On Sunday evening, Hollywood’s brightest stars gathered in Los Angeles, California to commemorate the 83rd annual Golden Globe Awards. The ceremony was held in the Beverly Hills Hotel, and added wit, sincerity and, of course, glamour to the current awards season.
The far boozier cousin of the stiff, premier Academy Awards, the Golden Globes celebrated its den of starpower talent in cheery, cheeky fashion. Comedian Nikki Glaser poked fun at the event’s inherent frivolity during a time of worldwide crisis in her second stellar turn as host, sarcastically describing the ceremony as “the most important thing happening right now.” Minus the sparse appearance of anti-ICE pins and a stirring red carpet interview from actor Mark Ruffalo, the show indeed lacked reminders of the cataclysm beyond the ceremony’s gilded walls.
Regardless of the awards’ international relevance, the ceremony fulfilled and exceeded its core responsibility: to serve and surprise not only those who create film and television, but those who love it, too.
The first pleasant bit of service to cinephiles everywhere came with “One Battle After Another” actress Teyana Taylor receiving the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. Despite gracing the screen of Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic thriller for less than twenty minutes, the memory of Taylor’s presence as rogue revolutionary Perfidia Beverly Hills lingers even with acting heavyweights such as Benicio del Toro and Leonardo DiCaprio following after her on screen.
Unfortunately, the inspiring momentum of Taylor’s deserved win and stirring speech did not last. The award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy that rightfully should have gone to Jesse Plemons for his transformation in “Bugonia,” or DiCaprio for leading the warp-speed freight train that was “One Battle After Another,” tragically landed in Timothée Chalamet’s undeserving hands. The young heartthrob won for the role of Marty Mauser in “Marty Supreme.”
The young heartthrob did not do a poor job leading the table tennis thriller “Marty Supreme.” However, Chalamet’s turn as the Odysseus of international ping-pong simply failed to find its superlative or do enough of anything to be considered the best. Additionally, it leaves a bilious taste in the mouth to see Chalamet’s months of desperate, cloying awards campaigning — during which he referred to his own body of work as “top-level s–t” in an interview with journalist Margaret Gardiner — rewarded.
Despite their leading men’s snubs, Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” and Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” positioned themselves nicely for the ensuing race to the 98th Academy Awards. Both movies took home the chief award for their respective categories — Musical or Comedy and Drama — with Anderson also being awarded Best Director of a Motion Picture.
The Golden Globes may not exist as a perfect forecaster of the Oscars, but the awards of the night offer insight into who the key players may be. In this case, setting Anderson and Zhao up as exciting opposition.
Another beloved motion picture, “Sinners,” was awarded the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement Award. A recently created award, this honor reeks of being a manufactured opportunity to spotlight great feats of cinema without ceding the esteemed acting, directing and production awards they deserve. Still, watching the expansive “Sinners” cast being celebrated on stage is never a sore sight to see.
This year’s Golden Globes offered humor, beauty and bite at a time when all are desperately needed. It was predictably long, poked predictable fun at DiCaprio’s carousel of barely-legal girlfriends and was an extravagantly entertaining love letter to the minds who keep cinema alive.
Not everything went as audiences might have preferred — but that’s cinema, and for a show that celebrates it, there could be no better way for it to occur.
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