Final 2005 Wrap-Up

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.

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

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.

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

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