Hype Starts Here

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Hype Starts Here's Top 100 Songs of 2014 (70-46)

70. Your Love Will Set You Free---Caribou***

   Dan Snaith is an unapologetic romantic, and god bless him for it. The closer on an album that takes the devastations and triumphs of deep affection as its subject, Your Love is decidedly more lyrically driven than the rest of Our Love, with words and sounds that work in tandem to describe the thin line between nerves and ecstasy.

69. Stay Gold---First Aid Kit

   First Aid Kit's masterclass on communicating longing and apprehension, the title track from the Söderberg sisters' latest is an anthem of disenchantment, though you can still hear the belief in better times hiding somewhere in its depths. Robert Frost would be proud.

68. Back Home---Caribou

   A lot of Caribou's Our Love LP is predicated on build-ups and delayed gratification. No single track embodies this notion more fully than Back Home, which waits more than a minute to raise its voice beyond a gentle whisper, building from there into a love ballad as towering as it is bewitching.

67. My Silver Lining---First Aid Kit***

   Simply put, this song captures every reason why I prefer First Aid Kit to your average country/western leaning outfit. The lyrics defy immediate comprehension, forcing you to ask your own questions as that violin paints the sky in pastel colors, and the Söderbergs' voices seemingly merge into one glorious whole.

66. Regret---St. Vincent

Annie Clark's guitar is prone to emitting crunchy, distorted sounds, but even by her standards, the riff that opens Regret is pretty damn huge. It continues to layer and deviate, all while Clark's voice floats off into the clouds, juxtaposing the soft and the harsh in ways only she can.

65. Heaven Knows---First Aid Kit

Stay Gold is a great album that registers as a triumph well before this deep cut takes things to another level. The hoedown that begins less the 30 seconds into the song might as well be a dubstep-style beat drop, trading in the subdued opening notes for the biggest, brightest sound they've ever made.

64. The Remains of Rock and Roll---Broken Bells***

The deeply indulgent and equally wonderful closer to After the Disco sees James Mercer's familiar serenading encased in 1950's technicolor sheen, brought into the modern age by Danger Mouse's production wizardry.

63. Black Out Days---Phantogram

I nominate Sarah Barthel's immediate, immortal, "Oh, ay, yay, yaaah," for 2014's gibberish rallying cry of the year. The conviction in her voice is so strong that proper English need not apply, though that absolute stomper of a beat doesn't really hurt either.

62. Sedated---Hozier
Hozier's instrumentation is fine and all, but let's be honest; the real draw here is Andrew Hozier-Byrne's booming, evocative voice. Sedated knows this well, boasting a barebones backing that allows the warbler to take over in commanding fashion.

61. Stolen Dance---Milky Chance***

How good does a song have to be to make a band named Milky Chance (?!?) a global sensation? About this good, I'd say. SD is all about keeping things steady, that alluring percussion and string interplay driving one of the most surprisingly undeniable tracks of the year.

60. Wait for a Minute---tUnE-yArDs

Merrill Garbus isn't exactly known for making... you know... 'normal' music, which makes her obvious grab for the non-esoteric that much more interesting. No insane cadence change-ups or wounded howls here, just a woman working through issues of identity and insecurity in the most immediate, direct way that her mad-cap mind can manage.

59. Birth In Reverse---St. Vincent

Can we quickly take a second to appreciate how ballsy it was for St. Vincent to open her latest album's first single with the line, "Oh, what an ordinary day/Take out the garbage, masterbate?" In every imaginable fashion, Annie Clark defies what it means to be a successful female solo artist, from off-handed lines like that, to the singular and savage manner in which she reigns upon the electric guitar. It must be frustrating to be a rock star in a world that often treats said designation as a boy's club, but it's ok; she'll burn the damn tree house down if she has to.

58. Salad Days---Mac DeMarco***

Does it feel at least slightly off to rank such a lazy, stripped down, shortly-lived track in my top 60 of the whole of 2014? Sure, yes, absolutely, but I simply can't resist DeMarco's super-stoned version of kiss-off, chip-on-my-shoulder style songwriting, and the peace that he finds therein.

57. Mirage---ceo

In some ways, Eric Berglund's ceo side project plays out like a dare, an established artist getting down right cheesy, and challenging you to not love the sound. Mirage is perhaps the most lactose-inclusive success of this still-young project, with an inviting chorus that simply can't match its gorgeous, ravishing verses.

