I always enjoy the Golden Globes. I love it because it isn’t as stuffy as the other awards shows. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and it’s always a good time. Plus, as the wonderful Amy Poehler put it, I love seeing “the beautiful people of film rub shoulders with the rat-faced people of TV.”
First of all the hosts….Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. They. Were. AMAZING!! I thought Neil Patrick Harris should host every award shows…I was wrong. Ok, he can keep the Tony’s but I want Fey and Poehler for everything else. They were perfection!!! So as a result of their genius, a few of their best bits from the evening:
- “Celebrating shows that have entertained us all year and films that have been in theaters for two days” - Tina Fay
- “When you run afoul of the Hollywood Foreign Press, they make you host this show two more times.” - Amy Poehler
- “When it comes to torture, I trust the lady who spent 3 years married to James Cameron.” -AP (In regards to Kathryn Bigelow’s direction in Zero Dark Thirty)
- “When left untreated, HFPA can lead to cervical cancer.” -AP
- “He filmed his first films in Boston but moved this film to Iran because he wanted a place more friendly to outsiders.” -TF (To Ben Affleck)
- “I have not seen someone so totally alone and abandoned like that since you were on stage with James Franco at the Oscars.” - TF (to Anne Hathaway)
- “She had a difficult time performing with the camera so close to her face. Then she’ll never make it in porn. I don’t think she has any plans to do porn Amy. None of us has PLANS to do porn Tina.” - TF & AP (again to Anne Hathaway)
- “The Hunger Games is also what I call the 6 weeks it took me to get into this dress” – TF
- “The Life of Pi is what I will call the 6 weeks after I take this dress off!” - AP
- “Meryl Streep is not here tonight because she has the flu and I hear she’s amazing in it.” - AP
- “Wow, what an exciting special guest! Hillary Clinton’s husband! Bill Rodham Clinton!” - AP
- “Good night everyone. We’re going home with Jodie Foster!” - AP
Unfortunately my bullet points don’t have the same inflections and facial expression that the ladies do so it probably loses a bit but you get the point. Genius, genius, genius. My only complaint, we didn’t have enough of them throughout the show. Actually, they could have gotten rid of some of the boring presenters and just stuck with them. Except for one pair…their SNL counterparts…Kristin Wiig and Will Ferrell. Again, hilarious! Maybe went on a touch too long, but I didn’t care. It was wonderful. Just ask Tommy Lee Jones who seemed to be rolling on the carpet howling with laughter at their bit. (Insert sarcasm.)
There were many parts of this show that I loved. Some parts that made me laugh, some parts made me roll my eyes, and some parts had me scratching my head. I loved Jessica Chastain, Adele, and Ben Affleck’s acceptance speeches. All were really from the heart and genuine and I couldn’t be happier for each one of them. Take that Oscars for not nominating Affleck for Best Director. That’s a crime. Also, just when I thought it was impossible to love Adele more, she proves me wrong. She is delightful and the type of person I just want to go and have a few pints with. Just as I thought my love for Adele couldn’t increase, I thought my dislike for Taylor Swift couldn’t increase. I was wrong, again. Sitting there with her pissed off face for losing to Adele just shows again what a phony she is. Show some class and be happy for your colleague who, quite frankly, can write circles around you and your pedestrian crap. Moving on. For some reason Lena Dunham and Anne Hathaway’s speeches didn’t come across as genuine. I love Anne Hathaway. I do. But her speech came across as a bit rehearsed and fake. Except for her comments to Sally Field, that felt very real to me and they were beautiful. But the rest…eh, not so much. Lena Dunham’s speech was very nice, but it’s harder to believe someone’s sincerity when they are stiffly reading it off loose leaf paper. I know it’s not fair and she probably had stuff written down because she was nervous. I get all that. I’m just saying it doesn’t feel as heartfelt. Also, to say you’re “so surprised” yet you have an acceptance speech ready? If you really don’t think you’re going to win, there’s nothing for you to prepare, right? But I will say, her thanking Chad Lowe? AWESOME! Kevin Costner’s speech reminded me why I’ve never liked his acting. It was a dry and boring and he is. But congrats!
Then came Jodie Foster. Foster is one of my all time favorite actresses. If you really press me, she’s in the top 5. She’s brilliant. I was thrilled to see her getting the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement award because she is so deserving and I was ready to be wowed by her speech. I was watching her feeling empowered yet confused at the same time. I was touched and baffled all at once. Does that make any sense? I couldn’t tell if she was coming out or looking for a date. If she was retiring or starting a self-help business. It was bizarre. But it was also beautiful. It was just, odd. It went off in these strange tangents but then when she focused herself back, she had some wonderful sentiments, especially about her mom. Twitter last night was going off on her speech…some love it and some hated it. Some were just as confused as I was. But what no one can deny is that Foster has been a huge force in the film business for over 40 years. And when looking back on her career, it was, and still is, glorious.
From the winners and losers standpoint, nothing was very shocking, on the TV end, except for one…Don Cheadle winning Best Actor in a Comedy for House of Lies. Wow. I love Don Cheadle and think he’s a great actor, but that show is awful. And before you scream at me, yes I know he won and not the show, but he is wasted on that show. His character is horrible, the plots are outrageous, and I can’t root for people who help slime balls out of jams they have no business being out of. There are many awards Cheadle deserves, this wasn’t one of them. But all the Homeland and Game Change love was well deserved. The other one I’m not on board with is Girls. I can’t speak very intelligently with this show because I only watched two episodes, but I couldn’t get into it. I was bored by it. And I know it’s the darling show right now and Lena Dunham is the darling writer/actor. It did nothing for me. But I’m happy for her and her cast and crew because it’s always nice when a new show can break the mold. And hell, at least it’s not Modern Family right? Yeah!! The one person I’m hoping gets some love soon is Max Greenfield. He is absolutely sensational as Schmidt on New Girl. Please, please, please someone give this man the props he deserves!!!
The only thing I’m going to say from the movie side, since this is a TV blog after all, is that I have a TON of movies to see before the Oscars. The last few years, there haven’t been many “Best Picture” movies I’ve wanted to see and truth be told, I think the last few years, I haven’t seen any of them. But this year…Silver Linings Playbook, Argo, Django Unchained, Les Miz, Zero Dark Thirty, and Lincoln…wow. What a great year for movies. And I can’t wait to see all of these.
What did you think of the GG? Love or hate it?
