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#Oscars 2020 Contender

oscar-nominee-tournament · 2 months

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Oscar Nominee of All Time Tournament: Round 1, Group A

(info about nominees under the poll)

JOAN ALLEN (1956-)

NOMINATIONS:

Supporting- 1995 for Nixon, 1996 for The Crucible

Lead- 2000 for The Contender

FRANCES MCDORMAND (1957-)

NOMINATIONS:

Supporting- 1988 for Mississippi Burning, 2000 for Almost Famous, 2005 for North Country

WINS:

Lead- 1996 for Fargo, 2017 for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, 2020 for Nomadland

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mmorgtruck · 2 years

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2020 contenders for best sound mixing oscar

The 92nd Oscars will take place on Sunday, Feb. Oscars 2020 Winners List, Oscars Awards Winners Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress: Some of the big winners of the night were Parasite, Joaquin Phoenix, Rene Zellweger, Bong Joon Ho, Brad Pitt. The award was presented by Salma Hayek and Oscar Isaac. Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson won their first-ever Oscar for the movie. Also Read: Oscars Gender Gap Narrows: Women Directed Record 27 of Best Picture Contenders BEST PICTURE At this point in this strangest of years, we seem to have a clear Top 4: Nomadland. One bright spot from the list of nominees is Parasite getting the love it so deserves with key nominations for Best Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay. Taking the spotlight amidst its equally acclaimed competitors, the 2020 Oscar for Best Sound Mixing went to Sam Mendes' iconic war drama '1917'. The two categories were awarded to the same film 7 times in the last 11 years. 9, 2020, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. There tended to be a high rate of overlap between the nominees and winners for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing. Scarlett Johansson, left, congratulates Laura Dern, winner of the award for best performance by an actress in a supporting role for Marriage Story at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. Martin Scorsese now becomes the most-nominated living director, with nine nominations (even if his nomination should have gone to Gerwig). Accepting her first Oscar, Dern thanked her in-attendance parents, my legends, Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern. Though it's unforgivable that Greta Gerwig didn't get a director nomination for Little Women, she did get a nomination for Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay. ‘Sound Of Metal’ Wins At The 2021 Oscars for Best. Also, Adam Sandler didn't get the acting nomination he so desperately deserved. Sound of Metal won the Oscar on Sunday for Best Sound, an award that was revealed by the films star Riz Ahmed during the Oscarcast on ABC. Beyond that, the wonderful The Farewell was completely snubbed, despite Awkwafina taking home an acting award at the Golden Globes. If that wasn't bad enough, the polarizing Joker leads the list of nominations with 11, including nods for Best Picture, Best Director, and Lead Actor for Joaquin Phoenix. These are 25 top contenders for best original song based on the songwriters’ Oscar history, the buzz generated by their projects, early-indicator awards and nominations the films have received. Who’s going to win the Best Actress Oscar in 2019 Is it going to be an industry veteran like Glen Close Or how about a pop singer Well, we won’t know the answer to that question anytime soon. Adam Sandler Should Have Won a Golden Globe

#2020 contenders for best sound mixing oscar

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nancydrewwouldnever · 10 months

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Do you think Chris feels anything when he sees his OG Avengers co-stars working with directors like Christopher Nolan and Wes Anderson in awards bait films? Even Mark Ruffalo has Little Things coming up which I think will be an awards contender. Heck, Hemsworth is working with George Miller. I know he's not everyone's cup of tea, but he's an esteemed director. Meanwhile, Chris is doing mediocre fare like Ghosted and Red One.

It's funny because in 2019, I thought he was on the right track doing KO and DJ. But it's all topsy turvy now.

I think he probably does feel some kind of way, yes, because we saw those little flashes of his personal issues shining through when he was making comments about Ana's Oscar nom during Ghosted press. He may say in interviews he doesn't care, that he's content with his career, but there's something on a deeper level that's digging at him.

And I think the derailment was two-fold: Jim Toth leaving CAA in 2019, Covid shutdown in 2020. Never, ever forget - it was Jim Toth who orchestrated Matthew McConaughey's rebranding from Himbo to Oscar-winning serious actor. I think Toth was looking at something different for Chris, even if it wasn't entirely working out in execution. He got him chances to be a producer, and a chance to be a director, as well as a chance to go back to theater. He started to get him looking at more dramatic projects, like The Devil All the Time and Defending Jacob. Chris may have gone after Knives Out, but Jim would have still negotiated it for him.

But the agent can also only do so much, since it's still on the client to pick the projects, and we've seen over the years that Chris has what is termed a "bad picker" for scripts. Perhaps his new agent doesn't now how to compensate or course correct for that.

#ask

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dweemeister · 3 months

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96th Academy Awards nominations reactions

Well, it wasn't doomsday. But it wasn't the best Oscar nomination morning I've ever experienced either!

And goodness me, the two major Best Picture contenders that have the most upwards momentum right now (Oppenheimer doesn't have upwards momentum, it's been top of the pack for the whole awards season) did well. And it just so happens, those two films are the ones I'm the most terrified to criticize.

Some thoughts:

From some of the talk going around and the lack of love from outside the United States, I'm a little concerned with Killers of the Flower Moon as it stands. It's my personal pick for Best Picture, jsyk. Ten nominations sure, but missing out on Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for DiCaprio is not a good look, despite the surprise Original Song nomination. Certainly, AMPAS is majority/plurality American, so the story strikes deep chords for any of us who care a smidgen about the nation's history and racial injustice. But I have been seeing chatter - not gonna name nationalities - from outside North America saying how they're tired of American racial guilt movies. That is an aspect of KOTFM, but that completely flattens a morally complicated, beautifully made work. A near-miracle it was made in 2020s Hollywood. I think another part of it is that we are all now taking the Scorsese and Spielberg generation of filmmakers for granted. They've come full circle. Their films have done wretchedly at recent Academy Awards ceremonies as of late, and undeservedly so.

The (imo) overperformance of Poor Things makes the Gladstone v Stone matchup look like it may be slowly tipping away from Lily Gladstone. I don't think I will be writing on the film on this blog but, suffice it to say, I didn't enjoy it. Yorgos Lanthimos is a director that has never truly clicked with me, largely due to his earlier, very cynical work. Poor Things is not as cynical, but I didn't care for the messaging at all (yes, Victorian men were sexual hypocrites and miscreants - how self-congratulatory, I found it) or its sense of humor. I guess some can say that I'm just another puritanical American prude, as well. But I thought the sex was getting into the male gaze-y territory, and the sex work subplot was way waaayyy too sanitized. I also despised the atonal score by Jerskin Fendrix, which was very close to stuff me and my orchestra mates might do if we were messing around in rehearsal (disclosure: I was taught classical piano and violin, have studied music theory up to the college level, played in various orchestras up to a decent level in high school, and am a massive film score fan).

It looks like Oppenheimer is running away with this. I just don't see how anything can stop it in Best Picture. I can respect an Oppenheimer Best Picture winner, even if I'm not even sure if it cracks my top three and Nolan is certainly not one of my favorite filmmakers.

