Dragon's Domain has announced three new film music CD releases -- John Scott's electronic score for the 1981 sci-fi horror film INSEMINOID (released in the U.S. as Horror Planet); Chuck Cirino's score for 1994's GHOULIES IV; and THE ALAN HOWARTH COLLECTION VOL. 2, including a variety of cues by the composer including his score for Arcade.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Nomadland - Ludovico Einaudi - Decca
La Polizia Trilogy - Stelvio Cipriani - Cinevox
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes - Miklos Rozsa - Quartet
My Name Is Nobody - Ennio Morricone - Beat
Vamos a Matar Companeros - Ennio Morricone - Beat
IN THEATERS TODAY
The Deep Ones - Richard Band
Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train - Kajiura Yuki, Shiina Go
Mortal Kombat - Benjamin Wallfisch - Score CD-R on WaterTower
My Wonderful Wanda - Grandbrothers
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street - T. Griffin
Together Together - Alex Somers
COMING SOON
May 28
The Midnight Sky - Alexandre Desplat - Abkco
Date Unknown
The Alan Howarth Collection Vol. 2 - Albert Glasser - Dragon's Domain
Belli e brutti ridono tutti - Giacomo Dell'Orso - Beat
Chronicle - Ernst Reijseger - Caldera
Escape from New York [re-release] - John Carpenter, Alan Howarth - Silva
Fuga Dal Bronx - Francesco De Masi - Beat
Ghoulies IV - Chuck Cirino - Dragon's Domain
Inseminoid - John Scott - Dragon's Domain
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
April 23 - Sergei Prokofiev born (1891)
April 23 - Louis Barron born (1920)
April 23 - Patrick Williams born (1939)
April 23 - Alain Jomy born (1941)
April 23 - Jay Gruska born (1952)
April 23 - Kenji Kawai born (1957)
April 23 - Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson born (1958)
April 23 - Bernard Herrmann begins recording his North by Northwest score (1959)
April 23 - Christopher Komeda died (1969)
April 23 - Jonsi born (1975)
April 23 - Harold Arlen died (1986)
April 23 - Satyajit Ray died (1992)
April 23 - James Horner begins recording his score for House of Cards (1992)
April 23 - Robert Farnon died (2005)
April 23 - Arthur B. Rubinstein died (2018)
April 24 - Vaclav Trojan born (1907)
April 24 - Barbra Streisand born (1942)
April 24 - Double Indemnity is released in theaters (1944)
April 24 - Hubert Bath died (1945)
April 24 - Dana Kaproff born (1954)
April 24 - Lennie Hayton died (1971)
April 24 - John Williams begins recording his score for Dracula (1979)
April 24 - Georges Delerue records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "The Doll" (1986)
April 24 - Tristam Cary died (2008)
April 25 - Heinz Roemheld's score for Union Station is recorded (1950)
April 25 - Franz Waxman records his score for Stalag 17 (1952)
April 25 - David A. Hughes born (1960)
April 25 - John Williams begins recording his score for How to Steal a Million (1966)
April 25 - Georges Delerue records his score for L’Homme Qui Revient De Loin (1972)
April 25 - Alec Puro born (1975)
April 25 - Gary Hughes died (1978)
April 25 - Brian May died (1997)
April 26 - Francis Lai born (1932)
April 26 - Giorgio Moroder born (1940)
April 26 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score for Green Fire (1954)
April 26 - Reinhardt Wagner born (1956)
April 26 - Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter record their score for Kronos (1957)
April 26 - John M. Keane born (1965)
April 26 - Jerry Fielding begins recording his score for Gray Lady Down (1977)
April 26 - Bruce Broughton begins recording his score The Blue and the Gray (1982)
April 26 - Bronislau Kaper died (1983)
April 26 - Alan Parker begins recording his score for Jaws 3D (1983)
April 26 - Barry Gray died (1984)
April 26 - Maurice Jarre begins recording his score for Distant Thunder (1988)
April 26 - Carmine Coppola died (1991)
April 26 - Dave Grusin begins recording his score for The Firm (1993)
