The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)
Director: Francis: Lawrence
Screenwriter: Michael Lesslie, Michael Arndt
Starring: Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andres Rivera, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, Viola Davis

Everyone loves a good origin story. Whether that origin story is worth telling is a different matter entirely.

When The Hunger Games was released more than a decade ago, its massive success (both with fans and at the box office) opened the floodgates for countless other young adult dystopian adaptations. We got The Mortal Instruments, I Am Number Four, Ender’s Game, Divergent, The Fifth Wave, and The Maze Runner, all of which failed to garner the same praise as The Hunger Games had. Though this trend didn’t make it out of the mid-2010s alive, The Hunger Games series has continued to endure thanks to the quality and consistency of the performances, writing, directing, and production design across all four films. Its themes of war, rebellion, oppression, and the power of love, are more timely than ever.

It was inevitable that Hollywood would eventually circle back to The Hunger Games, especially considering the new trend that has emerged in recent years: nostalgia. In the years since The Hunger Games series ended, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Ghostbusters have all been resurrected to varying degrees of success, each new entry seemingly struggling to justify its reason to exist. But The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes somehow manages to escape the same fate. Based on the 2020 prequel novel of the same name by “The Hunger Games” author Suzanne Collins, the film stands on its own, reigniting the same spark that made the original films so popular, without ever using those films as a crutch.

In Songbirds and Snakes, we return to the world of Panem 64 years before Katniss Everdeen stepped into the arena. The country is struggling to rebuild following the war, the dark days are barely behind them. The Hunger Games is in its 10th year, but Head Game Maker Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis) is struggling to figure out how to get people to keep watching her sickening reality show. Amid this, a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), years before he will become the powerful and cruel dictator we know him to be, is desperate to save his family from financial ruin. Though his father helped to create The Hunger Games, his suspicious death left the family penniless. Coriolanus lives in a constant state of possible eviction with his grandma’am (Fionnula Flanagan) and older cousin Tigris (Hunter Schafer), who will go on to become a stylist for the games and later an ally to Katniss in the resistance against The Capitol.

At the academy, Coriolanus is informed that there will be one more test before graduation: seniors must become mentors in the upcoming games. “Your job is to make them into spectacles, not survivors,” Dean Highbottom (Peter Dinklage) tells them. Coriolanus ends up being paired with Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a fiery tribute from District 12 and member of the Covey, a traveling musician troupe. Lucy Gray doesn’t have much in the way of fighting skills, but she is a performer and the arena becomes her stage. She also has a habit of slicing snakes on people that have wronged her. When Coriolanus and Lucy Gray form an unexpected connection, he ends up risking everything to make sure she makes it out of the games alive, but the threat of rebellion in the districts and Coriolanus’ ambition begin to tear them apart.

Songsbirds and Snakes works for a couple of different reasons, chief among them being the fact that almost the entire production team behind The Hunger Games returned to make it. Francis Lawrence, who took over for The Hunger Games director Gary Ross with Catching Fire (2013) and stayed until the end of the series (2015), returned to direct, along with producer Nina Jacobson. Returning production designer Phillip Messina and cinematographer Jo Willem manage to recreate the look of the original series to ensure that it feels as though no time had passed between the final instalment and this prequel, while still giving the film its own visual flair. While The Hunger Games is not tame by any means, the luxury and gloss of The Capitol’s state of the art technology gives everything a glossy sheen. In Songbirds and Snakes, everything is primitive and wild: the arena is a crumbling concrete dome, there is no late night talk show, no fancy training center or tribute living quarters, everything feels rough and unpolished and ten times as dangerous. The color pallet, although reminiscent of the original films, is decidedly darker. The production and costume designers took obvious inspiration from the 1940s, and particularly Nazi Germany, especially in regards to the battle rifles used. While The Hunger Games used analogue technology as a jumping off point for its futuristic designs, Songbirds and Snakes takes that to another level. It’s easy to see how this Panem will eventually becomes that one, decades later. The film is one of those rare big-budget spectacles that actually looks as expensive as it is.

The Hunger Games succeeded in part because the novels were adapted with care, the filmmakers making sure to keep important details and characters and moments that made the story work in the first place. The narrative wasn’t tossed into a blender and then thrown up on screen. Suzanne Collins’ rich world building remained in tact throughout the four original films, and the same goes for Songbirds and Snakes. Every film in the original series is nearly 1 to 1 to its novel counterparts. Fans eager for another faithful adaptation will not be disappointed. Songbirds and Snakes stays almost entirely true to the spirit of the novel.

Despite the pressure of being the first entry in a widely popular franchise in nearly decade, Songbirds and Snakes is not trying to replicate the story beats of The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins crafted an intriguing origin story for her main villain, and that is partially responsible for this, but the filmmakers can also take credit as they didn’t feel the need to replicate moments from the original series or reference characters and events that haven’t happened yet (in the timeline of their in-film world). The closest they get to a wink and a nod is when Lucy Gray tells Coriolanus that the plant she’s holding is Katniss. Of course, those looking to have a little bit of the original series injected in their veins will not be disappointed either. Composer James Newton Howard knows exactly when to employ his Mockingjay theme. The structure of the film is also different and not just a carbon copy of the previous films, which almost always ended in the arena or in some type of explosive battle. Songbirds and Snakes takes the opposite approach. The first half of the movie is spent preparing for and executing the games, with the latter half dedicated to the unravelling of Coriolanus and Lucy’s relationship. Although, the movie does lose some steam once the games are over.

As far performances go, Songbirds and Snakes has a strong main cast that helps elevate the material and convey the complex inner lives of our characters even when it’s not necessarily found on the page. In addition to an impeccable American accent and a really good blond wig, relatively unknown English actor Tom Blyth manages to step into the shoes previously worn by the prolific Donald Sutherland with ease, although he doesn’t quite have Sutherland’s flair for the dramatic. But he’s just as charismatic to watch, and although he makes the character his own, it is not hard to believe that he is the younger version of a character we already know. He has a similar face and a similar voice, but there’s a hint of humanity in him that he has all but abandoned when we see him in The Hunger Games. In Songbirds and Snakes, there’s a vulnerability to him, but there’s also a darkness lurking just below the surface and Blyth balances that very well. Rachel Zegler is perfectly cast as Lucy Gray, brimming with charm and confidence. It should be no surprise that Zegler has a fantastic voice, thanks to her screen debut as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Josh Andres Rivera is an absolute scene stealer as Sejanus Plinth, classmate of Coriolanus whose sympathy for the rebel cause becomes his ultimate downfall, and Hunter Schafer, who burst onto the scene as Jules on the HBO series “Euphoria”, is enchanting as Snow’s cousin Tigris, although her talent does feel wasted on such a small part. Jason Schwartzman (Asteroid City) is absolutely hilarious as Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman, first television host of the games and presumed relative of Caesar Flickerman, who was played by Stanley Tucci in the original. His one liners in the midst of children killing each other highlights just how crass and and out of touch the people in The Capitol are. His performance never feels forced or over the top, as Tucci’s sometimes did.

