The Golden Globes: Step Child of Awards Shows

Ah, award shows…there is almost nothing that I have a greater love/hate relationship with than these yearly events that attempt to nobly bestow artists as “the best” of that particular year. It is both honorable and exciting to watch as you root for your favorites to win and frustrating as hell when that same person wins time and time again undeservedly. But for every ounce of enjoyment, there is for me and equal measure of anger at the whole idea of it all. What exactly does “best” mean and how can anyone seek to measure or compare performances or films that are not even remotely similar? For instance, how can anyone honestly compare Avatar to Precious? Or Mad Men to True Blood? Every film or series has a different goal or experience in mind for the viewer and to say one film out of a small group of vastly different ones is better than all others, is quite frankly silly. I won’t even begin to discuss the politics involved in voting for these things but to believe that all awards are based on actual merit is to believe that Mark McGuire was just a naturally talented athlete. It just isn’t true.

With that being said, I still get very excited around this time of year when nominations are released and critics’ awards start coming out in that countdown to the epic Academy Awards. One of the biggest steps on that road to the Oscars occurred just this Sunday night as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association handed out their annual Golden Globe awards for film and television. It is typically known as the more loose and fun award show but it also has a reputation for being a bit of a joke within the industry so the winners here aren’t always guaranteed to take home Oscar gold, but in many categories it’s a fairly clear indication of who the winner will be and this year is no exception.

Of the hundreds of films that were released in 2009 and in consideration for awards I saw slightly over forty of them (yes, I’m anal retentive and keep track) including a majority of the films up for major awards so I have a pretty strong opinion on most categories. But if I seem to gloss over it in my analysis below just know I probably missed it and will be checking it out on Netflix as soon as I can.

The big winner of the night was of course, Avatar, which took home awards for Best Picture – Drama and Best Director (James Cameron). I absolutely loved this movie and thought it was a visual spectacle unlike anything I had ever seen before, but it was not my favorite film of the year or the one that I considered “the best.” That honor belongs to Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds which was also robbed in the screenplay category by Jason Reitman for Up in the Air. Happily, Basterds was able to take home at least one award in the hands of Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor and he couldn’t have been more deserving.

On the Best Supporting Actress front Mo’Nique was able to shine for her stunning role as the abusive mother from Precious and I can’t wait for her to repeat the feat at the Oscars as well. It is the leading actor and actress categories that are a little more mysterious this year. The winners have been all over the map with no clear front runner but I couldn’t help but react with disgust when Sandra Bullock won for Best Actress in a Drama for The Blind Side over Gabourey Sidibe from Precious. I fully realize that The Blind Side is an audience-pleasing, tear jerking blob of sentimentality but come on! Sidibe was a revelation and painfully realistic as the down-trodden Precious making this the most obnoxious upset of the night for me.

Other bright spots of the night included Up winning two awards for Best Animated Film and Best Score, Robert Downey Jr. winning Best Actor in a Comedy  for his hilarious turn in Sherlock Holmes, and Jeff Bridges finally getting some awards love after a truly stunning career thus far. Oh and Meryl Streep won another award. Shock.

On the TV front I could not have been happier to see Mad Men and Glee take the top prizes as Best Drama and Best Comedy respectively. They are both brilliant and deserve every bit of kudos that is thrown their way. I can’t get too nit-picky on the television awards since I spend most of my time watching movies instead but the one major gripe that I have is the loss of the amazingly hilarious Jane Lynch from Glee in the Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series category. I’m sure Chloe Sevigny is fantastic on Big Love, but is anyone on television really more convincing and memorable than the crude Sue Sylvester?  I don’t think so but there are always the Emmy awards!

All in all this year’s Golden Globes awards were pretty satisfying. The show itself was entertaining enough and the winners were certainly palatable. It will be interesting to see in two weeks how the Oscar nominations pan out with the newly minted rule of ten films being nominated for Best Picture. Will Avatar continue its winning streak or will smaller films like The Hurt Locker and Up In the Air have a chance of winning that coveted place in history? I for one, can’t wait to find out.