70th Annual Golden Globe Award Winners

Let's start this off by stating the obvious: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, as expected, proved to be the best awards show hosts in recent memory. They absolutely killed it. Their opening monologue was full of quick one-liners and jabs that still stung but were always in good humor coming from them. This included zings at Kathryn Bigelow when Poehler said she hasn't been following the controversy of "Zero Dark Thirty," but "when it comes to torture, I trust the woman who spent three years married to James Cameron." James Franco was also targeted when Fey said to Anne Hatahway, "You gave a stunning performance in 'Les Miserables.' I have not seen someone so alone and abandoned like that since you were on stage with James Franco at the Oscars." Poehler then began describing the HFPA as HPV, and Fey labeled Quentin Tarantino as "the star of all my sexual nightmares."

As a hosting duo, they were consistently funny, self-deprecating with great timing, just enough bite and really made the biggest Hollywood party of the year feel like exactly that. Case in point, Seth MacFarlane has the toughest of acts to follow with his hosting gig at the Oscars.

As it was at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards on Thursday, Ben Affleck walked away with Best Director while his "Argo" took home Best Drama, which only continues to baffle the mind as to how the academy skipped over him for a director nod.

"Les Miserables" topped the night's wins with Anne Hathaway winning Best Supporting Actress, Hugh Jackman for Best Actor Comedy or Musical and the film taking the top prize of Best Comedy or Musical over "Silver Linings Playbook." Jennifer Lawrence represented the comedy with her Best Actress Comedy or Musical win while Bradley Cooper got beat out by Jackman. Such would be expected, however, as the HFPA is notorious for loving musicals. The love for "Les Miserables" here is no indicator of a push toward Oscar.

"Django Unchained" tied "Argo" for two wins as Quentin Tarantino had the surprise win for Best Screenplay over Tony Kushner for "Lincoln." This marks his lock for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars while Kushner can still take home Best Adapted. The other "Django" win went to Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor, which gives him a small Oscar boost as he was not nominated for a SAG award.

"Zero Dark Thirty" cashed in on just one win in the category of Best Actress Drama for Jessica Chastain's portrayal of female CIA agent Maya. Likewise, Daniel Day-Lewis represented the singular win for "Lincoln" for Best Actor Drama with his embodiment of Abraham Lincoln.

The night clipped along at a relatively fine pace with plenty of GIF-able moments throughout, which is always the sign of an entertaining awards show. This included Taylor Swift giving what looked like the stink eye to a bubbly and radiant Adele as she accepted her award for Best Original Song for "Skyfall," a win that will thrust her to Oscar gold.

Glenn Close played in on the fun as the hosts reappeared later in the evening announcing how drunk everyone was getting and then cut to the actress doing some sort of weird drunken jig in her seat. The best of the presenters were SNL veterans Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig who, while announcing the nominees for Best Comedy or Musical, hilariously improvised made-up plots for each movie pretending like they'd never heard of them.

Jodie Foster received her Cecil B. DeMille honor and gave a speech both very moving and heartfelt but also mystifying. Apparently it was widely expected, since this was considered a "lifetime achievement award," that she would use this as a coming-out speech. And while she broached the topic and jokingly sidestepped it, she also simultaneously hit it head-on and addressed matters of privacy in the public eye for celebrities. It was a mysterious speech that delicately told young viewers everywhere to be who they are without ever really saying it at all. And then there was teary-eyed Mel Gibson just staring at her intently. It was a very weird moment in the night that also unfortunately got accidentally(?) muted by the network during a crucial line. She then concluded with a beautiful message to her mom who suffers from dimentia and noted a potential turn in her own career. It almost sounded like she was retiring from acting, but later in the press room she corrected that implication.

The pseudo coming-out speech prompted Poehler to close the show with this: "We're going home with Jodie Foster!"

Jessica Chastain gave a tearful acceptance speech while a flu-ridden Jennifer Lawrence was pleasantly humbled as usual, and Anne Hathaway took time in hers to pay tribute to her fellow nominee, Sally Field, in a classy nod to a veteran actress.

