Editor’s note: Welcome to the eighteenth of a 33-part series dissecting the 83rd Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!

by Robert of His Eyes Were Watching Movies

The Best Original Score category is arguably one of the most polarizing at the entire Academy Awards. It makes sense – after all, music is so subjective, and what one person loves another person may totally despise. However, this year’s lineup is slightly more successful than usual. Since many of the year’s most passionately adored scores were deemed ineligible (“Black Swan”, “True Grit”, “I Am Love”, and “Scott Pilgrim VS The World” for example) the amount of scores the academy had to choose from was significantly lowered, and there seems to be something for everyone in their ultimate choices. So, ladies and gentlemen, an as-objective-as-possible look at the 2011 Oscar nominees for Best Original Score.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought that AR Rahman’s Oscar win two years ago would be his only time at the Kodak. Even though I personally like the score to “Slumdog Millionaire” quite a bit, it just seemed like Rahman’s style wasn’t suited for the Oscars. But alas! Here he is again, with a more restrained work that is probably the most divisive of the bunch. I think the score’s style can be divided into three varieties – “Touching Strings”, “Skateboard Commercial”, and “Uncomfortable Guitar Riffs”. Of course, that’s not to knock on it, as it does greatly enhance and work for the film. But when one compares Rahman’s work to that of his competitors, it just seems a bit amateurish. Not to mention that since Rahman was forced to take a more traditional approach, everything that made his work on “Slumdog” exciting is missing here. It’s a fine nominee and I think the film is fantastic, but it has a much better chance in the Best Song category (almost everything from the “Touching Strings” category is just an instrumental arrangement of If I Rise anyway).

Editor’s note: Welcome to the fifth of a 33-part series dissecting the 82st Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!

By Luke Tatge of Journalistic Skepticism.

Leave it to the Academy to do one or both of the following things every year with their picks for Best Original Score — to stick with what they know (basically, your Williamses, your Horners, your Zimmers, etc.) and to pick certain scores based solely on the fact that they have “hype.” So begins the discussion of the five nominees for Best Original Score for the 2009 Oscars.

James Horner, Avatar
A perennial Oscar favorite, Horner has been nominated eight times in this category, a relative favorite of the Academy. Strangely enough, though, he’s only ever won the award for his work with James Cameron (1997’s Titanic). And not so strangely enough, as is typical in much of Horner’s work, there is a lot of borrowing from his previous efforts. The score includes his signature love of lulled “aahs” set to a melody (see Titanic for an example) as well as several dramatic, rousing portions as well. It actually slightly resembles the work of James Newton Howard in the little-seen 2000 Disney flick Dinosaur. Check it out for yourself, and you’ll hear the resemblances. Aside from its similarities to other scores, Avatar is a relatively standard choice for the Academy - an adventure movie with lots of sweeping strings and battle scenes set to emotional cues. It’s a decent score all in all, and it’s probably the front-runner in the category, as Avatar seems set for a sweep in the technical categories.

Alexandre Desplat, Fantastic Mr. Fox
An odd, off-beat choice for the typically stuffier category, chalk this nod up to the fact that Desplat is one of the newest members of the score boys’ club (he’s gotten three nominations in this category in the last four years). Desplat seems to be a light in the tunnel of all-too-similar work being churned out by his fellow composers. Of his three nominated scores - Fox, The Queen, and Benjamin Button - they have virtually no striking resemblances. This one banks on quirky six-stringed instruments to create a truly Wes Anderson vibe within an animated context. The score is a fitting companion to the movie itself. And though it doesn’t really stand a chance - I’d say it lands in the fourth slot of vote-getters - it’s a surprising and pleasing entry in the list of five.

Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders, The Hurt Locker
Well, this is one that fits the latter of the aforementioned rules - it’s a slightly confusing nominee that probably got lumped in to rack up the final count for The Hurt Locker. Though he’s been a composer for some time, Beltrami has enjoyed Oscar attention only in the last three years, having been nominated once before for 3:10 to Yuma. The score primarily consists of building dissonant notes to create intensity, which makes perfect sense for a nerve-wrecker about a bomb squad in war time. Unfortunately, it’s hardly a fitting choice if you’re on the lookout for a diverse, original score. In fact, you can see - or hear, rather - Beltrami’s experience with horror and thriller movies in this effort. Take a listen to some of Scream’s electronic score and it may sound a bit familiar. But out of apparent sheer love for the film, I’d place this in the third likeliest spot of the five.

Hans Zimmer, Sherlock Holmes
The insanely prolific composer (this his eighth Oscar nomination), Zimmer has dipped into just about every genre imaginable. He averaged about 3-4 scores per year this decade, so he just may be the busiest person in the film music business. Typically his scores tend to run together as far as memorability, but I’m one who would say that his efforts in Sherlock Holmes are notable for their relative uniqueness. He meshes the action and mystery genres incredibly well with the late 19th Century vibe combined with the modern kick-assery vibe. His odds to win, though, seem slim. I’d place him in the fifth spot, in fact. The last time he won (which was once) was 1994’s megahit The Lion King.

