Review: "MOANA" Sails on a Sea of Delights

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 53 of 2024 (No. 1997) by Leroy Douresseaux

Moana (2016)

Running time:  107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)

MPAA – PG for peril, some scary images and brief thematic elements

DIRECTORS:  Ron Clements and John Musker with Don Hall and Chris Williams (co-directors)

WRITERS:  Jared Bush; from a story by Ron Clements, John Musker, Don Hall, Chris Williams, Pamela Ribon, and Aaron Kandell and Jordan Kandell

PRODUCER:  Osnat Shurer

CINEMATOGRAPHERS:  Alessandro Jacomini, Daniel Rice, and Nathan Warner

EDITOR:  Jeff Draheim

ORIGINAL SONGS:  Opetaia Foa'il, Mark Mancina, and Lin-Manuel Miranda

COMPOSER:  Mark Mancina

Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/FANTASY/FAMILY/DRAMA

Starring:  (voices) Auli'i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Jemaine Clement, Nicole Scherzinger, Alan Tudyk, and Troy Polamalu

Moana is a 2016 American computer-animated, fantasy-adventure, and musical film directed by Ron Clements and John Musker.  It was produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios – the 56th full-length animated feature film produced by that studio, and it was released by Walt Disney Pictures.  Moana follows a girl who heeds the Ocean's call that she find a lost demigod and force him to help her end the terrible curse that he incurred in the distant past.

Moana introduces Moana (Auli'i Cravalho), a girl who lives in ancient Polynesian on the island of Motunui.  She is also the daughter of Motunui's Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison).  The inhabitants of the island worship Te Fiti, the mother island.  Long ago, Te Fiti brought life to the ocean using a stone called “the heart of Te Fiti” as the source of her power.  Then, along came Maui (Dwayne Johnson).  He was a demigod of the wind and sea, a warrior, a trickster, and a shape-shifter who used a huge magical fish hook to wield his shape-shifting powers.  Maui stole the heart and caused Te Fiti to disintegrate, but he immediately attacked by the volcanic demon “ Te Kā.”  Maui lost both the heart and his magic fish hook to the depths of the sea.

A thousand years later, blight strikes Motunui and begins to kill the vegetation and shrink the number of fish available for the islanders to catch.  The Ocean gives Moana the heart of Te Fiti and chooses her to find Maui and force him to restore what he took from Te Fiti.  Only then, will Motunui and other islands be saved from the destroying blight, which is apparently a curse from Te Kā.  In order to do that, Moana must do something she always wanted to do, but was also afraid to do.  She must cross the barrier reef that surrounds Motunui and sale far into an ocean full of danger.  That danger includes the kind of waves that can destroy the small boat upon which Moana sets sail.

I always struggle with writing reviews of modern Disney computer-animated feature films.  The animation is always superb.  The character design consistently is imaginative and inventive, and the character animation – regardless of whether the characters are human, animals, creatures of fantasy, or machines – is flawless.  The production design, art direction, set decoration, and graphic design are so good that just about every Disney movie gets its own art book – deservedly so.  That said, the tattoos on Maui's body steal the show; it's like they are their own film reel of hype men and Greek choruses.

Moana offers Disney's time-tested formula, telling the story of a girl who goes on a journey of discovery about what she expects of herself after living a life of doing what others expect of her.  It has popped up recently in such films as Frozen (2013) and Zootopia (2016).  Of late, Disney has offered girls who are not white or European as the stars of such stories, as seen here in Moana and also in Encanto (2021), a film released several years after Moana.  The visual elements of this film might say non-white girl, but the voice actors bring a universal appeal to their voice performances that emphasizes the Moana's broad themes of bravery and redemption and also of the struggle between tradition (represented by Moana's father, Tui) and progress (represented by Moana herself).

By the way, Moana's original songs, written by Opetaia Foa'il, Mark Mancina, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the film score by Mancina are some of the best Disney music produced this century.  It is hard to pick a favorite song from this film, but I like Mancina and Miranda's “Shiny” as much as like Miranda's “How Far I'll Go,” which is essentially the film's theme.

I avoided Moana when it was first released to theaters in 2016, and I finally decided to see it because Moana 2 is due this month (November 2024).  I would have loved to have seen it on the big screen.  Although I think the film drags a little in its last act, I really enjoyed its story and its bouncy songs and soaring score.  Moana is one of Disney's great recent adventure films – live-action or animation – and I think fans of animated feature films – Disney or otherwise – are denying themselves an exceptional work if they don't see it.

8 of 10

A

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Tuesday, November 26, 2027

NOTES:

2017 Academy Awards, USA:  2 nominations: “Best Animated Feature Film of the Year” (Ron Clements, John Musker, and Osnat Shurer) and “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Song” (Lin-Manuel Miranda for the song, “How Far I'll Go”)

2017 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film” (Ron Clements and John Musker)

2017 Golden Globe Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Original Song-Motion Picture” (Lin-Manuel Miranda for the song, “How Far I'll Go”) and “Best Motion Picture - Animated”

2017 NAACP Image Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance-Television or Film” (Dwayne Johnson)

2017 Black Reel Awards:  1 nomination: “Outstanding Voice Performance” (Dwayne Johnson)

The text is copyright © 2024 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "DEADPOOL" Goes in Through the Back Door on the Superhero Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 31 of 2024 (No. 1975) by Leroy Douresseaux

Deadpool (2016)

Running time:  108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)

MPAA – R for strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity

DIRECTOR:  Tim Miller

WRITERS:  Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (based on Marvel Comics characters)

PRODUCERS:  Ryan Reynolds, Simon Kinberg, and Lauren Shuler Donner

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Ken Seng (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Julian Clark

COMPOSER:  Tom Holkenborg

SUPERHERO/ACTION/COMEDY

Starring:  Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Ed Skrein, Karan Soni, Brianna Hildebrand, Gina Carano, Leslie Uggams, Stan Lee, and Stefan Kapicic (voice)

Deadpool is a 2016 American superhero film and action-comedy from director Tim Miller.  It is a spin-off film in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men film series and is the eighth film overall in the series.  It is also the first entry in what would become the Deadpool movie franchise.  The film is based on the Marvel Comics character, Deadpool, that was created by artist Rob Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza, and first appeared in New Mutants #98 (cover dated: December 1990).  Deadpool the movie focuses on a wisecracking costumed antihero who seeks revenge against the man who left him hideously scarred after a series of experiments.

Deadpool introduces Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), a smart-mouthed mercenary and former special forces operative (“the merc with a mouth”).  Wade's life takes a dramatic turn when he meets and falls in love with Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin), a prostitute.  However, after a whirlwind romance, Wade discovers that he has terminal cancer, but as he is preparing to accept death, he learns of a lab run by the mysterious Ajax (Ed Skrein).  Ajax promises to not only cure Wade's cancer, but to also give him powers and make him a superhero.  Unfortunately, Ajax is a lying monster.

Although the experiments leave his face and body hideously disfigured, Wade is rendered virtually immortal when his mutant power activates and gives him incredibly accelerated healing powers.  Taking the name, “Deadpool,” Wade goes on a mission of revenge.  On the other hand, Colossus, the mutant who has a giant organic steel body, wants Deadpool to join the X-Men and become a superhero.  Will Deadpool become a good guy, or will he simply keep piling up dismembered and bullet-riddled bodies on the way to his reunion with Ajax?

We are nearing the release of the latest Disney/Marvel Studios blockbuster movie, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024).  I had seen Deadpool and Deadpool 2, previously, but I had never reviewed them.  I decided that now is the time to foist my opinions upon you, dear readers.  I'm also going to watch and review, Logan (2017), the one X-Men movie I have been unable to finish. 

Gleefully profane in language and sexual content, Deadpool was a surprise to movie audiences upon its February 2016 original theatrical release.  It was an R-rated superhero movie, and it was proud of it.  At the time, movie audiences had seen plenty of movies featuring superheroes, ordinary heroes, and anti-heroes, in which the lead character brutally kills his adversaries.  None of those films had done it like Deadpool, although 2013's The Wolverine, had tried.

The foul language is in such abundance in Deadpool that there are moments when it all seems like too much, but even in those moments, I started laughing after being repulsed for a few seconds.  I think a movie has to be doing something right when it has even Emmy and Tony-winning actress, Leslie Uggams (as Blind Al), dropping F-bombs.

For all the credit I give director Tim Miller and film editor, Julian Clark, for this film's fast action and eye-popping dances of violence, actor Ryan Reynolds makes Deadpool work.  Yeah, the sex scenes are a bit too long and too over-the-top, but it never seems as if Wade Wilson/Deadpool is talking too much.  Reynolds makes Deadpool different and unique; he makes it work.  Eight years after its original theatrical release, Deadpool and its superhero cinema blasphemy still seem fresh.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

NOTES:

2017 Golden Globes, USA:  2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Ryan Reynolds)

The text is copyright © 2024 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint or syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "CAFÉ SOCIETY" Sounds More Scandalous Than It Actually Is

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 2 of 2024 (No. 1946) by Leroy Douresseaux

Café Society (2016)

Running time:  96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)

MPAA –  PG-13 for some violence, a drug reference, suggestive material and smoking

WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Woody Allen

PRODUCERS:  Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, and Edward Walson

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Vittorio Storaro

EDITOR:  Alisa Lepselter

COMEDY/ROMANCE with elements of crime

Starring:  Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Blake Lively, Sheryl Lee, Jeannie Berlin, Ken Stott, Sari Lennick, Stephen Kunken, and Corey Stoll

Café Society is a 2016 period comedy and romance film written and directed by Woody Allen.  Set in the 1930s, the film follows a Bronx native who moves to Hollywood and falls in love with a young woman who is already in an affair with a mysterious married man.

Café Society introduces Robert Jacob “Bobby” Dorfman (Jessie Eisenberg).  He is the youngest child and younger son of Marty Dorfman (Ken Stott) and his wife, Rose Dorfman (Jeannie Berlin).  The Dorfman's middle child is their adult daughter, Evelyn (Sari Lennick), who is married to Leonard (Stephen Kunken), a teacher, an intellectual, and a communist.  Dorfman's oldest child is their elder son, Ben (Corey Stoll), a gangster.  While his siblings' lives are set, Bobby's is not.  He is discontented with working for his father, Marty, who is a jeweler, so Bobby decides to move to Hollywood.

There, his mother Karen's brother, Phil Stern (Steve Carell), is a powerful talent agent who works with the most famous stars, biggest filmmakers, and most powerful movie studios.  Phil is married to a beautiful woman, Karen (Sheryl Lee), and he lives in a lavish mansion in Hollywood.  And he might have a job for his wayward nephew, Bobby Dorfman.

Bobby ends up taking a job running menial errands for Phil, and that brings him into contact with on of Phil's employees, Veronica “Vonnie” Sybil (Kristen Stewart).  Bobby falls in love with Vonnie, but she claims that she already has a boyfriend, Doug, whom she describes as a journalist.  Ultimately, Bobby returns to New York City, where he runs a high-end nightclub that he names “Les Tropiques.”  It is there that Bobby embraces “café society,” as the club soon becomes a famous hangout for the rich and powerful.  Bobby, however, cannot escape his recent past, nor can he avoid Ben's gangster activities.

Coup de chance, the film Woody Allen says will likely be his final directorial effort, was released in France in September (2023).  Because of the controversies surrounding Allen the last few decades, especially the last five years, the film may not get a stateside theatrical release (although there has been a rumor that it has found a thus far secret U.S. distributor).  In anticipation of eventually somehow seeing Coup de chance, I have decided to watch the recent Woody Allen films that I missed, such as the 2015 film, Irrational Man, and Cafe Society.

