Here are the Golden Globe nominations for film and television from the official Golden Globe website
All the usual suspects are there - film: Avatar, Inglorious Basterds, Up in the Air, the musical Nine, the animated Pixar classic Up.. TV is hardly changed from last year: Mad Men, Big Love, Dexter, House, 30 Rock, Entourage.. missing this year is Weeds, admittedly falling in quality since the first seasons..
I'll have to admit to becoming an addict of Mad Men - it has this lyrical, dreamlike quality that seems non-energetic and lacking action, but it's like long slow hypnosis.. the best acting on the show to me comes from the women, namely January Jones as Don Draper's wife, who does a lot with body language and facial expressions, especially the way she can smoke a cigarette with emotions displayed through that act alone.. and Elisabeth Moss as a secretary turned copywriter Peggy, who is a totally independent though young woman in a nearly all-male industry, the creative side of advertising.. and who "takes no guff" or oversight from anyone, including Don as her boss..
I also like Big Love and Dexter a lot - Big Love shows religious persecution as a way of American life, as the U.S. itself is attacking Mormonism due to self-righteous puritanical right-wingers who are determined to force us all to abide by their conventional method of worship, or else face the law and prison.. meanwhile, Dexter has done the nearly impossible: made people care for and enjoy a serial killer's self-styled justice, as he's a forensic expert for Miami police who kills murderers who manage to escape the legal justice system due to lack of evidence or the lax legal system, often providing more breaks for criminals than victims..
As for tv comedy, 30 Rock is easily the best network comedy in about two decades.. Tina Fey appropriately skewers her own network owner, GE, television itself, right-wing politics, ultra-wealthy capitalists, pop feminism, black rap stars, the bigotry inherent in conformity, and even prejudice against African-Americans, gays, hippies, and southerners and how they can often take advantage by playing their own "prejudice cards" (Tracey Morgan refuses to rehearse).. and is there a more vapid woman on tv than "Girly Show" star Jane Krakowski?
Sample 30 Rock quotes: (from Jane/'Jenna') - "my high school reunion! - I wonder if all my old friends will recognize me even though my face has changed naturally and not by anything I've paid to have done to myself?"
(from Alec Baldwin, as a GE exec) - on being friends with the postmaster general, "Well, yes, we were friends but had a falling out over the Jerry Garcia stamp - I mean, if I want to lick a hippie I'll start returning Joan Baez' phone calls"
She even had two episodes guest starring Mad Men's dashing Jon Hamm as her new beau, who was shown to live "inside the handsome bubble" (even with a bad hairstyle), and get preferential treatment everywhere they went due to his good looks.. when Alec Baldwin showed her a picture of his younger self as proof that he once "lived in the bubble", Fey exclaims "wow! - can I keep this picture for myself?" When the "Girly Show" added a high definition camera, Fey passed in front, and suddenly resembled the wicked witch in Oz, complete with warts and wrinkles, with everyone yelling "get off camera! move!"; gay page Kenny from Georgia became a bouncing, grinning Muppet; and Alec Baldwin suddenly resembled his 25 yr old, thin self, using old movie footage! Hilarious stuff.. Fey truly deserves all the awards she gets as 30 Rock's creator, head writer, and star..
Impeccable Irish actor Brendan Gleeson will hopefully add a GG award to his Emmy for his role as Churchill in "Into the Storm".. most of you saw Gleeson in the "killer comedy" about hit men stuck in a medieval city in last year's "In Bruges", with Colin Farrell - that film was carried by Gleeson, imo..
Some always terrific actresses are again nominated, any of these could easily win: Glenn Close, Helen Mirren, and Janet McTeer are always brilliant.. while overrated fan favorite Sandra Bullock is up for two film acting awards - what the heck were they thinking?
Other than Bullock, the only negative note to me is calling "The United States of Tara" a comedy - I find it hard to buy that any show about a schizophrenic with multiple personalities can be called amusing, humorous, or comedic.. especially distasteful was when her male personality, a redneck guy, beats up a high school boy outside a school play, who appropriately refuses to hit the mother of his classmate.. they call this "comedy"? yikes.. I'm very surprised that the usually tasteful Steven Spielberg is producing this show.. I much more admire the fact that Tom Hanks is producing Big Love and attempting to show how the U.S. has grown totally intolerant of non-conforming religions and is basically trying to eradicate them with opressive laws reminiscent of the medieval Catholic church.. "worship our way or face trial as a heretic" - this is a very scary direction into which we seem to be sliding.. haven't we learned anything from the sordid history of Europe?
Awards will be presented on January 17th, preceding the Oscar nomination deadline.
