Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

I feel more confident than I really deserve to be in judging this category, given that I have not yet seen Annie or Maps to the Stars. I loved Beasts of the Southern Wild for lots of reasons, one important one being for introducing us to Quvenzhané Wallis. I hope we see a lot more of her but if she couldn’t pull off a win for BOTSW I can’t imagine her winning for Annie. I tend to like David Cronenberg and am looking forward to Maps but everything I’ve read has Julianne Moore as the favourite for the Drama category and, wanting to get as many celebrities on their stage as possible, they’re unlikely to honour her twice in one night. So that leaves the three that I’ve actually seen. Well, sort of. I couldn’t finish The Hundred-Foot Journey because my dvd player stopped working at about the half-way point (one of the disadvantages of being one of the few people left that actually watch dvd’s). But, from what I’ve seen, the great helen Mirren seems to have one hand tied behind her back as she tries to act through that silly French accent. Still, she has a couple of moments where her talent shines through, usually when she’s not speaking and we can only read the expression on her face (come to think of it, those are Emma Stone’s best moments in Birdman too).

So that leaves Amy Adams and Emily Blunt. Adams is very well cast as Margaret Keane in Big Eyes and her natural vulnerability serves the film well. Jay was right to point out, however, that director Tim Burton curiously treats her as a bit of an after-thought in her own movie, focusing as much as possible on the more dynamic Christoph Waltz. This miscalculation is one of many in Big Eyes, making for Adams’ nomination tonight a little bit of an after-thought as well. I’m not much more excited about Blunt, who could have just as easily been nominated as a supporting actress in the ensemble musical Into the Woods. She gives one of many very entertaining performances and doesn’t necessarily even stand out in her own movie. Still, she’s full of charm in a movie that was charming pretty much from beginning to end and she manages to stand out in an underwhelming category.

Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

I’m a little more prepared on this one, only missing the still impossible to find Inherent Vice, which I can’t wait for. I loved the novel and love PT Anderson and the fact that I find the pairing of director and source material hard to picture only makes me more eager to see it. So, who knows? Maybe Joaquin Phoenix will have what it takes to pull ahead in an already strong category.

Well, it would be a lot stronger without Christoph Waltz in Big Eyes. His tendency to go over the top is an asset when he’s working with a director who knows when to rein him in.

Bill Murray can’t help but be awesome and- if he can carry a movie like St. Vincent- he can do anything. I disliked the movie as much as I possibly could given that its lead is so strong. In Vincent, Murray finds a role that both plays to his strenghs while giving us some opportunity to see what else he cacn do.

Ralph Fiennes is a new and welcome addition to Wes Anderson’s universe in The Grand Budapest Hotel. He manages to fit in perfectly as if he’d been working with Anderson for years while still contributing something new. His classical training and and what imdb called his “rich mellifluous voice” served TGBH well.

As good as Murray and Fiennes are, Michael Keaton pretty much has this locked. Best known for playing a superhero, Keaton manages to reinvent himself as an actor best known for playing a superhero trying to reinvent himself. Its one of those rare cases where the baggage an actor brings to a role makes for the perfect casting instead of a distraction.

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

St. Vincent is elevated by a fantastic Bill Murray performance as well as very likeable supporting ones from Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd, and Jaeden Lieberher but on a whole doesn’t seem to belong in this otherwise stiff competition.

IIt took me a few minutes to get used to Inot the Woods but once it really got going, I was entertained from start to finish. Bonus points for being the only movie in this category that is both a comedy and a musical and I found myself laughing out loud several times. It finds a fresh take on not one but four classic fairy tales and keeps going and only gets better after the happily ever afters.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is Wes Anderson at his best. It may not have the emotional impact of some of The Royal Tenenbaums or Moonrise Kingdom but it makes up for it by possibly being his most outrageous and hilarious movie yet.

I love Pride. I just love it. this is one of the few things I appreciate about the globes. this comedy or musical category category gives recognition to this movie that is almost definitely going to be competely ignored when the Oscar nominations are announced on Thursday. Although I hope I’m wrong.

But really the winner has to be Birdman. The dizzying camerawork, the seamless gelling of a great cast, and layered script make this one of this year’s best films.

Best Supporting Actress

I haven’t seen A Most Violent Year and I’m really hoping Jessica Chastain is incredible in it because I’m finding it hard to find a front-runner in the supporting actress category. Everyone seems pretty equally good/not great. Meryl Streep is, well, Meryl Streep and can’t being awesome but I can think of many times that she was even more awesome and her nomination seems to be partly out of habit. Her last song was still one of the best parts of Into the Woods though. Joan Clarke brings out the best of Alan Turing in The Imitation Game and Keira Knightley brings out the best in Benedict Cumberbatch. Their friendship is one of the best parts of the movie and- with Cumberbatch being so spectacular- it can be easy to underestimate how good Knightley was. But the movie still belongs to Turing. I loved watching the cast of Boyhood play their characters as they grow with them over a period of 12 years but it would seem strange to give Patricia Arquette an acting award for a movie that tries so hard to make you forget that these are actors. Finally, Emma Stone has some very nice moments in Birdman but is mostly over-shadowed by Michael Keaton and Edward Norton.

I’m still waiting for someone to wow me in this categoryand its all up to Chastain now. But in the meantime, Arquette came the closest.

Best Supporting Actor

I’m really falling behind here. I have not seen either The Judge or Whiplash. I hear great things about both Whiplash and J. K. Simmons’ performance and I can’t wait to see it. I have heard not so great things about The Judge but I normally like Robert Duvall so I’ll keep an open mind.

