Yes, my friends, the action starts right here, right now, right after the jump.

New comments will go above older remarks, so if you’re reading this later and want to start at the beginning, you’ll scroll down to the end. Got that? Good. Let’s hope for an interesting night and don’t forget to keep refreshing — the page and yourself with the commestibles of your choice.

9:30 — A few quick final thoughts. All in all, I have to praise producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman for a swift and entertaining production, traditionalist though I am and even though I still feel the Academy badly shortchanged tonight’s lifetime honorees. The hosting team of Baldwin and Martin did a fine job, though I’ve seen both men individually be even funnier, but these guys clearly know their shtick.

Also, though I admire “The Hurt Locker” a lot more than I actually like it, I think it says something very positive about Hollywood’s respect for craftmanship and serious intent that a film that didn’t even come close to setting the box office on fire can win best picture and, I’m sure, get a whole new life as a result. Awards like the Oscars might be inherently silly in that comparing films is invariably like putting apples and oranges up against avocados and hamburgers, but occasionally they can also fulfill a function. And I say that even though I personally would have voted for “Inglourious Basterds” in a heartbeat over any of the other films. (“Up in the Air,” which I finally caught up with last night, would be a strong second.)

Well, time to wrap up, but they’ll more here on the awards later on tomorrow. Stay tuned…

9:21 — Tom Hanks has apparently been told to cut to the chase and eschews listing all ten nominated films for simply saying the winner’s name, which I have to say kind of hampers the drama. Anyhow, the prognosticators turn out to be right. Ten nominees or not, “The Hurt Locker” still won the way it probably would have had there only been five nominees. The film’s three main actors run up on stage and act kind of the way their characters did in the film would if they had won something, as Mark Boal and the producer who isn’t Nicolas Chartier thanks Nicolas Chartier, along with many others. Again, Kathryn Bigelow seems genuinely overwhelmed and takes the time to thank all sorts of military heroes.

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin end with more funny shtick in which Martin praises Baldwin and Baldwin does not.

9:20 — Barbara Streisand, mentioning that tonight might be the night the first woman or the first African-American wins. Not at all surprisingly, it’s the first woman’s turns and Kathryn Bigelow wins for “The Hurt Locker.” She seems genuinely thrilled and intimidated, thanking writer Mark Boal, the cast and notes that the secret to directing is collaborating. She thanks lots of other people (including banished producer Nick Chartier) as well as soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. “May they come home safe.” The band plays “I am Woman.” (Would they have played “(Say it Loud) I’m Black and I’m Proud” if Lee Daniels had won?)

9:10 — Another group testimonial for Best Actress. Forest Whitaker talks about directing Sandra Bullock for “Hope Floats”; Michael Sheen discusses working with the great Helen Mirren on “The Queen” — “Is it wrong to be so wildly attracted to a queen…Royalty with a tattoo”; a shaven-headed Peter Saarsgard talks about Carey Mulligan falling in love with him twice (on stage and in “An Education”) and praises her work to the sky; executive producer Oprah Winfrey talks about Gabourey Sidebe getting the title role in “Precious,” “a true American Cinderella on the threshold of a brilliant new career…congratulations Gabby Sidebe”; and Stanley Tucci, who really does enjoy a lovely chemistry with Meryl Streep onscreen — the camera misses a joke about his two films with her being “the highlight of my career” but he then jokes about capping the number of nominations at 16 while seeming to like her quite a bit.

Sean Penn presents the award, alluding interestingly to his non-membership in the Academy, to Sandra Bullock for “The Blind Side” who does a funny bit of actor-joke business with Meryl Streep. “Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?” She humorously and graciously praises all her competitors in various ways, including Streep and her kissing abilities. She ends by thanking “the moms that take care of the babies and the children, no matter where they come” which she says is the theme of the film, and then tearfully thanks her own mom for not letting her ride in cars with boys (she apparently was ready to engage in a parental worst case scenario had she).

8:55 — An all star cast assembles to present pre-award testimonials the best actor award — Michelle Pfeiffer about Jeff Bridges drawing capillaries on his face while making “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” Vera Fermiga about George Clooney (as she talks about his concern with making sure his costars do as well or better than he does, he seems genuinely touched); Julianne Moore talks about working for only three days on “A Single Man,” though her scenes are in many respects central to the film; Tim Robbins kids about becoming the friend of Morgan Freeman on “The Shawshank Redemption”: “Being a friend is about getting the other a cup of coffee, can you do that for me, Ted? It is ‘Ted,’ isn’t it?”; finally, Colin Farrell talks about, apparently sleeping, literally, with Jeremy Renner on “SWAT” and seems genuinely impressed with his great work on “The Hurt Locker.”

