Awards Season 2017: Golden Globes Winners

Last night, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) announced the winners of this year's Golden Globe Awards, for both television and film, in a ceremony hosted by Jimmy Fallon for the first time.

Here is the full list of film winners.

Best Motion Picture (Drama): Moonlight

Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy): La La Land

Best Director: Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Best Actor (Drama): Casey Affleck (Manchester By The Sea)

Best Actor (Comedy or Musical): Ryan Gosling (La La Land)

Best Actress (Drama): Isabelle Huppert (Elle)

Best Actress (Comedy or Musical): Emma Stone (La La Land)

Best Supporting Actor: Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nocturnal Animals)

Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis (Fences)

Best Screenplay: Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Best Original Score: Justin Hurwitz (La La Land)

Best Original Song: 'City Of Stars' (La La Land)

Best Foreign Language Film: Elle

Best Animated Feature Film: Zootopia

Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award: Meryl Streep


La La Land has broken the record for most Golden Globes won, winning every award it was nominated for, and coming away with an impressive haul of seven gongs.

A couple of surprises with Isabelle Huppert and Aaron Taylor-Johnson winning Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor (I still can't believe Taylor-Johnson was even nominated for his atrocious turn, let alone won) but everything else went to who was expected to win, it seems. 

Meryl Streep used her acceptance speech to launch a brilliant and blistering attack on president-elect Donald Trump for generally being a descipable human being whilst several people made the joke that the Golden Globes would be wound up under Trump's presidency because it's got the words 'Hollywood' 'Foreign' and 'Press' in it.

In the TV awards, Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman all took awards for their roles in The Night Manager whilst The Crown took Best Television Series (Drama) and Claire Foy took Best Actress (Drama) for her role as Queen Elizabeth II.

Tomorrow (10th January) we get an Awards Season double-whammy (you lucky, lucky people) with the announcement of the Producers' Guild Awards nominations AND the BAFTA nominations as well. 

Awards Season 2017: Writers' Guild Awards (WGA) Nominations

Yesterday (4th January) saw the nominations announced for this year's Writers' Guild Awards.

As I've previously said, I don't tend to focus on the screenplay Oscars (certainly not to the same degree as the acting and directing ones; I certainly wouldn't attempt to predict what would get nominated), but- as a writer and a film fan- I do have an interest in what's been nominated.

This year's nominations are as follows:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Hell Or High Water

La La Land

Loving

Manchester By The Sea

Moonlight

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Arrival

Deadpool

Fences

Hidden Figures

Nocturnal Animals

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY

Author: The JT LeRoy Story

Command And Control

Zero Days

I'm really pleased to see Deadpool recognised, especially as the rest of the nominees are more traditional awards fare. Although, the WGA have previous form in this, giving Guardians Of The Galaxy a nomination in 2015.

Interestingly, AMPAS (a.k.a. The Academy) have stated that Moonlight and Loving will be classed as 'adapted screenplay' for their consideration, so hopefully the abominable script for Nocturnal Animals won't get a look in there.

More awards nonsense on Monday (9th February) with the Golden Globes results.

Review: Nocturnal Animals (UK Cert 15)

Nocturnal Animals is the second film from fashion-designer-cum-director Tom Ford (after 2009's A Single Man)

Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) is a Los Angeles art gallery owner whose privileged surroundings are providing her little comfort as her marriage is breaking down and her husband is sleeping with another woman. She receives a manuscript of a novel called Nocturnal Animals, written by her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) whom she cruelly mistreated then dumped. She begins to read the manuscript, a violent revenge thriller in which a young family are terrorised by a brutal gang of rednecks. 

Honestly, this film was one of the most pretentious piles of bilge I've had the misfortune of sitting through this year. Now, people who know me know I quite like films that certain people may describe as 'pretentious'. But this... this takes the cake. And then frames it badly on camera and gives it a lingering close-up to show how deep it really is. 

I don't know what's worse: the poor camerawork, the heavy-handed symbolism, the shoddy editing, the awkward and obvious juxtapositions or the facile script that has characters either spouting inane platitudes or fortune-cookie bon mots. The most egregious thing is A Single Man was a subtle, nuanced, occasionally very beautifully shot film. What happened? There's no subtlety here. No nuance. You are sledgehammered over the head with every piece of imagery- even down to casting Isla Fisher as Tony's wife Laura (because she looks so much like Amy Adams, don't you see? Isn't that clever?)- and, when you need to put a blatant jumpscare in to check whether your audience hasn't actually slipped into a coma, you're on shaky ground. Also, I have major issues with the opening which depicts several obese naked women doing a drum majorette routine in slow motion. Quite what is this supposed to mean? Is it a metaphor for the grotesque and soulless world of Los Angeles? If so, there are perhaps more appropriate and more tasteful ways to do it than to go down the route of fat-shaming. 

Performances are a mixed bag, to be fair. Amy Adams is an extremely talented actress that will undoubtedly win an Oscar one day, given the right role. And God love her, she's trying here. She's trying in earnest to turn this rotten sow's ear into a silk purse but there's only so much you can do with a script with the emotional depth of a stagnant puddle. Still, she tries to imbue Susan with some semblance of character which the script is sorely lacking. 

Gyllenhaal plays a dual role, as Edward and as Tony, the main character in the novel which is handily dramatised for our viewing... well, I'd usually say pleasure but in this case I'm gonna have to make an exception and say endurance. As Edward, he's sweet, naive, sensitive. As Tony, he's all of those things and then he isn't as the cruelty of the world breaks him. That is literally what this film is like. I'm really hoping one day Aaron Taylor-Johnson will look back on this film and cringe. Like I did, every time he was on screen. He's the leader of the redneck gang that intimidate Tony and his family and his performance is just dire. It is buttock-clenchingly, sphincter-tighteningly bad. He's about as intimidating as a wet paper bag and has clearly been directed to go for wide-eyed crazy as a default. 

However, there are some saving graces. Laura Linney is superb in her cameo role as Susan's ghastly, materialistic mother whilst there's a certain amount of gravitas to Michael Shannon's performance as Detective Bobby Andes, the taciturn and morally flexible lawman who helps Tony get some kind of justice for his family.  

I didn't enjoy the film. I found it boring, pretentious and convinced of its own worthiness. Am I wrong? Am I missing something? Seriously, if you watched Noctural Animals and liked it or enjoyed it or 'got' it, feel free to leave a comment below or drop us an e-mail and let me know what I'm missing. Because I genuinely couldn't see it. 

Frankly, if this is the best he can come up with, then might I respectfully suggest Tom Ford sticks to fashion design (which he knows a lot about and is very good at) rather than film-making. 

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Tez