Soundtracking: "Batman Forever"

Chris ponders the cultural death of the soundtrack and Batman Forever...

While this series is mostly curious on how music is used in the movies, it’s interesting to also consider a film’s soundtrack outside of them as well. There were times when film soundtracks were provided some of the most popular and culturally recognized music, but those days are essentially over. Perhaps one of the first films to birth the “songs inspired by” soundtrack moniker was Batman Forever.

And much of its songs are simply filler, either referencing characters or existing as discarded b-sides (make that c-sides) from hip artists with some. It’s merely a package to be merchandised and sold next to action figures and tie-in product. It started a model to be repeated in blockbusters to come, from The Hunger Games to Twilight to Space Jam.

Click to read more ...

Tarantino's Family

By Salim Garami

What's good? 

Earlier this summer in July, Palme d'Or and Oscar winner Quentin Tarantino had announced the development of his ninth feature film (assuming Kill Bill considered as one work on his part): a movie revolving around the infamous Charles Manson family cult and their terrorizing in Hollywood in 1969. Reportedly, the focus is not going to be on Manson himself but orbiting him as it was also announced that Margot Robbie is slated to play his most notorious victim, the late actress Sharon Tate (of Valley of the Dolls and The Fearless Vampire Killers fame).

None of this is particularly news at this point, nor is the fact that Tarantino removed the production away from the Weinstein Company in the aftermath of the overwhelming amount of sexual allegations against company co-founder and former co-chairman Harvey Weinstein.

What is news is a newfound bidding war...

Click to read more ...

Nicole Kidman Honored by Los Cabos & Glamour Magazine

By Ilich Mejia

As if being Australian wasn't celebratory enough, this past week has forced Nicole Kidman to vacate two more spots on her already-crowded mantel.

First, she was honored at Los Cabos' 6th Annual Film Festival with a Lifetime Achievement Award. There representing Yorgos Lanthimos' The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Kidman accepted her award on behalf of all the filmmakers and film festivals that have supported her career. While in Cabos, Kidman also lamented the industry's dearth of working female directors and joked about how some certain Mexican directors keep turning her down (the nerve!). This is only the second year the Mexican festival gives out a Lifetime Achievement Award. The honor was first given out last year, during the festival's fifth celebration, to Italian actress Monica Bellucci.

Only a day after picking up her silver whale at Cabos, Kidman was off to New York to receive her next shiny thing... 

Click to read more ...

Complete the Sentence: The Greatest Showman Edition

Greatest Showman image by Annie Liebovitz

I predict that I will _______ The Greatest Showman because ___________. It will be nominated for ____________________. 

Complete the sentence in the comments please. (The new trailer is after the jump if you haven't yet seen it. We previously Yes No Maybe So'd the original trailer.)

Click to read more ...

Interview: Nikolaj Lie Kaas on Playing the Complex Lead in Denmark's Oscar Submission 'You Disappear'

By Jose Solís.

Since his breakthrough performance in The Idiots, where he played the sensitive, tragic Jeppe, Nikolaj Lie Kaas has remained one of the most interesting male actors in the world. Jumping from genre to genre, and from big Hollywood productions, to intellectual television series, his body of work is as varied as it’s complex. He’s played real life people, an assassin trying to thwart Tom Hank’s plans, a romantic hero, and one of the most beloved literary characters in contemporary Scandinavian fiction. But in Peter Schønau Fog’s You Disappear he reveals layers previously unseen as he plays Frederik Halling, a school headmaster whose world is shaken when he’s accused of embezzlement. Could it be that the brain tumor affecting his personality is to blame, or has Frederik always been this way?

The late, great Michael Nyqvist plays Frederik’s lawyer, and Trine Dyrholm plays his loving wife. You Disappear has been selected to represent Denmark at the Academy Awards next year, so I caught up with leading man Kaas, to discuss his work in the film, the way in which he approached a character like Frederik, and his opinion on awards season.

Read the interview after the jump.

Click to read more ...