I think using people who actually worked together beats the somewhat random selection of actors last year.

Kate Winslet actually presents the award to, of course, Jeff Bridges, who is certainly pleased if not hugely surprised. “Thank you mom and dad for turning me on to such a groovy profession.” He talks about being trained by his dad for a role in “Sea Hunt” and thanks his director on “Crazy Heart” and as many of his coworkers as they’ll allow him (and they seem to be allowing him a lot). He really does say “man” a fair amount.

8:40: More time wonkyness caused by a phone call I kind of had to take. Two of cinema’s most talented bad boys, Pedro Almodovar and Quentin Tarantino present the Best Foreign Language award.  The winner is one of the less hyped films, “The Secret in Their Eyes” from Argentina. The producer thanks the Academy for not considering Na’vi a foreign language. Good to know they have “development hell” in Latin America also.

8:30 — Gerard Butler and Bradley Cooper present the best visual effects award to “Avatar.” Not a surprise and, considering the advances in motion capture and 3-D, it’s kind of a given — though I’m sure techies might want to school me on that point somewhat in case I’m over-simpliflying it any case. One of the award winners (sorry, didn’t catch his name) notes that: “The world that we live in is just as amazing as the one we created for you.”

Nice head-bobbing to the “Sherlock Holmes” music by George Clooney. His hair is getting younger, even if no man can achieve that.

Matt Damon presents the Best Documentary Feature award. It’s nice to see these films get a nice amount of publicity with some good and lengthy montages. “The Cove” wins. Not a big surprise — except that this can be a wonky category at times that likes to honor less well known films, but not this year.

Tyler Perry: “They just said my name at the Oscars. I should enjoy it because it’ll probably never happen again.” He presents the editing award to “The Hurt Locker,” another “technical “award that tends to go to the film people like the most.

8:00 — James Taylor sings John Lennon’s  “In My Life” over the annual “in memoriam” montage. Makes up a little bit for the lack of “Best Song” musical numbers otherwise and, as always, it’s stunning the amount of great talent we lose every year. This year it ends with Karl Malden who passed on at 97 this year and was pretty widely beloved in “this town.”

That’s followed by a dance number set to this year’s nominated scores. Not to put down the obvious talent and acrobatic talent of these folks, but quasi-breakdancing to the music from “Sherlock Holmes” and “The Hurt Locker”? Things improve a lot with the music from “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and the lovely score from “Up” by Michael Giacchino. The “Avatar” music works nicely with the spectacular dancing and the audience seems pleased.

The award for best score goes to Michael Giacchino. Well deserved and very nice words to young people about the importance of creativity.

7: 40 — Elizabeth Banks helps the Oscars give short shrift to the “sci/tech” awards.

Quentin Tarantino seems pleased with the “Inglourious Basterds” montage. I think he’s made peace with the likelihood that Christoph Waltz will be getting the film’s only award tonight. When you make films that are the opposite of Oscar bait, you can’t complain too much about not getting Oscars, no matter how deserved they might be.

Sandra Bullock is funny explaining that the first job of cinematographers is making stars like her look pretty. (I like hearing her say “mishegas.”) It goes to Mauro Fiore of “Avatar.” Again, this is an award as much for the fact that people liked the movie as it is for Fiore’s good work. He’s also probably getting credit for the 3-D and motion capture work.

7:37: What’s that thumping behind Baldwin & Martin? It turns out to be appropriate as they are following it with a parody of “Paranormal Activity” to set up the coming horror film tribute.

Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner present the horror montage. Not exactly Karloff and Lugosi. Also, some shmoe of a writer says that no horror film has won an Oscar since “The Exorcist” to which I say, “What was ‘Silence of the Lambs’? Musical comedy?” Horror-loving film blogger Dennis Cozzalio will be delighted happy to see Chucky of “Child’s Play” represented, but having a clip from “Leprechaun” in there might be going a bit far. On the other hand I love hearing the music from “Young Frankenstein” alongside the iconic music from  “Psycho.” On the other hand, “Marathon Man” and “Edward Scissorhands” are not really horror films at all. They also show the alien-from-John Hurt”s-chest gag from “Alien” in all it’s bloody gory. What is this, the Scream awards?

