One Good Film, One Dire Awards Show

The Globes retreated to its rubber-chicken roots; James Gray's "The Immigrants" is this week's streaming best bet.

Jan 08, 2024

I’m not sure what was more discombobulating about last night’s Golden Globes: The fumes of flop-sweat visibly rising from the evening’s host, an alleged comedian named Jo Koy; the sight of talented actors grimly reading bad comedy bits off a teleprompter; or the striking lack of acceptance-speech nods to politics, strikes, AI, the Middle East, or anything having to do with the world outside the bubble of the Beverly Hilton. Ayo Edebiri, best actress winner for “The Bear,” praising her agents’ assistants was as radical as it got. (That said, it’s about time the peons got a shout-out, and Edebiri both deserved her win and was refreshingly, adorably normal during her moments in the spotlight.) Mrs. Movie Critic chose not to watch the ceremonies this year because the sight of Hollywood folk swanning about in finery and self-congratulations did not sit well with her feelings about the state of the world at this particular juncture. And, honestly, I sat through the Globes the way you might sit through a medical lecture, gathering useful tidbits for future awards shows.

Now that most of the critics’ awards and the early bling parades have announced their picks for best of 2023, the conventional wisdom has either solidified or remained in a vaguely gaseous state, depending on the category. Da’Vine Joy Randolph winning best supporting actress for “The Holdovers” at the Globes doesn’t guarantee she’ll win the Oscar for same, but it comes as close as a Vegas oddsmaker could want. By contrast, Robert Downey Jr. taking the supporting actor category for “Oppenheimer” sucked the wind out of a seeming juggernaut for Charles Melton of “May December.” Because the Globes divide the lead acting awards into two categories, drama and musical or comedy, both Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Emma Stone in “Poor Things” got a boost, as did Cillian Murphy in “Oppenheimer” and Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers.” Fine – excellent performances all.

I was surprised but pleased to see France’s “Anatomy of a Fall” win both Non-English Language film and the screenplay award and I was not surprised (but pleased) to see “Barbie” win the new Golden Globe for “cinematic and box-office achievement,” an award that in future will be known as the Participation Trophy for People Who Are Used to Winning. (As Don Draper once said, “That’s what the money’s for.”)

Speaking of “Barbie,” host Koy’s cringe-inducing joke about the film being about “a plastic doll with big boobies” managed to insult the filmmakers, the film’s audience, the film’s concept, and everybody within earshot – especially Greta Gerwig, seen grimacing as if she’d found a slug in her tuna nigiri. I’m not sure most of the assembled revelers did hear: The acoustics in the Beverly Hilton are notoriously lousy and the Golden Globes are notoriously boozy. Everyone there seemed to be having a good time – more than anybody watching at home – and the acceptance speeches were, in general, charming and occasionally eloquent (cf., Giamatti, Gladstone, and Steven Yeun). And at one point in the evening, I glanced at my phone to see a UN report stating that 80 percent of the people currently starving in the world live in Gaza. And I remembered why my wife couldn’t bring herself to watch.

Two critics groups I belong to have announced their choices for best films, performances, and whatnot of 2023. The Boston Society of Film Critics met before the holidays on December 10 and voted “The Holdovers” best film, Paul Giamatti best actor, Lily Gladstone best actress, and Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”) best director; further details can be found at the BSFC website. The National Society of Film Critics met this past Saturday in New York and voted “Past Lives” best film of 2023, Glazer best director, Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”) best actress and Andrew Scott (“All of Us Strangers”) best actor. Further details are at the NSFC website. Oscar nominations will be announced on January 23, with the ceremonies to follow on March 10.

A regular feature for paid Watch List subscribers: I suggest one reasonably under-the-radar movie from the recent or distant past new movie, and you do what you want with that information.

It seems a good time as any to take in James Gray’s dramatic masterpiece “The Immigrant” (2013, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐, streaming on Criterion Channel (as part of a James Gray retrospective), Peacock, Kanopy, and Hoopla; for rent on Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube, and elsewhere) considering the rosy myths Americans like to tell themselves about the incoming waves of a century ago and the images of pestilential hordes swarming the border in the speeches of people running for President today. The movie, set in 1921, simultaneously indulges and explodes those earlier myths in the tale of a Polish woman (Marion Cotillard, above right) who comes through Ellis Island into the hands of a pimp and hustler (Joaquin Phoenix, above left) who falls in love with her, as does his magician cousin (Jeremy Renner). Conscious melodrama, then, with one foot in the Five Points of Lucy Sante’s “Low Life” and the other in the silent films of its time period – with her lambent Lillian Gish eyes, Cotillard could have stepped from a D.W. Griffith iris shot – but given a dreamy, amber glow by cinematographer Darius Khondji. I personally blow hot and cold on Gray, who can take himself terribly seriously (“The Yards,” “Armageddon Time”) but who’s also an instinctive filmmaker capable of unexpected greatness, as this film and “The Lost City of Z” (2017) prove. “The Immigrant” tells an old story with a gentleness and relentlessness that render it almost holy, and as a bonus it has one of the most hauntingly perfect final shots of our young century.

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