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WUTHERING HEIGHTS – Anthony Willis, Charli XCX
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Heathcliff, it’s me, I’m Cathy, I’ve come home…
Wuthering Heights is one of the undisputed classics of British literature. Written in 1847 by Emily Brontë, it is a vivid story of all-encompassing love, obsession, cruelty, and revenge, with more than a splash of the English class system and an exploration of the crushing effects of poverty thrown in for good measure. The story chronicles the ill-fated relationship between the spoiled but free-spirited Catherine Earnshaw and the handsome, rugged foundling Heathcliff, who was brought as a child by Catherine’s father to live with them at their ancestral home, the Wuthering Heights of the title, an imposing house sitting atop one of the bleakest parts of the Yorkshire moors. As they grow up, Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship develops from childhood friendship to adult romance, but circumstances conspire to keep them apart – not least Catherine’s simultaneous relationship with the wealthy Edgar Linton, heir to the neighboring property Thrushcross Grange. Read more…
CITY HALL – Jerry Goldsmith
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
An underrated movie co-written by Nicholas Pileggi, the former investigative journalist best known for his work on Goodfellas, City Hall is a political crime thriller directed by Harold Becker. Set against the murky political landscape of New York City, the film stars Al Pacino as Mayor John Pappas and John Cusack as his idealistic deputy mayor, Kevin Calhoun, alongside a supporting cast that includes Bridget Fonda, Danny Aiello, and then-recent Oscar winner Martin Landau. The story begins with a tragic shooting in which a young boy is killed during a botched police operation targeting a suspected Mafia figure. The incident appears to be a routine case of excessive force, but Calhoun begins to suspect that the circumstances surrounding the event are more complicated than they initially appear. As he digs deeper, Calhoun uncovers a tangled web of connections linking the police department, the district attorney’s office, organized crime figures, and even members of the mayor’s own administration. Read more…
SOLO MIO – Joy Ngiaw
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Considering that I finished my 2025 review schedule with a score by Joy Ngiaw, it’s perhaps only fitting that I start 2026 with one too. I said in my review of WondLa that ‘somebody needs to give Joy Ngiaw a Star War to score,’ and while I still absolutely stand by that sentiment, that hasn’t actually happened, and what has happened instead is that she has been given a lovely, sunny, romantic comedy drama to work on instead. Solo Mio was made by five of the eight filmmaking Kinnane brothers from Rhode Island – directors Chuck Kinnane and Dan Kinnane, writers John Kinnane and Patrick Kinnane, and editor Pete Kinnane – and it is the latest in several ventures involving actor and comedian Kevin James. In this film, James plays Matt Taylor, whose life is upended when he is ditched at the altar by his fiancée Heather in the middle of his dream wedding in Rome. Despite being crushed and heartbroken by the end of his relationship, Matt is convinced by his friends to take his honeymoon anyway – a tour around the most romantic locations in Italy that becomes an adventure he never expected. Read more…
IFMCA Award Winners 2025
INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2025 IFMCA AWARDS
SIMON FRANGLEN WINS SCORE OF THE YEAR, TWO OTHER AWARDS, FOR AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH; ALEXANDRE DESPLAT WINS COMPOSER OF THE YEAR; COMPOSERS FROM FRANCE EXCEL IN GENRE CATEGORIES
FEBRUARY 26, 2026 — The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its annual list of winners for excellence in musical scoring, in the 2025 IFMCA Awards.
The award for Score of the Year goes to British composer Simon Franglen for his score for Avatar: Fire and Ash, director James Cameron’s second sequel to his epic space saga Avatar. IFMCA member Christian Clemmensen wrote that Franglen “continues his intelligent merging of James Horner origins with his complex thematic narrative for immense fantasy highlights,” and especially praised the score’s intricate thematic tapestry and gargantuan performances of full ensemble and choral majesty. Similarly, IFMCA member Jon Broxton wrote that Avatar: Fire and Ash is “simply outstanding” and commended the cohesive musical design of the score overall, the emotional impact of the new themes for the Windtraders and the Mangkwan clan, and the way Franglen blended these new themes with those from previous Avatar films in a richly developed narrative fabric.
