CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Gerald Fried: Disasters! - Gerald Fried - Dragon's Domain
The Golden Age of Science Fiction, Vol. 8 - Michael Anderson, Paul Dunlap, Richard LaSalle, Marlin Skiles - Dragon's Domain
The Inquirer: The Film Music of Bernard Herrmann - Bernard Herrmann - Dragon's Domain
IN THEATERS TODAY
The Accountant 2 - Bryce Dessner
Blue Sun Palace - Sami Jano
Cheech & Chong's Last Movie - Dave Palmer
A Normal Family - Sung-woo Jo
On Swift Horses - Mark Orton
The Trouble with Jessica - Matt Cooper, Matt Winn
Until Dawn - Benjamin Wallfisch
COMING SOON
May 2
Once Within a Time - Philip Glass, Susan Deyhim - Orange Mountain
May 9
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare - Chris Benstead - Filmtrax
May 23
Speak No Evil - Sune "Koter" Kolster - Svart
May 30
A Quiet Place in the Country - Ennio Morricone - Quartet
The Working Class Go to Heaven - Ennio Morricone - Quartet
Aug 1
The Brutalist - Daniel Blumberg - Milan
Coming Soon
Gladiator - Hans Zimmer, Lisa Gerrard - La-La Land
Stand By for Action! 2: Tunes of Danger - various - Silva
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
April 25 - Heinz Roemheld's score for Union Station is recorded (1950)
April 25 - Franz Waxman records his score for Stalag 17 (1952)
April 25 - David A. Hughes born (1960)
April 25 - Georges Delerue records his score for L’Homme Qui Revient De Loin (1972)
April 25 - Alec Puro born (1975)
April 25 - Gary Hughes died (1978)
April 25 - Brian May died (1997)
April 26 - Francis Lai born (1932)
April 26 - Giorgio Moroder born (1940)
April 26 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score for Green Fire (1954)
April 26 - Reinhardt Wagner born (1956)
April 26 - Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter record their score for Kronos (1957)
April 26 - John M. Keane born (1965)
April 26 - Jerry Fielding begins recording his score for Gray Lady Down (1977)
April 26 - Bruce Broughton begins recording his score The Blue and the Gray (1982)
April 26 - Bronislau Kaper died (1983)
April 26 - Alan Parker begins recording his score for Jaws 3D (1983)
April 26 - Barry Gray died (1984)
April 26 - Maurice Jarre begins recording his score for Distant Thunder (1988)
April 26 - Carmine Coppola died (1991)
April 26 - Dave Grusin begins recording his score for The Firm (1993)
April 26 - David Bell records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Tracking Into the Wind” (1999)
April 27 - Christopher Komeda born (1937)
April 27 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score for The Lost Weekend (1945)
April 27 - Christopher Young born (1954)
April 27 - Federico Jusid born (1973)
April 27 - Scott Bradley died (1977)
April 27 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Q Who" (1989)
April 27 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Explorers” (1995)
April 27 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Relativity” (1999)
April 27 - Henry Brant died (2008)
April 28 - Emil Stern born (1913)
April 28 - Lyn Murray records his score for the Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode “Who Needs an Enemy?” (1964)
April 28 - Blake Neely born (1969)
April 28 - Billy Goldenberg records his score for High Risk (1976)
April 28 - Christopher Young records orchestral passages for his Invaders from Mars score (1986)
April 28 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “The Wire” (1994)
April 28 - Alan Silvestri begins recording his score for Judge Dredd (1995)
April 28 - Paul Baillargeon records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Children of Time” (1997)
April 29 - Duke Ellington born (1889)
April 29 - Toots Thielemans born (1922)
April 29 - Waldemar Kazanecki born (1929)
April 29 - Rod McKuen born (1933)
April 29 - Herbert Stothart begins recording his score to Random Harvest (1942)
April 29 - Jan A.P. Kaczmarek born (1953)
April 29 - Chris Boardman born (1954)
April 29 - Lawrence Shragge born (1954)
April 29 - Craig Armstrong born (1959)
April 29 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Conspiracy” (1988)
April 29 - James Horner begins recording his score for The Rocketeer (1991)
April 29 - Jay Chattaway records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “If Wishes Were Horses” (1993)
April 29 - Dennis McCarthy and Kevin Kiner record their score for the final Star Trek: Enterprise episode, “These Are the Voyages…” (2005)
April 29 - Joel Goldsmith died (2012)
April 30 - Jay Chattaway records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Host” (1991)
April 30 - David Bell records his score for the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Homestead” (2001)
April 30 - Velton Ray Bunch records his score for the Enterprise episode “Desert Crossing” (2002)
May 1 - Heinz Roemheld born (1901)
May 1 - Bill Byers born (1927)
May 1 - Paul Sawtell records his score for the Land of the Giants episode “The Flight Plan” (1968)
May 1 - Gordon Jenkins died (1984)
May 1 - James Horner begins recording orchestral cues for his Apollo 13 score (1995)
May 1 - Bill Byers died (1996)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
THE ALTO KNIGHTS - David Fleming
"I wouldn’t go so far as to label 'The Alto Knights' a bad movie. The period detail: suits, dresses, interiors, and cars -- is resplendent; even in limited roles, Debra Messing and Kathrine Narducci as Costello and Genovese’s respective wives add flinty energy to the film’s dour repetition; there is a hardened quality to the film’s dynamic score too. Scenes of Costello testifying in front of the Senate or the doomed Apalachin meeting provide additional moments of intensity and wisecracking. But as a gangster film, 'The Alto Knights' does little more than putter along, taking in very few new or interesting sights along the way."
Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com
"The real issue is that Levinson hasn’t quite decided how to tell this story. His let’s-try-it-all mix of archival footage, chummy voiceovers, and earnest on-camera interviews is mostly effective, in the style of a St. Valentine’s Day bullet spray. But the pacing stutters through dramatic scenes that are either overlong or oddly truncated, while exaggerated camerawork and a portentous score regularly build suspense the script can’t support."
Elizabeth Weitzman, Time Out
THE AMATEUR - Volker Bertelmann
"And so it goes for a cloak and dagger yarn that uses its outward seriousness as a cover for the silliness at its core -- a cover that it maintains with the help of Volker Bertelmann’s sawing, 'Conclave'-loud violin score. Still, 'The Amateur' never forgets its true identity, and while Hawes’ previous feature, the Holocaust-tinged biographical drama 'One Life,' offers a strangely accurate preview of the tone at work here, the film seldom takes itself as seriously as its po-faced spycraft might suggest."
David Ehrlich, IndieWire
"DP Martin Ruhe gives the movie a good-looking balance of sleek and gritty, with sharp location work in France and Turkey -- notably in a chase along the Istanbul seafront -- and England standing in serviceably for the rest of the stops. The most indispensable element to keep the action humming, however, is a big, bold score by Volker Bertelmann. Audiences nostalgic for ‘90s spy thrillers could do worse."
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
ASH - Flying Lotus
"Don’t let the green mist tinged with white lightning and rotating cosmic orifices fool you, however: Ingesting psychedelic drugs is not recommended before watching this film. Like Brandon Cronenberg’s 'Possessor,' 'Ash' makes extensive use of cut-ins that violently tear through the frame, jarring the audience with nightmarish imagery that’s disarming under normal circumstances and probably soul-searingly terrifying if one’s third eye happens to be open at the time. Think rage monsters -- coated in blood that’s as thick as crude oil -- who scream under red lights as the score spikes in the background. It’s very much a horror movie, and a freaky one at times....That creature combines invertebrate goo with magnetic liquid metal, an example of the many visual textures Flying Lotus plays with in 'Ash.' The attention to detail is impressive: An insectoid mobile surgery unit projects vaporwave grids onto its patients, and although the display screen is in English -- flashing text that says 'Sorry for Your Loss' when the device scans a dead body provides one of the film’s few laughs -- the audio prompts are in Japanese, presumably because it sounds cool. Attention is paid to sound as well as to visuals, and Flying Lotus’ score is excellent, a head-nodding blend of pulsating rhythms, abrasive noise, and atmospheric synths."
Katie Rife, IndieWire
"'Ash' is a colorful production, masking its low-budget with Fulci-esque palettes. Flying Lotus’s electronic score is eerie and pulsing, as though it was written in the early 1980s and fell through a wormhole. Had the whole film been produced in retro lo-fidelity, it may have smoothed over the predictability of its plot, and let us truly become immersed in its world, highlighting all the strange little details. But it’s a slick production, and that slickness only calls attention to how sparse and empty the characters, their world and their circumstances truly are."
William Bibbiani, The Wrap
"'Ash' plays by such a familiar rulebook that it’s difficult to be outright surprised by its revelations, most of which have been borrowed (and ever-so-slightly tweaked) from its ancestors. Even so, Flying Lotus knows how to jar with a sudden cut to hellish images and freakish sounds, and his score -- equal parts lovely and nightmarish, tranquil and oppressively cacophonous -- helps create a mood of dawning apocalyptic dread, as if the entire galaxy were at any moment going to come crashing down on Riya -- or, perhaps, open wide to suck her up and swallow her whole."
Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
"Now is as good a time as any, but Riya isn’t exactly hell-bent on leaving until she can put together the puzzle, which is why she has limited to no memory prior to waking up. This investigation takes the slow-boil opening of this picture and puts it back on the heat. At this point, the movie nails where 'Prometheus' fails. Flying Lotus might be a flowering John Carpenter by way of Ridley Scott, getting solid support from a tight script by Jonni Remmler, cinematographer Richard Bluck bringing to the eye memories of Jordan Cronenweth, all blanketed beautifully, but Lotus’s score, that’s a little Carpenter and Vangelis, a delicious fusion."
Kent Hill, Film Threat
"Beyond FlyLo’s respectable curation of vibes and contributions to the crunchy, bass-heavy electronic soundtrack, the goopy, gory, trippy fun to be had here turns to Ash, mostly due to Jonni Remmler’s tedious script. Though it starts with a bang, waking Riya (Eiza González) up alone in an outpost filled with the brutalized corpses of her former teammates, the film listlessly moves back and forth through time on its way to an inevitable explanation. The brief flashback interludes to when Riya’s crew -- Adhi (Iko Uwais), Kevin (Beulah Koale), Clarke (Kate Elliott), and Davis (Flying Lotus, who saves a nasty death for himself) -- was alive and kicking are barebones, nearly as quiet and sparse as the scenes in which they’re all lying bloody on the floor. Temporally caught between, the amnesiac Riya keeps experiencing jumpscare memories from the bloodbath that is finally unpacked in full during the final act."
Jacob Oller, AV Club
"Even as 'Ash' morphs into something of a two-hander with the arrival of Brion (Aaron Paul), between the giallo-esque lighting and John Carpenter synths, Ash continues to wear its influences on its sleeve. Jonni Remmler’s script can hardly even be bothered to seed distrust between Riya and Brion, and it provides only the bare minimum of insight into what life at the outpost used to be like -- when the lighting was a lot less moody and everyone’s blood was still inside of their bodies. And yet, Flying Lotus and his collaborators give 'Ash' enough visual flair to occasionally transcend such limitations as forgettable characters with fuzzy motivations."
Steven Scaife, Slant Magazine
"The DJ-cum-director set the vibes by playing music for his cast on set, but much as this movie looks and feels like a visual concept album -- which is to say, logic is incidental -- the score is actually kind of a letdown: mostly jacked-up throbbing and machine static, too industrial to dance to (FlyLo’s got nothing on the RZA in that department). Still, the soundtrack is psychologically destabilizing as it pulses to a different rhythm from Bryan Shaw’s jagged editing and all the stroboscopic flashing on-screen."
Peter Debruge, Variety
BEING MARIA - Benjamin Biolay
"But even as Benjamin Biolay’s dolorous string score threatens to flatten 'Being Maria' into a more traditional rise and fall story, the film is buoyed by Vartolomei’s constant pursuit of the truth, and by the intensity with which Maria is always searching to see herself reflected in the eyes of those looking at her -- our eyes very much included."
David Ehrlich, IndieWire
"Portraying the world through Maria’s eyes using, for the most part, close-ups on her face helps mask a certain impoverishment in the production design. It appears as if most of the film’s budget went to period costumes and certain period songs, such as Talking Heads’ 'Psycho Killer.' The thriller-like strings score by Benjamin Biolay is used sparsely."
Alissa Simon, Variety
BORDERLINE - Mondo Boys
"'Borderline' also largely impresses on the technical side, featuring solid sound design, effectively stylized visuals and editing that is a little more inconsistent: Mostly effective and contributing to some of the gags, but with several moments that will likely leave you scratching your head. Much of this filmmaking language, however, is wrapped up in music–Borderline is often shot quite like a music video, with heavy use of musical montage that reduces some of the need for dialogue. The mid-1990s time period of course gives an excuse for various high-profile needle drops such as Annie Lennox’s version of 'No More "I Love You’s",' but at the same time the film also weaves in quite a bit of modern, anachronistic music into its score. There’s a lovely sequence, for instance, where Sofia and NBA player boyfriend Rhodes (Jimmie Fails) go dancing at a local club that is set to 'Cumbia Del Olvido' by Ecuadorian DJ and producer Nicola Cruz, and the sequence flows in a beautiful way to the tune as the couple is bathed in an alluring beam of light on the dance floor. So too is the music occasionally even used for comedic effect–in one bit, Weaving is fighting a goon while the score veers into a staccato fight riff, which stops when the henchman appears to be defeated, but then comes roaring back right where it left off when the goon reappears to start the fight all over again."
