The Academy Gets It Right For ONCE

The Academy Award for Best Song is traditionally a horrid little ditty that reveals the voting members to be bigger squares than your mom and dad. This year looked like no exception as three (for chrissakes, three) empty pop confections from Enchanted went up against a splendid little number from Once. It wasn't surprising to see Enchanted's That's How You Know get a nod. That's one of those show stopping numbers that weasels it's way into your brain and pulls up a permanent seat next to Under The Sea and that doe a deer song from The Sound of Music. But seeing two more examples of forgettable treacle from that movie ooze onto the nominee list left my gast thoroughly flabbered. Especially when you consider that EVERY song from the Once soundtrack is far more deserving. But hey, this is the same academy that gave an Oscar to Mary Poppins' Chim Chim Chi Ree while A Hard Days Night couldn't score a single nomination. With three nominations it looked like the Enchanted fix was in.


That's why it was so goddamn wonderful to see the little-film-that-could trounce all over Disney.* How genuinely moving was that live performance by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova? And how classy was that when Jon Stewart brought Marketa back out to give her acceptance speech after the dunderheads in the band cut her off? And maybe I'm just projecting, but didn't it seem like the audience knew full well that this song deserved the win more than any other?

Anyway what I'm saying is go rent and/or buy Once. For yourself, that is. Your kids will be bored silly and hate you forever if you try to make them watch a love story about actual adults who don't talk to squirrels or fight sassy New York bus drivers. Once is the best kind of musical- one that blends songs seamlessly into the story and uses music to explore characters. This is coming from a guy who traditionally hates musicals. It totally deserved the win last night. I guess next year we'll see talent vacuum Randy Newman get a statue in order to balance the cosmic scales.

Oh yeah, and huzzah for Best Animated Picture Ratatouille! Too bad you wuz robbed for the Best Original Score.

*But really, Enchanted is a movie not without it's charms. The songs are fine if you're an 8 year old girl (which I've been accused of more than once). But they're hardly Oscar worthy.