Trendy scores again with Oscar

Like the cowboys in “Brokeback Mountain,” the Academy Awards are burdened by a history of missed opportunities. Instead of calling attention to timeless classics, the voters often pick movies that are trendy, popular, politically correct or perfectly timed.

In the early 1950s, when the Oscar voters had the opportunity to honor everyone’s favorite MGM musical, “Singin’ in the Rain,” they picked Cecil B. DeMille’s uninspired box-office leader, “The Greatest Show on Earth,” as the year's best picture.

“Singin’ in the Rain” wasn’t even nominated. Neither were such Hollywood landmarks as “The African Queen,” “Vertigo,” “Some Like It Hot,” the original “King Kong.” Yet the Academy has given their top prize to such rarely celebrated films as “Cavalcade” and “Cimarron.”

Will “Brokeback Mountain” turn out to be this year’s “Cimarron”? Or this year’s “Lawrence of Arabia”? It could be that, decades from now, “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” will be considered the better Western, or “Mysterious Skin” the more challenging gay film. Certainly “Brokeback” benefits from ideal timing and a shift in public attitudes, but it also seems like a remarkable achievement on several levels. Only time will tell.

Few surprises, curious omissions
The most surprising thing about the latest batch of Oscar nominations is how few surprises are in the running. Could anyone be shocked that “Brokeback,” “Capote” and “Good Night, and Good Luck” are the front-runners, as they were so recently at the Golden Globes?

The omissions, however, tell a different story. For instance:

“Kung Fu Hustle.” Last year’s most popular foreign-language film (it grossed $17 million in the United States) was also named the year’s best foreign film by the Boston Film Critics, but it isn’t eligible for the 2005 Oscar. Also left out are “Cache,” which the Los Angeles Film Critics named best foreign film; “2046,” which was the New York Film Critics’ choice for that category; and “Head On,” which was the National Society of Film Critics’ foreign pick. Only the Golden Globe/National Board of Review winner for best foreign film, “Paradise Now,” is in the running.

“Grizzly Man.” Several critics’ groups selected Werner Herzog’s unsettling back-to-scary-nature documentary as the year’s best non-fiction film, and he won a Directors Guild award for the picture, but it was eliminated early from the Oscar competition. Also deemed unworthy were such acclaimed films as “Why We Fight,” “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” and “Ballets Russes.” Still, the year’s most popular movie in the documentary category, “March of the Penguins” (which grossed $77 million in the U.S.), did make it into the Oscar finals. Also nominated is the timely “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.”

“The

Lee: ‘Brokeback’ wasn’t meant as statement Oscar misfire: ‘Crash’ and burn Hollywood values out of touch, poll says ‘Crash’ rides Oscar tide back into theaters Those big stars just don’t get Jon Stewart

Dying Gaul.” Poor timing may have hurt the chances of Craig Lucas’ brilliantly acted show-biz drama, which deals with what usually happens to scripts like “Brokeback Mountain.” Peter Sarsgaard gives the performance of his young career as a gifted, much-sought-after screenwriter who is coerced into turning his gay characters into heterosexuals.

“Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont.” Joan Plowright, a British stage headliner who usually plays smaller roles in films (her only previous Oscar nomination was for best supporting actress in “Enchanted April”), finally gets a big movie role, as a widow so neglected that she recruits a stranger to impersonate a relative. Too bad the picture, which recently shared the top prize at the Palm Springs Film Festival, never had a chance; through an oversight, it missed the December deadline for submission to the Academy voters.

“Nine Lives.” This low-budget actors’ exercise plays like a collection of sketches; the experience mostly fails as satisfying drama. It’s like watching a series of audition tapes. There’s one exception: a haunting episode, heartbreakingly well-played by Jason Isaacs and especially Robin Wright Penn, in which two ex-lovers accidentally meet in a supermarket and run through a history of regrets.

“The Upside of Anger.” Early in the year, Joan Allen (a three-time nominee in the past) and Kevin Costner seemed like Oscar shoo-ins for their work in this offbeat comedy-drama about a middle-aged mother who loses her husband and gradually replaces him with a charmingly casual ex-baseball star. If the movie had been released in December, they might have had a chance.

“Lord of War.” My choice for the year’s most underrated American movie. Nicolas Cage plays a pragmatic arms dealer who takes merciless advantage of the proliferation of weapons at the end of the Cold War. New Zealand writer-director Andrew Niccol dares to let him narrate the tale of his own moral destruction.

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