La-La Land has announced two new CDs for next week, both featuring previously unreleased scores by A-list composers -- Hans Zimmer's score for the 1990 race car drama DAYS OF THUNDER, directed by the late Tony Scott and starring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Cary Elwes, Randy Quaid, Michael Rooker, John C. Reilly and Robert Duvall; and RESTLESS, the 2011 romantic drama directed by Gus Van Sant, one of the final films shot by the great Harris Savides, starring Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper with music by Danny Elfman, the fifth of six films he's scored for the director. 
 

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

All Is Lost - Alex Ebert - Community Music
Ed Wood (expanded) - Howard Shore - Howe
The Hunt for Red October - Basil Poledouris - Intrada Special Collection
Last Passenger - Liam Bates - MovieScore Media/Kronos
Quay d'Orsay - Philippe Sarde - Quartet
Runner Runner - Christophe Beck - Lakeshore

IN THEATERS TODAY

About Time - Nick Laird-Clowes - Song CD on Verve with 2 score cues
Bastards - Tindersticks - Score CD Les Salauds on Lucky Dog
Big Sur - Bryce Dessner, Aaron Dessner, Kubilay Uner
Capital - Armand Amar
Dallas Buyers Club [no original score]
Diana - David Holmes, Keefus Ciancia
Ender’s Game - Steve Jablonsky - Score CD on Varese Sarabande
Free Birds - Dominic Lewis
I Am Divine - Michael "The Millionaire" Cudahy
The Impaler - Ramin Kousha
Last Love - Hans Zimmer
Last Vegas - Mark Mothersbaugh - Score CD due Nov. 5 on Varese Sarabande
Man of Tai Chi - Kwong Wing Chan
The New Black - Kathryn Bostic
Sal - Neil Benezra
The Square - H. Scott Salinas
When I Walk - Jeff Beal

COMING SOON

November 5
Cocoon - James Horner - Intrada Special Collection
Days of Thunder - Hans Zimmer - La-La Land
Last Vegas - Mark Mothersbaugh - Varese Sarabande
Machete Kills - Carl Thiel, Robert Rodriguez - Morada
Restless - Danny Elfman - La-La Land
November 12
The Counselor - Daniel Pemberton - Milan
Goodbye & Amen - Guido & Maurizio DeAngelis - GDM
La Cage Aux Folles III - Ennio Morricone - GDM
Thor: The Dark World - Brian Tyler - Intrada/Disney
November 19
Arrested Development - David Schwartz - Varese Sarabande
The Book Thief - John Williams - Sony
Nebraska - Mark Orton - Milan
November 26
Frozen - Christophe Beck - Disney
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - James Newton Howard - Universal Republic
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom - Alex Heffes - Decca
December 10
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Howard Shore - Watertower
Person of Interest: Season Two - Ramin Djawadi - Varese Sarabande
Saving Mr. Banks - Thomas Newman - Disney
Date Unknown
Agalja - Zbigniew Preisner - Quartet
The Best of Silent Hill - Akira Yamaoka - Perseverance
Che Casino Con Pierino/3 Supermen Contro Il Padrino - Nico Fidenco - Beat
The Doll Squad - Nicholas Carras - Monstrous Movie Music
Fitzwilly - John WIlliams - Music Box
Heaven Can Wait/Racing with the Moon - Dave Grusin - Kritzerland
The Man from the Deep River - Daniele Patucchi - Beat
Neinte Rose Per OSS 117 - Piero Piccioni - Beat
Patrick - Pino Donaggio - Quartet
Poveri Ma Bellie - Giorgio Fabor - Digitmovies
Saladino - Angelo Francesco Lavagnino - Kronos
A Secret/Menachem & Fred - Zbigniew Preisner - Quartet
Thief - Tangerine Dream - Perseverance
The 25th Reich - Ricky Edwards - MovieScore Media/Krono
Un Dollaro Bucato - Gianni Ferrio - Digitmovies
Whatever Happened to Toto Baby/The Honorables - Armando Trovaoili - Digitmovies

THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY

November 1 - John Scott born (1930)
November 1 - Roger Kellaway born (1939)
November 1 - Keith Emerson born (1944)
November 1 - Leighton Lucas died (1982)
November 2 - Joseph Mullendore's score for the Star Trek episode "The Conscience of the King" is recorded (1966)
November 3 - John Barry born (1933)
November 3 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Price" (1989)
November 4 - Laurence Rosenthal born (1926)
November 5 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Battle" (1987)
November 6 - Peter Matz born (1928)
November 6 - Bernard Herrmann records his score for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode "Behind the Locked Door" (1963)
November 6 - John Barry begins recording his score for Hanover Street (1978)
November 7 - William Alwyn born (1905)
November 7 - James Horner begins recording his score for Uncommon Valor (1983)
November 7 - Leonard Rosenman records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "No Day at the Beach"(1985)
November 7 - Shorty Rogers died (1994)

DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?

