Golden Globes 2011 Nominations

This year I’ve amped up my pre-awards coverage, so this isn’t the first time you’ve read about this on (if you’ve been reading) Movie Muse. But without a doubt, things don’t really get cooking until now, when the 2011 Golden Globe nominations come out. As the most extravagant/popular pre-Oscars ceremony, the Globes receive a lot of notoriety though the nominations are decidedly more along the lines of popular opinion.

This year, “The King’s Speech” secured the most nominations with seven, but “The Social Network” and “The Fighter” followed closely behind with six.

But without further ado, here are the nominations and my thoughts on them:

Best Picture – Drama

• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• The King’s Speech
• Inception
• The Social Network

My Thoughts: This is a solid list and I think we can safely say that all five of these films are probably locks for Best Picture nominations as the five nominees at last year’s Globes were. The most noticeable absence here would be “True Grit.” Mostly, I see this being a race between “King’s Speech” and “Social Network,” at least for the Oscars. The Globes will likely pick “Network.”

Best Picture – Musical/Comedy

• Alice in Wonderland
• Burlesque
• The Kids Are All Right
• RED
• The Tourist

My Thoughts: This list is dramatically worse than last year’s when “The Hangover” won the award. “The Kids Are All Right” should be the hands-down favorite—and “The Tourist”? That’s awful. “Alice” is getting recognition for being a box-office smash and “Burlesque” makes this a “musical” category. But “RED” is the only even “good” film on this list other than “Kids.”

Best Actor – Drama

• Jesse Eisenberg for “The Social Network”
• Colin Firth for “The King’s Speech”
• James Franco for “127 Hours”
• Ryan Gosling for “Blue Valentine”
• Mark Wahlberg for “The Fighter”

My Thoughts: This is a terrific list of young actors and actors in their prime. The first three are definitely tops in this category. Wahlberg is the only “surprise” only in that his name hasn’t been mentioned in any critics societies/circles this year. We know Gosling does awards-caliber acting, so even though we’re a few weeks from seeing “Blue Valentine” in theaters, not a surprise he’s up there.

Best Actress – Drama

• Halle Berry for “Frankie and Alice”
• Nicole Kidman for “Rabbit Hole”
• Jennifer Lawrence for “Winter’s Bone”
• Natalie Portman for “Black Swan”
• Michelle Williams for “Blue Valentine”

My Thoughts: Oodles better than last year. For once, nobody is in a period drama and many of these actresses are popular, all in fact except for Lawrence, but this would be her breakout performance. Many of you have not heard of “Frankie and Alice” as we hadn’t even seen a trailer until a couple weeks ago, but Berry plays a schizophrenic, so there you have it. As far as buzz, Portman, however, is the favorite and seeing as she fits the Globes qualities of a good performance from a popular actress, she seems a lock at least here.

Best Actor – Musical/Comedy

• Johnny Depp for “The Tourist”
• Johnny Depp for “Alice in Wonderland”
• Paul Giamatti for “Barney’s Version”
• Jake Gyllenhaal for “Love and Other Drugs”
• Kevin Spacey for “Casino Jack”

My Thoughts: Talk about any excuse to nominate Johnny Depp. Clearly he doesn’t belong on the list. I’ve heard nothing of “Barney’s Version,” thought Gyllenhaal was good in “Love,” and think Spacey could be great as Jack Abramoff, so I’m eyeing him.

Best Actress – Musical/Comedy

• Annette Bening for “The Kids Are All Right”
• Anne Hathaway for “Love and Other Drugs”
• Angelina Jolie for “The Tourist”
• Julianne Moore for “The Kids Are All Right”
• Emma Stone for “Easy A”

My Thoughts: So much better than the male nominees, that’s for sure. All this love for “The Tourist” however has me thinking the Hollywood Foreign Press simply thought it would be good so they nominated it for popularity’s sake. Interesting that “The Kids Are All Right” is being deemed a comedy because that makes it a frontrunner in all these categories. Hathaway was very good and Stone is a budding young actress, but this is Bening’s award.

