That’s not just what the city of Seattle told Mayor Ed Murray earlier this year. It’s also the title of the film that the Seattle Film Critics have officially selected as their pick for the best of 2017!
Today, the Academy announced the 70 songs that will be eligible to be nominated for best original song! So, if you’re putting down bets and making out your predictions, here are your best song possibilities:
“U.N.I (You And I)” from “And the Winner Isn’t”
“Love And Lies” from “Band Aid”
“If I Dare” from “Battle of the Sexes”
“Evermore” from “Beauty and the Beast”
“How Does A Moment Last Forever” from “Beauty and the Beast”
“Now Or Never” from “Bloodline: Now or Never”
“She” from “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story”
“Your Hand I Will Never Let It Go” from “The Book of Henry”
“Buddy’s Business” from “Brawl in Cell Block 99”
“The Crown Sleeps” from “The Breadwinner”
“World Gone Mad” from “Bright”
“Mystery Of Love” from “Call Me by Your Name”
“Visions Of Gideon” from “Call Me by Your Name”
“Captain Underpants Theme Song” from “Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie”
“Ride” from “Cars 3”
“Run That Race” from “Cars 3”
“Tell Me How Long” from “Chasing Coral”
“Broken Wings” from “City of Ghosts”
“Remember Me” from “Coco”
“Prayers For This World” from “Cries from Syria”
“There’s Something Special” from “Despicable Me 3”
“It Ain’t Fair” from “Detroit”
“A Little Change In The Weather” from “Downsizing”
“Stars In My Eyes (Theme From Drawing Home)” from “Drawing Home”
“All In My Head” from “Elizabeth Blue”
“Dying For Ya” from “Elizabeth Blue”
“Green” from “Elizabeth Blue”
“Can’t Hold Out On Love” from “Father Figures”
“Home” from “Ferdinand”
“I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” from “Fifty Shades Darker”
“You Shouldn’t Look At Me That Way” from “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool”
“This Is How You Walk On” from “Gifted”
“Summer Storm” from “The Glass Castle”
“The Pure And The Damned” from “Good Time”
“This Is Me” from “The Greatest Showman”
“The Hero” from “The Hero”
“How Shall A Sparrow Fly” from “Hostiles”
“Just Getting Started” from “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast”
“Truth To Power” from “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power”
“Next Stop, The Stars” from “Kepler’s Dream”
“The Devil & The Huntsman” from “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword”
“Have You Ever Wondered” from “Lake of Fire”
“I’ll Be Gone” from “Lake of Fire”
“We’ll Party All Night” from “Lake of Fire”
“Friends Are Family” from “The Lego Batman Movie”
“Found My Place” from “The Lego Ninjago Movie”
“Stand Up For Something” from “Marshall”
“Rain” from “Mary and the Witch’s Flower”
“Myron/Byron” from “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)”
“Longing For Summer” from “Moomins and the Winter Wonderland”
“Mighty River” from “Mudbound”
“Never Forget” from “Murder on the Orient Express”
“Hold The Light” from “Only the Brave”
“PBNJ” from “Patti Cake$”
“Tuff Love (Finale)” from “Patti Cake$”
“Lost Souls” from “The Pirates of Somalia”
“How A Heart Unbreaks” from “Pitch Perfect 3”
“The Promise” from “The Promise”
“Kaadanayum Kaalchilambe” from “Pulimurugan”
“Maanathe Maarikurumbe” from “Pulimurugan”
“Stubborn Angel” from “Same Kind of Different as Me”
“Dancing Through The Wreckage” from “Served Like a Girl”
“Keep Your Eyes On Me” from “The Shack”
“On The Music Goes” from “Slipaway”
“The Star” from “The Star”
“Jump” from “Step”
“Tickling Giants” from “Tickling Giants”
“Fly Away” from “Trafficked”
“Speak To Me” from “Voice from the Stone”
“Walk On Faith” from “Year by the Sea”
The Academy also announced that 141 films will be eligible for Best Original Score. In the interest of space, I’m not going to post them all here. You can check out the list on Awards Watch!
Today’s music video is sure to get you in the holiday mood!
This video is for No Doubt’s cover of a Christmas song by the Vandals. It’s a pretty simple video, actually. No Doubt is beating some guys up when they finally get the Christmas spirit. To be honest, I’ve always imagined that this what a typical day in the life of No Doubt was like.
