Soundtracking: Chicago

by Chris Feil

With Renée Zellweger likely taking home another Oscar for her performance of Judy Garland this Sunday, it feels like a full circle moment for the actress’s career and Oscar’s relationship with musicals in the modern era. Rob Marshall’s take on the Kander and Ebb masterpiece Chicago was a platonic ideal between Academy voters (and the public) who sneered at the genre and its fans that were reinvigorated by the audacity of Moulin Rouge! just a year prior. Chicago injected new life into a previously dead genre, reigniting Oscar’s love as well, from all-out musicals to especially musical biopics like Zellweger’s Judy.

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Driver and Cotillard SING!

by Eric Blume

In other surprising/weird/interesting film projects ahead for us in 2020, filming just wrapped on Annette, a musical featuring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, and directed by French auteur Leos Carax. Apparently Driver plays a stand-up comedian and Cotillard an opera singer, whose lives take a twist with the birth of their daughter Annette, who is born with a "special gift".

The movie sounds gloriously bananas.  Is it in French or English, or both?  Leos Carax is, without hyperbole, one of the most idiosyncratic directors alive.  It's almost thirty years ago that he had Juliette Binoche waterskiing down the Seine in Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, and eight years ago that he mystified everyone with the accordions and role play of Holy Motors.  The man does not have a commercial bone in his body.

We know from Marriage Story that Driver can carry a tune. It's thrilling that at essentially the most pivotal time in his career, he's chosen to take a left turn with a movie like this.  And it's been far too long since Cotillard has had a great role.  She's utterly magnificent in Nine (not sorry, haters), and her two numbers in that film demonstrate her ability to both keep it simple / honest AND to fly into full-blown performance mode.  But...she's playing an opera singer?  Sounds iffy.   Still, Driver and Cotillard are two of the greatest actors working today, and matching them sounds wonderfully inspired.

This movie on paper truly earns the letters WTF.  Even if it doesn't land, it should at least be interesting!

"Dolittle"... again?

by Cláudio Alves

Doctor Dolittle's many literary adventures represent Hugh Lofting's biggest claim to fame. From 1920 to 1952, the English author published around children's books focusing on that eccentric Victorian veterinarian whose studies allowed him to speak to animals. The character is something of an iconic IP, so it's no wonder Hollywood has repeatedly tried to capitalize on its popularity. However, considering all the horrible stories and behind the scenes nightmares associated with these productions, it's a wonder any studio executive even considers putting on another Dolittle extravaganza.

The first of these misbegotten adaptations is a 1967 movie musical that's a good candidate to claim the title of "worst Best Picture Oscar nominee ever"…

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An "Evita" Reunion

by Camila Henriques

One thing I love to do each award season is to scan through the connections between the films and nominees.  That sighting of Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix at the Golden Globes  transported me immediately back to 2005's Walk the Line. Amongst this year’s Oscar nominees, though, the connection that has me most nostalgic is one between two category mates: Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce, competing with each other in Best Actor, are finally Academy Award nominees.

They have a past together in Argentina, the same country that gave us Pope Francis, played so delightfully by Pryce. More than two decades ago, Pryce played another famous Argentinian, former president Juan Peron in the Alan Parker/Andrew Lloyd Webber/Madonna extravaganza that was Evita. That movie also featured Spanish heartthrob Banderas, fresh off a successful transition from being the quintessential Almodóvar man to Hollywood player, with talked about turns in Philadelphia and Desperado. He'd become an even bigger international star with Evita... 

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Soundtracking: Waiting for Guffman

by Chris Feil

Music is essential to the Christopher Guest universe, from This is Spinal Tap to the Oscar-nommed A Mighty Wind to “God Loves a Terrier”. Waiting for Guffman, however, carries such a hefty cult comedy weight with it that it hardly ever gets discussed for the musical oddity that it is. On top of the film’s improvisational comedic genius, Guest also creates it as a subversion of the classic American “let’s put on a show” midwestern musical and of the consuming culture that is musical theatre obsession. Both are presented as lies of the American dream, both to comedic extremes and tragic disappointment, as the film charts the exploits of clueless dreamers in the small town of Blaine.

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