Matt Trzcinski | Showbiz Cheat Sheet Writer

ABBA’s Only No. 1 Song Wasn’t Their Usual Style

Matthew Trzcinski — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 03:50:19 +0000

While ABBA gave us a lot of great music, only one of the band’s songs reached No. 1 in the United States. Furthermore, it only reached the top of the chart for a short amount of time. The song was a departure from other ABBA songs.

ABBA made some classic songs outside of their typical genre

ABBA was mostly known for perky pop songs with rock ‘n’ roll influences. While the group peaked during the disco era, they generally didn’t write disco music. However, when they did dip their toes into the genre, they wrote classics like “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” and “Dancing Queen.”

The latter became the group’s only chart-topper in the U.S. The song was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a single week, lasting on the chart for 22 weeks in total. “Dancing Queen” appeared on the album Arrival. That record peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200, charting for a total of 50 weeks. Arrival was ABBA’s biggest studio album in the U.S. The record also produced the tune “Money, Money, Money,” which remains popular today, partly due to its appearance in the musical Mamma Mia!

“Dancing Queen” plays an important role in Mamma Mia! as well, but its popularity is really the result of its quality. “Dancing Queen” is a disco song, but it’s less funky and more sugary than most of its musical peers. Perhaps the song sounds so much different from other disco songs because ABBA was a Swedish band while most famous disco artists were American or British.

A member of ABBA discussed the band’s sound

During a 2014 interview with The Guardian, ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus said that the band’s formula was once rooted in glam rock music. “If you look at the singles we released straight after ‘Waterloo,’ we were trying to be more like the Sweet, a semi-glam rock group,” he said. “Which was stupid because we were always a pop group.”

Ulvaeus also explained that the group’s music played with listeners’ emotions. “The music of ABBA is not that happy,” he said. “It might sound happy, in some strange way, but deep within it’s not happy music. It has that Nordic melancholic feeling to it. What fools you is the girls’ voices. You know, I do think that is one of the secrets about ABBA. Even when we were really quite sad, we always sounded jubilant.”

Björn Ulvaeus said the band’s songs were always distinctive

After explaining the band’s formulas, he went on to claim that the group had no formulas at all. “‘Waterloo,’ ‘Mamma Mia!,’ ‘Fernando,’ ‘Dancing Queen,’ ‘The Winner Takes It All’ … are they made to a formula?” he asks. “What is that formula?! It’s totally the opposite. We never repeated ourselves. We worked so hard to find different styles every time.”

It is true that ABBA displayed a lot of range during their hitmaking years. However, it would be ridiculous to claim they never repeated themselves. Listen to “Ring Ring,” “Waterloo,” and “Honey, Honey” all in a row and it’s easy to tell these songs were all written by the same people.

ABBA could get a bit formulaic and they threw the rulebook out for “Dancing Queen.”

Tim Burton Once Said He’d Never Make a ‘Beetlejuice’ Sequel

Matthew Trzcinski — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 02:35:49 +0000

Some movie directors have a habit of saying things that come back to haunt them. Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice is finally getting a sequel and, surprisingly, that sequel was directed by the Ed Wood director himself. Interestingly, Burton didn’t like the idea of making a Beetlejuice sequel or remake back in the day. Here is what he’s said about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice more recently.

Tim Burton refused to make a sequel to ‘Beetlejuice’ or 1 of his other movies

During a 2007 interview with Total Film, Burton was asked how he felt about the possibility that one of his movies would get remade. “Yikes!” he said. “I don’t know about that.

“I mean, I’ve often resisted re-visiting,” he added. “Like in the case of [The Nightmare Before Christmas] and Beetlejuice, they asked me to do sequels and I just said ‘No.’ I wanted to keep the integrity of those particular things. Those movies were special to me.”

