Hits and misses at the Globes

AFFLECK. Won over Steven Spielberg and Ang Lee for “Argo.” AFP

Last Monday’s Golden Globes awards telecast turned out to be a grand night for cheering for two films, “Les Miserables” and “Argo,” but a sad night for grinning and bearing it for other big-screen comers, like the highly touted “Lincoln” and “Life of Pi.”

—Well, that’s how the Golden cookie crumbles, like it or lump it, so the chagrined losers will just have to wait for Round Two at the Oscar awards rites, where the outcome could turn out to be decidedly different.

In fact, “Argo” Best Director winner, Ben Affleck, isn’t even nominated in that category in the Oscars. —Just goes to show how radically different the Globes and the Oscars can be when it comes to point of view and critical judgment.

After the Globes, even without an Oscar trophy, Affleck can console himself with the realization that, in winning for “Argo,” he beat a number of the filmmaking world’s very best directors, including Steven Spielberg and Ang Lee.

Bigger splash

It’s likely, however that, at the Oscars, Spielberg will make a bigger splash, because the anti-slavery theme of his film on Abraham Lincoln, the United States’ Great Emancipator, should resonate more strongly with US film academy voter-jurors.

Another big hit at the recent Globes rites was the victory of the film version of “Les Miserables,” Tom Hooper directing. He may have lost as Best Director like Spielberg and Ang Lee, but his film reaped Best Actor and Supporting Actress awards for its two leads, Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway, respectively.

The word’s out, therefore: If you sing in a film, you’ll stand a better chance of trouncing your rivals for acting honors come awards night—at least at the Globes, where there are two Best Film categories, one for Drama and another for Comedy and Musical.

A third key outcome was the victory of relatively new star, Jennifer Lawrence, for her portrayal in “Silver Linings Playbook,” besting the iconic likes of Meryl Streep! That must have been such a surprise for the young comer, but she wasn’t complaining—and she certainly wasn’t about to give her trophy back!

Youth similarly triumphed in the Globes’ TV division, with Lena Dunham capping the Best Actress in a Comedy Series trophy for “Girls,” over the veteran and stellar likes of the Globes’ show hosts, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

Even better, “Girls” also won as Best Comedy Series, making Dunham doubly happy because, aside from starring in the sitcom, she’s also its executive producer!

Despite the emergence of young winners, however, veterans still came on strong in the TV division’s honors, with Julianne Moore and Ed Harris winning for “Game Change,” and Kevin Costner emerging triumphant for “Hatfields & McCoys.”

Other veteran standouts honored were Maggie Smith for “Downton Abbey” and Claire Danes for “Homeland.”

In fact, Danes went out of her way to thank the Golden Globes for being “really nice” to her for years, encouraging her with honors ever since she was only 15 years old!

Her male counterpart was Christoph Waltz, this year’s Best Supporting Film Actor winner for “Django Unchained.” He recalled that he won the same honor some years ago for “Inglourious Basterds”—so, it is getting to be a happy habit!