The Movie People

Best Motion Picture – Drama

Five nominations, The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, Precious and Up in the Air.

Okay, one didn’t really expect Basterds to win and Precious was a long shot by anybody’s standards. The three front runners to this were The Hurt Locker, Up in the Air and Avatar.

Up in the Air, starring George Clooney was a reasonably original film. Witty, interesting and with a little bit too much product placement for my liking. But it wasn’t a bad film, performances were very strong, story structure and arc was perfect, the script was flawless and it was overall, an excellent film – something I could watch a second time. In fact, I already have.

The Hurt Locker. Tense. Every minute was accompanied by bated breath. I never usually look for mistakes in films, but I noticed a bit too many in this one – making it rather sloppy in its production. That aside, this was an extremely watchable film. In fact, taking into consideration my general dislike for the war genre, this was an exceptionally good film. The acting was good, characters were genuine and the story was tense, extremely tense. Although maybe not my choice, a number of people I talked to in the run up to the Globes were convinced a gong would be going to this heart stopper.

Avatar‘s main selling point was 3D. In fact, to watch the film in 2D is to just watch a special effects extravaganza unveil in front of your eyes. Watching it in 3D makes it a spectacle, but it isn’t by any means a ground-breaking work of artistic genius. It is basically this years Dark Knight – the well publicised and marketed film which makes people jump on the bandwagon. The film which people love because of the glittery lights surrounding it. But sooner rather than later, the lights will fade and Avatar will drown into a sea of obscurity.

The characters were sloppy in their development. The story arc was simplistic and had no real merit – it was a single layer storyline with nothing to cast a three dimensional aspect onto any feature of the film. The characters, story and development were all flat. In fact, probably the only thing in the film with any depth (albeit the illusion of depth) was the 3D effect.

Avatar, winning the Golden Globe for Best Drama, was a travesty when Up in the Air and The Hurt Locker were contenders against it in the nominees list.

As for Best Musical or Comedy Motion Picture, although I would’ve much rather seen (500) Days of Summer clinch the prize, The Hangover very deservedly took home the award. An exceptionally watchable, well made and funny film. And seeing as the Oscars will probably ignore it, there is consolation that it won a Globe.

My next bone to pick with the Golden Globes results is no doubt the winner of Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

The nominees being Matt Damon (The Informant), Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes), Daniel Day-Lewis (Nine), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer) and Micheal Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man).

First of all, Sherlock Holmes is not a comedy. Probably two laugh out loud moments in the entire film (a lot more in the “Drama” Up in the Air). It is also a sloppy, badly-written, poorly acted and overall diversely bad film. Robert Downey Jr. was tasked with playing Sherlock Holmes – one of the iconic figures of English Literature, a character about whom countless stories, books, films and even games have been published about. One of the most three dimensional characters in the history of writing. Also, with the wealth of information available about Sherlock, probably one of the easiest to perform.

Robert Downey Jr. is an actor I respect, who does deserve an award for past performances. But to give him an award for this travesty of a performance is just wrong, especially considering one of the contenders was Joseph Gordon-Levitt who gave a second-to-none exceptional performance in the (most importantly) comedy 500 Days of Summer.

It’s as if some idiot decided to give one of those token British wins to the token British nominee, even if the actor is American. Stupid. Awards should be about quality, and nowhere in Downeys portrayal of Holmes does quality prevail.

Next is the Best Supporting Actor. The winner? Christoph Waltz. Yeah, he was good. Pretty good. But watch him against Matt Damon in Invictus. There is absolutely no comparison. Matt Damon gives a far superior performance.

Also, given the fact that Damon, an American, had to put on an Afrikaans accent (and everyone knows that the Americans are the worst people in the world for botching up accents) and did it reasonably well. Compare that to Waltz, an Austrian having to put on the accent of well… an Austrian with a tinge of French.

There is no world where Mo’Nique deserves an award for acting. And her winning the Best Performance of a Supporting Actress when contending against Panélope Cruz, Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga is an adequate reminder of how much of a travesty this years Golden Globes are.

Again, Avatar scoops a gong with Best Director going to James Cameron. The contenders? Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Clint Eastwood (Invictus), Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) and Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds). Even Quentin deserved a win over Cameron, which is saying something – considering what a boring mess Inglourious Basterds was.

Also, in what world does anybody beat Clint Eastwood? Like, the guy is the god of directing. And not considering Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker is also an incredible mistake. Like, fair enough, Clint has been recognised multiple times, but Bigelow deserves recognition for her contribution to cinema. Why not give her the prize? Hell, they’ve even got the second excuse for becoming diverse in the awards and recognising female directors. It’s a no-brainer, unless they were worried the haggard looking Mel Gibson would mispronounce her name.

In short, the Golden Globes results for the most part are an absolute travesty and a serious lapse in judgement for the film community.