Raging Against the Globes Machine Edition

Awards szn is here, and most of y’all don’t even know how lucky you are. You went about your daily lives this week in an enviable state, not granting any mental energy to the annual dumpster fire that is the Golden Globes. Meanwhile, I am cursed to care an exorbitant amount about this silly awards ceremony that, for some reason unbeknownst to me, continues to have clout. Here’s what happens every year, like clockwork. A small, 90-member organization of entertainment journalists called the HFPA nominates TV shows and movies with the intent of getting as many famous people in a room as possible and plying them with alcohol before they give a speech (only Olivia Colman has mastered these). The nominations are nonsensical and, more often than not, snub the most deserving in favor of heaping awards on (overwhelmingly white) stars — here’s the full, chaotic list. Case in point: here are some middling to terrible things that got more nominations than I May Destroy You, a groundbreaking show that topped most critics’ best TV of 2020 list (including mine) and somehow received…ZERO noms.

• Emily in Paris (even a writer for this show says IMDY got screwed)
• Hillbilly Elegy (Glenn Close deserves better than this!)
• The Prom (Can we stop casting James Corden in every musical please?)

I could go on but y’all didn’t open this for a rant (should I start a separate newsletter for those?). If you want to opine with me about all the Globes got wrong yet again, here’s a good roundup of the biggest snubs and surprises. Your time would be much better spent catching up on some of the great things that did get nominated, like The Personal History of David Copperfield and The Sound of Metal. Here’s how. If there is a silver lining to the Globes outrage each year, though, it’s that what’s left out gets, at least briefly, just as much attention as what makes it in. May I recommend, yet again, IMDY?? And yes, I will still be watching the ceremony on Sunday, Feb. 28 because I have no self-control. At least Olivia Colman will be there.

Anyway, here’s what’s new and noteworthy this week!

Movies: Malcolm & Marie

Zendaya is on a friggin’ roll. At just 24-years-old, the former Disney Channel star has become one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood after making her Marvel debut (Spiderman), playing the lead role in HBO teen drama Euphoria, and getting cast alongside fellow wunderkind Timothée Chalamet in one of the biggest blockbusters of the year: Dune. The momentum didn’t stop in quarantine. She’s also starring alongside John David Washington (one of the few good things about Tenet) in Malcolm and Marie, the first movie to be written and produced completely during the pandemic. As expected, this pressure cooker drama takes place over a single night in one location “as revelations about their relationships begin to surface.” Oscar prognosticators say it could be the role that lands Zendaya her first nom. Sigh, but like, I beat Breath of the Wild in quarantine at age 29. Is there an award for that??

Other options: Little Fish (VOD), a pandemic-era, sci-fi love story in which a young couple tries to keep their relationship intact while a virus ravages their memories. In the mind-bending doc A Glitch in the Matrix (VOD), the question of whether we are all just living in a simulation is explored philosophically and scientifically. Has anyone seen Agent Smith lately?

TV: The Investigation

The character that typically gets the most attention in a murder mystery is the killer. Their motivations are obsessed over. A psychopath can be a plum role for an actor. In a bold twist on the formula, though, the killer is never seen nor named in the six-part Scandinavian crime drama The Investigation, covering the shocking real-life murder of journalist Kim Wall in a submarine off the Copenhagen coast in 2017. Variety calls it “2021’s first great drama” and critics are praising the procedural for grounding itself in the grinding police work instead of the perpetrator’s mindset, marking “a next step in the evolution of the true-crime drama” (Slate). Available on HBO Max.

Other Notable Releases: The crime vendetta franchise The Equalizer (CBS, after the Super Bowl) gets another reboot with Queen Latifah taking over the titular vigilante role last played by Denzel. For a Netflix soap in the vein of Virgin River, catch Katharine Heigl as a talk-show host in Firefly Lane, an adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s 2008 bestselling “Women’s Sagas” novel.

Books: The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Speaking of Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale author is having quite the week with the release of her latest novel The Four Winds, a story of resilience set in Texas during the Great Depression. To survive, one woman must choose between leaving her husband and the family farm or staying and risk her home falling to ruin as the Dust Bowl drought ravages their crops. A tale of another crisis may not offer much escape, but critics say it’s bound to be another Hannah hit, calling it a “stirring tale of love and hardship” (USA Today) that will have readers reaching for tissues. I mean, we could all use a good cry sesh, right?

Other Notable Releases: Fifteen years after the police shooting of their teenage son, the boundary between normal life and the spirit world begins to blur as an annual family bonfire approaches in The Removed by Brandon Hobson, a novel that draws deeply from Cherokee folklore. In A Bright Ray of Darkness, actor Ethan Hawke’s first novel in 20 years, the redemptive power of art is revealed through the story of a young man making his Broadway debut in Henry IV just as his marriage implodes.

Music: The Staves — Good Woman

After the release of their stunning second album If I Was recorded in Justin Vernon’s (aka Bon Iver’s) Minnesota cabin, the three harmonious sisters from England kept getting asked the same stupid question: “Did Vernon co-write the songs?” The sexism inherent in that assumption and that permeates the music industry fueled the trio’s bold and defiant new album that sets aside their typical acoustic indie-folk sound for something more daring and soulful, what NME calls their “most confident album yet.” The songs burst with energy and emotion, none more so than the title track recorded in a barn when the women scream the lyrics “I’m a good woman” over and over, louder and louder, in a cathartic chorus that resonates in more ways than one.

Other Notable Releases: The Foo Fighters, that quintessentially American pop-rock machine, take a disco detour in Medicine at Midnight with shades of David Bowie, hair metal, and glam rock. Dreamy disco also adds a groovy gloss to Ignorance the latest from The Weather Station, the musical project of Canadian folk artist and actor Tamara Lindeman.

That’s it for this week! If you have a friend who might like this, pass along the link. You can also subscribe to the newsletter version here.

-Landry