While we ring in the new year, awards season begins in the entertainment industry. The 82nd annual Golden Globes took place on Sunday, Jan. 7, and after watching the excellent movies that were released this year, I was very excited to tune into the show. Heading into Sunday night, I had watched “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie,” “Maestro,” “Poor Things,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” and “The Holdovers.”
The night began with the red carpet, where nominees were able to show off their outfits. In previous years, the dresses were the only thing I cared about with award shows, but this year was different as I had watched the movies and shows that were nominated. This year’s best looks went to Margot Robbie and Jennifer Lopez. They were both wearing pink and their gorgeous dresses truly made my jaw drop.
The host, Jo Koy, began the show with some mediocre jokes that just made me cringe pretty bad. I have to admit, his “Oppenheimer,” jokes were kinda funny, but his jokes about “Barbie,” and Taylor Swift were horrendous and cringe-worthy. He also kept bashing the writers for writing “bad jokes,” when this entire year was focusing on writers and striking for them to have better pay and conditions in the future. It wasn’t very tasteful and nobody was laughing. Honestly, I think that we need to get rid of hosts for these award shows because they typically end bad like Koy’s bit, and they take away from the speeches that we can hear from the winners.
I think that most people this year were expecting “Barbie,” to win big since it had the most nominations of the night (nine), but I was hesitant to bet on it doing well for an award show like this. I loved the movie, and it was one of my favorites of the year, but when thinking about who is voting for these awards, I didn’t think that “Barbie,” would take many wins. I did end up picking “Poor Things,” to win Best Motion Picture- comedy, because it was an excellent movie and was very artistic. While it wasn’t my favorite movie of the season, I did enjoy it and am glad it did well at the Golden Globes, as the Oscars will be more difficult by not having separate comedy and drama categories. I think since the show is under new management, they were focusing on trying to change people’s perception of the voting board by picking a movie that is different from what has been picked in the past.
I also picked “Oppenheimer” for pretty much all of the drama categories. It was no surprise to me that it was going to be the night’s big winner, and I was very very happy with wins for Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy for Best Director and Best Lead Actor respectively. Some people were surprised by Robert Downey Jr. winning Best Supporting Actor, but award shows are always known for picking one movie and running with it for pretty much every category. Honestly, I thought he did a wonderful job and many considered it a career best for him.
One of my favorite wins from the night was Da’Vine Joy Randolph winning in Best Supporting Actress in a comedy for her performance in “The Holdovers.” It was one of my favorite performances by anyone throughout the year and it was the beginning of my streak for correct predictions.
Overall, as for the awards, I went 19/25 in my predictions, which I was pretty proud of. In movies alone, I went 12/15 out of my predictions. I was incorrect with Best Screenplay and Best Non-English Film as both of them went to “The Anatomy of a Fall,” which I wasn’t expecting as I took “Oppenheimer,” for Screenplay and “Past Lives,” for Best Non-English Film. I was also wrong and am still mad about “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse,” not winning Best Animated Movie. The award ended up going to “The Boy and the Heron,” which was my number two choice, but I think most people were surprised it didn’t go to the front runner of the category. As for the comedy specials, I hadn’t seen any of them and was not correct with my prediction of Chris Rock’s “Selective Outrage,” and instead the award went to Ricky Gervais’s special titled “Armageddon.”
Television is not my strong suit, and my predictions wound up being 9/11. Personally, it is hard to commit to watching shows with my busy schedule, so I focused on watching as many of the movies as I could. Overall, I felt that for once, an award show was actually right in picking the best movies to win. I’m excited for the rest of the award shows in the coming months, with the Emmys in a couple weeks and the Oscars in March.
