Golden Globes

I haven’t watched the Globes live in a few years. Go a few years further back and I was always posted on a couch in Atlanta watching this. Paramount+ subscribers can stream it live this year and with Nikki Glazer hosting I’m showing up for that opening monologue.

Let’s take a look at the best picture contenders, which I will review with bias.

DRAMA

I didn’t feel compelled to watch this over the winter break. Even with Boyd Holbrook playing Johnny Cash it just felt like something I would eventually watch at home.

I loved this movie. I’ll watch Ralph Fiennes in anything. Films about the Vatican are cool, but that combined with gossip just makes it a must-watch. It wins best drama for me, but best picture at the Oscars I have reserved for another film.

Didn’t watch it. Wasn’t interested. The first one bored me except for seeing Oscar Isaac. It’s on HBO now and I still can’t. What I’m continually reminded of when I see ads for this film is how Alice in Wonderland was a political statement on the Prussian war. This feels like that and I’m not entirely sure why.

I really loved the trailer. I never read the book, which I believe won the Pulizter. It seems like the kind of movie I will agree with everyone is great, but will never actively watch, though I’ll lie and say I have.

This movie will start the race for Oscars on Sunday and it still hasn’t been released? Maybe it has and I just missed the few showings. I love films that take place in newsrooms, especially when they’re covering a story that will stay with people always.

This was an almost four-hour film with an intermission. It was beautifully shot and Brody was great. I’d still choose Conclave over this for best drama.

COMEDY

I wanted to see this. I had a ticket earlier in the fall and missed the showing. I’ll get to it before the Oscars. Jesse Eisenberg picks great roles and he also directed this. It’s a road trip film, those are always fun.

My favorite movie of 2024 and my pick for best picture. Sean Baker made an entirely original film turning the Pretty Woman trope upside down and still delivering a film with a realistic happy ending. I want to see this again on the big screen and I will buy it when it starts to stream.

3 asexual teenagers walk into a bar… didn’t watch it. Someone once told me that the Olympic village is one huge orgy because you can’t put the best physical specimens on planet earth in the prime of their life in a small space without things popping off. There’s a movie with a love triangle coming out later this year and the two love interests for the protagonist are Jon Bernthal and Pablo Shreiber. That’s a film I would understand and get behind, or maybe I’m just old.

It’s on Netflix. I’ll get to it eventually.

I loved this movie. Demi Moore held this together and delivered icy perfection. There was violence in this film, but the biggest “ohh” moment for the audience was watching Moore’s character succumb to age and have a gout flare-up in her knee. Everyone in the theatre yelled out loud, which tells me not many people have seen a friend or family member blow up and limp after consuming pork or drinking too much.

I can hear every line of this film because I loved the musical with Idina Menzel as the lead. I might save this to watch back-to-back with the sequel.

It’s Anora all the way for me and Conclave for best drama on Sunday night.

Honorable mentions from holiday film viewing.

Nicole Kidman earned her nomination. The way the May-December affair film has evolved over the past twenty years is interesting. Comparing this to Unfaithful, it had all the similar elements of the relationship, without the excuses. She did it because she wanted to and there weren’t any other issues to navigate. The honesty was appreciated.

I loved this film. It was a love story. Eggeds delivers another winner.