The latest release from Intrada features Laurence Rosenthal's score for the 1961 TV movie adaptation of Graham Greene's novel THE POWER AND THE GLORY (previously filmed for the big screen by director John Ford as The Fugitive, starring Henry Fonda), starring those hack TV actors Laurence Olivier, Julie Harris and George C. Scott. Fourteen minutes of Rosenthal's score was previously available on the composer's promo set; Intrada's release features the full 50-minute score for the first time.
The winners of this year's Grammy Awards in film-music related categories are:
BEST SCORE SOUNDTRACK FOR VISUAL MEDIA
Chernobyl* - Hildur Guonadottir
BEST SONG WRITTEN FOR VISUAL MEDIA
"I'll Never Love Again" (Film Version) - A Star Is Born - Natalie Hemby, Lady Gaga, Hillary Lindsey, Aaron Raitiere
BEST COMPILATION SOUNDTRACK FOR VISUAL MEDIA
A Star Is Born
And John Williams won Best Instrumental Composition for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Symphonic Suite, apparently because 24 Grammys wasn't enough.
*'I'd originally, erroneously reported that Guonadottir won for Joker. Thanks to reader Juanki for the correction.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Anne with an E - Amin Bhatia, Ari Posner - Varese Sarabande
Better Watch Out - Brian Cachia - Howlin' Wolf
Darkman - Danny Elfman - La-La Land
Dracula - David Arnold, Michael Price - Silva
El Silencio Del Pantano - Zeltia Montes - Quartet
Hoffa - David Newman - La-La Land
Pandora: Season One - Joe Kraemer, Penka Kouneva - La-La Land
The Power and the Glory - Laurence Rosenthal - Intrada Special Collection
Samsam - Eric Neveux - 22d Music (import)
Torpedo - Hannes De Maeyer - Quartet
IN THEATERS TODAY
The Assistant - Tamar-kali
Gretel & Hansel - Rob - Score LP due on Waxwork
The Rhythm Section - Steve Mazzaro
The Traitor - Nicola Piovani
COMING SOON
February 7
Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn - Daniel Pemberton - WaterTower [CD-R]
Color Out of Space - Colin Stetson - Milan
February 21
At Eternity's Gate - Tatiana Lisovskaya - Filmtrax
Breath [UK release] - Harry Gregson-Williams - Filmtrax
The Musical Anthology of His Dark Materials - Lorne Balfe - Silva
The Personal History of David Copperfield - Christopher Willis - MVKA
March 13
The Matrix Symphony - Don Davis - Perseverance
Date Unknown
Antony I. Ginnane Presents Classic Australian Film Scores from the '70s and '80s - various - Dragon's Domain
Apocalypse Domani - Alessandro Blonksteiner - CSC
Dinosaur Land - Chuck Cirino - Dragon's Domain
Hoax - Alan Howarth - Dragon's Domain
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
January 31 - Benjamin Frankel born (1906)
January 31 - Hans Posegga born (1917)
January 31 - Nicholas Carras born (1922)
January 31 - Al De Lory born (1930)
January 31 - Philip Glass born (1937)
January 31 - Andrew Lockington born (1974)
January 31 - Andy Garfield born (1974)
January 31 - Yasushi Akutagawa died (1989)
February 1 - Rick Wilkins born (1937)
February 1 - Herbert Stothart died (1949)
February 1 - Karl Hajos died (1950)
February 1 - Miklos Rozsa records his score for The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
February 1 - Lyn Murray begins recording his score for To Catch a Thief (1955)
February 1 - Alexander Courage records his score for the Lost in Space episode "The Cave of the Wizards" (1967)
February 1 - Barry Gray begins recording his score for Thunderbird 6 (1968)
February 1 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "A Matter of Perspective" (1990)
February 1 - Alan Silvestri begins recording his score for The Perez Family (1995)
February 1 - Bruce Broughton begins recording his score for Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco (1996)
February 1 - Howard Shore begins recording his score for The Score (2001)
February 2 - Giuseppe Becce born (1877)
February 2 - Mike Batt born (1950)
February 2 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score for Crisis (1950)
