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Deerhoof featured in Justin Theroux’s “Dedication”


Sundance to the Music

Idiosyncratic soundtracks from festival films like ”Black Snake Moan” and ”Dedication” shed light on filmmakers’ tastes, from trad Memphis blues to alt-experimentalists

By Neil Drumming

…At Sundance, where presumably every movie is born of some dedicated filmmaker’s powerful conviction, it only makes sense that many of the films’ soundtracks reflect equally strong individual, and occasionally idiosyncratic tastes. Actor-director Justin Theroux’s decision to score his dark romantic comedy Dedication with music from his favorite band, the very experimental Deerhoof, may surprise fans of the Nora Ephron-pioneered genre. But as Dedication star Billy Crudup observes, the sometimes-raucous tunes are intended as more than just incidental cues. ”The music is such an instrumental part — no pun intended — of this film,” says Crudup, who plays a sour writer possessing deep-rooted neuroses and prone to morbid hallucinations. ”I had no idea that it could be so vital to the storytelling in terms of the character’s psychology. That was a big revelation.”

Not only does a signature soundtrack aid the narrative inside the theater, it can also take on a life of its own outside. At press time, The Go-Getter, Martin Hynes’ coming-of-age, road-trippy ode to grand theft auto, still had not been acquired by a distributor. But the film’s handlers had already received so many requests for the soundtrack, written and performed by critically acclaimed indie folk musician M.Ward, that they had burned a few CDs for those in the know. Hey, whatever works.



posted on Saturday, February 24th, 2007 at 10:23 am and is filed under deerhoof, film, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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