All in all, Songbirds and Snakes is a worthy entry into The Hunger Games canon, offering a rich and intriguing peek into the past. It’s not as emotionally satisfying as the original series, but with only one film as opposed to four, that’s a difficult height to reach. Still, in an industry overrun with remakes, prequels, sequels, and reboots, Songbirds and Snakes understands how capturing the magic of a series so many already love is easy, you just have to tell a really good story.

Score: 22/24

Spielberg’s long career has moved with the times and can roughly be divided into thematic eras, so to mark his sixth decade in feature filmmaking we have undertaken the monumental task of picking just one film for each 10 years he has worked professionally behind the camera, selecting the movies that best typify his filmmaking style at the time.

Dear reader, welcome to Six Decades of Spielberg. Cue the John Williams fanfare. 

1970s: Jaws (Birth of the Blockbuster Era)

Jaws Review

In the early 1970s, after proving himself by directing for television (including the pilot episode of ‘Columbo’), Steven Spielberg made the successful move to feature filmmaking in 1971 with taut chase movie Duel. Shortly thereafter he changed cinema forever.

The film that really put him on the map was Jaws, an adaptation of Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel that transcended a famously troubled production involving overruns, cast clashes and a broken shark to become one of the first films that could be considered a true summer blockbuster.

The popular seaside town of Amity Island is terrorised by a huge great white shark. Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) must team up with marine biologist Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw) to find and catch the creature to end its feeding frenzy.

As British critic Mark Kermode regularly alludes to in his radio appearances, this shark movie “isn’t really about a shark”. Behind the movie magic and exciting set pieces, this is really about families, community and humanity’s best and worst instincts. How many times, particularly in recent years, have we seen elected officials like Amity’s Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) show callous disregard for death tolls over economic concerns? How many times are the opinions of experts in a particular field dismissed over what your neighbour heard a rumour about? Just how far would you go to protect your family from any threat, up to and including a millions-of-years-old eating machine? 

With Jaws, Spielberg offers a steady build of tension and dread (the simple and terrifying John Williams theme helps no end), the well-timed implementation of horror movie conventions (classic jump scares and not showing the killer until absolutely necessary), and elegant three act storytelling. But, without top-notch character work, all that would count for nought; it’s the fully-rounded characters and their relationships that give this film its staying power.

Some of the issues on set were a blessing in disguise. Richard Dreyfuss clashing with Robert Shaw and Roy Scheider playing peacemaker added a genuine note to the dynamic of Hooper, Quint and Brody in the final act. The mechanical shark, nicknamed “Bruce” after Spielberg’s lawyer, did not perform well as soon as it was introduced to salt water and thus had to be shot around for 80% of the film, adding an air of mystery and unseen menace that may never have existed. 

Crowds turned up in droves, making Jaws the hit of the summer, breaking records at the time with a $7million opening weekend and eventually grossing $476million worldwide against a $9million budget, proving beyond doubt how big movies could be with the right hook, enough spectacle and a well-timed release.

Spielberg would see out the decade by releasing Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a quite different but almost as successful genre deconstruction again starring Dreyfuss. His career as a highly sought-after director had truly begun. 

1980s: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Family Upheaval Era)

The movie that gave Steven Spielberg’s production company Amblin its iconic logo of a boy and his alien on a bike silhouetted against the full moon completely epitomises his family filmmaking.

“Amblinesque” is a descriptor now when applied to such nostalgic properties as ‘Stranger Things’ because of movies like E.T. and the Spielberg-produced The Goonies, the memorable characters, effervescent tone, and timeless and universal themes of friendship in these stories having nurtured an entire generation who grew up in the 1980s.

Ten year-old Elliott (Henry Thomas) discovers an alien who has been accidentally left behind on Earth. Together with his brother and sister, he decides to help the alien to return home, all the while keeping “E.T.” hidden from his mother and sinister government authorities.

Only through a child’s uncynical eyes could this story be so magically and movingly told. Young Elliott, his journey, his heart and his heartbreak are the singularity around which everything else helplessly orbits. E.T. and Elliott form an empathic bond beyond an ordinary friendship, and before long E.T.’s actions are having a noticeable effect on his new friend’s behaviour and eventually his health, and both begin to rapidly decline as the alien’s link to his people grows weaker.

Spielberg is one of the greatest directors of children, and the performances of Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore (as his little sister Gertie) never feel anything less than natural, little touches like playing games on set and keeping the E.T. puppet moving between takes helping to keep the magic alive.

Some of Spielberg’s go-to genre storytelling tropes began here – distrust of government agencies; families with absent fathers; kids’ imaginations providing solace from trying circumstances – and all have rarely felt more poignant, each heightened by John Williams’ magical musical accompaniment.

Spielberg dipped into unusual and often upsetting family experiences in his stories throughout the 1980s, from siblings, parents and children torn apart by prejudice and war in The Colour Purple and Empire of the Sun to Indiana Jones’ complicated and resentful relationship with his dad in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

1990s: Saving Private Ryan (Trauma and Innovation Era)

The 1990s saw Spielberg make one of the all-time great crowd-pleasing blockbusters with Jurassic Park, but seemingly in counter-point to providing audiences with such pure escapism, he began to look inward, to self-reflect and analyse humanity’s relationship to historical trauma. This era was highlighted by the harrowing Schindler’s List, the powerful Amistad, and the relentlessly visceral Saving Private Ryan.

In 1944, a squad of US soldiers led by ex-teacher Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) is given a mission to find the last Ryan brother fighting in Normandy. They are to deliver condolences regarding the death of Ryan’s three siblings and orders to take compassionate leave on the grounds that the US government hopes to spare a mother from losing all of her sons in one fell swoop.

It is Saving Private Ryan that perhaps best epitomises Spielberg’s career trajectory throughout the 1990s, balancing as it does staggering technical innovation (today it is still one of the most frequently cited stylistic influences on just about every modern war film from Black Hawk Down to 1917), startling action set pieces on a massive canvas, and heartbreak very much grounded in the real world.

You’re not really given a moment to orientate yourself here, flashing straight back from sombre remembrance of the fallen right into the thick of war, and then it refuses to let up for almost 3 hours.

Spielberg and screenwriter Robert Rodat’s mastery of economic character expression drives unshowy performances from the film’s ensemble (particularly Hanks), and Janusz Kamiński’s immediate, painfully real cinematography combines with this for a pretty potent cocktail.

Ryan is one of the few movies it has been deemed OK for insecure manly men to openly cry at, but any viewer is put through the emotional wringer in one of the truly great war films that’s all about familial love and the heartbreakingly high cost of conflict.

2000s: Minority Report (Future Blockbuster Era)

Minority Report Review

Spielberg’s films remained big-budget and visually flashy at the turn of the millennium, but he also plunged into exploring massive science-fiction what-if scenarios in addition to continuing with his usual fascination with fractured family dynamics. All three of his cerebral sci-fis from the 2000s (A.I. Artificial Intelligence, War of the Worlds and Minority Report), made for around the same budget and loosely adapted from works of literature, could be considered blockbusters, but it is the latter that was the most successful project.

