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Golden Globes reacts, look ahead to Oscar
Published: 1/18/2010 12:48 PM
Last Modified: 1/18/2010 12:48 PM

Some thoughts on Sunday night's Golden Globe Awards, bestowed by 90 foreign reporters who emerge once a year to help stage a TV show that looks like a wedding reception:

It's funny how easily people mistake the hype of the Golden Globes for relevance ahead of the awards, followed now by the rolling of eyes that must be occurring among many after the Hollywood Foreign Press Association named "Avatar" and "The Hangover" as their two best picture winners...not that "Avatar" wasn't a good choice, but more on that later...could "The Hangover" sneak in as one of the best picture nominees now that the field has been expanded to 10 nominees? I still don't think so...I only made one Golden Globe prediction in my blog, and I got it right: James Cameron of "Avatar" as best director over his ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow of "The Hurt Locker," and wasn't it nice to see Cameron go from his "I'm the King of the World!" speech for "Titanic" to Sunday night's surprise and benevolent acknowledgement that Bigelow "richly deserved to win."

Best actor already appears to be a two-man race for Oscar, and maybe just a one-man: George Clooney is as deserving for "Up in the Air" as any winner in recent memory, but the feeling that he'll have more opportunities and that Jeff Bridges has been too long overlooked is growing pervasive...the current word is that "Crazy Heart," the movie for which Bridges won best actor at the Globes, will open in Tulsa on Jan. 29. Tulsans should flock to this flick, with Bridges playing a broken-down country singer crooning tunes written by T-Bone Burnett that sound like 1970s Waylon Jennings classics...Clooney may be destined to be one of those historical "How did he not win?" runners-up of Academy lore.

"Avatar" wasn't the only upset, just the biggest. Awards going to Robert Downey Jr. for "Sherlock Holmes" and Sandra Bullock for "The Blind Side" both felt like they had won popularity contests rather than a "best performance" category...Downey wins the most amusing speech category, being funny and snide but with none of the crude sex jokes that so many employed on stage, apparently influenced by host Ricky Gervais. When did the Golden Globes turn blue? Was Robert De Niro auditioning for "The Hangover 2," or what? I'm glad my kids weren't watching with me...the wins by Downey and Bullock may prove as forgettable as the ones from the year before, as many viewers the other night may still be wondering why Mickey Rourke was presenting an award (he won best actor the year before for "The Wrestler") and who Sally Hawkins is (she won for "Happy Go Lucky" in 2008, allowing her to hand an award to Downey).

Did Gervais cross the line with some of those jokes? Maybe with that, uh, reduction joke in the opening monologue, when the show most likely had some "family viewers" who were then sent scurring away...Gervais' best zinger of the night, after sipping from what looked like a glass of beer: "I love a drink as much as the next man," he said, setting up the next presenter, "unless the next man is Mel Gibson." Ouch, and hilarious...I love Toni Collette, winner in the TV category for "The United States of Tara," but despised the fake-bake...M'onique and Christoph Waltz, the supporting acting winners for "Precious" and "Inglourious Basterds," respectively, won on Sunday night, and both will win again at the Oscars. Those races are over.

Meryl Streep, a winner for "Julie & Julia," gave another one of those speeches that she's famous for: Meandering at the start, as if she's ill-prepared, then completely graceful and gracious by the conclusion...I liked the moxie of that "Grey Gardens" best TV-movie speech from the winners. They just keep thanking people despite the get-off-the-stage music starting up. It wasn't like the Oscars, with that big stage and multiple podiums for the camera to cut away to, so go for it, keep thanking everybody you need to thank, bravo...People in the audience simply were not applauding en masse for James Cameron's "Avatar" wins. Was it jealousy over his billion-dollar commerce? Maybe they just don't like Cameron and his ego? Or was it simply an "Avatar? Seriously?" moment at it taking the top prizes? Any or all of the above, the treatment was pretty shabby, even for that crowd.

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“I was born a poor, black child” … not me, actually, but Steve Martin’s character in the “The Jerk.” That absurd opening line is just one of the absurd number of film facts, quotes and minutiae contained in movie critic Michael Smith’s brain, at his disposal to toss out on a moment’s notice. It’s a key requirement as Tulsa World film critic to know these things. Michael learned a few other life facts along the way (seven years as a Crystal’s Pizza & Spaghetti manager) before attempting journalism and joining the Tulsa World in 1996, where he’s covered everything from a school shooting in Fort Gibson to a tornado in Stroud to witnessing an execution. A little community theater coverage was sprinkled in there, too. Movies engender many of his happiest memories, from standing in line for “Star Wars” and “Grease” at the Southroads Cinema to the James Bond and Pink Panther movies that always premiered at the enormous Continental Theater.

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