Kicking off our series of the best music in film in 2015, here’s our list of the best use of music — be it scores or diegetic songs — in film. All of these musical choices are crucial to the film’s narrative, often forming a key emotional moment.
Essays
Kurzel’s Macbeth emphasizes tone over text
Kurzel takes his cues from the text, but he expresses his ideas about the text through images and sounds — the whistling wind, the clashing swords, and the ghostly hooded figures — rather than through the dialogue. The verse, in Kurzel’s hands, is barely even identifiable as poetry. But what is Shakespeare without the unforgettable language?
Henry V at the RSC is more Hal than Harry
Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 chronicle the growth of feckless frat boy Hal into sober ruler-in-waiting Harry. Henry V should be the culmination of that transformation: the growth of a young King into a leader. Yet the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Henry V feels more like Henry IV Part 3. Though this entertaining production is well-acted and effectively staged, Henry himself still acts like a prince and not a king. This may be Director Gregory Doran’s aim: showcase Harry’s (Alex Hassell) ongoing maturation by starting him off as green and unimposing. But Shakespeare’s original text establishes Henry as a man who wields authority: he is a “dread sovereign,” “terrible in constant resolution.”
Theeb is a stunning adventure story
Jordan’s 2015 Oscar Submission is a compelling, World War I story about a wily boy and his brother.
Review: Songs My Brothers Taught Me
Chloë Zhao’s directorial debut “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” is a quiet, sensitive indigenous coming-of-age story set as high school graduation nears on the Pine Ridge Reserve.
Spectre Review: Mendes pulls from Shakespeare
How Sam Mendes borrowed from his King Lear production at the National Theatre when making his second James Bond film, Spectre.