An Oscar for Lin Manuel?- Page 3

[Theater_Nerd]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 12:31pm

"Another Day of Sun" is one of my favorite songs in "La La Land". It really captured my love for all those classic MGM musicals starring Astaire, Powell, Kelly, Charisse, Reynolds, et al. that I obsessed over in my youth whenever they were shown on local tv.

I had no problem understanding the lyrics or it's message. Great song.

 

 

Updated On: 1/25/17 at 12:31 PM

[JennH]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 1:53pm

Oh Lin WILL be nominated for sure again. And i'm sorry I am of the belief that to shanghai him into doing a Disney movie was absolutely an Oscar grab. Yes, no composer would ever turn down an offer to write for Disney, but when it was so obviously a award/cash grab... and yes if he wins, yes youngest EGOT, but with LLL...yeah those chances aren't as high anymore. He'll be an EGOT in the future, no doubt in my mind, just not now. As much as we love him, he's oversaturrated right now. Let's not kill a good thing too early. I don't think much of any of the songs this year, none are great really anyway. 

Besides, Alan-The Disney God-Menken is also only one award away from EGOT and was once again up for his missing award last year...but there was nothing about it anywhere. Menken is WAY overdue for his EGOT. If he DID finally get it, I doubt we'd hear about it very easily. I MUST see it happen before he dies. 

[JennH]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 2:04pm

bwaylyric said: "Doesn't help that Moana will not win best animated film

 

"

Honestly...I hope it doesn't. Zootopia was superior in every way. The only comparison between them is the animation itself. Both had stunning animation. Zootopia is the better script, more relevant story and better told one at that, and frankly more creative and original. Ironically enough, Disney is trying to break their mold, but they held to it with Moana. It just felt like a check off list for things that needs to be a Disney/Princess type musical film. Disney is honestly doing way better with their non-musical animated films these days. Wreck it Ralph anyone? Clever and original as h-e-double hockey sticks.

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 2:07pm

JennH, you do know that Disney hired Lin for Moana in 2014 aka before Hamilton right? There was nothing about his name then that would have made people think 'this will help us to get Oscars', other than the fact that he'd written one award winning score by that point. 

 

[PopAria]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 2:10pm

Theater_Nerd said: ""Another Day of Sun" is one of my favorite songs in "La La Land". It really captured my love for all those classic MGM musicals starring Astaire, Powell, Kelly, Charisse, Reynolds, et al. that I obsessed over in my youth whenever they were shown on local tv.

I had no problem understanding the lyrics or it's message. Great song.

"

SAME!!

 

Also want to add that Audition was stuck in my head when I left the theater. SO I don't agree with @RippedMan when you say it's forgettable.

 

who cares if the songs don't advance the plot?  Why does that even matter? 

Everything can't and shouldn't be Les Miz or Hamilton...

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 2:14pm

I also think Audition is forgettable. For me the standouts are City of Stars and Someone in the Crowd. But it's all a matter of taste.

And many, many people have commented on the poor audio in the first number.

As for why they should advance the plot, that's what musicals traditionally are meant to do - tell story through music. Doesn't bother me that much in a movie-musical but I can understand why it would others.

[hork]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 2:40pm

Again, splitting the vote: not a thing. It's not like the Academy is divided between Moanists and La La Landites.

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 2:48pm

hork said: "Again, splitting the vote: not a thing. It's not like the Academy is divided between Moanists and La La Landites."

Huh? We're talking about splitting the vote between the two La La Land songs. Moana will pick up some votes, there's thousands of people in the Academy. All the nominees will.

[carolinaguy]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 3:05pm

Here's why I say vote-splitting is not a thing. (Well, except in the sense that every vote takes a vote from each of the other nominees.) Since 1980, there have been 15 cases of a film having more than one song nominated in the Best Original Song category. 9 times out of that 15, one of the songs won. Only six times did the multi-nominated film not win for song. (This includes the odd case of 1983, in which two songs from Flashdance and two from Yentl were nominated, and Flashdance won.) So, in a considerable majority of times, it seems that having multiple songs nominated means there is a great love for a film's music and one of the songs is likely to win.

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 3:20pm

Yes and I don't think anyone here is predicting La La Land to lose this. But there is a possibility. The whole reason they changed the amount of songs eligible to be nominated from one film from 3 to 2 is because of vote splitting.

[finebydesign]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 3:31pm

I was thinking this was sure thing, but Moana's music is pretty ho-hum. I was quite surprised there was a ton of praise for it. I think the film would have been better without it, and I LOVE animated musicals.  I really like a lot of Lin's work but just couldn't understand it here.  "How Far I'll Go" is pretty bland and uninspiring.I thought the numbers in the film were at best uneven and unearned.  

 Zootopia is a far superior (and relevant) film.  

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 4:24pm

Zootopia will win without a doubt. 

Also, why do they allow several numbers from the same movie? 

And Sia's "Never Give Up" from Lion is leagues better than anything nominated, but guess it was overlooked. 

