Listmania: Disappointments and Scores

By Thomas Willett

 Around December, I like to look back at the past few months and figure out what stood out. What will be in my consciousness a year from now? As an avid fan of lists, I like to compile my thoughts and see how well they hold up as I get older and the world changes. Will my thoughts on Thor change if the Avengers proves to actually be good? Will Bridesmaids really stand the test of time?

These are some of the questions that I ask myself. As you can see, I, like Martin Scorsese, admire movies and want them to be remembered. Future generations need to be able to have a batch of cinema to look back on and see with the same fondness that we see Back to the Future or Casablanca. Unlike Scorsese, I am probably alone on loving the low budget opus Super: a movie that had a lot of heart and was only helped out by an inclusion of some great song choices by Tsar and Moneybrother. It had personality, which is a theme that I chose to focus on this week.

While I will continue to explore more positive aspects of this year, I want to focus on things that momentarily altered me into a frustrated state. These are things that I hold close despite being inanimate and owing no personal debt to. These are some of the events that caused me to lose interest in performers. It’s more of a painful break-up than The Break-Up, but without Vince Vaughn. These are the events that may go down in my history as being significant.

1. The King’s Speech wins the Best Picture Oscar Matt will tell you that this decision was deserved. I am not here to call it a bad movie. What I am here to say is that my mind was altered to perceive the movie was terrible because it beat out The Social Network: a movie that grew on me solely based on a two-disc special edition. I found David Fincher’s movie to be poignant and important, while the King’s Speech to be a very safe movie in comparison. This is nothing new with me and the Oscars (my vote for Up in the Air went to The Hurt Locker last year), but I am surprised how quickly I went sour on that movie. Time passed and I have since forgiven the movie, though it’s a painful reminder that I am not really good at movie gambling just yet. However, I do reconcile most differences with the win for Best Original Score to Trent Reznor. The truth is, as a fan of Nine Inch Nails, calling the guy who wrote ” Mr. Self-Destruct” an Oscar winner is still eerie.

2. 2 Broke Girls/Wilfred It’s tough for me to call anything on TV sensible when I dedicated at least five episodes to each of these shows that ranked very low in my favors. The problem with Wilfred was less distracting than that of 2 Broke Girls, but I gave up on the former first. I cannot figure out why that is. Wilfred is the superior show. Maybe it’s because I felt that tonally the show couldn’t find a common ground between dark and deep while being juvenile and lowbrow. It does get bonus points for making me get weirded out by a skinny Ethan Suplee. As for 2 Broke Girls, I continually seem delusional for watching every week and spouting “I see potential” where others see the guy who wrote Sex and the City 2. I will not lie that “And the Very Christmas Thanksgiving” episode was atrocious, though of the past five, I’d call three good. So while it’s no contest that either Whitney or I Hate My Teenage Daughter will be the worst show of the year, it’s harder for me to determine what was worse for me to stick around with.

3. Kevin Smith and the ABC’s of SNL If you have been following my blogs over the past year, you’ll know that this was the time I had a tragic falling out with Kevin Smith, a man that I once adored for getting me into blogging and later introduced me to podcasts. Somehow, Red State, a movie that’s far better than his previous, Cop Out, was the final straw. Maybe it was the lame headline grabbing moments of Sundance. Maybe it was my lack of faith in him after viewing Too Fat for 40. He just seemed delusional and not willing to accept progression. I had it, but not without one big disappointment. It was touted that Smith was going to give Jon Lovitz a show called the ABC’s of SNL. I was psyched, already imagining conversations with Lovitz and Laraine Newman about Dan Aykroyd’s drug problem. The stories are endless of how much I was looking forward to it. However, just like Too Fat for 40, it was a big ruse. By this point, Smith was burning me out and the fact it was just TWO EPISODES of Smith interviewing Lovitz really disappointed me. The show I was promised was not the show they delivered. With that, I officially was able to say goodbye to our friendship.

4. The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XXII As an avid fan of the Simpsons, you can see why this was a disappointing episode. While I had stated before that “Master and Cadaver” was their worst, they were able to give a homerun of bad parodies in this episode, including spoofs on Dexter, Avatar and… The Diving Bell and the Butterfly? Is that ripe for jokes? Either way, as a literal life-long fan of the show, I felt my heart sink as I watched that segment turn into one elaborate fart joke that didn’t go anywhere. The center piece fart joke is a disputable Breaking Bad reference (think Uncle Tio and the translator), but by the closing bit, my hope was officially gone. This is the worst that they have done and hopefully will do. It is not a good reflection on what is turning out to be one of their strongest seasons in years.