April 26 - David Bell records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Tracking Into the Wind” (1999)
April 27 - Christopher Komeda born (1937)
April 27 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score for The Lost Weekend (1945)
April 27 - Christopher Young born (1954)
April 27 - Federico Jusid born (1973)
April 27 - Scott Bradley died (1977)
April 27 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Q Who" (1989)
April 27 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Explorers” (1995)
April 27 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Relativity” (1999)
April 27 - Henry Brant died (2008)
April 28 - Emil Stern born (1913)
April 28 - Lyn Murray records his score for the Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode “Who Needs an Enemy?” (1964)
April 28 - Blake Neely born (1969)
April 28 - Billy Goldenberg records his score for High Risk (1976)
April 28 - Christopher Young records orchestral passages for his Invaders from Mars score (1986)
April 28 - Alan Silvestri begins recording his score for Judge Dredd (1995)
April 28 - Paul Baillargeon records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Children of Time” (1997)
April 29 - Duke Ellington born (1889)
April 29 - Toots Thielemans born (1922)
April 29 - Waldemar Kazanecki born (1929)
April 29 - Rod McKuen born (1933)
April 29 - Herbert Stothart begins recording his score to Random Harvest (1942)
April 29 - Jan A.P. Kaczmarek born (1953)
April 29 - Chris Boardman born (1954)
April 29 - Lawrence Shragge born (1954)
April 29 - Craig Armstrong born (1959)
April 29 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Conspiracy” (1988)
April 29 - James Horner begins recording his score for The Rocketeer (1991)
April 29 - Dennis McCarthy and Kevin Kiner record their score for the final Star Trek: Enterprise episode, “These Are the Voyages…” (2005)
April 29 - Joel Goldsmith died (2012)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
CONCRETE COWBOY - Kevin Matley
"Beyond the superb acting, 'Concrete Cowboy' gets a lot of mileage from its visually arresting riding scenes and its spot-on score, which is both haunting and inspirational."
David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle
"It’s as if too much is happening. For example, at one point, the urban western briefly morphs into a heist flick, and at another, leans heavily into the gangster sub-genre. A stellar performance from McLaughlin, and a familiar score by Kevin Matley -- who utilizes a theremin and makes clear odes to Ennio Merricone [sic] -- holds the brimming narrative together, even when it should gallop away. Another thoughtful touch includes using actual Fletcher Stable riders like Jamil 'Mil' Prattis -- playing the wheelchair bound Paris -- and Ivannah Mercedes, as the confident friend to Cole, Esha. But those gains are often undone by a hamfisted subplot involving a local Black cop searching for what side to land on: law enforcement or his community -- and the end’s contrived lesson."
Robert Daniels, The Playlist
"The delicacy of the film’s early scenes is regrettably missing from other moments that have the potential to be moving. When Harp fashions a special saddle so that a paralyzed cowboy may ride a horse again, we don’t need derivative slow-motion and music to comprehend the poignancy of such a gesture. We also don’t require expository dialogue to tell us that Cole feels excluded in this moment from a father who’s never shown him such generosity, as we glimpse this embittered yet admiring heartbreak in the boy’s face. However, Cole’s wound is cauterized in another wonderful scene, when Harp plays John Coltrane on vinyl and explains to Cole that he was named after the jazz legend. Again, 'Concrete Cowboy' is stirring when it really dives into specificity, avoiding what the New Yorker literature critic James Wood recently defined as our original sin: cliché, which, according to Wood, blocks our apprehension of reality."
Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine
IN THE EARTH - Clint Mansell
"Whether fact or folktale, mere mention of this entity hangs over 'In the Earth' as Martin and Alma venture through the woods on a two-day hike to Olivia’s campsite. With minimal resources at his disposal, Wheatley keeps things simple on screen and relies on smart camerawork and an unnerving soundtrack to suggest a supernatural presence: His cinematographer, Nick Gillespie, shoots at a distance, as if the trees and brush are observing Martin and Alma’s every step with sinister intent, while Clint Mansell’s score sends unnerving synth vibes creeping and crawling through the ear. According to Wheatley in the Sundance Q&A, Mansell wired up plants and captured their sounds as the foundation of his work, a stroke of mad genius to prove that ingenuity always tops funds."
Andy Crump, Paste Magazine
"Wheatley handles all this early setup deliberately, and per usual, he imbues his visual language with more spookiness via a brutal electronic score by longtime collaborator Clint Mansell. But also per usual, Wheatley tends toward self-indulgence. About half an hour in, 'In the Earth' takes a turn that’s tedious and thoroughly predictable. After one new character is introduced, there are no plot surprises, and the middle portion of the film admittedly drags."
Roxana Hadadi, Polygon
"The butter only continues to slide off the knife from there, but even at this early juncture in Wheatley’s al fresco freakout, 'In the Earth' is an impressive exercise in cinematic resourcefulness. As the glossy and well-furnished blandness of his 'Rebecca' made clear, Wheatley’s best films mix a black-witted nihilism with the anarchic fun of a kid messing around with an 8mm camera in his parents’ backyard. All he really needs are a few ominous props, a handful of committed actors, and a good excuse to make things go squish -- everything else feels like it just gets in the way (though having Clint Mansell around to pitch in a maniacal synth score doesn’t hurt). So at a time when most people are scrambling to find new ways of shooting things, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Wheatley’s pandemic quickie is suffused with the 'can-do' confidence of a home-field advantage."
David Ehrlich, IndieWire
"It’s not all subtle, but some of the little details go a long way. The pair have their trainers stolen on the first night under the stars and have to continue barefoot. From there, Wheatley’s toy box turns out to be quite deep considering the sparseness of the story generally: sound, light, spores, axes, arrows and poison all feature. They all become threats in this innocent-looking English wilderness -- given atmospheric life by Clint Mansell’s front-and-centre score and Wheatley’s copious use of funky lighting effects when night falls."
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
"'In the Earth' isn’t a complete washout; there are moments of bleak humor, genre fans will enjoy the striking imagery and gross-out shivers, and the director has an undeniable gift for setting and maintaining a mood (he gets a big assist on the latter from Clint Mansell’s synth score). But ultimately, it’s kind of a slog. Late in the film, its heroes are told, 'Zac is trying to make meaning where there isn’t any.' You could say the same about Ben Wheatley."
Jason Bailey, The Playlist
"You never know exactly what you’re going to get, pressing play on a new film from this prolific merchant of shocks and schlock. Wheatley has made a crime drama, a folk-horror freakout, a deranged murder comedy, a Tarantino-esque shoot-’em-up, an uncharacteristically elegant J.G. Ballard adaptation, and a tony Hitchcock remake that almost no one -- even his biggest fans -- seemed to like much. His next film, supposedly and surprisingly, is a sequel to the dopey Jason Statham giant-shark potboiler 'The Meg.' If there’s any precedent in that eclectic body of work for the general wackiness of this new entry, it’s probably his most flagrantly out-there genre excursion, the rambling, rural period piece 'A Field In England.' When Wheatley isn’t cutting in close here on some gnarly mutilation of the flesh, he’s provoking people who have epilepsy with stuttering, shuttering psychedelic reverie -- lots of flower-power hallucinations, flash-cut into ribbons and set to an ambient soundtrack by Clint Mansell that’s much more evocative than the material it’s accompanying. Which is to say, 'In The Earth' feeds the indiscriminate appetites of gorehounds and bong-rippers alike. Everyone else may find it as ghastly boring as the violence is just plain ghastly."
