Horst_In_Translation Review of 75th Golden Globe Awards

75th Golden Globe Awards (2018 TV Special)

Lots of cringe, but also some quality

[6/10 · 8 January 2018]

Here we got "The 75th Golden Globe Awards", the newest edition of one of the biggest award show events of the year and I am reviewing this less than 24 hours after it aired. Host was Seth Meyers and he peaked already when he said hi to all the ladies and few remaining gentlemen. This was the only somewhat funny reference from a night packed with moments dealing with the discrimination against wmen in Hollywood. But we'll get to that later. As for Meyers, he had extremely minimal screen time as they were rushing to fit the event into 3 hours. That's a good thing though because he was very unfunny most of the time and felt basically like the hosting version of actor Jon Cryer and that's not a compliment by any means. And guess what: If you struggle with time, then how about you don't include 50 minutes of commercials, which means over 25% of the show. It was embarrassing how the announcers could not even get peronal notes in and basically just had to say "The nominees for category xy are". Anyway, we can still be somewhat glad it feels like an actual awards show compared to the music awards shows these days that are basically interrupted concerts. Now for the winners, it takes quite a while till most films come to Germany, so difficult to say which I like and which I don't like. I'm happy though for Elisabeth Moss and her project. Not too happy about Ansari as his comedy style isn't to my liking at all usually and neither was his speech. As for speeches, Franco refusing Wiseau the mic felt pretty arrogant and he lost some sympathies with me there I usually like him. No in memoriam section? Seriously? Lots of love again for Big Little Lies and also more than I expected for 3 Billboards. I like McDonagh's older stuff though (and McDormand), so good for them. The trailer looks promising with the exception of one bad moment. Coco taking Best Animated Feature was nice as expected, but I am surprised it lost Best Song. Oh and Germany won Best Foreign Language film, which really shocked me. I guess they like Kruger more than I thought, not that "In the Fade" is a bad film or anything, but it's also not that great really. I'd have preferred the Swedish frontrunner to take the crown. Maybe too complex for them. Rockwell and Janney upset the predicted winners, which should make for an interesting awards season in the supporting categories with the lead categories (especially male) looking fairly decided already. And honestly, it's about time Rockwell gets an Oscar nomination and unless he pulls an ATJ from last year, he should be guaranteed. Also very curious about Lady Bird. I just can't not like Greta Gerwig. And Richard Jenkins seemed so happy to be there. Here's hoping he gets in at the Oscars too. And Rockwell vs Dafoe really is a win-win scenario. As for the lowest moments of the night, there are some in contention. I already mentioned a few weaknesses. But the greatest weakness of them all has to be Oprah's lifetime achievement award as honestly she simply isn't in the same league as people who got and should get this award, even if we add her great deal of television time to her pretty mediocre film acting career. And honestly there was nothing in her speech that could not have been said by any other Black actress. It just felt so wrong and the "time is up" reference just got unbearable pretty quickly. I don't want to discuss the subject in depth now, but I never like it if these shows become too political and this time I am not even talking about the Trump jokes that were as bad as they were rare last night. Looks like they may have moved on now to the next subject. The only one who got close to Oprah in terms of cringe was Barbra Streisand's self worshipping part near the end (not so) cleverly hidden in another emancipation statement. All in all, the lows during this award show were certainly lower than the highs were high. It was pretty painful to watch, for example seeing Reese Witherspoon trying so desperately to convince us there is actual artistry to Winfrey and not just money. Shame as I actually like Reese most of the time. I think this is all for now. Overall, I give this one a thumbs-up, but a cautious one and it's nowhere near my favorite film awards events in recent years. Meyers had nothing on Tina and Amy and especially not on te brilliantly hilarious Ricky Gervais who I am missing every year he is not hosting. Man his comments on all the discrimination issues would have been amazing. Bring him back for 2019 please.