Emma.

Tales of matchmaking usually are lackluster. That is certainly true in Emma., the new adaption of the famous 1815 novel by Jane Austin directed by Autumn de Wilde, in her debut, with a screenplay written by Eleanor Catton. Trying to ride on the coattails of the immensely successful adaptation of Little Women directed by Greta Gerwig last year, De Wilde and her team, particularly production designer Kave Quinn and costume designer Alexandra Byrne, do an exceptional job at recreating early nineteenth century English estates, but alas, there are people (boring people) whose stories are told here, making for an uninteresting film.

Anya Taylor-Joy is Emma Woodhouse, whom Austin described as "handsome, clever, and rich." (The film's poster reminds us of this.) Taylor-Joy, who has been on a roll since her debut in the 2015 horror film The Witch, certainly fits the part, doing as good a job as possible leading a cast that doesn't succeed in keeping up with her. Emma becomes a companion of a young orphan named Harriet Smith (Mia Goth), and she decides to steer Harriet towards an ideal man. This is despite the fact that a young farmer has asked for Harriet's hand in marriage. For a reason that's unclear in the film (indeed, most of Emma's motivations throughout the story don't make any sense), Emma convinces Harriet to deny the farmer's hand in marriage and instead try to woo the local vicar, Elton (Josh O'Connor). Elton, however, is infatuated with Emma, not Harriet, and he makes quite a show when she turns him down, and cares not if he has hurt Harriet's feelings.

As for Emma, despite frequently screwing things up for the young orphan she's supposed to look out for, she starts to fancy Frank Churchill (Callum Turner), the stepson of Emma's former governess. Despite that infatuation, she will soon start to fall for George Knightley (Johnny Flynn), a young estate owner whom she often banters with. That, however, proves to be yet another problem, as Harriet starts to fall in love with George after he rescues her from being alone without a dance partner at a local ball. This is a very simplistic summary of what happens, as within twenty minutes of the film, there will be so many names to keep track of that you might want to consider bringing a pen and paper for notes.

Old novel or not, this is not an interesting plot. In fact, nothing is interesting about this story or adaptation. Why? Plot and acting, neither of which are noteworthy. Aside from Taylor-Joy, most of these performances aren't that interesting to watch. Flynn is fine as George, but Bill Nighy as Emma's father, the biggest star in the film, does essentially what he does in the majority of his performances, moving his arms about and chortling in a way that's admittedly hard to mimic but not so impressive at this point of this illustrious actor. Much, if not most, of the actors do a sort of physical comedy that seems better suited for a high school play, in which audiences would only laugh due to parental pride and remarkable kindness. I've never seen another movie in which the act of standing up and sitting down was thought to be funny, but it appears to be that that was the aim here. Chewing food and drinking tea isn't particularly funny, either, but this film seems to disagree with me.

One example of someone trying too hard is O'Connor as Vicar Elton. O'Connor has already amazed audiences with his versatility (he played one of the leads in God's Own Country and currently plays Prince Charles on The Crown). But while some of his previous work has demonstrated his ability to gain an audience's sympathy for the characters he plays, here he is mismatched. Vicar Elton is a vile character, prone to temper tantrums and not much of a man of God as he's supposed to be. There is nothing sympathetic about Elton, and so it's almost as if O'Connor is not sure what to do. He can screech and whine to decent effect, but the other scenes are just him raising his eyebrows as if O'Connor really, really wants us to know that Elton is up to no good. 

Miranda Hart, though, it must be said, is a joy to watch. In a scene in which Emma insults Miss Bates at a picnic, one really feels for her. And her shouting to her hard-of-hearing mother at a dinner scene that she "must sample the tart" is the film's sole memorable moment.

It's a pity that a film like this has turned out to be so surprisingly dull and insufferable. It is at least wonderful to listen to its score by Isobel Waller-Bridge and David Schweitzer. Byrne's costume design is also stupendous and worthy of praise. I liked these elements of Emma., but virtually nothing else. Maybe it's because I've never read the famous novel, or because I haven't seen the 1996 version, or because I barely remember Clueless, which was loosely based on this story. All I can tell you is that I was bored out of my mind, and I hope I never have to watch Emma. again.

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The Best Movie Songs

Songs have a unique ability to affect movie scenes in a profound way. Some films can exist without any music (The Birds being a notable example), and if it works, then it works. But the twenty films listed below would not have lasted as long as they have in the public imagination without the power of songs. Just as Star Wars would not be Star Wars without John Williams' unforgettable score, all of the following films would have been undoubtedly weaker without their famous songs.