Cafe Society is an amiable, lightweight Woody Allen period comedy.  It's nostalgic overtones certainly recall Allen's utterly delightful and semi-autobiographical period film, Radio Days (1987).  I adore Radio Days and am tempted to call it his masterpiece.  Unfortunately, Cafe Society is nowhere near the film that Radio Days is.

The first half of Cafe Society, which is mostly set in Hollywood, ends up being a prologue to the main story.  You see, dear readers, Cafe Society's real story takes place after Bobby Dorfman returns to New York City and becomes a player in cafe society, the party scene of the Big Apple's rich and famous – from the blue bloods and celebrities to politicians and gangsters.  In fact, the film is practically sleepy until Bobby becomes the impresario of NYC's most popular and notorious nightclub.  That is when the two strands of his past – his aborted relationship with Vonnie and the natural end of Ben's activities – meet.  Of course, it is a time when Bobby has the best of everything.

Cafe Society's themes of love-at-first-sight, love lost, and yearning for what might have been are familiar, and the film deals with it all so slightly that the story feels underdeveloped.  I can't help but believe Cafe Society would work better as a television series, which would allow it to fully develop its multiple subplots and to play out a cast that is filled with potential.  Ultimately, Café Society is an average put-together of familiar Woody Allen tropes, decorated with gorgeous production values.  The cinematography, costumes, and sets are all Oscar worthy.

5 of 10

B-

★★½ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

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Review: "LA LA LAND" Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda Been Great

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 40 of 2022 (No. 1852) by Leroy Douresseaux

La La Land (2016)
Running time:  128 minutes (2 hours, 8 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some language
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Damien Chazelle
PRODUCERS:  Fred Berger, Gary Gilbert, Jordan Horowitz, and Marc Platt
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Linus Sandgren (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Tom Cross
COMPOSER:  Justin Hurwitz
SONGS: Justin Hurwitz and Pasek & Paul; Justin Hurwitz, John Legend, Marius de Vries and Angelique Cinelu
Academy Award winner

MUSICAL/DRAMA

Starring:  Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Rosemarie DeWitt, J.K. Simmons, and John Legend

La La Land is a 2016 romantic film and musical drama written and directed by Damien Chazelle.  The film focuses on a struggling jazz pianist and an aspiring actress who fall in love while navigating their career paths in Los Angeles.

La La Land opens in Los Angeles, California.  While stuck in a typical L.A. traffic, aspiring actress, Mia Dolan (Emma Stone), has a moment of road rage directed at Sebastian “Seb” Wilder (Ryan Gosling), a struggling jazz pianist.  Mia has a hard day of work at her coffee shop job, and her subsequent audition goes awry.  Sebastian is fired from a gig at a restaurant after he slips in some jazz improvisation despite the owner's (J.K. Simmons) warning to only play traditional Christmas music.  Attracted to the Seb's music, Mia walks into the restaurant and witnesses the firing.  She tries to compliment his music, but Seb rudely walks past her.

Eventually, Fate brings them together at a party.  Soon, they are sharing their dreams and start becoming a couple.  Both have to reconcile their aspirations for the future, however, and as their career paths veer, can they stay a couple?

La La Land almost won the Academy Award for “Best Picture,” but didn't.  La La Land could have been a great film, but it really isn't.  The film's leads, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, are fine actors, and they are true movie stars.  [I don't see anything in Stone's performance here that is worthy of the “Best Actress” Oscar she won.]  The camera seems to love them, and they look great on the big screen – as the sayings go – but as hard as they try, their characters are limp.  Stone's Mia has potential, but remains surprisingly vapid, except for a few moments.  Sebastian is pretentious and insufferable, although he is intriguing.

The material that makes up this film's screenplay, written by Damien Chazelle, is a shallow interpretation of the musicals of “old Hollywood” (also known as the “Golden Age of Hollywood”).  Chazelle may be a fan of such old musicals, but his love cannot recreate the genuine spirit and aesthetic of them.  If you, dear readers, are familiar with classic Hollywood musicals, you will recognize that this film ties to be old-fashioned, but comes across as a pretender.

The film's score is quite good, and it has one great song “City of Stars” (which keeps playing in my head).  Most of the rest of the songs are technically proficient, but are exceedingly dull.  There is one more decent song (can't remember which one) and a catchy tune, “Catch a Fire,” co-written and performed by John Legend.

Still, La La Land has moments of brilliance.  Mia and Sebastian's meeting on a bench at Griffith Park is filled with movie magic, and the film's final moment recalls the semi-tragic mood of Casablanca.  The production values are terrific, including the Oscar-winning art direction and set decoration, and the Oscar-winning cinematography is some of the prettiest I have seen in the last decade.  Even the Oscar-nominated costume design is worthy of a win.

I can see why Barry Jenkins' Moonlight wowed enough voters to win the Oscar for “Best Picture” of 2016 over La La Land.  Moonlight is a fascinating character study, while La La Land is flashy cinematic bauble with caricatures.  It is technically proficient, but every good moment is met by a flat and dull moment.  La La Land is the film that could have been great, and should have been great, but ended up being just very good.

7 of 10
B+
★★★½ out of 4 stars


NOTES:
2017 Academy Awards, USA:  6 wins: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Emma Stone), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Damien Chazelle), “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Linus Sandgren), “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Score” (Justin Hurwitz), “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Song” (Justin Hurwitz-music and Benj Pasek-lyrics and Justin Paul-lyrics for the song, “City of Stars”), and “Best Achievement in Production Design” (David Wasco for production design and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco for set decoration); 8 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, and Marc Platt), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Ryan Gosling), “Best Original Screenplay” (Damien Chazelle), “Best Achievement in Film Editing” (Tom Cross), “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Mary Zophres), “Best Achievement in Sound Mixing” (Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee, and Steven Morrow), “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou), and “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Song” (Justin Hurwitz-music and Benj Pasek-lyrics and Justin Paul-lyrics for the song, “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)”)

2017 BAFTA Awards:  5 wins: “Best Film” (Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, and Marc Platt), “Best Leading Actress” (Emma Stone), “Best Cinematography” (Linus Sandgren), “Original Music” (Justin Hurwitz), and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Damien Chazelle); 6 nominations: “Best Leading Actor” (Ryan Gosling), “Best Screenplay-Original” (Damien Chazelle), “Best Editing” (Tom Cross), “Best Production Design” (Sandy Reynolds-Wasco and David Wasco), “Best Costume Design” (Mary Zophres), and “Best Sound” (Mildred Iatrou, Ai-Ling Lee, Steven Morrow, and Andy Nelson)

2017 Golden Globes, USA:  7 wins: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Ryan Gosling), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Emma Stone), “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Damien Chazelle), “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Damien Chazelle), “Best Original Song-Motion Picture” (Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul for the song: “City of Stars”), and “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Justin Hurwitz)

Saturday, July 2, 2022


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "SING" is Animated by Pop Music Hits

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 20 of 2022 (No. 1832) by Leroy Douresseaux

Sing (2016)
Running time:  108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some rude humor and mild peril
DIRECTOR:  Garth Jennings with Christophe Lourdelet
WRITER:  Garth Jennings
PRODUCERS:  Janet Healy and Chris Meledandri
EDITOR:  Gregory Perler
COMPOSER:  Joby Talbot

ANIMATION/FANTASY/MUSICAL AND FAMILY/COMEDY

Starring:  Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly, Taron Egerton, Tori Kelly, Jennifer Saunders, Garth Jennings, Peter Serafinowicz, Nick Kroll, Leslie Jones, Rhea Perlman, Beck Bennett, Jay Pharoah, Nick Offerman, Laraine Newman, Wes Anderson, and Jennifer Hudson

Sing is a 2016 computer-animated, jukebox musical comedy film written and directed by Garth Jennings and produced by Illumination Entertainment.  The film focuses on a struggling theater owner who holds a singing competition to save his theater.

Sing is set in a city (Calatonia) inhabited by anthropomorphic (humanoid) animals.  The film introduces Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), a koala who owns the “Moon Theater.”  The theater is struggling, and Judith (Rhea Perlman), a brown llama who represents Buster's bank, is threatening the theater with foreclosure.  In a bid to get people interested in the theater, Buster decides to hold a singing competition with a prize of $1,000 going to the winner.  However, Buster's secretary, Miss Crawly (Garth Jennings), an elderly iguana, accidentally creates a typo that adds two extra zeros to the prize money.  The misprinted fliers for the competition, which declare a $100,000 prize, are also accidentally blown all over the city.

Soon, animals are lined up in front of the theater for the competition's open audition, but Buster only chooses a select few to participate in the singing competition.  There is Rosita (Reese Witherspoon), a housewife and mother of 25 piglets.  She is paired with another pig, Gunter (Nick Kroll), an exuberant performer who wants to dance as much as he sings.  Ash (Scarlett Johansson) is a punk-rock porcupine and singer who is trying to find her voice as a songwriter.

Johnny (Taron Egerton) is a singer and teenage gorilla, but he is also reluctantly part of his father, Big Daddy's (Peter Serafinowicz) gang of thieves.  Mike (Seth MacFarlane) is a white mouse who is a street musician and singer of swing music.  Meena (Tori Kelly), a teenage elephant, could be a contestant, but she has terrible stage fright.  Can Buster and his friend, Eddie Noodleman (John C. Reilly), a sheep, bring everyone together and save the theater before financial doom sinks them all?

The Hollywood film industry, sometimes called a “dream factory,” has consistently been pedaling fantasies in which plucky underdogs overcome obstacles in order to achieve something positive, which provides the audience with a happy ending.  Some films pile trials and tribulations, errors, failures, and misfortune upon the hero and supporting characters so much so that it often strains credulity.  The idea seems to be that the more the underdog has to overcome, the greater the pay off for the audience when the underdog wins in the end.

That is Sing in the proverbial movie nutshell.  I found it rather tiresome.  Poor old Buster Moon suffers so much failure, most of it brought upon him by his own actions, that it made Buster less sympathetic to me.  Buster is a plucky theater owner.  He is also such a con artist that it is hard to imagine him as much more than a loser, which is what most people would call him.  It did not help that I found Matthew McConaughey all wrong as the voice of Buster.

For me, there are a couple of things that enhance Sing.  First is Seth MacFarlane, who is best known for the Fox Network's long-running, prime time animated television sitcom, “Family Guy.”  Initially, I did not recognize his voice as Mike the white mouse, but when I did, it made sense to me.  MacFarlane is a genius at voice acting in both live-action and animated productions.  He can sing the heck out of big band and swing music standards, and as Mike, he steals most of the scenes in which the character appears.  Seth certainly makes a case for a Mike solo movie.

Second, I also initially did not realize that Scarlett Johansson was the voice of Ash, the punk-rock porcupine.  Johansson gives a voice performance full of texture, emotion, and personality, and when Ash sings, Johansson kills it.  [Johannson has released one solo album and an album recorded with Pete Yorn].  I spent most of movie wanting for her to be back on screen.  I'm one vote for an Ash movie.

Finally, the third thing that saves this film is the last 20 minutes.  Most of Sing's characters are caricatures and character types, as pleasant as they may be.  However, all the characters (except Buster) shine in the film's riveting, song-filled final 20 minutes.  This rousing songfest even offers a thrilling jail break and a crazy car chase.  I avoided Sing for years, and I am not really interested in singing competitions, in general.  I only really watched it because I am going to watch and review its recent sequel, Sing 2.  However, MacFarlane, Johansson, and the show-stopping finale made me glad I watched Sing.  I like animated movies – even the ones that are not Pixar-great.

