Day 948: Music to My Ears?… Original Score and Original Song

Original Score

Okay… yes… I am a movie snob.  And, in addition, I am an Original Score snob.  Back in my old Marching Band days my High School exclusively marched Original Scores: ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’, ‘Jurassic Park’, and ‘Gettysburg’.  So… when it comes to judging the merit of an Original Film Score, I can’t help but wonder, ‘What would it look like on a football field?’

And as much as I’m sure Trent Rezner will probably win the Academy Award… I just can’t picture the music of ‘The Social Network’ making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up at a Drum and Bugle Corp competition.  ‘Inception’ or ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ on the other hand?  Now you’re talking!

Original Song

Hmmm… remember how I complained about Original Screenplays?  Yeah… well… I have a REAL problem with the Original Song category as well.  What could my problem possibly be?

Well… far too often songs are nominated (and win) this category simply for being a good song to play while the ending credits roll. 

The most recent Oscar winning examples of this are ‘8 Mile’ by Eminem and ‘Into the West’ by Anne Lenox (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King).  Remember Celine Dion’s song from Titanic?  Aerosmith’s contribution to ‘Armageddon’?  These were credit rolling songs and served no real purpose for the overall film.  I’m not saying they aren’t really good songs… but there is already an award established for honoring really good songs.  It’s called a Grammy.

However, the Oscars are all about movies and honoring the individual components that come together to tell a really great story.  To give the award to a song that didn’t further the plot in anyway seems, almost, sacrilegious.

In my opinion, a truly great Original Song from a Movie needs to fit one of three criteria’s:

1) Be sung by the actors/characters to further the story (like in a traditional Musical): “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” (The Lion King), “You Must Love Me” (Evita), “Blame Canada” (South Park), and “Chim Chim Cher-ee” (Mary Poppins)

2) The song must be an integral part of the story.  In these cases, the movies aren’t traditional musicals, however the story is actually about the song, or song can take on a character like quality: “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” (A Mighty Wind), “It’s Hard Out There for a Pimp” (Hustle & Flow), “Falling Slow” (Once), and “The Weary Kind” (Crazy Heart), and “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)” (The Man Who Knew Too Much).

3) Used to compliment a montage furthering the story by showing the passage of time, introducing a back-story or accentuating a key moment.  Randy Newman and the folks over at Pixar have mastered the art of the musical montage.  Together they have been nominated five times: “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” (Toy Story), “When She Loved Me” (Toy Story 2), “If I Didn’t Have You” (Monster’s Inc.), “Our Town” (Cars)… AND this year’s nomination for “We Belong Together” (Toy Story 3).  HOWEVER, the most creative use of the musical montage goes to P.T. Anderson’s use of Amiee Mann’s “Save Me” in the movie ‘Magnolia’ (One of my ALLTIME favorite movies).

As for the 83^rd Academy Awards?  Well, the Academy did me proud.  ALL four nominees meet the rigorous standards:

1) “Coming Home” (Country Strong) – Criteria 2: Performed in the movie by Gwyneth Paltrow, who plays a sassy county singer.

2) “I See the Light” (Tangled) – Criteria 1 & 3: It’s an interesting combination.  The song is sung from the perspective of what the two main characters are thinking (like a traditional musical), however, since the characters aren’t actually singing, the song also serves as a montage compliment.

3) “If I Rise” (127 Hours) – Criteria 3: First, you need to know that this song is sung by Dido (who I LOVE) and the use of the song during the films climax is EXTREMELY moving and powerful.  Well done!

4) “We Belong Together” (Toy Story 3) – Criteria 3: As I mentioned before, this is another classic Randy Newman/Pixar montage and MY PICK TO WIN.  This is Randy’s third straight nomination for the Toy Story franchise and he has yet to win. With each movie, Randy delivers a song so unbelievably touching, that not only compliments the story, but also draws us in to forget that we’ve become emotionally invested within a toy who knows what love really feels like.  BRAVO Randy.  You don’t simply provide songs to the Toy Story franchise… you provide the beating heart of magic that makes it special and keeps bringing us back.  I really hope it’s your year buddy!

