Golden Globes winners reaction

A few notable surprises at the film awards season's most overhyped, unrepresentative event.

No, I don’t watch the Golden Globes. The reason I don’t is I find most awards shows painful to watch, and the Globes represents the low tide of the season’s annual tromp through BS and slavish devotion to Hollywood ego-fluffing.

How the Globes became important I’ll never know, though I have to acknowledge they do hold some sway in the horse-jockeying for the main event, the Oscars, which are pushed back to April 25 this year, with nominations coming two weeks from today.

So let’s dive into some notable hits and misses, and how they bode for the Academy Awards.

The Globes divide up their best picture and acting awards (though not supporting acting categories) by drama vs. musical/comedies. As a general rule comedies don’t fare very well at the Oscars, so the Globes represent a chance for the people behind them to shine.

Thus the love for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” which won best comedy or musical film and best actor for Sacha Baron Cohen. I thought the first Borat movie mildly overrated and the second wildly overrated. But Cohen is officially back now.

Rosamund Pike scored for best musical/comedy actress for “I Care A Lot,” which I’ve still not seen, though it’s definitely more in the black comedy range.

The case for “Nomadland” continues, winning best drama film and best director for Chloe Zhao — both well-deserved, in my opinion. With “Mank” getting blanked, it seems to have a clear path to Oscar frontrunner.

The biggest shock of the night was its star, Hollywood royalty Frances McDormand, losing out in best drama actress to Andra Day for “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” a Hulu film that has come out of nowhere. I happened to watch it yesterday before the Globes, and agree with Adam Aasen’s assessment that it’s a great performance in a lackluster movie.

Chadwick Boseman won best actor or “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” my favorite film of the year, which strangely did not make the list of nominees for best musical or comedy. Perhaps something of a sympathy vote for the actor’s untimely death, but also a rather weak year for male lead roles.

Daniel Kaluuya won supporting actor for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” which is my favorite of those nominated. Another big surprise of the night was Jodie Foster winning supporting actress for “The Mauritanian.” I probably would’ve gone with Glenn Close or Amanda Seyfried.

Since this year’s broadcast was conducted remotely due to the ‘rona, people are already talking about the adorable domestic scene of Foster accepting the award from her couch with her wife and pooch.

I have a lot of respect for Foster, especially the way she chooses projects carefully, content to disappear from public view for years at a time. I can’t say as I thought “The Mauritanian” represents her best work, though.

The Globes combine their screenplay into a single award regardless of whether it’s an original or adapted script. I scratched my head at Aaron Sorkin’s win for the good-not-great “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” It’s basically just a lot of zesty speeches where people talk at each other instead of communicating.

I would’ve gone with Zhao, who took a nonfiction book and created an indelible fictional character. But awards tend to reward snappy dialogue more than spare storytelling.

As is now foredained, the Pixar/Disney movie, “Soul,” won the animated category, as it seemingly always does, despite the presence of the vastly superior “Wolfwalkers.” “Soul” also won best musical score, which is more deserved.

There was a lot of vexing about “Minari” competing in the foreign language film category since it was set and shot in America, but it had a better chance of actually winning — which it did — than going up against the heavyweights in the best drama field. The Oscars call it the International Feature now, so this win may give “Minari” some juice to compete for a best picture nomination.

There was some newfound reserve for the Globes this because of articles that made the shocking discovery that the mysterious Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which gives them out, is not very diverse, leading to the #GoldenGlobesSoWhite movement.

Personally I find it funny that media/culture folks spent decades giving credence to a BS incestuous awards organization but now are in a huff because they're an unrepresentative BS incestuous awards organization.

Curtain down on this year’s Golden Globes, always and forever the Oscars opening act.