The corporate sites have already dissected this (They have whole staffs for speed and analysis. I just have coffee and OCD) but I like a day or two to let it all seep in anyway.
10 Random Belated Thoughts on the Golden Globes
10 Kate Winslet's first win
Category Fraud aside (The Reader is about her character, Hanna Schmitz), is there anyone who wasn't thrilled to finally see Kate Winslet win a major film prize as Best Supporting Actress? Anyone besides Penélope Cruz possibly (oh, that's mean. Another Almodovar film is coming out soon -- hang tight). Regarding The Reader: Who chose the film clips for this event? The clip from her holocaust film -- basically shots of its controversial sex scenes was a really strange choice. Not because it was too racy for TV but because it doesn't read at all out of context.
09 Everyone loves The Lovely Laura Linney™
Early in the evening, while those roaming camera interstitials were preparing us for commercials, gorgeous It Girl Anne Hathaway's face lit up with joy as she made a beeline for someone she saw. Turned out it was Linney. My face also lights up with joy when I spot her, doesn't yours? It's as if the glow off of those apple pie cheeks actually releases airborn endorphins. (Guilty confession: I still have not watched John Adams. It sits near my television, haunting me with its supersized running time. I'm allergic to long)
08 Awards Shows exist outside the Space/Time Continuum
It's just a theory I'm working on.
'Tonight they're going to party like it's Nineteen Ninety ----- Four?'
07 Slumdog Sweep / Swept Under the Rug?
I don't understand the mass love for this movie. Particularly I remain bewildered that it's winning Screenplay prizes. Isn't the joy (what joy there is in the movie) all about the locales, the energy of the filmmaking, the color? Also: what happened to the Co-Director Loveleen Tandan? If someone could point me to a good article on why she is never nominated whilst the movie is nominated for dozens of directorial prizes, I'd like to read said article. It's possible I just missed something. But this situation is awfully familiar. City of God, another colorful "exotic" critical smash in the US also had a female co-director who was never mentioned once the awards started piling up.
06 Bruce Springsteen's delight
...was also mine. Who knew I'd get such joy from a Clint Eastwood related moment? Bruce was thrilled to be in the same category as him. I hope Bruce wins the Oscar, too. I can't get enough of Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler or The Boss's "The Wrestler" for that matter.
05 My God, but I missed the Globes last year!
I spent the entire evening with a huge grin on my face. Oscar season is not the same without the Globes. I love that they'll give awards to people like Sally Hawkins and Colin Farrel, both of whom are highly unlikely to imagine as Oscar winners (Deserves got nothing to do with it), and there's interplay between the stage and the audience (Emma Thompson "coaching" Sally Hawkins through her speech. Only here) and it's still disreputable enough to include off color coke jokes and obscene hand gestures
04 Mickey's Rourke's Acceptance Speech
It felt as honest as his Wrestler performance. A tribute to a young agent who risked his career to represent him when he was down and out. A tribute to his dead dogs (sniffle). Oscar nomination ballots are already in but this speech and its reception (standing ovation) ought to help his Oscar campaign. I still believe that Sean Penn will win the Oscar for his amazing performance as Milk, but Rourke might be a stronger competitor than previously imagined.
03 Angelina hates critics but loves the Hollywood Foreign Press ?
I'm just guessing. Remember how severe she came off at the BFCA Awards when Hathaway won Best Actress... but then there was this lovely girlish warmth at the Globes as Slumdog Millionaire won its millionth prize. Later a big smile, rather than a stony death stare, for Kate Winslet who'd actually forgotten her name. Maybe she just hates Anne Hathaway?
Oh relax. I'm kidding. There's this strange notion flying around the web that I don't love Angelina Jolie. This is preposterous. I've been on Team Jolie forever. So, here's to Angelina! She's not always my favorite actress but when it comes to celebrity... [cue music] "nobody >currently< does it better. makes me feel sad for the rest. nobody does it half as good as her. baby you're the best"
02 Reaction Shots are Manna From Heaven
They just are. Stars that don't show are stingy. They're depriving us of the civilian's right and joy: to project often inappropriate, highly speculative and dramatic emotions onto their passive visages.
01 Kate Winslet's Second Win
Double trouble. She's not the only actress to be a double winner @ the Globes but she's the youngest. But then, isn't Kate the youngest everything in terms of, well, everything. When you're tied with Marlon Brando for youngest actor to amass five Oscar nominations you're already a winner in every conceivable way a moviegoer or actor might define "winner". This is a blessed life we're talking about.
That's why the backlash has already started. The first win people seemed overjoyed for her. But the second? Notice how angry people are getting across the internets re: her "desperation" and "greed". While it's conceivable mathematically that she repeats this twinner at the Oscars in a month or so, I pray that she doesn't. Not because I think the The Reader situations screams Category Fraud (which often supports "greedy" claims) but because I can't imagine the size of the backlash if she were to be a double winner at 33. Jodie Foster had two Oscars by the age of 30 but she didn't win them both in one night. Forget everything Kate has contributed to the cinema. If she pulls it off I predict that people will not want to see her for a good long while afterwards, and that includes Oscar voters. But that does not include me. Kate is always welcome in my cinema. I'm not ready for her to "peak" or to head off into semi-retirement at 34, you know?