Day 947: FYI - Oscar Nominated Short Films are Available on iTunes TODAY!

Okay, even though I am a total movie geek-a-zoid and Oscar crazed lunatic, I can actually relate and sympathize with folks who find the Oscars a bit boring at times.  In truth.  Yes.  It can be VERY boring.  Especially if you haven’t seen many of the nominated films… and if the producers insist on airing interpretive dances based on the movies you haven’t seen… or have seen.

However, there is a way to control this part of your Oscar experience… go see movies.  But honestly, there is only so much you can do, because even if you’re able to get out there and see the nominated movies… maybe even some of the Foreign Films or Feature Length Documentaries… no matter how well you prepare, there are still a few segments the normal viewer is going to find extremely boring:

1) The summery of motion picture science awards.  “Blah, blah, blah, blah…”  People complain about this segment ALL the time.  But listen, there is no way the Academy is ever going to figure out a way to jazz this part of the telecast up… and listen, you shouldn’t complain about it either.  There folks are laying the foundation of our movie watching experience.  Where would we be if the motion picture camera was never invented?  What if no one had tried to advance the technology?  Once a year, the Academy takes a time out to read aloud a list of seemingly inconsequential names in front of millions of viewers around the world.  Why?  Because they are the folks that are shaping the new technologies fueling our ever growing appetite for quality films.  These folks are creating the cameras, 3D and special effect technologies, and computer software’s that allow our directors to push their boundless imaginations into theatres around the world.  Is the segment boring?  Yes.  Are these inventors worthy of recognition?  YES!

2) The technical awards.  What the heck is the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing?  Why is it two different categories?  What in the world is good cinematography?   ‘The Wolfman’ was a horrible movie, why is it nominated for Best Makeup?  Besides, wasn’t the transformation scenes CGI?  Why are they wasting my time with awards that I don’t understand and don’t care about? 

Yeah… the technical awards are tough.  Not to sound pretentious… but I don’t think I fully understood the nuances of these categories until I attended the NY Film Academy.  And as far as the telecast goes… there are a seemingly endless number of these technical awards and if all you’re going to do is look at each film from its surface (good film v. bad film) it’s going to be very hard to follow what’s going on… thus, the longest segment of the telecast will be VERY boring.   And a bit frustrating. 

However, like its big brother, the scientific awards, the technical awards honor the artistic use of the available technologies.  Without these artists, where would we be?  Still utilizing stop motion special effects and mono-track sound? 

That said, over the course of this month I’ve been trying my best to break these categories down for you and I hope I’ve been some help in making your Oscar viewing experience a little more enjoyable.

3) And finally, one of the most, personally, frustrating parts of the Oscar telecast is the inclusion of the short films… mainly because I’ve never been able to see them.  For years, the nominated shorts were only available to Academy members… begging the question, ‘why are you wasting my time with something I’m not able to see?’ 

Well, over the years the Academy has been trying to make these short films more accessible.  They started holding public viewings of these films in random cities, but most of the time it’s for only one night with a limited number of tickets… it’s almost impossible for average movie goers to score tickets and participate.

HOWEVER!  Superman, in the form of Steve Jobs, has swooped in and saved the day.  A few years ago, Apple made a deal with the Academy.  I’m not sure what the details of their contract is… I only know the result.  One week before the Oscar telecast, all of the Oscar Nominated shorts (animation, live action, and documentary) are available on iTunes.  Today is the day my little buttercups!  Time to watch some short films!

Day 946: The Blurred Line of Original vs. Adapted Screenplay

These used to be my favorite two categories.  Great writing is the foundation of a great movie… and it’s important to, not only honor these writers, but to also differentiate their skills: Writing an Original Screenplay is very different than writing an Adaptation.

However, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten more crotchety.  And regarding these two categories I have a major problem with the Academy’s loosy-goosy definition of an ‘Original’ Screenplay.

Adapted Screenplay


Now, before I continue, ‘Adapted’ Screenplays are easy to define:  a screenplay adapted from another source (usually a novel, play, short story, or TV show but also sometimes another film).  Plus, all sequels are automatically considered adaptations by this standard (since the sequel must be based on the original story).

