American Symphony (Original Song), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Original Score)

 

IT NEVER WENT AWAY

from American Symphony; Music and Lyric by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson

Oh goodness, American Symphony seemed sure to be the Oscar winner for Documentary Feature, for which it was not even nominated. This incredible story of musician Jon Batiste - a homegrown star of New Orleans - while his star is on the rise. He takes the 2022 Grammy for Album of the Year competing with the likes of Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga among other luminaries, while also touring the country performing, while also writing his magnum opus. Sound busy enough for you? Well, in addition to all of that, his wife is fighting a very nasty cancer, ultimately leading to the diagnosis of a chronic cancer that devastates them both. The juxtaposition of the life in which all one's career dreams come true while all of one's personal family dreams become a nightmare emerge in this beautiful, heartbreaking, soul filling documentary. It is on Netflix and totally worth your time. (Enjoy the nominated song below.)

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY

John Williams

Can we ever get enough of the iconic John Williams and his incredible scores? With his 54th (and seemingly final) Oscars nomination, this is a pretty good one to go out on. Williams is the most nominated LIVING person in history (with only Walt Disney surpassing him with 59 career nominations), and if you listen to this or any of his scores, it is easy to see why.

Another reboot Indiana Jones film, this one shows an aging Indy who must retrieve the Dial of Destiny - a magical artifact that can transport people through time, allowing the carrier to rewrite history. As usual, Indy is racing against Nazi baddies who want to go back in time and help Hitler win the war, but this time, his goddaughter Helena Shaw is on the scene to take the lead.  Far surpassing the more recent Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull reboot, if only for the involvement of his original love interest played by Karen Allen.  This film has everything that a revival should - plenty of Easter Eggs to find, bringing back original cast, and all of the fun and joy that the original set of films offered in the first place. With Williams' score overlaid on this film, it was a nostalgic yet modern treasure.  One certainly worth of Indy's time and bullwhip.

 

Welcome back to another glorious year for movies!

 

I love the smell of Oscar announcements in the morning! (Yes, I was up at 5:15 a.m. waking from a dream that I was having that I had missed the announcements and couldn't find the list online anywhere...)

This year, we have 53 films with nominations - savvy readers will notice that it's a bit lower than in prior years, but that's what happens when 3 movies each capture double digit nominations, as happened with Oppenheimer (in the lead with 13), Poor Things (with 11), and Killers of the Flower Moon (with 8). With 265 total nominations (5 nominees in 23 categories), the Best Picture list of 10 captured 71, that's just over 25% of the nominations.

I've done pretty well in the lead up to the Oscars, with just a small handful left to see before the big night in March.  Thanks for indulging my moment of bragging, but in fact, it's the lowest number I've needed to see ever.  That's a tribute to my amazing husband who is literally the Oscar films logistics Director, constantly researching what's playing where and making sure I find every nominee.  Enough about us, back to the nominees!

Snubs and Surprises

I thought Bradley Cooper was a shoo in for a Director nomination for Maestro, what everyone is referring to as his Magnum Opus. Though nominated for Best Actor, Original Screenplay, and Best Picture (as a producer), I have to assume that he is still disappointed.  Cooper has a total of 12 career nominations which is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

John Williams earned his 54th Oscars nomination. Walt Disney is the single person who has had more nominations with 59, and Williams has said that he has reached the end of his career so won't be adding any more noms. Still, I think we could argue he is unrivaled in his accomplishments, ironically beating by far Leonard Bernstein who only had one for On the Waterfront.

As usual, the costume, production design, and makeup and hairstyling branch voters baffle me. Nothing for the Hunger Games prequel Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, nothing for Wonka. Only the latter had some buzz for the Oscars, but please go back and look at these projects and explain to me how they were completely overlooked in these categories.

