For Globes, out with snark, in with hokum
When Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globes for the fourth (and, hopefully, not final) time last year, he joked that the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association threatened to personally pull him off the stage if he said anything “offensive or crass” or resorted to innuendo.
Of course, the evening was filled with wall-to-wall offensive, crass innuendo, including jokes about Roman Polanski’s love for “Spotlight” (“best date movie ever”), Ben Affleck’s wayward eye (Gervais called Matt Damon the only person Affleck “hadn’t been unfaithful to”) and introducing Mel Gibson with a comic bit that had the NBC censor scrambling for the mute button.
It was all in keeping with Gervais’ mission of skewering Hollywood hokum and self-importance — the very things that Jimmy Fallon, this year’s Golden Globes host, wears as a badge of honor on his latenight talk show.
To put it another way: The censors and the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association can probably relax, unless a game of beer pong or beer shuffleboard gets out of hand.
Other than a level of obsequiousness unseen in the last seven years with hosts Gervais and the beloved tag team of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (who once joked that George Clooney would rather “float away in space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his age”), what else can we expect from this year’s Golden Globes?
Q: Some people are predicting “Hacksaw Ridge” is going to win top motion picture drama. If so, can Gervais present the award to Gibson?
A: Probably not. But more than a few Hollywood Foreign Press Association members have told us over the last few months how much the group loved Gibson’s bloody war movie about Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in combat.
“Hacksaw Ridge” taking this Globe over “Manchester by the Sea” and “Moonlight” would be surprising.
Q: Wait. Did you say “Manchester by the Sea” or “Moonlight” might not win the best picture drama Globe? Wouldn’t that cripple their Oscar chances?
A: No. “Spotlight” didn’t win the Globe last year. Neither did “Birdman” the year before.
And both movies went on to win the Oscar for best picture.
Q: Is there any Oscar favorite with a lot to lose Sunday night?
A: Because the Globes split movies into drama and comedy/musical categories, Damien Chazelle’s lovely musical “La La Land” is pretty much out by its lonesome in the latter group, fending off the feeble likes of “Florence Foster Jenkins,” “Sing Street” and (ahem) “Deadpool” for the title of best picture, musical or comedy.
“La La Land” is not going to lose. How could it, right?
But if it somehow did lose and its stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling don’t wind up holding trophies, then a few academy voters might look at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s verdict and think, “Yeah. ‘La La Land’ really isn’t all that great.”