Film Score Daily: Film Score Friday 7/24/15

Intrada has released two CDs this week -- Alan Silvestri's electronic score for the Stephen King anthology horror film CAT'S EYE, featuring music not included on the original Varese Sarabande LP; and a re-mastered edition of Jerry Goldsmith's thrilling original score tracks for CAPRICORN ONE, including one additional alternate cue.

La-La Land will release a six-disc set of music from the long-running original TV version of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, featuring of course the classic theme and scoring by Lalo Schifrin (he received three Emmy nominations for his work on the series), as well as music from other series composers including Robert Drasnin, Don Ellis, Jerry Fielding, Gerald Fried and Richard Hazard. The set will be available to order next Tuesday and will begin shipping on August 10. (The label is moving the release of Justice League: Gods and Monsters to the week of August 10th.)

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Capricorn One - Jerry Goldsmith - Intrada
Cat's Eye - Alan Silvestri - Intrada Special Collection
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Benoit Groulx, Benoit Charest - Varese Sarabande
Le Paria - Georges Garvarentz - Music Box
The Music of Patrick Doyle: Solo Piano - Patrick Doyle - Varese Sarabande
Petit Dejeuner Compris/Pourquoi Pas Nous/Ballet Doux - Vladmir Cosma - Music Box
Pixels - Henry Jackman - Varese Sarabande
Self/Less - Antonio Pinto, Dudu Aram - Varese Sarabande
Southpaw - James Horner - Sony
Thibaud the Crusader/Fortune - Georges Delerue - Music Box

IN THEATERS TODAY

American Heist - Akon
Dark Was the Night - Darren Morze
Frank the Bastard - Robert Burger
Jack Strong - Jan Duszynski
The Look of Silence - no original score
Paper Towns - Ryan Lott - Song CD on Atlantic
Pixels - Henry Jackman - Score CD on Varese Sarabande
Runoff - Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
Samba - Ludovico Einaudi - Soundtrack CD with one Einaudi cue on TF1 (import)
Southpaw - James Horner - Score CD on Sony
Stray Dog - Music Supervisor: Marideth Sisco
10 Cent Pistol - Jim Dooley
Twinsters - Martin Molin, Mark De Gli Antoni
Unexpected - Keegan DeWitt
The Vatican Tapes - Joseph Bishara - Score CD due Aug. 14 on Lakeshore
The Young Kieslowski - John Swihart

COMING SOON

July 31
The Dovekeepers - Jeff Beal - Varese Sarabande
Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse - Mark McKenzie - Varese Sarabande
Fimucite 6: Universal Pictures 100th Anniversary Gala - various - Varese Sarabande CD Club
Hemlock Grove: Season Two - Nathan Barr - Varese Sarabande
I Am Big Bird: The Carol Spinney Story - Varese Sarabande
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - Joe Kraemer - La-La Land
Third Person - Dario Marianelli - Varese Sarabande
12 Monkeys [TV] - Trevor Rabin, Paul Linford - Varese Sarabande
August 7
Ant-Man - Christophe Beck - Hollywood
Carny - Robbie Robertson, Alex North - Real Gone
Dark Places - BT, Gregory Tripi - Milan
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - Daniel Pemberton - Watertower
Shaun the Sheep Movie - Ilan Eshkeri - Silva
August 14
Animals - Ian Hultquist - Phineas Atwood
Burying the Ex - Joseph LoDuca - Phineas Atwood
Dawn Patrol - Joe Kraemer - Phineas Atwood
Fantastic Four - Marco Beltrami, Philip Glass - Sony
Justice League: Gods and Monsters - Frederik Wiedmann - La-La Land
Loitering without Intent - Carl Davis - Carl Davis Collection
Luv - Nuno Malo - Phineas Atwood
Mission: Impossible - The Television Scores - Lalo Schifrin, etc. - La-La Land
Mistress America - Dean Wareham, Britta Phillips - Milan
The Vatican Tapes - Joseph Bishara - Lakeshore
Wayward Pines - Charlie Clouser - Lakeshore
August 21
Learning to Drive - Dhani Harrison, Paul Hicks - Milan
Z for Zachariah - Heather McIntosh - Varese Sarabande
August 28
The End of the Tour - Danny Elfman - Lakeshore
Mr. Holmes - Carter Burwell - Lakeshore
September 18
Barely Lethal - Mateo Messina - Phineas Atwood
Cartel Land - H. Scott Salinas, Jackson Greenberg - Phineas Atwood
Date Unknown
Il Diavoli Della Guerra - Stelvio Cipriani - Kronos
Sette Contro Tutti - Francesco De Masi - Kronos
Trishna - Shigeru Umebayashi - Caldera

THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY

July 24 - Robert Farnon born (1917)

July 24 - Wilfred Josephs born (1927)

July 24 - Marcello Giombini born (1928)

July 24 - Les Reed born (1935)

July 24 - High Noon released (1952)

July 24 - Alan Rawsthorne died (1971)

July 24 - Leo Shuken died (1976)

July 24 - Norman Dello Joio died (2008)

July 25 - Don Ellis born (1934)

July 25 - Denis King born (1939)

July 25 - Thurston Moore born (1958)

July 25 - Henry Mancini begins recording his score for Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

July 25 - Bruce Broughton records his unused adaptations of Bach for The Accidental Tourist (1988)

July 26 - Tadeusz Baird born (1928)

July 26 - Bronislau Kaper and Scott Bradley begin recording their score for Courage of Lassie (1945)

July 26 - David Raksin begins recording his score for Too Late Blues (1961)

July 26 - Buddy Baker died (2002)

July 27 - Marc Wilkinson born (1929)

July 27 - Bernard Herrmann records the Piano Concerto for the Hangover Square score (1944)

July 27 - Michael Linn born (1952)

July 27 - Stefan Nilsson born (1955)

July 27 - Alex North begins recording his score to The Outrage (1964)

July 27 - Max Steiner begins recording his score for Those Calloways (1964)

July 27 - Harry Lubin died (1977)

July 27 - Georges Delerue records his score for Exposed (1982)

July 27 - Jerome Moross died (1983)

July 27 - Miklos Rozsa died (1995)

July 28 - Carmen Dragon born (1914)

July 28 - Ray Ellis born (1923)

July 28 - Brian May born (1934)

July 28 - Recording sessions begin for Frederick Hollander’s score for Disputed Passage (1939)

July 28 - Richard Hartley born (1944)

July 28 - Leonard Rosenman begins recording his adaptation score for Bound for Glory (1976)

July 28 - Basil Poledouris records his score for The House of God (1980)

July 28 - Laurence Rosenthal records his score for Proud Men (1987)

July 29 - Mikis Theodorakis born (1925)

July 29 - Gian Piero Reverberi born (1939)

July 29 - Michael Holm born (1943)

July 29 - Bronislau Kaper begins recording his score for Quentin Durward (1955)

July 29 - Lalo Schifrin begins recording his score for The Venetian Affair (1967)

July 29 - Lee Holdridge records his score for The Explorers: a Century of Discovery (1988)

July 29 - Doug Timm died (1989)

July 30 - Guenther Kauer born (1921)

July 30 - Antoine Duhamel born (1925)

July 30 - David Sanborn born (1945)

July 30 - Alexina Louie born (1949)

July 30 - Recording sessions begin for Frederick Hollander’s score for Remember the Night (1949)

July 30 - Peter Knight died (1985)

July 30 - Richard Band begins recording his score for Zone Troopers (1985)

DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?

THE COBBLER - John Debney, Nick Urata

"Set on a Lower East Side where the chatty locals are all played by familiar actors and a klezmer tune is always in the air, 'The Cobbler' casts Sandler as Max Simkin, a lonely shoe repairman who lives with his ailing mother (Lynn Cohen) in Sheepshead Bay."

A.A. Dowd, The Onion AV Club

"Director Tom McCarthy is a New Providence actor turned filmmaker with good instincts -- his first movie was the excellent 'The Station Agent,' and his next ones ('The Visitor,' 'Win Win') showed him trying different things while staying rooted in realism, small-scale stories and strong turns by character actors. But 'The Cobbler' - with its too-cute music, cramped photography and poor performances -- just feels off the track."

