Oscar Talk: Music

The music branch of the Academy continues to be fun, if only because attempts to predict what they’ll do become more and more exasperating as the years go by. But, here goes.

        

ORIGINAL SONG

I’d say that the race is between “I See the Light” and “Coming Home” when it comes to actual merit, with the slight edge going to the former. The music branch has a thing for well produced duets, it’s difficult to deny that with all its issues Tangled does know when to place its songs.

NOMINEES: “Coming Home” from Country Strong / “I See the Light” from Tangled / “If I Rise” from 127 Hours / “We Belong Together” from Toy Story III Prediction “I See the Light” Alternate “We Belong Together”

But, then, multiple nominee 127 Hours has such obvious spoiler potential, I wonder if Rahman is headed to a third Oscar, and if they like duets they like pain and heartbreak and inspirational tosh just as much – so, I wouldn’t be shocked if Rahman takes it here, still I'm putting Newman as my alternate because he lost last year and because I have a feeling they're going to want to reward Toy Story III as much as they could (barring the screenplay and picture category), so why not choose it over Tangled, since it's more loved animated film. (Not that I think it even deserves to be nominated, but I digress...)

ORIGINAL SCORE

Is it insularity on the part of AMPAS, or is it just coincidence that three of the 2008 nominees are back to battle it out (the winner included). Naturally, I assume that this is the chance for voters to write that egregious wrong and reward Alexandre Desplat. True, it’s an all-round good set of nominees – but they can’t continue to snub Desplat after robbing him in 2008 and 2009, right? But, then, there’s Zimmer’s VERY intrusive work in Inception and we know that voters like their music loud.

NOMINEES: How to Train Your Dragon (John Powell) / Inception (Hans Zimmer) / The King’s Speech (Alexandre Desplat) / 127 Hours (A. R. Rahman) / The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Prediction: The King’s Speech Alternate: Inception

      

Then, there’s the more subtle work on The Social Network which I don’t think has much upset potential – but is still not one that I should rule out completely. I’m sticking with Desplat, for now, though. It’s about time they reward the music branch’s most ubiquitous composer of the moment.

Oscar Talk: The Score and The Song

Original Score
Though my interest in current music has waned, I’m still a general fan of music. So, I’m one of those people that these categories aren’t extraneous. A list has recently been published – the 77 original scores eligible for the category. The obvious problem with predicting this category is that many precursors don’t feature them, so you’re sort of going in blind. I often wonder how voters judge the category, because the increasing propensity of high profile films getting a sort of de facto nod here is disturbing. At the moment Hans Zimmer’s work on Inception is being touted as the frontrunner. I’m neither here nor there on his work in the film, but that’s pretty much a shoo-in for a nom, as is Alexandre Desplat. Truly, Desplat should have been Oscar-ed by now, he has three films up The King’s Speech, The Ghost Writer and Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. His work on The Ghost Writer is excellent, but I suppose the pedigree of The King’s Speech makes it a more likely contender. I’m still surprised the Globes snubbed Portman’s work in Never Let Me Go, but that film has become continually forgotten. Still, Portman’s probably the most noted female composer so I’ll assume she’ll get some love there. Then there, Rahman’s work on 127 Hours has been noted by a few precursor groups and he is a defending champion in the category, so he’s a safe bet too. I think The Social Network is a fine example of best picture support turning a film into a veritable contender in all categories but it does have a fine score, and whatever the reason for its appearance on a number of list it’s nice to see it there.

127 Hours / Inception / The King’s Speech / Never Let Me Go / The Social Network

I’m not sure if he didn’t submit, or if it was deemed ineligible – whatever the case Dario Marianelli’s score Agora is not on the list of commentating scores. I’d love for the voters to get a little less insular since there are a number of competing scores that deserve a look. Anton Sanko’s work in Rabbit Hole and perhaps Jan A. P. Kaczmarek’s Get Low could emerge as a contender. Danny Elfman’s Alice in Wonderland is a potential contender, but I still don’t have faith in that particular projection.

Original Song

I’m predicting three songs for the original song race, because it’s kind of obvious that the Academy has little interest in this category. And I suppose, in a race it’d be the one that’s most extraneous but I don’t think the category’s that incidental. In case you don’t know how it works, the 41 songs are seen on a continuing loop and ranked on a scale of 1-10. Then, the songs that have an accumulative average of 8.25 are nominated. If no songs get above that score, none are nominated – if 1 song gets above that the next two are nominated and if more than 5 get nominated, the highest five are nominated (obviously). It’s kind of obvious that this category isn’t really a priority.

“If I Rise” from 127 Hours / “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” from Burlesque / “I See the Light” from Tangled /

                     

I like Christina’s work in “Bound to You” but I don’t see two songs from Burlesque taking off. “Coming Home” from Country Song and “We Belong Together” from Toy Story III would be two I’d add if the number went to five.

                

Do you have any significant affinity to cinematic music this past year? Or do you agree with the extraneousness of the music branch?

Notes on Tangled

"Rapunzel" has long been one of the Grimm fairytales with the most scope for mature interpretations. The original tale features the potential birth of children out-of-wedlock, a terrible fate for the prince, and a villain who is not so much a one-note antagonist as much as a terribly overprotective parent which makes it a sort of ideal tale for Disney, which has long been concerned with the dynamic of parent and child (The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, The Princess & the Frog). When Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine adapted the piece for their potpourri of fairytales Into the Woods the story was given even more depth as Rapunzel grew from the world she became a sort of emotionally stunted woman kept in the tower under the pleas of the Witch – “stay with me”. In actuality, though, there is little about Tangled that is emotionally resonant, and this in itself is not incidental. From the onset of the ad-campaign for Tangled it was evident that the producers were more interested in a jaunty swashbuckling cinematic fare than in any sort of familial drama. And the problem is not that I have anything against the swashbuckling fare, but in its attempting at severely watering down a story that depends on emotional resonance Tangled fails to be anything more than merely satisfactory, and not even that at times.

 

True, I was already feeling dubious about the film since their title changed seemed intent on ensuring that the film would be just as “interesting” to boys as girls. It’s not just the title change, though, because Tangled is not about Rapunzel and this itself is not an issue – what destroys the film from being tonally consistent is that the divergent themes of Flynn and Rapunzel seem irreconcilable, and when screen-writer Dan Fogelman makes that half-hearted attempt to find some overreaching back-story to link the two it fails dreadfully. It’s the sort of typical adage that when you try to do too much, you end up with disastrous proportions. The best attempt the studio has made in a dual leads was Beauty & the Beast, but the reason that attempt worked was because of the relative exclusivity of their living arrangements the two stories complemented each other. Having Flynn be a robber intent on stealing the crown of the King & Queen who just happened to be Rapunzel’s true parents seems just a bit ridiculous.

It’s unfortunate that a talented voice like Donna Murphy is saddled with the character of Mother Gothel. What disappoints me most about the film is that a potentially multifaceted character is given no depth to explain her machinations. It seems a bit like regression on the part of Disney who have made a film that’s so safe it lacks charisma, and charm. Even Alan Menken’s score, composer of the very original Little Shop of Horrors, composes a score that’s beautiful and uninspired. True, the centre-piece number “I See the Light” is lovely (incidentally, the “Mother’s Knows Best” is a more interesting piece musically) but in the face of so many more superior films – even last year’s Princess & the Frog which was not exactly top-tier Disney felt much more inspired even though it was an about face from the original fairytale. In that vein, I could forgive Tangled for not being executed like I’d hoped – but I can’t forgive it for docility.

                                   

C