Film Score Daily: Film Score Friday 12/27/19

IN THEATERS TODAY

Just Mercy - Joel P. West - Score CD-R on WaterTower
Little Women - Alexandre Desplat - Score CD on Sony
1917 - Thomas Newman - Score CD on Sony
The Song of Names - Howard Shore - Score CD on Decca
Spies in Disguise - Theodore Shapiro

COMING SOON

January 10
The Addams Family - Mychael Danna, Jeff Danna - Lakeshore
January 17
Bliss - Steve Moore - Relapse (import)
Go Fish - George Streicher - Notefornote
The Musical Anthology of His Dark Materials - Lorne Balfe - Silva
January 24
Anne with an E - Amin Bhatia, Ari Posner - Varese Sarabande
I Lost My Body - Dan Levy - Lakeshore
February 21
At Eternity's Gate - Tatiana Lisovskaya - Filmtrax (import)
Date Unknown
Better Watch Out - Brian Cachia - Howlin' Wolf
Finis Terrae - Christoph Zirngibl - Kronos

Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist

"'Flower' is cloying, simplistic, clueless, and indifferent to most of the suffering that it chronicles. It only comes alive in a handful of dramatic showpiece moments that are likely the reason the actors signed on to do the movie (Scott and Hahn win Best in Show), but these are unfortunately hamstrung by intrusive underscoring that seems meant to take the sting out of a movie that needs all the sting can get. Deutch overplays Erica as a wisecracking femme tomboy, telegraphing every 'outrageous' line and cheeky reaction, pushing her right up to the edge of caricature in a borderline-Nicolas-Cage-like way, as if trying to force the movie to become the bad-taste comedy-drama that it probably needed to be in order to succeed. It's a bold play that doesn't work, but it's more compelling than anything the script or direction can offer."

Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com

GRINGO - Christophe Beck

"Featuring a fittingly shallow funk-lite score by Christophe Beck, 'Gringo,' is ultimately like a Taco Bell version of the ‘90s crime genre; tasteless, cheaply made and just as inauthentic."

Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist

HELL ON THE BORDER - Sid De La Cruz

"In the overly long and convoluted plot, Reeves sets out with Charlie Storm (Ron Perlman) in pursuit of outlaw Frank Dozier (Grillo), who taunts the lawmen with bloody trophies. Their journey offers Reeves and Storm the opportunity to bond and for Reeves to speak to his life experiences of slavery and racism. At the center, Gyasi is an oasis of stillness and solemnity in a naturalistic performance, but the surrounding action never hangs together in anything authentic, especially with the unnecessarily flowery script and laughably heightened score."

Los Angeles Times [critic uncredited]

I SEE YOU - William Arcane

"This isn’t a supernatural film, though, and Devon Graye’s script ultimately ties together 'I See You''s disparate threads -- family drama, crime thriller, home-invasion horror -- by grounding them in the perils and traumas of the real world. Under the direction of Adam Randall, the film’s tone is extremely eerie, with creeping camera movements, striking imagery, abrupt edits, and a delicately sinister score by William Arcane. They all help to elevate the domestic drama at the story’s core and make it much more compelling than it might otherwise be."

Henry Stewart, Slant Magazine

"This is the work of director Adam Randall, who is more of a poor salesman with this script from Devon Graye than an inventive storyteller. Randall has a comical bounty of drone shots that swoop around locations and sometimes look they’re going to crash into the Harper house; Philipp Blaubach's score [sic; Blaubach was the cinematographer, not the composer] emphasizes the importance of every one of the script’s ominous visuals, and sounds like a steel mill in space. 'I See You' loves to use these components to tease that a supernatural force might be lurking in the shadows, and then abruptly cut -- like it does right before wielding its title card. But it doesn’t build promise that Something Scary is happening, so much as pile on a very tedious atmosphere."

Nick Allen, RogerEbert.com

"Strong performances down the line provide psychological credibility to an astute overall package that manages to eke considerable sinister atmosphere from any number of perfectly pleasant locations in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area. A particular plus is William Arcane’s unsettling score."

