2018 Golden Globe Nominations

2018 Golden Globe Nominations

Were ‘Get Out’ and ‘Lady Bird’ necessarily “comedies,” exactly? Why didn’t ‘The Big Sick’ get recognized for anything? Did Christopher Plummer really just get an award nomination for playing Kevin Spacey? It’s Golden Globe nomination time. Let the bafflement begin.

The 2018 award season kicked off Monday morning when Kristen Bell, Alfre Woodard, Garrett Hedlund and Sharon Stone presented the new year’s Golden Globe nominations. I considered cranking out a post about this to run yesterday, but was ultimately too busy and too apathetic about the Golden Globes to set aside everything else for that purpose.

As usual, the Globe voters have chosen to recognize a selection of expected awards-bait pictures with some utterly puzzling choices.

Best Motion Picture: Drama

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

We’ll start with the category with the least surprises. I haven’t heard much about ‘The Post’ yet, and it seems like nominating a movie about The Washington Post bringing down a Republican President is probably more a political statement than a reflection of that movie’s actual quality, but all the other nominees here have been fairly acclaimed and may turn up again when Oscar nominations are announced.

Best Motion Picture: Comedy or Musical

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

Yes, ‘Get Out’ had a lot of satirical elements, but I don’t think it’s exactly right to call it a comedy. Likewise for ‘Lady Bird’. Of course, the Globes do this nonsense almost every year.

‘The Disaster Artist’ has received a lot of buzz and will probably take this category. Globe voters love movies about making movies.

Best Animated Feature

  • ‘The Boss Baby’
  • ‘The Breadwinner’
  • ‘Coco’
  • ‘Ferdinand’
  • ‘Loving Vincent’

Surely there were enough decent animated films in 2017 that ‘The Boss Baby’ didn’t need a nomination? ‘Ferdinand’ doesn’t look too hot either.

Best Director

  • Guillermo del Toro, ‘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’

For their technical achievements, Christopher Nolan and Guillermo del Toro look like the front-runners here. However, if the voters are really in the mood to be political this year, Spielberg may add another trophy to his mantle.

Best Actor: Motion Picture 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.’

Have the Globe voters really seen ‘Phantom Thread’ already, or are they just nominating Daniel Day-Lewis’ alleged final performance on principal sight-unseen?

Best Actress: Motion Picture 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’

I don’t care how great Meryl Streep may be in that movie, she has exceeded her quota for one lifetime’s worth of awards recognition and should be retired from all future nominations.

Best Actor: Motion Picture Musical or Comedy

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

I liked Ansel Elgort in ‘Baby Driver’, but nothing about that performance struck me as needing an award.

I think Franco’s probably a shoe-in for this.

Best Actress: Motion Picture Musical or Comedy

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

What the hell is ‘The Leisure Seeker’?

Best 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’

The Globes do not split the Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress categories into Comedy/Musical or Drama like they do for the lead acting categories.

Let’s be honest, the only reason Christopher Plummer is nominated for ‘All the Money in the World’ is to thumb a nose a Kevin Spacey. (Plummer was hired to replace Spacey in reshoots after that actor’s scandal broke.)

Willem Dafoe was terrific in ‘The Florida Project’. If he doesn’t win here, he probably will at the Oscars.

Best Supporting Actress

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

I haven’t heard too many good things about ‘Mudbound’, but I don’t know enough about any of these movies to make a prediction.

Best Drama Series

  • ‘The Crown’
  • ‘Game of Thrones’
  • ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
  • ‘Stranger Things’
  • ‘This Is Us’

Moving on to the TV section, I fully expect that Emmy winner and of-the-moment cultural touchstone ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ will triumph again.

Best Comedy Series

  • ‘Black-ish’
  • ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’
  • ‘Master of None’
  • ‘SMILF’
  • ‘Will & Grace’

‘Master of None’ is a good show. That’s all I got here.

Best TV Movie or Limited Series

  • ‘Big Little Lies’
  • ‘Fargo’
  • ‘Feud: Bette and Joan’
  • ‘The Sinner’
  • ‘Top of the Lake: China Girl’

I didn’t care for ‘Big Little Lies’. ‘Feud’ was fun but I don’t think it qualifies as “Best” anything. How is ‘Fargo’, a show in its third season, still getting calssified as a “limited series”?

The full list of nominations can be found on the official Golden Globes web site. Since Jimmy Fallon hosted last year, the duty falls to Seth Meyers this time. The awards ceremony will air on January 7th, 2018.

12 comments

  1. Timcharger

    Josh: “I don’t care how great Meryl Streep may be in that movie, she has exceeded her quota for one lifetime’s worth of awards recognition and should be retired from all future nominations.”

    How can this be true and also that she is most overrated? I was told she is most overrated and I have a great memory, so believe me. Must be fake awards. Sad!

  2. William Henley

    Movie wise, I haven’t seen any of them, although three of them are on my to-do list. (Let’s see if anyone can guess which 3).

    For Best Drama, I wouldn’t be surprised if they finally tossed Game of Thrones a bone, but I think there will be bloodshed if it doesn’t go to Stranger Things.

    I have heard of more of these movies and shows than I have in the past, but still, its only about 40% of the list I have heard of or seen.

  3. “it seems like nominating a movie about The Washington Post bringing down a Republican President is probably more a political statement than a reflection of that movie’s actual quality,”
    Or Maybe, I don’t know, it’s possible that it’s a great film in its own right because it’s directed by one of the greatest directors of all time, stars two of the greatest actors of all time, and is about a subject that is often overlooked but every bit as historically significant and compelling as a previous Best Picture nominee, All The President’s Men.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Yeah, but more likely what I said is the actual reason. This is the Golden Globes we’re talking about. I doubt any of the nominating voters have even seen the movie yet.

  4. “Let’s be honest, the only reason Christopher Plummer is nominated for ‘All the Money in the World’ is to thumb a nose a Kevin Spacey. (Plummer was hired to replace Spacey in reshoots after that actor’s scandal broke.)”
    Again, a great actor and one who was director Ridley Scott’s FIRST choice to play Getty. The real scandal is that the studio didn’t think hiring a great, age appropriate actor was as bankable as putting Kevin Spacey in heavy (and quite fake-looking) old age makeup and making an Oscar grab.
    Either way, the ONE person who is blameless in the whole situation is Christopher Plummer, so why all the political venom?
    Seriously, are you trying to get a review gig at Breitbart or something?

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