Soundtracking: "A Star is Born (1976)"

Last week Chris Feil looked back at Judy Garland and A Star is Born's musical beginning. This week, it's Streisand/Kristofferson...

Some viewers have chastised the current remake of A Star is Born’s presentation of pop music, but it kind of pales to the cynicism and condescension to 70s rock and roll in the Streisand/Kristofferson version of 1976. What had previous been told as a saga of the film industry is transplanted into rock arenas, the emptiness of fame represented by a ravenous crowd of thousands acting a fool. Know a little something about Streisand’s skittishness with (sometimes rabid) crowds and you can begin to understand the film’s boorish presentation of fandom, so some grace can be granted. But nevertheless, fame suddenly seems all the more vacuous here in the face of Real Artistry.

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Soundtracking: "Her"

by Chris Feil

Say what you will about its hipster, ukulele verve, but “The Moon Song” from Her is one of the most deserving Best Original Song nominees of the past decade. Some of the reward may be carryover from songwriter Karen O missing out for Where The Wild Things Are’s equally deserving “All is Love”, but both prove essential to the emotional experience of their films. Seriously, Karen O, please make more music for films and not just those from Spike Jonze.

This song is a deceptively simple ditty, a longing love song that slips into the deep melancholy and faint whimsy of the near-future that Jonze creates in the film. It belongs to Her’s manic pixie dream AI Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), but also the romantic imagination of Joaquin Pheonix’s Theodore. Every couple needs a song, even if one of the parties is solely digital.

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Cabaret Pt 2: 'It makes the world go 'round'

Occasionally Team Experience will take a classic movie and pass it around for a deep dive. Cabaret is showing onscreen this weekend at The Quad. Don't miss your chance to see it in an actual movie theater if you're in NYC.

In Part One of our tag team look at Cabaret (1972 being our 'year of the month'), Nathaniel investigated the way director/choreographer Bob Fosse introduced the musical's three major players at the cliff end of the Weimar Era in Germany. He also touched on Liza Minnelli's physical expressiveness in creating one of the most memorable protagonists of all time. When we left off, Fritz and Sally had just forced themselves into their friend Brian's English lessons for a Jewish heiress. Here's Dancin' Dan with Part Two of our Cabaret roundelay - Editor

Part 2 by Dancin' Dan

34:45 "Bobby! A Landauer. In my house!" I love the little glimpses we get of the other residents of the boarding house. In the stage show, Fräulein Schneider is much more fleshed out and has some truly lovely moments. I can't say I miss it entirely in this film, but I still love seeing them.

35:00 Meine damen und herren, the most awkward tea party EVER. There are so many great moments in this scene, from Fritz pulling his jacket down to hide his fraying shirtsleeves to Marissa Berenson's accidental double entendres as Natalia ("This was a cold of the bosom, not of the nose." "Ze plegma? Zat comes in der tubes?"), which are even more cringe-worthy since she is so beautiful and nearly regal in her bearing. And the sass she gives Brian when he can't explain the spelling of "phlegm" is delightful!

36:30 Sally is VERY unimpressed with Fritz's overeager laughter at Natalia's jokes...

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Soundtracking: "Hearts Beat Loud"

by Chris Feil

Brett Haley is quietly becoming the American independent counterpart to Once and Sing Street’s John Carney, crafting happy-sad narratives with music as a key ingredient. With music partner Keegan DeWitt, Haley’s films feature characters at the end of their performance days taking one renewed grasp toward fulfillment. His newest film Hearts Beat Loud is the most addictively musical, and like his I’ll See You in My Dreams before it, its songs come straight from the heart.

Loud is the story of Frank and Sam Fisher, played by Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons, a father-daughter pair preparing for imminent college bicoastal separation. Frank is a failed musician and now record store owner, forever pushing the gifted Sam towards a music collaboration she perpetually resists...

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Soundtracking: "The Lion King"

by Chris Feil

When The Lion King arrived in 1994, it felt like the first Disney film fully developed in its post-Little Mermaid resurrected era. Whereas the genius of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin feel like passion projects born of new financial fluidity, this film rings like a triumphant self-actualization of its return to dominance. It’s right there in the in the rising sun and thunderous opening incantation of “Circle of Life” - Disney reclaiming with force what they had lost and owning the cyclical nature of creative power.

It’s arresting stuff on a meta level, but that’s still incomparable to the song’s visceral gut level impact. Paired with the imagery of a convening animal kingdom both too fantastical to be true and rendered with breathtaking reality, “Circle of Life” feels so monumental that even immersive IMAX screens and sound systems can’t do its scale justice...

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