With many musicians/bands (Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Broken Social Scene to name a few) providing music to films recently, it would come as almost no surprise that a trend is starting to begin, or continue rather, of these high-profile collaborations between these two spectrums of entertainment. Whether it be complete film scores ala Arcade Fire with Richard Kelly’s The Box, or the surprising soundtrack collection of New Moon, it seems Hollywood is continuing to dip into a well that’s ripe with opportunity. There’s seemingly no end to the kind of talent that’s circling indie music right now, so I think it’s a great for many bands to expose their music to a larger demographic.
This latest bit of news comes via The Playlist that mentions Brooklyn-based indie-rock band Grizzly Bear will be providing music for the upcoming film Blue Valentine starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. It’s been a great year for the band as their latest album, Veckatimest, has garnered critical success as well as being a favorite around the blogosphere. The band also provided a track titled “Slow Life” for the previously mentioned New Moon soundtrack (so they’re definitely no stranger to this), which features guest vocals from Beach House vocalist Victoria Legrand.
From reading the synopsis, it seems to be the type of film that I can get behind:
“Blue Valentine” is an intimate, shattering portrait of a disintegrating marriage.
On the far side of a once-passionate romance, Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) are married with a young daughter. Hoping to save their marriage, they steal away to a theme hotel. We then encounter them years earlier, when they met and fell in love — full of life and hope.
Moving fluidly between these two time periods, “Blue Valentine” unfolds like a cinematic duet whose refrain asks, where did their love go? Framing the film as a mystery whose answer lies scattered in time (and in character), filmmaker Derek Cianfrance constructs an elegant set of dualities: past and present, youth and adulthood, vitality and entropy. The rigor of his process is visible throughout the film. Eliminating artificial devices, he has only the truth of the characters to work with. Because Gosling and Williams bring amazing intensity and emotional honesty to their roles, the experience of connecting to these two souls becomes truly moving.
Sounds to me like these two go hand-in-hand with one another. The Derek Cianfrance directed film will be premiering at Sundance on January 24th.
The one-sheet for the American release of Hayao Miyazaki’sPonyo has been released, and I figured this would be the perfect opportunity for me to give it a mention. The poster seems to have a very Finding Nemo-esque look to it, which I have no problems with. Whatever works to put people in seats is fine with me. If you’ve taken a peak at some of the pages around the blog, you’ll notice plenty of random Studio Ghibli images scattered about. Miyazaki is a living legend, no question; as every release from the now 68-year-old film director should be celebrated to the fullest.
The film (which goes by Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea in Japan) tells the story of a little fish girl named Ponyo who befriends a five-year-old human boy, Sosuke. I’ve never been thrilled with the English dubs, but whatever section of Pixar (I think they handle it) oversees the dubbing has done a decent enough job with the past couple of films. The voice cast as show on the poster looks fantastic, though, I do see see a “Cyrus” and a “Jonas” there. I’m not going to lie, but that scares me a little bit.
The release date comes later this summer in August, and hopefully it doesn’t get lost within all of the big, summer blockbuster movies that are coming down the pipe. Still waiting on a proper English trailer, but here’s the Japanese one with english subtitles for your viewing pleasure.
Once again, I admit to being a complete sucker for this type of thing. The following trailer for Charlyne Yi’s Paper Heart, a faux documentary directed by Nicholas Jasenovec that follows Yi on her journey to figure out why she doesn’t believe in love. In between seems to be a fictionalized love story between her and Michael Cera, who are actually a couple in real life. It also seems to be loaded with cameos from just the trailer alone, as we see appearances from the likes of Demetri Martin, Martin Starr and Seth Rogen. Apparently, the film screened at Sundance to mixed reviews, with some describing it as the “holocaust of Twee,” which just sounds awesome to me.
Paper Heart is set for a limited release on August 10th, which for most of us means we’ll have to wait for it on DVD. I have to admit though, I have felt a little bit of over-exposure with Michael Cera lately. But with this and Scott Pilgrim (which is currently filming as we speak), he seems to at least be picking the kind of films that I’m interested in.
“You need more…” are the first lyrics that you will hear from album opener and lead single, Love Etc. and by the time you get to the end of this album’s 11 tracks you do indeed feel like you need more…more of this pop music goodness to grace the ears and dance floors of the world.
Yes (out 4/21 on Astralwerks) is the 10th studio album from this brilliant pop duo that have become a dance/pop staple since finding chart success with West End Girls, back in 1984. Since then, the Pet Shop Boys have sold over 30 million records and they just recently received the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award at the Brits this year. You may have lost touch with them here and there along the way, but they have never really stopped producing quality music for the masses and this new offering is a prime example of that. Yes was produced by Xenomania and features input from Johnny Marr and some beautiful string arrangements from Owen Pallet as well.
