Once is a film that deserves more, so much more. A truly independent effort built around music and characters whose authenticity simply bursts off the screen and fills your heart, this movie was so real in its violation of all things Hollywood that it was almost hard to watch. I kept waiting for the goddamned formula to kick in, and it never did, and the absence of the fix made me jittery. Shame on me.

Once and its stars, Glenn Hansard and Marketa Irglova, were never going to win any of the Academy’s big awards, but the win for best song (“Falling Slowly”) seemed like the most genuine moment of the night (followed closely by Diablo Cody’s win for the Juno screenplay). Maybe I’m projecting, but I like to think that a lot of the people in that crowd realized what I did – that as big and bold and lavish and exciting as their industry is, it’s mostly lost touch with the most important quality of all, honesty.

I hate that they used the orchestra, because nothing makes the case quite as clearly as the physical state of Hansard’s guitar. Thank the gods they brought Irglova back out and let her finish her speech, huh?