2024 Golden Globe Reactions

The Globes are back on television for a second year and I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing. Stand-up comedian Jo Koy was the host and he made a compelling case for the Globes to stay off of television.

His opening monologue was bad. Jokes fell flat and his timing was poor. If I didn’t know who he was I wouldn’t have guessed he was a stand-up comedian. He even threw his writers under the bus when his jokes began to fall flat.

That’s just a bad look, and maybe it’s why he essentially disappeared from the rest of the show. No one was complaining about that though. Another bad element was no acting clips. The people want acting clips!

We got clips for the new Best Stand Up special category and the BS Best Blockbuster category. However, no clips for the acting performances, show why these people are nominated. Why is this such a hard concept? We don’t need more time for bad jokes, get rid of the poor monologues, and show the acting clips.

When it came to the actual awards there was not much to complain about, except it felt like the globes went into autopilot. For TV Beef, The Bear, and Succession all won everything.

The film awards were a little more spread out but Oppenheimer took home the bulk of the awards. It only missed three of the categories it was nominated for. Two were not surprising, the Blockbuster award which went to Barbie—Supporting Actress which went to awards season front-runner Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers.

Surprisingly it lost in Screenplay to Anatomy of a Fall, more on that later. Oppenheimer still won five total Globes, Picture – Drama, Best Actor- Drama, Best Director, Original Score, and Supporting Actor.

Rounding out the film awards The Holdovers won two Globes, Poor Things won two (big ones), Anatomy of a Fall won two, and Barbie won two. Killers of the Flower Moon one as well as The Boy and the Heron.

So, what does this all mean for the Oscars?

Well, in general, it means nothing. The Globes are not a predictor when it comes to the Oscars, they’re just the first major televised awards show. What it can do is show there is more or less support for certain films.

It can also give a platform for certain people who can garner support through a moving speech, which is what I believe happened with Lily Gladstone’s moving speech for Best Actress – Drama for Killers of the Flower Moon.

So, let’s look at specific categories and see what it may mean for the Oscars.

Animated Feature

The Boy and the Heron won. This is marvelous as it is one of the year's best films, but I still won’t be shocked when Spider-Man wins this award at the Oscars.

Best International Feature – Non-English Language

Anatomy of a Fall won here. It is not eligible for this category at the Oscars because it is not France’s submission. So we still don’t know who will win that category. However, this winning here and in the Screenplay shows one thing. There is support for this film and I am now confident Anatomy of a Fall will end up in the Best Picture line-up at the Oscars.

Original Score and Song

Right now I think these are the frontrunners at the Oscars. Ludwig’s score for Oppenheimer is overwhelming, in a good way. And Billie Eilish’s song “What Was I Made For?” for Barbie feels like the moving song that wins this category.

Best Screenplay

The Globes only have one category but the Oscars split this into two; Original and Adapted. In the most shocking win of the night Anatomy of a Fall won here over Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Poor Things.

Now, at the Oscars, all three of those titles will be in Adapted, and Anatomy of a Fall is in original. Its main competition was going to be Barbie. But now that is competing in Original with those other three behemoths.

So while those four will now kill each other Justine Treit could stroll to an Oscar win for Original Screenplay. Her only real competition is The Holdovers and I don’t see the support for that one like Anatomy has. There is also Celine Song’s Past Lives, which could sneak in and win in the original now that Barbie is gone.

Acting Awards

The lead performances are split into drama and comedy/musical. So the Globes make the acting races look like two-horse races. But to really know who is in front we’ll need to wait for the SAG awards.

Best Actor seems to be between Paul Giamatti and Cillian Murphy. Both have been in the industry for a long time and have garnered a lot of respect.

The loser here was Bradley Cooper who many thought was competing against Murphy. If Cooper wins the SAG we have a race. If Paul or Cillian win SAG it’s likely theirs to lose.

For Best Actress, the Globes solidified the race we’ve all known, Emma Stone vs. Lily Gladstone. Two very different performances, each with the same amount of equal respect. Emma has already won an Oscar, but they love going for the bigger performance. Right now I think Emma has a slight edge.

However, Lily’s speech definitely bumped her up and if she can take SAG it’s all but over for Emma.

Weirdly the Globes don’t split the supporting performances by category, they put them all into one. Da’Vine Joy Randolph won again for The Holdovers. I don’t know if anyone can beat her now. If Emily Blunt wins SAG we might have a race, but this is only an award, which seems locked down.

Robert Downey Jr. won for Oppenheimer. It is and is not a surprise. Charles Melton has been winning in the critics groups for May December. But the Globes love their stars. So, I don’t think RDJ has this locked up yet. But it’s a tight race between him and Melton for the Oscar.

Best Director

Christopher Nolan won here and it feels like the narrative is; it’s his time. A highly respected major director who holds major sway in Hollywood. He made a behemoth, which was a critical, and box office success. Right now, I don’t see who knocks him off. It is Nolan’s time.

Best Picture

Poor Things won in Comedy/Musical and Oppenheimer won in Drama. With how many Globes Oppy won it feels like it should be the front-runner. However, there doesn’t seem to be the same ground swell that Everything Everywhere, and Coda had.

There is respect for Oppenheimer, but that doesn’t equate to wins. Poor Things has passionate support but I wonder if it’s too idiosyncratic to actually go the distance for Best Picture. It feels like a screenplay and maybe Best Actress winner at best, and some technical awards.

Some late-breaking films have not been released wide and could rise quickly. All of Us Strangers and American Fiction could gain major support after this weekend. Could one of these possibly come in late and take the crown?

Some films that could’ve used a boost here that didn’t were Past Lives and Maestro. Again, there may be more support in the industry for these films. Barbie also stumbled here, felt like the Globes didn’t take it seriously as an awards contender. We’ll have to wait for the guild awards to come in. I think the current Oscar Best Picture Power Rankings are:

1 – Oppenheimer

2 – Poor Things

3 – Killers of the Flower Moon

4 – The Holdovers

5 – Anatomy of a Fall

6 – Barbie

7 – Maestro

8 – Past Lives

9 – The Zone of Interest

10 – 10 is hard, we still have not seen All of Us Strangers and American Fiction. The Color Purple seems to be lukewarm. Well, see if it comes in at the Oscars. Another film to be completely shut out here was The Iron Claw. This also could appear at the SAGs and Oscars. I think one of these four take this final spot.

The SAG nominations drop Wednesday and I will drop another reaction. That will make the Oscar races much clearer as well.