The score also wins its genre category, Best Fantasy/Science Fiction Score, while his new theme for “The Windtraders” is named Composition of the Year. These mark Franglen’s fourth, fifth, and sixth IFMCA Awards. He previously won Best Fantasy/Science Fiction Score and Composition of the Year for Avatar: The Way of Water in 2022, and Best Original Score for a Drama Film for The Curse of Turandot in 2021. Read more…
WAR AND PEACE – Nino Rota
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
A film based on Leo Tolstoy’s epic 1869 novel War and Peace first surfaced in 1941 with aspirations by renown British producer Alexander Korda, but the project could not move into production because the Soviet Ministry of Culture would not cooperate. It would take thirteen more years for ambitious producer Dino De Laurentis to finally get the project off the ground. He would personally manage production using his own production company with a massive $6.0 million budget. Condensing the massive 1,225-page novel into a cogent screenplay for a 2.5 – 3.5-hour film was daunting with it going through several incarnations at the hands of eight writers, including director King Vidor. A stellar cast was assembled, including Audrey Hepburn as Natasha Rostova, Henry Fonda as Count Pierre Bezukhov, Mel Ferrer as Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, and Herbert Lom as Napoleon Bonaparte. Read more…
THE EMPEROR WALTZ – Victor Young
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In the late 1940s Billy Wilder was Paramount Pictures premier director, and Bing Crosby was the studio’s leading star. Wilder had always wanted to do a musical with Crosby, and found a story, which drew from an actual historical event, which eventually became this film: The Emperor Waltz. Valdemar Poulsen was a Danish inventor who demonstrated his magnetic recording device to Emperor Franz Joseph I of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in an audacious effort to secure financing for his invention. Charles Brackett was assigned production with a $3.8 million budget, Wilder would direct and Brackett and Wilder would write the screenplay. Bing Cosby would star as Virgil Smith, joined by Joan Fontaine as Countess Johanna Augusta Franziska, with Richard Haydn as Emperor Franz Josef, Roland Culver as Baron Holenia, and Sig Ruman as Dr. Zwieback. Read more…
FLYING TIGERS – Victor Young
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
By 1942 the United States was fully engaged in WWII and Republic Pictures management decided making a propaganda film to support the war effort would be both patriotic, and profitable. They decided to tell the tale of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), American civilian pilots who shipped out to China for the purpose of flying American P-40F fighter aircraft to aid Chinese allies fighting Japanese aggression. Edmund Grainger was placed in charge of production with a $900,000 budget, David Miller would direct, and Kenneth Gamet and Barry Trivers would write the screenplay. A fine cast was assembled, with John Wayne starring as Captain Jim Gordon, joined by John Carroll as “Woody” Jason, Anna Lee as Brooke Elliot, Paul Kelly as “Hap” Davis, Gordon Jones as “Alabama” Smith, Edmund MacDonsald as Blackie Bales and Mae Clarke as Verna Bales. Read more…
WONDLA – Joy Ngiaw
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
WondLa is an animated science-fiction adventure TV series produced by Skydance Animation which aired on Apple TV+ for 20 episodes across three seasons between 2024 and 2025. It is an adaptation of the 2010 children’s novel The Search for WondLa (and its sequels) by Tony DiTerlizzi, and follows the adventures of Eva, a teenage human girl who grows up in a state-of-the-art bunker, assisted by ‘M.U.T.H.R,’ a robot caretaker. However, after an attack on the bunker by unknown assailants on her sixteenth birthday, Eva suddenly finds herself on the surface of a strange planet called Orbona, which is inhabited by aliens, and which appears to have no other humans. With the help of Otto, a friendly giant sentient tardigrade, and a cantankerous alien named Rovender Kitt, and guided by a faded picture containing the word ‘WondLa,’ Eva sets off across the planet to find others like her, and hopefully establish a new home. The show stars Jeanine Mason as the voice of Eva, and has a fun supporting voice cast that includes Teri Hatcher, Brad Garrett, Alan Tudyk, John Ratzenberger, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Simon Pegg, and Dwight Schultz, among others. Read more…
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER – Jonny Greenwood
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the most popular and critically acclaimed movies of 2025, One Battle After Another is a black comedy action-thriller written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob Ferguson, a former left-wing political revolutionary from an underground militant group called the French 75. Early in the film, the French 75 carry out a bold operation at the Mexico–US border, freeing apprehended immigrants and sparking conflict with ruthless military officer Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), who has a bizarre sexual obsession with Bob’s partner Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor). After Perfidia is arrested for murder, Lockjaw arranges for her to avoid prison in exchange for ratting out her comrades, forcing Bob to flee. Sixteen years later, Bob is living off-grid, paranoid, and raising his teenage daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) far from the revolution. Things change for Bob when a still-obsessed Lockjaw discovers his location, and he and Willa are separated. Desperately trying to rescue his daughter, Bob is forced to get back in touch with his old French 75 compatriots – including Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro), a martial arts instructor who also runs underground support networks – before Lockjaw finds her. Read more…
SILVER QUEEN – Victor Young
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In 1942 Paramount Pictures decided to approve for production, a western by Forrest Halsey and William Allen Johnston, which offered a story about a woman gambler. To implement their vision the purchased a package deal from Warner Brothers, who loaned them actors Pricilla Land and George Brent, along with director Lloyd Bacon. Independent producer Harry Sherman was assigned production and writers Cecile Kramer and Bernard Schubert would write the screenplay. George Brent would star as James Kincaid with Priscilla Lane as Coralie Adams. Joining them would be Bruce Cabot as Gerald Forsythe and Lynn Overman as Hector Bailey. For reasons I could not discover, Paramount in the end did not distribute the film. Instead, United Artists is listed as the production company, which suggests the film was one of several sold to United Artists from 1942 – 1943. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2025, Part 9
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
I’m pleased to present the latest installment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world.
