As the music plays

A big chunk of a film’s success is usually attributed to its writers, directors and actors. But there is a whole slew of underdog film crew members whose contributions help make that final cut soar in the theaters or on your TV screens. Here are a couple of great uses of music in the movies and TV:

The Black Donnellys

I was one of the many people who tuned in to watch the premiere of the highly-anticipated Paul Haggis-created NBC drama The Black Donnellys, and I was not disappointed. The show centers around four Irish brothers who go through so many lengths to protect each other. Think of something along the lines of The Sopranos, only Irish. Anyway, the show stars Jonathan Tucker, Olivia Wilde and then-unknown Michael Stahl-David.

The best use of song was during the premiere of the show when Tommy Donnelly makes a choice to kill off the leaders of the Italian mob that beat up his brother. The scene starts with a wide shot of the street where the mob leaders are at and Tommy goes into the restaurant. The opening riff of Snow Patrol’s Open Your Eyes softly plays in the background, and to those of you who are familiar with the song, you know that it builds up over the minute into this one really resounding, kind of open-your-arms-and-yell kind of grand majesty, and at that moment, when Tommy Donnelly is being searched by one of the guards and he slowly pulls out a dagger from the back of his shirt, I could feel the intensity of the moment building and you just wanted to start running outside and yelling, you know? Anyway, so yeah. Best use of song within a scene goes to this one.

Veronica Mars

Best opening song goes to our beloved sleuth show. The Dandy Warhols’ We Used to Be Friends. I especially loved the revamped version that was used in season 3 where the synth and drums were tuned out and it was just a very cool, mellow vocal.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Nerf Herder’s special Buffy the Vampire Slayer intro also takes the cake in awesome intros. It’s like, 45 seconds long, but it sums up the complete awesomeness of slayer butt-kicking action. But I’m biased, so hey.

Another awesome Slayer music moment is, of course, Once More with Feeling. No other show on TV has pulled off a successful musical. Joss Whedon’s writing is top notch in this one, and let’s give Sarah Michelle Gellar some props for trying to sing on tune even though she doesn’t have the best voice. I especially loved the Xander-Anya “I’ll Never Tell” segment. I loved it so much I paid 12 bucks to go see it played on the big screen with about a hundred people behind me singing along to the music.

Desperate Housewives

Danny Elfman can do no wrong. Pretty much anything he taps his magic wand on turns into something great. He was able to sum up the entirety of Desperate Housewives into one neat little intro tune. Whenever I hear that intro play I think of Stepford wife gone bonkers, and that’s exactly what the show is about, so it was a success.

Lost

You know that theme that plays whenever the castaways are at a peaceful, Other-free state? That sad yet Sarah McLachlan-sweet piano tune that plays? That one is also a good use of musical theme to enhance scenes. In season 3, when Kate, Sayid, and Locke break into the Others’ camp to rescue Jack, the theme is actually played by Jack (so congrats, Matthew Fox, I heard you had to practice that theme to perfection) when Kate finds him in his little Other house.

The O.C.

Josh Schwartz and company (Alex Patsavas, namely) pride themselves in creating hip mixes for the show, and that’s not completely unfounded (this is evidenced by the fact that I own 4 of the 5 mixes they have put out). Best finale song would go to their use of Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah in the season 1 finale.

Moulin Rouge

For me, Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge was great for three reasons: (1) it brought the musical back in full force, (2) it reintroduced Nicole Kidman as a bankable actress, and (3) it made Ewan McGregor a star. I swear, the performances in the movie were so memorable I can remember them vividly. The songs were great–I especially loved Elephant Love Medley. The soundtrack was killer as well. My favorite song on it is Rufus Wainwright’s Complainte de la Butte.

Garden State

So, Natalie Portman easily made The Shins a nationwide success by declaring that they would change your life. Zach Braff’s compilation of smooth, laid-back tunes to his directorial debut is known everywhere as a launching pad for artists like The Shins, The Cary Brothers, and even reintroduced Simon & Garfunkel to the Plain White T’s-generation of moviegoers. Remy Zero’s Fair is one of my favorite songs off this nice little compilation.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Howard Shore is a musical maestro. Like Danny Elfman, anything he touches he turns to gold. So it was only right that he won the Academy award for Best Original Score in 2003 for his work on RoTK. That score, I swear, I listen to it every time and I feel like bawling my eyes out. I especially love The Return of the King and The Grey Havens. Like the movies, this score is absolutely epic. I can’t wait to dole out the money for the newly released complete recordings of each of the LoTR films.

Say Anything

It’s a scene all girls dream about: John Cusack raising his boom box outside Ione Skye’s window, with Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes blaring out of it. Best use of song in lieu of actual lines to convey character intentions. Lloyd Dobler’s efforts paid off, so come on guys. Take a hint.

