Oscar Trivia: "Arrival" and Best Original Score Eligibility

by Chris Feil

Like his Denis Villeneuve Sicario collaboration last year, Jóhann Jóhannsson's score for Arrival is powerful and one of the most memorable components of its film. One of the special aspects of Jóhannsson's work with Villeneuve is how his scores both embody and inform the thematic landscape of the film. The composer was Oscar nominated for his pulsing Sicario score and you can easily imagine him returning this year.

But before we guess too quickly, take stock of the moving final piece that plays over the film's finale because you may have heard it before. The gorgeous track, "On the Nature of Daylight", is actually by Max Richter and has been used in previous films like Shutter Island.

None of this is to discredit Jóhansson's terrifying and soulful work, but one wonders if such prominent and integral use of Richter's work could hurt the composer's nomination chances...

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Live By Night's All-Star Team

One of the advantages of opening extremely late -- though we hate to encourage it! -- is that you're fresh in the minds of voters when ballots arrive. With a film like Live By Night, which would probably not be a player next year if it had opened first quarter as originally planned (it's doing a qualifying week at Christmas) that could mean multiple nominations for its team. Ben Affleck is no fool and lined up a murderer's row of behind-the-scenes giants. Here are the most likely ways that it could affect the Oscar race...

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Happy 50th to Jason Scott Lee

Jason Scott Lee in Rapa Nui (1994)A very happy 50th birthday to one of our favorite 90s stars Jason Scott Lee. The Chinese-Hawaiian actor burst onto the scene in May of 1993 with major leading man charisma playing Bruce Lee in the mainstream biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and co-starring in the arthouse romance Map of the Human Heart. He chased that double with another the following year with Disney's live-action Jungle Book and the Easter Island tribe movie Rapa Nui. Only the last of those films was a flop but then he vanished, only popping up occassionally in supporting roles in action films. The roles just weren't there despite three early consecutive successes...

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Celebrity Mischief: Anne, Lin, or Mae?

• Anne Hathaway stealing a centerpiece from Dior
or
• Lin-Manuel Miranda copping a feel from Oscar
or
• Mae Whitman reading her former co-star's new book? 

Your choice after the jump! 

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Review: "The Edge of Seventeen"

by Chris Feil

You may have already been reading plentiful superlatives thrown at the new teen comedy The Edge of Seventeen starring Hailee Steinfeld. Perhaps a lot of that love comes from its refreshing lack of condescension or cynicism - Seventeen definitely comes with its share of authenticity. The film is actually a (mostly) good time, thanks to Steinfeld delivering what feels like a second breakthrough after her Oscar-nominated debut in The Coen Brothers' True Grit.

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