W.E. is the last of our Golden Globe nominated scores, perfect timing as the show airs this Sunday, and by far the most unexpected. In fact before this nomination I didn’t even know this movie existed. The film is actually directed by Madonna, which is interesting but not all together important for a review of it’s score.

The composer is Abel Korzeniowski and I can see why his excellent work was recognized by the Hollywood Foreign Press. The score is very well put together with an emphasis on large, sweeping strings in a few very choice places. Listening to the music gives me the sense that it probably dominates much of the movie. While I appreciate that sort of heavy handed musical touch, I can also see where it might have played a role in the films less than stellar critical reception.

I am happy to see it nominated though, as there has been a recent trend of nominating more subtle and subdued scores in the last few years. This is far from it, and it plays very nicely to my personal film musical tastes. Strong string work always has a tendency to grip me, and this score delivers that in spades.

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Nothing like awards season to let you focus in on some fantastic film music! The Golden Globe nominations went out this week and in honor of that Film Score Friday is going to cover the nominated scores each of the next four weeks. I say four weeks because we already covered the excellent War Horse by John Williams. So let’s start off big with Hugo by Howard Shore.

Howard Shore is one of today’s leading composers, everyone and their mother knows his stuff from The Lord of the Rings, but Shore has had an impressive career beyond Middle-Earth. So it was an immediate pleasure to realize he was writing the music to Scorsese’s cinematic love letter to film.

Shore brings a fantastic French sound to the table. Much like Michael Giacchino’s Ratatouille score, Shore takes a the French style and makes it work beautifully within his own bag of tricks. The French influences are in almost every aspect of the score, yet at no time does it sound like wall to wall French music.

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It is award season and one of the biggest award shows has just chimed in with it’s annual nomination list. The Golden Globes is often considered the biggest indicator for the Oscars, and even though that is not true, the show is usually fun. Especially when they get a host as fearless as Ricky Gervais.

One of the most interesting aspects of the show is that the Hollywood Foreign Press also salutes Television in their annual show, so it ends up being more of a celebration of entertainment and less about being a stodgy film industry banquet. Along with the TV nominees, the HFPA gives us the Best Comedy or Musical category, allowing for a larger variety of films to be showcased.

The nominations themselves are not overly surprising, but it is always good to see shows like Game of Thrones and movies like Hugo getting some love. We also see Moneyball getting a lot of attention, including Jonah Hill for supporting actor, he already picked up a SAG nomination yesterday, could the comedic actor be up for an Academy Award soon?

Check out the full list of nominations after the jump.

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Last year, Ricky Gervais hosted the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards and was received with….mixed reviews. Gervais’ brass and care-free digs on the Hollywood system rocked the celebrity world and some were even “outraged” by some of the comments. Gervais’ response? He wants to do it again.

This time around, he won’t be restricted by the “tightwads” at HFPA or the network. Gervais is taking his jokes to the internet, in what some are calling a “re-dubbed livecast”. The British comedian’s plan is to do a live podcast the same night as the awards show, and have some of his friends stop by for the laughs. Here’s what Ricky had to say over at his blog.

What do you think of this?

A live 3 hour podcast during The Golden Globes. Me and a few chums (like Louis CK, Chris Rock, Karl Pilkington, John Stewart, Larry David popping in and out) doing our own alternative commentary.

People at home can have the telly on with the sound down listening to us online say things that no broadcaster could get away with. 

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On the night of January 16th, Hollywood was split in twine after Ricky Gervais’ performance as the host of the evening’s events. One half felt that Gervais went over the line with his sardonic humor and felt that he was rude and crass, while the other half understood his sense of humor and realized he was doing his job as a “comedian.”

Now, continuing in his trend of bitterness, the original Office star has posted on his blog some suggestions to Oscar hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway, in case they have time they need to fill.

Without further adieu, we present to you Ricky Gervais’ suggested script for this year’s Oscars. We’ve got what we think is a pretty good sample below, and check out the full script full of self-deprecating humor over at Gervais’ official blog.

JF
Thank you. I’m James Franco.

AH
…and I’m Anne Hathaway.

JF
You probably know me from 127 Hours where I play a man trapped in an enclosed space who decides he would rather cut his own arm off than stay where he was. Now that sounds “way out” but wait till half way through this fucking ceremony and you’ll start to identify with him.

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Every year the Hollywood Foreign Press Association picks a recipient for the Cecille B. Demille Award, which is awarded during the televised Golden Globes award show. The award is given for lifetime achievement in film.

The Wrap is reporting that Robert De Niro will be this year’s recipient. Philip Berk, the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, made the announcement earlier today.

De Niro has appeared in over 80 films thus far. His most iconic performance was arguably in Taxi Driver (1976.)  He played Travis Bickle, an unhinged taxi driver who becomes involved with trying to save a teenage prostitute played by Jodie Foster.

Other notable performances were in Good Fellas, Casino, The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, and countless others. He is also one of the founders of the Tribeca Film Festival, which takes place every spring in lower Manhattan.

Past recipients of the award include Harrison Ford, John Wayne, Paul Newman, and Steven Spielberg. The award is named after Demille, a film producer who was responsible for bringing us The Ten Commandments, Cleopatra,The Greatest Show on Earth,  and over 80 other titles.

