A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

ANOTHER EXCUSE FOR SCREWING MARTY SCORSESE: After seeing Dreamgirls this evening (and, yeah, wow, though I have concerns about the longevity of Hudson's career after this), a thought came to mind--as of now it's widely presumed that our five Best Picture nominees at the upcoming Oscars will come from the following group (with the first four being viewed as almost certain locks to appear on the list):

• The Departed
• Little Miss Sunshine
• Dreamgirls
• The Queen
• Letters From Iwo Jima
• Babel

(There's an outside chance a wild card like United 93, Pan's Labyrinth, or Little Children could sneak in, but that seems fairly unlikely.)

Isn't this an unusual year in that three of the presumed contenders aren't really "about" anything from a "larger issue" perspective? Sure, you can argue that Departed and LMS are both about "the seedy underbelly of the American Dream" (albeit in very different ways), and Dreamgirls can be construed as being about race in the music/entertainment industry and the manipulation of entertainers, but that seems a stretch. It's a fascinating contrast to last year, when four of the five nominees were clearly "about an issue." (Crash=racism in America, Brokeback Mountain=homosexuality in America, Good Night and Good Luck=the media in America and the free press, Munich=the relationship between vengeance and justice in the terrorism context.)