56. Xplode---Hot Tea Cold***
Portland's own Hot Tea Cold certainly knows how to groove, Xplode proving emblematic of their tight-knit, funky sound. Propped up by an irrepressible bass line, and driven home Glen Hoover's scintilating guitar solos, Xplode is among the four purest minutes of fun I had all year.
55. Another Night---The Men
Another Night is a 1:36 AM dive bar jam if ever you've heard one, chugging along with that same catchy guitar refrain, even throwing an unexpected trumpet at the problem. These guys just love to rock, and their joy and excitement is downright infectious.

54. Hotel---The Antlers

By Familiars' standards, this is a rock song. While the Antlers' latest is a loose, contemplative thing that feels NO rush to 'get to the point,' Hotel offers an immediate through-line, cracking open with drums, keys, and electronics, these stark, commanding notes serving as the engine that drives us all the way to the track's climactic, jazzy six-string solo.

53. Talking Backwards---Real Estate***

Real Estate makes simple, sunny morsels that prefer immediate guitar hooks to any real sort of intricacy. TB might as well be their calling card, consisting almost exclusively of gently tapping percussion, Martin Courtney's comfortably lazy voice, and some magically unfussy fret work that will stick in your head for days.

52. They Want My Soul---Spoon
So, yeah, pretty much everyone out there wants Britt Daniel's soul, but can you really blame them when he writes songs like this? Spoon's latest title track pulls out every trick in their pop rock playbook, from zippy little guitar fills to steady, kinetic percussion, and even adorns them with a few, "fa la la's," just for good measure.
51. Outlier---Spoon
If I'm being truthful, it's tough to keep writing about Spoon without just repeating the same glowing compliments. Yes, the band's range is substantial, Outlier serving as one of the more exciting, energetic tracks on their whole 2014 LP, but what remains consistent is their status as songwriting savants, knowing exactly where to insert each sound and note to tantalizing effect.

50. Now Here In---Cloud Nothings***
With each new Cloud Nothings album, the band gets harder, faster, tighter, meaner, and better. Now Here In is a perfect opener, stuffed to the gills with mania and menace. Back in 2012, The Men offered up some of my personal all-time favorite spurned lover lyrics when Mark Perro uttered "I wanna see you write a love song!/ I wanna see you go down!/ I wanna see you when you try so hard!/ I wanna see you when you turn it around!"; NHI has done them one better with the simple vinegar of, "I can feel your pain, and I feel all right about it."

49. Do You---Spoon

Do You finds everything perfectly positioned for maximum impact; its wrapped up in inviting hand claps, fitted with handsome miniature guitar fills, and adorned with a perfectly calibrated vocal turn from Britt Daniel. For a band that's often described as workmanlike, Spoon makes the exacting nature of DY sound awfully easy.

48. True Trans Soul Rebel---Against Me!***

No point in making this more difficult than it needs to be; TTSR has just a massive riff at its core, not in the sense that it over-powers eardrums, but that it rolls around in them long after its tidy 3+ minutes are over. While the tune stands out as one of Transgender Dysphoria Blues finest moments, it's perhaps more at home serving as a mission statement for an album sporting no shortage of rollicking punk rock delights.
47. Black Me Out---Against Me!***
So... while we're on the subject of massive riffs... Black Me Out is somehow both incredibly bitter and mind-numbingly victorious, a declaration of self that wishes only the worst for all who oppose lead singer Laura Jane Grace. It's the sound of lifting your middle finger, and feeling the weight of the world roll right off your back.

46. Master Pretender---First Aid Kit

In which the sisters finally lighten up a little. Not only is this Stay Gold's most positive lyrical offering, it sounds even more optimistic, Mike Mogis' production ensuring that no fewer than 18 different instruments coalesce without the slightest hint of indulgence (and yes, I needed the liner notes to find that absurd number, and no, I don't know what a Lap Dulcimer is... nor a Mellotron, for that matter).

