The latest soundtrack CD from Intrada presents the first-ever release of the score for DOWNHILL RACER, the 1969 skiing drama starring Robert Redford and Gene Hackman that marked the feature directing debut of Michael Ritchie (The Candidate, Smile, The Bad News Bears, The Fantasticks). The film was the last feature to have a score composed by Kenyon Hopkins (Baby Doll, 12 Angry Men, The Hustler), and the CD includes the score in stereo as well as additional tracks in mono.
The latest release from La-La Land, which is expected to begin shipping in early September, presents the score for director Mary Lambert's 1992 PET SEMATIARY II, the sequel to her own 1989 horror hit based on the Stephen King novel. The music is by composer Mark Governor, whose eclectic resume includes a stage musical based on The Scarlet Letter, and the CD features his 53-minute score as well as 22 minutes of alternates. This is the first commerical release of this score, though one track was featured on the composer's CD A Whore's Diary.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Downhill Racer - Kenyon Hopkins - Intrada Special Collection
The Durrells - Ruth Barrett, Jon Wygens - Abkco
The Farewell - Alex Weston - Milan
It: Chapter Two - Benjamin Wallfisch - WaterTower [CD-R]
Valhalla - Ron Goodwin - PlantSounds
IN THEATERS TODAY
Angel of Mine - Gabe Noel
Before You Know It - Ryan Tullock
Bennett's War - Jamie Christopherson
Don't Let Go - Ethan Gold
The Fanatic - John Swihart, Blvck Ceiling
Friedkin Uncut - Costanza Francavilla
Give Me Liberty - Evgueni Galperine
Itsy Bitsy - Garry Schyman, Frederik Wiedmann
Killerman - Heiko Maile, Julian DeMarre
Last Ferry - Jim Brunberg, Benjamin Lundsverk
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool - Miles Davis
Official Secrets - Mark Kilian, Paul Hepker
The Plagiarists - Pond5
Santa Girl - Tim Jones
Spider in the Web - Jonathan Riklis
Vita & Virginia - Isobel Waller-Bridge
COMING SOON
September 6
The Goldfinch - Trevor Gureckis - WaterTower [CD-R]
Ms. Purple - Roger Suen - Notefornote
Pet Sematary II - Mark Governor - La-La Land
September 20
Downton Abbey [the movie] - John Lunn - Decca
Samurai Marathon - Philip Glass - Orange Mountain
September 27
Monos - Mica Levi - Lakeshore
October 4
Stranger Things 3 - Kyle Dixon, Michael Stein - Lakeshore
Date Unknown
Deep Water - Toydrum - Silva
Elcano & Magallanes: La Primera Vuelta Al Mundo - Joseba Beristain - Quartet
The John Morgan Collection vol. 1 - John Morgan - Dragon's Domain
Remember Me - Pascal Gaigne - Quartet
Thunderbirds Are Go: Series 2 - Ben Foster, Nick Foster - Silva
UFO - Barry Gray - Silva
What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dennis McCarthy, Kevin Kiner - Dragon's Domain
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
August 30 - Conrad Salinger born (1901)
August 30 - Luis Bacalov born (1933)
August 30 - John Phillips born (1935)
August 30 - Axel Stordahl died (1963)
August 30 - Sol Kaplan's score for the Star Trek episode "The Doomsday Machine" is recorded (1967)
August 30 - Emil Newman died (1984)
August 30 - Bruce Broughton wins his fifth Emmy, for O Pioneers!; Bruce Babcock wins for the Matlock episode score “The Strangler” (1992)
August 30 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his replacement score for The River Wild (1994)
August 30 - Bernardo Bonezzi died (2012)
August 31 - Recording sessions begin for Bronislau Kaper's score for The Swan (1955)
August 31 - Alexander Courage's score for the Star Trek episode "The Naked Time" is recorded (1966)
August 31 - Robert Drasnin records his score for the Lost in Space episode "Forbidden World" (1966)
August 31 - Walter Scharf records his final Mission: Impossible score, for the episode “The Bank” (1967)
August 31 - Jeff Russo born (1969)
August 31 - Lalo Schifrin records his score for the Mission: Impossible episode “The Killer” (1970)
September 1 - Franz Waxman begins recording his score for Sunset Blvd. (1949)
September 1 - Victor Young begins recording his score for Strategic Air Command (1954)
September 1 - Gil Melle begins recording his score for The Organization (1971)
September 1 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score for Magic (1978)
