True to form, the Golden Globe nominations are a buffet of the good, the bad and the unconscionably hideous — with perhaps a touch more emphasis than usual on the third of those this year. I refer, of course, to those largely mortifying Comedy/Musical races, where HFPA voters solved the lack of obvious contenders this year by giving in to their randiest star-shagging urges.
Welcome to the Best Picture race, “Red,” “The Tourist” and (pauses to cross himself and say three Hail Marys) “Alice in Wonderland.” Or, you know, not. Congratulations on your double-shot of well-deserved Best Actor nominations, Mr. Depp. Or, you know, not. Sorry, Sally Hawkins, we liked you just fine in “Made in Dagenham,” but Angelina Jolie was obviously working harder in her movie. Or, you know, not.
Still, even as we strike down upon the HFPA with great vengeance and furious anger, I’m feeling pretty chipper about some things: reviled as it is by many, “Burlesque” is the kind of grandly gaudy goof-off that I’m happy to see livening up the category, while my biggest air-punch of the morning came when my actress of the year Emma Stone’s name was read out for “Easy A.”
Over in the drama categories, there’s a similar trade-off between lazy coast-in nominees and genuinely hard-earned surprises: I don’t imagine too many people are thrilled to see Halle Berry nominated ahead of Lesley Manville, but we have those sweet twin nominations for the doomed lovers of “Blue Valentine” to make the medicine go down. Pleasing, too, to see Jacki Weaver and Mila Kunis keep making strides in that very pliable Supporting Actress race, while Jeremy Renner’s supporting nod for “The Town” reads as an apology note from voters for snubbing him last year. (Again, in return for that, we must tolerate a shameless please-don’t-die nod for Michael Douglas’s self-parody in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” Them’s the breaks.)
Okay, so I led with the finer details. Looking at the bigger picture, however, today’s announcement will please, if hardly surprise, fans of “The Social Network” (with six nods) and the film everyone knew would lead the field, “The King’s Speech” (with seven). Arguably the bigger story of the morning, however, is “The Fighter,” which tied for the runner-up spot with six bids, including Best Director and Best Actor mentions that few saw coming. It seems to me that this rock-solid crowdpleaser has timed its arrival in the race very nicely indeed.
What made way for “The Fighter”‘s robust haul, then? Well, as I anticipated, “127 Hours” underperformed, snagging nominations for Actor, Screenplay and Score, but missing out in the top two races. Even more sidelined, however, was “True Grit” — which received a grand total of zero nods. (Yep, even the beloved Jeff Bridges was bumped in favor of Mark Wahlberg.) Whether these signify a general loss of steam in the race, or just a temporary pothole, remains to be seen — but by this point, it should be clear to Fox Searchlight that “Black Swan” (with a healthy five nods) is their prize pony.
As for who might win, it’s anyone’s guess whether the Globes will follow the critics’ lead or not. They certainly didn’t last year, or three years ago, when the lush Britpic “Atonement” trumped the bleak Americana of “No Country for Old Men: a precedent that might suggest “The King’s Speech,” with its leading haul, is still the one to beat here. Over in the comedy wasteland, meanwhile, the “Kids Are All Right” folks are chuckling gleefully to themselves as they laminate their acceptance speeches.
On a final note, nice to see “Carlos,” as well as its fire-breathing leading man Edgar Ramirez, get some love in the miniseries race. It should be up with the big (or at least big-screen) boys in Best Picture, but we’ll take what we can get.
Check out the full list of film nominees at The Circuit.
[Photo: Paramount Pictures]
Comments
185 responses to “‘King’s Speech’ leads Globe nods, ‘True Grit’ shut out”
I’ve always have had problems with the meaning of ET/PT and how it translates to my country. I’d thank if you tell me when exactly is going to begin the live broadcasting please.
And, given the fact that aparently I’m the first to comment I’d like to thank for all the Oscar covering that you achieve every year. I love this page.
Greetings from Chile.
Feel sorry for those who have to wake up at 5 in the morning. Anyway it be exciting to see who’ll get snubbed, who lead, and who will be the surprise nominee.
Burlesque got two song nominations? Didn’t catch what the first one was..