I don't think Oppenheimer is getting Best Actor, though. Rooting for Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers on that one. Shame Dominic Sessa couldn't join him in Supporting Actor, but Da'Vine Joy Randolph has essentially got the Oscar in the bag - despite my reservations on how her character essentially disappears in the last third of the film.

But what about Barbie? It's a movie I respect, deeply. But I never thought it in the caliber of Best Picture nominee one bit. The America Ferrera nomination in Supporting Actress I don't support one bit. Gosling? Sure. Robbie? Had a better case than Ferrera, but I understand why she didn't get it. Gerwig? I'm on the fence over her exclusion in Director.

Sensational stuff for Justine Triet and Anatomy of a Fall. It's probably my #2 vote in Best Picture. I just wish Milo Machado Graner was in for Supporting Actor. This is a dark horse, folks, more than capable of pulling off an upset or two come Oscar night. And a damned good movie, too...

... But its success appears to have come at the expense of Trần Anh Hùng's The Taste of Things. And as the Artistic Director of Viet Film Fest in Orange County, California, that stings, as he's VFF alumni. When France passed over Anatomy of a Fall for The Taste of Things in Best International Feature, there was a lot of outrage directed at Taste by people who had and had not seen the film. Perhaps the damage was already done. A massive shame if that was the case.

Other than Poor Things, the other movie with tons of upward momentum right now is Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest. For the record, I think, on its face, you can still make a morally responsible movie about the Holocaust from a Nazi point of view - which I think Glazer mostly does. But my criticism comes from elsewhere. Glazer, in interviews, has said how he wanted to 1) make the movie not primarily about the 1940s, but about our time and our complicity in atrocities and 2) make a film shorn of cinematic artifice to absorb us into the setting. I think his messaging never evolves beyond the basics on the first point; I think he utterly fails on the second. Cases in point: the use of nightvision cameras that only serve to remind the audience they are watching an artistic exercise, the horrific score from Mica Levi that too many film critics (who don't know better, most notably David Ehrlich at IndieWire - really, everyone at IndieWire), and a weird sound mix that reminds me of when stage plays play off-stage sound effects or background noise but that audio doesn't sound sufficiently "far away" enough.

A slight underperformance by Past Lives. It was never going to get a boatload of nominations. But it appears Greta Lee was squeezed out (I have nothing constructive to say about Annette Bening and Jodie Foster in Nyad as I haven't seen the film) and there was scarcely a campaign for Teo Yoo.

American Fiction is, I think, going home empty-handed. Its nominations are the win, and I think it's a decent satire well worth watching.

Maestro doesn't deserve a Best Picture nor its screenplay nomination, but I'm not happy with some of the accusations of Bradley Cooper Oscar-thirsting that's flying around. You folks are taking it much too personally. Did he defecate on your kitchen table or something? Calm. Down.

And speaking about disrespect, there has been a ton of disrespect towards John Williams' nomination for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Again, we're coming full circle to an iconic figure of late twentieth century cinema. Especially from fans of Daniel Pemberton's score to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (who I agree should have been nominated in Score). No, Indy 5 was not great. No, Williams' score to the film was not the best score in the series. No, I don't think Williams should win this year. But did you listen to the score? Helena's theme was gorgeous and its integration across the score was the work of a master. The interplay between the Nazi and Dial themes is something lesser composers just simply cannot replicate. And for those complaining that Williams simply reuses material the entire time, I get the feeling you haven't seen the film or listening to the score by itself (or understand how themes can develop). Yes, I know melody is on its way out in film scores (see: Hans Zimmer, his acolytes, and any composer who thinks that orchestras should be used like drums) and pop music in general in favor of texture and a beat. But I bet you many composers will sell their souls to piece together something half as good as a lesser John Williams score. It's a great score, worthy of its nomination.

Where is Robot Dreams, Neon? This movie's been on my radar for some months now, but radio silence! Do you guys not know how to distribute an animated film? Flee (2021, Denmark) had this same problem! I'm so glad it's in, though.

That nomination for Nimona, though? Dreadful. Again, tumblr won't like I'm going to say this, but I thought it was gratingly written, poorly voice acted, and its humor and character behaviors are going to date like milk.

And a massive congratulations to Godzilla Minus One for its Best Visual Effects nomination. After 38 films in the series, the big fella with atomic breath is heading to the Academy Awards!

No Disney in Animated Short for Once Upon a Studio. Surprising, but not completely so. I'm excited for a slate of independent animated shorts when the short film categories come around!

The Live Action Short slate is rather disappointing. I like the category best when it's full of no-name directors and actors. Without having seen anything else, this is going to Wes Anderson isn't it?

Most prioritized films I haven't seen: all short films, Elemental, Io Capitano, Perfect Days, Robot Dreams, Rustin, Society of the Snow, 20 Days in Mariupol

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inyourwildestdreams22 · 10 months

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“As of press time on Thursday, the studios’ festival gameplan is still unclear. Sources indicate there are ongoing discussions about pulling films from fall festivals entirely and moving their release dates. Alternately, if festival premieres are maintained, they’ll likely happen without the support of their actors. For Venice — a festival recognized for its mega-watt star power and glitzy red carpets — this is going to hurt.”

“For Venice, it’s shaping up to be a wait-and-see situation. “We hope that, in the interests of the entire audio-visual industry, the parties will reach an agreement quickly,” the fest’s parent organization, the Venice Biennale, said in a statement. But the prospects that the SAG-AFTRA strike will subside before the Lido launches are grim. “

“This year’s edition has so far announced just one title: Luca Guadagnino’s sports comedy “Challengers,” starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, which will open the festival on Aug. 30. The full lineup will be announced on July 25. “

“The question is whether these contenders stay in the line-up between now and July 25, or whether U.S. studios delay their Oscar-season launches for what may be a relatively brief time gap caused by the strike. Sources suggest Hollywood marketing machines are going to mount the campaigns they’re capable of under the circumstances. One scenario could mean that U.S. movies will head to the Lido with their directors in tow. “

“Numerous sources have observed that a Venice Film Festival impacted by strike action could be tantamount to the pandemic edition of 2020, which featured only a handful of American delegates and talent on the Lido. The difference, of course, was that actors were still able to promote their movies via Zoom. “

https://twitter.com/variety/status/1679505253379481601?s=46

So wait and see.

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mariacallous · 6 months

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(JTA) — Daniel Lombroso sees “Nina & Irena,” his documentary short film about his grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, as a coda to his 2020 documentary “White Noise,” in which he followed leaders in the “alt-right” movement.

For the four years during the making of “White Noise,” he was surrounded by neo-Nazis, who were on the cusp of a resurgence around the 2016 presidential race. “I never thought about my own connection to the material in any detail, and then I realized the reason I cared so much about this story before anyone else in the country was because of my grandparents,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “It was the stories that I grew up with that made me vigilant about extremism and curious and concerned.”

In “Nina & Irena,” which will be released through The New Yorker on the magazine’s digital channels on Wednesday, Lambroso’s Polish-born grandmother Nina Gottlieb — 90 during filming and 91 now — opens up after eight decades about her experiences during the Holocaust, when she lost about 25 members of her family, including her sister, Irena. Only she and her parents survived.