***Pictured Artist

Hype Starts Here's Top 50 Albums of 2014:

50-41

40-31

30-21

20-11

10-1

Hype Starts Here's Top 100 Songs of 2014:

100-71

70-46

45-26

25-11

10-1

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Hype Starts Here's Top 50 Albums of 2014 (50-41)

50. El Pintor---Interpol
I could hardly believe my ears when I first pressed play on El Pintor; is Interpol really back? I can't help but think the soaring heights of Turn On the Bright Lights are long behind them, but the bands 2014 offering is perhaps their most 'rock' record to date, stuffed to the gills with killer riffs and punchy percussion.

49. Supermodel---Foster the People
If Torches was Foster the People's BIG HITS record, then Supermodel is their much more cohesive response to their debut's ginormous success. 48 straight minutes of festival jams and arena anthems that flow with the consistency of a single thought.

48. My Everything---Ariana Grande
I mean... you've heard Problem, right? Grande's voice lives up to her name and then some, the constant mini-Mariah comparisons completely valid on every level. The broken-hearted, mid-tempo tracks seen here are fine and all, but nothing in comparison to the way the newly-minted pop star can wail over the very biggest of beats.

47. It's Album Time---Todd Terje
Terje's long-anticipated debut is at once goofy, kinetic, badass and fun. Think LCD Soundsystem by way of lounge music, and you're not far off, the juxtaposition lending It's Album Time its truly singular bend.

46. Clark---Clark
Dark, claustrophobic, and damn near impossible to put down, Clark is that rare electronic record wherein each track stands out from its album mates without ever sacrificing continuity. As dingy as it is delightful.

45. You're Dead!---Flying Lotus
FlyLo has always done his thing at warp speed, but Stephen Ellison's unique soundworld takes on a whole new meaning when framed as a transition into the afterlife. His tracks still eagerly ramp up the MPH, but the subject, as well as guest spots from the likes of Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar, ensure that You're Dead stands out from the rest of the prolific producers' canon.

44. Ultraviolence---Lana Del Rey
Say what you will about Lana Del Rey, but she's established a niche for herself in a way that very few pop stars are really capable of accomplishing. Her glamourous depression might irk some, but for my money, her darkly tinged balladry and its old school trappings are as impossible to deny as Dan Auerbach's expert production.

43. Lost in a Dream---The War on Drugs
So, yeah, I can't get quite as excited about this disc as the multitudes who have heralded Lost in a Dream as The Album of 2014, but these Tom Petty enthusiasts have crafted yet another undeniable winner. Perhaps more importantly, their are a couple of tracks on hand that are worthy of every ounce of the hype they're received, but we'll get to that on the songs list.

42. So It Is With Us---Horse Feathers
Remember when Iron & Wine attempted to become more of a full-band outfit as opposed to a bearded dude writing lovely lullabies to himself? Horse Feathers is the perfect embodiment of Sam Beam's mission, and So It Is With Us further expands upon their decade of producing gorgeous, rural folk music for the tenderhearted.

41. Sea When Absent---A Sunny Day in Glasgow
Layers upon layers upon layers. Sea When Absent is positively stunning and stunningly positive, a generous, glittering shoe gaze offering with no shortage of tiny flourishes that ensure the listener discovers something new on every spin. It's easy to get lost in.

Hype Starts Here's Top 50 Albums of 2014:

50-41

40-31

30-21

20-11

10-1

Hype Starts Here's Top 100 Songs of 2014:

100-71

70-46

45-26

25-11

10-1

Friday, January 2, 2015

Hype Starts Here's Top 100 Songs of 2014 (100-71)

100. War on the East Coast---The New Pornographers
   Dan Bejar's big moment to shine on the latest New Pornographers disc, WotEC is a steady chug that builds to climax that treats rock music as a form of celebration.
99. Fram---Rodrigo y Gabriela***
   Fram has no use for RyG's standard build-up, hitting you straight away with air-tight acoustic sound, and refusing to loosen it's grip.
98. Susie Thumb---Ty Segall
   Ty Segall can do a lot of things, but I for one like it most when he just rocks out. Susie Thumb is his distinct version of lightning in a bottle, slamming on the gas, and refusing to let up.
97. Nothing But Trouble---Phantogram
   The opener to Phantogram's long-awaited follow-up to 2009's Eyelid Movies, NBT hits the ground running with their signature nocturnal electro-pop, rounding out the track with a schizo guitar solo.
96. Wonderland---ceo
   Has there ever been a more appropriately named song or album? The title track from ceo's latest possesses quite the jaunty, candy-colored swirl.
95. Sweet Sun---Milky Chance
   Milky Chance's appeal is a tough thing to put a finger on, and SS is a perfect example, a goofy, groovy, sexy thing strung together with minimal, sinewy strums.

