All week, our E! Online columnists have been hurling their predictions for the Golden Globes. Up next:
Ted Casablanca of the Awful Truth says...
Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
The director's race is laughable, because Paul Thomas Anderson was excluded for his stupendous job in There Will Be Blood. But like most masterpieces, trophies and accolades are unnecessary trifles for a great work that will remain memorable on its own merits.
Now, moviegoers' hearts were moved by James McAvoy and Keira Knightley's romance in Atonement, not necessarily Joe Wright's direction. Ditto with Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly—it's all about the gut-wrenching performances in that one. And although Tim Burton may be back in tip-top macabre form with Sweeney Todd, I found it mediocre, flat, uninspiring and just plain friggin' unmoving, like, everybody in it could just die, already, which they do anyway. Depp's anguish, though, is exquisite, per usual. Is it living in France that always makes that work so well for him?
The point is, however, Best Director will, I'm venturing, be shared between the brothers Coen, who pushed me to the edge of my seat for most of No Country for Old Men. Joel and Ethan have been spitting out everything from quirky comedies to somber melodramas for decades, and any win for them is a win for entertainment.
Is that too nice of me to say? Don't get used to it.