Top Oscar category vs. ‘Dreamgirls’

LAST year “Brokeback Mountain” lost best picture while Ang Lee won as best director. This year, the best picture all around is “Dreamgirls,” and it doesn’t get a nomination for best picture [“Dream Machine Stalls,” by Greg Braxton and Rachel Abramowitz, Jan. 24]. Shame on the academy. They are so out of touch.

KARIN DICKER

Los Angeles

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HERE are a few thoughts on the reason for its Oscar snub: “Dreamgirls” is a rather bad film. The film’s main narrative is unmoving and predictable. The songs are unremarkable at best. Many have raved about Jennifer Hudson’s performance, but I thought it overwrought and one-dimensional. What is the Effie White character but a delusional, whiny, selfish drone?

PHILLIP RULAND

Laguna Beach

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I’M always amused by discussions of why a particular movie or a particular artist failed to receive a supposedly “deserved” Academy Award nomination. To support an argument that a movie or an artist was wrongly denied a nomination, you’d also have to be able to support an argument that one of the nominees was undeservedly recognized, which is almost never the case in the major categories.

Rather than asking “what went wrong,” maybe the simple explanation is the right one: Some years there are six (or more) worthy candidates for only five slots. Call it bad timing or the luck of the draw, but don’t attribute sinister motives or something going wrong if the five ultimate nominees are all worthy of recognition.

I much prefer a year with too many good candidates over one with too few.

LANCE DIERNBACK

Redondo Beach