Almost Famous

Cameron Crowe is an OST demon. I think all of his compilations have done fairly well on the market. Elizabethtown is one of my Crowe-compiled favorites, with songs from Elton John and Ryan Adams. Singles is also one excellent compilation, with songs from the Smashing Pumpkins, and that catchy theme courtesy of Paul Westerberg. But of Crowe’s films I especially liked Almost Famous. Who can forget the cast singing along to Elton John’s Tiny Dancer after a tension-packed confrontation?

Clueless

Best intro to a movie goes to this Alicia Silverstone flick. When the blue background pops on the screen with the flirty words Clueless blinking enthusiastically as if to imitate how much pep the movie has, The Muffs’ Kids in America only serves to emphasize the uber-coolness of the movie. I loved the whole soundtrack, which featured The Counting Crows, Radiohead, and that super awesome remake of the Bowie classic “All the Young Dudes” by World Party.

Super soundtracks

Here are a couple of my favorite movie soundtracks:

Good Will Hunting - with the score by Danny Elfman and tracks from Elliott Smith, how could this compilation go wrong?

Almost Famous - everyone knows the talented Mr. Crowe knows how to compile his soundtracks. Vanilla Sky had some pretty awesome tunes and of course, Singles was pretty badass. However, this compilation is pretty rad because of the Elton John and Led Zep tunes.

Everything is Illuminated - the score by Paul Cantelon is awesome.

Amelie - Yann Tiersen is awesome. The whole score is so atmospheric, it takes you all the way to the Champs Elysees in the comfort of your bedroom.

The Virgin Suicides - Come on. Soundtrack by Air. What can go wrong?

Rushmore - Wes Anderson is another guy who knows how to compile music. Of his films it was a toss-up between Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Darjeeling Limited. Since I hated The Darjeeling Limited, I ruled it out, even though the Kinks-filled soundtrack rocked.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy - Howard Shore is the ultimate maestro when it comes to scores. He worked tediously on the three films and they all turned out ten times better with his magnificent compositions.

Dysfunctional parent-child relationships

Winter Passing stars Zooey Deschanel [Almost Famous, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy], Ed Harris and a surprisingly tame Will Ferrell. The plot of this movie is basically the whole dysfunctional parent-sibling relationship between Ed Harris’s character, who is a famous writer, and Zooey Deschanel’s character, who plays Harris’s estranged daughter Reese, a theater actress. The movie is sort of a cross between Garden State and Proof. The similarity of Winter Passing to Garden State is because relationship-wise, Zach Braff’s and Ian Holm’s characters become strained and the two are brought together because of a death in the family. Similarly so, in Winter Passing, Reese goes back home to Detroit to see her father, and to check out some letters that were left for her by her deceased mother. The similarity of Winter Passing to Proof is that the child is burdened by the reputation of the parent. For instance, in Proof, Anthony Hopkins is this mathematical genius, and Gwyneth Paltrow is his mathematical genius daughter, who wants to have a life of her own other than being the daughter of a math genius. In Winter Passing, Zooey Deschanel’s character, Reese, hates her parents because she felt neglected when she was a child. She felt that her parents, who were both successful writers, were more concerned about their work than they were about raising their child. So yeah, it’s the whole dysfunctional parent-child thing.

Anyway, I’m a fan of Zooey Deschanel. I think she’s really cool. What caught my attention, though, is Will Ferrell’s performance. He was unusually relaxed and quiet in this film, which is like, practically unheard of. We’re so used to seeing him all enthusiastic and wild, like his roles in Anchorman and Old School. But it was refreshing to see that he could actually take on a minimal role in a very brooding movie.

What I liked best about the film was probably just Zooey Deschanel’s character. She had a very interesting part and I felt that Deschanel delivered well in this film. Also, the soundtrack didn’t hurt at all. Cat Power and the Shins were some of the artists featured in the soundtrack.

Road trippin’ with a twist

Yay, a Cameron Crowe creation! Too bad it wasn’t as life-changing as Say Anything or as memorable as Almost Famous. Ah, but just to see Orlando Bloom sans the elf costume and Crusader attire is worth the viewing time. Oh, and who can forget the brilliant (as usual) soundtrack? With songs from Elton John (a Crowe movie staple…remember Tiny Dancer in Almost Famous?), Ryan Adams (one of my absolute favorites), and My Morning Jacket, how can this OST go wrong? Crowe has always compiled great soundtracks. Singles was one of the coolest, and of course, there’s always Almost Famous. Elizabethtown is basically about this guy Drew [Orlando Bloom], who gets a bad rep for a shoe gone wrong (the guy works at a shoe empire) and is facing…oh, probably what we’d call a career annihilation. So Drew goes home, chucks all of his furniture out of his apartment (to the delight of the wandering homeless) and fastens a knife to his exercise bike machine (yes, he plans to kill himself while exercising. Who knew it was possible, eh?).

