Soundtracking: "Boy Erased"

by Chris Feil

Troye Sivan is one of those musical acts that makes me realize that I am suddenly, and without warning, very old. Forgive me if in recent years I’ve found myself incapable of distinguishing him between the Shawn Mendes and Charlie Puth hodgepodge of pop baritenor twinkery. But after this year, I can at least recall Sivan as the one who sings about his bootyhole and provides some understated grace to the emotional landscape of the so-so Boy Erased.

And Sivan’s musical stylings might also be making Oscar feel aged by adjacency, should he be nominated this year for his collaboration with Jónsi, Boy Erased’s original song “Revelation”. He’d be one of the category’s youngest nominees, and also join (certain nominee) Lady Gaga in the tradition of songwriter’s starring in their song’s film. Streisand, Parton, Björk, Blige - Sivan?

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Soundtracking: "Let The Sunshine In"

by Chris Feil

Etta James’ “At Last” has to be one of the most cliched romantic song choices in the movies, diminished over the decades through overuse and reductiveness, its swooning sexual pull often taken for granted or sanitized in gauzed lensing. But leave it to an original like Claire Denis to capture the oft-revisited song with new ears.

With Let the Sunshine In, Denis delivers us her take on a romantic drama, with all of the structural turns outside of genre convention as she approached vampire films and science fiction alike. Instead of the kind of romcom story developments we expect to see in our stories of women struggling to find love, this film is turns that into a more expansive character study with Juliette Binoche as our protagonist Isabelle. It is essentially examining the desire to be in love as a state of being.

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Soundtracking: "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"

by Chris Feil

Folks seem to be greeting this week’s “Dragon Tattoo story” The Girl in the Spider’s Web with “that again” eyerolls, like something we’ve moved on from. But David Fincher’s American kickoff birthed its own now tired pop culture artifact when it revamped Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” to christen its grungy tale of abused women and lurking fascism. The band had once been largely cagey about use of their music for repurposing, even signature tracks such as this, but now you can easily find it at play in superhero movies and commercials.

None of them however touch the singularity of Fincher’s grim vision as he used it in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo...

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Soundtracking: "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

by Chris Feil

To some degree, The Nightmare Before Christmas feels like the bastard child of Disney’s animated musicals. Granted the film was originally released under the Touchstone label due to concerns of frightened children and timid brand alignment. But in the years since, it’s grown beyond its cult following into full Mouse House acceptance, certainly one of the most merchandised of its era and most revisited thanks to inherent traditions in its duel holiday premise. So why does its music not get discussed alongside its peers?

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Soundtracking: "The Omen"

by Chris Feil

Remember that time worshipping the devil got an Oscar nomination? And in Best Original Song no less? No, I’m not talking about The Greatest Showman last year, I’m talking about when The Omen made hell on musical earth with “Ave Satani”. In its Latin lyrics, the song hails the risen body of Satan, the coming Antichrist, and drinking blood. Yeah, this bonkers nomination totally happened.

I mean, how often does a musical composition meet the Venn diagram of approval from Anton LaVey (one assumes) and the Academy? Unsurprisingly, it's kind of rare. Unless the notorious founder of the Church of Satan is secretly super into Diane Warren.

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