by hutchwp

The Art of the Music Video and Why We Don’t Watch Them Anymore

I had a sudden realisation the other day. My daughter is going to see Mamma Mia the musical soon. After she’d watched the film version, I thought it would be fun to show her some original ABBA performances. This led to a bit of a fun chat about how music videos have evolved over the years, and how much of a big deal they were when I was young.

Nowadays, of course, music videos are consumed very differently. The likes of Top of the Pops, the Pepsi Chart Show, and even just MTV, are simply not available anymore. I’m 41 now, and it isn’t especially obvious how to discover great new music now. I listen to a wide range of new music, but I couldn’t tell you how I found out about some of the newer bands I like. I’ve been listening to Kingfishr recently, but I really don’t know how they found their way into my music rotations.

In the 1990s, when I was in my peak discovery phase, I knew what the routes were. The aforementioned music video programmes were reliable, and I often tuned into MTV2 to the Sara Cox or Zane Lowe shows to find out interesting new tunes. There was also a plethora of trendy music magazines, reliable radio channels and also a thriving mixtape community at school.

In 2026, how do we consume music videos? the landscape has certainly changed. If you’re relying on YouTube, then you’re in luck. 99% of the entire history of the music video is there, usually in at least HD quality. Also, you’ve got a fair amount of live footage, TV appearances and anything else you can think of.

The catch? You need to know what you’re searching for in the first place. I knew there was a new Rolling Stones single on the way, so knew to search the video out on YouTube. The video itself is a wondrous piece of art, with Ana Taylor-Joy and Charles Melton playing out an intense argument with a luscious Mick Jagger falsetto accompanying it.

With all this in mind, I started to wonder if other people would be interested in a curated list of music videos to sit back and play on their TV, allowing them to focus on the music video without the need to have a phone at hand to click onto the next song. So, I decided I’d do it for you.

Cinema Etc’s New Music Videos Monthly

Hopefully if you click through to the above link, you can access the playlist on Apple Music. You can either watch it on your devices or sync to your TV.

The first playlist is a fair mix of established acts, A-list pop stars and a few upcoming artists that I think you’ll enjoy.

Let me know how you find the list and if you know of anything else I should be checking out, especially if there’s a cool new video to enjoy!

by hutchwp

Film Review – Power Ballad (John Carney, 2026)

Irish filmmaker John Carney shot to prominence in 2007, when his romantic musical drama ‘Once’ became an unexpected hit. What had started as a little film that cost just $150,000 to make ended up grossing over $23m at the global box office, won an Academy Award for Best Original song, and was later remade into a stage musical. The warmth shone through the end product to make a connection with the audiences beyond anything that Carney could have ever dreamed of.

Since then, he has focused a lot of his directorial output on the musical genre. These have been fairly consistent in their quality despite varying box office returns. First there was 2013’s Begin Again, a saccharine effort starring Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo. Then in 2016 he helmed Sing Street, an Irish-set bittersweet musical that again outperformed expectations. Finally, Flora and Son, a Gary Clark collaboration, performed poorly with a limited release in 2023 before moderate success when it arrived on Apple TV+.

And so we come to Power Ballad, his latest musical comedy. This time, Paul Rudd takes centre stage as Rick Power, the front man of a jobbing wedding band called The Bride and Groove. We are introduced to the band in the middle of a very successful performance at a wedding party, which goes awry when Rick decides to use his formerly successful rock band’s biggest hit as the encore. Inevitably the audience doesn’t dig the sound and the show falls flat. This is a great springboard for his story – he has made a compromise on his personal success by fully committing to family life with his wife and daughter, but is still writing songs with no platform to showcase them.

We are then introduced to Danny Wilson, played by Nick Jonas. He is a struggling former boyband member that is looking to write a hit comeback single. When a chance meeting between him and Rick leads to them jamming out a few song ideas, Nick takes one of Rick’s songs and uses it as the lead single on his new album. The catch? Rick didn’t give him permission and he isn’t credited on the song.

As a member of a very unserious dad rock band who had flashes of musical success in my youth, a lot of the film resonated hard with me. John Carney is a talented songwriter himself, and he is uniquely adept at showing the songwriting process in a realistic manner. I really enjoyed Paul Rudd’s performance in the lead role, which is both lightly humorous and soaked with emotional baggage too.

As a piece of cinema, I have only one small gripe with Power Ballad. The whole film hinges on the magic of one single song as it becomes the most popular piece of music in the entire world. Unfortunately, the song itself is not quite of that quality. It’s not a bad song by any means, but it does have an unlikely callback to another recent musical comedy: K-Pop Demon Hunters. When you watch that film and the same snowballing success happens with ‘Golden’, it’s believable because that song is pop perfection. ‘How To Write A Song (Without You)’ isn’t really hitting that level, and it undermines the entire plot.

