Neil Peart, R.I.P.
Tag Archives: Rush
Music Video of the Day: The Trees by Rush (1978, dir. ???)
Happy Arbor Day!
It was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw Arbor Day was coming up.
Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart said this about an alleged message of the song to the magazine Modern Drummer:
“No. It was just a flash. I was working on an entirely different thing when I saw a cartoon picture of these trees carrying on like fools. I thought, ‘What if trees acted like people?’ So I saw it as a cartoon really, and wrote it that way. I think that’s the image that it conjures up to a listener or a reader. A very simple statement.”
If you want to discuss the politics, or lack there of in this song, then don’t worry. You can hop on over to YouTube, and people in the comments section will be glad to interpret it as a libertarian masterpiece, just a fun a song about two factions of trees fighting each other, and anything else you think it means.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: Subdivisions by Rush (1982, dir. Grant Lough)
Seeing as it is Canada Day, I thought I would go with some of the best known Canadian musicians. This also happens to be one of my favorite songs by Rush and a good video that goes with its’ message of societal pressures to conform. I love how it opens with the slow synthesizer, then goes into a zooming out aerial shot like you are taking off into the song and the video. Then it ends on a Game Over screen from the game Tempest. Old arcade games make great analogies for unwinnable situations that everyone thinks can be accomplished if they try hard enough.
What If Lisa Marie Picked The Oscar Nominees…
With the Oscar nominations due to be announced this week, now is the time that the Shattered Lens indulges in a little something called, “What if Lisa had all the power.” Listed below are my personal Oscar nominations. Please note that these are not the films that I necessarily think will be nominated. The fact of the matter is that the many of them will not. Instead, these are the films that would be nominated if I was solely responsible for deciding the nominees this year. Winners are listed in bold.
You can check out my picks for 2010 by clicking here.
My picks for 2011 can be found here.
And, finally, here are my picks for 2012.
Best Picture
12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
Before Midnight
Blue Is The Warmest Color
Frances Ha
Fruitvale Station
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Spring Breakers
Upstream Color
Best Director
Noah Baumbach for Frances Ha
Shane Carruth for Upstream Color
Spike Jonze for Her
Harmony Korine for Spring Breakers
David O. Russell for American Hustle
Best Actor
Bruce Dern in Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf Of Wall Street
Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club
Joaquin Phoenix in Her
Dennis Quaid in At Any Price
Best Actress
Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine
Julie Delpy in Before Midnight
Adèle Exarchopoulos in Blue Is The Warmest Color
Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha
Amy Seimetz in Upstream Color
Best Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips
Kyle Chandler in The Spectacular Now
Bradley Cooper in American Hustle
James Franco in Spring Breakers
Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club
Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle
Eva Mendes in The Place Beyond The Pines
Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years A Slave
Léa Seydoux in Blue Is The Warmest Color
Octavia Spencer in Fruitvale Station
Best Original Screenplay
American Hustle
Blue Jasmine
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Upstream Color
Best Adapted Screenplay
12 Years A Slave
Before Midnight
Blue Is The Warmest Color
The Spectacular Now
The Wolf of Wall Street
Best Animated Feature
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest and Celestine
Frozen
Monsters University
Best Documentary Feature
20 Feet From Stardom
The Armstrong Lie
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
Stories We Tell
Tim’s Vermeer
Best Foreign Language Film
(Please note that I do things differently for this category than the Academy. For this award, I am nominating the best foreign language films to be released in the United States in 2013.)
