Boyhood at the Golden Globes

Cue Hero the theme song that plays during the masterpiece that is Boyhood, this year’s Golden Globe winner for Best Picture in the Drama category. This film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January last year, so it seems a little like it’s been around for ever and has been overhyped a lot. Well, it may feel that way, but it’s an extraordinary film, and director Richard Linklater is indeed a hero, a visionary, for sticking with it for 12 years, and giving us a film with a giant heart, so much vulnerability and a kick-ass soundtrack. Selma and Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel, winner in the Best Comedy/Musical category are also fantastic films, with the first being a very necessary and vital piece of work that needs to be seen by as many as possible, but I will not be unhappy if Boyhood follows 12 Years a Slave last year and goes all the way to take the Best Picture Oscar. [I, like many others I know, wrote about my very personal reaction to Boyhood here.]

Selma did get an award for Best Original Song, for Glory, written by Common and John Legend. The ever poetic Common had some vital words to say in his acceptance speech. Oh, and ten points to the Hollywood Foreign Press for getting Prince to present the award!

I have yet to see Still Alice, the movie that earned Julianne Moore – who looked absolutely smashing in her metallic Givenchy dress – her Best Actress, Drama statue, but the film seems like it will do much to open eyes to Alzheimer’s when it releases. Eddie Redmayne was in a tough category for the male counterpart, beating out David Oyelowo’s excellent Martin Luther King Jr and Benedict Cumberbatch’s mathematician Alan Turing, but his portrayal of scientist Stephen Hawking is truly remarkable.

On the TV front, Fargo may have had 7 nominations going into the night, but it only scored one, in the Best TV Movie category. Transparent made history and set an interesting precedent for online entertainment by winning Best Comedy Series for Amazon as the first studio show created by the website that sells all manner of things. It also scored Best Actor for Jeffrey Tambor, a most deserving nod for a man who I’ve witnessed at SXSW give many a generous acting workshop. He dedicated the award to the transgender community, as he plays a transgender character.

Mention was made of the Charlie Hebdo attack and in solidarity, 2014 Oscar winner Jared Leto and Cecil B DeMille Lifetime Achievement award recipient George Clooney, declared “Je Suis Charlie.” Clooney gave an endearing speech that poked fun at the dismal performance of his most recent directorial venture, Monuments Men, and exalted his new marriage to Amal Alamuddin. Sigh.

With the Oscar nominations coming out on Thursday, most of the films and actors mentioned in the Golden Globes can look forward to a nod or two. I’ll be keeping the Boyhood and Selma soundtracks playing in the background.

All the Golden Globe winners can be found here.