Here's the thing, living in LA means constant exposure to Hollywood and all the bullshit that goes along with it. Everyday I get assaulted with billboards and commercials for movies and tv that I will never watch and will make tasteless and often offensive jokes about (I'm looking at you Ryan Murphy). But the one thing that I cannot deny, is that there seems to be an inverse relationship for me with movies I like and soundtracks I love. I collect music the way meth heads collect shiny objects; I see something I like and I have to own it even if I put it down a few seconds later and forget I ever had it. I go through my itunes sometimes and honestly wonder when I bought certain songs. Most of the songs in question, it turns out, come from TV shows and movies that I didn't like very well.
I have a theory that well placed music can save a bad scene but not a bad project. So when a movie starts to go south for me, I start either picking apart the sound editing or I pay really close attention to the music. My sisters do the same thing with directing and acting. Don't judge, some people juggle geese.
I bring up all of this to talk about a movie that very few people saw, because ten seconds into the preview it was clear that it was a stupid film. I'm talking about Country Strong.
I have been film stalking Garrett Hedlund this week and I got to this one and just couldn't bring myself to watch it. I can make excuses and say that Tim McGraw ran over my puppy or that I'm allergic to Gwyneth Paltrow (One of these is true) but mostly I just can't stand fictionalized versions of the music industry. Also it's been trashed by everyone with eyes who saw it. And some blind. So without actually subjecting myself to potentially fatal doses of Paltrow, my only option was to look up the soundtrack. Seemed decent enough, I don't have to listen to Gwenny or that repugnant thing from Gossip Girl, but I still got to claim to have ingested a part of the movie.
I have a theory that well placed music can save a bad scene but not a bad project. So when a movie starts to go south for me, I start either picking apart the sound editing or I pay really close attention to the music. My sisters do the same thing with directing and acting. Don't judge, some people juggle geese.
I bring up all of this to talk about a movie that very few people saw, because ten seconds into the preview it was clear that it was a stupid film. I'm talking about Country Strong.
Nothing says Country like a girl raised in Beverly Hills. Right?
I have been film stalking Garrett Hedlund this week and I got to this one and just couldn't bring myself to watch it. I can make excuses and say that Tim McGraw ran over my puppy or that I'm allergic to Gwyneth Paltrow (One of these is true) but mostly I just can't stand fictionalized versions of the music industry. Also it's been trashed by everyone with eyes who saw it. And some blind. So without actually subjecting myself to potentially fatal doses of Paltrow, my only option was to look up the soundtrack. Seemed decent enough, I don't have to listen to Gwenny or that repugnant thing from Gossip Girl, but I still got to claim to have ingested a part of the movie.
I'm not even sure she's human.
Those who know me know that I grew up on country music. Especially in the summer, I love to drive with the windows down, blaring Garth Brooks like the Damn hick I am. The soundtrack to this movie is good country. It seems counter intuitive to me to cast Tim McGraw in a film about country music and not let him handle most of the soundtrack but I'll be damned if I just didn't care by the end of it. I don't know who got the songs together for the movie but bravo.
Discounting the Gwyneth songs (I have a note from my doctor, I couldn't listen to them), there are some great tracks. One almost wonders what dark deals went down in Nashville to get Hank Williams Jr. and Sarah Evans to contribute. Then you remember that Tim and his sheet clad wife pretty much run the damn scene. Anyone else have a favorite soundtrack from a bad movie? Just throwing these out there, but I own the soundtracks to A Knights Tale and two separate Resident Evil movies.
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