Beyond the Hills
Blue Is The Warmest Color
No
Renoir
White Elephant
Best Production Design
12 Years A Slave
Gravity
The Great Gatsby
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Oz: The Great and Powerful
Best Cinematography
Frances Ha
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Spring Breakers
Upstream Color
Best Costume Design
12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
The Copperhead
The Great Gatsby
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Best Film Editing
12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
Gravity
Her
Upstream Color
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
Dallas Buyers Club
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Warm Bodies
Best Original Score
Gravity
Her
Maniac
Trance
Upstream Color
Best Original Song
“Let it Go” from Frozen
“A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)” from The Great Gatsby
“Young and Beautiful” from The Great Gatsby
“The Moon Song” from Her
“I See Fire” from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
“Atlas” from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
“Please Mr. Kennedy” from Inside Llewyn Davis
“So You Know What It’s Like” from Short Term 12
“Becomes The Color” from Stoker
“Here It Comes” from Trance
Best Sound Editing
All Is Lost
Iron Man 3
Pacific Rim
Rush
Upstream Color
Best Sound Mixing
All Is Lost
Iron Man 3
Pacific Rim
Rush
Upstream Color
Best Visual Effects
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
Oz: The Great and Powerful
Pacific Rim
List of Films By Number of Nominations:
9 Nominations — Upstream Color
8 Nominations — American Hustle
7 Nominations — 12 Years A Slave, Her
5 Nominations — Blue Is The Warmest Color
4 Nominations — Frances Ha, Gravity, The Great Gatsby, Inside Llewyn Davis, Spring Breakers
3 Nominations — Before Midnight, Dallas Buyers Club, Iron Man 3, Pacific Rim
2 Nominations — All Is Lost, Blue Jasmine, Frozen, Fruitvale Station, Nebraska, Oz The Great and Powerful, Rush, The Spectacular Now, Trance, The Wolf of Wall Street
1 Nominations — 20 Feet From Stardom, The Armstrong Lie, At Any Price, Beyond The Hills, Captain Phillips, The Copperhead, The Counselor, The Croods, Despicable Me 2, Ernest and Celestine, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Maniac, Monsters University, No, The Place Beyond The Pines, Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, Renoir, Short Term 12, Stoker, Stories We Tell, Tim’s Vermeer, Warm Bodies, White Elephant
List of Films By Number of Oscars Won
3 Oscars — American Hustle, Upstream Color
2 Oscars — The Great Gatsby
1 Oscar — Before Midnight, Blue is The Warmest Color, Frances Ha, Frozen, Gravity, Her, Iron Man 3, Maniac, Pacific Rim, The Spectacular Now, Spring Breakers, Stories We Tell, The Wolf of Wall Street
Here Are The 2013 SAG Nominations!
This morning the SAG Award nominees were announced and, perhaps not surprisingly, the story is less who was nominated and more who was snubbed. For instance, Oscar front-runner Robert Redford’s performance in All Is Lost was ignored while Forest Whitaker’s rather one-note turn in The Butler was nominated. Tom Hanks was not nominated for Saving Mr. Banks but the late and missed James Gandolfini picked up a nomination for Enough Said. Myself, I’m more surprised that Octavia Spenser was not nominated for her performance in Fruitvale Station.
As has been pointed out over at Goldderby, the SAG Awards are no longer the fool-proof Oscar prediction tool that they used to be. Getting a SAG nomination no longer guarantees you an Oscar nomination and, by that same standard, getting snubbed is no longer an automatic cause for concern.
That said, the SAG winners do typically end up receiving an Oscar nomination in January.
The film nominees can be found below:
BEST FILM ENSEMBLE
“12 Years a Slave”
“American Hustle”
“August: Osage County”
“The Butler”
“Dallas Buyers Club”
BEST FILM ACTOR
Bruce Dern, “Nebraska”
Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”
Tom Hanks, “Captain Phillips”
Matthew McConaughey, “Dallas Buyers Club”
Forest Whitaker, “The Butler”
BEST FILM ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”
Sandra Bullock, “Gravity”
Judi Dench, “Philomena”
Meryl Streep, “August: Osage County”
Emma Thompson, “Saving Mr. Banks”
BEST FILM SUPPORTING ACTOR
Barkhad Abdi, “Captain Phillips”
Daniel Bruhl, “Rush”
Michael Fassbender, “12 Years a Slave”
James Gandolfini, “Enough Said”
Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”
BEST FILM SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jennifer Lawrence, “American Hustle”
Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”
Julia Roberts, “August: Osage County”
June Squibb, “Nebraska”
Oprah Winfrey, “The Butler”
BEST FILM STUNT ENSEMBLE*
“All is Lost”
“Fast & Furious 6”
“Lone Survivor”
“Rush”
“The Wolverine”
The full list of nominees can be found here.
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* Isn’t it about time that stunt performers get an Oscar category all their own?
12 Years A Slave Wins In Boston
The Boston Society Of Film Critics voted earlier today and 12 Years A Slave — which, so far, has been underperforming with the critics’ groups — swept the awards. The Wolf of Wall Street came in second for most of the major awards.
