Like the cowboys in “Brokeback Mountain,” the Academy Awards are burdened by a history of missed opportunities. Instead of calling attention to timeless classics, the voters often pick movies that are trendy, popular, politically correct or perfectly timed.
In the early 1950s, when the Oscar voters had the opportunity to honor everyone’s favorite MGM musical, “Singin’ in the Rain,” they picked Cecil B. DeMille’s uninspired box-office leader, “The Greatest Show on Earth,” as the year's best picture.
“Singin’ in the Rain” wasn’t even nominated. Neither were such Hollywood landmarks as “The African Queen,” “Vertigo,” “Some Like It Hot,” the original “King Kong.” Yet the Academy has given their top prize to such rarely celebrated films as “Cavalcade” and “Cimarron.”
Will “Brokeback Mountain” turn out to be this year’s “Cimarron”? Or this year’s “Lawrence of Arabia”? It could be that, decades from now, “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” will be considered the better Western, or “Mysterious Skin” the more challenging gay film. Certainly “Brokeback” benefits from ideal timing and a shift in public attitudes, but it also seems like a remarkable achievement on several levels. Only time will tell.
Few surprises, curious omissions
The most surprising thing about the latest batch of Oscar nominations is how few surprises are in the running. Could anyone be shocked that “Brokeback,” “Capote” and “Good Night, and Good Luck” are the front-runners, as they were so recently at the Golden Globes?
The omissions, however, tell a different story. For instance:
“Kung Fu Hustle.” Last year’s most popular foreign-language film (it grossed $17 million in the United States) was also named the year’s best foreign film by the Boston Film Critics, but it isn’t eligible for the 2005 Oscar. Also left out are “Cache,” which the Los Angeles Film Critics named best foreign film; “2046,” which was the New York Film Critics’ choice for that category; and “Head On,” which was the National Society of Film Critics’ foreign pick. Only the Golden Globe/National Board of Review winner for best foreign film, “Paradise Now,” is in the running.
“Grizzly Man.” Several critics’ groups selected Werner Herzog’s unsettling back-to-scary-nature documentary as the year’s best non-fiction film, and he won a Directors Guild award for the picture, but it was eliminated early from the Oscar competition. Also deemed unworthy were such acclaimed films as “Why We Fight,” “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” and “Ballets Russes.” Still, the year’s most popular movie in the documentary category, “March of the Penguins” (which grossed $77 million in the U.S.), did make it into the Oscar finals. Also nominated is the timely “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.”
“The Dying Gaul.” Poor timing may have hurt the chances of Craig Lucas’ brilliantly acted show-biz drama, which deals with what usually happens to scripts like “Brokeback Mountain.” Peter Sarsgaard gives the performance of his young career as a gifted, much-sought-after screenwriter who is coerced into turning his gay characters into heterosexuals.
“Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont.” Joan Plowright, a British stage headliner who usually plays smaller roles in films (her only previous Oscar nomination was for best supporting actress in “Enchanted April”), finally gets a big movie role, as a widow so neglected that she recruits a stranger to impersonate a relative. Too bad the picture, which recently shared the top prize at the Palm Springs Film Festival, never had a chance; through an oversight, it missed the December deadline for submission to the Academy voters.
“Nine Lives.” This low-budget actors’ exercise plays like a collection of sketches; the experience mostly fails as satisfying drama. It’s like watching a series of audition tapes. There’s one exception: a haunting episode, heartbreakingly well-played by Jason Isaacs and especially Robin Wright Penn, in which two ex-lovers accidentally meet in a supermarket and run through a history of regrets.
“The Upside of Anger.” Early in the year, Joan Allen (a three-time nominee in the past) and Kevin Costner seemed like Oscar shoo-ins for their work in this offbeat comedy-drama about a middle-aged mother who loses her husband and gradually replaces him with a charmingly casual ex-baseball star. If the movie had been released in December, they might have had a chance.
“Lord of War.” My choice for the year’s most underrated American movie. Nicolas Cage plays a pragmatic arms dealer who takes merciless advantage of the proliferation of weapons at the end of the Cold War. New Zealand writer-director Andrew Niccol dares to let him narrate the tale of his own moral destruction.
“Mysterious Skin.” A film-festival prize winner that surfaced on several year-end 10-best lists, Gregg Araki’s tough drama about the consequences of child abuse never found a large audience. Although Araki is nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for best director (the awards will be announced March 4, one day before the Oscars), it’s doubtful that many Academy voters have seen it.
“Down to the Bone.” Another independent film that had minimal distribution, although it captured the Los Angeles Film Critics’ 2005 award for best actress. Vera Farmiga, playing a cocaine-addicted mother who falls in love with a reformed addict, has been praised for her avoidance of histrionics.
“The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.” Tommy Lee Jones directed himself in this moving Cannes Film Festival prize winner about a ranch hand who crosses the border to Mexico to bury his best friend. Barry Pepper is especially impressive as the sullen, trigger-happy lawman responsible for the killing.
“The Squid and the Whale.” Although it did score a nomination for best original screenplay, Noah Baumbach’s autobiographical tale of a messy divorce wouldn’t work without its perfect cast: Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney as the squabbling parents, Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline as their traumatized sons.
Other worthy also-rans: Ralph Fiennes in “The Constant Gardener,” Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson in “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio,” Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange and Tilda Swinton in “Broken Flowers,” Rachel McAdams in “Wedding Crashers,” Cillian Murphy in “Breakfast on Pluto,” Frank Langella in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” Connie Nielsen in “Brothers.” There just aren’t enough Oscar slots to accommodate them all.