Michael Giacchino, Up
Another new unique voice in the Original Score gang, Giacchino is on his second nomination (the first for 2007’s Ratatouille), though it’s rather, well, incredible that his possible best score, the one for The Incredibles, managed to miss out on an Oscar nod. His score for Up is both emotionally gut-wrenching and thrillingly epic, something that some other nominees seem to lack. Though I think Horner has this one in the bag, Giacchino’s got to have the number two spot. He managed the BFCA, the Golden Globe, several critics awards, and, most recently, the Grammy. And with five total nominations for the movie, it seems like it has to win somewhere, with this being the next most likely after Best Animated Feature.

So it seems that Avatar or Up has this in the bag, but what of the other scores of the year? Some notable snubs include Marvin Hamlisch’s score for The Informant!, which was nominated by the BFCA, the Globes, and the Chicago critics; Giacchino’s score for Star Trek, which managed a Grammy nod and a win from the Las Vegas critics; and Abel Korzeniowski’s score for A Single Man, which was nominated at the Globes and took home the San Diego critics’ prize. And then there are my personal favorites that missed mentions, for your perusal: Randy Newman for The Princess and the Frog, Joe Hisaishi for Ponyo, Sergey Yevtushenko for The Last Station, and Christopher Young for Drag Me To Hell.

Editor’s note: Welcome to the twelfth of a 24-part series dissecting the 81st Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!

By TC from Popcorn N Roses

Best Original Score. Wow. As much as I love music, I thought this would be a fun topic to cover for the Oscar blogfest. And the music is great. But…I started thinking…

I said to myself, “Self, you haven’t seen all of the nominees for Best Original Score. How are you going to talk about them?”

Well, I’ve decided to think about them in musical terms. Having only seen two of the five nominees thus far, I will give my take on the film scores as musical form.

And Away We Go…

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON - Alexandre Desplat

Desplat brings an interesting touch to this score. He has a style which at times reminds me of legendary film composer Nino Rota, such as in “Dying Away”, using some clashing melody lines here and there, while still making the piece listenable and enjoyable. Then there are pieces like “Meeting Again”, which have a very Mark Knopfler feel to them, strong and yet sublimely ethereal. Both help make the score as a whole one of the most enjoyable I’ve heard in some time. The blending of unique styles help bring life to what is a very unique movie, with its twist-in-life’s-balance storyline. If my Marquee Mix Scores channel was still up and running, no doubt a good deal of these pieces would make their way onto my play lists.

DEFIANCE - James Newton Howard; Joshua Bell, solo violin

Thanks to the exquisite work by Joshua Bell, this score reminds me of two of my favorite scores of the past ten years, Tan Dun’s excellent scores for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. The main title is very much a blending of the main themes from both of those movies, majestic and forceful. Its power is beautifully countered with my favorite track from the score, “Exodus”, a magnificent piece of work which evokes bittersweet images of heartbreaking choices and decisions that have to be made. The entire score comes together with its stark contrast of images, and helps you visualize what the refugees in the the film would be thinking about their situation.

MILK - Danny Elfman

I can’t believe that for once, Elfman has wrote a score that doesn’t sound like one of his earlier movies and isn’t filled with endless variations of his Simpsons theme music. Elfman has always tended to be in a rut where my tastes are concerned; if you heard one Elfman score, you’ve heard them all. Can you tell I’m NOT a huge Elfman fan? But this time is a welcome and pleasant exception. Granted, he has his “Simpson”-ey music with a short track called “Dog Poo”, but other than that, it is filled with less bombast and more sensitivity. If you hear the score without knowing what it is, you’re NOT going to be able to peg it as an Elfman piece. Some lovely shorter pieces lend themselves perfectly to their subject matter within the context of the film, and make you quickly like what he’s doing - using musical queues to trigger thoughts of the times and places that made Harvey Milk who he was. All in all, the BEST Elfman score since 1989’s Batman…and one I’ll listen to for years to come.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE - A.R. Rahman

Let’s be totally honest now…how can ANYONE not be totally enticed to get up and dance by the infectious techno flow of music that is “Jai Ho”? Rahman’s the odds on favorite for the Oscar, since he’s won both the Golden Globe and the Critics’ Choice award for this work, and deserves every accolade he’s won. Teaming up with some of today’s hottest India Pop artists to put together the feel of contemporary Mumbai, Rahman’s efforts pay off in a BIG way. The largely techno-pop beat drives you to feel every vibration of the music, no matter how soft or hard the feel and how intricately huge or softly delicate the scene. This score is equally at home in the collections of people who love film music and those who love dance music. And Rahman’s sense of timing is spot on in every song. It’s NOT a fluke that he’s already collected several awards, because he’s going to collect several more, including possibly an Oscar. Infectious to the core, once you’ve heard it, you’re hooked. - you will NEVER be able to get this music out of your head…

WALL*E - Thomas Newman

Part of WALL*E’s endearing charm is it’s surprisingly lush and majestic score, something you don’t usually get as part of a Pixar movie. Don’t get me wrong, most Pixar films have great scores, but this one soars miles above even the best of earlier movies. Newman is determined to make you remember that despite all that’s going on in the film, this is first and foremost a love story between two robots, WALL*E and EVE. From the lush and wonderful “Define Dancing” through the somewhat obnoxious “BNL” jingles (as they’re supposed to be), Newman’s work here defines “elegant” and you don’t often find that in an animated film. The addition of “Down To Earth” co-written by Newman and performer Peter Gabriel, only adds to the strength of the music as a whole, bringing the entire adventure - watching the movie OR listening to the score - to an apt conclusion.

