And the Oscar goes to....

I've now seen 3 of the 5 films nominated for Best Picture for 2005. Brokeback Mountain is reviewed elsewhere in this blog.

I saw Crash on Saturday, and what I learned from that film is this: Racism is heavy handed. Really it's a shame that a relatively well directed film, with some good performances, had to sink under the ham fistedness of it's message. Apparently everyone of every race is racist towards everyone else of different races. That's what I took away from it.

I saw Capote yesterday. It was about a four year period in Truman Capote's life where he's researching and writing his book In Cold Blood, about the murder of a family of four in Kansas. It was good, but upon initial viewing appeared overly ambiguous. It took some thinking about (and admittedly some reading of others' reviews) to get a better understanding of the film. In essence, it's a polar opposite of Crash. Where Crash was blatant to a fault, Capote is subtle, almost to a fault as well. Especially in his relationship with Perry Smith, one of the killers of the Clutter family. I know pretty much nothing about the real life Truman Capote, but Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers and excellent performance, which is not surprising. That appears to be the norm for him. And of course, now I ahve a new book to add to my list of things to read, and I think when I eventually get to read In Cold Blood, my appreciation of the film may deepen as well.

So, that's 3 out of the 5. Good Night, And Good Luck and Munich remain. Unless it comes to the Somerville theater, I may be out of luck with Good Night, And Good Luck. I don't think it'll be out on DVD before the Oscars in a few weeks. Munich, however is still playing, so maybe I can get to see it sometime this week.

But, out of the three I've seen so far, I'm still tossing my vote in with the gay cowboys of Brokeback Mountain.