WILL ‘VICE’ GUY FINISH FIRST?
Cheney biopic leads Golden Globe nominations
NEW YORK — Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney biopic “Vice” seized control of the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards with a leading six nominations, narrowly edging Bradley Cooper’s tear-jerking revival “A Star Is Born,” the interracial road-trip drama “Green Book” and the period romp “The Favourite.”
“Vice” topped all contenders Thursday in nominations announced at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, including best picture, comedy and best actor nominations for Christian Bale’s nearly unrecognizable performance as the former vice president. It also earned nominations for Amy Adams’ Lynne Cheney, Sam Rockwell’s George W. Bush and both the screenplay and direction by McKay, the veteran comedy filmmaker who once skewered politicians as a “Saturday Night Live” writer.
For even the often-quirky selections of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the strong support for “Vice” (which arrives in theaters on Dec. 25) was a surprise. Even its categorization of the film — a highly critical portrait of Cheney as a power-hungry, behindthe-scenes tyrant — as a comedy raised some eyebrows.
“It’s a movie that’s a lot like the times we live in. There’s part of it that’s absurdist and comedic and then there’s another part of it that’s darkly tragic and dramatic, but they are definitely both there,” said McKay by phone from London. “But I do know I’m glad we’re in that category because we will take ‘Mary Poppins’ out. I’m not competitive with the other movies, but I am competitive with ‘Mary Poppins.’ Dick Cheney is going for her.”
On the television side, awards were even more widely dispersed among the likes of “The Americans,” “Barry,” “Homecoming,” “The Kominsky Method” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Leading all small-screen nominees was the FX anthology series “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” with four nods.
For the first time, FX bested heavyweights like HBO, Netflix and Amazon with a networkbest 10 nods, even though the exalted second season of its “Atlanta” received only a single nod for Donald Glover’s acting.
For the first time, the Globes nominated three films directed by African-American filmmakers for best picture, drama: Ryan Coogler’s superhero sensation “Black Panther,” Spike Lee’s urgent white nationalist drama “BlacKkKlansman” and Barry Jenkins’ James Baldwin adaptation “If Beale Street Could Talk.” The other nominees are “A Star Is Born” and the Freddie Mercury biopic.
Performers like Constance Wu (“Crazy Rich Asians”), Regina King (“Beale Street”), Mahershala Ali (‘‘Green Book’’) and John David Washington (“BlacKkKlansman”) insured a somewhat diverse field of nominees. Spike Lee was nominated for directing “BlacKkKlansman,” three decades after last being included in the category for “Do the Right Thing.”
But the Globes also didn’t nominate any of the year’s acclaimed female filmmakers for best director, and none of the 10 best picture nominees were helmed by a woman. At the previous Globes, presenter Natalie Portman pointedly introduced the “all-male” directing nominees.