Who's Zooming Who? A Very Virtual Golden Globes Night
Monday, March 1, 2021 at 12:45AM by Nathaniel R
On of the funniest bits had Tina defying the split screen to stroke Amy's hair
Given the restrictions placed on Hollywood's most convivial hobnobbing boozy party things went as well as you could probably expect for the 78th Golden Globe Awards. The HFPA was wise to lean into something that always works (Tina Fey and Amy Poehler paired... although this time they were on different coasts) in a year where all the other things that make Globes night so fun, weren't really going to be there to lean into...
There were only two things that you might name as technical glitches. Surprise winner Daniel Kaluuya's acceptance was almost skipped entirely -- Laura Dern began thanking everyone on Kaluuya's behalf -- until his sound suddenly kicked in and he proclaimed that the show was doing him dirty. Thankfully the editors and producers quickly cut back to him for the speech. And were Catherine O'Hara and her husband trying a joke that just didn't land with his phone making so much noise beside her drowning her speech out? Or was that a larger technical problem?
As for a glitch that isn't technical but social... the subject of a recent revelation that none of the HFPA's 87 members are black was brought up multiple times on the pre-show (very awkwardly since pre-shows are generally fluffy and don't wear seriousness well) but found the right balance on the show itself with a funny pointed ribbing from Sterling K Brown and Susan Kelechi Watson (This Is Us) "It's great to be Black... back at the Globes" as well as three figureheads of the HFPA appearing to make a corporate statement that they'll be changing... though they didn't say how. (The HFPA currently has a very unusual and super specific system whereby only one journalist can represent each country... and those foreign journalists have to be living in Los Angeles and doing work for outlets in the country they're representing)
But otherwise the show was out to amuse and was reasonably successful. Still and all, the Golden Globes have never felt so much like attending a zoom meeting with celebrities instead of friends or co-workers.
the opening monologue icymi
The only difference is you're muted and can't participate.
The cutest touch, given the necessary separations, was the little glimpses we got of "breakout rooms" in which the nominees in the next category to be announced were talking amongs themselves as we headed to commericals. It was not unlike those camera glimpses on a usual Globes show of celebrities visiting each other's tables only this time, they were forced into sitting and visiting with their category alone. Our favourite of these was the Best Actresses in a Drama Series moment where they began to show each other their pets, with Sarah Paulson holding up a beautiful small black dog.
Once again the Globes reminded Oscar what they're missing in ditching their Honorary Oscars from the main broadcast. The HFPA's Carol Burnett Award (for TV) and the Cecil B DeMille award (for movies) went to 98 year old Norman Lear and the iconic Jane Fonda. The clip reels were well-edited and entertaining. Fonda's speech was highly unusual -- for this sort of thing -- in that she barely talked about her career or herself and instead made it about inclusivity in storytelling. Activism remains her primary passion.
To vary up the comedy, SNL's Maya Rudolph and Kenan Thompson performed a quite funny 'Globe Speech gone awry' bit and Barb (Annie Mumolo) & Star (Kristen Wiig) also stopped by to rave about shopping in Hollywood.
As for the winners, the Globes never fail to shock at least once during their annual evening. This time they did so thrice and with the theme of 'Movie Actresses'; ALL THREE MOVIE ACTRESS CATEGORIES NAMED VERY SURPRISING WINNERS. Otherwise, things weren't shocking at all (unless you count Kaluuya's supporting actor win which was a mild surprise but nothing like what happened in the actress categories).
It was a 'share the wealth kind of night' with no film winning more than two prizes. On television it was a different story with The Crown thoroughly dominating the proceedings with four wins (and with them, many repeat shots of Olivia Colman's smiling broadly to her device, ecstatic for her co-workers). The final season of Schitt's Creek, which had so dominated the Emmys, had to settle for just two prizes (Series and Actress) but with The Crown and Schitt's both winning, the Globes were a bit atypical in not fully embracing any brand new show. Of the new series only Ted Lasso won a Globe.
Our DVR malfunctioned (ARGH) so we won't be doing a few of the recap things we planned but we'll discuss the speeches and what this means for the Oscars tomorrow.
For now here's the winners list.
Movies
Chloe Zhao accepting Best Director
BEST PICTURE, DRAMA Nomadland
BEST PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
BEST DIRECTOR Chloe Zhao, Nomadland
BEST SCREENPLAY Aaron Sorkin, Trial of the Chicago 7
BEST ACTRESS DRAMA Andra Day, United States vs Billie Holiday
BEST ACTOR DRAMA Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
BEST ACTRESS COMEDY/MUSICAL Rosamund Pike, I Care a Lot
BEST ACTOR COMEDY/MUSICAL Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Jodie Foster, The Mauritanian
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah
Minari wins
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE Soul
BEST ANIMATED FILM Soul
BEST ORIGINAL SONG Io Si (Seen), The Life Ahead
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM Minari
Television
The Queen's Gambit took two prizes
BEST MINISERIES OR MOVIE The Queen's Gambit
BEST SERIES, DRAMA The Crown
BEST SERIES, COMEDY Schitt's Creek
BEST ACTRESS, MINISERIES Anya Taylor-Joy, The Queen's Gambit
BEST ACTOR, MINISERIES Mark Ruffalo, I Know This Much is True
BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES Emma Corrin, The Crown
BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES Catherine O'Hara, Schitt's Creek
BEST ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES Josh O'Connor, The Crown
BEST ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Gillian Anderson, The Crown
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, John Boyega, Small Axe
Did you watch? If so what was your favourite bit?