Anyway, before Drew is stabbed to death by his vile exercise machine, his phone rings. It’s his family back home, informing him of his dad’s death. Now of course, being the responsible one, he’s obligated to return home and make arrangements for his dad’s funeral and stuff. He postpones his self-inflicted death and goes home to Kentucky to have his dad’s body cremated. On the flight back home, he meets Claire [Kirsten Dunst], a bubbly and inquisitive flight stewardess who has taken interest in the plight of a depressed Drew. She befriends him, gives him her phone number, and the two fall in love over hours of phone conversations.

That’s…pretty much it. Although the movie is funny and quirky and stuff, it didn’t exactly give me the urge to go out and buy the DVD. It’s not exactly something you’d wanna watch over and over again. Unlike Almost Famous. Elizabethtown is just not as incendiary, man. (wink, wink)
Anyhoo, it’s cool. Everyone likes an unconventional love story. Go see it. It won’t change your life or anything, but somebody’s gotta go see Orlando Bloom in a regular T-shirt, right?

Walk the Line

I have to admit that the first time I heard of Johnny Cash was while listening to “Hurt” on NU107 3 years ago. I loved the song, sure. I knew Nine Inch Nails revived the song. But I never really took any interest in The Man in Black himself.That was until Walk the Line.

Walk the Line isn’t a movie for everyone. You have to have an inclination to music and some patience to be able to fully appreciate this film. If you’re a Reese Witherspoon fan, you won’t be disappointed, because Miss Witherspoon shows off her singing chops here. If you’re a Joaquin Phoenix fan, you definitely, definitely won’t be asking for your money back because the guy just lived and breathed Johnny Cash in this movie.

From Phoenix’s husky “Hello everybody, I’m Johnny Cash”, to Witherspoon’s crooning of June Carter’s “Time’s A-Wastin’”–the movie definitely appeals more to those fans of country music and the misadventures offered by the rock & roll life. If the material for this film was given to any other director other than James Mangold, the movie would have sure as hell been butchered and mauled. I think, like Ang Lee’s treatment of Brokeback Mountain (beaten by Crash at the Oscars! Can you believe it?!), Mangold directed Walk the Line with such fervor and dedication as Cameron Crowe would have had if given a Black Sabbath biopic to direct.

The movie didn’t exactly change my life or anything, but it was actually pretty darn good. You can count on not only a good soundtrack, but great acting from the two lead actors. Most people didn’t see why Reese Witherspoon was being made such a big deal of. I completely understand why. The girl came into the set of the film with no knowledge of country singing whatsoever. And she took the challenge of emulating the great June Carter head on. The same goes for Joaquin Phoenix. Having to be The Johnny Cash must have scared him shitless.

Johnny Cash was one of those legends who took risks, spoke his mind, and fought for what he believed in. Although some might call him morbid, dark or depressing, another more experienced lot would have called him honest, straightforward, and as real as one can get. Walk the Line definitely gave his life and music justice. You know this for a fact once you get out of the theater and all you can hear in your head is “Folsom Prison Blues”.

People always told Johnny Cash that his usual all-black attire made it seem like he was going to a funeral. And to all these comments The Man in Black would always reply, “Maybe I am.” Words of wisdom from one of the greats in music history, wouldn’t you think?

Thumbsucker

The movie Thumbsucker is based on the book written by Walter Kirn. The story revolves around Justin (played by Lou Taylor Pucci), who is a sulking 17-year-old who has a habit of sucking his thumb when he gets nervous or agitated. He’s awkward and insecure as it is, and so thumbsucking at the age of 17 doesn’t do a lot for his self-esteem. His parents (played by Vincent d’Onofrio and Tilda Swinton) are bothered by the fact that their teenage son still sucks his thumb. Justin visits his hippie orthodonist Perry (played by Keanu Reeves) who hypnotizes him into thinking that his thumb tastes horrible. Whenever Justin feels agitated or anxious, the new-age Perry tells him to “call his power animal”, a symbol of strength and confidence. It sort of works, because Justin stops sucking his thumb for, oh, say a few hours. When Justin reverts back to his thumb, though, he feels helpless and is urged by his debate teacher (Vince Vaughn) to take medication for ADHD. Justin finds that his medication keeps him less antsy and more focused–focused enough to help him get through Moby Dick. Justin then joins the debate club, full of confidence, and manages to annihilate every single of his opponents. But then he grows more aggressive and more arrogant at this newfound confidence in his intelligence and debating prowess. He sees that he’s treating everyone else like shit, and chucks his Ritalin. Justin finds that his problems aren’t in his thumbsucking, but in his relationships with his family; most especially with his parents. He finds that he and his father are very much alike, even when they barely communicate. And he finds that it’s not only him who has problems, but the whole family as well, and that he was so obsessed with his own dramas that he couldn’t see the dramas other people were going through.

