I sat down last night to watch this Zach Helms film, a starring "dramedy" vehicle for Will Ferrell, and was utterly engaged. The quirky concept alone would be reason enough to praise the film if Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Ferrell didn't deliver such solid performances. Gyllenhaal in particular who didn't have much more of a caricature to deal with. Throughout the film I kept on noting the Spoon songs throughout, eventually remembering that Britt Daniel had a hand in composing the film score. Although the lion's share was composed by Air's Brian Retizell (he has also composed for Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides, among others), Britt wrote a new song for the film and contributed some instrumental versions of previously well loved Spoon songs.
There is a beautiful scene when Ferrell's character (Harold Krick) and Gyllenhaal's character (Ana Pascal) sit around post-dinner in her apartment. He makes note of the guitar in her apartment and she invites him to play, Krick declining after sheepishly mentioning he only knows one song. She heads to the kitchen and is washing the dishes when krick decides to pick up the guitar and starts quietly strumming a Wreckless Eric song, eyes closed and totally involved. Her reaction is all kinds of poetic and deeply moving. Do yourself a favour and rent the movie.
Popmatters talks to Britt a while back about how things came together for the film. Soundtrack.net and Chartattack have a few things to add.
I got a message that my file hosting account has been suspended and is under investigation. I found something that will do for today but am entirely unsure if the bandwidth is adequate. Any problems let me know. Once again, if anyone knows of a great file hosting service, clue me in.
Things have been quiet in the Spoon camp as of late. A new album in the works? Would be about time, now wouldn't it. Placate yourself with the afore-mentioned new Britt contribution for the film. Enjoy some more choice tracks from the film.
Spoon - The Book I Write
Maximo Park - Going Missing
The Jam - That's Entertainment
Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World
Stranger Than Fiction Soundtrack on amazon
3 comments:
Thank you so much. I too saw STF and realised that my collection did not have the brilliant "That's Entertainment" on it. I kept checking the hype machine and lo and behold you came up with the goods! Top stuff mate.
Does anyone know where I can get ahold of the instrumental version of Going Away by Maximo Park which plays during the credits very near the end?
I was able to Find the accoustics version of Going Missing on Limewire. Hope it helps
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