THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX – William Ross
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A delightful animated adventure based on the popular children’s book by Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux follows the fortunes of the titular mouse, a dashing knight gentleman in a fantasy kingdom who sets out to save a beautiful, lonely princess from unscrupulous rats, and bring sunshine back to his home. The film has an astonishing voice cast, including Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Broderick, Emma Watson, Dustin Hoffman, Robbie Coltrane, Christopher Lloyd, Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, Richard Jenkins, Frank Langella, William H. Macy and Stanley Tucci, and has a score by the grossly under-valued William Ross.
Following the two appalling, annoying songs (“Soup” and “It’s Great to Be a Rat”) which open the album, Ross’s score finally begins, and what a charming affair it is. Read more…
THE WRESTLER – Clint Mansell
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A critically acclaimed, Award-winning drama about the life of a washed-up former wrestler struggling to salvage what’s left of his dignity, The Wrestler is directed by Darren Aronofsky and features a career-changing performance by Mickey Rourke as Randy “The Ram” Robinson, an aging professional wrestler decades past his prime, who now barely gets by working small wrestling shows and as a part-time grocery store employee. As he faces health problems that may end his wrestling career for good he attempts to come to terms with his life outside the ring, trying to reconcile with the daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) he abandoned in childhood, and forming a closer bond with a stripper (Marisa Tomei) for whom he has romantic feelings. Read more…
Golden Globe Nominations 2008
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominations for the 66th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2008.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- ALEXANDRE DESPLAT for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- CLINT EASTWOOD for Changeling
- JAMES NEWTON HOWARD for Defiance
- A. R. RAHMAN for Slumdog Millionaire
- HANS ZIMMER for Frost/Nixon
This is the first nomination Rahman, the second nomination for Howard, the third nomination for Eastwoood, the fourth nomination for Desplat, and the eighth nomination for Zimmer. Eastwood has also been nominated three times previously as a director, winning for Bird in 1988 and Unforgiven in 1992. Desplat previously won for The Painted Veil in 2006. Zimmer previously won for The Lion King in 1994 and Gladiator in 2000.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- JAMIE CULLUM, CLINT EASTWOOD, KYLE EASTWOOD, and MICHAEL STEVENS for “Gran Torino” from Gran Torino
- MILEY CYRUS and JEFFREY STEELE for “I Thought I Lost You” from Bolt
- PETER GABRIEL and THOMAS NEWMAN for” Down to Earth” from Wall*E
- BEYONCÉ KNOWLES, HENRY KRIEGER, SCOTT CUTLER, and ANNE PREVEN for “Once in a Lifetime” from Cadillac Records
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN for “The Wrestler” from The Wrestler
The winners of the 66th Golden Globe Awards will be announced on January 11, 2009.
CHE – Alberto Iglesias
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Marxist revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara led a fascinating life: born in Argentina, he first became politically active after witnessing first-hand the social injustices and abject poverty suffered by his countrymen while travelling around South America on a motorbike. He was later instrumental in overthrowing Fulgencio Batista and installing Fidel Castro as president of Cuba, and became a respected author, politician and philosopher, before eventually returning to his radical roots, instigating coups in other countries, prior to being eventually captured and executed in Bolivia in 1967.
Directed Steven Soderbergh’s film about his life stars Benicio Del Toro as Guevara, and features Julia Ormond, Rodrigo Santoro, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Matt Damon in supporting roles. Read more…
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL – Tyler Bates
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The original movie of The Day the Earth Stood Still, released in 1951 and directed by Robert Wise, remains to this day a seminal, well-respected science fiction watershed, one of the first times that a movie in the previously much-maligned genre has actually had something important to say. The original film starred Michael Rennie as Klaatu, a visitor from another world who comes to Earth in the company of his giant robot, GORT, to warn that mankind’s increasingly violent nature will lead to the planet’s destruction if it doesn’t change. Also a major part of the original film was Bernard Herrmann’s classic eerie score, most notable for its groundbreaking use of a theremin. Read more…
DOUBT – Howard Shore
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A challenging religious drama, Doubt is the latest film from writer/director John Patrick Shanley, and is based on his own acclaimed stage play. The film stars Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius Beauvier, a nun who runs a Catholic school in New York in 1964, whose old fashioned traditional beliefs are challenged and is forced to make a difficult decision when she receives word from a fellow sister (Amy Adams) that one of the school’s teachers – the convention-challenging, progressive young priest Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) – may be abusing a young black student. Read more…
GRAN TORINO – Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Gran Torino is the second of Clint Eastwood’s films as director; this time he also stars, as grizzled, grumpy, racist former auto worker and Korean War vet Walt Kowalski, who having been recently widowed now spends his time sitting on his porch in suburban Detroit, growling at anyone who ventures on to his lawn, and generally being a disagreeable old bastard to his family and neighbors. His one true love is his beloved 1972 Ford Gran Torino, which he has lovingly restored to its former glory – so, when his Hmong neighbor Thao (Bee Vang) attempts to steal it as part of a street gang initiation, Walt is understandably not very happy. However, it soon becomes clear that the bookish Thao is not really very interested in being a gangbanger, and gradually Walt and Thao form an unlikely friendship. However, as Walt gradually warms to the ‘gooks and chinks’ next door, which includes Thao’s fiery and spirited sister Sue (Ahney Her), he also begins to run afoul of the street gang, who want to maintain control of their turf and their community. Read more…
THE READER – Nico Muhly
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
I’m trying to remember the last time a composer in his 20s scored a film with as much importance, class and critical acclaim as Nico Muhly has with The Reader. Certainly none of the biggies – John Williams was 34 when he scored his first “serious” movie, The Rare Breed in 1966. Jerry Goldsmith was 33 when he scored Lonely Are the Brave in 1962. Elmer Bernstein was 33 when he scored The Man with the Golden Arm in 1955. The only one who springs to mind is James Horner, who was 29 in 1982 when he scored Star Trek II, but since then film composing has become, if not an old man’s game, then certainly a game for men older than Nico Muhly, who is but a comparative child at just 27. However, listening to his score for The Reader, one would be forgiven for thinking that it was the work of an older, seasoned, and more experienced composer, such is its confidence and technical strength. Read more…