February 2 - Gerald Fried records his score for Cast a Long Shadow (1959)
February 2 - Recording sessions begin for Bronislau Kaper's score to Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
February 2 - Richard Band begins recording his score for Parasite (1982)
February 2 - Recording sessions begin on James Newton Howard’s score for Outbreak (1995)
February 2 - David Bell records his score for the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Dark Frontier, Part I” (1999)
February 2 - Dennis McCarthy and Kevin Kiner record their score for the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “The Aenar” (2005)
February 3 - Paul Sawtell born (1906)
February 3 - Derek Hilton born (1927)
February 3 - Daniele Amfitheatrof begins recording his score for Lassie Come Home (1943)
February 3 - Dave Davies born (1947)
February 3 - Toshiyuki Watanabe born (1955)
February 3 - Ray Heindorf died (1980)
February 3 - Lionel Newman died (1989)
February 3 - Basil Poledouris begins recording his score for RoboCop 3 (1992)
February 3 - Paul Baillargeon records his score for the Star Trek: Enterprise episode ‘The Forgotten” (2004)
February 4 - Hal Mooney born (1911)
February 4 - Kitaro born (1953)
February 4 - Don Davis born (1957)
February 4 - Bronislau Kaper begins recording his and Heitor Villa-Lobos' score to Green Mansions (1959)
February 4 - Patton opens in New York City (1970)
February 4 - Joe Raposo died (1989)
February 4 - Von Dexter died (1996)
February 4 - J.J. Johnson died (2001)
February 4 - Jimmie Haskell died (2016)
February 5 - Felice Lattuada born (1882)
February 5 - Bronislau Kaper born (1902)
February 5 - Clifton Parker born (1905)
February 5 - Elizabeth Swados born (1951)
February 5 - Cliff Martinez born (1954)
February 5 - Nick Laird-Clowes born (1957)
February 5 - Elmer Bernstein begins recording his score for The Rat Race (1960)
February 5 - Jacques Ibert died (1962)
February 5 - Guy Farley born (1963)
February 5 - Kristopher Carter born (1972)
February 5 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "When the Bough Breaks" (1988)
February 5 - Douglas Gamley died (1998)
February 5 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Enterprise episode “Stigma” (2003)
February 5 - Al De Lory died (2012)
February 5 - Ray Colcord died (2016)
February 6 - Akira Yamaoka born (1968)
February 6 - Hugo Montenegro died (1981)
February 6 - John Dankworth died (2010)
February 6 - Sam Spence died (2016)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
ADRIFT - Volker Bertelmann
"Of course, Tami has barely set off on her own before she falls in love with Richard, a top-notch British sailor with a few more knots under his belt. Claflin plays him like the kind of rugged nomad who, in any other movie, would be hiding a dark secret of some kind -- here, he’s just a good bloke with big love for the open water. His romance with the much-younger Tami is thin but sweet, carried along on the currents of Volker Bertelmann’s urgent piano score (but also stunted and shortchanged by how often the movie cuts back and forth between the present and the past)."
David Ehrlich, IndieWire
"When Richard (Sam Claflin) and Tami (Shailene Woodley) meet in Tahiti, she's working in a marina, a girl already somewhat 'adrift' but not really worried about it yet, and he is a yacht-owner who wants to sail around the world. Their love story involves jumping off cliffs, random laughter, and a conversation about flowers. There's not much substance to it, and the script (by Aaron Kandell, Jordan Kandell, David Branson Smith -- apparently, there wasn't one female writer in a 4,000-mile radius who contributed to this story of a woman alone at sea) is low on subtext. The two speak their feelings bluntly ('I sailed half the world to find you'), with music swelling up on cue. All of this is pretty standard stuff, and forgivable, really. Nobody's looking for intricate relationship subtlety in a movie like this. What we're waiting for is the storm."