A.A. Dowd, The Onion AV Club
"Speaking through masks and mumbly British accents, the characters’ poorly communicated mission could hardly be less interesting, but Wheatley’s such a pro at making audiences uneasy -- through a combination of stalker-like camerawork, ominous atmosphere and Clint Mansell’s disorienting score -- that we shift our attention from caring about these characters to warily anticipating what’s in store for them. Early on, the screenplay sets up something about a forest spirit called Parnag Fegg. Wheatley shows us an ominous woodblock print (something one might expect to find in a 'The Art of "Midsommar"' coffee table book), a tiny Wicker Man-like figure and a stack of demon drawings scrawled in childish crayon, from which our imaginations are free to extrapolate the monster at the end of this book."
Peter Debruge, Variety
"An ominous score by Clint Mansell mixing electronic dread with insidious melody toils in search of a more coherent horror scenario in Ben Wheatley's disorienting slog, 'In the Earth.' Whether it's a palate cleanser after the constricting labor of Netflix's 'Rebecca' remake or simply a work of creative restlessness cooked up by a resourceful director who honed his skills making more with less, this hallucinogenic fairy tale set during the third wave of a global pandemic and shot under COVID-19 guidelines becomes progressively less interesting after its intriguing start. The cluttered plot keeps surging forward while providing too few illuminating insights, instead loading up on mystical mumbo jumbo and flashes of gore."
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
LUCKY - Jeremy Zuckerman
"'Lucky' is not simply not a rape-revenge film. It's a brutal, brilliant rebuttal to the idea of a fit of cathartic violence. It's arguably closest to an early, ugly landmark of the genre, 'The Last House on the Left,' because this isn't about fixing anything. Much as Wes Craven finished his film with nothing more than a pile of bodies and two desperate, broken parents, 'Lucky' doesn't let the audience off any hooks. Grant (who also wrote the script) and director Natasha Kermani haven't just created a powerful tool for women to explain what it's like to live with the perpetual threat of male violence: 'Lucky' is a gripping, shocking, ridiculous and cunning look at what it's like to live with complex PTSD, told through a story that is as much sly satire as it is daring metaphor. In her follow up to the more lightly lyrical 'Imitation Girl,' Kermani balances both undoubted fear with an absurdist, Kafka-esque layer of comedy. The off-kilter sensation is re-enforced by Jeremy Zuckerman's score and Michelle Vezilj's soundtrack, a dissonant buzz that feels like living inside a Laurie Anderson experiment."
Richard Whittaker, The Austin Chronicle
MOFFIE - Braam du Toit
"In a sense, the film’s struggle to distinguish itself is fitting, as Nicholas is equally at pains to express his identity. (If anything here stands out as particularly expressive, it’s Jamie D. Ramsay’s lavish photography of the South African landscape and Braam du Toit’s score, at turns operatic and avant-garde.) He’s English but has adopted his stepfather’s Afrikaans surname, and while he yearns, he hardly speaks. His past and interiority are confined to a single traumatic flashback. It’s as if the historical forces alluded to by the intertitles prevent him from surpassing one-dimensionality. Opacity is the defining feature of his character."
William Repass, Slant Magazine
"Nick’s trek to the border via train is filled with the fratty, boys-will-be-boys vibes that will become increasingly darker as his military service lurches on. The train journey is suffused with a cacophony of a soundtrack, with strings wailing and screeching like the sounds of a highbrow horror movie."
Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
"All of this happens within the first five minutes of 'Moffie.' The sparse dialogue, accentuated by the tense background score, sets the tone for the emotional onslaught that’s yet to come. Soon Nicholas is on a train full of boorish young white men and military instructors who constantly yell in Afrikaans. He ends up in a compartment with another good-looking teen, Michael Sachs (Matthew Vey). Unlike the other recruits, tousle-haired Michael seems equally disenchanted with his surroundings, and is thankful that Nicholas -- despite his Afrikaans-sounding surname -- seems pretty normal. We come to learn that Nicholas has had to take on his stepfather’s surname. Nicholas delivers this information with a grim smile, and you can see him set his face like flint for what’s about to come."
