One Category at a Time: Original Song

After several years of embarrassment culminated in last year's laughable pair of Best Original Song nominees, the music branch finally got a clue and decided to abolish their asinine grading system, instead just letting the five songs with the most votes be the nominees. They also went the route of screener DVDs, allowing music branch members to evaluate clips of all eligible songs from the comfort of their own home.

The rule changes have instantly paid off with a respectable slate of tunes which we'll probably hear performed on Oscar night. That basically is what this category is for.

One Category at a Time: Actor

The Best Actor race this year was at its most interesting and competitive before the nominations. The big question was which of the six leading men in the hunt would be left off the Academy's ballot. It was never a question of who would end up winning the whole thing, as that has been obvious for a couple of months now.

Golden Globes recap

Ben Affleck's Argo triumphed in Best Director and Best Picture at the Golden Globes, making good on the buzz it had accummulated before it disipated upon last Thursday's Academy snub for Directing. I think we still need to consider it a legit contender for the big prize, even without that important Directing nod. It'll pull in lots of #2 and #3 votes, a huge plus with the preferential ballot.

Over in the Musical/Comedy category, I was thrilled to see Les Mis triumph when most had written the category off as an obligatory win for Silver Linings Playbook. The divisive musical also won for Anne Hathaway (expected) and Hugh Jackman (less expected, but very welcome).

The biggest moment of the night, however, came from Jodie Foster, who "officially" came out while accepting her Cecil B. DeMille Award. NBC seemed to prudishly mute that portion of her speech, but they couldn't silence the main message. She also waxed philosophic on lack of privacy in celebrity life and loneliness in her middle age. It was a rapidly fired off speech, but it felt vaguely significant. I'd love to listen to it again.

As for the show itself, hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler killed it. Their opening dialogue landed big laughs, and despite being sadly underused throughout the rest of the evening, they clearly set a high bar for Seth MacFarlane to try and top in six weeks' time.

Full list of movie winners after the cut.

Golden Globes live blog

So yeah, like everyone else on the net, I'll be live-blogging the Golden Globes when they begin in about three and a half hours time. Check back for updates throughout the evening.

7:33 - Usual banter on the red carpet. The women look cold. Apparently it's chilly out on the West coast tonight.

7:53 - Got my laptop. Got my port. Let's get this party started.

7:55 - Shameless Quartet plug by Dustin Hoffman. Supose I shouldn't prejudge (but I heard it's awful).

8:04 - "When it comes to torture, I trust the women who spent three years married to James Cameron" ZING! Fey and Poeller were great. Laughed at almost every joke.

8:09 - Supporting Actor: Goes to... Christoph Waltz in  Django Unchained. Weinstein at work, as always.

Review - Les Miserables

27 years after taking the world by storm, the international musical hit Les Miserables finally gets the Hollywood treatment its diehard fans have been waiting for, but not everyone will sing its praises as loudly as them. We've already heard the critics singing the song of angry men, while audience reactions seem to be as contentious as the student rebellion around which the melodrama unfolds. Detractors have trained their muskets squarely at the film's in-your-face emotive style, the very appeal of which defenders have made their barricade against such criticisms. It begs the question: Is Les Mis the sort of movie that makes necessary – or for that matter, even makes possible – an objective review? I know I struggle to extract my opinion of the film from my opinion of the source material. Where does my love of the show end and my love of the movie begin?

Despite a butt-punishing 2-hour and 38-minute run time, Les Mis is a fairly streamlined distillation of Victor Hugo's 19th century novel, in which ex-con Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) spends the better part of his life on the run from the law and in search of redemption. Across the years he eludes capture by the overly dedicated Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe), raises the daughter of the ill-fated Fantine (Anne Hathaway), fights in the Paris rebellion of 1832, and basically puts up with all kinds of crap (literally, in one instance!) to ensure the future happiness and security of his adopted daughter (Amanda Seyfried). Hugo spins an elaborate web of connections between these and many other characters – including the dashing Marius (Eddie Redmayne), the scheming Thenardiers (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter), and their lovelorn daughter Eponine (Samantha Barks) – through a series of outlandish coincidences that would vex Dickens.

Seth Macfarlane set to host Oscars

So I got in from work this afternoon to discover that the Oscar-web was abuzz with some news. The creator of hit animated television series Family Guy and American Dad, Seth MacFarlane, has been confirmed as the host of next year's Academy Awards. Word abounds on Twitter and the like that he will be very involved in the writing process, and that, befitting a man of his musical gifts, there will of course be a musical number.

Normally, I look skeptically upon "TV" personalities hosting the biggest movie event of the year. The hosting gigs by Ellen Degeneres and John Stewart never impressed me, but then again, movie-star hosts can fall flat too. I say it's got potential. MacFarlane's talents as a comedian and singer are considerable, but it all depends on how producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (of the musical series Smash) intend to tap those talents. If they aim for a level of showbiz cheese that's somewhere between Billy Crystal's one-man shtick and Hugh Jackman's all-out razzle dazzle (with only subtle hints of MacFarlan'es new-age smarm), I daresay they may have a winner on their hands. If they try to replicate the sort of raunch and cynicism that's made MacFarlane such a huge success on the small screen (and so help me, one single Family Guy reference is an automatic deal-breaker), then I smell possible disaster. Call me conditionally hopeful.