Archive
IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH – Mark Isham
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Paul Haggis has grown increasingly bold as a filmmaker, but somehow less controversial with critics. The Haggis screenplay for “Million Dollar Baby” was terrific, and he collaborated with director Clint Eastwood to make the best film of 2004. In 2005, Haggis made another big impression with “Crash”, which certainly did some emotional button-pushing but was nonetheless a superb film. After the heavy-handed symbolism of the Haggis screenplay for “The Last Kiss” comes the even more heavy-handed “In the Valley of Elah”, which Haggis wrote and directed. The film benefits hugely from a superb Tommy Lee Jones performance before slipping into almost mind-bogglingly shameless emotional manipulation in the final act. Haggis was never a subtle artist, but I feel that he’s simply gone too far lately, and needs to restrain himself a little bit. Read more…
GRACIE – Mark Isham
Original Review by Clark Douglas
Another review, another description of a paint-by-numbers-based-on-a-true-story-sports-saga flick. They seem to keep coming so quickly, don’t they? “Gracie” is loosely based on the real-life events of actress Elisabeth Shue and her brother Andrew. The movie was directed by Shue’s husband, Davis Guggenheim, and stars both Elisabeth and Andrew in supporting roles. It’s definitely a very personal movie for these folks, but critics were not very kind to the film, dismissing it as another ho-hum sports tale. The plot is a mesh of uplifting drama and family tragedy, as a teenage girl aspires to become a soccer star after the death of her brother. Her mother tells her it’s too dangerous, her father won’t support her. Who wants to bet that overcomes some obstacles and wins the love of everybody around her in the end? Read more…
NEXT – Mark Isham
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
For all the great scores Mark Isham has written in his career – and he has written some great scores – the one thing he’s never really been very good at is action/adventure and science fiction. It’s not for the lack of trying. Prior to sitting down to write this review, I revisited some of Isham’s earlier efforts in the genre to try to get a flavor for his action style, and much to my surprise I found that he doesn’t really have one. His 1994 effort Timecop is probably the best of the bunch, containing some actually quite hard-hitting brass action moments, but as far as scores like Blade and The Net are concerned the one overarching sensation one gets from the score is that of “listlessness”. The scores don’t really do anything memorable, never retain any prominent stylistics, and certainly don’t make you sit up and wish Isham would be hired for the next major action movie. Next, unfortunately, is more of the same. Read more…
FREEDOM WRITERS – Mark Isham
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
There have been a lot of ‘inspirational teacher’ movies over the years – from Goodbye Mr. Chips to Dead Poets Society to Dangerous Minds – and director Richard La Gravenese’s Freedom Writers is the latest to join that list. Hilary Swank stars as pedagogue Erin Gruwell, who takes up a post at a tough inner-city school, and seeks to change her students lives for the better through writing, poetry, the power of words inspirational stories about the Holocaust. A fairly well-received drama, the film also stars Patrick Dempsey, Scott Glenn and Imelda Staunton. Read more…
BOBBY – Mark Isham
Original Review by Clark Douglas
“Hey, good evening ladies and gents, it’s time for a great big exciting night of entertainment, with all your favorite stars! Along the way, you’ll have some laughs, shed a couple tears, maybe learn a couple of things, and most of all, see a lot of the beautiful faces you know and love! We now take you live to the Ambassador Hotel for a great evening of entertainment! Oh, and you’ll also see Robert Kennedy get killed.”
