Among the many sweeping divisions that separate the original Star Wars trilogy from the Prequels is in how “used” the films feel; or to put it another way, how the Prequels don’t. The franchise’s earlier installments have endured trends of computer graphics and frenetic editing across several generations in part because George Lucas leveraged a tight production budget with rusty edges …
The story of Star Wars may repeat, but its music tells a narrative all on its own.
In 1982, John Carpenter used his esteem as composer to lower his standing as storyteller
“Do not let your eyes see or your ears hear that which you cannot account for.” Abraham Van Helsing’s warning to three men in disbelief of the living dead has a blunt message: Our senses can lie to us. Anthony Hopkins’s off-kilter professor may be one of the top-billed “jewels” in what Francis Ford Coppola …
Der Nachtmahr Directed by Akiz Written by Achim Bornhak Germany, 2015 German nu-techno artist Akiz opens his debut film with a meek disclaimer to ‘play this film loud’, a rare moment of quiet trepidation before all sorts of sonic and symbiotic hell breaks loose. Tina (Carolyn Genzkow) and her teenage friends are veterans of the …
Musically speaking, Hellraiser begins like a fairytale. Glassy bell percussion provide an enchanted introduction before composer Christopher Young’s main titles layer in tragic string figures. Blaring low brass blast a tainted pessimism, harkening back like the prelude to some age old fable as piano moves in grand, darkened fashion. Like a spell cast over the …
Asian Dub Foundation: THX 1138 Nationwide tour to 10 UK cities Musical innovators Asian Dub Foundation will perform their latest live soundtrack to George Lucas’ 1971 visionary cult sci-fi classic THX 1138 at ten venues nationwide in October 2015, following its UK premiere at the Barbican on 19th June. Retaining much of Lalo Schiffrin’s distinctive score …
It was 2004 and I was fifteen years old when I read Charles R. Cross’ Heavier than Heaven. I remember finishing the last chapters, sprawled on the floor of my family’s cottage as I cried so hard I started to dry heave. At the time I was unaware of the controversy that surrounded the adaptation, both in how Cross took liberties in certain facts (some information was later disproved, or at least not substantiated) and the decision he made to create what was ultimately a fictional take on Kurt’s final days up until the point he killed himself. Like many teenager before and since, Kurt Cobain represented a romantic and ultimately tragic figure to look up to – for better or for worse.
Backstreet Boys: Show em’ What You’re Made of
Directed by Stephen Kijak
USA, 2015
At the height of their face The Backstreet Boys represented with their harmonious voices and cherub good looks a newfound idealism in the American landscape. Not without talent, their selling point as much their image as their sound: they were chosen to be branded. Offering context to the tumultuous early years and how their experienced shaped their identity and worth over the years, the new documentary Backstreet Boys: Show em’ What You’re Made of documents the production of a new album from the former boy group.
There are many of definitions of comics out there. One French theorist Thierry Groensteen decided to not define comics, but instead create a system for them. Part of this system is the frame. The frame is a panel and its boundaries including the margins and gutters. The frame has various (actually six) functions. One of the functions of a frame …
Music has the power to make you move, to inspire great works, and to touch your soul. But as the year draws to a close, Christmas music prepares to blast our eardrums for what seems like an eternity, music becomes the enemy (I love Christmas, but can we at least wait till Thanksgiving is over before we deck the halls?). Before we all stuff our ears with cotton, let’s reflect on a game that really brought music to life in the distant year of 2008.
ComicCon offers all kinds of experiences for attendees. You can stay completely in the world of film or immerse yourself in comics or even spend the weekend exploring tutorials and self-help panels. This year, due to a number of factors and in a pleasant surprise, my Con ended up being very music-heavy. I had the …
The connection between music and animation is an incredibly close one. In 1940, Walt Disney pioneered with his first animated full-length feature, a musical telling of Snow White and even before, cartoons were common in movie theaters, rounding out the double bills along with newsreels and comedy shorts. For decades, audiences watched shorts this way …
From its very beginnings as a genre, Western film has trafficked in the iconic, in the larger-than-life imagery of the tall tale and the never-ending, expansive wilderness that forms the crucial backbone to these stories. More than perhaps any other genre, Westerns deal in types, with their characters standing in for the Other, the Immigrant, …
Treme, Season 3, Episode 1: “Knock with Me – Rock with Me” Written by David Simon and Anthony Bourdain (Story) Directed by Anthony Hemingway Treme, Season 3, Episode 2: “Saints” Written by Eric Overmyer Directed by Jim McKay Airs Sundays at 10pm (ET) on HBO Treme is a show unlike any other on TV at …
Searching for Sugar Man Directed by Malik Bendjelloul UK/Sweden, 2012 One problem the modern narrative documentary faces in the time of instantaneous online information is that the various twists and turns they present may well already be known to a viewer beforehand, them having looked into basic details about the documentary’s subject prior to watching. …
The right music can make all the difference in a TV show. It can elevate a scene, imbue it with nuance and meaning, or destroy it, either under- or over-playing the emotion and rendering it lifeless or trite. Many have opinions on the best or most memorable TV theme songs, but far fewer have anything to say …
Undertones: Volume 8 As we approach the end of the decade, it seems fitting that this installment of Undertones concern itself with some of the most memorable film scores of the ‘00s. Though the films range in financial or critical success, and opinions may be divided as to the strength of some of the films …
Undertones: Volume 7 It’s the time of the year again where folks’ minds turn to the macabre and the ghoulish; where death is celebrated rather than feared and of course, when dusty copies of horror films are taken off the shelf to terrify and amuse. So, in honor of the Halloween season it would seem …
Director Spike Jonze may have spent the past seven years in hiding, but this week movie audiences will find out whether Where the Wild Things Are – Jonze’s labor of love and the product of years of work – is worth the wait. Appropriately, considering Jonze’s hip reputation, the soundtrack is handled by Karen O …
Baz Luhrmann’s sophomore effort, 1996’s Romeo + Juliet, is today perhaps best remembered for spotlighting Leonardo DiCaprio’s pre-Titanic charisma. For a movie that took the world’s best known love story and transferred it to a new era, its soundtrack remains firmly etched in its own time. The movie very much resembles a music video with …
Undertones: Volume 6 The classic science fiction film emerged during a period of great societal paranoia in the US in the early 1950s. The post-WW2 environment saw an increased concern with nuclear armament and a fear of the infiltration of communism on the American way of life. Essentially, the sci-fi film was Hollywood’s great metaphor …
Undertones: Volume 5 Removing the veneer of squeaky-clean suburban American life to reveal its seamy underbelly, David Lynch’s 1986 film, Blue Velvet, is a modern masterpiece and perhaps the most crystallized example of Lynch’s filmic vision. Concerned with the misadventure of a clean-cut teen called Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) who upon discovering and subsequently investigating a …