needed it (and I guess Taylor-Johnson as well but I still think/hope/pray his nomination/win here is a fluke). Predictions-wise, I think pretty great going 10 of 14 (12 of 14 with alternates). I was certainly happy that La La Land swept and I hope it happens again at the Oscars.

Best TV Series, Drama: The Crown
Best TV Series, Comedy: Atlanta
Best Actress, Drama: Claire Foy, The Crown
Best Actress, Comedy: Tracee Ellis Ross, black-ish
Best Actor, Drama: Billy Bob Thornton, Goliath
Best Actor, Comedy: Donald Glover, Atlanta
Best Mini-Series or TV Movie: The People vs. OJ Simpson
Best Actress, Mini/TV Movie: Sarah Paulson, The People vs. OJ Simpson
Best Actor, Mini/TV Movie: Tom Hiddleston, The Night Manager
Best Supporting Actress: Hugh Laurie, The Night Manager
Best Supporting Actor: Olivia Colman, The Night Manager

For TV, color me surprised that The Night Manager ended up as the most awarded TV show of the night with 3 wins. In retrospect, it really shouldn't have surprised anyone how much love this show would get from the HFPA (all its leads won including an Olivia Colman win that made me jump for joy). The Crown, Atlanta, and The People vs. OJ Simpson won Best Show honors as well as a key acting win each (Claire Foy, Donald Glover, and Sarah Paulson respectively). First time wins by Foy, Glover and Tracee Ellis Ross were a great sight to see. My predictions wasn't so great at 3 of 11 (6 of 11 with alternates) but in general I think the right people, mostly, were awarded.

To end, I have to again go back to Meryl Streep's speech. It's something that can be easily watched in full. You can do so below, courtesy of HFPA's tweet.

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Golden Globes: Predictions and Hopes


My last post was almost four months ago talking about another awards show so I guess it's fine if I just dive right back in the midst of awards season especially with the Golden Globes happening tonight. No extended thoughts on the nominees, but my predictions and hopes are below.

Best Director
Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Tom Ford, Nocturnal Animals
Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester By the Sea

Will Win: Damien Chazelle
Alternate: Barry Jenkins
Should Win: Either one of those would be fine by me!

Best Motion Picture, Drama
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Lion
Manchester By the Sea
Moonlight

Will Win: Moonlight
Alternate: Manchester by the Sea
Should Win: Happy for either of those, but I'm low-key hoping for a LION shocker.

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
20th Century Women
Deadpool
La La Land
Florence Foster Jenkins
Sing Street

Will Win:
La La Land
Alternate: N/A
Should Win: La La Land! La La Land! La La Land! LA LA LAND!!!

Best Actress, Drama
Amy Adams, Arrival
Jessica Chastain, Miss Sloane
Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Natalie Portman, Jackie
Ruth Negga, Loving

Will Win: Natalie Portman (Globes likes the big name!)
Alternate: Isabelle Huppert (Globes like the foreign ladies!)
Should Win: Amy Adams (Globes do whatever they want!)

Best Actress, Musical or Comedy
Annette Bening, 20th Century Women
Lily Collins, Rules Don’t Apply
Hailee Steinfeld, The Edge of Seventeen
Emma Stone, La La Land
Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins

Will Win: Emma Stone
Alternate: Meryl Streep
Should Win: Stone should really get this, but most of her fellow nominees are great.

Best Actor, Drama
Casey Affleck, Manchester By the Sea
Joel Edgerton, Loving
Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington, Fences

Will Win: Casey Affleck
Alternate: Denzel Washington
Should Win: Viggo Mortensen. Or Andrew Garfield... but for his non-nominated role in SILENCE.

Best Actor, Musical, or Comedy
Colin Farrell, The Lobster
Ryan Gosling, La La Land
Hugh Grant, Florence Foster Jenkins
Jonah Hill, War Dogs
Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool

Will Win: Ryan... Gosling
Alternate: Ryan... Reynolds
Should Win: GOSLING! I like Reynolds but I swear if DEADPOOL crashes the LA LA LAND party, I might have a stroke.

Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Simon Helberg, Florence Foster Jenkins
Dev Patel, Lion
Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nocturnal Animals

Will Win: Mahershala Ali
Alternate: Jeff Bridges
Should Win: ALI! Maybe Dev Patel, but only if he shares his award with Sunny Pawar. But really ANYONE BUT Taylor-Johnson please and thanks.

Best Supporting Actress
Viola Davis, Fences
Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Nicole Kidman, Lion
Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams, Manchester By the Sea

Will Win: Viola Davis
Alternate: Michelle Williams
Should Win: What I really wish is Davis winning in Lead and Williams winning here.

Best Screenplay
Hell or High Water
La La Land
Manchester By the Sea
Moonlight
Nocturnal Animals

Will Win: Manchester by the Sea
Alternate: Moonlight
Should Win: Again, both films are worthy and will likely get their respective Oscars so let's blow it up a bit here and say LA LA LAND.

