Intrada plans to release one new CD next week. For those who don't mind "spoilers" it is revealed on this Message Board thread.
La-La Land has announced three new limited edition score releases -- a two-disc edition of Jerry Goldsmith's thrilling score for Irwin Allen's all-star 1978 killer bee disaster movie flop THE SWARM (one of the prime examples of Goldsmith's extraordinary ability to write amazing music for lousy movies), featuring both the full score from the film as well as the original LP sequencing; an expanded, two-disc edition of John Williams' popular score for Ron Howard's 1992 70mm romantic epic FAR AND AWAY, with the full 82-minute score plus several alternate cues; and a 30th anniversary re-release of Hans Zimmer's score for Tony Scott's racing drama DAYS OF THUNDER.
Quartet has announced two new releases -- a newly remastered 50th anniversary edition of Henry Mancini's Oscar-nominated score for SUNFLOWER, the romantic drama which re-teamed international screen legends Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni; and a re-release of Carlo Rustichelli's score for Billy Wilder's 1972 comedy AVANTI!, starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills.
Music Box has announced two new releases -- an expanded release of Nino Rota's final score for director Federico Fellini, ORCHESTRA REHEARSAL, and an expanded, two-disc edition of THE STORY OF O - PART 2, with music by Stanley Myers and additional music by his then-protege, a young fellow named Hans Zimmer.
Mondo will be releasing a two-disc LP of Benjamin Wallfisch's score for the just-released THE INVISIBLE MAN; no CD release has yet been announced.
Other recent or upcoming vinyl-only (so far) score soundtracks include Beach Rats (Leone) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Heller), Bird Box (Reznor/Ross), The Boys (Lennertz), Dolemite Is My Name (Bomar), Don't Go in the House (Einhorn), Earthquake Bird (Ross/Ross/Sarne), Freaked (Kiner), Honey Boy (Somers), Knives Out (Johnson), The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Mosseri), Luce (Barrow/Salisbury), Maniac (Romer), Ozark: Seasons 1 & 2 (Bensi/Jurriaans), and Rambo: Last Blood (Tyler).
Presumably due to concerns over the coronavirus impacting the international box-office, the release of the new James Bond film, NO TIME TO DIE, has been rescheduled from April 10 to November 25 of this year; one can assume that the Hans Zimmer score CD, currently announced for March 27, will also be delayed.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
The Swarm - Jerry Goldsmith - La-La Land
The Way Back - Rob Simonsen - WaterTower [CD-R]
IN THEATERS TODAY
The Banker - H. Scott Salinas
Beneath Us - Joshua Moshier
The Burnt Orange Heresy - Craig Armstrong
The Dark Red - Ben Lovett
Extra Ordinary - George Brennan
First Cow - William Tyler
Go Back to China - Timo Chen
Hope Gap - Alex Heffes
Onward - Mychael Danna, Jeff Danna
Queen of Paradis - Carl Lindstrom
Run This Town - Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad
Saint Frances - Quinn Tsan, Alexander Babbitt
Sorry We Missed You - George Fenton
Straight Up - Logan Nelson
Swallow - Nathan Halpern
The Way Back - Rob Simonsen - Score CD-R on WaterTower
Young Ahmed - no original score
COMING SOON
March 13
Charles Gerhardt Conducts Classic Film Scores [12-disc set] - various - Sony
Days of Thunder [re-release] - Hans Zimmer - La-La Land
El Cuento de la Comadrejas - Emilio Kauderer - Sony (import)
Far and Away - John Williams - La-La Land
The Matrix Symphony - Don Davis - Perseverance
Radioactive - Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine - Milan [import]
Wings over Everest - Kenji Kawai - Milan [import]
March 20
The Witcher - Sonya Belousova, Giona Ostinelli - Sony [import]
March 27
His Dark Materials - Lorne Balfe - Silva
Last and First Men - Johann Johannsson - Deutsche Grammophon
No Time to Die - Hans Zimmer - Decca
Whiplash: The Deluxe Edition - Justin Hurwitz, Tim Simonec - Varese Sarabande
April 10
Queen & Slim - Devonte Hynes - Domino
Date Unknown
Agatha [unused score] - Howard Blake - Dragon's Domain
Avanti! - Carlo Rustichelli - Quartet