6 of 10
B

Saturday, April 2, 2022


NOTES:
2017 Golden Globes, USA:  2 nominations: “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Ryan Tedder, Stevie Wonder, and Francis and the Lights for the song, “Faith”) and “Best Motion Picture – Animated”


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "THE CONJURING 2" is One Hell of a Scary Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 38 of 2021 (No. 1776) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Conjuring 2 (2016)
Running time:  134 minutes (2 hours, 14 minutes)
MPAA – R for terror and horror violence
DIRECTOR:  James Wan
WRITERS:  Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes, and James Wan and David Leslie Johnson; from a story by Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes, and James Wan (based on characters created by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes)
PRODUCERS:  Rob Cowan, Peter Safran, and James Wan
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Don Burgess
EDITOR:  Kirk M. Morri
COMPOSER:  Joseph Bishara

HORROR

Starring:  Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Madison Wolfe, Frances O'Connor, Lauren Esposito, Benjamin Haigh, Patrick McAuley, Simon McBurney, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Simon Delaney, Frank Potente, Bob Adrian, Robin Atkins Downes, Bonnie Aarons, Javier Botet, Steve Coulter, Abhi Sinha, Daniel Wolfe, and Sterling Jerins

The Conjuring 2 is a 2016 supernatural horror film from director James Wan.  The film is a direct sequel to 2013's The Conjuring and is also the third film in “The Conjuring Universe.”  Like the original film, The Conjuring 2 stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as fictional versions of real life, American paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren.  In The Conjuring 2, the Warrens travel to North London to help a single mother and her four children who are being plagued by a supernatural spirit.

The Conjuring 2 opens in 1976.  Noted paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), are involved in the investigation of the haunting of the house in Amityville, Long Island, New York, the case that came to be known as “the Amityville Horror.”  During a seance, Lorraine is drawn into a vision where she relives the murders committed in the house by Ronald DeFeo, Jr., in which he killed his mother, father, two brothers, and two sisters.  The spirit of one of the killed children lures Lorraine to the basement, where she encounters a demonic figure that looks like a nun.  Lorraine also witnesses a horrifying fate for her husband, Ed.

The Conjuring moves forward to 1977.  In Ponders End, the southeasternmost part of the London borough of Enfield, there is a council house on Green Street that is the “Hodgson Residence.”  Here, Peggy Hodgson (Frances O'Connor) lives with her four children:  daughters, Margaret (Lauren Esposito) and Janet (Madison Wolfe), and sons, Billy (Benjamin Haigh) and Johnny (Patrick McAuley).  Peggy's husband, Richard, has abandoned them, and she struggles to support her family.

In addition to financial problems, the family has another strange problem.  Janet starts to sleepwalk and to converse in her dreams with an entity in the form of an angry elderly man who sits in the family's armchair, insisting that the Hodgson Residence is really his house.  Eventually, Janet's mother and siblings begin to witness the paranormal events surrounding her.  A media firestorm ensues and a representative of “the church” asks the Warrens to travel to London and to investigate the Hodgsons' claims.  Lorraine, however, fears that this confusing case may cost Ed his life.

As much as I liked The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2 is one of those cases in which the sequel surpasses the original.  The sequel is really scary, and is certainly a superior cinematic ghost story.  Not only is it spine-tingling, but it also made me feel tingling all over my body, especially in my thighs (TMI?).  The Conjuring 2 has some wild scenes that frightened me so much that I felt my butt checks really clinching (again, too much information?)  So, yeah, I'm trying to tell you that The Conjuring 2 is just plain scary.  It scared me so much that I was too afraid to finish it the first time I watched it.

Where I found the sequel to be superior is its emotional component in the form of Ed and Lorraine Warren.  As good as it was in the original film, in the sequel, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson's screen chemistry is uncannily convincing, at least as I see it.  Their performances seem so genuine and honest that they make their version of the Warrens come across as a real, longtime, loving, married couple.

Farmiga and Wilson make The Conjuring 2 so fresh and surprising, when in many ways, it is like another spin on the really scary 1979 film, The Amityville Horror.  I have confidence that going forward the (dark) fate of The Conjuring film franchise rests in the hands of its (romantic) leads.

8 of 10
A

Thursday, June 3, 2021


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#28DaysofBlack Review: Denzel and Viola Tear it Up in "FENCES"

[Over a decade after his death, August Wilson's acclaimed stage play, Fences, finally made it to the big screen, three decades after word came that it was to be adapted into film.  Every time I think that Denzel Washington:  the film's star, director, and one of its producers, can no longer amaze me, he amazes us all.  It turns out that America's greatest male actor is also a really fine director.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 12 of 2021 (No. 1750) by Leroy Douresseaux

Fences (2016)
Running time: 139 minutes (2 hours, 19 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for thematic elements, language and some suggestive references
DIRECTOR:  Denzel Washington
WRITER:  August Wilson (based upon his play, Fences)
PRODUCERS:  Todd Black, Scott Rudin, and Denzel Washington
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Charlotte Bruus Christensen (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Hughes Winborne
COMPOSER:  Marcelo Zarvos
Academy Award winner

DRAMA

Starring:  Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, Mykelti Williamson, and Saniyya Sidney

Fences is a 2016 period drama film directed by Denzel Washington.  It is based on playwright, August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Fences (1985).  Wilson also wrote the film adaptation's screenplay before he died in 2005 at the age of 60.  Fences focuses on a working-class African-American father in the 1950s who tries to come to terms with the events of his troubled life.

Fences opens in 1950s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and introduces 53-year-old Troy Maxson (Denzel Washington).  Troy lives with his wife, Rose Lee Maxson (Viola Davis), and their son, Cory (Jovan Adepo).  Troy works as a garbage collector alongside his best friend, Jim Bono (Stephen McKinley Henderson).  Troy has a younger brother, Gabriel (Mykelti Williamson), who sustained a head injury in World War II that left him mentally impaired.  Gabriel received a $3,000 government payout that Troy subsequently used as a down payment on a home for his family.  Troy sometimes wonders if he has done right by Gabriel, who now lives at “Miss Pearl's house.”

Troy also has an adult son from a previous relationship, Lyons Maxson (Russell Hornsby), an apparently talented musician who visits Troy on payday when he wants to borrow money.  Troy's relationship with Lyons is strained, as are his relationships with just about everyone else.  Troy is especially bitter about his professional baseball career.  He played professionally in the Negro Leagues, but never played Major League Baseball, which had a “color barrier” until 1947 that prohibited Black players from joining the majors.  Now, Troy refuses to give permission for Cory to play football because he does not want the teen to fail in sports as he did … he says.  This decision, his general contrarian ways, and his rancor about his life is pushing his family and friends away from him.

Fences is the sixth play in August Wilson's ten-part, “Pittsburgh Cycle,” of plays.  Like all the plays in the cycle, Fences explores the evolving African-American experience and examines race relations, among other themes.  Back in the late 1980s, actor Eddie Murphy had the film rights to Fences, but his planned film never came about.  Wilson and Murphy clashed over Wilson's insistence that the film adaptation of Fences be directed by an African-American because, more or less, only a black man could understand Troy Maxson's life.  At least, that is how I remember the behind-the-scenes happenings concerning Murphy's planed Fences film.

Watching Denzel Washington play Troy Maxson made me realize how universal Fences action and especially its themes are.  Washington is one of the film's producers as well as being the director, so he could make the film he wanted, and he filmed Fences in the city of Pittsburgh, where it is set.  It seems to me that Washington made Fences in its original setting, but played Troy Maxson and presented his world as a story in which audiences, practically from around the world and most certainly in the United States, could recognize and even identify.

Troy isn't just bitter about not being a Major League Baseball player; he is also always yearning.  Troy knows what he's got, but surpassing that is the desire to have more.  It is as if he is constantly thinking, “I have a good wife, son, home, and job, but …”  I have never seen Fences the play or read its text, so I am assuming that Fences the film is true to its source.  However, I interpret Fences the film as revealing that Troy's biggest obstacle isn't race, but is him always believing that what he has now will no longer make him happy, if it ever did.  He always believes that if he gets this “next thing” he will be happy or, at least, happier than he is at the present.

Washington's performance as Troy Maxson in his film, Fences, is a performance for the ages.  If this isn't his best acting, it is his best since The Hurricane.  And what do you know, Washington was nominated for the “Best Actor” Oscar for his performances in both Fences and The Hurricane, and he lost to actors who gave good but inferior performances to Washington's.

At least, Viola Davis finally won an Oscar – for “Best Supporting Actress” – for her performance in Fences.  She was long overdue, and in Fences, as Rose Maxson, she grounds the story and keeps Washington and Troy Maxson from dominating the entire story.  Some thought that Davis should have been nominated in the lead actress category, but Rose Maxson is a supporting character in this film.  Fences the film needs Viola Davis and Rose Maxson's support.

Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, and Mykelti Williamson give some of the best performances of their careers.  I have no doubt that Henderson would have been nominated in the “Best Supporting Actor” category if he were a white actor...

That's okay.  All these black folks make Fences a major cinematic accomplishment.  They make it an African-American experience writ large, and anyone who can comprehend a movie, regardless of ethnic background, can take into Fences into his or her soul.

10 of 10

Wednesday, February 10, 2021


NOTES:
2017 Academy Awards, USA:  1 winner: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Viola Davis); 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Todd Black, Scott Rudin, and Denzel Washington), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Denzel Washington), and “Best Adapted Screenplay” (August Wilson-Posthumously)

2017 Golden Globes, USA:  1 winner: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Viola Davis) and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Denzel Washington)

2017 BAFTA Awards:  1 winner: “Best Supporting Actress” (Viola Davis)

The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#28DaysofBlack Review: "SUICIDE SQUAD" Kills Itself

[It is a testament to Will Smith's status as an international box office star that even after some misfires Warner Bros. looked to him to be the face of their superhero/anti-hero film, Suicide Squad.  The film is actually terrible.  However, five non-white actors play costumed characters in this film, and, at least another five have speaking roles, including the great Viola Davis.  So, no, Suicide Squad is not a “Black film,” but prior to Disney/Marvel Studios' Black Panther, few comic book films were blacker.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 8 of 2021 (No. 1746) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Suicide Squad (2016)
Running time:  123 minutes (2 hours, 3 minutes)
MPAA – PG - 13 for sequences of violence and action throughout, disturbing behavior, suggestive content and language
DIRECTOR:  David Ayer
WRITER:  David Ayer (based on characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics)
PRODUCERS:  Charles Roven and Richard Suckle
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Roman Vasyanov (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  John Gilroy
COMPOSER:  Steven Price
Academy Award winner

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/ACTION/DRAMA

Starring:  Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Karen Fukuhara, Care Delevingne, Shailyn Pierre-Dixon, Ike Barinholtz, Common, Alain Chanoine, Adam Beach, Scott Eastwood, and Viola Davis with Ben Affleck

Suicide Squad is a 2016 superhero film from writer-director David Ayer.  The film is based on the DC Comics team of antiheroes, Suicide Squad, and also features characters associated with DC Comics' Batman franchise.  Suicide Squad the movie focuses on a team of incarcerated supervillains forced together to save the world from a supernatural apocalypse.

Suicide Squad opens some time after the death of Superman (in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice).  Intelligence officer Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) believes that the United States government must prepare for the day when the next Superman is not so friendly.  She believes that the U.S. government should have its own arsenal of metahumans (beings with extraordinary powers and abilities) to respond to extraordinary threats.  Thus, Waller assembles what she calls “Task Force X,” a team composed of dangerous criminals who also possess super-powers.