Reader Comments (71)
I feel like most people are weary of inescapable culture wars and when Robbie (executive producer) declares “a RECKONING is at hand” in the film’s intro, it doesn’t do the film’s wit, style, technical achievements, etc. any favors. Just sell it as a brilliant sly thriller, let people take what they will from it.
It just wasn't the same without the Glamour,Glitz and Gowns.
I found Pike in I CARE A LOT to be completely one-dimensional. It drags the film down. We need to like her character to some extent, or it's just an evil-lesbian movie: BOUND or BASIC INSTINCT without the "but I'm rooting for them anyway!" factor.
Where was David E Kelley during the Best Actress category? Since he was nominated, I was surprised to not see him there with Michelle!
I have to imagine, that after the controversies and the lack of in person screenings/etc., the Golden Globes just aren't going to be as predictive this year as they typically are. I truly can't imagine the academy falling for Andra Day. Jodie could be nominated, but it's hard to see her really winning over Olivia.
I think this will be a competitive season in the women's races, given that a lot of the excitement and consensus building screenings/honors and in person schmoozing aren't happening in the same way. Chadwick and Daniel feel like virtual locks. There's a possibility Chadwick loses, but it's hard think about who he would lose to. And that emotional speech by his wife was so moving and real.
The best part was easily Jane Fonda, who just lends so much gravitas to a ceremony like this. Her reel felt like a true celebration of cinema, and a star. I love that they included clips from some of her early 60s film, really helping us understand how she's grown on screen.
Norman Lear was great too, and I'm actually glad we have the TV legend award.
Didn’t bother watching this year. I don’t think the Globes will be that predictive this year for Oscars. The whole awards season seems like a mess to me this year so all rules or trends are off the table! Which can be both nerve-wracking, head scratching, and exciting.
Cannot believe the Day and Foster win. Even the Pike win was a surprise.
Overall, I guess if Streep is going to miss an award season year, the COVID/ zoom one was the year to miss.
I wonder if this surprise Jodie win piques everyone's interest enough for most the Academy to watch it and give her a "lifetime achievement" type nod for her later career.
I'm certainly going to finally watch "The Mauritanian" now -- I hadn't realized it was something different from "The Mandalorian," which I also happen to be tuning out.
Marsha: I would absolutely love it if The Mandalorian booked Jodie Foster in a recurring role.
I find Andra Day's performance in Billie Holiday to be quite similar to Renee Z.'s performance in Judy last year in terms of quality and appeal (the films are similar as well). I doubt Day will win the Oscar, but it's not surprising that it has its fans.
I agree that Pike was one-dimensional in I Care a Lot (it's easy to think of other actresses who could have done more with that role). If they wanted to avoid awarding Bakalova in that category, they could have gone with Pfeiffer or Taylor-Joy, who gave better performances.
Jaimie Lee Curtis, when she announced the winner said "My favorite D - Jodie Foster." What's that?
Back when the internet bubble was going gaga over Pike's performance in Gone Girl, a lot of us felt the performance was also too one-dimensional or robotic. Same problem now, except in a much worse film. Wiest was by far the best thing about it. Bakalova was robbed, basically.
Rich : I believed she said my bestie.
Michael R - thank you.
Day isn't on the Bafta longlist, so I wonder how that factors into it. I would just love it if Bafta nominated Alfre Woodard in Clemency to give us what we missed last year. :)
@mikenewq - “ Also LOVED seeing horror icon Jamie Lee Curtis present an award to horror icon Jodie Foster.
my first thought was the freaky friday connection
People can't give the HFPA (rightful) shit for their membership make-up and spend weeks calling then a trainwreck and messy and whatever and then turn around and say giving Audra Day the award is just them trying to save face? It's so stupid.
Pike was undeserving. Her performance is remarkable in the first act. She is not credible in the middle portion. A ridiculous award.
Stop with this Colman winning the Oscar talk. I love her and her well deserved win for the favorite but she is not winning this year, especially with Boseman rising from the grave to rob Hopkins. If Colman is nominated with Close than that locks Close for the win. Colman without Close? Then I'll concede it is a possibility. But fuck y'all can be stupid. And Alonso, Borat ain't going to blowup at the Academy so shut your ignorant idiotic mouth!
thevoid99 -- PLEASE stop being so rude in the comments. You dont have to call other people names. Just agree to disagree.
Glenn -- i dont really understand that either. If you badger people to be inclusive you shouldn't then badger then when they self-correct... not that we know that that's what happened. We don't know what 87 different people were thinking. i could see maybe reading it that way if i had been one category but all three actress categories were shocking wins so how i'm reading it is like this: that the voting was all over the place in all three acting categories. HFPA somtimes just go with whatever they're most excited about in the moment and it probably just means they weren't as enthused with the presumed frontrunners as people thought theyd' be .. or that there were too many of them because some of the races do feel tight (Mulligan & McDormand felt like a close race / Bakalova wasn't maybe why they loved Borat (given the Cohen win) / Close & Seyfried just might not have done it for them enough so they went with someeon that felt like an old friend )
Does that make the presumed frontrunners are weak frontrunners? It might. Or it might just be that Globes are gonna Globe. I guess we'll see when SAG announces but i for one am grateful that we literally can't have the same winners at all shows now.
Poor close , I am thinking she gets snubbed at oscar time even for the nomination .. in some ways I think would be a blessing as she is definately not winning the Oscar for this and I can’t bear to watch her lose again 😬
So.... looks like the Globes tanked ratings-wise?