Aparita Bhandari, Paste Magazine
MY SALINGER YEAR - Martin Leon
"Production and costume design are slightly heightened to highlight the period nature of the piece, with Weaver's outfits (co-credited to Ann Roth with overall costume designer Patricia McNeil) especially successful in suggesting what kind of character she is. Though shot on location in Montreal, the film very successfully feels like a New York story pur sang, while Martin Leon's jazzy score highlights the playful yet somewhat superficial nature of the proceedings."
Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter
SHIVA BABY - Ariel Marx
"Known for combining orchestral and bespoke instruments with electronic scores to craft unpredictable soundscapes, composer Ariel Marx approaches 'Shiva Baby' as a full-fledged horror film. All plucking guitar strings and plinking piano keys, her minimalist score conjures a uniquely protean sense of menace that seems to grate on Danielle’s nerves as much as ours. A key component of Seligman’s suffocatingly immersive approach to telling this story, its cruciality to the film’s success should not be understated."
Isaac Feldberg, Paste Magazine
"Seligman’s script is witty and pithy, with only a few lags in the action. The single setting is always a shrewd move for a first feature, especially one on a budget, though it does limit things visually. The conversational nature of the script lends itself to tight shots and quick edits, which has the effect of running suffocating circles around Danielle, who is usually centered while the other characters are shot over the shoulder, helping keep the focus on her inner turmoil. A tense string score ratchets up the tension, though this technique loses its bite after a few too many uses."
Jude Dry, IndieWire
"Seligman's script will strike a sharp chord in anyone that has run into overly-complicated situations at a family gathering (i.e., just about everyone). It feels like a hurdy-gurdy that is just enough put of tune to leave you uneasy, a sensation of queasiness further unbalanced by Ariel Marx's discordant, scratchy, string-and-timpani soundtrack. It feels purloined from an avant-garde horror, and there are moments when Maria Rusche's cinematography matches it, veering from social anxiety to leering claustrophobia. But at it heart 'Shiva Baby' is a witty, wry observational farce about the lives of the petite bourgeoisie, and every time it risks a turn into the overly-dramatic, there's Draper and Melamed as Danielle's parents, bickering lovingly about lost phones (a recurrent gag and source of stress) and dementia."
Richard Whittaker, The Austin Chronicle
"Adding fuel to the fire of Seligman’s direction and Sennott’s performance is cinematographer Maria Rusche, who captures the somber tones of a house in mourning with all the trappings of a family nightmare one can’t seem to escape. At times, 'Shiva Baby' feels like a Luis Buñuel film, where no matter how hard Danielle tries to avoid certain people and break away from fake pleasantries, she’s invariably stuck with this group. The cross-cutting by editor Hanna A. Park heightens the already tense choreography of this claustrophobic gathering. To top off the movie’s apprehensive spirit, Ariel Marx's string-heavy score layers on a final helping of uneasiness in Danielle’s mind, as plucked chords and strained notes accompany her inner chaos."
Monica Castillo, RogerEbert.com
"'Shiva Baby''s action unfolds almost entirely within the confines of a few adjoining rooms, and the sense of overwhelming claustrophobia is enhanced by uncomfortably tight framing, along with a sparse sound design punctuated by minimal, ominous strings. But even as the tension ratchets up, the film mostly unfolds in a naturalistic manner. Its impressive tonal balance is also evident in the frequently hilarious dialogue, which is in the same uneasy register as some of the best cringe comedy of the past couple of decades, without ever feeling too self-conscious to be believable. And the centerpiece of this masterful high-wire act is Sennott, who captivatingly matches her accomplished comic timing and deadpan line delivery with a frazzled nerviness, convincingly showing Danielle teetering ever-closer to emotional and physical collapse. Gordon’s more relaxed Maya also makes for a great foil, serving as a kind of hectoring conscience and voice of reason with her ever-present smirk."
