2016 Golden Globe Winners

It used to be, in years past, that the big winners at the Golden Globes were often in sync with the Oscars that followed and could be considered a strong predictor. That isn’t necessarily the case anymore. Basically, nobody takes the Globes seriously, least of all master-of-ceremonies Ricky Gervais, who returned for his fourth time to host.

In the movie categories, ‘The Revenant’ claimed the big prize for Best Motion Picture – Drama this year, while ‘The Martian’ (which is neither a comedy nor a musical) took home Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to see both nominated at the Oscars, I tend to doubt that either will win Best Picture there. ‘The Martian’ would never be in any serious contention for the prize, and ‘The Revenant’ has a big knock against it in that director Alejandro González Iñárritu just won for ‘Birdman’ last year, and the Academy is generally averse to handing out back-to-back trophies.

On the TV side of things, the USA Network’s fascinating ‘Mr. Robot’ took both Best Television Series – Drama and Best Supporting Actor (Christian Slater), yet star Rami Malek (the best thing in the show) was passed over to give Jon Hamm a valedictory prize for the final season of ‘Mad Men’. Meanwhile, Amazon scored a major coup by winning Best Television Series and Best Actor (Gael Garcia Bernal) in the Comedy/Musical realm for ‘Mozart in the Jungle’. Best Actress there went to Rachel Bloom of the CW’s very fun (yet poorly watched) ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’, which is currently a bubble show that needs any attention it can get if it hopes to be renewed for a second season.

Random Thoughts and Observations

Gervais was in good form as host, gleefully skewering many of the stars in attendance and the Golden Globes themselves. As I recall, the last time he hosted in 2012, he was effectively sidelined for the majority of the ceremony and held backstage after his opening monologue. He made more frequent appearances this year and got in some good digs throughout.

Andy Samberg also gave a funny speech as a presenter early on, but Amber Heard and Jamie Alexander apparently had some sort of teleprompter malfunction and awkwardly fumbled their presentation.

Jamie Foxx hilariously mocked Steve Harvey’s Miss Universe fiasco by pretending to call out the wrong winner for the Best Original Score category. That prize went to Ennio Morricone for ‘The Hateful Eight’. Quentin Tarantino accepted in his absence and made a total ass of himself by taking credit for discovering Morricone, as if he were some obscure talent that no one else in the world had ever recognized or appreciated.

In accepting his Best Supporting Actor trophy for ‘Creed’, Sylvester Stallone thanked everybody under the sun except writer/director Ryan Coogler. This did not go unnoticed on Twitter, where filmmaker Ava DuVernay called him out on it. Reportedly, Stallone came back onstage during the commercial break to apologize, but that wasn’t televised.

I don’t have anything against Lady Gaga, but she’s not a very good actress and certainly did not deserve any kind of award for her performance in ‘American Horror Story’ this season. Her overly emotional acceptance speech was a far better acting job than anything she’s done in the show.

Even Sam Smith couldn’t believe he won for that awful ‘Spectre’ theme song of his. He seemed genuinely dumbfounded to be called on stage.

Mel Gibson took his taunting by Gervais (which included deliberately leaving a glass of beer on the podium for him) in good humor. If Gibson’s image could ever be rehabilitated, this is a good start.

Tom Hanks gave an extremely eloquent (if long-winded) tribute to Denzel Washington for the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award. This was then followed by Denzel losing his speech, forgetting his glasses, and stammering awkwardly as he struggled to remember who to thank. Somewhere in the middle of this, he did manage to tell a funny anecdote about winning his first Golden Globe award.

Ridley Scott was visibly perplexed and annoyed that ‘The Martian’ was categorized as a Comedy. During his acceptance speech, he refused to wrap up when the music played and told the band and the ceremony’s producers, “Screw you.”

The ceremony ended four minutes behind schedule at 11:04 PM ET, which is surprisingly tardy for a show that usually runs like clockwork. That’s probably Ridley’s fault.

Best Motion Picture – Drama

  • ‘Carol’
  • ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
  • ‘The Revenant’
  • ‘Room’
  • ‘Spotlight’

Winner: ‘The Revenant’

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

  • ‘The Big Short’
  • ‘Joy’
  • ‘The Martian’
  • ‘Spy’
  • ‘Trainwreck’

Winner: ‘The Martian’

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

  • Bryan Cranston, ‘Trumbo’
  • Leonardo DiCaprio, ‘The Revenant’
  • Michael Fassbender, ‘Steve Jobs’
  • Eddie Redmayne, ‘The Danish Girl’
  • Will Smith, ‘Concussion’

Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

  • Cate Blanchett, ‘Carol’
  • Brie Larson, ‘Room’
  • Rooney Mara, ‘Carol’
  • Saoirse Ronan, ‘Brooklyn’
  • Alicia Vikander, ‘The Danish Girl’

Winner: Brie Larson

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

  • Christian Bale, ‘The Big Short’
  • Steve Carell, ‘The Big Short’
  • Matt Damon, ‘The Martian’
  • Al Pacino, ‘Danny Collins’
  • Mark Rufallo, ‘Infinitely Polar Bear’

