Please welcome the one and only Doug Strassler, a theater and film critic here in New York. Tell us about those crazy Golden Globes, Doug!

The 2008 year-end movie award season kicked into high gear with this morning’s announcement of the Golden Globe nominees. A lot of the faces looked pretty familiar, and though some nominees hurt the heart (read down for more on Brangelina), I’d prefer to focus on some of the more exciting entries in this year’s contest.

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First off is Meryl Streep’s one-two punch: Best Actress in a Drama (for Doubt) and in a Comedy/Musical (for the rocky Mamma Mia), though I don’t really expect her to win in either category (I imagine Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road and Sally Hawkins, Mike Leigh’s latest revelation in Happy-Go-Lucky, will take the honors). She already holds the record for most wins (along with Angela Lansbury and Jack Nicholson), at six trophies, so there’s nothing to prove, but it’s a thrill to see the gifted actress recognized three decades since her first nomination.

I’m also glad the whole Doubt ensemble got nominated, particularly Amy Adams, one of the few young female celebrities I feel deserves to be labeled an “actress.” Anyone who can make The Wedding Date watchable for more than 60 seconds at a time deserves to be recognized. And it’s about time a larger audience discovered fellow nominee Viola Davis, a Tony-winner best known to Broadway audiences but who has also appeared in Far From Heaven and Solaris. Still, I imagine Penelope Cruz has this one coming her way.

I was surprised Milk didn’t get nominated for Best Picture, Drama, though I imagine the Academy will nominate it over The Reader, and I still pick Sean Penn as a likely winner in the lead actor category, though I’m pulling for Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon. It’s a bummer that co-star Michael Sheen went un-nominated as David Frost, as he did two years ago for his chameleon-like role as Tony Blair in The Queen. It also came as a surprise that neither Josh Brolin nor James Franco were nominated for Milk. I wasn’t personally overwhelmed by either performance in Gus van Sant’s film, but expected the hype to carry them. Instead, Franco was nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy for Pineapple Express, a slot I thought might go to Brolin himself, for W.

I haven’t seen The Wrestler yet, though my predilection for Darren Aronofsky pictures lends his film the benefit of the doubt. I think Mickey Rourke has enough momentum to score nominations, but not to win the award. I also haven’t The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Revolutionary Road, but I just can’t wrap my mind around the possibility that Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt outshine Richard Jenkins’s superlative work in The Visitor. Or even Greg Kinnear’s, who carried Flash of Genius.

My hunch is that neither Pitt nor baby machine Angelina Jolie got nominated based on merit alone. I’m not going to lie, I’ve never been a fan of either of them, together or separately. They’re just not that good. Jolie knows how to scream, pout, fire weapons, and look pious, and Pitt couldn’t emote his way out of a Bow-flex. I found her embarrassing and hammy in Changeling. Their nominations are merely a case of the media machine winning out.

I also believe, perhaps controversially, that the media spun Heath Ledger into the golden god he has become since his untimely passing. Yes, I was deeply affected by his turn in Brokeback Mountain, but credit director Ang Lee with much of that performance’s discipline. I liked The Dark Knight, but in some ways remain partial to Tim Burton’s vision. And I think that Ledger was quirkily unsettling as The Joker, but I was not riveted to him the way I was to Aaron Eckhart as Harvey “Two-Face” Dent.

Do I expect Ledger to win, though? At this point, sure.

His competitors for Supporting Actor are an interesting lot. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Doubt nomination didn’t surprise, but Ralph Fiennes was a pleasant treat for the Keira Knightley vehicle The Duchess (he also got nominated in the television category for HBO’s Bernard and Doris). And Robert Downey Jr.’s turn in Tropic Thunder was expected, but Tom Cruise’s send-up of Hollywood agent clichés also squeaked by with a nod, and rightly so. It’s probably almost as amusing as Valkyrie is bound to be.

The television categories looked similar to last year: 30 Rock. Fine. House. Okay. Californication. Really? Entourage. Still? I’m glad to see Mad Men repeat its nominations – its Globe recognition gave it a boost last year – though I expected Elisabeth Moss to get nominated for Lead Actress over co-star January Jones. And In Treatment, my favorite new show last year, got four acting nominations, to my delight. I always think the television categories at the Globes are bogus to begin with. They lump supporting performances in drama and comedy series together with miniseries, and don’t bother nominating writers or directors, so I never pay too much attention to them

I was sad to see such actors as Kathy Bates (Revolutionary Road), Melissa Leo (Frozen River), and Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) overlooked for their film work, as were Julie Benz and Jennifer Carpenter for Dexter, but I was impressed that British actress Rebecca Hall got caught up in the mini-Vicky Cristina Barcelona wave as well. Also of note: Clint Eastwood received two nominations, both of which were in the music categories, for his directorial efforts Changeling and Gran Torino. And the Best Director nominees perfectly mirror the Best Picture, Drama, nominees, for the first time in nine years.

So who do I think will take the top prizes? I say Barcelona and Button (though Slumdog still appears to be gaining major momentum). And I accurately predicted last year’s top winners, though neither of them ended up winning at the Oscars. So who knows? As Shirley Maclaine said, it’s all in the playing.

Born in Manhattan but bred in the South, Doug Strassler has been a New York film and theatre critic for the last six years. When he’s not catching a show or movie, he is generally thinking of what show or movie to catch next. Hobbies include running, rocking out to Journey and reading the diary of Laura Palmer. He has been labeled “cute” by Jennifer Connelly and “smart” by Anthony Hopkins, which prove that beauty and brains are of equal importance.