Composing Greatness: #2. Oscars 2020 Edition - "Little Women"

Scene from Little Women (2019)

Welcome to a very special edition of Composing Greatness. In this limited series, I will be looking at the five scores nominated for this year's Best Original Score category. To avoid favoritism, the list will be done in alphabetical order of composers and feature the same guidelines as the original series. This is meant to explore the music behind the great films of 2019, and provide insight into what makes each of them special and whether or not they deserved to be nominated at all. Join me all week as I listen to the music, leave some thoughts, and hopefully sway you to check out these wonderful, wonderful scores.

Composing Greatness: #4. Oscars 2019 Edition - "Isle of Dogs"

Scene from Isle of Dogs

Welcome to a very special edition of Composing Greatness. In this limited series, I will be looking at the five scores nominated for this year's Best Original Score category. To avoid favoritism, the list will be done in alphabetical order of composers and feature the same guidelines as the original series. This is meant to explore the music behind the great films of 2018, and provide insight into what makes each of them special and whether or not they deserved to be nominated at all. Join me all week as I listen to the  music, leave some thoughts, and hopefully sway you to check out these wonderful, wonderful scores.

Coming Soon: Composing Greatness Looks at This Year's Nominees

Terrence Blanchard

In what will become an annual tradition, it's time once again for Composing Greatness to revive itself for a week of covering every Best Original Score nominee from this year's ceremony. Given the great diversity in styles, it's going to be fun to look through what's here and find the heart of why these scores were nominated. So feel free to join in, starting the week of February 18 as I cover all five of the scores in alphabetical order by title. How will BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther, If Beale Street Could Talk, Isle of Dogs, and Mary Poppins Returns compare with previous nominees? You'll have to wait and see.

*NOTE: Due to Composing Greatness' return, this month's Legitimate Theater has been cancelled. Please feel free to enjoy it next month when it returns.

Review: "The Sisters Brothers" is One of the Smartest, Funnest Takes on the Western in Some Time

John C. Reilley in The Sisters Brothers

The world of director Jacques Audiard's English-language debut The Sisters Brothers is one that's immediately disorienting. In the opening scene, brother Eli Sister (John C. Reilley) proudly declares his intention to open fire. The only issue is that, somewhere in the middle of night, it's impossible to see anything. By the end, their robbery is foiled by foolish decisions that leaves a barn on fire and the proud declaration as the title card appears that Eli and Charlie (Joaquin Phoenix) have messed up another mission. This mismatched sibling story is a tale of screw-ups amid a reputation for being two of the deadliest shooters in the west (Oregon and Northern California to be precise), which is what sends them on a bounty hunter mission. However, the tale is far more than a farcical tale. The further that things go, the more it blends humor with drama in effective ways that establish Audiard's lofty new vision of what a western can be. It may not always be successful, but it's an astounding achievement nonetheless.

Review: "Isle of Dogs" Proves that Anderson Can Make Garbage Beautiful

Scene from Isle of Dogs

*Note: Originally published on Optigrab

How can director Wes Anderson, a man on the verge of self-parody, continue to be one of the defining independent auteurs of modern cinema? It seemed like he reached the apex with the Oscar-winning The Grand Budapest Hotel where his lavish style was met with madcap energy and a subtle attack on his critics. It seems impossible for him to be as charming and artful without at some point stretching too far beyond the stratosphere. Thankfully, Isle of Dogs is not that. Instead, it's a reinvention of narrative, combining Japanese influence with his posh sensibilities. As much issues could lie in a film that features the white voice actors as heroes, Anderson has more on his mind that is interesting, poignant, and innovative in ways that prove he still has a lot to say, even if visually he can't get any more interesting. 

Composing Greatness: #2. Oscars 2018 Edition - "The Shape of Water"

Scene from The Shape of Water

Welcome to a very special edition of Composing Greatness. In this limited series, I will be looking at the five scores nominated for this year's Best Original Score category. To avoid favoritism, the list will be done in alphabetical order of composers and feature the same guidelines as the original series. This is meant to explore the music behind the great films of 2017, and provide insight into what makes each of them special and whether or not they deserved to be nominated at all. Join me all week as I listen to the  music, leave some thoughts, and hopefully sway you to check out these wonderful, wonderful scores.

