‘Oppenheimer’ dominates Golden Globes, ‘Poor Things’ upsets ‘Barbie’ in comedy

If awards season has been building toward a second match-up of Barbenheimer, this round went to “Oppenheimer.” The film also won best director for Nolan, best drama actor for Cillian Murphy, best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr. and for Ludwig Göransson’s score.

“I don’t think it was a no-brainer by any stretch of the imagination to make a three-hour talky movie — R-rated by the way — about one of the darkest developments in our history,” said producer Emma Thomas accepting the night’s final award and thanking Universal chief Donna Langley.

Along with best comedy or musical, “Poor Things” also won for Emma Stone’s performance as Bella, a Victorian-era woman experiencing a surreal sexual awakening.

“I see this as a rom-com,” said Stone. “But in the sense that Bella falls in love with life itself, rather than a person. She accepts the good and the bad in equal measure, and that really made me look at life differently.”

Lily Gladstone won best actress in a dramatic film for Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Gladstone, who began her speech speaking the language of her native tribe, Blackfeet Nation, is the first Indigenous winner in the category.

“This is a historic win,” said Gladstone. “It doesn’t just belong to me.”

The Globes were in their ninth decade but facing a new and uncertain chapter. After a tumultuous few years of scandal, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was dissolved, leaving a new Globes, on a new network (CBS), to try to regain its perch as the third biggest award show of the year, after the Oscars and Grammys. Even the menu (sushi from Nobu) was remade.

“Golden Globes journalists, thank you for changing your game, therefore changing your name,” said Downey in his acceptance speech.

It got off to a rocky start. Host Jo Koy took the stage at the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom in Beverly Hills, California . The Filipino American stand-up hit on some expected topics: Ozempic, Meryl Streep’s knack for winning awards and the long-running “Oppenheimer.” (“I needed another hour.”)

After one joke flubbed, Koy, who was named host after some bigger names reportedly passed, also noted how fast he was thrust into the job.

“Yo, I got the gig 10 days ago. You want a perfect monologue?” said Koy. “I wrote some of these and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”

HI, BARBIE

It was two hours before “Barbie,” the year’s biggest hit with more than $1.4 billion in ticket sales, won an award. Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” took the best song, and swiftly after, “Barbie” took the Globes’ new honour for “cinematic and box office achievement.” Some thought that award might go to Taylor Swift, whose “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” also set box-office records.

Margot Robbie, star and producer of “Barbie,” accepted the award in a red gown modelled after 1977’s Superstar Barbie.

“We’d like to dedicate this to every single person on the planet who dressed up and went to the greatest place on Earth: the movie theatres,” said Robbie.

“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” two blockbusters brought together by a common release date, also faced off in the best screenplay category. But in an upset, Justine Triet and Arthur Harari won the script for the French courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall.” Later, Triet’s film picked up the best international film, too.

Though the Globes have no direct correlation with the Academy Awards, they can boost campaigns at a crucial juncture. Oscar nomination voting starts Thursday, and the twin sensations of Barbenheimer remain frontrunners.

Other contenders loom, though, like Yorgos Lanthimos’ Frankenstein-esque fable “Poor Things.” Its star, Emma Stone, won Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical.

“I see this as a rom-com,” said Stone. “But in the sense that Bella falls in love with life itself, rather than a person. She accepts the good and the bad in equal measure, and that made me look at life differently.”

Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph both won for Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers.” Giamatti, reuniting with Payne two decades after “Sideways,” won best actor and Randolph won for her supporting performance as a grieving woman in the 1970s-set boarding school drama.

“Oh, Mary you have changed my life,” Randolph said of her character. “You have made me feel seen in so many ways that I have never imagined.”

 

List of 2024 Golden Globe winners

BEST MOVIE MUSICAL OR COMEDY

“Poor Things”

TELEVISION COMEDY SERIES

“The Bear”

TELEVISION DRAMA SERIES

“Succession”

LIMITED SERIES, ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

“Beef”

CINEMATIC AND BOX OFFICE ACHIEVEMENT

“Barbie”

MALE ACTOR IN A MOVIE MUSICAL OR COMEDY

Paul Giamatti, “The Holdovers”

FEMALE ACTOR IN A MOVIE MUSICAL OR COMEDY

Emma Stone, “Poor Things”

ACTOR IN A MOVIE DRAMA

Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”

FEMALE ACTOR IN A MOVIE DRAMA

Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon”

FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING MOVIE ROLE

Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers”

MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING MOVIE ROLE

Robert Downey Jr., “Oppenheimer”

FEMALE ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES, ANTHOLOGY SERIES, OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

Ali Wong, “Beef”

ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES, ANTHOLOGY SERIES, OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

Steven Yeun, “Beef”

SUPPORTING FEMALE ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES

Elizabeth Debicki, “The Crown”

SUPPORTING MALE ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES

Matthew Macfadyen, “Succession”

BEST SCREENPLAY

“Anatomy of a Fall,” Justine Triet and Arthur Harari

FEMALE ACTOR IN A TELEVISION DRAMA

Sarah Snook, “Succession”

MALE ACTOR IN A TELEVISION COMEDY

Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”

STAND-UP COMEDY TELEVISION SPECIAL

Ricky Gervais, “Armageddon”

BEST MOTION PICTURE, NON-ENGLISH

“Anatomy of a Fall” (France)

FEMALE ACTOR IN A TELEVISION COMEDY

Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”

MALE ACTOR IN A TELEVISION DRAMA

Kieran Culkin, “Succession”

ANIMATED FILM

“The Boy and the Heron”

DIRECTOR

Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”

SCORE

“Oppenheimer,” Ludwig Göransson

ORIGINAL SONG

“What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie,″ music and lyrics by Billie Eilish O’Connell and Finneas O’Connell

AP

Photo by Reuters