December 11, 2014 - Thoughts on Golden Globes Nominations
The full list of Golden Globes nominations was released today, December 11, and it came with a few surprises. I'll only be covering the nominations for film, not television.
As film fans and avid watchers of award shows know, the Golden Globes are the drunken cousin of the Oscars but are often fairly good predictors of Oscar winners. So we'll start off with the acting categories.
In the lead actress category for both Best Actress in a Drama and Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy, it wasn't a big surprise to see Julianne Moore nominated for Still Alice, in which she plays a woman stricken with Alzheimer's. But it was a surprise to see a nomination for her for David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars, in which Moore plays an actress in Hollywood haunted by ghosts of her past and struggling with the problems that come with being an actress. Maps to the Stars was shown at Cannes and later at TIFF and then NYFF. I was already looking forward to seeing it but this nomination fuels my excitement. Maps to the Stars will be released in the US on February 27, 2015.
Also a surprise in the actress cateogry was Quvenzhane Wallis for Annie, the reinvention of the classic musical in which Wallis plays the titular character. Since Annie has been seen by a very limited number of critics and Wallis had very little Oscar buzz, it's interesting to see her nomination.
Helen Mirren had very little Oscar buzz for her film The Hundred Foot Journey but still earned a nomination in Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical, a category with seemingly weak competition. It's also a little surprising to see Emily Blunt nominated for Into the Woods, a film which I'm very excited for. The front-runner for the Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical is probably Amy Adams for Big Eyes or Julianne Moore for Maps to the Stars which would still be a surprising victory, although she did get a lot of awards buzz during Cannes, TIFF and NYFF.
The Best Actress in a Drama category competition is a big more heated. We have Reese Witherspoon for Wild, Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl, Julianne Moore for Still Alice, Felicity Jones for The Theory of Everything, and Jennifer Aniston for Cake. The only surprise here is Jennifer Aniston for Cake. Aniston got little to no Oscar buzz for Cake, a film which premiered at TIFF and wasn't even that well received. I'm putting my money on Julianne Moore to pull away with the award for Still Alice but if there is anyone who's going to beat her, it'll be Reese Witherspoon for Wild.
Best Actor in a Drama is another category with serious heat. We have Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything, Steve Carell for Foxcatcher, Benedict Cumberbatch for The Imitation Game, David Oyelowo for Selma, and Jake Gyllenhaal for Nightcrawler. It's so difficult to pick a clear front-runner. Oyelowo is a bit of a late comer in the game but is picking up moment quickly. I'd say Benedict Cumberbatch is the current favorite but a lot could change between the time this blog post is posted and the night of the Golden Globes. Note: Although Gyllenhaal's performance in this category, it was incredibly strong.
Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical is one of the more interesting categories. Michael Keaton is nominated for Birdman, Christoph Waltz for Big Eyes, Ralph Fiennes for The Grand Budapest Hotel, Bill Murray for St. Vincent, and Joaquin Phoenix for Inherent Vice. I love to see the nom for Phoenix because he's one of my favorite actors and, although consistently turns in fantastic work but rarely gets recognition. I can't wait to see Inherent Vice. My personal pick is Michael Keaton for Birdman, although I loved that Fiennes has a nomination.
Best Supporting Actress is a bit of a packed category. Keira Knightley for The Imitation Game, Emma Stone for Birdman, Jessica Chastain for A Most Violent Year, Patricia Arquette for Boyhood, and Meryl Streep for Into the Woods. Keira Knightley is probably in the lead but hardly by anything. The serious competitors that could catch up are Emma Stone and Patricia Arquette. Arquette was a surprising choice but critics adored her in Boyhood and Emma Stone delivered arguably the strongest performance of her career in Birdman.
Best Supporting Actor isn't too much of a competitive category. Mark Ruffalo is nominated for Foxcatcher but his chance of winning is almost zero. Edward Norton was incredible in Birdman and I would love to see him win. Ethan Hawke in Boyhood is weak competition and Robert Duvall for The Judge will not win. The actor to beat right now, though, is J.K. Simmons for Whiplash.
Best Screenplay is an interesting category this year and I love that Wes Anderson is nominated for The Grand Budapest Hotel! I also really like to see the Birdman nomination. Gone Girl's screenplay was very strong so it's nice to see Gillian Flynn nominated and the other two nominees are for Boyhood and The Imitation Game, two films which I have yet to see but I am excited to see them!
Best Original Score is a competitive category this year. Hans Zimmer's score for Interstellar was magnificent, as were the scores for Gone Girl and The Theory of Everything and the drum score for Birdman! I'm predicting Hans Zimmer to pull away with this award and I think he's totally deserving of it.
