All About Oscar

The Butler didn't do it: Golden Globe nominations sort out Oscar favorites

The Golden Globe nominations were announced December 12, and you know what that means, right? Not that snobbish film critics will start making jokes about the taste and intelligence of Hollywood Foreign Press Association members. Rather, it’s time for the pre-season prognostications to end and the dead-serious Academy Award handicapping to begin.

When it comes to selecting the best and brightest of cinematic achievements in any given year, it’s always all about Oscar. Golden Globes doubtless matter a great deal to the folks who actually receive them. But, hey, the awards are nifty door prizes at what I’ve been told is a pretty wild and crazy— and boozy — party.

For film critics, nonaffiliated showbiz journalists and other Oscar handicappers on the outside looking in, the Globes serve primarily as portents to be analyzed during the protracted trudge toward the Academy Awards (which won’t be given out until — gasp! — March 2, 2014).

What follows are a few purely random and utterly subjective observations regarding this year’s Golden Globe nominations, all informed (if that’s the right word) by my years of experience as a semi-respectable film critic and my decades as an unrepentant Golden Globes show viewer.

Speaking of viewing, in addition to honoring cinematic excellence, the HFPA voters also honor achievements in television. But because the Golden Globes have demonstrated little or no influence on Emmy Awards — really, who cares?

Leaders of the pack
12 Years a Slave dominated the Drama categories with seven nominations, while American Hustle grabbed an equal number of nods in the Comedy or Musical division. I think it’s reasonably safe to say that we now know at least two of the titles that will figure into the Best Picture mix when Academy Award nominations are announced January 16.

Being nominated is an honor all by itself
Because the major Golden Globes are divided into separate categories for Drama and Musical or Comedy, requiring at least five nominees in each category – well, sometimes it’s easy to spot the filler.

For example: In the Drama division, Rush has been nominated for Best Picture, and co-star Daniel Bruhl received honorable mention as Best Supporting Actor. No, really.

Privileged view
It’s an open secret in the movie industry that some film critics’ organizations insist on announcing their year-end awards as early as possible, so they can claim bragging rights for influencing the Oscar race — by anointing early front-runners and/or turning dark horses into true contenders — and even “predicting” eventual Oscar winners.

This season, however, there has been great weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth on the part of those reviewers who have had to cast their ballots without seeing The Wolf of Wall Street, which Martin Scorsese reportedly completed too late for Paramount to provide screenings (or DVD screeners) for critics in most major cities.

It’s obvious, however, that members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association got a sneak peek: Both Wolf and lead player Leonard Di Caprio scored Globe nominations in the Comedy or Musical category. Perhaps this might encourage some of those critics’ organizations to consider waiting just a tad longer next year?

The Butler didn’t do it
Can’t say I was an enormous fan of Lee Daniels’ sincere yet facile historical pageant. But given the critical accolades it received in other quarters — and, yes, given Harvey Weinstein’s reputation for full-court-press, awards-season politicking — I expected at least a few acting nominations.

That The Butler was snubbed in all categories might suggest that members of the Hollywood Foreign Press aren’t terribly interested or sympathetic when it comes to embracing and/or rewarding a tale about the Civil Rights Movement in America. On the other hand, it’s equally plausible that they just didn’t like the movie very much.

Conspicuous by their absences
The HFPA voters also overlooked such other Oscar-buzzing options as August: Osage County (a no-show as Best Picture, despite acting nods for Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts), Martin Scorsese (absent from the Best Director finalists, even though his late-screening Wolf of Wall Street nabbed a Best Picture, Comedy or Musical nomination), Michael B. Jordan and Octavia Spencer of Fruitvale Station — and Best Actor nominee (for Captain Phillips) Tom Hanks, who couldn’t double-dip by also landing a Supporting Actor nomination for playing Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks.

On the other hand
Robert Redford’s Oscar prospects for All Is Lost, viewed by some as dimming after the Screen Actors Guild shutout earlier this week, appear to have been revived by his Golden Globe nod. Likewise, Bruce Dern’s own Oscar campaign can only be helped by his Golden Globe nomination for Nebraska.

Not so long ago, some “experts” were none-too-subtly suggesting that Dern should narrow his sights and aim for consideration as a Supporting Actor hopeful. Dern rejected those suggestions. Events of recent days — he got a SAG nomination and an L.A. Film Critics Award as well as the Globe honor — indicate Dern took the right path.