Dennis Harvey, Variety

PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING - Lorne Balfe

"'Pacific Rim Uprising' has zero emotional pull. The musical score by Lorne Balfe ('The Hurricane Heist') keeps telling us that something exciting is happening when the images beg otherwise. There are no stakes here, just lots of robots and then dinosaurs who rise up out of the sea and place their large feet down onto pavement that rises up as random people run away and try to escape. The main imagery in this movie is of large office buildings falling down neatly or getting clawed or scooped from the middle by these ugly and uninteresting monsters. If that’s your thing, step right up."

Dan Callahan, The Wrap

"While Lorne Balfe’s score provides requisite bombast, what resounds loudest about 'Pacific Rim Uprising' is its lack of adventurousness, to the point that it neuters its genre-splicing conceit’s weirdest ideas -- such as the metaphysical 'drift' that binds the minds of Jaeger pilots, which here serves as just a tossed-off means of dispensing expository backstory. At least DeKnight is shrewd enough to make one of his mortal characters the true harbinger of doom (albeit one with a sketchy motivation). In the end, however, that individual’s apocalyptic scheming is less distressing than the film’s paint-by-numbers approach to franchise construction, replete with a formulaic promise of future installments that, on the basis of this entry, feels mostly like wishful thinking."

Nick Schager, Variety

7 DAYS IN ENTEBBE - Rodrigo Amarante

"'7 Days in Entebbe' wisely brings on technical collaborators that have served its director well in the past, including cinematographer Lula Carvalho, editor Daniel Rezende and composer Rodrigo Amarante. A great deal of dramatic responsibility falls to Rezende and his arrangement of the film’s climax, which crosscuts between rescue operation Thunderbolt and a dance performance introduced at the film’s outset. The piece, which involves the performers removing their Orthodox wardrobe to the tune of 'Echad Mi Yodea,' is meant to symbolize the challenge of escaping one’s ideological trappings. The device -- an addition acknowledged to be fabricated by the director in his press appearances -- is transparent but effective."

Bradley Warren, The Playlist

"A distinct air of staleness permeates the whole enterprise -- even the palette is brown as an old biscuit, and Rodrigo Amarante’s minimal score is so politely low in the mix that it’s hardly even there. Brühl brings his usual earnestness to a role that’s already too earnest, and a shark-eyed Pike somehow fares even worse, with a flashback love interest doing little to add color to her waxen character. She is also cursed with the film’s very worst scene where she wanders in a daze into the airport terminal, and phones her boyfriend long-distance, monologuing somnolently into a broken payphone."

Jessica Kiang, Variety

THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT - Adrian Johnston

"Part of what made 'The Strangers' seem so singular is because it was just that: singular. Like the killers at the film’s end, it just sort rode off into the sunset without a hint of when or if it might return. 'The Strangers: Prey At Night' undoes that, and though it doesn’t come close to touching the original, it’s not the years-late embarrassment it might have been. That’s in part because it aims much lower than its predecessor. From the first notes of Adrian Johnston’s John Carpenter-inspired score to the retro font used for the title card, 'Prey At Night' sets itself up as an homage to classic slasher films, and mostly does right by its inspirations."

Keith Phipps, Uproxx

"A sequel to 2008’s spooky 'The Strangers' in baby-doll masks alone, director Johannes Roberts’s generic slasher film flaunts a deep nostalgia for John Carpenter’s 'Halloween' and 'Christine,' but scant ideas of its own. It desperately wants you to pretend that these fog-laden midnight streets -- perfect for chase scenes involving relentless knife-wielding nuts and a terrified teenage girl (TV actor Bailee Madison, who really should learn how to flee without panting so loudly) -- are as fresh as a daisy. As for composer Adrian Johnston’s seesawing synthesizer score, Carpenter’s lawyers will be in touch directly. In a moment when horror movies like 'Get Out' and the forthcoming 'Hereditary' earn praise for their adventurousness, these retro scares feel especially out of touch."

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

WHEN LAMBS BECOME LIONS - West Dylan Thordson

"The degree of candor afforded by the central characters prove extraordinary as the documentary captures many intimate moments, both personal and professional. Toward the end of the film, Asan is seen breaking down in tears, overwhelmed by the pressures he faces on a daily basis. Indeed, there are times when the doc has an almost scripted, narrative feel, enhanced by the atmospheric lensing and West Dylan Thordson's emotive music score. One of the most powerful scenes features X and Lukas excitedly happening upon a herd of some 50 elephants, including adults and babies, slowly walking across the African plain in all their majesty."

