If the Hollywood Foreign Press Association ever had hope that Tuesday night’s Golden Globe Awards could get back to business as usual, they chose the wrong person to host.
But for a needed shot of straight talk, he picked the right person.
A year after the Globes were turned into a private event because NBC refused to air it and the stars refused to show up, and six months after a reorganization that doubled the number of voters, the number of black members was modest. reformed (it is now more than zero) and transformed them from a non-profit organization to a privately owned, for-profit organization, the HFPA returned to a Beverly Hilton ballroom that only superficially resembled the place where He used to keep the globe.
And the host, comedian Jerrod Carmichael, pulled the rug out from under him with an opening monologue in which he suggested he was only hired because he was black, dropping a serious stat — ” I wouldn’t say they’re a racist organization, but they didn’t have a black member until George Floyd died”—and about refusing repeated requests to meet with HFPA President Helen Hohen before the show As the audience sat in silence as Hollywood’s “party of the year” — the one that’s been trademarked, you know — he forced people to take stock of what caused the Globes to return. Were so desperate.
Ricky Gervais may have insulted the stars and mocked the HFPA while hosting the show, but Carmichael silenced the stars and leveled the HFPA. And in doing so, he set the tone for a show in which no one could pretend that it was business as usual.
It was from that position – battered and bruised and looking for redemption – that the 100-or-so members of the HFPA, as well as the 100-or-so other international journalists who come to vote but are not members, set out to show Tried that the Globes are worth saving and the people who win them deserve respect.
He did for the most part what he usually does: spread the money, sharing 14 film awards with 10 different films and 13 TV awards in 10 television appearances. The lackluster shows had plenty of clear winners (Cate Blanchett in “Tar”, Colin Farrell in “The Banshees of Inishrin”, Michelle Yeoh and Kay Huy Quan in “Everything Everywhere at Once”, Evan Peters in “Dammer”, Quinta Brunson in in “Abbott Elementary”) and some mild surprises that weren’t really that surprising.
After all, Brendan Fraser may have been the Oscar favorite for “The Whale” over Austin Butler for “Elvis,” but Fraser said as soon as he was nominated that he was after accusing the former HFPA president of sexual misconduct. Globe will not attend. And maybe “Everything Everyone at Once” went into the night a slight favorite over “The Banshees of Inishrin” in the Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy category, but “Banshee” was always a strong contender in a tight race, so This victory was the farthest thing from shock.
Yes, “Argentina, 1985” was not expected to beat out “All Quiet on the Western Front”, “RRR” and “Decision to Leave” in the international category, but the biggest surprise comes when it comes to such a category. If so it is hardly monumental.
If voters were trying to send a message, you could say it came in the show’s first 90 minutes, when almost every acting award went to a person of color — though it did a disservice to deserving winners like Brunson and Tyler James. Hoga Williams, Yeoh and Kwan, Angela Bassett and Zendaya suggested they were part of an HFPA scheme to make the winners as diverse as possible. Yet, halfway through the show, they had already topped all previous Globe shows, with six awards to actors of color, four black and two Asian.
The results of The Globes never really impress Oscar voters, whose nomination voting begins Thursday. But Globes speeches sometimes play out as out-of-town tryouts for Oscar speeches — and if so, Steven Spielberg made a good case for “The Fablemans.” extended what they already had for “Everything Everywhere”. And Angela Bassett may be getting a slight boost for her supporting role in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
At the end of the night, Helen Hohen took to the stage to say how grateful the HPFA was “for supporting the industry” and to promise that they would continue to become more diverse. However, by that time, the crowd was chatting amongst themselves and barely paying attention to anything on stage, so it is difficult to get a sense that the message was actually delivered.
Or perhaps it was just that Jerrod Carmichael’s opening remarks still hung in the air, giving the HFPA the courage to find a way forward.