Morgan Freeman explains the awards for Sound Editing and Mixing for people who never went to film school or made a film. There are some of you out there, right. Lautner and Stewart present the awards for both categories to  “The Hurt Locker.” Movies with a certain amount of effects work tend to get nominated and the movie which people generally like the best of those tends to win it. If you marked “Hurt Locker” on your Oscar pool, things are seriously looking up.

7:15: Sigourney Weaver presents the  production design/set decoration award. (Have they always been combined like this?) “Avatar” wins and she seems a bit excited about it. People who don’t realize the importance of this category should take a page from Ms. Weaver. She can’t do what she does if they don’t do what they do. An emotional moment from one of the designers who discusses an old illness. Lots of compliments to producer Jon Landau and, of course, James Cameron.

Clothes designer turned director Tom Ford of the excellent “A Single Man” and Sarah Jessica Parker present best costume design to the expected winner, “The Young Victoria.” Probably somewhat wrongly, this category always seems to go to period pictures and the two-time award winner, Sandy Powell, graciously acknowledges designers on other kinds of films. Classy move.

7:10: Robin Williams presents the Best Supporting Actress to, of course, Mo’Nique, for “Precious.” I can’t say she was as good as her opposite number, Christoph Waltz, in being a fait accompli award winner in a highly villainous supporting role, but she certainly brought the fire to her work and I can’t argue with it. She also brings the fire to her acceptance speech. She makes her point.

7:04: If you’re noticing that my times are slightly wonky, it’s the miracle of the DVR at work without which this would be a lot harder. Rachel McAdams and the hard to spell Jake Gyllenhaal present the award for best adapted screenplay to Geoffrey Fletcher for “Precious.” He won an Indie Spirit award yesterday for best first screenplay. Having seen the film just yesterday, I can’t agree with this award, especially considering how great “In the Loop” and “Up in the Air” are in terms of their writing, but I understand the feelings behiind it. Very emotional speech.

Montage of Governor’s award honorees to Roger Corman, Gordon Willis, and Lauren Bacall. Sorry, but these people all absolutely deserved to get their award live and have their own lenghty montages, rather than just waving from the audience. They are all true motion picture greats and, as gracious as  they are being, deserve more.

6:50: Similarly heighted — and similarly amazing looking — Zoe Saldana and Carey Mulligan present short film awards, almost stumbling over their dresses as they walk out on stage. John Lasseteer on short films (paraphrased): “You know what I like about short films; they’re short.” Award fo Aninmated short goes not to Nick Park’s latest, but “Logorama.” Best documentary short goes to “Music by Prudence” — the two filmmakers seems to be fighting for airtime or something before getting played off. Live action short goes to “The New Tenants.” Second award winner gets his mike cut before he say anything. They’re being brutally efficient.

And now Ben Stiller is a really funny, frightening Na’vi. (Wasn’t this related to the deleted Sacha Baron Cohen gag?) Great contact lens, hands, and tail gags. “I see you,” he says to James Cameron. Presents award for Best Make-Up to “Star Trek.”

6:30: Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick pay nice tribute to the late John Hughes. He says he’s frequently accosted by peole who ask: “Hey Ferris, is this your day off?” Nice montage following; I’m sure Hughes’ millions of devoted fans will be getting all misty eyed. Nicely done. Followed up with many of Hughes other stars, ranging from Ally Sheedy to Jon Cryer, Macauley Culkin, and Judd Nelson. It’s a nice tribute that it’s a shame more filmmakers can’t get.

6:27: Tina Fey and Robert Downey, Jr., very funny on the tensions between writers and actors. Downey: “It’s a collaboration between handsome gifted people and sickly little mole people.” Award for Best Original Screenplay goes to Mark Boal for “The Hurt Locker” — and so the sweep begins? He dedicates his award to the troops, well and injured, in Afghanistan and Iraq and to his recently deceased father.

