BEST: Kirk Douglas makes a public appearance
I know. It was very hard to understand what the 101-year-old legend said while he stood on stage with Catherine Zeta-Jones. He’s never fully recovered from a stroke he suffered in 1996. But he also hasn’t attend the one award ceremony held in his honor, the Santa Barbara Film Festival Kirk Douglas Award, in years. Instead, he’s just sent videos congratulating the winner (he lives in Santa Barbara). This was a big deal. It goes without saying he may not be around much longer.
BEST and WORST: “In The Fade” wins Foreign Language Film
One of the biggest upsets of the night, the fact Germany’s entry beat Oscar frontrunners “A Fantastic Woman,” “The Square” and “Loveless.” Does it mean “In The Fade” will escape the shortlist and earn an Oscar nomination? Um, probably not? Is that a waste by the HFPA? Probably. Still, at worst, it allowed star and Cannes winner Diane Kruger to get some recognition for her incredible performance on the awards circuit.
BEST: Natalie Portman’s epic shade
After Oprah Winfrey’s inspiring acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award, Ron Howard and Natalie Portman took the stage. Beyond the fact they both now have awkward “Star Wars” connections, they were in a bit of a rush to get to the Best Director nominees and announce the winner. Howard noted, “[We’re] here to present the award for Best Director.” And then Portman added, and likely off script, “and here are the all-male nominees.” That was a scathingly cutting comment for a category where the HFPA overlooked notable directorial efforts from female directors such as Greta Gerwig, Patty Jenkins, Angelina Jolie and Dee Rees.
Ron Howard: "We are honored … to be here to present the award for best director."
Natalie Portman, done with this shit: "And here are the all-male nominees." 🔥 pic.twitter.com/8JboypiADo
— David Mack (@davidmackau) January 8, 2018
WORST: Seth Meyers and the show’s writers . It’s dawned on us: Seth Meyers has become pretty bad ass in 2016 and 2017 as “Late Night” has ceaselessly delivered withering attacks on the White House and the President for the entirety of Trump’s campaign and election. Angry Seth Meyers: excellent. Jovial, Earnest, Not So Angry Seth Meyers? He’s the harmless guy who hosts the Golden Globes and takes out any of the bite. Now as a “worst,” Meyers wasn’t admittedly terrible or anything, just dull as rocks like the show itself. His issue may be, for better or worse, he’ll always be compared to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler who had this really novel idea for their hosting to be funny, entertaining and irreverent.
WORST: It’s a night of empathy, acknowledging those whose voices aren’t always heard and the need to ensure those voices are never silenced again. So, it left a huge sour taste in the mouth when Caucasian male director (Lee Unkrich) thanked Mexico for inspiring his animated film “Coco” while the while the movie’s Latino, CO-DIRECTOR, screenwriter and lyricist of Mexican descent (Adrian Molina) was relegated to the sidelines and not given a chance to speak. Note to white guy: when thanking a Spanish-speaking country, it’s always good to let the Hispanic guy, who co-created an award-winning movie with you, speak.
WORST (But ALSO KIND OF BEST): Tommy Wiseau Doesn’t Get His Moment
James Franco wins Best Actor For “The Disaster Artist” and invites up his brother Dave, and the movie’s inspiration: writer/director/actor/producer Tommy Wiseau, whose film, “The Room,” was so bloody bad, it motivated Franco and company to make a movie about the making of a notoriously bad movie. In one of the nights most awkward and a little sad, moments, Wiseau moved into speak at the beginning of Franco’s speech and the actor/director laughed, went, “Whoa!” and blocked him from coming up to the mic. Unclear if Franco would eventually give Wiseau a chance to speak, the orchestra played him off and that was that. It was kind of awful, and at the same time, Franco had won the award, and its peak Tommy Wiseau to assume that Tommy Wiseau can speak for an award he didn’t win.
BEST: Oprah’s running for President
OK, so she’s likely not, but you could launch a campaign on that acceptance speech. Before she heralded “Your time is up!” she spoke of the importance of seeing Sidney Poitier win a Globe as a child. She also reminded the world of Recy Taylor, an African American woman who was gang raped and who was a victim of social injustice in the 196’s. It was empowering and turned a somewhat boring show on fire. (Update: By 2 AM PT Oprah was the no. 1 trend on Twitter with over 800,000 tweets. Maybe she is running. Or maybe someone will start a Super Pac).
WORST: The HFPA’s colossal “Get Out” mistake
It started when the HFPA snubbed Jordan Peele in both the Directing and Screenplay categories, but they compounded it during the telecast by sending home the potential Best Picture winner with nothing. The problem isn’t just optics, but the fact they have so rarely missed out on an Awards worthy film this past decade (insert “Call Me By Your Name” here as well). For a group that so often spreads the wealth it’s just head scratching.
Your thoughts on the 75th Annual Golden Globes show? Weigh in below. — with Rodrigo Perez
