Golden Globe Predictions

Two Golden Globes at once!? These predictions can't see that happening two years in a row...

Best Motion Picture - Drama
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
Precious
Up in the Air

I'm sticking with these. Invictus seems to be their ticket to a historical prestige pic, and Up in the Air and Inglourious Basterds have the stars that the Golden Globes love to have come to their ceremony. Precious and The Hurt Locker seem to be the critical darlings that they will love to honor. I don't think The Last Station will make it, and Avatar has just started screening, so I can't imagine it making it here.

Best Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy
(500) Days of Summer
In the Loop
Julie & Julia
Nine
A Serious Man

Either Sherlock Holmes, It's Complicated, or The Proposal could sneak in here. But if Happy-Go-Lucky could sneak in then why can't In the Loop? Otherwise, I'm fairly confident here. Look for Nine to win come January.

Best Actress - Drama
Sandra Bullock- The Blind Side
Abbie Cornish- Bright Star
Helen Mirren- The Last Station
Carey Mulligan- An Education
Gabourey Sidibe- Precious

These acting categories is where I expect The Last Station to pick up its nods. Hilary Swank could get in here, but I don't think so given the general hate for Amelia. I'm hoping that Cornish gets recognized here. If not, it's probably the beginning of the end for her and Bright Star.

Best Actor - Drama
Jeff Bridges- Crazy Heart
George Clooney- Up in the Air
Johnny Depp- Public Enemies
Colin Firth- A Single Man
Morgan Freeman- Invictus

Yes, the Globes certainly do have a thing for Johnny Depp. He has eight nominations and a big biopic out this year should raise that tally to nine. Jeremy Renner is a close sixth, but I can't see him breaking in here. The only other upset I can think of is Viggo Mortensen for The Road.

Best Actress - Musical/Comedy
Marion Cotillard- Nine
Zooey Deschanel- (500) Days of Summer
Michelle Pfeiffer- Cheri
Meryl Streep- It's Complicated
Meryl Streep- Julie & Julia

A double nod for Streep seems to be the surest thing since Slumdog Millionaire winning Best Picture earlier this year. Pfeiffer seems to be an iffy choice, but I'm confident she can land a nod. Who else is there? Sure, she's been losing steam, but people haven't forgotten. (Or have they?)

Best Actor- Musical/Comedy
Matt Damon- The Informant!
Daniel Day-Lewis- Nine
Robert Downey Jr.- Sherlock Holmes
Joseph Gordon Levitt- (500) Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg- A Serious Man
The only one who isn't a sure lock is Stuhlbarg. Bradley Cooper could get in there, or Alec Baldwin should the Globes promote him to a leading category. But I don't really think that The Hangover guys can get in here.

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz- Nine
Vera Farmiga- Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick- Up in the Air
Mo'Nique- Precious
Julianne Moore- A Single Man

This will probably be one of the few times Vera Farmiga gets any attention this awards season. Sorry to the other Nine ladies, but this is category is pretty packed. It'd be tough to break through.

Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon- Invictus
Woody Harrelson- The Messenger
Jude Law- Sherlock Holmes
Christopher Plummer- The Last Station
Christoph Waltz- Inglourious Basterds

This one's tricky. Alfred Molina looked like he was definitely headed to Oscar, and he still could be, but the Globes might not go for him. Jude Law probably has you shaking your head, but the Globes love big stars and the supporting category is where they choose to honor stars for triumphant comebacks in supporting roles (Ben Affleck for Hollywoodland, John Travolta in Hairspray, or Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder). As you can see, it also helps if your in a funny movie, which Sherlock Holmes just happens to be.

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow
Clint Eastwood
Rob Marshall
Jason Reitman
Quentin Tarantino

Sorry James Cameron, but I just don't see Avatar getting major nominations until later in the awards season. This is exactly why December shouldn't be the go-to month for release for Oscar-hopefuls. Lee Daniels or Nora Ephron have a very, very slight chance of getting nominated here if you ask me, but they don't seem like they can beat this stiff competition.

Precious

Not a huge fan of Precious. I'm going to give you my grade right off the bat for the movie instead of having you wait until the end to yell at me in the comments section (or possibly agree?)!


GRADE FOR PRECIOUS: B-

What I liked....

SPOILER ALERT.
Stop reading if you don't want some plot twists, turns, and 180s to be ruined if you haven't seen the film!


Superb acting. Honestly, Precious is better acted in one scene than other movies are in their entire length. Obviously, it's been said that they will get Oscar nominations and of course that only makes sense given the material given to these two women and the way they handle every painful scene. However, I definitely don't want Sidibe to win for this, not with Carey Mulligan in the race at least. Mo'Nique, while great, ends on such a meh note for me character-ly, so even if it's great acting I was distracted by the movie's poorly written character.

