The Time We Have Love of Your Life, the new Amazon Prime film starring Margaret Qualley, is scored by Dustin O’Halloran — and “The Time We Have” is a standout. Dustin O’Halloran has long been one of my all-time favorite composers. To me, his aesthetic […]

The Gift “The Gift” is a variation of the theme It Can’t Last from the video game soundtrack of The Last of Us Part II. It’s a sparse, minimal piece from my favorite composer, Gustavo Santaolalla. This is a great etude for beginner guitar players. […]

Shy Girl – Variation I I LOVE this theme from The Newton Brothers’ Carrie soundtrack. “Shy Girl – Variation I” is so minimal and original. It’s not what I expected at all. Typically, you get nearly 25 cues from a Mike Flanagan/Newton Brothers jam sesh […]

Dear Child Dear Child (Liebes Kind) is a six-part German psychological thriller that landed on Netflix in September 2023. It was a genuine phenomenon: 52.5 million views and 253 million hours in its first months, making it Netflix’s second most-watched title of late 2023. The […]

Bring Forth Fate No spoilers! Mainly because I haven’t seen HOPE yet — but I desperately want to. It has excellent reviews, not to mention the largest budget in Korean film history. I’ll see it in a few days and update this post when I […]

Web Letter Days The new Spider-Man was a great time at the theater. In my day job, most of my guitar students are young people and I’m surprised at the sheer love they have for (Tom Holland’s) Spider-Man. It’s reflected at the Box Office. We […]

L’attente (The Waiting) L’attente (The Waiting) follows a traditional 1-4-5 blues structure, even though it’s a French-styled piece of music. “French-styled” might be presumptuous of me — music carries no geographic borders — but I can’t help envisioning a dimly lit café in Paris when […]

Widow’s Bay [no spoilers] I am easily bored. It’s a curse. If something doesn’t grab me within the first few minutes, I’m already reaching for my phone. The only reason I sit through anything at all is because my wife — blessed with an almost […]

Together Again The BBC/Hulu limited series Normal People has been recommended to me for years. I’ve always loved the music, and I was deeply familiar with the minimalist piano soundtrack by Irish composer Stephen Rennicks long before I actually watched the show. Having just finished […]

Can’t Help falling in Love Elvis Presley’s performance of “Unchained Melody” — recorded just weeks before he passed — is one of the greatest moments in American Rock & Roll history. I eventually arranged that piece myself. Not quite as dramatic as Elvis, but his […]

Your Choices, Your Actions This tender, acoustic-driven piece scores a quiet father-son moment in the latest Superman movie. After a transmission from his biological parents, Clark fears he was sent to Earth to “hurt people.” Pa Kent’s answer is quiet but powerful: it’s not destiny that […]

Amores Perros The 2000 Mexican film Amores Perros, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, is a powerful and gritty triptych of interconnected stories set against the backdrop of Mexico City. Its emotional intensity is significantly heightened by the masterful score by Argentine composer, Gustavo Santaolalla. Santaolalla’s […]