So… Babel, huh? The continent-sprawling picture’s Golden Globe victory last night for Best Motion Picture in the Drama category ran counter to much Internet speculation, certainly, but also probably put the final nail in the coffin with respect to Children of Men‘s chances for sneaking in the back door and snatching some sort of significant Oscar nominations.
Meanwhile, the film critics of Los Angeles — which in the collective L.A. Weekly poll gave director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s movie more votes for Worst Film of the Year than Top 10 consideration, and placed it outside the Top 50, behind both Superman Returns and Jackass Number Two — are likely bitching or shaking their heads today, or both. Me, I’m shrugging. It is what it is — a good movie, about what I expected, wrapped loosely around Iñárritu’s typical “chaos theory” narrative gimmicky. Amongst some fine acting it was Riko Kikuchi who for me stood out as quite good, but at 142 minutes there are large swatches of sluggishness, and not quite enough payoff. I do dig Gustavo Santaolalla’s eerie score, though, even if my girlfriend would arch her brow at that one.
Still, the Best Picture Oscar nominees look to be, what — Babel, The Departed, Dreamgirls, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen, right? I’d place Babel squarely in the middle of that pack, so another surprise victory on Oscar night wouldn’t have me reaching for the razorblades or anything…
Daily Archives: January 16, 2007
Foreign Language Nominee Division of Labor
So what exactly was the deal, in announcing the Golden Globe nominees for Best Foreign Language Film, with sticking the somewhat rather thickly accented Djimon Hounsou with the directors of Volver, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Lives of Others — meaning he had to pronounce, in quick succession, the names of Pedro Almodovar, Guillermo del Toro and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck — while co-presenter Sharon Stone got to namecheck… Clint Eastwood and Mel Gibson. Was that a desire to get everyone to lean forward in their seats, or a reflection of someone’s consideration that perhaps Hounsou would be more sober than Stone?
Oh, Orenthal…
Off topic, especially amidst all the awards chatter, but Timothy Noah has an interesting piece up on Slate about that most famous of (alleged) Los Angeles murderers, O.J. Simpson, in advance of Mark Miller’s piece this week in Newsweek regarding the same. The subject: that explosive chapter of the imploded hypothetical confession If I Did It. So… a friend called “Charlie,” ehh? And Noah points out “the lack of subjunctive tense.” Well, sure. The final chapter is yet to be written, but does anyone doubt that it’s going to end badly for this guy? Like, spectacularly badly. Bad fiction-type badly.
Eastwood’s Confidence, Scorsese’s Bowels
Props to Clint Eastwood’s “This does wonders for my confidence” crack
— echoing Best Supporting Actress winner Jennifer Hudson’s remarks
from earlier in the evening — upon receiving the Best Foreign Language
Golden Globe for Letters from Iwo Jima. When he said that, Martin Scorsese no doubt laughed weakly and crapped his pants.
I still think Scorsese has the directorial prize sewn up tonight, and is far better shape to trump Eastwood and (finally) score his long-coveted Best Director Academy Award. In The Departed, he’s got the stronger film. Look for a bulge in the back of his pants, though, when he waddles up on stage…
Golden Globe Flubs Coming Fast, Furious
Tim Allen just nominated Alec Baldwin for his small screen work on 3rd Rock. (John Lithgow will be displeased.) Cameron Diaz cited Internal Affairs instead of Infernal Affairs in her introduction of clips from The Departed. (Richard Gere will be pleased.)
Also, someone please text Terrence Howard that it’s Helen Mirren, not Helen “Mirrem.”