2015 GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED - CAROL LEADS WITH FIVE

Today's Golden Globe nominations cleared the picture up a little for the current awards season. They seem to clarify what, of the disparate strands of advocacy we've observed so far from both critics awards and the Screen Actors Guild nominations yesterday, is likeliest to stick. Spotlight looks to be the only contender to win the Best Picture Oscar, being the only one among the favourites with either a SAG Ensemble nod or a Globe Screenplay nod (it has both!). Mad Max: Fury Road is, indeed, a contender for the top awards, even if the bulk of its mentions will undoubtedly come from the tech categories (the Globes don't rly bother with those). Carol remains popular, but its Screenplay snub is worrying. And the late-breakers, The Hateful Eight, Joy and The Revenant will probably see their stock start to rise as more voters get the chance to see them and more buzz gets the chance to build. But only The Revenant seems to stand much of a shot at scoring a Best Picture Oscar nomination. The Golden Globes will take place on the 10th of January, broadcast live in the US on NBC at 8pm ET / 5pm PT.

Best Motion Picture – Drama

Carol

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant

Room

Spotlight

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

The Big Short

Joy

The Martian

Spy

Trainwreck

Best Director

Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant)

Todd Haynes (Carol)
Tom McCarthy (Spotlight)

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Ridley Scott (The Martian)

Best Performance by an Actor – Drama

Bryan Cranston (Trumbo)

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)

Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)

Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl)

Will Smith (Concussion)

Best Performance by an Actor – Musical or Comedy

Christian Bale (The Big Short)

Steve Carell (The Big Short)

Matt Damon (The Martian)

Al Pacino (Danny Collins)

Mark Ruffalo (Infinitely Polar Bear)

Best Performance by an Actress – Drama

Cate Blanchett (Carol)

Brie Larson (Room)

Rooney Mara (Carol)

Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)

Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)

Best Performance by an Actress – Musical or Comedy

Jennifer Lawrence (Joy)

Melissa McCarthy (Spy)

Amy Schumer (Trainwreck)

Maggie Smith (The Lady in the Van)

Lily Tomlin (Grandma)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Paul Dano (Love & Mercy)

Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation)

Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

Michael Shannon (99 Homes)

Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Jane Fonda (Youth)

Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)

Helen Mirren (Trumbo)

Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)

Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

Best Screenplay

Emma Donoghue (Room)

Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight)

Adam McKay and Charles Randolph (The Big Short)

Aaron Sorkin (Steve Jobs)

Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight)

Best Original Score

Carter Burwell (Carol)

Alexandre Desplat (The Danish Girl)

Ennio Morricone (The Hateful Eight)

Carsten Nicolai and Sakamoto Ryûichi (The Revenant)

Daniel Pemberton (Steve Jobs)

Best Original Song

Scott Bennett and Brian Wilson – ‘One Kind of Love’ (Love & Mercy)

Andrew Cedar, Justin Franks, Charlie Puth and Cameron Thomaz – ‘See You Again’ (Furious 7)
Savan Kotecha, Max Martin, Ali Payami and Ilya Salmanzadeh – ‘Love Me Like You Do’ (Fifty Shades of Grey)
David Lang – ‘Simple Song #3’ (Youth)

Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith – ‘Writing’s on the Wall’ (Spectre)

Best Animated Feature Film

Anomalisa

The Good Dinosaur

Inside Out

The Peanuts Movie

Shaun the Sheep Movie

Best Foreign Language Film

The Brand New Testament

The Club

The Fencer

Mustang

Son of Saul

Cecil B. DeMille Award

Denzel Washington

REVIEW - TRAINWRECK (JUDD APATOW)

For everything particularly right about Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer's Trainwreck, there's nothing particularly wrong about it. It's a flattering characteristic of a consistently engaging film, one which invites the viewer in through Schumer's generosity as an artist. She's a ballsy performer, with a finely-honed repertoire of a variety of gags, and her style of comedy is winning in its openness - she wants to make you laugh, at almost any expense. Schumer takes on her Trainwreck role with a relaxed countenance that strips away the potential self-awareness, thus you only rarely (if ever) feel like she's grovelling for admiration the way some supposedly self-effacing comedians do. She courts too controversial a line at times - not that her material is too racy, just that neither she nor director Judd Apatow is capable of framing her racy jokes in an appropriate context - and her humour is hardly revolutionary, but it is really good. Would that Apatow could contribute more to a film that, alas, features his name first over the end credits. He resigns himself to his lead, allowing her to take over, while subtly shading each scene in his own, tired tones. Trainwreck is tempered by Apatow's commercial sensibilities - perhaps thankfully, but you wish for a more radical approach to the direction, something in the visuals and the pacing to match the quality of the dialogue. Too often, Trainwreck succumbs to rom-com formula, most notably in its plot, and the ephemerality of a good gag here and there won't suffice to rescue it. Still, there's nothing particularly wrong about it, and that's particularly right.