Best Supporting Actor

• Christian Bale for “The Fighter”
• Michael Douglas for “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”
• Andrew Garfield for “The Social Network”
• Jeremy Renner for “The Town”
• Geoffrey Rush for “The King’s Speech”

My Thoughts: The Globes nominees were identical to those of the Oscars last year, but I’m not so sure this time. Bale is definitely the favorite with Rush close behind. Douglas seems like a popularity choice. Garfield and Renner are terrific in their roles, so I really like seeing them here and am wondering about their Oscar chances.

Best Supporting Actress

• Amy Adams for “The Fighter”
• Helena Bonham Carter for “The King’s Speech”
• Mila Kunis for “Black Swan”
• Melissa Leo for “The Fighter”
• Jacki Weaver for “Animal Kingdom”

My Thoughts: Melissa Leo has gotten most of the love in earlier awards, so while Adams makes sense, she’s not even the best supporting actress in the film. Weaver has also received some honors for her performance though the low profile of “Animal Kingdom” doesn’t help, at least for the Globes. Although Carter’s name hasn’t come up until now, she’s a terrific actress, so she makes sense there and Kunis is that budding young talent.

Best Director

• Darren Aronofsky for “Black Swan”
• David Fincher for “The Social Network”
• Tom Hooper for “The King’s Speech”
• Christopher Nolan for “Inception”
• David O. Russell for “The Fighter”

My Thoughts: That was easy: pick all the directors of the Best Picture – Drama nominees. In honesty, however, they seem pretty deserving. Nolan is definitely a popular name to get into that group, though Danny Boyle should not have been left out. And we all know how the HFPA loves Aronofsky after he flicked off Mickey Rourke two years ago during Rourke’s acceptance speech for “The Wrestler.” Fincher, however, is the big favorite. Aronofsky’s time will come soon enough, though.

Best Screenplay

• “127 Hours” – Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
• “Inception” – Christopher Nolan
• “The Kids Are All Right” – Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko
• “The King’s Speech” – David Seidler
• “The Social Network”  – Aaron Sorkin

My Thoughts: A pretty juicy category because the Globes doesn’t split up adapted and original. Sorkin and Seidler lead the way here, but Blumberg and Cholodenko are probably right there with them. Nolan gets credit here for the excellent concept of his film, but the screenplay doesn’t deserve to win above any of these other four.

Best Original Song

• “Burlesque” – Samuel Dickson, Christina Aguilera and Sia Furler (“Bound to You”)
• “Burleseque” – Diane Warren (“You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me”)
• “Country Strong” – Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey and Troy Verges (“I’m Coming Home”)
• “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” – Carrie Underwood, Tom Hodges and Hillary Lindsey (“There’s a Place for Us”)
• “Tangled” – Alan Menken, Glenn Slater (“I See the Light”)

Best Original Score

• “127 Hours” – A.R. Rahman
• “Alice in Wonderland” – Danny Elfman
• “Inception” – Hans Zimmer
• “The King’s Speech” – Alexandre Desplat
• “The Social Network” – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

Best Animated Film

• Despicable Me
• How to Train Your Dragon
• The Illusionist
• Tangled
• Toy Story 3

My Thoughts: Another fantastic year for animation and HFPA chose all the best here. It’s too bad the Oscars won’t nominate five this year as only one of the films between likely “Despicable,” “Dragon” and “Tangled” will be selected. “The Illusionist” has been giving fierce competition to “Toy Story 3” even in some critics circles.

Best Foreign Film

• Biutiful
• Le concert (“The Concert”)
• Kray (“The Edge”)
• Io sono l’amore (“I Am Love”)
• Hæven (“In a Better World”)

My Thoughts: The films with the biggest U.S. appeal are “Biutiful,” which packs a heck of a one-two punch with Javier Bardem and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu and “I Am Love,” which strangely stars Tilda Swinton.