Motion Picture Soundtrack »

Motion Picture Soundtrack: “What a Thug About”

Motion Picture Soundtrack: “What a Thug About”

Zack Dennis June 10, 2008 1

Like practically all Americans with (meager) holdings on the New York Stock Exchange, I watched in dismay as my stocks plummeted on Friday. Oil prices spiked, which caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to

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Motion Picture Soundtrack: “Listen, the Snow Is Falling”

Motion Picture Soundtrack: “Listen, the Snow Is Falling”

Zack Dennis May 27, 2008 2

In Hollywood movies, surfing is basically dealt with in one of two ways. It can serve as the foundation for the film, as in movies like Blue Crush (2002) and In God’s Hands (1998),

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Motion Picture Soundtrack: “Free Bird”

Motion Picture Soundtrack: “Free Bird”

Zack Dennis May 13, 2008 8

There was an episode of television’s Friday Night Lights when a new character plays in his first game and forces a game-changing fumble. The lead-up sequence is unabashedly manipulative, as an unseen announcer criticizes

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Motion Picture Soundtrack: “Louie Louie”

Motion Picture Soundtrack: “Louie Louie”

Zack Dennis April 29, 2008 3

My ten-year college reunion is this weekend, and while fraternities didn’t exist at Harvey Mudd College, I did spend two years living in our campus’ closest approximation. North Dorm was a mostly male dormitory

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Motion Picture Soundtrack: “I’ve Had Enough”

Motion Picture Soundtrack: “I’ve Had Enough”

Zack Dennis April 15, 2008 7

Teen angst is one of the most tempting lodes for an ore-seeking filmmaker to mine. It’s something of a shared experience; the instinct to rebel against authority in any form is a universal characteristic

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Motion Picture Soundtrack: “Young Hearts Run Free”/”Kissing You”

Motion Picture Soundtrack: “Young Hearts Run Free”/”Kissing You”

Zack Dennis April 1, 2008 11

The last time I took ecstasy was at a trance party near the beach just north of Durban, shortly after I’d finished reading Matt Ruff’s brilliant fantasy novel “Fool on the Hill.” It was

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Motion Picture Soundtrack: “The End”

Motion Picture Soundtrack: “The End”

Zack Dennis March 11, 2008 17

In my post about The Rules of Attraction a few weeks back, commenter Idp presented the idea that many of the heroes in action movies fall into a subclass of the alpha male as

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Motion Picture Soundtrack: “All These Things That I’ve Done”

Motion Picture Soundtrack: “All These Things That I’ve Done”

Zack Dennis February 26, 2008 7

There’s a certain art to crafting a great movie trailer that is sort of a scale model of the art of crafting the advertised movie itself. Often a trailer contains dialogue that’s been edited

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Motion Picture Soundtrack: “I’ll Fly Away”

Motion Picture Soundtrack: “I’ll Fly Away”

Zack Dennis February 12, 2008 3

Sometimes, when you’re choosing the soundtrack for an adapted screenplay, the source material hands your songs right to you (such as in the novels High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, and American Psycho by Bret

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Motion Picture Soundtrack: “Momma Told Me Not to Come”/ “Spill the Wine”

Motion Picture Soundtrack: “Momma Told Me Not to Come”/ “Spill the Wine”

Zack Dennis January 29, 2008 11

The first time I ever visited Sherman Oaks and saw the childhood home of my old roommate Miles (this was back when we lived in San Diego, before he got famous), I mentioned to

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