La Pfeiffer and the Original Song Oscar Race

by Nathaniel R

Here's some rather surprising news: Michelle Pfeiffer sings the closing credits song of Murder on the Orient Express. The song is called "Never Forget" which we never in danger of doing for anything Pfeiffer. Though opinions vary about how well the goddess sings, we personally love it when she croons. Case in point: Grease 2 (1982), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), The Prince of Egypt (1998), and Hairspray (2007). Listen it's not her fault that her character in Up Close and Personal (1996) was supposed to be a bad singer or that "Miss Baltimore Crabs" is Hairspray's worst song!

"Never Forget" is written by two-time Oscar nominee Patrick Doyle, a regular on Kenneth Branagh films, who also composes the score. La Pfeiffer is, of course, not the sort who would deign to sing in front of the whole world on Oscar night so they will reassign the vocals if the song is nominated.

Regardless the Original Song category is beginning to show its possible contenders so we've updated that chart and still suspect the leader is The Greatest Showman's catchy "This Is Me" - which was recently performed in NYC by Keala Settle & Darren Criss.

We eagerly await the full eligibility list of 80ish songs we've never heard from 40 movies we've heard of and 20 movies we didn't know existed before this always surprising list hits. 

Dance Armie Dance!

Chris here. Call Me By Your Name is more than a month away from release and it's already a meme. One of the film's most escapist scenes has dropped online to much fanfare - a nighttime dance set to the Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way". Now I'd argue that the scene does play as meaningfully out of context (most online clips don't), but the sheer delight of Armie Hammer's moves cannot be understated. And the internet has reacted in kind, overdubbing the scene with other songs to hilarious effect. Some tracks work better than others in this silly gag, but nothing matches the heights of the film's original track. Get ready to see a whole lot of dancing Armie in the coming months and to have a classic song completely redefined for you! What song do you want to see Armie dance to?

UPDATE: This wonderful account has been suspended, likely for copyright issues.

green light by lorde pic.twitter.com/8dHrsHeJIp

— armie dancing to (@armiedancingto) October 12, 2017

https://twitter.com/armiedancingto/status/9185294214092185

https://twitter.com/armiedancingto/status/918529421409218561

Soundtracking: "A Mighty Wind"

HEY WHA HAPPENED?! It's Chris Feil's weekly soundtrack series!

Christopher Guest’s A Mighty Wind begins with the death of a music producer, so it makes sense that the film ruminates on a supposedly dead musical genre. Folk music is a fit for Guest’s idiosyncratic eye, with the nuances in musicality or artistic personalities making easy fodder for his world of self-serious oddballs. Wind explores the breadth of the folk genre in three distinct groups: the narrative-based acoustics of The Folksmen, the chearfully disposed harmonies of The New Main Street Singers, and the placid romanticism of duo Mitch and Mickey. Though the film plays these characters with typical Guest behavioral farce, it does take their music seriously...

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A League of Their Own, Pt. 4 - The World Series

Here is the conclusion of our 25th anniversary retrospective of A League of Their Own!

Part 1 introduced us to the team and Part 2 showed us their success and struggles on the field. In Part 3, the sibling rivalry between Dottie (Geena Davis) and Kit (Lori Petty) got Kit traded to the Racine Belles and the return of her husband from the war caused an exhausted Dottie to quit the team. Where will that leave the Rockford Peaches as they go on to the first all-women World Series?

Part 4 by Chris Feil

1:30:15 - It’s the first game of the first AAGPBL World Series and it’s our beloved Rockford Peaches against the Racine Belles. And wouldn’t you know Doris has some fawning fans in the stands (including “that guy” actor Joey Slotnick in his film debut)!

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Soundtracking: "Drive"

It's Chris Feil's weekly column on music in the movies! This week is the techno mythmaking of Drive:

So there’s a new musically-infused motorist crime tale on the block? While Baby Driver tries to take space on your headphones, it may still have to take a backseat to something even more moodily effective (if less uplifting): Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive.

Refn is no stranger to using music (mostly in original scores from frequent collaborator Cliff Martinez) to help build his films’ elusive auras, but he has never been so successful as using this tool as he is here. This film’s musical identity is inextricably linked to the protagonist in ways that inform the audience of his psychosis as much as the subtlety of Ryan Gosling’s performance. Just as Gosling pulls us into the mind of a lovable psychopath, the song choices help make this grim pulp landscape something beautiful.

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