Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if a resurrection of the era of charming, small-scale 1950's and 1960's Italian comedies and 1970's American lounge jazz jives with your sense of grooviness. Avoid it... if a highly consistent and repetitive underscore saturated with those upbeat retro styles, complete with vibes and flutes, could make you pull your hair out. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Sideways: (Rolfe Kent) Serving as 2004's surprise independent entry to the arthouse scene, Fox Searchlight's Sideways picked up widespread critical and, to a slightly lesser degree, popular momentum as it launched itself into mainstream attention often sought by such films during the awards season. Directed by Alexander Payne of About Schmidt and Election fame, Sideways renewed a collaboration with screenwriter Jim Taylor, who not only worked with Payne on those prior successes but was strikingly out of his league with Payne on the writing of Jurassic Park III. Payne and Taylor seemed to love taking jabs at American culture during this period, whether satirically or affectionately. Based on Rex Pickett's novel, Sideways does the latter, following two middle-aged men on their comical, narcissistic mid-life-crisis journey through Northern California's upscale wine country. One man a failed, divorced novelist and the other a has-been television actor about to get married, the two spend most of the film using discussions about wine as metaphors for real-life emotional issues. The comedy of the story not only extends from the funny twists on viniculture and the fine twists of metaphor throughout, but Sideways also features snippets of outrageous sexual material. Those flagrant depictions of fornication and full-frontal nudity, along with a certain amount of womanizing that occurs to the two lovely leading ladies in the film, offered the foundation for Christian religious organizations and other squeamish types to take aim at the film with protest. The vulgarity throughout the picture is strangely soothed by Rolfe Kent's continuously upbeat and light-hearted jazz score. Payne claimed that he had been influenced in the past by Italian composers more than any others, and it's fitting for the wine-related subject of Sideways that an approach befitting a snazzy Italian subgenre be taken with the music this time in particular. Kent was also already a regular collaborator with Payne, and Kent's career there and beyond has been most widely publicized for its modern and lightly orchestral comedy tones. He is, in short, a workhorse in the movie genres in which you're least likely to notice the underscore in the background. Whereas Payne had asked for lessons by legends Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone to be followed by Kent in previous works, the Sideways score is influenced by Piero Umiliani, reaching into the nearly forgotten realm of 1950's and 60's Italian comedies and 1970's lounge jazz in America. If you're familiar with that genre of music, then you'll immediately be able to hear that stereotypical sound in your head, and Kent faithfully recreates it here. A small ensemble consisting of piano, saxophones, trumpet, flutes, vibes, bass, and drums (and other occasional contributors) constitute the entirety of this score, with no orchestral backing necessary. What Payne was seemingly seeking is a score that expresses both the comedy and drama of the characters' personalities without ever becoming sentimental about those characters, and, except for the cues containing solemn piano solos, Kent achieves that task. To say that the score is melodic from start to finish would be correct in a technical sense, but don't expect to be humming any particular theme after the film or album is over. Despite a series of primary and secondary themes and motifs established by Kent, it is the instrumentation and rhythm that really sticks in the listener's mind, consistently flowing in the likeable manner that makes the whole suitable for use on repeat plays in upscale city cafes or small coffee house bookstores. It isn't constructed like a typical film score, no synchronization points to be heard. With almost no abrupt changes in tone or substance in the middle of each suite-like track, the album plays like a very consistent 60's-70's retro jazz collection. When the piano, sax, bass, drums, and other percussion perform alone, the sound will perhaps be easier to grasp for modern sensibilities; the vibes and flutes, on other hand, firmly place this score in the proper age group. Whether this score jives with your sense of grooviness or not, its rhythms will sustain a predictably positive environment from beginning to end. You may be pulling your hair out by then, if not because of the constant, faithful rhythms then maybe because of the irrepressible charm throughout. It's a buyer beware venture, but as a background listening experience on a sunny morning, it's a refreshing change from the usual film scores for this type of film, likely the reason why the music netted Kent a Golden Globe nomination. The rather short album appears in identical form on the Silva Screen label in Europe and New Line Records label in America. It's an admirable resurrection of yesteryear regardless of your opinion of it. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 37:24
All artwork and sound clips from Sideways are Copyright © 2004, New Line Records (America), Silva Screen Records (Europe). The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 1/14/05, updated 10/21/11. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2005-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