September 1 - Ludwig Goransson born (1984)
September 1 - Marc Donahue died (2002)
September 1 - Erich Kunzel died (2009)
September 2 - Armando Trovajoli born (1917)
September 2 - Hugo Montenegro born (1925)
September 2 - Steve Porcaro born (1957)
September 2 - Alex Heffes born (1971)
September 2 - Tadeusz Baird died (1981)
September 2 - Clifton Parker died (1989)
September 3 - Anthony Collins born (1893)
September 3 - Richard Markowitz born (1926)
September 3 - Kevin Kiner born (1958)
September 3 - Alexandre Azaria born (1967)
September 3 - Brooke Blair born (1977)
September 3 - Bruce Broughton begins recording his score for Glory and Honor (1997)
September 3 - Pierre van Dormael died (2008)
September 4 - Darius Milhaud born (1892)
September 4 - David Raksin records his score for Fallen Angel (1945)
September 4 - Mark Ronson born (1975)
September 5 - Giancarlo Bigazzi born (1940)
September 5 - Don Banks died (1980)
September 5 - Sondre Lerche born (1982)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
AT WAR - Bertrand Blessing
"'At War' is an exhausting film to watch in the best sense, venting our anger at the dehumanizing forces in society until we are left drained, contemplating our impending challenges with newfound clarity. The pension that secured the future of my father’s generation is no more, forcing the majority of Americans into a lifetime of hustling, racing the inexorable progression of 'TIME,' as indelibly exclaimed in the Chambers Brothers’ metronome-like tune, 'Time Has Come Today.' That song could've easily been selected as the anthem for this film, with its evocation of displaced souls crushed by the tumbling tide. To prevent his movie from devolving into two hours of shouting matches, Brizé mutes the dialogue at numerous moments, replacing it with Bertrand Blessing’s minimalist score, never more potently than when an older activist is removed from blocking the entrance to the plant, before being roughed up by officers in riot gear. The music’s rhythmic, industrial quality here suggests the gears of injustice as they churn away, indifferent to the lives they happen to be grinding up."
Matt Fagerholm, RogerEbert.com
"Although it focuses on a collective rather than an individual, 'At War' is, in some ways, less complex, though not necessarily less compelling. Playing a charismatic, fiery spokesperson, Lindon is again the clear focal point of the film, but Brizé and his co-screenwriter, Olivier Gorce, prefer not to freight his character with excessive backstory. There are brief glimpses into Laurent’s private life -- we learn that he’s about to become a grandfather -- but the film’s progression doesn’t conform to his character arc. Mostly, 'At War' moves among a set of fixed locations, observing the workers’ fruitless negotiations with company management, their circuitous in-group disputes, and their violent clashes with riot police (set to Bertrand Blessing’s nerve-jangling score)."
Lawrence Garcia, The Onion AV Club
"We learn that Laurent is about to become a grandfather, and has a close relationship with loyal sidekick Mélanie (Mélanie Rover) about which the other workers gossip. But other than those scant details, Brize´ and co-writer Olivier Gorce exclude all extraneous subplots to focus on an industrial dispute that coalesces and dissipates almost like an organic entity. It is an admirable but overly austere approach that relies on propulsive interludes, scored to Bertrand Blessing’s dynamic music, to create some forward momentum."
Jessica Kiang, Variety
THE BEGUILED - Music by Phoenix; Source Music Arranged by Laura Karpman
"Coppola and art director Jennifer Dehghan render the film a gauzy, diaphanous waking dream. Sunlight pierces through the willows draped with Spanish moss and the use of natural candlelight adds both realism and surrealism to the proceedings. Shot with sultry, south of the Mason-Dixon line nuance by cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd and accompanied by Laura Karpman’s haunting score, 'The Beguiled' is a slow-burn tale of repressed sexuality and duplicitous doings. Its final twist, though, steals it from the realm of male-gaze fantasies into sheer nightmare territory."