In a near-future Washington, we follow the early days of the Precrime Initiative that predicts every future perpetrator of a violent crime and allows the police to arrest them before blood is spilt. When Captain John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is accused of being about to murder a man he has never met, he goes on the run with one of Precrime’s psychic “precogs” and attempts to unravel the mystery of his upcoming crime and the shady origins of the institution he works for.

Like most of Spielberg’s work, Minority Report is grounded in family, in this case a family torn asunder and still processing unimaginable presumed loss. That’s the most heartbreaking part of Anderton’s story; his living with the cruel uncertainty over whether his son is alive or dead. Samantha Morton’s Agatha and her precog brothers were likewise taken from their parents and used for dark ends by sinister authorities. 

This is thrilling, intriguing stuff, with a gripping noir mystery plot that constantly wrong-foots you; a film that has no shortage of exciting futuristic set pieces – notably when Anderton hides in a grim apartment from spidery police drones, blinded as the clock ticks down to his newly transplanted eyes healing. 

Probably the best way to adapt Philip K Dick’s writing is to use just a single intriguing idea as a basis for a whole new story, and here Spielberg and his screenwriters expand on the core premise to create a terrifyingly plausible authoritarian future.

2010s: Lincoln (Popcorn and Prestige Era)

The technology-pushing The Adventures of Tintin and Ready Player One aside, the 2010s could be considered Steven Spielberg’s period of commitment to prestige filmmaking; telling powerful true stories of icons and world-shaping events. How can you tell you’re onto “Serious Spielberg” even before the film is released? Well, he’s normally photographed wearing a suit and tie on set, seemingly out of respect for the material and the people he is depicting on film.

The firmly mid-tier Spielberg movies War Horse, Bridge of Spies and The Post all have their memorable moments, but Lincoln stands high over them, even without the stovepipe hat.

One of Spielberg’s few straight biopics presents far from a simplistic view of Civil War-era America and the cloak-and-dagger strategies necessarily employed in the US House of Representatives. This film is not a sweeping decades-spanning epic cataloguing Abraham Lincoln’s (Daniel Day-Lewis’) eventful life, but a record of a messy, complicated time in a young country’s history, laser-focusing on just a few months in 1865 in the leadup to the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment.

The cast of this project is frankly the most ridiculously stacked of Spielberg’s career – Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn, James Spader, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Holbrook… (take a breath)… John Hawkes, Jackie Earle Haley, Tim Blake Nelson, David Oyelowo, Colman Domingo, Jared Harris, Walton Goggins, Adam Driver…

This is a grounded, naturalistic historical political thriller almost to a fault. The Gettysburg Address isn’t even delivered in the film in full by the president himself but split between several soldiers who witnessed it being delivered years earlier. The most entertaining moments come from the speeches in the House and the underhanded tactics employed to influence key votes, but the more compelling scenes are the domestic lulls between the Lincolns at home.

Day-Lewis was rightly acclaimed not just for fully inhabiting a giant of history but for making him flawed and human every step of the journey, a seemingly mild-mannered but passionate and deeply intelligent man trying to achieve the impossible: to reunite and reform his country. 

2020s: West Side Story (Reminiscence and Nostalgia Era)

West Side Story Review

It might be too early to tell exactly what pattern this latest, perhaps last decade of Spielberg filmmaking will reveal, but from his first two films released in the 2020s he seems to be in a reflective, somewhat nostalgic frame of mind.

Spielberg has been very open about the heavily autobiographical nature of The Fabelmans, looking back on the experiences that made him the man and the artist he is, and midway through his seventh decade on Earth he finally turned his hand to one of his favourite genres: the musical.

West Side Story is the great modern re-telling of “Romeo and Juliet”, a love story across divides following Tony (Anson Elgort) of the Jets gang who falls for Maria (Rachel Zegler), the sister of the leader of the rival Sharks, their love having costly consequences for everyone in their orbit.

Spielberg had imbued his movies with musical flourishes in the past – 1941 and Temple of Doom both have their Broadway tribute scenes – but to choose your personal favourite musical to re-adapt and have compared to one of the most beloved musical films of all time was bold and no mistake.

Not content to simply re-stage the original in a modern filmmaking style, Spielberg and regular screenwriter Tony Kushner acknowledge the aspects of the stage show and original film that haven’t aged well and approach them differently, making the socio-political and racial angle more central to the story and giving the appropriate faces and voices their time in the spotlight, while never anachronistically taming the raging prejudices that were rife in the period the story is set in.

Spielberg’s favourite 1990s cinematographer Janusz Kamiński returns to give this reimagining of West Side Story an expressionistic flare, and the entire ensemble – particularly the supporting players Ariana DeBose and Mike Faist (as Anita and Riff respectively) – bring new dimensions and nuance to their characters in addition to belting out beloved songs with aplomb.

You don’t remake a classic unless you have a completely fresh take and are confident in your vision. Thankfully this is Steven Spielberg we’re talking about, and even with his nostalgia goggles on his artistic vision is seemingly without limit.

Recommended for you: Where to Start with Steven Spielberg

Hosted by Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes, the 2022 Oscars awarded 23 golden statues to the films and filmmakers that the nine-thousand-plus members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences selected as the very best of cinema from 2021.

Controversially, eight Academy Awards were handed out in the hour that preceded the 2022 Oscars’ live broadcast. The move, which is the first of its kind for the Academy Awards, sought to reduce the show’s runtime and make the Oscars more palatable for casual audiences. It was a risk that doesn’t seem to have paid off, the decision being met with a backlash on social media from avid film-watchers and Oscars enthusiasts, but more tellingly creating confusion amongst the casual audiences it sought to appease. Perhaps most vitally as regards the future of the ceremony’s formatting, the pre-show coverage of the red carpet was noticeably dampened once almost every Hollywood name invited to the ceremony made their way into the venue ahead of the first pre-broadcast award, leaving an empty red carpet for channels such as the E! Network to cover in the hour leading up to the ceremony, losing momentum for the Oscars but also dropping interest (and likely ratings, and thus advertising dollars) for the Academy’s partners.

Surprisingly, the omission of these eight categories was not the most controversial part of the ceremony, with that honour going to Will Smith and his apparent assault on presenter Chris Rock. You can see the clip below [warning: physical violence, bad language].

UNCENSORED WILL SMITH FOOTAGE AS SHOWN ON AUSTRALIAN TV pic.twitter.com/NcRfdjWxqe

— David Mack (@davidmackau) March 28, 2022

Considered by some at the time to be nothing more than well-performed comedy hijinks, Chris Rock’s clearly rattled expression and the manner in which he was unable to successfully read the rest of his category introduction, matched with Smith’s own bitter scowl, sent social media into a spiral. Smith was heard shouting “keep my wife’s name out of your f*cking mouth” in some ceremony broadcasts. This moment was kept from the broadcast on ABC in the United States.

Will Smith later accepted the award for Actor in a Leading Role for his part in King Richard – in which he played the father of Venus and Serena Williams, Richard Williams – and spoke teary-eyed of being protective over those he loves, crying as he wished for the Academy to invite him back in the future, seemingly confirming the severity of the altercation from earlier in the night.

