As it winds up, here’s the pitch

EVERY year, the nominees for best picture are followed by a barrage of articles, analysis, conjecture and the deep, deep, furrowed concern of local news anchors -- which either proves that we, as a culture, collectively look to cinema to explain the world around us, or that a lot of people are expected to file more stories in the coming weeks. You decide.

Though all of the nominated films can trace their lineage to the humble, pre-literate sales tool -- the Hollywood logline -- they are not, for the most part, the kinds of movies that can be easily pitched in 10 words or less. Considering they have largely clung to the coasts like wallflowers at a seventh-grade gym dance, however, it may be useful to try to reduce them to their most salient essence once again, the more easily to pitch them to the rest of the country. Here are some updates, with the benefit of hindsight -- pick your favorite.

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‘Brokeback Mountain’

* Unused fishing poles stand in for lipstick-stained collars in this stiff-lipped ‘60s-era melodrama.

* Barefoot in the state park.

‘Capote’

* A story about shaping a story, with a million little repercussions.

* Frog and Scorpion hit the bestseller lists.

‘Crash’

* Attractive multiethnic cast commits protracted vehicular metaphor slaughter.

* The United Colors of Toyotathon.

‘Good Night, and Good Luck’

* A respected anchorman takes on a dangerous ideologue, keeps his job.

* The Chronicles of Media: the anchorman, the producer and the zealot.

‘Munich’

* Adidas tracksuits and the death of the Middle Eastern peace process.

* An eye for an eye and pretty soon nobody can read the train schedule.