Winner: Matt Damon

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

  • Jennifer Lawrence, ‘Joy’
  • Melissa McCarthy, ‘Spy’
  • Amy Schumer, ‘Trainwreck’
  • Maggine Smith, ‘The Lady in the Van’
  • Lily Tomlin, ‘Grandma’

Winner: Jennifer Lawrence

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role – Any Motion Picture

  • Paul Dano, ‘Love & Mercy’
  • Idris Elba, ‘Beasts of No Nation’
  • Mark Rylance, ‘Bridge of Spies’
  • Michael Shannon, ’99 Homes’
  • Sylvester Stallone, ‘Creed’

Winner: Sylvester Stallone

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role – Any Motion Picture

  • Jane Fonda, ‘Youth’
  • Jennifer Jason Leigh, ‘The Hateful Eight’
  • Helen Mirren, ‘Trumbo’
  • Alicia Vikander, ‘Ex Machina’
  • Kate Winslet, ‘Steve Jobs’

Winner: Kate Winslet

Best Director – Motion Picture

  • Todd Haynes, ‘Carol’
  • Alejandro Iñárritu, ‘The Revenant’
  • Tom McCarthy, ‘Spotlight’
  • George Miller, ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
  • Ridley Scott, ‘The Martian’

Winner: Alejandro Iñárritu

Best Motion Picture – Animated

  • ‘Anomalisa’
  • ‘The Good Dinosaur’
  • ‘Inside Out’
  • ‘The Peanuts Movie’
  • ‘Shaun the Sheep Movie’

Winner: ‘Inside Out’

Best Television Series – Drama

  • ‘Empire’
  • ‘Game of Thrones’
  • ‘Mr. Robot’
  • ‘Narcos’
  • ‘Outlander’

Winner: ‘Mr. Robot’

Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy

  • ‘Casual’
  • ‘Mozart in the Jungle’
  • ‘Orange Is the New Black’
  • ‘Silicon Valley’
  • ‘Transparent’
  • ‘Veep’

Winner: ‘Mozart in the Jungle’

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama

  • Jon Hamm, ‘Mad Men’
  • Rami Malek, ‘Mr. Robot’
  • Wagner Moura, ‘Narcos’
  • Bob Odenkirk, ‘Better Call Saul’
  • Liev Schreiber, ‘Ray Donovan’

Winner: Jon Hamm

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama

  • Caitriona Balfe, ‘Outlander’
  • Viola Davis, ‘How to Get Away with Murder’
  • Eva Green, ‘Penny Dreadful’
  • Taraji P. Henson, ‘Empire’
  • Robin Wright, ‘House of Cards’

Winner: Taraji P. Henson

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy

  • Aziz Ansari, ‘Master of None’
  • Gael García Bernal, ‘Mozart in the Jungle’
  • Rob Lowe, ‘The Grinder’
  • Patrick Stewart, ‘Blunt Talk’
  • Jeffrey Tambor, ‘Transparent’

Winner: Gael Garcia Bernal

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy

  • Rachel Bloom, ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’
  • Jamie Lee Curtis, ‘Scream Queens’
  • Julia Louis-Dreyfus, ‘Veep’
  • Gina Rodriguez, ‘Jane the Virgin’
  • Lily Tomlin, ‘Grace and Frankie’

Winner: Rachel Bloom

Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

  • ‘American Crime’
  • ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’
  • ‘Fargo’
  • ‘Flesh & Bone’
  • ‘Wolf Hall’

Winner: ‘Wolf Hall’

For the complete list of nominees and winners, go to the official Golden Globes web site.

5 comments

  1. timcharger

    Anyone else noticed the great drinking game of spot the beard?
    I only watched seconds/minutes at time (busy with family
    obligations) and there was full beard on every other guy.

    It’s like once some El Nino rain hits southern California, then
    every actor needs the warmth of facial hair.

  2. Bryan

    Yes – Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction were great films, but IMHO, Tarantino has been going downhill ever since (as a filmmaker). I can’t stand Kill Bill (it just seemed like an excuse to show people getting sliced up with swords). I sort-of liked the Grindhouse flicks (although the best part of that was Machete – which was totally all Robert Rodriguez). As a person, I think he’s always been a jerk – he was just tolerated since he was the “hot, new talent” of the day.

  3. Blu-Bliss

    Jeessss! …one other forum is bashing Leonardo Decaprio and this one’s about Tarantino. I didn’t know you have to like these people personally in order to enjoy their movies. It’s not like this happens when I watch any of his movies: …God Damn!!! I can’t stop thinking about Tarantino’s arrogance!…damn it! that ruins the movie for me! 😉

    What I found funny was Decaprio’s statement at the end of his speech. Yeah! let’s protect our indigenous people and their land. A bit too late…don’t you think? – I guess making a movie with good intentions and coming from a Spanish Director, should be enough to make the Indigenous people forget the atrocities done to them, right?

    Lady Gaga winning over Kirsten Dunst (Fargo), and Queen Latifah (Bessie)…ha ha…I’m surprised they didn’t call AHS a comedy too. Golden Globes are a joke anyway. Gervais is right.

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