The Dark Knight Rises My hometown of Pittsburgh was the shooting location for The Dark Knight Rises. Plenty of movies, TV, and Netflix shows get made here, but the 2011 Dark Knight Rises production was BY FAR the coolest one. Our downtown is mostly high-rise […]

Cornfield Chase I’ve always wanted to double back to the crux of the Interstellar theme, which is really the motif titled “Cornfield Chase.” This was a high-water mark for composer Hans Zimmer. His genius is in not being outsmarted by his own technical skill — […]

If This Be Victory I generally like House of the Dragon. I’ve watched every season, and season three started strong with the Battle of the Gullet, but midway through I found myself not caring about these characters as much as I did in Game of […]

The Odyssey Theme At this point, I can definitely hear (composer) Ludwig Göransson’s aesthetic when he’s scoring a Christopher Nolan film. There’s a linear nature to the music… a veneer as familiar as Nolan’s blueish hues and title font. Although completely different, The Odyssey and […]

Gonna Fly Now I was in 3rd grade (8 turning 9) during the ’85-’86 school year — and my childhood was an amazingly patriotic time to be alive. The Cold War was hanging over the culture and this was punctuated by several USA vs. the […]

Disclosure Day Disclosure Day is Steven Spielberg’s 2026 sci-fi thriller about a cybersecurity whistleblower and a meteorologist who join forces to expose the truth about extraterrestrial life — and the powerful forces trying to keep it buried. The score is by the iconic, long-time Spielberg […]

Hannibal (2001) — A Pittsburgh Connection I just rewatched Hannibal (2001), the direct sequel to The Silence of the Lambs — the film where Anthony Hopkins first portrayed the infamous Hannibal Lecter and won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1991. What many people […]

The O.G. of cinematic guitar Gustavo Santaolalla had already built an impressive résumé — Amores Perros, 21 Grams, The Motorcycle Diaries (an astonishing soundtrack) — but it was 2005’s Brokeback Mountain where his cinematic sound truly took flight: minimalist guitar, expansive reverb, and open space […]

Variation 15 (Dunkirk) While Hans Zimmer served as the principal composer for Dunkirk, the score’s soft, ambient, and melodic textures were crafted by Benjamin Wallfisch and inspired by Sir Edward Elgar (1857–1934). The film’s most poignant theme is a reimagining of Elgar’s “Nimrod” from his […]

See Things That Others Don’t The historical drama Hamnet chronicles the fractured marriage between William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes Hathaway, following the devastating loss of their only son, Hamnet. The film ultimately explores how William channels his unbearable anguish, transforming the boy’s name and […]

Leyendo en el Hospital The score for The Motorcycle Diaries is widely regarded as one of Gustavo Santaolalla’s masterworks. Directed by Walter Salles, the 2004 film is adapted from the journals of two real-life Argentines, Alberto Granado and Ernesto Guevara de la Serna. Depicting the […]

The Last Samurai “The Last Samurai,” released in 2003, is an epic historical drama directed by Edward Zwick and starring Tom Cruise. Zwick has actually directed many of my favorite films; Glory, Legends of the Fall, and Blood Diamond to name a few. The Last […]