Only good movies
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With two prizes apiece, the films “Soul,” “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and “Nomadland” led the pack of big-screen winners at Sunday’s 2021 Golden Globe Awards.
Pixar’s jazzy animated drama took home the awards for both best picture (animated) and original score, while Amazon’s mockumentary sequel nabbed trophies for best picture (musical/comedy) and lead actor (Sacha Baron Cohen).
In a historic turn, “Nomadland” mastermind Chloé Zhao became the first woman of Asian descent and the second woman ever to win a Golden Globe for directing. Hulu’s gritty Frances McDormand vehicle also landed the coveted award for best picture (drama).
Capping a week of mounting controversy over its membership and ethics, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. held its 78th Golden Globe Awards.
Marred by scandal, Sunday night’s show followed an investigation by the Los Angeles Times that exposed years of corruption within the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., which awards the Golden Globes, and revealed there are no Black voters in the organization. The HFPA addressed the controversy directly during the ceremony, acknowledging that, “we have our own work to do.”
The hosts returned to the ceremony with a set that took on the controversy around the group’s lack of Black members and poked fun at the awards’ film/TV divide.
“Just like in film and television, representation is vital,” said Helen Hoehne, vice president of the HFPA. “We must have Black journalists in our organization.”
Below, find out where you can stream all of this year’s Golden Globe-winning films, from “Minari” to “Judas and the Black Messiah.”
A Times investigation finds that the nonprofit HFPA regularly issues substantial payments to its members in ways that some experts say could skirt IRS guidelines.
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‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
Won: Lead actor (musical/comedy), best picture (musical/comedy)
What we said: “... as Borat’s latest misadventures exist to remind us, we live in a world gone mad, and compliance seems antithetical to his gleefully anarchic spirit.”
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‘I Care a Lot’
Where to watch: Netflix
Won: Lead actress (musical/comedy)
What we said: “... ‘I Care a Lot’ is pretty much a one-woman show for [Rosamund] Pike, who works in a constricted emotional range but a boundless physical one.”
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‘Judas and the Black Messiah’
Where to watch: HBO Max (available for 31 days) and in theaters as of Feb. 12
Won: Supporting actor
What we said: “‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ is too honest to offer reassurances or solutions, but if nothing else, its tribute to Fred Hampton does warrant the final word: ‘America’s on fire right now, and until that fire is extinguished, don’t nothing else mean a damn thing.’”
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‘The Life Ahead’
Where to watch: Netflix
Won: Song
What we said: “... the chance to bask in Sophia Loren’s formidable glow is a pleasure not many movies can claim to offer, so with that in mind, plan your own ‘Life Ahead’ of movie-watching accordingly.”
Chadwick Boseman won a posthumous Golden Globe for his role in Netflix’s ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.’
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‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’
Where to watch: Netflix
Won: Lead actor (drama)
What we said: “Most of all, there is the late Chadwick Boseman, giving a furiously inventive screen performance that also happens to be his last. It’s one spellbinding final reminder of what we’ve lost, and of how easily God, to invoke one of [August] Wilson’s unseen major characters, can giveth and taketh away.”
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‘The Mauritanian’
Where to watch: In theaters as of Feb. 12 and on VOD March 2
Won: Supporting actress
What we said: “... ‘The Mauritanian’ is a moral muddle as well as a narrative one, and it leaves you wondering why our empathy for [Mohamedou Ould] Slahi has to be so mediated, negotiated and rationalized in the first place.”
American drama “Minari” wins the best foreign language film Golden Globe over contenders from Denmark, France, Guatemala and Italy.
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‘Minari’
Where to watch: In theaters as of Feb. 12 and on VOD
Won: Best picture (foreign language)
What we said: “‘Minari’ in its entirety feels like a balm right now, a gentle, truthful and tender story of family filled with kind people trying to love one another the best they can.”
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‘Nomadland’
Where to watch: Hulu and in theaters as of Feb. 19
Won: Best picture (drama), director
What we said: “Fluid, inventive and even playful in ways that belie its generally somber tone, ‘Nomadland’ exists at that blurry juncture where fiction and nonfiction meet — a well-traveled zone that is nonetheless still rife with artistic possibilities.”
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‘Soul’
Where to watch: Disney+
Won: Best picture (animated), score
What we said: “Like an ethereal cousin to [codirector Pete Docter’s] triumphant ‘Inside Out,’ ‘Soul’ is another playful exercise in metaphysical world building, a door-slamming farce staged between the portals of consciousness. It reminds us that ordinary lives can be the stuff of extraordinary adventure.”
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‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’
Where to watch: Netflix
Won: Screenplay
What we said: “... even if ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ qualifies as catnip for Oscar voters — it’s a juicy courtroom drama, a sweeping ’60s panorama, an epic of liberal hand wringing and an all-you-can-eat actors’ buffet rolled into one — it also, to its credit, rarely exaggerates its own topicality.”
Andra Day won the Golden Globe for best actress, drama for her performance in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.”
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‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’
Where to watch: Hulu
Won: Lead actress (drama)
What we said: “Within the confines of a straight-ahead, handsomely designed and photographed biopic beats the heart of a more adventurous presentation of Holiday’s tragic life.”
Times film editor Geoff Berkshire contributed to this report.
