Team Experience on Globe Snubs, Strange Honors, and Best Director Nominees
Friday, December 7, 2018 at 7:30AM As is our habit we polled Team Film Experience and web friends on the Golden Globe nominations. This will come in two parts but we'll start with a cleanse by shaking off the bad feelings. We must bid a fond fist-shaking farewell to our favorites that the Globes shunned and reveal the nominations that confuse us.
We think you'll also enjoy the part where we choose which Best Director would best dramatize our moods while watching the nominations. Ready? Here goes...
1. Which omission most galls you?
MURTADA: Widows. Viola Davis for Widows. Elizabeth Debicki for Widows. Steve McQueen for Widows. It had many opportunities to get mentioned and zilch.
JASON ADAMS: Toni Collette and Carey Mulligan, the drinks are on me. [MORE AFTER THE JUMP...]
ERIC BLUME: No nod for Yorgos Lanthimos??? Do they really think the director of Shallow Hal and the director of The Other Guys is more talented than the guy who made The Lobster?
JORGE MOLINA: The Golden Globes will usually nominate anything that barely resembles a musical. They even nominated two explicitly musical films in the drama category this year! So the fact that they ignored Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which would usually be such low-hanging fruit in that category, is beyond me. Even Cher's last film vehicle, Burlesque, got in on its year!
SEAN DONOVAN: Lily James is doing truly incredible work in Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again. Imagine being asked to embody a youthful Meryl Streep (already a herculean task), make free-flowing wanderlust and optimism convincing and even aspirational, have pitch-perfect romantic chemistry with three relatively green actors, and do it all while singing and dancing for an entire half of a sequel fueled by your own charisma? Forget Ally singing "Shallow"; the true star-is-born moment of 2018 belonged to Lily James. And with James soon to head to the stage with Gillian Anderson in All About Eve, an event sending my gay heart into fits of roaring jealousy, I feel like we are witnessing the beginning of a major new career. And the Golden Globes could have gotten in on the ground floor; what better place to honor James than Lead Actress in a Comedy/Musical?
PAOLO KAGAOAN: The lack of foreign language nominations in the acting department. No Steven Yeun? Boo.
ILICH MEJIA: I watched the entirety of Sharp Objects twice before learning Eliza Scanlen is Australian. Maybe her performance was so good that I never noticed any peeks of her Aussie or maybe her accent was that good, but either way she definitely would have charmed and disturbed a nomination out of me.
NICK DAVIS: This is structural, not film-specific, but the exclusion of non-English movies from the main Best Picture categories is so stupid as a policy, particularly when it implies that Bohemian Rhapsody is a better picture than Roma, which would otherwise very likely claim its spot.
2. Name a nominee YOU snubbed!
CHRIS FEIL: This "Roz Pike eyepatch movie" has already evaporated from theatres before I could even consider seeing it, and now these two (TWO!) nominations have me scrambling for how I'm supposed to see it. A very Private War, indeed. Also: WTF is The Kominsky Method??
ILICH MEJIA: I have been sending angry correspondence to Rosamund Pike's agent for about three years now for consistently encouraging her to do indistinguishable period pieces that go straight to VOD. So when A Private War came out I... watched A Star is Born again instead. Pike's talent deserves more attention and even though the HFPA isn't the best judge of character, I'm making myself check out War to see how it measures up next to her other post-Gone Girl duds.
SPENCER COILE: I have a feeling I’d like it, but I could not generate enough excitement to see At Eternity’s Gate when it was playing near me. Joke’s on me.
PAOLO KAGAOAN: Any television. I've been too busy with movies that I've forgotten that there's great work done on the small screen too.
LYNN LEE: Melissa McCarthy for Can You Ever Forgive Me. This year I seem to be semiconsciously avoiding movies I *know* are going to be downers. I don't need a movie to make me feel good - I just don't want it to make me feel rotten, since the world at large is already doing a bang-up job of that.
ERIC BLUME: Glenn Close in The Wife. It looked like a brutal trigonometry homework assignment to me, but I fear I must get to it?
JASON ADAMS: I find everyone's aggressive proselytizing about The Good Place off-putting, which is the world's lamest reason for not watching something, especially with so many people involved that I always enjoy.
MATTHEW RETTENMUND (BOY CULTURE): I haven't had any interest in seeing A Star Is Born. I've only heard good things, but it's all so calculated and mainstream, it does not appeal to me. Gaga sure picked the right year to try for an Oscar, though, with no duh-obvious contenders in her category who everyone believes must win.
GUY LODGE (VARIETY/THE GUARDIAN): I still haven't seen Mirai, and given that it looks like potentially the one indie outlier on this year's animated race, the guilt is strong.
