FILM AWARD SEASON SHAPING UP AS A NIGHTMARE FOR BUSH AND THE FAR RIGHT

I don't go to many movies. If I see a really bad one-- and the vast majority of the crap that comes out of Hollywood are really bad ones-- it puts me off seeing movies again for months and months. In the last couple of years I've developed an uncanny knack for making sure I only see good ones. I mean now it seems like 95% of the movies I go see are excellent. And that's not because Hollywood is getting any better; they are still catering to a lowest common denominator that very much excludes me from virtually everything that is green-lighted from the major studios. I just finally figured out how to be more discerning in which critics I listen to and which of my friends have opinions that jibe with my own, etc.

And I doubt I've ever watched an Oscar Award tv show or any of that stuff. But today I happened to have heard an announcement of the Golden Globe nominees on CNN and then almost immediately afterwards, saw a story about the New York Film Critics Circle and their awards on AOL. And lo and behold-- both are jam-packed with the movies I liked this year!

I've been evangelizing for CRASH, THE CONSTANT GARDENER, BEFORE THE FALL, TRANSAMERICA, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK and CAPOTE ever since I saw them-- and even urging my friends to see the somewhat-- at least in my mind-- flawed SYRIANA. And, except for the obscure German film with subtitles, BEFORE THE FALL, all my picks are up for awards. Big whoop, right? Yes, except for two thing: the big winners were mostly independent films made with reasonable budgets and these are all message movies and the messages are pretty much all anti-fascist/anti-conformist.

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (the brilliant short story in the NEW YORKER by Annie Proulx on which it is faithfully based, can be read online with one little mouse click) is absolutely revolutionary, in as much as it is a powerful love story between two cowboys. It seems to be shaping up as the critics' favorite, a big shock for me since the critics and I rarely see eye to eye-- and this despite "concerns that its depiction of a love affair between two men may have trouble winning over audiences in more conservative parts of the country." In fact, I think it has only been released in NY, San Francisco and L.A, maybe Boston. (I doubt insecure men will take a chance and the narrow-minded types who have made the Falwells and Dobsons and Robertsons multimillions won't go see it, but I don't think there is anyone who will be offended or put off by it once they sit down and watch it.) The potential controversy didn't stop the New York Film Critics Circle from giving it the awards for best film, best director and best actor (Heath Ledger). And, it turns out it has already won best film from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association on Saturday, and it earned 8 nominations for the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday. On top of that, the National Board of Review's prize for directing went to Ang Lee. "A lot of people among critics are responding to it because it is so daring," said Gene Seymour, chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle. "It has all the sweep of what we have come to know as a major Hollywood romance, but it carries within it such a grand departure," he said.

I have a feeling that Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson and the rest of the far right Amen Choir are going to find BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN a lot more threatening than a purple dinosaur or SpongeBob. And we haven't even talked about the Golden Globe nominations for Cillian Murphy as a cross-dressing Irishman in BREAKFAST ON PLUTO (which I didn't see) and for Felicity Huffman as best dramatic actress in a film for her role as a man preparing for sex-change surgery in TRANSAMERICA!

And don't forget that THE CONSTANT GARDENER, NORTH COUNTRY, SYRIANA and GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK (not to mention BEFORE THE FALL) are all overtly political movies that brilliantly savage the right-wing agenda, as effectively-- if a bit more subtly-- as Michael Moore has done. They always say that the best art is done in times of repression and authoritariansim. I guess Bush is good for something.