Spinning the GLOBES!

The 2016 Golden Globes awards this past Sunday were rather frustrating.

We welcome your own impression of the awards, and will post them over the next few days.

 

If anyone is handicapping the Oscars, a lot of “conventional wisdom” lay like broken crockery on the floor. Heavy favorites Carol, Spotlight and The Big Short got the sum total of ….zero awards. I find it likely that the total lockout of Todd Haynes’ brilliant, innovative film was some kind of back-handed swat at the Weinstein company. Still, Brie Larson’s win for best dramatic actress was at least reasonable, even if deserved by Blanchett.

As Duana noted in Lainey Gossip, co-presenters Ken Jeong  and Kevin Hart, who are both in Ride Along 2, were ridiculed by Ricky Gervais, who said that they were ideal for adoption by Brangelina. Clever and, of course, nasty because they’re not tall and one is black, the other Asian. Duana also noted that it wasn’t like there were so many other Asians there, to share the ridicule. Actually – and this is startling – the only Asian nominee was Ryuichi Sakamoto, who co-scored The Revenant. But even more startling was the fact that Jeong seemed to be the only Asian I saw onstage or in the audience. Can this be right? Not very global or golden.

But Ricky Gervais had a point when he said that having him introduce Mel Gibson was a bad idea. What possible “entertainment” could come from it? Gervais is a cocked gun, and to place him in front of certain targets promises blood on the stage. The promise was kept, with the smell lingering for the rest of the night.

Overall, though, the evening’s tone was anything but celebratory. There were more dead-air bleeps than I’ve ever seen on major network prime time. You’ll need to go to youtube to hear what Jonah Hill said. The films got lost. Through the processor, small indie achievements like Spotlight looked just like The Martian, a mega-million job. For me, one of the few uplifting moments was when Sylvester Stallone, a best supporting actor winner for Creed, thanked his fictional creation, Rocky Balboa, for being “the best friend I ever had”.