The 2008 Golden Globes are out! Kristen Scott Thomas nominated for Best Actress, woo! Updates in a moment. Man, as we kinda figured (and certainly hoped), “The Dark Knight” was completely shut out outside of Heath Ledger scoring a Best Supporting Actor nod, and “Wall-E” relegated to Best Animated Picture, thank god life is making sense again.
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Frost/Nixon,” and “Doubt” all landed five nominations apiece, including Best Director for David Fincher and Ron Howard, but not for John Patrick Shanley. Four nominations each went to, “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and “The Reader” (eyebrows raised).
To demonstrate the difference in American critics and Foreign ones, “Milk” dominated the NYFCC yesterday and today it gets one nomination (Sean Penn For Best Actor; not even Josh Brolin could get a Supporting nod). Commentary after each nomination where applicable.
BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
FROST/NIXON
THE READER
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
“The Reader”? Her? Man, Harvey Weinstein is jumping for joy right now because otherwise American critics are really unimpressed with this one. It’s got something like a 52% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Not good. We still don’t think it will make the Oscar 5.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
ANNE HATHAWAY RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
ANGELINA JOLIE CHANGELING
MERYL STREEP DOUBT
KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG
KATE WINSLET REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
Bland Hathaway and Angelina Jolie? Eh, they’re deserving we suppose, but as you know we’re more impressed by other female performances this year.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
LEONARDO DICAPRIO REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
FRANK LANGELLA FROST/NIXON
SEAN PENN MILK
BRAD PITT THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
MICKEY ROURKE THE WRESTLER
No arguments all around. Saw “Revolutionary Road” last night and Leo was great.
BEST MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
BURN AFTER READING
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
IN BRUGES
MAMMA MIA!
VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
Comedy or musical; a funny little category. No one here has a shot at the real Best Picture for Oscar outside of “Happy-Go-Lucky” and that seems like a super, super dark horse at best. It will probably take this award though.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
REBECCA HALL VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
SALLY HAWKINS HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
FRANCES MCDORMAND BURN AFTER READING
MERYL STREEP MAMMA MIA!
EMMA THOMPSON LAST CHANCE HARVEY
Would love to see Sally Hawkins jump into the real Best Acting category come Oscar time as you know. Rebecca Hall would be a decent Best Supporting Actress nominee.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
JAVIER BARDEM VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
COLIN FARRELL IN BRUGES
JAMES FRANCO PINEAPPLE EXPRESS
BRENDAN GLEESON IN BRUGES
DUSTIN HOFFMAN LAST CHANCE HARVEY
James Franco? Heh, the comedy or musical category is amusing. Usually one of the actors make it into the Oscar Best Acting category much like Johnny Depp did last year for ‘Sweeney Todd.’ Not sure if Bardem has the distance this year though.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
BOLT
KUNG FU PANDA
WALL-E
Meh, nothing to say here, it’s as expected.
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX (GERMANY)
EVERLASTING MOMENTS (SWEDEN/DENMARK)
GOMORRAH (ITALY)
I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG (FRANCE)
WALTZ WITH BASHIR (ISRAEL)
Nice to finally see “I’ve Loved You So Long” get some real support. We love France’s “The Class” as much as the next person, but if we had to choose… We think people know how we feel about “Gomorrah,” it’s good, but there’s about a dozen other foreign films we’d probably nominate first. “The Baader Meinhof Complex” of course gets nominated too.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
AMY ADAMS DOUBT
PENELOPE CRUZ VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
VIOLA DAVIS DOUBT
MARISA TOMEI THE WRESTLER
KATE WINSLET THE READER
We’re very surprised to see Kate Winslet here, she’s not that great in “The Reader.” And Marisa Tomei is good in “The Wrestler,” but in a stronger year, she wouldn’t be here. In fact, we would have nominated Evan Rachel Wood before her, frankly. The rest is no surprise outside of Amy Adams who apparently doesn’t have a very juicy role in “Doubt” so many suspected she’d be left out in the cold.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
TOM CRUISE TROPIC THUNDER
ROBERT DOWNEY JR. TROPIC THUNDER
RALPH FIENNES THE DUCHESS
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN DOUBT
HEATH LEDGER THE DARK KNIGHT
Tom Cruise! Ha, awesome. Oh, Robert Downey Jr., not so awesome. Doesn’t matter, Heath Ledger will blow them all away (either that or PSH).
BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE
DANNY BOYLE SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
STEPHEN DALDRY THE READER
DAVID FINCHER THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
RON HOWARD FROST/NIXON
SAM MENDES REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
We’re very surprised to see Stephen Daldry for “The Reader” here and you can bet so is everyone else. The film is not that good. No Christopher Nolan? Man, “The Dark Knight” is getting the shaft. We can’t say we’re not pleased. It’s good, but not a serious awards contender and we’ve been saying that for months. We would have liked to see Danny Boyle before half these guys, even Sam Mendes.
BEST SCREENPLAY – MOTION PICTURE
SIMON BEAUFOY SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
DAVID HARE THE READER
PETER MORGAN FROST/NIXON
ERIC ROTH THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
JOHN PATRICK SHANLEY DOUBT
Kind of glad Charlie Kaufman is not here for “Synecdoche, New York,” even though the screenplay itself is great; the movie was not. None of these are a major surprise outside of David Hare for “The Reader.” Peter Morgan was easy to call and very glad to see Simon Beaufoy’s ‘Slumdog’ script getting praise.
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – MOTION PICTURE
ALEXANDRE DESPLAT THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
CLINT EASTWOOD CHANGELING
JAMES NEWTON HOWARD DEFIANCE
A. R. RAHMAN SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
HANS ZIMMER FROST/NIXON
Wow, no Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard for “The Dark Knight,” huh? Maybe the Foreign press weren’t that impressed by the movies it seems. That’s surprising. We’re happy that we called the “Defiance” score it’s really good and it’s nice to see A.R. Rahman’s ‘Slumdog’ score there because we thought it’d be too loud and ethnic for most. We mostly called this one too.
BEST ORIGINAL SONG – MOTION PICTURE
“DOWN TO EARTH” — WALL-E
Music by: Peter Gabriel, Thomas Newman
Lyrics by: Peter Gabriel
“GRAN TORINO” — GRAN TORINO
Music by: Clint Eastwood, Jamie Cullum, Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens
Lyrics by: Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens
“I THOUGHT I LOST YOU” — BOLT
Music & Lyrics by: Miley Cyrus, Jeffrey Steele
“ONCE IN A LIFETIME” — CADILLAC RECORDS
Music & Lyrics by: Beyoncé Knowles, Amanda Ghost, Scott McFarnon, Ian Dench, James Dring, Jody Street
“THE WRESTLER” — THE WRESTLER
Music & Lyrics by: Bruce Springsteen
The music one we called, pretty closely, yes? Though, we didn’t realize “Once In A Lifetime” from Cadillac Records was an original song. We assumed most of it was covers and ineligible. We’ll have to readjust our thinking and take this one seriously. Nice to see Bruce Springsteen get in there.
People like to shit on the Golden Globes and say, “who the hell are the Hollywood Foreign Press, and what do they matter?,” but the fact remains, their nominees are generally always about 3/4 right from what we can expect at Oscar. They don’t necessarily get the winners right, but its a good bellwether for what will happen for the Oscar nominees; it sets the mood and tenor for the race. If you want winner perspective on Globes to Oscars: Last year, “Atonement” won Best Picture (wrong), Julie Christie won Best Actress (wrong, though she should have taken it), Daniel Day-Lewis took Best Actor (correct) and Best Supporting Actor and Actress roles went to Javier Bardem and Cate Blanchett respectively (correct and wrong).
We bet come Oscar time, “The Reader” ends up being this year’s “Atonement.” Last year “Atonement” led the Golden Globes in nominations and took Best Picture. Come Oscar time it wasn’t as universally nominated and was mostly shut out. “Milk” will take its place, trust us (or put your money where your mouth is).
PS, we’re so sure of our picks, we just put down 10-1 odd on a $25 bet that Michael Shannon will score an Oscar Best Supporting nod. There’s no doubt about it even in spite of the fact that he didn’t get a Golden Globe nom.