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Saccharine coda3/10/2023 Fueled by a restless night and a few too many cocktails, Franklin (Jennifer Hudson, who’s better singing and playing than not, but still eons beyond her Oscar win for one number in 2006’s Dreamgirls) stumbles her way into reconfiguring Otis Redding’s titular song as an anthemic totem of rock music. At least Tommy’s tony yet gorgeously mounted Oscar-bait isn't reductive about the process and even manages to justify narrativization of its chosen tracks. Queen needs a new sound? 2018’s deplorable Bohemian Rhapsody has each band member quickly layering each of their instruments on top of the next to appear as if the band delivered a fully formed recording of “We Will Rock You” within mere seconds. More formulaic narratives make up the bulk of this micro-genre, and they often contain risible compressed liner notes typically themetized to neatly fit their trajectories. Half of Bill Pohlad’s bifurcated feature is driven by the agony and ecstasy of creating a fulsome realization of abstract ideas in one’s head. Love & Mercy has some: Brian Wilson (Paul Dano) manically building a funhouse recording studio of live animals, a fire truck, and a full orchestra for the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, made credible by verisimilitude, performance, and detailed production choices. Scenes of pop stars and company around the piano are typically corny softballs to audience members who are likely already in their theater seats because they know the subject. Fictionalizing the artistic process has never been easy on film, especially when it comes to the act of crafting familiar tunes. However, the Aretha Franklin biopic excels when depicting the work of a recording and stage act. Over its 2.5 hour runtime, Liesl Tommy’s Respect mostly adheres to rote rise-and-fall-and-rise-again musical-drama conventions. They may be merely middling to modest in overall quality, but they also uniquely feature not just the what and who behind the music, but the why and how driving the beats of their subjects’ hearts. Timing isn’t the only factor harmoniously linking these three. indie Beats is newly out on home video in a beautiful Blu-ray edition. The Aretha Franklin biopic Respect is now on the big screen Sundance darling CODA is streaming on AppleTV+ and scrappy U.K. Even within the past couple of weeks, one can just pick their platform of choice and wind up with new music movies. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Prom, Tina, Annette, The Sparks Brothers, Sisters with Transistors, Summer of Soul, In the Heights, Sound of Metal, Stardust, Bill & Ted Face the Music, and the derided Sia-directed surprise Golden Globe nominee that thinks it's OK to just call itself Music are just a few offerings from the past 12 months. Even in a time of sparse offerings, there have still been plenty of music-minded features released. No wonder filmmakers so often choose subjects attuned to musical frequencies. From piano players live-scoring early silents to Oneohtrix Point Never’s pulsating electronica for the Safdie brothers, music itself is integral to the cinematic experience – so much so its absence can even be as deafening as a cymbal crash. Quentin Tarantino leads a classic-rock cover band (the best of its kind, in all due respect). Lucino Visconti conducts full-bodied chamber music. The medium is a rhythmically constructed set of moving images (now with sound!), like instruments realizing notes from sheet music. Film is music, and not just in the sense of seeing Gene Kelly splashing in some puddles or Singin’ in the Rain.
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