Earlier today, The Writer’s Guild of America announced their nominations for the best screenplays of 2013. While it’s only natural to look at these nominations and try to use them as an Oscar oracle, it should be remembered that only 95 of the 289 Oscar-eligible films were also eligible for a WGA nomination.* Among those films not eligible to be nominated: 12 Years A Slave, Philomena, Fruitvale Station, and Rush.
Here are the nominees:
Original Screenplay:
American Hustle,
Blue Jasmine,
Dallas Buyers Club,
Her,
Nebraska
Adapted Screenplay:
August: Osage County,
Before Midnight,
Captain Phillips,
Lone Survivor,
The Wolf of Wall Street
—–
* As much as I wish I could say that I was responsible for coming up with that statistic, all credit should actually go toGoldderby.
Cheer up everyone! It may be snowing up north. The ground may be shaking in California. It might be 30 degrees and sunny in the South. But the first trailer for Veronica Mars is here and everyone should be happy!
Continuing my series on the best of 2013, here are ten of my favorite songs from 2013. Now, I’m not necessarily saying that these were the best songs of 2013. Some of them aren’t. But these are ten songs that, in the future, will define 2013 for me personally. Again, these are my picks and my picks only. So, if you think my taste in music sucks (and, admittedly, quite a few people do), direct your scorn at me and not at anyone else who writes for the Shattered Lens.
I’ve occasionally been asked what my criteria for a good song us. Honestly, the main things I look for in a song is 1) can I dance to it, 2) can I write to it, and 3) can I get all into singing it while I’m stuck in traffic or in the shower?
Anyway, at the risk of revealing just how much of a dork I truly am, here are ten of my favorite songs of 2013.
10) A Low and Swelling Sound Gradually Swelling (composed by Shane Carruth)
This atmospheric instrumental piece comes from the soundtrack of the best film of 2013, Upstream Color. This is great writing music.
9) Giorgio By Moroder (performed by Daft Punk and Giorgio Moroder)
From Random Access Memories.
8) Saturday (performed by Rebecca Black and Dave Days)
I make no apologies. Much like Friday, this is a fun song to sing when you’re driving to and from work. Plus, I think the video’s clever.
7) Brave (performed by Sara Bareilles)
I have to admit that I loved this song more before it started showing up in Nokia Lumia commercials.
6) Feel This Moment (performed by Pitbull, feat. Christina Aguilera)
5) Haunted (performed by ROB)
This is from the Maniac soundtrack. Much like the Carruth song, this is great writing music.
4) Work Bitch (performed by Britney Spears)
Not a day goes by that I don’t find an excuse to say, “You gotta work, bitch.”
3) A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got) (performed by Fergie, feat. Q-Tip and Goon Rock)
From The Great Gatsby soundtrack.
2) Just Give Me A Reason (performed by Pink and Nate Ruess)
1) Lose Yourself to Dance (performed by Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams)
What else needs to be said?
Finally, here are two honorable mentions. These are two songs that helped define 2013 for me but, for various reasons, could not be included in my top ten.
First off, Alison Gold’s Chinese Food is technically a terrible song but it’s so terrible that it becomes oddly fascinating. Thanks to the presence of Patrice Wilson, the video is probably one of the most unintentionally creepy music videos ever made.
(I should admit that I happen to love Chinese food myself and therefore, this song is one that I’ve sung a lot over the past few years.)
The second honorable mention is a far better song than Chinese Food: Icona Pop’s I Love It. I Love It was released in 2012 but it’s the song that I listened to nonstop last year.. So, even if it was released a year earlier, I Love It is still my favorite song of 2013.
Tomorrow, I will continue my look back at 2013 with 10 good things that I saw on television last year.
For our latest entry in the 44 Days of Paranoia, let’s take a look at the 1993 best picture nominee, The Fugitive.
We’re all familiar with the saying, “You just had to be there.” We usually hear it as an excuse that’s uttered when a storyteller realizes that his audience isn’t as fascinated by his tale as he is. It’s a way of assuring us that we would also be fascinated if only we had been present when the story actually took place.
I think the same holds true of a lot of movies. You simply had to be there when the film was originally released to theaters, before it’s impact could be diluted by repetition and imitation, to understand why that movie was successful or why certain critics continue to speak so fondly of it.
Case in point: The Fugitive.
Based on an old television series, The Fugitive was a huge hit when it was first released in 1993. It was critically acclaimed, it featured an Oscar-winning supporting performance from Tommy Lee Jones, and the film itself was even nominated for best picture of the year. The Fugitive is still regularly cited as being one of the best action movies ever made.
And yet, last month, when I watched The Fugitive for the first time, I was left distinctly underwhelmed.
The film opens with Chicago surgeon Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) arriving home and discovers that his wife has been murdered by a one-armed man (Andreas Katsulas). Kimble struggles with the assailant but the man still manages to escape into the night. The police don’t believe Kimble’s story and he ends up being arrested and subsequently convicted of his wife’s murder. It was at this point that I shouted out, “What about DNA!?” but then I remembered that this film was probably made before DNA became a regular part of the criminal justice system. You just had to be there…
While Kimble is being transported to death row, a fight breaks out that causes the prison bus to crash and gives Kimble a chance to escape. Kimble is now a fugitive, trying to track down the one-armed man and clear his name. Pursuing him is the charismatic and rather manic U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones).
Every review that I’ve ever read about The Fugitive always praises two scenes. One is the bus crash that gives Kimble his opportunity to escape. The other is the scene where Gerard first catches up to Kimble. Standing at the edge of a storm drain, Kimble says that he’s innocent. Gerard calmly replies, “I don’t care.” Kimble then proceeds to jump over the edge and into the raging waters below. Realistically, the fall really should have killed him but, if it had, there would be no movie.
Those two scenes are genuinely exciting and well-done. Unfortunately, the rest of the film isn’t quite as memorable. Kimble spends the rest of the movie running around Chicago while Gerard chases after him. It’s all shot well enough and Tommy Lee Jones is a lot of fun to watch (the film comes to life in the scenes where Gerard interacts with the other members of his team) but, at the same time, it all feels rather predictable. For all the scenes of Ford looking intense and running through the city, I was more excited about the chance to say, “Hey, isn’t that Julianne Moore!?” when she showed up as a sympathetic doctor.
Worst of all, the solution to the film’s mystery literally comes out of nowhere. However, that solution does feature a Big Evil Corporation which, if nothing else, qualifies The Fugitive for inclusion in the 44 Days of Paranoia.
Watching The Fugitive, I could see how the film had influenced other action films and I think that was a large reason why the film didn’t work for me. What was once undoubtedly seen as being thrilling and surprising now seemed rather mundane and predictable.
That’s why I imagine that, in the case of The Fugitive, you just had to be there.
Through the Shattered Lens 