Anyway, this video was directed by Sophie Muller. On the IMVDB, Sophie Muller has been credited with directing 222 videos. She’s worked with almost everyone.
As for the video itself, I just like it because it’s one of those videos that manages to find the perfect balance between sincerity and satire.
Right now, as I write this, there are lot of people on twitter and in the media who are bitching and whining because Taylor Swift hasn’t written any #Resistance songs. She didn’t endorse anyone in the 2016 election. She never talks politics. She even had the gall to say that she had a good 2017!
We're still waiting for an explanation of Taylor Swift's decision to remain apolitical during the 2016 election. #Reputationhttps://t.co/s69OdERtc7
is there anything more annoying than Taylor Swift talking about what a great year 2017 has been while everyone else is fighting for our lives under Trump? ugh…
Since when did being happy become a microaggression?
See, this is one of the things that I hate about social media. Just because you can’t stop talking about Trump or Hillary or whoever, that doesn’t mean that everyone else is obligated to do the same. When I see people whining about Taylor Swift not using their favorite hashtag, I’m reminded of Joss Whedon, at this time last year, whining about people saying, “Happy holidays,” because he was upset over how the election went. Just because someone isn’t constantly bragging about how pissed off they are, that doesn’t mean they don’t care or that they’re not doing their part. It just means they, like me, have a life outside of whatever’s on CNN or Fox News.
Anyway, I was so annoyed with all the Taylor Swift hate that I spent Saturday listening to Last Christmas on repeat. So, it seemed like a perfect pick for Music Video of the Day, right?
Wrong.
Sadly, there isn’t an official music video of Taylor’s version of Last Christmas.
So, I decided to feature her video for Back To December, instead. It’s not specifically a Christmas song. In fact, it’s generally agreed that it’s a song about Taylor’s breakup with Taylor Lautner. (Taylor Swift has never specifically confirmed who it’s about, beyond saying that the song was meant to be an apology to a former lover.) But hey, it’s December and there’s snow on the ground. As far as I’m concerned, that makes it a Christmas song.
The video was directed by Yoann Lemoine, who has several credits. (He’s also directed videos for Katy Perry, Lana del Ray, and Drake.) Taylor’s love interest is played by Guntars Asmanis.
This is perhaps the greatest music video of all time and it only cost $800 to make.
First a little background of how Spike Jonze came to direct this video. Apparently, Jonze unsuccessfully lobbied for the chance to direct the video of Fatboy Slim’s Rockafeller Skank. However, Jonze still made a video of himself dancing to the song and sent it to Fatboy Slim (also known as Norman Cook) as a gift/joke. Cook was so impressed that he hired Jonze to make the video for Praise You.
Here’s what you really need to know about this video:
Despite the authenticity and the passion of the amateur performance captured in this video, The Torrance Community Dance Group does not exist.
Richard Koufey does not exist. That is Spike Jonze playing Koufey. I don’t know if Jonze “performed in several B-boy posses” while growing up, as Koufey claims to have done. There’s something oddly touching about the enthusiastic way that Jonze/Koufey shouts, “B-boy.”
The bewildered audience is real and their confused reaction to Koufey’s performance was real too. This video was shot outside of a movie theater, without permission or permits. What you’re seeing in this video is technically a crime, which makes it all the more enjoyable. I’m not sure if the man who briefly turns off the music was in on it or not. If that wasn’t planned out ahead of time, Jonze was definitely taking a risk by jumping on him.
Myself, I just love the enthusiasm of it all. It takes talent to be both bad and good at the same time.
(Hi there! So, as you may know because I’ve been talking about it on this site all year, I have got way too much stuff on my DVR. Seriously, I currently have 193 things recorded! I’ve decided that, on January 15th, I am going to erase everything on the DVR, regardless of whether I’ve watched it or not. So, that means that I’ve now have only have a month to clean out the DVR! Will I make it? Keep checking this site to find out! I recorded the 1999 romantic comedy Just The Ticket off of Epix on October 13th!)
Just The Ticket tells the story of Gary Starke (Andy Garcia).
