It was one of those neat, full-circle moments:
The first Golden Globe of the night went to Ke Huy Quan (shown here), 51, for “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.” He thanked Steve Spielberg, who gave him his great roles (“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “Goonies”); he also granted that his career went stagnant after that.
And the last Globe of the night went to Spielberg. His “Fabelmans” was named the best drama movie, shortly he won for best-director.
In the 38 years between “Indiana Jones” and the autobiographical “Fabelmans,” Spielberg made lots of other films, many of them –- “ET,” “Schindler’s List,” “Saving Private Ryan” – among the greatest in movie history. In those same years, Quan, a Vietnam native, graduated from college and spent decades as a stunt coordinator and such. Now he has his first real fame since he was a 12 and 13.
Those moments helped start and end a night that was wonderfully odd, as usual. The speeches were sometimes dull (winners loving lots of people, even their agents) … the pianist was lovely (Chloe Flower) … and the clothes were splendid.
Award-show clothes are always terrific and often confined to females. This year, some of the best were worn by Billy Porter (a vision in flowing fuchsia) and host Jerrod Carmichael.
His opening monolog stuck to one subject – the fact that he was being “the black face of an embattled white organization.” He also represented gay issues, a subject that was later covered beautifully by producer-director Ryan Murphy, who received a career award.
Carmichael’s monolog was odd but, in its own way, frank and funny. Then it was time for Quan to start a full-circle night.