It’s Golden Globe Sunday!

Welcome to award season 2017! It’s Golden Globe Sunday which marks the first big award show of 2017. November through January is always a great time for movies and television, and my goal every year is to see as many of the nominated films and TV shows as possible. This year was more difficult being in my first semester of college, but so far I’m been able to check a few off my list.

Manchester by the Sea, Hacksaw Ridge, Deadpool, La La Land, Arrival, Fences, War Dogs, Stranger Things, The Crown, and This is Us are all of the Golden Globe Nominees that I’ve seen. It’s actually more than I had thought, but there are still so many movies and tv shows that I want to see!
Based on my limited sampling of the nominees I can categorize them into Great, Okay, and Not Great. I didn’t see anything that was terrible, but I would consider this season to be somewhat underwhelming when compared to last year’s selection (The Big Short, Spotlight, the Revenant, etc).
So, “the Greats,” which are still a work in progress as I make my way through the noms, are Manchester by the Sea, Hacksaw Ridge, Arrival, and Stranger Things. If there was an award for most depressing movie ever made, Manchester by the Sea would win hands down, and would probably never be usurped. Aside from the ridiculously tragic plot that gets worse even when you think it’s impossible, Manchester by the Sea was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. I’d be surprised if Casey Affleck isn’t rewarded for his incredibly moving performance (Nominated: Best Performance by an Actor – Drama). Arrival was also a favorite, but when they went towards a more fantasy approach (Spoiler: she starts time traveling in the end… I think…) the film lost a lot of it’s credibility and intensity and started to get a bit cheesy for my taste. When they were focusing on communication and different responses to the alien invasion I was totally on board. Up until the end it seemed realistic enough for a movie about aliens landing on Earth, and that was the most intriguing aspect.
The “okay” category is abnormally large this year. Like I said, I’m just not as entertained, if you will, by this year’s choices. Deadpool, War Dogs, The Crown and This is Us definitely get spots in this category. However, my opinions on television aren’t very strong as I never really think critically of television. Deadpool was a great comedy, but I had almost completely forgotten about it and had never imagined it would be involved with the award shows this year. I guess I never think about the summer blockbusters making it through to the New Year, but it was definitely worthy of a spot in the comedy/musical categories. I’m actually happy that an actual comedy is featured in this category, when so many times there are movies featured that are the last thing you would think of as a comedy.
Time for the “not greats.” Fences and La La Land. Unpopular opinion: I hated La La Land. Maybe it’s unfair of me to judge due to my preexisting distaste for musicals, but I could barely sit through the whole thing. It takes a lot for me to get bored or restless during a movie, so on the rare occasions that that happens, it usually means that it didn’t hold my interest at all. Now I’ll acknowledge that it was beautiful. The colors, scenery, and cinematography in general was stunning, but that was pretty much all I liked about it. Ryan Gosling (The Nice Guys…10/10 would recommend) and Emma Stone are some of my favorite actors, but lets be honest. They can’t sing. So many “cringey” moments and feelings of second hand embarrassment were induced by their performances which was a bummer because I love them. Also the songs…not a fan. I did like the instrumental parts, but the lyrics were forgetful and annoying. Maybe I’ll give it another chance…everyone is raving about it and I’m sure it will take several awards, but right now I’m still anti La La Land.
Okay, so I’ll stop here since I could keep going on and on. Hopefully I’ll be able to watch the actual award show… the amount of neglected reading I have for women’s studies makes that highly unlikely but I’ll give it a shot. Also, Jimmy Fallon is hosting which seems more promising than past hosts (second hand embarrassment is a very real thing and I am extremely sensitive to it).
I’ll make predictions for the top categories based on what I’ve seen. Hopefully by the Oscars I’ll be able to make more educated predictions.

Best Drama: Moonlight (Haven’t seen it but based on what I’ve heard there is little doubt it will win.)
Best Comedy/Musical: La La Land (yikes)
Best Actor Drama: Casey Affleck
Best Actress Drama: Amy Adams
Best Actor Comedy/Musical: Collin Farell
Best Actress Comedy/Musical: Emma Stone

(Nocturnal Animals, The Lobster, and Jackie are first on my list as I try to catch up in time for the Oscars…stay tuned. 🙂 )