Soundtrack Favorites
My Mixtape’s A Masterpiece is a weekly feature in which a guest compiles a playlist around some theme. This week, Brad Milne assembles 13 favorite songs from soundtracks. Read Brad’s thoughts on each song and listen along to the Spotify playlist on top and/or the YouTube playlist at the bottom of the post.
The excellent thing about music and movies is how well the two art forms meld almost seamlessly to create something bigger than the sum of their respective parts. Both art forms help elevate the experience, with music being crucial in helping the film viewer get the most out of the filmgoing experience. Here now is a list of some of my favorite soundtrack tunes.
“Magic Carpet Ride” by Steppenwolf
Used expertly in Mark Lester’s underrated and often overlooked ARMED AND DANGEROUS. The tune hits immediately after Steve Railsback, who affectionately refers to John Candy’s. Dooley has commandeered the semi-truck of cowboy clad Railsback. The pair are in a log jam on the freeway thanks to an accident, and so with 18 wheels of diesel behind them they slowly and chaotically begin to play bumper cars, with the other stranded vehicles, all while the familiar wailing and howling and electric madness of the tune scores their journey. It is an excellent song, used perfectly by a generally overlooked filmmaker.
“Sweet Emotion” by Aerosmith
A rocker that Richard Linklater used effectively, as almost the theme song for his cult classic from 1994, DAZED AND CONFUSED. The song perfectly sets the mood that the rest of the film has no choice but to follow. It is a perfect needle drop moment.
“All These Things That I’ve Done” by The Killers
Next comes one of my favorite deployments of music in a film I think more films should employ. A good song and dance number. It helps to have a talented singer to pull it off, and Richard Kelly lucked out with a game Justin Timberlake, for his Los Angeles saga SOUTHLAND TALES. He plays a popstar turned soldier turned drug dealer, who steals the movie from pretty much all involved in this big showcase scene. His character is getting high off the fictional drug Fluid Karma and melodically zoning out while he wails the chorus of The Killer’s “All These Things That I’ve Done.” It’s easily my favourite moment from the film—I love the movie, but nothing else on screen touches it.
“I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling
Gosling doing a Brando Riff absolutely crushes, even without Slash on accompanying guitars. It gives Greta Gerwig’s BARBIE, a shot in the arm, and helps carry the film forward. Gosling has sung and danced before, but he never has as much fun as he does as the plastic doll that was Barbie’s loyal companion for years. It’s a feel-good moment in a movie that was filled with them, and honestly more movies could take a page out of Gerwig’s and Kelly’s playbooks on that score.
“Sugar High” by Coyote Shivers
Performed in Allan Moyle’s EMPIRE RECORDS, by Renee Zelwegger not yet of JERRY MAGUIRE or Bridget Jones fame. The moment in the film feels like a butterfly leaving its chrysalis behind for a newer better version of herself, because she has found something to make life worthwhile. Zellweger absolutely crushes the enjoyably saccharine moment, and although she doesn’t have the same choreography to master as Gosling and Timberlake from the other films, it is still an awesome moment for at the time one of acting’s best kept secrets.
“It Could Have Been Better” by Joan Armatrading
For the next track, I am moving to Ben Wheatley’s kitchen sink drama turned unspeakable nightmare KILL LIST. He uses an old standard from beloved artist Joan Armatrading singing her torch song, “It Could Have Been Better.” It suits the moment perfectly a dinner party that has devolved into sullen antagonistic behavior of the films lead, interspersed with tenderness and harmony. It’s a moment that could have led to laughable results, but, like everything else in KILL LIST, Wheatley pulls it off deftly.
“Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones
Scorsese has used (some may argue overused) “Gimme Shelter” throughout his films, but as a first needle drop to score the opening moments, we are introduced to Nicholson’s Whitey Bulger stand in Frank Costello in THE DEPARTED. The moment plays like film maker and actor at the height of their powers working together. When it happens, it brings a stupid silly smile to my face every time.
“Orinoco Flow” by Enya
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is not a feel-good film by any stretch of the imagination. The story goes Craig introduced the track to Fincher, when he was stumped for a track. Its familiar “Sail Away” refrain for what sets up to be one of the movies more horrific scenes is just done so well. It’s the most serene song to score an intended butchering that if it wasn’t Fincher at the helm making the attempt, it would be laughable.
“Partyman” by Prince
Used for Burton’s 1989 BATMAN. It’s an excellent choice to soundtrack the destruction of imitation works of art at a Gotham gallery, highlighted by Nicholson again preventing a goon from destroying a work of art. The moment really helps cement that The Joker, isn’t just the same type of criminal Gotham has ever seen, and the song perfectly articulates it.
“Thru And Thru” by The Rolling Stones
Delving into television, if I may, I have another song from The Rolling Stones. “Thru And Thru” is used twice by David Chase in the finale of the second season of The Sopranos. It marvelously bookends a melancholy episode. Every time I hear the track, I’m sat in my living room watching the episode in my mind’s eye. I really love that tune and the memories it evokes.
“Young Men Dead” by The Black Angels
I remember the first time I heard it. I was watching the first episode of True Detective, and Rustin Cohle had just challenged the homicide swinging dicks to “Start asking the right fucking questions.” Every time I hear it, I am back there living that moment again, like Rustin Cohle, but unlike him not trapped in a Nietzschean flat circle.
“The Power Of Love” by Frankie Goes To Hollywood
The second Wheatley film on the list is SIGHTSEERS. A comedy about a pair of lovers accidentally on the run for murdering the people they encounter on their journey. The opening words of “The Power Of Love” play as the movie reaches its pinnacle. A melancholy moment soundtracked remarkably by the band’s torch song.
“Sinister Purpose” by Creedence Clearwater Revival
The final track, I heard for the first time watching Saulnier’s GREEN ROOM. After Poots’ Amber shuts down Yelchins’ Pat attempts at a callback to earlier in the film, the opening chords to this CCR jam play. I swear the moment gave me goosebumps the first time watching. It’s an amazing moment and one that perfectly illustrates the power music can have in a film.
