1/12/2013

Golden Globe Picks and Predictions



Rooting for Meryl at the Golden Globes Sunday night! (As should you.)

Sunday marks the only award show of the season that allows me to root for Meryl Streep. Streep deserves to win her ninth Golden Globe come Sunday night for her great performance in Hope Springs, but she probably won’t since she is competing against Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence. Like many of the other nominees at this year’s Golden Globes, Streep can probably just be content with enjoying an open bar to celebrate that the campaigning is over.

I don’t think I have ever seen the Golden Globes while knowing the Oscar contenders beforehand. Some of the excitement is gone, since the Globes generally serve as a groundhog for how to read the Oscar race. Thursday’s announcement from the Academy, however, serves as a bit of a buzz kill for the Globes, since predicting the winners basically amounts to a game of ‘spot the Oscar nominee.’ On the other hand, does it?
Argo
The timing of the Globes and the Oscar nominations could actually make the night twice as entertaining. Final ballots for the Globes were due on Wednesday, a day before the Oscar nominations, so there will be no influence from the Oscars. There might not even be much influence for the Oscars if the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press voted for somebody whom the Academy snubbed. The season will be very interesting if Ben Affleck wins Best Director at the Globes as he did Thursday night at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards. I’ve been predicting Argo to win all season long, and my mind isn’t changed by Thursday’s announcement. For the Golden Globes, at least. Oscar is clearly a different story for Affleck, but Argo is a “Globes movie” if I ever saw one: Argo is high-quality entertainment, classical Hollywood cinema at its finest, and it’s directed by a movie star. Let’s hope Affleck sent all the members a free watch.

Logic suggests that Lincoln is the winner here with its whopping seven nominations. Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed box-office behemoth could give Argo a run for its money, and it’s certainly the front-runner for the Oscar now that Affleck was snubbed, but I think that Lincoln will have to settle with wins for Mr. President (aka acting king Daniel Day-Lewis), Tommy Lee Jones (whose performance should be in the comedy category), and screenwriter Tony Kushner (the one sure thing of the night). The Globes have a history of sharing the wealth, so Lincoln could walk out with the largest haul, but maybe not with the biggest prize.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
The comedy categories, on the other hand, are a bit more predictable. Jennifer Lawrence has Best Actress in the bag for Silver Linings Playbook. She and Best Actress (Drama) winner Jessica Chastain will presumably go head-to-head on Oscar night, although things could become very interesting if Naomi Watts wins for The Impossible. Best Actor and Best Picture are a toss-up between Hugh Jackman and Bradley Cooper for Les Misérables and Silver Linings Playbook, respectively, with the Best Picture win going to either film. The Globes tend to favour musicals, but I think that Jackman will take one of Les Mis’s two wins of the night (the other being Anne Hathaway) and that Silver Linings Playbook will dance its way to the top prize. Does anyone want to make a case for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen? (Crickets.) Salmon Fishing is a cute little film to be sure, and it shows us how loony and unpredictable the Globes can be. The Oscar race will become very interesting if Salmon Fishing wins!

★ Will win
If I picked the winner

Best Picture – Drama

Argo

Best Picture – Comedy/Musical


Best Director

★ Ben Affleck, Argo
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Best Actor – Drama

★ Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Richard Gere, Arbitrage
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Actress – Drama

★ Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone
Helen Mirren, Hitchcock
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea

Best Actor – Comedy/Musical

Jack Black, Bernie
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook 
Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables
Bill Murray, Hyde Park on Hudson

Best Actress – Comedy/Musical

★ Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Maggie Smith, Quartet
Meryl Streep, Hope Springs


Best Supporting Actor

Alan Arkin, Argo
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
★ Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
★ Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy

Best Screenplay

Argo, Chris Terrio
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino 
Lincoln, Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, David O’Russell
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal

Best Score

Anna Karenina, Dario Marianelli
Argo, Alexandre Desplat
Cloud Atlas, Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek, Tom Tykwer 
Life of Pi, Mychael Danna
Lincoln, John Williams

Best Song

For You” from Act of Valour
Not Running Anymore” from Stand Up Guys
Safe and Sound” from The Hunger Games
Skyfall” from Skyfall

Best Foreign Language Film

Amour – Austria/France
The Intouchables – France
Kon-tiki – Norway
A Royal Affair – Denmark
Rust and Bone – France

Best Animated Film

Brave
Frankenweenie
Hotel Transylvania
Rise of the Guardians
Wreck it Ralph

Maggie Smith in 'Downton Abbey'
Oh, and if you want to make the night extra fun, here are the rules for the Golden Globes drinking game as proposed by hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler:

-Any time an actress cries in a speech, drink.
-Any time you see a person actively not listening to someone onstage, drink.
-Any time someone says, “I didn’t prepare anything!”
-Any time anyone thanks Harvey Weinstein, eat a meatball sub.
-Any time they show Judi Dench, take off an article of clothing.
-Any time Maggie Smith wins, take off an article of clothing (She’s nominated twice, so wear layers.)

The Golden Globes air Sunday night at 8pm ET on CTV.

Who do you think will win?