[gypsy101]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 5:01pm

RippedMan said: "I just don't think the La La Land music is good at all. And i LOVE Pasek and Paul. I was just disappointed by how lame all the music was. It was just super forgettable and the lyrics were all so bland and contrived. I mean "Another Day of Sun" - You couldn't understand the lyrics. And "Audition" has no melody. None of the songs propel the plot or do anything to further the character development, IMO."

1) pasek and paul wrote the lyrics. the music is by justin hurwitz.

2) you can understand the lyrics of another day of sun  if you open your ears.

3) audition has a melody. i know this because i'm humming it as i write this post.

as for why they "allow" several numbers from the same movie... history has shown us that movies with songs are not limited to having one good song.

[hork]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 5:58pm

aaaaaa15 said: "hork said: "Again, splitting the vote: not a thing. It's not like the Academy is divided between Moanists and La La Landites."

Huh? We're talking about splitting the vote between the two La La Land songs. Moana will pick up some votes, there's thousands of people in the Academy. All the nominees will.

 

I understand that. But vote splitting is a term that makes sense only when the voters are ideologically divided. I mean, I'm sure not every voter is going to listen to all five songs and pick the best one, but it's just as naive to assume that enough of them will slavishly and blindly (or deafly, I guess) vote for their favorite movie for it to matter that the votes for La La Land are split between two songs. 

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 6:39pm

"2) you can understand the lyrics of another day of sun  if you open your ears."

My ears are fine and I couldn't understand them either. It's not a problem with the song, but the sound mixing is very bad in that number- I've seen more than a few reviews mention it. Maybe it's clearer with repeat listening, but in the theatre it was gibberish. 

[kdogg36]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 7:45pm

Liza's Headband said: "Maybe if you keep writing that over and over for another few months, it will finally become true.  Or maybe not... "

I haven't seen La La Land yet and have no dog in your fight regarding the backlash, but here's an article for you:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-la-la-land-backlash-guide-20170125-story.html

 

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 1/25/17 at 11:55pm

Perhaps you all just saw the film at a cinema with bad speakers? I had not one issue hearing any part of the movie.

[jo]

Posted: 1/26/17 at 12:23am

JennH said: Besides, Alan-The Disney God-Menken is also only one award away from EGOT and was once again up for his missing award last year...but there was nothing about it anywhere. Menken is WAY overdue for his EGOT. If he DID finally get it, I doubt we'd hear about it very easily. I MUST see it happen before he dies. 

Did he write something new for the live-action BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, due for release in March?  That would be his next chance.

Although he might be running in competition against our popular new songmakers, Pasek and Paul, who are writing the entire musical score for THE GREATEST SHOWMAN ( due for release during the awards season - on Dec 25, 2017).  According to the NYTimes, the duo have written a dozen original songs ( music and lyrics) for the movie musical headlined by Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams and Zac Efron.

 

 

"

 

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 1/26/17 at 5:17am

Mr. Nowack said: "Perhaps you all just saw the film at a cinema with bad speakers? I had not one issue hearing any part of the movie."

It seems pretty unlikely that so many people (and it's not just people on this board) managed to see the movie in a cinema with poor speakers. I've seen the movie in two different cinemas and had the same issue both times.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/26/17 at 5:25am

And bad speakers would effect the entire film, not just one song.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 1/26/17 at 6:23am

jo said: "Did he write something new for the live-action BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, due for release in March?  That would be his next chance.

Although he might be running in competition against our popular new songmakers, Pasek and Paul, who are writing the entire musical score for THE GREATEST SHOWMAN ( due for release during the awards season - on Dec 25, 2017).  According to the NYTimes, the duo have written a dozen original songs ( music and lyrics) for the movie musical headlined by Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams and Zac Efron."

JennH was referring to the fact that Alan Menken has yet to win an Emmy; his work on Beauty and the Beast would not help him achieve an EGOT nor would The Greatest Showman in any stand on his way of achieving that (in the way that they are currently standing in the way, with Justin Hurwitz, of Lin-Manuel achieving his EGOT).

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 1/26/17 at 10:50am

I am surprised by the number of people straying that they have not seen any backlash to La La Land. It is all over various film blogs, comment pages, and message boards. It seems, based on the many many comments I have read, that there is a large concensus out there that believes it is a mediocre, but entertaining film with just OK performances that is getting thrown into the spot light because it is a Hollywood film about Hollywood, and Hollywood is very self congratulatory, thus being the only reason it is getting the praise and award recognition that it has been receiving.

I have not seen the movie yet, and these are not my opinions; however, I have seen this backlash all over film centered cites on the Web, and it does seem to be growing. If you frequent these cites, there is no denying that a backlash against the film does exist.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 1/26/17 at 5:19pm

the backlash is mostly amongst people i wouldn't deem intelligent enough to appreciate the film, from what i've noticed.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 1/26/17 at 5:23pm

Most of the backlash I've experienced in real life (aka not on BWW) has been from people who haven't even seen the movie. Just regurgitating opinions they read on Twitter or Reddit (or BWW lol).

[skies]

Posted: 1/26/17 at 6:05pm

I think the LALA  Story backlash seems more a social media thing.  Not saying it doesn't exist to some level, but that's hardly an indicator it's a trend or a building opinion among Academy voters.   I mean, the film got 14 nominations...

Updated On: 1/26/17 at 06:05 PM