Foreign Press Kings Cameron

Avatar wins top film honors at Golden Globes

The nerdy French cousin of the Oscars, the Golden Globes often garners as much ridicule as praise, but it's hard to argue with going first (just see any popular blog's comment page).  And while at times it may seem like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association can't tell a hawk from a handsaw, when it comes to narrowing down the pool of Oscar hopefuls, they know which way the wind is blowing.

Daily Variety, from which we subversively stole our name, labeled this year's Golden Globes "populist fare", which is their snoody way of saying "movies that have been seen by actual people."  While I'm all but certain the Oscars will rectify the high visibility nature of the award winners, it's good to see someone acknowledging the films that have impressed both critics and crowd alike, even if it is the Golden Globes.

The Big film winner of the night was the rapidly-approaching-Titanic-dollars Avatar, taking home both best dramatic picture and best director awards for returning champ James Cameron.  Picking up its first win for best comedy was the delightfully zanny summer surprise The Hangover, and despite a reasonably competitive list for best animated picture, Pixar's Up once again proved the animation studio's invulnerability.  Up also grabbed a win for best score for Michael Giacchino's incredibly catchy melodic musings on the F Major 7 chord.

In the thespian category, the dude abided with a win for Jeff Bridges' performance as a down and out country western singer in Crazy Heart.  Similarly, the HPFA picked another southern character performance with Sandra Bullock and her role as a concerned mother who takes in a homeless youth in The Blind Side.  On the lighter side of the category, Meryl Streep won for her uncanny performance as Julia Child in the hunger inducing Julie & Julia, while Robert Downey, Jr. took a win for best performance in a comedy or musical for his portrayal of the cantankerous master of logic in Sherlock Holmes.  

In supporting roles, the HFPA played it safe and picked the two most well deserving candidates, Cristoph Waltz for his hauntingly sinister portrayal of Colonel Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds and actress Mo'Nique for her role as the frighteningly abusive mother in Precious.  Curiously, both wins went to the two best villains of the year.  A good year to be bad, it seems.

The Globes differ in one major way from the Oscars by pulling double duty with television awards as well as film.  Dexter, now in its third season, earned big wins in the acting category, garnering a first time win for lead actor Michael C. Hall in addition to a win for John Lithgow for his supporting role in the series about the serial killer who kills serial killers.  

Toni Collette won her first globe for the Diablo Cody penned comedy The United States of Tara, while Julianna Margulies won a dramatic actress award for her work in The Good Wife (which I shamefully can admit to having never heard of).  Mad Men took away another win for best Dramatic series, while new comer Glee won for best comedy.

Most noticeably, Oscar hopefuls Up in the Air and The Hurt Locker came away with nothing, a sad, but not all together surprising turnout by the internationally minded voters of the HFPA.  While this is a blow for the current Oscar favorites, rest assured both Jason Reitman and Kathryn Bigelow will have a better reception at the Academy, whose list of nominees should be out later in January.

For an entire list of winners, I recommend the /Slashfilm blog post on the subject.  Check back this week as I continue the Best of 2009, including, at the end of the week, a new Weekly Monotony podcast with our picks for best films of 2009.