Best Animated Feature isn't a very competitive category. The Lego Movie, The Book of Life, The Boxtrolls, Big Hero 6, and How to Train Your Dragon 2 are all nominated and the critical darling for this category is The Lego Movie. Expect that to win unless Big Hero 6 surprisingly pulls ahead.
Best Foreign Feature is a category with a number of surprises. No nomination for Mommy and a nomination for Getti: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem which I haven't heard of. Ida seems like the big favorite to win, although Leviathan is gaining lots of momentum. I'm very excited to see Leviathan, as I am to see Force Majeure, which is also nominated.
Best Director is a category packed with excellent nominees although Richard Linklater is the obvious choice for a winner. I would love to see Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Birdman or Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel win, although I haven't seen Boyhood. Ava DuVernay is nominated for Selma, which I am excited to see, and David Fincher is nominated for Gone Girl, although his direction seemed sort of overpowered by all the strong performances and intriguing storyline.
Now, we're getting into the big categories. Best Picture Comedy/Musical contains nominations for Into the Woods, Pride, Birdman, St. Vincent, and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Pride was a nomination that seemed to come out of nowhere and you can't expect it to be big competition against the other nominations, same with St. Vincent. Into the Woods is really new on the scene and doesn't currently have a score on Rotten Tomatoes so it's difficult to see where it's going but I highly doubt it will win against Birdman or The Grand Budapest Hotel. Those two are the main competitors and it looks like Birdman could win, although it would be no surprise if The Grand Budapest Hotel won. I would personally like to see Birdman win.
And now, Best Picture Drama. Nominated are Boyhood, Foxcatcher, Selma, The Theory of Everything, and The Imitation Game. Foxcatcher had a lot of steam earlier in the year but now the buzz is practically dead. Selma received widespread critical praise but it pales in comparison to that of Boyhood, as do the praise of The Theory of Everything. The only film that could possibly challenge Boyhood is The Imitation Game which made ripples when it won the Audience Award at TIFF and is incredibly critically-acclaimed. My prediction is Boyhood will win.
Some other miscellaneous notes, Unbroken was surprisingly snubbed after gaining lots of buzz but the buzz is dead or will be dead soon because of the mediocre reviews the film is getting. I hate to see no nominations for Interstellar besides Best Original Score. It is my second favorite film of the year so far and it's a shame.
As film fans and avid watchers of award shows know, the Golden Globes are the drunken cousin of the Oscars but are often fairly good predictors of Oscar winners. So we'll start off with the acting categories.
In the lead actress category for both Best Actress in a Drama and Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy, it wasn't a big surprise to see Julianne Moore nominated for Still Alice, in which she plays a woman stricken with Alzheimer's. But it was a surprise to see a nomination for her for David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars, in which Moore plays an actress in Hollywood haunted by ghosts of her past and struggling with the problems that come with being an actress. Maps to the Stars was shown at Cannes and later at TIFF and then NYFF. I was already looking forward to seeing it but this nomination fuels my excitement. Maps to the Stars will be released in the US on February 27, 2015.
Also a surprise in the actress cateogry was Quvenzhane Wallis for Annie, the reinvention of the classic musical in which Wallis plays the titular character. Since Annie has been seen by a very limited number of critics and Wallis had very little Oscar buzz, it's interesting to see her nomination.
Helen Mirren had very little Oscar buzz for her film The Hundred Foot Journey but still earned a nomination in Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical, a category with seemingly weak competition. It's also a little surprising to see Emily Blunt nominated for Into the Woods, a film which I'm very excited for. The front-runner for the Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical is probably Amy Adams for Big Eyes or Julianne Moore for Maps to the Stars which would still be a surprising victory, although she did get a lot of awards buzz during Cannes, TIFF and NYFF.
The Best Actress in a Drama category competition is a big more heated. We have Reese Witherspoon for Wild, Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl, Julianne Moore for Still Alice, Felicity Jones for The Theory of Everything, and Jennifer Aniston for Cake. The only surprise here is Jennifer Aniston for Cake. Aniston got little to no Oscar buzz for Cake, a film which premiered at TIFF and wasn't even that well received. I'm putting my money on Julianne Moore to pull away with the award for Still Alice but if there is anyone who's going to beat her, it'll be Reese Witherspoon for Wild.
