The best, worst, and most surprising moments from the 2024 Golden Globes
An awkward night with heartfelt speeches, few unexpected winners, and a not-ready-for-primetime host reveal an awards show very much in transition
Aux Features Golden Globes
Say what you will about the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (and plenty has already been said), but at least they knew how to put on a good show. This year’s revamped Golden Globes ceremony felt more disciplined than in years past, and less interesting. The speeches were short, there weren’t any video packages or musical performances, and after bombing during his opening monologue, host Jo Koy never regained his energy and only appeared sparingly. We didn’t even get any major curve balls when it came to the winners. In a quest to become more respectable, the Globes may have lost some of the chaotic fun that made them so entertaining to watch. Still, there were enough highlights and lowlights t0 give us something to talk about until the next big awards show. Here are some of them.
79 Comments
No music? Wow.
I was very disappointed with Poor Things. It was certainly ‘different’ but this is not a feminist film. Throughout, still a woman objectified, and being ‘free’ sexually does not necessarily equal empowerment, yet that’s basically all that Bella does.
It was a little too much like Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, only with Steampunk frivolity and some wit. I understand they are two entirely different films, but here we go again with a male director obsessing about a woman’s body. The decision to go with black and white was unfortunate. If Lanthromose wanted to play with color he could have lit up everything that Bella was seeing with color.
Ah, yes, famous Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthromose. (ffs…)Pour Things: best film of the year, and probably an Oscar for Emma Stern.
I think some of the Poor Things hype is a “let’s give Yorgos Lanthimos his roses” vibe. I don’t fully agree with your read on the plot, but I don’t think its the strongest of his films either.
It may be my least fav Lanthimos movie.But it’s tiresome that every complaint is essentially “tHe DiReCtOr WaS a MaN”.I can give a better critique of the movie than these people. And I mostly like it.
Lanthimos is very good at getting very compelling (and often odd) performances out of his actors, which I also think likely helps him gain momentum. I agree it’s lesser Lanthimos to me, but Emma Stone is really showing she’s capable of making bold choices. Ruffalo does some interesting things that are different for him. It is definitely not my fave of his films despite finding high points in it.I didn’t actually find fault with the plot in terms of the relevance of sexuality to Bella’s development and I don’t necessarily think the takeaway was meant to be “sex is empowerment” so much as a reminder of how much repression is preached as the norm.
Your reaction is your reaction, but that interpretation is *whoosh*.
Aside from my mention of Von Trier, what’s “whoosh”? Several critics have already weighed in on the ‘feminist’ angle and they don’t see it either.What I wrote is only a reaction. I don’t think I’d call any of it an interpretation.
Well, if several critics have weighed in! Last two sentences are semantics.
Meryl Streep tends to win every time she’s nominated for an acting award…Twenty-one Oscar nominations, three wins.
Holy sh*t. That’s unreal.
French Lieutenant’s Woman, The Devil Wears Prada, Doubt, Death
Becomes Her, Silkwood, Bridges
of Madison County, Julia &
Julia. And these are just the ones I felt were extra-extra outstanding. Many others are highly praised and deservedly so. I don’t know of any other woman in Hollywood who has worked as hard and with such intensity.
I think she’s fully taken for granted, and is so natural on camera that she doesn’t have the ACTING…SO…HARD thing that often leads to Oscar wins (think DiCaprio in The Revenant).
DiCaprio wasn’t overracting in The Revenant. I agree that it’s not in his top five, he’s still great in it and meets the assignment/moment.
Ironically while she was still alive Katharine Hepburn was reportedly unimpressed with Streep because she thought she was too reliant on technique and did not come off as natural.
Yeah, I get that she’s won a lot of Globes (who cares lol), but weird thing to say about one of the Oscar’s most notorious losers.
And even for the Globes, she’s got something like 32 nominations and “only” 8 wins. Definitely not a winning percentage, even in baseball!