The New Yorker Studios film relates Gottlieb’s tale through on-camera interviews with Gottlieb that are interspersed with archival footage. Much of the film depicts simple moments of joy with her family, such as doing Zoom yoga with her grandson and her 90th birthday party surrounded by her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Gottlieb is fully independent, lives alone in Long Island and still has an active lifestyle.

“The film is about the richness of her life,” Lombroso said. “There’s a lot of what they call Holocaust fatigue that we all grew up watching a lot of Holocaust films and hearing from survivors and you expect certain things. You expect the train tracks and you expect Auschwitz and smoke and it was very important for me to not necessarily avoid the horrors — you have to understand the horrors — but also balance them with the comedy of her life. She’s so funny.”

The film has been a success on the festival circuit, including winning best short film at the Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride. The documentary festival DOC NYC included it among its “Short Lists” predictions for top contenders for Oscars and other awards.

Growing up in New Rochelle, New York, Lombroso knew that his grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, but she never spoke about her experiences during the war. She thought her stories were too horrible for her children and grandchildren when they were young. She always thought she would tell them later, but later never came. Lombroso realized that now was his chance to finally ask, before it was too late.

In the film, Gottlieb talks about her childhood in Kielce, Poland, and her relationship with her sister, spying on Irena and tattling to their mother. Even when discussing her sister’s disappearance, she has a matter-of-fact way of telling these stories, accepting what happened and not dwelling on the past.

Lombroso said her testimony helped him avoid the cliches of documentary filmmaking. Too often, he explained, “you’ve gotten your main subject to pour themselves out in front of the camera like it’s a therapy session. My grandmother doesn’t go there,” he said. “At first, I thought that would be a problem.” However, “with distance and going through screenings, I realized that’s what makes the film so different and special. Her message is one that you don’t hear much: Keep going in life. Don’t feel sorry for yourself. And if someone like her doesn’t feel sorry for herself [after] losing upwards of 20 family members, then I certainly can’t.”

Another surprising aspect of the documentary is Gottlieb’s compassion for her tormentors. Having been evacuated to Prague, she saw the liberated Czechs pour tar on German officers and burn them alive. She was horrified.

“One of the worst moments of the Holocaust for her was watching a German officer be burned alive by Czech bystanders. She says, ‘You don’t do that to other people. We’re all born little adorable children. What happens to us?” Lombroso said. “The person she has sympathy for is her perpetrator and I just find that so rare in this day and age.”

In order to get this level of honesty from his grandmother, Lombroso approached this project, his first personal film, like his previous work at The New Yorker, where he is a staff filmmaker, and before that at The Atlantic.

“I’m used to embedding myself with people who I disagree with. I always try to understand subjects in the same way. Even when I was dealing with Richard Spencer, who is a famous white nationalist, I was trying to understand the root of his ideology and how he became who he is today,” he said. “I wanted to understand how someone becomes that f–ked up. We went skiing together and I met his mother. That’s the kind of reporting I just love doing and I think people open up to me because I don’t feel judgmental towards them. I just want to understand.”

And despite his love for his grandmother, he tried to keep a certain creative distance. “My grandmother had no editorial control,” Lombroso said. “She saw the film for the first time a few days before it premiered, and I told her you cannot change anything. And sure, there’s a tenderness in the film that comes through because I love her and feel close to her, but it was important to me not to compromise my practice in any way with her story.”

The one time he did let her weigh in is when he showed her a synopsis of the film that mentioned survivor’s guilt. She was furious.

“She said, ‘I don’t feel guilty about anything,’” Lombroso said. “I think it’s important to see someone like her and that’s what makes her so inspiring.”

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goongiveusnothing · 2 years

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Ohh I’m browsing tumblr reading about the dwd drama as an outsider (not a fan of any of the people involved) and just found one of your posts and I didn’t know people that hate harry styles were a thing! Can I ask why? I feel like I found an unicorn or something, I always thought people liked him or were neutral about him (I like some of his songs otherwise I’m the latter)

A lot of reasons. The media has made it so for a long time everything he did received praise and ass kissing way beyond its merits. His connections to certain media juggernauts means they give him boundless prestige he doesn't actually deserve. His music isn't very good, it's very derivative and often outright stolen but nobody talks about that like they do other musicians. His lyrics are like a teenage boy's diary. He's marketed as the kind of consent and the end of toxic masculinity, but his life and lyrics reveal lots of toxic masculine depths. He's a massive queerbaiter who plays up the idea of his sexuality for the associated prestige and adoration while just being a basic fuckboy with women. He's managed to land himself numerous movie roles despite the fact he's not a very good actor. He's a Zionist who waved about an Israeli hammer as they bombed and killed 2000 Palestinians and uses the power fist to acknowledge other Israelis. He has weird racial and bigotry issues where he's not an outright bigot, but behaves in these weird homophobic and vaguely racist ways, like when he was outright terrified of picking up the BLM flag or acknowledging them in the crowd of his fans and only hired black people after 2020 and started liking photos of black female models then, as if that was meant to show solidarity with the BLM protests. He's incredibly pretentious, as well as a total dullard with nothing to say.

And his fans never critique him, they claim every mistake he ever makes is because his best friend Jeff Azoff is trying to ruin his career or because of Olivia or any of his white very conventionally attractive girlfriends. He's always the victim and they always use his sexuality to try and shield him from everything.

So we're just saturated with all this weird overhype for a very mid very basic dude and the media are all telling you yes, this guy is actually the King of Pop, his last album is one of the greatest of all time, he's a living legend, "the only rock star", a definite Oscar contender on his first 2 major roles, and you're thinking, what am I missing here? But for a long time until just recently you were told the naked Emperor was dressed in incredible refinery and nobody could say boo about it. So that's why for many he annoys the crap out of us.

#harry styles #don't worry darling #olivia wilde #florence pugh

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felassan · 1 year

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according to IMDB the Composer for the series music of Dragon Age: Absolution is Penka Kouneva [source]. from her mini bio on IMDB -

Recognized in Hollywood as an extraordinary talent, Penka Kouneva has composed on iconic video games (League of Legends, Prince of Persia, The Mummy), a NASA theme park at the Kennedy Space Center, and numerous feature films (the Oscar contender Aga, Sony Pictures releases - Encounter and Devil's Whisper, and Cannes and Berlinale favorites). Her music has received national press as "fantastic, luminous and breath-taking" (Billboard, NPR and Forbes). The Grammy-nominated soundtrack Women Warriors created by Amy Andersson featured seven compositions by Penka. As one of the industry's most accomplished women composers, in 2019 she was invited by showrunner Mark A. Altman and composer Joe Kraemer to co-compose the CW primetime TV show, Pandora. In 2020, Penka scored the Super Bowl TV ad campaign for Olay, #MakeSpaceForWomen. Like a great musical storyteller, her music carries the listener forth on an emotional wave with soaring themes and innovative orchestral textures. [source]

her discography is here :)

#dragon age #dragon age: absolution #bioware #video games

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shirkers2018dirsanditan · 1 year