How simple is that!  ‘Adapted’ Screenplays are pretty cut and dry… just look at the nominations this year: 

1)  127 Hours (Non-Fiction Biography)
2)  The Social Network (Non-Fiction Biography) – MY PICK TO WIN
3)  Toy Story 3 (Sequel)
4)  True Grit (Novel)
5)  Winter’s Bone (Novel)

Original Screenplay


Now, as I begin to share my opinions on ‘Original’ Screenplays, I want you to hold onto the idea of a ‘Biography’… because this is where I have a problem and it all started when I questioned the Original Screenplay nomination for ‘Shine’ back in 1996.  

Now, I LOVE this movie, however, ‘Shine’ claims to be BASED ON the REAL LIFE of David Helfgott.   Follow where I’m going?  Let me break it down for you.  By saying your script is ‘BASED ON’ you are actually implying that you idea isn’t 100% original… and by claiming you based this, not so original, idea on a ‘REAL LIFE’ you have pretty much told me that you idea is 0% original… thus, NOT an ‘Original’ Screenplay. 

My point?  Simple: Real people and true stories are SOURCES regardless of whether or not the stories are documented in a book prior to becoming a movie.  And the process of adapting a real life to the big screen has more in common with adapting a book than it does creating something truly original. 

Here are some other movies that claim to be based on true stories that were nominated for Best ‘Original’ Screenplay:  Lorenzo’s Oil (1992), Bugsy (1991), Silkwood (1983), Reds (1981), Chariots of Fire (1981), Melvin and Howard (1980), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Erin Brockovich (2000), In America (2003), The Aviator (2004), Hotel Rwanda (2004), Good Night and Good Luck (2005), Milk (2008)… and of course… there are others.

In addition, ‘Letters From Iwa Jima’ was nominated for Best Original Screenplay in 2006 for a film that claims to be based on the book ‘Picture Letters from the Commander in Chief’ written by the Japanese General Ken Watanabe portrayed in the film… how did this happen?

Interestingly enough, also in 2006, ‘The Queen’ was nominated in the same category and its inclusion helps me articulation my feelings about Original Screenplays a little better… because I consider ‘The Queen’ to be an Original Screenplay.  Why?  Well… because the movie doesn’t claim to be a true story.  It claims to be historical fiction.  Although historical fiction may start from an adapted foundation… the process of writing it more resembles that of writing an original work.

Furthermore, how is the process of writing historical fiction any different than amazingly original films like ‘Adaptation’ and ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ which were relegated to the Adapted Screenplay category just because they jumped from a source, merely as a starting point.  And riddle me this, were ‘Adaptation’ and ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ any more or less original than ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, which blatantly sourced ‘An Affair to Remember’ while also being considered ‘Original’ by the academy?  Probably not… but, whatever the case, one thing is for sure: these movies are certainly more original that a true story based on a real life or event. 

And here lies the blur that is ‘Original’ and ‘Adapted’.  Why do I care so much?  I don’t know.  The lack of a real hobby?  Or the fact that I haven’t seen my family is many moons?  Who knows?

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As for this year, two movies are nominated in this category don’t fit my ‘Original’ litmus test: The Fighter and The King’s Speech.

Frankly, I can’t for the life of me figure out why The Fighter is in the ‘Original’ category when the REAL HBO documentary and REAL fight footage were such a key research aspect for the film (let alone the fact it’s based on REAL people).

And, The King’s Speech, on the other hand, COULD be considered ‘historical fiction’… however, The King’s Speech doesn’t make the same claims as ‘The Queen’… it doesn’t present itself as fiction, it presents itself as fact.

So, all that said; I recognize only three of the five nominated movies as true originals:

1) Another Year
2) Inception – MY PICK TO WIN
3) The Kids Are Alright

Day 945: Top 25 Movies of 2009

(500) Days of Summer is a 2009 American romantic comedy film. It was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, directed by Marc Webb, produced by Mark Waters, and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. The film employs a nonlinear narrative structure, with the story based upon its male protagonist and his memory-driven look at a failed relationship.^[3]Principal photography began in April 2008 in Los Angeles, California.