Sheila O'Malley, RogerEbert.com
AMERICAN ANIMALS - Anne Nikitin
"Yes, the heist itself is breathtakingly delivered, as Anne Nikitin’s electronica score and Ole Bratt Birkeland’s frenetic camerawork bring us smackdab in the middle of the claustrophobic action. The exquisitely edited library robbery, which encompasses around twenty or so minutes of screentime, is a sheer, visceral delight. The rest of 'American Animals' could have used that same stylishly electric jolt but resorts instead to a forgettable mashup of pedestrian and, familiar genre tropes. At the end of the day, these real-life people did not deserve to have a movie made about them."
Jordan Ruimy, The Playlist
"As a four-man editing team expertly negotiates these crashing leaps in tone and tempo, Anne Nikitin’s agile, mood-swinging score flips from Vegas jazz to shrill, swarming electronica; meanwhile, Ole Bratt Birkeland’s snappy camerawork, with its slick of oily hues and shadows, surges into feverish handheld motion. This is unabashedly virtuoso, show-off filmmaking, as cocky as the misguided young men at the film’s center, who, at least for a period, saw their lives as a Hollywood romp in itself. While Layton initially obliges by styling their story with flash to match, 'American Animals' isn’t blind to the limitations of that perspective. 'They did not want to work to achieve a transformative experience,' sighs Betty Jean Gooch, the real-life librarian caught violently in the fracas of their robbery -- an indictment that applies not just to the moral irresponsibility of the criminal act itself, but the idleness of appropriating fiction to achieve it, and the hubris of thinking they knew enough, had seen enough, to pull it off."
Guy Lodge, Variety
"The young actors, the only immediately recognizable one being the off-beat-looking Keoghan ('The Killing of a Sacred Deer') as the nominal lead among rough equals, deliver with bristling, edgy work. Craft contributions, notably the editing by Nick Fenton and Chris Gill and the score by Anne Nikitin, are aces."
Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
BOOK CLUB - Peter Nashel
"Not only are the jokes tired, the characters are a veritable checklist of wine-guzzling rom-com clichés. We’ve got Vivian (Fonda), a wealthy hotel owner who’s never let love get in the way of sex, until she meets her match; Sharon (Bergen), a federal judge who’s crushed when her ex-husband gets engaged to a much younger woman; Carol (Steenburgen) is a celebrity chef who’s afraid that the spark has gone out in her 35-year marriage; and Diane (Keaton), a widow of indeterminate profession living in a Nancy Meyers-esque cottage with gleaming white countertops who doesn’t think she can ever love again. (She’s wrong, of course.) All that’s missing is an architect, or maybe a magazine editor. The blandness of the script is matched by the bright lighting, aspirational production design, and generically cheerful Muzak score, with a couple of tracks off of Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers’ Greatest Hits to further reel in the Boomers."
Katie Rife, The Onion AV Club
"Viewed on its own terms as a glossy, inoffensive consumer commodity, 'Book Club' works as intended (at the advance screening attended, guests exited duly remarking, 'That was cute!'). Still, one can be forgiven for wishing these actresses had been given something to do that wasn’t so tame and pettable. Abetted by the expected assortment of bland and/or nostalgic pre-existing tracks, any randomly selected moment of Peter Nashel’s score might just as easily accompany a YouTube compilation of adorable kittens, puppies, or toddlers."
Dennis Harvey, Variety
FIRST REFORMED - Lustmord [Brian Williams]
"Roused by Pawel Pawlikowski’s 'Ida,' and following a few years of experimenting with prurient, unsuccessful micro-budgeted indies, 'First Reformed' finds Schrader galvanized with resolve and vigor. Starched with conviction, “First Reformed” feels like a lifetime of preoccupations and traumas distilled beautifully, accompanied with a haunting sparseness creating a profound deliverance. An experimental, dark ambient score by Lustmord, aka Brian Williams, a Welsh industrial musician and sound designer, is distressingly gripping, greatly assisting in the psychological transition of the priest from a solitary creature to someone more disturbed. Also, shout out to Cedric Kyle, aka Cedric The Entertainer, who delivers an extremely convincing turn as a senior minister overseeing Hawke’s historically-rich, but lowly attended church."
Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
"This is Schrader at his sparest; characters rarely look warm -- the cinematography by Alexander Dynan ('Dog Eat Dog') accentuates the wintry bleakness -- the camera rarely moves during scenes, silences and awkward pauses abound, and the score by Brian Williams is used sparingly, but always effectively."
Alonso Duralde, The Wrap
HEARTS BEAT LOUD - Keegan DeWitt
"There's a lot of music in 'Hearts Beat Loud,' with a couple of original songs composed by Keegan DeWitt ('Cold Weather,' 'Listen Up Philip,' 'Queen of Earth,' 'Kate Plays Christine,' 'The Incredible Jessica James'). The songs -- performed by Offerman and Clemons -- are a huge part of the texture of the film. Their performances play out in full, so you're given a chance to get swept away in Clemons' strong expressive voice, in the dynamic between the two actors, the love and appreciation they have for one another, the fun they have together."
Sheila O'Malley, RogerEbert.com
"Before Sam leaves, Frank persuades her to record a song with him (he used to be in an indie band, of course). He explains, 'It’s time to put away childish things, like homework and med school.' They collaborate on an eminently forgettable tune: Those wishing for songs that sound like they were written by indie musicians for indie musicians, not actors who can sing and maybe play an instrument, should see 'Once' instead."
Ren Jender, The Village Voice
"'Hearts Beat Loud' involves a father and daughter dynamic in transition, a lot of original music provided by Keegan DeWitt, and charm. It gets away with missteps because of how consistently heartwarming and affable the people on screen are. Clemons and Offerman are especially effective, with Frank’s earnestness comically shot down by Clemons’ quick-witted preciousness."
Sam Fragoso, The Wrap
"Brett Haley’s 'Hearts Beat Loud' is a quasi-musical in the vein of Once, featuring fashionable indie songs -- written by singer-songwriter Keegan Dewitt -- that are integrated into the story as the musical output of a burgeoning band. Though Haley’s film, about a father-daughter relationship rather than a romantic one, is less mawkish than John Carney’s, it isn’t immune to easy sentimentality. A feel-good movie that could stand to introduce another bad feel or two, it avoids setting up any conflict between its characters that couldn’t be resolved via a three-minute indie-pop song."
Pat Brown, Slant Magazine
"These are pretty major life transitions, but you’d never guess by the rather languid pacing of the film, which is reflected in the sleepy eyes of its leads. There’s a rhythm to the dialogue that is unnaturally slow, as though no one is in a hurry to respond. Most shots get in close, mimicking the confines of NYC but maybe also the small-worldness of even a place like Brooklyn, which has the Austin feel of people bumping into each other all the time. All this provides for a character study, much like director Brett Haley and co-writer Marc Basch’s previous feature, 'The Hero,' but the drama here is much lighter. The push/pull doesn’t pivot on death’s close hand; Frank just wants to have some jam sessions with his daughter before she goes off to college at UCLA. She reluctantly humors him in a role reversal as tender as anything you’d see in real life, and they record a few cuts as We’re Not a Band. (The electronic indie-pop songs are credited to Haley's longtime collaborator Keegan DeWitt, but the actors perform them – Clemons has some pipes.)"
Danielle White, The Austin Chronicle
"Still, the two leads make fine company. Offerman continues to expand his range well beyond Ron Swanson’s gruff über-masculinity, suggesting Frank’s arrested adolescence without indulging in broad man-child caricature. He’s well matched here by Clemons (Dope), who lends Sam a maturity beyond her years but also makes her credibly susceptible to teenage passion—not for rock stardom, but for her new girlfriend (played by 'American Honey''s Sasha Lane), who she’d have to leave behind in New York. Both stars apparently perform the songs themselves, too -- catchy numbers penned by composer Keegan DeWitt. Hearts Beat Loud is smart, sincere, expertly performed (though Ted Danson, in a small role as Frank’s favorite bartender, gets little to do apart from echo Sam Malone), quietly progressive (Sam’s ethnicity and sexuality elicit no onscreen comment whatsoever), and just thoroughly… nice. What it lacks, in common with Haley’s previous films, is any real ambition, either visual or conceptual. Several dozen of these low-key, wishy-washy, mostly naturalistic creative bunts emerge from Sundance and South By Southwest every year. Precious few of them succeed in elevating viewers’ heartbeats."
