Sunday, March 23, 2014

OVP: Original Song (2009)

OVP: Best Original Song (2009)

The Nominees Were...


"Almost There," Music and Lyric by Randy Newman, The Princess and the Frog
"Down in New Orleans," Music and Lyric by Randy Newman, The Princess and the Frog
"Loin de Paname," Music by Reinhardt Wagner and Lyric by Frank Thomas, Paris 36
"Take It All," Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston, Nine
"The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T. Bone Burnett, Crazy Heart

My Thoughts: Some of you earlier may have read me mention the 2013 OVP in the Bad Grandpa review and thought, "did he ever finish the 2009 OVP?"  And those of you should be commended for both being observant and for bringing me back to writing the 2009 OVP.  February is always a busy month for me in my personal and professional life, and so I generally get side-tracked.  That's not an original excuse, but I'm going to go with it.  However, February is more than over, and it's time we finish up 2009 where we left off, which is Best Original Song (for those who missed the beginnings of this 2009 series, click on the links below for all of the categories we have already covered, or click the Official OVP Ballot tag and you can read all of the write-ups to your heart's delight of 2009-2012).

When I grade the Original Song category, I usually try and keep two things in mind: both the quality of the actual songs in question and the placement of the song in the film.  While I'm not going to say that I'll never reward an end credit song, it's a much steeper climb, as it's easy to put a killer song over the end credits of a movie.  It's considerably more difficult to make the song an integral part of the film.

That is, it's worth noting, what all of the 2009 Best Original Songs do.  All four films (The Princess and the Frog is double-nominated) are aided by either being musical or having strong musical elements, and therefore the original songs become a major part of the characters' development.

Take, for example, "Almost There" from The Princess and the Frog.  This is a song on heavy rotation on my iPhone (I find that it's easiest to work to Disney songs-they're so chipper).  The lyric in this song is hardly what you'd consider Randy Newman's quirky brand of schmaltz and bounce-it's a lovely ode that sets up our heroine Tiana as someone to root for, but someone who probably needs to find a little bit more from life than just work and more work.  Anika Noni Rose has such a crystal-perfect voice, and the animation throughout the sequence sort of comes alive.  I will admit-this is probably my favorite song from the entire movie, and one of those Disney princess ballads that not only is filled with spunk, but really lets you get to know the character.

While the film's other song, "Down in New Orleans" manages to also capture the overall spirit of the film (Dr. John was an inspired choice for the vocalist), I just never quite connected with it in the same way.  Perhaps it's because the song serves as an introduction to the movie, rather than to a specific character (though one could argue that New Orleans itself is surely one of the main characters of the movie).  For whatever reason, I just wasn't as on-board with the song as I was with "Almost There"-it's fine, but it's not soaring Disney at its height nor Randy Newman cleverness.  It's just a great framing device.

If I had to pick the worst movie amongst this group, it would be without-a-doubt Paris 36.  A wildly schmaltzy, forgettable film that would typically find some way to cast Judi Dench, except without Dench's brand of panache and style it falls down on its face.  The main song, the one that carries throughout the film, surely gains points for being a pivotal plot point.  The film relies heavily on it and its vocalist (Nora Arnezeder...and yes, you probably know her best from the rumors that she's currently dating Orlando Bloom who is twelve years older than her), as she gains fame and acclaim for her singing prowess.  However, the song is just as saccharine and tedious as the film itself, and the less said about this movie (so dull I couldn't even figure out a way to stretch out a review for it), the better.

Let's move on to another film that I didn't care for, but at least it had elements that I was enthusiastic to indulge: Crazyheart.  We'll get to whether Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal deserved Oscars in a few days, but I have to say that the overall film is completely predictable and never finds a musical biopic cliche it doesn't want to drag out for the audience (this isn't even a real story-they could have gone off-script for once!).  The music, however, unlike Paris 36, is superb.  The score is littered with both classic country singers and the stars of the film putting their heart-stomped twang to melody.  The best song was highlighted for the Oscar, in a nice turn-of-events (this isn't always the case).  Ryan Bingham's song's lyrics echo greatly Jeff Bridges' Bad Blake, as well as the overall lost quality of the film's narrative.  The song is sung multiple times throughout the film, and in a great moment, not by Bridges in the final scenes despite it being his "great moment" song.

The final nominee is from the other musical nominated in 2009, Nine.  We've discussed Nine a bit for some of its production elements, but the music in the film is almost completely lifted from the original hit stage production.  This is a problem for "Take It All," though, since the original songs are going to have such trouble competing against something as show-stopping as "Be Italian."  I'm all for the translations of the Broadway hits to the big-screen, but the additions of weak, "easy Oscar nomination" songs to the score is not a great trend unless you're going to add something worthwhile, which "Take It All" just isn't.  It's not even the best song that Marion Cotillard sings in the movie.  It's fine, but completely forgettable (I would argue that's the perfect way to sum up the movie itself, quite frankly).

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes have an oddly consistent curse where the winner of the Globe almost never wins the Oscar, but that wasn't the case in 2009 (ending a five-year streak where the Globe winner wasn't even nominated at the Oscars): Ryan Bingham took the trophy.  However, none of the other songs were nominated for Oscar, with the Globes siding with the rock stars (U2's "Winter" from Brothers and Paul McCartney's "(I Want to) Come Home" from Everybody's Fine) as well as the glamour girls (Leona Lewis singing "I See You" from Avatar and Kate Hudson doing one of Nine's other original songs, "Cinema Italiano").  Of the four misses, my guess is "I See You" was probably the closest, since it was in a film that got nominated everywhere else.
Films I Would Have Nominated: An Education may not have been a musical in the same vein as these other films (perhaps the Academy was trying to prove that they loved the return of the musical the year after Hugh Jackman did a giant ode to it?), but it had some great songs, particularly Duffy's "Smoke Without Fire" and Beth Rowley's "You've Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger," both songs that encompass the mood of their film and the plot points of the picture.  Plus, they're just great overall songs.
Oscar’s Choice: With Newman splitting his vote, it was an easy take for the Globe-winning Bingham.
My Choice: I'm going to go with Bingham as well.  The song still haunts and is far better than the film it is in, while also serving as the movie's centerpiece.  An easy choice, with "Almost There," "Down in New Orleans", "Take it All," and "Loin de Paname" coming behind.

Those are my thoughts-how about yours?  Did anyone vote against Ryan Bingham?  Which Globe nominee do you think should have made the Oscar cut?  And what was your favorite original song of 2009?  Share in the comments!


Past Best Original Song Contests: 201020112012

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