Carol led the way with 5 Golden Globe nominations this morning. The Big Short, The Revenant, and Steve Jobs are in with 4. The Martian has 3. And Spotlight has 3. But no actors from Spotlight were singled out. The SAGs only nominated Rachel McAdams from that cast yesterday. Is that a concern for the film that was considered the frontrunner earlier this week? Or maybe, if they position it right, that will actually help the film? That no one person is more important than the story. Because the story, really, is the key with Spotlight. Not the relationships, not the individuals, but the story. The pursuit of the story. The defence of the story. The impact of the story. That’s how I would sell it.
What’s great though is that it’s looking like a race. Spotlight and The Martian are still looking strong but Carol has definitely made a case for itself (although I seriously have a hard time believing the old white male Academy voter is going to bother with an arty moody romance with two women in the lead) and, as mentioned in the previous post, the Academy knows the Trumbo story. It’s classic Hollywood self-congratulation. It’s nostalgia. And it’s definitely not smug. What might be too smug though going forward is Steve Jobs. Think about these Oscar members, and how they might react when given a choice between a film like Steve Jobs, its attitude and its sh-tty box office, and the earnest appeal of The Martian with its commercial success, and, well, you know.
Anyway, we have a lot of time to analyse in the next few weeks. The only reason I came here for this post is to talk about Mark Ruffalo. Mark Ruffalo’s name was called today – not for Spotlight but for Infinitely Polar Bear in the Best Actor Comedy category. From now on every time someone says to me that Leonardo DiCaprio “deserves” an Oscar because he’s “overdue”, Mark Ruffalo is going to be my answer.
Attached - Mark at An Evening Honoring Valentino with Sunrise Coigney in New York earlier this week.