6:20: Cameron Diaz and Steve Carrell introduce Barbara Walter’s “interviews” with characters from animated films. Cute. Nice shot of a happy looking Ed Asner. Award for Best Animated Feature goes to “Up.” Not a shocker by any stretch, but it’s a lovely movie, so hard to complain. (Also, I missed all but one of the other nominated films.) Pete Doctor, like everyone else at Pixar seemingly, is one of the good ones.

Next up Miley Cyrus and Amanda Seyfried of “Dear John” and “Mamma Mia”…who I’ll be meeting in a couple of days (along with scads of other journos; maybe I’ll get to ask a question, maybe). They’re introducing the Best Song with clips from the films rather than the usual production number(s). I wasn’t too thrilled about the change, but the clips aren’t badly orchestrated and certainly give an idea of how the songs are used in the films.

Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett win for their song, “The Weary Kind” from “Crazy Heart.” Mr. Burnett is a long time hero of mine. And Mr. Bingham’s backpack seems full enough. (Sorry. “Up in the Air” joke.)

6:10: If Christoph Waltz doesn’t win tonight’s first award for Best Supporting Actor award for “Basterds”  the earth under the Kodak may just open up. He does a good job of acting surprised and mentioning everyone’s name. Nice to know the earth doesn’t need to open up and Waltz’s historically good performance has been acknowledged.

6:00: Baldwin & Martin heating up. Funny/silly gags about various nominated actors, though that gag about “Frida” and Brad Pitt’s “Inglourious Basterds” mustache will fly over many heads. Good reaction shot of George Clooney when the two couldn’t think of who was nominated for Best Actor other than Jeff Bridges.

5:51: Funny threesome gag about Baldwin and Martin’s work with Meryl Streep on “It’s Complicated.” Another good gag: “Anyone who’s ever worked with Meryl Streep always ends up saying the exact same thing: ‘Can that women act!” and “What’s up with all the Hitler memorabilia?” Martin calls out to “The Jerk” re: “Precious.” He too, you’ll recall, was born a poor black child.

5:49: Opening monologue okay so far, though the passing off between Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin seems slightly contrived rather than a comedy. Still, I liked this bit:

Steve: Oh, look, there’s that damn Helen Mirren.

Alec: Steve that’s Dame Helen Mirren.

5:43: Best actor and actress nominees all on stage at once. Ms. Sidibe seems to enjoy it. And Neal Patrick Harris lied, sort of — Martin Short is nowhere to be seen. Doesn’t quite nail his song as well as other shows, probably a bit nervous, but mostly pretty great, as usual. Song moderately clever

5:30: Jeff Bridges is “all Gucci’d out.” He also looks just like my semi-insane boss from a long-gone Orange County job. Gabourey Sidibe is a texting demon and very excited to be at her very first Oscars. Meryl Streep’s favorite part of the Oscars is sitting down in her seat and “getting off the Jimmy Chus”. The ladies hosting liked Sandra Bullock, Zoe Saldana dresses and Ms. Sidibe’s blue thingy. And we get ready to start.

5:14 — So they tricked me into being on time and watching some of the flackery on the pre-show. J-Lo loved “Precious” and Sarah Jessica Parker looks fantastic in Chanel, they tell me. Matthew Broderick is trying not to smirk, I think. He’s wearing Tom Ford. Must be uncomfortable for Mr. Ford. Yes, and I will be here all night.

Last night marked episode 6 of Season 9 of “American Idol” on Fox, and the auditions this time were held in Dallas, Texas. Of course, Ryan Seacrest kept saying they were returning to Dallas for the third time, the city where they had found so many previous hopefuls and talent. But all they did was show clips of Kelly Clarkson’s audition back in 2001 and a few other contestants nobody remembers. Seriously guys, that was a huge stretch, and there was no need to harp on it. So you found Kelly there, big freaking deal.

On to the auditions, and the guest judges this time were Neil Patrick Harris (NPH) and Joe Jonas. I’m yawning as I write this…give me more Katy Perry! Actually NPH was pretty funny, but Joe…I don’t think he said a word beyond “yeah” a few times. Way to go, kid.

