Snubs, Surprises, and WTFs of the Golden Globe Nominations, With Mark Harris

The Surprisesand one big WTF

The Little Things 2021

Jared Leto's supporting-actor nod is, in Sean's words, the single biggest WTF of the whole slate — they liked him in a movie that 'was not a film that worked at all.'

Music 2021

Sia's directorial debut, released by Vertical Entertainment, wasn't even out yet and had zero footprint online; Kate Hudson's Best Actress nod left both hosts stumped — neither had heard of it.

The Mauritanian 2021

Kevin Macdonald's Guantanamo drama landed Jodie Foster and Tahar Rahim nominations for a movie almost nobody had seen yet — Sean calls Rahim's work genuinely good, the film itself 'fine,' a docudrama that 'skips over all the actual drama.'

The Prom 2020

Ryan Murphy's Netflix musical got one nomination — James Corden, whom Sean names the worst performance in the movie, over Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman.

Emma. 2020

Anya Taylor-Joy's second nomination of the morning — 'a nice surprise,' per Amanda.

I Care a Lot 2021

Rosamund Pike's third Globes nomination, for a Netflix film that premiered at TIFF and still hadn't landed with audiences.

The Personal History of David Copperfield 2020

Dev Patel's nomination surprised Amanda, who didn't realize the Armando Iannucci film had finally hit VOD/Disney+; Sean found the movie itself disappointing.

Palm Springs 2020

Two nominations including Best Musical or Comedy — a rare good surprise both hosts were happy about.

News of the World 2020

Helena Zengel's nod was one of the film's only nominations; Tom Hanks himself was shut out entirely.

Tenet 2020

Largely shut out otherwise, but Ludwig Göransson's score got in — Sean calls it 'one of the great scores of the year.'

The Snubsmostly a race problem

Da 5 Bloods 2020

Spike Lee's film — not even his own top five, per the hosts, but still one of the year's best — got zero nominations, shutting out Delroy Lindo and Spike as director.

Malcolm & Marie 2021

Zendaya got nothing for it, and the film itself was shut out entirely — a contrast Sean draws against Andra Day's nod for the far-less-famous United States vs. Billie Holiday.

The United States vs. Billie Holiday 2021

Andra Day's Best Actress nomination struck Sean as an odd bid to court a younger audience, given Zendaya went unrecognized for Malcolm & Marie instead.

Let Them All Talk 2020

One of two films, alongside The Prom, where Meryl Streep was passed over.

The Way Back 2020

Ben Affleck's comeback drama got no nominations, despite the hosts' self-admitted 'unhealthy affection' for Affleck himself.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom 2020

Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman were nominated as expected, but the film got nothing else despite being a Best Picture front-runner.

Judas and the Black Messiah 2021

Just two nominations for a film Sean says he'd take over The Trial of the Chicago 7 '100 times out of 100' — yet Chicago 7 got the Best Picture Drama slot and Judas didn't.

One Night in Miami... 2020

Regina King got a Best Director nod and Leslie Odom Jr. a supporting-actor nomination — real recognition, but low relative to the film's other stars.

Sound of Metal 2020

Paul Raci went unrecognized, unsurprising for a small performance on a streamer, per Amanda.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always 2020

Amanda calls it the best film released last year; it never had a chance at the Globes.

The Narrativeswhat the noms say about where the season's headed

Mank 2020

Led all nominations with six — a bump neither host fully trusts, tangled up with the film's Citizen Kane/Orson Welles baggage and muted Netflix word of mouth.

Nomadland 2020

Held serve on its expected nominations, but Amanda flags a 'danger zone' of inflated expectations once general audiences actually see it.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 2020

Five nominations, a Paramount film sold to Netflix — one of six of the ten Best Picture/Musical nominees with streaming provenance, which the hosts call a real breakthrough.

Promising Young Woman 2020

Four nominations including a Best Director nod for Emerald Fennell, one of three women in that category this year.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm 2020

Maria Bakalova and Sacha Baron Cohen both nominated, plus Best Musical or Comedy, for a sequel Sean admits he needs to rewatch to remember.

The Father 2020

Anthony Hopkins nominated for a Sony Pictures Classics drama neither host has managed to see yet — Amanda's new 'Have You Seen the Wife?' stand-in.

Mark Harris on Awards Season and ‘Mike Nichols: A Life’

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Minari 2020

Harris flags its 'miscategorization' into Best Foreign Language Film as one of the year's real outrages, alongside I May Destroy You getting ignored entirely.

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I Care a Lot 2021

Harris calls it 'quite a funny movie' with a good Rosamund Pike performance, but still invisible to general audiences as an un-landed Netflix title.

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The Graduate 1967

Harris wrote about it once before, in Pictures at a Revolution, and was nervous to cover it again — 'a strange thing' to revisit.

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Catch-22 1970

Nichols' first unlimited-budget project — he only realized late in the process that the material didn't suit his kind of comedy.

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The Day of the Dolphin 1973

Harris reads it as a cautionary tale about saying yes without thinking it through.

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The Fortune 1975

Taught Nichols the danger of a fun set producing a bad movie, and of a script he didn't fully believe in — rare for a director Harris calls 'the most writer-friendly of all major American directors.'

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Carnal Knowledge 1971

Harris insists this one is actually a success that belongs in the 'Mike Nichols pantheon,' not lumped in with the decade's flops — still 'an electric jolt' fifty years later.

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Wolf 1994

Nichols trying to make 'one for them, one for me' in a single movie — the werewolf blockbuster and the publishing-industry comedy visibly pulling against each other on screen.

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Regarding Henry 1991

The one that stumped Harris most while researching — producer Scott Rudin told him flatly, 'there's nothing of Mike in this movie.'

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Heartburn 1986

Harris's pick for the most wrongly maligned film in Nichols' catalog — buried under press about the Ephron marriage it was based on, and the source of the now-memed carbonara-in-bed scene.

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Shock Corridor 1963

Harris's 'last great thing' — a Sam Fuller asylum thriller he'd somehow never seen until the night before taping, and was 'flabbergasted' by.

Also mentioned raised along the way

In passing Citizen KaneNocturnal AnimalsOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV The CrownThe Queen's GambitI May Destroy YouAngels in America

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