Who knew that the 6,000-some voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would emerge as the collective voice of sanity in the run-up to the 79th Oscars?
I'd begun to fear that this would be one of those Academy years bearing scant resemblance to the one I'd spent at the movies. The films I most esteemed had been getting the cold shoulder. Clint Eastwood's brave, complex, even radical "Flags of Our Fathers," although garnering mostly respectful reviews, had been counted out as a decisive box-office failure in the shadow of an increasingly unpopular war. As for the late Robert Altman's "A Prairie Home Companion," Hollywood sentimentality rarely extends to posthumous Oscars.
Especially depressing were the nominations for the Directors Guild Awards, usually a highly predictive slate. Only two candidates - Martin Scorsese for "The Departed" and Stephen Frears, "The Queen" - deserved to be in the running. There were no slots for such strong directorial talents as Altman, Guillermo del Toro (for the dazzlingly original "Pan's Labyrinth"), Alfonso Cuarón (the hyperkinetic "Children of Men"), Paul Greengrass (New York Film Critics and National Society of Film Critics winner for "United 93") or Eastwood, who by then had checked in with a "Flags" companion piece, "Letters from Iwo Jima."
Those who did make the DGA list instead included a very talented director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, who had turned in a seriously disappointing film, "Babel"; a neophyte team - Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, of the entertaining but lightweight "Little Miss Sunshine" - who weren't ready for prime time yet; and Bill Condon, the writer-director behind "Dreamgirls," a movie I hadn't seen at that point.
A week or so before the nominations I did finally catch up with "Dreamgirls," which appeared to be edging "Babel" as front-runner for best picture. Musicals are not my genre, I freely admit, and Bill Condon had written the screenplay for the second-worst "best picture" ever, "Chicago" (though I prefer to attribute the egregiousness of that picture to director Rob Marshall; Condon's previous outings as a writer-director, "Gods and Monsters" and "Kinsey," were decent movies and then some).
I enjoyed "Dreamgirls" more than I had been expecting, for a half-hour. The well-worn premise of a trio of game gals rising from amateur status by singing their hearts out is hard to resist; Motown surely warrants a decent movie made about it; and Eddie Murphy and "American Idol" champion Jennifer Hudson were just as splendid as everyone had said they were. But then the movie went off the cliff, with facile civil-rights-era references, rhythm-less camerawork and editing, and storytelling so perfunctory that it seemed less a film than memos from a story conference. The latter three-quarters of "Dreamgirls" scarcely attempts any real development of interaction, character, drama.
And this was the front-runner for the Oscar?
Well, actually, no. As the nominations in the top categories were announced two Tuesdays ago, it took me a while to register that ... "Dreamgirls" ... wasn't ... getting any. Yes, Hudson and Murphy are up for awards in the supporting categories, and yes, that's as it should be. Yes, "Dreamgirls" boasts eight nominations, more than any other film - but three of them are in the song category (all indistinguishable from one another, like the tunes in "Phantom of the Opera"). But there were no nods to Jamie Foxx and Beyoncé Knowles in the lead-acting division, no nominations for Condon as screenwriter or director. And as every Oscar headline would proclaim for the rest of the day and week, none for the film itself as best picture.
The front-runner for the Oscar didn't get nominated.
Meanwhile, in from the cold came Clint Eastwood as a best-director candidate and "Letters from Iwo Jima" for picture and screenplay. Although "Little Miss Sunshine" - this year's anointed sleeper hit, "the little movie that could" - got plenty of Academy love, its directors were not put forward as coequals of anybody who did get nominated. And with only one exception, none of the putative five best pictures has a performer in contention for lead-acting honors.
In short, on Oscar night next month, there can't be a sweep. And in most cases, regardless of personal favorites that might have been omitted, the nominees are almost all worthy candidates, so it will be hard to work up outrage over the final outcomes.
Let's carve the bird:
Best Picture: I've characterized "Babel" as the "Crash" of 2006, and "Crash" itself beat four better movies to take the 2005 trophy. "Babel"'s thin, coincidence-driven approximation of How We Are Connected Without Being Able To Understand One Another surely sets the tone for a fatuous acceptance speech. My pick for best pic would be "Letters from Iwo Jima" even though I think the unnominated "Flags of Our Fathers" is the more impressive achievement. "The Departed" seems a mite hand-me-down - as reworking of a Hong Kong trilogy and retread of higher Scorsese achievements - to seal the deal as best picture, and "Little Miss Sunshine" is outclassed. But it may be that, for all-around excellence, solid characterizations and craftsmanship, "The Queen" will rule.
