KK

I watched the first episode of this, and I can't lie...Holt's score was massively disappointing. Granted, the whole episode felt like a sterile SW spinoff, with little cinematic scope. The classiest thing was easily Williams' theme. And the showrunners clearly knew that, since they were milking the variations ad nauseum. The Obi-Wan theme variations sound distinctly different from the rest of the trailer/Zimmer-esque score in style and orchestration, so I suspect the theory that William Ross handled all that material holds true. It's disappointing because I thought Holt showed some promise with Loki. At least with what I've heard from The Mandalorian, Ludwig's textural explorations had a real personality to them. The score here, mostly sounds like budget 2000s TV music, but maybe it gets better? I doubt I'll be continuing with the show anyway.

I dig it! The middle ostinato is more present than I'd like, but I like the subdued, twilight-years quality of the melody.

Rest in you peace you legend. What an icon.

I found it compelling, but wish it was tighter than it was and leaned into the surreality of its mythological material more. It's worth the watch though. But yes, it is probably the weakest of the three Eggers films. And The Lighthouse remains his strongest work.

Many video games have outdone this kind of thing design-wise since the first film anyway. It all seems so unimaginative.

All the close-up stuff looks great, some of the wide stuff, not great. But wow, what a bore visually, in terms of production design. All the footage looks like it could be spliced in anywhere in the first film. I'm confused as to why we need four more entire movies of this? And why anyone would actually care 15 years later?

Bhaha he was asking for it. Ooph...taking all these Hollywood blockbusters and conflating his sense of self-importance so callously just reeks of exploitation.

Can't wait to dig into it soon! Glad to hear the new season is another strong one.

Can anyone tell me what the best presentation of Interstellar is? Sounds like there were a lot of really cool things that were tried and recorded in the sessions, but so little of it seemed to have made it to the OST. Things like these minimalist oboe figures: Clearly this work was an ambitious undertaking. I just wish the whole score leaned more into those Reich/Glass-esque ideas and embraced its natural acoustic properties more. The clips in the video above sound lovely, but I think some of that material ended up sounding over-produced on the OST itself.

Everything Everywhere All At Once What a joyride! Just one of the most fun experiences I've had in the cinema in such a long time. It's an absolutely bonkers film that never eases up on its strangeness (unlike many lesser films that promise "weirdness"). And yet, it's quite emotional too. Michelle Yeoh is an absolute revelation and has such fantastic comedic timing. A career best performance, really highlighting her strength as an all-rounder. Hope she gets much deserved awards attention for this. Overall, it can be a lot, and the third act climax could probably shave off a good 10 minutes, but it holds together and strangely works really well. Easily the best film of 2022 so far. Also, plenty of thoughtful, super clever references and easter eggs in there that are ripe for re-watching.

Finally!! Someone speaketh the truth!

Ah nepotism babies…

Wait...how old is Giacchino's son?

Pachinko by Nico Muhly Muhly is a wonderful composer and his concert music is sophisticated engaging stuff. But I find his writing for film/TV tends to get obscure and even aimless, like a collection of gestures that don't really form a cohesive bigger picture. With that said, the gestures here are lovely, when they get to shine. It all just starts to become kind of anonymous with over an hour of shimmering winds, piano clusters, strings and cooing vocals...This kind of thing really just needs a strong main theme to anchor all the texture/colour.

The TSO had the world premiere of Philip Glass' new Symphony No. 13 "Truth In Our Time" and it was...a big dud. Tired, anemic arpeggios chugging along all-too-familiar harmony, with limp form/structure to sustain it. Meh. The rest of the program was good though, featuring Shostakovich and Korngold's violin concerto, whose sublime second movement saved the night: It was also nice hearing where Williams drew a lot of his harmonic and idiomatic writing from in the concerto.