In Contention

Tag: Best Original Song

  • Listen to Jónsi’s ‘Sticks & Stones’ from ‘How to Train Your Dragon’

    As we did last year, we’re going to bring you as many of the Best Original Song contenders as we can this season in these “listen to” posts.  I’m going to aim for two or three per week, all leading up to the Best Original Song Tech Support column on December 9.  By then, we should have a clearer idea of the category.

    We kick things off with “Sticks & Stones,” a closing credits track from DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon” by Sigur Rós front man Jónsi Birgisson.  As we know, the Academy’s music branch views the original song contenders in the context of the films these days, so tunes that play over the closing credits have their work cut out for them.

    Sometimes, if the credits are part of the story (i.e. “WALL-E” or “Waiting for Superman”), a song will have a fighting chance.  That will be tough for Jónsi’s track, which just plays over a traditional credit roll (albeit accompanied by handsome storybook sketches of the film’s winged serpents).

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  • John Legend performs ‘Shine’

    A few months back we featured a video of John Legend performing Best Original Song contender “Shine” from “Waiting for Superman.” Today, though, via Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog, I stumbled across this more, well, “produced” video of the singer crooning the tune.

    It’s a gorgeous piece of music (and a highpoint of a post-screening LAFF shindig back in June).  I imagine it’ll be in the thick of the hunt this season, possibly even the eventual winner.  I don’t think any of the Disney contenders have the gravitas to win and after that it’s, what, stuff from “Burlesque” and “Country Strong?”

    Speaking of which, I updated the Best Original Song category in our Contenders section with all of the possibilities I could round up.  Let me know if I forgot anything.  (I’m sure I did.)  Check out Legend’s WSJ performance of “Shine” after the jump.

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  • Calling all original song contenders

    As we get closer and closer to the film awards season, I thought maybe it was a good time to round up all the potential original song contenders.  It’s generally a good idea to keep track of these things, so let’s see what we have so far.

    One of the best bets is probably Randy Newman’s “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3.” As usual for Newman, it’s not the kind of song that dives too far beneath the surface, but it’s a delightful jingle that helped sum up one of the year’s biggest critical and popular hits, so it should be considered formidable.

    Speaking of animated films,“How to Train Your Dragon” has an original song, “Sticks & Stones,” from Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi Birgisson.  It’s a fast-paced bit of happiness that probably doesn’t have what it takes to push through to a nomination, but it’s in the field nevertheless.

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  • John Legend’s ‘Shine’ from ‘Waiting for Superman’

    Paramount is having a nice to-do for Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for ‘Superman’” June 21st during the Los Angeles Film Festival.  To say the least, following great notices at Sundance, it’s a documentary feature hopeful come year’s end.  Legend will be on hand to perform “Shine,” his original song for the film, which apparently plays over the closing credits.  As we all know, that may or may not be a deal breaker for the song’s Oscar chances, but I clicked around and came up with this You Tube clip of Legend performing the track.  Thought I’d share:

  • Zellweger sings Dylan in ‘My Own Love Song’

    Back in 2008, I professed myself less than ecstatic at the prospect of “My Own Love Song,” the first English-language effort from “La Vie en Rose” helmer Olivier Dahan, in which Renée Zellweger plays a wheelchair-bound country singer on a road trip with her eccentric best friend Forest Whitaker, in search of her long-lost son. (I believe my exact words may have been: “This could literally be the worst film of all time.”)

    The film opens in France next week, and while the trailer (after the cut) suggests I may have been a tad overdramatic, I can wait a very healthy amount of time to see it. I suppose we might be forced to endure a measure of Oscar chatter for Zellweger — “ZOMG it’s the female ‘Crazy Heart!’” — but the film is really looking to make a splash in the Best Original Song category.

    The Playlist reports that Bob Dylan (a former Oscar champ for the 2000 “Wonder Boys” cut “Things Have Changed,” in case you forgot) has composed no fewer than 16 original songs for the film. One of them, “Life is Hard,” is performed in the film by Zellweger, and features quite prominently in the trailer.

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  • TECH SUPPORT: Final stretch, final predictions

    Zoe SaldanaWell, here we are. On Sunday, the statuettes for the Oscars will handed out. It seems difficult to remember that it was eight months ago when we started looking at the categories for the first time. Today, let’s take one last look at the crafts categories to see where we stand.

    Best Art Direction (Oscar Guide)
    One of the easiest predictions for the evening, for me, is Best Art Direction. James Cameron’s “Avatar” has won the Critics’c Choice, BAFTA and guild awards and this category and the sets, while not being typical of winners in this category, were brilliant. “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” strikes me as too small, “Nine,” too hated and “The Young Victoria,” more of a costumers film. I’d put guild winner “Sherlock Holmes” in second…but a very distant second.

