Blue @ 50: Joni Mitchell's Music in Film

by Brent Calderwood

The Kids Are All Right (2010)

“Songs are like tattoos.” That’s according to “Blue,” the title track on Joni Mitchell’s fourth album, which turns 50 this month. A half century after Mitchell wrote and recorded those words, it’s clear that Blue has made an indelible mark on the culture. Songwriters from Bob Dylan (“Tangled Up in Blue”) to Prince (“So Blue”) to Taylor Swift (Red) have acknowledged the influence of Blue’s achingly autobiographical lyrics on their own work. Just last year, Rolling Stone declared Blue the third greatest album of all time. And thanks to scores of cover versions over five decades, two of Blue’s torchiest tracks—“A Case of You” and “River”—have become American Songbook standards. 

No wonder, then, that filmmakers have frequently tapped into Blue, especially for their characters’ most vulnerable moments. While plenty of ink has been spilled over who the songs on Blue are about (James Taylor, Graham Nash, Leonard Cohen), screenwriters and directors often look deeper, mining the songs for what they are about: love, desire, loss, travel, California, Christmas, and much more. 

In honor of the classic album's 50th anniversary, here’s a look at the Top 5 times that songs from Blue appeared in movies… 

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Soundtracking: Oscar's 2019 Musical Moments

by Chris Feil

Idina Menzel's perplexed reaction shot -- we'll get to it.

This year, Oscar treated us to a more music heavy ceremony than usual. With some moments expected, some surprising, and some impromptu, the telecast had some naysayers asking “What is this?! The Grammys?!” Overall, yes, the musical numbers halted the night’s energy rather than propelled it, and that wasn’t helped by the producer’s decisions for when to have a presenter and not. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t moments of brilliant throughout. Here’s Oscar night’s musical moments from worst to best...

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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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Soundtracking: Diane Warren's 11 Nominations

by Chris Feil

This year, songwriting legend Diane Warren scored her 11th nomination. Readers, er, listeners will know her stamp on big ballads and pop music from as far ranging of legendary artists from Celine Dion to Cher to Mariah Carey. Ballading has mostly been the name of her game, and she's one of the greatest contributors to the past quarter century of pop music because of it.

Despite her legendary status, recent years have had some Oscar obsessives confusing her Oscar history for an entirely sour one. It's true that this year's Breakthrough nomination shows a music branch defaulting to her good name (without yet offering a win) all while sometimes overlooking more prominent work such as Burlesque or even A Star is Born's butt song. Yet what also remains true is that she is one of the great unawarded yet multinominated crafts artists among Oscar history. If music is essential to our relationship to movies, then she's written so many of our memories.

To celebrate Warren, here's a ranking of her 11 Original Song nominations...

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Soundtracking: Cats

by Chris Feil

One month after its catastrophic arrival and its official: Cats has entered the cult pantheon. But unlike the midnight musical tradition set before it by The Rocky Horror Picture Show, this disaster isn’t simply finding an audience that appreciates its merits. If the ultimate schadenfreude response to the film felt pre-baked by the gleefully unhinged  reactions to its promotional material, we shouldn’t forget that much of its failed vision falls squarely in the lap of director Tom Hooper.

Cats as a musical is supposed to be earnest, its silly concept a vessel for unbridled imagination from the bombastic funhouse of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Of course, it has always had vocal detractors - it’s still a musical about cats. But for better or worse, it’s a more tuneful score than it’s often credited as, even if it grates...

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