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now. since moonlight’s surprise win in 2017 - excluding 2018 (shape of water) - the film that has led the nominations has been the BP contender twice - roma (2019) and the power of the dog (2022) - and twice was in the end not a contender at all with the very random joker (2020) and the pandemic year mank (2021). la la land made history with 14 noms, shape of water had 13 noms, roma had 10 noms, joker had 11 noms, mank had 10 noms, and power of the dog had 12 noms. all of these films except the shape of water (2017, 2018’s winner) lost best picture to a film with 8 nominations or less.

best picture winners and oscar noms, since 2017:

2017: moonlight (8, won 3)

2018: the shape or water (13, won 4)

2019: green book (5, won 3)

2020: parasite (4, won 4)

2021: nomadland (6, won 3)

2022: coda (3, won 3)

#coda and parasite were prolific as hell

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ao3feed-larry · 1 year

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It's written all over your... (or: the Red Carpet fic)

by BlueNeptuune

The star-studded cast of Steal My Girl graced the red carpet on Saturday night ahead of the premiere screening, sparking an internet sensation like no other. The film itself received an average of 4-and-a-half stars from early reviews, launching it into the spotlight as a contender for the up-and-coming awards season, but the real news came from the carpet itself. Oscar-winner Louis Tomlinson (Kill My Mind, Back For You) made his first public appearance following the badly-hidden split from his management in early 2020, and he wasn’t exactly keen to talk about it. It was also the first time since his earliest work (Still The One is featured on our summer-vibes throwback list) that he’s attended the carpet by himself – rumours swirled that he’d split with his long-time girlfriend, but are the two things related? Tomlinson himself wasn’t spilling any tea, but it looks like one journalist in particular might have coaxed a little more out of him than anyone else...

Words: 11569, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: One Direction (Band)

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Oli Wright, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik

Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson

Additional Tags: 2015 Gucci Suit, Long Hair Harry, Actor Louis Tomlinson, Journalist Harry Styles, famous/non-famous, purple pants Niall, Interview, Red Carpet, Heavy handed tea metaphors, blowjob, Semi-Public Sex, Hair-pulling, illusions to, Exhibitionism, industry closeting, Bearding, Mentioned Simon Cowell

via AO3 works tagged 'Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson' https://ift.tt/ZGCXcFk

#larry stylinson #larry fic #ao3 feed larry #It's written all over your... (or: the Red Carpet fic)#<p

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vague-humanoid · 11 months

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youtube

Actor James Van Der Beek (Dawson’s Creek) selfied his two-minute rant about how debates among Democratic presidential contenders will save democracy. He was triggered by the Democratic National Committee’s announcement that it “has no plans to sponsor primary debates.”

There’s a lot to unpack here, starting with wondering why Van Der Beek’s opinion is worthy of being covered by the news media. Sure, it’s “celebrity news,” reserved for celebrities saying anything about anything, but is it news news? The answer is revealed by the fact that most news outlets hyping his video are strongly right-wing, like Fox. The same thing happened last month when Joe Rogan made a similar observation. Fox was there to shout it to the world.

It’s what they didn’t shout that makes all the difference. Facts. The last four presidents up for reelection did not participate in debates. In 2020, when Trump was incumbent, the Republican Party held no primary debates before the presidential election. The Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced: “We continue to support the President and the vice president and the current administration.” There were no debates when George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, or Bill Clinton were president. Trump said he would not participate in the GOP-planned debate: “When you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA hating anchors asking the ‘questions,’ why subject yourself to being libeled and abused?” Why was that information missing from your video, VDB?

Political ranters often rely on their audiences’ ignorance of history and laziness at looking up facts.

Van Der Beek put himself out there but did no favors to himself, other celebrities, or his cause by being so ill-informed and illogical. (Where’s his outraged video about Republicans not having debates when Trump was president?) Yes, he’s hoisted on the padded shoulders of those who prey on the disinformed to make money (like Fox News) because he’s now an unpaid spokesperson for their brand. They are giddy because he’s going to make them money. But Van Der Beek himself is tarnished for his public display of bad critical thinking—and for spreading it to millions of others.

Now, to the core question of the value of presidential debates (the title of this piece is a strong hint at where I stand). Presidential debates, or any political debates, are worthless in determining the mental or physical fitness of a candidate, nor are they any indication of their ability to be a successful president. They are merely a form of gladiatorial entertainment in which we hope to see someone verbally pummeled by their opponent. It has all the elements of a good suspense movie: conflict, stakes, and suspense. And it has just as much meaning in the real world.

The qualities necessary to perform well during a debate are not the same ones necessary to be a good president. Integrity can’t be performed (though it can be faked with a catch in the throat or an outraged scowl). Neither can the ability to negotiate with foreign powers or the opposing party. All we get is their acting ability; only instead of an Oscar we hand them the presidency of the most powerful nation in the world. It’s like having a cafeteria food fight at IBM, and the winner gets to run the company.

Because they know most viewers won’t follow up a debate by reading the fact-checks that reveal their lies and misinformation, the candidates are free to say whatever they want: misuse statistics, make up studies, invent touching personal anecdotes. Squeeze out a fake tear for the gullible. It’s theater for those too lazy to do their duty as voters: research the candidates’ voting history, their proclaimed positions on all the issues, what actions they’ve taken on behalf of the people, and so forth. They’d rather have all that reduced to a tiny sugary pill, easy to swallow. That pill is the debates.

Debates could be a helpful tool—but only with serious changes. First, everything a candidate says during a debate should be fact-checked in real-time. Discrepancies and misinformation should be shown on a screen behind the candidates, and they should then be forced to address those differences. Second, critical-thinking professors should be brought in to address any logical fallacies the candidates use to make their points. Name-calling, false dilemmas, hasty generalizations—all of them. Put ‘em up on the screen. But we know that will never happen because no candidate will agree to those conditions.

That is exactly why debates are worthless political theater. Full of sound and fury—signifying nothing.

#Youtube

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signalwatch · 1 year

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PodCast 236: "Elvis" (2022) - a rock n' roll episode w/ SimonUK and Ryan

Watched: 03/06/2023

Format: HBOmax

Viewing: First

Decade: 2020's

Director: Baz Luhrmann

For more ways to listen

Your two hunks o' burnin' love take on the Luhrmann-ized retelling of the life of The King. We ponder the nature of biopics, fame, Dutch accents, appropriate management fees, pink suits and the power of shaking one's hips. It's another Oscar-contender episode!

SoundCloud

The Signal Watch PodCast · 236: "Elvis" (2022) - a rock n' roll episode w/ SimonUK and Ryan

YouTube

youtube

Music:

That's All Right - Elvis Presley

Unchained Meldoy - Elvis Presley

https://ift.tt/slbpfh9

from The Signal Watch https://ift.tt/Oyxj9fp

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denimbex1986 · 1 month

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'...Woodall is in the running for his first Emmy nomination. He’ll be competing in the Best TV Movie/Limited Series category, where he’ll face stiff competition from the likes of Jon Hamm (“Fargo”), Matt Bomer (“Fellow Travelers”), Andrew Scott (“Ripley”), Michael Douglas (“Franklin”), and Woodall’s “The White Lotus” co-star Hollander (“Feud: Capote vs the Swans”). However, Woodall should feel optimistic about his chances as his role is one that Emmy voters could really take to.

