Did They Get it Right? – Best Original Song – Oscars 2018

Here are the five nominees: (Winner in Bold)

“All The Stars” – Black Panther

“I’ll Fight” – RBG

“The Place Where Lost Things Go” – Mary Poppins Returns

“Shallow” – A Star Is Born

“When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” – Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Biggest Snub:

I’ll Never Love Again – A Star is Born

My Overall Thoughts:

This is a rare year where the original song category was closed for months and it wasn’t much of a surprise when the winner was announced.

My Rankings:

Songs

5.When Cowboys Lose Their Spurs
4. All the Stars
3. The Place Were Lost Things Go
2. I’ll Fight
1. Shallow

Movies

5. Mary Poppins Returns – Fun sequel that unfortunately isn’t able to live up to the genius of the original. Blunt seamlessly moves into the character of Mary Poppins and lets out her inner Julie Andrews, but even that isn’t enough. The original songs are all quite good, but they don’t manage to be as memorable as the songs from the original one. The chemistry between Blunt and Miranda is great and they work so well together. The two major cameos in this film are nice surprises and allow us to recall Disney films of old.
4. Black Panther – Nice addition to the MCU despite its flaws. The action is great and they do a great job with the supporting characters and the main villain yet the main character of T’Challa feels outshone by everyone else even if the film is supposedly about him. The technology and magic used by the Wakandan’s is great to watch because it shows so much about the possibilities for the future of the MCU which can combine both elements. The story itself comes across as being too formulaic for its own good and unlike some of the other recent MCU films, stays predicable the whole way through. Gets a bit too political at certain points instead of trying to just tell a great action story.
3. RBG – Great film that feels too short. RBG has been able to do so much groundbreaking work over the decades and they manage to just touch upon the tip of it all here. Great interviews with family, friends and colleagues which helps give the viewer a more personal viewpoint of it all as they also show how the worldview has been changed by the work she has done over the years. The balance of her personal life along with her professional one is presented quite well and gives us a great perspective on both which allows us to see how she has been able to juggle things in life over the decades and still keep on top of everything.
2. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – Great anthology that tells 6 very unique stories that probably only could have come from the mind of the Coen Brothers. The tone of each story is quite diverse which would make one think that each segment was done by different directors, but as they have shown us in the past, the Coen Brothers are quite talented and are able to hit the gamut of many different genres and film styles which helps keep their work feeling fresh and innovative. Amazing cast even if many have very small parts. My favorite story of the film is by far The Girl that got Rattled, but all of these stories are done so well. The best part of these kind of films is that they are able to find ways to surprise the viewer along the way and make each story suspenseful because they don’t follow a usual pattern. Can’t wait to see this film again.
1. A Star is Born – Amazing version of this film that works so much better than the other ones largely due to the spectacular chemistry between Cooper and Lady Gaga. We can really believe their relationship. The story works so well in the music field and even in that aspect it manages to eclipse its predecessors. The music of this film is out of this world and I’m quite shocked that they only managed to get an Oscar nomination (and eventual) win for Shallow, because some of the other songs are also very worthy and are better than some of the other nominees in the category. The story plays out really well and they do it on a way that makes it all seem quite believable and plausible the entire time. Elliott gives an amazing performance here too and was well deserving of an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his work here. This film was among the very best movies of the year and was by far the best of the 8 nominees for Best Picture, but it was released too early which hurt its chances to win more than just Best Original Song.

Do I agree with the Oscar winner? – Most Definitely!  Shallow is an amazingly powerful song and s by far the best of the crop here.  It was able to carry momentum for months and was the front runner in this category for a long time.

Let me know what you think about these films and my rankings!