Golden Globes 2019 – The Good, The Bad and the Outright Inexplicable

Culture
07 Jan 19

Rami Malek as the rock icon Freddie Mercury in the upcoming 20th Century Fox/New Regency film "BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY."

The Golden Globes often throw a few curve-balls, but last night’s awards showed how truly bizarre and unpredictable the Hollywood Foreign Press Association can be. Roe McDermott takes us through the madness.

I believe I am not alone in saying that in many ways, 2018 felt like an endless, insane, nightmarish dystopia from which there was no escape, and I believed, with all my might, that 2019 had to be wonderful and stable and predictable in comparison.

If the Golden Globes are any indication of what’s to come, I could not have been more wrong.

Notoriously less transparent and trickier to predict than the Oscars Academy, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association often throw a few curve-balls by rewarding films, TV shows and actors that go unrewarded and overlooked at the Oscars. This dynamic makes awards season more interesting – but last night, the HFPA seemed less focused on celebrating the underdog than celebrating the undeserving.

The biggest surprise of the night was the incredibly underwhelming Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody taking Best Motion Picture: Drama, beating out heavy favourite A Star Is Born, and the actual deserving winner, If Beale Street Could Talk. Bohemian Rhapsody was a box office hit, but has received intense (and warranted) criticism for sanitising Mercury’s story and often feeling like a cheesy, under-baked TV movie.

(Also, ask us not why A Star Is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody were in the Drama category while Green Book was in the Musical/Comedy category. As last night revealed, the thought processes of the HFPA will forever remain a mystery.)

The film’s one saving grace was Rami Malek’s committed lead performance, and the HFPA awarded him Best Actor, beating out A Star Is Bornactor (and director) Bradley Cooper.

Accepting his award, Malek said "I am beyond moved. My heart is pounding out of chest right now.” Malek thanked his mother, family and Queen "for ensuring that authenticity and inclusivity exists in the music and in the world and in all of us." His final "thank you" was for Freddie Mercury, whom he played in the film. "I love you, you beautiful man," Malek said. "This is for and because of you gorgeous."

Kicking A Star Is Born while it’s down, Lady Gaga also failed to pick up a gong for Best Actress in a Drama, which went to Glenn Close for her performance in her passion project The Wife. The drama examines the lives of the women behind powerful men, and how their dreams, desires and abilities often go unnoticed and unrewarded. In speaking about her role in the film, Close reflected on her mother's role as a wife to her father. "Women we're nurturers, that's what's expected of us ... but we have to find personal fulfillment ... We have to say 'I can do that, and I should be allowed to do that,'" Close said, earning a standing ovation. Gaga did win for Best Original Song for ‘Shallow’ though, which was well deserved.

In the other acting awards, Olivia Coleman picked up Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for her hilarious, outrageous and nuanced performance in The Favourite. The award will hopefully boost her chances at an Oscar, though Lady Gaga is still the favourite to win there.

Christian Bale won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his unrecognisable and superbly terrifying turn as Dick Cheney in Adam McKay’s Vice, a searing exploration of the former Vice President’s Machiavellian machinations while serving in the White House alongside George W. Bush. Bale thanked Adam McKay, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Big Short, for hiring him for the part, remarking "He said, 'I've got to find someone who can be absolutely charisma-free and reviled by everybody ... thank you for all the competition. I will be cornering the market on charisma-free!”

Bale then asked the audience what despicable figure could be his next role, saying "What do you think, Mitch McConnell next? That could be good couldn't it?" Finishing up his wonderfully scathing speech, Bale went on to thank "Satan, for giving me inspiration on how to play this role."

Alfonso Cuarón won the best director category for his film Roma, which also won Best Foreign Language Film. Cuarón, who won a best director Oscar for "Gravity" in 2014, thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, his partners and actresses Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira, who starred in the Netflix film. He also paid tribute to his family and his home country, Mexico, for shaping and creating him. "Muchas Gracias, Mexico," he said.

Regina King picked up Best Supporting Actress for her beautiful, emotive performance in Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, and gave one of the most inspiring speeches of the night, addressing gender discrimination and inequality.

“So often, everyone out there that hears us on a red carpet and they say celebrities are using the time to talk about ourselves when we are on our soap box and using a moment to talk about the systemic things that are going on in life, time's up times two," King said as cheers erupted in the audience. “The reason why we do this is because we understand that our microphones are big and we're speaking for everyone," King continued. "I am going to use my platform to say right now that in the next two years, everything that I produce and I am making a vow and it's going to be tough to make sure that everything that I produce, that it's fifty percent women."

Mahershala Ali took home Best Supporting Actor for Green Book – and here’s where everything started to go a bit wrong. Ali’s award and his performance are fine. Green Book, however is not – but, bizarrely, it won both Best Screenplay and Best Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy, beating out competition that included Roma, The Favourite, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Favourite and Vice; thus resulting in not one but two of the biggest upsets of the night.

The wildly inaccurate, whitewashed, sanitised and patronising account of Black pianist Don Shirley who travelled through the Deep South performing his music during the 1960s, the film is a clumsy buddy comedy that centres Shirley’s Italian-American driver, Tony (played by Viggo Mortensen.) The film is getting critically panned for presenting racism as something that can be solved by Black people and white people just talking, and – most disturbingly – Black people just loosening up a bit. The press tour for the film didn’t indicate that attitudes behind the scenes of the film were any more nuanced or progressive, as Viggo Mortensen used the N-word while discussing the film. He later apologised. But while accepting the award for Best Screenplay, director Peter Farrelly’s speech seemed to echo the simplistic message of the film. Farrelly, known for films such as There's Something About Mary and Dumb and Dumber, used the acceptance speech to make a statement about how the film is more relevant than ever.

"Because we are still living in divided times, maybe more so now than ever," he said. "This movie is for everybody…All we have to do is just talk and not judge people by their differences, and look for what we have in common.”

Except…that’s not all we have to do. Not by a long shot. At a time where racist rhetoric is on the rise, and – in the U.S. and beyond – openly racist leaders are using their power to empower bigotry and hatred, it is not enough for to “just talk.” Fighting racism has to involve active dismantling of systemic oppression, and to indicate – as the film does – that Black people and white people need to just, like, chill out together, is privileged obliviousness.

Plus, it’s really just not a good film.

On the plus side. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse won Best Animated Film, so there is some justice in the universe.

But seriously, 2019. It’s the first week of January and you’ve already gone off the rails. Pull yourself together, would you?

Best Picture, Drama: Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Green Book

Best Director, Motion Picture: Alfonso Cuaron, Roma

Best Actor, Motion Picture, Drama: Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody

Best Actress, Motion Picture, Drama: Glenn Close, The Wife

Best Actress in Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Olivia Colman, The Favourite

Best Actor, Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Christian Bale, Vice

Best Support Actress in a Motion Picture: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

Best Actor, Motion Picture, Drama: Mahershala Ali, Green Book

Best Foreign Film: Roma