I've decided to restrict this only to songs originally from movies. Thus, beloved movie songs like "As Time Goes By", "Singin' in the Rain", and "Everybody's Talkin'", all of which came out years before they were immortalized in Casablanca, Singin' in the Rain, and Midnight Cowboy, respectively, are not included. You also won't see any musical numbers that originated in theater. I don't know why the American Film Institute for their list of the best movie songs in 2004 used a song like "The Sound of Music", which wasn't originally for the film, when they could have used the song "Something Good", which was originally written for the movie (and is far superior). (At any rate, as fantastic as "Something Good" is, it's not on this list, either.) The same goes for a few unforgettable songs by rock stars. For example, you'll find a Prince song on this list, but you won't find any of the great songs by Pink Floyd from the film The Wall, the 1982 musical that used songs from their 1979 album.

The best movie songs are:

21. Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Monty Python's Life of Brain)
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", from the 1979 comedy Monty Python's Life of Brian, is perhaps the best musical representation of the British "stiff upper lip" attitude there is. It is certainly a song, with its advice to chin up and keep going (even if you're being tortured by Romans), that has endured; Eric Idle, who wrote the song and performs it during the final scene of the film, even sang it at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. These days, it's especially popular at funerals. "Galaxy Song" from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life is also delightful.

20. Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
Memorably sung by B.J. Thomas, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" is written by the songwriting team Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who both won the Oscar for Best Original Song; Bacharach also won for Best Original Score. Bacharach won another Oscar for co-writing the song "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)". It's an unusual song for a Western, but Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is an unusual Western. As good as the radio version is, it's something else to watch the complete version with orchestration as Paul Newman charmingly rides around on a bicycle, pursued by an ox.

19. Take My Breath Away (Top Gun)
Written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock and performed by the band Berlin,
"Take My Breath Away" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1987. The 1980s in cinema have often been lampooned for the gratuitous (and fake-looking) lovemaking scenes, and the love scene in Top Gun between Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis is pretty random, but "Take My Breath Away" elevates the scene above the rest. The rhythm by Mororder (nicknamed "the father of disco") is iconic; ten years ago, Saturday Night Live had some fun with it (with a little help from Paul McCartney).

18. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away (Help!)
Written and sung by John Lennon, "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" is not the best Beatles song, but that just reminds us how great most of their music was. (At least it's one of their fifty best.) For a film as cluttered and dull as Help! is, it's a breath of fresh air when the Fab Four pause for a moment, relax in their room, and sing a song that has nothing to do with the plot (if that word can be used) of the film. It's a great tune, one you've likely often heard on the radio, and it features Lennon channeling his inner-Bob Dylan.

17. Let's Go Crazy (Purple Rain)
"Purple Rain" may have been the song more widely associated with Prince, but the chart-topping "Let's Go Crazy", which opens the album and the film, is the superior one. (It certainly wasn't played ad nauseam after the star's death in 2016.) A eulogy for "this thing called life", "Let's Go Crazy" is an energetic masterwork from an artist at the top of his game. All of the songs on this album are terrific, and "Let's Go Crazy" is the perfect way to start it. Prince's songs "Trust" and "Partyman" for the Batman soundtrack are likely honorable mentions on this list.

16. Stayin' Alive (Saturday Night Fever)
"Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees is the coolest song on this list. It was a huge success for the group, and they would eventually tie the Beatles with six consecutive number-one hits (before Whitey Houston beat them both with seven). John Travolta strutting down the streets of New York to this song is him at the peak of his coolness, and the only time he has come close to matching it was when he and Uma Thurman danced to "You Never Can Tell" in Pulp Fiction. Travolta was already a star from television, but Saturday Night Fever made him a superstar, earning him an Oscar nomination. The song was not nominated. It has, however, literally saved lives. Last year, a man used the information he learned from a hysterical episode of The Office regarding "Stayin' Alive" to save a woman's life.

15. 9 to 5 (9 to 5)
Widely celebrated as one of Dolly Parton's most popular songs, "9 to 5" feels like a call-to-arms and tribute to workers everywhere. Parton wrote and sung the song for the comedy of the same name that starred her, Jane Fonda, and Lilly Tomlin as three office workers who team up to overthrow their sexist manager, played by Dabney Coleman. Particularly with lines like "they just use your mind and they never give you credit," "9 to 5" also has a strong feminism bent to it. It was even used by Elizabeth Warren during her recent campaign for president. Earning an Oscar nomination, it reached the number-one spot on three Billboard charts. As Wikipedia puts it, the project "launched her permanently into mainstream popular culture."

