Golden Globes 2014: Highlights and Lowlights

Amy Poehler and Tina Fey stole the show again in their second year as hosts of the first big awards show of the season, The Golden Globes.  The Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s 72nd award ceremony spread the wealth, with several of the big movies of the year taking home awards.  Some of their best lines were pointed jokes about women in Hollywood.  “There are still parts in Hollywood for Meryl Streeps over 60.”  “For Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey…lost 45 pounds, or what actresses call being in a movie.” “Gravity…a story of how George Clooney would rather float away into space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age.”

They made fun of Martin Scorsese’s love of three-hour movie running times: “We’re going to get this done in three hours, or as Martin Scorsese calls it, Act One.”  And of new sources of nominated series, suggesting that Netflix may find itself eclipsed “in a couple of years when SnapChat is up here accepting best drama.”  They then wisely disappeared for most of the rest of the show, as they did last year, only returning a couple of times for very funny moments, especially when Poehler pretended to be Fey’s truculent teenage son, “Mr. Golden Globes,” and when she was in the audience having Bono rub her shoulders.  It was nice to see her get an award, too.

The most surprising acceptance speech was probably Jacqueline Bisset’s rambling remarks, but I loved her conclusion: “If you want to look good, forgive everyone.  It’s the best beauty treatment.”   Most unexpected was probably the best actor and best comedy series awards for newcomer “Brooklyn Nine Nine.”

The best presenter was Robert Downey, Jr., utterly gracious. Instead of reading the teleprompter — or stalling because the teleprompter failed, like Jonah Hill, he said something lovely and personal about each of the nominees.  Emma Thompson came out with her shoes in one hand and a martini in the other and still nailed it. Emma Stone, as always, was marvelous in presenting the DeMille award to Woody Allen, and Diane Keaton was graceful and heartfelt in accepting it for him.  I appreciated Christoph Waltz, especially his pronunciation of the names of the half-German Michael Fassbender and the German Daniel Brühl.  But the best presenters were the real-life inspirations for the title character in “Philomena,” who gently reminded everyone of the other women who lost their babies to forced adoptions and the man portrayed by Brühl in “Rush,” Nikki Lauda.

Michael Douglas, who gave a layered, sensitive performance as Liberace in “Beyond the Candelabra,” was less appalling in accepting his award than he was with his frat boy humor at the Emmys.  But both he and Jared Leto, accepting a best supporting actor award for playing a trans woman in “Dallas Buyers Club” decided to be crude rather than demonstrate the grace and humanity they showed us on screen.

The shambling pile of a hairstyle of the winner for best score, Alex Ebert for “All is Lost,” seemed to have been inspired by Jennifer Lawrence’s character in “American Hustle.”

Worst dress: Julia Roberts — did she wear her husband’s shirt under that thing?  Loveliest dresses: the maternity red carpet gowns won by Kerry Washington, Olivia Wilde, and Drew Barrymore

And my advice to all of the nominees next year and for any awards show ever: Prepare a speech!  It doesn’t make you look modest to get up there and say you didn’t prepare anything because you didn’t think you were going to win.  It makes you look sloppy.  We know you love your “team,” your manager, your publicist, your agent.  We know your cast was “amazing” and you feel “blessed.”  But we in the audience deserve something better.

And the Golden Globes went to:

 

Film

BEST PICTURE: DRAMA
12 Years a Slave

BEST PICTURE: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
American Hustle

BEST DIRECTOR
Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

BEST ACTRESS: DRAMA
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

BEST ACTOR: DRAMA
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

BEST ACTRESS: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Amy Adams, American Hustle

BEST ACTOR: COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Great Beauty
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Frozen

BEST SCREENPLAY
Spike Jonze, Her

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Alex Ebert, All Is Lost

 

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Ordinary Love” (Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom)

Television

Best Television Series – Drama
Breaking Bad

Best Television Series – Comedy Or Musical
Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television
Behind The Candelabra

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical
Andy Samberg, Brooklyn Nine Nine

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Drama
Robin Wright, House of Cards

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Michael Douglas, Behind The Candelabra

Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Elizabeth Moss, Top of the Lake

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Jacqueline Bisset, Dancing On The Edge

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Jon Voight, Ray Donovan