FROST/NIXON – Hans Zimmer
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
From a modern vantage point it’s remarkably easy to look back at the events of 1974, to the presidency of Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal and forget just what a momentous moment in American political history it was. The aftermath of scandal – which included incidences of campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, tax fraud and illegal wiretapping – were far-reaching, and changed the political landscape of the nation forever. Three years after Nixon’s resignation he was interviewed by the British TV journalist and satirist David Frost for the show ‘Frost on America’, and the resulting encounter between the men became one of the most notorious moments in television history when, during the interviews, Nixon made a tacit admission of guilt regarding his role in Watergate, despite having been officially absolved of responsibility and pardoned by President Gerald Ford. This fascinating series of encounters between these two remarkably intelligent and astute men was turned into a play by screenwriter Peter Morgan starring Frank Langella as Nixon and Michael Sheen as Frost. The play was hugely successful, and was nominated for several Tony Awards, and has now been turned into a feature film by acclaimed director Ron Howard, with Langella and Sheen reprising their roles on the big screen. Read more…
AUSTRALIA – David Hirschfelder
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A romantic epic in the grand Hollywood tradition, Australia is director Baz Luhrmann’s cinematic ode to his homeland. The main focus of the story is the romance between English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) and rugged cowboy Drover (Hugh Jackman), and is set against a backdrop of some of the most important events in early Australian history, including the expansion into Aboriginal territory by the white settlers and the social and racial tensions that arise as a result, and the bombing of the Northern Territory by the Japanese in World War II.
In addition to Kidman and Jackman the film features pretty much every major Australian character actor working today – notably David Wenham, Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown and David Gulipilil – and boasts impressive production values that garnered the film an Academy Award nomination for costume design. Read more…
FOUR CHRISTMASES – Alex Wurman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A smash hit seasonal comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, Four Christmases is very much a festive flick for the new millennium, as it follows the fortunes of a couple who have to spend their holiday season visiting their four parents – Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight and Mary Steenburgen – all of whom are divorced, and who bring their own problems and peculiarities to the already hectic lives of their children, most notably in the form of various siblings – Jon Favreau, Kristin Chenoweth and country star Tim McGraw.
The widely-available commercial soundtrack CD features the usual roster of wintry favorites – Perry Como singing “Home For the Holidays” Read more…
MILK – Danny Elfman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Although many people nowadays will not know his name, Harvey Milk remains a hugely important figure in American political history. As the first ever openly gay man ever elected to public office in the United States, Milk served one term as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the late 1970s, and was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance for the city, before being assassinated by fellow city supervisor Dan White in November 1978. Having already been the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary, ‘The Times of Harvey Milk’, in 1984, director Gus Van Sant’s new film charts the life and death of a man who has since been labeled ‘a martyr for gay rights’ in dramatic narrative; the film stars Sean Penn as Milk, Josh Brolin as White, and features Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna and James Franco in supporting roles. Read more…
OORLOGSWINTER/WINTER IN WARTIME – Pino Donaggio
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Dutch cinema doesn’t get much press beyond the confines of its borders. Similarly, Dutch film music gets fairly short shrift from the world at large, despite several acclaimed composers having worked there in recent years, notably Henny Vrienten, Loek Dikker and Fons Merkies. It’s also been quite some time since Italian composer Pino Donaggio had any time in the spotlight – at least since Up At the Villa in 2000, and in reality probably since Never Talk to Strangers in before that in 1995. So, it’s quite gratifying to see Donaggio’s score for the Dutch wartime drama Oorlogswinter (‘Winter in Wartime’) getting some attention.
The film is directed by Martin Koolhoven from the novel by Jan Terlouw, and stars Martijn Lakemeier as Michiel, a 14 year old boy living in a small town in the Netherlands in the winter of 1944, who witnesses an English fighter plane crash near his home. Read more…
I WANT TO BE A SHELLFISH – Joe Hisaishi
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
For all his success in the west with his scores for Hayao Miyazaki’s films – Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and the like – Joe Hisaishi’s scores for non-animated films remain strangely underappreciated by Western audiences. His latest undiscovered masterpiece is the curiously-named I Want to be a Shellfish – or ‘Watashi Wa Kai Ni Naritai’ to give it its proper Japanese title. Contrary to its absurd-sounding name, the film is a quite serious and profound drama set in post-WWII Japan, based on a famous novel by Tetsuharo Kato and directed Katsuo Fukuzawa. It tells the story of a man named Toyomatsu Shimizu (Masahiro Nakai), a quiet family man who works as a barber, who is unexpectedly arrested by the occupying American forces and tried for war crimes by a military tribunal. Read more…
BOLT – John Powell
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The 48th official film in the Disney animated feature canon, Bolt is the story a small dog – the Bolt of the title, voiced by John Travolta – who has lived his entire life on the set of a TV show in which he portrays a superhero dog and, as a result, thinks that his superpowers are real. However, when Bolt is accidentally shipped from his Hollywood soundstage to New York City, he embarks on a cross-country journey to reunite with his owner and co-star, Penny (voiced by Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus). Along the way, he teams up with a jaded alleycat named Mittens (voiced by Susie Essman) and a TV-obsessed hamster named Rhino (voiced by Mark Walton). Read more…
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