    Will win: “Avatar”
    Could win: “Sherlock Holmes”
    Should win: “Avatar”

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  • Shocker: Best Original Song nominees will not perform

    (from left) T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham at the 2010 Golden Globe AwardsThis is a bit outrageous.  Mike Fleming is reporting at Deadline Hollywood Daily that the original song nominees will not be asked to perform the tracks on the telecast:

    Explanations include that the songs never delivered ratings, and that is what this Oscarcast is all about. That not having the big production numbers will move the show along. That it will save money for distributors, who eat most of the costs (up to 7 figures) of schlepping singers in. That unless a song by Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion, Sting or U2 were nominated, most of the worldwide audience is hearing the tune for the first time when it is sung. I mean, can anybody besides Tom Bernard or Michael Barker from Sony Pictures Classics hum a few bars of “Loin de Paname” from Paris 36?

    Dear Academy: I don’t think we can possibly bend over any further.

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  • TECH SUPPORT: Post mortem

    Michael Gambon in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood PrinceSo here we are. For the most part, the crafts category nominations weren’t surprising, and there is not a single film that fared drastically better – or worse – than I expected.

    As for comments on individual categories? In Best Cinematography, Bruno Delbonnel’s nomination for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” has got to be one of the biggest surprises of the year. The other nominees were completely expected. Dion Beebe apparently couldn’t overcome “Nine”’s collapse.

    On the other hand, John Myrhe managed to make it in for Rob Marshall’s musical in Best Art Direction after missing with both BAFTA and the guild. Nominations for “Avatar” and, in my opinion, “Sherlock Holmes” were to be expected. But the other nominees were slightly surprising.

    “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” was richly deserving but still surprising. And “The Young Victoria” evidently had more support than I first thought. The real snub here, however, is David Wasco. If he can’t get in for “Inglourious Basterds,” I’m not sure what it’ll take.

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  • TECH SUPPORT: Final predictions, part two

    Sharlto Copley in District 9Continuing from where we left off yesterday, today we look at the fields of makeup, music, sound and visual effects.

    BEST MAKEUP

    The shortlist of seven makes predicting this category slightly easier. “District 9”’s realistic wounds, not to mention the practical elements of the central character’s transformation, likely make it the frontrunner. “Star Trek,” meanwhile, boasted an array of alien species and turned young actors into iconic characters.

    So what will get the last spot? “The Young Victoria” has done better than I would have expected it to do this season and the costumes are assured a nomination. But its shortlisting here seems really for hairstyling, which historically doesn’t lead to nominations.  Then again, a BAFTA nomination shouldn’t be taken lightly.

    I find it difficult to believe that “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” will be nominated when its predecessor failed to even be shortlisted. Admittedly, it worked for “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” but the characters there were much more iconic. Still, one never knows.

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  • Ed Helms stumps for ‘Stu’s Song’ on Conan

  • Steve Pond on Oscar’s “broken” song category

    Kate Hudson in NineThe Best Original Song race gets an awful lot of stick for its wonky voting system and sometimes questionable musical judgment — problems that have lately converged to scupper the hopes of many well-regarded contenders, with last year’s snub of Bruce Springsteen’s “The Wrestler” raising particularly widespread ire.

    I’ll start, however, by saying a few words in the category’s favor. The odd egregious snub aside, the standard of competition has improved notably in recent years — some have complained that the Academy no longer recognizes familiar chart hits with the regularity that they did in the 1980s, but their musical range has expanded. The last decade has seen them embrace hip-hop, world music and folk, including several numbers that were imaginatively integrated into the cinematic fabric of certain films.

    Do they still nominate the occasional stinker? Sure. But by and large, we’re in a better, more adventurous place than we were 10 years ago, when dreary MOR balladeering from the likes of Phil Collins, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston ruled the race.

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  • An underground push for ‘Depression Era’

    Patterson HoodMaybe three months back we told you about Patterson Hood’s “Depression Era” from Scott Teems’s “That Evening Sun,” a soulful, gritty southern ditty that, for my money, is one of the best original songs in a movie this year.  We featured the track in our “listen to” series back in November.

    Thankfully the song made the cut for original song contenders last month, joining 62 other tracks.  But as I’ve been saying since I first saw the film, it’ll be a bit of an uphill battle considering the song plays over the film’s closing credits and not in the narrative of the film.  Voters screen clips of eligible contenders’ usage in the context of a film, so something like, say, “Cinema Italiano,” however awful, has a leg up over something like “Depression Era,” however brilliant.

    That’s not stopping an underground, no-budget Oscar campaign on behalf of the song by Freestyle Releasing.  The distributor has enlisted the help of Paste Magazine, which is exclusively hosting a video of Hood discussing the song and performing it from his Athens, Georgia home.  It’s a great little clip and well worth the effort for this underdog contender.