94. Song for Five & Six---Owen Pallett***
   Owen Pallett's music is always lovely and orchestral, but Song slightly deviates from the formula, adding speed and synths to glorious effect.
93. Stay Ugly---Millie & Andrea
   A lurching anti-techno instrumental, SU places rafter-shaking sounds atop an echoing, fuzz-adorned abyss that only makes them sound that much bigger.
92. Break Free---Ariana Grande feat. Zedd
   Sure, Ariana Grande can steer a decent ballad, but she's much better suited for enormous club jams, as Zedd and his massive dubstep production will readily attest.
91. The Soundmaker---Rodrigo y Gabriela
   Contemplative, spacious, muli-faceted, and ready to rock out at the drop of a hat, The Soundmaker is a high-octane reminder of just how great RodGab can be at the peak of their powers.

90. Soda---Azealia Banks
   One of the things that makes Banks' debut hip-hop record so infectious is its refusal to just be a hip-hop record. On Soda, the new kid on the block stops spitting and crafts one of the years most fun and catchy tracks.
89. All the Rage Back Home---Interpol***
   Those clean, reverberating electric guitar licks are back, caffeinated, and ready to turn the place out with Interpol's best song in years.
88. Are You What You Want To Be?---Foster the People
   Supermodel was never destined to be as big a hit as the band's debut LP, but it certainly would have helped to position this as the lead single, its arena-filling chords and sky-scraping chorus opening the disc on an awfully high note.

87. Low Key---Tweedy***
   A lazy love ballad and a cocoon of mid-tempo warmth and sunshine, there simply couldn't be a more apt song to select from the lowest key offering of Jeff Tweedy's 2+ decade career.
86. Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene---Hozier
   Hozier just can't stop taking us to church; this stand-out from his debut album is straight gospel with a wrought and dangerous twist.
85. Violently Wild---Horse Feathers
   The loveliest, most life-affirming track on an album chuck-full of them, VW finds Justin Riggles' breathy, patient voice in the mid-afternoon sun, encased in all kinds of warm folksy goodness.
84. Turn Away---Beck
   Beck has made plenty of down-tempo tracks throughout his prolific career, but TA stands out for its hymnal qualities, a gorgeously lush three minutes with an etherial quality that's tough to put one's finger on.

83. 180db_[130]---Aphex Twin
   A glitchy stomp that you'd expect more at a dance club than an Aphex Twin album if not for the warped, descending tones that writhe around on its edges, rendering it just as sinister as it is savage.
82. Damage---Andy Stott***
   An agressive, violent change of pace on an album that could have used a little more blunt force to get its point across, Damage stands as one of the year's finest instrumental tracks, even if it almost demands that you cower in fear.
81. Hands Up---Vince Staples
   Vince Staples doesn't really view the travesties perpetrated by his local authorities with a whole lot of nuance, but at this point, why should he? Hands Up is the kind of hip-hop thumper that you could picture on the radio, but don't let its disturbed and distrusting lyrics pass you by.

80. Lazaretto---Jack White***
   This... this is just Jack White doing his Jack White thing. Guitar solos, distrust in women, punchy vocals, and piss and vinegar; just Jack doing his thing.
79. The Front---KOOL A.D. feat. Toro y Moi and Amaze 88
   A lot of indie artists have been tasked with crafting hip-hop beats lately, from Purity Ring to Ariel Pink. For my money, Toro y Moi's The Front beat is among the finest in the growing trend, a laid-back groove perfectly befitting KOOL A.D.'s ever-lazy raps.
78. Cavity---Hundred Waters
   Hundred Waters is bedroom music with an singular bend, Nicole Miglis' hauntingly hushed vocals stretching across Cavity's endless vortex of percussion and synthesizers.
77. Dark Waltz---The Men
   A coming-of-age track from one of the most prolific acts working today, DW hazy, imperfect production befits the wily ideas and desires of the track, all bolstered by their ever-steady ax work, and a surprise harmonica solo.
76. Best Friend---Foster the People