The Conrad Pope Collection, vol. 1 - Conrad Pope - Dragon's Domain
Le Dolci Signore - Armando Trovajoli - Digitmovies
Lo Strano Vizio Della Signora Wardh - Nora Orlandi - Quartet
Orchestra Rehearsal - Nino Rota - Music Box
Perversione/Stress - Carlo Savina - Quartet
Sbirro, La Tua Legge E Lenta...La Mia...No! - Stelvio Cipriani - Digitmovies
The Story of O - Part 2 - Stanley Myers, Hans Zimmer - Music Box
Sunflower - Henry Mancini - Quartet
Supercar - Barry Gray - Silva
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
March 6 - Stephen Schwartz born (1948)
March 6 - Leonard Rosenman records his score for the Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode “Beast in View” (1964)
March 6 - Richard Hageman died (1966)
March 6 - Erik Nordgren died (1992)
March 6 - Robert B. Sherman died (2012)
March 7 - King Kong premieres in New York (1933)
March 7 - Miklos Rozsa wins his first Oscar for Spellbound score (1946)
March 7 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Allegiance" (1990)
March 7 - Recording sessions begin for John Ottman’s score for X2 (2003)
March 7 - Gordon Parks died (2006)
March 7 - Michael Giacchino wins his first Oscar for Up (2010)
March 8 - Dick Hyman born (1927)
March 8 - Bruce Broughton born (1945)
March 8 - Jerry Goldsmith records his score for the pilot to Dr. Kildare (1961)
March 8 - Alex North begins recording his unused score for Sounder (1972)
March 8 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording orchestral cues for Logan's Run score (1976)
March 8 - Paul Chihara begins recording his score, adapted from Gilbert & Sullivan, for The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978)
March 8 - William Walton died (1983)
March 8 - James Newton Howard begins recording his score for Dave (1993)
March 8 - George Martin died (2016)
March 9 - John Cale born (1940)
March 9 - Arlon Ober born (1943)
March 9 - Mark Mancina born (1957)
March 9 - Bernard Herrmann begins recording his score for Psycho (1960)
March 9 - Deborah Lurie born (1974)
March 9 - Jane Antonia Cornish born (1975)
March 9 - Bill Conti begins recording his score for Wrongfully Accused (1998)
March 9 - Richard Stone died (2001)
March 10 - Arthur Honegger born (1892)
March 10 - Angela Morley/Wally Stott born (1924)
March 10 - Charles Previn, head of the Universal Music Department, wins the Score Oscar for One Hundred Men and a Girl, for which no composer is credited (1938)
March 10 - Brad Fiedel born (1951)
March 10 - Marc Donahue born (1953)
March 10 - Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen born (1960)
March 10 - Michel Legrand records his score for Summer of ’42 (1971)
March 10 - Bruce Broughton begins recording his score for Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992)
March 11 - Gottfried Huppertz born (1887)
March 11 - Astor Piazzolla born (1921)
March 11 - Recording sessions begin for Bronislau Kaper's score to Lili (1952)
March 11 - David Newman born (1954)
March 11 - Rob Simonsen born (1978)
March 11 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Heart of Glory" (1988)
March 11 - Paul Dunlap died (2010)
March 11 - Francois-Eudes Chanfrault died (2016)
March 11 - Keith Emerson died (2016)
March 12 - Georges Delerue born (1925)
March 12 - Aldemaro Romero born (1928)
March 12 - Leonard Rosenman begins recording his score for Prophecy (1979)
March 12 - David Shire begins recording his score for Short Circuit (1986)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
ASSASSINATION NATION - Ian Hultquist
"That initial upload hits the town like a bomb. As the shadowy culprit clicks 'hare,' it cues the sound effect of an explosion. Next, the mob attacks Principal Turrell (Colman Domingo) for taking pictures of his six-year-old daughter in the bathtub. He’s a pedophile, Lily’s parents insist. But there’s a naked baby photo of her hanging in their house, she counters. The principal stands tall in front of a screaming riot that refuses to listen to reason, setting up a showdown that 'Assassination Nation' never resolves. Instead, the score swells with tragic violins, and the film rampages on.
