Damien Chazelle\u2019s daring, magical musical \u201cLa La Land\u201d swept its way through the Golden Globes on Sunday night, winning all seven of its nominated categories: best picture comedy\/musical, lead acting honors for Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling , and awards for director, screenplay, song and score.
In doing so, it broke the record shared by two 1970s movies: \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d and \u201cMidnight Express,\u201d both of which won six Globes, including one category \u2014 acting debut \u2014 that no longer exists.
\u201cI\u2019m in a daze now, officially,\u201d Chazelle said accepting the director\u2019s prize, the second of three trips he made to the stage. And who could blame him?
Now, naysayers could grouse and note that \u201cLa La Land\u201d was off by its lonesome in the comedy\/musical categories, separated from the other two awards season front-runners, \u201cManchester by the Sea\u201d and \u201cMoonlight. \u00a0\u00bb But \u201cLa La Land\u201d prevailed in two key categories in which the three movies were directly competing, director and screenplay, proving two things: 1) The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. loves musicals \u2014 always has and probably always will, and 2) this particular musical possesses a power and charm that has a way of burrowing into people\u2019s hearts. (I\u2019m humming \u201cCity of Stars\u201d even as I write this.)
Host Jimmy Fallon opened the evening with a \u201cLa La Land\u201d-inspired musical tribute of sorts that demonstrated just how deeply Chazelle\u2019s musical has entered the pop culture consciousness \u2014 even before fully expanding into a theatrical wide release. Fallon sang numbers based on two songs from the movie \u2014 \u201cAnother Day of Sun\u201d and \u201cCity of Stars\u201d \u2014 and parodied the movie\u2019s Griffith Observatory dream sequence, waltzing and floating with Justin Timberlake amid a backdrop of stars.
It doesn\u2019t hurt, either, that \u201cLa La Land,\u201d like recent best picture winners \u201cThe Artist,\u201d \u201cBirdman\u201d and, to a point, \u201cArgo,\u201d celebrates the one thing that Hollywood and Oscar voters can\u2019t resist: itself.
\u201cManchester by the Sea\u201d \u2014 the movie Fallon called the \u201conly thing more depressing than 2016\u201d \u2014 did manage to win one Globe, lead actor Casey Affleck. But that meager showing does little to prop up a belief that Amazon Studios\u2019 indie drama has what it takes to win the best picture Oscar.
\u201cMoonlight,\u201d Barry Jenkins\u2019 drama depicting three periods in the life of a young black man struggling with and ultimately learning to accept his gay identity, took one Globe too \u2014 the evening\u2019s last, best picture drama. Jenkins\u2019 singular movie remains the strongest challenger to \u201cLa La Land,\u201d as it has become part of the cultural conversation in a very different way, inspiring discussions about race, sexuality and identity in a manner that transcends stereotypes and conventions.
It\u2019s easy to envision an Oscar split for picture and director, with Chazelle\u2019s musical winning the former and Jenkins taking the latter.
One of the evening\u2019s biggest surprises was saved (almost) for last when French acting legend Isabelle Huppert won the lead actress drama Globe for \u201cElle.\u201d In the film, Huppert plays a woman who is raped and decides to shift the power from victim to avenger.
Huppert has won many critics group prizes, including honors from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. But she\u2019s still not guaranteed an Oscar nomination when they are announced on Jan. 24. The lead actress category is particularly crowded this year, with strong turns from Stone, Natalie Portman (\u201cJackie\u201d), Amy Adams (\u201cArrival\u201d), Annette Bening (\u201c20th Century Women\u201d), Meryl Streep (\u201cFlorence Foster Jenkins\u201d) and Ruth Negga (\u201cLoving\u201d).
But academy voters have shown a willingness in three of the last four years to look around the globe for their lead actress choices \u2014 Emmanuelle Riva in 2012 for Michael Haneke\u2019s \u201cAmour,\u201d Marion Cotillard in 2014 for the Dardenne brothers\u2019 \u201cTwo Days, One Night\u201d and Charlotte Rampling last year for Andrew Haigh\u2019s \u201c45 Years.\u201d Huppert could well continue the trend.
Elsewhere, Viola Davis won the supporting actress trophy for her work in Denzel Washington \u2019s adaptation of August Wilson\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning play \u201cFences.\u201d Davis has won supporting honors with countless critics groups in the last few weeks and will probably go on to win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Oscars. She could have competed in the lead category \u2014 as she did when she performed the same role opposite Washington on Broadway \u2014 and still swept through the season.
Davis gave a moving speech, paying tribute to her blue-collar father, noting \u201che had a story and it deserved to be told \u2014 and August Wilson told it. \u00a0\u00bb Davis was also part of the evening\u2019s true high point, introducing Meryl Streep for the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award (\u201cYou make me feel like what I have in me, my body, my face, my age, is enough.\u201d)
Eloquent speeches like the ones Davis delivered represent another kind of performance. And if done well and from the heart, they tend to stick in Oscar voters\u2019 minds.
In that respect, the night\u2019s biggest winner might have been Streep herself, though I\u2019m sure her tenuous place in the lead actress Oscar race was the last thing on her mind when she crafted her fiery acceptance speech. It takes a lot to silence the Beverly Hilton\u2019s ballroom, but celebrants stopped their schmoozing when Streep brought the hammer down on President-elect Donald Trump , decrying his \u201cinstinct to humiliate\u201d and noting that \u201cwhen the powerful use their position to bully, we all lose.\u201d
Referring to the time Trump imitated disabled New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski on the campaign trail, Streep noted it \u201cwas one performance this year that stunned me.\u201d Taking that astonishment and turning it into righteous fury, Streep reminded everyone why she remains an awards season perennial. There\u2019s no one like her.
Casey Affleck talks about the way Kenneth Lonergan uses everyday language to convey deep emotion in \u00ab\u00a0Manchester by the Sea. \u00a0\u00bb
For her role as Jackie Kennedy, Natalie Portman says, \u00ab\u00a0It’s not a fashion story,\u00a0\u00bb but the clothes do tell a story.
Joel Edgerton talks about staying truthful to the real-life story of \u00ab\u00a0Loving. \u00a0\u00bb
Director Nicolas Winding Refn and composer Cliff Martinez discuss their \u00ab\u00a0Neon Demon\u00a0\u00bb collaboration.
\u00ab\u00a0Manchester By the Sea\u00a0\u00bb director Kenneth Lonergan discusses writing a quiet character and working with actor Casey Affleck to bring him to life.
\u00ab\u00a0Manchester By the Sea\u00a0\u00bb director Kenneth Lonergan discusses writing a quiet character and working with actor Casey Affleck to bring him to life.<\/p>\n