Jim Vorel, Paste Magazine
DISNEY'S SNOW WHITE - Jeff Morrow (score); Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (songs)
"Most surprising is Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. While she's terrific in the 'Wonder Woman' movies that brought her to prominence, those don't require much range, so it would fair to wonder if Gadot had the chops to pull off the part of the Queen. She's wonderfully campy and over-the-top in the role, clearly relishing the chance to play the villain and even delivering her solo number with panache, making it one of the best numbers in the film. The rest of the new songs by EGOT winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are delightful as well, fitting smoothly alongside the older numbers from the original movie while providing fresh character and story development."
Cynthia Vinney, Looper
"This all sounds familiar, does it not? In between some classic songs ('Heigh-Ho' and 'Whistle While You Work' remain charming), new jams from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul offer a little punch-up, from Snow White’s 'I want' song 'Waiting on a Wish' (fine, does its job) to Evil Queen’s hilariously evil anthem ('All Is Fair'), all the way up to the standout 'Princess Problems,' which is clever and self-effacing in ways that these live-action remakes can tend to miss."
Kate Erbland, IndieWire
"The film's split personality problems don't go away. Half of it is set in a grimy, gloomy land where Snow White wants to foment a peasants' revolt and restore a socialist utopia, but half of it is set in a chirpy, brightly-coloured fantasy realm of benign and beautiful aristocrats. Half the time, the characters are belting out overwrought, self-empowerment anthems by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the songsmiths behind 'The Greatest Showman.' But half the time they're trilling the jaunty 1937 ditties by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey."
Nicholas Barber, BBC.com
"The movie begins by aggressively declaring itself to be a musical, with composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul bringing their very hit-or-miss songwriting talents to the movie’s original numbers. Even as a Greatest Showman defender, I struggle to remember any of the new songs except two: 'Princess Problems,' performed by Burnap and Zegler, is a comedy bop with some clever lyrics, and 'Waiting on a Wish' is a fascinating failure of an 'I Want' song. (The entire song is about Snow White is waiting for the moment when she might become a strong leader like her father. 'Waiting' and 'wishing' aren’t exactly active words.)"
Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
"The 'why mess with a classic?' question becomes a conundrum with the score. Which is more astounding? That Disney let Pasek and Paul, the team behind the widely loathed 'Dear Evan Hansen,' write more songs? Or that even they could somehow massacre seemingly indestructible classics like 'Heigh-Ho' and 'Whistle While You Work' with terrible new arrangements and asinine new lyrics? The delivery does the songs no favors. Zegler (infinitely better in Spielberg’s 'West Side Story') pulls faces near voids filled in later by some of the worst CG this side of a Robert Zemeckis movie, before thrashing songs in the seemingly de rigueur American Idol 'all power, no meaning' fashion. She’s still endlessly more tuneful than the monstrously autotuned Gadot, whose fifth-rate Eartha Kitt impression aims for pantomime and simply splats to Earth."
Richard Whittaker, The Austin Chronicle
"Gal Gadot plays the evil enchantress queen. Her singing voice is thin and so is her performance, especially when she is called upon to show fury because her stepdaughter challenges her authority. The movie does not give her a lot to work with beyond the impressive costumes and special effects. Her signature magic trick is turning a flower into dust and her big number, 'All is Fair,' is the weakest in a second tier set of songs from EGOT awardees Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. It is not up to their gorgeous 'La La Land' songs or the wonderfully clever 'Which of The Pickwick Triplets Did It?' from 'Only Murders in the Building.' And it is not a personality-revealing banger like the all-time best Disney villain song from 'The Little Mermaid,' 'Poor Unfortunate Souls,' by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. We get some snippets of some of the original film’s classic numbers, 'Whistle While You Work,' and the yodeling 'Silly Song,' and a full-on 'Hi-Ho,' which are more memorable than the new additions, possibly excepting 'Princess Problems,' a nice duet between Snow White and Jonathan that sets up their differences in outlook, her empathy against the superficial cynicism he will soon happily jettison."