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

"The scene rankles because the movie continues to deny that Max is a creep. It's all chipper music and but-he-means-well optimism -- the real villain is a real estate developer (Ellen Barkin), whom Max will eventually rouse himself to defeat with the power of shoes. 'The Cobbler' maintains the delusion even when our hero starts committing crimes -- walking out on restaurant bills, stealing loafers from a millionaire on the street -- in the skin of black men. Once might be a misstep on the part of the filmmakers. Three times, without comment on the pattern, is toxic. The fourth time, Max finally swaps in a white person -- a transvestite."

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly

"'The Cobbler' blends callousness with the sort of condescending magical sentimentality that's insistent on the hidden dimensions of 'the common man.' It's a toxic combination that's occasionally enlivened by lunacy, as this is one of those films that's so bad, so misconceived, that one's driven to keep watching to see how much worse it can get. That answer arrives in a scene in which a financially struggling white man disguises himself as a black criminal and steals a rich white man's shoes, so that he can make off with the rich man's car. Amazingly, director Thomas McCarthy doesn't appear to be aware of the various loaded racial stereotypes with which he's playing. This sequence isn't played for suspense or poignancy, or even for satire or disreputable comedy. It's meant to be cute, as indicated by John Debney and Nick Urata's negligible score and the casually flip performances of the cast. This willed ignorance continues in scene after scene, as the filmmaker pits a variety of social types against one another (old Jewish man, vain rich broad, privileged bi-curious hunk, über-hottie, and so on) in bitter cage matches that are intended to court adorability rather than horror."

Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine

"As laughless and lifeless as all this is -- and it’s hard to overstate just how few jokes the film even attempts -- one is still willing to wait and see where McCarthy is taking it, with the strange sense of unreality and wall-to-wall klezmer-inspired score giving it the feel of some long-lost Yiddish fairy tale. (Even after the subtitled prologue, the film still throws out more bubelehs and boychiks than you can shake a shepleffel at.) But as a plot involving a predatory developer (Ellen Barkin) and her roving gangs of hyperviolent thugs starts to take hold around the hour mark, the film goes off the deep end completely with a series of jarring turns. The final twist simply has to be seen to be believed, and will probably alienate the few viewers who have yet to turn against it."

Andrew Barker, Variety

"Sandler is agreeably dialed-down here, and not only because, given the transformational conceit, other actors are playing his role when he'd ordinarily be mugging. While it's not much of a test of his range, the film does, like his endearingly ridiculous 'You Don't Mess with the Zohan,' also work Jewishness into the story in fruitful ways; even John Debney's very nice score, with clarinet solos that evoke klezmer without imitating it, recalls the tribal roots of Max's new discovery."

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter

DESERT DANCER - Benjamin Wallfisch

"Shot in English so as to ensure maximum reach, 'Desert Dancer' paints the agents of the menacing morality police as pretty boys whose taunts suggest allegiance less to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than to the American high school jock. Political upheaval on the streets of Tehran is sentimentalized in achingly scored slow motion, while the frustrated frisson of Afshin's romance to Freida Pinto's drug-addled Elaheh is complemented by the bromides of the non-diegetic cool-kid anthems on the soundtrack (she comes up lonely to his place and tearfully crumbles to the ground after ruining a table setting -- all set to Band of Horses' 'The Funeral'). Notwithstanding Afshin's final dance of resistance, so gut-punching in its purity and concision, the film's relentless turning of its characters' experience into platitudes and homilies is served for our too-easy consumption."

Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

"Unless you’re an aficionado of interpretive-dance type entertainments, and can appreciate them earnestly -- something, admittedly, this reviewer is too cynical to do -- even the supposedly stirring dance scenes in 'Desert Dancer' are too generic to evoke much of a reaction, particularly those divorced from the political subtext of Ghaffarian’s real-life performances. There are a lot of scenes of people dancing out their feelings in this movie, and it takes a special, very sincere kind of person to watch that without giggling. The milquetoast sub-Spielberg score doesn’t help. Even M.I.A.’s 'Galang' fails to stir the blood, and in a movie like this one, specifically designed to give the viewer a rush of uplifting hormones as well as a cultured, self-congratulatory feeling, that’s saying something."