   A track for the festival crowds if ever their was one, Best Friend practically screams fun with its every waking note, over-powering ear drums with the sheer force of its crowd-riling pleasures.
75. Don't Wanna Lose---Ex Hex***
   DWL, like most every other track on Ex Hex's debut album Rips, doesn't exactly require description and assessment so much as it needs you to just lend an ear. This is pure pop rock pleasure, and it hits the main vein the second you press play.
74. Limos---Vince Staples feat. Teyana Taylor
   Less party-ready than we're used to from Staples, Limos is a description of high-life tragedy set to a throbbing beat, and leveled out by Teyana Taylor's comely vocal hook.

73. Winter Linn---Clark***
   Like most everything on Clark's excellent self-titled LP, WL is an angular, aggressive beast, a beautifully haunting track that changes directions, sounds, and moods about 5,000 within its tidy 3 minutes without a single miss-step.
72. 1998---Chet Faker
   Most of Built on Glass consists of chilly instrumentals and lovelorn lyrics, but not 1998, a summertime jam dressed up with curiously inviting samples (ok, the lyrics are still kind of lovelorn, but whatever!).
71. And That's All I Know---Kevin Drew
   Subtle, sweet bedroom pop that leaves Drew's trusty guitar in its case, All I Know's sturdy keyboard core steering the ship while the singer's whispered croon and supporting synths glide effortlessly on its sides.

***Pictured Artist

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Oscar Predictions 2014 (Round 2)

Best Picture:

1. Birdman (Previous Ranking: 11)

I don't really love its chances to win the big one, but at this point, it's legitimately the only movie I can't imagine missing out on a Best Picture nomination. This showy show-biz tale is right up Oscar's alley.

2. Boyhood (Previous Ranking: 5)

The only reason this ever seemed like it could miss was because of distributor IFC's limited track record with chasing Oscars. This one's brought too many grown men to tears to worry too much about that now.

3. The Imitation Game (Previous Ranking: 9)
I feel good about Birdman and Boyhood; from here on out, it's a crap shoot. This Alan Turing biopic is right up the Academy's alley, and boasts of strong early reviews, and a lauded lead performance.

4. The Theory of Everything (Previous Ranking: 29)
Ditto literally everything listed above... only with Stephen Hawking instead of Turing.

5. Selma (Previous Ranking: Unranked)
Did a Martin Luther King biopic just drop into this race at the last second?!? It did, and the reviews are stunning, but will it pick up enough buzz in time?

6. Foxcatcher (Previous Ranking: 6)
Some say it's too cold or weird for Oscar. I say Bennett Miller has never directed a movie that wasn't a Best Picture nominee. I'm not about to start betting against him.

7. Unbroken (Previous Ranking: 8)
The true story of survival in captivity, directed by Angelina Jolie, written by the Coens, scored by Alexandre Desplat, shot by Roger Deakins, and starring buzzy up-and-comer Jack O'Connell? There's enough to like here to move Unbroken to the top spot. Too bad no one has even seen it yet.

8. Into the Woods (Previous Ranking: 4)
Another Oscar season, another big Rob Marshall spectacle ridding in on the truly endless coat tails of his Chicago. The guy might not have another Best Picture nominee in him, but if Into the Woods is a hit, it's status as the year's lone musical should keep it in the conversation.

9. Gone Girl (Previous Ranking: 7)
Oscar loves David Fincher, and this was the biggest box office hit of his career. It's not really their style, but with 10 potential slots, not every movie has to be.

10. A Most Violent Year (Previous Ranking: 15)
J.C. Chandor's previous couple of films (Margin Call and All is Lost) were both Oscar players, and with the white-hot leading pair of Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain in front of his camera, I like his odds to be offered a seat at the 'big kids' table.

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11. Wild (Previous Ranking: 22)

12. Interstellar (Previous Ranking: 13)

13. Still Alice (Previous Ranking: Unranked)

14. Whiplash (Previous Ranking: 12)

15. Inherent Vice (Previous Ranking: 1)

16. Fury (Previous Ranking: 18)

17. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Previous Ranking: 34)

18. Mr. Turner (Previous Ranking: 16)

19. American Sniper (Previous Ranking: Unranked)

20. Rosewater (Previous Ranking: 41)

Best Director:

1. Alejandro González Iñárritu---Birdman
   As with all things Birdman, AGI is all but assured to get in, so let's just put him at the top of the list, and reassess the rest when the nominations drop. He might not win the golden man, but he's making the final five for sure.