Nell Minow, RogerEbert.com
"Are the songs themselves good? Well, sort of. 'Princess Problems,' a lightly sarcastic duet between Zegler and Burnap, is probably the best, because it comes the closest to making Burnap pop on screen. A redo of 'Whistle While You Work”' is almost zippy enough to make you forget the benign horrors of the CG dwarves. If the tunes are closer to 'Wish' than 'Frozen,' including a regrettably bog-standard ohh-ohh-ahh-ohh anthem from the overemployed Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, well, look, at least there’s far less trilling. Indeed, if the Disney remakes weren’t a whole industrial complex, this 'Snow White' would probably be seen as an agreeable novelty: That time Disney paid tribute to itself with an updated fairy tale that can’t revise itself into a fully satisfying resolution but makes a decent effort at doing something different. The animated 'Snow White' may no longer feel quite so revered in the wake of Disney’s relentless franchising, but at least the realm of pointless remakes gives it an arena in which to kick 'The Lion King''s ass."
Jesse Hassenger, Paste Magazine
"As a musical, 'Snow White' is a bit of a mixed bag. Naturally, the best songs here are updates of songs we already know, such as 'Heigh-Ho,' 'Whistle While You Work,' and 'The Silly Song,' often with additional lyrics that mostly work and don’t take away from these beloved songs. It also shouldn’t be a surprise that the best new songs here -- by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul of 'La La Land' and 'The Greatest Showman' fame -- do center around Zegler’s Snow White. Here, she gets a much stronger 'I Want' song with 'Waiting on a Wish,' which makes for a solid introduction to this character. 'A Hand Meets a Hand,' featuring Zegler and Burnap, is also quite good, while their other duo, 'Princess Problems,' has a bit too much 'theater kid' energy and winks too much at the audience for it to be entirely effective. Again, the weakest song here is the new song added for Gadot’s Evil Queen, 'All Is Fair,' which almost feels like an attempt to make her a more playful villain than she really is. Also, compared to Zegler’s vocal skills, Gadot can’t help but come up short."
Ross Bonaime, Collider
"However, these elements and ideas are the only thing that makes 'Snow White' remotely watchable. The rest is strained musical numbers -- written by Larry Morey and Frank Churchill and Pasek and Paul -- that aren’t that catchy, agonizing musical numbers with the dwarves that might as well be 100% scenes of computer-generated animation, a very hammy and vampy Gal Gadot who does no favors to the growing online criticisms that she cannot act, risible dialogue and jokes that mostly fall flat."
Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
"I don’t actually know how to judge these live-action Disney remakes on any relative scale of quality. The bar is so low, and what people seem to want from them -- a tickle of nostalgia, the familiar rendered new on a technicality, 109 minutes of child-friendly distraction -- feels so different from the usual standards. So: 'Snow White' is not as bad as it could be, while not being anywhere near good? It’s better than, say, 2019’s 'Aladdin,' which was awful but nevertheless made a literal billion dollars. It’s garishly ugly and padded out with new tunes from Pasek and Paul that are as smooth and unremarkable as river rocks, all of which may or may not matter to its target audience, who could just be basing their decision about whether to see the movie on how unacceptably woke social media has informed them it is. But while the movie itself is devoid of delight, there is something delightful about getting to actually see the thing after the years of culture-war skirmishes that have preceded its release like a wrathful red carpet and discovering it’s about lefty infighting."
Alison Willmore, New York
"As for Snow White herself, Zegler transforms the Disney film’s pseudo-cypher into a plucky, self-assured leader-in-waiting. She also sings terrifically, lending a redeeming gritty ache to the predictable pop melody of 'Waiting on a Wish,' the princess’s early lament that she doesn’t yet have the guts to save her people. (The five new songs are by 'Dear Evan Hansen''s Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.) Commanding her new companions to clean their own house, rather than doing it for them, Zegler’s Snow White makes 'Whistle While You Work,' one of a couple songs maintained from the original film, a particularly zesty highlight. Unsurprisingly, the classic damsel-in-distress hymn 'Someday My Prince Will Come' hasn’t made the cut. Instead of a generic Prince Charming, Snow falls for Jonathan (a delectably droll Andrew Burnap), not a prince at all but the leader of a troupe of politically motivated bandits who’ve turned to crime because they’re -- no joke -- out of-work actors unable to sustain careers in the arts because of the Evil Queen’s self-serving economic policies. While Gadot is appropriately chic and menacing as the Evil Queen, she shades in very little besides general malice. It’s strange that there’s been no effort to make her more than a generic villain when everyone else is getting a naturalistic glow-up. Her danse macabre of a meanie anthem 'All Is Fair,' in which she declares that 'ambitious girls must be vicious girls, and boy, they have fun,' doesn’t help. The camera often careens toward Gadot at a diagonal from below, which does more to demonstrate the Evil Queen’s warped worldview than Gadot herself does."
