Every day, Opening Acts highlights the best pieces of writing on film, television, and literature published around the Internet. Please share if you like what you see.
For your reading enjoyment …
1. The Story Behind The LEGO Movie’s ‘Everything Is Awesome’ by Kevin Fallon. Fallon interviews songwriter Shawn Patterson about the song, his personal experience and the lack of recognition elsewhere for The LEGO Movie.
“He was hired to write ‘Everything Is Awesome’ for The LEGO Movie, the rare original song that isn’t just played during a film but is a lynchpin plot point in and of itself. While he was writing the aggressively positive and sunny track, however, things were not as awesome is in personal life.”
2. Did this 100-year-old film make people racist?, by Elle Metz. Metz looks at influential DW Griffiths film The Birth Of A Nation 100 years after its release.
“While the Klan’s resurgence may not have been a direct effect of the film, it certainly helped promote the KKK’s message. The word had been spread that this was a film that was a powerful attack on outsiders.”
3. That Sugar Film from Damon Gameau turns spotlight on the sweet taste of excess, by Karl Quinn. Quinn interviews Australian actor-turned-documentary filmmaker Gameau on new project That Sugar Film.
“His film is as colourful and intoxicating as any confection from a sweet-toothed multinational; as a director, Gameau is a Willy Wonka of agitprop. He’s roped in Hugh Jackman to deliver the history of sugar in sand drawings..”
4. Peter Strickland on the heartbreak and kinks of The Duke Of Burgundy, by Sam Adams. Adams writes on Strickland’s love for sound and unstrange characters.
“What’s interesting is that the first 10 minutes of The Duke is like a mockup of a Franco film. It informs the whole setup of a sexual fantasy being lived out. I think it’s just a matter of unpeeling that.”
5. BAFTAs 2015: ‘Birdman faded as Boyhood surged’ – Peter Bradshaw’s verdict. Bradshaw gives a succinct overview of the Baftas for this year.
The snubbing of The Imitation Game, the period drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch as wartime codebreaker Alan Turing, is perhaps a result of its being so similar in feel and subject matter to another scientific-genius story, The Theory of Everything.”