Tim Burton was fine with other filmmakers retooling Batman

Interestingly, a reporter asked Burton how he felt about Batman getting retooled after he left the franchise, and his attitude toward Batman was completely different. “I was lucky when I made Batman because, at the time, it felt like new territory,” he said. “We went back to the traditions of the comic and they were usually light and cartoony. It was exciting. Then, all of a sudden, every comic book hero is a tortured soul in a funny costume. [Laughs]

“I think the genre’s always having to reinvent itself and, obviously, comics are a kind of modern folk tale that can stand to be retold and relooked at in many different ways,” he added. “But I think the dark, tortured comic book. Well, I think it’s time for a new angle. Maybe it’s time to go back to the brightly colored cartoon.” Thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy and other Marvel films, superhero movies took a step away from the darkness of Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns.

The director said his ‘Beetlejuice’ sequel is going to be a personal statement

Burton has made different statements about Beetlejuice more recently. During a 2024 interview with Empire, he said that his flop remake of Walt Disney’s Dumbo made him lose interest in movies. However, he felt rejuvenated after making the Netflix series Wednesday. The writers of that series penned a screenplay for the sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Burton liked it.

The Ed Wood director said he connected with the character of Lydia from the original film and wondered what she might be doing decades later. Burton said his Beetlejuice sequel was a personal statement from him that reflected how he changed since he had children.

Burton also said that he lost his way for a while. He may have been talking about his string of disappointing films, such as Dark Shadows, Big Eyes, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Could Beetlejuice Beetlejuice be his big comeback that pleases his old fans? Or will it be another wrongheaded attempt to capitalize on nostalgia, like his remake of Dumbo? Time will tell. If Burton is to be believed, he’s at least made Beetlejuice Beetlejuice a personal statement, and his best films, like Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands, feel personal.

Tim Burton Said Remaking ‘Planet of the Apes’ Was a ‘Perverse Challenge’

Matthew Trzcinski — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 03:24:52 +0000

Tim Burton has given us many classic movies, but his Planet of the Apes isn’t one of them. He explained why he took up the challenge of remaking the original film. Burton’s remake had a minimal effect on subsequent Planet of the Apes films.

Tim Burton said his ‘Planet of the Apes’ would look better with time

During a 2007 interview with Total Film, the Batman director was asked what he was trying to accomplish with his remake of Planet of the Apes. “Well, that was more of a perverse challenge,” he said. “I mean, Planet of the Apes was a classic movie and I thought, ‘Well, there’s the original, then they made five other movies and the TV series and lunchboxes.’

“So it’s not like it’s just the original and this,” he said. “That would have been a real mistake. I knew I was going to be in trouble for it, but you know, something about talking apes [Laughs]. It’s always a weird challenge! With this, the more time goes by, the better I’ll like it.”

A reporter asked Burton asked how he would feel if one of his films inspired a remake. “Yikes!” he replied. “I don’t know about that. I mean, I’ve often resisted re-visiting. Like in the case of [The Nightmare Before Christmas] and Beetlejuice, they asked me to do sequels and I just said no… I wanted to keep the integrity of those particular things. Those movies were special to me.”

The director looked at the original ‘Planet of the Apes’ differently than his movies

It’s interesting that Burton views his own movies as special creations that should be left alone. Meanwhile, he’s remade classic movies like Planet of the Apes, Walt Disney’s Dumbo, and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. However, he appears to have changed his position on sequels, as his follow-up to Beetlejuice will come out next month.

Burton’s Planet of the Apes ends with Mark Wahlberg finding himself in an alternate Washington, D.C., where the Lincoln Memorial is replaced with a statue of an anthropomorphic ape. Many viewers left the theater scratching their heads.

Tim Burton refused to explain the end of the remake

During a 2001 interview with the BBC, a reporter told Burton that the ending was nonsense. Burton was asked to explain it, but he refused, saying that he liked the movie’s ambiguity. Love or hate his Planet of the Apes, he took the correct approach to this interview. There’s no good reason for an artist to explain every facet of their creative process or spell out all the themes of their art for other people.

However, he gave fans a little bit of insight into his remake. Burton said the film was about the conflict between Darwinism and religion. He said the ending of the film encapsulated some of life’s unanswerable questions. What a simian Abraham Lincoln has to do with Christian creationism is beyond me.

