The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
IT’S A PARTY?
Five things to consider while watching the ceremony, which won’t be the usual fun, sloshy affair
In normal years, you watch the Golden Globes only partly for the winners. It’s a party, dahling, and with the Champagne flowing and Hollywood’s brightest stars crowded around the tables. It’s the peoplewatching that makes the Globes so much fun.
Alas, fun is in quarantine during the age of COVID-19, or at least the kind of fun we used to know. Still, the 78th annual Golden Globes will take place Feb. 28 — virtually — and if the lesson of the Emmys last fall holds true, it can still be a night worth watching as hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler return and nominees beam in from hither and yon.
So, what are we looking for this year? Read on for the top five topics of note at the Golden Globes this year. 1. RECOGNIZING FEMALE DIRECTORS » Three years after presenter Natalie Portman introduced the Golden Globes’ nominees for best director with the phrase, “And here are the all-male nominees,” the directorial landscape has shifted significantly, with women as three of the five director nominees.
Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) and Regina King (“One Night in Miami”) have been lauded throughout awards season, as have been David Fincher (“Mank”) and Aaron Sorkin (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”), but the favorite here might be Chloé Zhao for the just-released “Nomadland.”
If she, Fennell or King wins this category, it will be the first time a woman has won best director here since Barbra Streisand did for “Yentl.”
2. STILL A LACK OF DIVERSITY » While the directing category represented the strong work of women, the best picture and acting categories are noticeably less diverse this year.
In the category of best picture, drama, films such as “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “One Night In Miami” and “Da 5 Bloods” were left out. In the musical or comedy category, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” a film based on the play by theatrical giant August Wilson and directed by theater legend George C. Wolfe, did not get nominated (though it did receive acting nominations).
The acting categories largely recognized White actors. Zendaya, whose performance in “Malcolm and Marie” is seen by many as a highlight of the film, wasn’t recognized, nor was “Minari” actress Yuh-jung Youn (and that film, about a Korean American family, was deemed ineligible for best picture though it was nominated in the best foreignlanguage film category).
In the TV categories, the casts of acclaimed shows such as “Lovecraft Country” and “I May Destroy You” were similarly shut out (though “Lovecraft Country” was nominated for best drama).
Making progress presents challenges. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which decides which films to honor, is made up of fewer than 90 members and includes some atypical examples of journalists (such as a Russian bodybuilder).
Though information about the group is hard to come by, many members are older than the typical moviegoer today, and according to a recent report by the Los Angeles Times, there is not a single Black member.
3. VIRTUAL CHEMISTRY? » It’s like the Golden Globes can sense when it needs a host who is both funny and sharp-elbowed — those are the years it hires Ricky Gervais — and when it needs someone funny and a bit less caustic — these are the years Tina Fey and Amy Poehler host.
Last year, prepandemic, was a Gervais year: We could handle the hard edges fine, knowing not what was around the corner. This year, Fey and Poehler are back: They are both brilliant comedians who also can find the funny in kindness (see characters Leslie Knope, played by Poehler, and Kimmy Schmidt, cocreated by Fey, for reference).
Will it work? Well, probably, though Fey and Poehler won’t be in the same room, same city or same coast of the continent. Still, that should be fine. They’re professionals and hilarious, and if they flub a bit here or there on the virtual stage, well, it will probably still be funny.
4. HONORING LEGENDS » One of the best things the Globes have done in recent years is add a lifetime achievement award, the Carol Burnett Award. Named after its first recipient two years ago, it honors those whose work in Hollywood came from television.
This year, the honor goes to producer Norman Lear, 98, whose shows such as “All In The Family,” “The Jeffersons” and “One Day at a Time” dominated television in the ‘70s. His series combined comedy with political and social issues in ways never before seen.
The Cecil B. DeMille Award, which the Globes have handed out since 1952, focuses on the film industry and this year goes to actress Jane Fonda, who, like the politically progressive Lear, might have a thing or two to say about a thing or two.
5. POTENTIALLY WEIRD » The Golden Globes aren’t nearly as unpredictable as once they were. There should be nothing as bizarre as Pia Zadora winning one in the early ‘80s that many suspect had something to do with her millionaire husband’s attention to Globe voters.
But there are some potential surprises among the nominees, as well as the usual tea leaves for potential Oscar nominations, too.
If Sacha Baron Cohen or Maria Bakalova wins an acting award for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” you’d think that could provide a bizarre in-character acceptance speech or two.
If Jack Fincher should win best screenplay for son David Fincher’s “Mank,” well, he’d have to be the first winner to have died 18 years before his victory, no? Possibly a more likely posthumous Globe, though, might go to the late and beloved actor Chadwick Boseman, nominated for his acting in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
If “Emily in Paris” or its star Lily Collins wins, Twitter will lose its dang mind. The much-watched but not-so-acclaimed Netflix series was perhaps the most unexpected surprise when nominations were announced, setting social media ablaze for the next day or two.
Still, if Collins should win, she’d join her father, Phil Collins, as one of the few father-daughter combos to win a Globe, with Jane and Henry Fonda the only other that comes to mind.