The sober elder sibling of the Golden Globes is one of those industry events that rarely surprises: with so much more prestige associated with the awards themselves, acceptance speeches are usually less political, performances are more sedate and barring Adrian-Brody-smooching-Halle-Berry shenanigans, there's rarely anything shocking to disrupt the mood. Last night's ceremony was therefore an entity unto itself--read on to find out.
The bad: It’s still a (white) man’s world
Nobody wants to say the difficult thing on a night of celebration, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be said. Few (if any) have disputed that Casey Affleck did an excellent job with his role in Manchester By The Sea, but the Best Actor winner is still marred by allegations of past sexual assault from two women who worked on his indie mockumentary I’m Still Here in 2010. The lawsuit was settled out of court, but Affleck has since spent a fair amount of sound-bites on denying those allegations and shrugging off the two women who were brave enough to take on their own director in a male-dominated world. The White Man Syndrome is real and there’s no point denying it: Affleck has won the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Critic’s Choice, Gotham and National Board of Review award for his Manchester By The Sea gig, officiating his entry into the ranks of Roman Polanski and Woody Allen, both white men who did very questionable and creepy sexual things and saw next to no backlash in their professional lives, only increased notoriety. In his acceptance speech, Affleck waffled out some disconnected sentences before saying, Man I wish I had something bigger and more meaningful to say. We do too, Affleck. I’m not sure that winning a statuette makes you trustworthy.
