This was the 78th ceremony from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and, if memory serves, the second virtual ceremony due to the pandemic and I have to admit that I enjoyed the ceremony for the most part a lot more than I thought I would. I liked the idea of having Tina and Amy bicoastal, which I remember the Emmys doing all the time during the 1960's and early 1970's. I also liked that the very selected audience in both theaters were made up of first responders. Accept for the huge technical blunder after the first winner was announced, the virtual set up of the nominees seemed to be well organized. I liked when they would show the nominees for the next award talking to each other as the show went into commercial. I also thought it was very interesting that some of the nominees chose to dress to the nines and others, like Jason Sudeikis and best director winner Chloe Zhao, chose to go completely casual. As for the specifics:
MOST SURPRISING WIN- Daniel Kaluuya's Best Supporting Actor win for Judas and the Black Messiah. Granted I haven't seen the film, but I was sure this award was going to Sasha Baren Cohen for The Trial of the Chicago 7, which only took home one award all night. Loved Kaluuya in Get Out, Black Panther, and Queen & Slim, so it was nice to see him get some award love, but since I haven't seen the film yet, the win was a surprise.
MOST MADDENING WIN- Borat Subsequent Moviefilm for Best Comedy or Musical. This movie sucked but the win wasn't a complete surprise as the nominees in this category were pretty slim pickings. I would have liked to have seen that award go to Palm Springs, the strongest film in a very weak category.
BEST ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES- Norman Lear, Emma Coren, Jane Fonda (who looked absolutely AMAZING), Andra Day, and I have to give a nod to Jason Sudeikis as well...loved the fact that Sudeikis was obviously shocked that he won and didn't have anything resembling an acceptance speech prepared.
BIGGEST WASTE OF SCREENTIME- Kenan Thompson and Maya Rudolph playing fake award winners in the Best Song Category.
SECOND BIGGEST WASTE OF SCREENTIME- The three members of the Hollywood Foreign Press promising to add black members to their organization. I guess on the surface it was a gesture that had to be made, but they offered nothing concrete regarding exactly what they planned to do so it was kind of pointless.
MOST TROUBLESOME ACCEPTANCE SPEECH- I debated about going here, but I have to get it off my chest...I really had trouble with the acceptance speech by Chadwick Boseman's widow. Let me first say that I think it's great that Chadwick won, he deserved to win, but his widow's speech just felt staged and phony. It was clearly written by someone else and posted right in front of her, as she rambled off the names of at least a dozen people involved in the production of Ma Raine's Black Bottom, but the way she recited all the names through all those tears and sobbing, just didn't ring true for me and diluted the power of Boseman's win. The whole thing just appeared over-rehearsed because we all knew the win was coming. This is just my opinion.
BEST COMIC BIT- Loved the nominees talking to their doctors about receiving the vaccine. Really well-written, especially loved Don Cheadle's reaction to learning that a side effect of the vaccine was weight gain.
BEST DRESSED- Angela Bassett, Selma Hayak, Jane Fonda, Justin Theroux, Kenan Thompson (LOVED that green tux), Margot Robbie, Catherine Zeta Jones, Jamie Lee Curtis
WORST DRESSED- Gal Gadot, Susan Kelechi Watson, Awkwafina, Amy Poehler (who makes all my worst dressed lists), Kristin Wiig, Bryce Dallas Howard