THE COUNSELOR – Daniel Pemberton

“As the film moves toward its brutal conclusion Scott pushes hard on the emotion, with sweeping score and more close-ups demanding we feel sympathy for characters who barely exist.”

Katey Rich, The Guardian

ESCAPE FROM TOMORORW - Abel Korzeniowski

"And 'Escape' is especially resonant if you are a middle-age parent who has ever taken kids on vacation. Blessed with a brilliantly treacly score, the movie nails that awful, we-stayed-here-one-day-too-long feeling. And it is strange and exciting to see Disney World and its imagery so separated from its usual tightly controlled context."

Joe Gross, Austin American-Statesman

"There’s certainly novelty in seeing a sprawling, colorful Disney theme park rendered in muted black and white, and corporate kiddie mascots cast as background players in an odyssey of lust and madness. Opening with a joyful swell of fairy-tale strings, 'Escape From Tomorrow' finds office drone Roy Abramsohn getting s**tcanned by phone while on vacation."

A.O. Dowd, The Onion

"Moore’s movie may not seem to make much sense -- visitors unwittingly look into the camera, green-screen work is used to duplicate the park experience, and the story is frankly bugnuts throughout -- but he does set up bits at the beginning that do come to pay off in ridiculous ways, and cinematographer Lucas Lee Graham pulls off the commendable feat of shooting the film with some margin of legitimate composition in spite of the crew’s apparent guerrilla antics. Furthermore, composer Abel Korzeniowski ('A Single Man') was somehow enlisted to contribute a score of unlikely grandeur that suits the surreal aesthetic contrasts of squeaky-clean Disney and middle-aged madness nicely."

William Goss, The Playlist

"'Escape From Tomorrow' doesn’t vary much from start to finish, beyond getting darker and stranger as it goes. It’s mostly a collection of surreal moments, headed nowhere in particular. But Moore milks a lot of the ironic potential out of his milieu. Abel Korzeniowski’s dreamy orchestral score and Lucas Lee Graham’s sharp black-and-white cinematography create a sense of wonder that Moore then undercuts by using computer effects to distort the faces on Disney’s animatronic rides (not that it takes much to make them look grotesque), and by emphasizing the seminal spurt of amusement-park fountains and sunscreen tubes."

Noel Murray, The Dissolve

"The film also has an interesting style, shot in black-and-white and by natural light by Lucas Lee Graham. Although some scenes had to be faked with green-screen backgrounds, they actually look more like retro back-screen projection, and Abel Korzeniowski has contributed a nicely orchestrated score."

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

“The filmmakers took care to shoot the most offensive material -- including Jim’s groin being tasered by a mad scientist inside the Epcot globe -- off Disney property. And what you see of actual protected Disney property is served up in seconds-long shots to exploit the copyright law’s fair-use exemption. So is Lucas Lee Graham’s luminous monochrome cinematography, which distances the material from reality as well as from Disney’s lawyers. And then there’s Abel Korzeniowski’ s stringy score, which might best be described as Mouse House on LSD.”

Lou Lumenick, New York Post

"The sound design is unsettling, while Abel Korzeniowski’s drippy, string-heavy score suitably channels both elevator Muzak and the spirit of ’50s Hollywood."

Rob Nelson, Variety

"There’s a lot of redundant and filler-type material here; even for what it is, the film is at least 15 minutes too long and could certainly be improved by tightening. Its one big saving grace is its score. The music is almost uniformly magnificent, with an emphasis on soaring, emotional and inspiring themes in the grandest old Hollywood tradition. Indeed, Moore samples from some of the best film composers, including Bernard Herrmann and Zbigniew Preisner, but the soundtrack is augmented by original work by the brilliant younger Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski, who scored Tom Ford’s 'A Single Man' and should definitely be sought soon by many other filmmakers."

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter

ESCAPE PLAN - Alex Heffes

"That's about it. The rest is something you've seen lots of, if you were an action fan in the 1980's and '90s with a functioning VCR or cable box. The fight scenes are standard wrestling matches punctuated by impalements or broken necks. The gun battles are without style or suspense. Inconsistencies in plot, character and physics are sewn up with quick cuts and the same techno-thriller musical score that has accompanied every action film for the past 15 years."

