Howard's not the only one who can reply to his own posts. Some more thoughts:

* Editing is always one of my favorite categories. If I could have any job in the world, I think film editor would be in my Top 5. I have this horrible sinking feeling that "Chicago" will win this category even though it has no right to do so. The one thing that really bugged me about "Chicago" was that there were all these great dance numbers that were really difficult to follow. Richard Gere's tapdance toward the end, in particular, is a great scene that is marred by the filmmakers ADD-inspired editing.

The weird thing is that "Moulin Rouge," a musical that is in no way similar to "Chicago" save some common visual styles, cut like CRAZY but worked. I think part of this is due to the origin of the two films: "Moulin Rouge" is first and foremost a movie musical. "Chicago" is an adaptation of a stage musical, where there is obviously no editing whatsoever. The musical sequences in "Moulin Rouge" were more about sounds and colors then they were dancing. I've seen the movie a hojillion times, and the only real impressive dance number I remember is the Roxanne Tango, where Luhrmann found *exactly* the right tempo to cut with. That was, frankly, amazing.

The problem with "Chicago" is that it's clear that choreographed dancing is part of the show. The number where Catherine Zeta-Jones is showing her moves off to Rene Zellweger sort of flops because I can't really tell how well Zeta-Jones is actually dancing. I watched "Singin' in the Rain" recently and one of the things that always strikes me is how infrequent the cuts are during the musical numbers. The camera pans a lot, to really let us see Kelly and company do their moves. It's not really impressive when we see a shot of legs for a second then a wide shot for fifty frames, then a closeup of a face, etc.

* I think I'd like to give "Far From Heaven" every single visual category. I fear most will be split between "Chicago" and "Gangs of New York."

* Absent from Best Original Song nominees: Randy Newman, Sting, Bruce Springstein, Phil Collins and Bob Dylan. Present: Eminem. This has to be a fluke. Bono will win for his usual song-that-sounds-like-every-other-U2-song-but-is-about-New-York because the Academy loves generic music.

Fortunately, John Williams got nominated for Original Score. A quick count at IMDB says it's his 41st nomination. "Catch Me if you Can" had a RULING score, though, so I can't say it was a bad decision.

* Cool to see "Bowling for Columbine" nominated for Documentary, but assuming the Academy's moronic documentary rules are still in effect, it won't win.

Stephen