Unquestionably the best film of the year? With films, it's all about opinion. I haven't seen "Brokeback Mountain," and though I definately intend to, and though I love Ang Lee as a director, I believe it to be near impossible for a film to be "unquestionably" superior to every other film that came out that year. Have you seen every film that came out this year, including all the foreign ones?
I also heard that, had "Brokeback" not been about a gay couple, it would have been viewed as a routine, formulaic and cliche romantic tragedy. To me, gay couples aren't anything new or edgy or dangerous. I like gay couples. I'm used to them. So to me there's no novelty in the concept, and it seems like one of the reasons why the film's garned to much attention is because much of this country is still uneasy in the area of male bi- and homosexuality. Not saying the film's not great--again, I haven't seen it, and I'm sure I'll love it when I do rent the DVD.
And I personally liked "Crash" quite a bit. Not my favorite film of the year (that honor belongs to "War of the Worlds" and "Kung Fu Hustle," regarldess of the former's terrible ending--everything but the last 2 minutes was absolutely incredible and exhilerating IMO), but I could definately see why it won, with its great performances, fantastic script, intense direction, tight editing, and the way it managed to have one extremely powerful sequence after another without being exhausting. I was very impressed by it. But then, I've seen racial tension constantly since starting school, so I could relate to it. Hell, since third grade people have accused me of being racist just because I'm white. So when I don't like a black guy, it has nothing to do with the color of his skin--it's because he acted like an as*hole. But of course the race card is played.
But you see what I'm saying? A lot of people disliked "Crash" because they couldn't relate to the issue of racism, and thought that it was all overdone and unrealistic, but meanwhile they totally love "Brokeback" because that's something they can relate to easier. What I'm saying is that they're both great films. And for the record, "Brokeback" did win Best Director. I love this because it's very rare for a film to win Best Director but not Best Picture, and Ang Lee is a fantastic director. I know I'm in the minority for loving "Hulk," but I consider it innovative, cool, and powerful. I also really liked "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." I thought that this decision was certainly more prudent than giving "Brokeback" Best Picture and Paul Haggis Best Director, because this is Paul Haggis's directional debut. Lee has much more of a positive director track record, and I firmly believe he deserved that nod.
So I didn't get too pissed off at the Oscars this year. I figure, it's all opinion anyway, and I write my own end of the year film awards so I could care less. Plus, the stuff I'm passionate about tends to be stuff like who wins Special Effects, that sort of thing. (I was so pissed when "Matrix Revolutions" wasn't even NOMINATED for Best Visual Effects in 2003--yes, the film's very flawed, but the effects are arguably better than those in "Return of the King," and on par at the very least.) I also have come to expect my opinion to be highly different, because the Oscars is usually just about politics anyway. I mean, there's a lot of really, really fine independant films--such as this year's "Me, You, And Everyone We Know" and "Mirrormask"--that didn't get nominated for a single thing.
I think the thing that pissed me off the most at any Oscar's, though, was when "Lost in Translation" got Best Original Screenplay. I know some people love the film (though nobody can tell me WHY for some reason--though I've already ranted about that in another thread), but the thing is, most of the film just wasn't scripted--the plot's nothing special (guy goes to Tokyo, guy is bored, guy meets girl, both guy and girl are bored, guy leaves Tokyo), there's almost no dialogue, there's nothing visually inventive, and the "characters" do very little to showcase "personalities." In essence, all the hallmarks of a great script are completely absent, just as all the hallmarks of a great film are completely absent in the finished product. I know I say it like a fact when it's really all about one's opinion, but nobody's been able to contradict what I say about the film or defend the film in a way I haven't contradicted...which kinda ticks me off, actually. (I have an obsession with understanding things, and this is something I just...can't...get.)
10 Feb 2006, 9:29 pm
and disgusted 
by the Academy's Best Picture snub of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, unquestionably the best picture of 2005 and the deserving winner, that I may never watch the Oscars again. Certainly I will never be able to take them seriously. By giving the award to the vastly inferior CRASH, the Academy has rendered itself irrelevant. 