Marc Savlov, The Austin Chronicle
A GHOST STORY - Daniel Hart
"Affleck plays a character named C, who lives in an older, ranch-style house with his girlfriend M (Mara). He’s maybe a musician, which would help explain 'A Ghost Story''s fantastic (and, dare I say, haunting) score (overseen by Daniel Hart). M has made plans for them to move elsewhere and doesn’t understand C’s reluctance to leave the place. C dies early in the film before their scheduled move takes place, but somehow never departs the domicile. There’s a MacGuffin about a note hidden by M in a crack in the wall, but retrieving the note is less the reason for C’s continued residency than his desire to endure and have the love that once was made in this house endure, as well. Later scenes reveal some of the earlier and future inhabitants of the house (hence the hipster party scene), and fill the movie with a sense of temporality that’s porous and simultaneous rather than impervious and linear."
Marjorie Baumgarten, The Austin Chronicle
"Lowery can’t always keep the movie from drifting through the mists of pretension, and the tremulous, too-precious score, by Daniel Hart, is sometimes intrusive. Still, the picture’s visual imagery -- the cinematographer is Andrew Droz Palermo -- is so restlessly poetic that it’s hard to turn away. Like a wild, sonorous piano chord struck by someone or something in the middle of the night–where did that come from? -- the contemplative aura of 'A Ghost Story' sticks with you. Who knows if there’s life after death? But if there is, it could very well look something like this."
Stephanie Zacharek, TIME Magazine
"As lovely, mysterious and cosmic as horror movies get -- maybe it’s better just to drop 'horror' altogether -- 'A Ghost Story' marshals an eerie hush from the start. In its early scenes, we see a house, squarely situated behind a generous front lawn. Inside dwell two thirtyish marrieds, nameless throughout, played by Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, well paired in scruffy intensity. From dribs and drabs of spare dialogue, we feel the slightest tension between them. Yet in the darkness of their bedroom, we feel a real connection. They kiss gently, shifting their bodies in sympathy, and the spooning session is of a piece with the movie’s skyward-tipping Terrence Malick–like grabs, composer Daniel Hart’s aching orchestral shimmers and fields of swirling stars."
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
"Lowery edited 'A Ghost Story' in addition to writing and directing. He allows the tone to vary just as he tailors the rhythm of a sequence, and its transition into the next shot, to the needs of the moment. The ghost here travels far and widely in the temporal sense. The music by Daniel Hart, the cinematography by Andrew Droz Palermo -- every detail feeds into a waking dream. A few things don't work, or work too hard at establishing something Lowery establishes elsewhere without words; in one scene, the house, now a rental unit inhabited by a party full of dancing and boozy philosophy, becomes the setting for Will Oldham's self-conscious monologue about the fragility and futility of existence. It's a bit much, in a movie that is otherwise just right."
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
"The last half-hour or so of 'A Ghost Story' achieves something unusual in the annals of tales of the afterlife. Using almost no dialogue at all -- only the achingly lyrical string score by Daniel Hart -- the film’s conclusion upends the various metaphysical oppositions that make most ghost stories tick: the distinctions between the living and the dead, the past and the present, the realm of everyday life and the supernatural. This compact but ambitious movie sends the viewer home pondering galaxy-sized questions: What does it mean to be attached to a place? To a person? In the vast stretch of history, what does it mean to search for significance in our brief scrap of time on Earth? What do the living owe to the dead?"
Dana Stevens, Slate Magazine
"The astonishing narrative free-fall of the third act is best left for the viewer to discover. Suffice to say that time, if not space, turns weirdly elastic, and Daniel Hart’s moody score rises to an almost ecstatic level of doomy portent. Even still, we are reminded of happier days for this couple, in flashbacks (or are they flash-forwards?) that provide subtle clues as to the nature of our protagonist’s unfinished business."
Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
"That we know he’s wondering anything under that sheet is a testament to Lowery, Affleck, and the composer, Daniel Hart, who makes every instrument as plaintive as a cello and as spooky as a theremin. Lowery has a goofy streak: In a nearby house, he plants another white-sheeted ghost, who shyly waves to C through the window, and the spooks communicate via subtitles. (The credits identify the person under the sheet as a pop star known to everyone except Jerry Seinfeld.) But Lowery’s intent is dead serious, so to speak. C is like a man -- an artist -- standing outside his own life, watching his family supplanted and then swept away by history and in the ocean of time. In one scene, there’s a hipster house party with a magician and the musician Will Oldham as a 'prognosticator,' who has a long monologue about how we 'build our legacy piece by piece … to make sure you’re still around after you’re gone … Your kids are all gonna die and their kids will die …' He eventually gets to the exploding universe and the end of all matter."
