Soundtracking: The Best Musical Moments of 2019

by Chris Feil

Another year of Soundtracking has brought plenty of reflection on music in the movies. From more milquetoast musical biopics to studio musicals to pop songs reinvented through their placement into cinematic narratives, songs on film in 2019 were as ripe for dissection as ever. Let's discuss the best musical scenes of 2019.

Honorable Mentions:

- Cats' thesis: "A cat is NOT a dog, OKAY?!"

- Ash is Purest White making "YMCA" cool again

- MidSommar's creepy folk songs and Frankie Valli irony

- "Thunder Road" catharsis in Blinded By The Light

- Knives Out punctuating its middle finger finale with The Rolling Stones

- Joni Mitchell's "Blue" distilling The Last Black Man in San Francisco's melancholy...

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Soundtracking: White Christmas

by Chris Feil

White Christmas is a classic “let’s put on a show to save the barn” musical, except its traveling entertainers are saving... a resort hotel in Vermont. What it isn’t is a Christmas staple that has all that much to do with Christmas. Despite the title, the film is closer to a winter-set cousin to the likes of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes or Summer Stock, and still we watch it every holiday season. Perhaps that’s partial carryover from Bing Crosby’s White Christmas album (more of a staple in my household than the film was) and Crosby’s other holiday films (ditto, strangely) - his presence alone is enough to make him some baritone duke of the holiday season in the eyes of audiences.

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How do you solve a problem like "Cats"?

by Cláudio Alves

With Cats horrifying audiences around the world, including possibly you, let's all step into a hot-air balloon and travel to the heavenly lands of speculation. You see, a screen adaptation of the silliest mega-musical in Andrew Lloyd Weber's repertoire (give or take Love Never Dies or Starlight Express) was already a dicey proposition, but it needn't be so doomed. But add to that the deranged incompetence of Tom Hooper and digital fur technology,and we have something for the pantheon of all-time bad movies.

What could have been done to avoid catastrophe? Many psychologically scarred movie-goers may be asking this question from the depths of the madness that now consumes them: Could this have been any different? Could it have been better? Could it have been good, even? Maybe…

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Review: "Cats"

by Cláudio Alves

Somewhere along the journey of popular cinema, an unholy change of standards occurred. Once upon a time, the artifice of movies was seen as a delightful feature, but it slowly started to be seen as an enemy of quality. The pursuit of "reality" began to preoccupy serious artists and Hollywood hacks alike. The audience’s taste was thus guided in the direction of pseudo-realism. The look of natural reality isn't the point, but the feel of it is. For instance, Lord of the Rings' fantasy isn't close to our reality in any significant way, but there's a sense of material credulity that satisfies modern audience's limited suspension of disbelief.

To speak of such matters in the context of a flimsily plotted musical populated by cat-human hybrids probably sounds preposterous. That said, I firmly believe the movie of the Broadway smash Cats would be altogether less horrifying if it had embraced the artifice and theatricality of its premise...

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Golden Globe Predictions - Let's do it!

It's that time of year. The Golden Globe nominations arrive on Monday morning so it's time to throw caution to the wind and try and predict the ever unpredictable HFPA whims. I'm opting for double nods for both Scarlett Johannson (duh) and Shia Labeouf (whaaa?)

PICTURE DRAMA	PICTURE COMEDY/ MUSICAL
• 1917 • Ford V Ferrari • The Irishman • Little Women • Marriage Story Potential Spoilers: Decided to predict Ford V Ferrari because the Globes usually surprise somewhere but in actuality The Two Popes or Joker OR BOTH are safer bets.	• Cats • Jojo Rabbit • Knives Out • Once Upon a Time in Hollywood • Rocketman Potential Spoilers: Booksmart, Dolemite is My Name, Hustlers

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