Firstly, Emmy voters seem to like charming, captivating characters brought to life by handsome leading men in this category. Sebastian Stan (“Pam & Tommy”), Oscar Isaac (“Scenes from a Marriage”), Ewan McGregor (“Halston”), and Jeremy Pope (“Hollywood”) are all such recent nominees.The previous contender Woodall is most akin to is Paul Mescal, who earned a bid in this category in 2020 for “Normal People.” That was another acclaimed romance show based on a book wherein the couple and the male lead, in particular, captured the hearts (and eyes) of its audiences. Woodall occupies the same space as Mescal here...'

#Leo Woodhall #One Day #Andrew Scott #Ripley #Paul Mescal #Normal People #Emmys

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dweemeister · 5 months

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2023 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (preliminary round)

Tumblr’s new post editor has disabled completely the ability to make indented bullet points. I apologize in advance for how ugly most of this post looks.

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OPEN invites to (or at least people who are committed to the final, but would like access to the prelim): @birdsongvelvet, @derricklogan2, @dog-of-ulthar, @inmyworldblr, @machpowervisions, @memetoilet, @metamatar, @myluckyerror, @noelevangilinecarson, @phendranaedge, @plus-low-overthrow, @qteeclown, @shadesofhappy, and @the-lilac-grove. Some of you have participated in past MOABOS editions, some of you are longtime followers I've not really spoken to, but have interacted with quite a few of my posts... if you are interested, please let me know. I'll assign you a group or I'll put you into the final.

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Hello everybody,

If you were tagged here, that is because you graciously accepted my invitation to help out with this year's edition of the Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (MOABOS). I welcome you to the eleventh edition of MOABOS (MOABOS XI) and the tenth edition with outside help from family, friends, and followers on tumblr. When I first opened this up to other folks in 2014 (MOABOS II), I believed that this would last but only a few years, at most. And every time the year is new, I have no clue whether or not there will be another edition of MOABOS.

But here we are yet again. The Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song is not possible without all of your help.

For newcomers near and far: This is a classic film blog (concentration: pre-1980s Hollywood, but I have various specialties outside of that and watch plenty of newer films). That blog's primary purpose is to host my nearly 800 film write-ups tagged "My Movie Odyssey" (an index can be found here). MOABOS is one of my blog's year-end traditions, and just a smaller part of a larger one. On my blog, the Movie Odyssey Awards honor some of the best achievements from movies that I saw for the first time this calendar year (the "Movie Odyssey") with an Oscar-like ceremony. I choose all the nominees and winners from each category, save one: Best Original Song. It is the only category that does not require you to watch several movies in their entirety. MOABOS is my way to say thank you for your friendship and moral support no matter how long I've known you. It is, sneakily so, a way to introduce all of you to music and movies I enjoyed this past year. And you might learn a snippet of film history through this!

INTRODUCTION

An unspecified number of songs have already advanced to the final round. 24 songs will contest this preliminary round in two groups - Group A and Group B. After three years of pandemic disruptions, the 2020s are finally making a significant mark on MOABOS, perhaps with a vengeance. Some of the highest-grossing films of both 2023 and 2022 are here to contend, as is a movie newly-minted as one of the highest-grossing anime films ever. But the defending decade, the 1980s (through Dolly Parton's title song for 1980's 9 to 5), has plenty of entries this year. It is the decade of pop culture I like least, but the 1980s have a decent shot at being the first decade to defend a MOABOS title.

Last year was regrettably a monolingual field of songs. Folks, multilingual MOABOS is back. This year, across both groups, English, French, Hindi (returning for the first time since 2020, or MOABOS VIII), Japanese (also returning after a three-year absence), Brazilian Portuguese, and Vietnamese will be represented. For their respective movies, they capture just a part of a nation's soul and filmmaking culture at a certain time. MOABOS, too, is its own sort of time capsule.

After a few years of slight decline, the preliminary round of MOABOS drew a record 36 people casting rankings. Might that record fall this year? That same preliminary saw a resounding rejection of American folk music (or spoofs of American folk, at least) and a decidedly mixed opinion of the style of Golden Age 20th Century Fox musicals (their plots might be silly and nonsensical, but at least they have no pretensions of being anything more than that!). No American folk this year, but 20th Century Fox has a few contenders this year.

1980s and contemporary pop have historically performed well in the preliminaries. With some formidable entries this year that receive regular radio play, does that hold up or are there upsets in the cards?

2019's MOABOS (MOABOS VII) preliminary remains the gold standard for sheer chaos. The miraculous comeback of "I Dug a Ditch" from Thousands Cheer (1943) in the prelim's final hour brought a song that seemed dead as a doorknob back to life. A song about digging a hole got out of its hole, if you will. No group since has ever matched that drama. Might this be a nailbiter of a result?

INSTRUCTIONS

Please rank (#1-11) at least seven of your group's songs. Please consider to the best of your ability (these are only suggestions, not strict guidelines):

How musically interesting the song is (incl. and not limited to musical phrasing and orchestration);

Its lyrics (incl. and not limited to lyrical invention and lyrical flow);

Context within the film (contextual blurbs provided for every entry for those who haven't seen the films);

Choreography/dance direction (if applicable; I know that almost none of us have a dancing background, but let's not discount this aspect entirely);

The song's cultural/sociopolitical impact and legacy/listenability outside the film's context (if applicable, and, in my opinion, least important factor)

A notice on audio/video quality and colorization of black-and-white film: Because it is sometimes difficult to find clean recordings of much of this music, imperfections in audio and video quality may not be used against any song while you are drawing up your rankings - you're on the honor system on this one. In addition, in respect to personal and blog policy, I will not provide colorized videos of films that were originally in black-and-white. You can call this snobby all you want. But to yours truly, film colorization of B&W is disrespectful to the artisans who plied their craft and made decisions based on the fact the film was shot in black-and-white. It is essentially redirecting a movie without consent.

You are encouraged to send in comments and reactions with your rankings - it makes the process more enjoyable for you and myself!

The top six songs in each group automatically advance to the final round. Unlike previous years, no at-large wild card picks outside the top six will advance to the final.

The deadline for submission is Wednesday, December 13 at 11 PM Pacific Time. That is 9 PM Hawaii/Aleutian Time. That deadline is also Thursday, December 14 at 1 AM Central Time / 2 AM Eastern Time / 7 AM GMT / 8 AM CET / 9 AM EET. This deadline - and some of you have joked with me that this is inevitable - will be pushed back if there are a large number of people who have not submitted in time. However, I very much do not wish to extend the deadline because the final round is more intensive and usually involves more participants. A small group of longtime MOABOS veterans will be asked to do both groups, if possible (but they are required to complete their assigned group first before moving on) - they are generally selected for their longevity of MOABOS participation and promptness. Tabulation details are under the "read more".

Please pay attention to the groups you have been sorted into, and please only submit rankings for the group you have been assigned. For your convenience, the YouTube playlists for both groups follow:

PLAYLISTS: (GROUP A) / (GROUP B)

Group A: be warned, I am somewhat trolling you on one of these songs. At least it comes early!