David Edelstein, New York
"But too soon Lowery switches from the specific to the cosmic, as the screen fills with the star-filled heavens and Daniel Hart’s score thickens with solemn strings. A Terrence Malick epigone, Lowery also relies too heavily on that elder filmmaker’s fondness for crepuscular light and time-toggling, impoverished signifiers of what Malick likes to call 'life’s journey.'"
Melissa Anderson, The Village Voice
"In this final stretch, C hangs out in the house for centuries (literally) and, in a sense, the movie gets a bit like its main character: It doesn’t really know when to quit. But if you’ve bathed in its rhythms that long, it’s not hard to enjoy soaking in them a little longer, as C dwells upon searching for (albeit passively) a way to let go and find peace and acceptance. He’s accompanied in that search by Daniel Hart’s gorgeously evocative music, which stands out as part of a brilliantly effective sound design."
Steve Pond, The Wrap
"An opening quote from Virginia Woolf’s 'Haunted House' sets the stage, and the film opens with tidbits of the couple squabbling about whether they should move out of their remote home on the outskirts of the city. Despite their disagreements, they seem to maintain a fairly comfortable, affectionate chemistry even as an eerie atmosphere hovers over their home. Lowery’s camera lurks as an orchestral score swells, the dramatic effect out of sync with the mundane setting (it only makes sense in the context of information revealed much later). In a series of understated beats, Affleck’s character is lying dead in a hospital, the victim of an off-screen car crash, and his lover is staring down at him in wordless shock. But after she exits the frame, 'A Ghost Story' stays with the corpse, who suddenly rises up and takes center stage. While Lowery gives the specter some ground rules, including the ability to toy with electricity and move objects when he’s whipped up into a frenzy, he’s largely a passive witness. He sees more than one new resident in his former home, and even befriends a ghost next door. Sustained by a wondrous score and warm colors, 'A Ghost Story' is a textured experience that rushes ahead at an increasingly engaging pace."
Eric Kohn IndieWire
"Daniel Hart's rich score, which includes a tender song written by Affleck's character, is dominated by mournful strings, which accelerate and grow more agitated as the dead husband becomes distressed. The first instance is when a man accompanies Mara's character home, prompting warning flickers of paranormal activity."
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
THE GREAT HACK - Gil Talmi
"Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim’s documentary 'The Great Hack' opens with a sweeping and essentially meaningless drone shot. 'Somewhere in Nevada' a sole title reads over the image of a city that sprawls across the desert in the shadow of a rather stubby mountain range. Tedium has already begun to set in as ominous strings fade in on the soundtrack and the film cuts to the opening of the Burning Man festival, where Brittany Kaiser -- former business development director at notorious data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica -- sets out to do whatever it is that privileged white people do at Burning Man."
Pat Brown, Slant Magazine
LUZ - Simon Waskow
"If 'Luz' had been a play, I’d probably have walked out halfway through, but as a film I found it eerie enough to stay rooted. The annoying, arty style came to seem predatory, as if the demon had seeped into the 16mm film and that haze was from burning celluloid. Composer Simon Waskow’s blips and thumps insinuate themselves into your nervous system. Singer had little money and makes the low budget an asset. You know how hard it would be for Luz to escape the demon, because where would she go? The movie has so few locations."
David Edelstein, New York
"With its icy widescreen visual composure (the work of DP Paul Faltz), yea-icier score (Simon Waskow) primarily sculpted of retro synths, highly worked sound design, and pitch-perfect performances running an emotive scale from the deadpan to the hysterical, 'Luz' is strikingly controlled in every aspect. Just what all that control is for will be the sticking point at which viewers divide."
Dennis Harvey, Variety
MAUDIE - Michael Timmins
"The film is too often repetitive: Everett storms off, stung by her willfulness or eventual fame, and then, the next day, he slumps back, lesson learned. The script offers less insight into Lewis’s creative life than any of the Canadian news reports or documentaries about her life available on YouTube, but Hawkins is good at the physicality of painting: dabbing brush on paints, touching brush to the wall or the wood slats that often served as her canvas. (The score, by Michael Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies, is an asset, full of wistful guitar and pedal steel.) Hawkins crumples her frame more and more as the film goes on, but as Lewis weakens, the home around her bursts from farm-shack dreariness to full Oz color: Her vibrant flowers, like Hawkins’s ebullience, are a springtime of the heart."
