Scott J. Davis looks at the always dubious Best Musical or Comedy from the Golden Globes…
Last night, Hollywood’s best and brightest gathered for the Golden Globes, the main precursor before the Academy Awards next month. The strangest award of the night went to ridley Scott’s The Martian, which bizarrely walked away with the award for Best Film – Musical or Comedy. Yes, you read that right – the hit Sci-Fi film walked with the gong for best Musical or Comedy film of 2015 over Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck starring Amy Schumer, David O. Russell’s Joy and Melissa McCarthy/ Paul Feig team-up Spy. You know, actual comedies.
So we thought to ourselves, has such strange things happened before with this category. Here are 10 such examples…
Her (2013)
Spike Jonze’s heartfelt, real and superb film about relationships and love in the 21st century (and indeed the very near future) was nominated in the category in 2013 alongside American Hustle (more on that in a moment), Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska and The Wolf of Wall Street. It may be our humble opinion, but a film as heartbreaking and touching as Her is a baffling choice for musical or comedy. Sure, Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson “improv” The Moon Song in the film, and Kristen Wiig’s voice cameo as a sex-crazed singleton, but the film deserved it’s place the drama’s of the year.
American Hustle (2013)
Similarly to Her, American Hustle was nominated in 2013 in this category, and indeed walked away with the prize on the night of the awards. A stellar cast, led by Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence and directed by David O. Russell, Hustle divided audiences as to it’s quality, but what is evident from watching the film is that is was certainly undeserving of the award, especially over Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street or Joel and Ethan Coen’s superb Inside Llewyn Davis.
The Tourist (2010)
The brunt of many a joke from Ricky Gervais throughout his time as host of the Golden Globes, The Tourist is one of the more baffling inclusions in the Musical or Comedy category. Build as the first time the two biggest stars on the planet were starring alongside each other, The Tourist may have fallen foul to a cruel inside joke here, namely that is was nominated for in the comedy category because the film is so bad it’s actually funny. It was actually revealed later on that The Tourist was intended to be a romantic thriller, but the studio executives didn’t buy into it at all instead claimed it to be a comedy. Bruce Willis thriller Hudsen Hawk tried the same thing in the 1990s and no one bought it then either. A massive flop on release, the film has seen its director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck retreat from filmmaking ever since. Johnny Depp hasn’t fared much better mind you.
Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
A true drama if ever there was one, Driving Miss Daisy won the award in 1989 where it was separated from such films as Born on the Fourth of July, My Left Foot and Dead Poets Society. Fast forward a month or so, and Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture at the Oscars, beating out the aforementioned films to take home the Golden Statue, all despite it being deemed a comedy. Comedies don’t tend to win Best Picture Oscars – unless they involve Morgan Freeman driving around Jessica Tandy it seems. And speaking of Morgan Freeman…
Red (2010)
Nominated in the same category as The Tourist, Robert Schwentke comic-book adaptation was certainly enjoyable, but a comedy it is not. Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren certainly have great fun in the film, shooting bad guys and trying to out-quip each other, but this isn’t Dumb & Dumber. It’s an action film, plain and simple. 2010 must have been a slow year.
Click below to continue on for the next five…
Originally published January 11, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