Thumbsucker is a good movie. It’s well-written, has a great cast, and has an excellent soundtrack (Elliott Smith, anyone?). I think Keanu Reeves was a good choice for the hippie orthodontist role. He does doctors so well. He played one in Something’s Gotta Give and I gotta say, that lab gown looks ravishing on him. Vincent d’Onofrio was excellent in this film. It’s surprising to see the transition from the tough-guy on Law & Order to insecure family man on this movie. Benjamin Bratt also co-stars as Don Johnson, an actor-druggie who Justin’s mom (Tilda Swinton) looks after in a celebrity rehab facility. He actually plays someone who’s a far cry from that sergeant he played in The Great Raid and was pretty close to the Miss Congeniality character. Benjamin Bratt actually plays a decent pothead.

Did I mention that this has a great soundtrack? Soundtracks are it for me. Garden State, Almost Famous, Elizabethtown…some films just can’t budge without a great accompanying soundtrack. And Elliott Smith is awesome. So yeah, go see this movie.

Lords of Dogtown

I liked Lords of Dogtown. It isn’t as memorable as it should be, but Emile Hirsch pulled it off quite well. Hirsch plays Jay Adams. Hirsch has been skating since he was like, 6. Which makes it relatively easy for him to do stunts and whatnot. On the other hand, John Robinson played Stacy Perralta, who’s the writer and director of this movie. Stacy Perralta is this big international skater turned movie director. Overall, I had a good laugh with the film. I liked Heath Ledger’s performance in this. Very offbeat, eccentric, funny. And the soundtrack is pretty good. Ted Nugent, Green Day, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix…

John Robinson was in Gus Van Sant’s Elephant. I still get goosebumps when I remember watching Elephant. I remember it was just after I saw Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine and I had heard great things about Elephant so I went and rented it. Excellent work by Gus Van Sant. When I think of Elephant, the first thing that comes to mind is John Robinson’s white blond hair. He has the most unbelievable blond hair. Like Gwen Stefani, pre-Cool video. Platinum blond. He brings that over to Lords of Dogtown too. It’s this really long, straight blond hair and I bet it would make girls all over nuts thinking that a guy had hair like that.

Screaming infideities

Closer was an incredibly raw movie, for me. Not only did it portray an accurate picture of infidelity as it happens in real life, but the intensity and the mystery of each character in the film definitely pulled me in.

The beginning shot of Natalie Portman and Jude Law walking down a busy street, with Damien Rice’s haunting “The Blower’s Daughter” playing in the background, is probably the best opening I’ve ever seen in a film. In this film, there was no trace of Jude Law’s usual charm as seen in his other movies such as Alfie and Artificial Intelligence. Julia Roberts was surprisingly good. No ear-to-ear grinning and America’s-sweetheart-ishness, like her roles in Pretty Woman and Notting Hill. And Clive Owen was definitely a character to remember. I thought he was bad in King Arthur (well, King Arthur was bad as a whole), but this film definitely showed an edgier side to him.

And as for Natalie Portman. Well. This is probably the best performance of hers I’ve ever seen. She’s done drama before, like Anywhere but Here with Susan Sarandon and Where the Heart Is with Ashley Judd, but I don’t think I’ve ever really seen her do something risky and edgy. She usually plays girl-next-door characters. In Closer, however, I think she may have outdid her veteran costars. She’s not only very beautiful, with or without the make-up; we have to hand it to her for braving that next-to-nothing stripper’s costume. Oh yeah, and she looks great in any hair color/hair style.

Intense, is all I can say. When I saw the film, I was gripping the seat of my chair at the Clive Owen/Julia Roberts scene where they are yelling at each other during the break-up. Alice (Natalie Portman’s character) came off as a very vulnerable girl who’s trying to be strong, but has a jumble of emotions tangled up inside of her and Natalie pulled that off very well, especially in her scene with Jude Law when he admits to her that he’s been seeing Anna (Julia Robert’s character).

Overall, this is definitely one of my favorite movies. Great cast, excellent music (come on, you can’t go wrong with Damien Rice!) and an amazing script. It gave an entirely different approach to infidelity–venturing where no other director might have gone given the topic (cheating). Even if the theme of the story revolved around infidelity and sneaking around, it did not include the typical lewd scenes showing the sensuality of the act. It went even further and showed the physical and emotional breakdowns that the people involved in infidelity go through. So yeah, review aside: Closer is definitely something I’d recommend watching.