Feel free to listen as many times as you need, and I hope you discover music and movies that strike your interest. With the deepest appreciation from this grateful classic film fan, here are your group's songs. The following is formatted... ("Song title", composer and lyricist, film title):

GROUP A

“Apartment for Sale”, music and lyrics by Cate Blanchett and Todd Field, Tár (2022)

Performed by Cate Blanchett

After her cross-hall apartment neighbor dies, composer/conductor Lydia Tár (Blanchett; whose character is the first female music director of the Berlin Philharmonic) learns from the deceased's family that they think the classical music emanating from Tár's apartment is an unlistenable racket. They bluntly request Tár to stop playing music entirely when they meet with potential buyers. Moments after that encounter, this is her response. By this point in the film, Tár's rationality is very much in question. This is a drama about the hubris and manipulative ways for a person in power.

This is the shortest song ever to qualify for a MOABOS preliminary round.

“Barsaat mein hamse mile tum sajan (In the Rainy Season, We Met One Another)”, music by Shankarsingh Raghuwanshi and Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal, lyrics by Shailendra, Barsaat (1949)

(initial version) / (end-of-film reprise)

Performed by Nimmi (singing voice dubbed by Lata Mangeshkar)

Lyrics in Hindi (translations in the CC's in provided videos)

Raj Kapoor was a major director/actor in the early decades of Bollywood. In one of his first directed movies, shortly after the Partition of India, we find Barsaat. This romance tells of two love stories of city men meeting women who live in Kashmir (a disputed region between India, Pakistan, and China). Later in the films, we will find Pran (Raj Kapoor) and Reshma (Nargis) quickly falling in love. But this song surrounds the womanizing Gopal (Prem Nath) and Neela (Nimmi), whose faithful love for Gopal goes largely unrequited. After much convincing from Neela, Gopal attends a local festival – and doesn't pay much attention to this Neela-led song-and-dance number.

In the reprise, Neela has died near the end of the film. Reformed, realizing too late how horrible he has been to Neela, Gopal carries her body to her funeral pyre as the monsoon rains – as hinted in this film's very title – finally arrive.

“Ciao Papa”, music by Alexandre Desplat, lyrics by Roeban Katz and Guillermo del Toro, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)

Performed by Gregory Mann

In this stop-motion animated adaptation of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, director Guillermo del Toro injects the tale with his signature gothic touch – moving the narrative up in time to Fascist Italy and not shying away from the original book's grotesqueness and the title character's sociopathy. This song appears as part of a montage where Geppetto (David Bradley) goes in search of Pinocchio (Mann) after Count Volpe (Christoph Waltz) abducts the wooden son.

“Esse Mundo é Meu (This World is Mine)”, music by Sérgio Ricardo, lyrics by Sérgio Ricardo and Ruy Guerra, Esse Mundo é Meu (1964, Brazil)

Originally performed a cappella by Antônio Pitanga; provided version performed by Marina Lutfi and Adriana Lutfi (lead vocals), Sérgio Ricardo (vocals), João Gurgel (vocal/guitar), Alexandre Caldi (winds), Marcelo Caldi (piano/accordion), Lui Coimbra (cello), Giordano Gasperin (bass), and Diego Zangado (percussion)

Lyrics in Portuguese (extremely rough translated lyrics... "Saravá ogum" is an Afro-Brazilian exclamation; I'm not sure what "Mandinga" means in the song's context, but it's an Afro-Brazilian word that either refers to an ethnic group or "magic")

In this film almost never screened outside Brazil, two separate romantic storylines – a white couple and a black couple – play out in a Rio de Janeiro favela. In the latter storyline, Antônio Pitanga plays a shoeshiner. One day, while setting up his shoeshining equipment along the beach, he sings this song – an optimistic number in hopes for a better tomorrow. Black Brazilian romance was and is rare in Brazilian cinema, and the inclusion of such a romance so prominently featured in this film makes it a landmark of the nation's film history.

From the song's humble origins and use in the film, Sérgio Ricardo turned it into bossa nova. That's the late composer/film director himself in the provided video (the older man furthest to the left). The lead singers are his daughters.

“Hold My Hand” , music and lyrics by Lady Gaga and BloodPop, Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Performed by Lady Gaga

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song

This song, with touches of '80s arena rock and torch songs, appears at the top of the end credits. It is not quoted in the film's score at any point in this equally jingoistic sequel to the original Top Gun.

“I Know Why (And So Do You)”, music by Mack Gordon, lyrics by Harry Warren, Sun Valley Serenade (1941)

(initial version) / (reprise)

Performed by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, Lynn Bari (dubbed by Pat Friday), The Modernaires, and John Payne; reprise by Payne and Sonja Henie

This song's melody forms the backbone of the film's score throughout. In the opening minutes of this musical, we find the Phil Corey Orchestra (Glenn Miller and His Orchestra) rehearsing in preparation for a Christmas concert they will be headlining in the mountainous resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho. The first 48 seconds of the first video are an instrumental version of Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade".

The reprise occurs near the end of the film as Norwegian refugee/figure skating extraordinaire Karen Benson (Sonja Henie, a 3x Olympic gold medalist in figure skating) and pianist Ted Scott (John Payne) find themselves stuck in a mountainside cabin. Karen, who has fled Norway due to the Nazi takeover there, has been pursuing Ted for almost all of the film, and Ted finally succumbs to her charms here - to the outrage of his girlfriend (Lynn Bari). Suffice it to say nobody should watch 20th Century Fox musicals for the plot (but refreshingly, they're not pretending to be any more than what they are).

“Jean”, music and lyrics by Rod McKuen, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

Performed by Rod McKuen

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song

Adapted from Muriel Spark's novel of the same name and set in 1930s Edinburgh, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie stars Maggie Smith as Jean Brodie, a teacher at an all-girls school. Brodie, a woman with unorthodox teaching methods, has a cadre of favorite students nicknamed the "Brodie Set": Sandy (Pamela Franklin), Monica (Shirley Steedman), Jenny (Diane Grayson), and Mary (Jane Carr). Each of them are around twelve years old when the film begins. This film, an atypical "teacher movie", is about a breakdown of professionalism, betrayal of trust, loss of innocence, and hubris.

The melodic structure is inspired by the style of Scottish folk songs, and it forms the central spine of the film's score and plays throughout. The song itself is not performed with lyrics until the end credits. Due to the events in the film's closing act, the tone, placement, and lyrics of "Jean" become ironic. The lyrics are decidedly romantic but, in context, it's anything but.

“Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister)”, music by Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton, lyrics by Quincy Jones, Rod Temperton, and Lionel Richie, The Color Purple (1985)

Performed by Margaret Avery (singing voice dubbed by Táta Vega)

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song

Based on the book of the same name by Alice Walker, The Color Purple stars Whoopi Goldberg as Celie Harris in her breakthrough role. Celie, forcibly married off to Albert "Mister" Johnson (Danny Glover) as a teenager, has grown resigned after a lifetime of parental and spousal abuse. Mister has a mistress named Shug Avery (Margaret Avery), who works as a showgirl in Memphis. After one stormy evening, a sickly Shug appears at Mister's homestead for the first time and, over a few weeks, Celie nurses her back to health. The two grow attached and, as tribute, Shug performs this song at the local riverside juke joint.