Steven Boone, RogerEbert.com

"[Director Mikael] Hafstrom lavishes considerable care on the film’s production design and in-camera effects, sometimes to the detriment of its overall look, which can tend toward muddiness. Fight choreography breaks no new ground, but it’s all efficiently constructed, and Alex Heffes’ numbskull score fits the proceedings to a tee."

Andrew Barker, Variety

THE FIFTH ESTATE - Carter Burwell

"There is a lot of flash and stylistic bravado here as the film explodes all over the screen and combines dazzling uses of cinema with a driving soundtrack. Much of it is conveyed in flashing bits and dashes, real news reports emphasized by these style bombs -- which often makes it hard to follow exactly what is going on."

Louis Black, Austin Chronicle

"Taking on the story of Assange in a visual medium was always going to be a problem: Computer code, IMs, emails and people banging away on keyboards does not translate well to film, no matter how many bells and whistles you slap on it. Condon slaps on quite a few, some more effective than others; 'The Fifth Estate' is that rare film with a 'Let’s Set Up More Servers!' musical montage. There’s also a repeated visual metaphor that falters more every time Condon returns to it."

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald

"Condon is also too reliant on montages to cram in a ton of information while simultaneously providing a sense of movement as Assange and Berg hop from one major European city to the next collecting secret information. To the tune of Carter Burwell's thumping techno score to go with the frequently sleek architecture, this technique often makes 'The Fifth Estate' feel like a glossy travelogue: Look, they're in Brussels! Now they're in Stockholm! Ooh, Reykjavik looks pretty!"

Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

"And thus begins an episodic recap of the rise of the organization, starting with their leak of the shady dealings of Swiss bank Julius Baer, which finds them accumulating more classified documents, leading to more publications of sensitive data. Throughout all of this, which is almost like a Wikipedia history lesson, Condon leans far too heavily on montage whenever possible, never wasting a moment to cut to choppily and crudely edited scenes, backed by generic electro beats with printed text messages and IRC chats flying across the screen. Presumably this is to create a sense of in-the-moment urgency, but it feels like something ripped out of a '90s movie about the Internet (or the latest Katy Perry video)."

Kevin Jagernauth, The Playlist

"Condon, working from an uneven, pedestrian screenplay by ex-'West Wing' writer Josh Singer, at first attempts to give the piece a post-Bourne patina complete with jittery titles and insistent score (courtesy of Carter Burwell), but soon a fondness for hackneyed visual devices emerges. When Assange fiddles with his files, luminous characters skitter across his face. An effect Ridley Scott used to great effect in 'Alien.' Nearly 40 years ago."

Adam Smith, Empire Magazine

"You can feel the strain on “The West Wing” writer Singer, penning his first bigscreen effort, as practically every line has to sum up a philosophy, situation or dilemma. Likewise, Condon, usually a director of admirable cogency and restraint, lays on a battery of audiovisual tactics (onscreen text, graphics, split screen, vertical wipes, etc.), largely set to techno tracks or Carter Burwell's equally pounding score. Tobias Schliesser’s camera often jitters as if on its 10th espresso, while Virginia Katz’s editing seldom pauses for breath. There’s conceptual logic behind these decisions, but they are as frequently off-putting as they are thematically apt."

Dennis Harvey, Variety

THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER AND PETE - Alicia Keys, Mark Isham

"Equally as tangled is the film's relationship to pop culture; it frequently utilizes scenes from 'Trading Places' and 'Fargo' as Mister singles out monologues from each and acts alongside them. The Coen Brothers'comedy-drama plays a particularly large part; Mister memorizes Steve Buscemi's parking lot monologue for use in his audition, and he's given a DVD of the film by his crush Alice (Jordin Sparks). Yet for all of the affection given to it by Mister, the film never makes us truly believe that's the case. Its soundtrack is another matter: Alicia Keys provides a frequently stirring score with composer Mark Isham that lights up the picture, and emphatically finds the pocket of tragic optimism that Tillman Jr. attempts to locate elsewhere."

Charlie Schmidlin, The Playlist

"'The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete' does provide pleasures here and there. The two young leads are strong and sure, and relatively free of the affectations that can sometimes plague young actors. The score by Mark Isham and Alicia Keys (who also co-produced the film) is a treat throughout. For the most part, however, the film is just never quite as powerful or moving as it clearly wants to be, and though it tries to avoid mawkishness throughout, it winds up succumbing to it."

