This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Just when you think the Golden Globes are getting respectable, they do something that reminds you that the 80-some members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association are easily swayed by big stars, junkets and other shiny objects.
The five nominees for Best Picture/Drama are a solid bunch: "Black Swan," "The Fighter," "Inception," "The King's Speech" (which led with seven nominations) and "The Social Network."
The Cricket would have liked to have seen Danny Boyle's "127 Hours" (which was nominated for James Franco's performance, the screenplay and A.R. Rahman's score) in the Best Picture race, but it's hard to say what would get knocked out to make room.
On the musical/comedy side, only one of the five choices — Lisa Cholodenko's "The Kids Are All Right" — are anybody's idea of a quality movie or an Oscar contender. The other four are Disney's "Alice in Wonderland," the Cher/Xtina silliness "Burlesque," the action comedy "Red" and last week's Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie snoozer "The Tourist."
What's more, Depp and Jolie were both nominated in their respective lead-acting categories (Depp got in twice, for "The Tourist" and "Alice in Wonderland"), which speaks more to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's desire to lure glamorous stars than reward great performances.
Friends of the Cricket are upset that the Coen brothers' "True Grit" was snubbed, while the Cricket would have liked to have seen some love — particularly in the aforementioned musical/comedy category — for "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World."
For more analysis, check out Anne Thompson, Jeffrey Wells, Eric Childress and Tom O'Neil.