I really like Meryl Streep, but I think this continues to be an astute observation about her from The Onion:https://www.theonion.com/name-one-masterpiece-of-cinema-that-ive-starred-in-1819584655
Well, they have to lampshade everyone thinking it’s Kramer vs. Kramer because that’s the answer.
Is it though? It lists several actual classic films (including Thee Deer Hunter) and then tries to gaslight the reader into thinking that they’re not actually classics.
If you feel gaslit by an article in a humor website making a comment about The Deer Hunter, OK. But then I want a new word for what “gaslit” used to mean.
Maybe folks need to actually watch Gaslight before using the term
I was gaslit by the Onion’s fake Meryl Streep. It’s time to tell my story.
I’ve seen The Deer Hunter a few times, and I had completely forgot she was in it. I think that’s a common reaction and part of the joke.
Yea “Adaptation.” is also clearly a classic and she’s immense in it.
My controversial opinion is that Glenn Close is the peerless actor everyone thinks Meryl Streep is.
What I want to know is what the hell is going on all over the arms of that blonde behind them. Was she recently released from federal prison?
Streep? Isnt she the best friend of a certain Polanski who we all know of what he did?More like Meryl Creep.
Armageddon may have been awful but at least Gervais doing the Golden Globes was watchable
Agreed. His jokes were in poor taste and made the show actually entertaining to watch.
That’s because at least at the Globes, his jokes were punching up, if nothing else.
Me after learning that Christopher Nolan won Best Director for Oppenheimer on Instagram:
Keri Russell and Ray Romano were hilarious together.
I was hoping his truthful comment was going to be that he liked Felicity better than her prestige shows, but no such luck.
It was, but the bit went on way too long and killed the joke. It should have stopped at Ray going “wait-what?” and the Kerri immediately going “and the nominees are!”
I was most surprised to see Kristen Wiigs nipples for several minutes during her intro with Wil Ferrell. I looked at my wife and was like does NOBODY see this? Not that I’m upset or anything, I was just surprised to see them, that’s all.
I’ll grant you that pairing America Ferrara with Kevin Costner and Ray Romano with Keri Russell is dumb, but what’s wrong with pairing Natalie Portman and Florence Pugh? And if “[e]ven longtime friends Affleck and Damon didn’t seem all that friendly on stage together”, maybe it’s not about the lack of chemistry between co-presenters and more about awards shows being shit in the first place.
I thought the same thing. If even Ben and Matt struggled, then it was a problem with the writing in the program, not the “chemistry.”
I said when they were walking out that they must be sick of doing this kind of thing together. It was hardly a first.
Yeah, I wonder if Damon and Affleck resent the idea that they’re defined from being endearingly psyched at an award show 25 years ago. They’ve both had very successful, interesting careers, occasionally in shared projects but mostly separately. If you’re the star of the Bourne movies and The Departed, or director of The Town and star of Argo, it must be a little grating that one of the first things people think of is how cute it is that you’re bestie bros with another person.
Why? I’ve been best friends with the same person for 25+ years now and would still be thrilled if my assignment was hanging out with him vs someone else I barely know.
They aren’t really hanging out though. They were selected to present an award together. I’m sure you’d really enjoy hanging out with your best friend. I’m not sure you’d feel the same if, every time you did something in your professional like, people were like, “AKA, we’d love to have you there, and can ____ be with you, because you were really adorable as buddies 25 years ago!”
They were sitting at the same table before that though, both nominated for Air.
I mean, they’re partly there in support of the Best Comedy/Musical nominee Air, which Ben directed and they’re both in. It’s not like they just got thrown together last night for no reason.
True. I also seemed like one of those selections where the people making the choice basically knew Nolan was going to win, since it’s always nice when the presenter handing off the award truly has a reason to be psyched about the win. It was like having Harrison Ford present the Best Picture Oscar last year. You knew the Academy was counting on a hug between Indy and Short Round.
Though sometimes “planning part of the ceremony based on who we ‘know’ who’s going to win” gets you that Oscar ceremony where they built the whole thing around a final moment of Chadwick Boseman winning Best Actor posthumously and whoops it went to Anthony Hopkins.
