The annual Golden Globe Awards (better known as the Oscars where you can drink) have been ridiculed as a fluffy dog-and-pony show that unfairly influences Oscar nominations and nominates, well, anyone and anything.
It's true. Thanks to the Globes, Sandra Bullock carries a nomination for While You Were Sleeping; Patrick Swayze has a nod for To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything
Julie Newmar; and The Phantom of the Opera one of the worst movies of the past decade, was a Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy nominee last year.
Even though the Globes are probably a few years away from giving Dakota Fanning a Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award, it's quite the guilty pleasure. Without the officiousness of the Academy Awards, it's a chance to see pretty people full of Chilean sea bass and booze pat each other on the back. And as much as I complain that it's the quality of the performance, not the amount of awards, that matters, I'll be watching at 8 p.m. Monday on NBC with a cheap pizza at my feet. As an added bonus, the nominations show more insight than usual this year.
While the usual suspects like Brokeback Mountain and A History of Violence are contenders Monday, pleasant surprises include Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy nods for Noah Baumbach's brilliant The Squid and the Whale and Joe Wright's beautiful, romantic Pride and Prejudice. In a move of particular discernment, Matt Dillon is a supporting actor nominee for Crash a large-cast film with many outstanding performances worth nominating, but Dillon's racist cop the best. Shirley MacLaine (In Her Shoes) and Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) were also wisely nominated.
The nominations even show that a good performance can come from a not-so-good movie, such as that of George Clooney in the pompous Syriana and Sarah Jessica Parker in the manipulative The Family Stone. Many of the other nominations are either typical or patently ridiculous, and the omissions are glaring. King Kong and Munich lack best picture nods and, once again, no one had the guts to nominate The 40-Year-Old Virgin
its star or its screenplay.
What will win? Bet on Brokeback Mountain to snag the Best Motion Picture - Drama award, and either The Squid and the Whale or Walk the Line to take the Comedy trophy. Director Ang Lee is likely to win for Brokeback
although strong arguments exist for wins for any of the other five nominated directors.
But the time to get upset about all of this is Jan. 31 when the Academy Award nominations are announced. Until then, at least there is the comfort of sitting down on Monday and being reminded once again of how it is still amusing, after all these years, that Jack Nicholson wears shades indoors. You get it? He doesn't need them. (Rimshot)
- Matt Burns is The Post's Campus Editor. Send him an e-mail at mb102503@ohiou.edu.
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