Burton’s Planet of the Apes didn’t do much for him. While its story left plenty of room for a sequel (or 10), it never inspired a follow-up. Instead, the franchise got rebooted, and the newer Planet of the Apes films have nothing to do with Burton’s odd detour.

Burton took on a perverse challenge and he got a perverse result.

M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Seems Similar to an Upcoming Movie

Matthew Trzcinski — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 03:11:02 +0000

Sometimes, Hollywood makes twin movies around the same time. M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap has a snappy, exciting premise. It feels a little similar to another upcoming thriller. We may never know if one film was trying to copy the other.

M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ shares a lot with an upcoming horror sequel

Trap is about a serial killer named Cooper (Josh Hartnett) who takes his daughter to a concert by pop sensation Lady Raven (Saleka). Instead of being an inspiring tale about how Ted Bundy could have been a good father, Trap is a thriller where Cooper realizes that the entire pop concert is one big trap where law enforcement is trying to snag him. It’s a tight concept for a movie that fizzles out thanks to implausible dialog, a misguided lead performance, and a mid-movie twist that doesn’t work at all.

If you go to see Trap, you’ll probably get trailers for Smile 2. Smile 2, the sequel to the supernatural horror film Smile, is about a pop star who is targeted by the smiling demon from the original film. Why are we getting two pop star horror movies in one year?

M. Night Shyamalan might understand music more than movies

It’s not like pop music and horror movies cross paths all that much. Aside from novelties like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s “Monster Mash,” few pop songs deal with horror themes. Meanwhile, horror films centered on music usually focus on heavy metal. Even the songs from The Rocky Horror Picture Show are based more on the sound of early rock than pop music.

At least Trap understands music well enough. One of the only decent aspects of the movie is its songs. Lady Raven’s tunes are reasonable pastiches of 2000s pop music that could’ve been hits for Fergie or Aaliyah.

We have yet to know what the songs from Smile 2 will sound like in full. However, the snippets of music in the trailers suggest the film is going for a Dua Lipa-esque sound. Considering how popular she is, that seems like a good move.

‘Trap’ was partly inspired by ‘Purple Rain’

During a 2024 interview with Picture House, Shyamalan discussed the inspirations behind Trap — and they had nothing to do with Smile 2. “You know, that part kind of came last in the process,” the Sixth Sense director said. “It really was Saleka and I talking about a movie where music was critical to the movie, that the characters are watching all the songs. It’s a different form of a movie than we’re used to, and Purple Rain was kind of our inspiration… you’ve seen movies, let’s say A Star is Born or something, where you sing two or three amazing songs, but a full, full album from beginning to end, where the characters are watching. That was the goal, it started that way.

“And I’ve always loved serial killers, I love them,” he added. “That’s a subject I’ve always wanted to write something about, it’s always been an obsession: can I make a serial killer movie, a different kind of serial killer movie. I was like, maybe he’s a serial killer, or maybe one’s loose, I was trying to dance around these concepts.”

For all we know, Trap and Smile 2 will be part of a new pop horror trend.

How Tim Burton Created Jack Skellington

Matthew Trzcinski — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 02:18:43 +0000

Tim Burton created many famous movie characters but perhaps the most iconic is Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. During an interview, the Batman director explained how the Pumpkin King’s iconic design came together. In addition, he revealed what made The Nightmare Before Christmas different from his previous movies.

Tim Burton came up with Jack Skellington while doing something else

During a 2007 interview with Total Film, the Ed Wood director was asked which of his films most resembled his drawings. “Probably Nightmare,” he replied. “That was the first film I really conceived of and was with the whole way through, even though it took almost 10 years to get made!” It’s interesting that he feels that way about The Nightmare Before Christmas. After all, he co-wrote his earlier film Edward Scissorhands.

A journalist asked Burton if he constantly scribbled new drawings. “Yeah,” he said. “For instance, Jack was just a simple case of me being on the phone and doodling.