Peter Sobczynski, RogerEbert.com

"For the most part, however, the closest that Mister gets to an encouraging audience is the oblivious Pete and benevolent Alice (Jordin Sparks), who used to live in Mister's building before moving up in the world. Neither of them, however, can free Mister from the immediate frustrations of his limited surroundings, a drama made palatable by Alicia Keys' energetic score but otherwise stymied when the premise fails to go anywhere."

Eric Kohn, IndieWIRE

THE NEXT TEN DAYS IN L.A.

Screenings of older films, at the following L.A. movie theaters: AMPAS, American Cinematheque: Aero, American Cinematheque: Egyptian, LACMA, New Beverly, Nuart, Silent Movie Theater and UCLA.

November 1
AMERICAN PSYCHO (John Cale) [Nuart]
THE BLING RING (Brian Reitzell, Daniel Lopatin), ONLY GOD FORGIVES (Cliff Martinez) [New Beverly]
CISCO PIKE [Silent Movie Theater]
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (Leonard Rosenman) [LACMA]
THE VISITOR (Franco Micallizzi) [Silent Movie Theater]
WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE? (Stephen James Taylor) [UCLA]
THE WICKER MAN (Paul Giovanni) [Nuart]

November 2
THE BLING RING (Brian Reitzell, Daniel Lopatin), ONLY GOD FORGIVES (Cliff Martinez) [New Beverly]
NEW YEAR'S SACRIFICE (Ruzeng Liu), SACRIFICE OF YOUTH (Sola Liu, Xiao-Song Qu) [UCLA]
PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID (Bob Dylan) [Silent Movie Theater]
THE VISITOR (Franco Micallizzi) [Silent Movie Theater]
THE WICKER MAN (Paul Giovanni) [Nuart]

November 3
THE BLING RING (Brian Reitzell, Daniel Lopatin), ONLY GOD FORGIVES (Cliff Martinez) [New Beverly]
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (Charles Bernstein) [Arclight Hollywood]
PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID (Bob Dylan) [Silent Movie Theater]
THIS LIFE OF MINE (Yijun Huang), SHANGRAO CONCENTRATION CAMP [UCLA]
THE VISITOR (Franco Micallizzi) [Silent Movie Theater]
THE WICKER MAN (Paul Giovanni) [Nuart]

November 4
THE BLING RING (Brian Reitzell, Daniel Lopatin), ONLY GOD FORGIVES (Cliff Martinez) [New Beverly]
THE CAPTAIN HATES THE SEA [UCLA]
CISCO PIKE [Silent Movie Theater]
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (John Carpenter, Alan Howarth) [Arclight Hollywood]
THE THING (Ennio Morricone) [Arclight Hollywood]
THE WICKER MAN (Paul Giovanni) [Nuart]

November 5
FIGHT CLUB (Dust Brothers) [Arclight Hollywood]
A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (Georges Delerue [LACMA]
THE WICKER MAN (Paul Giovanni) [Nuart]

November 6
OLDBOY (Yeong-wook Jo), LADY VENGEANCE (Seung-hyun Choi) [New Beverly]
PATHS TO PARADISE [Silent Movie Theater]
THE WICKER MAN (Paul Giovanni) [Nuart]

November 7
THE ACT OF KILLING [Silent Movie Theater]
CHINATOWN (Jerry Goldsmith) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
OLDBOY (Yeong-wook Jo), LADY VENGEANCE (Seung-hyun Choi) [New Beverly]
SHOOT THE SUN DOWN [Cinematheque: Aero]
VIGILANTE FORCE (Gerald Fried) [Silent Movie Theater]
THE WICKER MAN (Paul Giovanni) [Nuart]

November 8
JFK (John Williams) [Arclight Hollywood]
MY MAN GODFREY (Charles Previn), THE HALF NAKED TRUTH (Max Steiner) [UCLA]

November 9
SHORT CUTS (Mark Isham) [Cinematheque: Aero]
STAGE DOOR (Roy Webb), 5TH AVENUE GIRL (Russell Bennett) [UCLA]
YOU'RE NEXT (Jasper Justin Lee, Kyle McKinnon, Mads Heidtberg, Adam Wingard) [Silent Movie Theater]

November 10
BLUME IN LOVE [Silent Movie Theater]
THE EAST IS RED, RED DETACHMENT OF WOMEN (Zhun Huang) [UCLA]