The Critics’ Choice Awards Vs. The Golden Globes Vs. A Really Stupid Question

The Critics’ Choice Awards and The Golden Globes announced their nominations this week (and someone asked a really stupid question), and I thought I’d give you a comparison-style look at what’s hunting for awards. Do you know the ins and outs of these categories? These movies? Should you? Do you care? Do you have a really stupid question?

Leslie Gornstein, who I guess is The Answer B!tch at E!Online‘s website (or whatever), apparently received this question -

Why does the movie industry even give out awards anymore? It’s not like anybody cares what they think. New Moon was the biggest phenomenon of 2009, and the critics can’t stand it.
—Glama, Detroit via the Answer B!tch inbox

This led to The Answer B!tch‘s article, If New Moon Doesn’t Win Awards, What’s the Point of Awards?

In the article she goes on to say such things in response as -

Increasingly, the movies Hollywood likes to honor are not the same movies people like you want to see. (The Hurt Locker was great, according to the Hollywood Foreign Press. Did you see it? Exactly.) There are some exceptions—I’ll share some examples in a second—but the real question is why.

The answer may kind of insult you…

…and that’s that Hollywood—the moviemakers and the critics—seems to kind of not like you.

and

In other words, Hollywood knows you liked New Moon and Star Trek and Transformers 2—it’s wallowing around in all that Twilight cash as I write this. But by nominating brutal fare like Precious and Hurt Locker for Globes and (I’m sure) Oscars, it’s saying, “Here’s what you should like—ya tools.”

But it isn’t working.

While the article makes some points, it seems to me that the general idea of the response has gone wrong. In fairness, that’s an easy thing when faced with a fairly ridiculous question, especially if you’re whipping out an answer (and no fault to not spending a great deal of time on it). But, I think it may deserve a little more thought. Especially at the end of this year when we had some chatter about such things. Witness Ebert’s Brainiac blog post, and the whole Transformers 2 debacle and outrage.

The truth is more and less harsh than The Answer B!tch (hey, pick your name, face the consequences) would have you believe. It’s actually not that the critics don’t like you (and, yes, I’m a voting critic for one of the awards groups we’re about to look at). On the other hand, we don’t particularly care what you (personally, asker of said question) think either. But, we recognize that we aren’t playing the same game.

And, we aren’t really saying, “Here’s what you should like.” We’re only voting for what we think is good, just the same as you do with your dollars.

The difference is that we, hopefully, are voting for what we think is actually good in some sense that at least approaches objectivity, and not simply for what we like. Meanwhile, the vast majority of people who liked New Moon when they walked out, liked it when they walked in. That’s not a contest that actually tries to decide among the best films.

Still, though we can laugh this question off to a degree, the general sentiment is around. Suppose The Hurt Locker wins the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama. Well, then the general populace rolls its eyes. I mean, who votes for those anyway? Seriously, do you know who the Hollywood Foreign Press members are? The Broadcast Film Critic Association members? Why do we pay attention to these awards?

As the original question goes, “It’s not like anybody cares what they (critics) think.”

Does anyone care what we critics think?

When it comes to New Moon… No. Not really. Not anybody. We have no discernible effect on who does or doesn’t go see New Moon. There, I said it. Now, something like Star Trek… well, maybe a little. You can move on through some of the bigger titles, and maybe we have a decent effect on some of those, and maybe not so much. As you go down to the medium popularity titles, then people start to care more. Not everything is New Moon, and most people aren’t going to the movies more than once a weekend, or even every weekend. Now we start to get to choices.

Once there are choices, and people actually do want to listen to something, then they hear what we say about a title. They may even still listen to what we say about New Moon, even if they’re going to go see it anyway. A lot of that stuff we say seems to make sense, and then maybe they listen when we talk about The Last Station, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The Young Victoria, Bright Star, (Untitled), and who knows what else. Maybe not the best films ever, but worthy of mention, and maybe you haven’t heard them mentioned much. Some movie pops up that those who listen love, and they find we not only love it too, but can explain our love a bit better.

