..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

Leaning...

As the year draws to a close, various outlets spend the bulk of their time and copy dedicating themselves to sifting through the rubble of the film awards season. Everything gets chalked up as "this year's (insert film)," while numerous scenarios cloud the mixture as nothing more than extensions of either wishful thinking or gross conjecture.

We're all guilty.

If continued forecasting of the yearly film awards season has taught me anything, it is that the essence of manipulation is to distinguish scenarios that would not often compute. Given the time to sit back and really think about it, the outcome of this competitive race or that one will be seen, without fail, as a bust to someone. So what's the point?

For me, years become interesting case studies - intriguing time capsules. Much has already been written this year about the spike in politically inclined content pushing the confines of the envelope. This very column kicked off the season with one of, if not the first, of such pieces. From that distance, films like Jarhead, Munich and Syriana looked poised to be scathing, effective indictments that could settle into the position of political doctrine.

The receptions to Sam Mendes' Gulf War chronicle and Steven Spielberg's lecture on vengeance were respectively lukewarm. And while Stephen Gaghan's stand-point of "oil as the ultimate drug" has its valiant champions, can we really say the impact has been felt on the level of these films' potential? Or even of their own intentions?

There are films of a topical bent that seem to have continued to generate the reaction necessary to stand the season's ultimate test, however. George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck., for instance, looks to be spearheading this legion of cinematic activism, keeping a steady keel ever since release and plodding forward to a likely Best Picture nomination from the AMPAS. Major notices from the Broadcast Film Critics and the Hollywood Foreign Press Associations have given the film a firm shove into the #2 position behind Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain.

And that brings us to a whole other conversation.

While the political content of this year's film product is of importance - from Lord of War to The Constant Gardener, North Country to even Kingdom of Heaven - what becomes more staggering as kudos continue bestowment is the intensity of purely leftist sentiment. More specifically, 2005 has been a showcase year for GLBT-related content in film.

Four of the thespians nominated last week by the HFPA are portraying gay or transgender characters. The race for the Best Actor win at the Oscars is coming down to two of them.

In addition, Nathan Lane was nominated for Best Actor in The Producers, a gay actor reprising a roll he has grown to dominate on stage and now on screen.

And on the periphery, Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, which received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Director, has been heralded by some as one of the year's best, and it will likely continue to pop up here and there as top ten lists are revealed in the coming weeks.

All the while, Brokeback Mountain pushes forward as the undeniable favorite to win Best Picture, both at the Oscars and at the Golden Globes. The competition, as noted, is shaping up to be George Clooney's testament to a valiant liberal's stand against the politics of fear.

The scenarios that continue to unfold as possibilities as the Academy's announcement approaches still hold up such leftist characteristics. The Constant Gardener will have a difficult time translating its Golden Globe Best Picture nomination to one from AMPAS, I feel, but even without it, director Fernando Meirelles boasts all the potential in the world of securing a Best Director bid. And my opinion of Syriana aside, Stephen Gaghan could pull the same trick, nailing down that tough-to-predict "lone director" slot.

Also to consider in all of this is director Paul Haggis' Crash, in the words of actor Terrence Howard, "an attack against the social order of the United States." The film continues to perform exceptionally high in the precursor season, taking mentions on top tens and bringing in various nominations for actors (Matt Dillon) and writers Haggis and Robert Moresco alike. All things considered, Crash has every opportunity to break through into the Best Picture arena at the Oscars, even with the disappointing HFPA snub on its track record. It isn't going away, and for a modestly budgeted film that premiered over a year ago and released seven months ago, that is saying a lot.

So what has interested me this year has not been "the race." It has not been the excitement of predictions. And it has not been the continuous analysis that makes each passing week that much more peculiar in the overall spectrum of things. What has interested me this Oscar season has been the onslaught of liberal art under conservative regime.

Going into 2006, we're all set for the continued desensitizing of September 11, 2001, as two high-profile films from directors Oliver Stone (September) and Paul Greengrass (Flight 93) are poised to hit the screen. The time capsule is all but sealed. Armond White sees a white-washing of leftist ideals and stuffy well-to-do sentiment, and that is fine. What I've witnessed, however, has been one of the most aggressively activist years of filmmaking in a long, long time.

December 20, 2005

Previous Oscartown Columns
11.29.05 - Father Christmas
11.29.05 - Breakthrough Gents
11.22.05 - Money Talks
11.15.05 - Where Have All The Cowgirls Gone?
11.08.05 - Imitation of Life
11.01.05 - Suggestion Card
10.25.05 - Youthful Digression
10.18.05 - Nothing New, Nothing Old... A Whole Lot of Nothing
09.01.05 - A Brave New 'Wood?

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