Thoughts on the 2018 Golden Globes.

Here be the list of winners. My thoughts:

- Yay for Sersh! She is an amazing actress, who I’ve been following avidly ever since she amazed as Briony in 2007’s Atonement. It’s amazing to think that at just 23, she’s already being regarded as ‘overdue’, but that’s a testament to how good she is. I really thought Saoirse should have won the Oscar for 2015’s Brooklyn, and, although I’ve not yet seen Lady Bird, judging from the quality of everything else she’s done, I have no doubt she’s incredible in it. 

I’m also so relieved Margot Robbie’s shameless Oscar-begging didn’t prevail. Margot is more of a ‘celebrity’ than Saoirse, and the Golden Globes are renowned for favouring the more glamorous stars. But so, so happy that in this case, Saoirse Ronan’s inimitable talents transcended star-seeking!

- Related to this, well done to Greta Gerwig, who’s directorial debut, the female-ccentric Lady Bird, won Best Film – Musical or Comedy. I can’t wait to watch it!

- Yay for Guillermo Del Toro, who also gave a lovely speech and refused to leave the stage when they tried to play music over him, haha. Pan’s Labyrinth is one of my top 25 films, and I’m very excited about The Shape of Water.

However, poor Chris Nolan has been overlooked all awards season, and this makes me sad, because whilst I have reservations about a lot of his other films (Inception, Interstellar, etc), I thought Dunkirk was his best film by far, a staggering technical feat, and a rare film which didn’t heroicise war, but rather, present it in its gritty realness, without needing to resort to R-rated gory images to depict the horrors.

- I thought the decision for everyone in attendance to wear black, as a way of showing support to the #MeToo movement, an extremely facile exercise. After all, the colour of someone’s outfit doesn’t erase the fact that in attendance were the likes of Emma Stone (who enabled Woody Allen by working with him not once, but twice) and Meryl Streep, who gave Roman Polanski a standing ovation. So imagine how I laughed, when I saw Stone and Streep show up to the Golden Globes with female women’s rights campaigners. Hollyweird sure does like to pick and choose when they care about causes du jour!

Sexual harassment and creeps in Hollyweird is nothing new. But for actors to all be crawling out of the woodwork in a hollow display of solidarity for those who were abused by movie moguls, when they kept silent back when it was happening because they were happy to coast off said moguls’ gravy trains, is extremely rich.

I also found the constant blathering on about the gender pay gap ad nauseum to be somewhat shrill. Whilst I obviously agree with gender pay equality, I don’t think a room full of movie stars who are paid several million per movie, to be where gender pay disparity is felt most strongly.

- That being said, I did adore winner of the Cecile B DeMille award, Oprah Winfrey’s stunning speech. It was inspirational, heartfelt, and so true. I particularly like that she highlighted that sexual harassment is not singular to just the movie industry (despite what all the posturing from Stone, Streep et al would have you believe), and unfortunately, when women are faced with it in everyday life, a lot of us just get on with it and shake it off, because we have to put food on the table.

- James Franco is a div. He wanted to milk the optics of appearing all generous by inviting Tommy Wiseau (who he won a Golden Globe for playing in The Disaster Artist) on stage with him, but when Tommy Wiseau leaned into the microphone to talk, Franco swatted him away. I mean, if you want your moment, fair enough, go up on stage by yourself and give your speech. But you can’t have you cake and eat it: trying to appear all magnanimous by humouring Wiseau, yet not actually letting him talk.

Even more pertinently, this tweet alleges some unbecoming behaviour from Mr. Franco which exposes the #MeToo posturing for the empty PR exercise it really is.

- Homeboy Danny Kaluuya looked surly af every time the camera was on him. Granted, I’d be irked too if my mesmerising performance in Get Out lost to James Franco’s extended Tommy Wiseau-mockery, but I think he’d probably benefit from his PR people letting him know that in the Hollywood awards scene, you’re more likely to catch flies with honey than vinegar.

- The Three Billboards of Ebbing, Missouri won four major awards: Best Drama, Screenplay, Actress in a Drama and Supporting Actor. I don’t think this particularly increases its odds of winning Best Picture, as the overlap between the Golden Globes and Oscar voters is non-existent, but, it is definitely good news for Frances McDormand in the Best Actress race.

- The state of the Best Actress race, now, I reckon: last night’s two winners, Franny and Saoirse, are now locked. Sally Hawkins is very probably going to get nominated (and I feel she’s favourite the win the BAFTA). Margot Robbie will probably get nominated, which means that the fifth spot will be a close-run thing between Meryl Streep (The Post), Judi Dench (Victoria and Abdul), Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game), Brooklynn Prince (The Florida Project) or Michelle Williams (All the Money in the World).

- Jessica Chastain looked the best; proper old-school Hollywood glamour

- I scored a rather shoddy 60% in my predictions, getting 15 out of 25. Paradoxically, I actually did better in TV (8 out of 11) than film (7 out of 14), which is bizarre as my TV predictions were a total afterthought and I’d given lots of thought into my film predictions! Evidently a bit too much thought!

Anyway, those are just my two cents outside Farringdon, London. What did you think of the Golden Globes yesterday?