Tue, January 21, 2003

Awards Season has begun (well, it never really ends) – that time of year when Hollywood takes a break from humbly entertaining the world, and gives itself a good long pat on the back. The official opening of the season was Sunday night's Golden Globe awards, which are considered entirely inconsequential (compared to the Oscars®, which have become entirely inconsequential for wholly different reasons) but are more fun to watch precisely because nobody takes the show seriously, so the celebrities are more relaxed and the whole thing is more fun. In the next few years, it will be interesting to see if the graft and apathy that have consumed the Motion Picture Academy manage to make the Oscars® into the awards-show underdog and the Globes rise to the top.

The awards themselves were somewhat unsurprising, but Curb Your Enthusiasm winning Best Comedy TV Series seemed like an upset, and it was good to see Chicago do so well. The Globes are too silly to get upset about, but I'd have liked to see Jennifer Garner win a second consecutive award for her work on Alias and I thought Martin Sheen and The West Wing should've won over Michael Chiklis and The Shield. Chiklis has been winning awards left and right for his work on The Shield, and I remember when Calista Flockhart and Ally McBeal won surprise Golden Globes and it changed me from an ignorer of that show to a watcher of that show to an appreciator of that show. (However, the subsequent decline in Ally's quality has convinced me not to make the same mistake with The Shield no matter what happens.) And while I certainly wouldn't take away from Jennifer Aniston's work on Friends, I think Bonnie Hunt deserves every award she's nominated for and then some.

The show itself was a fun one. Despite the fact that I wouldn't have necessarily given him the award, I was glad to see Jack Nicholson win, because (aside from Christine Lahti's moment) one of the memories that keeps me watching the Globes every year was his hilarious acceptance of the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. (Jack was touching this year, but less hilarious.) Other winners had a bit more fun with it. Larry David's acceptance speech when Curb Your Enthusiasm won was succinct but very witty, and Renée Zellweger stole the show with her sincere speech and a well-deserved nod to fellow nominee Catherine Zeta-Jones, "you're a goddess and I'm so glad that the world now knows what you can do." Having been knocked out of my seat by Z-Jo's performance in Chicago, I think Renée put it perfectly.

For me, though, the breakout moment of the night was the presentation of the award for Best Actor in a Mini-Series or TV Movie. The reason? Jeff Goldblum. Having just seen an old Celebrity Jeopardy sketch on Saturday Night Live with David Duchovny parodying Goldblum's seemingly distracted style, it was amazing to see Goldblum himself carrying it well beyond Duchovny's spoof! He cooed over co-presenter Calista Flockhart (absolutely enchanting in a Raquel Welch One Million Years B.C. dress) and continued to putter through the nominees list, then gave a big "Ahhhhh!" when the TelePrompTer indicated that winner Albert Finney was absent. Watch this side-by-side with Duchovny counting the categories in Celebrity Jeopardy: "One... two... threefourfive... six... Ahhhh, seven!" Breathtaking. He and Flockhart just seemed to be having fun, and it was a great moment. Goldblum is truly a national treasure. He waved and winked as he walked off stage as though he were a high-schooler in a spelling bee.

So, it was a fun show. Unforgettable in moments. Why, you ask, isn't this column under TV Reviews? Because, I say, it really isn't about the Golden Globes. (Believe it or not.) It's about the Globes inspiring me to get excited about the Oscars®, something that has been harder and harder to do as Oscar® winners have been announced in recent years. (The Academy Awards® have lost a little integrity every year since I've lived in LA – from The English Patient to Gladiator to Shrek – not all terrible movies, but not the most deserving in their categories.) This year's broadcast will be a treat because of host Steve Martin, but up until the Globes, I had only him to look forward to.

But the Globes changed all that. The winners I would have picked as well as those I wouldn't have. And the show itself. I was inspired to go ahead and do something I've been meaning to do a lot in recent years, put out a list of who I'd give Oscars® to, before the actual awards. It's never easy, but here goes...

(Keep two things in mind. This is not a prediction. Few, if any, of the below could possibly become the actual winners; this is just who I'd give the award to, if it were up to me. Also, this is only based on movies that I saw. Fortunately, that list includes almost every movie I wanted to see, but a few slipped through and couldn't be included.)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:
Jeff Goldblum, Igby Goes Down

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:
Rosario Dawson, 25th Hour
Also nominated (so very hard to choose just one of these three):
Zooey Deschanel, Big Trouble
Angela Lindvall, CQ

Best Art Direction:
Chicago - Production Design by John Myhre, Art Direction by Andrew M. Stearn
Also nominated:
Lilo & Stitch - Production Design by Paul A. Felix, Art Direction by Ric Sluiter
Death To Smoochy - Production Design by Howard Cummings, Art Direction by Tamara Deverell
Scooby-Doo - Production Design by Bill Boes, Art Direction by Bill Booth, Donna Brown, Gabrielle Gliniak, and Christian Wintter (in a terrible, terrible movie, these people worked very, very hard)

Cinematography:
Chicago - Dion Beebe
Also nominated: Catch Me If You Can - Janusz Kaminski
CQ - Robert Yeoman

Best Film Editing:
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - Stephen Mirrione
Also nominated:
Big Trouble - Steven Weisberg
Chicago - Martin Walsh

Best Original Music (Score):
Catch Me If You Can - John Williams
Also nominated:
CQ - Mellow
The Powerpuff Girls - Jim Venable
Spider-Man - Danny Elfman
Red Dragon - Danny Elfman

Best Original Music (Song):
(As much as this pains me...)
"Lose Yourself," from 8 Mile - Music & Lyrics by Eminem

Best Costume Design:
CQ - Judy Shrewsbury
Also nominated:
Chicago - Colleen Atwood

Best Makeup:
Chicago

Best Animated Feature:
Lilo & Stitch

Best Documentary Feature:
The Kid Stays in the Picture
(I don't know why the Academy doesn't consider Comedian eligible, but it would otherwise be here, too.)

Best Foreign Language Film:
Brotherhood of the Wolf

Best Sound:
Signs

Best Sound Effects Editing:
Minority Report

Best Visual Effects:
(I'm sure if I'd seen it The Two Towers would top this list, but I didn't want to.)
Spider-Man
Also nominated:
Minority Report
Adaptation

Best Orginal Screenplay:
CQ - Roman Coppola
Also nominated:
Lilo & Stitch - Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois
Punch-Drunk Love - Paul Thomas Anderson
Simone - Andrew Niccol

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Chicago - Bill Condon
Also nominated:
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - Charlie Kaufman
Secretary - Erin Cressida Wilson

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Secretary
Also nominated:
Jennifer Aniston, The Good Girl
Emily Watson, Punch-Drunk Love
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:
Kevin Kline, The Emperor's Club
Also nominated:
Sam Rockwell, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Adam Sandler, Punch-Drunk Love
Jack Nicholson, About Schmidt

Best Directing:
Rob Marshall, Chicago
Also nominated (another tough choice):
George Clooney, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Roman Coppola, CQ
Paul Thomas Anderson, Punch-Drunk Love

Best Picture:
Chicago
Also nominated:
Secretary
CQ
Lilo & Stitch
Punch-Drunk Love

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