Welcome back to the blog readers. Now I want to preface this post by telling you that the only award show that I do reactions to are the Academy Awards. Speaking of, nomination day is January 17th, so expect the first reaction post then. With that out of the way, I wanted to come on here and talk about the Golden Globes in a way you have never seen from me before. The nominations for the upcoming award show were revealed on December 9th, and when I saw some of the nominations, I was utterly shocked. I want to talk about some of them now and why I think their inclusion is complete and utter bullshit.
Before I go into the horrible nominations and picks that I will talk about, I want to talk a little about the history of the Golden Globe awards. The ceremony got its start when a group of Hollywood-based foreign journalists wanted to develop a better-organized method to gather and distribute cinema news to non-U.S. markets. This led them to form the Hollywood Foreign Correspondent Association (HFCA). One of the HFCA's first endeavors was to create an awards show similar to the Academy Awards. They called it the Golden Globe Awards and the first ceremony was held on January 20, 1944, in which The Song of Bernadette (1943) was named Best Picture.
IN 1950, some members of the HFCA broke away to form the Foreign Press Association of Hollywood (FPAH). This group instituted their own award show called the World Film Favorite Festival; the first such ceremony was held on January 27, 1951. The major award given there was called the Henrietta Award for World Film Favorite. While this was going on, the HFCA would continue to host their Golden Globes, even introducing a special honorary award first awarded to Cecil B. DeMille and later named after him. In 1954, the two organizations merged under a new name: the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the name they are known as now, and they hosted a joint Golden Globes ceremony. The World Film Favorite award was still held but without the "Henrietta," and the 13th Golden Globes was the first to introduce television awards.
Now on to the reason I have you here in the first place. The first nomination I want to talk about is one of the biggest awards of the event: Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. Five of the six nominations in this category are completely understandable in their presence here: Anora, Challengers, Emilia Pérez, A Real Pain, and Wicked (all 2024). Four of these films are strong Oscar favorites, with the only one not being discussed for Best Picture is Challengers. But the odd sixth nomination here is one you will never have guessed. I'll give you a minute. No? Well the sixth nomination is The Substance (2024), a satirical body horror film. Quick plug, I have seen this film, and you can read my review of it here. But do you see the problem here? THE SUBSTANCE IS NOT A FUCKING MUSICAL OR A COMEDY! How on Earth is a body horror film in a category with two musical films that are frontrunners to win the Oscar for Best Picture? Who was responsible for submitting this film in to the award shows so they can get fired? This has to be the most baffling award show nomination I have ever seen in my life. Not even Andrea Riseborough's Best Actress nomination for To Leslie (2022) was as mind-boggling as this. And we mocked the Academy for that one. What makes this worse is that Demi Moore is nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy for her very not comedic or musical performance in this film. Man, this is not a good look for the Golden Globes at all. But it is not nearly as bad as the one I am about to talk about.
There is another performance-led category for "musical or comedy motion pictures," and that has to do with Best Actor. Some of the nominees, like the previous category I spoke of are understandable in their presence here. People like Jesse Plemons, Gabriel LaBelle, Glen Powell, Jesse Eisenberg, and Sebastian Stan (who is double-nominated in this for A Different Man and in Drama for The Apprentice (both 2024)) I can get being here. But not Hugh Grant for his performance in Heretic (2024). By the way, Heretic is a psychological horror film. So please explain to me why the actual fuck an actor in a horror film is again nominated in a category for musicals and comedies? Whoever is doing the nomination voting needs some sort of eye surgery because this is absolutely ridiculous. It's not like Grant is going to win in this category (my pick is Eisenberg for A Real Pain (2024), but I digress), but the fact that the nomination is here is just as fucking baffling as the two nominations for The Substance. At least there is one Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture award, or else I would have flipped the fuck out even more. Also, I saw Heretic as well, so you can read my negative review of it here. The sad thing is, I really liked Grant in Heretic, but I would not have nominated him for an award ceremony like this. Maybe a horror film award show.
Before I leave you, I have to talk about this for a minute, if you will indulge me. The problem with the film side of the Golden Globes is more egregious when you look at the plain and simple fact that THEY GOT THE TELEVISION SIDE OF THINGS RIGHT! There are all drama series and performance in the drama categories, and musical/comedy series and performers in the musical/comedy categories. My question to the HFPA is this: how can you get one aspect of this award show right but you completely botch the other side (aka the section we actually somewhat give a flying fuck about at the end of the day)? Let's be honest here, in the grand scheme of things, the Golden Globes may mean nothing to most people, but they do mean something to the Academy, because this is one of the main award bodies along with the Critics' Choice, SAG, and BAFTA awards that determine favorites for the Academy Awards. Seeing the Oscar nominations in January and these nominations now will be a shock to the system and really delegitimize both ceremonies.
I know this was kind of an off-the-cuff thing to talk about, and I am aware that this is not my usual content on here, but the Golden Globes are and forever will be a joke. I will never care about the ceremony or the awards unless we are talking about Oscar chances. And I most definitely will not be watching the ceremony even though the legendary Nikki Glaser is hosting. With that being said, I thank you all for reading this post, and I will see you back for our regularly scheduled programming very soon.
コメント