Saturday, January 9, 2016

My hopeful winners the Golden Globes/playoff season

Folks, it's that time of year again, Awards Season! Who's exciting? Obviously this is my favorite time of year. Not only is it award season but it's also playoff season for the NFL; so basically it's the best time of year. Who says January and Feburary are the depressing months? So, in honor of these exciting events, I give my hopeful predictions of what I would like to happen.

Golden Globes winners (disclaimer: I am not even close to have seen all of the movies nominated):
Best film - drama: "Spotlight"
I have only seen this and "Mad Max: Fury Road" (which premieres on HBO tonight and you should all watch) that are nominated for this category but what I've read about the other nominees, I have a feeling "Spotlight" will be my favorite of the choices. I think it's the most important movie of the year in terms of what it is telling and showing how much the journalism industry has changed. It might also be because I'm a journalist, so I suppose I'm rather biased. I will say that I loved "Mad Max" and was pleasantly surprised when I saw it got nominated.

Best film - comedy: "The Martian"
This is a tough one because if we're going strictly by the nominations in this category, "The Martian" is the best choice. It is the most complete film with a great story with a handful of funny moments. When I came out of it (and reading the book first) I would never consider this a comedy. If we are going by which movie I laugh most at, it's a tie between "Spy" and "Trainwreck." But I would be surprised if the winner isn't "The Martian."

Best actress - drama: Saoirse Ronan, "Brooklyn"
There's no chance she's winning, but I would like to see her win. It's most likely my affection for "Atonement" that I want to see this happen, but I think it would be great for the movie (which is on my list to see.) The winner, in my opinion, will be Cate Blanchett (surprise, surprise) or Brie Larson (who is gaining lots of attention for her acting chops in "Room," a movie I don't really want to see but feel like I should after all the rave reviews.)

Best actor - drama: Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant"
Could this be, finally the year Leo gets the credit he deserves. I mean he slept in an animal carcass! Leo isn't without a Globe win but it would be great to see him start winning for this movie in hopes he finally gets his Oscar. Though, he once again has tough competition this year. Eddie Redmayne is like the male version of Jennifer Lawrence.

Best actress - comedy: Amy Schumer, "Trainwreck"
There's nothing more that I want than an Amy Schumer accept speech in front of the Globes audience. I also think she's pretty deserving of this award, but it might also be because she wrote this movie. I laughed probably equally as much as I did with Melissa McCarthy, who finally had a solid performance since her "Bridesmaids" days. I would be cool with either of those winning, but would argue that Schumer's character required a little more than just playing for laughs.

Best actor - comedy: Matt Damon, "The Martian"
I feel like this is a lock, but who really knows with the Foreign Press. I actually secretly hope Steve Carell wins; there's something about him and Ricky Gervais being in the same room that has me excited about this show. But there's no doubt Damon's performance was one of his best, even though it seems he has played this needing rescuing many times in the past.

Best supporting actress: Kate Winslet, "Steve Jobs"
It might be because this is the only performance that I saw in this category, and I'm also very biased toward Kate anyways, but it would be fun to see her and Leo win on the same night. I also thought her performance of Steve Job's right hand lady Joanna Hoffman was quite perfect. This is a tough category with a lot of question marks.

Best supporting actor: Sylvester Stallone, "Creed"
How great would it be if he won for his role of Rocky he created nearly 40 years ago (in case you didn't know, he was nominated for an Oscar for writing the screenplay for the original "Rocky"). I think it would be very cool to see him win this one. Also, none of the other nominees are very intriguing. I'm thinking it was a weak year for supporting men.

I could go through the rest of the movies categories, but then I feel like I would be writing for the next three hours (though I will say if "Inside Out" doesn't win best animated movie, I will throw something at the TV.) Here's to just hoping there are good speeches and entertaining interactions. But now for television.

Best TV drama: "Mr. Robot"
I, of course, will not be upset if "Game of Thrones" wins, however I'm rooting for this one because after watching only the pilot (I plan to watch more, don't worry), I thought it was a very inventive episode of TV, not only plot but character development. It'd also be good to see USA have a winner. Please, just don't let "Outlander" win, the least deserving of the nominees.

Best TV comedy: "Silicon Valley"
Probably the funniest program on TV, one that I laughed the most at (maybe rivaled with "Veep," which likely will win, and I'm cool with that.) I just think "Silicon Valley" has a great tone and delivery that is unlike most shows, so it would be nice to see it score a win.

Best limited series: "Fargo"
There is no question what the best thing on TV was this year. Maybe TV ever. "Fargo" is the greatest. Go, watch now. What are you doing still reading this. If you need log in info to watch o Hulu, just text me, I'll give you mine. It is the best piece of writing, ever. Season 1 of "True Detective" be damned. Somehow they made it better than the original movie.

TV people I would like to see win: Kirsten Dunst, who was fantastic in "Fargo." She was able to portray a lot of emotions of a very complicated and hilarious character. Viola Davis is a joy to see win and would be no different in this situation. I don't necessarily think she was the best actress on screen but she still needs to be owed for all the times she has been snubbed in the past. Personally, I'm a sucker for final seasons to win, and that's the case this year for Jon Hamm and "Mad Men," would love to see him score the best actor. As much as I love the brilliance of Julia Louis-Dreyfus in "Veep" I would like to see fresh blood win this category again (Gina Rodriguez scored the upset for "Jane the Virgin" last year.) I would love to see Rachel Bloom be the next CW actress to win for "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" a ridiculous but creative show she created. The music performances alone should be reason she wins. Finally, I'm hoping Aziz Ansari wins for "Master of None," and again it is also because he created and wrote most of the episodes. His performance was great and funny, but the show itself was just pure fun to watch, a fresh comedy.

So there you have it. Here's to hoping all my hopes and dreams come true, even though they won't. And while I'll be crying during Gervais' monologue because it won't be muh ladies Tina and Amy up there, I am excited for the start of this awards season. I'm still holding out hope the ladies show up and do something ridiculous (though unlikely.)

NFL playoffs:
Quickly, I'm just gonna say let's all hope there is not another Patriots/Seahawks Super Bowl this year. I swear, it will not be fun. But that's mainly because the Patriots look like a limping horse coming into the final stretch. Everyone loves a good underdog and I believe I'll be rooting for all of them (including Bengals, Chiefs and Vikings.) But, I my hope lies with the Broncos and quarterback Peyton Manning, the nicest guy in the league (steroid report be damned.) How great would it be if he led the Broncos to one final Super Bowl win after being out the last six games and rode into retirement on top. So, go Broncos! More than anything I would love just competitive games to occur as any fan does when they're team is not in the playoffs. So here's to good competition and unhealthy amounts of food in the next month.

Also note that the Oscar nominations come out Thursday and all I'll say is that the only nominations I'm hoping for this year is Schumer for original screenplay for "Trainwreck." She, very similarly to Kristen Wiig and "Bridesmaids," reinvented the genre and deserves to be recognized. I mean, look, they included her in this roundtable discussion of screenwriters. I also, like the whole world, have jumped on the Schumer bandwagon.

Until next time, Live long and prosper.

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