Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,230
Written 1/15/01, Revised 7/20/08
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Buy it... if you groove to enthusiastic small ensemble performances
of the blues, led by prominent roles for an electric organ and
accordion.
Avoid it... if the idea of tolerating a wild, almost
improvisational combination of electric organ and accordion is a
potential disaster for your ears.
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| Young |
Wonder Boys: (Christopher Young) Damned from the
very beginning, Wonder Boys was released twice by Paramount
Studios in the year 2000. Despite some critical success it received at
its February release, the film was an enormous flop at the box office
and, to stir up some possible awards consideration for the film,
Paramount decided to release the film to theatres a second time at the
end of the year. Even with more critical acclaim the second time around,
not to mention the appeal of being Curtis Hanson's first project since
L.A. Confidential., the film was a lousy attraction once again.
Forever slipping away into obscurity, Wonder Boys was considered
so unviable that the Varèse Sarabande label, which originally was
set to release Christopher Young's score for the film, backed out of the
affair. Young's music for Wonder Boys, therefore, was not only
composed quite a long time before its eventual release in the form of a
limited promotional pressing by Intrada Records, but the work had also
fallen completely off the face of the planet as far as the public is
concerned. For some collectors of the composer, this was a tragedy,
especially in the light of such a productive year for the composer. And,
while it's difficult to see talented composers' works fall to such
depths, this particular score is unfortunately not worth the trouble
anyway. The film's character-centered story was a good match for a
non-traditional score of comedy flavor, and Young responds with not only
the kind of music that he had just provided for the equally obscure
The Big Kahuna and Judas Kiss, but also with the touch of
Thomas Newman thrown in for good measure. The small-scale, genre-bending
scores of Newman and Young at the time were interesting deviations from
the norm, and it would have been interesting to hear what Hanson's usual
collaborator at the time, Jerry Goldsmith, could have come up for the
film (though commitments during a hectic 1999 likely precluded this
possibility). Young's versatility is certainly the star of this score,
with a jazz, blues, and bluegrass tone that dances with a certain zeal
and sophistication through the film.
The score does have a central theme for Michael
Douglas' main character, introduced in full rhythmic flavor in "Grady
Tripp" and closing the album with its reprise in "Sire Shire," though
tender variants for solo piano in "Does That Sound Like Anybody We
Know?" and "The Love Parade" are more attractive. Mostly, however, the
score is a stream of consciousness style of blues rhythms for a small
ensemble.
Wonder Boys was a low budget affair, with an ensemble
of about dozen men having spirited fun with their small studio
specialties. The score makes use of all the typical jazz band
instruments, with the addition of a Hammond organ and accordion. This,
right off the bat, is where some listeners are going to run screaming.
If you could make a list of common instruments that generally irritate
film music fans and send them scattering, especially when prominently
used, it would be the Hammond organ and accordion. Together, they are a
potentially painful menace to the ears, and indeed parts of
Wonder
Boys are so insufferable in their lively performances that you have
to both praise Young for writing such diverse tones while simultaneously
shutting off the score on your stereo. Acoustic bass and guitars bounce
in and out of the unorganized ramblings of the organ and accordion
(outside of the title theme, parts of the work sound distinctly
improvised), and five percussionists had a field day in the studio. The
performances are all evidence of great talent; Michael Lang, who
performs some of the best piano solos in the industry, let rip on the
organ in this recording with uninhibited energy. But another problem is
this score's lack of any attributes that usually define a film score. No
readily accessible scene changes or consistency in development are
apparent in
Wonder Boys, causing the improvisation to become
rather silly after a while. The slower cues performed by the piano and
electric cello/violin struggle to keep pace with the rip-snorting
bluegrass style of the full band. The score becomes even more bizarre
when in "Novel Lies" it dissolves into clapping and tap dancing, and the
lazy Southern female vocals in "Wonderful" suggest a locale far from the
one in the film. Overall, at only thirty-six minutes in length, this
rare promotional album is more than anyone will ever need to hear.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Christopher Young reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.48
(in 27 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.17
(in 10,920 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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