The Boring Globes

Boring by Banksy

My Golden Globes prediction from a few days ago looks like I was on psychotic medication which brought on a severe case of delusion. I was so foolishly hopeful and enthusiastically supportive of the cast and director of 12 Years a Slave, that all common sense just flew out the window when I predicted that it would sweep the Golden Globes. What a silly goose I am!

As per my rants on my twitter account during the broadcast of the show, and some comments posted at the Fassinating Fassbender blog, I quit watching the show half-way through after 12YAS lost its fourth nominated category. It became an embarrassing joke just sitting there and thinking that the film will get the next category, or the next category, and then it seemed clear that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) just couldn't care less about 12YAS, and that's a shame. And the show became dreadfully boring to me. So I stopped watching it, but I followed the progress of the show via twitter and the FF chat I was in.

Jennifer Lawrence

We got a sense of how poorly the film would do when the Golden Globes did what the Golden Globes does all too well, kiss up to the mega-A lister celebrity by giving Jennifer Lawrence, the Best Supporting Actress award over Lupita Nyong'o from 12YAS. Precursor critics awards have showered Lupita with countless wins, and Jennifer has won some herself, but the GGs had the opportunity to make Lupita a household name and give this stellar casted film at least one acting award. The All-American golden girl sweetheart of the moment (or rather, next 2-3 decades), Jennifer Lawrence is just the cherry on top to start off this dull show. I'm not saying that she didn't deserve it, for all intents and purposes, I don't dislike Jennifer, she's a great actress, and for a girl her age, she is respectful, not stupid or skanky like many of her counterparts, but she's bordering on over exposure, in my humble opinion. I'm so tired of her. And because she's on top of  the world, just less than a year after winning her Oscar, they give her this for a retreading of her Silver Linings Playbook character. How original of the Globes! The HFPA set the tone for the rest of the program by snubbing Lupita and it was downhill from there. No award for Michael Fassbender, nothing for Chiwetel Ejiofor, no director for Steve McQueen (no hate on Alfonson Cuaron).

Lupita Nyong'o

But then, then final award of the evening was finally given to 12YAS, the Best Picture award. Oh wow, gee, thanks guys! I almost believe it's sincere too! Hey, a BEST PICTURE award with no other wins? Surely this has to be an afterthought, a cookie tossed to them to give them something and not make HFPA look too bad. But hey, beggars can't be choosers. Steve McQueen and cast got the top award, and as cool as this win is, it's still a bit hollow because how can a film truly be a best film when it fails to win any other award from that same organization? So you see, I'm questioning the entire event for this year. If HPFA would just be honest and vote with their heart of hearts... if they have one, then 12YAS would  have either won at least two other awards, or HFPA should have just stayed the course and gave the Best Picture to Gravity or Rush.

I think that HFPA just gave 12YAS the award so that they wouldn't be tagged with a certain "-ist" after awarding six of the seven nominations for the film to competing actors/actresses and films. You mean to tell me that of all the brilliant acting in 12YAS, that American Hustle, and Dallas Buyers Club actors/actresses in both acting categories won? Really? Well, that question now is moot because that's what HFPA did. So that's why the show was boring to me because HFPA played favoritism lazy voting for mega-A listers. It's good for ratings to have well-known favorite faces up on stage, instead of some foreign born newcomer nobodies, right?

I also think that because the Globes are the first awards for the season, they wanted to set the tone and dictate to the awards groups coming up later, the trends to follow. HFPA doesn't want 12YAS to succeed, that's why the film lost out in six of the other categories, and have the token Best Picture award as a really nice but hollow consolation prize. Be that as it may, I have had my fill of the Golden Globes, they are a mockery of the award season and they are a joke to the industry. But the industry plays along because winning a globe is good PR to help sell films, and if this Best Pic award can help more people see 12YAS when it expands to more theaters this week, that's a good thing. But, this is my last year watching the globes, it's just phony, contrived, predictable, and boring to me.

Best Picture cast of 12 Years a Slave

One final thought, in the past decade since I have been on the Internet and supporting my favorite films and performances, I have never participated in so much mud slinging and personal attacks from other fellow fans. The childish snarky attitudes, comments, rude remarks, sarcasm, and just plain old fashioned trolling and bitching, has really taken the fun out of sharing my opinions with other film lovers. Sadly, there are a lot of hateful people out there who for whatever reason strongly dislike 12YAS, and they are writing the most ridiculous racist, indifferent bullshit I have ever seen. I totally understand that many people simply do not like the film, period. That is fine, that is valid, no film has 100% of the people loving it. But this film in particular, for obvious reasons, is creating a lot of tension on the Internet from people who hate it because it's about slavery, they hate it because it's a "black film", they hate it because it makes them feel "guilty", they hate it because "slavery happened so long ago, what's the big deal", they hate it because it's universally revered and a critically acclaimed film.  When someone writes "I didn't like it, but it's not because I'm racist",...well, since you mentioned it, please check yourself on that.