I have only just got back from vacation, so in all likelihood I have not had time to update this column since I last dealt with it eleven days ago, so to you people in the future I send my apologies, and hope that the future utopia of September 5, 2014 is as glorious as we all had imagined, and not as squalid and depressing as the one in my beloved Snowpiercer. 

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Hannibal: Season 1, Vol. 1 - Brian Reitzell - Lakeshore
Hannibal: Season 1, Vol. 2 - Brian Reitzell - Lakeshore 

IN THEATERS TODAY

Frontera - Kenneth Lampl, Darren Tate
God Help the Girl - Stuart Murdoch - Song CD on Milan
Innocence - tomandandy
Last Weekend - Stephen Barton
The Longest Week - Jay Israelson
Starred Up - Tony Doogan, David McKenzie
Thunder and the House of Magic - Ramin Djawadi

COMING SOON

September 9
Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For - Robert Rodriguez, Carl Thiel - Morada
Maps to the Stars - Howard Shore - Howe
Ninjago Masters of Sinjitzu - Jay Vincent, Michael Kramer - Varese Sarabande
The November Man - Marco Beltrami - Varese Sarabande
What If - A.C. Newman - Milan
September 16
The Giver - Marco Beltrami - Sony
The Knick - Cliff Martinez - Milan
The Maze Runner - John Paesano - Sony
September 23
The Boxtrolls - Dario Marianelli - Backlot
The Equalizer - Harry Gregson-Williams - Varese Sarabande
A Walk Among the Tombstones - Carlos Rafael Rivera - Varese Sarabande
September 30
Houdini Vol. 1 - John Debney - Lakeshore
Houdini Vol. 2 - John Debney - Lakeshore
October 7 
Addicted - Aaron Zigman - Varese Sarabande
Whiplash - Justin Hurwitz, Tim Simonec - Varese Sarabande
October 14
Crash - Howard Shore - Howe
Dead Ringers - Howard Shore - Howe
Naked Lunch - Howard Shore - Howe
Date Unknown
All Good Things - Rob Simonsen - Caldera
Annette Focks: Film Music Collection Vol. 1 - Annette Focks - Alhambra
Avere Vent'annia/L'Ambiziozo - Franco Campanino - Digitmovies
Destruction of Silence - Florian Linckus - Alhambra
Die Hebamme - Marcel Barsotti - Alhambra
5 Branded Women - Angelo Francesco Lavagnino - Cometa
Grand Piano - Victor Reyes - MovieScore Media
I Briganti Italiani - Angelo Francesco Lavagnino - Alhambra
Knight Rider Vol. 3 - The Best of Don Peake - Don Peake - Perseverance
La Revolution Francaise - Georges Delerue - Music Box
The Maid's Room - Arturo Rodriguez - Kronos
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance/Donovan's Reef - Cyril J. Mockridge - Kritzerland
New York Chiama Superdrago - Benedetto Ghiglia - Digitmovies
The Spider - Soren Hyldgaard - Kritzerland
Still Life - Rachel Portman - Kronos
U-Boats: The Wolfpack - Christopher Young - Buysoundtrax

THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY

September 5 - Giancarlo Bigazzi born (1940)
September 5 - Don Banks died (1980)
September 6 - Louis Silvers born (1889)
September 6 - William Kraft born (1923)
September 6 - Patrick O'Hearn born (1954)
September 6 - Franz Waxman begins recording his score for My Geisha (1961)
September 6 - Hanns Eisler died (1962)
September 6 - John Williams records his score for the Eleventh Hour episode "The Bronze Locust" (1963)
September 6 - George Duning's scores for the Star Trek episodes "Is There In Truth No Beauty?" and "The Empath" are recorded (1968)
September 7 - Leonard Rosenman born (1924)
September 7 - Sonny Rollins born (1930)
September 7 - Carlos Camilleri born (1931)
September 7 - Gianni Marchetti born (1933)
September 7 - Waldo de los Rios born (1934)
September 7 - Mark Isham born (1951)
September 7 - Fred Steiner's score for the Star Trek episode "Mudd's Women" is recorded (1966)
September 7 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score for The Power (1967)
September 7 - Owen Pallett born (1979)
September 7 - Recording sessions begin for Christopher Young’s score for The Core (2002)
September 8 - Peter Maxwell Davies born (1934)
September 8 - Fred Steiner's score for the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror" is recorded (1967)
September 8 - Dustin O’Halloran born (1971)
September 8 - John Barry begins recording his unused score for The Golden Child (1986)
September 8 - Alex North died (1991)
September 9 - Hoyt Curtin born (1922)
September 9 - Jerrold Immel born (1936)
September 9 - Bernard Herrmann begins recording score cues for Hangover Square (1944)
September 9 - Christopher Palmer born (1946)
September 9 - David A. Stewart born (1952)
September 9 - Bernard Herrmann begins recording his score to Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953)
September 9 - Eric Serra born (1959)
September 9 - Alex North begins recording his score to The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)
September 9 - Harry Escott born (1976)
September 9 - Hugo Friedhofer's score for Die Sister, Die! is recorded (1976)
September 9 - Joey Newman born (1976)
September 9 - Michael Galasso died (2009)
September 10 - Arnold Schwarzwald born (1918)
September 10 - Johnny Keating born (1927)
September 10 - Roy Ayers born (1940)
September 10 - Les Baxter records his score for the U.S. release of Black Sabbath (1963)
September 10 - Allan Gray died (1973)
September 10 - Laurence Rosenthal records his score for 21 Hours at Munich (1976)
September 10 - Bruce Broughton records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "Welcome to My Nightmare"(1986)
September 11 - Herbert Stothart born (1885)
September 11 - Arvo Part born (1935)
September 11 - Leo Kottke born (1945)
September 11 - Hugo Friedhofer begins recording his score to Between Heaven and Hell (1956)
September 11 - Stu Philips begins recording his replacement score to The Appointment (1969)

DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?

DINOSAUR 13 - Matt Morton

"Even so, Miller effectively suggests that Larson and his team got a raw deal. That’s partly thanks to Matt Morton’s emotional score, and artful shots of the dig site and other locations, but mostly because of the passion of everyone interviewed, many of whom tear up while recalling the raid and its aftermath."

Keith Phipps, The Dissolve

"Certainly, it all lookslike a David and Goliath situation, in which powerful bigwigs put the legal hit on the plucky professionals who dared oppose them. But the one-sided 'Dinosaur 13,' partially based on Larson’s nonfiction book 'Rex Appeal,' has more outrage than cogent reasoning. The movie would rather play a tiny violin for its subjects -- perhaps literally, given the gratingly manipulative score -- than objectively untangle the legality of what one talking head dubiously describes as its 'brilliant story.'"

A.A. Dowd, The Onion AV Club 

"If Miller goes for the emotional jugular a little too obviously with a heart-rending musical score and teary interviews, the gambit is largely justified by a story that, although it was covered in the national media at the time, still seems infuriatingly unresolved and fundamentally unjust."

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

"This fascinating if occasionally heavy-handed documentary explores the extraordinary custody battle that followed. Using home-video footage and talking-head interviews, ‘Dinosaur 13’ dramatically depicts the thrill of archaeological discovery. But the overbearing soundtrack and shots of weeping palaeontologists do feel a touch manipulative."

Tom Huddleston, Time Out London

"This is basically a standard-issue talking-heads doc, with only Thomas Petersen's 2.35:1 widescreen cinematography and a bluntly effective score by Matt Morton offering much in the way of aesthetic interest. To some extent, Petersen's use of a wide aspect ratio and Morton's emphatic score takes its cues from Larson's passion -- the expansive frame more given to exuding an openness to natural environments, the music expressing perhaps more than Larson himself is willing to outwardly show (he remains a generally stoic camera subject throughout)."

Kenji Fujishima, Slant Magazine

"Smoothly told pic is well handled in all departments, with a strong score by Matt Morton and some impressive landscape shots from d.p. Thomas Peterson (although those aside, the widescreen format seems unnecessary here). Brief, impressionistic re-enactments are mostly low-key enough not to dilute the film’s nonfiction tenor."