Best Actor in a Drama is another category with serious heat. We have Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything, Steve Carell for Foxcatcher, Benedict Cumberbatch for The Imitation Game, David Oyelowo for Selma, and Jake Gyllenhaal for Nightcrawler. It's so difficult to pick a clear front-runner. Oyelowo is a bit of a late comer in the game but is picking up moment quickly. I'd say Benedict Cumberbatch is the current favorite but a lot could change between the time this blog post is posted and the night of the Golden Globes. Note: Although Gyllenhaal's performance in this category, it was incredibly strong.
Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical is one of the more interesting categories. Michael Keaton is nominated for Birdman, Christoph Waltz for Big Eyes, Ralph Fiennes for The Grand Budapest Hotel, Bill Murray for St. Vincent, and Joaquin Phoenix for Inherent Vice. I love to see the nom for Phoenix because he's one of my favorite actors and, although consistently turns in fantastic work but rarely gets recognition. I can't wait to see Inherent Vice. My personal pick is Michael Keaton for Birdman, although I loved that Fiennes has a nomination.
Best Supporting Actress is a bit of a packed category. Keira Knightley for The Imitation Game, Emma Stone for Birdman, Jessica Chastain for A Most Violent Year, Patricia Arquette for Boyhood, and Meryl Streep for Into the Woods. Keira Knightley is probably in the lead but hardly by anything. The serious competitors that could catch up are Emma Stone and Patricia Arquette. Arquette was a surprising choice but critics adored her in Boyhood and Emma Stone delivered arguably the strongest performance of her career in Birdman.
Best Supporting Actor isn't too much of a competitive category. Mark Ruffalo is nominated for Foxcatcher but his chance of winning is almost zero. Edward Norton was incredible in Birdman and I would love to see him win. Ethan Hawke in Boyhood is weak competition and Robert Duvall for The Judge will not win. The actor to beat right now, though, is J.K. Simmons for Whiplash.
Best Screenplay is an interesting category this year and I love that Wes Anderson is nominated for The Grand Budapest Hotel! I also really like to see the Birdman nomination. Gone Girl's screenplay was very strong so it's nice to see Gillian Flynn nominated and the other two nominees are for Boyhood and The Imitation Game, two films which I have yet to see but I am excited to see them!
Best Original Score is a competitive category this year. Hans Zimmer's score for Interstellar was magnificent, as were the scores for Gone Girl and The Theory of Everything and the drum score for Birdman! I'm predicting Hans Zimmer to pull away with this award and I think he's totally deserving of it.
Best Animated Feature isn't a very competitive category. The Lego Movie, The Book of Life, The Boxtrolls, Big Hero 6, and How to Train Your Dragon 2 are all nominated and the critical darling for this category is The Lego Movie. Expect that to win unless Big Hero 6 surprisingly pulls ahead.
Best Foreign Feature is a category with a number of surprises. No nomination for Mommy and a nomination for Getti: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem which I haven't heard of. Ida seems like the big favorite to win, although Leviathan is gaining lots of momentum. I'm very excited to see Leviathan, as I am to see Force Majeure, which is also nominated.
Best Director is a category packed with excellent nominees although Richard Linklater is the obvious choice for a winner. I would love to see Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Birdman or Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel win, although I haven't seen Boyhood. Ava DuVernay is nominated for Selma, which I am excited to see, and David Fincher is nominated for Gone Girl, although his direction seemed sort of overpowered by all the strong performances and intriguing storyline.
Now, we're getting into the big categories. Best Picture Comedy/Musical contains nominations for Into the Woods, Pride, Birdman, St. Vincent, and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Pride was a nomination that seemed to come out of nowhere and you can't expect it to be big competition against the other nominations, same with St. Vincent. Into the Woods is really new on the scene and doesn't currently have a score on Rotten Tomatoes so it's difficult to see where it's going but I highly doubt it will win against Birdman or The Grand Budapest Hotel. Those two are the main competitors and it looks like Birdman could win, although it would be no surprise if The Grand Budapest Hotel won. I would personally like to see Birdman win.
And now, Best Picture Drama. Nominated are Boyhood, Foxcatcher, Selma, The Theory of Everything, and The Imitation Game. Foxcatcher had a lot of steam earlier in the year but now the buzz is practically dead. Selma received widespread critical praise but it pales in comparison to that of Boyhood, as do the praise of The Theory of Everything. The only film that could possibly challenge Boyhood is The Imitation Game which made ripples when it won the Audience Award at TIFF and is incredibly critically-acclaimed. My prediction is Boyhood will win.
Some other miscellaneous notes, Unbroken was surprisingly snubbed after gaining lots of buzz but the buzz is dead or will be dead soon because of the mediocre reviews the film is getting. I hate to see no nominations for Interstellar besides Best Original Score. It is my second favorite film of the year so far and it's a shame.