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An Education is a 2009 British coming-of-age drama film based on British journalist Lynn Barber's memoir of the same name. The film was directed by Lone Scherfig from a screenplay by Nick Hornby, and stars Carey Mulligan as Jenny, a bright schoolgirl, and Peter Sarsgaard as David, the charming older man who seduces her. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards in 2009including Best Picture and Best Actress for Carey Mulligan.

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Anvil! The Story of Anvil is a 2008 documentary film about the Canadian heavy metal band, Anvil. The film is directed by screenwriter Sacha Gervasi, whose previous credits include The Big Tease (co-written with Craig Ferguson) and The Terminal.

File Note: This is a REAL documentary.  It is NOT fake.  And it has an amazing heart.

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Avatar is a 2009 American epic science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Joel Moore, Giovanni Ribisi and Sigourney Weaver. The film is set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are mining a precious mineral called unobtanium on Pandora, a lush moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system. The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi—a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film's title refers to the genetically engineered Na'vi-human hybrid bodies used by a team of researchers to interact with the natives of Pandora.

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Away We Go is a 2009 comedy-drama directed byAcademy Award-winning director Sam Mendes and written by the husband-and-wife team of Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. The film stars John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Allison Janney, Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels,Paul Schneider, Carmen Ejogo, Chris Messina, Melanie Lynskey, Josh Hamilton, Jim Gaffigan, and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

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Crazy Heart is a 2009 American musical-drama film, written and directed by Scott Cooper and based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Thomas Cobb. Jeff Bridges plays a down-and-out country music singer-songwriter who tries to turn his life around after beginning a relationship with a young journalist portrayed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Other supporting roles are played by Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, and child actor Jack Nation. Bridges, Farrell, and Duvall also sing in the film.

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District 9 is a 2009 science fiction thriller film directed by Neill Blomkamp. It was written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James. The film won the 2010 Saturn Award for Best International Film presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, and was nominated for four Academy Awards in 2010, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Editing.

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Duplicity is a 2009 American romantic comedy spy film written and directed by Tony Gilroy, and starring Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. The plot follows two corporate spies with a romantic history who collaborate to carry out a complicated con.

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Fanboys is a 2009 comedy film directed by Kyle Newman and starring Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel and Kristen Bell. It was released in the United States on February 6, 2009, and in Canada on April 3, 2009.

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Funny People is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written, co-produced and directed by Judd Apatow, and starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Leslie Mann. The film was released on 31 July 2009 in North America, and on 28 August 2009 in the United Kingdom. Funny People implements more dramatic elements than seen in Apatow's previous films. The film was co-produced by Apatow Productions and Mr. Madison 23 Productions, a subsidiary of Sandler's company Happy Madison.Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures co-financed the film and it also served as a worldwide distributor.

Film Note: This could be my favorite film of the year.

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a 2009 fantasy-adventure film directed by David Yates, written by Steve Kloves and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the sixth installment in the Harry Potter film series and is produced by David Heyman and David Barron. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry's best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The supporting cast features Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Alan Rickman, Tom Felton and Helena Bonham Carter.

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Inglourious Basterds is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring Brad Pitt,Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth and Diane Kruger. The film tells the fictional story of two plots to assassinate the Nazi Germany political leadership, one planned by a young French Jewish cinema proprietor (Laurent), and the other by a team of Jewish Allied soldiers led by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Pitt).

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Invictus is a 2009 biographical sports drama film directed by Clint Eastwood starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. The story is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World Cup, hosted in that country following the dismantling of apartheid. Freeman and Damon play, respectively, South African President Nelson Mandela and François Pienaar, the captain of the South African rugby union team the Springboks. Invictus was released in the United States on December 11, 2009. The title Invictus may be translated from the Latin as undefeated or unconquered, and is the title of a poem by English poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903).

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Julie & Julia is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Nora Ephron starring Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Amy Adams, and Chris Messina. The film contrasts the life of chef Julia Child in the early years of her culinary career with the life of young New Yorker Julie Powell, who aspires to cook all 524 recipes in Child's cookbook in 365 days, a challenge she described on her popular blog that would make her a published author.

