Looking Ahead at Best Original Song

Chris here. What with Nathaniel's updated Oscar predictions and my regular Soundtracking duties, my mind has been on that ever pesky Best Original Song category. How will this year shake out for the sometimes maligned category?

Per usual we haven't had many obvious contenders, though I would argue that Beauty and the Beast's "How Does A Moment Last Forever" is one of the film's bright spots - can you just imagine Celine Dion taking the Oscar stage for the first time since Titanic. Perhaps our best chance at an Original Song behemoth like last year's La La Land and Moana were is The Greatest Showman, this season's original musical. But other questions and curiosities remain: what documentary song will surprise this year? Can credits song queen Sia finally land a nomination (she'll at least have one option with Wonder Woman)?

One contender I'm already hoping has some staying power is A Ghost Story's "I Get Overwhelmed" by Dark Rooms. The track flows fluidly in and out of Daniel Hart's score (naturally, he heads Dark Rooms), encompassing both the film's intimacy and cosmic expansiveness. Lyrically, the song carries meaning for Casey Affleck's songwriter and has a whole new context in the afterlife - so it carries the kind of narrative weight the Academy's songwriting branch has been seeking. But will it even make the eligibility long list?

Do you have any Original Song hopes already?

Disney Princess Medley

In case you need a pick me up...

Bonnie Milligan and Laura Osnes duel and duet with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Mulan but the funny peaks with  Aladdin and Pocahontas. 

every guy here'd love to link you, Gaston

Today's Must Read
BuzzFeed good piece by Allison Willmore on the maddening response to absolutely nothing moments proclaimed to be LGBT "firsts!" in movies. Two parts of the problems she doesn't mention though are 1) the internet demands for constant content incentivize journalists to blow everything out of proportion including super stupid things like "LeFou is gay!" and 2) too many pop culture journalists are operating from a place of zero knowledge about pop culture before they were, like, 12. 

more links after the jump including insightful pieces on Feud and an investigation of Logan's family jewels...

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Beauty and the Box Office. Plus Iron Fist.

What did you see this weekend besides Emma Watson twirling in that yellow gown?   Disney spent $160 million making the movie and probably another huge chunk of millions promoting it but they were rewarded with stacks and stacks of gold. It nearly became the top grossing movie of the year (thus far) in a single weekend! 

Since I'd already seen the Disney musical, I spent the weekend with a revisit of Grease 2 (more on that soon) as well as some DVR catch up (I will miss you when you're gone Real O'Neals - especially you Martha Plimpton and Matt Oberg). And yes I also tried with Iron Fist but it became white noise in the background as it was too dull to focus sole attention on. Identity politics aside, Finn Jones + the script are the biggest problems as there is so much filler and the hero is the least likeable character on the show, insufferably selfish and quite dumb. Shut up about your chi already, we get it! I found myself actually rooting for the douchey pseudo brother Ward Beachum (Tom Pelphrey). The Netflix series only comes alive when it focuses on side characters, whether they're good (Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing), evil (Wai Ching Ho reprising her delicious Daredevil villain Madame Gao) or somewhere on the what-are-they-up-to spectrum (the always reliable David Wenham as Harold Meachum) 

TOP WIDE 
01 Beauty & The Beast $170 NEW Review
02 Kong Skull Island $28.8 (cum. $110.1)  Review
03 Logan $17.5 (cum. $184) Review
04 Get Out $13.2 (cum. $133.1) Review
05 The Shack $6.1 (cum. $42.6) 

TOP LIMITED 
01 The Sense of an Ending $475K (cum. $527K) 282 theaters Interview
02 Badrinath Ki Dulhania $420K (cum. $1.5) 156 theaters
03 A United Kingdom $320K (cum. $3.1) 257 theaters 
04 Kedi $275K (cum. $1.4) 120 theaters  Review 
05 The Last Word $191K (cum. $345K) 94 theaters
06 T2: Trainspotting $180K NEW 5 theaters
07 Personal Shopper $158K (cum. $269K) 35 theaters Review
08 The Salesman $105K (cum. $2.2) 72 theaters  Review, Interview 
09 Song to Song $53K NEW 4 theaters
10 Land of Mine $41K (cum. $245K) 38 theaters Interview

Review: Disney's recreation of "Beauty and the Beast"

This review was previously published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad

Tale as old as time
True as it can be

You wouldn’t think that ‘tales as old as time’ would need so much retelling but they do. Certain properties never go away or are open to constant reinterpretation like the Shakespeare oeuvre or, well, fairy tales. A cursory bit of research reveals that there have been at least a dozen feature films or TV series from various countries based on Beauty and the Beast tale.

If you have never existed before today, here’s what you need to know: A cruel prince is cursed and transformed into a beast. If the Beast doesn’t learn to love and be loved in return by the time the last petal on a magic rose falls, the curse will become permanent. Enter a beautiful girl who could be the one to break the spell...

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