R.I.P. Adam Schlesinger (1967-2020)

Adam Schlesinger

On April 1, 2020, musician Adam Schlesinger passed away at the age of 52 in Poughkeepsie, New York after complications with the coronavirus. Over a storied career spanning 25 years, he created some of the most memorable tunes no matter what medium. In film he received an Oscar nomination for the titular song from That Thing You Do. He also was a founding member of the band Fountains of Wayne and wrote music for the musical TV series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. It's impossible to summarize everything that he left behind, but it's likely that if you've so much as turned on a radio or TV, you've heard his work. His legacy will live on with some of the catchiest music that helped to make other people better.

Review: "Ralph Breaks the Internet" is a Smart Yet Overbearing Sequel

Scene from Ralph Breaks the Internet

As any of the countless studies have proven, the internet is a crucial tool to how we communicate with one another. So why then is it so hard to capture the feeling of digital relationships on film, itself a medium of equally limitless potential? Disney's latest Ralph Breaks the Internet is a film that attempts to be everything all at the same time. It tries to make the internet seem like a world of wonder, where Disney Princesses can be pulled up in a second's notice, while discovering something darker and more unpleasant about humanity. Ralph may be a video game character, but his insecurity is a real feeling and something that Disney has been grappling with in the past two years with many films exploring toxic masculinity (Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, Coco, etc.). For a character who was built in the first film as sympathetic and misunderstood, it's a bit of an odd shift. However, it makes the film one of the studio's boldest films in a long time, serving more as an essay on internet culture than genuine entertainment. It may hurt the film, but it also makes it a unique achievement. 

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.

Can "Wreck-It Ralph" Convince the Old Voters that Video Games are Cool?

Update: A review for the film has been posted here.

With The Avengers blowing up at the box office, I think it finally time that we admit that nerd culture has become the norm. For the most part this is fact, though at the Oscars, we haven't seen too much traction for comic book or video game property films outside of technical fields. With Friday's release of Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, we see what could possibly be the first advancement in incorporating nerd culture to the awards circuit. In a year when we have two animated features about death (ParaNorman, Frankenweenie), it is a relief to see something different. However, can Wreck-It Ralph do one step better and beat the competition?