Composing Greatness: #10. The Freshman Class of the 2010's - "La La Land" (2016)

Scene from La La Land

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.

Review: "The Favourite" is One of the Wickedest, Most Enjoyable Period Pieces in Ages

Scene from The Favourite

The idea of power is alluring. For a certain breed of people, the idea of getting close to it is a dream come true, and they'll stop at nothing to get it. That is at the heart of director Yorgos Lanthimos' first period piece The Favourite, as two women (Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz) enter a grueling battle to be the faithful companion of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman). Whereas most power struggles feel restrained and calculated, this feels like a truly antagonistic film, unafraid to paint Queen Anne at times as ugly and repugnant. Still, in her moments of weakness she turns to Abigail (Stone) and Lady Sarah (Weisz) help. It's a hostile world with lots of grossness and people assaulting each other, and all so that they can get Queen Anne's affection. Thankfully Lanthimos is a filmmaker who uses this icky surface to explore power not as something to be desired, but why would anyone want it in the first place. Thankfully, it's got a reliably pitch black sense of humor to make the awfulness go down smoothly.

Viola Davis Regrets Certain Things About "The Help"

Viola Davis in The Help

This Oscar season already has a packed schedule of potential nominees. Among them is Viola Davis, who recently won an Oscar for her role in Fences.This year she returns with a major role in the Steve McQueen-directed heist film Widows, what has already received a lot of acclaim at various film festivals. However, there's already some concern over Davis' recent past, as she has given an interview where she claims that she regretted her work in The Help. Does this mean she hates the role? Well, not exactly. What she meant it something a bit more nuanced and maybe more understandable in 2018 than it was in 2011 when the film became a late-summer sensation.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Battle of the Sexes" (2017)

Scene from Battle of the Sexes

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.

Review: "Battle of the Sexes" is a Fun Yet Uneven Match of Two Great Performances

Scene from Battle of the Sexes

Even if the film takes place in 1973, the rhetoric in Battle of the Sexes should sound a bit familiar. It's a contest to see whether men are better than women, and the cameras are on a self-proclaimed chauvinist named Bobby Riggs (Steve Carrell) and female activist Billie Jean King (Emma Stone). If it is a reminder of the 2016 presidential election, then co-directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton have succeeded thanks to a script littered with scenes and phrases meant to invoke a social liberal utopia. The match is a metaphor for greater change in the world. While the film does an adequate job by its characters, there's a certain underlying tragedy to 1973 going a bit differently than 2016. As upbeat as Battle of the Sexes is, it can't help but feel a bit deluded from the surrounding conversation. It's an enjoyable biopic, but maybe has its heart too much in the right place.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "La La Land" (2016)

Scene from La La Land

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 It Out: A Look at the First Annual La La Land Day

Dancers celebrating La La Land Day

It is likely by now that you have seen La La Land. If you waited for home video, yesterday was your chance to bring home the beloved musical that rejuvenated the genre and brought in $440 million internationally and won six Oscars, including Best Director for Damien Chazelle and Best Actress for Emma Stone. However, there was another reason to remember the movie yesterday. April 25, 2017 has officially become the first annual La La Land Day in Los Angeles, California. To say the least, it wasn't just a name on the paper. The city went all out with a celebration full of dancing and an appearance from composer Justin Hurwitz. You can read about the festivities and more after the jump.

Best Song: "City of Stars" (2016)

Scene from La La Land

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.

A Play By Play of That Best Picture Accident

It's a moment that nobody can forget. At the end of this year's Oscars ceremony, it looked like La La Land won Best Picture. With everyone doing the ritual speeches, a commotion formed behind them. As a producer ran forward, he announced that there had been a mistake. The film that everyone predicted to have won didn't win at all. In fact, it was Moonlight. Not only was it the moment of the evening, but it was the moment that recap coverage has loved to focus on. So, what exactly did happen? To the best of my ability, I have pieced together the story based on interviews that have come out in the days since, hopefully painting a full picture of the most eventful 10 minutes of Oscar history to happen this century - or at least since Crash won Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain.

Check This Out: An Excerpt from My Essay on "La La Land"

Scene from La La Land

With Oscar Sunday less than 72 hours away, it's crunch time for those wanting think pieces and last minute predictions for all of the major nominees. While I have done extensive work on this blog, I felt like director Damien Chazelle's La La Land was something special. That is why I am proud to announce that I have published my own analytical essay "What's Old is New Again: An Exploration of the Themes of 'La La Land'" exploring the themes found in the film; ranging from why it is important to compromise, the impact of nostalgia, and why going off script is sometimes important. The following is an excerpt from the essay, which is currently available on Amazon for free (purchase it here) from February 24 until the 27th. Check it out and feel free to get caught up in the magic of one of this century's best musicals all over again.

"Moana" vs. "La La Land": Who Should Win Best Original Song?

Ryan Gosling in La La Land

While the Best Picture category may be the biggest award given out on Oscar Night, there's few other categories that could be as exciting as Best Original Song. This is because, unlike having to watch hours of movies, it's a category that distills the art form to a brief ditty. They are the indicator that most will have for these movies, and it's none more present than for soundtrack-turned-radio hits. This year has a phenomenal list (and Sting) to choose from, but there's probably only two that are neck and neck with each other: La La Land and Moana. Which film should win the category, and in the case of La La Land: which one of its songs? The following is a defense and exploration of each of the three songs likely to take home the top prize.