2. Richard Linklater---Boyhood
   I kind of like the narrative for the perpetually underrated Linklater to win an Oscar on his first at bat, but that's just it... in his 20+ year's of filmmaking, he hasn't even been nominated once. Hopefully things go according to plan, and we can finally stop saying that.

3. Morten Tyldum---The Imitation Game
   There's no real reason to have Tyldum ranked ahead of Marsh, just as there was no real reason to rank Imitation ahead of Everything in my Best Picture rankings. These movies are destined to duke it out through the end of February.

4. James Marsh---The Theory of Everything
   Didn't you read what I just said?!?

5. Ava DuVernay---Selma
   What a story it would be; only the second woman to win Best Director, and the first ever African American. This is worth keeping an eye on.

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6. Bennett Miller---Foxcatcher

7. Angelina Jolie---Unbroken

8. Rob Marshall---Into the Woods

9. David Fincher---Gone Girl

10. J.C. Chandor---A Most Violent Year

Best Actor:

1. Michael Keaton---Birdman
   Again with Birdman? Keeton a carbonite lock for the nomination; who knows after that?

2. Eddie Redmayne---The Theory of Everything
   Finally, something Everything has over Imitation! A steadily deteriorating Stephen Hawking is capitol letters OSCAR BAIT, and early word on his performance is rapturous.

3. Benedict Cumberbatch---The Imitation Game
   Hasn't this guy been 'the next big thing' for about 5 years now? Oscar has been pleading for a chance to nominate him, and in Imitation Game, it finally has one.

4. David Oyelowo---Selma
   Listen: if you're playing Martin Luther King in a well-received movie coming out at the end of the year, you're in line for an Oscar nod. It's really only icing on the cake that Oyelowo's supposedly great in the picture.

5. Steve Carell---Foxcatcher
   The guy from The Office and The 40-Year-Old Virgin?!? Everyone's known that Carell is great in Foxcatcher for almost a full year now; the interesting part will be seeing is Oscar can take this guy seriously.

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6. Jack O’Connell---Unbroken

7. Oscar Isaac---A Most Violent Year

8. Timothy Spall---Mr. Turner

9. Channing Tatum---Foxcatcher

10. Ralph Fiennes---The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Actress:

1. Julianne Moore---Still Alice
   Overdue, and in a very flashy role. Even at a not-really-old-in-any-sense-of-the-word 54, she'd be one of the oldest Best Actress winners of all time, but with Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep in Oscar's recent past, I don't really see that hurting her. The fact that hardly anyone has heard of Still Alice kinda does...

2. Felicity Jones---The Theory of Everything
   The supportive wife of a mentally decaying mathematical genius? If this role had Oscar written over it any more boldly, they'd have already given it away... wait... they already did!

3. Reese Witherspoon---Wild
   The actress race is particularly thin this year, and Witherspoon practically gets this whole movie to herself. Until Hollywood starts coming up with better roles for women, that'll almost always be enough to get in (Not trying to throw shade on Reese; she's supposed to be great in Wild).

4. Rosamund Pike---Gone Girl

   Her role in Gone Girl is Juicy with a capitol J. Some worry that overwhelming dislike for her character might be a hinderance; I'm more concerned with what the Academy thinks of the film as a whole.

5. Emily Blunt---In the Woods
   Look, it's kind of a shot in the dark, but if Blunt, well liked by just about everyone, can steer a gargantuan musical production into the big race, who's to say she can't win Best Actress?

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6. Amy Adams---Big Eyes

7. Hilary Swank---The Homesman

8. Shailene Woodley---The Fault in Our Stars

Best Supporting Actor:

1. Edward Norton---Birdman
   I'm tired of this, aren't you? Norton's getting in for sure, but I have no earthy idea if he can win.

2. J.K. Simmons---Whiplash
   Everyone and their house cat wants to anoint Simmons as this year's Supporting actor winner, but I have a boat-load of pause for you. The movie is crawling it's way 3 million box office, and as any fans of Albert Brooks' Drive performance can tell you, being a veteran of the craft doesn't really mean a hell of a lot to Oscar unless you're reeeeally up there.