And, after all that, we say, “And, this is the best movie of the year,” and they think. They agree. They disagree. Whatever. They think.

In the end, grandiose as I may wax, nobody cares what your English Professor says is a good book either, but we keep them around.

—

Now, let’s look at what’s been nominated, and do a little compare/contrast/guess.

Golden Globes – GG

Critic’s Choice – CC

I’m going to leave general Best Picture options for later.

GG

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama

• Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
• George Clooney, Up in the Air
• Colin Firth, A Single Man
• Morgan Freeman, Invictus
• Tobey Maguire, Brothers

CC

BEST ACTOR

• Jeff Bridges – “Crazy Heart”
• George Clooney – “Up In The Air”
• Colin Firth – “A Single Man”
• Morgan Freeman – “Invictus”
• Viggo Mortensen – “The Road”
• Jeremy Renner – “The Hurt Locker”

So, this is really a three-horse race. Tobey Maguire is a throwaway. I don’t know how that got in there. Jeremy Renner and Viggo Mortensen aren’t at all bad, but I don’t think they have any real hope. I wouldn’t say Clooney can’t win, but he shouldn’t. As much as I liked the movie, he’s only playing George Clooney, or at best, “the guy George Clooney plays all the time.” It’s not worthy of acting awards.

For my money, Morgan Freeman is in a similar place. Good job certainly, but not the best acting of the year.

The buzz is going heavy toward Jeff Bridges, and I have my suspicions that this might turn into one of those, “Jeff Bridges hasn’t won before?” sort of years. I’d have to pick Firth out of either of these very similar choices. In truth, I would pick two people not on either list before Firth, but I won’t go into that.

GG

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama

• Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
• Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren, The Last Station
• Carey Mulligan, An Education
• Gabourey Sadibe, Precious

CC

BEST ACTRESS

• Emily Blunt – “The Young Victoria”
• Sandra Bullock – “The Blind Side”
• Carey Mulligan – “An Education”
• Saoirse Ronan – “The Lovely Bones”
• Gabourey Sidibe – “Precious”
• Meryl Streep – “Julie & Julia”

If two people could win, this would be an absolute lock… at least insofar as who should win. Gabourey Sadibe has, fine enough performance though it may have been, as much legitimate right to this award as Sandra Bullock, which is to say, none. Meryl Streep is only nominated because it’s in some contract somewhere that she be nominated so long as she actually appears in a film. Saoirse Ronan does a nice job, but it’s tricky to even say she is the lead actress at all (except by default I guess), much less that it is an award-winning performance. Helen Mirren was actually quite good, but I don’t think it was quite up there in this particular case.

This should go to Carey Mulligan, but I wouldn’t complain much if Emily Blunt took it. But, if anyone else takes this one, then we really might as well start voting New Moon.

Now, the Golden Globes throw in their monkey wrench.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

• Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
• Marion Cotillard, Nine
• Meryl Streep, It’s Complicated
• Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
• Julia Roberts, Duplicity

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

• Matt Damon, The Informant
• Daniel Day Lewis, Nine
• Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
• Joseph Gordon Levitt, (500) Days of Summer
• Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

I don’t know what to do with these frankly. The movie distinction seems somewhat odd to me. Especially in cases like Nine, which has nominations based on the idea that it is, indeed, a musical. Sandra Bullock for two? Meryl Streep twice in the same category? Whatever. Throw your dart.

GG

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

• Matt Damon, Invictus
• Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
• Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
• Christopher Waltz, Inglorious Basterds
• Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

CC

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Matt Damon – “Invictus”
• Woody Harrelson – “The Messenger”
• Christian McKay – “Me And Orson Welles”
• Alfred Molina – “An Education”
• Stanley Tucci – “The Lovely Bones”
• Christoph Waltz – “Inglourious Basterds”

That people other than Christoph Waltz are nominated here is pure courtesy and circumstance.

Matt Damon isn’t in the film enough to be a real option. Woody Harrelson is a live option, and in a different year might have a chance, but I don’t think he’s going to get votes. Stanley Tucci is as well, and might even get votes, but I don’t think there is a real question about whether or not he will win. Christopher Plummer was quite good, and I like seeing Christian McKay get the nod, but this is Waltz’ dance. Ha! You see what I did there?

