81st Golden Globes: ‘Oppenheimer’ dominates, ‘Poor Things’ upsets ‘Barbie’

VPM | By Michel Martin and Bilal Qureshi

Published January 8, 2024 at 10:06 AM EST

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Controversies and scandal. Those were the backstories leading into Hollywood’s first post-strike red carpet extravaganza last night. We’re talking about the 81st Golden Globes, where the big awards went to many of the season’s critical darlings in TV and film.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE 81ST GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS)

UNIDENTIFIED PRESENTER: And the Golden Globe goes to “The Bear.”

SARAH RAFFERTY: And the Golden Globe goes to…

GABRIEL MACHT, PATRICK ADAMS, SARAH RAFFERTY AND GINA TORRES: …”Succession.”

OPRAH WINFREY: And the Golden Globe goes to “Oppenheimer.”

(APPLAUSE)

MARTIN: NPR senior culture editor Bilal Qureshi is with us to talk about the return of the Globes. Bilal, thank you for staying up because, you know, I didn’t.

BILAL QURESHI, BYLINE: Thank you, Michel. Yes, I did have the distinct pleasure of staying up and watching.

MARTIN: Well, was it, though? And you’re going to tell us about that. All right. Let me just set the table just to remind people this was the first big test of what I guess we’ll call the Golden Globes brand after being essentially canceled for problems with inclusion and corruption, which were exposed by the Los Angeles Times but now revamped, redesigned, moved to CBS. So was last night a successful reboot?

QURESHI: I mean, as for the awards, let’s talk honestly say that was – that’s up in the air. I think the much larger celebrity ecosystem that powers awards season – shiny actors, couture, social media discourse, memes – that was all definitely back following the long strike in Hollywood last summer. And after a banner year for the box office, this was the first time that, since the strike, many of the casts, including from movies like “Barbie” and “Killers Of The Flower Moon,” walked the red carpets together. So I think audience excitement and celebrity shininess clearly drove a lot more attention to the Globes than they may have deserved. The show itself was kind of a snooze. And the host was a bit of a misfire.

MARTIN: Ooh, sad.

QURESHI: So we can get into that.

MARTIN: I definitely want to get into that. But before that, talk about the winners.

QURESHI: For the TV side, the night belonged to the final season of “Succession,” Season 2 of “The Bear.” And in the always-competitive limited series category, that went to Netflix’s “Beef.” On the movie side, “The Holdovers” stars – Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Paul Giamatti – picked up two of the big acting awards. And “Oppenheimer,” there were acting awards as well for Robert Downey Jr. and Cillian Murphy. And Native actress Lily Gladstone won for her lead performance in “Killers Of The Flower Moon.” And here’s some of her really incredible speech, which she began in the Blackfeet language.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE 81ST GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS)

LILY GLADSTONE: In this business, Native actors used to speak their lines in English, and then the sound mixers would run them backwards to accomplish Native languages on camera. This is an historic win.

QURESHI: And that was a good kind of historic win. Another big moment here was a new category that the Globes introduced for best cinematic and box office achievement, basically for films that made more than $100 million. And that’s why Taylor Swift was in the audience, because her Eras Tour film was nominated. But that rather capitalist version of best picture ultimately went to “Barbie.”

MARTIN: OK. Speaking of “Barbie,” is there a sense that this is a preview of the upcoming Oscars race?

QURESHI: You know, the Globes have always been, Michel, a kind of somewhat unreliable bellwether for what’s going to happen in the Oscars race, which is about to begin with the nominations very soon. But that’s definitely one of the biggest questions of the awards season. Is this all going to be a replay of Barbenheimer summer? But “Oppenheimer” really dominated the awards. It won, you know, acting awards, the directing prize and the big sort of movie prize of the night.

MARTIN: OK. But you sound like you didn’t love it, Bilal. So – sounds like you’re a little down on it. So why don’t you just tell us a little bit more?

QURESHI: I think the jokes were just off. I think the – a lot of the audience, which is meant to be visible, was not really responding well. So I think, you know, an uneventful relaunch for the Globes.

MARTIN: All right. That is NPR’s Bilal Qureshi. Bilal, thank you.

QURESHI: Thank you so much.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Tags

NPR News

Michel Martin

Michel Martin is the weekend host of All Things Considered and host of the Consider This Saturday podcast, where she draws on her deep reporting and interviewing experience to dig in to the week's news. Outside the studio, she has also hosted "Michel Martin: Going There," an ambitious live event series in collaboration with Member Stations.

Martin came to NPR in 2006 and launched Tell Me More, a one-hour daily NPR news and talk show that aired on NPR stations nationwide from 2007-2014 and dipped into thousands of important conversations taking place in the corridors of power, but also in houses of worship, and barber shops and beauty shops, at PTA meetings, town halls, and at the kitchen table.

She has spent more than 25 years as a journalist — first in print with major newspapers and then in television. Tell Me More marked her debut as a full-time public radio show host. Martin says, "What makes public radio special is that it's got both intimacy and reach all at once. For the cost of a phone call, I can take you around the world. But I'm right there with you in your car, in your living room or kitchen or office, in your iPod. Radio itself is an incredible tool and when you combine that with the global resources of NPR plus the commitment to quality, responsibility and civility, it's an unbeatable combination."

Martin has also served as contributor and substitute host for NPR newsmagazines and talk shows, including Talk of the Nation and News & Notes.

Martin joined NPR from ABC News, where she worked since 1992. She served as correspondent for Nightline from 1996 to 2006, reporting on such subjects as the congressional budget battles, the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, racial profiling and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At ABC, she also contributed to numerous programs and specials, including the network's award-winning coverage of Sept. 11, a documentary on the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas controversy, a critically acclaimed AIDS special and reports for the ongoing series "America in Black and White." Martin reported for the ABC newsmagazine Day One, winning an Emmy for her coverage of the international campaign to ban the use of landmines, and was a regular panelist on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. She also hosted the 13-episode series Life 360, an innovative program partnership between Oregon Public Broadcasting and Nightline incorporating documentary film, performance and personal narrative; it aired on public television stations across the country.

Before joining ABC, Martin covered state and local politics for the Washington Post and national politics and policy at the Wall Street Journal, where she was White House correspondent. She has also been a regular panelist on the PBS series Washington Week and a contributor to NOW with Bill Moyers.

Martin has been honored by numerous organizations, including the Candace Award for Communications from The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, the Joan Barone Award for Excellence in Washington-based National Affairs/Public Policy Broadcasting from the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association and a 2002 Silver Gavel Award, given by the American Bar Association. Along with her Emmy award, she received three additional Emmy nominations, including one with WNYC's Robert Krulwich, at the time an ABC contributor as well, for an ABC News program examining children's racial attitudes. In 2019, Martin was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for outstanding achievement in journalism. She is the 2021 recipient of PMJA's 2021 Leo C. Lee Award.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Martin graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College at Harvard University in 1980 and earned a Master of Arts from the Wesley Theological Seminary in 2016.

See stories by Michel Martin