14. Mona Lisa (Captain Carey, USA)
The wonderfully calm "Mona Lisa" originally comes from the 1950 film noir Captain Carey, USA, starring Alan Ladd. It was written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, the songwriting team who also wrote "Silver Bells", the Oscar-winning "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)", and the theme music for Bonanza. "Mona Lisa" earned Livingston and Evans an Oscar for Best Original Song. The original version in the film is performed by Charlie Spivak, but the most well-known version has been Nat King Cole's, whose rendition topped the charts for five weeks in 1950 and was featured in the film of the same name in 1986, starring Bob Hoskins and Michael Caine.

13. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Meet Me in St. Louis) 
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" can always be heard on the radio at Christmastime, but many have forgotten that it is originally sung by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis, directed by Vincent Minnelli. Written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, it's a song about persevering and "muddling through" at a time that often can be difficult for many; it stands in contrast to many holiday songs that are overly sappy. The Frank Sinatra version is fine, but it contains a line that should be more controversial: The story goes that Sinatra was going to include it on his album A Jolly Christmas, and he asked Martin to "jolly up" the line about "we'll have to muddle through somehow." Martin stripped the song of its necessary melancholy by changing it to "hang a shining star upon the highest bough." Stick with the Garland version; it's better.

12. Be Our Guest (Beauty and the Beast)
Sung with such an apparent sense of fun by Jerry Orbach, Angela Lansbury, and others, this song really took Beauty and the Beast completely into the realm of enchantment. After all, the silverware are singing songs about French dining. The song was written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken; they were also nominated for the song "Belle" earlier in the movie. Both songs lost; the winner was the film's title song, also written by Ashman and Menken. Ashman and Menken won the same awards for The Little Mermaid two years before Beauty and the Beast. After Ashman died, Menken continued writing songs and music for Disney animated films, winning four more Oscars for Aladdin and Pocahontas.

11. Theme from New York, New York (New York, New York)
Possibly the best-known song about New York City, we have Robert De Niro, in his third collaboration with Martin Scorsese, to thank for this song, as the songwriters John Kander and Fred Ebb have claimed that De Niro criticized their original theme, thus sending them back to start from scratch. While the film was not as much of a critical success as others directed by Scorsese, "New York, New York" the song will last forever. And while the version by Liza Minnelli, the star of the film, is fantastic, this song has since been closely associated with Frank Sinatra, who recorded a version just after the film was released, and is probably the best version.

10. (I've Had) The Time of My Life (Dirty Dancing)
Composed by Frank Previte, John DeNicola, and Donald Markowitz, this iconic climactic scene would not be nearly as unforgettable without the song and the vocal performance of Jennifer Warners and Bill Medley. The title of the film had apparently concerned Previte that he had walked into the wrong kind of movie, but he became convinced that the movie would change his life, so he took it. In addition to winning a Grammy, it won Best Original Song at the 1988 Oscars. It also was number one on the Billboard Top 100. According to Patrick Swayze, the team had turned down 149 songs before finally settling on "(I've Had) The Time of My Life", and even though they had already shot that final dance scene with another song playing, they re-shot it to the new one. 

9. Unchained Melody (Unchained)
Like "Mona Lisa", the original version of this song might surprise you when you hear it, for it sounds remarkably different than the more famous version. It's originally from a 1955 prison film called Unchained and was written by Alex North and performed by Todd Duncan. The song was nominated for Best Song but lost to "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" from the film of the same name. "Unchained Melody" has since been recorded my more than 670 artists in several different languages, with the most famous version being by the Righteous Brothers in 1965. That version was used in a very sensual scene between Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in the 1990 hit romance-horror-comedy flick Ghost, which also incorporated it into its musical score by Maurce Jarre to great effect.

8. White Christmas (Holiday Inn) 
Irving Berlin's nostalgic holiday song and its many cover versions are frequently heard around Christmas. Berlin was Jewish, so reportedly it was not a simple task for him to write a song about Christmas nostalgia. He did, though, and it's a notably secular song, one that has been immensely popular for the past seventy years. The lyrics, as everyone knows, are about someone dreaming of having a snow-filled Christmas like the ones they used to remember, of children singing and Christmas cards and all that fun stuff. With a positive wish that everyone has a merry and bright Christmas, it's a very soothing tune, especially Bing Crosby's version.