“Sometimes you just keep drawing without any real conscious decision like, ‘Oh, I’m going to make a main character that has no eyeballs,'” he added. “I find that when it just happens that way — and it doesn’t happen on every film — when it comes from your subconscious, it’s more meaningful than your intellectual mind just going, ‘Let’s make a movie about this or that.'”

Tim Burton wouldn’t want someone else to tinker with Jack Skellington

Interestingly, a reporter asked Burton if he could imagine any of his films being remade. “Yikes!” he exclaimed. “I don’t know about that. I mean, I’ve often resisted re-visiting. Like in the case of Nightmare and Beetlejuice, they asked me to do sequels and I just said ‘No.’ I wanted to keep the integrity of those particular things. Those movies were special to me.”

Notably, Burton did remake his short film Frankenweenie as a feature film. So far, The Nightmare Before Christmas hasn’t inspired a remake or a sequel (unless you count the video game Kingdom Hearts), but Burton directed a sequel to Beetlejuice named Beetlejuice Beetlejuice that will premiere next month. Hopefully, Burton will be able to capitalize on the success of that film without ruining its integrity.

The director of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ had his own take on its look

While Burton produced The Nightmare Before Christmas, Henry Selick of Coraline fame actually directed the movie. Selick has his own take on the film’s character designs. During a 2023 interview with A.Frame, Selick said that some of the residents of Halloween Town look grotesque, but they are all kind-hearted, with the exception of the villainous Oogie Boogie.

In a different context, Jack might look scary to children. Usually, when a movie character has no eyes, they’re an antagonist, like the Xenomorph from Alien or the parents from Coraline. However, his singing voice, speaking voice, and personality appeal to audiences of all ages, so kids generally didn’t find his lack of eyes disturbing. Hopefully, a live-action adaptation of The Nightmare Before Christmas will redesign Jack because a live-action character with no eyes might be too much for a Disney movie.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a great cartoon and it wouldn’t be the same without the creativity of Burton and Selick.

Why M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Fails So Hard

Matthew Trzcinski — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 07:08:32 +0000

M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap is a movie with a simple premise that should have been easy to pull off. Apparently, it was too much for the Sixth Sense director to go a lousy 105 minutes without insulting the audience. While his directing is strained, one of the performances in Trap really sinks the film.

M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ doesn’t understand the appeal of movie killers

People love fictional serial killers, especially when they have a perverse charm. Whether it’s Hannibal Lecter, Patrick Bateman, or Count Dracula, the best movie killers make you believe they could draw people in before they sink their teeth in. After all, real killers like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer were able to do the same. Making a movie where the main character is a serial killer with no magnetism would be a terrible idea.

That’s exactly what Trap is. Josh Hartnett plays Cooper, a dorky, awkward dad who is taking his daughter to a concert by pop sensation Lady Raven. He makes unnatural small talk with his daughter that sounds like the sort of lines Quentin Tarantino might write while drunk. It turns out that Cooper is a serial killer known as The Butcher (how creative) and the concert is an attempt by the FBI to capture him.

The twist of ‘Trap’

Of course, none of this makes much sense. The FBI putting thousands of people in danger on the off-chance that they might find one criminal in a gigantic sea of people sounds like the sort of hare-brained scheme that would get someone fired. Of course, plenty of silly plotlines have worked with the right characters and dialog. Hartnett, on the other hand, displays none of the charisma that the character so desperately needs. How a repulsive weirdo like him keeps getting away with horrid crimes is a mystery the film never solves.

Ever since Shyamalan made so many ’90s kids scratch their heads over the ending of The Sixth Sense, his movies have become famous for their big twists. Trap has a big twist of its own, which makes sense. Shyamalan doesn’t pull the rug out of the story this time. However, the twist feels contrived, and Trap doesn’t regain the little momentum it had before the plot switches gears.

What M. Night Shyamalan was thinking

During a 2024 interview with /Film, Shyamalan discussed his work with Hartnett on Trap. “We talked a lot about how we could make the choices credible enough so that you believe that this guy, who seemingly loves his daughter [laughs] and will do anything for her, [and is] also the serial killer,” he said. “And not cheat the audience and be like, ‘Yeah, these two things exist.’ And for me, a lot of that stuff is a front, and then the front bleeds into his reality. Which is something that happens often, I think, with people who have really intense, forward-facing fronts and their reality of themselves is kind of hidden. Often they become that front.