Here's the List for This Year's Golden Globe Winners

Scene from La La Land

Yesterday was a big day for movie lovers as The Golden Globes gave out awards to the best in TV and film. While this year's nominees were at times baffling (it's par for the course), the results were surprising often in a good way. With La La Land winning seven awards - the most by one film - it is looking more and more likely that Damien Chazelle's musical will take all of the trophies home come Oscar night. For those who want to know who won, keep reading. It was definitely a year of interesting diversity, and that's the perfect set-up for what this Oscar season needs. The only question is how much overlap we expect to get.

Review: "La La Land" Will Make You Believe in the Power of Movie Musicals Again

Emma Stone

There are few cities in America quite as depressing on film as Los Angeles, California. The place best known for film noir has given its fair share of famous sad endings including in Chinatown where things end horribly, ending with the line "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown." It's the land of disaster despite bordering the land of glitz and glam. There are few places deserving of a modern musical quite like L.A., especially in a year that many would consider depressing. Yet it doesn't take long for director Damien Chazelle to invade the city of opportunity and turn one of the most dreaded activities - rush hour traffic - into the elaborate song and dance number "Just Another Day of Sun." Before the number is halfway through, it will be hard to believe that this is the land that's inspired misery. In fact, it's the land of opportunity, and something that La La Land takes full advantage of in glorious technical detail that reminds you that films could be fun and that musicals aren't just silly; they're cathartic experiences.

"La La Land" Becomes a Box Office Hit in Limited Release

Scene from La La Land

It's the most wonderful time of year. For movie fans, Oscar season is in full gear and has a variety of options that you can see. With the recent Golden Globes nominations out, there's no shortage of options for your movie buck. In fact, the past month has produced a variety of box office records that are worth keeping an eye on. For starters, Disney's Moana continues to top the charts for a third week. However, it is the limited releases that have had the most interesting numbers. Following an impressive opening by Moonlight a few weeks back, director Damien Chazelle's musical La La Land has not only opened with good numbers, but has become the highest per screen average opening for 2016. In fact, a lot of Oscar-potential movies had a good weekend.

The First "La La Land" Trailer is in Running for Best Musical of 2016

Left to right: Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling

While the summer season tends to be a wasteland for Oscar-related cinema, there's one upside to it all: the trailers for the upcoming season are starting to drop with some frequency. So far, we've seen trailers for films like Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, Snowden, The Birth of a Nation, Cafe Society, and The Light Between Oceans to name just a few. Adding their name to the list is director Damien Chazelle, whose Sundance hit Whiplash became one of the surprise Oscar hits of 2014 and earned J.K. Simmons a deserved Best Supporting Actor statue. In his follow-up, he teams with Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in a musical called La La Land, which dropped its first trailer today. To say the least, it is in the running for best trailer of the year - less so possibly even the best original movie musical in quite some time. 

Nothing But the Best: "Birdman" (2014)

Left to right: Edward Norton and Michael Keaton in Birdman

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.

Birthday Take: Emma Stone in "Birdman" (2014)

Emma Stone in Birdman

Welcome to The Birthday Take, a column dedicated to celebrating Oscar nominees and winners' birthdays by paying tribute to the work that got them noticed. This isn't meant to be an exhaustive retrospective, but more of a highlight of one nominated work that makes them noteworthy. The column will run whenever there is a birthday and will hopefully give a dense exploration of the finest performances and techniques applied to film. So please join me as we blow out the candles and dig into the delicious substance.

Check Out the List of The Academy's 322 New Members

Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road

Following the recent announcement of new rules for this year's Academy Awards, The Academy has announced who their new members are. Among the list of 322 names is a mixture of actors, directors, musicians, and behind the scenes workers. As with every year, there's a lot of surprising and welcomed entries. This year sees a list that includes people as diverse as David Oyelowo (Selma) to Kelly Reichardt (Meek's Cutoff) to Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead). If for no other reason, it is an interesting list. The following is the list of names divided into categories as well as various credits that you'll likely recognize them from.

Watch This: Check Out the First Eight Minutes of "Aloha"

Left to right Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone

Well, after initial buzz that director Cameron Crowe's latest Aloha could have been his return to the Oscars race, it looks like it may not be happening now. If the critics' reviews are to be believed - or at least serve as a quality barometer - this is not going to look too well. With discussion of a ridiculous third act plot device and incompatible chemistry between Oscar nominees Bradley Cooper (Best Actor - American Sniper) and Emma Stone (Best Actress - Birdman), this may prove to be a little more challenging. With critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes pinning the movie at a lowly 19%, it may be looking closer to the Razzies at this point. However, if you are on the fence about seeing it, Sony has giving you a little enticement. That is, you can watch the first eight minutes for free right now.

The Magic Behind "Birdman" and its Use of Time

Left to right: Edward Norton and Emma Stone

For a moment, let's put aside the subtext of director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman. Let's put aside how it is a reflection of movie culture and that it serves as a metaphorical and literal comeback film for star Michael Keaton. Let's even ignore the attack on franchise culture that runs through the film and focus on something that is far more impressive: the passage of time. It may seem like a pointless question until you understand the technical brilliance behind those single takes that were established to create a singular flow. What makes them exceptional and adds more weight to the film than the awkward script or melodramatic acting is how unassumingly it transitions within frame from moment to moment and often day to day.