David Robb, Slant Magazine
"Things start out distressingly enough as Danielle is passed from overbearing relation to overbearing relation, all of whom want to know: Is she seeing anyone? She is, of course, but it’s not the kind of thing one discusses with one’s great-aunt, especially not at a funeral. Writer-director Emma Seligman shoots Danielle running this gauntlet of familial expectations like a horror movie, grouping the characters in claustrophobic clusters and cutting between Danielle and the judgmental eyes burning into her as she limply puts food onto a paper plate, then scrapes it back into the bowl. The suspenseful mood is reinforced by Ariel Marx’s screeching score, positively Harry Manfredini-esque at times. And as the day wears on, the filmmaking gets more surreal, culminating in a dizzying sequence that recalls the climax of Darren Aronofsky’s 'Mother!' (although audiences will be squirming with sympathy, not shock). The result lives at the intersection of a dance number, a chase sequence, and a bottle episode."
Katie Rife, The Onion AV Club
"Accompanied by Ariel Marx’s brilliantly anxiety-inducing score -- a restless dance of staccato guitar strings and high key piano notes -- 'Shiva Baby' increasingly amplifies its sense of claustrophobia, using discomfort and mistrust as the main methods of trepidation, projecting Danielle’s helplessness and humiliation with every prickly, fast-paced conversation. Think of this late-coming-of-age farce as a funny 'Krisha' or the indoor apocalypse that takes place in 'Mother!' -- but with broken glass objects, a deafeningly screaming baby, a relentlessly suspicious wife and prying relatives instead of blood and guts -- and you’ll get some sense of its edge-of-your-seat character."
Tomris Laffly, Variety
"'Shiva Baby' is less interested in answers to those questions than in the head-spinning, knee-buckling, stomach-knotting stress of suddenly having to juggle the different versions of oneself -- public and private, past and present, authentic and performed, idealized and real -- that inevitably exist. Seligman isn't breaking new ground here, but she pulls us along with a deft hand, catching us up in the story's panicky accumulation of mishaps: a pair of ripped tights, a lost phone, a spilled cup of coffee, a burst of broken glass. Ariel Marx's anxiogenic score, with its nervous string plucking and piano plinking, both builds and punctuates the tension."
Jon Frosch, The Hollywood Reporter
STRAY - Ali Helnwein
"Heightening the doc's center-shifting perspective are the richly distorted textures of Ali Helnwein's score and the deft sound design by Ernst Karel ('Leviathan,' 'Sweetgrass'). Working from the daily recordings of local co-producers Ceylan Carhoglu, Zeynep Köprülü and Zeynep Aslanoba, Karel has crafted a postmodern symphony of traffic noises, café conversations (love gone cold, social media miscues), and the relative hush of the streets during sunset prayers."
Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter
THE UNHOLY - Joseph Bishara
"The balance of investigative thriller with supernatural horror works up to a point, bolstered by the eerie, quasi-ecclesiastical sounds of Joseph Bishara's score. There are effective elements in Felicity Abbott's production design, too, such as the run-down motel where Gerry shacks up, with its flickering red neon. But as tragedy strikes, the Lady's appearances become less benevolent and Gerry starts to untangle the distinction between divine and sinister forces, the movie devolves into cheap tricks and borderline silliness. Nobody should ever have to follow the exit of a screeching ghoul that vaporizes in a whoosh of ash with lines like, 'Now?! Now do you believe me?'"
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
THE VIGIL - Michael Yezerski
"Covered in a white sheet for the duration of the movie, the corpse is a perfect minimalist vessel for the frights to come. A close cousin of the morgue-center freakishness in 'The Autopsy of Jane Doe,' Thomas’ story wastes no time turning up the scare factor, with the usual parade of flickering lamps, sudden movements in the shadows of the frames, and streaking music cues just in case the last two devices didn’t get the adrenaline flowing enough. However, even as 'The Vigil' settles into a familiar routine, it tackles that task with a polished, at times even elegant approach to a haunted house formula."