Anyway, here is the best and worst from last night…

THE BEST

Lloyd Thomas, 29 (I’m not sure how he snuck in under the age limit), has two daughters and works on a dock, like that dude in the Bon Jovi song. Anyway, Lloyd sang Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed” and I was overjoyed hearing it, for real. So was Simon, who called it his favorite audition to that point…..Kimberly Carver sang her own song, and while the song was awful, she had a big voice that sounded pretty decent. Randy said, “you can blow,” but Simon thought she wasn’t current enough. Didn’t matter, she had three votes…..Erica Rhodes, a 23 year old grad student who was a child actor on “Barney,” wanted to show she wasn’t a kid anymore, but took things to the extreme dressed like a dominatrix, whip and everything. She sang En Vogue’s “Free Your Mind,” and to me was pretty good but not great. Simon loves the hotties though, and she made it through. I don’t see Erica going far though….Dave Pittman, 27, has Turret’s syndrome, but amazingly, it doesn’t affect his singing. Dude sang “Bring it On Home To Me” by Sam Cook (man, that’s an awesome song) and really nailed it. I can really get behind a story like this, because Dave is talented, unlike Scott McIntyre from last season…..Todrick Hall, 24, sang a tasty original song, and we already knew he’d be able to sing since he has performed with Season 3 champ Fantasia in “The Color Purple”….20 year old Megan Rice came in with something like “take risks” painted on her shirt, and with her hilarious little brother. Anyway, Megan surprised the judges with her super cool vocals, but I personally wasn’t blown away….finally, 16 year old Christian Spears, who was diagnosed with leukemia at age 4, but weathered it and has been in remission for 8 years, sang Etta James’ “All I Can Do Is Cry,” and was damn good, especially for her age.

THE WORST

28 year old Julie went first, and they showed her audition from Season 1 when she was 20 years old. Julie sang “Black Velvet” by Alannah Myles and as NPH said, was “not good.” She sucked in Season 1 and she sucked in Season 9…..20 year old Dexter Ward sang “If I Ever Fall In Love Again” and I had no notes written other than a big “X” so I guess he sucked too…..finally, 22 year old Vanessa Johnson sang “At Last” and it was a certifiable train wreck. In fact, Simon used the word “nightmare.” Jonas actually uttered the word “no” this time.

So that’s it….they only showed (at length anyway) three bad auditions. In all, they gave out 31 golden tickets to Hollywood from Dallas. Now, if another winner comes from these auditions, then they can start saying it’s a trend.

Next week it’s on to Denver, and I believe that might be it for the initial auditions. Sweet!

As a lifelong fan and a nearly lifelong tough critic of musicals, I love most of these films. However, this list is not so much a traditional “best of” and I’ve included one choice I definitely don’t like. (It won’t be hard to guess which.) These are musicals that I think contributed to the development of this polarizing and hard to pull off genre. They don’t hark back to times gone by or try to recapture a past glory that will never return, but actually take us into the future. That’s important now that musicals seem to have a future.

“Dancer in the Dark” (2000)

Earlier this year, the brilliant but often irritating Danish director Lars von Trier shocked hard-to-shock European festival audiences with graphic sexual violence in “Antichrist.” Back in 2000, all he needed to divide audiences was some really intense melodrama and an approach to making dark musicals partially borrowed from TV creator Dennis Potter (“Pennies from Heaven,” “The Singing Detective”).

Featuring a literally once-in-a-lifetime lead performance by singer-songwriter Björk as a young mother ready to sacrifice everything to save her son’s failing eyesight, “Dancer in the Dark” is maybe the most emotionally potent story of parental love I’ve ever seen. As a musical, it’s strange and arresting.

Like the Potter television shows and movies and “Chicago,” further down the list, the musical numbers take place in the mind of the lead character. In this case, however, it is particularly poignant as our heroine is a fan of musicals who, though she is gradually going blind, is attempting to appear in a community theater production of “The Sound of Music.” Below, she musically confesses her situation to a smitten Peter Stormare (yes, the guy from “Fargo”). Lumberjacks or not, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” sure seems like a long time ago.

Moulin Rouge” (2001)
As the non-musical Pixar films became the dominant template for animation and the musical form lost its last apparent movie bastion, big studios began to experiment with musicals starring humans. Unfortunately for me, the first and still one of the most popular of this decade’s high profile film musicals was Baz Luhrmann’s beautifully shot, amazingly designed, dull-witted, and over-edited “Moulin Rouge.”