"The Shape of Water" and the Three Forms of Loneliness

Scene from The Shape of Water

*Note: Spoilers for The Shape of Water

It is a moment that comes between two phases of Eliza (Sally Hawkins) and Amphibian Man's (Doug Jones) relationship. They have escaped the lab and are in their last passionate moments together before Amphibian Man returns to the sea, possibly without the requited love of Eliza. She is mute, only ever able to communicate through a mix of sign language, eggs, and Benny Goodman records. Yet it's in a fantasy moment that she gets her only spoken lines of the film. As the scene trades a dumpy apartment with a leaky room for a black-and-white set out of a musical set, she sings "You'll never know how much I love you." It's a moment where repression breaks through, and moves the subtle themes of the film to the forefront. The Shape of Water is more than a film about loving someone different, it's about understanding loneliness when you don't have love readily available. It's may be a story that's been trivialized as the "woman who loves a fish" story, but it's so much more. It's a look at how loneliness can be used for good as well as bad. 

Review: "The Shape of Water" Romanticizes Horror with Tenderness and Awe

Scene from The Shape of Water

Monsters are scary. It's a simple rule of life that all narrative forms have accepted as true. So why are we fascinated by them then? In director Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water, he updates the classic fairy tale structure in order to answer that question, using Amphibian Man (Doug Jones) as an allegory for interracial love. He presupposes that monsters are misunderstood, choosing to borrow an ethos dating back to James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein. With lavish productions and an amazing performance by Sally Hawkins as Eliza, del Toro has created a film that not only humanizes monster movies, but finds the tender heart and longing that make them not too different from you or I. It's a powerful film, and one that should appeal to fans of monster movies that do more than horrify. This one sympathizes so perfectly that it becomes less of a horror movie and more of a supernatural Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. It may be simple at heart, but it only adds to the profundity of its text. 

Theory Thursday: "The Ides of March" is George Clooney's Best Movie

Scene from The Ides of March

Welcome to a weekly column called Theory Thursdays, which will be released every Thursday and discuss my "controversial opinion" related to something relative to the week of release. Sometimes it will be birthdays while others is current events or a new film release. Whatever the case may be, this is a personal defense for why I disagree with the general opinion and hope to convince you of the same. While I don't expect you to be on my side, I do hope for a rational argument. After all, film is a subjective medium and this is merely just a theory that can be proven either way. 

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "The Imitation Game" (2013)

Benedict Cumberbatch

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

Check This Out: Alexandre Desplat Dissects "The Imitation Game" Score on Song Exploder

With the Oscars only a day away, it is likely that everyone has seen all of the nominees, or at least the ones that matter. With director Morten Tyldum's The Imitation Game racking up a lot of nominations, it is one of the prime competitors going for various awards, including Best Picture. However, there is one category that you should be paying attention to it in: Best Original Score. If you don't believe that the music is any good, check out this recent episode of Song Exploder, which details the impressive feats that composer Alexandre Desplat used to make the music pop.

Review: "The Imitation Game" Tries to Be Important in Safe and Uninteresting Ways

Benedict Cumberbatch

One of the reasons that World War II has remained such a prominent subject in film culture is because of the massive scope that it encapsulates. Beyond the war and killing Adolf Hitler, it was about putting aside differences to do so. With stories ranging this year from The Monuments Men to Unbroken, the diversity continues to intrigue in director Morten Tyldum's The Imitation Game, which focuses on scientist Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) as he literally cracks the code on the Nazis. For a story with a complex core, it is unfortunate that so much of the layers above it feel too conventional

Review: "Unbroken" is Good at War, Not on Inspiration

More than any other film genre, the Oscars have had a love affair with war films. Starting in 1927 with first Best Picture winner Wings, there have been 20 winners based on historical wars including the Vietnam War and more popularly World War II. It is a genre that seems tailored for the award, especially with its mixture of common men becoming something greater and the inevitable cinema that comes with horrific war scenes. At best, they're inspirational journeys with subliminal patriotism. Why am I bringing this up? Because it does honestly feel like director Angelina Jolie read the handbook on Oscar bait with her admirable yet flawed war film Unbroken, which strives for hope but is stuck in conventions.