Eric Kohn, IndieWire
"Davis ('Bomb City') is excellent at conveying his vulnerable character’s ever-rising anxiety level without going over the top. Veteran stage and screen thesp Cohen brings great presence to the only other substantial role here. The most conspicuous element in a modest but well-turned tech/design package is Michael Yezerski’s active score, which frequently assures us there is indeed cause for alarm even when nothing much is happening on screen."
Dennis Harvey, Variety
VOYAGERS - Trevor Gureckis
"So yes, in a lot of ways, 'Voyagers' is a co-ed 'Lord of the Flies' in outer space, but no less effective for its familiarity. (If you’re going to steal a plot from someone, steal from the best.) It works because the pieces come together so well, from the aforementioned sets to the lead performances to the score by Trevor Gureckis ('The Goldfinch'), which pivots from 'lyrical poetry of the stars' to 'life-or-death battle in an airlock' smoothly and effectively."
Alonso Duralde, The Wrap
"Reminiscent of the drug montage sequences in such films as 'Requiem for a Dream,' Burger depicts in zippy and vibrant fashion the rush of experiencing pure emotions for the first time: the joy of running down a hallway, the exertion of playfully wrestling in the gym or -- in time -- the pleasure of touching a member of the opposite sex. (Apparently there are no gay astronauts on this mission.) A geyser erupts, pupils shrink and expand, arm hairs stand up on end -- the kind of imagery you’ve seen many times before to suggest a symphony of sensations. But the dark strings in the score from composer Trevor Gureckis suggest this reverie cannot last, and a ship that once seemed full of boundless discovery and possibility tightens with claustrophobia and paranoia. (Chilean cinematographer Enrique Chediak makes this sleek, singular location feel both expansive and constricting, forcing you to hurtle through the hallways as if you, too, are being chased by angry, horny teens.)"
Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com
"This is a polished-looking film, thanks to Chediak's agile camera and Scott Chambliss' austere production design, with its cool, blue-lit sterility. And Trevor Gureckis' juddering synth score feeds the mood of claustrophobic dread. But it's a problem that the scenes of anesthetized compliance in the cafeteria, classroom, gym or sleeping quarters are more arresting than the escalating friction, including a brutal fight for survival in an airlock. Despite its descent into nihilistic disorder, 'Voyagers' ultimately doesn't travel far from familiar conflicts."
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
THINGS I'VE HEARD, READ, SEEN OR WATCHED LATELY
Heard: How to Train Your Dragon (Powell), Anthology (The Four Tops), Across the Stars (Williams), Symphony 1997 (Tan Dun), Across the Stars (Williams), Symphony 1997 (Tan Dun), Supernatural (Lennertz/Gruska), Enola Holmes (Pemberton), Sins of Jezebel (Shefter), Copkiller (Morricone), Les B.O. Introuvables Vol. 2 (various), The Time Tunnel Vol. 1 (various), Paddington 2 (Marianelli), Western Suite/Western Saga (Herrmann), Animal Crackers (McCreary), The Journey Inside (Shire), Man of La Mancha (Leigh), Iron Thunder (Farrell), The Invisible Man (Wallfisch), The Book of Mormon (Parker/Lopez/Stone), Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven), Dream House (Debney), Toy Matinee (Toy Matinee), The Dead Girl (Gorgoni), Zur Chronik von Greishuus (Huppertz), From Russia with Love (Lennertz)
Read: Three Blind Mice, by Ed McBain (aka Evan Hunter, aka Salvatore Lombino)
Seen: At this point, I'm just counting the days...
Watched: Looking ("Looking for a Plot"); Red Nichols and the Five Pennies [1929]; Planet of the Vampires; Penny Dreadful ("Little Scorpion"); Goldfinger; Law & Order ("By Hooker, By Crook"); Rich and Strange; Star Trek ("This Side of Paradise"); Looking ("Looking for Glory"); 23 -- Skidoo [1930]; The Possession of Joel Delaney
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