She finds that kind of criminal at Belle Reve Prison, a federal penitentiary for metahumans.  The first two recruits are the elite hit man, Deadshot (Will Smith), and former psychiatrist, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), who also happens to be the love interest of Batman's archenemy, The Joker (Jared Leto).  The next recruits include the pyrokinetic (fire-starter) and ex-gang banger, El Diablo (Jay Hernandez); the boomerang-wielding thief, Captain Boomerang (Jay Courtney); the genetic mutation, Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and the mercenary, Slipknot (Adam Beach).

This group, called “Suicide Squad” by Deadshot, are placed under the command of Army Special Forces Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) to be used as disposable assets in high-risk missions for the United States government.  Their first mission takes them to Midway City where an apocalypse is brewing, created by a mystical creature familiar to Colonel Flag.

Suicide Squad is a genuinely terrible movie, and dear readers, I don't think that it is worth going into too much detail about all that is bad.  It is also a genuinely disappointing movie, as there are elements in the story that could have been developed to make this a good movie.  The opening sequences, two vignettes about Deadshot and Harley Quinn are... cool.  They made me think that Suicide Squad was going to surprise me and be a good movie...  The scenes between Deadshot/Floyd Lawton and his daughter, Zoe (Shailyn Pierre-Dixon), are also among the too few nice moments of drama in this film.

I would also be remiss if I did not comment on Jared Leto's depiction/version of The Joker.  Following the late Heath Ledger's stunning portrayal of the Joker in 2008's The Dark Knight (for which he posthumously received a best supporting actor Oscar), Leto was in a no-win situation.  Actually, Leto and Suicide Squad writer-director David Ayer do come up with a version of the Joker that is almost a good follow-up to Ledger's legendary turn.  Why do I say “almost?”  Well, it is as if Leto and Ayer got the character right and then, did not have the smarts or had too much ego to stop.  What could have been a truly frightening and terrifyingly creepy Joker often becomes an over-the-top character that causes goosebumps and eye-rolling in equal measure.

Well, I have to give Warner Bros. credit; it has produced three mediocre or bad films based on DC Comics characters, and these movies have all been box office blockbusters.  Suicide Squad was a blockbuster waste of my time.  It is clunky and weird, and does not know if it wants to be a superhero film, a movie about antiheroes, a special forces movie, or a supernatural-fantasy-action movie.  It is like a messy soup with all the wrong ingredients from four or five different recipes.

3 of 10
D+

Saturday, June 10, 2017


NOTES:
2017 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling” (Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini, and Christopher Allen Nelson)


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Review: "The Girl With All the Gifts" is a Gift to Movie Audiences

 

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 22 (of 2020) by Leroy Douresseaux

 

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)

Running time:  111 minutes (1 hour, 51 minutes)

MPAA – R for disturbing violence/bloody images, and for language

DIRECTOR:  Colm McCarthy

WRITER:  Mike Carey (based on his novel)

PRODUCER:  Camille Gatin and Angus Lamont

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Simon Dennis   

EDITOR:  Matthew Cannings

COMPOSER:  Cristobal Tapia de Veer

SCI-FI/HORROR/DRAMA

Starring:  Sennia Nanua, Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine, Fisayo Akinade, Anthony Welsh, Anamaria Marinca, Dominique Tipper, and Glenn Close

The Girl with All the Gifts is a 2016 British post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film from director Colm McCarthy.  Screenwriter Mike Carey adapted this film's screenplay from his 2014 novel, The Girl with All the Gifts.  The Girl with All the Gifts the movie is set in a dystopian future and follows the struggles of a scientist, a teacher, and two soldiers, and a special young girl who embark on a journey of survival.

The Girl with All the Gifts is set in the United Kingdom in a near future scenario.  Humanity has been ravaged by a mysterious disease that is caused by a parasitic fungus.  It is transmitted by bodily fluids, such as when an infected person bites an uninfected person.  The infected humans have turned into fast-moving, mindless zombies called “Hungries.”  Mankind's only hope is a small group of hybrid children, born with the fungus wrapped around their brains, making them part-human and part-Hungry.  These children crave living, human flesh, but they retain the ability to think and to learn.

On an army base, the scientist, Dr. Caroline Caldwell (Glenn Close), has been using a group of hybrid children in an attempt to develop a vaccine that would protect humans from becoming infected Hungries.  One of the children is a very special and exceptional girl named Melanie (Sennia Nanua), who has drawn the particular attention of Helen Justineau (Gemma Arterton), a young woman who is responsible for educating and for studying the children.

The hybrid children on the army base are essentially as held prisoners, guarded by a group of soldiers lead by Sergeant Eddie Parks (Paddy Considine).  When the base falls, Melanie, Justineau, Dr. Caldwell, Parks, and another soldier, Private Kieran Gallagher (Fisayo Akinade), head for London in the hope of finding help, but are they all in denial about the new order of things in a world of Hungries?

I have no trouble recommending The Girl with All the Gifts, a fantastic and truly unique film.  It is equally post-apocalyptic science fiction, zombie apocalypse horror, and road movie drama.  I could have watched another two hours of this stunning movie.  The Girl with All the Gifts is like a new take on the three films based on late author Richard Matheson's 1954 seminal post-apocalyptic novel, I Am Legend.  Those films are The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971), and I Am Legend (2007), to one extent or another.

What makes this film exceptional is both the performance by and the appearance of Sennia Nanua as the film's lead character, Melanie.  She gives a honest and vibrant performance as Melanie, a child referred to as “it,” but who grows from a child seeking attention and being... hungry to a child learning to a becoming the group's guide and protector and finally to evolving into a kind of “Eve.”  Also, it is simply great to see a young actress of color as the lead in a science fiction film, especially in a movie that is led primarily by female characters.

The performances in the film are mostly poignant and quiet.  Do I have to tell you that Glenn Close gives a muscular turn as Dr. Caldwell?  Should I have to tell you that?  Well, I will tell you again that The Girl With All the Gifts is one of this decade's best genre films and that I highly recommend and might even demand that you see it.

9 of 10
A+

Friday, October 16, 2020


NOTES:
BAFTA Awards 2017:  1 nomination: “Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer” (Mike Carey and Camille Gatin)

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Review: Her Performance in "Nina" Means Zoe Saldana Has No Reason to Cry

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 16 (of 2020) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Nina (2016)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  United Kingdom
Running minutes:  90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)

WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Cynthia Mort
PRODUCERS:  Ben Latham-Jones, Stuart Parr, and Barnaby Thompson
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Mihai Malaimare Jr.
EDITORS:  Mark Helfrich, Susan Littenberg, and Josh Rifkin
COMPOSER:  Ruy Folguera

DRAMA/BIOPIC/MUSIC

Starring:  Zoe Saldana, David Oyelowo, Ronald Guttman, Mike Epps, Keith David, Ella Joyce, Stevens Gaston, Jessica Oyelowo, Kevin Mambo, and Yasmine Golchan

Nina is a 2016 biographical dramatic film written and directed by Cynthia Mort.  The film offers a fictional account of Nina Simone, the Black woman who was an American singer-songwriter, jazz musician, classical pianist, and Civil Rights activist and whose career began in the late 1950s.  Nina takes place over a decade late in her life and examines her relationship with the young man who is suddenly thrust into the position of being her manager.

Nina opens in 1988 and finds beloved singer Nina Simone (Zoe Saldana) alcoholic, mentally unstable, and financially shaky.  After an incident involving a gun, Nina is committed to a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital.  There, she befriends a young nurse, Clifton Henderson (David Oyelowo), who is also a fan of hers.  When she leaves the hospital, Nina hires Clifton as her personal assistant, and he accompanies her back to her home in Bouc-Bel-Air, France.

Once there, Clifton discovers that Nina is not only difficult and confrontational, but that she also refuses to take her medication and prefers drinking alcoholic beverages over eating.  Clifton attempts to salvage Nina's career, but her decades of ill will and a bad reputation among music business players and heavy hitters may derail Clifton's plans for a Nina Simone comeback.

Simply put, Nina is a poorly written movie.  Ostensibly, it is one of those stories about a great, famous, or important person who salvages the wreckage of her life to rekindle an famous public career.  What we get is mostly Nina Simone being stubborn and self-destructive with Clifton Henderson standing by her side, looking sad, angry, or exasperated.

I think Zoe Saldana gives a great performance as this film's Nina Simone.  I say “this film's Nina Simone” because there was a lot of controversy about her casting – especially concerning Saldana's skin tone and physical appearance compared to the real-life Nina Simone's physical characteristics.  Saldana seems to bury her true self in the make-up in order to become a dark-skinned Black woman and emerges as a character who is a fighter fiercely protecting what she believes she has left of herself.  Whatever one might say of this film, I think that there is no doubt that Saldana proves that she is an actress capable of playing the “great roles.”

The problem is that this role is not great, mainly because the writing and directing can only deliver what is barely an average film.  Writer-director Cynthia Mort even finds a way to waste the highly-skilled actor, David Oyelowo.  The passion, artistry, and professionalism he brings to his performances are absent here mainly because Clifton literally just waits around for Nina to throw an over-the-top tantrum.  The screenplay gives Saldana enough material to really be showy with Nina, but that same script gives Oyelowo very little he can use to show off.

I am not a Nina Simone expert, but I know enough about her to know that she is hugely respected and much beloved among music fans, historians, and critics.  In no way does this film come close to doing this kind of woman justice.  Watching this film, I have to wonder what the filmmakers of Nina were thinking.  Luckily, the passion that Saldana obviously brings to this project results in a performance that makes Nina worth watching.

5 of 10
C+

Sunday, November 13, 2016


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Review: "The Birth of a Nation" Offers a Counter Narrative

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 2 (of 2018) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

The Birth of a Nation (2016)
Running time:  120 minutes; MPAA – R for disturbing violent content, and some brief nudity
DIRECTOR:  Nate Parker
WRITERS:  Nate Parker; from a story by Nate Parker and Jean McGianni Celestin
PRODUCERS:  Nate Parker, Kevin Turen, Jason Michael Berman, Preston L. Holmes, and Aaron L. Gilbert
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Elliot Davis (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Steven Rosenblum
COMPOSER:  Henry Jackman

HISTORY/DRAMA/BIOGRAPHY

Starring:  Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Penelope Ann Miller, Jackie Earle Haley, Mark Boone Junior, Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Dwight Henry, Aja Naomie King, Esther Scott, Roger Guenveur Smith, Gabrielle Union, Tony Espinosa, Jayson Warner Smith, Jason Stuart, and Chiké Okonkwo

The Birth of a Nation is a 2016 historical film and slave drama from director Nate Parker, who has the film's starring role.  A joint American and Canadian production, The Birth of the Nation is a fictional account and dramatization of the Black American slave Nat Turner (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831), his life, and the rebellion of slaves and free Blacks that Turner led in Southampton County, Virginia on August 21, 1831.

The Birth of a Nation takes its name from from D.W. Griffith's 1915 silent movie and KKK propaganda film.  In Birth of a Nation 2016, Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher in the antebellum South, orchestrates an uprising.  The film received some of its financing from professional basketball players and NBA stars Michael Finley and Tony Parker.  Among the film's executive producers are Oscar-winning filmmaker, Edward Zwick (Shakespeare in Love), and screenwriter and director David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight and Blade film franchises).