They should really lean into the bait and switch. Like have Ford say, “I’m very moved to get to present tonight, so I can honor the amazing film made by my Indiana Jones co-star . . . Cate Blanchett! The winner is Tár!”
I mean, that’s the basis of their careers, though. If you can’t be grateful for what launched you, you might have a problem. If that’s what made people like them: congrats, now people like you.
My only take away with Florence Pugh is that she has suck a fun personality and is known for being quite silly and a bit quirky and they were like “no, there will be no fun” when she came out.
I had never even heard of Jo Koy until last night, and I’ll tell you what- keep me away from those stadiums he’s filling.
Me neither and same here. I’m sure he was nervous, which one can have some sympathy for, but that opening monologue was….woof. he did himself (and the writing team, who admittedly didn’t do their best work either) a further disservice with his weird and self-defensive lashing out every time a (terrible) joke bombed. Painful to watch.
Jo Koy has always been a terrible, try-hard, performer. The one that laughs hardest (or at all) at his stuff, is him.
His comedy is…fine, I guess… but whoever thought the guy whose entire schtick is “Filipinos be like…” would be a good choice to host a Hollywood event either had come cocaine-fueled 5-dimensional galaxy brained “but here me out” epiphany that didn’t work out in reality or no one better than Jo Koy wanted the gig.
Allegedly, they had asked all of the usual suspects and no one wanted to host so that’s how it ended up being Koy ten days before the show. I don’t know that more prep time would have fixed things, but he was always doomed to fail if they didn’t even make him watch all the films with the writers and run an actual writer’s room (which he may or may not be able to do).
He was on Chelsea Lately a lot, he’s been around for decades. It stings *me* to read that no one’s heard of him, I can’t imagine how he feels this morning LOL>
Stadiums?Dude couldn’t sell out a High School auditorium if his mom bought most of the tickets.
Never heard of him but from all accounts he is terrible.
I love the photo with De Niro in the crowd gazing benevolently at Kristen Wiig.
I have to say, I’ve been watching movies for 45 years, including tons of classic Westerns, and I have never heard backwards dialogue that’s supposed to sound like a Native American. I’ve been listening to the Beatles for 45 years, too, so I recognize backwards dialogue!
There’s a documentary called “Reel Injun” that uses an example of the dialogue being backward English. To the best of my knowledge, it wasn’t in a well known film and it was a very early film, but the stuff they did in well known films wasn’t substantially better.
So…are we not gonna talk about Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s breasts? My wife clutched my arm, and whispered, “Don’t let them fall out!”
I thought the same thing. It looked particularly dangerous when they showed her sitting down and starting to stand up.
I think there’s a helluva product endorsement opportunity for whatever adhesive was employed in that bodice.
I say this in all sincerity – She was almost certainly taped into that dress.
The whole stand-up category was incredibly bland and unfunny. It’s “best performance” because they all use writers to come up with material that was hack 20 years ago.
“Joy Koy”? “to 0give us”? Are you okay, AV Club??
Let’s face it, the only reason Suits has become a big streaming thing is Markle. Otherwise it’s an above-average legal drama. So a reunion that doesn’t include her is entirely pointless.ETA: But as a connoisseur of redheads, my god does Sarah Rafferty do it for me.
Nobody EVER wants to know that you’re a “connoisseur of redheads.”
Well the redheads seem to appreciate it.
Speaking of redheads who evoke Feelings, congratulations Sarah Snook!
About Jennifer Lawrence being “genuinely happy”… the thing about actors is that they’re always acting. Always. They have no off switch. So maybe Lawrence was happy her friend won – or maybe she’s just good at her craft.
Ricky Gervais is brilliant and Armageddon is hilarious. The authors lack of any sense of humour is very sad though. He did deserve that award but it would have been way better if he had been the host again. Without him Golden Globes is just a boring jerk circle for degenerates and pedophiles.
Degenerates and pedophiles? Did you accidentally watch a GOP convention?
You’re right about Ricky Gervais. He’s never been funny, and it’s pathetic when he tries.
lol