Oscar Volley: It's a Barbie World in Original Song

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Today's Oscar Volley, on Best Original Song, is brought to you by Mark Brinkherhoff and Baby Clyde...

Will we see "I'm Just Ken" performed on Oscar night?

MARK: Barbie! Long may she reign.  The pop-cultural juggernaut of 2023 not only drew moviegoers worldwide (to the tune of $1.5 billion globally—Warner Brothers’ biggest hit ever), but also ruled the music charts with international smashes like "Barbie World", "Dance the Night", "What Was I Made For?", etc. And that doesn’t even do justice to perhaps Barbie’s biggest earworm, the delightfully daffy "I’m Just Ken". 

All of them were technically eligible for Academy Awards submission; yet AMPAS rules are such that only three songs from a single film can be submitted for Best Original Song consideration, and only two of them can land actual Oscar nominations... 

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Streaming Review: "Palmer" (Apple TV+)

by Christopher James

Justin Timberlake headlines the newest Apple TV+ film, "Palmer."When a movie has its heart in the right place, you can forgive a lot of things. Palmer, the latest Apple TV+ movie, is as saccharine as they come. It never aims to surprise, instead it just wants to make your heart soar and tear ducts swell. On both counts, it achieves its goal.

The film stars Justin Timberlake as Eddie Palmer, a former football star who spent the last twelve years of his life in prison. He gets out and lays low with his grandmother, Vivian (June Squibb giving you exactly what you expect), who often babysits her neighbor’s child, Sam (Ryder Allen). Sam’s Mom, Shelly (Juno Temple), goes on an indefinite bender, leaving Sam with Palmer and Vivian. Sam is obsessed with princesses and fairies, which often leaves him the target for schoolyard bullies. While Palmer initially bristles at Sam’s femininity, he soon becomes Sam’s protector, fighting for his right of self expression...

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Soundtracking: Southland Tales

by Chris Feil

Recently resurfacing with repertory runs of its original catastrophic Cannes cut, Richard Kelly’s notorious Donnie Darko follow-up Southland Tales plays like the most bizarre time capsule. It captures not only a specific ideological moment in the timeline of post-9/11 anti-Bush anxieties, but it also captures the aura of MTV in its dying days as a culturally dominant force. For the uninitiated: imagine a Nashville porn parody peppered with internet conspiracy theories and set to the Pixies, then edited for television. It doesn’t all work by a long shot but it’s kind of awe-inspiringly out there, and at its best when it realized that it’s really meant to be an opera.

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Soundtracking: "Inside Llewyn Davis"

by Chris Feil

"I don’t see a lot of money here."

With that cold, unfeeling line, F. Murray Abraham’s notorious club owner dismisses Oscar Isaac’s Llewyn Davis after a crucial impromptu audition. In so few words, he communicates that both Llewyn’s hard times and the commodification of his art form are here to stay.

After a taxing hitchhike from New York City on the promise of this gamechanger opportunity, the forever beleaguered Llewyn finagles his way into this audition and performs “The Death of Queen Jane”. The bitterness of Inside Llewyn Davis calms for Isaac’s crystalline vocals...

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Quick Links: Jordan Peele, Italy Dance Party, Nipplegate

• Collider why you should keep buying movies on DVD/Blu-Ray
• Vanity Fair wonderful account of Jordan Peele's visit to a UCLA class studying Get Out and how Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost inspired his career
• E! on the rise of RuPaul's Drag Race. Is it mainstream now despite RuPaul's protestations?
• select/all a terrific piece on "Nipplegate" at the Superbowl (since Justin Timberlake is headed there again) and on viral content before YouTube
• EW pandeomonium in Italy when Armie Hammer, Luca Guadagnino and Timothée Chalamet arrive. Dancing with fans, etcetera