Wes Anderson has always made wonderful use of music in his movies, whether it’s the memorable scores by Alexandre Desplat and Mark Mothersbaugh or needle drops of 60s pop and rock songs.
But before last year’s Asteroid City I can’t recall another live-action Anderson movie that features a song performed by the actual characters (I’m in danger of losing my Wes Anderson Fan Club membership if I’m forgetting something here).
A few of my ‘musical movie moments’ picks this week come from films with more than one potential selection. Writer-director Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw offered up two strong candidates.
The first comes when Mike Von Erich (Stanley Simmons), the youngest of four brothers in a family of professional wrestlers, plays a local gig with his band. Mike’s parents don’t support his musical aspirations, so his brothers help him sneak out of the house to make it to the party.
As February approaches, it’s time for my blog to shift into movie mode and recap my 2023 film year. Over the next several weeks I will give out my personal Oscars for acting and direction and count down my favorite films of the year.
But first, I’m dedicating a week to five of my favorite musical moments in last year’s films.
Today we throw back to the week of January 31, 2004, when Outkast continued to have a stranglehold on the top two spots of the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Hey Ya!‘ and ‘The Way You Move.’ At #3 was another holdover, Alicia Keys’ ‘You Don’t Know My Name.’
In the #4 spot that week was ‘Slow Jamz,’ a collaboration between rapper Twista, actor/singer Jamie Foxx, and a relative newcomer named Kanye West. West produced the track and co-wrote it with Twista, with songwriting credit also going to Hal David and Burt Bacharach due to its use of a sample of Dionne Warwick singing ‘A House is Not a Home.’
Throwing back to the week of January 29, 1994, the Billboard Hot 100 was topped by the unlikely team of Bryan Adams, Sting, and Rod Stewart on the song ‘All for Love’ from the soundtrack of the 1993 film The Three Musketeers.
I vaguely remember that movie, which starred Keifer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, and Oliver Platt as the titular trio, but I don’t remember this song at all. That’s despite it staying in the #1 spot for three straight weeks.
Meet Me In Montauk 