Top 12 songs perfect for end credits (part 2)

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Sometimes a movie or tv show needs more than simply production music. Library music isn’t always the answer - hard to believe - we know! But hey, we love great music no matter where it comes from, and it’s in that spirit that we offer the following continuation to our previous post: the next 6 of the chosen 12 songs perfect for end credits.

And, though it should it go without saying, if any of my incredibly witty, innovative, and well thought out script synopses actually materialize in the form of a major Hollywood film, I get half the gross… and maybe a walk-on role. Something minor, like the tough-as-nails soccer coach with a heart of gold.

Anyway…

1. Sufjan Stevens : Chicago (Multiple Personality Version)

Reprising his role as Rob Gordon, John Cusack is back in High Fidelity 2. Rob and Laura have gotten married and are pregnant with their first child. We learn from flashback sequences that Barry (Jack Black) is on the road with his band Kathleen Turner Overdrive, and Dick (Todd Lousio) has moved in with Annaugh, their relationship mirroring the early stages of Rob and Laura’s. One day, Rob is in the record shop, and “Father and Son” by Cat Stevens plays through the speakers. This jolts him with the thought of the burdens of parenthood, and sends him in an existential tailspin. He feels the need to find himself before he is able to impart any wisdom to a young child, and leaves Laura to join Barry on the road. He finds Barry locked in a tense struggle with the lead singer of the band they are touring with, Gordie (Kyle Gass). They bicker over everything, from wardrobe to set list to cover songs. On the road, Rob runs into Ian (Tim Robbins), who has moved to Los Angeles to open a peer mediation ashram. Ian quells Rob fears about fatherhood, instilling in him a sense of responsibility and pride in what he is creating. Rob then makes fun of Ian and dreams about hitting him with something. He returns to Chicago, reinvigorated. Returning from tour, Barry and Gordie have discovered they are both gay, and get married in a Motown-themed civil ceremony. After the wedding, the friends are all walking on Navy Pier, Laura with the baby in her arms. Cue Sufjan.

2. Lupe Fiasco : Kick, Push

In this documentary of black inner city youths that escaped a life of gangs and drugs by skateboarding, shot in grainy Hi-8, Lupe Fiasco narrates 4 different stories. The confluence of these stories is a skateboarding competition in Philadelphia’s Love Park. I’d love to flesh this one out a little bit, but it’s documentary- you shoot shoot a lot of film and hope you get something, right? I’m sure those guys that did that Murderball thing didn’t even know that paraplegics could play sports until they got lucky. Anyway, “Kick, Push” sound like it was written for this movie, so it’s only fitting to have it playing when one of the black inner city youths wins the competition.

3. DJ Earwom : No One Takes Your Freedom

This is an experimental piece by Michel Gondry, the first “mash-up” film. Scenes from over 80 films spanning 6 decades are pieced together to form one cohesive story about two star-crossed lovers who find themselves on a large “unsinkable” cruise ship that is being terrorized my a giant man-eating shark. Luckily, there is a wish-granting genie machine on board, who grants them a little alien with glowing fingers as a protector, as long as they can stop the huge asteroid hurtling towards earth. They are befriended by a couple of gay cowboys, who explain that their day job is running a “cattle-ranch retreat” for middle-aged city dwellers having mid-life crises. The cruise ship heads down the Nile river to sink the Nazi-helmed ship Louisa, but the story takes a bizarre turn when the cowboys are captured by some bayou rednecks, who force them to squeal like pigs. All’s well that ends well, however, and after the battle for Mordor is won, medals are handed out to everyone, even the Wookie. The accompanying soundtrack is also comprised of mash-ups, with DJ Earworm’s tapestry of George Michael, The Scissor Sisters, and The Beatles playing as the credits roll.

(note: because of modern copyright and sampling law, this film will never be seen by anyone)

4. Jens Lekman : You Are The Light

Reese Witherspoon plays a woman who is desperate to have a child. Since her relationships all seem doomed from the beginning, she decides on artificial insemination. After a lenghty process of choosing just the right seed to plant, she picks #498245, a law student with no history of serious illness and a 3.8 GPA. She often fantasizes about her donor, giving him a name, and a backstory, and imagining their life together with their child. When the child is born, she names him Lucas, the name she had imagined the donor as having. When Lucas (the little one) is 14, Reese gets arrested for aggravated assault, and, not having the money to post bail, must sit in jail. Lucas is sent to a foster family. You guessed it, it’s his biological father and his wife, with whom he is soon separating (there is a lot of dialogue that leads up to this revelation). His father’s name turns out to be… wait for it… Lucas! Once Lucas (the little one) convinces Big Lucas who he is, he persuades him to represent his mother in court. Big Lucas bails her out of jail, and pleads her case to the judge, whose cold, frozen heart is melted by her hard luck story. She is absolved of all wrongdoing, and she and Big Lucas get married and live happily ever after. Jens Lekman sums it all up.

5. Boy Least Likely To : I’m Glad I Hitched My Apple Wagon To Your Star

In this coming-of-age film set in Olympia, WA, Adam Brody plays Allan Grody a former star of a teen drama series. After cancellation, he continues to try and live up to his indie-crush status, and starts a record label in Olympia. He finds a girl playing in a small club, and people seem to like her, so he signs her to his label. During the recording of her debut, they become romanitcally entangled. They release her EP, which generates a lot of buzz in the indie community, and leads to an offer from Columbia Records, which she signs immediately. This causes Allan to reasses his whole opinion of her, because anyone that would sell out their own creativity for money is obviously not just in it for the music. She then reminds him that just scant years ago, he was a corporate shill, playing the sensitive indie kid so that the labels in the umbrella corporation with the TV network could load up “soundtrack” CDs with their own artists, dictating to the masses what was cool. He sees her point. She becomes a millionaire and brings him along for the ride. The movie ends with them desperately trying to retain some sort of credibility by going to a The Boy Least Likely To concert, at which they are egged.

6. The Arcade Fire : Intervention

Nathanial Hart is a man of the cloth. Predetermined in his youth, he was sent to the seminary at a young age, he missed out on everything- girls, rebellion, excessive alcohol consumption, friends that weren’t married to God. Now, at 22, he is the youngest pastor in Ann Arbor, MI. One night, in a particularly depressive state, he absent-mindedly sips communion wine that some local miscreants have spiked with ecstasy. In the following revelatory stupor, he decides his life has been wasted, and rejects God, takes his name in vain, and sleeps with a nun. The following morning, he is summarily dismissed from the priesthood, and must start his life over. He takes a job in a record store, and is soon immersed in all of the music he had missed. He is akward and socially inept, yet is befriended by a bartender named Mary. The irony is not lost on him. Mary convinces him that he can both love God and live a normal life, that God understands that sometimes a man just needs to get drunk and have sex, which is what they end up doing. The clarity that comes from drunken fornication motivates Nathanial to go to the Vatican and convince the Pope that it’s not normal for a man to be abstinent just prove his devotion to his lord. The Pope agrees. Nathanial is reinstated, and he and Mary get married. Nathanial sits in the rectory office, listening to his new favorite record, “Neon Bible” by The Arcade Fire.

[ms]