Final 2005 Wrap-Up
By Cary Wong
Now that the Oscar nominees have been announced and the year in movies
is about to conclude, I figured I would do one last look back at 2005.
Oscar thoughts
Nominated Composers: three foreign borns (previous nominations
- combined: 0) and 2 John Williams (previous nominations of Mr. Williams:
31)
Thomas Newman breaks his three year nomination streak by not getting
nominated for Cinderella Man, his best score in, well, three years
Costume or lack thereof nomination: Mrs. Henderson Presents
How do we show a clip of his role without giving away the end? William
Hurt -- A History of Violence
New rules, two fewer nominees: Best Song category is revamped
in the way a song is nominated, and a pimp, a transgendered person and
Los Angeles racists win. Losers: New York Producers, gay cowboys and a
corpse bride
Final Film Score thoughts:
Top Ten Scores
1. Cinderella Man
2. Brokeback Mountain
3. Memoirs of a Geisha
4. Capote
5. King Kong
6. A History of Violence
7. Pride and Prejudice
8. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
9. The New World
10. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
Composers of the Year: The two Williams: John Williams and Harry
Gregson-Williams
The most excellent example of no music in a scene: The opening
of A History of Violence
A score would have been better: A score would have been much
more effective than the jazz songs in "Good Night, and Good Luck. "
A composer's good score overshadowed by his better one: Gustavo
Santaolalla's fine "North Country" lost in the shuffle of "Brokeback Mountain."
The best use of a source cue: Wagner's Overture to "Das Rheingold"
-- "The New World"
Best Big Comeback: Patrick Doyle -- "Harry Potter and the Goblet
of Fire"
Music fails him: Cameron Crowe's overuse of rock songs to signal
a mood that worked so well in "Almost Famous" and "Singles" is just lazy
in "Elizabethtown." He should have used more of his wife's excellent score.
Best stars doing their own singing: Joaquin Phoenix and Reese
Witherspoon -- "Walk the Line" and Maggie Gyllenhaal -- "Happy Endings"
Favorite cue of the year: "Cinderella Man" -- "Cinderella Man"
Best song: "Travelin' Thru" from "Transamerica" by Dolly Parton
Best score from a composer who broke out of a genre rut: John
Frizzell - "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio"
Best score from a composer who is still in a genre rut: Danny
Elfman -- "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
Milestone of the Year: John Williams's completion of an almost
30 year journey of film music for the 6 Star Wars movies.
To add insult to injury: Howard Shore's score to "King Kong"
is dumped and yet Shore is still in the movie as a conductor...of James
Newton Howard's score.
Final Movie thoughts
Top Ten Movies
1. Brokeback Mountain
2. Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit
3. The New World
4. Junebug
5. Cinderella Man
6. A History of Violence
7. Pride & Prejudice
8. 2046
9. Good Night, and Good Luck
10. Walk the Line
Best performances of the year: Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal
in "Brokeback Mountain," Amy Adams in "Junebug," Michelle Yeoh in "Memoirs
of a Geisha," Russell Crowe in "Cinderella Man"
Best Performance you'll never see: Damien Lewis -- "Keane"
Head scratchers that still intrigued me: "Tropical Malady," "2046"
Overrated movie: "Crash" -- cardboard characters who expound
the writer's agenda more than out of character development. Runner-up:
"Syriana" -- same reason as above
The "You Complete Me" memorable movie quote of 2005: Brokeback
Mountain -- "I wish I knew how to quit you" although I prefer "If you
can't change it, Jack, you gotta stand it"
Best Dialogue: "Me and You and Everyone We Know" (taken from
imdb):
Christine: [seeing his bandaged hand] Whoa, what happened?
Richard: You want the short version or the long one?
Christine: The long one.
Richard: I tried to save my life but it didn't work.
Christine: Wow. What's the short one?
Richard: I burned it.
Bad dialogue in a good movie: Michael Caine's explanation of
the term "camel toe" to Nicholas Cage in "The Weather Man"
Bad dialogue in a bad movie: Anything Robin Williams says in
"House of D" and anything Kirsten Dunst says in "Elizabethtown."
Best remake: "Crimes and Misdemeanorsî becomes "Match Point"
Worst remake: "The Producers" becomes "The Producers" with more
songs but fewer laughs
Best recreation of a historical event: "Good Night, and Good
Luck."
A snarky one-line description of one of the worst movies of the year:
"It's Brokeback Mountain meets Weekend at Bernie's" - The
Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Is that a sexual pun in your names or are you happy to see me?
Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist (also dubbed Jack Nasty) of "Brokeback Mountain"
Can the lone clapper cliché please be shot? Woody Harrelson
in "North Country"
Best Newcomer: Jason Ritter -- "Happy Endings," Amy Adams --
"Junebug," Miranda July -- "Me and You and Everyone We Know"
Best Movie Moment:
1. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN - Ennis hugs a sleeping and standing Jack in a
flashback to a simpler life
2. WALK THE LINE - June Carter meets a disapproving fan in a store
3. WALLACE AND GROMIT - The bunnies gets sucked into the Bun-Vac
4. MUNICH - Avner hears his daughter's voice on the phone
5. THE UPSIDE OF ANGER -- The muscles in Terry's neck in the scene
when she walks into her daughter's room
For the list of complete Oscar nominations, go to yesterday's
column.
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