I didn't watch last night's celeb-free (except for Mary Hart!) Golden Globes, and in all likelihood you didn't either. A few thoughts, however, on the results:
1) Atonement's win for Best Drama was probably the biggest surprise and almost certainly lamest outcome. My extremely horse-racey (and entirely uninformed) take is this: For a long while it seemed as though the big Best Picture awards were going to come down a competition between critical-favorite No Country for Old Men, and a more-conventional, viewer friendly alternative. (Atonement was the most obvious candidate, though it was possible to imagine Into the Wild, American Gangster, or Michael Clayton filling this niche.) The advantage No Country had was that it looked like the clear candidate of the critics, while support hadn't seemed to coalesce around any of the more-conventional alternatives. The problem for No Country, I think, was a late surge by There Will Be Blood, which possesses many similar qualities--it, too, is an arty, brooding, violent, beautiful, quasi-Western that is perhaps not entirely attuned to Peoria--and essentially split the critics' vote. The same thing, I fear, could easily happen at the Oscars, especially now that Atonement has theoretically established itself as the safe, establishment alternative.
2) Sweeney Todd's win over Juno as Best Comedy or Musical is a bit surprising (especially given how bloody the film was), but probably doesn't portend much, though it presumably bolsters Sweeney's odds of getting a Best Picture nomination.
3) Globe winners Daniel Day-Lewis and Julie Christie (actor and actress, respectively) are all-but-certain to win Oscars. (But then, you already knew that.) Globe winner Julian Schnabel (director), is all-but-certain not to. (But then, you knew that, too.)
4) In the too-close-to-call Best Supporting Actress race between Amy Ryan (for her brilliantly unsettling white-trash performance in Gone Baby Gone) and Cate Blanchett (for her wildly overpraised Bob Dylan impression in I'm Not There), the latter now has to be considered the favorite.
For those who missed them, my own end-of-the-year winners (and losers) are here.
--Christopher Orr