A lot for the fake industry outrage over Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie being left off the director and actress Oscar nominations lists.
A big sector of that exact same industry — actors — shut out the peppy, pink movie entirely in the course of the 2024 SAG Awards on the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
Pity the doll. “Barbie” lost every thing: actress (Robbie), supporting actor (Ryan Gosling) and ensemble — SAG’s best picture equivalent, which many predicted it will eek out.
Nope. Its Malibu dreams have been crushed.
“Oppenheimer” emerged victorious — again — and can almost definitely win best picture in two weeks.
“Poor Things”? Poor movie. “Killers of the Flower Moon”? Eclipsed. An “American Fiction” surprise triumph? Fictional. “The Holdovers”? Held over.
So many names called out on the SAGs were as predictable because the date of Christmas.
I sound more alive during a 9 a.m. Zoom meeting than these stars, who’ve been giving weekly speeches for months, did on Saturday.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph took home supporting actress — again — for “The Holdovers” and Robert Downey Jr. succeeded in supporting actor — again — for “Oppenheimer.” On the Oscars, they’ll each come out on top. Again!
Hopefully there they’ll muster a tear or two for we bored plebs watching at home.
The SAGs did, nevertheless, arrange two hot races.
Essentially the most exciting is between the night’s best actress winner, Lily Gladstone of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and Emma Stone for “Poor Things.” The ladies are neck and neck.
After her Golden Globe triumph for actress in a movie – drama in January, Gladstone’s momentum crashed.
Resurgent Stone snapped up the Globe for actress – movie comedy, the Critics Selection Award and the BAFTA. Most figured she’d repeat the feat.
Not so fast. Now, Stone v. ‘stone is just too near call.
The opposite tight battle is for best actor, between SAG, BAFTA and Globe winner Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) and Globe and Critics Selection pick Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”).
Actors make up the biggest voting bloc of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, so Irish Oppy’s got the sting. The past three SAG best actor winners have gone on to simply accept Oscars.
But you never know. The late Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), won in an emotional moment on the 2021 SAGs after which later lost to Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”) on the Academy Awards.
More jolting shocks got here in the course of the evening’s TV categories.
Pedro Pascal (“The Last of Us”) knocked off feisty juggernaut Kieran Culkin (“Succession”) in best actor – drama. And Elizabeth Debicki (Princess Di on “The Crown”) beat Sarah Snook (“Succession) for best actress – drama. Those losses felt like twists out of, well, “Succession.”
Don’t cry for the Roys, though. HBO’s series still won ensemble – TV drama. And within the comedy awards, FX’s “The Bear” mauled.
So, what of the show itself? The SAG Awards streamed live on Netflix for the primary time, was hostless, took just over two hours and had no commercials. Sounds great, right?
Meh. The published still sagged.
Last 12 months’s fabulous ceremony, by comparison, was stuffed with surprises (Michelle Yeoh defeating Cate Blanchett, Brendan Fraser besting Austin Butler) and riveting emotional speeches from the likes of Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis.
This 12 months’s shindig, on the opposite hand, was slow and solemn.
Essentially the most redeeming parts were a number of cuddly reunions during presentations.
Meryl Streep took the stage along with her “Devil Wears Prada” co-stars Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt, who quoted classic lines from the style mag comedy. Hathaway even wore a cerulean dress for the occasion.
And twenty years after “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” won best ensemble, actors Elijah Wood and Sean Astin — Frodo and Sam — brought the Shire back to the Shrine. Someway those respective hobbits at the moment are, gulp, 43 and 53 years old.
Barbra Streisand also added some gravitas as she accepted her life achievement award.
“I desired to be in the flicks, although I knew I didn’t seem like the opposite women on the screen,” the “Funny Girl” star, 81, told the gang of her Flatbush childhood.
“My mother said, ‘you higher learn to type.’”
A funny girl, indeed.
SAGs: check! Now, there are only two weeks to go until National ‘Oppenheimer’ Appreciation Day.
Er, sorry, I mean the Oscars.