Weirdest speech: Robert De Niro. He doesn't say anything for 40 years, doesn't crack a smile let alone a joke, and when he does finally open his mouth he launches into a rusty old Rupert Pupkin monologue stocked with leering, year-late references to Megan Fox's hotness? The promo reel looked suitably mythic; the speech lanced the myth.
Worst Speech: David Fincher. Some teenage breast-beating about how"misanthropic" and "pitch-black" he usually is, together with some unconvincing snarls about how little public approbation means to him. Stay home, then.
A lot of them should have stayed home, including DeNiro and host Ricky Gervais. From Lou Lumenick's NY Post wrap-up report:
"We're all in this together,'' Robert DeNiro said. "The filmmakers who make the movies, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association members who in turn pose for pictures with the movie stars.''
DeNiro, who pointedly declined to thank his hosts, joked that some of the HFPA members couldn't attend "because they've been deported, along with the waiters and Javier Bardem.''
There seemed to be some discomfort in the audience, especially when Gervais introduced the HFPA's embattled president, Philip Berk, by saying he had to pull him off the toilet and "pop in his teeth.''
Illegal immigrant jokes, denture jokes?--There's nothing edgy about mocking the Golden Globes whether from on stage at the dais, in the blogosphere, or in print the next day. It's the softest of soft targets, an annual pinata for lazy whackers.* The Golden Globes have been a joke for decades (insert obligatory Pia Zadora reference here), and at this point just be gracious and go along with the gag, especially if you're one of the presenters or winners. Caryn James wrote somewhere online that Gervais "was targeting the hypocrisy of Hollywood and the inanity and self-importance of awards themselves" and another film blogger said Gervais was "voicing the things we dare not say." Yes, making fun of the nomination for The Tourist is really speaking truth to power, and introducing Tom Hanks in a manner purposely meant to humiliate his co-presenter Tim Allen, that's really stickin' it to The Man. If you hold the Golden Globes awards and their voters in that much smirky contempt, if you look down on the foreign press representatives as freebie moochers and celebrity leeches (oh as if Hollywood and filmblogdom don't supply their own domestic surplus of junket deadbeats), then don't show up and accept a possible award, especially you're the sort of actor who prides himself on being a Brandoesque rebel. Do you think Brando would have left his island for a Golden Globe? No, he would stayed home drawing disturbing faces on coconuts, because that's what legends do.
And critics/bloggers/tweeters who act glibly superior to the Globes are just flattering themselves--the very fact that they're watching it makes them part of the charade, complicit bystanders, no matter what UV shade of attitude they adopt for the evening. I watched the conclusion of the Miss America Pageant on Saturday night and I was impressed with the mental poise of the finalists answering questions about Wikileaks and universal health coverage--they were more cogent than John McCain!
And, almost needless to add, DeNiro, who should stick to what he does best: scowling.
*By which I intend no innuendo, not on Martin Luther King Day, which would be inappropriate.
Source: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2011/01/tom-shone-whose-forthcoming-novel.html
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