Dennis Harvey, Variety

THE ONE I LOVE - Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans

"Weeks after seeing the film, I find myself thinking about tiny choices and little details that each actor brings to the work, and what they're able to accomplish is extraordinary, particularly since they're called upon to keep the action grounded in reality when the movie takes a very big leap. Editor Jennifer Lilly ('Were the World Mine') and composers Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans also play a key role, increasing the tension and suspense with such delicacy that, like the proverbial frog in the pot of heating water, we barely notice the growing unease as it escalates."

Alonso Duralde, The Wrap

"In retrospect, the casual fashion with which their therapist makes this suggestion is a warning sign, but they take his advice, and the movie soon veers into horror territory -- or so it seems. At first, Ethan and Sophie get along well: they make dinner together; they smoke pot; they appear happy. But the film’s clanky, art brut soundtrack, which is both playful and unnerving, suggests that something is not right, as Miss Clavel might say. You have the overwhelming fear that somebody is going to get stabbed at the country bungalow they’ve driven to; a lot of the movie takes place, disquietingly, in or around a kitchen, where the knives are."

Matthew Kassel, New York Observer

"Although it arrives in the guise of mind-bending sci-fi, 'The One I Love' is a fairly conventional dark comedy of jealousy and emasculation. It’s a very enjoyable one, though. The score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans teems with odd plinks and plunks, the whimsy unsettling."

David Edelstein, Vulture

"For a high-concept effort like this one, the literalization of the endgame is a bit of a cop-out. And the darkly humorous, metaphysical plot is so tension-filled, it doesn’t need the redundant accompaniment of a musical score conveying exactly what’s onscreen. Still, the film delivers on its most crucial idea by being an inventive relationship dramedy with actors who handle the dual challenge thrown at them with distinguished poise."

Tomris Laffly, Time Out New York

"Pic also reps a minor triumph of low-budget ingenuity, as McDowell oversees an impressive tech package. Jennifer Lilly’s editing is perhaps most crucial to making the increasingly complex narrative succeed, while the score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans supplies an eerie undercurrent to the action, growing richer as the story unfolds."

Geoff Berkshire, Variety

THE NEXT TEN DAYS IN L.A.

Screenings of older films, at the following L.A. movie theaters: AMPAS, American Cinematheque: Aero, American Cinematheque: Egyptian, Arclight, LACMA, New Beverly, Nuart, Silent Movie Theater and UCLA.

September 5
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (Bernard Herrmann), THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (Gil Melle) [Cinematheque: Aero]
PUMPKINHEAD (Richard Stone) [Silent Movie Theater]
THE TINGLER (Von Dexter), HOLLYWOOD STORY [LACMA/AMPAS]

September 6
BEYOND THE ROCKS [Silent Movie Theater]
THE SOUND OF MUSIC (Richard Rodgers, Irwin Kostal) [Cinematheque: Aero]
WHY BE GOOD? [LACMA/AMPAS]

September 7
FEMALE TROUBLE [Cinematheque: Aero]

September 9
THE MARK OF ZORRO (Alfred Newman) [LACMA/AMPAS]
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (John Morris) [AMPAS]

September 10
THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE (Benjamin Frankel) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]

September 11
BLUE (Zbigniew Preisner), WHITE (Zbigniew Preisner) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE SET-UP, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW (John Lewis) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]

September 12
HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (Von Dexter), 13 GHOSTS (Von Dexter) [LACMA/AMPAS]
RED (Zbigniew Preisner), THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE (Zbigniew Preisner) [Cinematheque: Aero]
SUNSET BLVD. (Franz Waxman) [UCLA]

September 13
FANTASIA [LACMA/AMPAS]
THE JERK (Jack Elliott), THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS (Joel Goldsmith)[Cinematheque: Aero]
WHIRLPOOL (David Raksin), THE BLUE GARDENIA (Raoul Kraushaar) [UCLA]

September 14
CARRIE (David Raksin), THE COUNTRY GIRL (Victor Young) [UCLA]
LA DOLCE VITA (Nino Rota) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
M [Arclight Hollywood]
THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING (Johnny Mandel) [Cinematheque: Aero]