'Assassination Nation' started off attacking the Internet. Now, the battle rages on gender lines with clear villains and heroes, and the sorrowful score asks us to take the film a little too seriously. There’s a nail-biting single-take scene where Levinson peers in the windows of a sleepover under siege. But the film is less interesting when its complex questions are tidied into a phalanx of avenging angels. By the time Lily delivers a lecture about hypocrisy in front of the American flag, the electric youth of the fantastic first half feels like an immature screed."
Amy Nicholson, Variety
"With so much stuff going off, the core cast don’t really have much opportunity to stretch themselves, but nevertheless, Young and Nef stand out particularly with their more dimensional characters. As a technical exercise alone, 'Assassination Nation' continually impresses, from the lapidary, Le Mepris-inspired cinematography by Marcell Rev to the expressive costuming by Rachel Dainer-Best and the wash of sound and music from composer Ian Hultquist and music supervisor Mary Ramos."
Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter
DISAPPEARANCE AT CLIFTON HILL - Alex Sowinski, Leland Whitty
"The disappearance that 'Clifton Hill' talks about happened decades ago, when Abby was a seven-year-old (played with disturbing silence by Mikayla Radan). While walking around the woods by the water, she sees a boy with an eyepatch attacked by two adults and stuffed into a car trunk. It happens just up the hill and through the weeds of where she is standing, but it’s clear enough. While her family takes a group picture minutes later, she sees the car drive away, and to the sound of Alex Sowinski and Leland Whitty's frantic woodwind and brass score, you can practically see the traumatic image being inventoried deep in her brain, primed to knock over some shelves in the rest of her psyche. "
Nick Allen, RogerEbert.com
"While the narrative gets curiouser and curiouser the tone of the movie is confusing to pin down. The picture clearly knows what shape it wants to take but can’t decide how much to lean on its own idiosyncrasies, or score, for that matter; the jazzy arrangements being equal parts atmospheric and distracting. It’s a labyrinth built off eerie, but implicit, ideas that read as half-empty and underdeveloped. The script isn’t confident enough to commit to its own oddities. The aesthetic approach is peculiar but easily digestible. Some shots are composed excellently; other shots are clearly reaching for excellence. One is never quite sure if the style going for emotionally absent or if Shin chasing more surreal Lynchian black comedy."
Andrew Bundy, The Playlist
"Designers Chris Crane and Judith Ann Clancy contribute ace work that ranges from lived-in clutter to tawdry fun-house glare, from the nondescript workaday to the dinner-theater tacky, all of it crisply captured in Catherine Lutes' moody but unfussy camerawork. Alex Sowinski and Leland Whitty's strong score heightens the movie's corrosive mystique with a jazz-inflected cacophony of musical moans and stutters."
Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter
GUNS AKIMBO - Enis Rotthoff
"The rest of hyperactive 'Guns Akimbo' is pretty much all bang, splat and boom, a nonstop chase with frequent gaming and text-messaging graphics onscreen further heightening the resemblance to 'Grand Theft Auto' and similar games. There’s also wall-to-wall, on-the-nose oldies filling in any audio space not occupied by Enis Rotthoff’s thumping techno score."
Dennis Harvey, Variety
THE JESUS ROLLS - Emilie Simon
"That isn’t always a bad thing, of course. The freewheeling Jonathan Demme energy only grows more infectious as the film drifts along, Émilie Simon’s buoyant flamenco score finds the zest in each scene, and the lightly fantastical 'none of this matters' attitude feels like manna from heaven in an age of interconnected cinematic universes (Turturro’s utter disinterest in rehashing 'The Big Lebowski' is one of the best things about this whole strange enterprise). There’s a fine line between 'nostalgic' and 'retrograde,' and 'The Jesus Rolls' weaves all over it until an axle pops loose and the movie crashes into a tunnel. Mileage will vary more than usual, but it’s hard to stay mad at something that starts with the Gypsy Kings, ends with a freeze-frame, and swerves in an unexpected direction whenever you feel like it’s running out of gas (a sex scene between Pete Davidson and 'Amélie' star Audrey Tautou was extremely high on the list of things this critic never thought he’d live to see, but in retrospect it seems almost inevitable)."