Frustratingly, the song that does hit that mark from a previous John Carney film is ‘Falling Slowly’. We do briefly see a busker belting it out in central Dublin, giving us a glimpse of what could have been if that song had been used in this film.

Overall, despite a few limitations, this is a very good film. If you want a bit of uplifting musical comedy in your life, then this is the film for you.

Power Ballad Official Trailer

by hutchwp

Film review – Propeller One-Way Night Coach (John Travolta, 2026)

Quite soon into the opening of John Travolta’s directorial debut, you may find yourself audibly gasping. Or perhaps saying things like “What’s going on here?” or “Why?” or “Is this a parody?”Perhaps, like me, you paused it to work out what the back story about this kind-of film was. Maybe you’ve come across this very article and feel like you wrote it yourself.

In many ways, ‘Propeller One-Way Night Coach’ is unlike any other film you’ve ever seen. Unique in many ways. It sets the bar quite low, then runs head first into it. Indeed, The Telegraph writer Robbie Collin declared that it was like “watching a toddler run into a lamp post”. It’s hard to disagree.

Watching the opening credits, there are some classy animated visuals that set the scene quite well, with a vintage jazz track providing additional vibes. Sure, it says ‘John Travolta’ a few times more than is necessary, but I’m on board.

Then the narration kicks in. Nothing can prepare you for the effort required to stay engaged with this narration. It makes Harrison Ford’s infamous voiceover for Blade Runner sound like Robin Williams doing a standup routine after 10 cans of Red Bull.

The story itself is quite a simple recounting of how Travolta, as a child, fell in love with planes. It is easygoing, formed as an adaptation of his children’s book of the same name from almost 30 years ago. It isn’t bad exactly. It’s a very personal book for him, and I’m sure it’s great for aviation enthusiasts. Undertaking a passion project is often where movie magic happens. I shudder to bring up Citizen Kane in relation to this film but here we are.

I just absolutely don’t think this needed to be adapted for the small screen and it felt like a complete waste of time to watch it. It falls into the category of being so blandly bad that you should absolutely not watch it, not even ironically.

Sorry John. I, like you, gave it a go. I think we both wasted our time.

by hutchwp

Film review – Outcome (Jonah Hill, 2026)

A film directed by the extremely talented Jonah Hill, starring Keanu Reeves, and with supporting roles from Cameron Diaz, Martin Scorsese, David Spade and Drew Barrymore, should really be better than this. But alas, it is not. And I am struggling to work out why.

The ambitious plot rattles along with a snappy script, as we explore the fallout of a mysterious video being used to bribe the fictional beloved movie star Reef Hawk (Reeves). Under the advice of his lawyer Ira Slitz (Hill), Hawk embarks on a journey of reconciliation, as he seeks out and apologises to everyone he feels he has annoyed throughout his career.

There’s nothing wrong with this, and there are some hilarious turns along the way. Susan Lucci showing up as Hawk’s mother and demanding he discusses their relationship as a scene in her Real Housewives TV show is a real highlight, as is Drew Barrymore featuring in a solitary scene as a caricature of herself.

One critical issue is the performance of Keanu Reeves. As th focal point of the plot, his role needed to be delivered perfectly. It’s actually a very risky role, as it asks the viewer to find sympathy for a rich and famous man who has been caught out in an act of perversion. It is no mistake that certain shots linger in foyers with the like of Kevin Spacey and Kanye West prominently positioned in the backdrop. Reeves is not offensive in his portrayal, and the message seems to be that we shouldn’t be overly judgemental until we’ve seen the details of these scandals. But his acting, as is often the case, feels like the handbrake has been left on – emotionally stitled, and lacking the hues and colours required of a fairly complex role.

The net result is something that isn’t particularly enjoyable, feels extremely flat and is an altogether missed opportunity.

Trailer for Outcome, streaming now on Apple TV+
by hutchwp

Film review – Father Mother Sister Brother (Jim Jarmusch, 2026)

Jim Jarmusch returns after a six-year break with Father Mother Sister Brother, a comedy-drama anthology that explores the relationship between parents and their children. It’s a welcome return for fans of the auteur, providing an entertaining and thought-provoking entry to his filmography without stepping too far outside common ground.

The film tells three stories in three separate cities: New Jersey, Dublin and Paris. Each vignette is a variation on the same theme, with two siblings reconnect with their parents after a time of separation. It’s a starting point that allows Jarmusch to explore in depth the connection and disconnect that often exists between generations of the same family.

Common elements and callbacks are sprinkled throughout. In each, a comedic exchange occurs around the phrase “Bob’s Your Uncle”. An expensive Rolex watch is given prominence in each tale. There is a mutual appreciation of the social sharing of a cup of coffee or tea, in a way that harks back stylistically to Jarmusch’s previous anthology film Coffee and Cigarettes. 