The Birth of a Nation opens in the antebellum South, where Elizabeth Turner (Penelope Ann Miller) teaches a Black child slave, Nat (Tony Espinosa), to read.  Years later, Nat Turner (Nate Parker) is not only a field slave (picking cotton), but he is also a literate slave preacher.  A friend tells Nat's White slave owner, Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer), that other White slave owners need something to suppress their Black slaves, whom they believe to be unruly, disobedient, and indignant.  That friend suggests that Nat's preaching, popular with many of the slaves, could earn the financially strained Turner money from owners that want a slave preacher who can preach their slaves into submission.

As he travels with his owner, however, Nat sees countless atrocities committed by White masters against their Black slaves, many of the same that are committed against himself and the slaves at Turner's and other plantations.  Seeing himself as God's chosen instrument of freedom, Nat gathers trusted followers and prepares for a sign to lead a rebellion.

The 21st century has seen a rise in the number of African-Americans and people of color behind the camera in the American film industry.  The result is two great American films about slavery, one being the “Best Picture” Oscar-winner, 12 Years a Slave.  A second is The Birth of a Nation from writer-director Nate Parker.  However, this film was overshadowed by Parker's past (alleged rape charges that led to a trial in which Parker was acquitted – 1999 to 2001).

It is a shame that controversy overshadowed a film that is one of best of the decade, but it is also a truly unique film.  There are many powerful performances in this film:  Parker as Nat Turner, Penelope Ann Miller as Elizabeth Turner; Aunjanue Ellis as Nancy Turner; Aja Naomi King as Cherry Turner; Esther Scott as Bridget Turner; and Colman Domingo as Hark Turner.

For all those fine performances, what makes The Birth of the Nation 2016 unique is that it is like a folk tale or a fairy tale, as much as it is a period drama or biographical film.  Parker and Jean McGianni Celestin, who co-wrote the film's story, seem to approach Nat Turner as both a figure of history and of myth.  African-Americans, Black slaves, and White people (slave owners and otherwise) had and have different interpretations of Turner and his rebellion.

Thus, The Birth of the Nation 2016 clearly demarcates the line between good and evil; kindness and hate; and good and greed.  However, the righteousness of, the success of, and/or the meaning of Nat Turner's actions and his rebellion are left up to interpretation.  One can say the same about this film because it is a bold vision that demands the viewer grapple beyond viewing it as entertainment or as a pastime.  It is a story about the story of our nation, the good ol' U.S. of A, and how one sees the nations will affect how one views this film.

This film is built on powerful visuals that tell the story, more than it is the script that tells the story.  The visuals are not about sensation, but are about narrative.  The Birth of a Nation 2016 is a counter-myth to the story of the United States of America.

9 of 10
A+

Friday, January 5, 2018


NOTES:
2017 Black Reel Awards:  6 nominations: “Outstanding Actor, Motion Picture” (Nate Parker), “Outstanding Director, Motion Picture” (Nate Parker), “Outstanding Screenplay, Motion Picture” (Nate Parker), “Outstanding Ensemble” (Andrea Craven, Craig Fincannon, Lisa Mae Fincannon, Mary Vernieu, and Michelle Wade Byrd), “Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Female” (Aja Naomi King), and “Outstanding Score” (Henry Jackman)

2017 Image Awards:  6 nominations:  “Outstanding Motion Picture,” “Outstanding Independent Motion Picture,” “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Nate Parker), “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture” (Aja Naomi King), “Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture-Film” (Nate Parker), and “Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture-Film” (Nate Parker)


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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60th Annaul (2018) Grammy Award Winners Announced - Complete List

The Grammy Awards (or Grammys) are given out by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) of the United States. The Grammy is an accolade that recognizes outstanding achievement in the music industry. It is the music industry equivalent to the Academy Awards for film, the Emmy Awards for television, and the Tony Award for stage.

The nominees for the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards in a total of 84 categories were announced Tuesday, November 28, 2017.  The 60th Annual Grammy Awards recognized the best musical (and some spoken word and video) recordings, compositions, and artists for the eligibility year that began on October 1, 2016 and ended on September 30, 2017.

The 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards were announced on Sunday, January 28, 2018, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.  The ceremony was broadcast live in high-definition TV and 5.1 surround sound on CBS from 7:30 – 11:00 p.m. (ET/PT).  James Corden was host of the ceremony.

60th / (2016-2017) Annual GRAMMY Award winners:

GENERAL FIELD

Record Of The Year:
“24K Magic” — Bruno Mars

Album Of The Year:
24K Magic — Bruno Mars

Song Of The Year:
“That’s What I Like” — Christopher Brody Brown, James Fauntleroy, Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Ray Charles McCullough II, Jeremy Reeves, Ray Romulus & Jonathan Yip, songwriters (Bruno Mars)

Best New Artist:
Alessia Cara

POP FIELD

Best Pop Solo Performance:
“Shape Of You” — Ed Sheeran

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance:
“Feel It Still” — Portugal. The Man

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album:
Tony Bennett Celebrates 90 — (Various Artists) Dae Bennett, Producer

Best Pop Vocal Album:
÷ (Divide) — Ed Sheeran

DANCE/ELECTRONIC FIELD

Best Dance Recording:
“Tonite” — LCD Soundsystem

Best Dance/Electronic Album:
3-D The Catalogue — Kraftwerk

CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTAL FIELD

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album:
Prototype — Jeff Lorber Fusion

ROCK FIELD

Best Rock Performance:
“You Want It Darker” — Leonard Cohen

Best Metal Performance:
“Sultan’s Curse” — Mastodon

Best Rock Song:
“Run” — Foo Fighters, songwriters (Foo Fighters)

Best Rock Album:
A Deeper Understanding — The War On Drugs

ALTERNATIVE FIELD

Best Alternative Music Album:
Sleep Well Beast — The National

R&B FIELD

Best R&B Performance:
“That’s What I Like” — Bruno Mars

Best Traditional R&B Performance:
“Redbone” — Childish Gambino

Best R&B Song:
“That’s What I Like” — Christopher Brody Brown, James Fauntleroy, Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Ray Charles McCullough II, Jeremy Reeves, Ray Romulus & Jonathan Yip, songwriters (Bruno Mars)

Best Urban Contemporary Album:
Starboy — The Weeknd

Best R&B Album:
24K Magic — Bruno Mars

RAP FIELD

Best Rap Performance:
“HUMBLE.” — Kendrick Lamar

Best Rap/Sung Performance:
“LOYALTY.” — Kendrick Lamar Featuring Rihanna

Best Rap Song:
“HUMBLE.” — Duckworth, Asheton Hogan & M. Williams II, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar)

Best Rap Album:
DAMN. — Kendrick Lamar

COUNTRY FIELD

Best Country Solo Performance:
“Either Way” — Chris Stapleton

Best Country Duo/Group Performance:
“Better Man” — Little Big Town

Best Country Song:
“Broken Halos” — Mike Henderson & Chris Stapleton, songwriters (Chris Stapleton)

Best Country Album:
From A Room: Volume 1 — Chris Stapleton

NEW AGE FIELD

Best New Age Album:
Dancing On Water — Peter Kater

JAZZ FIELD

Best Improvised Jazz Solo:
“Miles Beyond” — John McLaughlin, soloist

Best Jazz Vocal Album:
Dreams And Daggers — Cécile McLorin Salvant

Best Jazz Instrumental Album:
Rebirth — Billy Childs

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album:
Bringin’ It — Christian McBride Big Band

Best Latin Jazz Album:
Jazz Tango — Pablo Ziegler Trio

GOSPEL/ CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC FIELD

Best Gospel Performance/Song:
“Never Have To Be Alone” — CeCe Winans

Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song:
“What A Beautiful Name” — Hillsong Worship

Best Gospel Album:
Let Them Fall In Love — CeCe Winans

Best Contemporary Christian Music Album:
Chain Breaker — Zach Williams

Best Roots Gospel Album:
Sing It Now: Songs Of Faith & Hope — Reba McEntire

LATIN FIELD

Best Latin Pop Album:
El Dorado — Shakira

Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album:
Residente — Residente

Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano):
Arriero Somos Versiones Acústicas — Aida Cuevas

Best Tropical Latin Album:
Salsa Big Band — Rubén Blades Con Roberto Delgado & Orquesta

AMERICAN ROOTS MUSIC FIELD

Best American Roots Performance:
Killer Diller Blues — Alabama Shakes

Best American Roots Song:
“If We Were Vampires” — Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit

Best Americana Album:
The Nashville Sound — Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit

Best Bluegrass Album: (TIE)
– Laws Of Gravity — The Infamous Stringdusters
– All The Rage – In Concert Volume One [Live] — Rhonda Vincent And The Rage

Best Traditional Blues Album:
Blue & Lonesome — The Rolling Stones

Best Contemporary Blues Album:
TajMo — Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’

Best Folk Album:
Mental Illness — Aimee Mann

Best Regional Roots Music Album:
Kalenda — Lost Bayou Ramblers

REGGAE FIELD

Best Reggae Album:
Stony Hill — Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley

WORLD MUSIC FIELD

Best World Music Album:
Shaka Zulu Revisited: 30th Anniversary Celebration — Ladysmith Black Mambazo

CHILDREN’S FIELD

Best Children’s Album:
Feel What U Feel — Lisa Loeb

SPOKEN WORD FIELD

Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling):
The Princess Diarist — Carrie Fisher

COMEDY FIELD

Best Comedy Album:
The Age Of Spin & Deep In The Heart Of Texas — Dave Chappelle

MUSICAL THEATER FIELD

Best Musical Theater Album:
Dear Evan Hansen — Ben Platt, principal soloist; Alex Lacamoire, Stacey Mindich, Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, producers; Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, composers/lyricists (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

MUSIC FOR VISUAL MEDIA FIELD

Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media:
La La Land — (Various Artists)

Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media:
La La Land — Justin Hurwitz, composer

Best Song Written For Visual Media:
“How Far I’ll Go” — Lin-Manuel Miranda, songwriter (Auli’i Cravalho)

COMPOSING/ ARRANGING FIELD
Best Instrumental Composition:
“Three Revolutions” — Arturo O’Farrill, composer (Arturo O’Farrill & Chucho Valdés)

Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella:
“Escapades For Alto Saxophone And Orchestra From Catch Me If You Can” — John Williams, arranger (John Williams)

Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals:
“Putin” — Randy Newman, arranger (Randy Newman)

PACKAGE FIELD

Best Recording Package: (TIE)
– El Orisha De La Rosa — Claudio Roncoli & Cactus Taller, art directors (Magín Díaz)

– Pure Comedy (Deluxe Edition) — Sasha Barr, Ed Steed & Josh Tillman, art directors (Father John Misty)

Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package:
The Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition — Lawrence Azerrad, Timothy Daly & David Pescovitz, art directors (Various Artists)

NOTES FIELD
Best Album Notes:
Live At The Whisky A Go Go: The Complete Recordings — Lynell George, album notes writer (Otis Redding)

HISTORICAL FIELD

Best Historical Album:
Leonard Bernstein – The Composer — Robert Russ, compilation producer; Martin Kistner & Andreas K. Meyer, mastering engineers (Leonard Bernstein)

PRODUCTION, NON-CLASSICAL FIELD

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical:
24K Magic — Serban Ghenea, John Hanes & Charles Moniz, engineers; Tom Coyne, mastering engineer (Bruno Mars)

Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical:
Greg Kurstin

Best Remixed Recording:
“You Move (Latroit Remix)” — Dennis White, remixer (Depeche Mode)