GG

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

• Mo-Nique, Precious
• Julianne Moore, A Single Man
• Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
• Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
• Penelope Cruz, Nine

CC

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Marion Cotillard – “Nine”
• Vera Farmiga – “Up In The Air”
• Anna Kendrick – “Up In The Air”
• Mo’Nique – “Precious”
• Julianne Moore – “A Single Man”
• Samantha Morton – “The Messenger”

Julianne Moore is in A Single Man less than Matt Damon is in Invictus, and it’s nonsense that either of them were nominated. Pay no attention to any Nine nominations much like you should not pay attention to that guy behind the curtain. Nevermind that between the groups they can’t decide which is the supporting actress choice. I’d love to see Vera Farmiga take it, but it’s probably going to Mo’Nique on hype, though she was quite good. On the other hand, I have some other choices that weren’t nominated.

GG

Best Animated Feature Film

• Coraline
• The Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
• The Princess and the Frog
• Up

CC

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

• Cloudy With A Chance OfMeatballs
• Coraline
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Princess And The Frog
• Up

Probably the clearest lock of the year, even with some last minute chatter for The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Coraline makes me a bit sad though, because any other year…

GG

Best Foreign Language Film

• Barria
• Broken Embraces
• A Prophet
• The White Ribbon
• The Maid

CC

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

• Broken Embraces
• Coco Before Chanel
• Red Cliff
• Sin Nombre
• The White Ribbon

This one tears me up, because I want Broken Embraces, The White Ribbon, and Coco Before Chanel to win, but I also really liked A Prophet and Sin Nombre. Rough category. But, how many of these have you seen anyway?

GG

Best Screenplay — Motion Picture

• Up in the Air
• It’s Complicated
• District 9
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglorious Basterds

CC

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• Mark Boal – “The Hurt Locker”
• Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – “A Serious Man”
• Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber – “(500) Days Of Summer”
• Bob Peterson, Peter Docter – “Up”
• Quentin Tarantino – “Inglourious Basterds”

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach – “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
• Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell – “District 9″
• Geoffrey Fletcher – “Precious”
• Tom Ford, David Scearce – “A Single Man”
• Nick Hornby – “An Education”
• Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner – “Up In The Air”

Here we have a tricky bit of category splitting for comparison purposes, but the winners probably work out easily enough. Oddly, I think, only 4 of the GG‘s 5 are represented in the CC, which means a lot of movies were passed over in favor of It’s Complicated… which has little right to win. Adapted should easily go to An Education, but Up in the Air, A Single Man, and Precious have chances. Tough to say how that vote will go. I don’t see District 9 taking an award here, but it’s rather nice to see it get nominated. On the other side of things, I think the real competition is The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds, but the momentum seems to be solidly for The Hurt Locker.

GG

Best Director — Motion Picture

• Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
• James Cameron, Avatar
• Clint Eastwood, Invictus
• Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds

CC

BEST DIRECTING

• Kathryn Bigelow – “The Hurt Locker”
• James Cameron – “Avatar”
• Lee Daniels – “Precious”
• Clint Eastwood – “Invictus”
• Jason Reitman – “Up In The Air”
• Quentin Tarantino – “Inglourious Basterds”

Leaving aside Lee Daniels, we have the same list. First, none of these choices are the best director of the year, and it should be pointed out that CC tries to make the clarification of Best Directing, even though they come up with the same faulted list. This is always a category of frustration, because even among critics there is a great tendency to go from, “Wow. I love that movie,” straight to, “Hey. Best Director,” without a lot of thought. Best Picture and Best Director are not supposed to be the same category, and there are at least three directors that have a lot more claim to inclusion in the nominations than at least three of the things that showed up.

Who should win? Of these choices I wouldn’t complain that much if either Bigelow or Tarantino took it. Clint Eastwood, much as he has efforts that do deserve it, doesn’t deserve it here. Reitman did a good job, maybe worthy of nomination, but not the win. Cameron was nominated for having made a movie. Who will win? It’s really anyone’s guess.

