Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood Wins Top Comedy Prize At The Golden Globes

Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood has taken residence the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy, the film’s third win of the night immediately after snagging awards for Best Screenplay for writer and director Quentin Tarantino and Best Supporting Actor for Brad Pitt. Once is the initial of Tarantino's nine films to take residence a Best Picture Golden Globe.


Tarantino ceded the stage at the Beverly Hilton — just miles away from where the film’s story took place — to producer David Heyman, who accepted the honor. “So Quentin is nothing if unpredictable. Several seconds ago he notified me I was going to speak,” Heyman mentioned as he took the stage.


He went on to rapidly thank all involved in the making of the film before spotlighting the “maestro,” Tarantino. “Before I saw the film [Tarantino] mentioned, ‘I want you to have such a good time on this film that the next one is going to be miserable.’ He wasn’t wrong,” Heyman quipped, ending the acceptance speech that was as brief as Once’s 160-minute runtime was long.


Competition in the category was, as per typical, pretty stiff. Netflix’s Dolemite Is My Name served as a pretty comeback car for Eddie Murphy, who has appeared sparingly in films within the past decade. (His recent return to SNL to promote the movie was a bonafide triumph.) JoJo Rabbit put Taika Waititi’s unique sense of humor center-stage — the very humor that helped revamp the Thor movies with 2017’s Ragnarok — with him writing, directing, and acting in the Nazi Germany film. Murder-mystery Knives Out became an internet darling thanks to an impressible ensemble cast, starring Chris Evans’s cable-knit sweater. And the Elton John retrospective Rocketman felt like 2019’s response to 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which took residence last year’s Globe for Best Motion Picture in the Drama category.


Yet the HFPA couldn’t refuse the very Tarantino take on the Manson murders — or what the Manson murders could have been, if only Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth had been around — exactly 50 years right following the deadly events took place.


If he’s hoping to go out on a high note, this first major win of awards season would be a good sign for the director, who has stoked speculation that his ninth film just might be his last. For years, Tarantino has stuck to his plan to prepare 10 movies before retiring from the biz, yet ever since Hollywood’s release, he’s been feeling pretty satisfied with his contributions to the film industry. He’s even walked back on plans to work on a new Star Trek movie, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “In a unconventional way, it seems like this movie, Hollywood, could be my last. So, I’ve sort of taken the pressure off myself to create that last big voilà sort of statement. I mean to such a degree there was a moment any time Once I was writing and went, ‘Should I do this right now? Should I do something else? Is this the 10th one?’ No, no, don’t stop the planets from aligning, what are you, Galactus? If the Earth is saying do it, do it.”


Well, looks like he really did it.