Alan Scherstuhl, The Village Voice
"If it weren’t for Hawkins, there would be little to distinguish 'Maudie' from the sort of 16mm filmstrip made for schoolchildren back in the day -- not even the film’s charming folk-music score, by Cowboy Junkies guitarist Michael Timmins, is quite enough to set it apart. Cinematographer Guy Godfree incorporates lovely Nova Scotia landscapes, in which gorgeous skies loom large over darker, more monochromatic foregrounds, à la Andrew Wyeth, while production designer John Hand meticulously recreates Maud’s magnum opus -- the little 10×12-foot cottage that served as her ever-evolving canvas -- both inside and out. Today, the original sits in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Let’s see your kid do that."
Peter Debruge, Variety
"No matter how self-effacingly Hawke plays his massively antisocial character, it's impossible for him to convincingly project looks deficiency, which is a problem. The score gets a bit cloyingly emotional at times, while the bracingly wild and desolate Newfoundland locations, substituting for Nova Scotia, have been evocatively captured by cinematographer Guy Godfree."
Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
ROSIE - Stephen Rennicks
"Even though the situation is grim and sometimes it seems like the walls of the car are getting smaller in every claustrophobic scene as the sun sinks low, the familial warmth of the performances creates a kind of hearth out of the dashboard lights and reflected blue glow from the family cellphones. Stephen Rennicks' score is subtle and very sparingly deployed, and the overlapping dialogue and ambient noise create a strong naturalism. Breathnach has charmed gutsy, authentic turns from the kids in particular, and while it may be unfair to pick a favorite, Dunne stands out as an actor who could go places if that's what she wants."
Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter
SKIN - Dan Romer
"Onscreen names identify a series of otherwise interchangeably depressed heartland locations where such groups tend to find disgruntled ready recruits. The tech and design contributions are sharp, with Dan Romer’s original score unafraid to try some very different musical textures to underline the strangeness and tension of the journey depicted."
Dennis Harvey, Variety
"That's not to say that group he ran with in the past, who were actually call the Hammerskins, didn't do atrocious things like beat a black homeless man to death. Nevertheless, there's something a bit queasy-making about the film's full-on plunge into melodrama in the last act as Bryon and Julie go on the run and try to escape the gang. At its lowest point, the pic asks the audience to cry and mourn for the death of a beloved pet, cued by sad music on Dan Romer's score, a scene that's frankly much more plangent than one not long before it where four Muslim men (who between them have less lines to speak than the dog) are murdered."
Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter
SWORD OF TRUST - Marc Maron
"His longtime fans (including Shelton, his director on both 'Maron' and 'GLOW') know that he’s got acting chops. But he grounds the lunacy around him so thoroughly, and with so much wry charm, that he turns out to be an ideal leading man. (Ever the unexpected overachiever, he even wrote and performed the film’s excellent blues-guitar soundtrack.)"
Elizabeth Weitzman, The Wrap
"Nothing in the rest of the movie can match it. 'Sword of Trust' ambles into a flimsy third-act confrontation that resolves the scenario with a half-baked shrug. Yet even as the narrative fizzles, the movie remains an appealing assemblage of timely themes -- the black hole of the internet, truth-versus-fiction debates, covert hate groups crawling out of the woodwork -- in tandem with its cartoonish twists. From the arrival of two dopey anti-Semitic thugs wielding a screwdriver, to recurring reminders that pretty much everyone in the South is packing heat, 'Sword of Trust' doesn’t lack for effective punchlines about this country’s wilder extremes. Laced together with Maron’s own laid-back electric guitar score, the movie is a breezy access point for assessing white America’s disbelief at the country’s extremists taking charge. That’s no joke, but the most revealing aspect of 'Sword of Trust' is that its ridiculous circumstances are almost crazy enough to be true."
Eric Kohn, IndieWire
"Shot on location in Alabama, 'Sword of Trust' is pleasant and unfussy in its packaging, with all focus securely placed on the excellent cast. Though there’s an inevitable meandering quality to this kind of exercise, with scenes mostly improvised within Shelton and Mike O’Brien’s scripted framework, Tyler L. Cook’s editing feels very alert. Adding flavor is a soundtrack of solo blues guitar (and a final full-band song) by Maron himself."
