Earlier this morning, the nominees for the 69th annual Golden Globe awards were announced and, as always, we have a few surprise nominees and a few snubs. Let’s take a look at some of the bigger categories.
Taking a look at the nominees for Best Drama (The Descendants, The Help, Hugo, The Ides of March, Moneyball, and War Horse), the nominees that surprise me a little are The Help and The Ides of March, the latter of which hasn’t been getting much attention thus far. Both films received ok reviews receiving scores of 7/10 and 7.4/10 from Rotten Tomatoes repectively, and both films were indeed decent, but I would’ve thought the Hollywood Foreign Press would have gone with The Tree of Life or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo instead.
The other nominees in this category were no surprise at all, though there wasn’t expected to be six total. Even though I haven’t seen War Horse yet, at the moment, I’m hoping Hugo or Moneyball will take the prize.
The one surprise in the Best Musical/Comedy category is My Week With Marilyn, which also received ok reviews. I was expecting films like Win Win, The Muppets, or Beginners to stand a better chance, but this really doesn’t matter as it appears that The Artist (leading this year’s nomination with a total of six) has a lock on the category, making it a big shock if any of the other nominees (50/50, Bridesmaids, Midnight in Paris, My Week with Marilyn) were to win.
Best Director only held one surprise as well in the form of George Clooney getting a nomination for The Ides of March, taking away a spot that might have held Steven Spielberg (War Horse), David Fincher (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Bennett Miller (Moneyball), or Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive). The other nominees here (Woody Allen, Michel Hazanavicius, Alexander Payne, and Martin Scorsese) were among the strong possibilities for earning a nomination. I would guess that this category is a battle between Scorsese and Hazanavicius.
With Best Actor in a drama, again, the only surprise is Ryan Gosling taking a nomination for The Ides of March over the likes of Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Michael Shannon (Take Shelter), though with the categories being split up into Drama and Comedy/Musical, Gosling certainly had a much better chance. With these nominees (Clooney, DiCaprio, Fassbender, Gosling, and Pitt), I expect either Clooney or Pitt to take it.
It was a bit surprising to see Rooney Mara included in Best Actress in a drama for her performance in the new The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo given that she hasn’t been mentioned much. I’m seeing the film on Monday, so I’ll have to wait until then to see just how good her performance is. The other nominees (Glenn Close, Viola Davis, Meryl Streep, and Tilda Swinton) were entirely expected. This one seems to be down to Streep, whose performance in The Iron Lady I have not yet seen, and Swinton, whose performance I was very impressed with in We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Finally, taking a look at Best Screenplay, we once more have the surprise inclusion of The Ides of March with the usual suspects (Midnight in Paris, The Artist, The Descendents, and Moneyball). I would love to say that Midnight in Paris will take it, but something tells me that The Descendants or Moneyball will continue dominating the category. It’s a shame that the category isn’t split into original and adapted. That way Woody Allen would stand a good chance.
It’s strange that the Best Picture categories won’t really give us a good glimpse into who stands the best chance of winning the Best Picture this year since the top contender, The Artist, is over in the Comedy/Musical category while its competition is all in the Drama category. I can’t recall something like this happening since Chicago, the eventual Best Picture Oscar winner, was nominated in the Musical/Comedy category back in 2002.
The real showdown will have to wait until the Producers Guild Awards next month where we’ll have a much better indicator of who will be taking home the top prize come Oscar time.
The Golden Globes will air on January 15th and will once again be hosted by Ricky Gervais.