The Oscars take their revenge this year on Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross for winning the Music (Original Score) category with their innovative and beautiful score to The Social Network. This year, no electronics, no creative and emotional use of sound, nothing that might for a moment be considered contemporary. Instead, Oscar whore (and I say that with the utmost respect) John Williams gets two nods, while soundtrack cipher and perennial awards nominee (and winner for Lord of the Rings) Howard Shore gets another. The remaining slots go to Ludovic Bource for his quaint early 20th century approach to The Artist and Alberto Iglesias. Iglesias has composed some lovely scores, but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is strictly by the numbers. Reznor and Ross were left completely out in the cold for their dark wall-to-wall score of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Jónsi was left in the cage for his beautiful soundtrack for We Bought A Zoo.
Reznor & Ross with Oscar: Not This Year!
At least that’s not as bad as the Music (Original Song) category which nominated only two songs instead of the traditional five nominees. Something odd with that. They are “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets, Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie (one half of Flight of the Concordes) and “Real in Rio” from Rio, Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown Lyric by Siedah Garrett. McKenzie’s tune is cute, but there’s so much rock music in films these days, why is the Academy mired in a 1940s song mentality?
Music (Original Score)
The Adventures of Tintin, John Williams
The Artist, Ludovic Bource
Hugo, Howard Shore
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Alberto Iglesias
War Horse, John Williams
Complete Oscar List of Nominees
John Diliberto ((( echoes )))