Composing Greatness: #27. John Williams - "Hook" (1991)

Scene from Hook

Welcome to Composing Greatness: a column dedicated to exploring the work of film composers. This will specifically focus on the films that earned them Oscar nominations while exploring what makes it so special. This will be broken down into a look at the overall style, interesting moments within the composition, and what made the score worth nominating in the first place. This will also include various subcategories where I will rank the themes of each film along with any time that the composer actually wins. This is a column meant to explore a side of film that doesn't get enough credit while hopefully introducing audiences to an enriched view of more prolific composers' work. This will only cover scores/songs that are compiled in an easily accessible format (so no extended scores will be considered). Join me every Sunday as I cover these talents that if you don't know by name, you recognize by sound.

A Look Back at the Blunder of Coppola and the 20-Year-Old "Jack"

Scene from Jack

There is one stone cold fact that would take decades of unfavorable controversy to overturn: Francis Ford Coppola is one of America's greatest directors. There's no way to argue around this. Just look at The Godfather trilogy, The Conversation, or even the underrated Bram Stoker's Dracula. The man's ambitions to forward cinema through experimental style is unsurpassed. While he may be not as popular with his recent movies - a Comic Con panel for Twixt in 2011 was half empty - his legacy will never tarnish, especially as he ushers in the new generation of Coppola's from his daughter Sofia to his granddaughter Gia. Still, this may be hard to believe if your entryway into the director's work was in the 1996 family comedy/drama Jack. Now 20 years old, it's a miracle that Coppola ever recovered, but it remains a baffling dark mark on his otherwise intriguing legacy.

Best Song: "A Whole New World" (1992)

Scene from Aladdin

Welcome to Best Song, a new weekly column released on Sunday dedicated to chronicling the Best Original Song category over the course of its many decades. The goal is to listen to and critique every song that has ever been nominated in the category as well as find the Best Best Song and the Best Loser. By the end, we'll have a comprehensive list of this music category and will hopefully have a better understanding not only of the evolution, but what it takes to receive a nomination here. It may seem easy now, but wait until the bad years.

Nothing But the Best: "Schindler's List" (1993)

Scene from Schindler's List

Welcome to the series Nothing But the Best in which I chronicle all of the Academy Award Best Picture winners as they celebrate their anniversaries. Instead of going in chronological order, this series will be presented on each film's anniversary and will feature personal opinions as well as facts regarding its legacy and behind the scenes information. The goal is to create an in depth essay for each film while looking not only how the medium progressed, but how the film is integral to pop culture. In some cases, it will be easy. Others not so much. Without further ado, let's start the show.

Theory Thursday: "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" is Spielberg's Worst Film

Left to right: Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law in A.I.: Artificial Intelligence

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. 

The First Trailer for "Boulevard" Says Farewell to Robin Williams With Heart

Robin Williams

Among the many tragedies last year, we lost the charismatic actor Robin Williams. With a long and storied career full of amazing performances, the death ended his career with a lot of potential still left. Among his final roles is director Dito Montiel, whose film Boulevard holds the honor of being his final dramatic turn. With the first trailer out, it is hard not to question how it summarizes an impressive career and if it will serve as a cinematic farewell to a legend on par with John Wayne in The Shootist. For the most part, it at least looks like we might just get that opportunity.

Review: "The Butler" May Be Clumsy, But Its Heart Saves the Day

Forrest Whitaker

Ask any American person who has been through school, and they should be able to tell you a vague outline of racism in the nation's history. Almost everyone knows who Martin Luther King Jr. is and how segregation worked. It would be a challenge to make these subjects into interesting, original narratives that expresses a different side of it. While two of the more prominent examples are The Help and the wildly anachronistic mess of Django Unchained, they don't necessarily bring anything new to the story. In a way, that is what makes director Lee Daniels' latest The Butler one of the more interesting peeks into modern American history more than its counterparts.