Last night Veri-Husband and I watched the movie Once. I usually abhor musicals, where a narrative is interrupted by a burst into a catchy yet samey-sounding song, or a song is used clumsily to bridge and often gloss over a plot development. Though I have respect for what Rent did for AIDS and poverty in NYC, when I finally got a chance to see it I remember groaning through most of it. Just light the damn candle, I got the symbolism the first fifty times you sang it.

But Once doesn’t hit you over the head with its music. It’s woven into a story about the role it can play in our lives, from the catharsis and connectedness we can feel when we play it, to the mood it can create and develop within us. While the music in the movie is great — the lead actor is an accomplished musician himself, who blends a folksy Jack Johnson with haunting Cat Stevens-like vocals — what I enjoyed most about the movie was how far it moved from the typical Hollywood genre.

The movie is low budget, incorporating a hand-held camera feel with realistic looking actors troubled over realistic problems that can’t ever really be solved, nor does the movie doesn’t try to neatly wrap up their problems. Like life, their conflicts are not all good or all bad, and we are not spoon-fed characteristics that make us root for one person over another, knowing the happily-ever-after outcome will soon tied all the loose ends together.

I think as movies like Once and Juno gain more and more popularity, and This American Life rules the Podcast world, as we turn to blogs instead of TV for our entertainment, there is a desire within our culture to return to the realism and celebration of everyday life. As delicious as it is to lose yourself in a fantasy world where there are clear lines between good and bad, the good heartwarmingly winning or the bad heart-wretchedly losing, I feel there is a genuine desire to celebrate the narratives of people who are just living their lives, trying to negotiate complex values, relationships, and decisions, where the answer is never clear or even possible.

Once upon a time it’s good to see the world as it usually is.