Let the Award Season Begin!
Dec. 13th, 2005 10:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jlhThe Golden Globe Nominations were announced this morning. The Globes, as many of you know, are unusual in that they include TV and movie awards and that, as most TV awards do, they divide the movie awards into drama and musical/comedy. Like Ray, Walk the Line is in the musical/comedy category. However, as I listened to the movie nominations I was struck by how shallow the field is and how much they were reaching to fill their categories. I would be full of rage that both Pride and Prejudice and Keira Knightley are nominated if I thought for one nanosecond that they'd win, but they're fillers and the actress award probably belongs to Reese Witherspoon. I mean, Sarah Jessica Parker is nominated for The Family Stone, a film that looks excruciating at best. Maybe the Hollywood Foreign Press Association just hopes she'll show up in a pretty dress.
It looks like it's going to be a Walk the Line—Brokeback Mountain—Good Night and Good Luck kind of year. The thing about Brokeback Mountain is that it has Oscar Movie written all over it: great love story unfolding over many years set against sweeping vistas; people eat this shit up. A musical biopic won last year and Walk the Line definitely suffers in comparison to the excellent Ray. I suppose the committed homophobes (and come on people, this is Hollywood) could vote for Good Night and Good Luck, but I don't think it can win. I'm so pleased it is getting some of the critics awards and all these nominations (including "Jorge" Clooney, as announcer Mark Wahlberg called him, for director and David Strathairn for actor) but it is a small, quiet film. I'd say that's its strength, even its glory, but little films don't win Oscars. (They can win those Independent Spirit awards but I'm not sure it's an indie, and it will have big competition from Capote there.) A History of Violence, though, is going onto my must-see list. Note that Rent was absent from the musical/comedy film noms.
Insert rant about dearth of good lead roles for actresses here. The Oscar may be Reese's simply because there was no other film that really had a lead role for a woman.
As for television, award expert Tom O'Neil—the man who predicted the year Susan Lucci would break her infamous 13-year losing streak and win the damn Daytime Emmy—noted that the Globes love adventurous newcomers rather than old favorites, and a Globe win can certainly boost a good show at mid-season. As he predicted, Commander in Chief got nods, and the Globes are still in love enough with Desperate Housewives to nominate all four of the main ladies. I'm sure several on my flist will be glad to hear that Hugh Laurie and Zach Braff both got nods, but disappointed at the lack of Veronica Mars notice. Though given what went on with Buffy I'm not sure why I should be surprised.
The LA Times, by the way, has an excellent awards minisite. I hope that paper can work out their mission; they've been all over the place the past few years, but serious coverage of the industry for a non-industry audience is a valuable niche for them, especially online. (Not to mention being a solid local paper of record for the second largest metropolitan area in the country.) Of course, only on the LA Times website could I be reading a column about the growth of "for your consideration" ads next to . . . a for your consideration ad for A History of Violence.
It looks like it's going to be a Walk the Line—Brokeback Mountain—Good Night and Good Luck kind of year. The thing about Brokeback Mountain is that it has Oscar Movie written all over it: great love story unfolding over many years set against sweeping vistas; people eat this shit up. A musical biopic won last year and Walk the Line definitely suffers in comparison to the excellent Ray. I suppose the committed homophobes (and come on people, this is Hollywood) could vote for Good Night and Good Luck, but I don't think it can win. I'm so pleased it is getting some of the critics awards and all these nominations (including "Jorge" Clooney, as announcer Mark Wahlberg called him, for director and David Strathairn for actor) but it is a small, quiet film. I'd say that's its strength, even its glory, but little films don't win Oscars. (They can win those Independent Spirit awards but I'm not sure it's an indie, and it will have big competition from Capote there.) A History of Violence, though, is going onto my must-see list. Note that Rent was absent from the musical/comedy film noms.
Insert rant about dearth of good lead roles for actresses here. The Oscar may be Reese's simply because there was no other film that really had a lead role for a woman.
As for television, award expert Tom O'Neil—the man who predicted the year Susan Lucci would break her infamous 13-year losing streak and win the damn Daytime Emmy—noted that the Globes love adventurous newcomers rather than old favorites, and a Globe win can certainly boost a good show at mid-season. As he predicted, Commander in Chief got nods, and the Globes are still in love enough with Desperate Housewives to nominate all four of the main ladies. I'm sure several on my flist will be glad to hear that Hugh Laurie and Zach Braff both got nods, but disappointed at the lack of Veronica Mars notice. Though given what went on with Buffy I'm not sure why I should be surprised.
The LA Times, by the way, has an excellent awards minisite. I hope that paper can work out their mission; they've been all over the place the past few years, but serious coverage of the industry for a non-industry audience is a valuable niche for them, especially online. (Not to mention being a solid local paper of record for the second largest metropolitan area in the country.) Of course, only on the LA Times website could I be reading a column about the growth of "for your consideration" ads next to . . . a for your consideration ad for A History of Violence.
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Date: 2005-12-13 04:41 pm (UTC)I'm excited for Brokeback Mountain, though I haven't seen it yet to throw my full weight behind it. God, I actually haven't seen any of the movies, but I hope to correct that before year end. it's always a crunch for me to get them in before the awards hit full force.
I love awards season.
Out of curiosity
Date: 2005-12-13 05:36 pm (UTC)