A Look at the Middling Early Reviews for "Unbroken"

Jack O'Connell

For a lot of Oscar pundits, director Angelina Jolie's Unbroken has long been considered the potential front runner. The most notable reason for this is its prime Christmas Day release sided alongside the fact that we have seen almost everything else, and nothing has really stood out. While The Spirit Awards likely give some insight into the potential nominees, there hasn't been one that is as blatant as last year's 12 Years a Slave. These are all valid reasons for thinking that this will be the one to beat, notably because the trailer is rather astounding. However, reports have come back and the film doesn't look as confident as it once did. Some people like it, but those expecting a masterpiece may be left disappointed.

The Second "Unbroken" Trailer Gives Us a Look at Lot of Potential Greatness

Jack O'Connell

Among the many films coming out this Christmas, there isn't a single one with as much Oscar buzz as director Angelina Jolie's Unbroken. While this isn't her first directorial effort (In the Land of Blood and Honey), it looks like her sophomore effort has a lot more going for it. It feels focused and takes a rather interesting angle on a familiar subject. With the second trailer recently released, the film feels more confident than ever to be one to look out for. It may feature a lot of familiar footage, but it introduces new scenes and a whole lot of reasons to care about the film.

A Hypothetical Look at Potential Oscar Nominees in Films Already Out

It seems a little early to announce who the finalists are for next year's Oscars. However, there is only hope to be made that we have already seen some nominees release quality films. With Oscar season looming on the horizon, I have decided to do a hypothetical look at films that I have seen and feel stand some chance of getting into next year's Oscar race. Please don't consider this a complete compendium, as some categories are missing from this analysis. The follow is a list of already standout selections that I feel stand some chance in holding their own weight as we get further and further into the heart of my favorite time of year.

Review: "The Grand Budapest Hotel" is Anderson's Most Beautiful and Audacious Film to Date

Left to right: Tony Revolori and Ralph Fiennes

Few films have been as much buzzed about in 2014 more than director Wes Andersons' The Grand Budapest Hotel. From its box office records to critical acclaim, the director's vision is one of the most distinct, whimsical, and original films with a distinct color pallet and a strange narrative structure. While all of it is excessive, this is all part of a grander vision that poses the question of how far cinema can go and then shattering those expectations. It is a film that triumphs because of how realized everything is. This is the closest to an epic that Anderson has ever made and with this departure, he has made one of his most enjoyably accessible films to date.

Review: "Philomena" is a Problematic Narrative About Child Loss

Left to right: Judi Dench and Steve Coogan

There are many struggles that happen in life that shape the way that one perceives the world. Sometimes it is even the absence of an individual or the influence of a community. In director Stephen Frears' Philomena, the titular woman (Judi Dench) meets up with a struggling journalist named Martin (Steve Coogan) to find out about her son, who was long ago adopted to an American family from the Irish congregation where she grew up. With each preceding interview, more information is unraveled and the constructs of faith and understanding become more questionable as life's great mysteries become more complicated. 

Review: "Zero Dark Thirty" is the Great War on Terror Epic We Deserve

Upon initial release, director Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty looked like a clear front runner for Best Picture. After winning big with the  New York Film Critics Awards, the film has dispersed a little. After a not-so-stellar performance at the Golden Globes, it has fallen behind titles such as director Ben Affleck's Argo, a film which many cannot help but compare vaguely. Maybe it was the violent subject matter of torture and endless disputes brought forth by former CIA agents criticizing the realism. Then again, what stopped director Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained from losing steam for being a more hyper-violent (and frankly, a little shoddy) story? However, say what you will, but what Bigelow has produced is a masterpiece in the War on Terror genre of film making.

Which Christmas Release Stands the Best Chances at Best Picture?

Les Miserables

Update: I have written a review for Les Miserables posted here.

Before I begin, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Why is this relevant? Because as per usual, almost every December 25 sees the release of the tent pole movies of the year. This year's class joins the ranks of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (though that did open on the 20th) in terms of films that somehow deserve to be the last of the awards-worthy. This year, we have three very interesting, if entirely different nominees: director Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, director Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (released December 21), and director Tom Hooper's Les Miserables. Will any of them stand a chance when it comes to winning Best Picture, or is Argo pretty much locked in?