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

The Close Races As The Race Closes

One more column before the Oscars come and go and the only thing I can think of that is worthy of discussion this late in the game is the close races.

One of the first categories of the night will answer a heated question right off the bat. Will the Academy see fit to honor George Clooney for his magnificent year with a Best Supporting Actor trophy for Syriana, or will they be overwhelmed with the desire to make up for two snubs in a row and give the award to Paul Giamatti for Cinderella Man?

The excitement of this two-horse-race actually forces things into a third perspective, with Matt Dillon being the dark horse spoiler. Should those two performances and the separate needs to award Clooney and Giamatti split, Dillon could carry the torch for his ensemble all the way to a surprise win.

My bet is in line with the consensus, as I expect George Clooney to triumph after a year's worth of hard work. Giamatti will be here again some day. And Dillon may be one of those actors that gets his years down the pike, like, say, Paul Newman.

The music categories this year are also making for gripping drama. John Williams has pretty much dominated the precursor scene with his score for Memoirs of a Geisha, however his work on Munich has not been in direct competition in races like the Golden Globes, the BAFTA Awards or the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards.

The leading theory behind many predictions for Gustavo Santaolalla's work on Brokeback Mountain seems to be that Williams will split his votes. Such a scenario is certainly possible, though Williams has won amidst two nominations in the past (1977's Star Wars win with a nod for Close Encounters of the Third Kind to boot).

Meanwhile the original song category is a heated three-way competition amongst three nominees, it seems. The Best Picture nominee that crosses over is Crash, with Kathleen "Bird" York's "In the Deep" being the favorite to win. York also recently performed the song at the American Cinema Editors awards with over 1,100 voters in attendance. Not bad publicity.

However, Dolly Parton was nominated in this category 25 years ago for the title track to Nine To Five and lost. She finds herself in the hunt again this year with an up-beat country track, "Travelin' Thru," traditional enough to easily take such an award.

All the while, the most talked about song of the lot would have to be "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp," set to be performed by Three 6 Mafia and Taraji P. Henson at the Oscars. The campaign behind the film has been making the group widely available for interviews ever since the nominations, and they've already got the distinction of being the first hip-hop group to perform at an Academy Awards ceremony.

Anything can happen in this category.

The sound categories have also become something of a race. Walk the Line won the Cinema Audio Society award Saturday night, an award that hasn't matched Oscar in four years. Meanwhile, the only musicals to win Best Sound in the past five years were also Best Picture nominees, unless you count Clint Eastwood's Bird in the "musical" category.

The direct competition for the award would be King Kong, which could easily dominate the sound and visual effects categories like a similar progressive predecessor, Jurassic Park. Though some might say sci-fi/fantasy/blockbuster support from War of the Worlds could eat into King Kong's contingent.

But at this point, it seems stats can be stacked in favor of any theory, especially in a year that has tossed history to the curb and dictated to awards watchers, young and old, "Enjoy the ride!"

What do I hope to see? I hope to see something truly surprising, like Philip Seymour Hoffman missing his "sure thing" Best Actor award in favor of a shocking Terrence Howard victory. Otherwise, if Hoffman indeed makes good on his frontrunner status, I want to see him hold up his end of that bet with his childhood mates from years ago and bark his acceptance speech.

I hope Three 6 Mafia's performance is as iconic as it deserves to be. Eminem missed a real opportunity three years ago to break major ground and perform his Oscar winning song "Lose Yourself." Three humble artists from Memphis, out of the heated spotlight for much of their careers, get the distinction, and maybe it's for the best.

I hope Tim Burton enjoys the ride of his first Oscar nomination, though I'm sure he could care less. I also hope he sees many more in the future, and if a further wish could be granted, I hope he surprises and takes the win for Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, a burst of creativity that is truly unique amongst his fellow nominees.

I hope host Jon Stewart makes the whole sluggish affair worth watching. The year has dragged on long enough, and at the end of the day, a good host can make it all go down smooth.

More than anything, I hope next year's Oscar season is more exciting than this one. We haven't really witnessed a film dominate the precursors in the fashion of Brokeback Mountain since Schindler's List, though I suppose we're due one of those every ten years or so. The injection of excitement at the end of this season has come in the form of a last minute surge for Crash, widely reported by an obviously race-starved media. But we all know it's too little too late…don't we?

Regardless of all else, enjoy the show.

February 28, 2006

Previous Oscartown Columns
02.07.06 - Endurance
02.07.06 - A Civil Year
01.31.06 - Veni, Vidi, Vhatever
01.24.06 - For Your Consideration
01.17.06 - Acquiescence
01.10.06 - What A Difference A Day Makes
01.03.06 - Head First
12.27.05 - Access
12.20.05 - Leaning
12.13.05 - Father Christmas
12.06.05 - National Boring Review
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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