Of what I’ve seen, I’m on Team Edward Norton for now. Birdman apparently had a strenuous shooting schedule with actors having to film up to 15 pages of dialogue at a time and Ed rises to the ocassion, not having been this good in a long time. Ethan Hawke is one of those actors I almost never like but I thought he seemed uncharacteristically sincere in Boyhood and his performance matures as his character does. As for Foxcatcher, everyone I talk to has a different idea of who was the best in Foxcatcher but Mark Ruffalo being nominated over Channing Tatum is baffling to me.

I’m voting Ed Norton but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Simmons changes my mind once I finally see Whiplash.

Best Screenplay

Its a tough category. Gone Girl gets eliminated first. Gillian Flynn’s script is well strucutured and witty but may be too modest and doesn’t aim as high as the other nominated screenplays. The Imitation Game is very well written and manages to find hmour and suspense in a story that could have easily been dull and hard to follow. More importantly, it rises to the challenge of telling a compelling and ultimately heart-breaking with a main character who can at first be so hard for us to relate to. As I’ve said before though, screenwriter Graham Moore takes a couple of lazy and cliched shortcuts too many. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Wes Anderson’s screenplay for The Grand Budapest Hotel, another hilarious and bittersweet Anderson film. Anderson’s movies seem to exist in a world of their own and comparing TGBH with the other nominees seems strange, as if it should only be compared with other Anderson movies. That leaves Boyhood and Birdman- two of this year’s best movies. Boyhood is the more profound of the two experiences but the Birdman was so well written it was one of those few scripts that I could just sit and read. I’d almost have to flip a coin to decide but I’m voting Birdman.

Best Director

Wes Anderson and David Fincher are two directors whose next projects I am always anxiously awaiting and I don’t think either one of them has ever directed a film that I haven’t seen several times. But, just as I elimated Gone Girl’s and Budapest’s screenplays from consideration, Fincher and Anderson may not be able to compete with the other three very strong nominees. Selma, Boyhood, and Birdman may be my three favourite English-language movies of 2014. Selma is both inspiring and horrifying, with director Ava DuVemay depicting human capacity compassion just as effectively as for cruelty and handles Dr. King’s private life (almost) as effectively as his public life. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu gives long stretches of Birdman the appearance of one continuous take, which is especially ambitious given how much is going on both between all the different characters and inside Riggan’s imagination. It’s the kind of movie that makes someone think “wow, that was really well directed”. But Boyhood was too ambitious, too real, and too beautiful for me to vote for anyone but Richard Linklater. I doubt he’ll win- it’ll go to DuVemay or ñárritu- but I would love it if he did.

Best Original Score

Three of the five nominees can be easily ruled out. Jay and I have both commented on Hans Zimmer’s score for Interstellar, which I found so over-bearing that it even drowned out some of the dialogue. Trent Reznor has already been sufficiently honoured for his collaborations with Gone Girl director David Fincher, which worked even better in the Social Network. Alexandre Desplat is nominated for his forgettable score for The Imitation Game when he should have been nominated for his work on The Grand Budapest Hotel, which set the mood perfectly for Wes Anderson’s unique vision. That leaves Birdman and The Theory of Everything. Antonio Sanchez’s out of control percussion-heavy score was one of many elements of Birdman that kept me off balance. Sanchez deserves high praise for thinking outside the box and contributing to the uneasiness I felt watching the film. Jóhann Jóhannsson’s much more conventional music in The Theory of Everything moved me so much that it gets my vote though, inspiring me to ponder the endless possibilities in an infinite universe.

Best Original Song

I try and judge these songs on how well they fit with the movie that they’re written for and how well they add to the experience of watching it. So I won’t comment on the song if I haven’t seen the movie. Sounds fair, right? Unfortunately, that rules out three of this year’s nominated songs. I haven’t yet seen Annie, Noah, or Mockinjay, having prioritized seeing movies with more than one or two nominations. Lucky for me, narrowing it down to my remaining two choices makes it easy. Lana del Rey’s mysterious sound is wasted in the otherwise ordinary Big Eyes. Selma, on the other hand, ends on a high note that is so empowering, they could have played Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It through the closing credits and I still would have been choked up as I left the theater but, luckily, they played an original song from John Legend and Common instead. The movie isn’t over until the song has finished playing, with lyrics that bring us back to present struggles, challenging us to look to the future. I can’t imagine anything else winning.

Why are the Globes so early? I hit the Bytowne, Elgin Video, Redbox, and Google Play pretty hard over the last few weeks but still haven’t been able to see all the nominated films, with some still impossible to see in Ottawa without resorting to piracy. But here’s the best that I could do.

Best Animated Feature Film

I revisited a lot of what I’ve already said on this category in my reviews for the individual movies but we lost power in the office and I lost everything. So I’ll just say that I thought The Book of Life was loud, tedious, and had an amateurish sense of comic timing. And I still haven’t seen the Boxtrolls which, for all I know, could be the best of the bunch. But the other three nominees (How to Train Your Dragon 2, Big Hero 6, The Lego Movie) are all worthy. The Lego Movie is a clear stand-out though as one of the most inventive and funniest movies of 2014. The Assholes are pretty unanimous on this and I think the Hollywood Foreign Press- not to mention Oscar- will agree.

Best Foreign Language Film

These are always the hardest to track down. I sheepishly have very little to contribute here except that I loved Force Majeure. I relished debating and discussing it and couldn’t help but try to imagine myself in each of the character’s shoes. So far, it’s my favourite movie of 2014 and, although I hear great things about Leviathan and Ida in particular, I can’t help but hope Force Majeure wins.