7. Lose Yourself (8 Mile) 
Widely regarded as one of Eminem's best (if not his best) raps, "Lose Yourself" was the first hip-hop song to win Best Original Song at the Academy Awards, an award it richly deserved. Eminem wrote the lyrics in between takes during the filming of 8 Mile, and other than the "Mom's spaghetti" line, it works. So, too, does the combative tone that will stay with you. Eminem was not at the Oscars to accept his award in 2003, but he did make a surprise appearance at this year's awards to sing it, delighting everyone (except, it seemed, Martin Scorsese, although his daughter later insisted that her father actually really liked the performance).

6. Don't You (Forget About Me) (The Breakfast Club)
The 1985 teen comedy-drama film written and directed by John Hughes has definitely been re-evaluated in recent years, but the song is just as well-loved today as it was back then. Written by Steve Schiff and Keith Forsey, who produced the film's soundtrack, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" is sung by the Scottish band Simple Minds. Despite some of their early reservations about it (partly because they didn't get it and partly because it wasn't one of their own songs), the song would eventually reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It has become practically the theme song of '80s teen films and was predictably used to pay tribute to John Hughes after his death.

5. When You Wish Upon a Star (Pinocchio) 
"When You Wish Upon a Star", written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington, is from the fascinating and frightful 1940 Disney animated film Pinocchio (as everyone knows). The first Disney song to win an Oscar for Best Original Song, it is widely regarded as Disney's best. In some countries, it's even a Christmas song. Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket opens the film with his celestial singing in a way few others have been able to do. There's a reason why this film has come to symbolize what Disney would prefer us to think of when that corporation pops into our head. It's a song about dreams, and that no matter who you are, no aspiration is impossible.

4. Mrs. Robinson (The Graduate) 
Easily one of Simon and Garfunkel's most recognizable singalong tunes, "Mrs. Robinson" became the duo's second chart-topper and the first rock song to win Record of the Year at the Grammys. Originally titled "Mrs. Roosevelt", Paul Simon pitched the song to director Mike Nichols (who liked it very much), and the song was changed to "Mrs. Robinson", Ann Bancroft's character in the film. It's a cheerful antithesis to "The Sound of Silence" from two years earlier, which was used to open The Graduate.

3. Nobody Does It Better (The Spy Who Loved Me)
"Nobody Does It Better", written by Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager and sung by Carly Simon, is perhaps the Bond song most unlike what audiences expect from a Bond song, and yet it's undoubtedly the best. The Spy Who Loved Me is the tenth official Bond film, and other than the Paul McCartney rock 'n' roll song for Live and Let Die, no other song had taken such a noticeable departure from the heaviness of the previous tunes (other than Madonna's song for Die Another Day, but that doesn't have to be mentioned). It's been covered numerous times, from Julie Andrews to Radiohead, whose lead singer Thom Yorke declared it "the sexiest song that was ever written." It was also used to pay tribute both to Bond actor Roger Moore and Desmond Llewelyn, who played Q, after they died in 2017 and 1999, respectively. Its orchestra and Simon's smooth vocals make it such an enormously comforting, if vain, song.

2. Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now (Mannequin) 
The teen romcom Mannequin has easily been forgotten, but the Jefferson Starship Oscar-nominated power ballad "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" is immortal. Written by Albert Hammond and Diane Warren, you're guaranteed to hear this one at prom or a wedding. (Some couples have even impressively danced to it as their first dance.) With all due respect to "(I've Had) The Time of My Life", "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" should have taken home the prize in 1988. (Warren has been nominated for eleven Oscars, including as recently as 2020, but has never won.) This song is perfect.  

1. Over the Rainbow (The Wizard of Oz) 
The lists that the American Film Institute used to do years ago were quite terrible, but one they got right was identifying "Over the Rainbow" as the greatest movie song in American cinema. This song is nostalgia supreme. Composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg in a classic scene featuring Dorthy and her dog, Toto (and directed by the uncredited King Vidor), it's a song that will likely spark so many emotions. What really makes it a stunning song is Judy Garland's voice. At just the age of 16, she seemed to become the calm voice of a world heading into a second world war and struggling through the Depression. What makes it all the more remarkable is that she was abused repeatedly during this time, including being slapped by director Victor Fleming when Burt Lahr's antics were making her laugh. Her story is further proof that how Hollywood has treated women is nothing new.

In these trying times, as the world faces another crisis, struggling to contain a massive pandemic and survive another possible economic depression, "Over the Rainbow" is likely a song that can offer at least a bit of an attempt to alleviate many who are anxious about the state of affairs. The song will last far longer than any calamity thrown our way.