David Ehrlich, IndieWire
THE LAND OF STEADY HABITS - Marcelo Zarvos
"Unsurprisingly, 'Steady Habits' features a murderer’s row of terrific supporting players Connie Britton, Bill Camp, Elizabeth Marvel, Josh Pais, Michael Gaston, it’s kind of 'The Avengers' of character acting (and while we’re here, let’s give some props to Marcelo Zarvos’ beautifully wistful score). Mendelsohn, naturally, a mix of rascal and endearing loser, knocks it out of the park and Falco is commensurately fierce."
Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
"Holofcener's cool observational tone -- somewhat heavily underlined by the ironic lilt of the near-constant score -- mostly serves the story well, but as the drama builds toward its emotional climax, the intended gut punches don't quite register. If the center holds, it's thanks to the enthralling performance by Mendelsohn, one of the most compelling character actors of any era. With his syncopated verbal rhythms and unguarded gestures, he brings a very specific example of middle-aged adolescence to vivid life, at once irresistibly irreverent and troubling."
Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter
LIZZIE - Jeff Russo
"That’s what’s implied, anyway. Rarely do the characters in 'Lizzie' say what they really mean, and, combined with director Craig William Macneill’s claustrophobic mise en scène and paranoid sound design -- footsteps are loud and echoing, and voices muffled -- it gives the film an atmosphere of suffocating repression. The score, alternately evoking the chirping of cicadas and tree branches scraping across glass, attempts to manufacture tension throughout the long middle stretch, but goes horror-movie shrill far too early. Sevigny’s performance, while effective in raising questions about Lizzie’s inborn potential for evil, is subdued to the point where she sometimes appears to be in a trance, leaving Stewart to bring all the passion to their forbidden affair. (Which she can easily pull off, along with a pretty good Irish accent, but that’s not the point.)"
Katie Rife, The Onion AV Club
"There are disjointed elements here -- a modern-leaning script, driftless performances and an overwrought score from Jeff Russo, its clanking piano more suited to an out-and-out Gothic thriller -- that Macneill is ultimately unable to wrestle into a cohesive, compelling whole. The result is a dull retread of a story that deserved better."
Rebecca Pahle, Film Journal International
"'Lizzie' works best when it leans into its roots as a classic horror story -- loud noises rattle Lizzie and later prove to be nothing, a particular pitch of the score makes an everyday moment seem sinister, weird letters show up on the Bordens’ doorstep -- but much of the film is oddly inert. It just doesn’t move, even when we know what it’s moving toward, both because we know the story and because Macneill has already shown us what’s to come."
Kate Erbland, IndieWire
"But they’re both trapped in this three-story home, which is airless and quiet except for wonderful swells of psychologically unhinged music -- maniacal violins, pounding piano keys that fade into crickets -- that Macneill uses to take us from one terrible scene to the next. Otherwise, he keeps things hushed except for loud footsteps and creaks which make these hostile walls sound alive. On nights when Andrew tiptoes into Bridget’s bedroom, the camera stays on her agonized, but resigned face as she hears him approach. Afterwards, when Andrew creeps back to his wife (Fiona Shaw), the step-mother Lizzie loathes, the camera gives her the same sympathetic close-up. No woman here is happy."
Amy Nicholson, Variety
"Always adept at turning a one-liner and projecting a strong, muscular intelligence, Sevigny fully owns the picture and rather upstages Stewart, no mean feat in itself. Special praise is also owed to Macneill's regular contributor, DP Noah Greenberg, who creates an especially sensuous atmosphere with little more than double-wicked candles, sunshine filtered through old glass and a gauzy palette. Elsewhere, Jeff Russo's sometimes abrasive score adds a neatly modern edge to the late-Victorian petty prettiness of the period."
Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter
MANDY - Johann Johannsson
"One more thing before you go on this journey with Nicolas Cage: the incredible Johann Johannsson ('Sicario,' 'Arrival') does the best of his career in this, his final film composition. The score here is another character, a series of screeching, violent noises that add to the tone of the film in ways that can't be overstated. The film simply doesn't work without it. And, as much as I like other parts of the movie, Johannson's work alone justifies a viewing. It reminds us how much we lost by his early passing."
Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
"Johann Johansson scores the film with waves of synths and titanic guitar chords played by Stephen O’Malley of Sunn 0))), and Johansson’s musical voice defines the film’s character -- what could have been driven as an assault is instead surprisingly warm."
