Soundtracking: 2017's Original Song Nominees

by Chris Feil

Chris here, with your weekly dose of movie music. If this year's list of Oscar nominated songs doesn't help relieve the widely stated concerns for the category, I'm not sure what will. Not only do you have a batch of memorable tunes you would have actually heard, but they also fulfill the branch's aim of being narratively resonant as well. Throw in some popular artists and rousing emotion and it might actually make for a less disposable part of the ceremony this year...

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90th Oscar Nominations: Shape of Water Leads. Darkest Hour and Phantom Thread Surprise.

by Nathaniel R

Guillermo del Toro's beauty & the beast style macabre fantasy romance cold war mystery monstery movie whatsit The Shape of Water led the nominations with 13. (The record for most nominations remains 14 held jointly by Titanic, All About Eve and La La Land). Darkest Hour and Phantom Thread were the overperformers this morning with 6 nominations each even though many pundits (including myself) didn't think they'd quite manage Best Picture nods even though we were predicting them in other categories. For the record I myself had Phantom Thread in 10th place and Darkest Hour in 12th place (oops). As expected Blade Runner 2049 was the most nominated film without a Best Picture nomination (5 nominations. The record in the new era of the expanded Best Picture field remains with Carol which had 6 nominations). And finally The Post ends its whiplashing inducing what-is-happening-with-this-movie precursor adventure by scoring just 2 nods but they're biggies: Picture and Actress. 

TRIVIA AND COMMENTARY FOLLOWS...

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Call Me By Your Box Office

No box-office charts this weekend as SAG is this evening (we're expecting repeat winners from the Globes but for maybe a shock Ensemble win for Get Out). The top ten movies were mostly middle America aimed stuff while the Oscar buzzing titles have all finally gone wide but just barely (most between 800-1000 screens). The exception to this divide between all-quadrant aimed releases and adult awards fare is The Post which is benefitting from its triple starpower (Spielberg. Streeps. Hanks) adding another $12 million to its tally.

The weekend's loser is arguably Call Me By Your Name whichwent wide after 9 full weeks -- more than 2 months after it hit theaters and a full years after its Sundance bow! Audiences have apparently lost their once-obvious curiousity about it. This 20th century strategy of platforming just doesn't vibe well with how people consume their media these days. There are so many options out there that if you wait and wait and wait people simply move on. This is not the 90s, Sony Pictures Classics, so wake up!  When you're handling art films with marketable angles (stars, controversy, Oscar buzz) you can... you must... move swiftly (or at least not slowly) to find your audience. If you wanna play that wait-wait-wait game with something harder to sell that you need major word of mouth on (like, oh, subtitled films) go ahead but not an awards vehicle with stars that's inspiring multiple internet memes as this movie did already sometime ago! Despite the addition of over 600 news screens the romantic drama couldn't even crack the top 20. If it isn't a major player at the Oscar nominations this Tuesday its theatrical life is about to end.

What did you see this weekend?

ICYMI
Greatest Showman is a Leggy Hit | Biggest Hits of 2017 

The 6th Annual Team Experience Awards!

Chris here, on behalf of my fellow Team Experience writers! Before Nathaniel shares his Top Ten and Film Bitch honors (not to mention the Oscar nominations on Tuesday - eek!), we've polled all of the other writers here at The Film Experience for their favorites of the past year without our kind and benevolent leader. It's our 6th Annual Team Experience Awards!

You'll remember last year we awarded eventual Oscar Best Picture winner Moonlight with seven prizes, and this year the wealth is slightly more shared. We had a lot of readers asking to see what our full ballot of nominations would be, so this year we have opened it up to reveal our winner and four runner-ups in each of our categories. Our nomination leader is Call Me By Your Name with 9 mentions, and craft-heavy Phantom Thread and The Shape of Water are right behind with 8.

Our most awarded however was granted to one of our most discussed, Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird. Because as Lois Smith's nun ponders: aren't love and attention the same thing? Check out our winners...

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Soundtracking: "Call Me By Your Name"

by Chris Feil

Luca Guadagnino has become one of our top cinematic sensualists, making films built to be felt in the mind, body, and soul. Music is one of the key tools in his arsenal, particularly for how he uses rock music in ways that feel unburdened by music video tactics. Call Me By Your Name is no exception, with both classical and more electronic music highlighting the internal struggle of its protagonist Elio.

The film begins with a John Adams composition, projecting a similar personality to what Elio thinks is expected of him...

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