Comedy gold
Tina Fey will be back co-hosting the Golden Globes (along with Amy Poehler) next month. But she was not nominated for her work in the final season of 30 Rock. (A mere TV show, to be sure, but quite a popular one, I understand.) How many jokes about that do you think we’ll hear during the January 12 awards telecast?

Lee Daniels' The Butler got snubbed by Golden Globe voters.

Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker star in Lee Daniels' The Butler

Photo by © Anne Marie Fox The Weinstein Co.

Lee Daniels' The Butler got snubbed by Golden Globe voters.

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Coffee News

Black Sheep Coffee from the U.K. comes to U.S. with debut in Dallas

Black Sheep Coffee

Black Sheep Coffee, coming from the U.K.

A coffee shop from the U.K. with celebrity ties is opening its first U.S. location in Dallas. Called Black Sheep Coffee, it's a growing chain based in London with a renegade stance: to champion the robusta coffee bean, one overlooked by most coffee snobs.

Black Sheep was founded in London in 2013 by friends Gabriel Shohet and Eirik Holth, who loved coffee and wanted to start their own business. They've built it into a chain with 60-plus locations including cafés and take-out shops across England, Scotland, Wales, France, and the Philippines.

The Dallas shop will open at 6240 E. Mockingbird Ln., in a shopping center in the Lakewood neighborhood. Shohet says it'll open in late spring.

Dallas came onto their radar after they formed a partnership for the U.S. expansion with Kristaps Porzingis, a professional basketball player who was playing for the Dallas Mavericks. He's since been traded to the Washington Wizards, but Shohet says Dallas still seemed like the perfect place to launch.

"I love Texas, it's a great state and a lot of people are moving there," Shohet says. "There's so much growth and Dallas has a good vibe. Kristaps became a good friend and ended up investing. He moved to Washington but we'd gotten this great location on Mockingbird and we're building a local team."

They'll make Dallas their headquarters, with a plan to open another half dozen locations, plus franchise opportunities as well (email franchising@leavetheherdbehind.com).

One of the non-coffee drinks at Black Sheep Coffee is a peanut-butter hot chocolate.Black Sheep Coffee

Shohet and Holth built the company brick by brick, starting out doing pop-ups before moving into brick-and-mortar locations. Their goal is to break the wall between specialty coffee and the mass market.

"We've always been about the coffee," he says. "We source the beans from plantations in southern India, Papua New Guinea, Brazil. We get the best beans in the world: specialty-grade, shade-grown, and hand-picked."

"But our premise was also, How can we bring great quality coffee to the mass market, by providing the best coffee but not making people feel like they're disturbing the coffee sacks?" he says. "Our baristas know their coffee, but if you just want to get your drink quickly and want caramel syrup, then go for it. We make it inclusive."

Their most radical act is their use exclusively of the robusta bean, whose stronger, less delicate flavor profile has seen it relegated to uses such as instant coffee and pre-ground cans, while arabica has been the bean favored by the discerning coffee crowd. But some roasters have begun to reject the narrative that robusta is inferior to arabica.

"We're the only coffee company in the world to focus 100 percent on specialty robusta," he says. "Everybody is always touting arabica, but if you can find a great robusta that’s not commercial grade, you have a cool product."

Robusta has twice the amount of caffeine, and he says the growers they work with are more enviro-friendly, requiring less water with more cherries per bush.

"Robusta is thicker and richer, and has an amazing crema when you brew it as espresso," he says. "It's also less acidic, so it's easier to digest on an empty stomach and has more body. It might have less flavor notes than arabica, but that extra body punches through the milk. Robusta is a great bean for drinks made with milk. It's unfair that it has a bad reputation."

Their championing of a bean that others forsake goes with their entire ethos. They also eschew plastic.

"When everybody’s doing something, we do something different," he says. "That’s what our slogan is about: 'Leave the herd behind.'"

In addition to coffee, their shops have exotic lattes, smoothies, and a signature peanut-butter hot chocolate. They do a small selection of food including bagels, "toasties," and Norwegian waffles, a signature.

"But we don't want to be a restaurant — we'll offer the pastries and items that go with coffee, but we just want to focus on making the best coffee."

openings celebrities coffee

All About Oscar

The Butler didn't do it: Golden Globe nominations sort out Oscar favorites

Lee Daniels' The Butler got snubbed by Golden Globe voters.

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Coffee News

Black Sheep Coffee from the U.K. comes to U.S. with debut in Dallas

CultureMap Emails Are Awesome
Get Dallas intel delivered daily.