Sunday, January 11, 2009

Golden Globe Awards

The biggest party in Hollywood was held Sunday night.  I actually went to some movies this year and even saw a number of the nominees.  That hasn't happened in a while so I ended up watching the whole thing.  Turns out that I saw a number of the winners too. 

The producers tried to get everyone glued to their seats with the first award as we wondered whether Jennifer Lopez was going to keep her dress properly aligned to cover her in the appropriate places.  But after that :


  • Slumdog Millionaire was a big winner. Best Motion Picture (Drama),  Best score, Best Director.  Best screenplay (motion picture) - Simon Beaufoy was the screenwriter.  I didn't read the novel so I can't say how it compares to the original work, but the film did give me nightmares and yet I can imagine seeing it again because it did pull off the happy ending. It is a hard story to pull off and I thought he did pull it off.  I saw two of the other nominees:  Doubt and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  I thought Slumdog Millionaire was the best written of the three.   I did not see Frost/Nixon or The Reader so I can't compare it with that.  
  • John Adams (the HBO Series) was the big winner in the made for television movie categories. It won best movie.  Tom Wilkinson won Best Supporting Actor, Laura Linney won Best Actress and Paul Giamatti won Best Actor.  I didn't see it (no cable) but I was given the DVD set for Christmas.  I'm waiting for a snow storm or a deep cold snap to watch it.  I read the book when it came out a few years ago and thought it was fantastic.   I really liked Laura Linney's yellow gown but I can't find a picture of it anywhere.
  • Bruuuuuuuuce won Best Original Song - Motion Picture for his song "The Wrestler" from the new film The Wrestler.  Always nice to see The Boss.  Mickey Rourke won Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) for that film.   The crowd went wild.  Maybe, like me, they had thought he was dead.  Truthfully I would not have recognized him - he looks very different from his days in Diner, The Outsiders and Rumblefish.  Not to mention 9 1/2 Weeks.   
  • Wall-E won best animated feature film.  I didn't see the other two nominees but I loved Wall-E - especially the first hour. 
  • 30 Rock, which I finally watched a few times this year, won the big television awards: Best Television Series and Best Actor (Alec Baldwin).  Tina Fey won for Best Actress. She gave a very funny speech.  And  I really liked her dress although this picture doesn't really show it off well.
  • Kate Winslett had a spectacular night. She won Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for The Reader and then won Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) for Revolutionary Road.  I haven't seen either of those films but I've always liked Kate Winslett. She gave a lovely acceptance speech for the first award and then managed to pull herself together after the shock of the second award to give a  heartfelt speech.   And her dress was fabulous.   Yves St. Laurent.  Yum.  Sally Hawkings, who I've never heard of, won Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy) for a film I had never heard of and gave an endless, boring, tear filled acceptance speech.  Kate Winslett cried but still managed to be articulate.  This other actress could have used a few lessons from her.
  • Colin Farrell won Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Comedy) for In Bruges.  I'm not a big Colin Farrell fan but I really enjoyed him in that (very odd) film.   It must be hard to act a role that veers from comedy to drama to suspense to tragedy all in one film. After seeing the film I wasn't sure how to classify it but obviously the Foreign Press thought it was a comedy.  It is a nice, but odd, little film with good acting.  And you can't beat the location - Bruges. I'd recommend it if you are looking for something to watch on a cold evening.
  • It was hard to pick the worst gown of the evenin but Renee Zellwegger was certainly in competition for it
  • Steven Spielberg received the Cecil B. DeMille award and the retrospective of clips from his films was fun to watch.  Especially watching the young Drew Barrymore scream at ET.

There were other awards but I don't remember them.

On to the Oscars.

Beowulf, translated by Maria Dahvana Headley

I never intended to read yet another epic poem immediately after finishing The Iliad .  But I subscribe to the Poetry Unbound podcast and in...