SURROUND SOUND FIELD

Best Surround Sound Album:
Early Americans — Jim Anderson, surround mix engineer; Darcy Proper, surround mastering engineer; Jim Anderson & Jane Ira Bloom, surround producers (Jane Ira Bloom)

PRODUCTION, CLASSICAL FIELD

Best Engineered Album, Classical:
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio — Mark Donahue, engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)

Producer Of The Year, Classical:
David Frost

CLASSICAL FIELD

Best Orchestral Performance:
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio — Manfred Honeck, conductor (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)

Best Opera Recording:
Berg: Wozzeck — Hans Graf, conductor; Anne Schwanewilms & Roman Trekel; Hans Graf, producer (Houston Symphony; Chorus Of Students And Alumni, Shepherd School Of Music, Rice University & Houston Grand Opera Children’s Chorus)

Best Choral Performance:
Bryars: The Fifth Century — Donald Nally, conductor (PRISM Quartet; The Crossing)

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance:
Death & The Maiden — Patricia Kopatchinskaja & The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Best Classical Instrumental Solo:
Transcendental — Daniil Trifonov

Best Classical Solo Vocal Album:
Crazy Girl Crazy – Music By Gershwin, Berg & Berio — Barbara Hannigan (Orchestra Ludwig)

Best Classical Compendium:
Higdon: All Things Majestic, Viola Concerto & Oboe Concerto — Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor; Tim Handley, producer

Best Contemporary Classical Composition:
Higdon: Viola Concerto — Jennifer Higdon, composer (Roberto Díaz, Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony)

MUSIC VIDEO/FILM FIELD

Best Music Video:
“Humble.” — Kendrick Lamar

Best Music Film:
“The Defiant Ones” — (Various Artists)


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60th Annaul (2018) Grammy Award Nominations - Complete List

The Grammy Awards (or Grammys) are given out by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) of the United States. The Grammy is an accolade that recognizes outstanding achievement in the music industry. It is the music industry equivalent to the Academy Awards for film, the Emmy Awards for television, and the Tony Award for stage.

The nominees for the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards in a total of 84 categories were announced Tuesday, November 28, 2017.  The 60th Annual Grammy Awards recognize the best musical (and some spoken word and video) recordings, compositions, and artists for the eligibility year that began on October 1, 2016 and ended on September 30, 2017.

The 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held on Sunday, January 28, 2018, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.  The ceremony will broadcast live in high-definition TV and 5.1 surround sound on CBS from 7:30 – 11:00 p.m. (ET/PT).  James Corden will return as host.

60th / (2016-2017) Annual GRAMMY Award nominees:

GENERAL FIELD

Record Of The Year:
“Redbone” — Childish Gambino
“Despacito” — Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee Featuring Justin Bieber
“The Story Of O.J.” — Jay-Z
“HUMBLE.” — Kendrick Lamar
“24K Magic” — Bruno Mars

 Album Of The Year:
“Awaken, My Love!” — Childish Gambino
4:44 — Jay-Z
DAMN. — Kendrick Lamar
Melodrama — Lorde
24K Magic — Bruno Mars

Song Of The Year:
“Despacito” — Ramón Ayala, Justin Bieber, Jason “Poo Bear” Boyd, Erika Ender, Luis Fonsi & Marty James Garton, songwriters (Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee Featuring Justin Bieber)

“4:44” — Shawn Carter & Dion Wilson, songwriters (Jay-Z)

“Issues” — Benny Blanco, Mikkel Storleer Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen, Julia Michaels & Justin Drew Tranter, songwriters (Julia Michaels)

“1-800-273-8255” — Alessia Caracciolo, Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, Arjun Ivatury & Khalid Robinson, songwriters (Logic Featuring Alessia Cara & Khalid)

“That’s What I Like” — Christopher Brody Brown, James Fauntleroy, Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Ray Charles McCullough II, Jeremy Reeves, Ray Romulus & Jonathan Yip, songwriters (Bruno Mars)

Best New Artist:
Alessia Cara
Khalid
Lil Uzi Vert
Julia Michaels
SZA

POP FIELD

Best Pop Solo Performance:
“Love So Soft” — Kelly Clarkson
“Praying” — Kesha
“Million Reasons” — Lady Gaga
“What About Us” — P!nk
“Shape Of You” — Ed Sheeran

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance:
“Something Just Like This” — The Chainsmokers & Coldplay
“Despacito” — Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee Featuring Justin Bieber
“Thunder” — Imagine Dragons
“Feel It Still” — Portugal. The Man
“Stay” — Zedd & Alessia Cara

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album:
Nobody But Me (Deluxe Version) — Michael Bublé
Triplicate — Bob Dylan
In Full Swing — Seth MacFarlane
Wonderland — Sarah McLachlan
Tony Bennett Celebrates 90 — (Various Artists) Dae Bennett, Producer

Best Pop Vocal Album:
Kaleidoscope EP — Coldplay
Lust For Life — Lana Del Rey
Evolve — Imagine Dragons
Rainbow — Kesha
Joanne — Lady Gaga
÷ (Divide) — Ed Sheeran

DANCE/ELECTRONIC FIELD

Best Dance Recording:
“Bambro Koyo Ganda” — Bonobo Featuring Innov Gnawa
“Cola” — Camelphat & Elderbrook
“Andromeda” — Gorillaz Featuring DRAM
“Tonite” — LCD Soundsystem
“Line Of Sight” — Odesza Featuring WYNNE & Mansionair

Best Dance/Electronic Album:
Migration — Bonobo
3-D The Catalogue — Kraftwerk
Mura Masa — Mura Masa
A Moment Apart — Odesza
What Now — Sylvan Esso

CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTAL FIELD

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album:
What If — The Jerry Douglas Band
Spirit — Alex Han
Mount Royal — Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge
Prototype — Jeff Lorber Fusion
Bad Hombre — Antonio Sanchez

ROCK FIELD

Best Rock Performance:
“You Want It Darker” — Leonard Cohen
“The Promise” — Chris Cornell
“Run” — Foo Fighters
“No Good” — Kaleo
“Go To War” — Nothing More

Best Metal Performance:
“Invisible Enemy” — August Burns Red
“Black Hoodie” — Body Count
“Forever” — Code Orange
“Sultan’s Curse” — Mastodon
“Clockworks” — Meshuggah

Best Rock Song:
“Atlas, Rise!” — James Hetfield & Lars Ulrich, songwriters (Metallica)
“Blood In The Cut” — JT Daly & Kristine Flaherty, songwriters (K.Flay)
“Go To War” — Ben Anderson, Jonny Hawkins, Will Hoffman, Daniel Oliver, David Pramik & Mark Vollelunga, songwriters (Nothing More)
“Run” — Foo Fighters, songwriters (Foo Fighters)
“The Stage” — Zachary Baker, Brian Haner, Matthew Sanders, Jonathan Seward & Brooks Wackerman, songwriters (Avenged Sevenfold)

Best Rock Album:
Emperor Of Sand — Mastodon
Hardwired…To Self-Destruct — Metallica
The Stories We Tell Ourselves — Nothing More
Villains — Queens Of The Stone Age
A Deeper Understanding — The War On Drugs

ALTERNATIVE FIELD

Best Alternative Music Album:
Everything Now — Arcade Fire
Humanz — Gorillaz
American Dream — LCD Soundsystem
Pure Comedy — Father John Misty
Sleep Well Beast — The National

R&B FIELD

Best R&B Performance:
“Get You” — Daniel Caesar Featuring Kali Uchis
“Distraction” — Kehlani
“High” — Ledisi
“That’s What I Like” — Bruno Mars
“The Weekend” — SZA

Best Traditional R&B Performance:
“Laugh And Move On” — The Baylor Project
“Redbone” — Childish Gambino
“What I’m Feelin'” — Anthony Hamilton Featuring The Hamiltones|
“All The Way” — Ledisi
“Still” — Mali Music

Best R&B Song:
“First Began” — PJ Morton, songwriter (PJ Morton)

“Location” — Alfredo Gonzalez, Olatunji Ige, Samuel David Jiminez, Christopher McClenney, Khalid Robinson & Joshua Scruggs, songwriters (Khalid)

“Redbone” — Donald Glover & Ludwig Goransson, songwriters (Childish Gambino)

“Supermodel” — Tyran Donaldson, Terrence Henderson, Greg Landfair Jr., Solana Rowe & Pharrell Williams, songwriters (SZA)

“That’s What I Like” — Christopher Brody Brown, James Fauntleroy, Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Ray Charles McCullough II, Jeremy Reeves, Ray Romulus & Jonathan Yip, songwriters (Bruno Mars)

Best Urban Contemporary Album:
Free 6LACK — 6LACK
“Awaken, My Love!” — Childish Gambino
American Teen — Khalid
Ctrl — SZA
Starboy — The Weeknd

Best R&B Album:
Freudian — Daniel Caesar
Let Love Rule — Ledisi
24K Magic — Bruno Mars
Gumbo — PJ Morton
Feel The Real –Musiq Soulchild

RAP FIELD

Best Rap Performance:
“Bounce Back” — Big Sean
“Bodak Yellow” — Cardi B
“4:44” — Jay-Z
“HUMBLE.” — Kendrick Lamar
“Bad And Boujee” — Migos Featuring Lil Uzi Vert

Best Rap/Sung Performance:
“PRBLMS” — 6LACK
“Crew” — Goldlink Featuring Brent Faiyaz & Shy Glizzy
“Family Feud” — Jay-Z Featuring Beyoncé
“LOYALTY.” — Kendrick Lamar Featuring Rihanna
“Love Galore” — SZA Featuring Travis Scott

Best Rap Song:
“Bodak Yellow” — Dieuson Octave, Klenord Raphael, Shaftizm, Jordan Thorpe, Washpoppin & J White, songwriters (Cardi B)

“Chase Me” — Judah Bauer, Brian Burton, Hector Delgado, Jaime Meline, Antwan Patton, Michael Render, Russell Simins & Jon Spencer,
songwriters (Danger Mouse Featuring Run The Jewels & Big Boi)

“HUMBLE.” — Duckworth, Asheton Hogan & M. Williams II, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar)

“Sassy” — Gabouer & M. Evans, songwriters (Rapsody)

“The Story Of O.J.” — Shawn Carter & Dion Wilson, songwriters (Jay-Z)

Best Rap Album:
4:44 — Jay-Z
DAMN. — Kendrick Lamar
Culture — Migos
Laila’s Wisdom — Rapsody
Flower Boy — Tyler, The Creator

COUNTRY FIELD

Best Country Solo Performance:
“Body Like A Back Road” — Sam Hunt
“Losing You: –Alison Krauss
“Tin Man” — Miranda Lambert
“I Could Use A Love Song” — Maren Morris
“Either Way” — Chris Stapleton

Best Country Duo/Group Performance:
“It Ain’t My Fault” — Brothers Osborne
“My Old Man” — Zac Brown Band
“You Look Good” — Lady Antebellum
“Better Man” — Little Big Town
“Drinkin’ Problem” — Midland

Best Country Song:
“Better Man” — Taylor Swift, songwriter (Little Big Town)

“Body Like A Back Road” — Zach Crowell, Sam Hunt, Shane McAnally & Josh Osborne, songwriters (Sam Hunt)

“Broken Halos” — Mike Henderson & Chris Stapleton, songwriters (Chris Stapleton)

“Drinkin’ Problem” — Jess Carson, Cameron Duddy, Shane McAnally, Josh Osborne & Mark Wystrach, songwriters (Midland)

“Tin Man” — Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert & Jon Randall, songwriters (Miranda Lambert)

