The San Diego Film Critics made some bright interesting calls with their 2005 Awards. Capote‘s Bennett Miller as Best Director and Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Best Actor, The Upside of Anger‘s Joan Allen for Best Actress, Broken Flowers‘ Jeffrey Wright for Best Supporting Actor, The Constant Gardener‘s Rachel Weisz for Best Supporting Actress, Best Documentary Award to Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man and a Best Screenplay Award to Shane Black’s Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Thought- ful independent-minded choices, all…and then the group went and gave their Best Picture award to King Kong. C’mon! Even its admirers admit Kong is only about two-thirds of an eye-popping emotional ride because the first 70 minutes more or less suck. So what happened? Obviously forces within the San Diego Critics group forced a capitulation to commercialism. If I were a member, I would run an ad to apologize to the citizenry for the group’s decision and make it clear that Kong, good as it is for what it is, sure as shit wasn’t my choice, etc.