Archive
THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL/I CAN SEE YOU – Jeff Grace
Review by Jonathan Broxton
A chilling horror movie from writer/director Ti West, The House of the Devil stars Jocelin Donahue as Samantha, a teenage college student who takes on babysitting jobs to earn a bit of extra cash. When she is hired by the Ulman family (Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov) on the night of a lunar eclipse, Samantha’s part time job quickly becomes a living nightmare after she learns that she is to be the victim of a satanic ritual. The music for The House of the Devil is by up-and-coming composer Jeff Grace, who scored West’s previous films Trigger Man and The Roost, both of which were also released on the MovieScore Media label.
Much like the film itself, Grace’s score is a nostalgic throwback to the early-80s heyday of the ‘teenager in peril’ horror genre, albeit with a very classy, classical feel. Read more…
ASTRO BOY – John Ottman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
An animated action adventure based on the classic 1950s Japanese cartoon series, which was itself loosely based on the Pinocchio story, Astro Boy tells the story of a robot child who is created by a genius scientist named Dr. Tenma after Tenma’s son is killed in an industrial accident. However, having been rejected by his family, Astro embarks on a planetary voyage of discovery, and uses his incredible powers to become a world famous super-hero when an alien race threatens Earth. Alongside an impressive voice cast that includes Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Charlize Theron, Samuel L. Jackson, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland and Nathan Lane, director David Bowers sought out composer John Ottman to write the film’s original score. Read more…
THE VAMPIRE’S ASSISTANT – Stephen Trask
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Another film cashing in on the currently de rigeur vampire craze, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant is directed by Paul Weitz and stars Chris Massoglia as a young boy named Darren, who meets a mysterious man named Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) at a travelling freak show, who is revealed to be a vampire. After his best friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson) is bitten by Crepsley’s poisonous spider, Darren makes a deal with Crepsley: if he saves his friend’s life, he will leave his hometown and join the Cirque du Freak as an apprentice vampire.
The music for The Vampire’s Assistant is by young American composer Stephen Trask, whose prior experience includes working on films such as Dreamgirls, In Good Company and The Station Agent, but who has never tackled a score of this size and scope before. Read more…
AMELIA – Gabriel Yared
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Amelia Earhart was one of the pioneers of modern aviation, a best-selling author, and a revolutionary feminist who enjoyed enormous celebrity during her life, and whose tragic death in 1937 remains shrouded in mystery. From her humble beginnings in rural Kansas in 1897, she rose to become one of the pre-eminent women of her generation; she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932, was a member of the engineering faculty at Purdue University in Indiana, and was in the middle of an attempt to circumnavigate the globe when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. Director Mira Nair’s film of her life – Amelia – stars Hilary Swank as Earhart and Richard Gere as her agent and husband George Putnam, features Ewan McGregor and Christopher Eccleston in supporting roles, and boasts a rich, sweeping score by French/Lebanese composer Gabriel Yared. Read more…
POPE JOAN (DIE PÄPSTIN) – Marcel Barsotti
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Despite all its successes in other creative arts, German cinema has never made much of a splash on the international scene. Likewise, German film music never reaches much beyond its boundaries to the world stage, despite the efforts of composers like Niki Reiser, Klaus Doldinger, Stefan Zacharias, or its two most famous exports, Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt. I haven’t reviewed the score for a German film since Der Untergang in 2004, but I’m very pleased to add Pope Joan by Marcel Barsotti to the (sadly) short list of German soundtracks covered here. Read more…
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE – Carter Burwell
Review by Jonathan Broxton
A children’s fantasy based on author Maurice Sendak’s well-loved, but long-considered un-filmable novel from 1963, Where the Wild Things Are is a fable about a disobedient young boy named Max who, after an argument with his mother, creates his own fantasy world inhabited by giant, ferocious creatures who crown him king. Directed by Spike Jonze, the creator of such imaginative films as Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, the film has a superb voice cast (James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, Forest Whitaker) supporting child actor Max Records, and features original music by composer Carter Burwell and songwriter Karen Orzolek, better known as Karen O alongside her band, The Kids. Read more…
LAW ABIDING CITIZEN – Brian Tyler
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Taking its cue from 70s revenge movies like Charles Bronson’s Death Wish series, Law Abiding Citizen is the story of Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) an everyday joe whose life is turned upside down when his family is murdered in a home invasion. However, when district attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) plea bargains a deal to set the killers free, Clyde decides to take matters into his own hands and dispense his own kind of justice. The film is directed by F. Gary Gray, and features a new score from the absurdly busy Brian Tyler, his sixth score of 2009 following features like Dragonball Evolution, Fast & Furious and The Final Destination. Read more…
AN EDUCATION – Paul Englishby
