It's Oscar Week! Wheeeee! If you haven't ordered your gold, Oscar-shaped cookies from the local bakery yet, you'd better get on it. And have you figured out which Oscar-nominated character you're going to dress as for the big night? If you've got your hands on some old-age makeup you should go Hanna Schmitz or Randy "The Ram" Robinson, but the cheapos out there can put on a white dress shirt and be John Givings from Revolutionary Road.
You can tell I'm a little excited. And to keep that excitement going all week, I'll be doling out my Oscar predictions sloooooowly, leading up to the big night next Sunday. Don't worry, I'll put all the old ones at the bottom of new articles, so you won't be driven totally crazy. And, as always, I do not particularly recommend using these in your office Oscar pool, because my choices can often be crazy wrong. But that's how it turns out for pretty much everyone who tries to predict this silly game; what would the fun be otherwise?
Best Original Song
"Down to Earth" by Peter Gabriel, Wall-E
"Jai Ho" by A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
"O Saya" by M.I.A. and A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
I'm resisting the urge to just sit here and bitch about how Bruce Springsteen is inexplicably not in this category, when pretty much everyone knows his title song from The Wrestler was the best thing going this year. So this race seems to come down to "Jai Ho" vs. "Down to Earth," given suggestions of shenanigans on Fox Searchlight's behalf to promote "Jai Ho" over fellow Slumdog nominee "O Saya." Given that the Slumdog momentum just won't quit, and that Peter Gabriel gave a giant middle finger to the Academy by refusing to perform his song at the ceremony, "Jai Ho" gets it.
And the winner is: "Jai Ho," Slumdog Millionaire
Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
James Newton Howard, Defiance
Danny Elfman, Milk
A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
Thomas Newman, Wall-E
How I would love to see a win for Oscarless Thomas Newman, whose genius score for Wall-E makes his second great one for Pixar. Or even one for Elfman, whose haunting violin refrain in Milk is just one more in a line of memorable scores (he, also, is Oscarless). But while the Slumdog juggernaut is fallible in other categories, it isn't in music, and it will pick up a second statue here. Hey, it could be worse-- it could be Defiance.
And the winner is: A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
