The Greatest Films #4: Once

Spoiler Alert: Don’t read the last section if you haven’t seen the end of Once.

I’ve decided to start putting together a list of the greatest movies that everyone should see. I love doing top ten lists and everything, but I really would love to discuss classics for a few paragraphs. Also, I hate it when articles get long winded so I’ve adopted a 3 paragraph system that will make the articles super easy and fun to read.

Background:

I was high as a kite when I first saw Once and it really fucked with my first impression of the movie. (I was on tons of painkillers for some surgery or something)

Moreover, my brother insisted I watch it because he knows I’m a psycho fan of musicals. As I’ve seen the movie more and more, it becomes obvious that it is probably the best musical ever made. Furthermore, yes, Once is a fucking musical. The entire story, themes, and narrative flow from the music.

The movie was made for under two hundred grand and it kind of shows. The movie’s style and production values will alienate many individuals not willing to sit through a film clearly shot on a video camera that doesn’t emulate the look of film very well.

I ran around begging musical lovers to check this movie out. If you like musicals you’d have to like it…right? Well, generally no. Most people like the Chicago-type of set pieces. Most Once-lovers are people who love indie movies and kinda’ like musicals.

What it is about:

Once is one of those movies that is hard to get people excited about. I always say, “You should check this movie out, it is about like two people who meet and place music…and then like…don’t get together…”

The movie is just kind of an experience. It never feels like a contrived music video, but never feels partitioned from the music. This is where, perhaps, the low-budget production values came into play. The cheap look might have pulled stylistic elements away from a music video. The film just kind of follows an unnamed struggling musician in Dublin as he deals with an ugly breakup. He meets a young Czech immigrant. They kinda’ flirt and play music for a little while.

Its sounds so simple, but that is probably why is works.

Why it is a great film:

The ending of Once is so fucking good. Few love stories even come close. The relationship that has been blossoming throughout the film abruptly changes course and the audience is forced to reinterpret what friendship, relationships, partnerships, and love, really are. I say this all the time, so people will proably think I’m a dickhead, but Once is almost existential.

It isn’t like other films where the lovers don’t end up together and it is tragic, but in a crazy way, we understand why they don’t. Life sometimes just doesn’t make sense with a certain person. Most people reading this have some person they had a strong connection with but things just didn’t make sense together, so they went their seperate ways.

The music works, most of all, because of Glen Hansard and Market Irglova, Irglova only being 19 when receiving the Oscar for best song. I’ve heard that watching them perform in person is almost religious because of their love of music. Never, not once, do they seem to be acting like they love music. You can tell it means a lot to them.

And thank god they never have sex. I’m no prude, but once sex come into the equation, everything changes. These two people from Dublin fall for each other over something more than their genitals. What a novel idea.

The final shot of the film is one of my favorite of that decade. The director, John Carney, likely went to great lengths to get a camera up that high on an expensive piece of equipment only for one single shot. But it is a shot that highlights, to me, what the film is about.

Genius.

-Collin