Top 12 songs perfect for end credits (part 1)

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Music supervisors have a lot on their plate. Title sequences, montages, climaxes… in a movie without an original score, there’s a lot of space to fill, and a lot of music to choose from.

In the spirit of camaraderie, we thought we would weigh in with our opinion. Here are 12 pieces of music that should be licensed for film, complete with a brief synopsis of the appropriate accompanying storyline.

1. Mika : Lollipop

Owen Wilson plays a former college fullback who has fallen on hard times. His pro career didn’t work out the way he had hoped, and he is now destitute, living off of whatever woman will tolerate him. He meets an inner city youth at the park one day, a precocious young girl, and forms a friendship with her. Then something happens where their friendship is tested. And then they realize how important friendship really is. “Lollipop” resounds as they play hopscotch in the waning evening light.

2. Crooked Fingers : New Drink For The Old Drunk

Matt Dillon and Charlize Theron play a couple of recovering alcoholics that meet in an AA meeting. Though the rules of AA strictly forbid intimate relations with fellow AA members, they are soon having said intimate relations… a lot. Then Charlize falls off the wagon and Matt comes clean to his sponsor about their relationship, resulting in his being kicked out of AA. They lose touch. A few years later, they run into one another on the street. Both have been sober while separate, and while there is still a spark, they worry about jeopardizing their sobriety for their feelings. Then they make out. Crooked Fingers serenades their decision.

3. Oh No! Oh My! : Walk In The Park

In this Farrelly Brothers film, Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn play paraplegics who join a handicapped water polo team, coached by Alan Arkin. They soon become the most succesful team in the region, and are on the verge of winning the championships, when, in a freak escalator accident, Vince regains the ability to walk. He quits the team, chosing to live a new life, leaving Ben behind. The day of the championship, however, he realizes that the team is more important than his own good fortune, so he breaks both of his legs and rejoins the team, leading them to the championship. Ben and Vince roll off into the sunset to “Walk In The Park”.

4. M83 : Don’t Save Us From The Flames

In this edgy drama Josh Hartnett Plays Thomas Steele, a motocross rider with a mysterious past. He gets caught up in a drug deal gone bad, and is forced to ride for his life, using his contest winnings to pay off a drug lord, played by Steven Dorff. In the final scene, he must pull off a double backflip corkscrew, a trick never before attempted, or his girlfriend will be shot. The audience watches in amazement as he flips through the air, landing with both tires on the ramp. He stands on top of the dirt hill, raising his helmet in the air, as his girlfriend runs out to embrace him. Cut to a closeup of his face, frozen, with a single tear. “Don’t Save Us From The Flames” plays as we fade to black.

5. Aimee Mann : Nobody Does It Better

Paul Thomas Anderson directs this biopic of Roger Moore, played by Thomas Jane, in an uncharacteristically deep and challenging role. Plagued all his life with feeling of inadequacy and guilt, the backlash he withstood after taking over for Sean Connery’s role of James Bond is enough to send him over the edge. In a haze of drugs and sex, his paranoia leads him to hatch a plot to murder Sean Connery. The audience is kept wondering what is real and what has been imagined in Moore’s drug addled sub-conscious. As the film ends, Moore suffers a psychotic breakdown, thinking he has already killed Connery, and is paralyzed with guilt. As he sits in a room wallpapered with Sean Connery magazine clippings, his head in his hands, Aimee Mann’s rendition of the Spy Who Loved Me theme comes on while the scene fades to credits.

6. The Polyphonic Spree : Hold Me Now

Paul Giamatti plays a card cheat and con man who has been blacklisted from every casino in Las Vegas. As his money starts to run out, he sees an abandoned church for sale just outside of the city. He buys the chapel, and begins to hold services, using religion as a cover for stealing the weekly contents of the offering plates. He soon falls for a member of the church, played by Susan Sarandon. As he struggles to keep his ruse and his romance separate, he realizes that the people he is stealing from are poor and trusting God with a portion of their meager earnings. His hardened heart softened, he starts a church outreach program, helping people to fix their homes, pay their bills, and forge friendships that last a lifetime. In a brilliant piece of cross-marketing, the Polyphonic Spree show up, offering their services as the church choir, and sing “Hold Me Now” as the credits roll.

Part 2 to follow. [ms]

UPDATE 070507 : part 2 available here. [dh]