Dennis Harvey, Variety
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES - Michael Giacchino
"Reeves works masterfully here through all elements of the production, but his two smartest decisions may have been in hiring a pair of people you won’t see in any of the ads but who really help make this film the notable accomplishment that it is. The first is cinematographer Michael Seresin, who imbues 'War' with a rich, natural color palette that defies what we’ve come to expect from blockbusters. The acclaimed cinematographer of films like 'Birdy,' 'Angel Heart' and 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' finds a way to emphasize the natural world around Caesar and his traveling companions in every sequence. It’s a film that is inherently loaded with CGI and yet the images I think of when I remember it are built on foundations of snow, water, trees, etc. The second is bringing on the great composer Michael Giacchino, who arguably does the best work of his career here, recalling both war films and great blockbuster scores of the ’70s and ‘80s with compositions that become essential to the overall success of the film. A stunning amount of 'War' is silent -- more than any blockbuster I can remember -- so Giacchino’s score becomes as important as the compositions for pre-sound films in the way it conveys emotion and even internal conflict. It’s phenomenal."
Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
"If you listened to 'War for the Planet of the Apes' with your eyes closed, the music alone would let you know you were in the presence of a grand adventure. This improbably magnificent film and Michael Giacchino’s majestic score are a perfect match."
Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal
"The film’s most haunting scene unfolds between an ape and a human on opposite sides of a cage. I won’t specify which is the occupant and which is the onlooker, and Reeves himself is wise enough to let Michael Giacchino’s piercingly beautiful score do most of the talking. Suffice to say that what passes between these two characters -- a container of water, a wordless gaze -- achieves a catharsis that almost defies understanding."
Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
"The action proceeds at a thrilling clip, aided immensely by the great Michael Giacchino score. The composer never settles into a groove, with instrumentations varying from simple percussion (the 20th Century Fox fanfare sounds like it was performed from the middle of a rain forest) to full orchestra, and with themes that never feel like mere repetitions of what has come before. It’s a stirring soundtrack that accentuates, but never overwhelms, what we’re seeing."
Alonso Duralde, The Wrap
"The breathlessly paced montage of flying bullets and angry monkeys raining down on terrified men, aided by Michael Giacchino’s vibrant score, is a strong indicator of the next-level craftsmanship that distinguishes these movies from so many cacophonous Hollywood spectacles; not only is the action easy to follow, but you care for the motion-captured characters at the center of it, while the humans cower in fear. When Caesar emerges, his expressive face displays the sheer depth of technological possibilities that Serkis mines better than any other working actor today, and the astonishment on the faces of the human prisoners speaks for all of us."
Eric Kohn, IndieWire
"Apart from executing the unique trick of having us root for human extinction, War foregrounds a beautiful tension between the savage instinct for retribution and higher restraint -- ironically fought within the heart of an animal. The picture is graced with a spooky grandeur: snowy vistas, long-vacated buildings and a starkly forlorn, percussion-heavy orchestral score by Michael Giacchino that harkens back to Jerry Goldsmith’s landmark original. After all that forward momentum, the movie gets slightly bogged down in the machinations of a last-act prison break; a final deferential hat tip to violent Mother Nature feels beside the point. While we’re plunged in the battle, though, the stakes feel higher than ever. Take note, rebooters: This is how you do it."
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
"These last two 'Apes' films were directed by Matt Reeves, who previously distinguished himself with the bleak, beautiful teen vampire drama 'Let Me In,' a superior remake of the hit Swedish thriller 'Let the Right One In.' This new one has all the reliable virtues of a well-made studio blockbuster: The effects are incredible, the action is exciting, the music is great, and Andy Serkis, once again embodying a nonhuman character through motion-capture technology, remains terrific.
Bilge Ebiri, The Village Voice
"Technologically, ‘War’ is another triumph. Visually, the photorealism of flesh and hair -- traditionally the hardest VFX to pull off -- is masterful, no one pushes motion capture the way WETA does, and superb performances elevate already beautifully generated images. Don’t be surprised when some start beating the drum for some kind of motion capture performance award for Andy Serkis who has become the maestro of this technique. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Michael Giacchino’s tremendously suspenseful score."
Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
"Shot on spectacular locations, mostly in Alberta and British Columbia, despite the California settings, the film is further enhanced by a notably imaginative, out-of-the-ordinary score by Michael Giacchino."
Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
THE NEXT TEN DAYS IN L.A.
Screenings of older films, at the following L.A. movie theaters: AMPAS, Alamo Drafthouse, American Cinematheque: Aero, American Cinematheque: Egyptian, Arclight, Arena Cinelounge, Laemmle, New Beverly, Nuart, UCLA and Vista.