We had a chance of up to 4 women being nominated in the Directing category and shockingly, the one who made her way in is Justine Trier for Anatomy of a Fall. No Greta Gerwig for Barbie, no Emerald Fennell for Saltburn (ACTUALLY NOTHING FOR SALTBURN - sorry Barry Keoghan and Rosamund Pike), no Celine Song for Past Lives.  Still, one of my favorites, Yorgos Lanthimos scored yet another nomination for directing (6 career nominations, 2 for directing) and I loved his film which will surely win for costume and possibly others.

American Symphony, the brilliant documentary on Netflix about Jon Batiste navigating fame and his wife's cancer was nominated for song but not for Best Documentary.  This is shocking because I thought it would win the category altogether, and I highly recommend you watch it.

And the biggest snub of all, Ava Duvernay's magnificent film Origin received no Oscar buzz, not for directing, not for screenplay (which I understand to be the greatest feat of taking a dense book and turning it into an incredible story), and not for Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor who frankly gave the performance of a lifetime. Duvernay self-financed the film and had no big studio to put in money to conduct an Oscars campaign (sorry guys, it's true... no campaign, very unlikely to get nominations). Nonetheless, a wonderful and important film.

There are certainly more snubs and surprises, but this is where I'll leave you for today.  Tomorrow we begin the real work, friends, reviewing each and every one of the 53 films nominated, and most importantly, telling you which ones to see and which ones to skip.

Happy Oscars Day!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) - John Williams

Best Achievement in Visual Effects - Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach, Dominic Tuohy, Roger Guyett

Best Achievement in Sound Editing - Matthew Wood, David Acord

Let's give you a little context as to why I already loved Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker before I even saw it.
1. Even seen every single film.
2. I've loved every single film (even 1, 2, and 3) and I'm not annoyed by Jar Jar Binks.
3. I went to an 8:30 a.m. screening of this film before I got on a 16 hour flight.  Did I need more sitting on that day?  No I did not.  Was there any chance I would miss opening week?  No, there was not.
4. I am a tried and true Star Wars fan.  I have nail stickers with Princess Leia on them.  This is not a drill, people.
5. In my first conversation with my now husband, we confirmed that we both were Star Wars fans, and now we are married.

Ok, have I undermined my own credibility on this film enough?  I believe I have.

So this installment puts a lovely little bow on the most recent of the Star Wars iterations.  There were so many easter eggs and just out and out references for the original films that I cried multiple times while watching it.  Ewoks! Tatooine! The X-wing Fighter!  Impressive CGI reproductions of Carrie Fisher, young and old! Surrounded by a really beautiful and compelling story, there was so much bloody red meat in the water for Star Wars fans that there was no chance I wouldn't love it.  It's an against all odds battle of the resistance versus the First Order, and the good guys win, the bad guys lose, and we still have a glimmer of hope that a door was left just open enough for us to hope that there will continue to be more films ever after.

By the way, John Williams is nominated for his 52nd Oscar, 6 of which have been for Star Wars films.  He won for the very first Star Wars and it is likely that he won't win for this one, but his score is magnificent, as always.  I believe only Walt Disney has been nominated for more Oscars than Williams has (59), but John is a very young 88 years old, so let's not count him out.

That's as many spoilers as you're gonna get.  See the movie.  It's awesome.  (Trust me.)

If you loved Star Wars, obviously you have to see them from the beginning.  There is no substitute.

Here's the trailer:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 4 nominations

Original Score, John Williams (his 51st nomination, and remember the rabbit hole I went down during Costume Design? John Williams has been nominated against HIMSELF for two movies in the Original Score category 5 times.)

Sound Editing, Matthew Wood and Ren Klyce

Sound Mixing, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Stuart Wilson

Visual Effects, Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould

Fans of the blog know that I loved Star Wars: The Last Jedi before I even saw it.  I love Star Wars.  I'm obsessed with Star Wars.  I liked the prequels, I like Jar Jar Binks, I'm just all in on the franchise.  So when I say that this film was excellent (with a few plot holes), I'm certainly coming from a biased point of view, but I'm also being honest when I say that it's a really great film.  