3. Which nomination leaves you scratching your head OR wanting to scratch out your eyes?
GUY LODGE: Just one? Let's say Adam McKay's Best Director nod.
NICK DAVIS: Despite a promising start, I really think Girl adopts a shitty and sensationalist angle on a trans protagonist's experience. In my ideal universe, it would get lost, though I know others feel differently.
MURTADA: Green Book for screenplay. I understand being generous to the actors if the HFPA enjoyed the film. Even the director, but the the screenplay? It’s atrocious, full of cliches and false characterizations and should be held up as an example of how NOT to write a movie.
DEBORAH LIPP: Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born are musicals. THEY ARE MUSICALS. Aaaaaaaaaaah!
BEN MILLER: Adam Driver is probably the most talented character actor in his age bracket, but this is leading to the variety of thinkpieces about how the only Oscar acting nomination out of BlacKkKlansman is the white guy.
ERIC BLUME: Crazy Rich Asians up for best picture: it's inane pablum. An eye-scratching, not even a head-scratching, nomination.
4. Which director nominee would be best at capturing your personal reaction video to the Globe nominations?
CHRIS FEIL: Bradley Cooper, because I was alone in my HOUSE!!
SPENCER COILE: Bradley Cooper, because I, too, walked out of a bathroom stall and shouted into a mirror before going back to work.
MATTHEW RETTENMUND: I'll take Bradley Cooper, because I'm a non-actor and he's good with those.
GUY LODGE: Peter Farrelly, given that I watched the announcements in a state of bland indifference.
JASON ADAMS: Alfonso Cuaron proved himself capable of capturing the perfect "stepped in shit" reaction shot in Roma
DANCIN' DAN: I was on a New York City transit bus on my way to work when the nominations happened, so I'm thinking Alfonso Cuarón would be best able to work in that tight a space and capture the combination of slice-of-life drama and fantastical flights of fancy that made me almost miss my stop because I was so invested in what was happening.
JORGE MOLINA: Oh, I can see Alfonso Cuarón doing a long one-take of my emotional journey. It'll be me running in early 2000s Mexico City across window shops all lined-up with nominees. Black and white. No score. Just my gay gasps as sound design.
As ever you should answer these four questions, too, to continue the conversation!
Reader Comments (37)
Denzel Washington’s son was nominated Lead actor in the spike lee movie, so Adam Driver wasn’t the sole honoree...
*I really hope that voting members of the AMPAS will not nominate category fraud actors. Should they make the fraudulent cut, however great the performance is in the wrong category, vote against them on principle!
Which omission most galls you? Cold War
If Beale Street Could Talk deserved - nay, demands - nominations in Best Director and Best Score. How could it be left off the latter in particular?
I also understand why First Man has faded, but Chazelle's direction is a major feat for the year. I'd put him and Jenkins above all others, except for maybe Cuarón. Maybe.
I haven't hidden the fact that I enjoyed Green Book, but the Farrelly nomination is silly. It's an enjoyable, well-acted comedy with a joke a minute so I'm okay with noms for Mortensen, Ali, and the screenplay, but its direction is no great strokes.
Question 1: Ryan Gosling First Man!
2: Crazy Rich Asians. Worst movie of the year
3. Girl. The last ten minutes wreck the film. And we know there were more worthy possibilities.
4. Yorgos Lanthimos. Oh ... whoopie!
Lynn Lee, "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" is not a downer in the way you may have been led to think. It's witty, it's beautifully paced, it's about recognizable people who are rarely shown on screen, and it has a star (McCarthy) who has done something wonderful: stripped away most of the go-to mannerisms that made her famous. I found it, in its own way, thrilling.
Thank you, wonderful TFE writers, for your thoughts on No. 4 lol
Why should foreign films be nominated for awards besides the best foreign film? the states produce hundreds of films every year (most with big budgets) they should be able to find a few good performances or solid films. I wouldn't want the Cesars to nominate American films. I think Private war had a strong showing here because it's about the press and of course they wanted to blow their own horn (deservedly in this case).
"A Star is Born" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" aren't musicals. They're dramatic films that focus on music. I hate that indecision because it gives the HFPA the leniency to drop shit in whatever category they seem fit for voting purposes. "Ray" in M/C while "Dancer in the Dark" in Drama (which is a musical, albeit a dark, dramatic one). Know the difference. The Tonys knew "Lady Day at Emersons Bar and Grill" was a play. It contained musical performances by Billie Holiday since she, in fact, was a singer. That doesn't mean the entire production was a musical.
I just feel this is not hard to distinguish.
Tom -- i think he meant what will happen at the Oscars. I cant see JDW being nominated there either.
