Songs I Love From Movies I've Seen Recently

 by Adam Riske

Some great tracks to listen to while you pre-game for F This Movie Fest on March 7th!

Song: “Cosmic Castaway”
From: Titan A.E.
Artist: Electrasy



Titan A.E. is one of those movies I so desperately want to like even though my mind wanders every 30 seconds while I’m watching it. What I do like about it is the 2D animation mixed with early 3D animation, which gives the movie a Heavy Metal type of vibe in its best moments. Speaking of best moments, the soundtrack to this movie kicks ass. My favorite tune on the OST is this one. I don’t understand anything they’re saying other than “chemical freeway” and “cosmic castaway” but that doesn’t matter – Don Bluth wanted to rock out at the turn of the century, and I was right there with him.

Song: “Free”
From: Bait
Artist: Mya



The queen of soundtracks is back! Mya had some run with “Take Me There” from The Rugrats Movie, “Ghetto Supastar” from Bulworth, and “Lady Marmalade” from Moulin Rouge!, and right in between those is this jam from the end credits of Bait. That movie’s ok. I remember it played on my college movie channel and like twenty of us crammed into a dorm room to watch it together. While it was going, a drunk girl from my dorm kept wanting me to go off with her and I was like “Not now. It’s Bait. I missed this in its short theatrical run.” Then like a week later my parents came to visit me at school and in front of them this girl thanked me for not taking advantage of her. It was like the most complimentary and awkward thing that could happen in front of your parents. The 2:24 mark onward makes me wish I knew how to roller skate better. This is gonna sound weird, but I feel like if I were a celebrity around the year 2000 that Mya and I would have been friends. Same with Shawn Hatosy and I would have been just as surprised as you were.

Song: “Twiggy Twiggy”
From: Charlie’s Angels (2000)
Artist: Pizzicato Five



If I’m being honest, I didn’t discover this song from Charlie’s Angels (2000) but instead from an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head back in the day. I’m including it here because after I heard it on that show, I spent years trying to find it, but I could never remember who it was by or what it was called. Cut to the year 2000, I’m in the theater watching Charlie’s Angels and it’s playing in the background during a party scene and yet I still can’t figure out what the song was called or who it was by (I needed Shazam!). A recent rewatch of Charlie’s Angels at Patrick’s Smash Cut series brought all this back and luckily, I now know what the song is and can queue it up on YouTube whenever I need it. It’s so good and fun! I especially love it when it gets all Austin Powers-y at the 2:56 mark. This is like Asian Nouvelle Vague.

Song: “Stop the Rock”
From: Boys and Girls
Artist: Apollo Four Forty



This song takes me back to being 18 years old more than most other songs. I’m embarrassed to say I looked and acted pretty much entirely like the people dancing in this club scene. I miss the days when Freddie Prinze Jr. movies all had choreographed dance sequences in clubs or at prom. We had it all. Speaking of having it all, good lord is Claire Forlani a fox in Boys and Girls. I don’t get why Freddie is spazzing out at the start of this scene. If a girl takes you to a club dressed like how Forlani is dressed, you fucking lock in. Your body will just take over even if your mind is being sucks lame. Did you know “Stop the Rock” was also featured in Gone in 60 Seconds, Loser, Bedazzled, Saving Silverman, and Chasing Liberty? The title wasn’t just lip service.

Song: “Carnival”
From: Ella McCay
Artist: The Cardigans



A fantastic song I discovered during my theater viewing of my beloved Ella McCay. I heard it in the theater and was like “WHAT SONG IS THIS?! IT’S GREAT!” I tried for weeks to figure out what it was, waiting for IMDB to put out the track list on the Ella page to no avail. I was Googling “come on and and love me now” and “Ella McCay” and getting incorrect results. Somehow, I eventually figured it out and my life has been better ever since. P.S. I had a similar experience with the song “Lovefool” by The Cardigans. I was at the Woodfield Mall McDonald’s with a family member back in 1996 when I heard that song and I had to put down my cheeseburger and was like “I don’t know what this is, but this band is going to be the biggest group in the world.”

Song: “Ready or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide From Love)”
From: One Battle After Another
Artist: Jackson 5



Don’t get me wrong. I like One Battle After Another BUT I think this song is entirely responsible for me locating that movie’s heart. This is somehow a Jackson 5 song I didn’t know about, and it just floored me the first time I heard it. It plays over the sequence where Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is helped escape a hospital and gets picked up by Benicio Del Toro’s character and the combination of the emotion of the song mixed with the strength, bravery and kindness of the gestures I was watching got me choked up. It’s like the purest example I can describe as how music can take a movie into the heavens.

Song: “I Care ‘Bout You”
From: Soul Food
Artist: Milestone



One of my favorite new discoveries from last year was the movie Soul Food and part of that was this banger by the supergroup Milestone, which consists of not only Babyface and Melvin and Kevon Edmonds from After 7, but K-Ci & JoJo and Michael fucking Beach! I even bought a Babyface MTV Unplugged album so I could listen to the live version of this song in my car. It’s phenomenal. I like that the music video starts with a big Milestone truck because if I saw that on the street I would chase after it like children run after the ice cream man. P.S. Everybody quiet at the 2:34 mark, it’s Cousin Faith!

Song: “Hanging On For Dear Life”
From: My Boyfriend’s Back
Artist: MMC



Late in Scary Movie Month I rewatched My Boyfriend’s Back, a forgotten zombie romantic comedy from 1993 that I’ve always kind of liked. On this watch, I noticed a song Traci Lind and Andrew Lowery (killer from Color of Night, co-writer of Boys and Girls) were slow dancing to towards the end of the movie and was like “Fuck! That song’s a jam. It’s hitting me in my feels.” I went on IMDB and was like “Huh, it’s by MMC. I’ve never heard of them.” So, then I Google MMC and yep, it’s the new Mickey Mouse Club. So, yeah, I was genuinely moved at age 43 by a song sung by the new Mickey Mouse Club. We all have stories.