5. Community Gets Replaced Midseason by 30 Rock No need to elaborate. I love Community and am not looking forward to it disappearing around January. It isn’t like Free Agents, a show that I saw potential in, but was quickly axed. This is a credible show with an audience that is clearly there. There is gossip that this isn’t the end for our Greendale friends, but realizing they couldn’t axe the terrible version of the Office, or better yet Whitney, just makes you question their motives more. Of course, these are the people that gave Perfect Couples and Outsourced more episodes than the Paul Reiser Show, so it’s hard to judge where the ball bounces.

Since I felt that this blog would be too short if I just mentioned these five disappointments, I thought that I would also look into memorable scores and musical numbers. They have equally impacted my life as much as these previous statements. While I am not an expert on this field, I can tell you that I actually invested money into buying scores that sounded cool. I liked them because they evoked personality and stood out as actual music. One of my issues with scores tends to be that they’re very atmospheric (not a problem), but heavily reliant on fading in and out (i.e. Cliff Martinez’ Drive). I could listen to these and actually have interest. I hope that these scores get Oscar recognition, but mostly likely won’t. So, what stood out?

1. Attack the Block Now this is a score. I am by no means a large fan of Basement Jaxx, but when I heard that they were doing this, I became immediately excited. I wasn’t entirely sold on Daft Punk’s TRON: Legacy score, but it instilled a belief that electronica bands could translate to movie scores very well. This is the ultimate opus of that statement from the past few years. “The Block” immediately gets me in the mood with a mix of house beats and violins. The fusion is so breathtaking and by ” the Ends,” this album works equally as a soundtrack to one of the best movies of the year as well as just an entertaining album to listen to. It’s full of spunk and I have trouble finding anything that I have enjoyed more.

2. Hanna It’s true, I sling endless praise on Attack the Block, but earlier this year, there was a very good chance that it could’ve gone to the Chemical Brothers for this score to a surprisingly good movie (will it be in my top ten? Check back in a few weeks for the results). What immediately stands out is “The Devil is in the Details,” which is the epitome of what makes this score amazing. It’s got the aggressive, loud synthesizers of an action score mixed with elements of classic fairytale rhythms. It creates a mix of childlike wonder and hardcore action into one mix that fits this offbeat movie. If anything, please rent the movie to see how well it is used. My mind is blown just remembering “the Sandman.”

3. The Muppets I could’ve made a whole list dedicated to scores, but there was the one movie that got away. This one manages to present a whole collection of great songs written by Brett McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords) that are fitting to Jim Henson’s gift to the world. While the movie is lackluster, I cannot entirely write it off because of the musical numbers. It opens with ” Life’s a Happy Song,” which is so catchy that I guarantee you that it will be stuck in your head on the car ride home. Most of the songs feature the wonderful meta nature of these characters that is so upbeat and unique that I wouldn’t be surprised if it got some Oscars for Best Original Song. It’s the only lyrical contribution this year that left me smiling, which is an accomplishment all unto itself.

*NOTE: While it is currently not in full release, also check out Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score for the upcoming the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. There is currently a six song pack with 35 minutes of score that you can get for free. I have it and while I am not in love with Reznor’s composition techniques, it is rather snazzy.

This list couldn’t be complete without scores that are totally distracting. There is something about each of these that just tears the movie down. Maybe it’s the uninspired use of piano or really bad covers. It is impossible for me to remember these films without at least remembering how the score added unintentionally comical effects that turned melodrama into a mess.

1. Sucker Punch Andrew is a huge defender of this movie, and I try to see his way. I really do. However, one of the bigger issues is not the story or the action (though both were problematic), it was the music selection. I felt that maybe if Emily Browning didn’t cover ” Sweet Dreams” so eerily that it felt tonally distracting, then maybe this could’ve been good. Maybe if Emiliana Torrini didn’t make “White Rabbit” sound so lambasted, then that action number could’ve worked for me. I think that overall, the music dragged this movie down to the point of utter confusion. It managed to make me remember that I kind of liked classic rock, but not without the covers reminding me note for note why that was. If anyone wants to edit out the music, I am more than happy to rewatch this and give a more honest opinion.

2. J. Edgar Besides just being a bad movie, that score was very minimalistic and boring. Composer Clint Eastwood pretty much sounded like he had five minutes with a piano, played a note at a 1/4 time signature, and looped it. It sounds very amateurish and makes the moments of deep empathy come across as moments of Community Theater. While I felt that adding a more complex score couldn’t save this movie, it’s hard to call this an important piece to the final product.

That’s it for now. Come back next week when I will have more lists to count down stuff that I liked from this year. If you have any disappointments or scores that you want to share with me, please feel free to write and we’ll get a dialog going. Until then, I’ll be rocking out to the new Black Keys CD “El Camino” and indulging in the new volume of the Simpsons. So much commentary, so little time.

You can read Thom’s blog every Wednesday and hear him on Nerd’s Eye View every Tuesday and Thursday at nevpodcast.com. Thom also writes movie reviews for cinemabeach.com. You can send your thoughts on best scores and disappointments to nevpodcast@gmail.com.