Golden Globe Nominees

Oh, there are SOO many things for me to be angry about here...

Best Picture, Drama

The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

Best Picture, Comedy/Musical

50/50
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris
My Week with Marilyn

Best Picture, Animated

The Adventures of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

Best Director

Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
George Clooney - The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Alexander Payne - The Descendants
Martin Scorsese – Hugo

Best Actor, Drama

George Clooney - The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio - J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender - Shame
Ryan Gosling - The Ides of March
Brad Pitt – Moneyball

Best Actress, Drama

Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis - The Help
Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton - We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Actor, Comedy/Musical

Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Brendan Gleeson - The Guard
Joseph Gordon Levitt - 50/50
Ryan Gosling - Crazy Stupid Love
Owen Wilson - Midnight in Paris

Best Actress, Comedy/Musical

Jodie Foster - Carnage
Charlize Theron - Young Adult
Kristen Wiig - Bridesmaids
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn
Kate Winslet – Carnage

Best Supporting Actor

Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn
Albert Brooks - Drive
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen - A Dangerous Method
Christopher Plummer – Beginners

Best Supporting Actress

Berenice Bejo - The Artist
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer - The Help
Shailene Woodley - The Descendants

Best Screenplay

The Artist
The Descedants
The Ides of March
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball

Best Original Score

The Artist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
W.E.
War Horse

Best Song

“Hello Hello”; Gnomeo & Juliet
“The Keeper”; Machine Gun Preacher
“Lay Your Head Down”; Albert Nobbs
“The Living Proof”; The Help
“Masterpiece”; W.E.

Best Foreign Language Film

The Flowers of War - China
In the Land of Blood and Honey - USA
The Kid with a Bike - Belgium
A Separation - Iran
The Skin I Live In - Spain

First of all, where the hell are the songs from The Muppets?!? Is the HFPA that much in love with Madonna that they HAD to nominate her pile of dung movie W.E.? Machine Gun Preacher? Really? Even Gerard Butler didn't see Machine Gun Preacher! Do they just love Chris Cornell? Then why the hell didn't they nominate his wonderful song from Casino Royale five years ago? I may just be biased, but Life's a Happy Song or Man or Muppet deserved nominations above both of these movies (and will probably do so come Oscar time).

I'm really starting to question what they classify as Comedy/Musical. The Artist, okay, it's a comedy/musical, I'm cool with that. We have our winner right there. Carnage? Really? A Roman Polanski film is a comedy? If it is, it has to be the driest comedy to the point that it's, I don't know, a DRAMA! My Week With Marilyn a Comedy? It's flat out a drama, there's no excuse for this! And where the hell is Beginners? That movie was practically a shoe in for Best Comedy, but no, apparently that's going to be restricted to Best Supporting Actor.

The Ides of March. Out of friggin' nowhere, the HFPA digs The Ides of March out of virtual shut out and gives it four major nominations. Dammit, now it's back in contention. It's not a horrible movie, but there are just so many other movies that didn't feel like you were watching a stage play (which is what it was based on). Don't feel like it was needlessly included? How about the fact that there are six nominees instead of the standard five?

W.E....I'm just gonna throw that out there again. Madonna got another undeserved nomination.

Movies that took a huge hit here are Young Adult, Martha Marcy Mae Marlene, A Dangerous Method, The Tree of Live, Drive and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Young Adult needed some kind of support to keep it in the running, but without a Best Comedy/Musical nod or a nod for previous nominees Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody. Elizabeth Olsen's chances have become very slim now, despite having huge critical support. A Dangerous Method's chances have been restricted to Viggo Mortenson's nod for Best Supporting Actor. Tree of Life seems to have only the Broadcast Film Critic's support, ditto Drive, but the most troubling was Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close's chances. This is a movie directed by the guy that was able to sneak The Reader into the Best Director/Picture race in 2008 over The Dark Knight and Wall-E, earning three straight Best Picture/Director nominations for his first three movies. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo also seems to be shut out outside of technical nods. The only way that these movies will maintain their chances at nominations will be to see what ten movies the Producers Guild are going to pick.


Another glaring omission was Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids. Though the movie was up for Best Comedy/Musical and Kristin Wiig also got nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy, McCarthy seemed like a good fit for Best Supporting Actress. Guess not. I'm still not sold on Janet McTeer getting nominated for Best Supporting Actress over McCarthy, but it could happen now. McCarthy no longer seems as solid of a fit. Ditto Steven Spielberg's chances as his prestigious film War Horse only managed nods for Best Picture and Score.

Movies that got a tremendous boost are Moneyball as well as Jonah Hill. With four nominations, Moneyball's support seems to have held out from October. While it may not be enough to win the big awards, it IS enough to make Brad Pitt a strong contender for Best Actor. Ditto My Week with Marilyn, which has secured nods for Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branaugh. While a Best Picture nomination may seem a bit far fetched, there may be some room for technical nods like Costume Design, Art Direction and Make-Up.

For now, we can be assured that Best Picture nominees are going to be The Artist, The Descendants, The Help, Hugo and Moneyball with War Horse and Midnight in Paris being strong possibilities. Everything else that's in contention is kind of in limbo because of the Academy's "Five to Ten" rule, in that Best Picture nominees could be as few as five or as many as ten. Hell, we could have seven, we could have nine. This is just an asinine attempt to drum up interest. Funny, the only people that are going to notice are going to be nerds like me that follow these things. Everyone else is going to just shrug their shoulders. Well, here's to more confusion and disappointment.

W.E….W.E….