Russ Fischer, The Playlist
"A glimmering font establishes the rural setting as '1983, A.D.,' and it may as well be a forgotten relic of eighties B-movie excess, funneled through Cosmatos’ own creative indulgences. The grainy 16mm imagery, a vibrant mixture of neon hues and shadows set to Johan Johansson’s disorienting score, suggests a gothic fantasy unfolding within the confines of a heavy-metal poster. Cage, whose motif of late has been a self-serious approach to outrageous material, fits right in as bearded logger Red Miller, who leads an idyllic life in the middle of nowhere with artist wife Mandy (Andrea Riseborough). They lead comfortable, unhurried lives, but strange transitions and disjunctive sound design make it clear that a sinister force lurks somewhere beneath the surface."
Eric Kohn, IndieWire
"So begins Red’s unhinged murder spree, phantasmagoric and gloriously violent. A giant bladed dildo, a ludicrously long chainsaw, a hilarious pile of cocaine, the aforementioned spiked LSD, the aforementioned oracular chemist, a tiger, more than one offer of sex -- Red encounters each as if it’s the detritus of a waking nightmare, fighting or consuming all of it, venturing deeper into Jeremiah’s realm. As was the case in Cosmatos’s first film, the comparatively sedate 'Beyond the Black Rainbow,' each frame, every shot of 'Mandy' reeks of shocking beauty, stylized at times to within an inch of its intelligibility, but endlessly pregnant with creativity and control, euphoria and pain, clarity and honesty and the ineffable sense that Cosmatos knows exactly how and what he wants to subconsciously imprint into the viewer. Sometimes a smoke machine and some colored lights can go a long way. Sometimes Red needs to dream in cartoons. Sometimes a goblin puppet needs to puke cheese bile onto a 10-year-old’s head. Throughout, Jóhann Jóhannsson’s score veers between ambient synth and droning, apocalyptic anti-pop, the perfect accompaniment to Red’s medieval fantasy."
Dom Sinacola, Paste Magazine
"Red and Mandy live in a kind of dream world that’s epitomized by the outlandish cinematography, synth score, surreal dialogue, and frequent allusions to other pop-cultural artifacts. (Cosmatos goes out of his way to tell us, for instance, that Red and Mandy live near 'Crystal Lake.') There’s something recently tamed about this couple, as they suggest lone animals who’ve found an unlikely way to settle into hibernation. With a single gesture, Cage allows the audience to discern that Red is a recovering alcoholic. He’s also a primordial wild man -- a big, aging guy with a shaggy beard and an unlikely streak of vulnerability. Meanwhile, Mandy brings to mind a reformed groupie who’s lost in her own head, with an off-kilter sense of speaking and a penchant for wearing vintage rock T-shirts while wandering through foreboding woods that wouldn’t be out of place in a fairy tale."
Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine
"Enter the 'weirdo hippie types,' an LSD cult led by Jeremiah (Linus Roache), a stringy-haired failed singer-songwriter of the previous decade. He sets his eye on Mandy and dispatches his unprepossessing, doltish minions to snatch her with the help of the Black Skulls, an infernal trio of pain-loving bikers in gimp suits and spiky metal. The buildup is as deliberate and intractable as sludge, but so is the follow-through. It takes a solid hour before Red goes after Jeremiah and the Skulls, the initially underplayed performance cracking into unhinged Cage-mania; the next hour is a drawn-out blood sacrifice to the grindhouse gods. Heads are crushed and severed, throats are cut and penetrated with sharp objects, and the red stuff gushes. Armed with a crossbow and a hand-forged Dungeons & Dragons ax, our bug-eyed avenger cuts an archetypal figure against the nowhere-ness of the setting, a vague Pacific Northwest of logging roads and rock quarries. (The film was actually shot in Belgium.) The white part of his lucky baseball tee is soaked red with blood. The doom-metal influenced original score (by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson) growls."
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The Onion AV Club
"But Cosmatos needs you to be charitable toward his performances. Or, barring that, he needs you to be stoned. Many will oblige: 'Mandy' is an instant midnight mood, graced by a thickly menacing synth score by composer Jóhann Jóhannsson ('Sicario'), whose recent death from a drug overdose robs us of not only a singular talent but also an obvious superfan of Vangelis."