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

A WRINKLE IN TIME - Ramin Djawadi

"The early scenes of 'A Wrinkle in Time' -- before we’re introduced to the 'tesseract' and the spatial-temporal bounding begins -- are relatively grounded, but only compared to what follows. They still have a trace of that theme-park-Disney wooziness, along with a score by 'Game of Throne''s [sic] Ramin Djawadi that’s off in the ether before the first astral being lands. That being -- 'Mrs. Whatsit' -- is played by Reese Witherspoon, whose frilly gown is meant to look as if the character had invaded a high-school theater department’s costume room, but whose acting is less intentionally high-schoolish. Things pick up with the next entity, Mindy Kaling’s dreamy 'Mrs. Who,' who spouts quotations from Rumi and Lin-Manuel Miranda before a giant pall descends on the movie in the form of Oprah Winfrey as 'Mrs. Which.' When Winfrey’s Mrs. Which first shows up, she’s several sizes larger than her co-entities, which is symbolically apt."

David Edelstein, New York

"Which is one of 'Wrinkle''s biggest issues: the performances are virtually all loud and strident, pitched with the energy of people in a Broadway musical trying to make sure their smiles still play for the ticketholders in the nosebleed section. Everything about the film operates at the same intense fever pitch: the glistening score urgently batters the audience in every direction, the colors are eye-bleedingly bright, and the emotions are big enough to play on the tiniest phone screen. This is a big, big movie, full of shouted lines and exclamation points. And that perpetually works against the intended personal qualities of the story, which is theoretically as much about one girl navigating her own self-loathing as it is about a huge, symbolic battle between good and evil."

Tasha Robinson, The Verge

"Let this be a warning: Keep your expectations in check, and you might be pleasantly surprised. Despite such bold choices as casting Oprah Winfrey as an all-wise celestial being and rejecting the antiquated assumption that the lead characters ought to be white, 'A Wrinkle in Time' is wildly uneven, weirdly suspenseless and tonally all over the place, relying on wall-to-wall music to supply the missing emotional connection and trowel over huge plot holes...That’s the risk of any science-fiction adaptation, of course, seeing as how cinema replaces the most evocative descriptions with concrete images. Except in this case, a bad sound mix and over-reliance on music drowns out a good deal of the film’s dialogue. At the same time, the design aspects of the film are so consistently distracting that we risk losing sight of its best ideas -- not just literary, but also a color-blind agenda that has the potential to change the landscape entirely."

Peter Debruge, Variety

THE NEXT TEN DAYS IN L.A.

Screenings of older films, at the following L.A. movie theaters: AMPAS, Alamo Drafthouse, American Cinematheque: Aero, American Cinematheque: Egyptian, Arclight, Arena Cinelounge, Laemmle, New Beverly, Nuart, UCLA and Vista.

December 27
THE AWFUL TRUTH (Ben Oakland), THEODORA GOES WILD (Morris Stoloff) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE EXORCIST [Nuart]
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Johan Soderqvist) [New Beverly]
RESERVOIR DOGS [New Beverly]
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY [Cinematheque: Egyptian]

December 28
NINOTCHKA (Werner Heymann), HEAVEN CAN WAIT (Alfred Newman) [Cinematheque: Aero]
PHANTOM THREAD (Jonny Greenwood) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2 (Michael Armstrong) [New Beverly]
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (Lennie Hayton, Nacio Herb Brown) [New Beverly]

December 29
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (Maurice Jarre) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (Lennie Hayton, Nacio Herb Brown) [New Beverly]

December 30
BRAZIL (Michael Kamen) [New Beverly]
GOLDFINGER (John Barry) [Laemmle Royal]
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (John Williams), BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (Jerry Fielding) [New Beverly]

December 31
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (John Williams), BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (Jerry Fielding) [New Beverly]

January 1
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT [New Beverly]
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (Herbert Stothart), A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA (Werner Janssen) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE WIZARD OF OZ (Harold Arlen, Herbert Stothart), WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (Leslie Bricusse, Walter Scharf) [New Beverly]

January 2
THE WIZARD OF OZ (Harold Arlen, Herbert Stothart), WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (Leslie Bricusse, Walter Scharf) [New Beverly]