Lee Daniels keeps it from being a bit melodramatic, even if Precious deals with one too many problems. Good job, Daniels!

Tangent- This could or could not be the film's fault. The few dramatic lines that got a laugh from the audience (at least the one I was with). Example (and I'm paraphrasing):

Mo'Nique: Precious, your father died today.
Precious: Is that it?

Why the hell did this get a laugh? Now I would normally fault the audience for this, I mean, this isn't supposed to be funny. Her relationship with her father was sad and terrible to think about, and in my opinion this line should not have garnered a laugh. However, is this the film's fault? I need help with this one. I personally still don't see the humor in it, but to get such a "Ha!" from an audience and a few attacks from other reviews of "unintentional" humor, maybe the film should have approached that differently. Well, it worked for me.


What I didn't like....
Spoiler alert continues...

Mo'Nique's ending monologue. "Oh, it moved me to tears!" What? That moved you to tears? Am I missing something? How do I sympathize with this monster who spent the majority of the movie attacking Precious, both verbally and physically?

That horrific ending. Had the last 10 minutes of this film never existed, I would have liked it more. Precious walks out, triumphant after the last "showdown" with her mother, and a musical montage of sorts starts as she walks down the street, nowhere to go, no money, nothing to eat, with her two children. What? You must think I'm crazy for not liking this when I loved An Education, which has a pretty ambiguous ending. Precious just never ended though. She has HIV, a child with down syndrome, and an infant in her hands, and the movie ends? I know not everything can be resolved, but c'mon. That wasn't "uplifting," like others have said. That was just an easy way to make everyone feel great: have Precious storm out of the meeting with her abusive mom and play music!

Mariah Carey performance praise, namely the Oscar buzz. This is less the film's fault than the buzz's fault, but really? All she did was de-glam and deliver some lines. It's better than Glitter, but if this is ever considered Oscar/Awards in general-worthy, then that is terribly sad and pathetic. What she did was acting. What Mo'Nique and Gabourey Sidibe did was embody a character.

So, if this becomes a major awards winner, I'll be pretty upset. What about you?

Comment!

Best Supporting Actress

Having revisted the trailer for The Lovely Bones, I've been inspired to look at this year's Best Supporting Actress hopefuls...Here I will list who I want to be nominated.

Want to be Nominated (This is without having seen any of the films, but based on trailers, buzz, and the occassional favorite actress)

Julianne Moore for A Single Man - The trailer is genius and buzz has been strong. I know Mo'Nique seems to be the most-hyped actress this side of Nine, but Moore is consistently terrific and, from the trailer alone, I'm reminded of Moore's beautifully underappreciated (awards wise at least) work in Boogie Nights. Fingers crossed Moore, I'm sure more than just me want you to get nominated!

Penélope Cruz for Nine - Penélope should have two Oscars at this point, for Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Volver. The latter didn't come through, but at least she has one. Her work has become better with each new release and, taking the sexy, Tony award role from Jane Krakowski, I don't see how there can be any wrong. Also, Rob Marshall directs, and he knows his women.

Nicole Kidman for Nine - She'll probably be campaigned for lead actress, but with the ever-annoying Marion Cotillard hogging up the spotlight, I hope she'll be moved to supporting. Nicole's last musical was Moulin Rouge!, and if her work here is half as good, she'll deserve the nomination. I also love when big stars do go down to supporting performances. It's not always about being the lead ladies (See: Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago, which definitely could have been a co-lead).

Susan Sarandon for The Lovely Bones - Based on the trailer, Susan Sarandon seems her most Sarandon-y in years, no offense Speed Racer. It's hard to come by good parts when you're an actress over 40 in Hollywood, so this could be the comeback Sarandon needs. Hopefully audience affection will lean to her character, and enough momentum will build to beat that late release date in December (and even later wider release in January) to get Sarandon back to the Kodak since her win for Dead Man Walking back in 1995. It's time for a Sarandonssaince. Let's hope The Lovely Bones isn't killed by the late release date like Revolutionary Road was.

Sigourney Weaver for Avatar - James Cameron's first film since Titanic looks... interesting. At first I was anticipating it like no other, as mentioned in some earlier post where I tried to predict the Best Picture nominees, but now the interest in the special-effects bonanza has been fading. It's looking a bit video-gameish. However, my interest in Sigourney's part has been growing. She's great in everything, but I have a feeling that Avatar is going to be almost completely ignored in every category that doesn't deal with tech. I've barely even seen clips of her, but from what I can remember, it's traditional Sigourney, not so showy (The Ice Storm) but oh so good.

So fantasies aside, here's who will probably be nominated...
Mo'Nique for Precious
Julianne Moore for A Single Man
Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air (why can't I get excited over this?)
Penélope Cruz for Nine
Mélanie Laurent for Inglourious Basterds

So, what do you think? Who do you want to be nominated? Who do you think will be nominated?