Best Country Album:
Cosmic Hallelujah — Kenny Chesney
Heart Break — Lady Antebellum
The Breaker — Little Big Town
Life Changes — Thomas Rhett
From A Room: Volume 1 — Chris Stapleton

NEW AGE FIELD

Best New Age Album:
Reflection — Brian Eno
SongVersation: Medicine — India.Arie
Dancing On Water — Peter Kater
Sacred Journey Of Ku-Kai, Volume 5 — Kitaro
Spiral Revelation — Steve Roach

JAZZ FIELD

Best Improvised Jazz Solo:
“Can’t Remember Why” — Sara Caswell, soloist
“Dance Of Shiva” — Billy Childs, soloist
“Whisper Not” — Fred Hersch, soloist
“Miles Beyond” — John McLaughlin, soloist
“Ilimba” — Chris Potter, soloist

Best Jazz Vocal Album:
The Journey — The Baylor Project
A Social Call — Jazzmeia Horn
Bad Ass And Blind — Raul Midón
Porter Plays Porter — Randy Porter Trio With Nancy King
Dreams And Daggers — Cécile McLorin Salvant

Best Jazz Instrumental Album:
Uptown, Downtown — Bill Charlap Trio
Rebirth — Billy Childs
Project Freedom –Joey DeFrancesco & The People
Open Book — Fred Hersch
The Dreamer Is The Dream — Chris Potter

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album:
MONK’estra Vol. 2 — John Beasley
Jigsaw — Alan Ferber Big Band
Bringin’ It — Christian McBride Big Band
Homecoming — Vince Mendoza & WDR Big Band Cologne
Whispers On The Wind — Chuck Owen And The Jazz Surge

Best Latin Jazz Album:
Hybrido – From Rio To Wayne Shorter — Antonio Adolfo
Oddara — Jane Bunnett & Maqueque
Outra Coisa – The Music Of Moacir Santos — Anat Cohen & Marcello Gonçalves
Típico — Miguel Zenón
Jazz Tango — Pablo Ziegler Trio

GOSPEL/ CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC FIELD

Best Gospel Performance/Song:
“Too Hard Not To” — Tina Campbell
“You Deserve It” — JJ Hairston & Youthful Praise Featuring Bishop Cortez Vaughn
“Better Days” — Le’Andria
“My Life” — The Walls Group
“Never Have To Be Alone” — CeCe Winans

Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song:
“Oh My Soul” — Casting Crowns
“Clean” — Natalie Grant
“What A Beautiful Name” — Hillsong Worship
“Even If” — MercyMe
“Hills And Valleys” — Tauren Wells

Best Gospel Album:
Crossover: Live From Music City — Travis Greene
Bigger Than Me — Le’Andria
Close — Marvin Sapp
Sunday Song — Anita Wilson
Let Them Fall In Love — CeCe Winans

Best Contemporary Christian Music Album:
Rise — Danny Gokey
Echoes (Deluxe Edition) — Matt Maher
Lifer — MercyMe
Hills And Valleys — Tauren Wells
Chain Breaker — Zach Williams

Best Roots Gospel Album:
The Best Of The Collingsworth Family – Volume 1 — The Collingsworth Family
Give Me Jesus — Larry Cordle
Resurrection — Joseph Habedank
Sing It Now: Songs Of Faith & Hope — Reba McEntire
Hope For All Nations — Karen Peck & New River

LATIN FIELD

Best Latin Pop Album:
Lo Único Constante — Alex Cuba
Mis Planes Son Amarte — Juanes
Amar Y Vivir En Vivo Desde La Ciudad De México, 2017 — La Santa Cecilia
Musas (Un Homenaje Al Folclore Latinoamericano En Manos De Los Macorinos) — Natalia Lafourcade
El Dorado — Shakira

Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album:
Ayo — Bomba Estéreo
Pa’ Fuera — C4 Trío & Desorden Público
Salvavidas De Hielo — Jorge Drexler
El Paradise — Los Amigos Invisibles
Residente — Residente

Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano):
Ni Diablo Ni Santo — Julión Álvarez Y Su Norteño Banda
Ayer Y Hoy — Banda El Recodo De Cruz Lizárraga
Momentos — Alex Campos
Arriero Somos Versiones Acústicas — Aida Cuevas
Zapateando En El Norte — Humberto Novoa, producer (Various Artists)

Best Tropical Latin Album:
Albita — Albita
Art Of The Arrangement — Doug Beavers
Salsa Big Band — Rubén Blades Con Roberto Delgado & Orquesta
Gente Valiente — Silvestre Dangond
Indestructible — Diego El Cigala

AMERICAN ROOTS MUSIC FIELD

Best American Roots Performance:
Killer Diller Blues — Alabama Shakes
Let My Mother Live — Blind Boys Of Alabama
Arkansas Farmboy — Glen Campbell
Steer Your Way — Leonard Cohen
I Never Cared For You — Alison Krauss

Best American Roots Song:
“Cumberland Gap” — David Rawlings
“I Wish You Well” — The Mavericks
“If We Were Vampires” — Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit
“It Ain’t Over Yet” — Rodney Crowell Featuring Rosanne Cash & John Paul White
“My Only True Friend” –Gregg Allman

Best Americana Album:
Southern Blood — Gregg Allman
Shine On Rainy Day — Brent Cobb
Beast Epic — Iron & Wine
The Nashville Sound — Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit
Brand New Day — The Mavericks

Best Bluegrass Album:
Fiddler’s Dream — Michael Cleveland
Laws Of Gravity — The Infamous Stringdusters
Original — Bobby Osborne
Universal Favorite — Noam Pikelny
All The Rage – In Concert Volume One [Live] — Rhonda Vincent And The Rage

Best Traditional Blues Album:
Migration Blues — Eric Bibb
Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio — Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio
Roll And Tumble — R.L. Boyce
Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train — Guy Davis & Fabrizio Poggi
Blue & Lonesome — The Rolling Stones

Best Contemporary Blues Album:
Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm — Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm
Recorded Live In Lafayette — Sonny Landreth
TajMo — Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’
Got Soul — Robert Randolph & The Family Band
Live From The Fox Oakland — Tedeschi Trucks Band

Best Folk Album:
Mental Illness — Aimee Mann
Semper Femina — Laura Marling
The Queen Of Hearts — Offa Rex
You Don’t Own Me Anymore — The Secret Sisters
The Laughing Apple — Yusuf / Cat Stevens

Best Regional Roots Music Album:
Top Of The Mountain — Dwayne Dopsie And The Zydeco Hellraisers
Ho’okena 3.0 — Ho’okena
Kalenda — Lost Bayou Ramblers
Miyo Kekisepa, Make A Stand [Live] — Northern Cree
Pua Kiele — Josh Tatofi

REGGAE FIELD

Best Reggae Album:
Chronology — Chronixx
Lost In Paradise — Common Kings
Wash House Ting — J Boog
Stony Hill — Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley
Avrakedabra — Morgan Heritage

WORLD MUSIC FIELD

Best World Music Album:
Memoria De Los Sentidos — Vicente Amigo
Para Mi — Buika
Rosa Dos Ventos — Anat Cohen & Trio Brasileiro
Shaka Zulu Revisited: 30th Anniversary Celebration — Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Elwan — Tinariwen

CHILDREN’S FIELD

Best Children’s Album:
Brighter Side — Gustafer Yellowgold
Feel What U Feel — Lisa Loeb
Lemonade — Justin Roberts
Rise Shine #Woke — Alphabet Rockers
Songs Of Peace & Love For Kids & Parents Around The World — Ladysmith Black Mambazo

SPOKEN WORD FIELD

Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling):
Astrophysics For People In A Hurry — Neil Degrasse Tyson
Born To Run — Bruce Springsteen
Confessions Of A Serial Songwriter — Shelly Peiken
Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In (Bernie Sanders) — Bernie Sanders And Mark Ruffalo
The Princess Diarist — Carrie Fisher

COMEDY FIELD

Best Comedy Album:
The Age Of Spin & Deep In The Heart Of Texas — Dave Chappelle
Cinco — Jim Gaffigan
Jerry Before Seinfeld — Jerry Seinfeld
A Speck Of Dust — Sarah Silverman
What Now? — Kevin Hart

MUSICAL THEATER FIELD

Best Musical Theater Album:
Come From Away — Ian Eisendrath, August Eriksmoen, David Hein, David Lai & Irene Sankoff, producers; David Hein & Irene Sankoff, composers/lyricists (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

Dear Evan Hansen — Ben Platt, principal soloist; Alex Lacamoire, Stacey Mindich, Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, producers; Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, composers/lyricists (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

Hello, Dolly! — Bette Midler, principal soloist; Steven Epstein, producer (Jerry Herman, composer & lyricist) (New Broadway Cast Recording)

MUSIC FOR VISUAL MEDIA FIELD

Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media:
Baby Driver — (Various Artists)
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2 — (Various Artists)
Hidden Figures: The Album — (Various Artists)
La La Land — (Various Artists)
Moana: The Songs — (Various Artists)

Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media:
Arrival — Jóhann Jóhannsson, composer
Dunkirk — Hans Zimmer, composer
Game Of Thrones: Season 7 — Ramin Djawadi, composer
Hidden Figures — Benjamin Wallfisch, Pharrell Williams & Hans Zimmer, composers
La La Land — Justin Hurwitz, composer

Best Song Written For Visual Media:
“City Of Stars” — Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, songwriters (Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone)

“How Far I’ll Go” — Lin-Manuel Miranda, songwriter (Auli’i Cravalho)

“I Don’t Wanna Live Forever (‘Fifty Shades Darker’)” — Jack Antonoff, Sam Dew & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Zayn & Taylor Swift)

“Never Give Up” — Sia Furler & Greg Kurstin, songwriters (Sia)

“Stand Up For Something” — Common & Diane Warren, songwriters (Andra Day Featuring Common)

COMPOSING/ ARRANGING FIELD

Best Instrumental Composition:
“Alkaline” — Pascal Le Boeuf, composer (Le Boeuf Brothers & JACK Quartet)
“Choros #3” — Vince Mendoza, composer (Vince Mendoza & WDR Big Band Cologne)
“Home Free (For Peter Joe)” — Nate Smith, composer (Nate Smith)
“Three Revolutions” — Arturo O’Farrill, composer (Arturo O’Farrill & Chucho Valdés)
“Warped Cowboy” — Chuck Owen, composer (Chuck Owen And The Jazz Surge)

Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella:
“All Hat, No Saddle” — Chuck Owen, arranger (Chuck Owen And The Jazz Surge)
“Escapades For Alto Saxophone And Orchestra From Catch Me If You Can” — John Williams, arranger (John Williams)
“Home Free (For Peter Joe)” — Nate Smith, arranger (Nate Smith)
“Ugly Beauty/Pannonica” — John Beasley, arranger (John Beasley)
“White Christmas” — Chris Walden, arranger (Herb Alpert)

Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals:
“Another Day Of Sun” — Justin Hurwitz, arranger (La La Land Cast)
“Every Time We Say Goodbye” — Jorge Calandrelli, arranger (Clint Holmes Featuring Jane Monheit)
“I Like Myself” — Joel McNeely, arranger (Seth MacFarlane)
“I Loves You Porgy/There’s A Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon For New York” — Shelly Berg, Gregg Field, Gordon Goodwin & Clint Holmes, arrangers (Clint Holmes Featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater And The Count Basie Orchestra)
“Putin” — Randy Newman, arranger (Randy Newman)

