The Golden Globes, otherwise known as the Oscars’ raunchy uncle, took place last night for the 74th time. As usual, they were a lot more fun than the Oscars. While most of the victories ended up being relatively “safe” ones, history was still made as Damien Chazellle’s La La Land took home seven Golden Globes (the most any movie has in Golden Globes history) and Meryl Streep decided to use her stage time to jab at President-Elect Trump with a speech that left the audience speechless.
In the Drama category, Moonlight snagged the Best Picture award, not a surprising choice given that it’s been heralded as a favorite by the foreign press for some time now. While it would have been awesome to see Hell or High Water get this one, the only realistic competitor was Manchester by the Sea, which didn’t end up getting the award either.
To no surprise whatsoever, the Best Picture in the Comedy category went to La La Land. This brings us to ponder: is La La Land this year’s Chicago? The Globes usually predict the film that will go on to win the Best Picture at the Oscars, and Chazelle’s film seems to be the favorite. But it could easily end up being Moonlight as well, especially following last year's #OscarsSoWhite controversy.
Damien Chazelle also picked up Best Director honors, and even though he faced some pretty stiff competition, it feels belatedly appropriate since he was clearly robbed of it for Whiplash. He also took the award for “Best Screenplay” home, a controversial win considering he faced off against Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea screenplay and Taylor Sheridan’s wonderful script for Hell or High Water.
The “Best Actor” awards went to Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea) in the Drama category and Ryan Gosling (La La Land) in the Comedy one. They were both the expected winners, so no surprises there.
The biggest snub of the night was in the Comedy category, with Colin Farrell’s tour de force in The Lobster (a very dark comedy, but a comedy nonetheless), quite possibly his finest performance ever, not receiving any recognition. Sadly, he didn’t tap dance his way to any awards.
The Best Actress category saw Emma Stone win in the Comedy category, continuing to make La La Land the Globes’ Titanic, but the real surprise came from Natalie Portman (Jackie) losing out in the Drama category to Isabelle Huppert for her wonderful turn in Paul Verhoeven’s Elle. This is a recognition Huppert absolutely deserved for her nuanced yet powerful performance in the film that also took home the Best Foreign Language Film award.
The Best Supporting Actor award didn’t go to Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) as predicted, but instead went to Aaron Taylor-Johnson for his very creepy role in Nocturnal Animals. Viola Davis won Best Supporting Actress for her part in Fences, quite a feat considering her opponents included Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea) and Nicole Kidman (Lion).
The rest of the awards include Zootopia winning Best Animated Feature Film (while it is great, it probably should have gone to Kubo and the Two Strings), The Crown winning Best TV Series in the Drama category (the Globes have a tendency to give award to the newest shows) and Atlanta nabbing the Best TV Series award in the Comedy department. Shout out to Migos!
The Globes still found a way to give Meryl Streep an award, this time honoring her with a Lifetime Achievement award, and her speech ended up being the highlight of the evening. She harshly criticized Donald Trump, who responded this morning by childishly calling her “a Hillary lover.”
All in all, it was a good year for the Globes (even though Ricky Gervais’ venom was sorely missed), and we’re excited to see if the Academy Awards’ take on this year’s best films differ from their drunken uncles’. We’ll have to wait till February 26 to find out.
