The 72nd Golden Globe Awards are over. Here’s our assessment.
Best Break: Kristin Wiig’s Robert DeNiro impression.
Best Kristin Wiig/Bill Heder joke: “Not today!”
Best Crack at the Mens: Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin recognizing the long-overdue recognition for men in comedy.
Most Surprising Moment: The hosts pillory Bill Cosby. I didn’t know if Cosby’s name would even be mentioned. But Amy and Tina not only mentioned it, they build an entire bit out of Cosby. You put the pills in the people. Holy shit.
Good for Amy and Tina.
Presenter least interested in being involved in the Golden Globes: Jeremy Renner. Nice ad lib guy.
Least surprising moment: Every joke about George Clooney.
Best Acceptance Speech: Common, Selma.
Also: Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Honorable Woman. It’s not strong women. It’s actual women.
Best TV Moment: Transparent wins best Comedy: “This award is dedicated to the memory of Leelah Alcorn.”
The Biggest Missed Opportunity: David Oyelowo, Selma. Eddie Redmayne seems like a lovely young man and his work in Theory of Everything’s great. But Oyelowo’s performance as the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. carries such power and forthrightness that it, to me, deserved the win.
Also: Johan Johannson seems like a deserving winner for Theory of Everything. But the two most remarkable musical accomplishments this year were Hans Zimmer in Interstellar, and Gone Girl’s Trent Reznor and Atticus Finch.
The sort of lame bit that still kind of landed: Free Breakfast for the losers. Seth Meyers will work hard to sell any joke and his heart makes everything work. Sort of.
Surprise Appearance that’s not really that surprising anymore: Prince. After New Girl, it’s just not that big of a deal anymore. Maybe this is a Minnesota response.
Most over-used word in a single speech: Voice, by Amy Adams
Most unsure if that was a surprise or not Award: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything. See above.
Biggest Question I have: Why Isn’t The Tale of Princess Kaguya nominated for Best Animate Movie? Seriously is it like a rule that keeps it from qualifying?
Moving, but not unexpected theme: Social Issues at large. I know audiences think that actors and creative Hollywood types are always talking about social injustices and freedom and what have you. That’s not actually the case. Maybe it’s a sign of the rough year that we’ve just had-and the shooting at Charlie Hebdo not yet a week old.
Also: For the straight white-male contingent, Jeffrey Tambor said it best: “Thank you for your patience.”
Most Powerful Moment: single-motherhood represented by the great Patricia Arquette.
Surprising factoid of the night: George Clooney has been nominated in more Golden Globe categories than anyone in history. That surprises me. Maybe it shouldn’t? Also, lifetime achievement award? He’s got like 35 years of Hollywood to go. Why give him this now?
Acceptance Speech that You Expect to Be Just Terrific and It totally was: Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel.
What moved me most: Love for parents. Boyhood is my favorite movie this year, and its from a director that I have admired for many years. But parents and parenting was a theme that went beyond Linklater’s film.
Being a parent is hard and nerve-wracking and lovely and always always always present. Lots of people thank their parents every year. But this year, it wasn’t just about Mom and Dad. It was about being a parent, having parents, loving parents. Not just parents. But the actual people who are parents.
Yep. Too early for the lifetime achievement award