Dan Rubins, Slant Magazine
"What they suggest is that 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' is perhaps fundamentally incapable of being modernized; without the sweet naivete and offensive stereotypes -- and, with them, the air of otherworldly magic -- it’s just another cookie-cutter Disney affair, full of corny duets (including one dubbed 'Princess Problems' in which Jonathan mocks Snow White for her entitlement) and italicized expressions of you-go-girl strength and resilience. Decked out in a long, shiny black gown, sharp fingernails, and a spiky glass crown, Gadot looks the part of the Evil Queen but generally overdoes it to borderline-campy effect, although some of that is the fault of Pasek and Paul’s 'All is Fair,' which clumsily amplifies the villainess’ sassiness. The 'Dear Evan Hansen' songwriters’ tunes are blandly conventional, and that additionally goes for Zegler’s performance as the empowered Snow White, who gaily teaches her pals to whistle while they work and sternly stares down the Queen during a new conclusion that allows the heroine to author her own happily ever after. Burnap is even duller, cast in a rote mold that offers zero surprises and generates scant sparks with Zegler. Despite boasting more personality traits and motivations, they’re all wan facsimiles of their archetypal ancestors."
Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
"Throughout the story’s familiar and revised portions, Zegler’s Snow White attempts to shine through the dreary blockbuster haze, her charisma as blinding as high beams in fog. Easily shifting gears between the pure-hearted role model of fable and a girl with a bit of personality, she navigates Erin Cressida Wilson’s unsteady script more surely than any of those around her. The 'West Side Story' star’s screen presence and singing voice are so winning that even the camera stops to stare, simply holding on her, center frame, as she belts and emotes through Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s forgettable new songs. Like so much of the new material, Pasek and Paul’s contributions range from practically-minded pap (the theme-establishing 'Good Things Grow') to atonal snark (the bickering, irony-laden 'Princess Problems'). And, like so much of the new material, Zegler manages to work with it -- though there aren’t any original tunes that a kid will remember, let alone be humming on their way out of the theater, 'Waiting On A Wish' at least gives Zegler an 'Evan Hansen'-like spotlight. These songs were never going to stand up to 'Heigh-Ho' or 'Whistle While You Work,' earworms whose simplicity lends itself to slapstick, to environmental storytelling, to effortless characterization that extends a hand to children and adults alike. The scenes that play the hits are the best parts of 'Snow White' -- even if they do entail looking at the CG abominations this film calls dwarfs."
Jacob Oller, AV Club
"With catchy personalities and comically expressive mottled-clay faces, these CGI gnomes bring the movie to life, whether it’s the whimsically pedantic Doc (voiced by Jeremy Swift), the philosophical Grumpy (Martin Klebba), or the incongruously youthful, mute, and big-eared Dopey (Andrew Barth Feldman), who suggests Tom Holland starring in a biopic of Mad magazine’s Alfred E. Newman. There’s also a handful of new songs, by Pasek and Paul, that from the witty 'Princess Problems' to the generically enraptured 'Waiting on a Wish' hover somewhere between fine and forgettable."
Owen Gleiberman, Variety
"Editors Mark Sanger and Sarah Broshar keep the pace zippy, and the robust orchestral score by Jeff Morrow adds buoyancy or drama as required. Webb proves equally adept at romantic interludes, attack scenes and production numbers, notably the joyous finale, 'Good Things Grow,' with the entire cast outfitted by Powell in resplendent white. Sure, those poorly integrated CG little people take some getting used to, but this is the type of wholesome and uplifting family entertainment that comes directly from old-school Disney DNA."
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
FREAKY TALES - Raphael Saadiq
"Either way, they’ve done their research. The soundtrack of Evelyn 'Champagne' King and Public Image Ltd. and modern punk acts reworking the classics is fantastic, as is the proper score by Raphael Saadiq of Tony! Toni! Toné! Every frame is filled with details, down to the T-shirts for small regional bands like Sewer Trout. There’s even a reference to rocky road ice cream, invented in Oakland in 1929."
Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times
"Every aspect of this movie works in deliriously loopy sync. That applies to Jac Fitzgerald’s invigorating camerawork, to a score by Raphael Saddiq that gets bigger and ballsier as the filmmakers up the suspense, and to production design and costumes by Patti Podesta and Neishea Lemle, respectively, that evoke the milieu and the period with a love that’s infectious. 'Freaky Tales' is a project where every scene suggests what a blast they all had making it."
