The nominations for Best Picture:
- Brokeback Mountain
- Capote
- Crash
- Good Night, Good Luck
- Munich
In 2006, apparently “Best Picture” has been redefined to include films which had some good points, but were otherwise self-indulgent, meandering, predictable, or otherwise just plain bad.
As good as Phillip Seymour Hoffman was, he wasn’t enough to make Capote into a really strong film. It was a character piece, and a very good one, but not a great film. (Meanwhile: Catherine Keener for a Supporting Actress? I love her, but come on; she was on screen for about 20 minutes, and had about two scenes that mattered.)
Crash: Let’s talk about race for two and a half hours. You know what Black people are like. And Hispanics and Asians, they’re just wacky. Isn’t it funny how we’re all racist, whether we know it or not, and it affects every single thing we say and do? Magnolia is one of my favourite films of all time, but between this and Love Actually, it’s got a lot to answer for.
Munich: What happened to Steven Spielberg? The man with the perfect eye for action obviously did some work on this film, but he seems to have been kidnapped during production and replaced by his low-cost Mexican equivalent who is utterly incapable of ending a movie properly.
Lastly: Hollywood just doesn’t deserve Naomi Watts.