Here’s Will Smith’s tearful acceptance speech at the #Oscars. https://t.co/ulvT7fsB57 pic.twitter.com/Uq2krBbBld

— Variety (@Variety) March 28, 2022

The rest of the broadcast proved to be a bitty affair, with awards and skits seemingly lacking any functional relation to one another, some strange song-to-video segments compacting the broadcast’s issues as comedians openly mocked the very premise of the awards. New categories, such as those selected by the public as “popular choice” were intersected in between large categories, reducing their impact to those who care and highlighting their needlessness to those who never did.

The awards themselves made a lot of history, CODA supporting actor Troy Kotsur becoming only the 2nd deaf actor to win an acting award. The Power of the Dog director Jane Campion also made history, becoming the first woman to ever succeed another female Best Director winner.

Ultimately it was Denis Villeneuve’s Warner Bros blockbuster Dune that came away from the 2022 Oscars with the most Academy Awards, the otherworldly sci-fi earning six wins and proving particularly successful across the technical categories such as production design and visual effects. Drive My Car’s award for International Feature was the only one won by a film not in the English language.

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The winners of the 94th Academy Awards (Oscars) are as follows:

BEST PICTURE – CODA
Belfast
Don’t Look Up
Drive My Car
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story

Recommended for you: 2022 Oscars Best Picture Nominees Ranked

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM – DRIVE MY CAR
Flee
The Hand of God
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
The Worst Person in the World

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM – ENCANTO
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs the Machines
Raya and the Last Dragon

Recommended for you: 2022 Animated Feature Oscar Nominees Ranked

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE – SUMMER OF SOUL (… OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED)
Ascension
Attica
Flee
Writing with Fire

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE – JESSICA CHASTAIN (THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE)
Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)
Penelope Cruz (Parallel Mothers)
Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos)
Kristen Stewart (Spencer)

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE – WILL SMITH (KING RICHARD)
Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)
Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick… Boom!)
Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE – ARIANA DEBOSE (WEST SIDE STORY)
Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter)
Judi Dench (Belfast)
Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog)
Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)

Troy Kotsur is only the 2nd deaf actor to win an Academy Award.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE – TROY KOTSUR (CODA)
Ciarán Hinds (Belfast)
Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog)
JK Simmons (Being the Ricardos)
Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog)

DIRECTING – JANE CAMPION (THE POWER OF THE DOG)
Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car)
Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)
Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)

CINEMATOGRAPHY – GREIG FRASER (DUNE)
Dan Laustsen (Nightmare Alley)
Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog)
Bruno Delbonnel (The Tragedy of Macbeth)
Janusz Kamiński (West Side Story)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY – KENNETH BRANAGH (BELFAST)
Don’t Look Up
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
The Worst Person In the World

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY – SIAN HEDER (CODA)
Drive My Car
Dune
The Lost Daughter
The Power of the Dog

FILM EDITING – JOE WALKER (DUNE)
Hank Corwin (Don’t Look Up)
Pamela Martin (King Richard)
Peter Sciberras (The Power of the Dog)
Andrew Weisblum, Myron I. Kerstein (Tick, Tick… Boom!)

PRODUCTION DESIGN – DUNE
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story

COSTUME DESIGN – CRUELLA
Cyrano
Dune
Nightmare Alley
West Side Story

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING – THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE
Coming 2 America
Cruella
Dune
House of Gucci

VISUAL EFFECTS – DUNE
Free Guy
No Time to Die
Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings
Spider-Man: No Way Home

ORIGINAL SCORE – HANS ZIMMER (DUNE)
Nicholas Britell (Don’t Look Up)
Germaine Franco (Encanto)
Alberto Iglesias (Parallel Mothers)
Jonny Greenwood (The Power of the Dog)

ORIGINAL SONG – “NO TIME TO DIE” (NO TIME TO DIE)
“Be Alive” (King Richard)
“Dos Orunguitas” (Encanto)
“Down To Joy” (Belfast)
“Somehow You Do” (Four Good Days)

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND – DUNE
Belfast
No Time to Die
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story

LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM – THE LONG GOODBYE
Ala Kachuu – Take and Run
The Dress
On My Mind
Please Hold

ANIMATED SHORT FILM – THE WINDSHIELD WIPER
Affairs of the Heart
Bestia
Boxballet
Robin Robin

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT – THE QUEEN OF BASKETBALL
Audible
Lead Me Home
Three Songs for Benazir
When We Were Bullies

Recommended for you: 21st Century Best Picture Winners Ranked

2022 Oscar-winning films by total number of wins:

6 – Dune
3 – CODA
2 – The Eyes of Tammy Faye
1 – Belfast; Cruella; Drive My Car; Encanto; King Richard; The Long Goodbye; No Time to Die; The Power of the Dog; The Queen of Basketball; Summer of Soul; West Side Story; The Windshield Wiper

In 2022, a rule change has ensured that the limit of ten nominees has been utilised for the first time since 2011, and the Academy Award list for Best Picture has once again proven to contain a rich tapestry of blockbuster, musical, arthouse and international film, with every big name in tinsel town from Warner Bros to Apple, Netflix to Universal, competing for the grandest critical prize in all of American cinema: the most popular film award in the world.

In this edition of Ranked from The Film Magazine, we are casting our critical eye over the Academy’s selections of the best of film from 2021 to judge each on artistic merit, social importance, and how much each evolves or shapes the art form, in this: the 2022 Oscars Best Picture Nominees Ranked.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

10. Belfast

Belfast Review

Oscars Bait: The Movie is a tonal mess, writer-director Kenneth Branagh (a five-time Oscars nominee prior to 2022) using the backdrop of one of the UK’s longest-running ideological and religious conflicts as a box ticking crowd-pleaser that appropriately tugs at the heartstrings and brings an underrepresented life into view, but much less appropriately ties these elements to musical interludes, action movie set pieces, and all your usual run-of-the-mill tricks to make a tough subject more palatable.

This film’s impressive £15million-plus haul at the UK box office is less a triumph of independent cinema representative of this film’s ability to touch the lives of millions, and more an indictment of Belfast’s inability to say anything challenging or meaningful. Kenneth Branagh’s early career Oscars nominations and a series of roles at the helm of big studio releases no doubt earned favour with the members of the Academy, but Belfast’s Best Picture nomination is one in the realm of Crash and Green Book: a film set around important things but with very little to say about them; one that wins nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences more because Academy members are desperate to illustrate their social awareness than because the film is of any kind of monumental importance to the form.

Belfast isn’t without quality – its performances being a particular highlight and worthy of attention both individually (especially for Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds) and in terms of direction, Branagh’s mastering of his young lead’s (Jude Hill’s) performance being particularly strong – but between its black and white digital colour palette, stage-like interludes, expressionistic but tonally disparate strokes, and constant attempts to maintain engagement, Belfast is everything the Oscars look for put together in a cheap and patronising box of palatability that offers nothing to the ongoing re-evaluation of The Troubles and less still to the progression of cinema or the enlightenment of its audiences; leading to the question: how is this in the top 10 films of 2021?

