Movies I learned existed from the Golden Globe nominations

I'm never going to get that watchlist down am I.

As it does seemingly every year, the release of this year's Golden Globe nominations put several films I had no idea about on my radar. Did I have no idea about them because my head was in the sand or because the Hollywood Foreign Press has bizarre and indefensible taste in movies? Probably a little from column A and a little from column B.

But, since I'm now adding them to my watchlist, I thought I might as well tell you about them.

1) Empire of Light
Nomination: Best actress in a drama (Olivia Colman)

The fact that I didn't know about a new Sam Mendes movie points a bit more to the head in the sand explanation above, but the fact is, I had not heard about this at all until yesterday, when I finally checked the nominee list while waiting for Avatar to start. (More on Avatar tomorrow probably.) As tends to happen, I then the next day immediately heard two people discuss it on a podcast, with pretty lukewarm feelings about it. So maybe it's not a must-see.

2) Living
Nomination: Best actor in a drama (Bill Nighy)

So the writers on this are novelist Kazuo Ishigiru (Remains of the Day) and Akira Kurosawa. How is that possible, Vance? Isn't he dead? It appears to be an adaptation of Kurosawa's Ikiru. I can't remember if that's one of the ones I've seen or not. (Quick check: no.) Not to generalize too much here, but it's usually the female acting nominations that come from movies I've never heard of, if we are following the regrettable Oscars pattern. 

3) The Inspection
Nomination: Best actor in a drama (Jeremy Pope)

Okay now it's not only the movie I've never heard of, it's the actor. That could be because this is only his sixth credit. This reminds me that I still haven't caught One Night in Miami, in which he played Jackie Wilson.

4) Inu-Oh
Nomination: Best animated feature

IMDB logline: "A cursed dancer and a musician stun society with electrifying concerts in this animated rock opera." After reading that, I remember that I did indeed hear this mentioned on one of my podcasts at the very beginning of the year, but I mustn't have remembered to add it to my watchlist and it got lost in the torrent of titles that has come along since.

The best foreign language film category includes three films I've never heard of, but that's par for the course.

If you are keeping track at home, my watchlist is up to 103 movies now. I just ... can't ... get down to double digits.