It's time to play a little game called "Let's Make a Deal!" We all know how to play, and the rules will be simple: I won't talk about Juno if you won't talk about Juno. Basically, I just want to prevent any of the anger, resentment, confusion, or sadness that arises when discussing every critics' favorite faux-indie film. After nabbing the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay this past Sunday, Juno has been solidified as one of the sleeper hits of the year, sure to be a cult classic for decades to come.
But, what the blog?!
The winning screenwriter herself--Diablo Cody (her stripping name)--has gotten herself into a scandal that's rather unbecoming for a newly Academy-Awarded young lady. The world is (oddly) shocked that there are nude pictures of Ms. Cody floating around in this porn-drenched petri dish we refer to as the Internet. Apparently people are surprised that Hollywood's newest golden voice--the voice of the unintentional uber-hipster--has some "inappropriate" pictures online. But she's a stripper. And she's not even that naked. For the first time since I saw Juno, I'm on Diablo Cody's side! Who gives a crap that there are semi-nude pictures of her online? She's of age and she was a stripper. Come on, people. It's not like the cast of High School Musical is getting naked or someth...
Damnit. Nevermind.
Well, shit. I broke the pact. What can I say? I got this upset when Little Miss Sunshine won for Best Original Screenplay last year. I know that people adore Little Miss Sunshine. To many, Abigail Breslin is the epitome of adorableness. But I can't wrap my head around the fact that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences actually believed that it was the best screenplay of the year in a competition against films like Pan's Labyrinth and The Queen. Sometimes I imagine the Academy as a roomful of white-haired, wrinkled old sages, sitting atop elevated cushions as if they were the Jedi Council of Coruscant. As they flip through the list of films released each year, I imagine them stroking their chins and grumbling to themselves, ignoring whole numbers of "genre films" like the science-fiction masterpiece Children of Men or the fantastic noir mystery Gone, Baby, Gone. Instead, they debate amongst themselves how to best capture the fancy of today's youth, believing that teenagers actually talk like the characters in Juno and that Little Miss Sunshine is in some way, shape, or form "subversive" and "edgy".
Crap. I broke the rules again.
Let's move on to a more pleasant subject: Once.
When Once came to Providence this summer, I spent two consecutive nights in the theater. The premise is pretty bare: a poor Irish street musician meets a poor Czech immigrant, and the two spend a week together creating an album. The film was so heartbreakingly simple that it didn't allow for crazy production values or even unnecessary dialogue to get in the way of the story. The music, written by the film's stars, is equally bare. From footage of Glen Hansard on a street corner with his guitar to an emotional duet inside a music shop, the movie's music is organic: it exists as a character in itself.
As the Oscar nominees were announced a few weeks ago, I felt a mix of elation and utter hopelessness. I was thrilled that "Falling Slowly", the musical centerpiece of Once, had been nominated for Best Original Song. Immediately following that joy was the realization that it was up against not one but three Disney songs. Each of the three songs was written by musical theater geniuses Stephen Schwartz and Alan Menken, the people who brought us Pippin and Little Shop of Horrors, respectively. How was "Falling Slowly" going to stand a chance against the men who co-wrote "Colors of the Wind" and "Just Around the Riverbend"? But, if Once taught me anything, it's that there can be miracles...when you belieeeeve (Stephen Schwartz, Prince of Egypt).
And the Oscars provided not one but two miracles.
The first came in the form of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova's fantastic performance at the 2008 Oscar ceremony. I'd post the video here, but unfortunately the old Jedi Masters at the Academy have removed all of the "Falling Slowly" ceremony clips from the Internet. Suffice it to say, the performance was breathtaking. With the subtle addition of the ceremony's orchestra (which later screwed Marketa Irglova pretty harshly the instant she started to give her acceptance speech), "Falling Slowly" resonated with a quiet power that didn't take away from the simplicity of the two musicians on stage.
The second miracle was more of a disaster. But a miraculous one.
I watched in silent disgust as the stage erupted in the mildly racist musical catastrophe called "That's How You Know". Now, I've never seen Enchanted, and I know it was hailed by critics as Disney's return to form. But somewhere between Kristin Chenowith's sing-song conversation with the Caribbean Islander in jeans and the backflipping construction workers, I was turned off. It was almost as if "It's a Small World" was transformed into a stage show, complete with "ethnic" costumes and typical Disney extravagance.
While I didn't see the other two Enchanted songs nominated (that's untrue: I stopped watching "Happy Working Song" halfway in), "That's How You Know" is the extreme musical opposite of "Falling Slowly". Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova delivered a stunning performance without the use of gravity-defying acrobatics, meticulous choreography, or unconvincingly joyous mariachis. Instead, the stars of Once proved that they could depend on the song itself to affect an audience.
I don't want to sit here and take a massive critical crap on movies like Enchanted (I already did that to Juno and Little Miss Sunshine). Like I said, I haven't seen Enchanted. While I don't suffer from a cavernous void in my soul that could only be filled by seeing the movie, I'd probably be less disconcerted with songs like "That's How You Know" and "Happy Working Song" within the context of the film. Enchanted is a Disney picture, and spectacle is what Disney does best. Personally, I tend to immediately hate any and all music that incorporates steel drums. I'm sorry, folks, but Jimmy Buffett really isn't my thing.
