‘60s American pop in Dyn amo (1972)
What happens when the use of pop music is neither celebratory nor liberating? When it is the soundtrack to emotional pain and social oppression, and may be said to contribute to, or even generate such pain and ...
Liminality in a Microcosm: “California Dreaming” in Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express (1994)
Seldom does a singular song shape an entire film’s atmosphere, nature and subtext as completely as “California Dreaming” (1965) by The Mamas and the Papas does in Wong Kar-Wai’s directorial masterpiece Chunghin...
“Can I get an encore?” On “Numb/Encore” in Michael Mann’s Miami Vice (2006)
Well, I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord.
-Phil Collins, “In The Air Tonight”
I'm in, Boeing jets, Global Express
Out the country but the Blueberry still connect.
-JAY-Z, “Numb/En...
On the Wire soundtrack in Carlos (2010)
Olivier Assayas' Carlos (2010), a sprawling six-hour biopic of notorious terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez aka Carlos 'the Jackal' Ramirez, is many things at once. A character study of a narcissist Che-wannabe ch...
“All These Things That I’ve Done” in Southland Tales (2006)
“I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier / I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier / I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier…”
In an American flag-festooned arcade, Justin Timberlake lip-syncs the anthemic refrain from ...
Far From the Sea in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Do secret agents have hearts that break? In its final minutes, Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), delivers an affirmative answer with a pop song – a musical moment discordant with the film’s mo...
On Wang Chung’s title track and score in To Live and Die in LA (1985)
While I would disagree with Mark Kermode, as he argues in his BFI book on the horror classic, that The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) is the greatest film ever made, a strong case can be made that To Live an...
Everybody Wants Some Sugarhill Gang
Richard Linklater’s “spiritual sequel” to, alternately, Dazed and Confused (1993) or Boyhood (2014), is alive with the sound of music. It thrums under almost every scene in Everybody Wants Some!! (2016), sittin...
Teddys, Rock ‘n’ Roll and Anita Ekberg: La Dolce Vita
The Italian “Elvis” Adriano Celentano’s performance of the Little Richard song, “Ready Teddy” in La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960) is raucous, unrestrained and pure rock. Moments earlier, jaded journalist ...
Ecstatic Moments Out of Time
There are so many moments in the cinema when pop music takes over the image on the screen that I can’t possibly confine myself to one, so here are just a few instances that linger in my memory. There’s Bruce Co...
Murder, Mystery & Music: “Jaan Pehechaan Ho” in Gumnaam (1965)
Seeing the murder mystery thriller Gumnaam (The Unknown, Raja Nawathe, 1965) for the first time this year, the film’s opening song and dance number is a standout pop music sequence. Gumnaam starts with two murd...
Spirits Soaring: Pop music in Bande de filles (2014)
Belonging to a tradition of French cinema, Bande de filles (Céline Sciamma, 2014) continues that tradition’s fine balance between documentary-like realism and narrative drama. In this case, teenager Marieme (Ka...