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Monsters vs. Aliens is a 2009 American computer-animated 3-D science fiction film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The computer-animated movie was the first to be directly produced in a stereoscopic 3-D format instead of being converted into 3-D after completion, which added $15 million to the film's budget.

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Star Trek is a 2009 American science fiction film directed by J. J. Abrams, written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the eleventh film based on the Star Trek franchise and features the main characters of the original Star Trek television series, portrayed by a new cast. The film follows James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban) aboard the USS Enterprise as they combat Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan from their future who threatens the United Federation of Planets. The story takes place in an alternate reality due to time-travel by both Nero and the original Spock (Leonard Nimoy). The alternate timeline was created in an effort to free the film and the franchise from established continuity constraints.

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State of Play is a 2009 political thriller. It is a film adaptation of the six-part British television serial of the same name, which first aired on BBC One in 2003. The plot of the six-hour serial was condensed to fit a two-hour movie format, with the location changed to Washington, D.C. The film was directed by Kevin Macdonald from a screenplay written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, Peter Morgan, and Billy Ray.

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The Great Buck Howard is a 2008 American comedy-drama film directed by Sean McGinly that stars Colin Hanks and John Malkovich. Tom Hanks also appears as the father of his real-life son's character. The character Buck Howard is inspired by the mentalist The Amazing Kreskin, whose popularity was at its height in the 1970s. The film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2008. It is the first Walden Media film to be released with Magnolia Pictures.

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The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips. The film is written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, and produced by Todd Phillips and Daniel Goldberg. It stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha and Jeffrey Tambor, and was produced by Legendary Pictures on a budget of US$35 million.

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The Informant! is a 2009 American biographical comedy thriller film directed by Steven Soderbergh.  It depicts Mark Whitacre's involvement as a whistle blower in the lysine price-fixing conspiracy of the mid-1990s as described in the 2000 nonfiction book The Informant, by journalist Kurt Eichenwald. The script was written by Scott Z. Burns, and the film stars Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale and Melanie Lynskey.

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The Princess and the Frog is a 2009 American animated family film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, inspired in part by E. D. Baker's novel The Frog Princess, which was in turn inspired by the Grimm brothers' fairy tale "The Frog Prince". The film opened in limited release in New York and Los Angeles on November 25, 2009, and in wide release by Walt Disney Pictures on December 11, 2009. It is the 49th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics line and the first of these films to be traditionally (2D) animated since 2004's Home on the Range. The film was directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, directors of The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and Treasure Planet, with songs and score composed by Randy Newman and featuring the voices of Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, Michael-Leon Wooley, Jennifer Cody, Jim Cummings, Peter Bartlett, Jenifer Lewis, Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, and John Goodman. Tiana, the main character, is Disney's first black princess.

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Up is a 2009 computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and presented in Disney Digital 3-D. The film premiered on May 29, 2009 in North America and opened the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first animated and 3D film to do so. Up is director Pete Docter's second feature-length film, after Monsters, Inc., and features the voices of Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson, and Jordan Nagai. It is Pixar's tenth feature film and the studio's first to be presented in Disney Digital 3-D, and is accompanied in theaters and DVD releases by the short film Partly Cloudy.

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Watchmen is a 2009 American superhero film directed by Zack Snyder and starring Malin Åkerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Patrick Wilson. It is an adaptation of the comic book of the same name by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The film is set in an alternate history 1985 at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, as a group of mostly retired vigilantes investigates an apparent conspiracy against them and uncovers something even more grandiose and sinister.

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Where the Wild Things Are is a 2009 American fantasy drama film directed by Spike Jonze and adapted from Maurice Sendak's 1963 children's book Where the Wild Things Are. It combines live action, performers in costumes, animatronics, and computer-generated imagery (CGI). The film stars Max Records, and features the voices of James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Lauren Ambrose, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O'Hara and Chris Cooper. The film centers around a lonely eight-year-old boy named Max who sails away to an island inhabited by creatures known as the "Wild Things", who declare Max their king.

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Zombieland is a 2009 American zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Together they take an extended road trip in an attempt to find a sanctuary free from zombies.