Categories One-by-One: Original Song

[Big Magilla]

When Mark Ronson (co-writer of "I'm Just Ken") won his first Oscar for co-writing "Shallow" from A Star Is Born he wasn't yet Meryl Streep's son-in-law. If he wins for "I'm Just Ken" will he officially become the first son-in-law of an Oscar winning actress to win one of his own?

[Sonic Youth]

"I'm Just Ken" is basically a rewrite of "Man or Muppet".

[Mister Tee]

The nominees:

I'm Just Ken (Barbie)
The Fire Inside (Flamin' Hot)
It Never Went Away (American Symphony)
Wahzhazhe (Song For My People) (Killers of the Flower Moon)
What Was I Made For? (Barbie)

Let this be said: Flamin' Hot was the easiest watch of the several movies Diane Warren has forced me to watch in recent years (RBG excepted; I'd have watched that, anyway). The movie is very like Air -- even more trivial, not as sharply written (or as much fun), but it breezes by harmlessly. The nominated tune is actually livelier than most recent Warren dirges...but one has to wonder why a film that's very insistent about Hispanic identity would enlist this white-breadest of songwriters to create its closing moment. (Yes, it's an end-credit song: pretty much all Warren does, these days.)

I'm going to have to guess Wahzhazhe (Song For My People) was that tribal chant/dance that ended Killers of the Flower Moon? (Post-radio show but pre-credits.) It's certainly an adventurous choice for this branch -- but, Naatu Naatu notwithstanding, it seems way out of Academy range.

Having watched American Symphony, I'm not surprised it missed out on the documentary nomination. It's basically slice-of-a-year-or-so in Jon Batiste's life, and, while I'm fond of the guy, and feel sympathy for his wife's illness, I didn't feel the film amounted to much, especially compared to the momentous issues covered in the actual doc nominees. Even the symphony toward which the film was allegedly building didn't have much impact. As for the nominated song, it's disappointing: a fairly unmemorable end-credits tune that's less than I'd expect from such a talent.

The winner, as we've long known, is Barbie, but there's a modicum of suspense about which Barbie. I'm Just Ken has whatever cred is amassed from actually playing a role in the film proper, and also from its somewhat offbeat content. Some critics' groups (including the horny-to-predict-Oscar Broadcasters) went with it -- possibly some with the notion that Billie Eilish is too damn young to win her second Oscar.

But, deep down, I think 1) the folks pushing I'm Just Ken are the same as those who went for Blame Canada decades back (not that that wouldn't have been preferable to the winner that year), and 2) the Academy are -- again, Naatu Naatu aside -- always and forever Ballads-R-Us, and What Was I Made For? is simply right in their wheelhouse. Eilish has been selling the song relentlessly -- on SNL and the Grammys, prior to the Oscar appearance -- and I think she and her brother will be up there collecting the trophy once again.