The Full Picture

The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview

Julia Roberts (!) and Sam Esmail on ‘Leave the World Behind.’ Plus: Golden Globes Snubs, Surprises, and WTFs.

December 11, 2023/ 116 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins

The 2024 Golden Globe film nominations get the snubs/surprises/WTFs treatment, then Julia Roberts and Sam Esmail on ‘Leave the World Behind.’

26 films across 2 segments.

AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.

Golden Globes: Snubs, Surprises, and WTFsthe 2024 nominations, under new owners

The Color Purple poster

The Color Purple 2023

Sean's biggest snub: left out of Best Musical or Comedy, a category the hosts thought it was built for. Two acting noms survive (Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks), but the picture's absence dents its Oscar case.

Air poster

Air 2023

The film that took The Color Purple's musical/comedy slot; Matt Damon nominated for lead. Viola Davis's supporting omission bugs Sean, who calls her the best part of the movie.

Anatomy of a Fall poster

Anatomy of a Fall 2023

Best Motion Picture, Drama nominee; the hosts note its strong overall haul.

Maestro poster

Maestro 2023

Best Motion Picture, Drama nominee.

Oppenheimer poster

Oppenheimer 2023

Eight nominations; Sean's pick to win the most Globes, edging Poor Things.

Past Lives poster

Past Lives 2023

Five nominations, including a Best Director nod for Celine Song, a surprise that pleases the hosts. They puzzle over how it qualified as a non-English-language contender.

Barbie poster

Barbie 2023

Most-nominated film of the year, partly on the strength of three Best Original Song nods. Amanda dreads a Billie Eilish ballad win but champions 'Dance the Night.'

The Holdovers poster

The Holdovers 2023

Musical or Comedy nominee, but no Best Director nod for Alexander Payne (a Globes darling with seven career noms) has Sean wondering if it's a softer contender than assumed.

May December poster

May December 2023

Musical or Comedy nominee. Amanda's gender-split anecdote: the men in her life love it, the women are more divided.

Poor Things poster

Poor Things 2023

Seven nominations. Amanda recounts Golden Globe voters at Venice loudly panning it before a screening.

All of Us Strangers poster

All of Us Strangers 2023

Not nominated for picture but Andrew Scott landed a Best Actor nod; the hosts see an outside Best Picture path amid a big FYC weekend.

The Boy and the Heron poster

The Boy and the Heron 2023

Weekend box-office No. 1 and well reviewed; floated as a possible animated Best Picture contender over Spider-Verse.

John Wick: Chapter 4 poster

John Wick: Chapter 4 2023

Box Office Achievement nominee; Sean regrets not talking it up more on the year-end show and is still waiting on a four-film box set.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour poster

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour 2023

Box Office Achievement nominee; the hosts read it as a naked play to get Swift in the room rather than any real 'achievement.'

Sound of Freedom poster

Sound of Freedom 2023

Sean's pick for the actual box-office achievement of the year, snubbed by a category that claims to honor exactly that.

No Hard Feelings poster

No Hard Feelings 2023

A surprise Jennifer Lawrence nod; Sean argues comedy performances like this are what the Globes should exist to spotlight.

Fallen Leaves poster

Fallen Leaves 2023

Two surprise noms (non-English-language film and star Alma Pöysti). Sean still hasn't seen this Aki Kaurismäki film despite Amanda's nudging.

She Came to Me poster

She Came to Me 2023

Rebecca Miller's film, a Best Original Song nominee for Bruce Springsteen, competing against three Barbie songs. Amanda found the film itself pretty weird.

In conversationJulia Roberts and Sam Esmail on the Netflix apocalypse

Leave the World Behind poster
Julia Roberts and Sam Esmail on

Leave the World Behind 2023

Esmail wrote and directed this adaptation of Rumaan Alam's novel, with Roberts as the prickly Amanda, Mahershala Ali as G.H., Ethan Hawke, and Myha'la (whose character he changed from G.H.'s wife to his daughter to seed doubt). Esmail inverts the disaster genre: characters front and center, catastrophe kept at a distance and deliberately unexplained. Set pieces (the beached ship, the deer, the driverless Teslas) are his inventions, not the book's. Roberts describes daytime-only reading because it scared her, and a mortifying dance scene with Ali. The film ends on young Rose finally watching the 'Friends' series finale, an ending Esmail knew would divide audiences and stood by.

Also mentioned raised along the way

Alexander Payne's Globes history About SchmidtSidewaysThe DescendantsNebraska

Around the awards talk Everything Everywhere All at OnceFast XThe Little MermaidElementalAnt-Man and the Wasp: QuantumaniaTransformers: Rise of the BeastsFive Nights at Freddy's

Roberts and Esmail, in passing Sleeping with the EnemyTicket to ParadiseMary ReillyThere Will Be Blood

Netflix, theaters, and Don Siegel The KillerThe Pigeon TunnelSilenceThe Wolf of Wall StreetOn the WaterfrontBarry LyndonChinatownDirty HarryThe KillersCharley VarrickGet CarterThe Mechanic

Disaster-movie shelf The Towering InfernoThe Day After TomorrowEarthquake

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV GaslitHomecomingMr. RobotFriendsThe West WingSports NightThe Morning ShowThe BearJury DutyGame of ThronesHouse of the DragonReservation DogsTiger KingLeave It to BeaverThe Twilight ZoneBest Performance in Stand-up Comedy on Television (Globes category)

Video games Five Nights at Freddy's (the game)

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