August 30
THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS (Koji Endo, Koji Makaino) [Vista]
THE MIST (Mark Isham) [Alamo Drafthouse]
OFFICE SPACE (John Frizzell), CLERKS [Cinematheque: Aero]
SPIRITED AWAY (Joe Hisaishi) [Nuart]
August 31
THE BIG LEBOWSKI (Carter Burwell) [Vista]
MAD MAX (Brian May), THE ROAD WARRIOR (Brian May), MAD MAX: BEYOND THUNDERDOME (Maurice Jarre) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE OMEGA MAN (Ron Grainer) [Arclight Hollywood]
STAND BY ME (Jack Nitzsche) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE UGLY DACHSHUND (George Bruns) [New Beverly]
September 1
THE HOWLING (Pino Donaggio) [Arclight Hollywood]
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (Maurice Jarre) [Laemmle Ahyra Fine Arts]
LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE RUNNING MAN (Harold Faltermeyer) [Alamo Drafthouse]
SHIN GODZILLA (Shiru Sagisu) [Vista]
THE UGLY DACHSHUND (George Bruns) [New Beverly]
September 2
BATTLE OF THE BULGE (Benjamin Frankel) [Arclight Hollywood]
CUJO (Charles Bernstein) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE DEAD ZONE (Michael Kamen) [Alamo Drafthouse]
DOLORES CLAIBORNE (Danny Elfman) [Alamo Drafthouse]
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (John Williams) [Arclight Santa Monica]
HEAT (Elliot Goldenthal) [New Beverly]
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS (Howard Shore) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
THE THING (Ennio Morricone) [Arclight Santa Monica]
THE THING (Ennio Morricone) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
A WOMAN IS A WOMAN (Michel Legrand) [Vista]
September 3
AKIRA (Shoji Yamashiro) [Arclight Hollywood]
CREEPSHOW (John Harrison) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (Franz Waxman) [Cinematheque: Aero]
September 4
IT (Benjamin Wallfisch) [Arclight Culver City]
IT (Benjamin Wallfisch) [Arclight Santa Monica]
IT (Benjamin Wallfisch) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (AC/DC) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (George Bassman) [New Beverly]
September 5
THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG (Randy Newman -- in person!) [AMPAS]
QUAI DES ORFEVRES (Francis Lopez), THE SLEEPING CAR MURDER (Michel Magne) [Cinematheque: Aero]
A SHORT FILM ABOUT LOVE (Zbigniew Preisner), A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING (Zbigniew Preisner)[Cinematheque: Egyptian]
September 6
BLOOD SIMPLE (Carter Burwell) [Vista]
THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE (Zbigniew Preisner), BLIND CHANCE (Wojciech Kilar) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
MAIGRET AND THE ST. FIACRE CASE (Jean Prodromides), PORT DU DESIRE (Joseph Kosma) [Cinematheque: Aero]
PINK FLAMINGOS [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE ROOM (Mladen Milicevic) [Nuart]
September 7
EASY RIDER [Laemmle Ahyra Fine Arts]
KILLER OF SHEEP [Vista]
MELODIE EN SOUS-SOL (Michel Magne), THE SICILIAN CLAN (Ennio Morricone) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE PARENT TRAP (Paul J. Smith) [New Beverly]
PURPLE NOON (Nino Rota) [Cinematheque: Aero]
A QUIET PLACE (Marco Beltrami) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
RAISING ARIZONA (Carter Burwell) [Vista]
RESERVOIR DOGS [New Beverly]
September 8
BLUE (Zbigniew Preisner), WHITE (Zbigniew Preisner), RED (Zbigniew Preisner) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
PANIQUE (Jean Wiener), NON COUPABLE (Marcel Stern) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE PARENT TRAP (Paul J. Smith) [New Beverly]
THINGS I'VE HEARD, READ, SEEN OR WATCHED LATELY
Heard: The Moon in the Gutter (Yared), Imputazione Di Omicidio Per Uno Studente (Morricone), The Bad News Bears Trilogy (Fielding/Safan/Chihara), Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Cho)
Read: The Man on the Balcony, by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
Seen: Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Ready or Not, In Search of the Castaways, Angel Has Fallen, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, Brittany Runs a Marathon, This Is Not Berlin, Adam [2019], Jacob's Ladder [2019]
Watched: The Kennel Murder Case, The Bishop Murder Case
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