Category: Best Music

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Nashville (1975)

Nashville’s sweetheart Ronee Blakley comes to town after recovering from an alleged burn accident at the same time a cadre of individuals also descend on the city for various reasons. It’s in most ways a typical sprawling Altman ensemble film with quirky characters and a narrative that goes in many directions while also coming together at points, especially the political rally climax . More than any of his other works, it feels like it is a mirror of the United States in all its highs and lows, particularly at that particularly time period at the cusp of its 200th birthday.   Best Picture Nomination  Music

Oscar Win: Best Music, Original Song

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actress in a Supporting Role (2); Best Director

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The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)

Real life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac portray twin sisters who run a dance school in Rochefort, longing for love and the bright lights of Paris, while their mother runs a cafe in a plaza where a carnival has been scheduled. It’s a beautiful, candy-colored musical spectacle that is chock-filled with coincidences and mixed connections. For some weird reason, the sisters’ wigs are extremely distracting, making them look like 20 years older than they are, but the ear-wormy music and the appearance of Gene Kelly make up for it. I still prefer Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg as a complete production, but this is very cute and simply more feel-good.   Musical

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation)

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Back to the Future (1985) – Rewatch

Trying to escape Libyan terrorists, Michael J. Fox accidentally triggers a time machine which sends him to the days of his parents’ youth where he must make sure they still hook up or risk erasing himself from existence all while trying to get himself back to 1985. This is possibly the ultimate classic in the time travel genre for good reason. The camaraderie between Fox and Christopher Lloyd as his eccentric scientist best friend, the duel roles of Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson, and Thomas F. Wilson playing themselves at two different ages, and writing that manages its multiple timelines while being endlessly quotable and keeping a steady tone throughout are all perfection. It’s not surprising that I’ve seen it approximately thirty times in my lifetime.  SciFi  Action  Comedy

Oscar Win: Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing

Oscar Nominations: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen; Best Sound; Best Music, Original Song

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Birth of the Blues (1941)

Clarinetist Bing Crosby puts together a band so he can bring jazz music to the white masses of New Orleans. Bing is joined by Mary Martin and Brian Donlevy in a mild love triangle while Carolyn Lee provides some unnecessary child precociousness. Other than a few of the musical numbers, the film is quite unremarkable and isn’t a standout in any of the actors’ filmographies.  Musical  Music

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture

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Blue Skies (1946)

Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire again team up as friends who fall in love with the same woman. Here Astaire dances for the stage while Crosby is a night club owner who is never satisfied with the success he experiences. There are some highlights, especially Astaire’s Puttin’ on the Ritz performance, but it’s outclassed in all categories by the superior Holiday Inn. The narrative supposedly moves through decades of time, but the film doesn’t feel like it changes at all. The main love interest Joan Caulfield is serviceable, but even she is dull when compared to supporting player Olga San Juan.  Musical

Oscar Nominations: Best Music, Original Song; Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture

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The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)

Barbra Streisand is a somewhat frumpy, English professor who lives with her domineering mother Lauren Bacall; Jeff Bridges, also a professor, feels that sex gets in the way of his important work. When Barbra’s sister Mimi Rodgers answers Jeff’s personal ad on her behalf, it leads to a romance built on mutual respect and intelligence but little physical affection. Nothing about this film feels based in reality. Streisand is somehow presented as unattractive (at least until she goes through the requisite makeover montage, lightening her hair and putting on a skin tight dress) but so interesting and charming that her students hang on her every word and she had previously attracted Pierce Brosnan. At the same time, Bridges is a hugely successful author who attracts supermodels but can’t get students to stay for his entire class, which also is simultaneously standing room only. The details of their physical relationship are so confusing, with not even an occasional friendly hug or sleeping in the same bed but occasional sex is on the table, that the central conflict rings false.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Music, Original Song

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Parallel Mothers (2021)

While in the hospital giving birth to her daughter, single photographer Penélope Cruz meets pregnant teenager Milena Smit. The two women’s lives continue to entwine in accidental and purposeful ways. While it’s not my favorite Almodóvar work, the blending of Spain’s national traumas under Franco with the localized experiences of the mothers works well. Cruz once again gives her best work under his direction.

Oscar Nomination: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)

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Silverado (1985)

Four cowboys, Danny Glover, Kevin Kline and brothers Scott Glenn and Kevin Costner, become acquainted by happenstance on their way to Silverado and join forces to rid the town of a corrupt sheriff and his compadres. There’s a few too many side stories and the group doesn’t even reach the city until well into the film, but it’s entertaining enough for what it is. I kept thinking Sam Elliott should be in this film, but instead there’s John Cleese, Linda Hunt, and Jeff Goldblum. All weird choices for a western, but each really makes the best of their roles and are actually the only parts that pull the film from being a completely forgettable trope parade.   Western

Oscar Nominations: Best Sound; Best Music, Original Score

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Midnight Express (1978)

Brad Davis is sent to a Turkish prison after attempting to smuggle 2kg of hashish out of the country. He’s initially given a sentence of four years for possession and he must decide whether or not to join fellow English-speaking prisoners John Hurt and Randy Quaid in taking the Midnight Express, slang in the prison for an escape attempt. Differentiating from the non-fiction book it was adapted from, it strangely includes a girlfriend character which adds some explicit sex scenes, while purposefully suppressing the homosexual sexual activity that actually happened. The depiction of the prison is a surprising oddity as the prisoners are allowed a bit of freedom of movement within its walls but are also subjected to a great amount of violence from guards and other prisoners. It’s a bleak reminder to not screw around when visiting other countries.   Best Picture Nomination  Crime

Oscar Win: Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Music, Original Score

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Director; Best Film Editing

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Easter Parade (1948)

When his dancing partner Ann Miller quits to go solo, Fred Astaire believes he can find anyone to take her place and chooses Judy Garland. Wet blanket Peter Lawford is along for the ride in a best friend role, but there’s really little purpose to his character. I admire the talent of Astaire and love to see him work, but in so many of these musicals, he looks like he could be the father of his love interest, which is the case here again. He and Garland perform well together, but they have little romantic chemistry. Miller is also undeniably talented, but in every film I’ve ever seen her in, she performs unnaturally toward the camera. The film has very little to do with Easter, though begins and ends on the holiday and there’s very little by way of a story. Even after watching the film, I don’t understand what exactly happens at an Easter parade.   Holiday  Musical

Oscar Win: Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture

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