Statuesque: 2015 Golden Globe Winners

‘Boyhood’ and ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ came up as the big winners at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night. Not that anyone has ever taken the Globes seriously as a measure of artistic worth, but the awards are sometimes considered a possible indicator of future Oscar success. Sometimes, not always. In fact, I’m not even sure it’s all that often.

I think it’s safe to say that ‘Boyhood’ is also near the front of the pack for the Oscar race. ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’, however, may possibly score a Best Picture nomination but seems very unlikely to win, because Oscar voters typically don’t consider comedies to be important enough to be Best Picture material. Honestly, even though I thought the movie was a great deal of fun, I’m surprised it won the Globe for “Musical or Comedy,” which I expected to go to ‘Birdman’. (That’s not based on personal preference, but on what the buzz seemed to favor.)

Other surprise winners include ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’ as Best Animated Feature over ‘Big Hero 6’ or ‘The Lego Movie’, and Julianne Moore over Jennifer Aniston for Best Actress (Drama).

In the television categories, both Best Drama and Best Comedy/Musical went to new series: Showtime’s ‘The Affair’ and Amazon’s ‘Transparent’ respectively. FX’s excellent ‘Fargo’ scored Best Miniseries/TV Movie, trumping both the massively-buzzed ‘True Detective’ and the so-terribly-important issue movie ‘The Normal Heart’ (which won the Emmy).

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the ceremony for the third (and supposedly final) year in a row, though they pretty much disappeared after the first half hour. Their opening monologue jokes were mostly tame, but they got in a couple of good digs at Joaquin Phoenix and George Clooney, and did a pretty ballsy bit about Bill Cosby that undoubtedly made former host Ricky Gervais (who turned up to present an award later) very proud.

Best Motion Picture, Drama

  • ‘Boyhood’
  • ‘Foxcatcher’
  • ‘The Imitation Game’
  • ‘Selma’
  • ‘The Theory of Everything’

Winner: ‘Boyhood’

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

  • ‘Birdman’
  • ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’
  • ‘Into the Woods’
  • ‘Pride’
  • ‘St. Vincent’

Winner: ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’

Best Animated Feature

  • ‘Big Hero 6’
  • ‘The Book of Life’
  • ‘The BoxTrolls’
  • ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’
  • ‘The Lego Movie’

Winner: ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’

Best Foreign-Language Film

  • ‘Force Majeure’ (Sweden)
  • ‘Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem’ (Israel)
  • ‘Ida’ (Poland/Denmark)
  • ‘Leviathan’ (Russia)
  • ‘Tangerines’ (Estonia)

Winner: ‘Leviathan’

Best Director, Motion Picture

  • Wes Anderson – ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’
  • Ava DuVernay – ‘Selma’
  • David Fincher – ‘Gone Girl’
  • Alejandro González Iñárritu – ‘Birdman’
  • Richard Linklater – ‘Boyhood’

Winner: Richard Linklater

Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama

  • Steve Carell – ‘Foxcatcher’
  • Benedict Cumberbatch – ‘The Imitation Game’
  • Jake Gyllenhaal – ‘Nightcrawler’
  • David Oyelowo – ‘Selma’
  • Eddie Redmayne – ‘The Theory of Everything’

Winner: Eddie Redmayne

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama

  • Jennifer Aniston – ‘Cake’
  • Felicity Jones – ‘The Theory of Everything’
  • Julianne Moore – ‘Still Alice’
  • Rosamund Pike – ‘Gone Girl’
  • Reese Witherspoon – ‘Wild’

Winner: Julianne Moore

Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

  • Ralph Fiennes – ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’
  • Michael Keaton – ‘Birdman’
  • Bill Murray – ‘St. Vincent’
  • Joaquin Phoenix – ‘Inherent Vice’
  • Christoph Waltz – ‘Big Eyes’

Winner: Michael Keaton

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

  • Amy Adams – ‘Big Eyes’
  • Emily Blunt – ‘Into the Woods’
  • Helen Mirren – ‘The Hundred Foot Journey’
  • Julianne Moore – ‘Maps to the Stars’
  • Quvenzhané Wallis – ‘Annie’

Winner: Amy Adams

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

  • Robert Duvall – ‘The Judge’
  • Ethan Hawke – ‘Boyhood’
  • Edward Norton – ‘Birdman’
  • Mark Ruffalo – ‘Foxcatcher’
  • J.K. Simmons – ‘Whiplash’

Winner: J.K. Simmons

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

  • Patricia Arquette – ‘Boyhood’
  • Jessica Chastain – ‘A Most Violent Year’
  • Keira Knightley – ‘The Imitation Game’
  • Emma Stone – ‘Birdman’
  • Meryl Streep – ‘In the the Woods’

