You can bet your bottom dollar a plethora of fans will tune in to watch the 70th Annual Golden Globes blowout on Sunday, Jan. 13 (NBC, 8 p.m.ET/5 p.m. PT). Not so much to savor the dubious critical integrity and taste exhibited by the largely unknown yet bewilderingly influential members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, but most definitely for “The Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Comedy Hour.” Touting the HFPA’s awards ceremony in a promotional parody, the co-hosting queens of comedy vamp and burble that Sunday will be “Splendid! Wondrous! Clever! Filled with surprises and extreme pageantry! Slightly ghetto! Drunken!” As Liz Lemon would say, “I want to go there!”
Unlike the festivities, this year’s slate of movie and TV noms isn’t likely to generate big-time suspense or excitement, boozy or otherwise. Barring a few surprises and snubs, the globular nominations pretty much mirror the awards-circuit consensus on the year’s best. That’s in contrast to previous off-the-wall choices by a group seemingly more jazzed by high-profile celebrity guests than cutting-edge entertainment, let alone art. This year, thankfully, there’s not too much opportunity for outrage on the parts of the professionals whose job it is to eyeball screens in their myriad of forms and sizes.
Let’s take a look at the Golden Globes candidates for best movies and TV — spiced up by our own only occasionally snarky opinionating, handicapping and predictions about who and what the Hollywood Foreign Press will see fit to honor in the New Year.
GOLDEN GLOBES NOMINATIONS – FILM
BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
“Argo”
“Django Unchained”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“Zero Dark Thirty”
Handicapping: While Ang Lee’s ambitious “Life of Pi” failed to touch hearts or minds, Spielberg’s “Lincoln” did both, transforming political machinations into moving history with ease and grace. “Django” rewrites the history of slavery by means of wild-hair cinematic style, and “Zero Dark Thirty” pictures the pursuit of Osama bin Laden as obsession and irresistible momentum. Hard to imagine what delusional mindset would pass up “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Lincoln,” or “Django Unchained” — gut-wrenching portraits of America — for the unexceptional though easy-to-love “Argo.”
Winner: “Lincoln”