The stories work extremely well together, and deserve to be enjoyed as a single body. For it is not in the details of each story that the real impact is made. Instead, the overarching themes are teased out over the three stories: familial dysfunction, alienated parents, strained relationships. The fact these play out across a global landscape feels deliberate too – this is not an isolated situation but one seen time and time again by adults with loving parents.

This is a stylish and thoughtful piece that is well acted. It delivers on expectations without overachieving. Sometimes that’s enough.

by hutchwp

Film review – Pompei: Below The Clouds (Gianfranco Rosi, 2026)

A carriage rocks slowly over a modern train line. An emergency service desk responds to the fears and panics of a city. A dilapidated old cinema screens images from forgotten masterpieces to an empty auditorium. Japanese archeolegists slowly and methodically uncover relics from the past.

And so it goes.

For almost two hours, Gianfranco Rosi’s carefully curated imagery builds up an astonishing portrait of modern Naples, a city that exists in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius and its terrifying presence.

Pompei: Below The Clouds is an undoubtedly beautiful documentary. The black and white cinematography serves as the perfect means to showcase the contrasting darks and lights within the images Rosi has captured. The soundscape builds on this, with low industrial hums and raw chatter giving even more gravitas to the proceedings.

There is no singular narrative here. The multiple threads sit alongside each other, serving to create something much more than the sum of their parts. Each one plays a role in bringing to life the city as it is now, steeped in its inescapable past. Think of it as a very distant cousin of Love Actually; an unexpectedly stylish family member you didn’t know existed until the Easter gathering, who you now find much more interesting than anyone and anything within eyesight.

Pompei: Below the Clouds is a film that needs your attention. Streaming on MUBI in the UK, if you are planning to watch at home then you need to find a full night of peace to fully allow yourself to be immersed. It’s deserving of this focus.

Official trailer for Pompei: Below the Clouds
by hutchwp

Film review – It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley (Amy Berg, 2026)

In the late 1990s, in years that were critical to my musical development, there was a flurry of popularity for emotionally poetic rock. Radiohead opened the door, and Coldplay, Travis and Muse gladly stepped through it.

As a nerdy teenager, it was typical of me to get heavily into bands I liked and read anything and everything that was written about them. Interviews, snippets, reviews, articles. One musician that was namechecked a lot was American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley. He was a key influence on a lot of my favourite bands. A mystery surrounded both his music and his short life, and it was a no-brainer for me to take a punt on picking up his album based on hype alone.

It proved a wonderful gift at that time in my life. Those ten songs contributed heavily to the soundtrack of my late teens. Outwardly fitting in with my peers by frequenting local rock bars and declaring my love of bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Offspring, at home I studied hard and allowed to Jeff Buckley’s ethereal voice to inhabit whatever brain capacity was left at the time.

A frustratingly short career is a good way to secure your eternal legacy, with every song heightened and held up as clear evidence of a future cruelly denied from your new-found fans. And so it is with Jeff Buckley and the new documentary that covers his life, music and untimely death.

The documentary is the most in depth study of his life that has ever been committed to film. It builds up layers of his life slowly, by incorporating audio messages, demos, live recordings, never-before-seen video footage, and new interviews with people key to his life. The focus here is his relationship to the women in his life, including his ex-girlfriends and his mother Mary Guibert.

Tbe film was a wonderful way to rekindle my love of Jeff Buckley and his small but strong musical output. His life may have been cut short but his legacy will live on for many years to come.

Official trailer for Jeff Buckley: It’s Never Over
by hutchwp

Academy Awards 2026 – Full List of Winners

Best picture

  • WINNER: One Battle After Another
  • Bugonia
  • Frankenstein
  • F1
  • Hamnet
  • Marty Supreme
  • The Secret Agent
  • Sentimental Value
  • Sinners
  • Train Dreams

Best actress

  • WINNER: Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
  • Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
  • Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue
  • Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value
  • Emma Stone – Bugonia

Best actor

  • WINNER: Michael B Jordan – Sinners
  • Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
  • Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
  • Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
  • Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent

Best supporting actress

  • WINNER: Amy Madigan – Weapons
  • Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value
  • Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value
  • Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
  • Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another

Best supporting actor

  • WINNER: Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
  • Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another
  • Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
  • Delroy Lindo – Sinners
  • Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value

Best director

  • WINNER: Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
  • Ryan Coogler – Sinners
  • Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme
  • Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value
  • Chloé Zhao – Hamnet

Best animated feature

  • WINNER: KPop Demon Hunters
  • Arco
  • Elio
  • Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
  • Zootopia 2

Best international feature

  • WINNER: Sentimental Value
  • It Was Just an Accident
  • Sirât
  • The Secret Agent
  • The Voice of Hind Rajab