Winner: Patricia Arquette

Best TV Series, Drama

  • ‘The Affair’
  • ‘Downton Abbey’
  • ‘Game of Thrones’
  • ‘The Good Wife’
  • ‘House of Cards’

Winner: ‘The Affair’

Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy

  • ‘Girls’
  • ‘Jane the Virgin
  • ‘Orange Is the New Black’
  • ‘Silicon Valley’
  • ‘Transparent’

Winner: ‘Transparent’

Best Actor in a TV Series, Drama

  • Clive Owen – ‘The Knick’
  • Liev Schreiber – ‘Ray Donovan’
  • Kevin Spacey – ‘House of Cards’
  • James Spader – ‘The Blacklist’
  • Dominic West – ‘The Affair’

Winner: Kevin Spacey

Best Actress in a TV Series, Drama

  • Claire Danes – ‘Homeland’
  • Viola Davis – ‘How to Get Away with Murder’
  • Juliana Marguiles – ‘The Good Wife’
  • Ruth Wilson – ‘The Affair’
  • Robin Wright – ‘House of Cards’

Winner: Ruth Wilson

Best Actor in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy

  • Louis C.K. – ‘Louie’
  • Don Cheadle – ‘House of Lies’
  • Ricky Gervais – ‘Derek’
  • William H. Macy – ‘Shameless’
  • Jeffrey Tambor – ‘Transparent’

Winner: Jeffrey Tambor

Best Actress in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy

  • Lena Dunham – ‘Girls’
  • Edie Falco – ‘Nurse Jackie’
  • Julia Louis-Dreyfus – ‘Veep’
  • Gina Rodriguez – ‘Jane the Virgin’
  • Taylor Schilling – ‘Orange Is the New Black’

Winner: Gina Rodriguez

Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television

  • ‘Fargo’
  • ‘The Missing’
  • ‘The Normal Heart’
  • ‘Olive Kitteridge’
  • ‘True Detective’

Winner: ‘Fargo’

For the complete list of winners, see the official Golden Globes web site.

7 comments

  1. Deaditelord

    Can someone explain the allure of Boyhood to me? Setting aside the fact that I am not a fan of Richard Linklater’s other movies, just the idea of spending nearly 3 hours watching the lives of a family in what appears to be a coming of age story seems positively boring. Is there more to it than that? I just feel so out of sync with 2014’s movie favorites this year

    • The allure of Boyhood lies mostly in how ambitious the film is with its production. The film isn’t really very special. In fact, the acting is pretty awful from some of the younger cast. The aging of the cast really helps make the family feel real. It’s really bizarre going through the story of the family while they all age. One thing I found really aweaome was that part of the film was a period film in essence because all of the pop culture references and technology were dated. Pretty awesome.
      It’s worth a viewing, but if you’re expecting high drama you might be disappointed.

  2. Basically “Boyhood” is getting love because it took 12 years to complete it. Not that it’s a bad movie, but if it didn’t have that “hook”, it’s doubtful it would be a front-runner for the Best Picture Oscar.

  3. Phil Brown

    See, I think it’s more than a hook. For me anyways, there’s something incredibly resonant about seeing those actors age with their characters. It’s not just a gimmick. It makes Boyhood work on a deeper level than it ever would have if they’d just cycled through a series of older child actors and make up. It’s a deceptively simple movie. On the surface, it’s always played very small and real, as it should be. But, scratch the surface a bit or let the movie wiggle around in your brain for a while and it’s about the weight of time, the nature of growth (in all ages), the fleeting fragility of life, etc, etc, etc. It’s a tough movie to load up with awards because the more you think that you’re going to watch a GREAT (note the caps) movie when you sit down, the harder it is to get into Boyhood’s small n’ mundane rhythms. But, I’m thrilled to see such a small and experimental movie get big glossy awards. In theory, the awards system should wash those out. If nothing else, Boyhood is going to be a unique movie in history for quite some time. Even if another group of filmmakers knock off the concept, it’ll be 10 years before we even know.

  4. Ever since I was a kid, I always wondered if something like that would ever be done in a movie. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I think it takes a lot of patience and discipline to accomplish something like that, especially from a cast of characters. To be able to commit for all those years and not get sidetracked or just wind up quitting. That’s pretty special. I can’t even stick to a diet for a week. I’ll be checking this one out soon.

  5. Deaditelord

    Thanks for all the responses. You all (especially Phil) have convinced me to at least give Boyhood a chance. I have a free Vudu rental to burn anyway 🙂

  6. Rob

    Ruth Wilson earned her golden globe with the most complex, complex emotional performance I’ve ever seen an actress accomplish. You could see layered emotions of varying kinds flit moment by moment in her face, as she reacted to others, her inner conflicts, and to what she was experiencing other people’s emotions. And she’s beautiful and sexy in a layered complex way as well in every move she makes. Her performance was wondrous second by second. Wow!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *