This time of year is always most exciting to me. No, not because of the New Year or Christmas Day being filled with presents, both of which I enjoy, but because of award season. Not only is the Golden Globes the first major film award show of the season, but it is also the year’s first major event for fashion, and signifies the onslaught of bigger, and better, award shows, like the Critic’s Choice Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the BAFTA’s, and most importantly, the Academy Awards. Being a film enthusiast, award season is my favorite season, and I spend a large amount of time watching films, doing research and speculating about the outcomes of the shows.
The Golden Globes are always the most fun award show to watch. It is the only show where the audience members are allowed to drink, so it is typically a place for comedy gold, heart felt moments and laughter from both those watching and those attending. Unfortunately, this year’s show was much more of a hot mess than drunken fun. After last year’s fun-loving and graceful telecast, I was looking forward to the Jan. 12 night time show, but it ended up being long, odd, tedious and overall, dull.
Ricky Gervais was the much resented host of the Globes, whose first words of the evening were “Shut up,” with a beer in hand. He also added a couple of transphobic jokes, starting out with a jab at Caitlyn Jenner, and ending with a distasteful comment at the fact that British actor Eddie Redmayne was both the star of the film “The Danish Girl” and “a dude.” Probably the most awkward moment of the event was when Gervais introduced presenter Mel Gibson with, “I like to drink as much as the next man, unless the next man is Mel Gibson.” Gibson replied with “I love seeing Ricky every three years, because it reminds me to get a colonoscopy.” After a comment from Gervais regarding a sexist phrase Gibson threw at a female cop during Gibson’s drunk driving incident in 2006, everyone watching was extremely uncomfortable.
Most of the presenters’ jokes fell flat. Jamie Foxx poked fun at Steve Harvey when Foxx announced that the winner for Best Original Score was “Straight Outta Compton” instead of the real winner, Ennio Morricone of “The Hateful Eight.” It was followed by a drunken Quentin Tarantino, who accepted the award for Morricone while rambling nonsense about composers.
Presenters Amy Schumer and Jennifer Lawrence poked fun at their own popularity, but with none of the self-deprecating edge of last year’s hosts, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Even Denzel Washington, who was the recipient of the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille award, missed the opportunity to give a graceful and moving speech by making it about how he had lost his reading glasses.
Some of the winners of this year’s Golden Globes were as equally off the mark. Amazon Prime’s “Mozart of the Jungle” Gael Garcia Bernal took home Best Actor, and the same series also won Best Television Series in the Comedy or Musical category over the other coveted Amazon Prime original, “Transparent.” “The Martian” was terribly miscategorized, as it ended up winning Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. “Steve Jobs” also had puzzling repeat success, with Kate Winslet taking home Best Supporting Actress and Aaron Sorkin winning Best Screenplay.
Even though the award show was a flop as a whole, it still had a small handful of memorable moments. Aziz Ansari flashed a fake book titled “Losing to [Transparent’s] Jeffrey Tambor with Dignity” whilst the presenters were announcing the nominees for Best Actor, Television Series Comedy or Musical. Rachel Bloom gave a breathless, unfiltered acceptance speech about how her show “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” almost didn’t exist. Sylvester Stallone looked utterly shocked at his win for Best Supporting Actor, thanking his imaginary friend Rocky Balboa in his acceptance speech. Taraji P. Henson handed out cookies to some of the members in the audience while walking up to accept the award for Best Actress Television Series Drama, and sassily shouted “Uh, 20 seconds? I waited 20 years for this, y’all gonna wait” at the teleprompter.
After this mess of an award show, I’m curious to see how the other award shows will be, and hopefully Hollywood can get their act together in the seven weeks before the Academy Awards. Should award shows be fun? Of course—but they should also have moments of grace and tenderness and be mindful that there is an invisible large audience watching.