This article, the ninth and last of 2025, is a bumper crop, and covers another nine scores released last year from a wide array of genres and countries, including a short film from the Netherlands about magical paintings, a short film from Canada that makes the directorial debut of an Emmy-winning composer, a comedy-drama film from Denmark about a bank robber with dissociative identity disorder, a supernatural murder mystery from Vietnam about a 19th-century detective, and a short film from Mexico about a little girl and a heroic horsewoman who wields a magical lasso.
Then there’s an Australian sci-fi action horror film about a group of American soldiers encountering dinosaurs during the Vietnam war, an animated sex comedy from Norway about two sperms on an epic adventure trying to find their way to an un-fertilized egg, a Spanish TV series about a detective investigating a series of murders in a rural community, and an action horror film from Norway about a pair of gargantuan trolls terrorizing the fjords!
FACKHAM HALL – Oli Julian
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The lives of the British aristocracy, and those who serve them, have been an endless source of fascination for decades, through films and books and television. The ITV drama series Upstairs Downstairs, which premiered in 1971, was enormously popular when it first aired, but this was then eclipsed by Downton Abbey, which debuted in 2010 to massive Emmy-winning acclaim and global fame. The British have always excelled at these types of soapy period costume dramas, where stiff collars and even stiffer upper lips mask all kinds of shenanigans and debauchery behind closed doors. The British are also exceptionally good at poking fun at themselves with parody, which brings us to Fackham Hall. Read more…
HOLD BACK THE DAWN – Victor Young
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The genesis of Hold Back the Dawn was writer Ketti Frings’ story, “Memo to a Movie Producer”. Paramount executives decided that the romantic drama would translate well to the big screen, and so paid $5,000 for the film rights. After the novel was published and well received, the working title of the movie was changed to the novel’s title, “Hold Back the Dawn”. Arthur Hornblow Jr. was assigned production, Mitchell Leisen was tasked with directing, and Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and Richard Mailbaum wrote the screenplay. A stellar cast was hired, which included Charles Boyer as Georges Iscovescu, Olivia de Havilland as Emmy Brown, Paulette Goddard as Anita Dixon, Victor Francen as Van Den Lueken, and Walter Abel as Inspector Hammock. Read more…
NORTH WEST MOUNTED POLICE – Victor Young
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In 1939 legendary director Cecil B. DeMille decided that his next project, which would be his first film shot in technicolor, would be an epic Western. He purchased the film rights for the 1938 novel The Royal Canadian Mounted Police by R. C. Fetherstonhaugh and sold his vision to Paramount Pictures. DeMille would manage production with a smaller budget than he wanted. As such due to budget restrictions, the movie was filmed on sound stages at the Paramount lot as well as on location in Oregon and California, even though the film was based on a real-life incident in Saskatchewan, Canada. Demille would also direct and narrate, and Alan Le May, Jesse Lasky Jr. and C. Gardner Sullivan would write the screenplay. For the cast, Gary Cooper would star as Texas Ranger Dusty Rivers, joined by Madeleine Carroll as April Logan, Paulette Goddard as Louvette Corbeau, Preston Foster as Sergeant Jim Brett, Akim Tamiroff as Dan Duroc, and Lon Chaney Jr as Shorty. Read more…
ANACONDA – David Fleming
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Despite being a reasonable box office success when it was first released, the 1997 film Anaconda has become something of a cult classic in the almost 30 intervening years, not because it was good, but because it was very, very bad. From its awkwardly written characters, implausible plotting, and scientific nonsense to its unrealistic creature effects, and especially Jon Voight’s wildly unhinged performance, the film is now remembered as – and this is me being very charitable – a ‘camp classic’. However, two genuine fans of the original movie are writer/director Tom Gormican and writer Kevin Etten, and they have now come together to present this film, an action-comedy meta-reboot of the franchise starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd. Read more…
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