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
"In terms of disorientating techniques, Cosmatos throws in everything but the kitchen sink, from filters to superimpositions to strobing -- adding great gobs of post-production effects to the already arresting widescreen images of DP Benjamin Loeb and the contributions of production designer Hubert Pouille and other key design collaborators. There are even brief animated sequences in a 'Heavy Metal' idiom, by Paris-based Banjo Studio. The soundtrack is equally highly worked, though dominated by Oscar-nommed Icelandic composer Johann Johansson’s original score, which sports a variety of textures apt for a movie that often feels like a vintage prog-metal concept album illustrated."
Dennis Harvey, Variety
PEPPERMINT - Simon Franglen
"It’s easy to see both 'John Wick' and 'Taken,' the best-known title in director Pierre Morel’s filmography, in the list of ingredients that were tossed together to make 'Peppermint' -- a list that also includes the comic book character The Punisher and his subsequent screen adaptations, one of which is credited to this film’s screenwriter, Chad St. John. There’s bloodlust and brutality, grim humor and efficient violence, workmanlike treatment of injuries, and amorality as a given circumstance. But while the influences vary in quality, each outpaces its descendant in nearly every way. Action, cinematography, scoring, thematic resonance, editing, production design -- all lackluster, at best. Yet what makes 'Peppermint' such a frustrating experience is the one way in which Morel’s film matches up to its predecessors: It centers on a performance by an actor made for this sort of work, a visceral, vulnerable, sometimes darkly funny performance of great vitality. In this case, it’s a performance that succeeds in spite of, not because of, the film, and its pleasures don’t make up for the landscape in which it lives. On the one hand, Jennifer Garner deserves far better. On the other, she cashed the check."
Allison Shoemaker, The Onion AV Club
"Perhaps some viewers could ignore all that if 'Peppermint' delivered on the action front, but save for one slam-bang shootout in a piñata shop, there’s a veneer of cheapness to the whole endeavor that keeps even the numbskull thrills from really connecting. Morel’s habit of shaking the camera to underscore every strong emotion does nothing to hide the script’s lack of a real character arc, and a score that seems sourced from Evanescence outtakes only strengthens the feeling that this film is a relic from some bygone era. Maybe it should have stayed there."
Andrew Barker, Variety
THE PREDATOR - Henry Jackman
"Tech contributions are solid in all departments, particularly the designs for the brand new predator-on-steroids who leaves so many mutilated bodies in his wake. A playful score by Henry Jackman ('X-Men: First Class') maintains the tone while making a few nods to the original."
Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
"Composer Alexandre Desplat does some of his best work here; it’s challenging for any film scorer to summon the spirit of the West without aping Elmer Bernstein or Ennio Morricone, but his grasp of the material never wavers into pastiche. And while cinematographer Benoît Debie ('Spring Breakers') clearly revels in the rolling clouds and the expanse of snowy mountain peaks, he too serves the genre while always prioritizing how the characters are framed within this glorious setting."
Alonso Duralde, The Wrap
"Regular collaborator Alexandre Desplat, who has scored most of Audiard’s films, continues his streak. It’s unclear if Desplat is capable of writing a mediocre score and his stirring, faintly melancholy music (with some subtle nods to Spaghetti Westerns), does a lot of subconscious work, sowing the seeds of sentiment for when the movie becomes disarmingly emotional in the last act."
Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
"Amid this conundrum of a movie, the actors provide what the facile screenplay cannot: a human pulse, shrewdly underscored by composer Alexandre Desplat’s time-traveling musical landscape."
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
"But really, this scenario sets in motion more complications for the brothers to escape, as they continue to contend with the broader existential question of what they should do with their time. Enduring harsh conditions on the road between Oregon and California, the Sisters spend much of the movie saving each other from physical harm, whether it’s abrasive spider bites or drunken saloon showdowns, and it’s so endearing to watch them survive each new twist that it renders broader stakes irrelevant. There’s an Altmanesque quality to the way Audiard builds out this world, with the ever-reliable Alexandre Desplat’s jangly score and Benoit Debie’s warm, painterly visuals opening up the brothers’ journeys to the boundless possibilities of the frontier. It almost seems as though they could keep at it forever, but every messy gunfight inches them closer to the possibility that time is running out."