At the end of the day, however, I'm extremely excited that "Falling Slowly" won for Best Original Song. Once has the potential to become a classic, a film that takes a simple premise and follows through with grace and sincerity. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend that you check it out.
And if you're fortunate enough to be spending a few days in Tennessee this June, camping in a muddy tent betwixt the burned-out Baby Boomer to your right and the drug-obsessed teenager to your left, you'll have the chance to check out Hansard and Irglova's Swell Season on stage at Bonnaroo. And if you need to score some pot before the show, definitely ask the old hippie. Trust me on this one.
And if you're not going to Bonnaroo, you can sleep happily with the knowledge that you'll never have to learn how your body reacts to three straight days of booze, drugs, and hippies. Maybe you can do yourself a favor during those three days: walk down the street to your local Mom 'n' Pop Blockbuster store and pick up a copy of Once.
But, what the blog?!
The winning screenwriter herself--Diablo Cody (her stripping name)--has gotten herself into a scandal that's rather unbecoming for a newly Academy-Awarded young lady. The world is (oddly) shocked that there are nude pictures of Ms. Cody floating around in this porn-drenched petri dish we refer to as the Internet. Apparently people are surprised that Hollywood's newest golden voice--the voice of the unintentional uber-hipster--has some "inappropriate" pictures online. But she's a stripper. And she's not even that naked. For the first time since I saw Juno, I'm on Diablo Cody's side! Who gives a crap that there are semi-nude pictures of her online? She's of age and she was a stripper. Come on, people. It's not like the cast of High School Musical is getting naked or someth...
Damnit. Nevermind.
Well, shit. I broke the pact. What can I say? I got this upset when Little Miss Sunshine won for Best Original Screenplay last year. I know that people adore Little Miss Sunshine. To many, Abigail Breslin is the epitome of adorableness. But I can't wrap my head around the fact that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences actually believed that it was the best screenplay of the year in a competition against films like Pan's Labyrinth and The Queen. Sometimes I imagine the Academy as a roomful of white-haired, wrinkled old sages, sitting atop elevated cushions as if they were the Jedi Council of Coruscant. As they flip through the list of films released each year, I imagine them stroking their chins and grumbling to themselves, ignoring whole numbers of "genre films" like the science-fiction masterpiece Children of Men or the fantastic noir mystery Gone, Baby, Gone. Instead, they debate amongst themselves how to best capture the fancy of today's youth, believing that teenagers actually talk like the characters in Juno and that Little Miss Sunshine is in some way, shape, or form "subversive" and "edgy".
Crap. I broke the rules again.
Let's move on to a more pleasant subject: Once.
When Once came to Providence this summer, I spent two consecutive nights in the theater. The premise is pretty bare: a poor Irish street musician meets a poor Czech immigrant, and the two spend a week together creating an album. The film was so heartbreakingly simple that it didn't allow for crazy production values or even unnecessary dialogue to get in the way of the story. The music, written by the film's stars, is equally bare. From footage of Glen Hansard on a street corner with his guitar to an emotional duet inside a music shop, the movie's music is organic: it exists as a character in itself.
As the Oscar nominees were announced a few weeks ago, I felt a mix of elation and utter hopelessness. I was thrilled that "Falling Slowly", the musical centerpiece of Once, had been nominated for Best Original Song. Immediately following that joy was the realization that it was up against not one but three Disney songs. Each of the three songs was written by musical theater geniuses Stephen Schwartz and Alan Menken, the people who brought us Pippin and Little Shop of Horrors, respectively. How was "Falling Slowly" going to stand a chance against the men who co-wrote "Colors of the Wind" and "Just Around the Riverbend"? But, if Once taught me anything, it's that there can be miracles...when you belieeeeve (Stephen Schwartz, Prince of Egypt).
And the Oscars provided not one but two miracles.
The first came in the form of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova's fantastic performance at the 2008 Oscar ceremony. I'd post the video here, but unfortunately the old Jedi Masters at the Academy have removed all of the "Falling Slowly" ceremony clips from the Internet. Suffice it to say, the performance was breathtaking. With the subtle addition of the ceremony's orchestra (which later screwed Marketa Irglova pretty harshly the instant she started to give her acceptance speech), "Falling Slowly" resonated with a quiet power that didn't take away from the simplicity of the two musicians on stage.
The second miracle was more of a disaster. But a miraculous one.
I watched in silent disgust as the stage erupted in the mildly racist musical catastrophe called "That's How You Know". Now, I've never seen Enchanted, and I know it was hailed by critics as Disney's return to form. But somewhere between Kristin Chenowith's sing-song conversation with the Caribbean Islander in jeans and the backflipping construction workers, I was turned off. It was almost as if "It's a Small World" was transformed into a stage show, complete with "ethnic" costumes and typical Disney extravagance.