—

Now we come to a really complicated set of affairs. Best Picture. GG splits things into Drama and Musical or Comedy, which is tricky enough. CC has a Best Picture, but also has Best Action Movie and Best Comedy. And, CC has adopted the Oscar idea of having 10 nominations in the main category.

GG

Best Motion Picture — Drama

• Avatar
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglorious Basterds
• Precious
• Up in the Air

Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

• (500) Days of Summer
• The Hangover
• It’s Complicated
• Julie & Julia
• Nine

CC

BEST PICTURE

• Avatar
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Invictus
• Nine
• Precious
• A Serious Man
• Up
• Up In The Air

BEST ACTION MOVIE

• Avatar
• District 9
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Star Trek

BEST COMEDY

• (500) Days Of Summer
• The Hangover
• It’s Complicated
• The Proposal
• Zombieland

How are  you supposed to know who should win now? Especially when you have situations like 3 of the Best Action Movies also in the Best Picture? Could you win Best Picture and not win Best Action Movie?

There are a few movies you can rule out as having very little chance in any of these spots, but picking the winner is just about impossible. When you’re looking at what will actually win anyway. What should win, based on the choices available, and with the understanding that the thing that really should win might not be on the list?

In order from above-

The Hurt Locker

(500) Days of Summer

An Education

Inglourious Basterds

(500) Days of Summer

–

So there’s a look at most of what we can compare. I don’t include things like Score, Best Song, or Made-for-Television Film, and both awards have their categories that don’t really translate much, but for my purposes here I think we don’t need to go into every single category anyway.

Does anyone care what we think? Do those who think New Moon, Transformers 2, or even Avatar is the best movie ever care about the critics who are voting for The Hurt Locker, An Education, or anything else? Who knows. Do people really feel any connection to the Golden Globes, when by definition they probably don’t have much connection to the critics in question? It’s one thing if you read/know some of the critics in question, but do you read the reviews of the Foreign Press members?

Are there critics who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about? Do people tune in to the Critics’ Choice Awards with as much zeal and rabid furor as those who watch The MTV Movie Awards? When Avatar, Nine, Crazy Heart, The Young Victoria, and Did You Hear About the Morgans? open on the same weekend, is anyone listening to anyone when it comes to which of those they are going to choose?

While the initial question I brought you is somewhat legitimately dismissed out of hand, there is a certain disconnect between critics and the populace at large. While some critics may be rather snooty about the whole affair, and The Answer B!tch is inclined to suggest that critics are indeed trying to tell people what they should like, I think the truth of the matter is a different sort of creature.

The thing is, film is a kind of art, and I humbly submit that film criticism is as well. But, film is a wide world of art, and one that we might compare to the entire realm of anything that can be classified as a sport. And, film criticism is not the assigning of star ratings. Some sports are Olympic Figure Skating (or whatever), some are baseball, some are soccer, some are judo, some are Nascar, and some are Monster Truck Rally and WWE Wrestling.

It might be mildly interesting that some critics gives one of them five stars and another three, or none, and that might be what makes it onto the poster, but it isn’t much to do with actual criticism. What’s actually interesting is that a good critic has something to say about all of them, hopefully something that is itself interesting and worthwhile to read. They go to every sporting event, and they tell you that this one was really good… and here’s why.

Then, we vote.

The voting isn’t supposed to be our declaration of what you should like. That is, not to any higher degree than your love of New Moon is meant to persuade us to love it. Well, hopefully. We just vote for what we like (or find appreciation for, despite not particularly liking it) the same as you.

If you think Twilight is the best book ever written, you aren’t wrong (despite Ebert’s adoption of Siskel’s view). Well, not exactly. But among people who have read thousands of books, have been on the Earth long enough to read thousands of books, have studied writing in great detail and spent a lot of time thinking about the craft in general… by and large they pick things like The Great Gatsby, and they are a lot less wrong… and there is actually something rather interesting about that.

Are You Screening?