Katie Rife, The Onion AV Club

ELECTRIC SLIDE - Kevin Haskins

"Featuring songs by Suicide, Psychedelic Furs, Magazine, Gang Of Four, Iggy Pop, Depeche Mode, X, Nick Lowe, all the vintage-hip tunes in the world can’t save this movie (nor inject it with an authentic sense of sangfroid). The score from Kevin Haskins of Bauhaus, Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets is also monotonously one-note. Likewise, the Instagram filter technique of cinematography feels forced and unimaginative."

Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist

NED RIFLE - Hal Hartley

"Hartley, who also composed the lively, sophisticated score, crafts a world that mirrors our own while punctuating its more extreme problems."

Eric Kohn, Indie WIRE

"While Hartley has never been one for lush aesthetics, the pic has a definite tight-budget feel unalleviated by his own original synth-based score. That doesn’t detract from its appeal, however."

Dennis Harvey, Variety

"Working with various returning crew, and for the first time with DP Vladimir Subotic, Hartley showcases his usual straightforward, pop-infused style, although this film is more pared down than the others, probably due to budgetary reasons. And he once again composes the score himself, mixing synths and electric guitar chords to create a brooding ambiance speckled with lightness."

Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter

'71 - David Holmes

"There have been other impressive films about the Troubles (1984’s 'Cal,' 'The Crying Game,' and 'Bloody Sunday,' among them), but '’71' is just plain relentless and visceral. A perfectly paranoiac score by David Holmes and downright stunning camerawork, courtesy of cinematographer Tat Radcliffe, enhance and embody Hook’s manic flight. Take the politics out and you’d still have a powerhouse action film. But please, don’t take the politics out."

Marc Savlov, The Austin Chronicle

"''71' plays as a sort of intimate (and fictional) companion piece to Paul Greengrass' 'Bloody Sunday,' which is set in 1972. Both films feature compressed timelines and handheld, documentary-style camerawork. Tat Radcliffe's fine cinematography neatly shifts timbre as day (shot on 16 mm) becomes night (in digital video). David Holmes' score alternates, too, pitting spidery electric-guitar lines that suggest U2 against a synth pulse that pounds like the fugitive's elevated heartbeat."

Mark Jenkins, NPR

"Wounded and scared and largely silent, O’Connell struggles through the streets in a performance that’s wonderfully watchable. From 'Eden Lake' to 'Starred Up,' we know he can ‘do’ violence, but here he holds the screen with no swagger -- just a simple desire to survive. As a knife-wielding hero, he’s less like Sylvester Stallone in 'Rambo' than he is Jamie Lee Curtis in 'Halloween.' The John Carpenter touches extend to David Holmes’ judiciously used score, plus the sense '’71' is, like 'Assault On Precinct 13,' an urban Western. This points to an element some might find uncomfortable: '’71' is, in some ways, a popcorn thriller about a community in tragedy. But however exciting the set-pieces, the film retains its integrity. The violence is seen, shockingly, and felt -- from bomb to blade. Demange’s direction puts you right there and, while Burke’s script isn’t given to political grandstanding, its glancing blows have a lasting impact. '’71' is one of the best films of ’14."

Nev Pierce, Empire Magazine

"It takes a great deal of skill to shoot chaos in an orderly way, and Demange nails it. The first 30 minutes of the film are pure and direct, in a deceptively documentary-seeming style, but with a furious mounting tension. Sound drifts in and out (as does disquieting music) but never in an ostentatious manner. After Hook finds a safe spot and catches his breath, the movie does, too. We widen our scope to learn more about the characters in the street, all of whom have something at stake in whether Hook lives or dies."

Jordan Hoffman, Vanity Fair

"O'Connell, also the star of the brutal Irish prison drama 'Starred Up,' again illustrates his robust physical presence here as a naturalistic action hero, hinting at the prospects for bigger projects in his future. But it's Demange's firm direction that gives the character's situation a sense of frantic possibilities under dire circumstances: There's a Kafkaesque element to his wanderings through the shadowy, labyrinthine streets that takes the proceedings beyond their historical specificity. With the arrival of a sudden bombing, ''71' creates the morbid feeling of dangers lurking around every corner, with the mounting dread emphasized by jittery camerawork and a throbbing score."