In the book, the romantic relationship between Celie and Shug after this moment is more explicit. Director Steven Spielberg's greatest regret over this film was not making more of this romantic relationship. Given that the movie was released at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis and in an environment where LGBTQ+ themes were verboten to the major movie studios, I don't believe much more could've been done in 1985.

“Pink”, music and lyrics by Lizzo, Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt, and Ricky Reed, Barbie (2023)

(initial version) / (reprise)

Performed by Lizzo

After narrator Helen Mirren describes to the audience Barbieland, we are introduced to Barbie (Margot Robbie), just awakening from a good night's sleep, with the initial version of "Pink". At the end of that day at the nightly dance party, Barbie asks her fellow Barbies if they ever think about death – a Barbie faux pas. Barbie corrects herself, but remains haunted by her question when she goes to bed that evening. We hear the reprise as Barbie awakens the next morning after barely sleeping, and everything that can go wrong does go wrong.

“That Darn Cat!”, composed by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, That Darn Cat! (1965)

Performed by Bobby Darin

Appears in the opening credits and final minutes of this comedy. That Darn Cat! marked the end of an era and the start of another. This was Hayley Mills' final of six films for Disney (a run that included the title character in 1960's Pollyanna and in her dual role in the original Parent Trap) and Dean Jones' first for Disney. The provided version includes audio from the opening credits, extracted directly from the film itself (a stipulation in Darin's contract means that the original soundtrack version is nowhere to be found online).

“Trời Sáng Rồi, Ta Ngủ Đi Thôi (Good Morning and Good Night)”, music by Phạm Hải Âu, lyrics by Phạm Hải Âu and Chung Chí Công, Good Morning and Good Night (2019, Vietnam)

Performed by Hà Quốc Hoàng and Trần Lê Thúy Vy

Lyrics in Vietnamese (translation in provided video)

In this romantic musical influenced heavily by Richard Linklater's Before trilogy, indie musician Tâm (Hà Quốc Hoàng) unexpectedly forms a deep connection with Thanh (Trần Lê Thúy Vy), a rideshare driver who challenges his view of life, love, and art. This song appears at the top of the end credits. Most of the numbers in this film are composed in a style suited to Vietnamese indie music.

“When I Grow Up”, music by Ray Henderson, lyrics by Ted Koehler and Irving Caesar, Curly Top (1935)

Performed by Shirley Temple; first reprise (not provided) by Billy Gilbert and Arthur Treacher; second reprise (not provided) by Esther Dale

Orphan Elizabeth Blair (Temple) performs this at a charity show meant to raise funds for the orphanage she is staying at. At certain points in this song, she dresses up in a wedding gown and dons "old" makeup in respect to the lyrics.

Where Alice Faye and Betty Grable may have been the two primary musical adult actresses at 20th Century Fox, Shirley Temple eclipsed both. Her modestly-budgeted movies showcased her childhood innocence and spunk, endearing her to a moviegoing public faced with the dire straits of the Great Depression. She was the highest-grossing actor in Hollywood from 1934-1938, and moviegoers of the Lost, Greatest, and early Silent Generations credit Temple's movies as needed morale boosters.

The folks assigned to GROUP A include: @cinemaocd, @cokwong, @emilylime5, @exlibrisneh, @idontknowmuchaboutmovies, @maximiliani, @shootingstarvenator, and @stephdgray. You are also being joined by 15 others including myself and my sister.

GROUP B

“Animal Crackers in My Soup”, music by Ray Henderson, lyrics by Ted Koehler and Irving Caesar, Curly Top (1935)

Performed by Shirley Temple

Young Elizabeth Blair (Temple) and her elder sister, Mary (Rochelle Hudson) are living in an orphanage and are the primary entertainers for their fellow orphan girls. This number occurs early in the film and is quoted multiple times in the film's score. For those of you who despised this song's placement in those Shirley Temple DVD infomercials, I have no apologies to offer you.

Where Alice Faye (MOABOS X's "A Journey to a Star" from 1943's The Gang's All Here) and Betty Grable may have been the two primary musical adult actresses at 20th Century Fox, Shirley Temple eclipsed both. Her modestly-budgeted movies showcased her childhood innocence and spunk, endearing her to a moviegoing public faced with the dire straits of the Great Depression. She was the highest-grossing actor in Hollywood from 1934-1938, and moviegoers of the Lost, Greatest, and early Silent Generations credit Temple's movies as needed morale boosters.

“Barbarella”, music and lyrics by Bob Crewe and Charles Fox, Barbarella (1968)

Performed by The Glitterhouse

Played over the opening credits (not provided, because they are extremely NSFW) in which the title character (Jane Fonda) slowly undresses herself in zero gravity. Based on a controversially racy and heavily sexualized comic book series in France (even for the French!), Barbarella is a campy sci-fi movie that obliterated Fonda's homespun image in cinema. The movie was and is far more popular in Europe than it was in the U.S. (where it never became anything more than a cult classic).

In the years since, Fonda, a noted liberal activist, has essentially pleaded no contest to accusations that the film was anything but feminist.

“Captain Crow”, music by Nell Benjamin and Laurence O’Keefe, The Sea Beast (2022)

Performed by chorus

Appears in part during a celebratory night at a pub in the film's opening act. Full appearance at the top of the end credits. This is a sea shanty celebrating the legendary monster hunter Captain Crow (Jared Harris). The melody is seldom quoted in the film's score. In The Sea Beast, an unnamed country has waged a centuries-long campaign to kill sea beasts, in defense of humanity. Similar to American Westerns, the film and this song plays with ideas of how popular narratives or mythoi are spun.

(Instrumental-only version for those interested... many versions in different languages are available on YouTube, including French, Hindi, Italian, Spanish, Vietnamese, and more – some lyrically clunkier than others)

“I’m Just Ken”, music and lyrics by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, Barbie (2023)

Performed by Ryan Gosling and company

The Kens of Barbieland have just taken over power from the Barbies. In response, the Barbies, Allan, and Mattel employee Gloria and her daughter Sasha have manipulated the Kens into fighting each other while they attempt to reestablish control. According to director Greta Gerwig, the dance segment seen here was influenced by "Lullaby of Broadway" from Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935; see the warm-up playlist I sent to many of you) and "The Broadway Melody" from Singin' in the Rain (1952).

“Mujhe Kisi se Pyaar Ho Gaya (I’ve Fallen in Love with Someone)”, music by Shankarsingh Raghuwanshi and Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal, lyrics by Shailendra, Barsaat (1949, India)

Performed by Nargis (singing voice dubbed by Lata Mangeshkar)

Lyrics in Hindi (translations in the CC's in provided videos)

Raj Kapoor was a major director/actor in the early decades of Bollywood. In one of his first directed movies, shortly after the Partition of India, we find Barsaat. This romance tells of two love stories of vacationing city men meeting women who live in Kashmir (a disputed region between India, Pakistan, and China). This film juxtaposes the story of the womanizing Gopal (Prem Nath) and Neela (Nimmi), with that of Pran (Raj Kapoor) and Reshma (Nargis). It is the beginning of Pran and Reshma's romance that we see here, after she has been rowing Gopal and Pran around for the last few days.

