To hear some tell it, Alexandre Desplat is just about the finest thing to happen to motion picture scoring since Bernard Herrmann or Franz Waxman, the sensualist who will redeem the most (in most cases rightly) denigrated of orchestral literature from John Williams or James Horner. Lucky for Desplat, he doesn’t have to face either of them down this year. The slate that Golden Globe-winner Desplat has to defeat contains but one Oscar-ubiquitous white elephant composer (Thomas Newman) and one composer who would probably be nominated a lot more often if it weren’t for his knack for selecting extremely Oscar-unfriendly projects (Philip Glass, who should’ve kicked Alan Menken’s ass in 1992 with Candyman but for Oscar’s narrow taste standing in the way). While Newman’s current total of eight nominations without a win can’t be completely ignored, The Good German certainly can. If he had been included for Little Children, he might’ve had a better shot, if for no other reason than he was one of the few people in the crew not performing variations on American Beauty. Glass’s score marks his third nomination. Even though his tacky ostinatos did as much to keep Notes on a Scandal walking that fine line between class and trash, it’s hard to imagine it playing well on Borders’ P.A. systems as do Desplat’s regal albeit icy themes (or Glass’s own nominated score for The Hours)—I can’t tell you how many times I found myself paging through an issue of Adbusters, The Believer, or Instinct while “Overture to Ennis Fucking Jack Nasty” twanged from the overhead speakers. Brokeback Mountain’s Gustavo Santaolalla may have won just last year, but I don’t think anyone would deny that the only thing he rehashed for his Babel score was that charango (well, that and his piece “Iguazu,” previously used in The Insider). More damaging to his chances is the fact that González-Iñárritu climaxes and closes his film with Ryuichi Sakamoto’s far-more-memorable “Bibo No Aozora,” written previously but which I will forevermore refer to as “Romance from Nympho Japanese Schoolgirl Being Embraced By Distant Father While Naked On Highrise Penthouse Deck.”
Will Win: The Queen
Should Win: Babel
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