There you are. A quick take on this years five nominees for Best Original Score.

But before I go, let me take a second to acknowledge three other scores which I thought were also worthy of nominations, but didn’t receive them.

The first of those is the score from THE DARK KNIGHT by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. No further explanation is needed.

The second one is Michael Giacchino’s marvelous score for SPEED RACER. Inspired by the music from the original anime, and expounding on it, Giaccchino gave us a score that was lush and brilliant throughout. I’ve listened to it more than any score since the Lord Of The Rings trilogy CD’s and that says a lot.

The third and final one is David Buckley’s overlooked score for THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM. This film’s music again invokes feelings from the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, along with scores like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and deserved to get more recognition than it did.

So I hope you’ll check out these three scores as well as the five nominees for Best Original Score. All five films are worthy of the award - it was a GREAT year for excellent scores. May the best score always be remembered as a classic that can be proud to take it’s place alongside the classic film scores of the past.

Editor’s note: Welcome to the thirteenth of a multi-part series dissecting the 2008 Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every weekday leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category (or more) of the Oscars (there are 24 in all). To read any other posts regarding this event, please just click on the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!

By Jorn of Soundtrack Geek.

There was a lot of controversy over this year’s nominations as the news broke just a few days before the nominees were to be announced that Jonny Greenwood’s score for There Will Be Blood was told by the committee that There Will be no Academy Award (They should make it a movie actually, about the drama behind all this and Johnny Depp can play Jonny Greenwood). Anyway, the score was disqualified for using 25 or so minutes of previously used materials making it not “original” anymore. My theory is that they panicked, because they found out a couple of days before the nominations and just threw a name in there, a surprise name which I will go into later in this article.

3:10 to Yuma is an excellent movie, and if you haven’t seen it yet, do it now. The original score is composed by Marco Beltrami. He isn’t the first name you think of when it comes to awards, and this is his first Academy Award nominations. In 3:10 to Yuma he has tried to make a mix of the old spaghetti western scores and modern sounds. Bruno Nicolai, Francesco DeMasi and Ennio Morricone must have had an influence when Mr. Beltrami made this score. Has he succeded? Perhaps. I would define the score as original, it is unlike any western score I have heard before, and it feels skewed and distorted, almost as if you let Jonny Greenwood compose a western score.

No one can deny the success of Atonement, both the movie and score have done remarkably well in the current market. The score is the current best-selling score, and is being praised by almost everyone who hears it. Not surprisingly, it won the Golden Globe for Best Original Score. Will it repeat it at the Academy Awards? Recent history shows that someone else will win it. Only two times since 2000 has the Golden Globe and the Academy Award been won by the same score - Frida in 2002 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003.

The biggest surprise in this year’s Academy Award nominations would have to be the inclusion of Michael Clayton. No one saw that one coming, and I can only imagine that is was put in there because There Will Be Blood was disqualified. The criticism of this score is that it’s too quiet, not dramatic enough, not enough variety, but when it all comes down to it, that doesn’t matter. What matters is if we like it, and yes, I love this score, it’s really great to listen to, it reminds me of Mark Isham’s exciting scores. What I can’t understand is how critics can say Mark Isham was the best composer of 2007, but blatantly dislike this score. You won’t find much in the way of “real” instruments in this score, but the ambient noises, the atmosphere of this score is just top notch.

The Kite Runner must be one of the best books ever made, and of course they made it into a movie and Spanish composer Alberto Iglesias got the honour of making the score. He has not spared on the instruments in this one, the variety is staggering and beautiful. The Spanish guitar can be heard throughout this score, but it still feels Iranian to me, in the way it is composed and put together. Alberto Iglesias was nominated for an Oscar in 2006 for The Constant Gardener and when you listen to that score you know why he was chosen for The Kite Runner and you can definitively compare the two scores.

Ratatouille - isn’t that something you just want to shout out? No? Must be just me then. I have never tasted ratatouille, but I’ve seen the movie and listened to the score by Michael Giacchino. The score goes perfectly with the movie, the French connection and the pace of it is almost perfection. Not since Alan Menken’s Pocahontas in 1995 has an animated movie won the award for Best Original Score. It’s about time I’d say, and this score might just do it. It’s a charmer, it’s French country charm and with a title like Ratatouille, how can it fail?

The Academy Award goes to… 3:10 To Yuma? Nah… too weird. Atonement? Nah, already won the Golden Globe. Michael Clayton? In my dreams! Actually this is my personal favourite and I want to see it win, just so I can see the critics faces. It will never win though. The Kite Runner? I don’t think so, but I think it is between this and Ratatouille. My prediction is that Ratatouille will win. It’s about time an animated movie score won the whole thing anyway. See you at the Academy Awards for laughs and tears (mostly tears)!