and the oscar for best score goes to…

jonny greenwood for “there will be blood”?

um, no.

i know. let’s give the oscar to the most cloying and obvious score in recent memory.

honestly. i didn’t think much of atonement. the young girl (saorise ronan) was phenomenal, but the movie itself was badly in need of some editing. i nearly fell asleep while they wandered endlessly around france during world war ii.

but the thing that kept me awake was the score, because every time i started to nod off, there would be that goddamn tap tap tap on the typewriter sprinkled throughout the score, supposedly strategically. this to me is an idea that sounds like it arose in a committee, and should have been rejected. “hey, she’s a writer. what sound can we use symbolically in the score to show she’s a writer?”

can we get more obvious? this is oscar-worthy brilliantly divergent and original thinking?

it’s as if voters purposely picked the worst score, in protest. maybe they did.

all i know is that someday, jonny greenwood is going to be a even more critically acclaimed composer in musical genres other than rock. perhaps he’ll win that oscar someday, for another film.

my advice to him?

don’t waste your time scoring any more hollywood films. they don’t deserve you.

jonny greenwood and “popcorn superhet receiver”: no oscar for you

jonny greenwood’s score for “there will be blood”, which i discussed in my previous post, has been disqualified from consideration for an oscar this year.

when the nominations came out this morning and he wasn’t on the list, i assumed that he had just been overlooked for his amazing work, which was in my estimation not just the best score of the year, but one of the most effective film scores in my memory.

turns out that apparently people voted for him, as he was included on the academy’s reminder sheets that were mailed to voters over the past few weeks. but because his score included previously used music — some in the public domain, some from his own “popcorn superhet receiver” — the score was declared ineligible just a few days ago, and all the votes for the score were ignored. too late, of course, for any appeal.

boy is this crap. i’d be hopping mad if my vote was wasted because the academy couldn’t get their act together to make a timely ruling.

and i’m furious for jonny greenwood, whose amazing work deserved better treatment.

as did he.