Gary lives in New York City. He is a tough, streetwise character, loyal to his friends and quick to anger if he feels that anyone is trying to take advantage of him. He has no time for pretentious posturing or snobbish social gatherings. Gary’s a man of the people. He works with and takes care of an aging former boxer named Benny (Richard Bradford). He looks after a pregnant, former drug addict named Alice (Laura Harris). When the slick and dangerous Casino (Andre B. Blake) starts to do business in Gary’s territory, Gary is the only person with the guts to stand up to him. Having never had a family (he’s never even seen his birth certificate and has no idea who his parents were), Gary has adopted the street people as his surrogate family.
That’s not all. Gary is also a lapsed Catholic who, when he goes to confession, opens by saying that it’s been 25 years since his last confession and that he’s taken the Lord’s name in vain 20 to 30 times that morning. Gary needs some help because his girlfriend, an aspiring chef named Linda (Andie McDowell), has left him and Gary wants to win her back. The priest asks Gary if he can get him tickets to see the Knicks…
Why does he ask that?
You see, Gary is a legendary ticket scalper and…
Okay, I probably just lost you when I used the terms “legendary” and “ticket scalper” in the same sentence. And I’ll admit that, when I discovered this movie was about ticket scalpers, it nearly lost me as well. Just The Ticket treats ticket scalping with a dignity and reverence that I’m not quite sure it deserves. I wasn’t surprised to discover that director/writer Richard Wenk apparently based the character of Gary on an actual ticket scalper that he knew. A lot of bad movies have been made as the result of a director, writer, or producer coming across some mundane activity and thinking, “Wow, this would make a great movie!”
(That’s one reason why, every few years, we suddenly get a dozen movies about race car drivers.)
However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Just The Ticket is not a terrible movie. Admittedly, it’s totally predictable and there are a lot of scenes that don’t work. For instance, there’s a lengthy scene where Gary and Linda destroy a snobbish food critic’s kitchen. I could imagine Gary doing that because he has nothing to lose. But Linda is actually hoping to become a chef in New York City. Would she really run the risk of making a permanent enemy at the New York Times? There’s nothing about Andie McDowell’s performance that suggests she would. The scenes between Gary and his aging partner also tend to overplay their hand. Richard Bradford gives a good performance as Benny but we all know what’s going to end up happening to him as soon as he starts crying after Gary insults him.
With all that in mind, Just The Ticket still has an undeniable charm. Some of it is due to Andy Garcia’s dedicated performance. He is frequently better than the material and he and Andie McDowell have enough chemistry that you do want to see Linda and Gary get back together. Some of it is because Just The Ticket is not afraid to shy away from being sentimental. It’s hard to think of any other romantic comedy in which the Pope plays such an important supporting role. It’s a sweet movie. It has a good heart.
To be honest, the main reason that I picked this for today’s music video of the day is because it’s rare a day passes by that I don’t describe myself as being “a 90s bitch.”
Reportedly, this song was recorded at a time when both Aino Jawo and Caroline Hjelt were going through difficult break-ups. From Songfacts.com:
The song doubles as a kiss-off to the Icona Pop duo’s then boyfriends. “We were going through similar stuff, with dating pigs, and things were not going our way. And when that song came along, we just felt it, and we wanted people to feel our anger,” Jawo explained to MTV News. “We felt the song was a strong song, and … we just wanted to get the song out and get the pigs to hear it. You know who you are.”
“Now, we meet them on the street when we’re back home, and you’re like ‘Hi!’ and they’re like ‘hi,'” Hjelt added. “And we’re like ‘Hahaha, thank you for the inspiration.'”
Hi, everyone! Lisa here with today’s music video of the day!
Yes, yes, I’m late. Sorry, I fell asleep last night before I got a chance to set up today’s music video of the day. Then, when I woke up, I was out the front door and driving down Central Expressway before I realized that I’d forgotten to put in my contacts. Seriously, I was totally blind and driving down the busiest, most dangerous highway in Dallas.
And yet, I survived!
So, in order to celebrate this momentous occasion, how about a music video from one of my favorite bands? This is Uprising by Muse. It seems to go with the general tenor of the times. Everyone’s convinced they’re a revolutionary. even if they’re just some rando on twitter. Things are blowing, if only in our neighbor’s dreams.
The bit with the teddy bears? That’s a Ghostbusters tribute.