This is the second installment of the recent franchise in which scavenger Rey finds Luke Skywalker and begs him to train her in the ways of the force.  Skywalker is reluctant to get back into the Jedi training game.  Having been scarred by his experience training young Kylo Ren who turned to the dark side and who has become the now powerful sith eager to continue Darth Vader's dream of ruling the galaxy.  Kylo Ren is under the tutelage and leadership of the evil Snoke and uses the force for evil and not for good.

Meanwhile, back at the resistance, General Leah Organa (Carrie Fisher, and yes, I did cry almost every time she was on screen, what's it to ya?) is doing her best to keep all of our beloved characters focused on overthrowing the sinister First Order.  

There is much more to the story and there are some terrific newcomers into the Star Wars universe.  But one of the most interesting pieces of this film is the connection between our young Jedi hopeful Rey and Kylo Ren.  They communicate across space and when they are finally together, they join forces to fight a brief battle.  And here's one of the most compelling pieces of the film. The two have fought off enemies together, and they realize that the resistance is heading toward a trap spelling certain destruction by the First Order.  Ren says to her, let's forget about all these people, let them destroy each other and then let's start together afresh and make the world the place we want it to be together.  Now, we know that a moral and ethical person like Rey could never accept the destruction of good people fighting the resistance.  But it is easy to see how Kylo Ren can frame this situation as neither good nor bad, and let's just embrace a fresh reality without good and without evil that is just right.  Lots of morally relativistic questions in this proposal, but it goes to show that good and evil are frameworks that depend on the lens that you look through.  What an important idea in the midst of an excellent piece of entertainment.  

I'd have given this film many more nominations if I were the Oscars Czarina, but in the meantime, I highly recommend seeing it.  The visual effects, the sound, and especially the score are among the finest in film this year.  Yay Star Wars!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 5 nominations

Film Editing, Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey
Music (Original Score), John Williams
Sound Mixing, Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
Visual Effects, Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould
Sound Editing, Matthew Wood and David Acord

If you have not seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens yet, allow me to encourage you to keep your browser open to this review, pause, go see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and then return to your normal routine and to reading this review.  Don't worry, I'll wait here.

Ok?  Now you've seen it?  Great, and you're welcome.

So just in case you're having trouble remembering what happened while you were out, let me remind you of the plot.  The film begins 30 years after Return of the Jedi (Episode 6) and a new tyrranical organization attempting the domination of the galaxy.  Finn, a stormtrooper with a conscience escapes the space station with a rebel fighter Poe and lands on Jakku where he meets Rey, a scavenger who has been abandoned by her family.  Together they discover the world of the resistance.  I don't want to give too much detail about whom they meet and where, but suffice it to say that the original film, Star Wars: A New Hope has some very similar plot points, including once again having to overcome an evil master powered by the dark side of the force and they have to blow up a space station by depositing a blast into a very small space. 

I loved it.  I love love loved it. Now, full disclosure, I watched all six films in order (as in, episode 1-6, not the order of their original release dates) over the weekend and capped it off with this episode 7. I'm a fan.  I suspect that there would have been few versions of this film I wouldn't have liked, and I openly admit to liking episodes 1-3, which most fans in the Star Wars nerd-verse revile.

But that iconic John Williams music right at the beginning of the film gave me chills and even choked me up a little bit.  All of the Star Wars nominations were locked before the first screening began - the innovation, the visual and sound effects, the battles and the music and the dialogue; they were all so superb that I wouldn't be surprised if the film sweeps all of its categories with wins.  This is John Williams (Original Score) 50th Oscar nomination.  That is not a typo.  If anything prevents him from winning this time, it's only that the music is so familiar, he may be eliminated because voters will fail to appreciate all of the new beautiful music he created for this film. 

Nerd fan girl, out.