Forecasting the Oscars ® since 2003

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It's about who will"

THE CASE FOR "ONCE"

Despite great reviews, indie hit "Once" probably won't hit the right notes with AMPAS

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By Danny West

What on Earth is wrong with realism?

Once was released very early in the year because its studio knew it didn’t have a snowball’s chance at a solid, sweeping Oscar campaign. Documentaries and those that appear as such don’t belong in Best Picture races. They’re cheap looking for a reason, but film is a medium where for over a century, the eye has been dazzled by special effects, impossible movements of both man and mechanism and frankly, it makes some audience members nauseous.

We go to movies to escape. They’re not supposed to look like real life. Right?

Members of the crew of Once will be invited to the ceremony. Those crew members all have one thing in common: they’re musicians.

Songs aside, the film will get nothing for its work. But is that fair? Should the quality of the film be measured in technical complexity? Is it possible to weave college student budget straw into major motion picture gold?

It’s hard to imagine Once as a major budgeted feature. It simply doesn’t need it. The film is supposed to feel poor because the characters are poor. The Academy won’t relate much to the movie because the characters aren’t sad they’re poor. They represent a demographic of people in the world that go largely underrepresented: the happily underprivileged, underpaid and unmarried. The film is shoestring indie, untouched and untarnished.

Is it honestly fair to take a film that is by all means, perfect for what it is, and say it isn’t as good as another film purely based on budget? What exactly is wrong with Once?

It certainly isn’t the story arc, which has the audience caring for the guy and girl like a couple of real life friends. It certainly isn’t the overabundance of songs, which decorate the film like Christmas tree ornaments that insist that the more there are the merrier things get. It isn’t the direction, the performances or anything else good film is based on.

It’s that the film simply isn’t enough as a whole. Oscar is rewarded on the basis of accomplishment. He is supposed to stand gold and proud and state, “the person holding me did something this year more impressive than the four other people who are still in their chairs, and even more impressive than anyone.” Once is perfectly executed, but aside from the beautiful numbers that guy and girl use to make us fall in love with them, and the film itself, nothing in the film can compete with the achievements that other films carry.

I will be pulling for Once’s songs to win an Oscar. I will also be pulling for filmmakers to continue to make films as stylistically appropriate as possible, regardless of whether or not being too “real” is a surefire way to destroy big awards chances.

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