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA - John Carroll Kirby
"Oliveros keeps the pressure high in his briskly running film that’s propelled by a bloopy, squelchy soundtrack and a volley between harried behind-the-scenes scenes and stage-managed on-set pieces. The script drops enough red herrings to keep everyone guessing about everyone else’s agendas, elevating an otherwise straightforward story."
Kim Hughes, Original Cin
THE NEXT TEN DAYS IN L.A.
Screenings of older films in Los Angeles-area theaters.
April 25
EASTERN PROMISES (Howard Shore) [Nuart]
THE ELEPHANT MAN (John Morris) [Aero]
HOLY MOTORS [Vidiots]
THE KEEP (Tangerine Dream) [Alamo Drafthouse]
KILL BILL: VOL. 2 (RZA, Roberg Rodriguez) [New Beverly]
LA NANA (THE MAID) [Los Feliz 3]
LEGEND (Tangerine Dream) [New Beverly]
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (Alan Menken, Miles Goodman) [Vidiots]
NOROI: THE CURSE [BrainDead Studios]
OFFICE SPACE (John Frizzell) [Vidiots]
ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (Nino Rota) [New Beverly]
ROSEMARY'S BABY (Christopher Komeda) [BrainDead Studios]
ROTTING IN THE SUN (Nascuy Linares) [Los Feliz 3]
SCREAM (Marco Beltrami) [Vista]
April 26
BOUND (Don Davis) [Vidiots]
DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE [Los Feliz 3]
DOLPHIN TALE 2 (Rachel Portman) [Academy Museum
IDIOCRACY (Theodore Shapiro) [New Beverly]
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (Bernard Herrmann) [BrainDead Studios]
THE KEEP (Tangerine Dream) [Alamo Drafthouse]
KILLER OF SHEEP [Los Feliz 3]
LIFE OF PI (Mychael Danna) [Vidiots]
MISS CONGENIALITY (Edward Shearmur) [Los Feliz 3]
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION (Ralph Burns) [Vista]
NEPTUNE FROST (Saul Williams) [Academy Museum]
THE RED BALLOON (Maurice Le Roux) [Vidiots]
ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (Nino Rota) [New Beverly]
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (Richard O'Brien, Richard Hartley) [Nuart]
SCREAM (Marco Beltrami) [Vista]
SECONDS (Jerry Goldsmith) [BrainDead Studios]
SHADOWS (Shafi Hadi, Charles Mingus) [Los Feliz 3]
SHREK (Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell) [Alamo Drafthouse]
SPIDER-MAN 3 (Christopher Young) [New Beverly]
V FOR VENDETTA (Dario Marianelli) [Vidiots]
April 27
ALMOST FAMOUS (Nancy Wilson) [Academy Museum]
THE BEACHES OF AGNES (Joanna Bruzdowicz, Stephane Vilar) [Vidiots]
8 1/2 (Nino Rota) [Vidiots]
THE ELEPHANT MAN (John Morris) [Los Feliz 3]
FRIDA (Elliot Goldenthal) [Vidiots]
HEARTWORN HIGHWAYS [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE KILLING FLOOR (Elizabeth Swados) [UCLA/Hammer]
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION (Ralph Burns) [Vista]
ON THE WATERFRONT (Leonard Bernstein) [BrainDead Studios]
THE ONLY SON (Senji Ito) [Los Feliz 3]
PLAY IT AS IT LAYS [Los Feliz 3]
ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (Nino Rota) [New Beverly]
SPIDER-MAN 3 (Christopher Young) [New Beverly]
U-571 (Richard Marvin) [Aero]
VERTIGO (Bernard Herrmann) [BrainDead Studios]
April 28
BEYOND THE DOOR (Franco Micalizzi), CATHY'S CURSE (Didier Vasseur) [New Beverly]
BRIDE & PREJUDICE (Craig Pruess) [Vidiots]
THE ELEPHANT MAN (John Morris) [Los Feliz 3]
JUST ANOTHER GIRL ON THE I.R.T. (Eric Sadler), PARTING GLANCES [UCLA/Hammer]
THE KEEP (Tangerine Dream) [Alamo Drafthouse]
LUST, CAUTION (Alexandre Desplat) [Academy Museum]
THE NAKED GUN: FROM THE FILES OF POLICE SQUAD! (Ira Newborn) [Culver]
NEPTUNE FROST (Saul Williams) [Academy Museum]
