While reading through Jeffrey Wells' review today of "There Will Be Blood," I saw that he was calling composer Jonny Greenwood a "guaranteed Oscar nominee" for his admittedly brilliant and maniacal score.  My question is, can we really expect such an insular and typically traditional branch to go there?

First and foremost, this is a group of people who nominate the same in-crowd seemingly each and every time out.  There may be hope, however.  As Gerard Kennedy pointed out two weeks back, "From 2000 to 2003, only two of the twenty nominated composers were new nominees. This has changed somewhat in the past three years, as seven first-time nominees have been cited."

Second, this is a score -- by no means traditional -- that plagues the mind as much as the character of Daniel Plainview (and there's probably another blog post bouncing around in my mind asking whether there is precedent for a character so deplorable winning the Best Actor trophy).  There is a theme, but it isn't prevalent in the "John Williams school of thinking," which God love Greenwood, is a major plus.  But has the branch really matured enough to allow such uncomparable greatness to push past the mediocrity they sometimes allow?

Or, could this all be cynicism on my part?  Could the Dario Marianellis and the Alexandre Desplats, the Marco Beltramis and the Jonny Greenwoods finally be claiming their piece of the action away from long-time standards like Mr. Williams, Thomas Newman and James Horner, to name a few?  The Academy en masse has certainly made it apparent in the last two years that new blood isn't a faux pa, effortlessly handing the Oscar to Gustavo Santaolalla two years running.

Perhaps the branch is ready to adhere to such outside-the-box thinking?