Post Globes: and then there were three

"... major impetus to the late-breaking hopes of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, which grabbed five key nominations including Picture-Drama, Director and Screenplay for Tarantino and two supporting actor nods for Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz, shaking up the supporting actor race in the process... leading 7 nominations, Lincoln is now certified at the top of the pack going into Oscar balloting, which begins Monday.... For two other Oscar-buzzed films, Silver Linings Playbook and Les Miserables, both the immediate front-runners for Best Picture — Musical or Comedy, the news was more of a mixed bag.... both films missed out in the crucial Best Director category...  Ang Li’s directing nod for Life Of Pi in addition to its recognition as Best Picture – Drama also keeps that technical triumph firmly in the race. For Flight, its showing at the Globes and in other contests this week really dampens whatever hopes Paramount may have had for its big contender, other than Denzel Washington’s lead performance...  The Master also appears now to be mainly in play in acting categories with the Globes (in addition to the supporting nod for Philip Seymour Hoffman) resuscitating chances for Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams after they were ignored by SAG yesterday.... The omission of Silver Linings Playbook’s Robert De Niro was among the most surprising snubs to me, but clearly those two Django co-stars DiCaprio and Waltz rode in and stole his thunder... Same goes forMagic Mike’s Matthew McConaughey." —  Deadline Hollywood

In terms of the Oscars you can safely ignore the Django Unchained hurrahs: it's not an Oscar contender, even in supporting actor. I think the most significant thing to come out of it, is the narrowing of the Best Picture race to three players: Lincoln, Argo and Zero Dark Thirty. What's interesting about that trio is how much they encroach on each other's territory, Argo and ZDT in particular. What flavor of political history is the Academy in the mood for? Something monumental and mahogony-hued? Quick and caperish? Or tungsten-steel tough?