Wow! What a way to start off the 2020 awards season! I don’t feel that I’m alone in this, but there were some serious surprise wins at the Golden Globes last night, and I’m ready to unpack it all. Winners, snubs, and all things cool and strange.
The unsurprising wins in television were Fleabag and lead Phoebe Waller-Bridge, as well as Michelle Williams for Fosse/Verdon and Chernobyl. Some of the more surprising winners for me were Stellan Skarsgård beating out “hot priest,” Andrew Scott and even Succession‘s Kieran Culkin. Speaking of Succession, while I wasn’t too shocked by it’s Best Drama win, I was pleasantly surprised by Brian Cox’s win for Drama Lead. The fact that Jared Harris didn’t win for Chernobyl seems like a crime! The biggest shock of the night for television came from Ramy Youssef beating out Michael Douglas, Bill Hader, and Paul Rudd for Comedy Actor! Even Ramy seemed a bit caught off guard. Overall though, I suppose I was pleased with the winners.
A similar thing with the film categories: I was generally pleased, but there were some crazy upsets! The first of which being that The Irishman didn’t win a single thing! Nada! And besides Laura Dern, Marriage Story also got completely shut out! Also, 1917, a movie that’s not even out yet (at least where I live), took home the top prize!I’m not mad that Joaquin Phoenix won for Joker, because I really liked that film, but I just thought Adam Driver was better. While I picked Taron Egerton to win, I was still shocked to see him beat out Eddie Murphy and Leo! And finally, since I wasn’t super fond of Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, I was a little bummed to see it take home the most prizes for the night.
With all those awards comes a lot of acceptance speeches. I would say most of them were misses for me except for Olivia Coleman, who should be delightfully drunk for everything she wins ever, and Awkwafina telling her dad she got a job. The strangest speeches hands down go to Renee Zellweger and Jaoquin Phoenix. I’m pretty sure Phoenix was on something. As for the rest, I’m in the camp of Ricky Gervais in that you should just stick to what you know, take your award, and sit back down.
Speaking of Ricky Gervais, I was so entertained with his monologue! He’s always so crass and it makes people uncomfortable, and I love it. Like so much. My favorite dig was the one made to DiCaprio about him notoriously dating really young women. He also garnered some excellent audience reactions, especially the already meme-able Tom Hanks. It’s his last time hosting (supposedly), so he went all out and kept it fun and casual. Hopefully whoever takes over for him next year can bring some of that same energy. Overall, I had a general feeling of shock, but this gets me so excited for the rest of awards season!
For a full list of Golden Globe winners, click here.