While I didn't see the other two Enchanted songs nominated (that's untrue: I stopped watching "Happy Working Song" halfway in), "That's How You Know" is the extreme musical opposite of "Falling Slowly". Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova delivered a stunning performance without the use of gravity-defying acrobatics, meticulous choreography, or unconvincingly joyous mariachis. Instead, the stars of Once proved that they could depend on the song itself to affect an audience.
I don't want to sit here and take a massive critical crap on movies like Enchanted (I already did that to Juno and Little Miss Sunshine). Like I said, I haven't seen Enchanted. While I don't suffer from a cavernous void in my soul that could only be filled by seeing the movie, I'd probably be less disconcerted with songs like "That's How You Know" and "Happy Working Song" within the context of the film. Enchanted is a Disney picture, and spectacle is what Disney does best. Personally, I tend to immediately hate any and all music that incorporates steel drums. I'm sorry, folks, but Jimmy Buffett really isn't my thing.
At the end of the day, however, I'm extremely excited that "Falling Slowly" won for Best Original Song. Once has the potential to become a classic, a film that takes a simple premise and follows through with grace and sincerity. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend that you check it out.
And if you're fortunate enough to be spending a few days in Tennessee this June, camping in a muddy tent betwixt the burned-out Baby Boomer to your right and the drug-obsessed teenager to your left, you'll have the chance to check out Hansard and Irglova's Swell Season on stage at Bonnaroo. And if you need to score some pot before the show, definitely ask the old hippie. Trust me on this one.
And if you're not going to Bonnaroo, you can sleep happily with the knowledge that you'll never have to learn how your body reacts to three straight days of booze, drugs, and hippies. Maybe you can do yourself a favor during those three days: walk down the street to your local Mom 'n' Pop Blockbuster store and pick up a copy of Once.
12 comments:
Having seen Enchanted and Once I'm glad Once won. I didn't get racist vibes from "That's How You Know" but maybe that's because I saw the whole movie. Or maybe I'm missing out on something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRYU4cqUAUs
you should also mention 3 days of no showers/waking up at 8 AM everyday even though shows don't start till noon because the weather is so hot and you are bathing in your own sweat. then this sweat cakes all over your skin and mixes with the dry dust on the bonnaroo roads. yummy combination.
- parker
Along with what Parker said, I should also warn those of you attending the Big B to NOT EAT FROM THE BURRITO CARTS. Just trust me on this one.
yes, we also loved “Falling Slowly” from Once winning the Best Song - that gives us such a sense of hope, y'know.
When somebody calls Children of Men a masterpiece, I stop reading.
Am I the only person in the universe that think Juno sucked?
thinks*
oh no, don't worry;
juno was shit.
the dialogue was SO BAD. it physically hurt. people don't talk that way.
that said, will, little miss sunshine was fifty times the movie juno was. it worked. i liked it.
Juno was not worthy of any award, and it was completely baffling to me that it was up for best picture, and that obnoxious brat from the movie being nominated for best actress actually made me angry. After the popularity of movies like Little Miss Sunshine (which was a good movie, not great, but good) the academy seems as if they want to appeal to a broader audience by including "the little indies that could." Give it up. We all know that the majority of voters are rich white men whose only familiarity with art and culture is whatever publications like the New Yorker and Vanity Fair are touting as "the musts;" these are the same magazines that think the Strokes are an indie band, and still think it is appropriate to use the word "indie" whenever they can.
Bottom line: Juno was mediocre at best; Little Miss Sunshine was good, so there really isn't any comparison of the two other than the fact that they were both low budget movies that were nominated for awards.
Oh Yeah. On a side note: Gone, Baby, Gone was an adapted screenplay not an original screenplay, which was the award that Juno won for.
The Oscars are about as arbitrary as a music blog posting the best music of 2007. At best an Oscar nomination and/or win only increases the sales and/or rental of a film. Or in Once's case, the album. So good for them I guess. In the long run an Oscar means nothing to the creative process, and everything to the size of major studios' billfolds.
If you like Children of Men, then like Children of Men. Not being recognized by the "academy," in the long run, does nothing to hinder my enjoyment of a film...or song. And we can only hope that the director or musician is in the "biz" not for the business, but as a creative outlet. And that they will continue to make films or music whether recognized or not.
First of all, I'd like to say thank you for bashing the enchanted songs (not bashing, but...whatever you want to call it) I mean 3 friggin disney songs?? What the helll?? And mentioning how phenomenal the performance of falling slowly was. I've never seen Once, (and I should) but that song was great!
I saw Juno and being the hipster I somewhat am, thought it was good, not the "greatest movie ever" but good. I liked little miss sunshine but the ending was horrible and that kind of ruined it for me.
But I agree with you, Juno being up for those big academy awards should not be done. I mean best picture? come on...
WTF! You people need to lighten up. Of course no one speaks the way they do in Juno- it's a movie for fuck's sake. The dialogue was highly stylized. High school kids DO talk that way today, albeit not all the time (as seen in Juno). Suspend your disbelief for a minute and take it for what it is- a fun movie about a serious subject.
I will agree, though, that it didn't deserve to be up for best picture, nor did Page deserve to be up for best actress- there were far more deserving films. The script was clever, and I can't decide whether it should've won or not.
And Children of Men was brilliant.
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