Best Director: Has to be Martin Scorsese for "The Departed." Over nearly two-and-a-half hours the movie never lets down for a nanosecond, and that should count, yes? More determinatively, this is the time to make Scorsese at long last the winner so many people have wanted him to be. Clint Eastwood deserves it even more, but he has two directing Oscars already. Stephen Frears, with his very uneven filmography, did a beautiful job this time on "The Queen." Likewise Paul Greengrass, who avoided every temptation to easy, manipulative effects on "United 93." But for "Babel"'s Alejandro González Iñárritu, it's the wrong occasion.
Best Actor in a Leading Role: "Departed" costar Leonardo Di Caprio is nominated but, in one of those sideways moves Oscar sometimes teases us with, for his work in another picture, "Blood Diamond"; it's good work even if the movie - a cliché-ridden indictment of the international diamond trade - is not. Sorry, I haven't seen Will Smith in "The Pursuit of Happyness." Ryan Gosling is superb in "Half Nelson," but almost certainly it's gonna be either Forest Whitaker for his world-straddling Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland" or Peter O'Toole for his twinkling twilight triumph as an aged actor gone gaga over a teenager in "Venus." I'm hoping to hear them call out Peter O'Toole, but Whitaker hasn't lost any contest yet. But why, oh why, no Sacha Baron Cohen for "Borat!"
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Anyone other than Helen Mirren as/in "The Queen" will be a royal scandal. My second choice would be Kate Winslet in "Little Children." Meryl Streep is deliciously funny in "The Devil Wears Prada." Judi Dench is also fun as a character-you-love-to-hate in "Notes on a Scandal," and Penélope Cruz is good in a rare good role, in "Volver." (More deserving than some of these, and unnominated: Maggie Gyllenhaal as "Sherrybaby.")
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Mark Wahlberg, as the righteous, raging state cop in "The Departed," was the only member nominated out of an incandescent cast (over Oscar fave Jack Nicholson, yet). Jackie Earle Haley, as the sympathetic yet freaky accused child molester of "Little Children," has comeback magic in his corner. It's probably going to be Eddie Murphy for "Dreamgirls," savoring a rare moment of respectability. But don't count out Alan Arkin, the foxy grandpa of "Little Miss Sunshine." Do, I hope, count out "Blood Diamond"'s Djimon Hounsou, whose nobility number is getting old. (Sadly omitted: Leslie Phillips as O'Toole's pal in "Venus"; Adam Beach as Ira Hayes, "Flags of Our Fathers.")
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: No power on earth can keep this award from Jennifer Hudson in "Dreamgirls" and, OK, none should. Also nominated: Adriana Barraza, "Babel"; Cate Blanchett, "Notes on a Scandal"; little Abigail Breslin, "Little Miss Sunshine"; and Rinko Kikuchi, "Babel." (My top vote in this category would go to Vera Farmiga, "The Departed"; unnominated.)
Best Screenplay, Original: Apart from Helen Mirren, the other surefire award for "The Queen" would seem to be Peter Morgan's for a meticulous screenplay that charts a very complicated story spread and involves a host of finely shaded characterizations. The screenplay of "Letters from Iwo Jima," by newcomer Iris Yamashita, strikes me as the weakest element of that film. Also nominated are Guillermo del Toro, whose achievement in "Pan's Labyrinth" is more a matter of visionary direction than writing; Guillermo Arriaga, a very clever fellow who with "Babel" fatally pushes form into formula; and Michael Arndt for the likable "Little Miss Sunshine." (Most glaring omission: Hanif Kureishi for "Venus.")
Best Screenplay, Adaptation: William Monahan's dialogue for "The Departed" is exhilaratingly fierce and funny. To categorize the largely improvised "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" as having a screenplay at all seems like a stretch, but it's one hilarious movie. Also nominated: "Little Children" (my number-two vote here), "Children of Men" and "Notes on a Scandal."
We'll know all the answers after Feb. 25, starting at 5 p.m. on Channel 4.
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