PACKAGE FIELD

Best Recording Package:
El Orisha De La Rosa — Claudio Roncoli & Cactus Taller, art directors (Magín Díaz)
Mura Masa — Alex Crossan & Matt De Jong, art directors (Mura Masa)
Pure Comedy (Deluxe Edition) — Sasha Barr, Ed Steed & Josh Tillman, art directors (Father John Misty)
Sleep Well Beast — Elyanna Blaser-Gould, Luke Hayman & Andrea Trabucco-Campos, art directors (The National)
Solid State — Gail Marowitz, art director (Jonathan Coulton)

Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package:
Bobo Yeye: Belle Epoque In Upper Volta — Tim Breen, art director (Various Artists)
Lovely Creatures: The Best Of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds (1984 – 2014) — Tom Hingston, art director (Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds)
May 1977: Get Shown The Light — Masaki Koike, art director (Grateful Dead)
The Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition — Lawrence Azerrad, Timothy Daly & David Pescovitz, art directors (Various Artists)
Warfaring Strangers: Acid Nightmares — Tim Breen, Benjamin Marra & Ken Shipley, art directors (Various Artists)

NOTES FIELD

Best Album Notes:
Arthur Q. Smith: The Trouble With The Truth — Wayne Bledsoe & Bradley Reeves, album notes writers (Various Artists)
Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition — Ted Olson, album notes writer (Various Artists)
The Complete Piano Works Of Scott Joplin — Bryan S. Wright, album notes writer (Richard Dowling)
Edouard-Léon Scott De Martinville, Inventor Of Sound Recording: A Bicentennial Tribute — David Giovannoni, album notes writer (Various Artists)
Live At The Whisky A Go Go: The Complete Recordings — Lynell George, album notes writer (Otis Redding)
Washington Phillips And His Manzarene Dreams — Michael Corcoran, album notes writer (Washington Phillips)

HISTORICAL FIELD

Best Historical Album:
Bobo Yeye: Belle Epoque In Upper Volta — Jon Kirby, Florent Mazzoleni, Rob Sevier & Ken Shipley, compilation producers; Jeff Lipton & Maria Rice, mastering engineers (Various Artists)

The Goldberg Variations – The Complete Unreleased Recording Sessions June 1955 — Robert Russ, compilation producer; Matthias Erb, Martin Kistner & Andreas K. Meyer, mastering engineers (Glenn Gould)

Leonard Bernstein – The Composer — Robert Russ, compilation producer; Martin Kistner & Andreas K. Meyer, mastering engineers (Leonard Bernstein)

Sweet As Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes From The Horn Of Africa — Nicolas Sheikholeslami & Vik Sohonie, compilation producers; Michael Graves, mastering engineer (Various Artists)

Washington Phillips And His Manzarene Dreams — Michael Corcoran, April G. Ledbetter & Steven Lance Ledbetter, compilation producers; Michael Graves, mastering engineer (Washington Phillips)

PRODUCTION, NON-CLASSICAL FIELD

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical:
Every Where Is Some Where — Brent Arrowood, Miles Comaskey, JT Daly, Tommy English, Kristine Flaherty, Adam Hawkins, Chad Howat & Tony Maserati, engineers; Joe LaPorta, mastering engineer (K.Flay)
Is This The Life We Really Want? — Nigel Godrich, Sam Petts-Davies & Darrell Thorp, engineers; Bob Ludwig, mastering engineer (Roger Waters)
Natural Conclusion — Ryan Freeland, engineer; Joao Carvalho, mastering engineer (Rose Cousins)
No Shape — Shawn Everett & Joseph Lorge, engineers; Patricia Sullivan, mastering engineer (Perfume Genius)
24K Magic — Serban Ghenea, John Hanes & Charles Moniz, engineers; Tom Coyne, mastering engineer (Bruno Mars)

Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical:
Calvin Harris
Greg Kurstin
Blake Mills
No I.D.
The Stereotypes

Best Remixed Recording:
“Can’t Let You Go (Louie Vega Roots Mix)” — Louie Vega, remixer (Loleatta Holloway)
“Funk O’ De Funk (SMLE Remix)” — SMLE, remixers (Bobby Rush)
“Undercover (Adventure Club Remix)” — Leighton James & Christian Srigley, remixers (Kehlani)
“A Violent Noise (Four Tet Remix)” — Four Tet, remixer (The xx)
“You Move (Latroit Remix)” — Dennis White, remixer (Depeche Mode)

SURROUND SOUND FIELD

Best Surround Sound Album:
Early Americans — Jim Anderson, surround mix engineer; Darcy Proper, surround mastering engineer; Jim Anderson & Jane Ira Bloom, surround producers (Jane Ira Bloom)
Kleiberg: Mass For Modern Man — Morten Lindberg, surround mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround producer (Eivind Gullberg Jensen & Trondheim Symphony Orchestra And Choir)
So Is My Love — Morten Lindberg, surround mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround producer (Nina T. Karlsen & Ensemble 96)
3-D The Catalogue — Fritz Hilpert, surround mix engineer; Tom Ammermann, surround mastering engineer; Fritz Hilpert, surround producer (Kraftwerk)
Tyberg: Masses — Jesse Brayman, surround mix engineer; Jesse Brayman, surround mastering engineer; Blanton Alspaugh, surround producer (Brian A. Schmidt, Christopher Jacobson & South Dakota Chorale)

PRODUCTION, CLASSICAL FIELD

Best Engineered Album, Classical:
Danielpour: Songs Of Solitude & War Songs — Gary Call, engineer (Thomas Hampson, Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony)
Kleiberg: Mass For Modern Man — Morten Lindberg, engineer (Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Trondheim Vokalensemble & Trondheim Symphony Orchestra)
Schoenberg, Adam: American Symphony; Finding Rothko; Picture Studies — Keith O. Johnson & Sean Royce Martin, engineers (Michael Stern & Kansas City Symphony)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio — Mark Donahue, engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)
Tyberg: Masses — John Newton, engineer; Jesse Brayman, mastering engineer (Brian A. Schmidt, Christopher Jacobson & South Dakota Chorale)

Producer Of The Year, Classical:
Blanton Alspaugh
Manfred Eicher
David Frost
Morten Lindberg
Judith Sherman

CLASSICAL FIELD

Best Orchestral Performance:
Concertos For Orchestra — Louis Langrée, conductor (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra)
Copland: Symphony No. 3; Three Latin American Sketches — Leonard Slatkin, conductor (Detroit Symphony Orchestra)
Debussy: Images; Jeux & La Plus Que Lente — Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor (San Francisco Symphony)
Mahler: Symphony No. 5 — Osmo Vänskä, conductor (Minnesota Orchestra)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio — Manfred Honeck, conductor (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)

Best Opera Recording:
Berg: Lulu — Lothar Koenigs, conductor; Daniel Brenna, Marlis Petersen & Johan Reuter; Jay David Saks, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra)
Berg: Wozzeck — Hans Graf, conductor; Anne Schwanewilms & Roman Trekel; Hans Graf, producer (Houston Symphony; Chorus Of Students And Alumni, Shepherd School Of Music, Rice University & Houston Grand Opera Children’s Chorus)
Bizet: Les Pêcheurs De Perles — Gianandrea Noseda, conductor; Diana Damrau, Mariusz Kwiecień, Matthew Polenzani & Nicolas Testé; Jay David Saks, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)
Handel: Ottone — George Petrou, conductor; Max Emanuel Cencic & Lauren Snouffer; Jacob Händel, producer (Il Pomo D’Oro)
Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel — Valery Gergiev, conductor; Vladimir Feliauer, Aida Garifullina & Kira Loginova; Ilya Petrov, producer (Mariinsky Orchestra; Mariinsky Chorus)

Best Choral Performance:
Bryars: The Fifth Century — Donald Nally, conductor (PRISM Quartet; The Crossing)
Handel: Messiah — Andrew Davis, conductor; Noel Edison, chorus master (Elizabeth DeShong, John Relyea, Andrew Staples & Erin Wall; Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Toronto Mendelssohn Choir)
Mansurian: Requiem — Alexander Liebreich, conductor; Florian Helgath, chorus master (Anja Petersen & Andrew Redmond; Münchener Kammerorchester; RIAS Kammerchor)
Music Of The Spheres — Nigel Short, conductor (Tenebrae)
Tyberg: Masses — Brian A. Schmidt, conductor (Christopher Jacobson; South Dakota Chorale)

 Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance:
Buxtehude: Trio Sonatas, Op. 1 — Arcangelo
Death & The Maiden — Patricia Kopatchinskaja & The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Divine Theatre – Sacred Motets By Giaches De Wert — Stile Antico
Franck, Kurtág, Previn & Schumann — Joyce Yang & Augustin Hadelich
Martha Argerich & Friends – Live From Lugano 2016 — Martha Argerich & Various Artists

Best Classical Instrumental Solo:
Bach: The French Suites — Murray Perahia
Haydn: Cello Concertos — Steven Isserlis; Florian Donderer, conductor (The Deutsch Kammerphilharmonie Bremen)
Levina: The Piano Concertos — Maria Lettberg; Ariane Matiakh, conductor (Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin)
Shostakovich: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 — Frank Peter Zimmermann; Alan Gilbert, conductor (NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester)
Transcendental — Daniil Trifonov

Best Classical Solo Vocal Album:
Bach & Telemann: Sacred Cantatas — Philippe Jaroussky; Petra Müllejans, conductor (Ann-Kathrin Brüggemann & Juan de la Rubia; Freiburger Barockorchester)
Crazy Girl Crazy – Music By Gershwin, Berg & Berio — Barbara Hannigan (Orchestra Ludwig)
Gods & Monsters — Nicholas Phan; Myra Huang, accompanist
In War & Peace – Harmony Through Music — Joyce DiDonato; Maxim Emelyanychev, conductor (Il Pomo D’Oro)
Sviridov: Russia Cast Adrift — Dmitri Hvorostovsky; Constantine Orbelian, conductor (St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra & Style Of Five Ensemble)

Best Classical Compendium:
Barbara — Alexandre Tharaud; Cécile Lenoir, producer
Higdon: All Things Majestic, Viola Concerto & Oboe Concerto — Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor; Tim Handley, producer
Kurtág: Complete Works For Ensemble & Choir — Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor; Guido Tichelman, producer
Les Routes De L’Esclavage — Jordi Savall, conductor; Benjamin Bleton, producer
Mademoiselle: Première Audience – Unknown Music Of Nadia Boulanger — Lucy Mauro; Lucy Mauro, producer

Best Contemporary Classical Composition:
Danielpour: Songs Of Solitude — Richard Danielpour, composer (Thomas Hampson, Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony)
Higdon: Viola Concerto — Jennifer Higdon, composer (Roberto Díaz, Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony)
Mansurian: Requiem — Tigran Mansurian, composer (Alexander Liebreich, Florian Helgath, RIAS Kammerchor & Münchener Kammerorchester)
Schoenberg, Adam: Picture Studies — Adam Schoenberg, composer (Michael Stern & Kansas City Symphony)
Zhou Tian: Concerto For Orchestra — Zhou Tian, composer (Louis Langrée & Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra)

MUSIC VIDEO/FILM FIELD

Best Music Video:
“Up All Night” — Beck
“Makeba” — Jain
“The Story Of O.J.” — Jay-Z
“Humble.” — Kendrick Lamar
“1-800-273-8255” — Logic Featuring Alessia Cara & Khalid

Best Music Film:
“One More Time With Feeling” — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
“Long Strange Trip” — (The Grateful Dead)
“The Defiant Ones” — (Various Artists)
“Soundbreaking” — (Various Artists)
“Two Trains Runnin'” — (Various Artists)


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