Album highlights include the aforementioned Love Etc., which just last week peeked at #2 on the Billboard Single’s Sales chart. Track 2 and eventual single All Over the World features Tchaikovsky in the writing credits, listen to find out why and Mr. Marr shows up to contribute some harmonica on the next track, Beautiful People. A couple of the other more danceable songs on the album, Did You See Me Coming? (slated to be the 2nd single from the album, features Marr on guitar) and More Than a Dream, merely serve as a chariot to deliver us to the glorious destination that is song # 9, Pandemonium. If you have to check out one track first, let it be this one as the Boys have pulled out all of the stops and come up with one of the best songs of their career. Chaos never sounded so good! The album rounds out with another song that could easily be a single, The Way It Used To Be and Legacy, an album closer for all time, that brings it home in an uplifting, reflective manner (grandly featuring the London Metropolitan Orchestra).
There is also a special 2-disc edition of them album that features dub versions of many of the album tracks remixed by Xenomania, as well as a new song with Philip Oakey called This Used to Be the Future, which is great enough to be a single in it’s own right.
So, in closing, this album may not be for everyone as I’m sure that many of you like your indie pop with more of the former and less of the later, but if you have followed this band in the past and are looking for something refreshing and danceable along with some heartfelt meaning thrown in for good measure, this could be for you. A special “thank you” should go out to Depeche Mode, for this week also sees the steaming pie of a release that is Sounds of the Universe, making this offering from the Pet Shop Boys sound even better in the realm of the dance/pop world. (Hey, look at that, I killed two reviews with one stone.)
Thanks for reading all and for indulging me in my Pet Shop Boys/fanboy excursion, I really appreciate it…happy listening!
The trailer for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are premiered today on Ellen (yikes), but it’s been making its way around the internet since then, and damn does this film look gorgeous in motion. I wasn’t expecting to see a trailer so soon, as I was still drooling over a lot of the beautiful still images that had been released. With all of the problems that seemed to plague the filming of the Maurice Sendak children’s book adaptation, it’s just a joy to see this film come together.
As you may notice, this version of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” looks to be slightly tweaked over the original. Regardless, listening to it sent chills down my spine as I watched it play over the trailer. This is Spike Jonze taking a gigantic step as a director, and even if you’re not familiar with the source material, it doesn’t take much to appreciate his vision at work here.
Films about childhood are extremely difficult to get right, and it’s rare to see this sort of filmmaking done for what is essentially a kid’s film. I’m hoping this is a taste of something genuinely great once this is released in October.
While the opinions on Watchmen have been decisively split down the middle, I think one thing we can all agree on the is the excellent opening credit sequence that plays over Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin’.” The company who created those credits, yU+Co, have made it available online to view in glorious quicktime. Cheers to to the folks at CHUD for the heads up.
To be honest, this was one of the only sequences where a pop song worked perfectly. One of my major gripes with this film is that a lot of the choices of music feel completely out of place.
Check out the video after the cut below which I’ve embedded. My post seems to cut off some of the video size, so I have it set to auto-play.
Update: I think the video has been taken down. Sorry, folks.
A while back I posted the teaser trailer for the indie love-story 500 Days of Summer. The film is directed by Marc Webb and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a greeting card writer who falls for a young woman (Zooey Deschanel) and ends up having to deal with the subsequent break-up. The teaser, despite the horrid voice-over narration, had me hooked from the very first viewing, while The Temper Trap song, “Sweet Disposition” worked very well with the trailer.
A full-length trailer has been released, and it may seem a little too cute and sweet for some, but I can’t help but be completely powerless at this point after watching the new footage in the trailer. I mean, how cute does Zooey Deschanel look when she asks about The Smiths in the elevator? Come on now! Though, I imagine any film that portrays a connection over The Smiths sorta dooms any kind of relationship. You’re pretty much fated to be unhappy with each other; which seems to be a little bit of what this film is actually about according to an interview with Joseph Gordon Levitt.
“He’s a hopeless romantic, a lovesick young man who falls in love with [Zooey's character] Summer, and he gets dumped,” the actor said of the plot. “The thing is, the movie is all from the point of view of this guy, and this guy has watched way too many movies and listened to far too many pop songs. So his life becomes a pop song.”
Sounds like this could possibly be a mix of High Fidelity and crossed with a little Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Annie Hall. I guess we’ll find out when the film is released this summer on July 17th via Fox Searchlight.