The Golden Globes ceremony will take place on Sunday, January 16, 2011.  Ricky Gervais will host.

I’m a sucker for movies about country singers. Despite the fact that listening to country music makes my ears bleed, I never pass up on a good country drama. The genre traditionally leans toward biopics (Coal Miner’s Daughter, Sweet Dreams, Pure Country, Walk the Line) and Crazy Heart is no exception.

Jeff Bridges plays Bad Blake, a washed up Country/Blues musician who has been relegated to performing in bowling alleys and other undignified venues. Blake is a raging alcoholic who stumbles off the stage mid-performance to go puke, then returns to finish a set.  He drives his pick-up from town to town and beds middle age women who still remember him from his golden days.

He tersely thrusts his show notes to whatever band he happens to be playing with that night, and  can’t be bothered to rehearse. It’s a gamble as to whether he will even show up on a given night, and to what condition he’ll be in.

To make matters worse, his former protégé, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), has become a country music superstar, and regularly plays to packed stadiums. There is clearly some bad blood between the two, because anytime Sweet’s name is brought up, Blake bristles.

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This week on The Flickcast, Matt and Chris fly solo as they take on Sunday’s Golden Globes. Some surprises, some reliefs, and Matt talks Christina Hendricks while Chris talks Mo’Nique. They also discuss some other stories making waves including Apple’s announcement next week, and what that could mean for users of the iPhone, as well as Marc Webb getting to take on the reboot of Spider-Man.

Since it was just the two of them this week, Chris and Matt both got cocky and opted for two picks. Matt went with The Adventures of Power, an indie comedy starring Ari Gold (not Jeremy Piven) and the silver screen adaptation of Tucker Max’s I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, which hits DVD on January 26th. Chris also had two picks, as he went with Paul Thoman Anderson’s Magnolia on Blu-ray, which we’ll have a review of next week, and Whiteout starring Kate Beckinsale.

Sorry for the tardiness of the episode, but due to how much Matt and Chris gushed about the Golden Globes, we think it’s well worth the wait. As usual, if you have any comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

The 67th annual Golden Globes awards took place last night, and Avatar walked away top honors of  Best Picture and Best Director, fueling speculation that it is gaining momentum going into the Oscar nomination race. Avatar and Crazy Heart picked up two awards each, but there were no lopsided wins this year.

Critical darling The Hurt Locker was shut out and went home empty handed.  The Hurt Locker has been cleaning up top honors at Critic Circle awards nationwide. Up in the Air was nominated for six awards, but only won for Best Screenplay.

Veteran actors Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep won acting awards, and delivered particularly elegant and classy acceptance speeches.

On the television side, Dexter fared well, with John Lithgow and Michael C. Hall both winning acting awards.  HBO’s film Grey Gardens won two awards as well.  Mad Men won for Best Television Series, Drama and freshman series Glee won for best Television Series, Comedy or Musical.

A complete list of winners follows. Also, be sure to check out our photo gallery of all the winners after the jump.

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Welcome to our very first live-blogging event on The Flickcast. If you are not familiar with live-blogging, basically it is a running commentary that you will be able to see in real-time.  Staff writers Elisabeth Rappe, Cortney Zamm,  John Muth, and myself (Shannon Hood) will be your commentators this evening.  In order to see the latest comments, scroll down throughout the evening, and refresh your browser often.

If you have any comments to make during the ceremony, feel free to use our comments section at the end of the post.  Now, let’s talk Golden Globes!

So our first arrival that we will comment on is….Fergie.

Shannon 6:05  It looks like Fergie is pregnant or had some work done

John 6:06 I guess it’s kind of inconsiderate to be like, “so Fergie, you going to have a little Gremlin soon?”

John 6:09 January Jones didn’t look that great…Whoa, but Marion Cottiard…

Shannon 6:09 She looks gorgeous. Very stunning.

John 6:10  NO!!! Ask about Inception!!! Dammit!

Cortney 6:10 Cannot wait for that movie. I have no idea what it’s about, but I’m excited.

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The year 2010 is here! With a new year comes resolutions to make, new goals in mind, and new schedules to follow. But it also means some brand new TV for us all to enjoy.

January 14th

This night brings the return of some of our favorite shows here at The Flickcast including 30 Rock, Bones, Fringe, Supernatural, Grey’s Anatomy, CSI, Private Practice and The Mentalist.

All these shows have been on hiatus, some for almost a month, so with these ratings giants this is sure to be the biggest night on TV all month, no matter what channel you’re watching.

Chuck

Everyone’s favorite geek-turned-spy is back, and Chuck is better than ever. After downloading the Intersect 2.0, we’ll see Chuck perform karate chops AND Spanish Guitar in his quest to keep his family safe and lead a normal life.

Chuck returns for its third season on January 10th with a two hour premiere, and a brand new episode the day after!

American Idol

Regardless of how you feel about this show, you can’t deny its cultural impact and the success it has produced. However, the fun in watching the first few weeks of American Idol is not the talented singers or the tense eliminations.

It’s watching all the people who really can’t sing try their hand at making it big and failing miserably. Let’s face it, with the economy in the can and the current political climate, we all need a little schadenfreude. Idol returns on January 12th on Fox.

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