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9. CODA

CODA Review

CODA’s existence is important. The fact that it is nominated at the Oscars is important. Its nominations across the Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture categories will bring this film and its cast of deaf leading actors a lot of attention. Whether it is deserving of such awards recognition for reasons of filmmaking excellence is another question entirely…

CODA is fundamentally a coming-of-age tale about a child of deaf adults (a CODA), complete with all the tropes and flaws of the average teen movie: mountains of expository dialogue, characters constantly explaining their motivations, character actions born out of convenience to the plot, “you don’t understand me” running away, cliché moments of romance (including a literal leap of faith), and a protagonist who seems to rarely if ever succumb to the pressures of her family. And it’s all written by a woman of hearing; one who isn’t a child of deaf adults.

It is by no means a disaster, CODA at least incorporating the deafness of its characters into a plot that considers their difficulties but doesn’t make their deafness its exclusive purpose. Yet, whilst its position as a film about an experience unknown and rarely discussed among the general public is praiseworthy and interesting, and the performance of Supporting Actor nominee Troy Kotsur is particularly strong, it is difficult to find any extraordinary filmmaking qualities in this Best Picture nominee. It’s not Belfast levels of box-ticking, but with the mite (and bank account) of Apple behind its awards push it is hardly the underdog it may seem, and courtesy of its subject it sits in the wheelhouse of the academy’s usual go-tos – the qualities of this particular nominee being less Lady Bird and more It’s Kind of a Funny Story.

Tracee Ellis Ross and Leslie Jordan revealed the 2022 Oscars nominees for all 23 Academy Award categories in a live presentation that was presented via YouTube and the Oscars’ various social media platforms ahead of the 94th Oscars due to be held on Sunday 27th March 2022 from the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood Highland Centre, Hollywood.

Among the Academy’s most-nominated in 2022 were Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog which earned nominations in Best Picture, Directing, Cinematography, Score, Best Actor and Supporting Actress, meanwhile Kristen Stewart earned the Best Actress nomination many had anticipated, though she was the only representative of Spencer in any category.

Amongst the surprises are the inclusion of Coming 2 America in the Makeup & Hairstyling category, making one of 2021’s least well-received films an official one-time Oscar nominee, while Licorice Pizza was absent from the cinematography category and House of Gucci was all-but shut out, including star Lady Gaga who had earlier been nominated for a BAFTA.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

The nominees for the 94th Academy Awards (Oscars) are as follows:

BEST PICTURE
Belfast
Coda
Don’t Look Up
Drive My Car
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story

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INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
Drive My Car
Flee
The Hand of God
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
The Worst Person in the World

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs the Machines
Raya and the Last Dragon

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DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Ascension
Attica
Flee
Summer of Soul (… Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Writing with Fire

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)
Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)
Penelope Cruz (Parallel Mothers)
Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos)
Kristen Stewart (Spencer)

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)
Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick… Boom!)
Will Smith (King Richard)
Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter)
Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
Judi Dench (Belfast)
Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog)
Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Ciarán Hinds (Belfast)
Troy Kotsur (Coda)
Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog)
JK Simmons (Being the Ricardos)
Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog)

DIRECTING
Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car)
Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)
Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Greig Fisher (Dune)
Dan Laustsen (Nightmare Alley)
Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog)
Bruno Delbonnel (The Tragedy of Macbeth)
Janusz Kamiński (West Side Story)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Belfast
Don’t Look Up
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
The Worst Person In the World

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Coda
Drive My Car
Dune
The Lost Daughter
The Power of the Dog

FILM EDITING
Hank Corwin (Don’t Look Up)
Joe Walker (Dune)
Pamela Martin (King Richard)
Peter Sciberras (The Power of the Dog)
Andrew Weisblum, Myron I. Kerstein (Tick, Tick… Boom!)

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Dune
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story

COSTUME DESIGN
Cruella
Cyrano
Dune
Nightmare Alley
West Side Story

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Coming 2 America
Cruella
Dune
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
House of Gucci

VISUAL EFFECTS
Dune
Free Guy
No Time to Die
Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings
Spider-Man: No Way Home

ORIGINAL SCORE
Nicholas Britell (Don’t Look Up)
Hans Zimmer (Dune)
Germaine Franco (Encanto)
Alberto Iglesias (Parallel Mothers)
Jonny Greenwood (The Power of the Dog)

ORIGINAL SONG
“Be Alive” (King Richard)
“Dos Orunguitas” (Encanto)
“Down To Joy” (Belfast)
“No Time to Die” (No Time to Die)
“Somehow You Do” (Four Good Days)

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND
Belfast
Dune
No Time to Die
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story

LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM
Ala Kachuu – Take and Run
The Dress
The Long Goodbye
On My Mind
Please Hold

ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Affairs of the Heart
Bestia
Boxballet
Robin Robin
The Windshield Wiper

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Audible
Lead Me Home
The Queen of Basketball
Three Songs for Benazir
When We Were Bullies

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In this Movie List of the 10 Best Films 2021 are some of the movies that most accurately articulated the experience of cinema-going and of cinema as an art form. These are the films that enhanced the medium, reminded us of why diversity of genre, performer, filmmaker and national film industries is vital to our overall consumption and analysis of this great art, and more: why these things are central to the continuation of all that we love about film.

Follow the author of this article, Joseph Wade, on Twitter @JoeTFM.

10. Herself

Herself Review

What could have been a thinly veiled centrist’s movie about disadvantaged people being able to escape poverty through sheer will power alone is instead an empathetic and powerful film that will hit hard for those who are or have been affected by similar issues.

Phyllida Lloyd’s Herself, starring and co-written by Clare Dunne, unflinchingly explores a victim of abuse as she tries to navigate her way through the poverty and isolation she has been forced into by her controlling and vicious ex. Protecting her children at all costs, even in the midst of shallow apologies from her former lover and restrictive social policies that obstruct her right to restarting anything close to an ordinary family life, Dunne’s Sandra is a fully formed multi-dimensional character of whom the other characters glow in the presence of, this powerful drama excelling through the honesty in which it tells of these way-too-universal truths of womanhood and single parent life.

Herself is the kind of cinema that feels necessary, the type of story we visit picture houses one hundred times per year in pursuit of experiencing just once. It is truth and art all in one, a phenomenal tool for empathy and wider understanding; an outstanding achievement.

9. No Time to Die

No Time to Die Review

In a year in which the film industry leaned so heavily on the shoulders of blockbusters and franchises to keep exhibitors alive, the latest James Bond movie No Time to Die not only ushered in a new boom period for the box office through record-breaking numbers (especially in the UK where it is now the third highest-grossing film of all time) but it offered something more timeless than any of its contemporaries, twisting and turning from all-out action set piece extravaganza to golden era Hollywood romance and back again in the undisputed thrill-ride of 2021.

There is a monologue delivered by Daniel Craig in one particularly noteworthy scene from this, his fifth and final Bond instalment, that would not look out of place in Casablanca or Gone with the Wind. And, while the computer graphics were updated from Craig’s debut in Casino Royale and there were elements of the throwaway tack evident across the entire Bond franchise and blockbusters as a whole, No Time to Die will be best remembered for its portrayal of 007’s personal relationships, how its cathartic narrative tied the threads that had been pulled from film to film, and for its use of brutal hand-to-hand combat stunt work.