Mike D'Angelo, The Onion AV Club
"Frank’s right that a voice like Sam’s shouldn’t rot away in a research lab. Clemons does her own singing, which over the three catchy songs by Keegan DeWitt builds from a soft purr to a full-throated wail. In comedies like 'Dope' and 'Neighbors 2,' Clemons has been a luminous presence who could bloom into a great grown-up actress. 'Hearts Beat Loud' proves she’s the real deal. As for the film around her, Haley’s 21-drum solo salute to the passage of time is, like Frank, merely fine. But he admirably keeps his characters’ victories small and their losses familiar, making his movie a ballad everyone can hum to."
Amy Nicholson, Variety
"For some, the four songs Frank and Sam concoct together (written by film composer Keegan Dewitt) will be a highlight. They're sprinkled throughout, then showcased in a final concert that feels too Hollywood for its underdog setting. When all's said and done, father and daughter make peace with their respective places in the world, setting their sights on more realistic goals."
John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter
HEREDITARY - Colin Stetson
"The house becomes an ominous focal point for their despair. As Peter’s tensions with his mother grow more extreme, he suffers from shocking nightmares and shadowy visions in the dead of night, while Annie’s tendency to sleepwalk adds another unpredictable variable to the growing impression of hidden forces overseeing their lives. Aster’s smooth camerawork drifts through the cavernous household with a Kubrickian eye for open spaces and unknown threats, with a haunting score by Colin Stetson leading to a heightened, disorienting ambiguity about the nature of the threat."
Eric Kohn, IndieWire
"There’s something about the way that cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski ('Tragedy Girls') shoots the film’s Utah locations that make it seem like the story is set anywhere and nowhere all at once, and he uses the red lighting of an indoor heat lamp to very effective ends. The unsettling score by Colin Stetson becomes all the more effective as sound mixer Steven C. Laneri mixes it down, down, down, until it sounds like the music is being played in an apartment beneath the movie theater."
Alonso Duralde, The Wrap
"As a set-piece machine, 'Hereditary' doesn’t shatter the mold. Its tropes are familiar: apparitions emerging gradually from the shadows or perching in the corner of the frame; bodies unnaturally contorted; a creepy kid (this one granted an unnerving verbal tic, a guttural cluck deployed to break the silence at opportune moments). And Aster hews pretty closely to what might cynically be described as the A24 (haunted) house style, complete with ominously gliding camerawork and a groaning, atonal score by avant-garde saxophonist Colin Stetson. But he also conducts his scares with the cruel precision of a veteran maestro of dread. His true innovation is anchoring each of them to unbearable torment, exploiting the relationship between sorrow and fear; at times, Hereditary is brilliantly sophisticated in its emotional terrorism. Aster will seem to leave the grisliest image to the imagination, sparing us the full gut punch, only to spring it on us at a moment of pure devastation. (Let’s just say he knows when to go in for the close-up.) And he’ll use a disarming conversation, like the one between Annie and a fellow bereaved soul (Ann Dowd) who seems just a little left of center, to prime us for a gangbusters jolt. Even the jump scares are psychologically loaded."
A.A. Dowd, The Onoin AV Club
"'Hereditary' lifts from an adventurous range of influences that spans from the problem-spawn classic 'Rosemary's Baby' through the malignant mood piece 'The Shining' to the non-horror family grief drama 'In the Bedroom,' with dollops of Greek tragedy and textbook demonology stirred into the mix. It opens with ace cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski (who stands to cop a major career boost with his hypnotic work here) establishing what will be the predominant visual style -- unsettlingly slow pans from insidiously strange angles in mostly somber light. At the same time, the near-omnipresent underlay of composer Colin Stetson's rumbling score (which was not the final mix in the Sundance premiere) lays the ominous foundations for the symphony of churning dread to come."