“Qu'est-ce qu'on fait de l'amour? (What Do We Do with Love?)”, music and lyrics by Vincent Courtois, Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (2022, France)

Performed by Pomme

Lyrics in French (rough translation)

This song appears at the top of the end credits of this sequel to 2012's Ernest & Celestine, which was nominated (against the odds) for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The original was, as I wrote back in 2014, "cinematic friendship at its most rewarding and profoundly beautiful." In this sequel for our dynamic mouse and bear duo, Celestine (the mouse) accidentally breaks Ernest's (the bear) precious Stradibearius violin. It leads the unlikely friends to search for an old violin maker acquaintance of Ernest's back in his homeland of Gibberitia ("Charabïe" in the original title, a name derived from "charabia", the French word for "gibberish").

A further shameless plug for all of you reading this to seek out animation that is not from the major American and Japanese studios.

“Return to Sender”, music and lyrics by Winfield Scott and Otis Blackwell, Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)

Performed by Elvis Presley

The eleventh of Elvis' 31 movies (if MOABOS returns for future editions, let's just say there's a lot more Elvis to come) and the second shot in Hawai'i after 1961's Blue Hawaii, Girls! Girls! Girls! is a misnomer as there are only two girls vying for Elvis' affections (it would be an appropriate title for many other Elvis movies). My sister thinks this film should've been titled Girls? Girls. Girls!

Here, Ross Carpenter (Elvis) is a fisherman who spends his evenings as a nightclub singer. Fellow nightclub singer Robin Gantner (Stella Stevens) and the secretly wealthy Laurel Dodge (Laurel Goodwin) are very much attracted to him. This number occurs after Ross starts seeing Laurel, inflaming Robin's suspicions, and resulting in a spat at the bar that immediately preceded the song.

“Something He Can Feel”, music and lyrics by Curtis Mayfield, Sparkle (1976)

Performed by Lonette McKee, Irene Cara, and Dwan Smith

(use in film) / (soundtrack version with Aretha Franklin)

Loosely based on the history of the Supremes, the musical Sparkle is the story of the three Williams sisters (the late Cara as lead singer Sparkle, McKee as Sister, and Smith as Dolores). They decide, along with two of their boyfriends, to take their church singing experience and turn into a semi-professional group called the Hearts.

This song appears midway through the film, as the boys have dropped out to become the group's managers. The Williams sisters have renamed the group Sister and the Sisters (I would've kept the original name). The performance of this number is intercut with glimpses of Sister's troubled personal life – the film's Rubicon crossing, setting up the conclusion of her storyline.

The film's original soundtrack does not contain any of the original performances. Instead, Aretha Franklin sings all the songs from the film in the soundtrack.

“Suzume”, music and lyrics by RADWIMPS, Suzume (2022, Japan)

Performed by RADWIMPS and Toaka

Lyrics in Japanese (extremely rough translation)

This song's melody (especially the eighteen-note vocalized motif) appears throughout the film. But this version, with lyrics, only appears as the second song in the end credits. In this film, 17-year-old Suzume and a young man named Souta must journey across Japan to close a series of mystical doors. Mysterious phenomena are passing through these once-locked into our world, and are causing natural disasters.

Makoto Shinkai's latest, unadjusted for inflation, is the fourth-highest grossing Japanese film of all time. MOABOS regulars will recall previous entries from Your Name (2016) and Weathering with You (2019) – all RADWIMPS compositions. Suzume directly addresses a trauma that Your Name and Weathering with You danced around: the 3/11/11 earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

“Take My Breath Away”, music and lyrics by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock, Top Gun (1986)

Performed by Berlin

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Song

This song plays during romantic dialogue between Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Charlotte "Charlie" Blackwood (Kelly McGillis). Top Gun never plays the entire song. In its inexplicable four appearances in the film in a 20-minute span, the song itself is played muted underneath the dialogue, its lyrics barely discernible in those respective scenes.

“Tiền”, music and lyrics by Trần Khắc Trí, Good Morning and Good Night (2019, Vietnam)

Performed by Trần Lê Thúy Vy, Hà Quốc Hoàng, and company

In this romantic musical influenced heavily by Richard Linklater's Before trilogy, indie musician Tâm (Hà Quốc Hoàng) unexpectedly forms a deep connection with Thanh (Trần Lê Thúy Vy), a rideshare driver who challenges his view of life, love, and art over a full day. This song appears about a third of the way through, after a conversation about money ("tiền" means "money" in Vietnamese). Most of the numbers in this film are composed in a style suited to Vietnamese indie music.

“We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)”, music and lyrics by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Performed by Tina Turner

This song plays at the top of the end credits of the Mad Max series' third entry. In this movie, the late Tina Turner herself plays the antagonist (but neither true villain or antihero) Aunty Entity - who leads a post-apocalyptic trading post called Bartertown. "Thunderdome" refers to a gladiatorial arena in Bartertown in which conflicts are settled in a battle to the death (an aside: awkward as "Thunderdome" sounds as a lyric, it makes more sense than "Thunderball" from the 007 movie of the same name).

The folks assigned to GROUP B include: @addaellis, @halfwaythruthedark, @rawberry101, @rosymeraki-blog, @theybecomestories, @umgeschrieben, @underblackwings, and @yellanimal. You are also being joined by 14 others including myself and my sister.

Would you like to know something more about a song or a movie featured above? Do you have a question or comment about MOABOS's processes? Feel free to ask me! If you are having difficulty accessing any of the songs (especially if region-locked) or if there are any errors in the links above or the playlist, please let me know as soon as possible.

You will be contacted for the final round regardless of your participation or non-participation in the preliminary. If turnout in one group is lagging behind compared to another, I will ask some of the more senior participants to participate in the other group, too. Do not worry too much about this if you cannot participate, although I will be checking in as the deadlines near.

Once more to all of you here, my thanks for your support for the Movie Odyssey, the blog, and for me personally over however long I've known you. It's a privilege and a pleasure to share all these movies (well, excerpts of them) and musical numbers with you. It's my hope that you not only learn something new about film and/or music, but that you also find this very fun to do!

Happy listening, all. And thank you again!

TABULATION FOR THE PRELIMINARY ROUND

This preliminary round uses a points-based, ranked choice method which has been in use since MOABOS II (2014). A respondent’s first choice receives 10 points, the second choice receives 9, the third choice receives 8, etc. The winner is the song that ends up with the most total points. The tabulation method described here for the preliminary round is used only as a tiebreaker in the final round (more on how the final is tabulated when we get there).

The tiebreakers for the preliminary are:

total points earned;

total #1 votes;

song(s) which is/are ranked higher on more ballots than the other(s);

average placement on my and my sister's ballots;

tie declared

#Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song #Movie Odyssey Awards #MOABOS

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