Yes, this musical fan is not a fan of the musical that’s been credited with resurrecting the genre. Why? A couple of sequences work, but on the whole I expect the funny parts of a movie to make me laugh and, even more important, I like to see the movies I’m seeing. As far as I can tell, Luhrmann simply doesn’t have the confidence in this film to allow us time to view the arresting images he’s worked so hard to craft, nor does he permit time to actually see the hard work his dancers and actors put in. Editor Jil Bilcock is expected to do all the performing instead.

As for what Luhrmann and his arrangers did with the various classic songs they threw into a musical Cuisinart, the less I say about it the better. At the risk of sounding like a fogey (or a member of an 18th century Austrian court), too many notes. Way, way, way, too many notes. See if you disagree.

“Hedwig and the Angry Inch” (2001)

John Cameron Mitchell pulled off a tremendous coup in adapting his stage hit, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” into a film that, though something of a cult success, is still vastly under-recognized. The live “Hedwig” was essentially a rock concert combined with a one-person show, so turning it into a relatively conventional dramatic movie meant adding a great deal of new material. Working on a very modest budget and studying his Fosse, he crafted a new kind of music film that blended wondrous David Bowie/T-Rex-style glam rock composed by Stephen Trask, outrageous comedy, and some fairly searing drama with imaginative performance sequences and elements of more traditional musical theater. That same year, Todd Haynes’ historical musical, “Velvet Goldmine,” explicitly tried the same thing on a much larger, vastly less humorous, scale with a fictionalized story of the glitter rock era. It’s actually a terrific movie in many respects, but it didn’t have the needed emotional resonance or connect with an audience in the same way as “Hedwig.”

Here, Hedwig, the lonely but unflaggingly flamboyant East German not-quite-transsexual victim of a badly botched sex change operation, experiences a wondrous musical rebirth just as the Berlin Wall falls. This, my friends, is one way to shoot a musical number on a budget. It starts a bit downbeat and slow, but it rewards a little patience.

“Chicago” (2002)

After “Moulin Rouge” became a surprise hit on DVD, it was decreed somewhere that most musicals should be over-edited ADHD extravaganzas. Largely because he had a brilliant adaptation by Bill Condon to work with, director Rob Marshall actually could have done a lot worse with “Chicago.” It’s a movie I like very much, even though it was so over-cut that I wondered if Marshall was trying to hide the fact that, as dancers go, Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere can’t really be expected to be Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. Since he shot his next film, the non-musical melodrama, “Memoirs of a Geisha,” in almost the same way, I’m still not sure.

Bob Fosse, easily one of my four or five favorite directors, basically invented the highly edited musical comedy sequence with his first film, 1969’s “Sweet Charity.” However, first and foremost a dancer and choreographer himself, he never lost site of the action even as he jazzed up the presentation in brilliant new ways. In adapting the choreography Fosse created in the seventies for the original stage show of “Chicago,” Marshall loses something. Even with a group of first rate dancers, including Catherine Zeta-Jones, he can’t hold a shot for more than a second. The miracle is the following signature sequence from the film still works, but I’m convinced it would be even better if only he’d laid off the cine-caffeine a little. (“Cell Block Tango” starts at 2:07.)

“Colma: The Musical” (2006)

Things were pretty slow in the way of half-way decent musicals during the middle of the decade. Christopher Columbus’s take on “Rent” was about as uninspired as you would expect and had me wondering why anyone liked the original show. The freakishly candy-colored direction of Joel Schumacher, which we all remember so well from his Batman movies, was combined with Andrew Lloyd Weber’s mock-classical dirges to make for a completely unwatchable “Phantom of the Opera” (I know this is true because I was completely unable to make myself watch more than a half hour of it.) Bill Condon’s attempt at duplicating Rob Marshall’s directing style on “Dreamgirls” was a lot better, but still just okay except for truly first-rate performances by Eddie Murphy and some great singing by Jennifer Hudson. I had an excuse to skip “High School Musical” because it was only a TV movie at the time.

And then, from a San Francisco suburb this lifelong Californian had never heard of, came one of those rare surprises that makes this whole cinephile/film critic thing worthwhile. A collaboration between first-time director Richard Wong and singer-songwriter-actor-screenwriter H.P. Mendoza, “Colma: The Musical” builds on the low-budget inventions of “Hedwig” by adopting the traditional singing-for-no-reason musical to the zero-budget aesthetic.