Eric Kohn, IndieWIRE

"As Hook makes his way around the area with its burning vehicles, Molotov cocktails and fear-filled near-deserted streets, the film increasingly starts to recall the dystopian urban nightmares of early John Carpenter (especially 'Assault on Precinct 13' and 'Escape from New York'). And that’s not even having to take into account David Holmes’ Carpentarian score, all echo-laden guitars and droning, subsonic synths that heighten suspense."

Leslie Felperin, Hollywood Reporter

3 HOLES AND A SMOKING GUN - Jason Lewis

Nick Schager, Variety

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, Arclight, Crest, LACMA, New Beverly, Nuart, Silent Movie Theater and UCLA.

July 24
AMERICAN GRAFFITI, THE CONVERSATION (David Shire) [Cinematheque: Aero]
BRING IT ON (Christophe Beck) [Nuart]
GANJA & HESS (Sam Waymon) [UCLA]
THE HORROR OF DRACULA (James Bernard), DRACULA A.D. 1972 (Mike Vickers) [Silent Movie Theater]
SUBURBIA, THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION PART III [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE TAMI SHOW, GO-GO MANIA [New Beverly]

July 25
CAR WASH (Norman Whitfield) [Silent Movie Theater]
GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (Jerry Goldsmith) [Silent Movie Theater]
HANDS ON A HARDBODY (Neil Kassandoff) [New Beverly]
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (The Beatles, George Martin), HOW I WON THE WAR (Ken Thorne) [Cinematheque: Aero]
SOUTH SEAS ADVENTURE (Alex North) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (Elmer Bernstein) [Silent Movie Theater]
SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE (Miles Davis) [UCLA]
THE TAMI SHOW, GO-GO MANIA [New Beverly]
WHAT WAITS BELOW (Michel Rubini, Denny Yaeger) [New Beverly]

July 26
AU BONHEUR DES DAMES [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
BAD GIRL, SECRETS (Alfred Newman) [UCLA]
CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND (Alex Wurman) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
GIMME SHELTER [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
HARVEY (Frank Skinner) [Crest]
WHAT WAITS BELOW (Michel Rubini, Denny Yaeger) [New Beverly]

July 27
ATTACK THE BLOCK (Steven Price) [Silent Movie Theater]
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (Dave Grusin) [Arclight Hollywood]

July 28
BULLITT (Lalo Schifrin) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
MARY POPPINS (Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, Irwin Kostal)[LACMA]
REAR WINDOW (Franz Waxman) [Arclight Culver City]

July 29
THE BEST OF EVERYTHING (Alfred Newman) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (DeWolfe) [Arclight Hollywood]
PILLOW TALK (Frank DeVol) [Silent Movie Theater]
THE WILD PARTY, ANYBODY'S WOMAN [UCLA]

July 30
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
THE PASSENGER, TAXI DRIVER (Bernard Herrmann) [Cinematheque: Aero]
RE-ANIMATOR (Richard Band), FROM BEYOND (Richard Band) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]

July 31
THE CHANGELING (Rich Wilkins, Ken Wannberg), POLTERGEIST (Jerry Goldsmith) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE (Yoko Kanno) [Nuart]
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (David Shire), GREASE (Louis St. Louis)[Cinematheque: Aero]
SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR [Silent Movie Theater]
YOU, THE LIVING (Benny Andersson) [Silent Movie Theater]

August 1
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (Miles Davis) [Silent Movie Theater]
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Ennio Morricone) [New Beverly]
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (Matt Clifford), NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (Barry DeVorzon) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR [Silent Movie Theater]
WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER (Theodore Shapiro, Craig Wedren) [Silent Movie Theater]
WORKING GIRLS, SARAH AND SON [UCLA]
YOU, THE LIVING (Benny Andersson) [Silent Movie Theater]

August 2
HELLRAISER (Christopher Young), PUMPKINHEAD (Richard Stone) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (Bernard Herrmann)[Crest]
SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR [Silent Movie Theater]
A SWEDISH LOVE STORY (Bjorn Isfalt) [Silent Movie Theater]
YOU, THE LIVING (Benny Andersson) [Silent Movie Theater]