There was simply no other mainstream hit like No Time to Die in 2021, this Cary Joji Fukunaga movie excelling as one of the greatest examples of action filmmaking of the past 10 years and being one of the best examples out there of how to bring a sense of truth, genuine stakes, feeling and character progression to a raging mixing pot of violence and catchphrases, even with close to 60 years of expectation weighing it down.

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It was an emotional moment, that first time back there in the dark, eyes locked on the screen, and cinema provided such a varied smorgasbord of filmic delights to gorge ourselves on it was almost like we’d never been away. Almost.

2021 has been a bumper year for all kinds of stories on the big screen. Distinctively-voiced auteurs have released their latest deranged experiments and profoundly moving pieces of art; curious documentarians have told us what we never knew about the things and the people we are passionate about; and a pack of show-stopping musicals about love and being yourself gave film fans their soundtracks to some of life’s normality returning.

2021 was no slouch on the blockbuster front either, with big-budget projects queuing for release like bank holiday traffic and studios having to adjust their profit expectations in a still uncertain world. Daniel Craig took one last mission as James Bond in No Time to Die; Marvel had to deliver films that not only followed on the slam-dunk of Avengers: Endgame but also matched their ambitious Disney+ series that had tided fans over during lockdown; DC was hard at work pleasing fans with The Suicide Squad and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and Godzilla well and truly versed Kong. If you were lucky, you watched him do it in IMAX.

Without further ado, here are my 10 Best Films Released in the UK in 2021 – those that affected me on the most primal level at the time and those that have stayed with me ever since.

Follow the author of this article, Sam Sewell-Peterson, on Twitter @SSPThinksFilm.

10. Godzilla vs Kong

Godzilla vs Kong Review

Were there many, many much deeper films released in 2021? Absolutely. Were there smarter, more polished and epic examples of blockbuster filmmaking over the past 12 months? That’s also a yes. But I still remember the feeling of indescribable joy I felt after being starved of big screen spectacle for months, of being back in front of an IMAX screen surrounded by excitable children who loved dinosaurs and monkeys (and plenty of adults who also still loved dinosaurs and monkeys), especially when they’re 300 feet tall and beating the crap out of each other on top of an aircraft carrier. That was the powerful allure of Godzilla vs Kong.

The latest, biggest and possibly final instalment of the Monsterverse from Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures saw Godzilla go full alpha predator and take on Kong, while human scientists used the gigantic gorilla’s natural homing instinct to guide them to the hollow Earth, the location from which the rampaging Titans first emerged.

Like all the movies in this series, humanity quickly gets lost in all the chaos and you’d struggle to claim any of them had more than one identifiable personality trait. And yet, this delivered exactly what kaiju movie fans wanted; unparalleled spectacle, massively-scaled destruction and Kong resetting his dislocated shoulder against a skyscraper.

Recommended for you: Shōwa Era Godzilla Movies Ranked

9. West Side Story

West Side Story Review

Steven Spielberg just had to present us with something that was different, but he went one better by in many ways improving on the original film version of the Bernstein/Sondheim musical. It might be set in the 50s, but “West Side Story” is a tale for our times and this smart new adaptation has only increased its impact. It’s also the last film of the year to make me have to take a few moments to wipe away tears before leaving the cinema.

In case you’ve somehow missed hearing what West Side Story is about over its six decades of existence, it’s “Romeo and Juliet” but with street gang warfare instead of noble house rivalry. Spielberg remounts this story of forbidden love between Tony (Ansel Elgort) and Maria (Rachel Zegler) with verve and inventiveness, doubling down on the social commentary, modernising the character portrayals and staging the iconic musical numbers in fresh and high-impact ways.

West Side Story is one of the best-looking and sounding films of the year, good old-fashioned filmmaking craft bringing an old story to life for a new generation. Tony and Maria might be the story focus, but Ariana DeBose as Anita and Mike Faist as Riff completely steal the show, bringing it to a raw and emotionally honest place exactly when required.

The ceremony will seemingly go ahead, despite TV network NBC dropping it from their schedule. This decision followed a controversial report about the awards that revealed that there were no black people included in the 87 members of the HFPA. This is the body of journalists that vote at the awards. This shocking lack of diversity resulted in many celebrities shunning the show, including Tom Cruise who handed back his three Golden Globes.

Additionally, a report by the L.A. Times implied corruption within the association and suggested that voters were often bribed by production companies. The example given was when voters were flown to Paris by Netflix to coincide with the release of the streaming service’s series ‘Emily in Paris’. Despite the show’s mixed reviews, ‘Emily in Paris’ received two nominations including Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.

Following the controversy, the HFPA have recruited 21 new members that are predominately diverse and made its existing members take diversity and equality training. A chief diversity officer has been appointed in addition to a partnership with National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to ensure an awards ceremony more representative of the diverse talent that makes up the film industry.

Typically the Golden Globes mark the beginning of awards season, being the second biggest ceremony behind the Oscars. However, it remains to be seen what impact the upcoming event will have with no network to air on and likely little fanfare from the nominated talent.

The nominations themselves seek to highlight the top films of the year. The most nominated films for the 2022 ceremony are Sir Kenneth Branagh’s drama Belfast and Jane Campion’s gripping western The Power of the Dog. Both films are nominated for 7 awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director. Belfast has already picked up some significant awards including the People’s Choice Award at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The Power of The Dog meanwhile continues Netflix’s trend of releasing award show juggernauts, with previous efforts including The Irishman and Roma. 

Behind these two are the star-studded Don’t Look Up, Will Smith vehicle King Richard, Paul Thomas Anderson’s love letter to 1970s L.A., Licorice Pizza, and Steven Spielberg’s first ever musical, West Side Story. Each have been nominated for 4 awards.

The winners will be announced on the 9th January 2022.

The nominees in film for the 2022 Golden Globes are:

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Belfast
Coda
Dune
King Richard
The Power of the Dog

BEST MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Cyrano
Don’t Look Up
Licorice Pizza
Tick, Tick … Boom!
West Side Story

BEST DIRECTOR
Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter)
Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)
Denis Villeneuve (Dune)

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BEST ACTOR – DRAMA
Mahershala Ali (Swan Song)
Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)
Will Smith (King Richard)
Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

BEST ACTRESS – DRAMA
Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)
Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)
Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos)
Lady Gaga (House of Gucci)
Kristen Stewart (Spencer)

BEST ACTOR – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Leonardo DiCaprio (Don’t Look Up)
Peter Dinklage (Cyrano)
Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick … Boom!)
Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza)
Anthony Ramos (In the Heights)

BEST ACTRESS – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Marion Cotillard (Annette)
Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza)
Jennifer Lawrence (Don’t Look Up)
Emma Stone (Cruella)
Rachel Zegler (West Side Story)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MOTON PICTURE
Ben Affleck (The Tender Bar)
Jamie Dornan (Belfast)
Ciarán Hinds (Belfast)
Troy Kotsur (CODA)
Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MOTON PICTURE
Caitríona Balfe (Belfast)
Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog)
Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)
Ruth Negga (Passing)

