In case you didn't notice, the Golden Globes breezed back into town during the wee small hours of Sunday night…
Here's Ben Hopkins with the skinny.
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The host.
Prior to returning as a host of The Golden Globes for the first time 2012, Ricky Gervais said to The Hollywood Reporter: “I can justify every joke I’ve ever done and if the joke is about someone, I can do it in front of them and tell them after why it’s justified.”
Contradictory to Gervais’s aim of being able to justify his targets, the Stateside reaction was less than enamoured with his caustic style. Deadline stated: “The sour comic scorched Jennifer Lawrence on equal pay for women, NBC for lacking nominees, Jeffrey Tambor for the size of his gonads, the former Bruce Jenner for doing little for the cause of women drivers.”
Yahoo’s review opened with: “Can we all agree Ricky Gervais has pretty much exhausted his usefulness as a subverting presence on the Golden Globes Awards show?” and TIME concluded: “Just declaring that everyone sucks isn’t sophisticated.”
The contrast between Gervais’s cynical, ego-baiting style and the celebratory glamour of the American award scene have always been awkward bedfellows. Yet surely that’s exactly the point: of course, Gervais’s approach was predictable in its vitriol, but if you hire him for the job he’s hardly going to spend the evening delivering a stream of niceties and bland platitudes. He’s going to say the kind of things that – in no coincidence whatsoever – help to heap a whole load of attention on the Globes.
In that aforementioned interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gervais spoke of his admiration of Louis C.K. and Doug Stanhope – two comedians who respectively echo more refined versions of Gervais’s cynicism and blunt talk. In short, Gervais loves to be provocative.
“Better get dressed and offend some humourless cunts I suppose,” he Tweeted on the morning of the ceremony before later adding: “Can't wait for people to start reporting that I offended some people at The Golden Globes. Of course I fucking did.”
The big winner.
Winner of Best Screen play last time around for Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu triumphed with Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director for The Revenant, while lead Leonardo DiCaprio collected Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture – Drama. If you believe in the theory that The Golden Globes are indicative of future success, then things are looking up for The Revenant. DiCaprio was already nailed on for Best Actor, while González Iñárritu and The Revenant appear to have strengthen their positions against Thomas McCarthy’s Spotlight for Best Picture and Best Director.
In a field in which no one film could be said to be dominant, Amazon collected a total of four awards for its shows Mr Robot and Mozart in the Jungle, despite apparently higher profile competition from the likes of Game of Thrones, Empire, Orange is the New Black and Narcos.
A special mention must go for The Martian’s canny ability to not only position itself within the comedy / musical category, but to actually win that’s classification’s Best Motion Picture and Best Actor (Matt Damon). There have been bigger controversies but if you need a little opportunism to be a success, why not go for it?
The Brit contingent.
Despite a long list of nominees – from Idris Elba to Helen Mirren to Shaun the Sheep – there were relatively slim picking in terms of actual British winners on the night, with Kate Winslet, Sam Smith and the BBC’s Wolf Hall triumphing.
Perhaps we could’ve hoped for more success for Eddie Redmayne, but a second consecutive win after last year’s embodiment as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything would’ve been almost unheard of – to give it some context, the most recent people who achieved such a feat in the dramatic section were Jane Fonda and Jack Nicholson back in the 70s.
For a plethora of reasons too lengthy to discuss here, it’s pretty rare for a British director to win at one of the big award ceremonies, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire being the most recent example at the Globes, although Tom Hooper followed suit a few years later at the Oscars. There’s still hope at the Oscars, however, as the popularity of The Martian seems to make Ridley Scott the nearest challenger to González Iñárritu.
As ever, the recently announced EE Rising Star Award is potentially indicative of who could grace such ceremonies in the future, with John Boyega, Bel Powley and Taron Egerton all clearly destined for longer term success.
In brief
Hugh Jackman fuelled speculation that he’ll be the next Bond with a swift impression of the dapper secret service dude. A teaser of what’s to come? Or simply late night high-jinks? For what it’s worth, the bookies have it between Tom Hardy, Damien Lewis and Idris Elba.
Ol’ Sly Stallone’s win for Best Actor in a Supporting Role was the most unlikely comeback since… well, Rocky himself. “I want to thank my imaginary friend Rocky Balboa for being the best friend I ever had,” he said. Come on, Sly, you surely have pals in the real world too.
What’s that? You want more awards? Well you’ve got a month until the BAFTAs and then another fortnight until the Oscars. Which will probably be enough awards for the time being, thank you.
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Words: Ben Hopkins
