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September/October 2023
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10/26/23
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Crocodile Dundee (Peter Best)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you still appreciate the humor and era of the film itself, Peter Best's music a time capsule of adequate but not spectacular
1980's comedy flair.
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| Avoid it... |
on the shorter Varèse Sarabande product if you desire a better thematic presentation with fuller sound quality, in which case
the concurrent Silva Screen alternative remains superior.
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10/21/23
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Chaplin (John Barry)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you enjoy John Barry's slowly paced, lushly romantic scores and wish to appreciate one of the last truly effective such entries in
his career.
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| Avoid it... |
if you think that once you've heard one weighty, repetitive Barry drama, you've heard them all.
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10/16/23
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Spies in Disguise (Theodore Shapiro)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you love espionage-related parody scores, Theodore Shapiro infusing a moderate dose of funk into an otherwise jazzy mood-setter.
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| Avoid it... |
if you can't stand the thought of hearing exotic woodwind effects emulate the sounds of birds, the pigeon element fully embraced
without shame in the score.
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10/12/23
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Tale of the Sleeping Giants (Panu Aaltio)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you desire an ambitiously colossal expansion of Panu Aaltio's nature documentary sound, merging symphonic elegance this time with
nontraditional vocal and percussion techniques.
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| Avoid it... |
if you approach this genre with expectations of consistent melodic accessibility, for the very uniqueness that defines the sound of
this score will alienate those seeking familiar comfort.
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10/7/23
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A Dog's Journey (Mark Isham)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you like being pleasantly surprised by Mark Isham's capacity for warmth when writing
lightly dramatic orchestral music for lovable
animal films.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect more than just a few brief renditions of Rachel Portman's main theme from the
prior film, the musical narrative in the
sequel not quite as cohesive.
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10/3/23
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Tale of a Lake (Panu Aaltio)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you can't miss one of the most accomplished nature documentary film scores in the history of the genre, a sonic delight that
transcends Panu Aaltio's other work in the franchise.
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| Avoid it... |
if you have little tolerance for the necessary leaps in tone and style required from cue to cue in this genre, because although
Aaltio masterfully weaves his themes through these changing scenes, you still have to accept the occasionally jarring transitions.
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9/28/23
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A Dog's Purpose (Rachel Portman)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you delight in Rachel Portman's lightly dramatic and romantic mannerisms, even if they are repackaged with a dose of wholesome
Western character.
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| Avoid it... |
if you disagree with the strategic choice to apply highly disparate musical styles to the various dog lifecycles in the story, a
decision that causes the middle of the score to lose focus.
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9/24/23
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Peter Pan (James Newton Howard)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you enjoy James Newton Howard's usual standard of strong orchestral and choral music for children's films.
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| Avoid it... |
if you are hoping for a thematically majestic and soaring score that can convincingly compete with John Williams' Hook on a massive
scale.
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9/19/23
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A Cure for Wellness (Benjamin Wallfisch)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you're a sucker for gorgeously alluring, lyrical themes of sadness and foreboding in your horror scores, this one strikingly
accessible for much of its length.
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| Avoid it... |
if you tire of horror scores that dissolve into abrasive electronic effects and other stock techniques in their most frightful
passages, Benjamin Wallfisch needlessly abandoning his music's outstanding, waltz-driven personality for cheap thrills.
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9/15/23
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The Conversation (David Shire)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
only if you have an appreciation for this very fine film, because the score can best be enjoyed by listeners who can place its
unconventional minimalism in context.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect the extensive solo piano work by David Shire for this score to maintain a consistent tone, due mostly to the insertion
of early synthetic distortion as specific accompaniment to the story.
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9/10/23
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Big Eyes (Danny Elfman)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
on the commercial soundtrack album for Lana Del Rey's engaging original songs and a satisfactory suite from Danny Elfman's
lightweight but likeable score.
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| Avoid it... |
on the longer, bootlegged variants of the studio promotional presentation for the score if you expect any significant revelations
about Elfman's short contribution to the picture.
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9/6/23
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The 'Burbs (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you want to hear the very best that Jerry Goldsmith's comedy-writing talents had to offer.
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| Avoid it... |
if the price of the score's historically collectible albums is not worth hearing a composer poke fun at himself and nearly every
musical genre in the book.
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9/1/23
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The End of the Tour (Danny Elfman)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if Danny Elfman's most minimalistic and intimate dramatic scores for small ensembles interest you, especially if they generate a
somber and restrained ambience for a conversational film.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect Elfman to provide music as intellectually stimulating as the authors depicted in the story, his contribution barely
registering compared to the many song placements on screen.
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