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The Land Before Time

Surprisingly or not, dinosaurs were part of children's imaginations long before Jurassic Park. Dino-obsessed kids of the 1980s likely were exposed to neat and inventive productions about fearfully great lizards even before the hit ABC series Dinosaurs. For example, there was the 1985 TV segment Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs (in which Gary Owens turned into a prehistoric creature), and the 1987 educational short starring Fred Savage called Dinosaurs: A Fun-Filled Trip Back in Time! (as well as the cool song "Mesozoic Mind" that accompanied it). But even after all that, in 1988, young dinosaur fans were gifted with the animated feature The Land Before Time.

Wondrous, pre-Disney renaissance animation accompanied by James Horner's wonderful score is how The Land Before Time commences, and what a start it is. Horner's score is among his very best, particularly in those opening moments, signifying with that dominant brass and celestial choral arrangement that you're really in for a treat with this film. Executive produced by George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall, The Land Before Time was directed by Don Bluth, the animator behind several well-regarded animated films of the era, including The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, and All Dogs Go to Heaven.

Pat Hingle as the narrator tells us that our story is "in the time of the dinosaurs." But something is clearly wrong. Everything seems so dark and apocalyptic, and there is little food to eat. Trees are dying, and the leaf-eaters are starving. The sky is all sorts of dismal colors. It's like the dinosaur scene in Fantasia, only slightly less terrifying. There's a new young Apatosaurus named Little Foot (voiced by Gabriel Damon), who joins his grandparents and mother on a journey to the Great Valley in search of a better life and more food. However, there are all sorts of obstacles in their way, starting with a giant "earth shake", as the young ones call it, or clashing of the continents, as our narrator explains. This earthquake causes Little Foot to be separated from his mother.

Also separated from their families are Cera (voiced by Candace Hutson), a Triceratops, and Ducky (voiced by Judith Barsi), a Saurolophus. Little Foot is depressed and Cera is overly stubborn, but the three of them eventually decide to band together and make their way to the Great Valley. Little Foot knows the way, for his mother told him. Fortunately for him, the directions are pretty simple: it's something like they have to keep walking until the great ball of fire in the sky reaches the ground and then they'll eventually find it. Along the way, they find two more members to join their band: Petrie, a Pteranodon who can't fly, and a new-born Stegosaurus named Spike who doesn't talk. Petrie is voiced by Will Ryan, the only adult among them, and whose choices I found distracting compared to the natural voices of the younger actors; to me, his voice acting sounded like a bad Robin Williams impression.

One of their obstacles is each other, as their parents tell them things like "three-horns never play with long-necks." They'll have to overcome their differences. (Incidentally, this was criticized by Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, who wrote about how one of the songs used in a sequel was the articulation of what he called "liberal multiculturalist ideology", while also noting the irony of having a song celebrating differences in a movie where dinosaurs eat each other, but I digress.) Beyond their squabbles and the swamps and the lack of food and the platonic shifts, though, is a mighty T-Rex (because of course there is), whom they call "Sharp Tooth", constantly chasing them.

Despite apparently against the wishes of most who were involved (as they had nothing to do with the following films), the success of The Land Before Time resulted in a whopping thirteen sequels, as well as a TV series and fourteen spin-off games. I think I only have seen one of them (the 1994 sequel, The Great Valley Adventure, which for some reason we watched in my second-grade class, but that's Catholic schooling for you). The Great Valley Adventure found its way onto Total Film's list of the fifty worst kids movies. It was also this sequel that started incorporating musical numbers into the franchise. None of the cast returned, either, except for Hutson, who provided the voice of Cera for a total of four times, including the fourth film, which is her last acting credit. Unfortunately, tragedy struck the same year The Land Before Time was released when young Judith Barsi was the victim of a double murder-suicide at the hands of her father. The film All Dogs Go to Heaven, in which she provided the voice of Anne-Marie, is dedicated to her.

Regardless of Zizek's critique, The Land Before Time is, for better or worse, remarkably simple, but it works. It is able to successfully pull the emotional strings almost as deftly as its competitor Disney films before and after did. It can be a bit repetitive at times, with Cera acting bratty and Sharp Tooth chasing after them being familiar notes, but I'm a sucker for stories of friendship and survival. Thus, The Land Before Time feels rather apt these days. It's a great watch for parents who might want to introduce part of their childhood to their young children during these uncertain times.

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