Is it just me, or does “Bobby” feel way too much like “Grand Hotel 1968”, or perhaps an Irwin Allen movie? I’m not criticizing the fact that a politically-charged film dealing with a serious event in American history has a huge, star-studded cast, but I am criticizing the way the movie uses them. Emilio Estevez’s “Bobby” is, at it’s best, a vivid snapshot of a particular time in America. At it’s worst, it’s a cheap love letter to all things Kennedy, paired with some silly soap operas as dramatic filler. Read more…
THE BLACK DAHLIA – Mark Isham
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The enduring mystery of the ‘black dahlia’ murder case has intrigued and confounded Hollywood since 1947. It involves the grisly death of an aspiring young actress named Elizabeth Short, who was found dead – literally chopped in half at the waist and dismembered – in the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles, 8 miles south of downtown Hollywood. The shocking brutality of her killing made her much more of a media figure in death than she ever was in life, who dubbed her “The Black Dahlia”, a pun on the title of the Alan Ladd film The Blue Dahlia, which had recently been released. Despite the efforts of hundreds of police, and the enormous media coverage, Short’s killer has still never been found, although the suspects at the time included such high profile names as publisher Norman Chandler, folk singer Woody Guthrie, gangster Bugsy Siegel, and even Orson Welles. This fascinating history is the basis of director Brian De Palma’s latest film, based on the novel by James Ellroy, which hypothesises one possible version events. The all-star cast includes Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, and Mia Kirshner as Short. Read more…
CRASH – Mark Isham
Original Review by Peter Simons
The first film directed by Paul Haggis, Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby, is Crash, a dramatically potent contemporary ensemble piece about life, love and racism in Los Angeles. The film’s stellar cast includes such famous names as Matt Dillon as a veteran LAPD cop, Don Cheadle as a detective investigating a seemingly racially-motivated murder, Brendan Fraser as the local District Attorney, Sandra Bullock as the DA’s wife, and Thandie Newton as an innocent bystander whose accusations of racial and sexual harassment sets of a chain reaction which has repercussions for all. Crash has become one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2005, having been lauded for its intricate storyline, convincing performances, and bravery in tackling a difficult and controversial subject with a mixture of sensitivity and power. Read more…
RACING STRIPES – Mark Isham
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Considering that 2005 is just a few weeks old, it has already seen a film music landmark: the best score of Mark Isham’s career to date. Despite being best known for his jazz-inspired trumpet performances and beautiful orchestral works such as the Oscar-nominated A River Runs Through It and Fly Away Home, he had often in the past professed a desire to write a big, thematic, heroic orchestral score: his “Star Wars”, as he puts it. Obviously, Racing Stripes is in a totally different genre, but this could well be the very score he was describing. Read more…
THE COOLER – Mark Isham
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
For all his successful forays into the world of orchestral film music, Mark Isham will always remain, at heart, a jazzer. Having grown up with a trumpet almost permanently attached to his lips, Isham has soloed with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, toured with The Beach Boys and Van Morrison, and performed as a “guest artist” on dozens and dozens of other records, as well as releasing many solo albums. Therefore, his jazz pedigree is in no doubt – but, in film at least, he rarely gets to show it. His work on The Cooler, therefore, is a wonderful change of pace. Read more…
LIFE AS A HOUSE – Mark Isham
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Despite his well-founded reputation as an accomplished jazzer, Mark Isham has shown on several occasions a real aptitude for writing quiet, emotional music that tugs at the heartstrings. His latest score, for the moving drama Life as a House, is one of these, and fits in well with earlier works such as Nell, October Sky and Fly Away Home, The film, directed by Irwin Winkler, stars Kevin Kline as George, a man for whom life is not going well: he has split from his wife Robin (Kristin Scott-Thomas), is estranged from his wayward son Sam (Hayden Christensen), has lost his job, and is diagnosed terminal cancer and given four months to live. Feeling a need to put his life and affairs in order before he shuffles off the mortal coil, George asks Sam to help him as he embarks on an ambitious project to knock down and re-build his house on the coast, in the hope that, through their shared experiences, father and will reconcile their differences before he passes away. However, Sam does not relish the prospect of working hard on a house with a father he has no interest in, when he could be drinking and partying with his buddies… that is, until mom starts to reappear on the scene, and he begins a tentative relationship with Alyssa (Jena Malone), the pretty girl-next-door. Read more…
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