Original Song nominees!

Ok Oscars babies.  We've already covered two Original Song nominees - "I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away" from Toy Story 4 (see Animated Features post) and "Stand Up" from Harriet (see Harriet post).  So today's combined reviews are for the rest of the Original Song nominees.

Rocketman is the biography of Elton John, brilliantly performed by Taryn Egerton.  It was totally different than what I expected as it combined the story and the songs - sometimes performed as regular songs, sometimes performed as dialogue from the characters, and sometimes performed as a music video in Elton's mind.  It was so great, and I am surprised it didn't get more nominations this year.  I had no idea what a complicated life Elton John had lived even though I know every word to every single one of his songs.  It's absolutely worth seeing.  Here's the song via YouTube.

Remember a couple of years back a song was nominated from a Christian themed film but was disqualified for violations of the rules?  Well, congratulations to the Christian film industry for this first nomination to make it to the finish line.  Breakthrough tells the story of a teenager who had an accident on a frozen lake and spent 15 minutes under water.  Certain that there was no chance of recovery, doctors advised his parents to let him go.  But the mom was filled with faith, as was the community, and together they prayed him back to life and a full recovery.  I'm sure there is an audience for this kind of cheesy film, I'm just not it.  If you are one of those people, this is about the quality of a Lifetime movie.  The song is quite pretty though, sung beautifully by Chrissy Metz of This Is Us fame.  Here's the song via YouTube.

Elsa and Anna are back!  And this time they have to save Arendelle from an ancient curse in which their grandfather dealt treacherously with native peoples, and are now paying the price for that offense.  Elsa finds new strength and courage, and more importantly, Anna discovers the truth of the past and makes tough decisions that only a true leader has the courage to make.  Frozen II is no Frozen, but it's a lovely little movie.  The song is also incredible, and all I can say is, "Damn Idina Menzel.  Is anyone entitled to be THAT talented?"  Here's the song via YouTube.