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
HOTEL ARTEMIS - Cliff Martinez
"While learning the rules of this operation bit by bit (strictures include 'no killing the other patients'), Pearce also teases out more information about the characters. The images captured by cinematographer Chung Chung-hoon (a frequent collaborator of Park Chan-wook’s) crisply showcase this strange universe, and the soundtrack by Cliff Martinez ('Traffic,' 'Drive,' 'The Neon Demon') propels the action ever forward. (In her bedroom, the Nurse keeps a phonograph record of the Mamas & the Papas singing 'California Dreamin'' on manual repeat near a bottle of whiskey, identifying her as someone who is lost in the past.)"
Marjorie Baumgarten, The Austin Chronicle
"Elsewhere, Brown has an effectively rogue-ish vibe as his own semi-heroic storyline emerges, but most of the casting ticks boxes: Day continues to yell his way through films, Boutella leaps and slashes with expected flair, and Goldblum Goldblums. Even Pearce’s cinematographer -- Park Chan-wook regular Chung-hoon Chung -- is more an homage choice (sickly underlit interiors, even a hallway battle à la 'Oldboy') than a bid for originality. Cliff Martinez’s pulsating, insistent score, meanwhile, is often there when it doesn’t need to be, like an insecure bid for extra helpings of menace."
Robert Abele, The Wrap
"We’ve seen it all before in movies and video games, but the packaging is slick and hard to resist; any sci-fi crime movie with moody camerawork by Chung Chung-hoon, a Cliff Martinez score, a cast this strange, and an original end-credits ballad by Father John Misty (also a cast member) is begging to be watched, regardless of actual content or the messiness of the action scenes."
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The Onion AV Club
"The Nurse runs a tight ship for such a rotting place. There are strict rules in place, and the fittingly named 'Everest' is there to make sure people follow them (he’s played by Bautista, who radiates the same gently violent charisma that makes him such a standout in the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' films). With Nanotechnology allowing them to do the work of a much larger medical stuff, Everest and the Nurse are able to plug up the bad guys and keep them shooting new holes in each other (a difficult task when some of the slimier patients keep threatening a femme fatale like Sofia Boutella’s 'Nice'). Even when the city is literally on fire, the common refrain is that it’s 'just another Wednesday.' It’s only when the Wolf King (a very Jeff Goldblum Jeff Goldblum) rolls up and starts demanding emergency treatment that things start to spin out of control, and the synth drone of Cliff Martinez’s score begins to rise above a numbing rumble."
David Ehrlich, IndieWire
"The real star of the film is the title structure, a Gothic-Art Deco mashup of faded extravagance. Ramsey Avery's production design, in a palette of tarnished jewel tones, is evocatively captured by the unshowy camerawork of Chung-hoon Chung ('The Handmaiden'), and it’s well-matched by composer Cliff Martinez's richly textured retro-modern score. In the Artemis, each themed room is designed to evoke a glamorous vacation destination, and each anonymous guest is known by his or her room’s name. During the tense hours of their stay, Sherman and Lev become Waikiki and Honolulu. Acapulco (Charlie Day) is a coked-up American chauvinist -- not just a mercenary, xenophobic arms dealer but a loudmouthed sexist creep. When he turns his condescending come-ons toward the femme fatale (action star Sofia Boutella) in the Nice suite, he has no idea what he’s getting into."
Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter
HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES - Nico Muhly
"Aided by Nico Muhly’s soothing score, the movie regularly hints at shrewd ideas lurking beneath its flamboyant surface. It doesn’t land all of them, but Mitchell and co-screenwriter Phillips Goslett deserve credit for trying to make such an absurd high concept work as well as it does. More importantly, after the sturdy, well-acted drama 'Rabbit Hole,' Mitchell comes back to ambitious material about ostracized young people desperate for the solace of companionship. It’s a welcome return to form."