I don’t keep up with film news too well, but this certainly caught my eye as Chud is reporting (via Upcoming Film Scores) that French electronic duo Daft Punk are set to provide the original score for Tron 2.0. I actually didn’t know they were making a sequel, though, I know they did make a video game sequel in 2003. This was strange news to me at first, but when you think about it, this makes a lot of sense that they would be doing this. The duo’s whole moniker for years now has revolved around Tron’s image, as you may remember their film-inspired outfits from their appearance with Kanye West at the Grammys last year.
This new red band trailer for Observe and Report was quite the surprise to watch this morning, as I wasn’t expecting this to be so dirty and absolutely filthy. It’s hilarious, though, and I think this is very much needed for Seth Rogen, as he’s begun to get a little stale in his films as of late. Can I also mention that it’s nice to see Anna Faris in something that’s not complete rubbish? The film opens on April 10th, and I sadly believe that this won’t make as much money as Paul Blart: Mall Cop.
One other thing, great musical choices to cut this trailer with. Anyone know what the second song is? I honestly have no clue.
This is an excellent little trailer for Tokyo!, which until yesterday I had not even heard about. The film will include three shorts from the likes of Michel Gondry (we all know him, yes?), South Korean filmmaker Joon-ho Bong (The Host) and French director Leos Carax. I’ve never seen any films from Carax (apparently, his last film was 1999’s Pola X), but just the involvement of Gondry getting back to flexing his creative muscles has set my excitement for this at an extremely high level.
Early word from the film had it pegged as a “nastier Eastern sibling to Paris, Je T’aime,” and called Gondry’s short, “arguably the best.” The trailer looks visually stunning, and anything that uses the city of Tokyo as its backdrop has me sold from the beginning. Also, the use of Tokyo Police Club during the trailer was a nice touch as well. Here’s a rundown (via Collider) of each of the three stories if you’re curious:
“Interior Design” by Michel Gondry: the surreal fable of a young couple who moves to Tokyo in search of a future. While the boy’s ambition is clear – be a movie maker- the girl drifts gradually apart. Both of them will be drowned in the imensity until the girl, feeling alone, discovers something strange.
“Merde” by Leos Carax: a mysterious man spreads confusion on the streets of Tokyo through a succession of irrational and provocative acts. ” The Creature of the Sewers ” as the media have dubbed him, arouse passion or repulsion. He will be captured, judged and then…
“Shaking Tokyo” by Bong Joon-Ho: He is a hikikomori – like many others in Japan, he has withdrawn from all contact with the outside world .When the pizza delivery girl faints during an earthquake, the unthinkable happens – the man falls in love. Will he take the unimaginable step : leaving the dead security of his apartment for the streets of Tokyo?
With many musicians/bands (Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Broken Social Scene to name a few) providing music to films recently, it would come as almost no surprise that a trend is starting to begin, or continue rather, of these high-profile collaborations between these two spectrums of entertainment. Whether it be complete film scores ala Arcade Fire with Richard Kelly’s The Box, or the surprising soundtrack collection of New Moon, it seems Hollywood is continuing to dip into a well that’s ripe with opportunity. There’s seemingly no end to the kind of talent that’s circling indie music right now, so I think it’s a great for many bands to expose their music to a larger demographic.
“You need more…” are the first lyrics that you will hear from album opener and lead single, Love Etc. and by the time you get to the end of this album’s 11 tracks you do indeed feel like you need more…more of this pop music goodness to grace the ears and dance floors of the world.
This is an excellent little trailer for Tokyo!, which until yesterday I had not even heard about. The film will include three shorts from the likes of Michel Gondry (we all know him, yes?), South Korean filmmaker Joon-ho Bong (The Host) and French director Leos Carax. I’ve never seen any films from Carax (apparently, his last film was 1999’s Pola X), but just the involvement of Gondry getting back to flexing his creative muscles has set my excitement for this at an extremely high level.
“Interior Design” by Michel Gondry: the surreal fable of a young couple who moves to Tokyo in search of a future. While the boy’s ambition is clear – be a movie maker- the girl drifts gradually apart. Both of them will be drowned in the imensity until the girl, feeling alone, discovers something strange.
confusion on the streets of Tokyo through a succession of irrational and provocative acts. ” The Creature of the Sewers ” as the media have dubbed him, arouse passion or repulsion. He will be captured, judged and then…
“Shaking Tokyo” by Bong Joon-Ho: He is a hikikomori – like many others in Japan, he has withdrawn from all contact with the outside world .When the pizza delivery girl faints during an earthquake, the unthinkable happens – the man falls in love. Will he take the unimaginable step : leaving the dead security of his apartment for the streets of Tokyo?
Entries (RSS)