Soundtracking: "Mommy"

by Chris Feil

Notable among the complaints lobbed at Xavier Dolan are his music video stylings and his pop-heavy song choices. Say what you will about the auteur’s self-seriousness, but when his musical instincts work, they truly work. Nowhere does this musical instinct shine as brightly as Mommy.

The film’s psuedo-scifi premise (a fictional law allows parents to institutionalize their children) sets the film in the immediate future but the film musically shows its family unit as stuck in the past. Teenage Scott is christened with Counting Crows and Eiffel 65’s brainworm “Blue”, and he’s grafted with a dated whiteboy swagger. His mother Die is adorned in former hits from Dido and Sarah McLachlan, and we see the classy adult contempo hopes in her tacky bargain bin compilation CD package...

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RPDR All Stars 3: E2 - Divas Live!

by Chris Feil

After a phenomenal premiere last week, RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars retuned with a nod to it’s new VH1 home for a lipsync tribute to VH1 Divas Live.

For the children who may not remember this landmark televised event of living legends sharing a stage and its subsequent installments, this was the thunderdome of vocal runs and balladry. Some helpful context: last week Aja’s jawdropping performance snuck up on formiddable competition and Céline-d a stage of Aretha’s and Mariah’s. Morgan McMichaels was Carole King and didn’t stick around. Valentina Whitney Houston-d because everyone wondered why she wasn’t there.

Seriously VH1, it’s the 20th Anniversary of the first Divas Live. Be good to us and start a revival. And true to Divas Live, this episode delivered as much on personality as it did performance.

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Musical Break: Mommy's Céline

Manuel here trying to turn this wet and slushy frown upside down with some help from the movies.

Um...

As Nat noted this weekend, that might be one of the better responses to an alleged Oscar snub in recent memory but as with all "snubs," we have the films and boy has Xavier Dolan's Mommy seared itself into my brain. And so I'm using it today to help me brave this icy, cold, rainy weather we're having in the North East today (anyone buried under lots of snow?)

One of the best scenes in Dolan's film is set to Céline Dion's "On Ne Change Pas" and that song has been in constant rotation on my Spotify ever since (actually all of the songs from that film have!) Dolan has quite the gift for pairing radio-stamped hits with transgressively appealing scenes that don't just work as stylistic juxtapositions but as helpful characterizations. In the film, Céline's song functions as a cultural touchstone as well as an opportunity for bonding between the three main characters, leading to one of the most memorable dancing sequence in a film this past year. Kudos to Antoine Pilon for making Ms Dion so youthful and sexy even as most of us had written her off as, ironically enough, mom-soundtrack material. If you needed more reason to seek out this film, let it be a reminder (or, in my case, an introduction) to the beauty that is Céline's French-language repertoire:

Dolan's film is out in 83 screens; has it made it near you yet? Did you enjoy its synaesthetic sensibility and have also since rediscovered Dido, OneRepublic and Eiffel 65? 

Linksy

IndieWire the winners at SXSW Fort Tilden (narrative) and The Great Invisible (doc). You may recall that Short Term 12 was the big discovery last year so let's hope Fort Tilden hits theaters soon. But mostly I'm leading with this because the still released has kittens in it. Kittens!

But mostly I led with that because the first still released has kittens in it. Three. Kittens. Kittens, I say.

KITTENS

Ahem. Some links...
LA Review of Books Charles Taylor on Meryl Streep's recent string of gorgon roles and particularly August: Osage County. Really interesting article but Streep fanatics should steer clear since it is merciless. (Slightly confused about what this essay is doing at a 'Review of Books' since none are mentioned.) 
Golden Globe I hadn't seen this before - celebrities fav movies. Turns out Robin Wright loves Werner Herzog, Carey Mulligan loves Steven Spielberg, Emile Hirsch has very Oscar-bait taste, and Julia Roberts loves The Mexican most of her own ???
MNPP [NSFW] Jake Gyllenhaal on the set of Everest
The Playlist on Steven Soderbergh's King of the Hill Criterion release and his dissatisfaction with his post Sex, Lies and Videotape pre Out of Sight period 

Towleroad "Hodor" (Kristian Nairn) on Game of Thrones comes out in an interview 
Movie City News on "popcorn time" and piracy
The Wrap supposedly four actors fighting for the Doctor Doom role in The Fantastic Four: Eddie Redmayne, Sam Riley, Domnhall Gleeson, and Toby Kebbell. I'd say that wasn't a great get considering the face will be covered with a metal mask... but then origin stories, you know, they'll have some time before the face plate.
Variety uh-oh chest thumping Celine Dion could be back at the Oscars again in an Original Song performance. She gets a duet with Miss Piggy "Something So Right" in the new Muppets film 

Finally...
I don't normally post any fundraiser things beyond the site's own need for funding, detailed here. For instance, I had to make a ruling on no campaigns for indie movies simply because I get so many requests every week it'd be a part time job just putting up those posts with no added value for you the reader. But for movie theaters I'll make an exception. Brooklyn is home to so many cinephiles it'd be a pity if they lost another old theater. So if you want to help save the Brooklyn Heights Cinema -- which needs to update its equipment or be shut down -- here's the info!