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Sunday, January 7, 2018

AWARDS SEASON 2018: The 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards
On A Night Dressed In Black, Oprah Stands Tallest

Oprah Winfrey tonight on stage at The Beverly Hilton during her Cecil B. DeMille acceptance speech.  Getty
       
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Sunday, January 7, 2018

 The 75th Annual Golden Globes was an odd, bewildering, largely lukewarm spectacle at the Beverly Hilton on Sunday night in Los Angeles.  On a night dressed in black in a night celebrating in gold, actors and filmmakers were committed to highlighting the #TimesUp declaration and #MeToo movement.  Yet the night had incongruous elements, notably Globes host Seth Meyers beginning the night by making "jokes" about sexual harassment in Hollywood.

Oprah, on the other hand, was an inspirational rejoinder to an initially insensitive Mr. Meyers.  Oprah's outstanding Cecil B. DeMille acceptance speech encapsulated a night that stayed mostly on message regarding Time's Up, a movement of women dedicated to eradicating oppression, discrimination, abuse and unequal pay along gender and race lines.  Oprah invoked the memory of the late Recy Taylor, the activist who was raped and beaten by white men in the 1940s, as a means to summon the bravery of Ms. Taylor and exhort the women of today to speak their truth.  It was by far the highlight of an average Globes night. 

Natalie Portman also sounded the bell on male dominance, hierarchy and patriarchy in Hollywood by calling attention to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's all-male film director nominees.  At least seven women directed major feature films that were released in 2017: Amma Asante ("A United Kingdom"), Maggie Betts ("Novitiate"), Kathryn Bigelow ("Detroit"), Greta Gerwig ("Lady Bird"), Eliza Hittman ("Beach Rats"), Patty Jenkins ("Wonder Woman") and Dee Rees ("Mudbound"). 

Ms. Portman's stand elicited some audible murmurs amongst a crowd that donned "Time's Up" buttons and wore black as a protest. 

Curiously during a commercial break the U.S. broadcaster NBC aired a TV spot for next month's theatrical film release "Fifty Shades Freed", the final film in the initial trilogy of E.L. James books about male domination, male power and female submission.  While ad buys for television are typically completed well in advance, it was a strange, bizarre juxtaposition on a night of such heightened and committed awareness.

"Fifty Shades Freed" is opening, no less, on Valentine's Day.  (Talk about love.)


Recy Taylor, the late activist and survivor Oprah paid tribute to during her acceptance speech on Sunday at the Globes.  Ms. Taylor, 97, passed away last month three days before her 98th birthday.  File photo

On this night however, on the film side of the Golden Globes "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" was a somewhat surprising big winner with four Globes including best motion picture drama and best actress (Frances McDormand).  Guillermo Del Toro won best director for "The Shape Of Water" and will very likely repeat the feat at the Oscars in March.  (The Academy's nominations will be announced on January 23.)  Meanwhile, Ms. Gerwig's directorial debut "Lady Bird" won Best Picture comedy or musical, with Saoirse Ronan winning Best Actress in the same genre category.

Supporting awards went to Allison Janney ("I, Tonya") and Sam Rockwell ("Three Billboards"), while Gary Oldman won Best Actor in a drama ("Darkest Hour") and James Franco did so in the comedy category ("The Disaster Artist").  Mr. Franco quickly wrested the mike from Tommy Wiseau, the director of "The Room", the cult hit film Mr. Franco chronicles in the docu-comedy he also directed, and played Mr. Wiseau.  Tonya Harding was also in attendance.

Kirk Douglas was honored briefly.  At 101 years young he made an appearance with Catherine Zeta-Jones, his daughter-in-law.  Barbra Streisand, Carol Burnett, Geena Davis, Susan Sarandon, Isabelle Huppert all made appearances.

It was quite a night -- strange, uplifting, inspiring and somehow mildly disappointing, in the sense that so many categories remained white male-dominated, as were many of the award presenters.  And some white males jokes about it.

Still, the summary of the 75th Annual Golden Globes when all was said and done was one name: Oprah.

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