I’m sad about Mamma Mia missing out on Picture and Actress, but the comedy categories are uncharacteristically tight this year. I know people have feelings about Vice and (based on this article) Crazy Rich Asians, but MM2 just came out in the wrong year for Globe love
My galling nomination/omission are in the same category. I wish they wouldn't have rubber-stamped Claire Foy's nomination for Best Supporting Actress, because we probably have "our 5" in that category now, and I think her performance is bland and serviceable (with a bad accent) - many other actresses in her age group could have performed just as well, if not better.
I would have loved to have seen Michelle Yeoh take her place, but Sukura Ando (Shoplifters), Haley Lu Richardson (Support the Girls), Debecki, Spacek would all have been great as well.
As for the nominee I snubbed - take your pick! So many of these nominees are so random that I've missed them. A Private War, Stan & Ollie and At Eternity's Gate (I don't think either have opened here yet, but I've no desire to see them).
If you doubled or tripled Widows' box office I'm sure it would have 4-5 nominations here. Same with First Man. Critics need to put some starch in their spines when it comes time to vote...
Festival: This movie is great and will make $300 million!
Wide release: It's a crying shame that this movie is not finding an audience!
Awards voting: *crickets* Bohemian Rhapsody!
I'm still trying to figure out how MUSICALS like A Star is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody didn't qualify for the MUSICAL categories.
And where the hell was Ethan Hawke, Toni Collete and Cold War????
1. Widows getting absolutely zilch. Boo!
2. Bohemian Rhapsody. Don't de-Gay Freddie Mercury, just don't.
3. Crazy Rich Asians for BP. It's just a dumb, mediocre, thoroughly cliched rom-com and it didn't have to be. Baffled by the overwhelmingly positive response to it. I *wanted* to love it, I *want* Asian (and otherwise non-white) actors to front line mainstream Hollywood movies! But I want them to be *good* movies.
4. Ummmm, haven't seen enough of them to come up with something cleverly apropos!
1) It wasn't really in the running, so I can't say it was a galling omission, but it would've been nice for "Searching" to get a nod for John Cho or the screenplay.
2) Does this mean I have to watch "Bohemian Rhapsody" now?
3) Nothing terrible, but I guess I don't get the across-the-board love for "Blackkklansman". I think it's lesser Spike Lee that was elevated due to the timely subject matter and irresistible title. Much like Scorsese and "The Departed", I'll be a little disappointed if this film (and not his earlier great films) wins him the big awards.
4) Adam McKay, I think, would be the best at capturing the absurd irony, meaninglessness, and yet irresistibility of the whole awards circus that draws us in year after year despite frustrating and disappointing us in various ways.
The shut out of Widows and the inclusion of Foy bother me the most.
Hayden, on what planet are you finding these *critics* voting for Bohemian Rhapsody? Don't say the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Toni and Ethan were Robbed
Do the Adam Driver thinkpieces still happen if Spike Lee is nominated? Granted, he'd still be the only ACTOR nominated, but he wouldn't be the only recognizable face representing the movie.
Also... I dunno if this is a hot take, but optics aside, is anyone arguing that there's a better performance in that film than Adam Driver's?
I really hate when people make arguments such as this:
"Do they really think the director of Shallow Hal and the director of The Other Guys is more talented than the guy who made The Lobster?"
The committee was not voting on Shallow Hal, The Other Guys, or The Lobster this year - why should director's past work be an influence for their current projects and nominations? No one is saying Lanthimos is not talented. Be upset he isn't included, but no need to make such childish proclamations in the process.
@Bette Streep - About the music industry ≠ musical (at least not automatically. A Star Is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody, Lady Sings the Blues, Ray, What's Love Got to Do With It, etc. are about musicians and, yes, there are songs (just as there are paintings in At Eternity's Gate) but, no, that doesn't make it a musical like The Greatest Showman, which is about a circus, is. I know the Globes are wildly inconsistent, mean, the whole construct of a musical is different than a biopic of a musician whose songs appear.
1. Ethan Hawke in First Reformed. I also wanted the film to be nominated, but I knew it would be too bleak for the HFPA. Still, Ethan Hawke gives a better performance than every single nominee for Actor-Drama (with the caveat that I haven't seen At Eternity's Gate, and bearing in mind that I think Bradley Cooper is terrific in A Star is Born), and he's well-known enough that even the HFPA should have been able to recognize him. I take solace in the fact that he's getting plenty of Critics prizes, so I expect him to turn up at SAG. Also, Lily James in Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (talk about a "star-is-born" moment). As someone who regards Mary Poppins a stone-cold classic and can't stand the original Mamma Mia, who would have thunk I would like the Mamma Mia sequel better than the Mary Poppins sequel (which I liked well enough, but it feels a little too much like a remake).