3. Mark Ruffalo---Foxcatcher
   Ruffalo garnering an Oscar nomination for playing a nice-ish guy in a Best Picture nominee wherein he's overshadowed for a pair of buzzier lead performances; if it worked for The Kids Are All Right, it should again work here.

4. Ethan Hawke---Boyhood
   I didn't really see this happening until recently, and I could still be talked out of it fairly easily. Problem is, this category is pretty thin, which means that whole 'I filmed this movie for 12 years' thing might be enough in and of itself.

5. Tom Wilkinson---Selma
   I wasn't really certain how to fill this last slot, but I sided with pedigree. Wilkinson is a former nominee who plays a U.S. President in a movie that might make some serious noise. Let's play it safe.

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6. Josh Brolin---Inherent Vice

7. Garrett Hedlund---Unbroken

8. Domhnall Gleeson---Unbroken

9. Chris Pine---Into the Woods

10. Alec Baldwin---Still Alice

Best Supporting Actress:

1. Patricia Arquette---Boyhood
   A respected industry veteran who's been acting since the late 80's, and has yet to add an Oscar nomination to her resume. The fact that she's in a likely Best Picture frontrunner should help, and Oscar tends to looove his struggling, self-sacrificing mothers.

2. Jessica Chastain---A Most Violent Year
   Arquette's perfect opposite. This would represent Chastain's third nomination since she absolutely EXPLODED onto the scene in 2011. Patricia's got about ten years and a million movies on her, but Chastain's upward movie star trajectory might just be too powerful.

3. Emma Stone---Birdman
   The only potential Birdman nominee who I feel compelled to call a 'potential' nominee. She still feels safe, just not a safe as her cast mates.

4. Carmen Ejogo---Selma
   There's a fairly bold line in between the top three here and the rest of the field. If I'm taking a flyer on somebody, give me the actress playing Coretta Scott King.

5. Keira Knightly---The Imitation Game
   This last slot is a total crapshoot. If Into the Woods is a hit, I like Streep or Kendrick, but as of now, I'm going with a sizable role in a potential Best Picture winner.

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6. Meryl Streep---Into the Woods

7. Anna Kendrick---Into the Woods

8. Laura Dern---Wild

9. Carrie Coon---Gone Girl

10. Katherine Waterston---Inherent Vice

Best Original Screenplay:

1. Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, and Armando Bo---Birdman

2. Paul Webb---Selma

3. Richard Linklater---Boyhood

4. Dan Futterman and E. Max Frye---Foxcatcher

5. J.C. Chandor---A Most Violent Year

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6. Damien Chazelle---Whiplash

7. Christopher and Jonathan Nolan---Interstellar

8. Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness---The Grand Budapest Hotel

9. Mike Leigh---Mr. Turner

Best Adapted Screenplay:

1. Graham Moore---The Imitation Game

2. Anthony McCarten---The Theory of Everything

3. Joel and Ethan Coen, William Nicholson, and Richard LaGravense---Unbroken

4. Gillian Flynn---Gone Girl

5. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland---Still Alice

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6. Nick Hornby---Wild

7. James Lapine---Into The Woods

8. Paul Thomas Anderson---Inherent Vice

9. Jon Stewart---Rosewater

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Interstellar (Release Date: 11-7-2014)

   To say that Christopher Nolan is in rarified air as a tent-pole filmmaker would be the ultimate understatement: no other director can currently turn a mere movie into a cultural event simply by attaching his name. Spielberg used to have it, Tarantino might get there yet, and Cameron would share the mantle if he made more than one film per decade. As is, Nolan alone is afforded movie-star treatment by both the studios that market his pictures, and the audiences that greedily lap them up. It should come as no surprise that all this adoration has emboldened him to take even further risks; with the release Interstellar, Nolan's first since dutifully wrapping up his Dark Knight saga, finds the auteur marching to the beat of his own drum, traveling to the farthest reaches of space all in the name of chasing his muse.