BEST PICTURE
“12 Years a Slave”
Runner-up: “The Wolf of Wall Street”
BEST DIRECTOR
Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”)
Runner-up: Martin Scorsese (“The Wolf of Wall Street”)
BEST ACTOR
Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave”)
Runner-up: Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Wolf of Wall Street”)
BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett (“Blue Jasmine”)
Runner-up: Judi Dench (“Philomena”)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
James Gandolfini (“Enough Said”)
Runner-ups:
Barkhad Abdi (“Capt. Phillips”) and Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”) tie for second.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
June Squibb (“Nebraska”)
Runner-up:
Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave”)
BEST SCREENPLAY
Nicole Holofcener (“Enough Said”)
Runner-up:
“The Wolf of Wall Street”
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“Wadjda”
Runner-up: “Blue Is the Warmest Color”
BEST DOCUMENTARY
“The Act of Killing,” Josh Oppenheimer
Runner-ups:
“Blackfish,” “Leviathan,” “At Berkeley,” “Crash Reel,” “20 Feet from Stardom ”
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“The Wind Rises,” Hayao Miyazaki
Runner-up:
“Frozen”
BEST NEW FILMMAKER
Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale Station”)
Runner-up: Josh Oppenheimer (“Act of Killing”)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Emmanuel Lubezki (“Gravity”)
Runner-up:
Phillippe Le Sourd (“The Grandmaster”)
BEST EDITING
Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill (“Rush”)
Runner-up: Thelma Schoonmaker (“The Wolf of Wall Street”)
BEST USE OF MUSIC IN A FILM
“Inside Llewyn Davis”
Runner-up: “Nebraska”
Film Review: Rush (dir by Ron Howard)
Rush, the latest film from Ron Howard, is the type of film that I usually hate.
It’s big, bombastic, and so extremely mainstream that it actually features Chris Hemsworth uttering the line, “This is what I was born to do,” without a hint of irony. This is a film about rich boys playing with expensive toys and the movie’s portrayal of women manages to make Aaron Sorkin look enlightened by comparison. Finally, the film is about a sport that I previously knew nothing about and, after having spent two hours watching this film, I still know very little about.
And yet, I didn’t hate Rush. In fact, I really enjoyed it and I think the reason why comes down to one thing.
I have a weakness for hot guys who drive fast cars.
Rush tells the true story about the rivalry between two Formula One racers, the flamboyant Englishman James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and the extroverted German Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl). The film follows them from their first meeting in 1970 until they both find themselves competing for the Formula One championship in 1976. Along the way, we watch how both of them deal with the temptations that went along with being a rich celebrity in the 1970s. (Lauda resists the majority of them. Hunt does not.) Along the way, one of them struggles to recover after a horrifying accident and both of them try to maintain a balance between their personal lives and the fact that each race they run could potentially be their last. (In one of the film’s best scenes, Niki explains that he’s prepared to accept a 20% chance of dying during a race but not a point more.)
Plotwise, Rush is pretty much a standard sports film, full of men talking about the importance of being men while women stare up at them with adoration. Inspirational speeches are delivered and everything comes down to one final race. If, like me, you’re not into Formula 1 racing, the film can occasionally be difficult to follow. During one extended montage of cars racing across the world and occasionally crashing, I found myself seriously wondering how many races could possibly be run in a Formula One season. As the film reached its conclusion, James and Niki started talking about which racers have the most points. Their conversation would have undoubtedly been easy to follow for someone who was into Formula One but for me, it took a few minutes to figure out what they were going on about.
However, none of that matters.
Rush works.
There’s a lot of reasons why Rush works. The film’s glossy recreation of the 1970s (in all of its frequently tacky glory) is enjoyable to watch and Hans Zimmer’s score is properly loud and majestic. Both Hemsworth and Bruhl give good performances, with Hemsworth coming across as properly flamboyant and Bruhl bringing some much-needed humor to a character who, in the hands of a lesser actor, could have been insufferable. Both Olivia Wilde and Alexandra Maria Lara do good work bringing seriously underwritten characters to life.
However, the film’s ultimate success belongs to director Ron Howard.
Ever since Frost/Nixon prevented The Dark Knight from getting a best picture nomination in 2009, there has been a certain loud element of the online film community that has used Ron Howard as a go-to example of a safe and thoroughly commercial director. He is often dismissed as being the epitome of a mainstream, conventional filmmaker.
However, as mainstream as Howard’s sensibility may be, Rush proves that he still knows how to craft an exciting scene. I may have occasionally had trouble keeping track of who was and wasn’t in each car but that didn’t make the races any less thrilling or the accidents any less horrifying. During the film’s best sequences, you feel the thrill of being in control of the uncontrollable and you understand why Niki and James are willing to risk death just so they can experience being alive.
Through the Shattered Lens 