The nominations are in

My version of the Superbowl will happen on Sunday, March 5, with the Oscar ceremonies, not yesterday (though it's apparently the best time to fly, as the plane was only half-full and I missed the entire game!). The nominations came out last Tuesday and this is the first time I’ve actually seen all five nominations by the time of the announcement, which include: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, Good Night and Good Luck, and Munich.

People often ask me what my reaction is to Oscars, who I think will win, what I would've nominated. However, before I get going, I think you should read the review I submitted for Brokeback Mountain. So, go ahead and I will catch you on the other side (remember that this looks longer b/c my font is bigger than yours:)

Grade: B
By this time, there are probably few, if any, that haven't heard of Brokeback Mountain as at least "that gay cowboy movie." Having won four Golden Globe awards, including Best Drama, it will most certainly earn an Oscar nomination and is anticipated to be the frontrunner for Best Picture.

The movie begins in the summer of 1962 with Heath Ledger's Ennis and Jake Gyllenhaal's Jack working as sheepherders up on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. They start a relationship, fall in love, but Ennis is adamant that they cannot live that lifestyle without serious repercussions, including the death. Consequently, they both go on to marry women, squire some offspring and rendezvous throughout the next 20 years for "fishing trips" back on Brokeback Mountain.

The story initially moves in a rather slow pace in that the first summer uses at least 30 minutes of screen time, where Ennis and Jack are silent, we watch them herd, then have one conversation, one glance at each other, and then they are suddenly having sex. Given that Ennis is presented as a hetero male, it was somewhat awkward to not explore into as to how he could (or even why) suddenly developed feelings for Jack, nor is their connection really that obvious.

The rest of the movie is fairly choppy in terms of trying to rush through each scene in order to progress the chronological time frame. Every time we see Ennis and Jack together, they have the exact same conversation – Jack thinks they can really be together; Ennis says they can't. From the previews, you see that Ennis' wife, played by Michelle Williams, figures out that the men aren't really fishing up on the mountain. But when she makes the discovery, you see her reaction and then the next scene abruptly jumps to three years later. She doesn't even confront Ennis until at least 10 years later when it's a moot issue between the two of them.

The Canadian scenery that substituted for Wyoming is breathtaking, and it is easily Gyllenhaal's and Williams' best role. Most of the critics have been singling out Heath Ledger for his portrayal of Ennis, though he basically grunts throughout most of the movie and is oftentimes difficult to understand, and his few emotional scenes are easily comparable to those in The Patriot or Monster's Ball. Does the fact a man is crying over another man make it a "better" scene than if it were for a woman that is also a fictional love interest? No, that's called acting. Ledger will secure his first Oscar nomination for this role, but the real race will be between Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Capote and Joaquin Phoenix for Walk the Line.

The movie was good but not great because of the way it was made, not because of any personal issues with the controversial subject matter. However, even with Brokeback, the romance and sex is fairly minimal, with much more "risk" in featuring a gay male relationship actually taken by the HBO series, Six Feet Under. I wonder if the same script and approach were applied to a heterosexual couple (like an interracial couple in the 60s in the south), would it have received the same reviews?

The problem with this year is that although I liked many of them, I'm not that sure that any would have stood a chance in a different year...say one that included previous winners like Schindler's List, Shakespeare in Love, Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, etc. According to the trade sites, Brokeback Mountain appears to be the shoo-in winner.

For this particular year, I thought Crash was actually much more controversial and daring with its "in your face" approach to racism across all colors and socioeconomic boundaries. Nowadays, I just don't think a movie about two gay men is all that ground-breaking and certainly not enough to ignore other basic elements, like a script. I was disappointed that Walk the Line and Pride & Prejudice weren't included.

Unfortunately, the Oscars are following along the same lines as our Congress in that whomever campaigns the most, whores themselves to the critics and Academy the most and makes the most public appearances seems to win; voting based on quality just doesn't seem to happen anymore.

If you were a member of the Academy, which movie would you have selected this year? Should successful audience favorites, like The 40-Year-Old Virgin be considered?