It was a La La Landslide at Golden Globes
Musical makes awards show history; Streep takes aim at Trump
La La Land steamrolled through a Jimmy Fallon-hosted Golden Globes that mixed the expected, Champagne-sipping Hollywood celebration with often-voiced concern over U.S. president-elect Donald Trump.
Damien Chazelle’s Los Angeles musical La La Land, came in with a leading seven nominations — and won everything it was nominated for, becoming the most awarded film in Golden Globes history. This includes the major film prize for best comedy or musical. London, Ont.born Ryan Gosling won best actor in a comedy or musical, Chazelle won both best director and best screenplay, Emma Stone won for best actress in a comedy of musical, and it took best score (Justin Hurwitz) and best song for City of Stars.
In one of Sunday night’s more emotional acceptance speeches, Gosling dedicated his award to the late brother of his partner, Eva Mendes.
“While I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer,” said Gosling, referring to Juan Carlos Mendes.
Taking home the other major film prize for best drama was Moonlight, a coming-of-age tale of a young black man as he struggles to find his place. This was the Moonlight’s only win, despite being nominated for six Globes.
Meryl Streep, the Cecil B. DeMille Award honoree, supplied the evening’s most striking rebuke to Trump. Streep, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention, called the president-elect’s mocking of a disabled reporter the year’s performance that most “stunned her.”
Arguing for the multinational makeup of Hollywood, Streep listed off the far-flung homes of stars from Dev Patel (London-born of Indian parents) to Canada’s own Gosling.
“Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners and if you kick them all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts,” Streep said to loud applause.
The Beverly Hilton Hotel ceremony got off to a rocky start, with a broken teleprompter initially froze Fallon.
The Tonight Show host started the show with a cold open ode to La La Land in a lavish sketch more typical of the Academy Awards than the Globes.
Fallon’s sharpest barbs weren’t directed at the stars in the room (as was the style of frequent host Ricky Gervais) but president-elect Trump. He compared Trump to the belligerent teenage king Joffrey of Games of Thrones. His first line (at least once the teleprompter was up) was introducing the Globes as “one of the few places left where America still honours the popular vote.”
That, though, isn’t quite true. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a collection of 85 members, has its own methods of selecting winners. Best supporting actress winner Viola Davis, the co-star of Denzel Washington’s August Wilson adaptation Fences, alluded to the group’s reputation for being wined and dined.
Casey Affleck won best dramatic film actor for Manchester By the Sea. And while Davis’s — and maybe Affleck’s — march to an Oscar seems virtually assured, other picks were more idiosyncratic.
British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson took best supporting actor for his performance in Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals.
There were expected winners, like The People v. O.J. Simpson taking best miniseries, as well as an award for Sarah Paulson. But other winners were less prepared.
Donald Glover looked visibly surprised when his FX series Atlanta won best comedy series over heavyweights including Veep and Transparent.