The Academy Award Nominees were announced the other day (you can see the entire list here.

Best Picture:

* Brokeback Mountain

* Capote

* Crash

* Good Night, and Good Luck

* Munich

I've seen three of them (Crash; Munich, and Good Night, and Good Luck) Crash was pure crap. Nothing more needs to be said. Munich was typical Spielberg--crass, manipulative, and symbolically heavy-handed. The closing shot of that movie may be the most gratuitous moment in cinematic history. Good Night, and Good Luck was just a decent film. The screenplay was great, the performances were solid... but that was it. Clooney does absolutely nothing as a director, and the cinematographry (by the normally reliable Robert Elswit) is really lousy (though I do wish more movies would shoot in black-and-white).

After trashing those, I should say that if I were in "the Academy," I would have chosen either Gus Van Sant's Kurt Cobain biopic Last Days Werner Herzog's documentary Grizzly Man, or Hany Abu-Assad's Paradise Now

The general consensus is that Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain is a lock and, while I haven't seen it, based on its competition I'd have to say its chances are good. Any other thoughts?