BEST SCREENPLAY
Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)
Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up)
Aaron Sorkin (Being the Ricardos)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The French Dispatch (Alexandre Desplat)
Encanto (Germaine Franco)
The Power of the Dog (Jonny Greenwood)
Parallel Mothers (Alberto Iglesias)
Dune (Hans Zimmer)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG 
“Be Alive” (King Richard)
“Dos Orugitas” (Encanto)
“Down to Joy” (Belfast)
“Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” (Respect)
“No Time to Die” (No Time to Die)

BEST MOTION PICTURE – ANIMATED
Encanto
Flee
Luca
My Sunny Maad
Raya and the Last Dragon

BEST MOTION PICTURE – FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Compartment No. 6 (Finland)
Drive My Car (Japan)
The Hand of God (Italy)
A Hero (Iran)
Parallel Mothers (Spain)

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West Side Story (2021)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenwriter: Tony Kushner
Starring: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist, Rita Moreno, Brian d’Arcy James, Corey Stoll

It was one heck of a challenge to attempt to match Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’ 1961 film adaptation of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s stage musical West Side Story. If there was one director up to the task it was filmmaking heavyweight for our times Steven Spielberg, and he’s managed to bring all his usual grand sweep and attention to detail to bear in this, a film that is undeniably his vision of this iconic Broadway show.

In 1957 a gang war rages between the white Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks in the Upper West Side of New York City. Amidst increasingly violent fighting for rapidly shrinking territory as the neighbourhood is torn down for new urban development, former Jet member Tony (Ansel Elgort) and the sister of the Sharks leader Bernardo (David Alvarez), Maria (Rachel Zegler), fall head-over-heels in love with each other.

West Side Story is famously a riff on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, the story of forbidden love between warring houses. It is made relevant for the modern age by rooting it in a specific time, place and culture, and makes for one of the darkest and most violent song and dance shows out there.

Spielberg may have delivered his particular take on most film genres over his storied 50 year career, but this is his first proper musical; the closest he’d previously come to doing one was probably the dance number in the opening scene from Temple of Doom. Not that his talent or versatility was ever in doubt, but Spielberg is able to draw from some very strong material to begin with. Bernstein’s orchestration is always going to send your heart soaring and set your feet tapping, Sondheim’s lyrics will always wow with their dexterity and cleverness. Match the right voices to belt out the tunes and you’re on to a real winner straight out the gate.

Rachel Zegler is a real find, and delivers an attention-grabbing and layered performance in her film debut as Maria. Ansel Elgort seems to take a little more time to find his feet as Tony, but certainly grows into the role from the magical moment when the central pair first meet. The standouts in the vibrant ensemble are undoubtedly Ariana DeBose as Maria’s formidable friend Anita, Mike Faist’s emotionally raw Jets leader Riff and the original film’s Anita, Rita Moreno, in a very poignant and surprisingly meaty new role surely destined for awards recognition.

The most striking image in a film full of striking images (courtesy of Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan DP Janusz Kamiński) is undoubtedly the two gangs approaching each other for their prior-agreed rumble for territorial control in the city salt storage warehouse, shot from above so the exaggerated shadows both groups cast look like two German Expressionist hands reaching out to meet each other.

The brawl that follows this stylish lead-in bears no relation to the dance-fighting in the same sequence in the original film. This is down and dirty, nasty gang violence between teenagers prepared to maim or kill each other out of ignorance and anger, justified or not.

There is a definite aesthetic shift after the muted colours of the film’s prologue introducing the gangs and the idea that their turf will soon be no more once the area is gentrified and the Lincoln Centre (ironically, a performing arts venue) is completed. The transition is signposted most notably by the dance hall sequence where the Jets and their partners are dressed in shades of blue and their Shark counterparts are in oranges and reds, their competitive dancing coming together in the centre of the hall, giving the appearance of water dousing fire. From here, the visuals become more theatrical and full of metaphorical imagery – people considering themselves and their future in reflective surfaces and water, literal barriers between lovers touching, draped fabric in symbolic colours.

The best sequence in the film (no change from the 1961 version) is the American Dream-mocking, prejudice-skewering extravaganza “America”. Switched up from taking place on a rooftop to the busy streets of the San Juan Hill neighbourhood, “America” is not the only number that has been smartly re-staged by Spielberg, screenwriter Tony Kushner and their collaborators. The scathing but comic “Gee, Officer Krupke” is now performed in lockup, the uplifting “I Feel Pretty” is restored to the pallet-cleansing position it occupied in the stage show and now takes place in a department store being cleaned at night, and Rita Moreno is bequeathed the tear-jerker “Somewhere” to hugely moving affect when paired with her character Valentina’s revealed backstory.

The original film was quite rightly criticised for casting non-Latino actors in the Sharks roles, caking everyone (including the few Latino performers like Rita Moreno) with brown makeup to better fit ethnic stereotypes. Everyone is appropriately cast here and the Puerto Rican characters naturalistically flit between speaking English and Spanish in domestic settings, the Spanish mostly left untranslated but the meaning always clear from context.

One aspect of the story really emphasised in this new version is that this is a conflict between kids from a place but with nowhere to go versus kids adjusting to a new home with their families at their back. The Jets appear to live their lives on the streets with no other concerns, whereas the Puerto Ricans, particularly the women, all hold down employment to pay their way in their new country. One group is trying to get on with their lives and look to the future, the other is stuck in the past and can’t see far enough to blame anyone but the newcomers for the sad state they find themselves in.

Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story wows, updating the more tired tropes and adding grit (and dramatic heft) without losing any of the musical’s energy or heady romance. Those particularly attached to the choreography, the staging or the performances of the original might find themselves predisposed to compare the two films and the different choices that were made, but if you go in with an open mind and allow yourself to get lost in the sheer majesty of the thing you’ll leave shiny-eyed and with many wonderful tunes going around your head for days.

22/24

With productions from London’s West End, including “Wind in the Willows”, “Eugenius!”, “Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat” and a variety of shows from The National Theatre becoming readily available on various platforms over the last few weeks, I can’t help but to wonder if this could be a renaissance period for movie musicals. 

Then and Now

Musicals, although remaining a constant attraction on the West End and Broadway, seem to come and go from the cinemas in waves. Movie musicals were at their most appealing in the 1940s when, in 1943, Hollywood studios released a combined 65 musicals in just one calendar year. By the early 1960s, the production of musicals had declined substantially, resulting in a mere 4 musicals being released from Hollywood in 1963. More recent years have seen financial (although not necessarily critical) success in the forms of La La Land (2016), The Greatest Showman (2017) and Mary Poppins Returns (2018). 

Back in the Golden Age of Hollywood it was a guaranteed success for a studio to be producing a musical. Films like Singin’ In The Rain (1952), White Christmas (1954) and High Society (1956) paved the way for what seemed like an ongoing success of a genre tied more tightly to the introduction of sound in cinema than any. Big hits such as the aforementioned La La Land and The Greatest Showman still follow the general conventions attached to the genre by these golden periods of Hollywood, each offering their own takes on what made the classics so great: big musical numbers, appealing lead characters, daring staging and vibrant costumes. 