Sorry to be first with the nomination postings, but… Inception and 127 Hours for screenplay! (One I’m happier about than the others, but oh well.)
Leodoc, I’m from Chile too.
It started at 10:15 AM, aprox. They’ve announced a few categories, and now they’re taking a break, then they’ll resume with the big ones.
Happy for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross getting in for The Social Network, since they’re likely to be snubbed come Oscar time.
No Daft Punk though, sniffle.
You can watch a live video feed in CBS News (among others). just go to cbsnews.com and there’s a banner at the top to click on to get to the live streaming feed.
Good showing for Inception so far. Interesting that they kept 5 nominees for Animated Features, since I thought they usually mirror whatever the Academy does (which is 3 this year, right?)
Thanks a lot to Andrej and Graysmith for the response.
(Saludos compatriota :D )
The Concert is not one of the five best foreign language films of the year (not even one of the hundred best)…
Not true, but then you could reserve those kinds of words for anything Simon Beaufoy touched.
With two song nods, definitely feels like we are on our way to Burlesque being able to call itself a Golden Globe-nominated best picture.
Edgar Ramirez YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wait. Whatever happened to True Grit?
So apparently True Grit wasn’t screened for the HFPA? Zero nominations.. ZERO.
GOSLING AND WILLIAMS <3.
They really liked the Tourist.
Loved the women that groaned after Alice in Wonderland and then Burlesque were nominated for Best Picture.
Ouch. No True Grit. Gotta say though this is an interesting year if things like The Social Network, Black Swan, and Inception get in for drama. Not exactly alot of fluffy heartwarming flicks.
Woooow. A lot to say:
1) No Danny Boyle
2) Annete Bening and Julian Moore on Supporting… or I heard wrong.
3)Black Swan on BP and BD, also with Mia Kunis and Portman being nominated
4) Blue Valentine received nominations for both Gosling and Williams!!
5) Mark Walhberg for Best Actor
6) A lot of love for The Fighter. BP, BD, and I believe nominations on every acting categories
7) The Walking Dead: best drama and direction… absolutely awesome. :D
8) Jonny Deep, 2 nominations on Comedy Movie (Alice in Wonderland and The Tourist (I didn’t see that coming)).
9) Angeline Jolie also for The Tourist
That’s what it sticks with me.
Johnny Depp for two terrible preformances… hahaha funny stuff.
Wait. So 127 Hours gets what? Like 2 nominations?
How much did Halle Berry pay for her nomination. There are bad years and then there is this. Terrible list all over.
I guess HFPA hates Coens as much as they like Burton. Ugh.
Seven, that’s a pretty healthy haul for TKS. Isn’t the record like 8 or 9?
I wouldn’t worry about True Grit. Remember Milk got only one nomination and the Hurt Locker two and went home trophyless.
JACKI WEAVER!!!!
Can you just imagine if THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT was deemed a drama. BURLESQUE would sooo be winning Musical/Comedy! Haha. Amazing.
The comedy categories are just… wow. Awful. LOVE & OTHER DRUGS? THE TOURIST? ALICE IN freakin’ WONDERLAND? Oh my lord. A SOMEWHERE nod may have looked dubious, but at least it wouldn’t have called in serious questions of taste like those movies do. Honestly. It’s actually funny how much they just star-fucked. Even moreso than usual.
Leocdc, it got 3 I think. Score, Screenplay, Actor.
Lots of really random stuff. Three nominations for The Tourist, which just got bashed HARD by the critics? I even read some review saying it was Depp worst performance of his career. HFPA can certainly be wined and dined to nominate anything, and it is true that it’s an exceptionally poor year for comedy.. But DAMN.
Also really random: 127 Hours getting a screenplay nomination but isn’t nominated for film or director.
Jeremy Renner the sole nominee for The Town.. That’s gotta be saying something in his favor about an Oscar nomination.
The Fighter has to be the big winner/surprise. Wahlberg + Russell nominated. Impressive!
Mila Kunis! Here and at the BFCA!
No True Grit.. I hope it’s because they haven’t seen it. Sure, they’re foreigners so westerns may not be their thing and they’ve snubbed late-comer films in the past that did impressively at the Oscars.. So not all hope is lost, but damn.