“And with him, he’s sort of melted into that front so far that he started to have something that’s like love for his daughter,” he added. “But it’s probably not love the way that you and I understand it, it’s probably more just the way that she reflects onto him, his understanding of himself.”

It would be hard to find anything about Cooper believable, much less that he’s simultaneously a killer and a loving father.

Tim Burton Was Asked Why His Movies Stand Out

Matthew Trzcinski — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 06:11:42 +0000

Tim Burton’s movies have a memorable visual style that keeps fans coming back to them again and again. The Batman director himself was asked what makes his movies different and his response was unusual. Burton noted that even people who aren’t film buffs can sense his aesthetic.

Tim Burton’s movies take inspiration from a slew of oddities

Burton’s films combine some of the dark, distorted visuals of silent horror films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with elements of fairy tales and Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion creations. He’s also heavily pulled from Gothic fiction, such as the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations starring horror legend Vincent Price. While he usually makes color films, he still emphasizes black and white in his color palettes. Even when his movies have subpar stories, they’re usually interesting to look at, whether you are touring the spooky 18th-century woods of Sleepy Hollow or the dingy Underland of Alice in Wonderland.

During a 2007 interview with Total Film, Burton was asked what made his movies “Burton-esque.” “I try not to think about it,” he replied. “No honestly, I’ve always hated labels. It’s like we all get labeled from the day we start going to school.”

How Tim Burton feels about fan reactions to his films

Despite this, the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory director said it’s nice to know that his movies are distinctive. “But I guess I consider it flattering because when you make a movie, you hope at the end that people can recognize you in it, even if they don’t know your work or whatever,” he said. “I mean you watch a Roman Polanski film and you know it’s Polanski. [David] Cronenberg, too. I think it’s a compliment if people recognize something in it, even if they don’t like it.”

A reporter told Burton that even people who know little about movies can sense his aesthetic. “You see, that’s meaningful to me because that has nothing to do with money or box office or anything like that — it just has to do with the connection that I find really strong and emotional,” he said. “And that’s what makes me the happiest, that connection. It’s like [The Nightmare Before Christmas]. That’s had the strangest life because it did OK and then took on a life of its own.”

The movies that inspired a visionary

Vox reports that Burton’s artistry is so famous that it inspired a museum exhibit. In 2009, the Museum of Modern Art presented a popular exhibit called “Tim Burton and the Lurid Beauty of Monsters,” which explored the director’s influences. As part of the exhibit, Burton named a few of the movies that inspired him.

The list included stop-motion movies like Jason and the Argonauts and The Brain from Planet Arous, Gothic classics like the Bela Lugosi versions of Dracula and The Raven, and B-movie oddities like Edward D. Wood, Jr.’s Plan 9 from Outer Space and Bride of the Monster. Put these all together in a blender, and you’ll get a taste of the imagery of films like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands. If you’re a Burton fan and want to understand why his work is so unusual, watching any one of these films is a good place to start.

Tim Burton Said He Could Live in 3 of His Movies

Matthew Trzcinski — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 18:41:08 +0000

Biographical movies usually celebrate the great people of history. In contrast, one of Tim Burton’s movies highlights an obscure figure who wasn’t very good at making art. During an interview, the Batman director revealed that he was a huge fan of the movie in question even though it bombed. He also said he would be willing to live in that movie, alongside two of his other projects.

Tim Burton made a movie about movies in the weirdest way possible

Great directors like Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Federico Fellini, and Bob Fosse have all made movies about the glories of making movies. When Burton made his crack at that subgenre, he took a different approach. He decided to lionize Edward D. Wood, Jr., a B-movie maestro who is often considered the worst film director of all time. Rather than knocking Wood down for making schlock like Plan 9 from Outer Space and Bride of the Monster, Burton praised Wood for his boundless enthusiasm for cinema. Much like one of Wood’s actual films, Burton’s Ed Wood didn’t make money.