Brazenly getting around all the traditional problems with film musicals by taking a fresh, eye level approach to musical numbers and simply refusing to apologize for the fact that its characters have a weird habit of singing with an invisible power-pop band, “Colma” was also a musical version of maybe half the zero-budget indies ever filmed. A story of three eighteen year-old friends adjusting to adulthood and fraught relationships with lovers, family, and each other, it tends to drag a bit whenever the music stops. Fortunately, there’s lots of very smart pop music by Mendoza, whose style recalls They Might Be Giants and Amy Mann. After a good-but-not-great opening, the film explodes with a true single-take wonder: an eight minute, two-song “oner” that is eight of most fun minutes of any movie of the decade as far as I’m concerned.

Unfortunately, I can’t show you even part of that here, or any of Wong and Mendoza’s other fine music sequences. However, some unembeddable clips can be found on YouTube. You can also read what I wrote about “Colma: The Musical” a couple of years back here. But first, check out the trailer. It’s pretty cool.

“Once” (2007)

Of course, if you find making an old-school break-into-song musical a bit too much, you can always find a story about people who would actually perform music in real life and then simply not cut-away during the songs. You could call it the coward’s way out, but if it was good enough for Bob Fosse in “Cabaret,” it’s good enough for anyone else. And no film in recent years has used this approach more effectively than this gentle semi-romantic drama about a pair of street musicians, both with strong attachments to absent lovers, who meet and find happiness together — musically, that is. With a dash of “Brief Encounter” and little bit of “The Commitments,” “Once” cast quite a spell. Well, on me and a lot of people, but not everyone.

Still, even though the music by stars Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová is often haunting but not entirely my personal cup of ultra-laid-back modern folk, writer-director John Carney’s warmly matter of fact approach to the simple pleasure of musical perfomance made this cozy, joyful, and poignant little hang-out movie impossible to forget. Sorry, I couldn’t find any decent clips — or even a trailer I liked — online. Here, have a photo instead.

“Sweeney Todd” (2007)

The risky but logical choice of having Tim Burton, a past master of non-musical stylization, adapt Stephen Sondheim’s dark musical masterpiece, “Sweeney Todd,” paid off in into a movie musical that was both unprecedented and old-fashioned, blending classical horror techniques going back to the 1930s with a straightforward approach to the musical drama and an awful lot of blood for a musical. Though I had concerns about casting two actors not especially known for their musical theater abilities in the lead roles, Johnny Depp proved to be a strong enough singer and a great enough actor that it wasn’t a problem; Helena Bonham Carter, if no Angela Lansbury, held her own rather and the supporting cast was first-rate. As for Burton, for once his genius with the design elements of the film was matched with some geniuinely great material.

The best part was that Burton had no problem keeping things simple and letting the drama and suspense just play itself out, as in this brilliant duet of would-be murder between Depp and Alan Rickman (a better singer than you’d expect) as the vile Judge Turpin. Here, Sweeney learns that revenge may be a dish best served warm after all.

“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” (2009)

Purists might scream, I suppose, that since it’s primarily been viewed on the Internet, this effort by Joss Whedon and various friends and family members doesn’t qualify as a movie. All I can say is that it has screened at the American Cinematheque and it’s never been on TV, and I say that makes it a movie, damnit. What, you interject, I already included this in my “TV in the 2000s” entry on Joss Whedon? To that, I can only say, “posh!” and “balderdash!” and “who cares what you think little accuracy person?” Just be grateful I couldn’t figure out how to shoehorn the musical “Buffy” episode in here, too — ’cause I was thinking about it!

Okay, before I get any more carried away over-channeling Joss Whedon’s sense of humor, I’ll tell you that the real reason I’m including this is because I really do believe that, as much as any film here, the combination of DIY financing and highly professional talent makes “Dr. Horrible” one intriguing pathway to the future of musicals and, because of how it was presented, the future of entertainment in general. Moreover, the Whedon clan understands an awful lot about entertainment and, without resorting to fancy tricks they sell a very silly musical tragicomedy about a lovesick aspiring supervillain (played by musical theater pro and comedy genius Neil Patrick Harris) and fill it with social satire, shticky jokes, and sadness. In others words, if you simply commit you can tell just about any story.

There’ll be a sequel to “Dr. Horrible,” but perhaps its example is just as important. The future of musicals is wide open and anyone can make one. Sure, not everyone can make a good one, but anyone can try and more people should. It’s a brand new day.

H/t Whedonesque.