Jun 17
Second only to The Shining in the canon of Stephen King film adaptations, Misery tells the story of a writer who is rescued from a car crash by his “number one fan”, a psychotic nurse who then holds him prisoner until he writes a new ending for one of his books. Aside from some ankle and …
Jun 03
The King’s Speech is not nearly as dull a film as its premise might suggest. Aside from being a uniquely-made historical take on the events of George VI’s life, it is also a simple and powerful drama that gets into the skin of its the main character, his highness. The music is very, very well-equipped to …
May 20
Synecdoche, New York is made of the stuff that even film bloggers don’t understand (including us). It is a decidedly ‘multiple viewings needed’ film about a playwright, Caden Cotard, injecting his existential fears about death and loneliness into an increasingly large-scale autobiographical play, within which the same character puts on the same play, within which……
This …
May 06
With many people claiming that Skyfall is “the best James Bond film since Goldfinger“, I thought I’d revisit the Sean Connery classic this week and examine its musical merits. There are plenty.
With Goldfinger, the third in the series, John Barry, king of the Bond score, gave us not only the best song but the best (and …
Apr 22
Howard Shore is not my favourite film composer thanks to his occasionally committing the John Williams crime of noodling around in a particularly “pleasant” soundworld and not delivering any substance or development. I know that film music isn’t the same as concert music but, if you’re capable of doing interesting things, whatever the context, you …
Apr 08
Released last year to modest acclaim, this Wes Anderson gem slipped past mainstream moviegoers without much of a fuss; a shame, since it’s probably the director’s highest achievement so far. The clean, square look of the film, with its bright colour and child-like treatment of the story, works perfectly with its music, composed by Andre …
Mar 18
Horror is a variable genre when it comes to movie scores. It is a genre in which the most innovative music, the Psychos and the Shinings, sits alongside some of the worst in the industry. If you want to scare people, you can’t give them anything they are expecting, and so it is necessary to …
Mar 04
Thanks to Steven Spielberg’s affinity with family and adventure movies, a lot of John Williams’ scores are remembered for their bold, joyous melodies, magical glissandos and fat brassy statements that speak of worlds better than this one. In Schindler’s List, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Of course, not only does the movie deal …
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