Standing out on her own

Why Glee's Amber Riley is the queen of the National Anthem: You could learnsomething, Aguilera

Amber Riley knows how to do a killer "Star Spangled Banner."
Christina Aguilera didn't have as much success during the NBA Finals.

This definitely isn't my first time critiquing a national anthem performance. When Christina Aguilera didn't do that well as the Los Angeles Lakers' good luck charm (at least singing wise) during the NBA Finals, I compared her struggles to one of the better national anthem performances in recent memory: Amber Riley of Glee at last year's World Series.

And received a lot of hate for it in the comments.

This week my admiration for Riley's rendition was validated. She belted out the "The Star Spangled Banner" at another one of Major League Baseball's huge events — the All-Star Game — and received almost universal kudos for the performance.

So why is Riley so good at a song that so many other talented celebrities butcher? Here are the five rules Riley followed to two-time success. Take notes Christina.

1) Don't repeat the same performance

People don't dig reruns. Don't become the basic cable channel of the singing world. Without her Glee cast to back her up this time, Riley made the song her own. When she did a singing run for "the land of the free" at the World Series, she sort of lost control a little bit. Riley kept herself focused this time. She's got a steady paycheck now.

2) Do Not run for the entire song

Basically that is what ruined Christina Aguilera's attempts. She put too too much stank on "the land of the free" because she couldn't reach the note. Aguilera and Riley are both belt singers. They don't really do whistle voice (Mariah Carey's signature). Which is OK, but it makes them kind of dependent on runs. But don't do what Christina did. The key is to limit yourself to three and just three, while using more vibrato instead.

3) Do make it look effortless

Nothing creates more fandemonium like making your job look easy. Whitney Houston's "Star Spangled Banner" performance for Superbowl XXV in 1991 was amazing. Before the whole crack thing, Whitney had it. She looked like she was just at another day at work.

4) Do not move the meter of the song off a bit

Like Whitney's performance, Riley's was more fluid less bouncy. No going down or up steps unless you have a sex change or something.

5) Just sing the damn song

This rule comes in the vein of the commentator that agreed on Aguilera's bad performance: "Just sing the song and don't eff it up with all those awful runs."

It's one of the hardest songs in the world to sing well (just ask Carl Lewis). You have to follow the voices of some very loud instruments that could upstage you, mainly the brass section. Because Riley has a belting voice, she can really upstage the entire band.

Watch a master at work:

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Movie Review

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is technically stunning but lacks emotion

Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures

Matt Damon in The Odyssey.

For a story that is 3,000 years old and has been referenced innumerable times since the advent of the moving picture, it’s striking that The Odyssey has not been adapted into a film more often. Christopher Nolan’s new film is, depending on your definition, just the fourth time in film history that someone has attempted to tell the original story (oddly, the third film — The Return — came out just two years ago).

Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, who has been gone from his home of Ithaca for over 20 years. Waiting at home for him is his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland), as well as a hall full of suitors — most notably Antinous (Robert Pattinson) — who are hoping that Penelope will finally believe that Odysseus is dead and choose to marry one of them.

In typical Nolan fashion, the film goes back-and-forth in time often to show what has happened to Odysseus in the past two decades. His sea voyages with his crew have him attacking Troy using the legendary Trojan Horse; taking on the cyclops Polyphemus (Bill Irwin); trying to escape the clutches of the witch Circe (Samantha Morton); living with the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron); communing with the vision of Athena (Zendaya); and more.

Nolan, who wrote and directed the epic film, has a clear reverence for the material and, perhaps more than any current filmmaker, has the chops to make the sprawling story feel coherent. With a plethora of characters who have names that take some time to understand for those not familiar with the ancient tale, it’s extremely tough to wrangle everything and everyone together, and Nolan and his team make that trick seem relatively easy.

However, there’s a difference between making the story comprehensible and making it compelling, and Nolan is not as successful on this front. As portrayed in this film, it’s difficult to care whether Odysseus ever finds his way home. His connection with Penelope and Telemachus is tenuous, at best, and his status as a hero is called into question on multiple occasions. Complicated protagonists are nothing new, but in a story where the hero’s journey is the whole point, Nolan fails to make the quest all encompassing.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some standout moments along the way. The sequence in Polyphemus’ cave is tremendous, as are a few other scenes in which Nolan’s reported reliance on practical effects make you wonder how the crew accomplished what they did. Damon has said this is the hardest movie he’s ever made, and that effort shows up in every scene, especially those on the water.

At 56 years old, Damon is getting close to elder statesman status in Hollywood, and he ably embodies the role of the respected and feared leader. Hathaway, Holland, and Pattinson get the next most screentime, and each makes their character interesting if not mesmerizing. The murderer’s row of the supporting cast — Theron, Lupita Nyong'o, Zendaya, Elliot Page, Morton, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo, and more — give each scene a nice sheen whether or not their individual arc makes sense.

While the technical achievements of Nolan and his team in The Odyssey are admirable and occasionally awe-inspiring, the story he lays out is not quite as overwhelming. The structure he chose to use doesn’t allow the story to overcome the episodic nature of Odysseus’ brutal journey, keeping big emotions mostly at bay.

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The Odyssey opens in theaters on July 17.

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