Look for the Crazy J Strike Brand

Written by
Japhy Grant

1.16.2006

The Golden Globe Post

I'm going to do this against my better inclinations. I think awards shows are hooey unless I am winning something, but like all good film snobs, the awards I care about most are the Hollywood Foriegn Press Association's Golden Globes. Why Morrocan film reviewers make more informed choices than say--members of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences is anyone's guess (pssst: content vs. Cool Kids Club), but here are my choices based on the nominations.

Best Motion Picture - Drama

Brokeback Mountain
Focus Features/River Road Entertainment;

If the award should go to the film that most advances the art of filmmaking, then A History Of Violence should win hands down, but being innovative, clever and shocking is, in my book, still trumped by emotional gravity. Ang Lee made the film I'd been waiting my whole life to see. Go gay cowboys.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama

Felicity Huffman - Transamerica

Not just because I interviewed her, Felicity's performance as Bree was wonderfully funny, selfish and moving. That said, looking at the other nominees (Gwenyth Paltrow forProof, for example) and it's painfully clear what a terrible year it was for women's roles at the movies.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain

He's like watching Marlon Brando and Steve McQueen's love child. Easily one of the best performances I have seen in my lifetime.

Best Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy

Walk The Line
Fox 2000 Pictures/TreeLine Productions/Catfish Productions; Twentieth Century Fox

Since I haven't seen The Squid And The Whale, my choice is the Johnny Cash biopic. As with Brokeback, this movie isn't pushing boundaries, but rather fulfilling the promise of its genre.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Keira Knightley - Pride & Prejudice

Why not?

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy

Cillian Murphy - Breakfast On Pluto

If this is gonna be the year of gays at the movies, better Cillian Murphy than that "old queen" Nathan Lane.

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Shirley MacLaine - In Her Shoes

I just want to see Shirley up on the podium, thanking the voices in her head. No, I'm not kidding. Go Team MacLaine.

Best Director - Motion Picture

Ang Lee - Brokeback Mountain

For those of you who think I'm just playing identity politics now, you're wrong- I'm playing favorites. Ang Lee is one of my favorite directors and as much as I want to be Steven Spielberg's adopted gay son, Lee really has made an iconic movie and deserves the award.

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture

Match Point
Written by Woody Allen

Not to be didactic or facetious at all, but really- the man's a national treasure in homonculous form. This is one of his best in ages. Give him the statue, even if he won't be there to pick it up.

Best Original Score - Motion Picture

Brokeback Mountain
Composed by Gustavo Santaolalla

Anyone who's seen Amores Perros, 21 Grams and The Motorcycle Diaries knows how brilliant this guy is. Working in a hybrid of minimalism and country-blues, Gustavo's music is some of the best "I'm listening to this for the shear pleasure of it" soundtrack music in a long time.

Best Original Song - Motion Picture

"Travelin' Thru" - Transamerica

Dolly Parton winning a Golden Globe for a song inspired by a transsexual. Okay, fine- now I'm just voting for camp value. It is a good song, though.

Best Television Series - Drama

Commander In Chief
Touchstone Television; ABC

While I thought Rome brilliantly merged historicity and hipness, in Japhy Grant land, this is the-year-of-doing-populist-entertainment-really-well and for that Geena Davis and crew take the prize. Donald Sutherland all but curls his moustache diabolically on the show, but c'mon- we all love a good melodrama now and then!

Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy

Tie:

My Name Is Earl
Weeds

One's a show with a killer premise executed with heart, the other a cerebral (even if it's in a "What if the green you see is different from the green I see") dark comedy about failed surburbia. One offers redemption, the other says we're all basiclly screwed. I can't pick.

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy

Mary-Louise Parker- Weeds

Because she's the only one who's not a Desperate Housewife. I mean, she is, really- far more so than the ladies of Wisteria Lane, but- aww, you know what I mean. Also, DH's ridiculously casual racism this year (black family moves in and has a retarded serial rapist/murderer locked in the basement) has left me cold. Not that MLP's trips to Compton are much more progressive, but at least they're funnier. What does it mean about our country that all the women's roles for this category are housewives? Murphy Brown, we hardly knew you.

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television

Viva Blackpool

Yeah, you probably missed it, but this BBC America miniseries about a wannabe Donald Trump turning his seaside hometown into the next Atlantic City is touching, terrifying, hillarious and bizarre. Worth a look.

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