Third time’s the charm for Golden Globe hosts, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. The pair left no one unscathed at this years ceremony, with jokes including, Joaquin Phoenix and his criticism of award shows, a game of “Who Would you rather?,” George Clooney’s mediocrity compared to his wife, Amal Alamuddin, and Bill Cosby’s recent overflowing rape allegations.
Although Fey and Poehler were as witty as ever for their final gig as co-hosts, the majority of the telecast was taken over by Margaret Cho, who played a North Korean army general, and was introduced as Cho Jong-Un. The joke comes off of the controversy over the Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy The Interview that spoofs North Korea’s leader with a plot about assassinating him.
Cho, introduced as “the newest member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” commented on the Netflix nominated show, Orange is the New Black, and how it should be in the Drama category because “it’s funny, but not ha-ha funny.” Cho also barked at presenter Kristen Wiig that she should do Bridesmaids 2 and took a photo with Meryl Streep, which Benedict Cumberbatch attempted to photobomb.
Amazon’s original show Transparent played the role of dark horse Sunday night and picked up two awards in the television category. The show won for Best Television Series Musical or Comedy and star Jeffrey Tambor won Best Actor in a Television Musical or Comedy Series for his role as an older character that comes out as transgender. Tambor dedicated his award to the transgender community, and in similar fashion the shows creator, Jill Soloway, played tribute to Leelah Alcorn.
Another dark horse was CW’s Jane the Virgin star, Gina Rodriguez, who was awarded with Best Actress in a Comedy Series, beating out Lena Dunham, Edie Falco, Julia Louis-Dreyfoos, and Orange is the New Black’s Taylor Schilling. When accepting her award, Rodriguez said that the award represents more than herself and instead represents “a culture that wants to see themselves as heroes.”
FX’s Fargo won for Miniseries/TV Movie and along with its star, Billy Bob Thornton. Thornton should win another award for his speech, which was simply “these days you get in a lot of trouble for what you say, you can say anything in the world and get in trouble. I know this for a fact, so i’m just going to say, thank you.” His speech can be seen as a response to the death of Charlie Hebdo or Thronton’s way of keeping up with his enigmatic persona.
The events in Paris were also spoken about by last year’s winner and this year’s presenter, Jared Leto, who before handing Paticia Arquette the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for Boyhood, took time to to send a message to “our brothers, sisters, friends and families in france, our thoughts, our prayers, our hearts are with you tonight. On vous aime. Je suis Charlie”
Maggie Gyllenhaal was given the Globe for Best Actress in a Miniseries for her role in The Honorable Woman. When accepting the honor, Gyllenhaal drew attention to what’s turning her on. It’s not Adam Levine or her husband Peter Sarsgaard, instead it’s the abundance of roles she sees for women that aren’t strictly powerful. She sees instead, “women who are sometimes powerful and sometimes not. Sometimes sexy, sometimes not. Sometimes honorable, sometimes not.” Basically, there are more roles for actual women, which is definitely a turn on.
For the film portion of the night, awards were handed out to Amy Adams for Best Actress in a Motion Picture in Big Eyes, in which she portrays artist Margaret Keane who had her art sold under her husbands name. Eddie Redmayne picked up the male counterpart to her award, but for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Joining them as Best Actor and Actress were Michael Keaton for Birdman and Julianne Moore for Still Alice.
Another dark horse picked up an award, this time Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, which focuses on the tales of a once luxurious european hotel. Also, Richard Linklater’s 12 year long coming-of-age film, Boy Hood, won for Best Drama and Linklater for Best Director.
As per usual, the three hour long extravaganza featured the bestowment of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Achievement. This year’s recipient was George Clooney, who dedicated his award to those marching in paris for freedom of speech and thanked his human rights lawyer wife, Amal Alamuddin, and “whatever alchemy it is that brought us together, I couldn’t be more proud to be your husband.”
Other awards of the night were Drama TV Series, which went to The Affair since Breaking Bad isn’t available to take every award in the Drama category. Also, Kevin Spacey took home Best Actor in a Drama TV Series for Netflix’s House of Cards, Matt Bomer for HBO’s The Normal Heart, and JK Simmons snatched Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for Whiplash, proving the Sunday night the night that dark horses shone.
This year’s Golden Globes were bittersweet due to it being Amy Poehler and Tina Fey’s last, but overall, it was a golden night.
Award Season continues with the Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 25th.
