Soundtracking: The Best Musical Moments of 2018

by Chris Feil

We have had another banner year for cinematic variants of musicals - from the classic (A Star is Born, Mary Poppins Returns) to the modern (Hearts Beat Loud, Vox Lux) to the unfortunate (Bohemian Rhapsody). But there's more than just musicals that have made an impact! As ever, I've had my ear towards all sorts of needle drops and clever cues where movie music has been concerned this year. You know, the kind of stuff that makes Soundtracking tick.

We've already discussed what Oscar might hold for the Original Song category this year, but 2018 was largely defined for me by songs familiar and unexpected. Join me like Charlize Theron doing Carly Rae Jepsen karaoke in Tully and sing along to the year's best musical moments...

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More top ten lists for your reading pleasure...

List after list every day now. Wheeee,  we love this time of year even as we wish the majority of critics would actually wait for the last week of the year or the first week of the new year to do their top ten lists. Nobody has seen enough by early December is our feeling. But anyway here are a few more lists to check out from popular critics and sites...

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Team Experience on Globe Snubs, Strange Honors, and Best Director Nominees

As is our habit we polled Team Film Experience and web friends on the Golden Globe nominations. This will come in two parts but we'll start with a cleanse by shaking off the bad feelings. We must bid a fond fist-shaking farewell to our favorites that the Globes shunned and reveal the nominations that confuse us.

We think you'll also enjoy the part where we choose which Best Director would best dramatize our moods while watching the nominations. Ready? Here goes...

1. Which omission most galls you?

MURTADA: Widows. Viola Davis for Widows. Elizabeth Debicki for Widows. Steve McQueen for Widows. It had many opportunities to get mentioned and zilch.

JASON ADAMS: Toni Collette and Carey Mulligan, the drinks are on me. [MORE AFTER THE JUMP...] 

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Months of Meryl: Mamma Mia! (2008)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep.  

#39 —Donna Sheridan, a dancing queen, hotelier, and single mother of a bride-to-be.

MATTHEW: When it comes to motion picture musicals, the old adage certainly holds true — they really don’t make them like they used to. But when it comes to Mamma Mia!, the 2008 cinematic adaptation of the long-running jukebox stage show/certified cash cow that’s still chugging along on the West End and in numerous cities across the globe, one could justifiably say that they, thankfully, never made them quite like this.

Structured around the music of ABBA, the story is thin but not automatically dire, at least on paper: Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried) is an unusually deceptive 20-year-old engaged to be married to Sky (Dominic Cooper) and living on the fictitious, picturesque Greek island of Kalokairi, where her mother Donna (Meryl Streep) owns and operates a modest yet crumbling hotel...

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Box Office Possible - Fallout

by Nathaniel R

The Mission Impossible franchise (in movie form at least) is 22 years old and just won't quit (and neither will Tom Cruise) having its best opening weekend yet with film #6, Fallout. It's also Cruise's second biggest opening weekend ever after only War of the Worlds (2005). My personal favorite of the M:I franchise is Ghost Protocol from 2011. Yours? 

Weekend Box Office Estimates (July 27th-29th)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
Mission: Impossible - Fallout	Blindspotting
1.🔺 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT  $61.5 *NEW* REVIEW	1. 🔺 BLINDSPOTTING $1.3 on 523 screens (cum. $1.7)
2. MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN $15 (cum. $70.4) REVIEW	2. 🔺 EIGHTH GRADE  $1.3 on 158 screens (cum. $2.9) CAPSULE REVIEW
3. THE EQUALIZER 2 $14 (cum. $64.2)	3.  🔺THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS $1.2 on 433 screens (cum. $6.7) REVIEW
4. HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3 $12.3 (cum. $119.2)	4.  LEAVE NO TRACE $499k on 289 screens (cum. $4.6) TRAILER DISCUSSION
5. 🔺 TEEN TITANS GO! TO THE MOVIES $10.5 *NEW*	5. 🔺 DON'T WORRY HE WON'T GET FAR ON FOOT $351k on 266 screens (cum. $860k)

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