Golden Globes leave viewers with lots to be desired
January 31, 2016
“Shush. Shut up. You disgusting, pill-popping, sexual deviant scum.”
And with this comment started the 2016 Golden Globe Awards, hosted by Ricky Gervais.
If this isn’t how a cringe-worthy night starts off, then I don’t know how one does. This year’s Golden Globes were a bit of a mess, including the so called “jokes” and award winners. However, I’ll spare you an exposé on the numerous reasons why Gervais’ jabs weren’t funny and focus on the other failures of the night.
If you aren’t familiar with Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), they are a group of international journalists whose goal is “to establish favorable relations and cultural ties between foreign countries and the United States of America by the dissemination of information concerning the American culture and traditions as depicted in motion pictures and television through news media in various foreign countries,” according to their mission statement. Ultimately, they focus on awarding both television and film creations internationally.
Now that you have been briefed on the HFPA, let’s talk about the winners.
While some of them were expected, others were surprising to say the least. Maybe it’s just me, but you could also say they made absolutely no sense in the context of the award given. For example, one of the categories of the night was Best Musical or Comedy Motion Picture. The obvious nominees were Spy with Melissa McCarthy, Joy with Jennifer Lawrence, Trainwreck with Amy Schumer, and The Big Short with Steve Carell. These were all big name movies with A-list comedians, but none of them won the award.
The winner? The Martian starring Matt Damon.
Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed The Martian, but it was in no way a comedy or a musical. It had its funny lines. Small portions of the film showed Damon’s character singing along to some music from the 1980s. Did these parts make it a film meant to make you laugh or want to sing to? The answer is no, and the other nominees were more worthy of the award.
I think that Trainwreck could have won the award. It was certainly full of laughs and audiences were quite taken with it, earning an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. Honestly, I’m a bit surprised that they didn’t include any musicals on this list, but that’s more likely due to the fact that there weren’t a number of musicals this year that made it to the big screen.
Another shocking winner was the infamous pop singer, Lady Gaga, for her role in American Horror Story: Hotel, where she played a vampire. Typically, Golden Globe nominees/winners roles are more serious and awe-inspiring (I think that’s what American Horror Story was going for), but Gaga’s performance seemed more comical and not as well written as the other actresses. The singer won Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television, against actresses such as Queen Latifah, Kirsten Dunst, Sarah Hay, and Felicity Huffman.
I also had a problem with the winners’ acceptance speeches. For future reference, Golden Globe nominees, please have an acceptance speech ready. The audience will be eternally grateful that they didn’t have to go through your immensely long list of people you have to thank. I understand that all those people deserved to be thanked, but isn’t there a way to keep it short and sweet?
Thankfully, not all the speeches were the same. Taraji P. Henson’s unscripted speech was funny and successful. One of the best lines was in response to someone telling her to wrap up her speech, “Please wrap? Wait a minute! I’ve waited twenty years for this – you can wait! Yeah, you’re going to give me a little more time.”
Jennifer Lawrence’s speech was touching as she addressed her friend David O. Russell. However, Leonardo DiCaprio’s was truly inspiring. DiCaprio said, “Lastly, I want to share this award with all of the first nations people represented in this film and all the indigenous communities around the world. It is time that we recognize your history and that we protect your indigenous lands…”
This leads me to one of the main problems with the Golden Globes, a lack of diversity among the nominees and winners. A mere seven people of color went home tonight with awards, and by my count, there were only a total of 13 people of color nominated to even receive an award. However, the Oscar’s 2016 nominations are far worse in terms of diversity, with only white actors and actresses nominated for leading and supporting actor categories. If this doesn’t scream racial bias, I don’t know what does.
Hopefully the Oscar’s and other award shows can look at the Golden Globes and right what they did wrong, but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case. But perhaps with Chris Rock hosting the Oscars this year, we might actually find the jokes funny.