January 3
CHRISTINE (John Carpenter, Alan Howarth) [Vista]
DEMONS (Claudio Simonetti) [New Beverly]
DJANGO UNCHAINED [New Beverly]
LADY BIRD (Jon Brion) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (Danny Elfman) [Nuart]
SAFE IN HELL (Leo F. Forbstein), PARTY HUSBAND (David Mendoza) [UCLA]

January 4
CARRIE (Pino Donaggio) [Vista]
42ND STREET (Harry Warren, Leo F. Forbstein), GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (Harry Warren, Leo F. Forbstein) [UCLA]
MEAN STREETS [New Beverly]
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (Joe Hisaishi) [New Beverly]
SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (Daniel Pemberton) [Vista]

January 5
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (Joe Hisaishi) [New Beverly]

THINGS I'VE HEARD, READ, SEEN OR WATCHED LATELY

Heard: Ben-Hur: Tadlow re-recording (Rozsa), Arrow: Season 3 (Neely), Instant Family (Andrews), It (Wallfisch), La Banda J & S, Cronaca Criminale Del Far West (Morricone), Spooks: The Greater Good (Lewis), Dial M for Murder (Tiomkin), Rebel in the Rye (McCreary)

Read: Self-Defense, by Jonathan Kellerman

Seen: The Bishop's Wife; Black Christmas [2019]; What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael; Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker; Portrait of a Lady on Fire; The Apollo; Invisible Life; Cats; Richard Jewell; A Hidden Life; Jumanji: The Next Level; 1917; Duck Soup; Horse Feathers; Little Women [2019]; Just Mercy

Watched: Mystery Science Theater 3000 ("Mac and Me," "Atlantic Rim," "Lords of the Deep," "The Day Time Ended")

I just started watching the most recent (and possibly final) season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 on Blu-Ray, which begins with the infamous E.T. ripoff Mac and Me, scored by Alan Silvestri. One early remark from the 'bots during an especially lively Silvestri cue should strike a chord (no pun intended) with film score fans:

"I want to see the movie the composer thought he was scoring."

The next film in the MST3K set, Atlantic Rim, is of course a Pacific Rim imitation (to put it politely) produced by The Asylum, the noted makers of "mockbusters" like Transmorphers. This was the first Asylum film I'd ever seen -- I spend most of my free time seeing films in theaters, so watching direct-to-video releases is a low priority in my life -- and I found it deeply depressing. In general, I find the shot-on-video B-movies of the modern age much less enjoyable than the B-films of the 50s, 60s and 70s, but there's something almost soul-destroying about Atlantic Rim, which was reinforced when I watched the next film in the MST3K set, Lords of the Deep.

Lords of the Deep was a Roger Corman-produced (he even has a cameo) attempt to climb onto the underwater sci-fi bandwagon (I'm sure there's a mixed metaphor there somewhere) of 1989, a year that saw the release of Deepstar Six, Leviathan and The Abyss. Lords of the Deep is in no way good, but it has charm. There's something about the earnestness of the acting, the sets, the miniature and puppet effects that, silly and forgettable as the film is, make the viewer feel like the people who made it actually cared about it. (And since it's a Corman genre film from the '80s, it has some Horner music, a brief cue from Humanoids from the Deep).

Atlantic Rim, on the other hand, feels like no one cared at all, except to get the film made as quickly and cheaply as possible to hit video stores before Guillermo Del Toro's lavish and visually sumptuous kaiju epic hit theaters. Pacific Rim's Charlie Hunnam may not have been the most dynamic movie hero, but in Atlantic Rim, Baywatch's David Chokachi is such an extraordinarily unlikable protagonist that you wonder if his character was some sort of private joke among the filmmakers. On the other hand, his casting does give the film a small amount of mystery, as you look at him wondering, "Where have I seen him before? Who is that guy? Casper van Dien? Sean Patrick Flanery?" Seeing Dances With Wolves Oscar nominee Graham Greene in a key role is depressing enough (though at least he aquits himself with more dignity than Bradford Dillman in Lords of the Deep), but between the cheapness of the CGI combined with the overall cynicism of the film it's hard to have a good time watching it, and even the 'bots seemed defeated (they were much more inspired during Mac and Me and Lords of the Deep).