During a 2007 interview with Total Film, the Batman Returns director was asked if he was upset by the commercial failure of Ed Wood. “That’s the weird thing about movies,” he replied. “I loved Ed Wood. For me, it’s as good, if not better, than a lot of the other ones I’ve done that made a lot more money.

“I’m surprised if a movie does well, or I’m surprised if it doesn’t do well,” he said. “It’s always a surprise. Ed Wood was a surprise because it was [a] complete bomb! Yet it’s probably one of the favorites of mine.”

The director said he could live in ‘Ed Wood’ and 2 of his other movies

The interviewer noted that Ed Wood became popular after it was released on DVD. “When it first showed at the New York Film Festival, it got a great response,” Burton noted. “I guess it’s a real film crowd there but it was, ‘Wow.’ But then I realized that the only people who were going to see it probably saw it that night!”

Afterward, Burton was asked to name which of his films he would like to live in. “Oh boy,” he replied. “High up on the list would probably be [The Nightmare Before Christmas] because it was the first film I really conceived of, so that was special. Edward Scissorhands is one that is very personal to me, too. And Ed Wood. It’s those three that are up there for me.” Notably, Burton didn’t direct The Nightmare Before Christmas, but he conceived of its story and produced it.

Tim Burton said time colors his feelings about his films

Like the rest of us, Burton falls prey to nostalgia. That should be pretty obvious, since he gave us remakes of classic movies like Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Dumbo! However, in 2001, he flatly told the BBC that nostalgia colors his perceptions of his films.

He revealed he gets fonder of his movies the more time passes. In his opinion, he’s only able to objectively evaluate one of his projects five years after completing it. Maybe he only liked Ed Wood so much because he made it a long time ago — or maybe he just recognizes its brilliance.

Tim Burton’s 5 Best Movies, Ranked

Matthew Trzcinski — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 07:08:06 +0000

Tim Burton gave us some of the most visually striking movies in Hollywood history — and coaxed some brilliant performances out of Johnny Depp. Some of his films are rightly regarded as classics, while others are horribly overrated. Here’s a look at his five best.

5. ‘Alice in Wonderland’

Many Burton fans regard Alice in Wonderland as the beginning of his slide into mediocrity. They are dead wrong. Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is an emotionally affecting coming-of-age story about a young woman finding herself in a surreal world halfway between the artistic sensibilities of Walt Disney and H. R. Giger. As the Mad Hatter, Depp gives one of his most underrated performances, crafting a character who is both campy and tragic.

Some fans of Lewis Caroll’s Alice books have complained that Burton took too many liberties with the source material. That’s fine. There are so many Alice in Wonderland films that we don’t need another faithful one.

4. ‘Batman Returns’

The 1989 film Batman returned the Caped Crusader to his dark roots, proved Burton could make a blockbuster, and revolutionized superhero movies forever. Its sequel isn’t as beloved. After all, it was darker than a lot of younger children could handle.

While the storytelling in Batman Returns is off-kilter, the performances are pitch-perfect. Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman is one of the most gloriously strange characters ever to grace a Hollywood film. She’s so compelling that it becomes clear that Burton was more interested in her than Batman — and who could blame him?

3. ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’

The Nightmare Before Christmas was directed by Henry Selick, and based on a story by Burton, who also produced the film. While Burton didn’t direct The Nightmare Before Christmas, it has his fingerprints all over it and it’s usually seen as a cornerstone of his filmography. In its small way, The Nightmare Before Christmas was a brave film, as it recast the lexicon of Christmas films into something Gothic and gleefully twisted.

The Nightmare Before Christmas works perfectly. It’s sweet enough and edgy enough to become a Christmas classic while pleasing the Goth subculture. Whether you love or hate Christmas, The Nightmare Before Christmas is the movie for you.

2. ‘Edward Scissorhands’

Burton’s best films always draw from fairytale optimism just as much as Universal Classic Monsters. Here, Burton made something that matched his influences, a beautiful retelling of the Frankenstein myth that speaks to the adolescent in all of us. Depp’s gentle character performance changed his career trajectory forever.