   Hollywood's own Lazarus (Matthew McConaughey) stars as Cooper, a former NASA test pilot and current farmer (they make those?) living in a vaguely post-apocalyptic American midwest. Rather than zombies or artificial intelligence, Earth's ruination is brought about by a newly untenable climate; rain hardly falls, dust sweeps through towns like a menacing brown fog, and our only viable crop left is corn (Take THAT, USDA!). Humanity's last hope manifests in the form of a wormhole that is discovered somewhere near Saturn, a portal behind which mankind hopes to find a new home. Cooper reluctantly accepts the mission, leaving behind a much beloved daughter (a terrific Mackenzie Foy) and an afterthought of a son (Timothée Chalamet) with only a puncher's chance of ever returning.

   It's easy to forget that Nolan's name hasn't always been synonymous with enormity. As recently as 2006's The Prestige, the guy hadn't even made a single epic. Then came The Dark Knight (and, I'd like to posit, the influence of composer Hans Zimmer), a film who's unnerving scale and runaway success properly put Nolan on the pop culture map, and laid the tracks for his career forever more. Interstellar might be his most daunting undertaking yet, a nearly three-hour-long space voyage that finds as much value in explaining the Theory of Relativity as is does in tugging on heart strings, all while consciously and constantly calling to mind 2001: A Space Odyssey with truly reckless abandon. There's no doubting the film's ambition, but the subject of its actual achievement is ripe for debate.

   Nolan has never bared his heart to this degree. It's commonplace to hear his work described as 'cold' or 'inhuman,' and in the same year that David Fincher laughed off those very same criticisms by crafting one of his iciest works to date, Nolan opted to confront them head-on. Problem is, this might not have been the right movie to finally shift his heart all the way down to his sleeve. The cross-cutting that transpires between Cooper's galactic adventures and his children's dust-bowl suffering diminishes the effect of both, while certain scenes that juxtapose the powers of love and science remain tremendously vague, and would likely be more at home in the diary of a 14-year-old girl. Nolan and writing partner/brother Jonathan also stir a little government conspiracy into the pot, often via clumsy expositions delivered by poorly cast villains who slowly reveal 'ah-hah's that play more like 'ho-hums.' There's even a big twist at the end!!! I'll say this about Interstellar: you're buying a whole lot of 'movie' with your $13, even if it's kind of a mess.

   The primary culprit, as it tends to be in Nolan's work, is the screenplay. Where his heavily plot-driven/plot-hole-ridden films of the past have always managed to distract viewers from their faulty mechanics with the allure and power of spectacle, Interstellar sees the details finally catch up to the Brother's Nolan. The film is littered with head-scratch-worthy internal logic, and dialogue that's so on the nose, you might never smell again. And while I anticipated a ready and fair comparison between this and last year's Gravity, Interstellar's closest relative is actually another Nolan offspring, Inception. Both movies are obsessed with the time delineation, parental guilt, love and its perception, anti-gravity, the intimidating power of water, twist revelations, and plots that function more as puzzles than narratives. Had we never seen (and marveled at) Inception, this might be a wholly different conversation; as is, Nolan's latest feels a touch warmed-over.

   Interstellar is all about reaching out beyond what we've previously accomplished, in terms of both the film itself, and the production behind it. Even Matthew McConaughey, now three years into the McConaissance, has something to prove, trotting out his newly-minted Oscar-winner status for a mainstream audience who hasn't seen him in anything since The Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past. He's fine in the picture, employing his steady southern drawl to endearing effect, and really hitting the high notes in his handful of 'oscar scenes,' but one still wonders if this film wouldn't benefit from a less famous face at its center. His 'movie-star-performance' dial is set firmly at 11.5, an odd choice for... you know, a crop farmer, and the thinly-written Cooper ensures that the thespian always comes first to mind before the character.

   Look, there are elements of Interstellar that work like gangbusters. Certain space travel sequences are near jaw-dropping, and the action, especially as presented in IMAX, shows Nolan again at the top of his game, all while the sound nearly deafens. And even if the director struggles to bring some of his thorny, emotionally driven ideas all the way home, the mere way that he presents them is often harrowing, with certain moments and concepts that rattle around in your head for days. Wether these positives properly outweigh the detriments is really all in the eye of the beholder, and somehow, nearly a week after heading to the stars with Nolan and McConaughey, I'm not sure where exactly I stand. Interstellar is undoubtably a mixed bag, one filled with ample amounts of both treasure and trash; your level of enjoyment will likely be determined by how willing and patient you are to sort through it.

Grade: B-