Awards season can now be considered officially to have begun with the announcement of the Golden Globes nominations list, the Globes being now evidently respectable once again, having addressed the various issues around diversity and kickbacks – although these scandals never stopped the Globes’ actual lists being really all that different from those of the other uncontaminated awards bodies. Devotees of the prizegiving world will incidentally savour the nomination here for best standup comedian on television going to Chris Rock’s Selective Outrage tour, this show being Rock’s extended thoughts on the experience of being slapped (and sworn at) by Will Smith while presenting the Oscars in 2022.
With nine nominations, Barbie rises above this year’s Golden Globes event like the giant Kubrickian, 2001-style Barbie doll in the opening scene of that massive and massively successful fantasy comedy. If the Golden Globes ever had any overwhelmingly important raison d’etre it was to reward the lighter side of things in its separate category for musical or comedy – these being traditionally overlooked by the Oscars – and Barbie is above all things a comedy. It enjoyed resounding, repeat business box-office success with audiences who absolutely loved it and Greta Gerwig (a nominee in the best director category) now graduates from indie fave to A-list industry player. I myself was agnostic about whether Barbie quite managed to transcend corporate branding, but there’s no doubting the brio and style and musical exhilaration of the film.
