Laremy Legel,  Dec 14, 2006

The Golden Globes generally represent the general public more than the high-flying and semi-elitist Oscars, which is why a few of this year's nominations are disappointing. For example, the Hollywood Foreign Press decided that both Leo DiCaprio and Clint Eastwood deserved two nominations apiece when by my count there were at least 42 other actors and directors who released movies too. Hey, how about showing a little imagination? However, there were also a few bright spots, and we owe it to ourselves, nay the world, to break these movie nominations down category by category. Settle in and get yourself some coffee.

DRAMA
Babel
Bobby
The Departed
Little Children
The Queen

The Bobby nomination here is a wonderful thing. The Queen was very solid too. The Departed was more of a decent adaptation than something that deserved special praise, but I haven't met anyone who didn't like it, so I'll grudgingly go along. Little Children made $2.7m at the box office. I mean, give me a break, it's a critic's special and clearly someone was paid off to get it some DVD rentals/sales. I'm in the minority on Babel because I hated it (extremely angry review HERE), but it made more internationally than it did domestically, so it seems fitting that it got a nom from the Hollywood Foreign press. And no, I'm not relying on box-office dollars to prove level of art, I'm just using them to indicate that 40% of this year's dramatic nominations were in fact not beloved by the world at large.

ACTRESS (DRAMA)
Penelope Cruz - Volver
Judi Dench - Notes on a Scandal
Maggie Gyllenhaal - Sherrybaby
Helen Mirren - The Queen
Kate Winslet - Little Children

I saw three of these: Volver, The Queen, and Little Children. I simply love Winslet, but the movie was too poor (okay, mean spirited Little Children review here) for me to grant her a nomination. Helen Mirren seems to be the prohibitive favorite. Cruz plays the same character she did in Woman on Top, but everyone seems to be in denial about that. I would have thrown in Lucy Liu for Lucky Number Slevin and Scarlett Jo for Scoop. No one else on the planet would agree with me there, so I'll just move along.

ACTOR (DRAMA)
Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Departed
Peter O'Toole - Venus
Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland

It's nice to see a Will Smith nom, as it's a better than average film. In fairness I didn't see Blood Diamond, so perhaps the two DiCaprio nods are fair. The award is most likely going to Forest Whitaker no matter what, though, as he has more buzz than a beehive right now.

MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Borat
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Little Miss Sunshine
Thank You For Smoking

Borat is a prime example of what the Golden Globes are better at: rewarding worthy films that may not be considered "high art." Thank You For Smoking is a case of the concept working better than the actual movie. Prada was good, and I don't mind a nomination. But really, give me Little Miss Sunshine or Dreamgirls every day of the week and twice on Sunday. (Hey, how about a review from a movie I loved called Dreamgirls?)

ACTRESS (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Annette Bening - Running with Scissors
Toni Collette - Little Miss Sunshine
Beyonce Knowles - Dreamgirls
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada
Renee Zellweger - Miss Potter

Annette Bening played a crazy chick. To me, she was about the 108th best actress this year. Beyonce getting a nomination ahead of Jennifer Hudson is the greatest injustice of this year. Oscar will not make the same mistake. This award is probably Streep's to lose.

ACTOR (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Sacha Baron Cohen - Borat
Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Aaron Eckhart - Thank You For Smoking
Chiwetel Ejiofor - Kinky Boots
Will Ferrell - Stranger Than Fiction

Johnny Depp! Yes, please, thank you, sir. Baron Cohen gives Golden Globe another dose of street cred. Ferrell wasn't good enough to carry a weak movie, and he was better as the straight man in Winter Passing, which evidently only I saw. Aaron Eckhart could have been any actor, he wasn't a stand-out guy to me. I've never even heard of Kinky Boots, and I review movies for a living. Anything less than a Depp victory here is the height of nonsense.

FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
Apocalypto
Letters from Iwo Jima
The Lives of Others
Pan's Labyrinth
Volver

I've seen exactly two of these, but I'm seeing Letters From Iwo Jima tomorrow, and I have high hopes it will take the lead in this category. Apocalypto won a weekend with an extremely low dollar amount regardless of all the hype. Volver was good, but not great.

ANIMATED FILM
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

The only one I saw was atrocious -- I'm looking at you, Monster House. I would have put Over The Hedge in here and given it the award without even asking for a vote.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Adriana Barraza - Babel
Cate Blanchett - Notes on a Scandal
Emily Blunt - The Devil Wears Prada
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi - Babel

Emily Blunt is a huge stretch here. The continually strange thing about all these awards is how messed up the categories are. Both Blunt and Streep were supporting characters, Anne Hathoway was the female lead, anyone could see that. Hudson is more arguable I guess, but her performance was the most noteworthy and she carried the film. That sounds like the definition of a lead role to me. The two Babel noms are a cry for help. C'mon Golden Globes, get your act together. I would have given these nods to Rachel Bilson in The Last Kiss and Ashley Johnson in Fast Food Nation. Again, I would be on an island with those nominations.

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ben Affleck - Hollywoodland
Jack Nicholson - The Departed
Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
Brad Pitt - Babel
Mark Wahlberg - The Departed

The Wahlberg nomination might be the best thing the Globes did this year; he was awesome in a smaller role. However, the only winner here has to be Eddie Murphy. You simply cannot give it to anyone else; he was astounding in Dreamgirls. See the movie just for him if you have to.

DIRECTOR
Clint Eastwood - Flags of Our Fathers
Clint Eastwood - Letters from Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears - The Queen
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Babel
Martin Scorsese - The Departed

Flags of Our Fathers is not a good movie no matter how much we may like Clint. I'm sure he's great, but directing a good film should be some type of qualifier, call me crazy. Frears is a great nom, and Eastwood for Iwo Jima is probably deserved too. This award is Scorsese's though; start engraving it.

SCREENPLAY
Babel
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal
The Departed
The Queen

You too can write the Babel screenplay, just start at depressing and then break out your shovel. Little Children would require you not tying anything together, a little more difficult. The Queen is the best screenplay in this group, innovative and nuanced. The Departed is based on a foreign film, Infernal Affairs, so I knock them down because adapting is easier than creating. Sorry, rules are rules.

ORIGINAL SCORE
The Painted Veil
The Fountain
Babel
Nomad
The Da Vinci Code

Pass. I don't usually notice scores. I notice songs, but unless you are Jaws or Star Wars I won't recall your string music.

ORIGINAL SONG
"A Father's Way" - Pursuit of Happyness
"Listen" - Dreamgirls
"Never Gonna Break My Faith" - Bobby
"The Song of the Heart" - Happy Feet
"Try Not to Remember" - Home of the Brave

This must go to "Listen" or I will go on a hunger strike. It's not even the best song in the film, but it's still better than anything else out there in any other movie. Dreamgirls was that good.

And thus concludes one man's Golden Globe gripes and attaboys. We'll be doing this for S.A.G. and Oscars too, so stay tuned!

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Laremy Legel
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