01/20/11

The Golden Globes: So here’s the difference between the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards: A mostly unknown (and supposedly amazing) miniseries called “Carlos” can beat two very disappointed-looking legends (Tom Hanks and Al Pacino); the host and guests drink and chat all through the show; a brilliant nut like Ricky Gervais (aka, the night’s host) can cockily make fun of industry power houses Tom Cruise, John Travola, Angelina Jolie and cool guy Johnny Depp in one breath; and, more unfortunately, we have to pretend things like “Glee” are actually worthwhile. Can’t win ’em all. Mostly, we get a bunch of pretty people hanging out in a small room, hoping the host doesn’t brutally make fun of them on national television. My biggest issue with the Globes is that the winners are always far more predictable than those at the Oscars. Here it is, ScreenTime’s quickie breakdown of this year’s Golden Globes show …  

Female Acting Awards (Film): Jennifer Lawrence, the young lead from the great Winter’s Bone, didn’t win the Best Lead Actress in a Drama statue, but she looked classy at the show and, thanks to her performance, has already landed some solid indie roles and, for what it’s worth, a paycheck job playing Mystique in the upcoming fourth X-Men film. At age 20, something tells me Lawrence’s days at awards shows are just beginning. This year’s winner for Best Lead Actress in a Drama, the great Natalie Portman (Black Swan), was a deserving winner, giving one of the best lead female performances of recent memory. The Best Supporting Actress award went to Melissa Leo (The Fighter), edging out castmate Amy Adams, while Best Lead Actress in a Comedy went to Annette Benning (The Kids are All Right). As for the men, Colin Firth took the Best Lead Actor in a Drama for his amazing performance in Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech while ScreenTime favorite Paul Giamatti took home the award for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy. One of the most deserving winners of the night, Christian Bale, took home the Best Supporting Actor statue for his instant classic performance in The Fighter. All very predictable.

Best Picture, Director and Screenplay Awards: Also predictable, The Social Network and The Kids Are All Right took home the Best Picture awards for drama and comedy while Toy Story 3 took home the Best Animated Feature Award. Pretty much everyone who made Globe predictions nailed those three, if nothing else. Alan Sorkin’s amazing adapted screenplay for The Social Network won a well deserved award while David Fincher won his first major statue for his direction in the same film. All in all, we at the ScreenTime offices are okay with this batch of winners, especially Sorkin. Someday, we hope, Inception director Christopher Nolan will get some paper weights for his incredible body of work.

TV Awards: Meh. ScreemTime has never much cared for television awards. And this year, with “Glee” winning nearly all of the Musical/Comedy awards, we definitely weren’t feeling too moved. I was, however, happy to see Steve Buscemi win the award for Best Male Lead in a Dramatic Series for his work in the kinda/sorta great “Boardwalk Empire.” Oh, and I was also stoked to see another ScreenTime favorite, Laura Linney, take home the award for Best Female Lead in a Dramatic Series. “The Big Bang Theory” star Jim “Sheldon” Parsons won the Best Male Lead in a Comedic Series statue while Al Pacino won Best Male Lead in a Mini-Series for his work in “You Don’t Know Jack.” So, really, the television portion of the ceremony was as boring and annoying as ever. As major fans of “Treme,” “The Walking Dead” and a few other shows that didn’t win awards, there’s just no way we can enjoy seeing the “Glee” kids crying tears of joy. Lowbrow stuff. Oh, and last but not least, Robert De Niro won the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award and Halle Berry looked every bit as stunning as she has for the last 22 years. Two very different versions of the fountain of youth, you could say.

Opening This Weekend: No Strings Attached, an Ivan Reitman-directed romantic comedy starring Natalie Portman and Bruce Willis’ son, opens everything. Looks very dumb. How Portman got suckered into this one is beyond us. One of ScreenTime’s all-time favorite directors, Pete Weir, also has a new movie opening this week called The Way Back. Starring Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan and Jim Sturgess, the movie (which is thus far getting very mixed reviews) will open in 650 theaters in the U.S. - about a fourth of the average for a wide opening. Very promising looking drama The Company Men will open in 100 theaters across the U.S. while Blue Valentine will continue to spread across the country, testing very well.

New to Home Video: Out this past Tuesday, January 18, were Animal Kingdom, Freakonomics, Jack Goes Boating, Lebanon, Stone, Takers, The Virginity Hit, Criterion reissues of two Samuel Fuller classics (The Naked Kiss and Shock Corridor), season five of “Waking the Dead,” season one of “Justified” and season 14 of “Dallas.” Out this coming Tuesday, January 25, are The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Like Dandelion Dust, Red (not the Krzysztof Kieslowski classic starring Irene Jacob, but the recent U.S. action bash starring Ashton Kutcher’s dad and Morgan Freeman), the latest Saw movie, Secretariat and season two, volume one of “Glee.” Meh.