PLAY IT AS IT LAYS [Los Feliz 3]
SUZUME (Kazuma Jinouchi, Radwimps) [Alamo Drafthouse]
April 29
FAT GIRL, 36 FILLETTE (Maxime Schmitt) [New Beverly]
PALINDROMES (Nathan Larson) [BrainDead Studios]
UNFORGIVEN (Lennie Niehaus) [Vidiots]
April 30
FAT GIRL, 36 FILLETTE (Maxime Schmitt) [New Beverly]
KILLER OF SHEEP [Los Feliz 3]
M3GAN (Anthony Willis) [Alamo Drafthouse]
PILLOW TALK (Frank De Vol) [Los Feliz 3]
SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (Leo Shuken, Charles Bradshaw) [Academy Museum]
WILL YOUR HEART BEAT FASTER? (Lorrie Ilustre) [BrainDead Studios]
May 1
JACK GOES BOATING (Grizzly Bear, Evan Lurie), LOVE LIZA (Jim O'Rourke) [Aacdemy Museum]
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (Cyril B. Mockridge) [New Beverly]
NEPTUNE FROST (Saul Williams) [Academy Museum]
PLAY IT AS IT LAYS [Los Feliz 3]
SUMMER 1993 (Pau Boïgues, Ernest Pipó), SYSTEM CRASHER (John Gurtler) [UCLA/Hammer]
May 2
THE ELEPHANT MAN (John Morris) [Los Feliz 3]
THE 40 YEAR-OLD VIRGIN (Lyle Workman) [Academy Museum]
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN (Harry Gregson-Williams) [Egyptian]
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (Cyril B. Mockridge) [New Beverly]
REAL GENIUS (Thomas Newman) [Vidiots]
ROCKY (Bill Conti) [New Beverly]
SPIDER BABY (Ronald Stein) [New Beverly]
THE TERMINATOR (Brad Fiedel) [Academy Museum]
THIRST (Cho Young-wuk) [Vidiots]
TRUE ROMANCE (Hans Zimmer) [New Beverly]
May 3
THE AFRICAN QUEEN (Allan Gray) [Egyptian]
BARRY LYNDON (Leonard Rosenman) [Alamo Drafthouse]
BLACK BEAUTY (Danny Elfman) [Vidiots]
CREEPSHOW (John Harrison) [New Beverly]
THE DEPARTED (Howard Shore) [New Beverly]
THE FRENCH CONNECTION (Don Ellis) [Aero]
HERO (Tan Dun) [Academy Museum]
KILLER OF SHEEP [Los Feliz 3]
MARCH OF THE PENGUINS (Alex Wurman) [Academy Museum]
MEAN STREETS [Los Feliz 3]
NASHVILLE [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (Richard O'Brien, Richard Hartley) [Nuart]
THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (Marvin Hamlisch) [New Beverly]
THE TERMINATOR (Brad Fiedel) [Academy Museum]
May 4
THE DEPARTED (Howard Shore) [New Beverly]
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (John Williams) [Academy Museum]
THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (James Newton Howard) [Alamo Drafthouse]
MALCOLM X [UCLA/Hammer]
NARC (Cliff Martinez) [Vidiots]
NASHVILLE [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (Mark Mothersbaugh) [Aero]
SPIRITED AWAY (Joe Hisaishi) [Vidiots]
THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (Marvin Hamlisch) [New Beverly]
STAR WARS: EPISODE 1 - THE PHANTOM MENACE (John Williams) [Academy Museum]
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (John Williams) [Academy Museum]
WILD STRAWBERRIES (Erik Nordgren) [Aero]
THINGS I'VE HEARD, READ, SEEN OR WATCHED LATELY
Heard: Symphonic Hollywood (Holdridge, Rozsa); "Baby J" (Mulaney); Dolphin Tale (Isham); Heavyweights (Redford); Terminator: Salvation (Elfman); Fantasy Island/The Cable Guy (Ottman); Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Alex Wurman (Wurman); Die Hard (Kamen); Surrogates (Marvin); Fun with Dick and Jane (Shapiro)
Read: The Underdog and Other Stories, by Agatha Christie
Seen: House of Flying Daggers; The Incredible Shrinking Man; The Incredible Shrinking Woman; The Wedding Banquet [2025]; The Shrouds; The Legend of Ochi; Magnolia; The Savages; Jesus Chris Superstar; Hair
Watched: Columbo ("A Deadly State of Mind")
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