2006 Goaties: Best Musical Moment

Because I can't think of a single original song that I liked this year (I especially disliked the ones from Dreamgirls, which bogarted three of the five Oscar nominations), I've created a new category to replace it: Best Musical Moment. It honors the best, well, musical moment in a film: a scene that used music to a particularly impressive end, a great musical number, whatever. And this is the only category in which I'm going to allow myself a tie, and a three-way one at that.

First up is Chicago rapper Kanye West's entrance into Dave Chappelle's Block Party, to the tune of his song "Jesus Walks." It ordinarily opens with male voices chanting "bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp-BOMP-bomp," which was incidentally used to good effect in Jarhead. But instead of the chanting, we have the brass section of the Central State University marching band, pumping along behind West, who strides at the front of the band like a general. It's among the coolest things I saw or heard all year.

Also from Dave Chappelle's Block Party is moment #2, the surprise reunification of the Fugees. Even if you weren't a Fugees fan—I liked the songs I heard, but never looked further than that—the blast of energy from the crowd is both undeniable and catching: something important was happening, and even if I wasn't there, I was there.

Finally, but not last by any measure (this is a three-way tie, remember), is Jennifer Hudson's performance of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls, all the angry, anguished grief of a broken heart distilled into a four- or five-minute song. What can I say? I cried like a baby, and so did everyone else in the audience.

Posted by mike, January 30, 2007 12:46 AM