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A coming-of-age drama set in England in the 1960s, An Education stars Carey Mulligan as Jenny, a precocious 16-year-old schoolgirl with a talent for playing the cello, who falls in with a crowd of socially privileged, upper class friends, who want to expose her to a richer, more fulfilling cultural life than her drab suburban life would otherwise allow. Gradually, and despite the misgivings of her staid father (Alfred Molina), Jenny falls for the suave and charismatic David (Peter Sarsgaard), who despite being twice her age, promises her a better life. However, the more Jenny finds out about David and his companions, and specifically how they make their money, the more she has to make difficult choices. Read more…
COUPLES RETREAT – A.R. Rahman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Couples Retreat is a comedy about three couples – Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman, Jon Favreau and Kristin Davis, Faizon Love and Kali Hawk – who, in order to help save the marriage of their friends Jason Bateman and Kristin Bell, agree to travel to a tropical-island resort for a vacation. Once on the island they meet the island’s patron, Sctanley (Peter Serafinowicz), who forces all the couples to engage in all manner of unusual “therapy sessions”… with hilarious results. The film is directed by Peter Billingsley, still best known for his performance as Ralphie in A Christmas Story when he was 12 years old, and has an original score by last year’s double Oscar-winner, Indian composer A.R. Rahman. Read more…
AGORA – Dario Marianelli
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Agora is a historical epic set in Roman Egypt at the very end of the classical antiquity period. It’s a story about religion, philosophy, the clash between modern civilization and ancient belief, and the life of Hypatia, a pagan mathematician and astronomer who is considered to be one of the first women in history to be held in such esteem, and who embarks on an illicit romance with her slave Davus, who is himself in a quandary: if he converts to Christianity he may gain his freedom, but in doing so will lose the woman he loves. The Agora of the title refers to the central square in the city of Alexandria where the film is set, and where Hypatia was murdered in the year 415 by a mob of newly-converted Christians, who felt she was responsible for the political and religious unrest plaguing their city. The film is directed by Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar, stars Rachel Weisz as Hypatia, Max Minghella (son of director Anthony) as Davus, and features a new original score by Italian composer Dario Marianelli. Read more…
A SERIOUS MAN – Carter Burwell
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A wry black comedy from the critically acclaimed Coen brothers, Ethan and Joel, and set in 1967, A Serious Man tells the story of an ordinary Midwestern man named Larry Gopnik, who watches helplessly as his life unravels around him: his wife Judith has left him for one of his colleagues, his feckless brother Arthur is sleeping on his couch, his son Danny is flunking out of school, one of his students is blackmailing him, and his pretty neighbor is not helping matters by continually sunbathing in the nude. It’s a typically quirky look at life, relationships, and the extraordinary situations in which everyday folks sometimes find themselves, and has been heavily tipped to be a major player at the 2009 Oscars, with lead actors Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick and Fred Melamed all receiving a great deal of critical acclaim. Read more…
ZOMBIELAND – David Sardy
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A raucous comedy-horror with a significant splatter factor, Zombieland stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin as the four human survivors of an apocalypse in which a Mad Cow-like disease has turned the majority of the world’s population into flesh-eating zombies. As the four brave heroes track across America, only their resourcefulness and their improvised weaponry stand between them and their being eaten by the walking undead… and hilarity ensues.
The film, which has been called the American answer to Shaun of the Dead, is directed by Ruben Fleischer, and has an original score by composer and former record producer David Sardy, who first came to prominence with his Vegas jazz score for the film 21 in 2008. Read more…
MAO’S LAST DANCER – Christopher Gordon
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
An acclaimed Australian film directed by Bruce Beresford, Mao’s Last Dancer tells the true life story of Li Cunxin who, having been born in poverty in rural China in the 1960s, was selected to attend the famed Beijing Dance Academy to study ballet. During a trip to the United States in the 1970s, Cunxin began to question his Communist upbringing, and ultimately defected to the United States, where he went on to become one of the most acclaimed male ballet dancers in the world, dancing with the Houston Ballet for 16 years. The film stars Bruce Greenwood, Kyle McLachlan, Amanda Schull, Joan Chen, and Chi Cao as Cunxin, and features a superb original score by Aussie composer Christopher Gordon. Read more…
TRICK ‘R TREAT – Douglas Pipes
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It’s taken almost two years for Michael Dougherty’s horror film Trick ‘r Treat to see the light of day. Originally filmed in 2007 and intended to be released in October of that year, the film was pulled from the release schedules after the executives at Warner Brothers got cold feet about some of the film’s more graphically violent content, some of which involved children. As a result, the film sat in ‘distribution hell’ for almost two years, unable to find a way onto screens: it played at the 2008 Screamfest Horror Film Festival in Los Angeles, and has had a few scattered showings at other festivals here and there in the meantime, but never made it to multiplex screens, despite the film garnering glowing reviews from all who saw it. It will be released straight-to-DVD in October 2009, just in time for Halloween. Read more…
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