La La Land won 6 Oscars at the 89th Academy Awards due to its sophisticated original content. 11 months later The Greatest Showman, starring Hollywood royalty Hugh Jackman and his apparent successor Zac Efron, didn’t achieve the same awards success, largely struggling to earn critical praise.

However, with an overall box office taking of over £351million worldwide, The Greatest Showman had a different kind of success and, of course, bad reviews don’t stop us all singing along to “The Greatest Show” every time we hear it. There’s something that proves to be completely addictive about a catchy tune and a well choreographed dance routine – throw in some CGI elephants and an attractive lead in a top hat and you may not impress the critics but you’ve definitely got yourself a strong fan base. 

It has become a common trait for stage musicals to be reimagined for the big screen. The Greatest Showman itself was a reimagined telling of the founder of the circus, P.T Barnum, based on the 1980s Broadway musical “Barnum”.

As for Mary Poppins (1964), starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, awards success was only the start of a long life for the Disney live action/animation hybrid. Julie Andrews won best actress at the 1965 Academy Awards and the same award respectively at the Golden Globes. In 2004, 40 years after the release of the original film, the musical made its transfer to Broadway with rave reviews leading to a long and successful life on the stage. 2018 then brought about the release of its long-awaited sequel, the appropriately titled Mary Poppins Returns starring Emily Blunt, Lin Manuel Miranda and (again) Dick Van Dyke. The success of the sequel then led to the stage show reopening on the West End in 2019. Mary Poppins remains the only musical to go from screen to stage to screen and to stage again. 

Recommended for you: [VIDEO] 30 Greatest Musical Numbers from Movie Musicals

Musicals At the Awards

The transition from stage to screen usually comes in a bid to get the stories and songs to a wider audience, often resulting in huge awards success, especially at the Oscars. Movie musicals have been a hit for the Academy of Motion Pictures ever since The Broadway Melody won best picture in 1929 at the 2nd Annual Academy Awards.

As well as being the first musical to win the academy award for Best Picture, The Broadway Melody was one of the first musicals to ever exist in the form, using the fairly new technology of sound on film to set a new standard silver screen classics that other great musicals such as The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music would follow in the decades to follow.

1952 saw the first screen musical win the specifically titled “Best Motion Picture: Comedy or Musical” at the annual Golden Globes awards ceremony, the award going to the George Gershwin hit An American in Paris starring Gene Kelly. Although not originating on the stage, An American in Paris set the precedent for the continued success of movie musicals at the Golden Globes. The first stage to screen adaptation to win at the awards was in 1955 and went to Guys and Dolls, starring award favourites Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra and Jean Simmons. Guys and Dolls was already a huge success on Broadway after opening in 1950 and going on to win 5 Tony awards including Best Musical, so it seemed destined for the success its silver screen adaptation found.

The next few decades did, however, see musicals start to fade out of the box office, with exceptions only proving the rule – the (at the time) controversial The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and Little Shop of Horrors (1986) being among the most memorable, though neither earning any Oscars success.

This was all due to change with the film debut of Chicago, released in 2002 and directed by Rob Marshall (who has long been making his mark as the director of musicals with films like Nine, Into the Woods and Mary Poppins Returns). Chicago went on to win 6 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actress for leading star Catherine Zeta-Jones. The Bob Fosse classic was released to outstanding reviews and gained an 86% critics approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Even now, 18 years later, it is still considered to be one of the greatest movie musicals of all time, proving that in the early 00s there was still a place for musicals in the film release calendar. 

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Jukebox musicals have always presented themselves well on stage with huge amounts of fans and expected long runs in theatres. “We Will Rock You”, the Queen jukebox, had a 12 year run on the West End, making it the longest running jukebox musical to date, but a film adaptation was never made. Others like “Mamma Mia” and “Jersey Boys” have had successful stage and film tenures, despite neither reaching the same level of critical praise on film as previous movie musical and now being considered “guilty pleasures”. 

“Les Miserables” and “The Phantom of the Opera” are two of the biggest stage musicals in the history of theatre and had been on the West End for nearly 30 years when they were both adapted to screen. Phantom of the Opera (2004) earned itself an unfortunate 5/10 average critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and is often forgotten about, whereas the Les Miserables film adaptation of 2012 went on to win 3 Oscars and 3 Golden Globes, including the aforementioned Best Picture: Musical or Comedy category won by An American in Paris. 

What’s To Come?

It seems it’s impossible to predict whether or not a musical is destined for success at the cinema, so what does this mean for the three scheduled to be released in 2020?

Despite the delays on most Hollywood blockbusters originally due for release this summer, we are still expecting to see the releases of three highly anticipated movie musicals which have been adapted from pre-existing source material…

In The Heights is Lin Manuel Miranda’s original project, before the birth of Hamilton took the world by storm. Based on the original Broadway musical of the same name and following a successful run at the Kings Cross Theatre, London, In The Heights already has a strong buzz around it and is likely to be hugely successful. Miranda has become a household name thanks to his involvement in Disney’s Moana, his star turn in Mary Poppins Returns and of course his importance to the previously mentioned “Hamilton”, the first hip hop musical based on the history of the United States. In The Heights goes back to Miranda’s roots and was originally written by him whilst he was at college. It’s set in the Washington Heights district of New York and involves characters from a Dominican/American heritage.

West Side Story is getting a modern facelift.

Steven Spielberg has directed the remake of the most celebrated on screen musical of all time. The original 1961 release earned the most Oscars for any musical to date with 10 awards including Best Picture. Based on the famous Shakespeare play “Romeo and Juliet”, West Side Story features some of the most beloved musical numbers of all time, including “I Want To Be In America” and “Somewhere”. Ansel Elgort (The Fault In Our Stars; Baby Driver) is set to star as the lead character Tony, with the likes of Rita Moreno and Corey Stoll also named as cast members. The film has already been delayed due to the virus outbreak, but when it eventually gets its cinematic release it is likely to be a huge hit with fans and encourage a new generation to fall in love with the Stephen Sondheim classic. 

Moving on from the vibrant streets of New York as seen in both In The Heights and West Side Story, we travel across the pond to the less vibrant northern England town of Sheffield where, it seems, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.

Making its West End debut in November 2017 after a successful run in its home town, Jamie took London by storm. Based on the 2011 BBC documentary, “Jamie: Drag Queen at 16”, it tells the story of Jamie New, a young boy growing up in a heterosexual world where being a drag queen belongs in Vegas, not Sheffield. Making its move to the big screen in November of this year (release calendar dependent), it looks set to be a musical must-see, especially if its success on the West End is anything to go by.

Trusting that these three are made to a higher standard than 2019’s Tom Hooper screen adaptation of the hit stage show “Cats” (TFM’s review here), it’s safe to say they will reach out to a huge audience.

Studios in modern cinema are still trying to perfect the genre, and the fate of the film industry might be a bit uncertain at the moment, but audiences are still finding ways to watch their favourite musicals so maybe, just maybe, this is the start of a new wave of movie musical fandom and a shift in studio output back to the escapist classics of years gone by.