Hans’ Oscar Bites

Oscar Bites #16 – BEST ORIGINAL SONG
This is one of those wackadoodle categories that occasionally comes up as a suggestion for the chopping block but come on, where else are you gonna get Diane Warren being a modern-day musical Sysiphus, Ryan Gosling performing “I’m Just Ken”, and whatever the hell Viva Verdi was?? (spoiler: loved it!!!)

The nominees are:
-“Dear Me”, Diane Warren: Relentless
-“Golden”, Kpop Demon Hunters
-“I Lied To You,” Sinners
-“Sweet Dreams of Joy”, Viva Verdi
-“Train Dreams”, Train Dreams

In order of preference:
5) “Dear Me”, DIANE WARREN: RELENTLESS (Music and lyrics by Diane Warren)
At this point, I just default rank this last right? The naturally navel-gazing documentary this song comes from is actually a fairly interesting retrospective on Diane’s career; if you only knew her from her run of nominated nothing songs from movies that didn’t exist, you’d forget she wrote ginormous chart topping songs for Cher! Celine! Toni Braxton! Aerosmith! And then last third is just a lot of griping about this insane Oscar-losing run she’s had. She thought she was going to win against Billie’s Bond song!! Stay insane, Diane. The song is fine, Kesha’s great, but that’s obviously not the point here.

4) “Train Dreams”, TRAIN DREAMS (Music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; lyrics by Nick Cave)
This credits song, much like the movie that precedes it, is a pensive, sleepy little coda that helps bring about a lot of the main themes illustrated through the movie, including life, grief, and dreams of past and future. It’s nice, it’s doleful, it fits the tone of the movie, and it’s also, quite frankly, dull, I’m sorry lol. But, it’s at least a song written in mind to match the themes and tone of the movie it goes with and for that it still beats Diane.

3) “Sweet Dreams of Joy”, VIVA VERDI! (Music and lyrics by Nicholas Pike)
This documentary is about life in Casa Verdi, a retirement home in Milan for retired and aged musicians and artists, founded by Giuseppe Verdi himself. The film is an incredibly vibrant and wonderful doc about continuing to live the joy musicianship and artistry even well into the twilight of one’s life, and the community that forms around that shared passion. The song itself is meant to emulate an aria in contemporary operatic style, and, indeed, you’d be forgiven if you missed it over the course of the film amidst all the other pre-existing opera pieces that make up the soundtrack. The song itself is solid and pleasant, if a little egregious for its attempt at trying to blend in with all the Verdi, but I like to think of it as an evocative homage. A rather unfortunate faux pas at the screening I went to occurred when they faded out the song as it played over the course of the credits to set up for a Q and A with the song’s composer and he was just like “🤨”

2) “Golden”, KPOP DEMON HUNTERS (Music and lyrics by Ejae, Mark Sonnenblick, 24, Ido, and Teddy Park)
Parents are probably sick of this song, club-goers are probably sick of this song, people who casually listen to the radio are probably sick of this song, but you cannot deny that the first time you heard this song you knew it was a undeniable BOP. With every musical escalation, from chorus, to pre-chorus, to chorus, it feels like you are really just rising higher and higher into the clouds, culminating with an incredibly cathartic final anthemic chorus. Within the context of the movie, it works even better as the song debuts right as the titular hunters are on the verge of sealing in the protection needed from the outside demons. It’s the sense of being SO close to achieving a goal, being able to just reach it. The Honmoon will almost definitely be sealed come Oscar night when we hear this performance.

1) “I Lied to You”, SINNERS (Music and lyrics by Raphael Saadiqand Ludwig Göransson)
But if Golden made me feel like I was rising up above the clouds, then I Lied To You was like my soul leaving my corporeal body. Obviously I’ve talked about this scene ad nauseam throughout these Oscar bites, but it really is just a masterclass of filmmaking that will be taught in film circles and classes for ages. The one-shot take, the integration of dancing and musical styles past, present and future, Mile Caton’s sincere vocals, the escalation, the fire, all. Of. it. And, critically, and relatedly to previous conversations, it also carries the lion’s share of the load as that essential connecting piece between the first and second acts. No wonder those white vampires wanted a piece of that.

• WILL WIN: “Golden”, Kpop Demon Hunters
• COULD WIN: “I Lied To You”, Sinners
• SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE: Not eligible as it’s based on a traditional Shaker hymn but “All is Summer” from The Testament of Ann Lee has a pretty similar rising into the clouds effect on me. Among eligible titles, I’m sure the Academy would have loved some Shakira at the ceremony with “Zoo” from Zootopia. “Salt Then Sour The Sweet” is an incredibly lovely piece from the nominated doc Come See Me in the Good Light, and I was definitely sure the combo of Brandi Carlile and Sara Bareilles would have appealed to the Academy but alas.