Globes Were Actually Pretty Awesome

Critics agree: With top-notch hosting, memorable speeches, and an appearance by Bill Clinton, last night's Golden Globes were a big success—a feat all the more impressive given the awards-show track record. Here's what reviewers are saying:

• "Lovely, brilliant, and utterly fearless," hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler "made awards-show hosting an art form again," writes Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times. It was "occasionally hilarious, occasionally emotional, and surprisingly enjoyable TV" that came off "like a genuine industry party rather than an overly produced parade of mechanical self-indulgence."

• Indeed, "nearly every joke told or stunt pulled" by Fey and Poehler "was solidly, often exceedingly, funny," adds Ken Tucker at Entertainment Weekly. As for Jodie Foster's speech, it was "eloquent, rambling, too long, funny, heroic, encoded, and ultimately very moving."
• In the Hollywood Reporter, Tim Goodman calls the show "a funny, rousing, and swiftly paced affair .... bubbly and entertaining, there were moments to remember, winners and losers to argue about, and a pair of hosts who really nailed it."
• "Making this event look glamorous is one of Hollywood’s most stunning achievements in special effects. And every year it seems to get a little better by just getting sloppier," writes Hank Stuever at the Washington Post. From now on, "Tina Fey and Amy Poehler should be allowed to do whatever they want."

(More Golden Globes stories.)