Director race still too tight for all
Globes
Press and, for this savvy bunch of jet-setters, broad, raunchy humor, the kind we unwashed Americans adore, simply does not translate.
Hence, the nominations for “Marigold” and the bittersweet “Salmon Fishing in Yemen,” a little-seen March release that earned a best picture nom in the comedy/ musical category seemingly on the strength of voters’ love for stars Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt and the magic wand of CBS Films’ co-president and HFPA whisperer Terry Press.
3. The director race remains a bloodbath, and the Globe noms did little to change that.
The Globes have separate categories for drama and comedy/musical, but when it comes to director and screenplay, it’s boiled down to a group of five.
This year, Steven Spielberg (“Lincoln”), Ben Affleck (“Argo”), Kathryn Bigelow (“Zero Dark Thirty”), Ang Lee (“Life of Pi”) and Quentin Tarantino (“Django Unchained”) made the cut, sidelining the likes of Tom Hooper (“Les Miserables”) and David O. Russell (“Silver Linings Playbook”).
HFPA voters traditionally favor the dramatic side here, so the exclusion of Hooper and Russell doesn’t cripple their Oscar chances. One of them likely will join the group at the expense of Tarantino, whose ultraviolent epic about slavery won’t play well with older academy members, even if the NAACP nominated it for its annual Image Awards.
4. And the lead actress race? That remains unsettled, too.
We knew little Quvenzhane Wallis wasn’t going to win a SAG nomination since her film, “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” was deemed ineligible.
But a snub from HFPA certainly doesn’t help her or the movie, which was conspicuously absent from picture and screenplay categories, too. Meanwhile, New York Film Critics winner Rachel Weisz (“The Deep Blue Sea”), Naomi Watts (“The Impossible”) and Helen Mirren (“Hitchcock”) joined Jessica Chastain (“Zero Dark Thirty”) and Marion Cotillard (“Rust and Bone”) in drama.
We’re willing to put Cotillard, Chastain and “Silver Linings Playbook’s” Jennifer Lawrence into our circle of trust. After that? Who knows? But we’re not willing to count out little Hushpuppy yet.
5. Like you and me, Globe voters have their favorites.
Like, say, Maggie Smith playing a variation of her patented, smart-tongued grumpster in “Quartet” and “Downton Abbey.”
Or Nicole Kidman winning her ninth and 10th Globe nominations for the widely despised TV movie “Hemingway & Gellhorn” and the deranged, sweaty melodrama “The Paperboy.”
Or Meryl Streep vacuuming up her 27th Golden Globe nomination for “Hope Springs,” a nod that elicited a groan or two from the media throng when it was announced, even though Streep arguably delivers more nuanced work there than she did in her Oscar-winning turn in “The Iron Lady” last year.
But then, “The Iron Lady” had a benefactor even more well versed than Streep in awardsseason currents: Harvey Weinstein.
His presence loomed large at this year’s Globes, too, with Weinstein Co. movies — “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Django Unchained,” “The Master,” “Quartet” and foreign film nominees “The Intouchables” and “Kon-Tiki” — pulling in a leading 15 nominations.
Weinstein knows how to wine and dine this bunch, but this year he had plenty of appealing films to go along with the shrimp cocktails.
The Globes will be awarded Jan. 13.