As Scanner Emily noted earlier, the film adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel Atonement led the pack in today's Oscar-lites, a.k.a. the Golden Globes, whose nominations were announced by what we're guessing is a Franken-tino, patched together from the remains of lesser Tarantinos.
Atonement's seven nom haul (including three of the four applicable acting categories) struck us as something of a surprise. We love stars James McAvoy and Keira Knightley (yeah, Emily, we totally wanna make out with her too), but seem to remember the film getting a so-so reception compared to the largely violent films that we're fairly certain will dominate the Oscars this year: No Country for Old Men, Eastern Promises, Sweeney Todd, American Gangster, and possibly There Will Be Blood. (Salon Sarah seems sure that ...Blood will get a few big noms come Oscar time, btw; we remain unconvinced but curious.) Maybe the Foreign Press Association decided to play good cop to the Oscar's bad cop? Would that explain nominating seven Best Pictures this year, to ensure space for Atonement and the Oprah-produced, Denzel Washington-directed high-school debating film The Great Debaters?
In the TV categories, a few surprises as well, including multiple noms for Showtime's Californication and The Tudors, and a couple of our faves, Damages and Pushing Daisies. There are too many shows to mention, so basically just assume that all your other favorite shows got nominated for stuff as well, unless you like The Sopranos, then you're kind of SOL. Guess the Foreign Press aren't Journey fans. The complete list of nominations is here.
The Golden Globes air January 13 on NBC. We will be watching the pre-show, because we're fans of famous people in nice clothes and cleavage, and then we will be seeing what Netflix sent us that week.
UPDATE: Deadline Hollywood Daily's got a great rundown of the nominations by the numbers alone. Atonement and Charlie Wilson's War (which got very little coverage, from what we saw) got the most noms out of the movies; Damages, Longford, and 30 Rock lead the field on the teevee. Oh, and does DHD's Nikki Finke feel, like we do, that the Golden Globes are kinda Fredo to the Oscars' Michael or Vito?
Trust me, they're as meaningless as the crappy organization that gives them out.
Guess so!