Eric Kohn, IndieWire
"Adapting the book became a labor of love for John C. Reilly, who co-produces and stars as Eli. He gets the body right but can’t quite catch the spirit. I don’t think that’s his fault. The script, by Thomas Bidegain and director Jacques Audiard ('Rust and Bone,' 'A Prophet)', eliminates Eli’s stream of consciousness, that open window into his soul. His lyrical strangeness instead finds new spigots in the film via Alexandre Desplat’s jazzy, unsettling score and Audiard’s revisioning of the classic Western’s clean breaks between good and bad. A shoot-out framed far away and in pitch black makes it impossible to divine the heroes from the villains. (In this Wild West, what’s the difference, anyway?) Another high-noon reckoning shoots metaphorical blanks."
Kimberley Jones, The Austin Chronicle
"Physically, the film is a fine specimen, with production designer Michel Barthelemy and costume designer Milena Canonero providing unusually rich and detailed contributions. Alexandre Desplat’s score is icing on the cake."
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, Fairfax Cinema, Laemmle, New Beverly, Nuart, UCLA and Vista.
March 6
THE BEAST MUST DIE (Silvio Vernazza), GILDA (Morris Stoloff, Marlin Skiles) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE CONNECTION (Freddie Redd) [Fairfax Cinema]
EASY RIDER [Vista]
HEAVEN (Howard Shore) [Arena Cinelounge]
MANNEQUIN (Sylvester Levay) [Arena Cinelounge]
POLYESTER (Chris Stein, Michael Kamen) [Fairfax Cinema]
THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER (Henry Mancini), THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN (Henry Mancini) [New Beverly]
STARSHIP TROOPERS (Basil Poledouris) [New Beverly]
March 7
BETTER LUCK TOMORROW (Michael Gonzales, Tobin Mori) [UCLA]
THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (Ennio Morricone) [Vista]
HAROLD AND MAUDE (Cat Stevens) [New Beverly]
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (Nicholas Hooper) [New Beverly]
HEAVEN (Howard Shore) [Arena Cinelounge]
KOYANNISQATSI (Philip Glass) [Fairfax Cinema]
M, M (Michel Michelet), EL VAMPIRO NEGRO (Juan Ehlert) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
MANNEQUIN (Sylvester Levay) [Arena Cinelounge]
POLYESTER (Chris Stein, Michael Kamen) [Fairfax Cinema]
PORTRAIT OF JASON [Vista]
THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER (Henry Mancini), THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN (Henry Mancini) [New Beverly]
THE SEA WOLF (Erich Wolfgang Korngold) [Fairfax Cinema]
SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE (Ilan Eshkeri) [Alamo Drafthouse]
March 8
THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE (Guy Moon) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE CONNECTION (Freddie Redd) [Fairfax Cinema]
THE DEVIL STRIKES AT NIGHT (Seigfried Franz), FLY-BY-NIGHT [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE GREAT RACE (Henry Mancini) [New Beverly]
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (Nicholas Hooper) [New Beverly]
HEAVEN (Howard Shore) [Arena Cinelounge]
THE HOUSEMAID (Sang-gi Han), MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS (Mischa Bakaleinikoff) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
KOYANNISQATSI (Philip Glass) [Fairfax Cinema]
MANNEQUIN (Sylvester Levay) [Arena Cinelounge]
THE SEA WOLF (Erich Wolfgang Korngold) [Fairfax Cinema]
THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM (George Gershwin, Alfred Newman, David Raksin) [UCLA]
March 9
THE GREAT RACE (Henry Mancini) [New Beverly]
HEAVEN (Howard Shore) [Arena Cinelounge]
HOUSE OF GAMES (Alaric Jans) [Cinematheque: Aero]
HOUSE PARTY (Marcus Miller, Lenny White) [New Beverly]
MANNEQUIN (Sylvester Levay) [Arena Cinelounge]
SERENITY (David Newman) [Alamo Drafthouse]
TWO ARABIAN KNIGHTS [AMPAS]
March 10
