Seth Myers Hosts Sunday’s Golden Globes with Tightest Competition in Years

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 04 January 2018 19:20

Written by Ellis Nassour

With betting odds too close to call in the Picture and Acting categories, Sunday’s 2018/75th Anniversary Golden Globes, presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and telecast live on NBC at 8 Eastern from the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom, should be one of the most exciting in years.

The party atmosphere – with free-flowing bottles of wine and cocktails, will be enhanced by the Twin Peaks style of SNL alum Seth Myers, in his first hosting  gig since the 2014 Emmys. He says: “Hollywood, we have a lot to talk about!” and it’s not all good.

Myers follows in the recent footsteps of SNL alum Amy Poehler and Tina Faye. Myers is quite adept working an audience. It will either be a walk-on-egg-shells evening with the sexual harassment issues of the last few months – or a no-holds-barred fest of witty repartee.

The GGs will air in more than 210 countries and is one of the few award ceremonies to include movies and TV achievement.

With too-close-to-call [the closest in years] nominees in several categories and the Oscars almost two months away (March 4), hardly anything is a done deal in the wild ride to victory. That bodes well for suspense and surprise at the first-out-the-gate GGs.

Drama frontrunners are Guillermo del Toro's fantasy romance The Shape of Water, which racked up seven nods including Best and Supporting Actress honors for Sally Hawkins and Oscar-winner Olivia Spencer’s performances; romantic sexual-coming-of-age drama Call Me By Your Name; and vengeful black comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Then, there's Steven Spielberg’s All the President’s Men-type expose drama of the publication of the Pentagon Papers, The Post; and Christopher Nolan’s WWII “can we get our boys home alive” drama Dunkirk, which shows all too-vividly the horror of war [but with too much CGI].

The Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical field, which this year has little of both, seems to be in the service of improving wins or giving exposure to deserving films, Greta Gerwig's directorial debut Lady Bird leads the pack with four nominations including a Best Actress nod for Saoirse Ronan. I, Tonya follows with three.

Oprah Winfrey will receive the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Award, which Golden Globes’ board of directors bestows “on a person who has made an incredible impact on the world of entertainment.” It seems years too late, but certainly couldn’t be more well-deserved for the impact Ms. Winfrey has made and continues to make.

Motion Picture, Drama

• Call Me By Your Name
• Dunkirk
• The Post
• The Shape of Water
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

All five nominees have reaped acclaim as have the actors in four of the films. Cold War fantasy romance The Shape of Water leads the field with seven nominations, closely followed by six for Steven Spielberg’s The Post, which has a daunting pair of beloved GG darlings, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. But in this year of top-grossing indies, Call Me By Your Name and Three Billboards… may cause an upset.

Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical

• The Disaster Artist
• Get Out
• The Greatest Showman
• I, Tonya
• Lady Bird

The Greatest Showman mixes history, often turning it upside down with lots of contemporary and hip twists – and is too reminiscent of the style of Moulin Rouge. Director Craig Gillespie and writer Steven Rogers achieve the impossible: meld true-life incidents, stupidity, and violence into a well-crafted satire on winning at all costs. Hilarious, sometimes sad, and devastatingly well-written Lady Bird tackles mother/daughter tensions. Get Out offers the unique combination of biting social satire and a metaphor on racism. In the indiest indie of the year, The Disaster Artist, James Franco takes a cow’s ear and spins gold and, once and for all, proves he’s a triple threat: actor, director, and [co-] producer [along with Seth Rogen and 20 others].

Motion Picture, Actress, Drama

• Jessica Chastain, Molly's Game
• Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
• Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
• Meryl Streep, The Post
• Michelle Williams, All the Money in the World

Even with strong contenders Hawkins, Streep, and Williams, could a GG finally go to McDormand, with six GG nominations, for her poignant portrayal of a mother out for revenge?

Motion Picture, Actor, Drama

• Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
• Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
• Tom Hanks, The Post
• Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
• Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Can the expertly-played performances of three powerhouse artists prevent a win, in the heated competition between Chalamet in a stirring sexual coming-of-age tale and longtime favorite Oldman, who is transformed into British statesman Winston Churchill. While Oldman, with his jowls, paunch, and cadence, gives audiences a living, breathing Churchill, it’s hard to top Chalament’s final silent, tearful moments in stark close-up in front of that roaring fireplace.

Motion Picture, Actress, Comedy or Musical

• Judi Dench, Victoria & Abdul
• Helen Mirren, The Leisure Seeker
• Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
• Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
• Emma Stone, Battle of the Sexes

Not long after Greta Gerwig came on the scene as Hollywood’s new darling, Ronan came calling. The two acclaimed up-and-comers have bonded for Lady Bird with Gerwig not only in her directorial debut but also directing Ronan. One also has to admire Robbie’s ability to make ice-skating-world’s talented but not well respected Harding a sympathetic character.

Motion Picture, Actor, Comedy or Musical

• Steve Carell, Battle of the Sexes
• Ansel Elgort, Baby Driver
• James Franco, The Disaster Artist
• Hugh Jackman, The Greatest Showman
• Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out

Jack-of-all-trades and master of most Franco brilliantly captures the absurdist and I-Can-Do-That spirit of indie jack-of-all-trades and master of none Tommy Wiseau. He has stiff completion from Kaluuya as Get Out’s  young black terrorized by his white girlfriend’s family; and Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars) as the partially hearing-impaired getaway driver caught up in the comedy camper Baby Driver‘s crime maelstrom.

Motion Picture, Supporting Actress

• Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
• Hong Chau, Downsizing
• Allison Janney, I, Tonya
• Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
• Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

It’s even odds between 2017’s overbearing, shoot-from-the-hip and damn-the-consequences mothers: the always magnificent Metcalf of Lady Bird and I, Tonya’s equally magnificent Janney.

Sadly, and most puzzling, the nominators didn’t recognize Oscar winner Melissa Leo’s Jeykll and Hyde benevolent/monster-from-hell Mother Superior in Novitiate.

Motion Picture, Supporting Actor

• Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
• Armie Hammer, Call Me By Your Name
• Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water
• Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World
• Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Plummer excels in director Ridley Scott’s brave reshoot of over 20 sequences for All the Money in the World, but, after waiting years for him to find the role that will place him back in the big leagues, in Three Billboards… Rockwell delivers one of the most memorable performances ever – akin to Cagney, grapefruit in hand, in Public Enemy.

Motion Picture, Director

• Guillermo del Torro, The Shape of Water
• Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
• Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
• Ridley Scott, All the Money in the World
• Steven Spielberg, The Post

In the what-were-the-nominators-thinking shocker that you can bet the Oscars won’t repeat, they forgot this was the year of female empowerment and racial diversity in the industry. Not one woman made it into the category. Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow (Detroit), Oscar-winner Sofia Coppola (Beguiled), Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman), and Dee Rees (Mudbound) made films that were, in most cases, acclaimed and box office champs.

TV Series, Drama

• The Crown (Netflix)
• Game of Thrones (HBO)
• The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu)
• Stranger Things (Netflix)
• This Is Us (NBC)

TV Series, Comedy

• Black-ish (ABC)
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)
• Master of None (Netflix)
• SMILF(Showtime)
• Will & Grace (NBC)

TV Movie or Limited-Series

• Big Little Lies (HBO)
• Fargo (FX)
• Feud: Bette and Joan (FX)
• The Sinner (USA)
• Top of the Lake: China Girl (Sundance TV)

For more information, a complete list of motion picture and TV nominations, clips, and photos visit www.nbc.com/the-golden-globe-awards.

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