    One can only hope.  Check out the video after the jump.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Precursor avalanche, best of 2009

    Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker• Kris wrapped up 2009 with his take on the year’s best films, also offering his own preferred nominees and winners in a range of categories. (I’ll chime in next week.)

    • “Up in the Air” led this year’s pack of Golden Globe nominees.

    • It also joined “Precious” and “Inglourious Basterds” at the head of the pack in the SAG nominations — while missing out in their top race.

    • “The Hurt Locker” emerged as this year’s critics’ favorite, earning top honors from a host of groups, including the two biggest: the NYFCC and the LAFCA.

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  • Listen to Jeff Bridges’s ‘Somebody Else’ from ‘Crazy Heart’

    Jeff Bridges in Crazy HeartToday we’re wrapping up the “listen to” series of featured tracks in this year’s Best Original Song race.  We spotlighted 17 contenders in total, not all of which made the eventual eligibility cut, of course.  But it’s been a nice way of giving the field it’s proper due.

    Surprisingly enough, only one other song from “Crazy Heart” joined “The Weary Kind” on this year’s list of eligible contenders.  That song was “Somebody Else,” which is in fact the first tune we hear Jeff Bridges’s Bad Blake character sing in the film.  The opening lyric was a particular favorite of songwriter T Bone Burnett’s: “I used to be somebody.  Now I am somebody else.”

    It’s a great moment because it introduces you to the killer soundtrack that will unfold for the next two hours and because it sheds a compelling light on the film’s central character, a man clinging to his past when he has long outgrown it.

    Have a listen below and tell us what you think.

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  • 63 tracks compete for Best Original Song

    Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana: The MovieIt’s been fun bringing a great many of this year’s Best Original Song contenders to you every few days with the “listen to” posts, but today, the Academy offered up the full list of contenders, so things are beginning to settle in.  There are a few surprises, however.

    Firstly, only two tracks from “Crazy Heart” are on the list.  I’m not sure if that’s because only two were submitted, but there are six solid original tunes on the soundtrack.  And four songs from “The Princess and the Frog” weren’t on the list (one of them, “Friends on the Other Side,” being one of my favorites from the film).  Again, I don’t know if that’s because only the four on the list were submitted.

    Mary J. Blige’s “I Can See in Color” from “Precious” is the most notable exclusion.  I guess it didn’t play for long enough to be of any impact, but to my mind, it was one of the best songs in the hunt.

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  • Listen to Duffy’s ‘Smoke Without Fire’ from ‘An Education’

    DuffyEarlier today we featured “You’ve Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger,” Beth Rowley’s original song contender from “An Education.” Now we’d like to bring a second track from the film to your attention: “Smoke Without Fire” from Welsh sensation Duffy.

    This is a potent little ditty but it is the first cue on the opening credits, which, as we’ve mentioned many times, isn’t an immediate deal breaker, but it makes the climb a bit more difficult.  Not to mention Rowley’s track features so prominently within the context of the film that, if either is going to get in, that would be it.

    Still, we shouldn’t take too much away from Duffy’s song.  It’s a great button on the end of the film, seemingly belted from the weary soul of a youngster who got in too deep.  You know my feelings on this category.  I think a song’s placement at the end of a film can have as much impact on your interpretation of the film as a song placed within, so if I had a vote, I imagine I’d be taking this one a bit more seriously than most.

    Have a listen below and tell us what you think.

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  • Listen to Beth Rowley’s ‘You’ve Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger’ from ‘An Education’

    Beth Rowley in An EducationWe skipped one of these on Monday so we’ll double up today with a pair of tunes from Lone Scherfig’s “An Education.”

    “You’ve Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger” from singer Beth Rowley featured prominently in the trailer for Scherfig’s film and, frankly, given the breezy, nostalgic flavor of the tune, most may not have realized that it was an original song.  But it is, and one of the more beautiful entries in the category this year.

    The song’s usage in the film hits the subtext on the nose but it’s a rather beautiful moment nevertheless.  Carey Mulligan’s young, unassuming Jenny begins to fall hard for Peter Sarsgaard’s David as Rowley ramps up her vocals in the background via live performance.  The contextual implementation (and the fact that Rowley gets to sing her tune on screen — quite the unique circumstance) leads me to believe this could be more of a contender than we think at the moment.

    Have a listen to the track below and tell us what you think.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Avatar’ awe, ‘Bones’ defense, original songs

    Avatar• A little movie called “Avatar” premiered. This week’s Oscar Talk tucked into the film.

    • As “The Lovely Bones” faces a frosty critical welcome, this week’s Off the Carpet column went to bat for the film.

    • We interviewed a quartet of young actors making strides this year: Abbie Cornish, Saoirse Ronan, Ben Foster and Bryce Dallas Howard.

    • In The Long Shot, we examined the animation race — and stood up for under-the-radar contender “Mary & Max.”

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