Eric Kohn, IndieWire
OCEAN'S 8 - Daniel Pemberton
"Ross -- and seriously, they hired a man to direct this? -- definitely nails the mechanics of the heist and its aftermath, and he and editor Juliette Welfling ('Dheepan') keep it all breezing along, even if 'Ocean’s 8' never quite delivers the danger or excitement promised by the score from Daniel Pemberton ('Molly’s Game'). (If you want a heist movie with actual stakes or suspense, skip the 'Ocean's' series and go dig up 'Rififi' on FilmStruck.)"
Alonso Duralde, The Wrap
"What Soderbergh, who serves here as producer, brought to his 'Ocean''s films -- even the busy, bloated sequels -- was a jazzy energy, an effortless light touch that seems beyond the reach of Ross. 'Ocean's 8' tries to inject that verve with an eclectic mix of music to supplement Daniel Pemberton's score, from Charles Aznavour to Amy Winehouse, James Last to The Notorious B.I.G. But it lacks punch, even if the complicated plotting is sound enough, the gadgetry impressive and the visual trappings sleek. You just start to feel starved for a movie with conflict, suspense and a little heart, rather than a repackaged version of a formula already flogged to death."
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
"For anyone wondering what former directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s vision might have looked like, there are scattered moments -- an exaggerated facial expression here, a slightly goofy action sequence weighed down with a dramatic score there -- that hint at the more comedic film they were reportedly making. It doesn’t work in such small amounts, and juxtaposed against the more straightforward charms of Howard’s film, it becomes clear just how off-kilter such a feature would be."
Kate Erbland, IndieWire
"It might seem unfair to compare Ron Howard’s prequel, 'Solo: A Star Wars Story', to 'Empire''s asteroid set piece, a sequence that balances — through its shrewd scripting, sharp editing, urgent pulp acting, and still-dazzling effects work -- all the tension, humor, and wonder so often missing from the movie adventure fantasies that careen at us all year long like space rocks at those TIE fighters. Yet 'Solo' demands the comparison by essentially restaging the 1980 scene, right down to borrowing John Williams’s 'Empire' asteroids score. This time, though, when Solo zips his Falcon into a bad-news patch of space, the tension is diffused, the stakes unclear, specifics vague. 'Empire' showed us a ballet of rocks and ships but never more than the eye could track. It’s clear in each shot where the Falcon is in relation to the Imperials, and where the asteroids are in relation to them, and what kind of brash maneuvering Solo must make at every breath."
Alan Scherstuhl, The Village Voice
"And if Howard might have had a bit of a challenge initially getting the proceedings out of the gate and up and consistently running at full speed, composer John Powell provides plenty of cues with amped-up orchestrations that incorporate several iconic themes by John Williams, as well as a newer Williams composition, 'Han Solo Theme.'"
Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter
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, Fairfax Cinema, Laemmle, New Beverly, Nuart, UCLA and Vista.
January 31
DJANGO UNCHAINED [New Beverly]
FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (James Bernard) [Fairfax Cinema]
FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING (Harry Manfredini) [New Beverly]
THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (Masaru Sato) [Alamo Drafthouse]
MEET JOE BLACK (Thomas Newman) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE MISFITS (Alex North) [Fairfax Cinema]
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (Dimitri Tiomkin), YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (Alfred Newman) [Cinematheque: Aero]
PAPRIKA (Susumu Hirasawa) [Vista]
RASHOMON (Fumio Hayasaka) [Arena CineLounge]
SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (Nigel Godrich) [Nuart]
STRANGE SHADOWS IN AN EMPTY ROOM (Armando Trovajoli) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
February 1
FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (James Bernard) [Fairfax Cinema]
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE (John Williams) [New Beverly]
THE MISFITS (Alex North) [Fairfax Cinema]