Yay for Blue Valentine!
I’m not worried about True Grit. At all. I just have a hard time believing that the people who picked those candidates meants them.
Red and The Tourist in over Knight & Day, True Grit, The Town and heck, even Morning Glory.
Inception is nominated for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay…and Guy Lodge and Kris Tapley are the only two human beings on planet Earth who are surprised by this.
Here are the films that got more than one nomination:
The King’s Speech 7
The Fighter 6
The Social Network 6
Black Swan 4
Inception 4
The Kids Are All Right 4
127 Hours 3
Alice in Wonderland 3
Burlesque 3
The Tourist 3
Blue Valentine 2
Love and Other Drugs 2
Tangled 2
I almost forget Emma Stone for Easy A and Jeremy Renner for The Town, both great performances.
Love and Other Drugs was also much better than most other nominees.
didn’t kris mention that they hated true grit, so it not really surprising
@Maxim,
True Grit and The Town wouldn’t be in the comedy category so it’s not exactly fair to say they got snubbed in favor of Red and The Tourist. The comedy category is always weaker, and exceptionally weak this year. Red I get though, it was a big hit and got good reviews, most people liked it (myself included). The Tourist.. Makes no sense at all.
Also of note: Toy Story 3 snub in both musical categories. Tangled (deservedly) has more nominations. I would love nothing more than an animated feature upset.
So happy for Black Swan, even I don’t see it yet, but it looks so unique that I have to give my respect for try something different at cinema.
No True Grit, but they did see The Illusionist, and perhaps No Another Year as it hasn’t been seen?
Graysmith,
That’s a very fair point but I wasn’t implying that those films should have been nominated in those categories. In other words, I wasn’t making an apples to apples comparison but merely brining up some of the other nominees in my, admitedly knee-jerk, attempt to point out HFPA’s disregard for quality.
Well, at least we can’t all complain they weren’t unpredictable, right?
No Robert Duvall.
Maxim, the reason “Red” and “The Tourist” are nominated over “True Grit” and “The Town” is because the latter two were dramas and the formers were (classified as) comedies. How on earth do their nominations/lack thereof correlate?
So ecstatic for Renner and Kunis, btw. Would love to see each get Oscar nominations–gazing at the sidebar, over Damon and Adams, respectively.
Glenn, again, I wasn’t implying that the films I’ve listed should have been nominated in those same categories. I am well aware how Golden Globes work. I was just pointing out what they vs what I thought they snubbed regardless of categories.
Boost:
1. The Fighter (Wahlberg + Russell)
2. The Kids Are All Right (Actress x 2 + Screenplay)
3. Black Swan (Kunis)
4. Blue Valentine (Gosling + Williams)
Took a hit:
1. True Grit (0 noms)
2. The Town (1 nom)
3. Winter’s Bone (1 nom)
4. Another Year (0 noms)
You could say that Inception got a boost too while 127 Hours continues it underwhelming awards performance.
What jumps out to me is no Robert Duvall.
No Ruffalo.
Also, Depp twice is ridiculous.
And I’m sorry. People call this show a joke, and that it should cease to exist. Some of these noms are batsh*t crazy … and I love it. haha
Huh, Maxim? “127 Hours” did quite well for itself I’d say. Actor, Screenplay, Score… not bad. No Director, but whatever.
Graysmith, Inception too took a boost, I’ve expected to be just like TDK, getting a few critics nods and wins, but if the HFPA nominate them over True Grit, 127 Hours.. well, it really is a lock. O.O
Well, at least the HFPA has given out lots of talking points for the next little while.
I was just thinking: if I were to nominate “127 Hours” in a non-Franco category, I’m not sure Screenplay would’ve been my pick. And are those out-there nominations for Halle Berry and Michael Douglas signs that their campaigns will pick up, or is it just the HFPA being the HFPA and nominating random star-driven performances?
Also, Halle Berry over Hailee Steinfeld? Johnny Depp over Stephen Dorff?
I’d argue that its absence in the Best Director and Best Picture categrory is notable considering the films ambitions.
When you think about it, Alice in Wonderland got Best Picture, Best Actor and Score too. These are weaker, seeing how they are in comedy except for score, I’d admit but, really not that far off.