In the span of 30 years, composer/orchestrator Conrad Pope has worked on more than 420 films. We spent an hour with Pope, and he is an infectious joy as well as one of the most laid-back people you’d ever meet. But he’s also a legend. Name any film or topic, and you’ll sit there in awe of the stories he could tell. I sure did. It’s been said that Pope is the best kept secret in film music – if there’s a successful score, it’s because Conrad Pope is attached to it. He will quickly and humbly shoot that down, but as his mentor used to say, “It’s always amazing…
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G-S-T Review…The Imitation Game
When it comes to year-end Oscar bait, err, high quality entertainment, you can hardly do better than a film from The Weinstein Company. Granted that’s a playful way of saying they sweep up award season nods this time of year, but The Imitation Game, is a solid and alluring story, and as fine a picture as you’d expect to see. However, its theatrical release has been, like Kobe beef, bred for just one purpose. Consumption by a very select audience – in this case, academy voters. Now there is nothing at all wrong with the picture. In fact, it would be harder to knock it than to find unique ways of…
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G-S-T Review…Unbroken
Angelina Jolie is no stranger to films depicting harsh realities, dour drama, and world issues. She also likes to throw a huge slice of bittersweet human interest pie into the mix. But more importantly, she tries to offer examples of perseverance and fortitude in the very darkest of situations. With Unbroken, like her last film which found sparks of humanity burning against the cruelty of war, the director wants us to feel something. It’s not pleasant, but pain is definitely something we feel. Jolie holds very little back as a story like this doesn’t quite have the impact if you, picking up on a key scene in the film, pull your…