Best documentary feature

  • WINNER: Mr Nobody Against Putin
  • Come See Me in the Good Light
  • Cutting Through the Rocks
  • The Alabama Solution
  • The Perfect Neighbor

Best original screenplay

  • WINNER: Sinners – Ryan Coogler
  • Blue Moon – Robert Kaplow
  • It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi
  • Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
  • Sentimental Value – Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier

Best adapted screenplay

  • WINNER: One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Bugonia – Will Tracy
  • Frankenstein – Guillermo del Toro
  • Hamnet – Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell
  • Train Dreams – Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar

Best original song

  • WINNER: Golden – KPop Demon Hunters (by EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo and Teddy Park)
  • Dear Me – Diane Warren: Relentless (by Diane Warren)
  • I Lied to You – Sinners (by by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Goransson)
  • Sweet Dreams of Joy – Viva Verdi! (by Nicholas Pike)
  • Train Dreams – Train Dreams (by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner)

Best original score

  • WINNER: Sinners – Ludwig Goransson
  • Bugonia – Jerskin Fendrix
  • Frankenstein – Alexandre Desplat
  • Hamnet – Max Richter
  • One Battle After Another – Jonny Greenwood

Best cinematography

  • WINNER: Sinners – Autumn Durald Arkapaw
  • Frankenstein – Dan Laustsen
  • Marty Supreme – Darius Khondji
  • One Battle After Another – Michael Bauman
  • Train Dreams – Adolpho Veloso

Best film editing

  • WINNER: One Battle After Another – Andy Jurgensen
  • F1 – Stephen Mirrione
  • Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
  • Sentimental Value – Olivier Bugge Coutté
  • Sinners – Michael P Shawver

Best sound

  • WINNER: F1 – Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A Rizzo and Juan Peralta
  • Frankenstein – Greg Chapman, Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira, Christian Cooke and Brad Zoern
  • One Battle After Another – José Antonio García, Christopher Scarabosio and Tony Villaflor
  • Sinners – Chris Welcker, Benjamin A Burtt, Felipe Pacheco, Brandon Proctor and Steve Boeddeker
  • Sirât – Amanda Villavieja, Laia Casanovas and Yasmina Praderas

Best visual effects

  • WINNER: Avatar: Fire and Ash – Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett
  • F1 – Ryan Tudhope, Nicolas Chevallier, Robert Harrington and Keith Dawson
  • Jurassic World Rebirth – David Vickery, Stephen Aplin, Charmaine Chan and Neil Corbould
  • Sinners – Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl, Guido Wolter and Donnie Dean
  • The Lost Bus – Charlie Noble, David Zaretti, Russell Bowen and Brandon K McLaughlin

Best production design

  • WINNER: Frankenstein – Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau
  • Hamnet – Fiona Crombie and Alice Felton
  • Marty Supreme – Jack Fisk and Adam Willis
  • One Battle After Another – Florencia Martin and Anthony Carlino
  • Sinners – Hannah Beachler and Monique Champagne
by hutchwp

Academy Awards 2026 – Full List of Nominees

Best picture

Bugonia
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams

Best directing

Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler, Sinners

Best actor

Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Michael B Jordan, Sinners
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent

Best actress

Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
Emma Stone, Bugonia

Best supporting actor

Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo, Sinners
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value

Best supporting actress

Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan, Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another

Best original screenplay

Blue Moon
It Was Just an Accident
Marty Supreme
Sentimental Value
Sinners

Best adapted screenplay

Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Train Dreams

Best animated feature film

Arco
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2

Best international feature film

The Secret Agent
It Was Just an Accident
Sentimental Value
Sirât
The Voice of Hind Rajab

Best documentary feature film

The Alabama Solution
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cutting Through Rocks
Mr Nobody Against Putin
The Perfect Neighbor

Best documentary short film

All the Empty Rooms
Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
Children No More: Were and Are Gone
The Devil Is Busy
Perfectly a Strangeness

Best animated short film

Butterfly
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters

Best live action short film

Butcher’s Stain
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva

Best casting

Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sinners

Best cinematography

Frankenstein
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Train Dreams

Best costume design

Avatar: Fire and Ash
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
Sinners

Best film editing

F1
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners

Best makeup and hairstyling

Frankenstein
Kokuho
Sinners
The Smashing Machine
The Ugly Stepsister

Best production design

Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners

Best original score

Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Sinners

Best original song

Dear Me, Diane Warren: Relentless
Golden, KPop Demon Hunters
I Lied To You, Sinners
Sweet Dreams of Joy, Viva Verdi!
Train Dreams, Train Dreams

Best sound

F1
Frankenstein
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirât

Best visual effects

Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Jurassic World Rebirth
The Lost Bus
Sinners