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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:59 pm
by The Original BJ
anonymous wrote:Is it okay if I create other One-By-One Threads?
If this is aimed at me, of course, by all means. Please do!
Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:39 pm
by anonymous1980
Is it okay if I create other One-By-One Threads?
Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 12:54 pm
by Sonic Youth
Hollywood Z wrote:Sabin wrote:I guess that means they just liked the prettiness of the WALL-E credits more than The Wrestler's.
No, it just means the Academy's music branch was falling in line with the rest of the Academy to make sure Slumdog would win everything. They saw that The Wrestler was winning everything for Best Song and cleared the way for A.R. Rahman to win two awards. Last year was just pathetic for movie awards for this reason.
The reason couldn't possibly be that it was one of Springsteen's shittiest songs?
Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:36 am
by FilmFan720
Randy Newman is possibly my favorite singer-songwriter of all time (or rock star, as Damien would point out). My wife and I saw him in concert a few years ago...just him and a piano at Chicago Symphony Hall for two hours. It was amazing.
Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:34 am
by Hollywood Z
Damien wrote:just the thought of "Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear" makes me smile.
My memories of that song go back to the old days of the Muppet Show and Scooter and Fozzie performing the song. lol
Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:31 am
by Hollywood Z
Sabin wrote:I guess that means they just liked the prettiness of the WALL-E credits more than The Wrestler's.
No, it just means the Academy's music branch was falling in line with the rest of the Academy to make sure Slumdog would win everything. They saw that The Wrestler was winning everything for Best Song and cleared the way for A.R. Rahman to win two awards. Last year was just pathetic for movie awards for this reason.
Now that I've got that out of the way, I think "The Weary Kind" has this one in the bag. "Lion de Paneme" will suffer the same fate as "Belleville Rendevouz", "Take it All" has lost all of it's supporters and the Princess and the Frog songs will cancel each other out.
Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:27 am
by Damien
"The Weary Kind" is a lock.
I know Mister Tee and Magilla are aware of this, but I'm not sure about those here who are younger than we, but in the 70s Randy Newman was as cool and cutting edge as any rock star of the era ("rock stars" back then a catch-all phrase that included singer-songwriters and folkies like Judy Collins -- it was basically any performer you'd hear on FM radio). Newman's currency was irony, and "Sail Away" is one of the great albums of the period. The title song is brilliant and just the thought of "Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear" makes me smile.
Does anyone else hear echoes of his 1974 album "Good Old Boys" in his Princss and Frog songs? Not the lyrics of course, but the New Orleans riffs?
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:30 pm
by anonymous1980
The Original BJ wrote:(Anyone want to wager which Oscar-winning French actress they'll get to perform this at the Oscars?)
Hah! They'll probably get Beyonce or Taylor Swift.
I agree that "All Is Love" definitely merited inclusion. I'm disappointed it did not get nominated.
This is probably "The Weary Kind"'s to lose but the "Almost There"'s sequence in The Princess and The Frog is one of the highlights of the film. I wouldn't be mad if Randy Newman wins another Oscar for it.
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:29 pm
by dws1982
"The Weary Kind" if they have any sense. Ryan Bingham is just the kind of talented alt-country singer/songwriter who would never win a Grammy (or be nominated for one), so I hope he gets the Oscar.
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:18 pm
by Sabin
If Markéta Iglova and Glen Hansard can win for singing and playing "Falling Slowly", then Jeff Bridges can win for singing and playing "The Weary Kind". And if Emile Hirsch has sung and played "Guaranteed", then Eddie Vedder mighta won too. Under Oscar's new rules, it's supposed to play an important visual part in the storytelling. I guess that means they just liked the prettiness of the WALL-E credits more than The Wrestler's. "The Weary Kind" is a performed song which makes it integral to the storytelling. It gets it.
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:56 pm
by Big Magilla
"The Weary Kind", no contest. The story behind the song gives it an emotional heft the song itself doesn't quite have.
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:48 pm
by The Original BJ
Might as well get these going, even if a lot of categories seem not-too-competitive this year.
It's maybe worth noting right off that none of these are end credits songs, the second time in three years that's happened, likely the result of the new watch-the-song-in-context voting system. And while none of these songs are embarrassing, I think "All is Love" merited a spot, even if it's exactly the type of song that never gets nominated.
I watched Paris 36 on Netflix Instant this weekend, and as far as tales of artists and street urchins in the French theater go, it's obviously no Children of Paradise. Hell, it's not even Moulin Rouge. Had France submitted this for Best Foreign Language Film, it probably could have won -- it's exactly the kind of old-fashioned, musty drama about the arts older voters inexplicably fawn over. The song is catchy, and sounds like a classic French ditty, but, like the film it appears in, there's an element of staleness to it. (Anyone want to wager which Oscar-winning French actress they'll get to perform this at the Oscars?)
I guess we should be thankful for small favors that the nominated Nine number wasn't the atrocious "Cinema Italiano," and at least a song that fits better with the original score. Still, "Take It All" is certainly below a lot of Yeston's tunes from the original musical, and sort of makes for an anticlimactic moment. Given the Nine collapse, I have to imagine its nomination is as far as it goes.
There was a time when the animated musical would win this prize almost by default, but that time has gone, and the score to The Princess and the Frog isn't really up to the efforts of Alan Menken in the early '90's. Still, the Frog songs are both solid nominees. "Down in New Orleans" is a catchy opening and closing anthem, but "Almost There" is the better of the two songs, and the one moment when I thought the film suggested it would be something special, rather than just decent (which is most of what followed).
But I think voters will stick with the favorite, "The Weary Kind." Crazy Heart seems to have a lot of momentum right now, mostly based on Bridges, and the song comes at the real emotional high point of the film. Plus, T Bone Burnett seems like exactly the kind of name recording artist who often wins here. I think he parlays his Globe win into a well-deserved Oscar.