Alphabetical Movie – Man on the Moon

I’ve been a fan of R.E.M. since college.  They were a college band in the 80’s.  I was a college student in the 80’s.  It was a match that was simply meant to be.

They are one of the few bands I’ve seen in concert more than once.

What does this have to do with Man on the Moon, you ask?

Because R.E.M. should have an Oscar.

You see, the song “The Great Beyond,” which played over the closing credits of Man on the Moon, was written by the band specifically for the film and was not even nominated for an Oscar.

I bitch about the Oscars a lot but no more than the best song category because it is typically filled with the most idiotic music and at least four out of five years it will recognize a song that nobody will ever listen to again.  The year “The Great Beyond” was ignored by the R.E.M. hating academy, they gave an Oscar to a song from “Prince of Persia.”

I presume the award was given because Disney hadn’t released a film with music that year.  They had to give it to some animated movie so why not that one, right?

So a song by R.E.M. that was not only a great song but also a perfect song to punctuate the film that had just preceded it was ignored and a song from a crappy animated film got the award instead.

As an R.E.M. fan, I should be used to this.  I still remember the year they gave out a Grammy for best song not to R.E.M. for “Losing My Religion,” which is one of the greatest songs ever written but rather to “Unforgettable” by Natalie Cole.  A song in which she sang a duet with her dead father (Nat King Cole) and was most notable for reminding everyone how good it sounded when he had sung it alone.

For those of you out there who are going to tell me that I should shut the hell up because R.E.M isn’t all that great, I’m going to tell you that you can have your Radiohead or Def Leppard or Air Supply or whatever the hell you really like. I love me R.E.M. and have watched as one of my favorite bands gets shit on by awards all the time.

I think they won Best Alternative Band at the Grammies once.  Alternative to what?  Crap?

The Best Original Song Oscar is one of the least interesting award categories ever.  In fact any awards given to music are idiotic because music is a subjective medium.  I can say that I think Brittney Spears’ music is insipid but she sells millions of albums.

If I’m a dick, I say it’s because those people have no taste.

In reality, their taste is different from mine.

While an award for Best Picture is arbitrary, an award for “Best Song” is even more so because what happens when someone who isn’t a music fan checks a box?  Do you think they are checking a box for their favorite song or because “everyone says” that “Let it Go” was really good?

All of that doesn’t matter, though, because R.E.M. still doesn’t have an Oscar.  And since they’ve broken up, they never will.

Man on the Moon is a pretty good movie, by the way.  You should check it out.