We were interested (and not a little taken aback, to be honest) to see that Sigur Rós singer Jónsi was providing the soundtrack to new Cameron Crowe film We Bought a Zoo. Of course, he’s not exactly the first indie type to tackle soundtracking duties for a film — there have been a slew of such records over the last few years in particular, from Karen O’s exuberantly overblown score for Where the Wild Things Are to the all-star soundtracks that accompanied the Twilight films. And while those are both worthy albums in their own right (as, indeed, is Jónsi’s work on We Bought a Zoo), neither quite squeeze their way onto a list of our all-time favorite indie music-centric film soundtracks. What does make the cut? The answers await you after the jump, dear reader — and, as ever, let us know what your choices are.
In her “Movie Parts” project, designer Emma Butler dissects her favorite films, creating posters “made up of all the memorable parts, pieces & props” that are essential to the movie. She conceived of the project as an other-end-of-the-spectrum alternative to the minimalist movie poster trend going around the internet these days, and her posters sure are maximalist. Now you don’t have to rely on just one element of your favorite movie to recognize it, you can have them all. Sure, we all know that our favorite movies are something more than the sum of their parts, but that doesn’t make their parts any less exciting, or at the very least, nostalgia-inducing. Click through for five of Butler’s creations, and click here to buy your own.
When photos from the set of Lady Gaga’s highly-anticipated “Telephone” video were released earlier this week, we were impressed. Let it be known that Gaga has officially earned a spot in the pop culture pantheon of famous phones — because of her incredibly creative hairdo.
Check out our list of other famed phones in the canon, in chronological order, after the jump. Who’d we leave out?
Taking some of the best monologues and one liners about love from films like Annie Hall, Say Anything, Wet Hot American Summer, The Birdcage, Doctor Zhivago, and Juno, the Moviefone compilation ”I Love You Over and Over Again,” edited by Avaryl Hall, takes you on a romantic journey through the history of film. So grab a blanket, some Kleenex, and a cuddle buddy and prepare to be reminded of why we all love movies about love.
September 11, 2001: planes were crashing, hearts were breaking, and Walter Kirn’s most recent novel, Up in the Air, was plummeting in sales. It could have had something to do with the fact that the cover featured men in suits whizzing around and plummeting to the ground like rogue jets. (One of them was even on fire.) Nevertheless, the story of Ryan Bingham, a frequent-flyer-mile-hoarding management consultant who specializes in firing corporate workers seemed doomed for anonymity. Then, in 2005, Thank You For Smoking director Jason Reitman pulled through, locking down George Clooney as leading man in the book’s film adaptation.
Hey, we enjoyed Juno as much as anyone [ed note: that's the editorial we; I sort of agreed with bloggers who thought it sucked] but, like many of its indie compatriots, its conformity to indie stereotypes made it ripe for satire. In this ode to “every indie movie,” the Rotten Tomatoes Show hosts Ellen & Brett attack everything from Garden State to The Royal Tenenbaums, waxing on bearded intellectuals, wood paneling, and Kimya Dawson along the way.