RAN (Toru Takemitsu) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE SEARCHERS (Max Steiner), SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (John Williams) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THIS IS NOT A TEST (Greig McRitchie) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
TO DIE FOR (Danny Elfman) [Alamo Drafthouse]
February 2
DUSTY AND SWEETS MCGEE, THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK [UCLA]
FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (James Bernard) [Fairfax Cinema]
THE GRAPES OF WRATH (Alfred Newman), THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (Cyril Mockridge) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER (Joe Raposo) [UCLA]
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE (John Williams) [New Beverly]
HORSE FEATHERS [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
LONG SHOT (Marco Belrami, Miles Hankins) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE MISFITS (Alex North) [Fairfax Cinema]
MY DINNER WITH ANDRE [Cinemathque: Egyptian]
PUTNEY SWOPE (Charley Cuva) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THIRST (Cho Young-wuk) [Alamo Drafthouse]
February 3
ALL THAT JAZZ (Ralph Burns), CHICAGO (John Kander, Danny Elfman) [New Beverly]
BLADE RUNNER (Vangelis) [Arclight Hollywood]
MOONRISE KINGDOM (Alexandre Desplat) [New Beverly]
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (John Williams) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
RASHOMON (Fumio Hayasaka) [Arena CineLounge]
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY [Arclight Culver City]
February 4
BLACK GIRL (Ed Bogas, Ray SHanlkin, Jesse Osborne, Merl Saunders) [Cinematheque: Aero]
BOOMERANG (Marcus Miller) [Alamo Drafthouse]
RASHOMON (Fumio Hayasaka) [Arena CineLounge]
RED EYE (Marco Beltrami) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE VELVET VAMPIRE, TROUBLE EVERY DAY (Tindersticks) [New Beverly]
February 5
FEMME FATALE (Ryuichi Sakamoto) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE KING AND I (Richard Rodgers, Alfred Newman) [New Beverly]
THE OBJECT OF BEAUTY (Tom Bahler) [New Beverly]
RASHOMON (Fumio Hayasaka) [Arena CineLounge]
WOMEN IN LOVE (Georges Delerue) [Laemmle Royal]
February 6
DADDY LONGLEGS [Alamo Drafthouse]
KING OF HEARTS (Georges Delerue) [Cinematheque: Aero]
M*A*S*H (Johnny Mandel) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE OBJECT OF BEAUTY (Tom Bahler) [New Beverly]
RASHOMON (Fumio Hayasaka) [Arena CineLounge]
February 7
CAT PEOPLE (Giorgio Moroder) [New Beverly]
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (Jon Brion) [Vista]
THE EXILES [Fairfax Cinema]
GRAND ILLUSION (Joseph Kosma), MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE (Ryuichi Sakamoto) [Cinematheque: Aero]
HARD TO BE A GOD (Viktor Lebedev) [Fairfax Cinema]
SUSPIRIA (Goblin) [Nuart]
TRUE ROMANCE (Hans Zimmer) [New Beverly]
February 8
ALOHA, BOBBY AND ROSE [New Beverly]
THE EXILES [Fairfax Cinema]
THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT (Lionel Newman) [Fairfax Cinema]
HARD TO BE A GOD (Viktor Lebedev) [Fairfax Cinema]
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (John Williams, William Ross) [New Beverly]
THE HUMAN CONDITION trilogy (Chuji Kinoshita) [Cinematheque: Aero]
ROMAN HOLIDAY (Georges Auric) [Vista]
RUN LOLA RUN (Tom Tykwer, Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek) [Vista]
WILD AT HEART (Angelo Badalamenti) [Alamo Drafthouse]
February 9
ALL ABOUT EVE (Alfred Newman) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE EXILES [Fairfax Cinema]
THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT (Lionel Newman) [Fairfax Cinema]
HARD TO BE A GOD (Viktor Lebedev) [Fairfax Cinema]
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (John Williams, William Ross) [New Beverly]
THINGS I'VE HEARD, READ, SEEN OR WATCHED LATELY
Heard: Runaway (Goldsmith), Supergirl: Season One (Neely), Lady in White/Frankie Goes to Tuscany (LaLoggia)
Read: A little more of The Waste Lands: The Dark Tower III, by Stephen King
Seen: For Sama; The Edge of Democracy; Color Out of Space; Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood; Klaus; The Turning; The Gentlemen; The Last of Sheila; Ad Astra; Knives Out; Breakthrough; Corpus Christi
Watched: Columbo ("Strange Bedfellows," "A Trace of Murder")
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