2. Of the ones I haven't seen it, the only one I had a chance to see is Destroyer (I almost saw it in Toronto, but it was at the same time as a P&I screening of Hotel Mumbai, which everyone in my group was urging me to see). Besides At Eternity's Gate and Destroyer, I haven't seen Vice, The Favourite, A Private War, Mirai and Never Look Away.
3. Bohemian Rhapsody for Picture-Drama!!! I'll give everyone Rami Malek, fine (he actually does quite well with the material he's given), but man is that not a good movie (it ends strong, but it's a real slog before that). To think that spot could have gone to First Reformed, or First Man (which vastly improves on a second viewing, and I actually think Claire Foy is amazing in it, so happy for her nomination). I'm also a little confused with the Original Score nomination for A Quiet Place (not because the score is bad, but because the film is at its best when there is no score).
4. Oddly enough, I did record myself reacting to reading off the list of the Globe nominations (which came out really weird), but of the nominees, I would probably ask Cuarón to do it (since he's proven he can make the mundane exciting).
I enjoyed Spike Lee's Blackkklansman but for a man whose has spent his career championing the black man's struggle why did he give the Lead Role to his friend's son,Why not offer it to an actor who needs the exposure or foot in the door,that's my only problem,the dbl standards and Driver was best in show,why's it matter he is white,Lee cast him.
I am not unhappy with the exclusion of Widows. It was just another movie... enjoyable, but not noteworthy.
@markgordonuk
Anjelica Huston, Angelina Jolie, Laura Dern, Jane Fonda, Drew Barrymore, director Sofia Coppola were all enabled due to industry nepotism. Spike Lee is doing the same along side HBO where John David is a series regular on the show Ballers.
3rtful but none of those ladies have spent their careers making films about black struggles only to give the lead in a new film to there friends son when it could have gone anywere.
Widows is so fucking average - slick Hollywood entertainment -
nothing more -
the no noms make sense to me.
Didn't even think the acting was anything to write home about.
Claire Foy was freakin' brilliant in First Man - totally deserved nom.
1. Eighth Grade for Best Pic - Comedy. I mean, they took two things out of the category in order to NOT put the funniest and most heartfelt comedy of the year?
2. The Incredibles 2. I just can't bring myself into hat kind of sequel land.
3. I'll agree on Green Book for screenplay, for all the reasons above
4. I am not nearly witty enough to answer this appropriately.
1- ETHAN HAWKE for First Reformed instead of JDWashington, and that comes from a guy that really, really liked BlacKkKlansman (totally deserved nod in BP); CAREY MULLIGAN cause I just LOVE her in everything. AMY SCHUMER ( I Feel Pretty) WIDOWS IS just standard but I was hoping for a BSA nomination for ELIZABETH DEBICKI, although that Supporting Actress line up is just dreamy I'd have replaced Stone for Debicki or RACHEL MCADAMS ( Disobedience) also ALESSANDRO NIVOLA instead of Adam Driver. YORGOS LANTHIMOS anyday over McKay or Farrelly; I really found Crazy Rich Asians ranging from boring to terrible so any nomination concerning the film baffles me. Supporting Actress TV, again is a fantastic line-up but I'd have loved to see SHARON STONE ( so brilliant in Mosaic) and ELIZA SCANLEN ( Sharp Objects) here, maybe over Clarkson and Cruz.
2- Basically ALL the Comedy Series line-up; Pose; and Mary Poppins Returns, hated the trailer.
3- Anything for Crazy Rich Asians;
4- Alfonso Cuarón doing a one-take of my best Winona Ryder SAG Awards reaction reenactment.
If we go by a strict definition of musicals as excluding movies where the musical numbers are all done by characters who are, in the world of the movie, performing those numbers, then technically 'Cabaret' isn't a musical.
Rebecca -- right? That's why I think we have to consider A STAR IS BORN a musical. I mean there at 10 original songs or something!!!!
Nathaniel - exactly.
Lets hope the Oscar nominations aren't gonna be as silly as these Globes nominees were.
Seriously Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born were MUSICALS. There was some dramatic moments but they were definitely MUSICALS.
And I haven't seen Vice - but unless it is a Black Comedy - I can't think of anything funny about the horrendous Cheney fellow.
Then "Crazy Heart" is a musical, "Lady Sings the Blues" is a musical. In the case of "A Star is Born", all the songs aren't performed in the entirety as they aren't considered part of the dialogue. They're still SONGS and not communicative in that nature. But okaym Fight me.
For question 4 / director, I would choose Bradley Cooper, because you know, there can be 100 people in a room and 99 won't believe in you but all it takes is one
I'm annoyed that Michelle Pfeiffer wasn't nominated for 'Where is Kyra'. Unfortunately, the movie was barely distributed, so not surprising, but annoying.
I haven't seen Homecoming, and am not likely too because I've never cared for Julia Roberts (whose main talent has been building her brand, IMHO)