Burton isn’t known for tearjerkers, but it’s hard not to be moved by the film’s final sequence. The best love stories are bittersweet. With Edward Scissorhands, Burton created his Romeo and Juliet or Casablanca.

1. ‘Ed Wood’

Hollywood often likes to portray itself as glamorous. With his biopic of notorious B-movie director Edward D. Wood, Jr., Burton found the poetry in the seedy underbelly of old-school exploitation cinema. Anyone who’s ever found joy in a cheesy monster movie will be tickled pink by the sweetness of Ed Wood.

Depp plays Wood almost as wonderfully as Martin Landau brought Bela Lugosi back from the grave. Together, they make one of cinema’s best buddy teams. Ed Wood isn’t exactly a work of history, but it lets Wood have the last laugh after a lifetime of hardship and derision. In a 2007 Total Film interview, Burton named The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, and Ed Wood as his best films — and he’s right.

Pharrell Williams Helped Gwen Stefani’s Terrible Dream Come True

Matthew Trzcinski — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 20:16:23 +0000

Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams made one of the worst hit songs of the 2000s together. Williams knew it was terrible. Stefani didn’t.

Pharrell Williams helped Gwen Stefani’s terrible childhood dream come true

Part of what made Stefani so compelling as an artist was her genre-fluidity. She’s given us alternative rock, ska, dance music, pop, R&B, and slick disco. Of course, this sort of elasticity has drawbacks. With her hit song “Wind It Up,” Stefani made the horrible decision to combine the obnoxious yodeling of “The Lonely Goatherd” from The Sound of Music with Williams’ rap beats. It’s the sort of rancid combination that wouldn’t work in the hands of the most talented musician who ever lived. Combining Broadway with modern top 40 would be hard enough, but why on earth would Stefani reuse “The Lonely Goatherd,” which doesn’t even work in the context of The Sound of Music?

During a 2024 interview with Nylon, Stefani explained what Williams thought of the bizarre combination of his R&B beats and Rodgers and Hammerstein. “He was mad, like, ‘There’s absolutely no way,'” she recalled, laughing. “I was like, ‘You don’t understand. This is my childhood dream.'” I hate to break it to Stefani but not every childhood dream is good.

Pharrell Williams wasn’t the only 1 who questioned the No Doubt singer

Stefani admitted that her songwriting sensibilities didn’t always align with those of her collaborators. “A lot of the pop writers that I’d worked with started getting really different from the way I write,” she said. “I was like, ‘Why are you counting syllables?'” she said. “Or they were trying so hard to go for a hit, where I’m like: ‘I’m not chasing that.’ A hit is the greatest thing in the world, but it has to be from nowhere.”

Jimmy Iovine — co-founder of Stefani’s label, Interscope Records — attributed her success to her great taste. “She has spectacular taste, and when you have spectacular taste, whatever that word means usually descends upon you,” he said. “When you have great taste, what you do is probably not going to be corny.” Sadly, “Wind It Up” proved once and for all that Stefani can be incredibly corny when she wants to be. After all, many critics said The Sound of Music was corny when it came out in 1965.

Gwen Stefani won the battle and lost the war with ‘Wind It Up’

“Wind It Up” was a modest hit for Stefani. It peaked at No. 6 and sent 18 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. It only performed well because it was the lead single from Stefani’s highly anticipated second solo album, The Sweet Escape. Often, lousy lead singles like “Wind It Up” will perform decently because fans are starved for new music from their idol.

The Sweet Escape was a bittersweet moment in Stefani’s career. It did well on its own terms, peaking at No. 3 and spending 51 weeks on the Billboard 200. It also produced one other top 10 single: the title track. “The Sweet Escape” reached No. 2 and charted for 40 weeks. However, the other three singles from The Sweet Escape bombed and the record didn’t live up to its predecessor, Love. Angel. Music. Baby.

“Wind It Up” helped Stefani’s dream come true and that’s its sole value.