THE BROOD (Howard Shore), SCALPEL (Robert Cobert) [New Beverly]
HEAVEN (Howard Shore) [Arena Cinelounge]
MANNEQUIN (Sylvester Levay) [Arena Cinelounge]
NEAR DARK (Tangerine Dream) [Alamo Drafthouse]
March 11
GOD BLESS AMERICA (Matt Kollar) [Alamo Drafthouse]
HEAVEN (Howard Shore) [Arena Cinelounge]
HIGH AND LOW (Masaru Sato) [Cinematheque: Aero]
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (Ennio Morricone), VICTOR/VICTORIA (Henry Mancini) [New Beverly]
THE LONG HAUL (Trevor Duncan), BLACK GRAVEL (Bernhard Eichhorn) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
MANNEQUIN (Sylvester Levay) [Arena Cinelounge]
THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (Jerry Fielding) [New Beverly]
March 12
THE 400 BLOWS (Jean Constantin) [Cinematheque: Aero]
HEAVEN (Howard Shore) [Arena Cinelounge]
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (Ennio Morricone), VICTOR/VICTORIA (Henry Mancini) [New Beverly]
MANNEQUIN (Sylvester Levay) [Arena Cinelounge]
MIAMI VICE (John Murphy) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE NAKED CITY (Miklos Rozsa, Frank Skinner), HARDLY A CRIMINAL (Julian Bautista) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
March 13
AMERICAN GRAFFITI, THE OUTSIDERS (Carmine Coppola) [Cinematheque: Aero]
CHILD'S PLAY 2 (Graeme Revell) [Nuart]
GIRLFRIENDS (Michael Small) [Fairfax Cinema]
GUN CRAZY (Victor Young), PALE FLOWER (Toru Takemitsu) [Cinemathque: Egyptian]
HOT FUZZ (David Arnold), BIG BULLET (Clarence Hui, Pui Tat Kam) [New Beverly]
JASON X (Harry Manfredini) [New Beverly]
NIGHTMARE (Jack Eric Williams) [Fairfax Cinema]
SAVING FACE (Anton Sanko) [UCLA]
March 14
BRIDESMAIDS (Michael Andrews) [Alamo Drafthouse]
DEEP RED (Giorgio Gaslini, Goblin) [Vista]
THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME (Kiyoshi Yoshida) [Vista]
GIRLFRIENDS (Michael Small) [Fairfax Cinema]
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 1 (Alexandre Desplat) [New Beverly]
HOT FUZZ (David Arnold), BIG BULLET (Clarence Hui, Pui Tat Kam) [New Beverly]
NIGHTMARE (Jack Eric Williams) [Fairfax Cinema]
O LUCKY MAN! (Alan Price) [New Beverly]
OUT OF SIGHT (David Holmes), JACKIE BROWN [Cinematheque: Aero]
OUT OF THE PAST (Roy Webb), THE GUILTY (Rudy Schrager), HIGH TIDE (Rudy Schrager), THE PROWLER (Lyn Murray), TRY AND GET ME (Hugo Friedhofer) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (Max Steiner) [Fairfax Cinema]
March 15
THE BIRDCAGE (Jonathan Tunick) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE BOSTONIANS (Richard Robbins) [UCLA]
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 1 (Alexandre Desplat) [New Beverly]
PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (Dimitri Tiomkin), GIRL WITH HYACINTHS (Erland von Koch) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE SPIRITUALIST (Alexander Laszlo), IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND (Raul Lavista) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (Elmer Bernstein) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE THING (Ennio Morricone) [Alamo Drafthouse]
THE TURIN HORSE (Mihaly Vig) [Fairfax Cinema]
THE TWO MRS. CARROLLS (Franz Waxman), THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN (W. Franke Harling) [New Beverly]
THINGS I'VE HEARD, READ, SEEN OR WATCHED LATELY
Heard: La Strada (Rota), The Swindle (Rota), Nights of Cabiria (Rota), La Dolce Vita (Rota), 8 1/2 (Rota)
Read: Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, by Philip K. Dick
Seen: Freebie and the Bean; Busting; The Invisible Man [2020]; Emma. [2020]; Wendy; Greed [2020]; The Hospital; Sonic the Hedgehog; Blumhouse's Fantasy Island; The Blue Lagoon [1980]; Summer Lovers; Squirm; Tender Flesh
Watched: Columbo ("Short Fuse," "Blueprint for Murder," "The Greenhouse Jungle")
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