Best Foreign Language Film
Divines, France
Elle, France
Neruda, Chile
The Salesman, Iran/France
Toni Erdmann, Germany

Will Win: Toni Erdmann
Alternate: Elle
Should Win: Unfortnately I haven't seen any of these to make a judgment call.

Best Animated Feature Film
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
My life as a Zucchini
Sing
Zootopia

Will Win: Zootopia
Alternate: Moana
Should Win: A strong year for the medium that started out with a bang with ZOOTOPIA and it should be rewarded thusly.

Best Original Song, Motion Picture
“Can’t Stop the Feeling,” Trolls
“City of Stars,” La La Land
“Faith,” Sing
“Gold,” Gold
“How Far I’ll Go,” Moana

Will Win: The guys who wrote Broadway's Dear Evan Hansen (City of Stars)
Alternate: The guy who wrote Broadway's Hamilton (How Far I'll Go)
Should Win: I would be VERY sad if one of those songs don't win.

Best Original Score, Motion Picture
Arrival
Hidden Figures
Lion
La La Land
Moonlight

Will Win: La La Land
Alternate: Not sure...
Should Win: Hoping for a big night for this movie!




Best TV Series, Drama
The Crown
Game of Thrones
Stranger Things
This Is Us
Westworld

Will Win: Game of Thrones
Alternate: The Crown
Should Win: Ask me at different time and I can see myself (and the HFPA) say any of these, but I'll say GAME OF THRONES.

Best Actress, Drama
Catriona Balfe, Outlander
Claire Foy, The Crown
Keri Russell, The Americans
Winona Ryder, Stranger Things
Evan Rachel Wood, Westworld

Will Win: I have no idea actually... Claire Foy?
Alternate: Same, um... Evan Rachel Wood?
Should Win: Russell, because see Russian comment below. But Ryder for the nostalgia.

Best Actor, Drama
Rami Malek, Mr. Robot
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
Matthew Rhys, The Americans
Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan
Billy Bob Thornton, Goliath

Will Win: Rami Malek
Alternate: Matthew Rhys
Should Win: We're letting the Russians win elsewhere, so let's give it up for RHYS!

Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy
Atlanta
Black-ish
Mozart in the Jungle
Transparent
Veep

Will Win: Veep
Alternate: Mozart in the Jungle
Should Win: I think this election year is giving me PTSD with VEEP so I would've voted for BLACK-ISH probably.

Best Actress, Musical or Comedy
Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Sarah Jessica Parker, Divorce
Issa Rae, Insecure
Gina Rodriguez, Jane the Virgin
Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish

Will Win: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, but can we first just look at how awesome this list of nominees is?
Alternate: Sarah Jessica Parker?
Should Win: Rooting for a first-time winner... Issa Rae!

Best Actor, Musical, or Comedy
Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
Gael Garcia Bernal, Mozart in the Jungle
Donald Glover, Atlanta
Nick Nolte, Graves
Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent

Will Win: Gael Garcia Bernal
Alternate: Donald Glover
Should Win: Since Bernal won last year, I'd say Glover this time around.

Best Limited Series or TV Movie
American Crime
The Dresser
The Night Manager
The Night Of
The People v. O.J. Simpson

Will Win: The People v. OJ Simpson
Alternate: N/A
Should Win: PEOPLE V. OJ certainly, but I do wish NIGHT MANAGER got its due.

Best Actress, Limited Series or TV Movie
Felicity Huffman, American Crime
Riley Keough, The Girlfriend Experience
Sarah Paulson, The People v. O.J. Simpson
Charlotte Rampling, London Spy
Kerry Washington, Confirmation

Will Win: Sarah Paulson
Alternate: N/A
Should Win: PAULSON HAS GOT THIS.

Best Actor, Limited Series or TV Movie
Riz Ahmed, The Night Of
Bryan Cranston, All The Way
Tom Hiddleston, The Night Manager
John Turturro, The Night Of
Courtney B. Vance, The People v. O.J. Simpson

Will Win: Courtney B. Vance
Alternate: Tom Hiddleston
Should win: Either one of those would be good with me, but I'm low-key itching for Turturro.

Best Supporting Actor

Sterling K. Brown, The People v. O.J. Simpson
Hugh Laurie, The Night Manager
John Lithgow, The Crown
Christian Slater, Mr. Robot
John Travolta, The People v. O.J. Simpson

Will Win: Sterling K. Brown
Alternate: John Lithgow
Should Win: BROWN has got this easily.

Best Supporting Actress
Olivia Colman, The Night Manager
Lena Headey, Game of Thrones
Chrissy Metz, This Is Us
Mandy Moore, This Is Us
Thandie Newton, Westworld

Will Win: Thandie Newton
Alternate: Lena Headey
Should Win: Both were VERY good (very deadly) this past season. But I would love for Colman to grab this in a shocker.

Let's see how wrong I am tonight!