What does all of this "Argo" and Ben Affleck winning mean for the Oscar race? Well, things are getting interesting. If Affleck were nominated for an Oscar, we'd be looking at an easy front-runner. Instead, we're left questioning the possibility of a Best Picture winner not having its director nominated. It seems unlikely and puts a lot of weight on the announcement of the Producers Guild winner, the Directors Guild winner and the winners of the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Long shots set aside, the more sensible choice appears to still be between "Lincoln" and "Silver Linings Playbook" for Oscar. And yet, the "Argo" momentum is hard to ignore. Is it really possible to have been stonewalled by the academy?

On the television side, I have to mention the triumphant win of 26-year-old Lena Dunham for not only Best Comedy Actress but also Best Comedy for her HBO comedy "Girls." So well-deserved, and it really marked the evening as one for progressive and funny women in television.

THE TREE OF LIFE Review

"The Tree of Life" (2011)

Three years in the making from writer/director Terrence Malick ("The Thin Red Line, "The New World") and the winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, his long-awaited new film "The Tree of Life" will be regarded as the towering cinematic achievement of the year. Although it is not a perfect film by any means.

It's frustrating and maddening, perplexing and challenging, exasperating and mystifying and, finally, it asks tough questions that other filmmakers wouldn't dare approach. It's a manic, impressionistic, metaphysical visual poem contemplating nothing less than mankind's relationship with the universe. Defining pretension and catapulting itself headlong into viewers' minds with all of its glaring flaws, the flashes of brilliance within are hard to ignore. And in a film with such soaring, unconstrained ambition shooting for the stars, taking in the bad to appreciate the good has never been so easy.

The film opens with a meditation on two contrasting sides of life experience: nature and grace. The way of nature sees mostly struggle while the way of grace embraces love. This is explained to us in a whispered voiceover from Jessica Chastain who plays Mrs. O'Brien representing grace. Speaking of whispered voiceovers, get comfortable with these because the movie is fueled by them giving us each character's individual thoughts. Mr. O'Brien embodies nature and is played in a career-topping performance from Brad Pitt as the unrelenting, powerful and fierce disciplinarian father. The parents of this suburban Texas 1950s family are named Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien and are addressed by their children as Mother and Father. That's just the way it was.

The heart of the story--or what there is of one--lies in this family, and a hefty midsection focusing on it hits a home run. Long summer days idly pass by as Mother exudes forgiveness and kindness onto her boys as Father demands control and respect, especially from his oldest son Jack (Hunter McCracken) who bears the burden of his father's own inner turmoil. A hard shell and heavy fist cannot hide the vulnerability lying within. These scenes of summer arrive to us through the memory of Jack reflecting back on his childhood as a grown man (played by Sean Penn). In the present day he's injured and has inherited his father's anger to create a somber figure surrounded by the steel and glass of an office building.

The first thing you'll notice about "The Tree of Life" is the eccentric and fascinating way it is shot from cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. Using a handheld camera, he graciously swoops in and out of the action much like how he did in "Children of Men." It resembles a fever dream or, more accurately, an altered state of perception--seeing life in a completely different scope. It also astoundingly evokes the feel of faded and fragmented memories of which the portrait of the 1950s family is made up. Some moments are potent and witnessed in full while others are flashes, skewed and altered moments that flicker by.

But presenting consciousness and inner monologue isn't Malick's only goal with this film. He doesn't stop there and shows us the birth and expansion of the universe in sequences with God-like and awe-inspiring visuals set to a playlist of classical music. We're shown vast planetary expanses all the way down to microscopic organisms and evolving species with everything in between like gorgeous landscapes, mountains and sparkling waterfalls. With such, there come dinosaurs--yes, dinosaurs. So, we all came from the Big Bang millions of years ago, and after all this progress here we are today. And it begs the question, as Malick so ethereally puts, what now?

At its most basic, "The Tree of Life" marks the most impassioned philosophical and overtly religious mainstream film in recent memory. Referring back to the two contrasting modes of viewing human existence--that of nature or grace--Malick is optimistic and wishes for a return to grace, a promise of peace and understanding that spreads beyond the bounds of the universe. In such, he presents a version of the afterlife that is an expanse of smooth sand and fresh beach water bathed in warm sunlight with a beautiful bright sky.